Orphans with Intellectual Disabilities
Welcome to the inaugural posting for Special Hope Network. As you may have seen from the About tab, we are a faith-based non-profit that believes we are specifically called to care and to love orphans and vulnerable children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. On a lighter note, we want to apologize from the beginning that this is the first blog we've ever written, and if it were not for our oldest daughter, we would not have read any others, either! So if there are any blog protocols that we are missing, we beg your indulgence, as we wake up to the ...
Why must we care for orphans with special needs?
We wrestled for some time with the title for this present post, wondering whether we should substitute the "must" for the awkward, but more accurate "get to" regarding our privilege for caring for orphans who have special needs. A privilege, because anytime God calls us to be like Him, it inevitably as David Livingstone, the great missionary to Africa understood, ceases to be a sacrifice. To love those whom God loves is not a must, or at least not a must alone, it is a distinct privilege. It is not something we have to do, it is something we get ...
Why must we care for orphans, Part Two
If my heart was revealed in that moment, one of the places God reveals His is Psalm 22:24, where He states "For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him." David himself was so struck by this revelation that he prefaces it in verse 23 that all Israel should stand in awe and glorify God, a God who is like this. You see, David was accustomed to the gods of the nations being a lot like the rest of us. ...
Welcome to Special Hope Network!
We are a faith-based non-profit corporation working in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to care for, teach, and love orphans and vulnerable children who have intellectual disabilities, for the sake and in the name of Jesus. We invite you to look around our site. We are constantly updating photos, videos, and our blog. We'll be adding new features specific to projects and countries we are working with on a regular basis. Welcome!More Featured Posts
Brighton is growing!
Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our tiny, tiny baby with CP, Brighton. He weighed in today at 4.5 Kg, so he has gained one kg since we’ve been providing formula two weeks ago. He looks a little fuller in the face, though still feels so light. After he grows a bit, we’ll be able to see what other needs he has. Right now, we are just compelled to get him eating, and... [Read more]
Joseph
Joseph is 18, has intellectual disabilities, and has virtually nothing by the world’s standards. He has a Mom who loves him, a 5 ft x 7 ft home, yet no schooling, no books, no therapies, no wheelchair, no way to do anything for himself, and yet, was so happy. He was happy to meet us, happy to have us visit, and very upset when we left him. It is complicated. He needs to see a doctor. He needs... [Read more]
Looking for a Special Donor!
We have a 13 year old girl named Loveness who has an intellectual disability, and one side of her body is affected by muscle weakness/tightness since she had meningitis at 6 months of age. This is a cause we frequently hear, yet, it is hard to believe she hasn’t had something since birth (like reduced oxygen, or something similar), in order to have both left arm and left leg affected. Her arm... [Read more]
Thank you, Charlottesville Friends!
This is a formal thank you note, since Zambian mail is completely unreliable, to thank each person that donated items, packed boxes, moved boxes, repacked boxes, bought items, had bake sales, yard sales, or helped in ANY way to get our shipping container sent two days ago. Thank you also to our large donor that paid for the entire shipment so we didn’t have to affect our day-to-day operations... [Read more]
Nshima, and nothing but nshima
We had an odd theme today, July 20th, a regular old Tuesday in the life of those of us at Special Hope. Remember as I tell you this story, that the basic meal for all Zambians for ALL meals is Nshima, a cornmeal porridge, that is eaten thicker than a porridge, more like the consistency of play dough, and is eaten with the right hand, rolled into a ball, and eaten with different ndiyos on top (”relishes”),... [Read more]