(be in on it): GO

There are approximately 8,871 miles between Denver, Colorado and Nairobi, Kenya. Yet when the wheels of our plane touched down in Africa for the first time on in December, 2011, we didn’t feel like we were on the other side of the world. We felt like we were home.

Throughout our Visiting Orphans trip to Kenya and Uganda, God took us on a journey of amazing highs and difficult lows. We heard the heart-breaking stories of children who had been left on doorsteps, orphaned after losing both parents to AIDS, or turned into a children’s prison because their parents knew they would at least be fed there – an impossibility at home.

We met a 6-year-old boy whose only possessions were his one, ragged t-shirt and his little, plastic, spinning top. We met a 10-year-old girl who took care of her three siblings because her mother was too sick to do so herself. We met an 8-year-old girl who was convinced her mother was coming back to get her from the orphanage soon, even though it had been over a year since she had seen her.

Yet despite the pain we encountered, we saw far more joy during our time in Africa. Joy in the form of a 14-year-old orphan boldly preaching the Gospel. Joy in the form of 6-year-olds helping to feed 3-year-olds. Joy in the form of 50 children gladly sharing 1 soccer ball and destitute women who were more thankful to receive a donation of Bibles than money or food. 

Each and every day, we saw God using our 24-person Visiting Orphans team to touch lives in amazing ways. By the time we left Uganda to return to the U.S., we had donated hundreds of pounds of food, dozens of Bibles, countless school supplies and soccer balls, and thousands of dollars raised by our team to children and ministries in need.

But while all of these donations were important, what we all came to realize was that the only truly valuable thing we had to offer these children and people was Jesus Christ. When the truth and love of Christ is offered to a broken world, the hopeless find hope, the homeless find a home and the orphan finds a Father. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

Visiting Orphans provides an incredible opportunity to do just that. We would encourage anyone who seeks to share the love of Christ with a broken world to consider taking a step of faith to "go." God will use you in powerful ways... and your life will never be the same! 

- Jeff and Becca Dillon 

For more information on how you can "go" on a trip through Visiting Orphans, click here. 

 

Touching the Heart of God

As I was basking before the Lord this morning, watching my children sleep peacefully... I thought to myself... Lord I am so unworthy to be caring for your children. Thank you for living in me and allowing me to be YOU to these children. 

Can you imagine what God sees on a daily basis? All the young girls being sold into slavery, the children who are murdered in their mother's womb. The children who die daily due to starvation. The children who will die today because they were abandoned and no one found them. Can you imagine the tears God must of cried when he saw the orphan jewish children being murdered in the concentration camps? I wonder what God's heart feels for the starving orphans in Syria and all over the world who many of us can't even get to, due to massacres and war. Can you imagine what the heart of God must be like...he knows all his children's stories. 

May we all touch the heart of GOD today...and awaken ourselves for what HIS heart feels for his children. May we be so intimate with Jesus that we feel his heart beat for them... may our hearts be burdened to pray for the ones who are without a family today. 

Dear God, I specifically pray for all the million's of orphans out there in this world. May we feel your heart beating for them. May we catch your tears and cry with you for your hurting abandoned children. May we be the father to the fatherless. Let our hearts break for the things that break your heart. Take our hearts that are burdened deeply for the vulnerable and pour us out. May our hearts be so burdened that we are moved to action. May we rise up and defend the unwanted, the ones who are weak, the ones who have no voice. May we lay down our lives for the least of these. Wrap your blanket of grace around the cold forgotten children of this world. May your spirit fill the bellies of those children who are without food. May your arms embrace those who are without a family today. Catch your children's tears. Heal their bodies. They may not even know who you are Oh God, but meet them where they are at. Breathe life into their very being. Holy Spirit sweep in like a cool breeze and reassure their hearts. May the body of Christ be awakened to hear your heart for these children who you have numbered. May we be moved to action.

- Heather Elyse