I am so excited about what God is doing through our local orphan care ministry. We finally have a website up and running, thanks to my wonderful husband. He did such a great job putting this site together. I have added a link to it on my sidebar.
We are just 3 weeks away from the first Orphan Care Sunday to be held on November 8th. We have partnered with Lifesong For Orphans to create an adoption fund within our adoption ministry. The adoption fund will help aide those needing financial assistance with their adoption. I am anxiously waiting to see how God is going to bless this ministry by helping families to adopt and unite orphans all over the world with their forever families!
Wonderfully Made Psalm 139:13-16
Showing posts with label Orphan Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orphan Care. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Orphan Care Ministry
I am so excited to see God moving in such a big and mighty way in the lives of orphans around the world. We are the East Texas Coordinators for the Christian Alliance For Orphans. Last April, I went to a conference led by Christian Alliance For Orphans. I attended with a friend who also has a big heart for orphans. God began placing this in and on our hearts in 2007. The conference was outstanding and gave us great insight on how to begin a orphan care ministry within our church/town.
This summer we began meeting with a core group of six people who have the same desire to care for orphans. We are getting close to kicking off our local orphan care ministry on November 8th, also the First Annual Orphan Care Sunday throughout the U.S. The goal through Christian Alliance For Orphans Orphan Sunday is to get churches throughout the U.S. to speak out and be the voice for the orphan through scripture, videos and testimonies. Thoroughout the Bible, God gives us several commands to care for the orphan. One is found in Hosea 14:2b For in you the fatherless find compassion.
Orphan care can be accomplished through adoption but not all families are going to be called to adopt. Their are several options to care for the orphan/foster child. They need our prayers, our time, our love and our support. I can't tell you how important it is for those that are in our local foster care system to feel important and loved by someone. Many may not have financial resources to adopt but all of us can pray and give of our time. I would like to encourage you to pray about how you can make a difference in the life of a child. As Christians we are to defend the orphan as it says in Isaiah 1:17 Defend the cause of the fatherless.
This summer we began meeting with a core group of six people who have the same desire to care for orphans. We are getting close to kicking off our local orphan care ministry on November 8th, also the First Annual Orphan Care Sunday throughout the U.S. The goal through Christian Alliance For Orphans Orphan Sunday is to get churches throughout the U.S. to speak out and be the voice for the orphan through scripture, videos and testimonies. Thoroughout the Bible, God gives us several commands to care for the orphan. One is found in Hosea 14:2b For in you the fatherless find compassion.
Orphan care can be accomplished through adoption but not all families are going to be called to adopt. Their are several options to care for the orphan/foster child. They need our prayers, our time, our love and our support. I can't tell you how important it is for those that are in our local foster care system to feel important and loved by someone. Many may not have financial resources to adopt but all of us can pray and give of our time. I would like to encourage you to pray about how you can make a difference in the life of a child. As Christians we are to defend the orphan as it says in Isaiah 1:17 Defend the cause of the fatherless.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Orphan Care Conference
I had the privilege to attend the Christian Alliance For Orphans National Conference a week ago. This is a large conference held once a year in different locations across the U.S. This year it was held in the Dallas area. A friend and I decided in January we would attend it together. It is such an outstanding organization whose main focus is on orphan care. Many agencies were there, including America World. It was nice to be able to meet a few people from our agency that we used to adopt Shayle.
In addition to agencies, their were many child advocacy groups as well as organizations who help aide in the expense of adoption fees. I had the opportunity to attend a session led by Emily Richards, Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter. She spoke on Loving the Orphan, A Journey of Hope and Faith. She has a powerful testimony which led us all to tears by the end of the session. God used her as an 11 yr. old to pray fervently for her parents to adopt a child. As time went by, her parents did not feel led to adopt but she continued to cry out to God. After 2 years of praying, her parents did finally decide to adopt and as many of you know they adopted not 1 little China doll, but 3. I stand amazed knowing what an impact her prayers have had on many adopted families. Through the organization Shaohannahshope, many have benefited with adoption grants and I have had several families share that after attending a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, that God confirmed in their hearts that they were to adopt. Without her consistent prayers back when she was 11, I believe their would not be as many adopted children throughout the world today. I have expressed to my own kids that no matter what God lays on their hearts, to always be in prayer about it. God uses all of us no matter what our age is. You can definitely see the fruit of Emily's faithfulness to pray for orphans as it continues today.
God had placed orphan ministry on my heart while doing all of our paperwork to adopt from China in the fall of 2007. Meanwhile, God also began speaking to my friend who also lives in my small town of 15,000. This past January, she had decided to attend the conference and asked if I would be interested in attending. God had been speaking to her about an orphan care ministry within our community as He had spoken to me. The conference offered a lot of insight on how to start an orphan care ministry through the local church. I gained more knowledge concerning foster care kids and how through an orphan care ministry, we can make a difference in their lives.
Not all people are called to adopt or to provide foster care, but as God's children we are called to take care of and to give to the orphans. Just think for a moment, what if God had not cared enough to send us His son Jesus to save us? God provided a way for us to be adopted into His forever family through the blood of Jesus. It took sacrifice to give up His only son on the cross, to take on every sin of mankind, in order for us to have eternal life with God. We are all orphans until we make the decision to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. I am so thankful God loved me in my time of distress and cared enough to adopt me! Just like God had to give sacrificially in order that we may be adopted, we too have to give sacrificially to adopt a child. There are many sacrifices made along the way but none will compare to the blessing of giving a child a home, a place where he/she will be loved, and the most important, introducing the new child to Jesus. A missionary friend recently told me that adopting a child is like bringing the mission field to you. She serves the Lord with her husband and 4 boys in Indonesia. She is exactly right, you never know how many will hear the Gospel through an adopted child!
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Their are so many ways in which we can all look after orphans/foster kids. During our conference, we listened to many testimonies of adults who grew up in the foster care system all of their childhood years. They described feeling desperately lonely and isolated while growing up. Many times they were bullied and made fun of by the other kids. These kids eventually have emotional breakdowns from feeling so unloved. They aren't looking for the newest video game or clothing, they are crying out in need of love, guidance and kindness. This is the area where all of us can help by becoming a mentor to these kids, no matter how old or young we are. They need mentors to guide them and to spend TIME with them, even if it is only 30 minutes/week. One testimony we heard was given by a young adult who did have a mentor while growing up in the foster care system. He spoke about how this man began visiting him and taking him out for ice cream as a young child. He admitted he was skeptical that the young man would return week after week, but to his amazement he kept coming back every week to spend time with him, to tell him he mattered, he was important and he was loved. At the end of his testimony, he said that they are still close friends and they continue to stay in touch, even though he is grown now. He also spoke of what a difference this mentor had made in his life.
Another way to help if you are not called to adopt is to find families in your church/community who are adopting, they can always use your support and prayers and if your able, give a love offering to help them pay for their adoption. Financing the adoption is the #1 reason people do not adopt. By giving financially to help aide adoption expenses to other families, you are fulfilling God's commandment found in James 1:27. Not only will you be helping unite a child with his forever family, you will also receive a blessing in return.
Today, their are over 143 million orphans throughout the world. Some have lost their parents through death and some abandoned. This number equals about half of the U.S. population. I know that not every orphan will have the opportunity to be adopted into a family, but I do believe that if awareness of this crisis is raised, many would be adopted and/or mentored.
If God has spoken to you about adoption, please be in prayer to seek His will. He will bless you more than you could ever imagine. He will provide for your finances to be able to adopt, I have witnessed God's provisions financially for adoption countless times. Trust me, as someone who has adopted internationally, you do not want to miss this opportunity if God is calling you to adopt. Just trust and obey, He will remove your fears and anxiety and give you a complete peace. I am so thankful God called my husband and I to adopt and that we did not give in to satan's schemes of doubt and fear and all the what if's. Shayle has been home with us for six months and it has almost been a year since we received our referral for her. I will do a post about that next week.
One last thing I took to heart from the conference was that God is the father to the fatherless, but we are called to be the earthly fathers and mothers to the fatherless and motherless. Please be in prayer for me and my friend who have such a great desire to carry out what God has called us to do, not only to adopt a child(ren), but to have full support from our local church and community to begin an orphan care ministry within our area. We all have a purpose in this life and I feel like I have found mine, to make a difference in the life of my own children as well as the lives of orphans.
In addition to agencies, their were many child advocacy groups as well as organizations who help aide in the expense of adoption fees. I had the opportunity to attend a session led by Emily Richards, Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter. She spoke on Loving the Orphan, A Journey of Hope and Faith. She has a powerful testimony which led us all to tears by the end of the session. God used her as an 11 yr. old to pray fervently for her parents to adopt a child. As time went by, her parents did not feel led to adopt but she continued to cry out to God. After 2 years of praying, her parents did finally decide to adopt and as many of you know they adopted not 1 little China doll, but 3. I stand amazed knowing what an impact her prayers have had on many adopted families. Through the organization Shaohannahshope, many have benefited with adoption grants and I have had several families share that after attending a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, that God confirmed in their hearts that they were to adopt. Without her consistent prayers back when she was 11, I believe their would not be as many adopted children throughout the world today. I have expressed to my own kids that no matter what God lays on their hearts, to always be in prayer about it. God uses all of us no matter what our age is. You can definitely see the fruit of Emily's faithfulness to pray for orphans as it continues today.
God had placed orphan ministry on my heart while doing all of our paperwork to adopt from China in the fall of 2007. Meanwhile, God also began speaking to my friend who also lives in my small town of 15,000. This past January, she had decided to attend the conference and asked if I would be interested in attending. God had been speaking to her about an orphan care ministry within our community as He had spoken to me. The conference offered a lot of insight on how to start an orphan care ministry through the local church. I gained more knowledge concerning foster care kids and how through an orphan care ministry, we can make a difference in their lives.
Not all people are called to adopt or to provide foster care, but as God's children we are called to take care of and to give to the orphans. Just think for a moment, what if God had not cared enough to send us His son Jesus to save us? God provided a way for us to be adopted into His forever family through the blood of Jesus. It took sacrifice to give up His only son on the cross, to take on every sin of mankind, in order for us to have eternal life with God. We are all orphans until we make the decision to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. I am so thankful God loved me in my time of distress and cared enough to adopt me! Just like God had to give sacrificially in order that we may be adopted, we too have to give sacrificially to adopt a child. There are many sacrifices made along the way but none will compare to the blessing of giving a child a home, a place where he/she will be loved, and the most important, introducing the new child to Jesus. A missionary friend recently told me that adopting a child is like bringing the mission field to you. She serves the Lord with her husband and 4 boys in Indonesia. She is exactly right, you never know how many will hear the Gospel through an adopted child!
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Their are so many ways in which we can all look after orphans/foster kids. During our conference, we listened to many testimonies of adults who grew up in the foster care system all of their childhood years. They described feeling desperately lonely and isolated while growing up. Many times they were bullied and made fun of by the other kids. These kids eventually have emotional breakdowns from feeling so unloved. They aren't looking for the newest video game or clothing, they are crying out in need of love, guidance and kindness. This is the area where all of us can help by becoming a mentor to these kids, no matter how old or young we are. They need mentors to guide them and to spend TIME with them, even if it is only 30 minutes/week. One testimony we heard was given by a young adult who did have a mentor while growing up in the foster care system. He spoke about how this man began visiting him and taking him out for ice cream as a young child. He admitted he was skeptical that the young man would return week after week, but to his amazement he kept coming back every week to spend time with him, to tell him he mattered, he was important and he was loved. At the end of his testimony, he said that they are still close friends and they continue to stay in touch, even though he is grown now. He also spoke of what a difference this mentor had made in his life.
Another way to help if you are not called to adopt is to find families in your church/community who are adopting, they can always use your support and prayers and if your able, give a love offering to help them pay for their adoption. Financing the adoption is the #1 reason people do not adopt. By giving financially to help aide adoption expenses to other families, you are fulfilling God's commandment found in James 1:27. Not only will you be helping unite a child with his forever family, you will also receive a blessing in return.
Today, their are over 143 million orphans throughout the world. Some have lost their parents through death and some abandoned. This number equals about half of the U.S. population. I know that not every orphan will have the opportunity to be adopted into a family, but I do believe that if awareness of this crisis is raised, many would be adopted and/or mentored.
If God has spoken to you about adoption, please be in prayer to seek His will. He will bless you more than you could ever imagine. He will provide for your finances to be able to adopt, I have witnessed God's provisions financially for adoption countless times. Trust me, as someone who has adopted internationally, you do not want to miss this opportunity if God is calling you to adopt. Just trust and obey, He will remove your fears and anxiety and give you a complete peace. I am so thankful God called my husband and I to adopt and that we did not give in to satan's schemes of doubt and fear and all the what if's. Shayle has been home with us for six months and it has almost been a year since we received our referral for her. I will do a post about that next week.
One last thing I took to heart from the conference was that God is the father to the fatherless, but we are called to be the earthly fathers and mothers to the fatherless and motherless. Please be in prayer for me and my friend who have such a great desire to carry out what God has called us to do, not only to adopt a child(ren), but to have full support from our local church and community to begin an orphan care ministry within our area. We all have a purpose in this life and I feel like I have found mine, to make a difference in the life of my own children as well as the lives of orphans.
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