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Children of the World Goes to Africa
By Carl Richardson
Africa. Forgotten by time; torn by circumstance and combat. Fierce
and unyielding. Here, life is often cruel. Death is sometimes even
more cruel on the "dark continent." The strong take what
they want from the weak. Society sometimes reflects the law of the
jungle, where the struggle for dominance is won by the most swift
and the most savage.
From the twin killers of famine and an unconscionable war in Ethiopia,
Etrea, Somalia, Kenya, and the Sudan, millions have been either
slaughtered by senseless tribal and national wars or have slowly
sunk into a premature grave by starvation. Almost all of Africa
is on fire with revolution. Not surprisingly, it is also on fire
with spiritual revival.
With over 30 percent of the continent now Christian, God is raising
up dedicated and well-trained volunteers to address some of Africa's
seemingly insurmountable challenges. Christian childcare is one
of the most important of these challenges. From the outset, the
Children of the World Foundation was initiated through the vision
of Dr. John D. Nichols and his team.
He has traveled the world searching for those whose hearts God
has touched, who are ministering with a high level of dedication
and an accompanying low level of visibility and finance. It is a
guiding principle that is working with a great success in India,
the Philippines, and throughout Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Already, it is apparent that it is working in Africa.
Teaming with World Missions in war-torn Monrovia, Liberia, more
than 200 war orphans will soon move into their new Home for Children
on 14 acres of land. In northern Kenya (Turkana), it hasn't rained
in three years. The devastating drought also borders a dangerous
war zone in the Sudan, where over two million have died in the past
few years.
Their parents killed by marauding terrorists, rival tribes, and
bandits, scores of bush orphans somehow survive among the wild animals.
Here, a young pastor, Emmanuel Ekiru and his wife, have rescued
a number of these bush orphans and have moved them into their own
tiny but providing from their own meager means food and clothing
and schooling. Pastor Emmanuel explained that at least 75 more children
still live among the animals in the bush without care, without love,
without food, without hope. Now, all that is about to change.
Children in this part of the world sometimes die from the simplest
of sickness (bronchitis and diarrhea). Through the working ministry
partnership of Children of the World Foundation, dramatic changes
are also already underway.
Tribal leaders agreed to donate ten acres of land for the new construction
(sponsored by Children of the World Foundation) of an 80-bed Home
for Children, a feeding center, and a church. New construction begins
there immediately.
Elsewhere, several hundred children have been abandoned to the
cruelty of the streets in Mufiliera, Zambia located on the border
of the Congo. While serving as the director of the Church of God
Bible College there, God touched the hearts of Rodger and Saundra
Wikelund from West Virginia to begin a ministry to the street orphans.
Saundra dedicated her work to the memory of her mother whose final
words preceding death were "I want to go to the mission field.
And I want to go now." Although she did not get to go to the
mission field personally, Saundra is memorializing her mother through
the ministries of Emma's Kids.
During the inaugural address given by Dr. John D. Nichols in May
2000, Emma's Kids ...all 250 of them ...listened with enormous respect
and courtesy as national, regional, and local church and government
leaders lauded the achievements of Saundra and Rodger Wikelund and
their team of Zambian workers.
To me, the highlight of the day came as all 250 of these former
street orphans gathered around Dr. John D. Nichols and prayed. I
have never heard any children anywhere on earth pray like those
little ones prayed. They literally bombarded heaven. It was powerful.
The need in Africa seems unending. But Children of the World Foundation
has established a strong ministry presence in areas which comprise
the neediest of the needy. It is obvious that God is mightily blessing
and will continue to bless this compassionate effort as its expansion
continues around the world.
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