Orphan Sunday

     November is Adoption Awareness Month and today is Orphan Sunday. A day set aside to remember the awesome opportunity that Christians and churches have to care for God's MOST precious...His beautiful babies & sweethearts that were created so wonderfully in the Father's perfect image and through no sin of their own have been forced to defend themselves on this earth. Birth mothers have been trafficked; birth fathers have left; families have died of disease or war; cultures have decided futures before life began; bad choices have been made; whatever the story, the consequences have left 169million children in this world ALONE.

  

     But HOPE shines through, doesn't it?  God sent His son to rescue us from our own consequences then says...Love Me by loving My defenseless children. It's not their fault. They have done nothing wrong. I love them. Go get them. Hug them. Fall in love with them. Kiss them until their faces are raw. Be their safe place while they are learning to trust Me. Provide for them like I provide for you--physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually. Don't look at their outward appearance or what society says they are destined to be. See how perfectly I made them, with a hope and a future. Then understand the hurt that this world has caused and let Me love them whole again through you. I will break your heart for this child...if you let Me and you'll be a whole new person because of it.

August 2012.

 

 

    There are usually a lot of statistics thrown around on Orphan Sunday or at Adoption events: 15million children worldwide without both mother & father. Tens of millions without father alone. 500,000 in foster care in the US. 2,200 foster children in my state alone waiting for forever families.  The numbers are overwhelming and admittedly leave a lot of people in such a state of shock they can't move forward.  Let me encourage you with this number....ONE.  If you are looking for a way to be involved in orphan care start with the care of ONE:

• Give to an orphan-care ministry for the care of one child. (ShowHope, Reece's Rainbow, Bethany Christian Services, WorldVision, etc)
• Support one family as they bring home their forever child. (Contact me, I have a list!)
• Or ask to 'sponsor' one fee/cost of a family's growing adoption burden. (this can be from the cost of stamps to travel costs)
• Find one agency or ministry that supports your state foster care system. (SleepCountryUSA gives winter coats to kids in foster care, Royal Family Kids Camp provides a summer camp experience)
• Contact your church to financially support one missionary on the mission field caring for God's children.
• Volunteer for one community program that supports at risk-children.
• Take one child from a single-parent home from your church/school/work out to lunch. Be a mentor. A friend.
• Pick one month to donate your tithe or vacation time to an orphan-care cause close to your heart. (Consider the Bamboo Project!)
• Read one book to find out how you can be involved in caring for God's sweet ones (Contact me, I have a list!)
• Pray one prayer to ask God how you can be involved. (It'll only take once, I promise!)

     The numbers are daunting but the response by ONE can be positively overwhelming! Please take a moment to consider how you can forever impact the life of a child waiting for their life of wholeness to begin.  Just look at how awesome it can be for you BOTH!

 

    

October 2013