God helps those who...

...help others!

Turn the world's wisdom on it's ear and remake yourself. Use your self and resources to help others; lay down your life that another might live, and find God as your partner.

Selah.

A new blog for Lesotho orphans: Bana!

orphans with new blankets from BANA Project

Ladell Patterson is blogging for the BANA Project at Kingdom Orphans.

Please visit the blog and also look at what Jennifer and Chris Roe are doing to raise funds for the orphans. Good stuff. And take time to visit her Encounter humanity orphan blog.

God bless you, Ladell! And Chris and Jennifer!

Note: If you wish, you can donate for the Project at Logos Global -- or just click here: Support the Bana Project.

Tony Snow: the true strength of humble virtue

Through selflessness and service...

Tony Snow has gone to his eternal reward. He has entered into divine rest, and he is sorely missed. We surely could use his character, his person, his humble virtue in our time. God grant that his memory is blessed with others who pick up his mantle.

A man is measured by his life -- and words uttered in line with that life have great power. Consider these words from Tony, and let them stir your heart to humility:

There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue -- for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do...

God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not?

Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

Let these words stir your heart to humble virtue, and thus greatness! Our world needs you to be great like this!

Selah.

Hat tip to Roger for sharing these words! And the picture. Read his post here.

Related reading: The Bana Project for Lesotho, S.A.

The world's best investment: vitamins for at risk kids

Copenhagen consensus 2008

For two years, 50 of the worlds top economists have wrestled with finding solutions for the world's top ten problems. And, during this last week of May, 8 of the top economists, including five Nobel Laureates, met together to assess all the research.

They've produced a prioritized list of 30 solutions to the top ten problems. [Article here, with links.]

Interestingly, at the top of the list is combating malnutrition in the 140 million kids who are undernourished. They've determined that providing micronutrients [vitamin A capsules and a course of zinc supplements] to 80% of the 140 million kids who lack essential vitamins would cost just 60 million dollars and yet provide an estimated yearly benefit of nearly 1 billion dollars.

In other words, each dollar spent in this program turns 17 times that amount in benefits provided -- better health, fewer deaths, and potentially increased future earnings, etc.

Ronald Bailey, in his article, "The Top Ten Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems," notes that the Copenhagen Consensus process is certainly not perfect [applying benefit cost analysis to world issues] but it surely helps elucidate the problems and brings potential solutions to bear, great market place awareness. [Note: a tip of the cap to Glenn Reynolds on this. Great site, that Instapundit place! :-)].

These findings have fascinating implications... related to orphan care and and BANA Project, for instance: what would it cost to provide courses of micronutrients [A and zinc] to Lesotho orphans, for instance? And what benefit would this bring to an already phenomenal [and exploding] grassroots care program there?

I think it's a win/win potentiality.

Selah.

African orphan meals on two dollars a day

Lesotho orphans pray the Lord's Prayer together
before receiving their one hot meal for the week.

Identifying with the least of these

Item: 75 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans live on two dollars a day or less.
Item: 56 percent of Lesotho adults live in two dollars a day or less.

In praying for Lesotho orphan intervention, where the number of AIDS orphans is exploding at one of the highest rates in the world, an American couple decided that they would live on two dollars a day per person for a week, and send the rest of that week's food budget to the Lesotho orphans. It’s a great investment, because each dollar sent counts for seven, and feeds multiple orphans.

The result is a no lose situation: givers function on the same household budget while needy orphans gain the difference in food.

If you would like to participate in this unique fundraising experience, please do so.

You can read more about it here and here.

Checks can be made payable to Encounter Humanity and sent here:

ENCOUNTER
P.O. Box 841
Alabaster, AL 35040

God bless your care and efforts!

The BANA project: A miracle begins with a gift!

BANA means children

Ladell Patterson
Logos Global Ministries

Bana means children in the Sesotho language. Bana: the children of Lesotho, Africa, who need real care! Bana: the life-giving focus of Logos Global Ministries [LGM], which now cares for hundreds of AIDS orphans, leveraging indigenous networks for critical training and care. LGM has quietly become a permanent presence in this desperate country, working through its Lesotho arm, THE BANA PROJECT OF LESOTHO, to offer hope in the midst of seemingly hopeless circumstances. These people are threatened on every side for daily existence. For them the Bana Project is a miracle of hope: Loving eyes that look to the children, see their desperate needs, and offer them a better future.

The project is currently supplying Basotho Blankets to help the children during the winter months, which are now beginning. The highland winters of Lesotho can be brutal. The lowlands around the capital city, Maseru, experience a mild winter even though the temperature drops below freezing most nights. But in the highlands the people and animals die by the hundreds: a lack of fuel or money for its purchase means deadly results. During such drastic times, snow and wind bring unthinkable hardship for the locals. We only pray that it will not be one of those winters!

The need is great, but God is raising up people around the world, people called to join LGM in the battle for orphans. Just last week a prominent lady of the community in Lesotho came to the site where the children are cared for and brought with her a load of used clothing. There seems to be no other way to get used clothing into the country, so this lady was a Godsend. Her charity will do more than warm the bodies of the small children: Their hearts also are feeling the comfort of good clothing.

A month ago a lady called me with an offer to build a large garden project for the orphans – with another $50,000 gift! Fresh vegetables and fruit are of great nutritional value if they contain no contaminates or polluted ingredients left there by pesticides: Lesotho struggles with the quality control that we take for granted here in the USA. However, this garden project will now make healthy produce a reality!

Several months ago someone offered a gift of $50,000 for a sewing factory so that the ladies of the community could make school uniforms for those who do not have them. Education is such an important part of the orphans hope! Now they will have uniforms manufactured by their village peers.

A friend with extensive exposure to LGM, who has offered timely counsel, advice and encouragement, recently donated $1100 for the project. And God continues to whisper on the night wind, calling caring hearts to stand in the gap, and stand for this project.

We’re also learning the lesson of fed multitudes in Galilee, where Jesus took a small boy’s lunch and fed five thousand and more. This miracle principle is echoing greater and greater for Lesotho: Little by little we receive 10 dollars here, five dollars there, 50 or a hundred…slowly moving toward our original goal: to find 1 million people to give $5. Youth groups and other groups are starting a campaign to see how many $1 bills we can raise, all for the orphan care project!

We are still praying that a large grant will come to us, like $5 million, or more. I feel confident that it will happen on God’s timetable, but until then we count the blessings of miracles already come, of lives already changed.

You are invited to join us in prayer, for it alone will continue the success that has already come to Logos Global Ministries. Here are a number of things you can pray:

• God, give us that mountain we have prayed for so long. Drive back the forces of evil that refuse us access. Show LGM Your plans and make it all happen, according to Your will.
• Lord, continue to speak to those whom You want involved in the project. Visit those who have already answered with Your Holy presence. Guide them daily as they prepare mentally and spiritually for their assignments.
• Father, will You open the windows of heaven upon The Bana Project of Lesotho to supply all their needs? I know You will, for You have promised over and over again that You care for the orphans as Your own children. In this promise and on Your character we hold them up in prayer.
• Almighty God, Creator of all things, will You surround and support the little children in Lesotho who have no parents to care for them? When they are hungry, help LGM to be there. When winter sets in, keep them warm with Your love. Completely meet their needs through the church and through your chosen vessels. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, for the sake of Your children and for Your glory. AMEN!

God bless you for your prayers, and for your concern! Remember that a miracle begins with a gift – sometimes even a gift that seems so small will begin a blessing that reaches hundreds and thousands of lives. So hear the call! Join the project as God leads you, and together we’ll make a large difference in Lesotho.

Yours in Christ and for the Kingdom,

Ladell Patterson
Note: This article was written in consultation with Loy

The BANA project for Lesotho orphans

I’ve been encouraged recently, hearing about the BANA project for Lesotho orphans. The project is working in a non-traditional manner, using indigenous networks to reach the local orphans. Ladell Patterson is leading the project here in the U.S.A., soon to be in Lesotho, with a heart aflame for the cause. On a recent administrative visit, he and his son Allen found far more than they expected! Listen to his moving description of the event:

The rains had returned with a vengeance. Now we looked at the Lesotho lakes, ponds and gullies full and running…as if there had never been a shortage of rain. The entire country bloomed greener that I have ever seen it… Crops peaked through the formerly parched soil – a visible answer to prayer…

But the crop-giving rains turned the roads to mud! The car slipped and slid down to Tsikane's home and we wondered how on earth we would climb out the next day. Immediately we received word: You are to speak to the village chiefs and committees regarding the BANA project! So we prepared, with only two hours to spare.

Then the outpouring of hope captured our hearts. Some 800 people greeted us, surrounding us and crying their happy cry – dancing around, shaking and kissing our hands. Some of them had never met me and this was Allen's first group gathering to experience. What a greeting! I was not aware what was about to happen.

Tsikane introduced us and said a few words about our hearts and our vision. Allen spoke a few words of thanks and encouragement towards the project. As I walked forward to speak my heart suddenly leaped within me! I was so moved to see such a large delegation awaiting us. They had come from all 17 villages where we are working. A news reporter joined the crowd, along with the steering committee of the whole project. A representative from the chief’s office was there and many, many other people. Several cast iron pots wafted smoke in the background – promise of welcoming food being prepared. My heart threatened to beat out its socket: These people were really serious!

I gave greetings to them, and thanked all of them for their dedicated efforts. I recognized all those important people who were there. Then I told them of our entire vision, what we wanted to do in Lesotho, and they came unglued. They clapped, gave the happy cry and our hearts soared together, two diverse cultures meeting together with one common cause: to help the children of their villages who have no parents…

Ladell goes on to tell how moving the event was – he could think of no past experience in Africa that equals it: a true convergence of calling and destiny, the pleasure of God. In his words, it seemed as if God is saying that “we must do all within our power to continue putting this project on the map.”

Ladell’s passion comes through, powerfully, in his words:

I want the entire world to become involved. These kids need all we can give them, and as a side effect to it, thousands of lives will be touched and possibly a nation will be saved from annihilation. There were Christians, Jehovah Witnesses, Catholics, Lesotho Evangelical Church, and many other groups. They were all aware that we were Christian. They did not seem to care. Lives are being touched and changed and they seemed to want to be a part of it. The BANA Project is certainly a success. However, there is much, much more to do and their needs will never go away. We are going to be there for each child as they grow up and take their place in Basotho life. There is education, training, preparation, and many things to do for the children and we intend to be there.

You can read more here and here, but it is true: God is calling this project into existence, with the purpose of saving many lives, and perhaps a nation. Ladell and the others have come to the kingdom “for such a time as this!”

People are seeing the vision. Generous donors have heard the calling on the night wind, and moved to contribute. Lives are being touched and healed. The word is going out, with hope and healing in its wings!

And, there is room for your heart and action, should you sense the call!

The BANA project of Lesotho is making a difference in our time, our world of desperate need. Stay tuned here for more to come…

God bless,

Loy