Helping Together in Prayer

"You are helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many." (2 Corinthians 1:11)

Paul is writing to the Corinthian church. While he traveled on those early missionary journeys, those who stayed behind and those in the church helped by praying. Paul and his companions were thankful for the prayer covering, as they faced hardship and death many times. The people they reached were thankful, because they heard the good news of Christ and believed. Even those who prayed were thankful, as Paul reported back to them what God was doing.

God never intends for us to work in isolation. Throughout Paul's journeys, you can see many people participating in the mission through giving, community, and prayer.

Prayer is the thing that really runs and empowers ministry. Prayer affects real change in all of us. That's why we pray over every child by name. That's why we ask that you join us in prayer for the children, the ministry, the teachers, staff, and for the community.

A Gardener’s Work: Nurturing Young Hearts

Tony told us, "After my parents died, I didn't have any gardeners."

We smile at this ten-year-old's mixing up of English words. Surely he meant to say, "guardians," but in front of a handful of western visitors, as he tells how he came to TOUCH, "gardener" escapes his lips more readily.

He's searching for the words. How can he tell us what it was like when his parents died? Will we grasp all that is entailed when a child travels to Kampala from the village and lives on the streets? What was it like to be "picked" from the trenches?

Then we realized how right he is.

Uprooted, unprotected, exposed. With no one to nurture him, no one to feed him, no one to show him which way to grow. Without a "gardener," Tony lived in the filth that ran off from the streets near the soccer stadium - a mixture of plastic bags, sewage, and trash. He took his dinner from trash bins. For safety, he tried to go unnoticed - but then he was "picked."

In Uganda, people say "picked" when they mean "picked up" more than "chosen," as we would use the term. But again, Tony is right. He was "picked," like a flower from the refuse, and given a new life.

He was transplanted from the treacherous streets and day-to-day survival, to a community of children with hope for the future - a beautiful bouquet of potential.

A guardian is “a defender, a protector, or a keeper; in particular, someone who looks after and is legally responsible for another person who cannot manage his own affairs.”

Yes, Tony needs a guardian, but he also needs a gardener. A gardener, “tends or cultivates, promoting or improving growth by labor and attention.” A gardener nurtures, supports and encourages development.

Man was created in a garden, created to live in a garden, and nurtured by the Master Gardener Himself. Then, man fell in the garden, and was separated from his Protection, his Defender, the One who sustained growth.

Jesus taught His disciples in the garden. He prayed in a garden, and He was betrayed in a garden. Jesus was buried in a garden - and He rose in the garden.

For Christ on the cross, separation from the Gardener was heart-rending and excruciating. "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" He knows how an orphan feels.

Tony, and children like him, are finding hope at TOUCH (The Outreach to Unfortunate Children’s Hurts). With contributions made through Friends of TOUCH, "Mama Sara" pays their school fees and provides at least one meal a day.

Teachers take nurturing roles in the children's lives, seeking them out when they are absent from class, taking children to a local clinic when they fall ill, and tending to their overall development.

This is a community garden, where we all play a part.

Please pray and ask the Lord what He would have you do to nurture these young lives. Whether it is through giving, prayers, or encouragement - know that you are making a difference.
Tony, who once lived in the shadows by the soccer stadium, now plays on the TOUCH soccer team. He hopes to play professionally when he is grown, and if not, says he will be a bank manager.

Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.
 - Jeremiah 31:12b

Response to "Orphan" Horror Movie

Warner Brothers new horror movie Orphan proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. But what does Warner Brothers know about love? What do they know about orphans?

Any of us who spend time with real orphans can tell you that the rewards of loving an orphan are great. This is where the lessons of faith and love are learned.

There's Stella, who held on to my arm for two full weeks last fall. Her smile and her laughter were infectious. Betty taught us to dance and to sing. Mariam patiently showed us how to make chapatti. John, now grown, works tirelessly to help others. I love the children we're serving in Uganda.

So often we think about orphans in terms of what they need from us, but I would not be who I am without the influence of one orphan in particular - my grandmother.

She was orphaned by the time she was five. Both of her parents died of Tuberculosis in the early 1900's. She lived with extended family, and dropped out of school with a 4th grade education. When she married and had children, she completed her own education by reading and teaching herself from her children's school books.

She labored on the farm, at church, and at home, and when her husband died in a mining accident, she moved the family to Virginia. She worked at department stores and managed ice cream shops and taught her eleven boys to be hardworking, responsible, thoughtful men.

These men fought in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. They've pastored churches, managed businesses, and raised strong families. Now their children are doing the same. Her room was next to mine, and I heard her prayers for her children and her children's children and for the generations to come.

Grandma's story gives me hope for the children of Uganda. I see their future, and it is bright - full of family and friends and love. These children will grow, with God's help and ours, to move the mountains of poverty and injustice.

If you've got an orphan story, share it with us - let the voice of love be heard over the rattle of cliche story lines and cheap thrill film making.