Perhaps My Most Important Post...

Orphan Sunday 2009 from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

This Sunday is Orphan Sunday.  Around the US this means different things, but at my church, West End Presbyterian Church, some of us will be gathering in room 35 at 12:30 to discuss how we can be involved in Orphan Care in our community and in the world at large.  I'll be sharing a bit about our adoption story, and there will also be testimonies given from a family who adopted a special needs child from China and a family who is involved in foster care.

To say that I have been changed by adoption would be a gross understatement.  My heart will never be the same and I am ever thankful for that.  At times I think I would like to open my family to a dozen children from all over the globe.  To stand up, like we did for Gracie, and say, "Jesus has not left you here an orphan and I will not either."  Perhaps we will adopt again.  I am certain we will foster once Gracie is out of diapers. 

I cannot speak strongly enough about this.  For the Christian, there is no wiggle room.  God is clear.  His people are to be for orphans.  He has not given us spirits of fear, but ones of adoption that cry out to him.  God is in the habit of making all things new, of reconciling peoples to Him and to one another, of knitting one giant multicultural family.  And wouldn't it be awesome if finally our Churches became integrated because our families were?  Are you kidding me?!?  Scripture tells us they will know we are Christians by our love, and yet we are known for far lesser things. 

I present to you a solution for that:  ORPHAN CARE.

Perhaps you're certain you're not called to adopt (which I highly doubt, but anyways...).  There are other ways you can be about your God's business.  You can pray for orphans.  You can write your congressmen and women to extend the Adoption tax credit beyond 2011, thereby making it easier for families to adopt. 

You can sponsor children through the countless organizations that do such things.  Through Compassion International, you can sponsor a child for just $38 a month.  Last year for Christmas, instead of giving our siblings and parents gifts, we donated money to an orphanage in Ethiopia for children orphaned because of HIV/AIDS.  I mean, do your parents really need anything more than a recent picture of your kid? 

You can contact your local Bethany Christian Services agency and see if they need some diapers, formula, or onesies for their foster families to use as these interim care families do NOT get paid like those fostering through the DSS do.  You can provide financial help to a family seeking adoption. 

You can, like my friend Mollie, team up with an organization like H.E.L.P. and have a garage sale party to raise money for orphans.  Mollie and others threw 4 garage sales that completely funded the rebuilding of an orphanage in Haiti.  Are you kidding me?  Your old crap in your attic can care for orphans.

Perhaps you've never thought about orphans.  Perhaps you think the US doesn't really have any, or well, not any in comparison to the plight in Africa.  But I submit to you that is only because we have an excellent adoption system, and though our foster system is flawed and flooded with need, it does seek to protect children.  And that happens because of people like me...

AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU.

I will leave you with the words of William Wilberforce, the 19th century British politician and ardent abolitionist...

HAVING SEEN ALL THIS YOU CAN CHOOSE TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY, BUT YOU CAN NEVER AGAIN SAY 'I DID NOT KNOW.'