(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.