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Haiti orphan
The Global Orphan Project is combating the global war on homeless orphans by connecting people to the need in some innovative ways.
GO Project's conception
Founders, Mike and Beth Fox established C3 Missions International in 2005 (now called The Global Orphan Project), which was created as a result of a spiritual transformation experienced by the couple after Mike first visited a home they helped to fund for Karen orphans on the Thai/Myanmar border.
"Experiencing the real need of these children first hand and how little it really took to help them, changed everything", according to Fox.
The spiritually charged couple determined to change their life together.
“We’d go on a life adventure to give our hearts away. We’d invest our resources in orphans in the poorest corners of our planet,” says Mike and Beth Fox.
Goal
Their goal early on was simply to care for a few kids in a few homes, according to Fox, "we thought we might have ten homes in our first 5 years or so." Little did they realize that the new love God had planted in their hearts would ignite a revolutionary movement to rescue orphans around the world, while capturing the hearts of the community. The Foxes discovered that loving orphans is highly contagious.
In just four short years they have established 20 villages with 110 homes, accommodating a little over 3,100 children in 14 of the poorest countries of our world.
The Global Orphan Project establishes cultural relevant care to orphans. A village consists of multiple orphan homes, a clinic, school, church and micro-businesses. The GO Project partners with Christian churches native to the village site for the establishment and sustaining of a village. Each village ultimately becomes self sustaining, liberating residents of dependency on charity for survival. The influence of the GO Project remains anonymous to the local residents, thereby enabling orphans and the community to see leadership emerge from within their own community.
A mother figure is an essential element for each house in the village. There is one woman to nurture every ten children.
Delivering orphans from poverty
The condition of life for these orphans before the villages are built is abject poverty. Many are beggars and illiterate. They are vulnerable to deadly diseases, child slavery, and starvation. Each day is a desperate struggle to merely stay alive. One example is an eight year old girl found tending her seven month old brother on her own because both her parents were dead. Many of these orphans would also be dead if not for the stabilizing effect of The Global Orphan Project.
To many of these impoverished citizens the orphans are of less worth than a goat, because the goat is a source of food. The general population of such poverty stricken countries places little value on human life. The harshness of their life has deafened the natural instincts for compassion, or else they are in such want themselves that they are without means to assist the orphans.
Spiritual transformation
Christian love lived out through the development of these villages saves souls as well as lives. The outreach that the villages have on local communities brings long lasting spiritual growth and permanent change.
When the communities of these poor countries see the value that Jesus puts on the orphans, through Christians, they are shocked. This motivates many in the community to come to Christ and attend the local Christian church that sustains the village.
"These children embrace the gospel. A high percentage of them want to be pastors when they grow up. They want to do for other people what He has done for them,” says Mike Farag, Marketing Director of The Global Orphan Project.
Advantages for community
Opportunities advanced through the villages are also opened to the local community as resources permit. Many children from the local communities attend GO Project village schools and receive an otherwise unavailable education.
According to Farag, these villages have a huge impact on what kind of adults the orphans grow into. Once an orphan is not in a constant desperate state of survival and trusts that their daily basic needs will be met, they then have the freedom to actually be a child. Opportunity now belongs to them:
- to play
- to dream
- to go to school
When once all they could see was death and poverty, these choices now bring the hope of life and a future.
Unity with native leadership
The Global Orphan Project is a well functioning link between individuals/communities who establish villages through partnership and native Christian churches/authorities surrounding the village site who sustain the village.
Funding
There have been many creative contributions to the GO Project - from seven year old Isabelle Redford’s hand-made greeting cards that raised over $10,000, to the cookies for hunger project started by a KC resident. Additionally there is a one million dollar fund raiser challenge which guarantees to match each dollar donated up to $500,000 until they reach 1 million dollars. This challenge has so far raised $615,000.
Due to several generous donors and other sources of income which fund the overhead expenses, the children receive the advantage of 100% of all donations.
Vision Trips
GO Project Vision Trips are designed to give partners an intimate vision of real life in Haiti. Every two weeks a trip of approximately twenty five people take a five day tour of village sites, meet the orphans and fall in love with them. It is an up close opportunity to view the problems and solutions of the global orphan crisis. This is a program founded in personal relationship and experience. Neither the orphans nor the partners are reduced to numbers in a book, but are known for their living vital contributions as part of God’s plan to bring forth His Kingdom globally.
Sponsor a Village
Sponsor a Village is a newly released program geared toward churches and corporations. This program allows a group to sow resources into establishing an entire village. Those with the skills to lead in a church/organization are equipped with the tools necessary to release the abundant life Jesus promised to all nations of the earth through His name. This is a program for those leaders who’s vision is rooted in the belief that God’s promises bear fruit when faith and action merge.
Scripturally rooted
“There is a force field of evil gripping these kids and keeping them in bondage. We need God’s people to step up in mass to this challenge. We /need/ the church to step into this challenge,” says The Global Orphan Project’s Executive Director, Joe Knittig.
The biblical definition of church is not connected to any denomination, but rather defines the called out ones. These are those persons called out from the ways of the world into the domain of God’s Kingdom.
The Global Orphan Project is a refreshing discovery for Christians who have discarded dead religious dogma in search of a real relationship with God and their fellowman.
There are 143,000,000 orphans in the world. Everyday 30,000 children die from extreme poverty. The power to break the cycle of poverty around the world is in the hands of the church. Disciples of Jesus must walk out in faith and enter into His footsteps.
“And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42
Compelled to get involved? Simply click here and get plugged into these and more:
* Build a village or home
* Give to the $1 Million Dollar Challenge
Comments about this article are welcome.
More stories by Kansas City Non-denominational Christian Examiner Lynne Erickson Valle:
Homeless -
- KC resident, Marcia Merrick, nominated for ABC's hit talk show contest with The View
- The Grand Avenue Tempe UMC contends for victory over homelessness in Kansas City
- MP3, Mentors: Parents, Pastors, Peers, bringing hope and a future to teens at a Kansas City school
Ministries with compassionate serve -
- Storehouse Ministry reduces hunger in eastern Jackson County
- The Global Orphan Project saves lives in poorest nations
- Heart of America Prison Ministries Christmas Card project
More Kansas City missions -
- Awakening of Holy Spirit at IHOPU
- Former Leavenworth inmate, David Hairabedian, takes journey into spiritual transformation
- Dark Knight actor, Tiny Lister, preaches at anniversary celebration for Kansas City ministry
- Scott Stewart, minister from Scotland, delivers message on Apostle Barnabas at HIC
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