"Worldwide Ministry to Street Kids Goes Back to School"
Appearing in the Christian Daily News
Monday, September 14, 1998
Reprinted
by permission of the Christian Daily News
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (USA) -- Most seminary students go to school with
a burning desire to be used by God to make a difference for the sake of the Gospel.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student David High is already accomplishing this
goal with a worldwide ministry to "street kids."
A master of divinity student in the weekend program of the Billy
Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, High is both a full-time student
as well as president and founder of Homeless Children International. The nonprofit
organization strives "to share the love of Christ with abandoned children by
providing housing, education and a loving, home environment," High said.
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., H.C.I. has branches in Kenya,
supports work in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, and is laying the groundwork for a branch in
Vietnam. The organization operates with a staff of 25 volunteers and nine full-time
employees worldwide.
A missionary kid from Nigeria, High first felt called to work
with street kids in 1983 while visiting his brother in Brazil. During his stay, High
visited an orphanage that forever changed his life.
"Seeing the children and the situation they were in was
similar to growing up in Nigeria," High said. "At first, my heart wasn't really
moved. I guess I had a hard heart."
Nevertheless, High began to think to himself, "What could I
do?" High was surprised by the answer he heard the Lord give him: "You can
become a father to these children."
After acknowledging God's request, High began making excuses why
he could not obey.
"I don't know these people or their language," High
remembered thinking. "I don't have a place to stay, I don't have a job, I would be a
burden. What about my goals and ambitions for life? What will my parents think?"
Putting God's call on the shelf, High returned to the United
States to finish his last semester of college at Furman University in South Carolina. He
soon realized, "When you tell the Lord to wait, you've told him, 'No!'"
However, doors did not open for High to return to Brazil. After
completing his undergraduate degree, High went on to receive a master of exercise
physiology degree from the University of Tennessee. He accepted a job with Lockheed-Martin
in Knoxville as director of fitness where he still works today.
Yet, he could not overcome the burden for the orphanage in San
Paulo. High engaged in cross-country bike rides during vacations to raise money for the
children. Finally, in February 1991, some friends invited High to visit them in San Paulo.
He took a one-month leave of absence from his job to explore what God wanted him to do.
"As the plane landed, I looked out over that city of 17
million people and I thought to myself, 'One man, one month, a huge city, what difference
can I possibly make,'" High recounted. "Within the first five minutes of being
on the street, a little 13-year-old boy named Paulo came up to me and asked if I would be
his father and take him home."
High was now determined to address the evolving crisis of
homeless children. Everywhere he went, High was told by city officials that the number one
problem behind the economy was the presence of street kids.
"To make matters worse," High said, "nobody was
doing anything about it."
Returning to the United States, High was soon introduced to Sue
Morton, founder of one of the world's largest nonprofit organizations, Refugees
International. Morton encouraged him to start an international ministry dedicated to
homeless children, and she showed him how to do it. Homeless Children International
resulted as one effort to help alleviate the suffering of more than 100 million kids
living on the world's streets.
High envisions starting self-sufficient orphanages, educating
street kids to return to their local school system and sharing the love of Christ through
other practical avenues of ministry. He also believes helping homeless children is a good
way to share Christ with unreached people groups.
"So many of these groups will not open up to you if they
know you're a Christian organization," High said. "But if you help a child who
is part of that culture and the Lord changes him, he becomes a productive member of
society and the church and will take the Gospel to others. That is an effective missions
strategy."
To further these goals, High knew he needed to obtain a seminary
education. He heard about a special weekend master of divinity program offered through the
Graham School at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Louisville, Ky., school offers
students the opportunity to take up to 12 hours of classes each semester by attending only
on Fridays and Saturdays. In this way, students may complete the M.Div. degree in four
years while continuing their ministries where they live.
"I wouldn't be able to come to seminary any other way,"
High said. "I felt the need to develop my speaking and evangelistic preaching skills
and learn more about missions administration, cross-cultural evangelism and youth
ministry. Southern fills this niche in my life like no other seminary can." …
Having raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the seven years
since the founding of Homeless Children International, High's organization has only begun
to scratch the surface of this growing global crisis. However, one cannot measure the
group's success in dollar figures alone. The real difference made by High and H.C.I. will
be recorded for an eternity.
"When you sit down with a child and look into a face that
has no hope," High said, "and then you come back a year or two later and
discover that child has accepted Christ, that is the greatest reward of all." …
The original article was reprinted in
the Christian Daily News
with permission from Baptist Press.
[ To read the full story, in his own words, of how
David High experienced the call of the Lord to work with homeless and abandoned kids, read
A Way Home. ]
