Afghan Orphans Overnight in Aptos

It's an unlikely scenario: a group of orphans from Afghanistan, their teacher and an American volunteer who has championed their cause piled into an RV to tour the United States in the dead of winter.

Not only is it real, their incredible journey will bring the group to Aptos on Thursday.

Aptos' Roger Aikin, who sponsors children at the orphanage, contacted the American volunteer leading the journey, Ian Pounds, and invited the group to camp at the Aptos Christian Fellowship on Thursday. The stop includes dinner, a presentation about the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization and breakfast on Friday morning.

"When I was 7 years old, my parents brought us cross country in a station wagon," Pounds told CNN's Asieh Namdar, who has been reporting on the trip. "I'm doing the same thing with my kids from Kabul. What a better way to really immerse yourself in the culture?"

Pounds calls the trip an adventure and added "it's also a chance to connect with sponsors of children."

That's what Aikin is excited about.

He and his wife were moved to support two girls in the program after NBC Nightly New's Brian Williams profiled the AFCECO program. It started with an orphanage in Kabul several years ago and has expanded to several other sites.

The Aikins pay $30 a month for each of the two girls they sponsor, receive letters and photos from the girls, and get the AFCECO newsletter. That's how Roger Aikin learned the RV road trip would pass through the Central Coast as they traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The epic journey started in December on the East Coast. They traveled south, then west to the Pacific Ocean. Aikin said the trip is to acquaint the children about life in the US and help them grow into leaders in their native country. There's also a tour in Italy, Aikin said.

The tour is also intended to introduce the orphanage to the US and garner support. Their presentation at Aptos Christian Fellowship (which offered its hall space but is not sponsoring the event) on Freedom Boulevard across from Aptos High School at 7 p.m. and free to the public.