Backpacks for $2.99!!!

I haven't seen it, but have heard that "Office Depot is selling backpacks for $2.99 each and have Lot's of school supplies ranging from .01 to $2" The sale lasts until Saturday 2 August. I haven't made my big campaign yet, but for those of you who are planning on buying school supplies for your kids or Wontok Children, BULK UP NOW.

Back to Wontok Children. Lawrence really wants to supply the kids in Papua New Guinea where the need is more dire. Shipping is more costly, but if this is where God calls us to bless, then, the bags and supplies will get there. The kids in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are destitute. We need to look into the cost of school tuition. The street kids, usually AIDS orphans (more about that in a moment), don't have the uniform and shoes to be allowed in school. Buy the supplies anyway, because we will either supply a School in Philippines again, or find a good place in PNG.

The orphan situation in PNG is bleak at best. The AIDS epidemic is not just in Africa, but spreading throughout the world in epidemic proportion.

In PNG traditionally people live in villages. They rely on the Wontok system, the Wontok way of life. If you are from the same village, you are a Wontok (One talk) in that village. If you need food, shelter, help, the village has your back so to say. If a child is orphaned in a village, they will be taken care of, yes, yes.........it takes a village. (These sayings do come from somewhere!) When people leave their village, move to the city in search of opportunity, they often find unemployment, violent crime, similar to any inner city really. AIDS. When people die of AIDS in the city, away from the Wontok system, their children have no one to look out for them. There is a stigma on these children. This is a relatively recent epidemic of AIDS orphans, street children. PNG doesn't have many orphanages. No state ones, the last time I researched.

This gets to the real heart of Wontok Children. Our hearts are inclining toward PNG's lost children. Ultimately, we'd love to provide a home, boarding school style education. God is just beginning to open our eyes. Who knows where this will lead.