Africa (MNN)–There’s a growing burden at Bible Pathway Ministries. According to the Pathway’s Karen Hawkins, a third of the world’s population is under 15. More than 65-percent of those who come to the Lord do so before they become adults.
But, in areas where AIDS has killed the adults, Hawkins says reaching the kids is challenging. “The children are not in conventional homes. So, we’re working with orphanage ministries throughout Africa and India to reach them.”
Their work is in support of the indigenous church. Hawkins says, “We send the Bible teaching material, and we send the Bible Pathway, and we send the Bibles for the people to instruct the children.”
The need presented itself through the many stories of churches surviving with few tools. For example, a church in Zimbabwe had 1000 members and only four Bibles for the whole congregation. In some underpriviledged countries, Bibles are still carefully torn apart so that each church member may have a few pages to take home and read for themselves.
In many of these churches, especially ones where the AIDS crisis has created a generation of orphans, there is little in the way of outreach to the children.
Hawkins says their part in ministry brings hope to the kids. “The important thing is helping people know God as their Creator, that He has a purpose for their lives, even though they’re in pretty desperate circumstances. It’s not an accident that they’re here, and God wants to know them and wants them to know Him.”
