The Bible is very clear on one thing, orphans and widows move the heart of God. James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God is to visit widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
“If orphans and widows have a special place in God’s heart then New Seed of Hope feels they should have a special place in ours,” says African Director, Alphonse Kabui. “Since our mission statement makes it plain that we exist to provide hope to those who feel abandoned – and orphans and widows are – it was natural for us to begin focusing on orphans and widows.
The ministry has targeted two regions in south Sudan from which to establish a central base of ministry to develop future orphanages and additional projects. We are starting to see the initial commitment of funding come in for this vision.
How does New Seed approach starting and running orphanages?
1. We will only start an orphanage if the ‘local church’ agrees to run it. The mandate to attend to the needs of orphans and widows is to the church, not the community or government.
2. We believe that orphanages are really leadership academies in disguise. Many of the future leaders of south Sudan are part of the 1.7 million orphans in a regional population of 12 million.
3. We want the local church to be able to assume the total responsibility, including the financial commitment, for running an orphanage within 2-3 years. Thus, the orphanages will be built around a micro-enterprise model, allowing the orphanage staff (and some of the children) to bring in revenue that can be invested in the orphanage itself.
4. We also believe that the children in the orphanage must have access to basic healthcare and education. Without access to primary education, at least, and basic primary healthcare, these orphans and widows have no hope for any kind of future at all.
Kraig-
I really want to get involved with the orphan side of things. Some of the other stuff is not at the center of my heart the way the plight of widows and orphans is. I think that this is totally exiting…sorry for being asleep at the wheel if the orphanage thing is old news. I kinda only think about the movie side of NSOS.
BG
I recently had a telephone chat with our field staff in Tonj, Peter Yuor Gur. He was etremely excited to learn that we will revolve around orphaned children and the windows. He confessed to me that he turned down a well paying job in order to be part of the ministry mainly because he has a heart for the windows and orphans of Southern Sudan. These are some of the resources God is bringing to us.
The Lord will provide, let us all be vailable vessels.