Father to the Fatherless

The children gather, and with the hot sun beating down on them, they dig holes in the dry, dusty dirt. Someone takes a bottlecap from their pocket, then more bottlecaps appear, and soon, a lively game is underway. They compete to roll bottlecaps into the hole, and an excited shout goes up as someone makes it from a far distance.

Some of the children don’t want to play, but they have no other toys. Other children wash their clothes or bathe (though they already had time to do so in the morning). It’s free time though, and there’s not much else to do.

This summer, 23-year-old Kristie Campbell and her fiancée, 24-year-old Trever Duarte, took Proclaimers to these children at the Grace of God Orphanage in Malawi. Now they spend much of their free time listening to God’s Word. Kristie says, “When they received the Proclaimer, they were sitting in the hot sun, totally engaged. You can’t get these children to get so engaged in something, but this is great!”

As well as filling their free time, the children also can now hear about God the Father’s love for them. They have experienced what it is to be forsaken and abandoned—some of them due to their parents lives being claimed by disease. Others have been abused. God’s Word says, “When my mother and father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up” (Psalm 27:10). God’s Word reveals His great love and concern for the fatherless, and now these children can hear for themselves about their heavenly Father’s love for them—in their own mother tongue of Chichewa.

Kristie and Trever are from Hawaii, and other than going to school and surfing, they spend their time earning money to provide for the children at the orphanage. Over the past two years, they have sent money to build a school building, three orphanages, and this past summer, bunk beds so the children no longer have to sleep on mattresses on the floor. Kristie says, “We bring them all sorts of gadgets: potato peelers, beautiful frying pans for the open fire, African Bible commentaries, Bibles . . . but the Proclaimers were THE BEST gift we ever brought to our Native friends in Malawi. They are used non-stop. The children not only listen to the Proclaimer in their free time, but also during Bible School and their morning and evening prayer times.”

Kristie and Trever took six Proclaimers in all. They gave one of them to Agnus and Ethel, the caretakers who cook for the children. They cook 12 hours a day—from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Caring for 120 children doesn’t allow them much free time and it is almost impossible for them to attend church. When given the Proclaimer, they set it carefully on the dirt floor beside the open fire and they play it the whole time they are cooking. Even though they cannot read, they can now hear God’s Word.

Another of the Proclaimers went to the watchmen. Kristie says,

"The Proclaimer allows them to pass the time quickly during the cold, dark nights. Even though some of the watchmen are able to read, Bibles are very expensive here in Malawi (900 kwacha = $6.42). People in our village do not take their loved ones to the clinic even if one is dying of malaria and the cost for this is 150 kwacha = $1.”

In addition to the 120 children, the caretakers, and the watchmen, some women from the village also come to the orphanage to listen to the Proclaimer. And most recently John, a former Rastafarian, has begun listening.

John came to Kristie and Trever one day with a huge cut on his face where he had been stabbed while being robbed. He had stitches and asked for some ibuprofen for the pain. Two days later, he came back with half a tooth missing. They took him to the dentist, and after the appointment, prayed for him.

They encouraged him to come by the orphanage. When he came, Kristie says, “We showed him the Proclaimer and he was so encouraged to be able to hear the Word. This shocked us, because many Rastas refuse to believe in Jesus. They believe that a former Ethiopian King is their messiah.”

John now comes to the orphanage to listen to the Proclaimer every day, morning and night. Kristie says, “We were humbled by the Scriptures that John brought up and are also encouraged by his new faith. We ask that you continue to pray for him as God has used the Proclaimer to bring his soul into the Kingdom of heaven.”

Please pray for all of these having the opportunity to hear God’s Words of life, that they too may become bearers of light.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling - Psalm 68:5

Click here for video of more FCBH work in Malawi.