1001 Orphans

God Loves a Cheerful [Joyous] Giver

Introduction by Matthew Harrison

At first, the prospect of studying “joy” in the Bible presented me with no joy at all. Yet I was offered the suggestion by a dear friend in Christ. I could not put his suggestion out of my mind, try as I might. Trying to duck his joyous advice, the apostolic words reverberated ever more loudly in my mind: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4 ESV). I have run through the inspired Scriptures, shaking loose every available shred of information on topics such as cross and suffering, faith and mercy, but joy? Really? Would a serious and sober Christian really concentrate on joy? Isn’t joy merely a byproduct of faith in Jesus? Isn’t joy a subject more like the “froth on the beer” than the brew itself? Nevertheless, disarmed and hardly exuberant, I resolved to look at the Bible.

With the help of memory and concordances, I began inspecting the texts. Soon I was racing through the pages, Genesis to Revelation. It was all gift and joy over the gifts. All the while, the words of my friend bounced about my brain like a pinball. And the more texts I encountered, the longer the ball stayed in play. One part of me wished to see the happy little chrome ball slip into the pocket of despair, joy presumed, assumed, consumed, subsumed, and entombed. Game over, I could simply walk away from the table, back into the world of my less joyous, undisturbed prejudices. “So many churches, so many pastors and Christians have so little joy today,” my friend observed. “These are difficult times.”

I knew he was on to something. I raced through the Psalms and found joy and rejoicing everywhere, even in the penitential Psalms. I found joy in the Old Testament, in Moses, in the prophets, in the books by Solomon. I found joy in the Gospels. I found joy on the lips of Jesus and in the lives of those whom He touched, again and again and again. I found joy on the lips of Mary and Zechariah, in the womb of Elizabeth, on the lips of angels. I found joy at the manger. I found joy at the resurrection. I found joy over life, joy in the midst of death, joy in worship. I found joy in persecution and suffering. I found Paul’s letters packed with joy and rejoicing. I found joy in references to faith and hope and love. I found joy over the simplest gifts of friends, work, family, food, children, and marriage. Stranger still to me was that, as I contemplated these texts in rapid fire, one after another, I—even I— began (dare I admit it?) to rejoice. I found myself “surprised,” encouraged, and even delighted by joy in Christ. And wonder of wonders, I found in the Bible reference after reference to the Lord’s joy over me: “More rejoicing in heaven over one sinner [a.k.a. crusty Lutheran] who repents” of his aversion to joy (Luke 15:7, 10).

Why mention joy here? “God loves a cheerful [joyful] giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). In fact, God Himself is a cheerful giver. And in Jesus, He gives us joyous, generous hearts after His own.

Rev. Matthew Harrison (http://mercyjourney.blogspot.com) is executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care.
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1001 Orphans

When an LCMS World Relief and Human Care Mercy Medical Team trekked to Kenya in July, health care volunteers treated hundreds of Africans. Many parents came to the clinics with their own children as well as orphans suffering from malnutrition and parasites.

LCMS World Relief and Human Care's Life and Health Ministries director Maggie Karner, right, meets Phenny Awuor Onyalo, a young Kenyan woman who was one of the first orphans assisted by the Synod's mercy arm. Photo courtesy Rev. David Chuchu.

In Kenya, you see children everywhere, playing in piles of rotting trash, toddling through the streets, says Maggie Karner, LCMS World Relief and Human Care (WR HC) director of Life and Health Ministries and a Mercy Medical Team leader. One little boy, maybe 15 months, waddled up to me and put out his arms. I looked around, and no one seemed to be with him. It s common to see kids all alone. But amid these heartbreaking sights, Karner also saw hope, and yes, even joy. And one of the most dramatic examples introduced herself as Phenny Awuor Onyalo, a young Kenyan woman who, as a child, had been one of the first orphans assisted by the Synod s mercy arm. Onyalo told Karner how WR HC support to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK) enabled her to attend a vocational school in Kisumu operated by the church.

Onyalo proudly explained that she had graduated and now works on the staff at that same Lutheran school. You could see in her face and in her demeanor that she had a real sense of accomplishment, especially considering where she had come from, says Karner, who was surprised and touched when the Kenyan asked for her picture to be taken and her story shared. She wanted people to know how their support had made a difference in her life.

Over the years, WR HC has worked with the ELCK to sponsor orphan support programs and build orphan rescue centers (a more acceptable term in Kenya than orphanages). Each effort was made possible by WR HC ministry partners and generous donors.

Did you know Kenya lies across the equator, on Africa’s east coast; covers about the same square mileage as Texas; has an estimated population of some 34 million; is the home of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, an LCMS partner church since 2004.

Now WR HC is expanding orphan support with a new opportunity to reach out with Christ s love to more young Kenyans 1,001, in fact. Connecting children with Christian families is the goal of 1001 Orphans, a home based care program developed in partnership with the ELCK (an LCMS partner church) and Concordia Lutheran Ministries (CLM), an LCMS Recognized Service Organization in Pennsylvania.

CLM introduced the idea for the program as a way to help the growing number of Kenyan orphans that CLM president and chief operating officer Keith Frndak calls “an absolute human crisis.”

“Children are traveling in packs and being exploited for the sake of a meal,” Frndak says. “We know from our conversations [with ELCK leaders] that the spiritual support of a Christian family and the opportunity for an education can save children from all sorts of vices, including childhood prostitution and forced marriages to older men.”

Kenya is in the throes of a three-year drought that has seriously diminished the country’s food supply. Along with hunger, the AIDS pandemic has hit families hard, especially children who must fend for themselves. Some 1.4 million of the country’s youngsters have lost parents to AIDS, and an estimated 8 percent of Kenyan adults are living with the HIV virus, according to Rev. David Chuchu, Diakonia Compassionate Ministry project coordinator for the ELCK.

 

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