A Homeschooler’s Heart for Orphans

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Do you have a child with a fervent love for God and a desire to fulfill Great Commission to “go into all the world to preach the Gospel” (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15)? Do you have a son or a daughter with a particular heart for international benevolence, or for orphan children, or for hurting people? If so, I encourage you, as a homeschooling parent, to begin to nurture this special calling and to prepare your heart to release your child to God’s purposes (as Hannah released her little Samuel to God in I Samuel 1-2). As parents, and as teachers, we can also seek the Lord to help us to provide appropriate opportunities to develop what He is doing in our child’s heart.

Just this week, our oldest daughter, Christi (who homeschooled K-12), graduated with a bachelor’s degree from a outstanding Christian university. In a few days, she will be traveling to Cambodia, Asia, as an ATL (Assistant Team Leader) for a two-month summer mission outreach to work with precious girls rescued out of horrendous child trafficking. After returning home for a brief visit, she will then travel on a second mission trip to Niger, West Africa, one of the world’s poorest unreached countries, to share the love of Jesus with youth and children.

As a parent, it can be a challenging and stretching time to see our little girl now growing up . . . and “stepping out” (that’s an understatement!!!) . . . yet it’s SO exciting.

Our daughter’s love for international missionary work didn’t just “happen.” For years, God has been developing this passion in her heart. Throughout her childhood years, my husband and I recognized and nurtured this mission call, and we made a focused effort to provide opportunities for her to learn and to experience world needs under the spiritual covering and protection of our home (and with lots of prayer!!!). For our daughter, homeschooling proved to be the perfect training for God’s unique calling on her life. The freedoms and flexibilities of home education helped to provide a foundation for God’s mission-minded purpose in her life, and it is exciting to see this plan beginning to unfold.

During high school, Christi wrote the following essay to explain her love for international orphan children. The process of writing and editing (and re-editing!) this essay not only helped to stir these needs and God’s compassion in her heart, but it also proved to be a tremendous confidence-builder. This essay helped her to earn several college scholarships, opened the door for speaking opportunities, and even established the groundwork for her college-level senior paper, which focused on the needs for emotional healing from human trafficking abuse in various international cultures.

So Many Orphans . . .

According to UNICEF, there are between 143,000,000 and 210,000,000 orphan children in the world today. This number is so huge, it’s hard to even comprehend. As a reference, the population of the USA is approximately 300,000,000 and the population of Russia is about 141,800,000. This means there are as many orphan children as about one-half of our entire US population, and more orphans than ALL of the people in Russia.

This need is huge, but I’ve seen the faces of many of these orphaned children . . . one by one . . . and they’re just as real to me as my own kids. These faces have impacted my life, and I’m praying hard for God to raise up MANY Christians, and even MANY of our own homeschooled teens and young adults, to help.

As homeschooling families, it’s true that God cares about us and our kids; but He also deeply cares for orphans; and if orphans matter to God, they should matter to us.

As you read this essay, I pray that God will help you to see beyond the needs of your own family, and your own local neighborhood, and your own homeschooling.

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” James 1:27.

My Heart for Orphans
By Christi Dunagan (at age 15)

Eight-year-old Jennifer huddled in the dark corner of her grandmother’s hut. Once again, she was locked in this repulsive room with no food, and no hope. Sometimes she was left alone for days while her grandmother wasted what little money they had. Most likely, th old woman would return home — drunk — and beat the girl until she could barely stand.

Jennifer knew nothing of happiness.

When she was very young, her parents were victims of Uganda’s number one killer: AIDS; and now, she was yet another victim: of poverty, hunger, and abuse.

Hearing footsteps outside her door, Jennifer looked up hopefully. Maybe she would finally be released from this small damp prison she was forced to cal home . . . but no.

She crnged, as the footsteps drew nearer and she recognized them, not as those of her grandmother, but as the sound of one of her uncles. Again one was coming. Too often they came . . . to use little Jennifer to satisfy their physical pleasures. When they had enough of her, they left her once again, hurt and crying on the mud floor. The latch creaked . . . and Jennifer prepared herself for yet another night of agony and heartache.

She knew she could not last much longer . . .

. . .

Somehow, the frightened girl escaped and began wandering her village streets. With nowhere to go, Jennifer leaned against the closest building she could find . . . and wept.

. . .

A hand touched her shoulder, startling her; but as she looked up, the girl stared into the face of a kind woman. It was Alice, a long0time friend of my family, and the local director of an AIDS orphanage, today called Guma Na Yesu (“Keep With Jesus”) Children’s Center, which my parents helped establish in 1995 in Mbarara, Uganda.

Along with hundreds of other orphans, this child finally has a home. People are now feedng her, ministering to her hurts, and loving her. Slowly, she is learning life is not just pain and horror, and she is discovering joy. Slowly, her emotional wounds are healing. Finally, Jennifer is becoming the girl she was born to be.

. . .

During November and December of my Junior year of high school, I had the incredible esperience of traveling to Uganda along with my mother and a precious elderly minister’s wife. There, I met Jennifer and many orphans just like her — and it made an incredible impact on my life. Beginning on that trip, my mom and I have been establishing a brand new orphanage (called Osanidde Village, primarily for AIDS victims. (“Osanidde” is an African word, common in many Lugandan worship songs; it sounds like “Oh Sunny Day” and means “You are Worthy.”) There are many details — organizing orphan photos, recruiting sponsors, doing computer work — but it’s worth it. I want to help rescue as many hurting children as I can.

During my journey, I traveled my a rugged dugout canoe to a remote island. There, the poverty was so great, and many children were left as orphans due to the trauma of war and AIDS. My mom and I decided we couldn’t just sit back. Thousands of children were dying from malnutrition and neglect. We knew we had to do something.

As I walked through the narrow village streets, the air reeked of fish, body odor, and garbage. Little children flocked around me, holding my hands, touching my hair, and gazing deeply into my eyes. As they longed for some sort of love and affection, I wished I could just “wrap them up,” hide them in my suitcase and take them all home.

But obviously, that wasn’t possible.

Yet since our return to the U.S., my mom and I have been working with some Ugandan nationals to build an orphanage on that island for as many children as possible. Our desire is for these orphan children to grow up in an environment where they will be loved and wanted, to provide a happy place where hurting children can receive quality care, nutrition, and education.

Right now, our new orphanage is small, but it is growing. Currently, we have 16 orphans and 16 orphanage houses. My mom and I know we will never be able to help every orphan in Uganda; but we’re doing what we can, and we won’t give up.

For these children, it is finally an “Oh Sunny Day.” No longer will they roam the streets, beg for meals, or sleep “wherever.”

These little ones will be safe and cared for.

And with smiles on their faces — just like Jennifer now has — these orphans will finally have a change to become the children they were born to be.

Note: As a followup, in March and April, 2010, our family traveled to Uganda, East Africa to checkup on these two ongoing orphanage ministries of Guma Na Yesu Children’s Center and Osanidde Village, along with a new village network of church-and adoption-based Family Zone Centers. Currently, these orphan ministries are caring for over 700 orphan children. Jennifer is now a beautiful teenager, and she’s doing well; she’s living with a wonderful Christian family, leading worship in her local church, and loving Jesus.

Ann Dunagan is a longtime homeschool mother of 7 (with 4 high school graduates and 3 university graduates). Since 1987, she and her husband Jon, and their family, have ministered worldwide through Harvest Ministry, to a combined total of 70+ nations, on all 7 continents. Ann is co-founder of 2 African orphanages (with over 700 children); author of several books, including The Mission-Minded Family; and she blogs at Passionate Homemaking and “Better Parents, Better Families” on The Christian Post.