World Help and the Children of the World

Posted By Steph | April 12, 2009

He is Risen!… He is Risen indeed. Happy Easter everyone!

What an amazing day we had to celebrate our living Savior. Ryan and I headed to church this morning and besides the wonderful fact that it was Easter I was also very excited to see the Children of the World choir perform. I had seen the children perform a few years ago at my Alma mater, Cedarville University back in Ohio, and was blown away by their amazing performance and story behind their ministry. I couldn’t wait to see their performance today and I was eager to show Ryan what the ministry was all about. When we arrived at church we visited the various World Hope tables set up to promote the Children of the World Choir ministry. They have a great team of volunteers that work to promote the focus of the ministry and helped to introduce us to what the ministry is all about. Check out one of the Children of the World Choir’s performances below or over here on YouTube.

The focus of the World Hope is to “fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment through partnering, training, helping, and serving, especially in the unreached areas of the world.”. One specific outreach that this ministry focuses on is Children of Hope. Through this ministry, a team of children is taken out of a lifestyle of poverty and devastation due to being orphaned at a young age. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is a critical issue during these times. Some 42 million men, women, and children are living with HIV/AIDS in Africa at this time, and of those 42 million, nearly 70 percent live within sub- Sarahan Africa. The vision of the World Help, Children of the World campaign is to give one million children impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis a better life through support and provision while instilling the all sustaining love of Jesus Christ in their hearts.

There are basically two ways in which anyone can help to support this cause. You can help by supporting the building of a Village of Hope or through sponsoring a hurting child. It’s such an easy thing for us to do, and it takes so little to make an impact. It’s a challenge for us all…Check out the World Help website and see what you think. They’re already making an incredible impact in the lives of Children within a hurting nation.

All this to say, Ryan and I were, of course, intrigued by this ministry. After talking with a few of the volunteers we met a wonderful couple, Mike and Christa Hahn. They are basically the “parents” of the 15 children in the west coast, traveling choir team. For 10 months they travel with the childrens’ choir and guide and direct the little ones while they are embarking on their fantastic mission. It’s an amazing opportunity to have an impact for Christ in the life of a child, and they have been doing just that for 4 years now. After talking with them briefly and sharing our passion for missions and desires to reach the world for Christ, we decided that this is another opportunity that we need to seek more fervently. Ryan and I would love to be “part-time parents” for awhile and travel the country in order to support a ministry such as this. What an amazing adventure and powerful ministry to impact the country for Christ and support children in need who are so desperate for our help and the love of our Savior.

It’s something that will definitely be prevalent in our prayers through the next up-coming months and we’re asking you to pray for us as well as we continue in this endeavor. I recently read a great quote, “Missions isn’t waiting until God says GO, its GOING until God says stop.”. That’s a powerful statement, and it gives me butterflies when I think of it.

So here we go, let’s see what happens!

Filed Under 50 Goals For 2009, new/random experience, you gotta have faith