The Beautiful Gate

Hello all. I have been spending time over the past four months at the Beautiful Gate. It is a wonderful center that is funded almost entirely by American churches. Different missions teams have come over and built new buildings and done grounds work to make this the best orphanage in Lesotho. The children are cared for by volunteers and a paid staff of Basotho women. Basotho men keep up the grounds.

After the New Year, the donations that come from churches and individuals have for various reasons declined. The support that keeps the children fed and the local staff paid has dropped to dangerously low levels. It has been over two months since they were able to make payroll. You must understand, Leostho is not a place where people have savings to fall back on. There is also no government assistance such as unemployment pay or food stamps to get the families affected by this through this time. A few of the staff have left, but most stay because with an unemployment rate of 50%, they know that the chances of finding another job are slim. It is better for them to just keep waiting and hoping that the money comes. The drop in staff has affected the care ratios for the children. They had cut out morning and afternoon snacks until an Australian couple began donating the money to cover the cost of the crackers. They have also cut milk out of the meal schedule almost entirely. Remember, these are all children under the age of three. They are going from formula to water at one year of age. They are not starving by any means, but their little tummies are not getting the proper nourishment.

I write this for two reasons. I ask first and foremost for prayer for this facility. Pray that the staff would not lose heart and that the funds would come in soon so they can be paid. I also ask that you be faithful in your giving to your church as we are now seeing first hand what happens when church budgets are not met. It is easy to forget that at the other end of our monthly giving are people all around the world that are relying on our support. We have been convicted of so many things in our time here, and hope we do not easily forget the lessons we are learning.

Did you know…

If Americans who attend a Christian church increased their giving to an average of 10% of income, there could be an additional $86 billion dollars available for overseas missions each year. One source estimates that $70-$80 billion would impact the worst of world poverty and $5 billion could end most of the 11 million under-5, global, annual child deaths. Also, $7 billion would be sufficient for global primary education for all children. There could also be $30.9 billion more a year for domestic outreach. Source: www.emptytomb.org

Americans spend, as a group, $2. 5 billion per year for world missions, $2. 5 billion per year for chewing gum,$ 8 billion per year for movies, $22 billion per year for hunting, $34 million per year for state lotteries. Source: John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Behind the Stained Glass Window.

In 1916, Protestants were giving 2.9% of their incomes to their churches. In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, it was 3.2%. In 1955 just after affluence began spreading through our culture, it was still 3.2%. By 2002, when Americans were over 480% richer, after taxes and inflation, than in the Great Depression, Protestants were giving 2.6% of their incomes to their churches. Source: www.emptytomb.org.

4,151,243
This is the number of children under 5
who have died since the beginning of 2008.

-----If historically Christian church adherents in Union County, South Dakota, chose to increase giving to a congregation-wide average of ten percent, there could have been $17,660,000 additional given in 2002 for international outreach and $5,886,667 additional for local outreach to people in need. If church adherents in Union County would choose to contribute their portion of the estimated $5 billion needed to help, in Jesus’ name, prevent global child deaths each year, $81,828 could be applied to prevent 393 child deaths.

-----If historically Christian church adherents in Lawrence County, South Dakota, chose to increase giving to a congregation-wide average of ten percent, there could have been $17,014,000 additional given in 2002 for international outreach and $5,671,333 additional for local outreach to people in need. If church adherents in Lawrence County would choose to contribute their portion of the estimated $5 billion needed to help, in Jesus’ name, prevent global child deaths each year, $78,837 could be applied to prevent 378 child deaths.

The county information is from the website www.emptytomb.org.