Only Believe Ministries

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27  (NIV)

If you have ever attended a Christian concert, most likely you have been exposed to Compassion International or Vision.  They are organizations that help feed, clothe and teach children all over the world.  That is my simple explanation for them anyway.  Hearing the stories and seeing those sad eyes of children from very poor countries just tears at my heart.  I always want to grab about ten of those pamphlets and run, you know, saving the world ten children at a time.  At one concert, my friend Beth and I did grab one pamphlet and our youth group has sponsored a child ever since.

So last year I was doing some online searches to find the perfect child for our family to sponsor.  If you go on either of those websites, you can do specific searches and pick birthdates, countries, whether you want a boy or a girl, etc.  I did that for a while and kept seeing that most of those children had parents or at least one parent and were living with their families.  I don't know why, but I really felt led to find a child who was an orphan and living in an orphanage without any family support.

I think I put it out on Facebook, asking people for suggestions about sponsorship, and my preacher's wife, who is from southern Illinois, sent me some information from Only Believe Ministries, which is based in Galatia, Illinois.  I went to their website and was immediately sold.  Their mission statement and vision statement locked me in.  The purpose of their organization is to feed and clothe the orphans and widows and spread the gospel.  Yee-Haw. 

Three sisters from southern Illinois started this ministry.  They have an orphanage for children and also what they call Grandma's House, which takes care of elderly widows. I had never heard of anyone helping widows and loved that idea as well.  Grandma's House is right next to the Jahnavi's Heart Orphanage and Pastor Joe and his wife Sony watch over them too.  Right now they are doing a building fund drive to build a new orphanage.

Their organization is very small compared to others, but I liked that.  I like that there are real people just a few hours south of me who started this ministry and have committed to keeping it going.  Sponsorship for a child is $24/monthly and a widow is $42/monthly.  When I think about someone living off of $24 or $42 a month it certainly makes me feel very, very spoiled.  Their website also has a store where you can make special purchases either in addition to your sponsorship or just because.  I make my monthly payments through PayPal and have never had a problem.  You can also do it the old fashioned way and mail a check to Galatia. 

We chose a boy and a girl around the same age as our kids and received letters, information and a picture of each of them which has been on our refrigerator ever since.  Both children we sponsor were abandoned by a parent and left at the orphanage a few years ago.  On Saturday, we received new pictures and letters from our kiddos, Swapna and Negranda.  It brought tears to my eyes to see how thankful they are for the very little we share with them each month.  I also was totally ashamed because when we began this process, I asked if we would be able to write freely back and forth with the kids and was told absolutely...only we haven't yet (I am so ashamed)...and so immediately our kids (Grace too) sat down and wrote letters to their brother and sister in India.  We have school pictures to enclose and send along as well.

I have this dream that when my kids are a little older, Jay and I can take our kids to meet their 'brother' and 'sister' in India...wouldn't that be absolutely the most unforgettable experience of a kids' life...I would guess for both sets of kids...and me too!  Hopefully, by then, we'll have established more of a relationship with them...you know, more than one letter a year on our part!

So I challenge you in 2012, if you are able and feel the calling, check out Only Believe Ministries website, www.onlybelieveministries.org or Vision or Compassion, and see if this is something God is wanting you to do.  For as little as $24 a month (Wow, don't I sound like Sally Smothers?) you can help feed, clothe and educate a child in another country.