August 2010

Dear friend,

God has a special love for widows and orphans, but in many countries they are at the bottom of the social scale.  According to widowsandorphansoftheworld.org, over 140 million vulnerable widows and children across the globe need assistance just to survive.  The number is multiplying each day.  They face abuse, indignities and poverty.  The suffering we pray against this month is raw evil and ultimately a sin because degrading a person for her gender or social status shows contempt to her Maker!

In nearly 400 Bible verses God mentions the poor, fatherless and widows.  In fact the Bible says that “Undefiled religion is to take care of the poor, the widows and orphans in their distress” (James 1:27).  As Christians we must embrace their pain and care for them!

Gracia Burnham is my kindred-spirit friend.  She and her husband Martin were missionaries in the Philippines.  They were held captive by heartless terrorists for 12 months in the jungle, and minutes before Gracia was freed, Martin was killed.  She became a young widow left to raise their three children.

Gracia’s faith and enduring hope in God sustains her to this day.  Christians from many countries reached out with God’s love, praying and helping Gracia to learn to savor the nearness of the One who is indeed the “father of the fatherless and the husband of the widows.”  Unlike most widows we will pray for this month, Gracia is loved, prayed for, valued and respected.  Most are alone and forgotten in their sorrow.

I am glad that Project Hannah is ministering to widows in special ways.  I met over 200 women in Cambodia – mostly widows and abandoned wives.  I still carry them in my heart, and can’t forget them!  Without a sense of destiny, value or purpose they urgently need the love of God.  We can change their eternal destiny.

With our prayers, let’s also remember our Cambodian Project Hannah team and their Widows’ Project.  They want to empower widows to give better nutrition, health care and proper education to their children, while introducing them to God’s love through the Women of Hope program.

Thanks for standing before God’s throne with us, placing millions of widows and orphans into His loving and healing hands.  What an awesome privilege!

In His grip of grace,

Marli Spieker

Global Ministry Director/Founder

Project Hannah

TWR

**Download Marli's 2 page letter to receive page 2

Marli Spieker
Global Ministry Director/Founder
Project Hannah
TWR