Zambia, located in southern Africa, is experiencing one of the world's most devastating HIV and Aids epidemics. One in every six adults is living with HIV, 98,000 people died of Aids in 2005, life expectancy at birth has fallen below 40 years, and some 710,000 children are Aids orphans, according to the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Report on the global Aids epidemic.
Churches will begin the project to reach 100,000 Aids orphans next year by first visiting the children and identifying their needs and status - such as whether they are living with relatives, their orphaned siblings, or alone. Visiting church members will also pray for orphans and develop relationships before the October gathering.
"What is so important about this is we are pushing the church outside its walls and into the communities where the orphans are," Schneider highlighted. "So they are going to spend the first half of the year just connecting with the children in their communities who are orphans."
Once the gospel is presented on Orphan Sunday, the children will then be regularly invited to attend the church and become disciples of Christ.
Every Orphan's Hope is an interdenominational evangelical Christian ministry working to mobilise, equip, and assist local churches to reach out to a generation of children in Africa orphaned by Aids.
In addition to evangelism, the Texas-based ministry has also helped fund the construction of six homes in communities where Aids orphans live together with a Christian caretaker - usually a widow. The homes are sponsored to provide food, education and healthcare for each child. Each month, the ministry sponsors about 350 children who are living in the homes and outside in the community.
The ministry's long-term goal is to encourage, equip, and mobilise the church to reach every orphan in Zambia with the gospel. In total, there are about 7,000 churches in Zambia, many of which meet in homes or under trees.
