100 Moms In Need! What You and Your Church can do to Help.
Yesterday morning when I arrived at the Day Care we had 30 mothers sitting outside of our gate at 7:50 am. This number grew to 50 by 8:15 am and then to 100 by 9:00 am. ONE HUNDRED MOTHERS HOPING that we had space for them.
Even if we had our 44 new slots that we are waiting for approval on, we would have filled those and still had 50 moms waiting at our gate – all with very young children and all in need.
It is times like this that it becomes overwhelming for me and our staff. So much need.
However, it is one thing to have a crowd of mothers outside of the gate and even more overwhelming to start to hear some of their stories.
Alayu was able to interview several of them. Here are two of their stories.
The first mother moved to the area 7 years ago from Northern Ethiopia after her parents died when she was quite young. She was given housing by a family member in return for her working as a house worker. Along the way, she was raped by the house owner’s son, leaving her pregnant and HIV positive. She now has a baby and tries to beg in order to provide for her child. Fortunately, she has started HIV treatment through the local hospital, however, she sees little hope.
A second mother is widowed with a young child. The cause is HIV. About a year ago her husband and her both started getting ill. They went and got tested and found out that her husband was HIV+ and now she was infected, too. Shortly after getting tested, her husband died and now she is living alone, HIV+ and with a small child. She, too, sees little hope.
If we had time today, we would have heard similar stories from many of these mothers. They are in need of someone to walk with them. We feel privileged that God has put us in their path, however we need your help.
While the government is still working on approving the expansion, we would like to hit the ground running and have all 44 family sponsorships covered before it is approved. Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal..sort of. Yet, when we consider the passion and resource that is at God’s disposal, it is nothing.
I would love it if you would run, not walk to your pastor, church, missions committee, or small group with the following idea that could help us hit the ground with all of this taken care of .
The idea is Church Partnership. We are looking for 13 more Churches that are willing to say that they can facilitate the sponsorship of 3 full family sponsorships through their church. This is committing to fill 3 family sponsorships at $136 per month each or about $400 per month total.
Now, we’re not saying this has to come from a church budget or a missions program or a fundraising campaign. If that’s the way you want to do it, great.
We believe that there are people sitting in your church right now who would be willing to take a small step in sponsoring a family – say a $34 per month step – if this idea was simply presented to them that they could play a part in preventing orphans, preserving families and partnering in hope. Now, if you have 12 of those families take that step, then that’s 3 full family sponsorships covered.
Of course there are other families who will want to do more.
Click here to download a brief info sheet about Church Partnerships and start sharing it.
Psalm 86 tells us that God is, “A Father to the fatherless, a Defender of widows is God in His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely into families.” Now, we get to do our part as an act of worship to HIm in seeing this truth made known in the lives of the lonely, widowed and fatherless.
Join us.