Holistic Care

In seeking to provide holistic care to the orphans, we break down the care needed into quadrants. Holistic as a term may bring to mind some herbs from the health food store, but it is simply referring to treating the whole person.

The first quadrant is Spiritual. The spiritual nurture of the orphans is the primary responsibility of the indigenous church, but it is our privilege to serve along side them.

If the children do not know Jesus in a personal way, everything else we do to provide comfort and support would not matter 150 years from now, and they would be far worse off than if salvation had come and their life on Earth was painful and short.

World Orphans assists indigenous churches in providing outreach and evangelism. We use a variety of outreach methods including a games based approach called HisKidsSports that the children love. Once the children have become Christians, we provide materials and training to help with spiritual development. It is our desire that each of the children learn to read and understand the Bible. We know that God uses His Word to transform minds. The picture of the children praying is from a World Orphans project in Moldova.

The second quadrant is physical. The orphans receive ongoing care that is designed to prevent future problems and treat current ones. Some of the orphans need medicines regularly to treat incurable diseases they have contracted. Many orphans need assessment and nutrition plans that recognize what is available locally and help them avoid any deficiences.

As we equip and train the care providers to help the children physically it is a blessing to point them to the great Physician. While all the projects are designed to move towards self suffiency, there are many opportunities for outreach and evangelism in conjunction with medical provision in the communities where projects take place.

Aside from the basic hygiene that is taught to the orphans that helps prevent the spread of disease, the children learn through therapeutic recreation. This is a fun way for the kids to experience growth and learning in an area where measurable progress can be acheived relatively easily. It is also a way for western teams and indigenous care givers to provide support and encouragment to the children.
The above picture of a medical assessment is from a World Orphans project in Uganda.

The third quadrant is emotional. The orphans experience different traumas before they are cared for. We know that there can be long lasting negative impacts from neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse etc and that those impacts can be much worse if no counseling is offered.

In some shame based cultures it is considered best to not speak past traumas, that it is better to compartmentalize and pretend that nothing happened. What we seek to provide is training in Biblical methods of providing healing to areas of emotional damage.

Caregivers for the orphans also experience tremendous stress and it can be very helpful for them to be given counsel and a safe space to discuss the challenges they face.

This little girl in India where World Orphans is working needs the same type of love and support and assistance that we would want our own children to have.

The fourth quadrant is mental which deals with the intellectual/academic. This quadrant requires focus on radically different areas depending on the culture, the resources available and the specific child.

Even in the United States we have experienced difficulty as children are pushed towards college for the sake of college and end up with debt and a job in a field where their academic experience has little bearing.

In some cultures it may be helpful for some of the children to learn Latin and dissect frogs. One child may benefit most from graduating to becoming the apprentice to the successful Christian man in town who does small engine repair. Whether it is vocational training or traditional academics, we seek to recognize the gifts God has given each child and to help them use their talents and abilities for God's glory. What a blessing it is to know that Proverbs 22:29 is true when it says "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." (NIV) As these children grow up and learn to work diligently for the glory of God, we know that they will enter a workforce full of fallen and sinful people who are lazy and who give much less than their best. Whether they become chemists, doctors, missionaries, pastors, service workers, fishermen or farmers the important thing is that they are prepared to give their all for the glory of God. Many of them will be equipped to not only care for themselves but to help many more who God calls them to care for.

Rwanda

These pictures are from Danielle's trip to Rwanda.

World Orphans has projects in Rwanda and I had a wonderful visit recently with the Rwandan pastor who is overseeing work at multiple project sites. He is a Hutu man who is married to a Tutsi woman and he told me heartbreaking stories about the genocide. He was able through the pain of losing his home and living in a refugee camp to preach the gospel. Many people were saved. Like all of the other indigenous pastors World Orphans works with, he was working with orphans before we came along. Now he is excited to be trained and to train others in providing for everything these orphans need to thrive.

Family Pictures

Your Support is Needed

Your Support is Needed!

It is difficult for me to ask for support because I am used to being self-reliant. I have had various jobs for more than half of my life and I have never been in a position where I have had to ask anyone for money except my parents. At World Orphans I am tasked with raising my own support. I always thought I would work in the business world and make millions of dollars and then use my money to help orphans around the world. God had other plans for me and called me out of the corporate world and into a ministry where I am only able to be in full-time service because of the generous support of others. I believe God is using my work for World Orphans to make a difference. I believe He called me into this ministry and I am confident He will provide for all of my needs. God has already been so generous in that I was able to begin my ministry with World Orphans with the support of a donor who made my transition less of a leap of faith.

While it is uncomfortable for me to ask you to consider supporting my ministry financially, it is easy to ask you for something I need even more, prayer support. Your support is needed desperately in terms of prayer. Satan has designs to continue to destroy these precious children who have been victims of all types of abuse and who have been abandoned by their families. God has a plan to rescue them using His church to bring them into His family where they can move from surviving to thriving. Spiritual warfare exists today and will become more intense as we move forward. Please pray for me to be a servant leader within my own family. Biblically, my obligation to my wife and daughter takes primacy over my own desires and I am already convicted as I seek to train others in creating strong and Godly families that I must be very careful to protect and nurture my own. Pray that I will be transparent. I want to be fully yielded to God and act in obedience to Him every day.

Your support financially may or may not be something God wants you to provide. If you do not feel called to support my ministry please take another look at some pictures of my beautiful baby daughter or of the orphans I am helping. No... I am just kidding. I sincerely do not want you to give unless you feel it is something God wants you to do.

This is a very tough time financially for many ministries. During the economic boom, people asked donors to reduce their tax liability by giving at year end to offset gains. Now many of those gains have evaporated and people are concerned about a gloomy outlook that could mean major macroeconomic problems. What a blessing it is during this time to read Matthew 6! God does not own a REIT or a hedge fund or a tech company and His ability to provide for His children has not been curtailed one bit by present economic circumstances. It was an enormous privilege to see my parents obey God in starting Wears Valley Ranch (wvr.org) in 1991. God gave them the land and they obeyed His voice and moved to Tennessee without a donor base or a clear 5 year plan or an endowment. Over the years I was able to witness firsthand God's provision for them again and again. Through God's provision and without debt nor government funding, Wears Valley Ranch has built four houses and provides school, therapeutic counseling and recreation. The children gain an intimate knowledge of what it means to be a part of a Godly family. Now, God has given me the awesome opportunity to take a culturally adapted model of Wears Valley Ranch overseas in the next year to projects in countries such as Moldova, Thailand, Nicaragua, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

There are many ministries doing God’s work in your local area, in our nation and around the world. It is such an honor and privilege to be a part of one of them. World Orphans is a member of ECFA and I can endorse their work personally as being aboveboard and fiscally accountable. If you feel called to support me financially, please click on the Donate Now button on the right hand side of the blog and then click on staff support (or click here https://www.worldorphans.org/eComm/store/worldorphans_listItems.asp?idCategory=61) and in the pull down menu choose Clayton Wood.