Practical Help

In starting an orphan ministry, I have heard countless people say, "Oh, I could never adopt." And I share (as you will hear often on this blog) that this is okay. God doesn't call everyone to adopt a child. But he does command us to care for orphans. It is our hope with this ministry that we can mobilize our church and community to find ways to care for orphans. If adoptions follow, then God's hand is that much more evident.

Today, our family had a chance to do a very practical thing the help orphans. Some attenders of First Free might remember our daughter Dayna sharing last November about giving up her scone dollar and sharing it with children in Africa. We had the opportunity to actually package the food that was shipped to the children in Sierra Leone. That food left the US on Christmas Eve and arrived in Sierra Leone on Valentine's Day.

Today, Tina Schmidt and Erica Stone, the ladies who started this orphanage, paid a visit to Omaha. We had the privilege of meeting these remarkable ladies and packaging food again. In two hours, 30 boxes of food were packed. 36 packages of food per box. 6 servings per package. That's 6,480 meals!

1 box costs $54 and serves 216 meals. Put another way, 1 person + $100 + 2 hours of time=feeding one child for a year. Wow! Most Americans can't feed their family for a week with only $100. What a great, practical way to help orphans!

For more information on the ministry of The Raining Season and their orphanage, "The Covering", please visit http://www.therainingseason.org/ or visit their blog at http://www.savetheorphan.blogspot.com/.

For more information on Kids Against Hunger (the Omaha chapter has "adopted" this orphanage and a large percentage of their packaging events goes directly to The Covering), visit http://www.omahakah.com/.

Lincoln has a chapter as well. They work with the Orphan Grain Train, and many of their meals are sent to Haiti. http://www.kahlincoln.org/