"For in Him we live and move and have our being...for we are His offspring."

(Acts 17:28)

As I read this verse this morning, I was struck how I could not live life without my God. How unimaginable to not have this relationship. How we are all HIS offspring. and, yet so many of His offspring are living as "orphans", not realizing the full measure of His fatherly love. It is our prayer that all, even ourselves, would know in full that we are no longer orphans, whether it be physical or spiritual, but adopted, carrying the very DNA of our Heavenly Father.

These last months have been full of travel, incountry and overseas. And we have seen the orphan. The orphan to parents lost to AIDS, the orphan to a mindset of lovelessness, the orphan to a lifestyle of poverty, the orphan to emotion and physical sickness. We have seen God open up the "love gates" of Heaven and say "YOU are my child."

As I traveled to Zambia, Africa, a few weeks ago, I was not looking foward to long days of travel alone. The Lord, in His graciousness, used that time to make me feel what the orphan feels: noone to talk to; noone to travel life with; noone to understand who they are; noone to care about their likes/dislikes; noone to put an arm around them and explain the craziness of life. Not just the child in Africa, but the person sitting next to me on the plane: a man from South Africa coming back from two months in Canada looking for a new home for his family because of the oppression in his country. Now he was heading back to pack up his family, his brothers and their families, generations of a life in South Africa, to move to Canada to find a better life. The opportunity to pray for him and his future and remind him of a Heavenly Father that knows and cares. The opportunity to give my front row, lots of leg room, seat to a young mother who had only one seat for herself and her two-year-old daughter in the middle for a long eight hour flight. And so many more opportunities to let others know that they are not alone, not an orphan.

I so appreciated your prayers as I faced some unwelcome circumstances on my arrival, and how, through your prayers, in one day everything made a 180 degree turnaround. The training for Hope for Grieving Children went very well. We expected 12 pastors/lay people and had 19, all of them with their own stories of being an orphan, caring for orphans, and helping others care for orphans. Over and over I repeated the words from Graham Cooke: "He loves you, He loves you, He loves you, He loves you, He loves you....not for what you do for Him, but just because that is who He is........." The last morning devotion was powerful as we talked about Psalm 37 and how if we only commit our way to the Lord, be still and rest in Him, HE WILL act. The load of the needs is too much for us, but not for the Lord. We closed our time with my favorite song "Ulamembela" (He Cares) and took time to split in twos and pray and minister to each other.

A couple of their stories reveal the misconceptions about grieving: one little child, so very hungry, went to the caregiver asking for food. The caregiver, burdened by her task, angrily replied, "Food! I have no food! Go to your parents' grave and ask them for food!" After the training, this caregiver realized the pain of her words and asked the child's forgiveness and the church for help. Another caregiver, felt like giving up as her orphan kept biting other children. She felt she was failing and maybe the child needed to be sent to yet another relative. After the training she understood anger as a part of grieving, talked with the child about his pain, showed him love and patience, and the biting problem ceased.

Pastor Njamba said, "Indeed I am stirred inside. This information about the grieving child needs to be told to others."

Another pastor commented: "I meet with 120 pastors every Thursday in Kabwe. We are from all the denominations. We go away together for the whole day for prayer, singing, and teaching. I am going to do this training at one of the meetings."

Can you imagine? 120 pastors from all different denominations coming together to seek the Lord. With the training they receive they will reach tens of thousands of orphans and caregivers with the understanding that grieving happens, it is okay, and that there is Someone whose purpose was to bring love, emotion and physical healing, deliverance, and salvation.

Thank you so much for your prayers.