Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
Visiting orphans and widows in their distress. What must a visit be like for those orphans and at-risk children? For me, the only thing that I can think of that could possibly compare is my memories of summer time visits of my California cousins. Our mundane summer days were exchanged for full days of cousin fun. So refreshing. This was my experience as a child who was never alone, never at-risk. Imagine what a visit could mean to a child who is alone and very much at-risk in her society. Could it be the joy of what visitors mean that causes the squeals of delight from the kids when a team arrives at the established care points in Swaziland?
If you have watched the kids approach the Ludlati carepoint,
Children Walking to Ludlati Carepoint from KnownToMe on Vimeo.
you can see that these kids aren’t all together certain what these kind of visits are like. The more established care points are the places where the kids know the joy of interacting with new friends. The Ludlati kids have yet to experience the days of games and loving attention. None of them have received letters and pictures from someone far away who cares about them, followed by the chance to meet them face to face at last. Do not underestimate the value of hope and self worth this communicates to the kids! What a change is in store for all of us! What hope will be realized in this community here and there! If you are interested in supporting a child, please click here for the application instructions.
In the fall of 2010, a trip is being planned to visit our Ludlati neighbor kids! We will get to spend time with our Ludlati kids, possibly do some home visits in their area, and visit some other care points as well. Depending upon the timing of the trip, there could be other projects for us as well. This is the first of what we hope to be semi-annual or at the very least annual trips. I am not sure we are going to be able to keep Don away from Swaziland any longer than that! Warning to all who travel. You may want to go more than once!! The kids will definitely want you to come back!
Let’s get together and talk about travel. Tuesday, December 22 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm at First Christian Church (in the Playground area) we will have an important planning meeting about the fall trip and travel in general. We will share information, discuss plans and answer questions. While we have yet to have our official launch of the Ludlati Carepoint, it is never too soon to discuss the upcoming trip. If you want to know more about the trip, are considering travel this year or another year, or want to support others travels, this meeting is for you. We want the meeting to be as efficient as possible so we encourage you to send any questions you already have ahead of time. Click here to go to the forum thread available for posting questions for the trip meeting (you must be a KTM member to post in the forum) or you can post them in the comments section after this post. You can also send them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
One more thing for your Monday night! Yesterday in China an orphan finally met her family. To see a face filled with joy and hope, a face of a former orphan now called daughter, please go see pictures here in the post entitled Gotcha Beautiful.
