Every month, Heaven’s Family helps far more people than we could ever highlight in our bi-monthly newsletter. For that reason, this page contains additional photos and stories of some of the “least of these” among our spiritual family whom we’ve recently been blessed to serve.
When the dirt road ended today, Stephen and I once again jumped on motorcycles whose fearless, young drivers took us on a deep descent into a distant valley, across a river on a swaying suspension bridge, and up a narrow ridge. As the day waned, 180 citizens of Cho Yain Village were waiting on a hand-dug soccer field to welcome us, many of whom were dressed in their tribe's traditional clothing, ready to dance.
Today didn't go exactly as planned. I don't think there are any level roads in Chin State—you are either going up or down a mountain. For some reason, none of the roads follow the gentle slopes of the rivers. And the four-wheel drive vehicle we've rented, an older Pajero, apparently hasn't been used for some time for what it was built for.
In 2014, I discovered a large group of women who were hidden all over the world. Traveling in poor nations as director of Heaven's Family's Christian Widows Fund, I found myself often meeting women who were not widows, but whose husbands had abandoned them. That usually meant that they, along with their children, were left with nothing. And I observed that such women shared the same sufferings as widows. They couldn't meet their family's most basic needs. Because they were not widows, however, Christian organizations were ignoring them. Heaven's Family was one of them.
Over the past few decades, armies of men have been fighting in East Africa's wars, taking millions of lives and displacing millions more. Rape has now also become a weapon of war. Many victims find themselves infected with AIDS or pregnant, carrying offspring of the "enemy." Married victims are cast off by their husbands. Unmarried victims are marked and spurned for life. All find themselves rejected by their families and local communities, casualties of war. The brutality has become so epidemic that Eastern Congo has been labeled the "rape capital of the world" by a U.N. Special Representative.
Challenging, yet encouraging. Those words describe our work with unreached people groups in 2014. We've witnessed wonderful breakthroughs among the A-Che people of China, but it hasn't been easy.
Sarai and her unwed mother, with 3 other siblings in tow, needed a place to hide from domestic violence. They were welcomed with open arms into a little community of believers known as "the Village," pioneered by Heaven's Family missionaries to Mexico Jason and Nicole Fitzpatrick.
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