The concept of a Connect Community or Carepoint was developed by Children’s Hope Chest, which is an organization that intervenes in the lives of orphans by helping them come to know Christ, providing support needed to thrive physically, and teaching the skills needed to sustain themselves and their family as they mature. This is done through support provided to Swaziland community leaders and mentors who already show a commitment to help these children, but lack the resources to do it. A Carepoint can take many forms. In our case, we will engage with a community in Swaziland that has approximately 100 orphans and receives no outside assistance. The goals will be designed to meet the specific needs of the community we connect with. However, the general physical goals are complete transformation of an entire community:

1. Obtain land from the village leadership, typically available as an empty plot.

2. Provide food, water, and basic preventive medical care to orphans in the area using the land as a gathering place.

3. Develop facilities, possibly including a well, school, orphanage, or other type of shelter.

4. Deliver ongoing care and education to provide immediate and long-term hope.

5. Move beyond orphan care into the community to develop micro-enterprises that provide a means to earn both income and dignity

Showing God’s love and fostering relationships within the community and between us and individual children in the Connect Community is part of every stage of the process. The burden and fears of orphans and children attempting to provide for siblings is beyond our imagination. In many Swaziland communities, even those children who have not lost parents receive little emotional support from parents because all of the family’s time and energy is spent in a struggle for survival itself. Carepoints relieve much of the burden of survival allowing local relationships to develop. Personal visits from our community members to our Carepoint is a critical part of building our relationships and bringing love and hope to the kids we will support.

We will experience the heartbreak of the loss of parents and the desperation of poverty and hunger, and experience the ultimate transformation of the lives of children that we will come to love. We will learn and grow ourselves as we gain understanding of their cultural strengths and perspectives. We believe that this will bring us to a place where, in caring for Jesus in his disguise as “the least of these”, we will experience purpose and joy in life in a new and meaningful way. We will also create deeper connections among ourselves, building a community here that is focused on supporting and encouraging each other in this effort, and in our day-to-day lives as well.

We traveled to Swaziland in October 2009 to visit both established Carepoints and locations receiving no outside assistance whatsoever. As a result of that trip, we selected Ludlati Carepoint. We will see first-hand the place our community will start from, and over time will see and experience a complete transformation. Learn more about the Ludlati story: Community > Swaziland > Ludlati Neighbor Kids

We are confident that Christians and compassionate people in America have more than enough resources to eliminate the desperate poverty experienced by orphans in Africa and around the world. The transformation we hope to see will drive home the point to all of us that change is possible. To those who doubt the possibilities, we believe that compassion is reason alone to act, and will energize us to spread the message of the hope and joy we will experience as we relate to the people and children in need.

You need only be willing to engage to be a part of this. We will need financial commitments, but that is not required. We will also need our friends and community members here to spread the word and raise support from others, travel to visit our community in Swaziland, provide prayer support, and a myriad of other things that will not require a financial contribution.

We will continue posting in our blog on the situation in Swaziland, preparations for the future trips, and stories of others from trips to visit other undeveloped locations and Carepoints. You can get involved in regular contributions, donations, letter writing to our Ludlati children, following and responding to blog posts, participate in forum discussions, online books studies, and prayer support. We continue to neighbors willing to support our Ludlati Neighbor Kids and building our community here. The need is great, but we have the resources to make real, worldwide change. That requires all of us to do our part.