From time to time in this blog, Susan and I will share opportunities with you that we believe are worth passing on. In our book we challenge empty nest women to give the second half of their lives to kingdom purposes. One of the greatest needs on our planet right now is the crisis facing millions of orphans, which I’ve written about before.

Today I was reading an article that I want to pass on to you. I can’t reprint the entire article here as it is too long, but I want to quote a paragraph or two that called me to take some action on behalf of one orphan. I hope you will feel that same tug on your heart and that some of you will get involved with this organization.

Kimberly Smith, President of Make Way Partners, writes, “I had the blessing of stumbling upon a little boy named John. John told me he thinks he is five years old. That is what his mother told him before she and his little sister died. John did not cry as he told me about his mama. He just said that he missed her because she was his only friend. His father died before John was old enough to remember him.”

“I asked John if he wanted us to take him to the Internally Displaced People’s camp so there would be other people who might help him. He said his mama told him that he would be safer in the bush than in the camps where the militia came in to get new slaves; John did not want to become a slave. John’s mama told him it was better to die a Christian in the bush than to live a Muslim in slavery.”

Kimberly goes on to write about the orphanage that Make Way Partners has built in south Sudan that is already overcrowded and doesn’t have enough workers for the 450 orphans it houses. She and her orphanage director could not take little John nor could they take him to the camp, so they gave him all the food they had and left him alone in the bush. This is incomprehensible to us in America.

The tragedy of this little boy represents the lives of millions like him in Africa and around the world. Please, if you can, contact one of the ministries below and see what you can do to help little children like John. I can’t imagine him surviving in the bush alone. May God protect his little life and give him hope.

• Read the entire article about Little John in Eternal Perspectives magazine
• www.makewaypartners.org is the ministry mentioned above.
• www.ijm.org is the site of the International Justice Mission which works around the world to end slave trafficking and injustice done to the poor.
• www.akcli.org is another ministry building orphanages in Africa, these in Zambia and Namibia.
• www.hopefororphans.com Provides education for you and your church about adoption and orphan care ministry.
• www.cryoftheorphan.com A coalition of individuals and organizations making a difference in caring for the world’s orphans.