Who Will Care for the Orphan?

Auteur
Wayne Lavender is a United Methodist pastor dedicated to creating a world of peace and justice for all people. In addition to serving churches in Connecticut for twenty years, he is a teacher with experience in both Iraq and the US, author, and active speaker, having led over 200 workshops on peace with justice. A winner of the Harry E. Denman Evangelism Award in 2004, he earned his B.A. from Drew University, M.Div. and M.A. from the Pacific School of Religion, and a Ph.D. from the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.

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This book is an important contribution for all United Methodists concerned that their denomination is approaching irrelevance. Within its pages Dr. Lavender offers a Biblical, Wesleyan and means-tested approach that both saves the lives of millions of orphans and vulnerable children and inspires evangelical hope for the church.

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In the midst of life we are in death. They are words that have been spoken by thousands of pastors down through the centuries. This phrase is found in A Service of Committal from the United Methodist Church's (UMC) Book of Worship, and is one that I used over 400 times during my years as a UMC pastor. Derived from the Latin media vita in morte summus, the phrase likely originated in France in the 8th Century and is part of a longer passage:

Media vita in morte sumus ; quem quaerimus adjutorem, nisi te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris juste irasceris? Sancte Deus, mnia fortis, mnia et misericors Salvator, amarae morti ne tradas nos.

In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succor, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Savior, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Sadly, these words could be spoken 26,000 times per day, every day, over the lifeless bodies of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who succumb to the effects of extreme poverty around the planet. These deaths are, almost without exception, avoidable: together, the human family has the resources, technology and capacity to greatly reduce infant and child mortality rates, reproducing in the developing world what has taken place in the rich, developed nations across the planet. Tragically, what we lack, however, is the commitment to make this happen.

Modern medical and technological innovationin the form of sanitation, vaccinations, potable water and nutritionhave lowered the infant mortality rate (deaths of children under the age of 1) in the rich, developed, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Nations (OECD) to less than 5 per thousand and the child mortality rate (deaths of children under the age of 5) to 7 per thousand. This contrasts sharply with the developing nations, located primarily in the global south, where the infant mortality rate runs as high as 150 per 1000 and the child mortality rate exceeds 200 per thousand. Acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, measles, malaria and malnutrition linked to extreme poverty continue to take their toll on children through and past the age of 18 in the developing world in great contrast to the OECD nations where these issues are virtually non-existent. This is, in essence, a discussion about location: the odds of a child dying before the age of 18 are approximately fifty times higher if said child is unfortunate enough to have been born in a poor, undeveloped nation.

This staggering reality*26,000 children die daily around the world from the effects of extreme poverty*means that eight times more children die every day from the effects of extreme poverty than the total number of persons who were killed in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Consider this:

• One child dies every three seconds somewhere on planet earth from the effects of extreme poverty.
• Twenty children die every minute around the world from preventable causes: this is the same number of children who were murdered in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
• 400 children die every twenty minutes whose lives could be spared for as little as a dollar per child per day: this is the same number of passengers on a fully loaded Boeing 747.
• 1,200 children die every hour: this is similar to the number of persons who died on the Titanic (Titanic approximately 1,500 deaths).
• 26,000 children die every day: more children die every day around the world than the total number of persons who can attend a concert, hockey, basketball game or circus at Madison Square Garden.
• 182,000 children die every week: this is approximately the total number of who live in Providence, RI, the capital of that state.

• 10 million children die every year because of a lack of potable water, vaccines, food and other basic medicine: this is a number equal to the total number of persons the Nazis executed in Germany under Adolf Hitler during the reign of the Third Reich (6 million Jews plus 4 million gypsies, homosexuals, disabled persons and others the Nazis considered inferior).
  The ongoing death toll of these children rarely makes news in the mainstream media, in faith-based publications, in the blogosphere, worship services or in personal conversations. Out of sight and out of mind for most of us in the developed world, we turn a blind eye to the suffering of these little ones whose very care weas global citizens, persons of faith, Christians and members of the United Methodist Churchare responsible for. These are real deaths of real children taking place during our lifetimes despite our propensity for collective denial and a shared refusal to accept moral responsibilities. These deaths occur all around the globe but are primarily centered in the undeveloped nations of the global south. The angel of death hovers over these children in the favelas of South America, in the slums of India, in the villages and cities of Africa and beyond.

  Parallel and overlapping the tragic death of these 26,000 children per day is the crisis of orphans, of children being raised without one or both parents. Although reliable data is difficult to find a recent UN Report estimates that there are up to 210,000,000 orphans worldwide, and that every day 5,760 more children become orphans. War, AIDS, malaria, cholera, famine, environmental degradation and the mismanagement and or corruption of governing institutions have created conditions of extreme poverty and communities filled with orphaned children and teenagers.

  The suffering of children around the planetfrom the death of 10 million children per year to the existence of 210 million orphans alive and struggling to surviveshould elicit an unparalleled response from people of faith all around the world instead of the collective sigh and shrug of our shoulders it usually generates. Seriously, how can any follower of Jesus Christ not be affected and moved to action by these facts?

  There is no simple answer to this question. On a daily basis we hear of wars, death and destruction: there are always stories in the news of sexual abuse, disease, natural disasters, car/train/airplane accidents, school shootings, police brutality. No matter which way we turn, there are more victims to help, worthy causes to support, rallies to attend, and rights to protect. And we have helped: we have walked and sponsored friends in CROP Walks, we have worked at soup kitchens and overnight shelters, we have sponsored children through agencies where, for $3 per day you can save a child; we have paid our World Service apportionments and given to special UMCOR Disaster Responses through specific Advance requests. We have participated and supported others in Volunteers In Mission (VIM) Teams, have sponsored missionaries and given to programs such as the Imagine No Malaria Campaign. W…