Not the right kind of orphan? ... Rural vs Urban.

Those who know me well know that it is virtually impossible to offend me. You can call me names, talk bad about me behind my back or even to my face for that matter, and I will not be offended. It might hurt my heart but I will not hold a grudge. I'm like the proverbial duck's back when the water hits it. Its just how I've learnt to deal with life. But there is one thing that does offend me. One thing that makes me rise up and fight. One thing that I can not tolerate.
When someone diminishes, trivializes, makes light of the plight of the one's to which God has called me an anger stirs in the very core of who I am. Most of the time I manage to control this anger. Most of the time I bite my tongue and give it to God and ask Him to deal with it. But today I'm going to share. I'm going to be open, frank and to the point about this issue that I'm dealing with. I ask that you all hear my heart. I am not accusing, I'm not holding a grudge, I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just going to share my heart.

9 years ago Mart and I packed our 8 suit cases and moved to South Africa. Our heart was to minister to children and families who were infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. He bought us the 1000 Hills in KZN and we decided to call it home. We had a number of people, churches and family commit to help us in the venture. It was amazing to have the support of people, people loving us and praying for us and financially supporting us. With out them we would not have made it 9 years and counting in this place.
Over the years financial support has dwindled, like I stated in my post below. There have been various reasons for this. Some have simply not been able to afford to keep supporting, some have had other financial commitments come to light that have caused them to stop funding our work. Some were supporting the ministry some were supporting us as a family. Every time supporters have pulled out we have felt the impact in a profound way. Our funders have literally been a life line for us here in the work that we have been doing.  And we have been so thankful for each of them and the support that they have been to us and the ministry.

Although when someone pulls out of funding us it hurts, we totally understand and we know that God will pick up where they have had to move on. We are not offended because we know that God loves us and He wants His ministry to continue and He will provide.
The thing however that really hurts me and makes that anger rise up is when people use the excuse "you are not working with orphans any more so we can not fund you"

It makes me angry because it is not true. I DO work with orphans. Every trip to the Shelter, every time I walk Point Road praying for the street children, every time I rush a street child to hospital and sit by his hospital bed, every time I go scouring the streets for a young girl who went out to "work" and hasn't come been seen for 4 days. I am working with orphans. My street children are orphans of the most desperate kind. Just because they are not the wide eyed, innocent, distended bellied, fly covered children that we all love to sponsor and support, doesn't mean that they are not in desperate need.
People love to sponsor the rural African child. We NEVER had any problem finding sponsors and support for our little guys who live in the valley. Man I love those little ones. They are beautiful, innocent, in need of cuddles and I always want to bring at least 10 home with me every time we go to the valley.

 I mean look at these babies. Who wouldn't want to love them? I look at these girls and my heart melts. And I'm sure that as you are reading this a part of you wants to pick them up and love them and give them only good things. Each of these girls have lost their mothers. NO child show grow up with out the love of a mother, not one. BUT these girls have been taken in by their amazing Grandmothers. These Gogo's adore their grandbabies. Will do what it takes to care for them. To feed them. To educated them. These girls will not starve. They will never be alone. They will always have the support of the adults around them because that is how it works in the Rural communities. Extended family is strong and those little ones who loose their parents will be taken care of by those around them. It is amazing and we have learnt alot from spending time with these people in their communities.
I'm not saying that these families do not need help, they really really do. I'm just helping people to understand the difference between the Rural kiddies that we work with and the Urban children who I minister to.

What I am finding is that because we have had to put the Rural side of ministry on hold for a period, people now think that we are no longer working with orphans and children who are infected/affected by HIV/AIDS. This is not true.
I feel that the orphans that I am working with, loving on and ministering to are not the "right kind"of orphans for people to support. They are not cute. They are not cuddly. They will sooner pick your pocket than give you a hug. But they are orphans just the same. I have NEVER in my life known a group of people who are more in need of support.
These children are sharp edged, all bones, skin and shoulder blades. With glue crazed eyes and sore covered skin. They are dirty and hungry and unloved. They are forgotten and ignored. They are guilty of crime and drug addiction. They lie and they steal. They are infected with STD's and HIV/AIDS.  They do not trust and can not be trusted. But they are orphans all the same. They are DESPERATE to be loved but when that loves comes they can not give or receive it. They do not know what it is like to trust an adult.
The adults in their lives hurt them. They use them. Them rape them. They control them with drugs and money. The use them to deliver drugs to clients. They use them as sex slaves to make a great profit that the child never sees.
These children have no place to call home. They spend their nights hiding in darkened doorways, sleeping in abandoned lots under cars so that the police and other predators do not find them. They are the prey of the horrors that come out to play at night.
They get picked up by men who make them promises of a better life. They are held against their will and raped over and over. NO ONE is on their side. NO ONE supports them. NO ONE stands in the gap for them. Until God sends a willing heart to fight in their corner. Until someone answers the call and will sit by their bedside in hospital. Until someone will find out when their birthday is and bake them a cake and throw a spontaneous birthday party for them, the first and probably the last that they will ever have.
These children will never be the "right kind" of orphan for people to put on their fridges at home. Never be the "right kind" of orphan for Sunday schools to sponsor. But they are orphans all the same.
They deserve love. They deserve unconditional support. They deserve to be safe. They deserve a life where they do not have to sell their bodies for a couple of slices of bread. They deserve a life where they don't have to hide from the bad guys, where they have loving arms out stretched for them to run to when ever they are afraid. They deserve to have some one tell them that they are beautiful and amazing. They deserve to have some one tell them that they have a Father who they can trust, who loves them and who wants to be close to them. How this Father will not sell them to the highest bidder. How this Father will break the drug addictions. How this Father wants only good things for them.

MY orphans deserve ALL of this. In fact MY orphans deserve even more than this. These are MY kind of orphans. And I will do what it takes to stand up for them, to speak for them and to help them. Even if I do not have the support from others I KNOW that I have the support of my Father, their Father. And our Father owns the cattle on a Thousand Hills. And even though MY orphans might not live in the Thousand Hills, they are orphans all the same. And they deserve better. Thats all.

A Heavy Heart and Eyes full of Tears.

The title of this post sums up how I am feeling today. I have been on an emotional roller coaster for a few days and this post has been forming in my mind and my heart during this time.
It wont be easy for me to write and I hope that it will not be easy for you to read, I pray that you are challenged, that your hearts are broken and that anger stirs up from the depths of your being. You might think whoa there.....ANGER?? Yes ANGER! Because Anger is the the birthplace for solutions and action.

So with that said here we go, are you holding on tight?
My friend Danae works for MTV in New York and over the past few weeks she has been involved with an organisation called Invisible Children. The organisation is telling the world the stories of Uganda's child soldiers, they are telling their stories and asking "what can you do?"
Uganda is not the only country that has child soldiers, some of the other countries and territories that have child soldiers are: Afghanistan ,Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Ivory Coast, DRC, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka , Sudan and Thailand , 300,000, There are an estimated three hundred thousand child soldiers around the world. Every year the number grows as more children are recruited for use in active combat.
These children, some as young as 3 years old are kidnapped or sold by their parents. Most are sexually abused and all are brainwashed. Its not just the boys that are being taken, there are many female child soldiers that are trained for warfare and also used as sex slaves.
My heart aches for these little ones that are having their childhood stolen from them. Who are loosing their innocence, who don't get a chance to an education and for the ones who will not make it out alive.
Please go to the Invisible children website and go here and watch the video and see how you can help.

About 40 000 children in South Africa are involved in child prostitution and the figures are rising as more and more children are driven from their homes because of poverty, neglect and abuse.The government is thinking of legalising prostitution in time for the World Cup in 2010. Just imagine thousands of soccer fans coming to the AIDS capital of the world legally/freely using prostitutes. A fiver a shot! A fiver for a death sentence! Then those guys take the virus back to their own countries and then what? many are saying "well the girls will do it anyway, so why not legalise it?" Well the fact that it is illegal does put many girls from turning to prostitution. If it is made legal than it just gives the girls (and guys) that final push into a life of prostitution.According to ECPAT ( End child prostitution and trafficking), about 100 thousand children are forced into child prostitution in Taiwan. Child prostitutes are in demand in other counties too.
Venezuela has around 40 thousand underage prostitutes;
there are approximately 25 thousands prostitutes aged 12 to 17 in the Dominican Republic;
Peru has about 500 thousand child prostitutes,
another 500 thousand child prostitutes are in Brazil;
We always think of child prostitution as being a 3rd world or Asian problem....let me tell you this......
Canada has 200 thousand child prostitutes.
From 300 thousand to 600 thousand of 2 million prostitutes in the USA are children and teenagers under 18. Most of them are under the category of street prostitutes. These numbers blow my mind. They are TOTALLY unacceptable. What can we do? Go here and see what you can do to help these children.


According to statistics released by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), more than 7,6 million South Africans are HIV-positive . Of these, about 6,1 million are the economically active people between the ages of 20 and 64, who could contribute to the country's economy. What makes these statistics more alarming is the fact that the data on which they are based are probably more reliable than the department of health's because they were collected at grassroots level and not based on estimates. Bear in mind that 98% of people who are HIV+ do not know that they are infected, these statistics are taken from the ones that DO know!!!

* 7,6 million South Africans are HIV-positive; * more than 27 percent of men and women aged between 20 and 64 are HIV positive; * more than 92 000 babies have been infected, either perinatal or through mother's milk, in the past year.

South Africa is home to over 3 MILLION AIDS orphans, it is the orphan capital of the world and the AIDS capital. KZN (where I live) has a 67% infection rate. You might be wondering "what can I do?" Well go to our website and find out.

As I write this post I feel sick. My emotions are so on the edge, I feel like I am going to fall off at any moment. I feel an unbelievable anger and rage that we can sit back and let this happen to the children of the world. IT"S NOT JUST A 3RD WORLD PROBLEM....ITS OUR PROBLEM....AND YES I AM SCREAMING THIS AT YOU!
ITS OUR PROBLEM!!!!

What are we going to do? How are we going to protect the children of the world? By getting up of our comfy couches and doing SOMETHING! YOU can do SOMETHING! Be creative, take a RISK, get UNCOMFORTABLE! Western people are so comfortable with being comfortable! Decide to be uncomfortable for a while and do something great for the children of this world.

I hope you hear my heart.