When I came off the World Race about a little over a year ago, I planned to move to Colorado. I shared my plan with my blog readers and someone named Andy Ingram, without my asking, offered up his family’s basement for me to live in! I didn’t even know the guy, but because of the ministry that is this blog and the generosity and graciousness of this family, I was given a place to stay. What an amazing answer to prayer that was!
I lived in the Ingram’s basement for about four months before taking off for Granada, Nicaragua. That was January of this year. I still keep in touch with the Ingrams. We pray for each other and encourage each other regularly. Andy and Wendy have three children – Caleb, Hannah and Rachel. The entire family took a trip to Swaziland, Africa to minister to the poor, the orphans and the widows there. They have a sincere and desperate love for the country and are actively making a difference in the nation, even from home in Colorado.
This morning I read an email from the Ingrams. One of the lines read, “Caleb is going out tomorrow night for Halloween and taking a change jar out inhopes he can raise some money for Swaziland, so we will see how God provides.” Caleb is a young guy of about thirteen, yet he understands the kingdom of God like few adults and is working in his level of influence to help a dying country. (For more information on Swaziland, you may read more here.)
My challenge to you is to follow Caleb’s lead: Take a jar along with your candy bag and ask if they’d like to give to the orphans in Swaziland as well. Deposit the money you’ve collected in your bank account and then make a contribution of the amount you collected online here. What a wonderful opportunity to go door-to-door and offer your community the privilege of caring for orphans in the country with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world!
Some quick facts:
At the end of 2005 UNICEF reported that there were about 70,000 HIV/AIDS orphans in Swaziland. That number has increased since then. Swaziland’s population was about 1,032,000 then. That means that about 6.8% of the country were HIV/AIDS orphans in 2005.
Religion that God our
Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the
world. — James 1:27
Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the
world. — James 1:27
