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"\n\r  \n\n\r  \n\r    \n\r  \n\r  \nvisit godavego.org &amp;rarr;\n\r\n\n\r\rImagine a little girl.\n\n\rHer mother has brought her to the market and asked her to \u201Cstay here and wait\u201D\u2014she\u2019ll be right back. The woman then hurries away ... and the little girl never sees her again.\n\n\r\n\rIn this little girl\u2019s impoverished family, where meager amounts of food don\u2019t stretch very far, it\u2019s somehow been decided her brothers are more valuable.\n\n\rShe has been cast aside. She is now an orphan.\n\n\rThis heart-wrenching situation is common among the orphans of India. There are 25 to 30 million orphaned children in the country\u2014roughly equivalent to the population of Canada\u2014and the overwhelming majority of them have virtually zero chance of being adopted.\n\n\rJ-127\n\rTrue religion, James 1:27 says, is to care for orphans in their distress. This passage is clear: If we claim to follow Jesus, that little girl in the marketplace and the millions like her should matter to us. The J-127 Orphan Initiative, part of David C Cook Global Mission, is all about the call in James 1:27. J-127 believes this call isn\u2019t just about orphans\u2019 external needs for shelter or clothing or food, but it\u2019s also a challenge to care about orphans\u2019 distress\u2014to minister to the damage done to their hearts by abandonment and trauma.\n\n\rThe Missing Piece\n\rThere are 18,000 Christian orphanages in India, and they seek to care for many of the country\u2019s orphans, but they can only do so much. \u201CWe have 280 children in our home,\u201D says Dr. Alexander Philip, director of an orphanage in Bihar, India. \u201CThe price of food and utilities is increasing by the day. We need to hire teachers who can provide for the spiritual needs of our children, but we cannot.\u201D Orphanages have their hands full providing shelter, food and clothing ... yet the wounds of trauma and abandonment remain. \n\n\r\r\n\r  \nYou: Hand in Hand with Orphans\n\r  \n\r    You can directly impact the lives of orphans. Together with your small group, church, friends or family, you can sponsor a J-127 program in an orphanage. Your monthly donation will help pay the salary of the \u201Caunties and uncles,\u201D supply training and resources and assist the orphanage with important projects. You\u2019ll connect with the kids in your group as you exchange prayer requests and learn about their spiritual growth.\n\n\r  \n\r\n\r\rThe J-127 Orphan Initiative is working to supply that missing piece: an ongoing small group ministry that provides orphans with mentoring, lay counseling and a spiritual refuge to begin healing.\n\n\rThree times a week, Christian adults from local churches\u2014often a husband and wife\u2014come to the orphanage to lead children in games, discuss Scripture and help them form basic life skills like using money, practicing good hygiene, communication skills and protecting themselves from bullying. These \u201Caunties and uncles\u201D treat the children as friends rather than as students, establishing strong relationships that enable kids to talk through their pain. These lay counselors receive training, curriculum and compensation from David C Cook Global Mission to equip them for their long-term ministry among hurting kids. \n\n\rTrue Redemption\n\r\u201CEvery one of the kids in these orphanages is there because of horrific cycles in their family: prostitution, sex trafficking, bonded labor, overwhelming poverty, hopelessness and suicide,\u201D says Eric Thurman, the president of David C Cook Global Mission. \u201CBut we believe Christ is our Redeemer. And part of what redemption means is consciously breaking those cycles of sin, of pain, of trauma.\u201D\n\n\rThrough the J-127 program (dubbed \u201CThe Jesus Fun Club\u201D by the kids) orphans are experiencing a deeper healing beyond food, clothing and shelter. They\u2019re learning they are significant and valued. \n\n\rAnd the little girl abandoned in the market? Decades ago she, too, lived in an orphanage. But today she is an \u201Cauntie.\u201D She sings with orphans and reads to them; she asks questions and listens; she offers the beginnings of healing for their emotional and psychological wounds. And from her own experience of Christ\u2019s redemption and healing in her painful life story, she brings to orphans the hope of Jesus.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/magazine/archives/issue-02/partners/david-c-cook>