What an excellent time of year! :)
Here's a little history: Orphan Sunday was unintentionally started by a church in Zambia, Africa in 2002. The leader of a church there was preaching on the many places in the bible that God calls us to care for the orphans and the widows. During the offering, he asked all the orphans and widows to come stand up in front of the congregation. Imagine the scenario - a partially outdoor service in the heat and beautiful red dirt of Africa, and standing up in front are the widows and orphaned children who came to service that day. The leader asked for the congregation to consider putting something, anything, in the offering plate for these vulnerable people and children that God calls us to pay attention to and watch over. As the offering plate was passed around, one elderly woman gave the only thing she had to give - a head of cabbage. The lady behind her took off her shoes and put them on the plate.
What selfless acts...
I want to stop and really think about that for a second. These women likely had very, very few possessions. They were probably wearing most of their possessions, and if a woman had a head of cabbage with her at church, it was likely the only food she had and was keeping it safe with her. They had virtually NOTHING, and they still managed to give something. There aren't nicely paved sidewalks in Zambia...walking without shoes would be quite painful. But yet, this woman gave up her shoes for the orphans and widows of her church.
God says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. (Matthew 19:23-24) We are greedy, greedy people here in the richest country of the world. We have everything we could ever need, right at our fingertips. But we hesitate when someone asks us for money, or for something material they need. We think to ourselves things like, "They could get that themselves if they'd just work..." or "If I give them this money, they're just going to go blow it on something silly." or "That IS a really good cause, but I just don't have a lot leftover after going to a movie last night..." Raise your hand if you've passed someone in need and thought one of these things....
Guilty as charged. AND, it's not always about passing someone in need and refusing to give to them. It's also about seeking out opportunities to help others. Going to places where they lowly are, and the poor are. Giving the coat off your back when it's cold because, let's face it, you've got 3 more at home.
Orphan Sunday has grown into a worldwide event. That initial Sunday back in 2002, there was a preacher visiting that church service from the U.S. He also recognized there is more Christians need to do to recognize this specific calling God has for us, and initiated something similar the following year. Thousands of churches in Africa also took it upon themselves to do something the following year, without any advertising or prompting it just spread throughout the continent.
Orphans and widows are referred to in several places in the bible - He must feel he needs to state it several times for us to get it...we can be very thick headed sometimes. :) When I first heard about Orphan Sunday, I went onto their website (www.orphansunday.org) and saw there was a place to volunteer to become an Area Coordinator. I decided I'd like to help create some movement in my community and surrounding areas for Orphan Sunday, so I signed up. Some friends and I got together to plan an event for Clear Lake. We invited all 17 Clear Lake churches, and gave each church 2 complimentary tickets to come to our Orphan Outreach event. We sent out letters, and did follow up calls.
We were understandably very discouraged when only 3 churches showed up...3 out of 17...
One church said they were just too busy in the month of November with their own things going on, that nobody will really want to listen to one more cause. Another church who has almost 200 members said they just couldn't find anyone to go. We felt some frustration with these responses, mostly because this event did not cost to attend, attendees would be fed, and there was no form of commitment whatsoever. BUT, we soon remembered that even if one seed is planted, that's one more than before...and we don't know what else can come of that, so we tried to really focus on those who DID take the time to come, instead of focusing on those who didn't.
At the event, we showed a video, "Cry of the Orphan", which was awesome. It went through several adoption and foster care stories, creating a lot of uplifting and motivating messages about what churches and Christians can do to influence orphans. Then we went through some orphan statistics as a group to help spread the word on the plight of the orphan. Here are a few of those statistics:
- There are between 143 million and 210 million orphans in the world today.
- This number differs so much because there are a lot of orphans who are not being cared for in orphanages, so it is very difficult to get a solid number.
- There are over 100,000 children in foster care in the United States who are waiting for adoptive families.
- There are actually over 500,000 children in foster care in the United States total, but not all are up for adoption. 100,000 are available for adoption and waiting for families.
- An orphan dies of starvation every 90 seconds. In the time it took me to type this blog, 20 children have starved to death. Food is such a basic need - one we meet for ourselves multiple times a day - and so many kids don't even have one meal and are consequently starving to death. That is a long and agonizing death. How sickening is the feeling of hunger, when you feel it every minute of every day, searching through the garbage and rejoicing and finding chicken's feet to eat...
- (I've said this one before) There are 2.7 Billion Christians in the world. If only 8% of those were to adopt just one child, there would be no more orphans. We need more adoptive families to conquer this orphan crisis and truly show God we care about His beautiful children.
Now, one thing we wanted to point out to everyone at this event, and at our church class time where we did this as well, was that there are many, many ways for Christians to get involved with caring for orphans. Adoption is just one way, but we know that not everyone is in a position to be able to adopt. That doesn't mean that there's nothing left for you to do. Everyone working together and giving what they can contribute is all part of God's perfect plan. We as a group came up with a list of ways Christians can get involved with caring for orphans:
- PRAY - this is a huge one. And the most powerful. It doesn't require anything financially, and is something you can do anytime, anywhere.
- Give financially - for those who are in the position to spare some extra change, or work into their monthly budgets a larger amount to give, anything is appreciated. Most Americans spend more going out to eat than they do giving to charities or to do God's work. We are given more, and are therefore called to give more.
- Sponsor a child - Compassion International has a wonderful program where you can sponsor a child who is trying to support him or herself to go to school. Just $38 a month covers that child's food, education, and medical needs for the entire month. And, you get to write letters back and forth to the child you sponsor. What an amazing gift for that child and his or her family! If there were more people willing to do this, there may not be as many children orphaned because their parents would be able to continue caring for them with a little extra support.
- Foster a child - there is a huge need for foster homes in your state - I guarantee it! Superman had foster parents, and look how he turned out! :)
- Adopt - while this might be an obvious one, there can be some fears and questions that people still have. That's perfectly okay! If you have any fears or questions, please let me know, I'd love to talk to you about them!
- Provide respite care for a foster child or family - Respite care is like babysitting in a sense - it's providing a place for the foster child to go to give both the child and the foster family a little extra support and change of scenery...it could be for an evening, it could be for a weekend, or it could be for a week while the foster family goes to visit family but cannot take the foster child with. It is all on your terms, and it is a great way to help out a family who continues to serve the community by being a foster home. They too need a break sometimes to allow them to continue serving. We don't want them getting burned out!
- Support an adoptive family, or local adoptive agency.
- Support a child on www.reecesrainbow.org - this website is dedicated to children with special needs who are waiting for adoptive families. Each child on there has a fund that goes towards their adoption, enticing people to consider adopting them because some adoption fees are already covered. You can choose a child on there to donate to his or her adoption fund to help provide an extra incentive to a family willing to adopt that child. Side note - children with special needs are often placed in Adult Mental Institutes when they are between the ages of 4 and 6 years old...They are considered damaged children, and once they are transferred, they are overmedicated, and sit with no hope or joy in their lives. To give you an idea of the conditions and level of care these children and adults receive, there is someone hired full time on staff at these institutions with the sole job responsibility of burying bodies. If you need someone to bury bodies 40 hours of the week, it is obvious your patients aren't being well cared for.
- Mentor an orphan - there are many children in your community who could just use a mentor. Someone they can find support in, and just someone they can enjoy spending time with. It's easy and rewarding.
- Come up with a unique way to raise money for a charity, or child you're sponsoring, or for a special donation. I'll tell you about a friend of mine who is doing one right now that you can join in on if you'd like!
- At Christmas and Birthdays, instead of giving more toys or other things children and adults alike do not need because we already live in excess, choose an organization like World Vision where you can purchase livestock or small animals to give to a poor family in a third world country. For example, there are chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, cows, etc. that you can purchase for a family to be given this Christmas. Each animal costs something different, so you can pick and choose how many of each one you'd like to give. So, instead of giving my nieces and nephews unnecessary gifts at Christmas, I'm going to tell them the money we would have spent on a gift and let them pick out something in that dollar range to give to a needy family. Gets them involved, and teaches great lessons on giving and not always expecting to receive something in return.
The list could go on and on. There are many unique ways Christians can get involved in caring for God's orphans, so keep thinking and adding to this list!! If you come up with something additional, add it in a comment - we'd love to hear about it!
As mentioned above, I have a friend who has decided she would like to help a child on Reece's Rainbow. She would love, love to adopt, but is not in a position to be able to do that right now. So, after spending many nights feeling helpless and unable to make a difference in an orphan's life the way she wanted to, she found an idea from a fellow blogger on a way she could help. My friend is a big runner. She has done several races, and finds genuine enjoyment in running (I think she's confused on what "fun" is) :) haha....So, since November is Adoption month, she has decided to get pledges from people for every mile she runs in the month of November. She is trying to find 20 people willing to pledge a quarter for every mile ran. Her goal is to run 4 miles every weekday, which in a month would equal to about $20 total for each person who pledges. I don't know about you, but $20 is a fairly small amount when you think about it over the course of a month! Now, she has only gotten 6 pledges so far, so if anyone would like to join, please do! Sam and I have both joined but we need more!! Let's show Amanda some support from strangers and really motivate her to do this awesome thing! All donations will go to a little girl on Reece's Rainbow who doesn't have any donations yet for her adoption fund, and she has been waiting for a family for awhile now. You can read about Amanda's commitment on her blog here. Let me know if you'd like to commit to donating $20 to her as she runs her little heart out for orphans!
Soooooo, to sum up...The title of today's blog is "It Only Takes One..." The orphan statistics can be very, very daunting. It often leaves people feeling like the problem is too big, "what can I possibly do to influence that?" These are valid feelings, but cannot be excuses. I saw the t-shirt design shown below, and fell in love with it. This is absolutely true. It only takes one person to make a difference in one orphan's life. You can make a difference in one orphan's life, and if everyone took that responsibility on, every orphan would be touched. We don't have to aim to fix the world's orphan problem, but we can do our part for just one or two...and to them, that's the world of difference!
