Almost daily I get to see an organization or individual sacrificing in ways that few others will ever see. As we like to say at CAFO, these folks “leave their logos and egos at the door.” They pour into a big vision that is centered on God and love for orphans….and don’t worry much whether they’ll get public kudos for what they give.
That isn’t always the case. Not even in churches or God-inspired orphan ministry. Self-promotion can live quite well alongside rhetoric about “collaboration” and “synergy.”
But it does happen. Just about every day, in fact—and in ways both small and large.
I think of two great laptops donated to CAFO from a member organization. A talented videographer who spent many evenings last month creating the latest CAFO “video short.” A ministry that covered the cost to bring an overseas speaker to Summit—knowing the speaker wouldn’t be promoting that ministry. Or the many organizations that use their social media and listservs to champion Orphan Sunday instead of focusing narrowly on themselves.
One recent vivid example of this for me came through A Child’s Hope International. When they learned about what CAFO would be doing in Zambia this year, they offered to complement these efforts with what A Child’s Hope so well: shipping high-nutrition food and medical supplies to support CAFO member organizations and other ministries in Zambia.
This idea became a walk of faith for Larry Bergeron and the team at A Child’s Hope. Ultimately, they took full responsibility for everything—from the meals to the shipping costs to the logistics. The result: nearly 1.2 million high-nutrition meals and several pallets of critical medical supplies will arrive in Zambia about the same time the CAFO documentary team arrives to film “Zambia’s Gift to the World.”
No, A Child’s Hope won’t be featured in the documentary. Rather, the food and medical supplies—worth roughly $500,000—will support the ongoing work of both Zambian and U.S. based ministries to orphans, including a hospital for children with special needs. In the end, literally thousands of people were involved, from financial support of shipping costs to food packing volunteers.
Their expectation from CAFO? Nothing—not even a blog post like this. Their objective was simply to aid the orphans of Zambia and the quality Christian ministries serving them—with little thought to who’d get the credit.