HOST AN ORPHAN, CHANGE A LIFE

HOST AN ORPHAN, CHANGE A LIFE

Malawi (MNN) — Force for Christ, an international hosting program for orphans, is gearing of for another hosting summer and needs families to help.

For those who don’t know what orphan hosting is, Chad LaForce with Force for Christ explains, “Hosting is where an orphan child from another country comes and stays for a period of between four to six weeks with a Christian family in the United States. And so we facilitate that whole process.”

This year, Force for Christ will be helping others host orphans from Malawi during the months of July and August. In Malawi, there are literally thousands and thousands of orphans.

The people there face numerous trials and challenges including poverty, starvation, malaria, and high HIV rates. Many of these are the very reason why many children are parentless.

“A lot of their twenty-and-thirty-something-year-old parents, many many of them die. So you have thousands of orphans without an orphanage, without any infrastructure. Often times without food. Literally with just the shirt on their back,” LaForce says. In some cases, it’s rare they’re even being taken care of by an adult.

But through orphan hosting, these kids get a chance to experience life differently. For the first time, in possibly their whole lives, they can sleep in a safe place, go to sleep with full bellies, and know what it’s like to have even just one parent, let alone two, tuck them in at night with love.

If concerns for language and cultural barriers is a hindrance for hosting, don’t’ worry, Force for Christ puts all its families through training for good techniques and tips for dealing with cultural and language challenges.

And as for the language barriers, most of these children know English. But during transit, they are accompanied by a translator to help. Also, most times, kids are able to pick up 50 or 60 words over conversational English.

For many who host children, their relationships with these kids don’t end when they put them back on a plane home. Often times, the families and kids keep in contact and continue building their relationships.

Though it’s easy to think these few weeks won’t make an impact. They will. LaForce explains how, when making a field visit in Malawi and handing out dresses, there was one girl who didn’t get a dress. The Force for Christ team scrounged to make it work, and were able to come up with a dress for the little girl.

“The elder of her village saw this happening and two days later, at one of our wrap up meetings, stood up and said ‘you changed the life of that girl fundamentally,” LaForce recounts.

This was the first gift this little girl had ever received. It was also an answered prayer. As she watched others receive dresses, she prayed and prayed for God to provide one for her, He did. Now, this little girl tells everyone she can about Christ. Not only was she shown an act of love and kindness through the dress, she also saw God move in her life.

This was the impact on one girl’s life because of a gift. Imagine what a month with a family could do.

When families host orphans, they have the unique opportunity to share the Gospel, not only in word but also in deed. Families get to love an orphaned child like their own, kind of like the way God has loved us. If you have the room and you’re interested, then consider hosting an orphan and being a part of changing a child’s life.

However, regardless, please pray that God would provide the right host families for the job. Pray for their future relationships and the kids they’ll be building them with. And pray that ultimately His goodness, grace, and love would be evident through the whole process and these kids would come to know Christ.