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.
It was a marvelous picture of redemption: 80 young men, all prison inmates who were still serving time for their crimes, singing praises to God at Kenya's presidential palace. It's an inspiring story that begins with one man named Kelvin Mwikya, who encountered Jesus in a Kenyan prison cell.
I was already somewhat in a state of shock—even though I had done my best to prepare for what I knew I would see. It was my first visit to a Heaven's Family-supported leprosy clinic in Hyderabad, India. As I had imagined beforehand, it wasn't easy to look at the infected wounds of leprosy patients as they were compassionately dressed by dedicated nurses. But then came a shock of a different kind for which I was unprepared.
To an average American like myself, all 20 of the men in the room looked like members of Afghanistan's infamous Taliban. Some were even wearing turbans. We sat silently on the rug-covered floor, leaning against cold walls, waiting for our meal to be served. I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable, an odd American, likely one of the few Westerners who'd ever ascended the long valley that led to their remote mountain village, 10,000 feet above sea level.
Mi Young lay on the muddy riverbank, wet, shivering, and exhausted, clutching her teenage son, Jae. They had just done the unthinkable: under cover of darkness, they'd illegally swum across a river that separates North Korea from China—without being shot by border guards. Now, however, it seemed that hypothermia might succeed where border guards had failed.
Ngongongare, a very poor village in Tanzania, needs water. And 10-year-old Eva Henderson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, aims to do something about it! Their closest water source is polluted with chemicals, so they must walk 7 miles roundtrip to another source—a stream, used by both people and animals, that is also unsafe—that frequently causes diarrhea, parasites, cholera, typhoid…and death. Although the villagers must work hard in the fields just to survive, they commonly miss work due to illness. Children miss school because, when not sick, they and their moms must spend hours fetching water each day for drinking and cooking. “Water is their greatest need,” our contact there told me.
The children of New Heritage Orphanage enjoying a rare treat. Eating SNAKES?? Yuck! OK, I confess, this month has been slow when it comes to news from the orphanages that Orphan’s Tear serves, so I thought I’d spice it up a little, just in time […]
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