Monday's w/ Michael
Focus on the Family’s® Orphan Care Initiative™
Believing that all children deserve to grow up in a family, Focus on the Family launched the Orphan Care Initiative in the fall of 2006. The Orphan Care Initiative is designed to inspire, equip, and engage the body of Christ along with and through the Church to bring orphans into a Christ-centered family structure. We’re working with churches to share the plight of the orphan, unveil God’s heart for orphans, and help uncover their specific and individual place in orphan care.
Right now, more than 127,000 legal orphans in United States foster care are waiting for adoptive families. The US also has more than 300,000 churches, and God has given clear commands for Christians to take care of His orphan children.
So if the command is clear and the need is apparent, why are these kids still waiting?
*Everything above was taken directly from www.icareaboutorphans.org
In Indiana alone, there are 8,612 churches and 3,343 orphans. http://www.icareaboutorphans.org/WaitingKidsinYourState.aspx
You know, the thought just hit me: 3,343 orphans. 92 counties. That's an average of over 36 children per county. In Wells and Adams counties, we each have 3 school systems. 36/3=12
Excluding Kindergarten, there is (on average) 1 orphan in each grade in each shool. There is an orphan in your child's class. An orphan eats lunch with your daughter every day at school. An orphan plays tag with your son at recess. At school, he/she probably seems like every other student. Yet when they go home in the evenings, they don't go home to Mommy & Daddy. They don't have parents to help them with their homework. They have foster parents, but each one is desperately longing for their "forever family". With 8,612 churches, why should we have any kids in the foster care system?
To view some of the children available for adoption in Indiana, visit the Indiana Heart Gallery here: http://www.indianaheartgallery.org/gallery.cfm
A father to the fatherless…is God in his holy dwelling…God sets the lonely in families…Psalm 68.5-6
Amen! I was recently talking to an adoptive father and he told me "I don't know too many families who couldn't take one more. It's just one more." I wish more Christians had his vision.
ReplyDeleteI love your heart and your passion-love you! Jane
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I hear so much about the orphans overseas and sadly it is easy to forget the need right here..in our neighborhood even. If you get a chance, I would love to hear about the Miriam Project. I have contacted them and would love to hear about your experience.
ReplyDeleteWE THINK OF WHAT WE CAN GIVE A CHILD THATS IN NEED OF A LOVING FAMILY [ AND WE SHOULD ] I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK OF WHAT DEACON GIVES TO ME , A HUG A SMILE WHEN HE LIFTS HIS ARMS UP FOR ME TO PICK HIM UP , TO KNOW HE LOVES ME AS MUCH AS I LOVE HIM , AT THOSE TIMES IF I HAVE SADNESS HE JUST MELTS THAT SADNESS AWAY . FINN IS SO LUCKY TO HAVE A BIG BROTHER LIKE DEACON , AND DEACON WILL BE BLESS TO HAVE FINN AND TO SHARE A GREAT MOMMY / DADDY AND A LOVING FAMILY WITH . IN CHRIST LOVE DAD/GRANDPA B.
ReplyDeleteThis post gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFYI: Steven Curtis Chapman along with Jim Daly and Dennis Rainey will hold a free, live event in Nashville with the goal of raising awareness of the more than 140 million orphans worldwide.
ReplyDeleteYou can watch it online on Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. CST at www.cryoftheorphan.org