USA (MNN) — How much hope can a backpack bring?
Quite a bit when it is stuffed with a hygiene kit and the Scriptures. Thanks to the Orphan Outreach Mission Backpack program, backpacks like these
are making their way all across the world, ending up in the hands of the world's
most disadvantaged kids.
Tiffany Taylor Wines of Orphan Outreach said they are
currently holding a collection until the end of July: "We're excited
that in Florida this year, we are doing a campaign, concentrating on helping
children in Haiti and disadvantaged children in Florida."
Together with their partners, Florida Baptist Children's
Home, Family Christian Bookstore, and Moody Radio Florida, they are collecting
new and gently-used backpacks, as well as hygiene kits across Florida.
Thanks to Family Christian Bookstore, each backpack will
also contain a teddy bear. But that's not all that will be in each bag: "We
really make sure that these backpacks also have a new Bible. So for
us, it's getting the Word of the Lord to children, letting them know that they
have a Heavenly father who loves them and has not forgotten them," Wines
said.
Mission Backpack is a way to get people more
involved. Wines said, "What's really important is that it's just a program to
let people be involved with helping orphans very directly."
As a result, these kids are introduced to the family of God
and feel a sense of belonging–a first for many of them.
"As we pass out these backpacks, we let them
know they are not forgotten; these precious children feel so loved and so
excited. And as we know, any child just wants to know that they are loved and
that someone is thinking about them," Wines said.
Pray that Orphan Outreach will be able to collect all the
backpacks they need and that they will be delivered safely.
Also, visit MissionBackpack.org to find a drop site near
you, plan your own collection, or donate to the cause. Just $15 purchases and
fills a backpack. Mission Backpack also has two more drives scheduled for
August in Texas and Illinois.
