T4A2010

I don't even think one blog post can truly sum up the conference. It could take ten, bear with me! I mean it took me about a month to fully wrap my mind around it!

INCREDIBLE! We learned so much in two days! Our eyes were so opened to the desperate situation at hand 167 million orphans, a number growing monumentally everyday. Staggering. We, the church, have a calling on our lives. One of my favorite statements said, "If God is the Father to the fatherless, then we, the church, are the mother to the fatherless."

I had prayed that my heart would be refreshed to the reasons God has called us to this adoption. After so much paperwork and support raising, I am just tired. We aren't even waiting yet, and I am tired. God really pressed in that He hasn't called us to adopt because of our infertility issues...that's the means. He's called us to be His bride, to answer the call and love and care for the orphan. Yes, of course this may be our only means of family, so there is deep desire for children tied into feelings of loving the orphan...but all the same it's a calling.

If you don't think God's serious about the believer's call to love the fatherless:

Deut 14:29-"And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do."

Deut 26:12-"When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled,"

Psalm 68:5-"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation."

Psalm 82:3-"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute."

Psalm 146:9-"The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless ,but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin."

Isaiah 1:17-"learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause."

James 1:27-"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

At the last session, Matt Carter, asked this question. "Why? Why does God have an enduring passion for these children?" He answered that with this quote and it grabbed me! "The global orphan crisis is one of the major hindrances and barriers to seeing the Great Commission fulfilled in our lives." We're called to "go"...that's it. We have this beautiful gospel picture of being adopted into the family of Christ by the willing sacrifice of our Savior and the spilling of his blood on the cross, and we have to "go and tell" the world! 167 million orphans, fatherless, destitute, alone. How can we the church stay silent and do nothing? I think the greater question is what if we don't?

20-60% of 15-24 year olds that came from orphanages are HIV infected.
19,000 children a year age out of the foster system here in the U.S.
Almost 50% of orphans are adolescents, 12% are younger than 5
Almost everyday 5,760 more children become orphans
Every 2.2 seconds another child ages out of the system with no family to belong to and no place to call home. In Russia and Ukraine 10-15% of these children commit suicide before age 18.
Every 15 seconds, another child in Africa becomes an AIDS orphan.

(statistics from UNICEF)

These should make you uncomfortable. Oh Jesus, move us to action. "Adoption is one of the clearest signs that the church could give of the gospel." How can we as the body of Christ be missional for this cause? There are hundreds of ways and some don't even involve your cash. There are foster families who are tired and need a break. They have tangible needs of money, clothes, beds, cleaning. There are other families who have already adopted or are in the process and God has placed this call on their lives and they need your help, monetarily, a night out, encouragement, prayers. When is the last time you blew someone away with your generosity?

What would it look like if there were no orphans?