COLUMBUS, Ga. - A victory for a children’s soccer team composed of orphans and abandoned children in India has done more than win them a championship.

The soccer team from a Hopegivers International-sponsored “Hope Home” in Kota, India, recently won the Rajasthan state championship in their age bracket.

“Though the team was nearly denied the opportunity to participate in the tournament, they played and carried themselves like champions,” said Hopegivers Founder Dr. M.A. Thomas. “Our children are proof that every life matters and is precious to God.”

After the historic victory, the children were greeted with jubilation, and a parade was held in their honor. The children hold the distinction of being the first team from their district to win a soccer state championship since the tournament began in 1947. A celebration surrounding orphaned and abandoned children is a wonderful thing, Thomas said.

“People from the public came and took the children on their shoulders and danced with them. Then they began to give them gifts and brought food items and fruits and all these things for them,” Thomas said.

The victory testifies to the team’s hard work and also serves as a reminder that Hopegivers-sponsored orphans are getting the chance to be well-rounded and simply ‘be kids’, said Thomas.

Despite the enormous amounts of difficulty faced during this last year because of his outreaches’ faith-based approach, Dr. Thomas believes that this victory can go a long way to unite and bring communities together.

“My dream is to rescue one million children and make them as stars, make them as ambassadors for God in various fields,” he said.

Hopegivers (www.hopegivers.org) is a faith-based, not-for-profit humanitarian agency based in Columbus, Ga. Hopegivers exists to bring “help for today and hope for eternity” by rescuing homeless children, widows, the sick and needy, regardless of caste or creed, primarily in India, Malawi and Haiti.

NAMPA, Ida. - Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a faith-based, nonprofit organization that serves missions and isolated people around the world with aviation, communications and learning technologies, is integrating its field operations worldwide under one international umbrella that will function as an operations entity.

The new structure which takes effect on January 1, 2008, combines the field programs of the U.S.-based MAF with the field programs of other MAF entities in Canada, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
“The MAF leadership group and board of directors determined that MAF will accomplish more ministry as one organization than each MAF group does by operating independently,” said Kevin Swanson, MAF president in the US. “Coordinating, maximizing and sharing financial resources, aircraft and personnel to match increasing needs and opportunities around the world are the goals of the integration,” he said.

“When we first began to explore the possibility of uniting efforts with other MAF organizations, the potential benefits quickly became apparent. I do believe this movement is of the Lord, working His sovereign plan of the ages to build His Kingdom. He led us as we deliberated over the benefits and challenges of integrating MAF operations worldwide,” said Swanson.

“Each national MAF organization will retain its own identity and respective board of directors, even though efforts and resources are combined,” Swanson said. “Also, the various MAF groups, including the U.S.-based MAF, will continue to recruit staff as well as develop funding and resources within their home countries. Each will be fully responsible for the use of donor gifts, grants and their outcomes, remaining accountable to donors and foundations, as was the previous practice,” Swanson explained.

“Since MAF is internationally chartered and registered, such a unified front will gain freer access in difficult places,” said Swanson. “This has already happened in Sumatra and Pakistan, where such relief coordination amplified the MAF impact. A faster and more comprehensive response to disasters in these countries was made possible through combined efforts,” he said.

The new structure for field programs will be led by three regional directors - Dave Bochman, Bill Harding and Chris Lukkien. The three directors also serve jointly as acting chief executive officer until the appointment of an international CEO. A search committee has been formed to find the new executive.

Founded in the United States in 1945, MAF (www.MAF.org) deploys a fleet of 134 aircraft worldwide to serve in the remotest regions of 53 countries. Some 1,000 Christian and humanitarian organizations in isolated areas depend on MAF to carry out their work. The ministry’s pilots fly more than 50,000 flights a year, transporting missionaries, medical personnel, medicines and relief supplies, as well as conducting thousands of emergency medical evacuations. MAF also provides services in learning technologies as well as in telecommunications, such as satellite Internet access, high-frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.