(80,000 orphans from England to Canada)
Fifty Christian agencies in Great Britain sought to rescue thousands of orphaned boys and girls on the streets and in work houses from the years 1870 to about 1920. The children were mainly in the major cities of London and Liverpool. Eighty thousand of these rough, sickly but needy boys and girls were taken from England to homes and farms in the new frontiers of Canada. Criticism was faced and many mistakes made, but the Christian agencies continued to do all they could to find homes and care for these 80,000 children!
Will there be fifty, fifteen, or even five evangelical mission agencies that will take on the task of caring for over 800,000 orphans in Malawi, Africa, and over 800,000 in Zambia who are destitute because of AIDS? It will not be possible to take these children from Africa to Christian homes in America, Austria, or Australia, but could we not trust God for Christians to be raised up from these countries to go (move) to Malawi and Zambia to deal with this crisis, a crisis which is one of the worst to ever face the world?
To keep the facts straight, USAID says there will be an estimated 1,230,000 orphans in Malawi by the end of 1999, and 1,656,000 in Zambia. This is a total of 2,886,000 children! Who knows how many thousands of widows there will be!
When the street children crisis hit Great Britain in 1870, it was not men who began ministry among these children, but women. Will there be a repeat in the history of the church of God again raising up women to do a job that men should do? Should we not trust our Sovereign Lord to raise up women and men to tackle this impossible task for His glory? In the words of Luke 1:37, "Nothing will be impossible with God."
Doug Nichols, International Director
Action International Ministries
P.O. Box 398, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043-0398
(425) 775-4800
