5 Posts for Christmas.. When I was without Home and Without Clothes

Since who is more without a home and clothes than orphans...

Ten Sobering facts...

1. There are 143 million orphans in the world.

  Enough children to circle the equator three times.

2. Sub-Sahara Africa, with more than 48 million orphans, has the the highest proportion of orphaned children.

3.  Three out of every twenty-five children (12%) in Sub-Sahara Africa are orphaned.  

4.  Asia has the largest number of orphans - almost 74 million - which is 6% of all children in tha

t continent.

5. Also in Latin America 6% of all children are orphaned.  

6.  15 million children have lost at least one parent to the AIDs pandemic.   A year from now that number is expected to rise to 20 million.  Half of these will be in Sub-Sahara Africa.   Many of these orphans live on their own and/or raise their younger siblings.

7.  If it wasn't for AIDs (a preventable disease), the number of orphans in Sub-Sahara Africa would have declined.  

8. Orphaned children are more likely than non-orphaned children to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and in the sex trade industry.

9. Orphans are more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination and other abuses.

10. God is called a Defender of orphans and accepts pure & undefiled religion of looking after orphans (and widows) in their distress.

"Then the King will say... I was homeless you gave me room. I was shivering and you gave me clothes....  Master, what are you talking about?... the King will say, 'I am telling the solemn truth: whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me.'"   (The Message)

Three ways to give Jesus a gift...

1.  Beam Africa Child Sponsorship

2.  Compassion International

3.  Musana Children's Home - started by 3 University of Colorado students