We began OJM as an experimental attempt to undo a centuries-old model of orphan care. We distinguished the two models according to their distinct motives. The traditional paradigm is “refuge-based” while what we were proposing is “released-based”. The first is driven by the present need while the latter looks through the present to the future. A model that is focused on providing refuge has no necessary outcome other than orphans being loved and protected. What we wanted to pursue was outcome-based orphan care.

The Orphan's Cry is also available below for download as a PDF document. As I think about the crushing weight of the increasing number of orphans (some put it as high as 150 million), I have been asking myself some hard questions: How shall we then live in this age of AIDS orphans and abandonment? What are we to do in the midst of the overwhelming need of the fatherless? How are we to make sense of the gross inequity of too much for a few and too little for the many? Is there something God wants from us?