Vision
We envision that starvation and desperate basic needs of orphans will be eradicated by working together in the 21st century thru the use of social media and Christs’ church.
Mission
Standing with Orphans strives to be a catalyst that bridges the gap between the prayers of the church and the faces of needy orphans. We believe Christ has called the church to feed, clothe and love the orphaned. We believe the church has been called to action. We will stand side by side with these children and put our faith into action!
Background:
In December 2012 with the blessing of Grace Church in Mooresville (IN), Thomas Whitley and ZaBik Bualteng traveled to Myanmar to visit the orphanages in Chin State, the most undeveloped region in the country and along its borders. They were granted access to Chin State which had been off limits to any foreigners. We were so moved by the desperation and malnutrition of the children and their faces that we came home and started a fund to feed the children of the initial orphanage we visited.
Since early 2013 the Chin State Orphanage Mission Fund was opened at the Morgan County Community Foundation. This fund has raised donations from family, friends, and local churches. Grace Church and Mt Gilead Churches in Mooresville strongly supports this mission. We changed the name from Chin State Orphanage Mission Fund to Standing With Orphans in 2017 with the aim of being without border, race, and limit for the Lord.
Today, the number of orphanages and children this fund feeds has grown tremendously. The fund was created to support one orphanage and today has grown to support 11 orphanages! Meet our sponsored orphanages:
Pinelle Children’s Home. Thantlang, Chin State: 38 children
Hope orphanage, Kalaymio: 16 children
Bethel orphanage, Kalaymio: 18 children
Zion orphanage, Kalaymio: 4 children
Glory orphanage, Kalaymio: 6 children
Nations Hope Gods Children Home, Yangon: 26 children
Mothers Bosom Orphanage, Yangon: 16 children
Mercy Orphanage, Yangon: 9 children
Loknu Orphanage, Yangon: 7 children
OLive Garden orphanage, Yangon: 28 children
Ephraim Orphanage, Mogok: 35 children
Most orphanages in these regions contain 10-30 children. The children have been left orphan due to years of civil war, tsunami of 2005, and very poor economic hardships in these regions.
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Country History: For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and Burma’s myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world’s longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. Myanmar has one of the lowest rankings of human development in the world, falling at 150 of 187 countries in the Human Development Index.
Chin State is a closed state located in western Burma. The state is bordering Bangladesh in the south-west and India in the north-west. The state is a mountainous region with few transportation links, though the government has been building miles of new roads in recent years. Chin State is sparsely populated and remains one of the least developed areas of the country. According to official statistics, Chin State had only twenty-five high schools in 2003. There was no public college, airport, and railroad in the state until we visited.
American missionaries began arriving in the 1890s and by the middle of Twentieth Century most of the Chin people had converted to Christianity. Today, Chin State is the home to the majority of Christian minority in Burma, with 70% of the population being Christian within the state. A remaining population practice Theravada Buddhism and Animism, the religious worldview that animals, plants, etc. possess a spiritual essence. Due to the military government’s religious persecution, human rights abuses, economy problem and decades of civil war many of the Chin began fleeing to refugee camps in surrounding countries where they were later brought to the United States. This is how their plight became known to the world.
Special prayer and interview for Tom and ZaBik at Grace Church before leaving for Myanmar
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