November 19, 2020 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | By: Gerson Roeske for Adventist Possibility Ministries
According to the United Nations, more than 8,000 children die of hunger or undernutrition every day; about 820 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs. And there are more than 140 million orphans today, with more than 120,000 in the United States alone.
We are living in a time when the COVID pandemic affects every corner of the world. Countries have locked down their borders, and travel remains restricted. This illness affects the most vulnerable in this world the hardest, with parents dying and leaving children at the mercy of relatives or strangers.
Not long ago, it was the AIDS epidemic that scorched its deathly path through the developing world, leaving millions dead and a huge number of children orphaned or semi-orphaned. The need no longer seems as urgent — yet it remains. The government’s priorities to support developing countries change regularly, and many of our members are worried about their livelihood. Help to those in need no longer flows as readily as it did before.
The statistics for orphans or semi-orphans look discouraging. There are more than 30 million in India; 61 million in Asia, with China alone more than 20 million; 52 million in Africa; and 10 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The untold story behind the numbers is the personal toll related to conflict zones, refugee status, natural disasters, and COVID. Regardless of country, culture, or calamity, it is children who suffer the most. By many standards, addressing this need would be one of the most significant, humanitarian, political, or economic investments the world can make for its future.
Let me give you one example: Kaka was a ten-year-old boy from Africa living with his six-year-old sister Doka alone in an empty hut. Both parents had died of HIV/AIDS, and they were left to fend for themselves. Kaka was hobbling around in the village market, leaning on a stick because both feet were inflamed with an infection called infungu (caused by insects laying eggs under the skin, which then cause an infection). He was begging for something to eat for his sister and himself. He was angry at the world because people stole from him what little he had, with no one to care or help.
The United Nation’s millennial goals of halving the number of people in poverty are far from being reached, and ongoing world events make this goal even more difficult to meet. The poor are the ones who suffer the most in any disaster or catastrophe because they are helpless, hopeless, and powerless. People with money can always get by; the poor are powerless. Poverty means illiteracy, inadequate medical care, disease, and lack of education.
There is hope, and Jesus and the Bible remind us of the need to respond as Christians and Adventists:
November 21, 2020, has been set aside to especially remind us of orphans who live in the shadows, and we have the possibility to alleviate the suffering. Will you heed the call?
Let’s remember that all of us were orphans once. You may have had a father and mother, but spiritually we were all orphans – until God adopted us. The Bible says in Ephesians 1:5, “God predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.”
There are members in your midst who have a burden to help children, who should be given the opportunity to do so – and we as a church should not only encourage them but support them to do so. What is keeping you from starting your own mission project in helping orphans? This may be in your backyard or overseas in the mission field. But don’t expect ‘someone else’ to do something when you yourself can do it.
I am appealing to you today to get involved and have some suggestions to do so to fulfill Jesus’ admonition to bring the children to Him:
We all know that Christ identified with the poor — which includes the orphans — when He said, “I was hungry, and you fed me. In as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me.” If not for the grace of God, you and I could be one of the 850 million people who go to bed every night on an empty stomach. We could be like them, poor, in debt, hungry, homeless, sick, and desperate, not knowing which way to turn.
Christ’s work is to be our example. His life was one of unselfish service, and it is to be our lesson book. His tender, pitying love rebukes our selfishness and heartlessness.
The original version of this commentary was first posted on the Possibility Ministries site.