If you haven’t already, you can read about how H.E.L.P. is growing in Africa and specifically with Musha weVana in Marondera, Zimbabwe. We are thrilled to be a part of the Family Praise Fellowship team that is serving orphaned and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe, and we want to be a part of their plans for the future.

For years now, the Family Praise church has shared a vision of caring not only for the children in their town, which they do through the work of Musha weVana, but also for reaching out to the many children left orphaned and abandoned in the surrounding rural areas. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and great political uncertainty have delayed their plans time and time again, with the local authorities reluctant to commit to being a part of such a project when the future is so unclear. Yet despite all the setbacks, the church’s dream persists, and H.E.L.P. wants to be a part of that dream.

The church is in the final stages (for the fourth or fifth time!) of negotiating with local tribal and government officials in the rural area around Marondera for a tract of land which can be farmed to provide food for vulnerable children and which can serve as a base to reach out to the surrounding community. They would set up a center to provide housing for orphaned and abandoned children, and would give support for foster parents and extended families in the area.

The church has had difficulty securing the land, as officials are wary of a new constitution, new elections, and a new currency – each of which brings the threat of violence and renewed turmoil in this already troubled land.

The local political situation is complex, involving layers of community ownership, tribal leadership, and a shaky unity government between two rival parties. We have absolutely no way of knowing when the land will be granted, as it has been both imminent and greatly distant many times before.

However, we do know that when the church is finally granted permission to move into the rural area to begin caring for the children and families in need there, we need to be ready to move to help them.

Pray with us that Zimbabwe will return to peace and stability, and pray also that the church will continue in faith to pursue the God-given dream they have to serve the poorest of the poor.

If you want to be a part of this dream, you can host a Garage Sale 4 Orphans event to raise funds for the new rural home, or contact us for more ideas about how to take part in this new venture.

Today marks the two year anniversary of a quake that shook an island so violently that one wonders, how in the world could Haiti recover.

Is it even possible?

Remember… we’re talking about Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The poster-child country for all the stat gurus: hunger, joblessness, orphans, restaveks, cholera, the list could go on and on!

But, that is not the entire story… there’s SO much more to Haiti. For instance, the art is amazing, the food is delicious… and have you seen the mountains of Kenscoff or the beaches, the tropical beaches with white sand and water you can see-through?

There’s a reason it’s called “The Pearl of the Antilles.”

Haiti is in fact recovering, and here’s why. Haiti has a resource like none other, you see Haiti is rich with people. People who love their country and are committed to helping it become a better place, not that its even all bad!

See how confusing it gets.

Of course, they still need help. And yes, there is much poverty, disease, conflict, hunger, lack of clean water and joblessness, which creates so much pain. But, that is not the entire story.

Sometimes it seems as if that’s the ONLY story the media wants to talk about. It seems as if that’s the only story that NGO’s want to show.

But, it is not the whole story!

You actually have to go to Haiti and hold the hand of a young child, eat dinner with a Haitian family, spend time watching a Haitian teacher teach with passion (sometimes for free, or for little money) but she teaches because she cares. She can see hope and a future in education, because her students are brilliant.

Spend a day with our friends, Junior, Gaetan, Jean Alix and St Cyr, and you will see hope, joy and strength. They are leaders who are leading and helping Haiti to recover. They’ve been through so much since the earthquake, but they make no excuses.

Hangout with our “translators.” They’re no longer just translators, they are friends, they have stories that are movie worthy, they have lived a life of struggle, yet they refuse to use excuses. They bring light to their countries and communities.

Haiti: We Have Not Forgotten you. Who could forget you? You are amazing! We will stand with you, fight for you, pray that life gets better and easier. Among other things, we will continue to build homes, sponsor kids and bring clean water to your country.

But more importantly, we will continue to be friends. Because we all know that your strength, resolve, courage, faith, joy and happiness… have blessed the world and made it a better place!

Thank You!

PS: If you would like to bless Haiti: We would recommend that you give to our Haiti: We Have Not Forgotten campaign, or sponsor a child in Haiti. Help us move families out of tents, bring clean water to communities and care for a child and ensure they are able to attend school. Thank You!

Editor’s note: In our efforts to recognize National Human Trafficking Awareness Day (January 11th), we’re featuring a guest blog post from one of our HELP One Now Blogger Advocates, Elora Ramirez. Elora blogs at eloranicole.com and her book (a novel) about human sex trafficking is due out later this year. If you would like to learn more about what we are doing to stop human trafficking, particularly in Haiti, then check out our We Have Not Forgotten page.

It took me twenty-seven years to redefine the term orphan. 

In one fell swoop, a sweet and feisty teenage girl maneuvered her way into my heart and hunkered down in all the uncomfortable places until I had no where else to look but up. She’s been there ever since – a constant reminder of the internal shift that happened to me when she first grabbed my hand on that makeshift path to her school.

And here’s my confession: I don’t like to think about it. Right now, I’m sitting under no less than five blankets in a comfortable apartment. I just ate my fill of rice and chicken and although the neighbors can get kinda loud, I have no worries of men taking me when then sun falls beneath the horizon and I’m still fetching water.

So here I sit, the night before a day set aside to raise awareness for human trafficking, and I’m forced to reckon with the reality of girls (and boys) across the world deal with on a daily basis. Even more – these are children who have names. Faces. Voices. I see their smiles and I hear their laughter. I know them.

And more than anything in the world I want to protect them.

I’ve written a lot about trafficking over the past few years. It’s a muddy situation at best. But what I’ve come to realize is how imperative it is for the church to come together and fight against insidious battle over our children. It’s spiritual in nature – targeting the very temple of God. And we can talk about it and shake our heads and knit our brows and exclaim I just can’t believe that happens…

But eventually our actions need to back up our words. 

Recently, God in a Brothel author Daniel Walker traveled to multiple cities on a mini-book tour. His focus was simple: tell the story – the whole story – and then offer those present a way to tangibly help fight the battle with human trafficking. How?

Sponsorship.

Through sponsorship, you take away so much of the middle man. Families don’t become desperate for funds. Children are educated. Communities are changed. Slowly, the repercussions are life-altering – changing the course of generational sin and corruption through a gospel-based approach of humanitarian work.

This is why I agreed to guest post today. Not because of how trafficking keeps me up at night, not because of things I’ve written…but because of my belief in getting our hands deep in the lives of these children. I think of Rose – how in a few years, she’ll take a test at the end of 8th grade. Based on her scores, she’ll attend high school – maybe college – and become who she believes she can become: a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer…the possibilities will be endless.

And she’ll do this through sponsorship.

You have the opportunity.

Kids like Taison or Zaituna or Fenelon - they’re looking for someone. These kids have faces, names, voices, laughter. And they want to know you.

Will you be their one? We may not end trafficking overnight. But one by one, we’ll lessen the demand. And for those ones? It will mean all the change in the world.

As we have previously shared, Help End Local Poverty has a new sponsorship program in place with Soweto Community Church near Johannesburg, South Africa, as they serve Mama Ethel and the 30+ children she is caring for in her home. Pastor Sihle from SCC grew up in Soweto and is deeply committed to seeing God transform this vast township into a place of justice, hope, healing, and reconciliation.

Despite Pastor Sihle’s passion and Mama Ethel’s perseverance, enormous challenges remain for Soweto’s children.

Specifically, we are struggling with the question of what will happen to this family of Mama Ethel’s when she is no longer able to care for them. SCC is rushing through the red tape of becoming legally recognized as the responsible party, but this may or may not happen in time, as the process is expensive and time-consuming.

A further challenge is one that is common to all developmental situations: sustainability.

Pastor Sihle not only leads the church he planted in his hometown, but he is training church leaders and new church planters in Soweto. One of his passions, which we at H.E.L.P. share, is training the pastors to be involved in community development from a Biblical perspective, which includes caring for orphans and widows.

Pastor Sihle is confronted daily with the issue of sustainability: How can churches in Soweto care for the tens of thousands of orphaned and abandoned children in their midst without being completely reliant on outside funding? In other words, how can they create a sustainable model built on global cooperation instead of local dependence?

At H.E.L.P., we are committed to walk with Pastor Sihle, Mama Ethel, and others like them to find real answers to these challenges. Currently, you can sponsor one of Mama Ethel’s 30+ children for $35 a month through Help One Now and give some stability to their household income to provide for food, clothing, education, and medical care.

But in the future, we want to work through the process of finding sustainable and reproducible models for orphan care in Soweto with local churches.

How can we be a part of family reunification and support, adoption and fostering, and small family sized homes of children? How can we support local churches without creating dependence? How can we learn from Soweto to empower and grow our own churches?

These ARE the kids that will use the playground!