Paul Pennington at Family Life’s Hope for Orphans shared this great news with us about stories and interviews recorded at Summit VI in Minneapolis:

Monday, August 30^th through Friday, September 3^rd, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman will be guests on FamilyLife Today.  As many of you know, the Chapmans adopted three girls from China and several years ago began a ministry, now called Show Hope.  As many of you also know, the Chapmans lost their precious daughter, Maria Sue, in a tragic accident in May 2008.

In addition to the Chapman shows next week, FamilyLife Today will also be featuring several orphan ministry leaders in a two-part series in mid-September.  Hope for Orphans has had the privilege of helping hundreds of churches start orphans ministries over the past seven years.  These two broadcasts will feature some of our special friends who have been pioneers in this movement, including, on September 16^th, Rocky Gill, Founder of Hope for 100 at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX, Elizabeth Styffe, Director of both the HIV and Orphan Care Initiatives at Saddleback Church (where Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor) in Lake Forest, CA, and Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and former Director of President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative.  On September 17^th, guests include three local church orphans ministry leaders:  Beau Fournet of Watermark Church in Dallas, TX, Jodi Lewis of Kentwood Community Church in Kentwood, MI, and Jill Toth of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.  Please make sure you tune in on both dates and hear what God is doing through churches all across the nation to bring His love to the fatherless.

The Cry of the Orphan partners (Focus on the Family, Show Hope, and Hope for Orphans) are excited about our special, one-hour, pre-recorded program called Answer the Cry which was produced to support this year’s Orphan Sunday, scheduled for November 7^th, 2010.  Come back to Hope for Orphans in September for the soon-to-be announced details on how you can use this program for your church or Bible Study via DVD or live streaming.  The program features Francis and Lisa Chan, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman, Mark Shultz, and interviews with Hope for Orphans’ own Paul and Robin Pennington, as well as Kelly and John Rosati of Focus on the Family.

Mike Gerson, former chief speechwriter to President Bush, has a tremendous column on international adoption in today’s Washington Post.  Mike has a reputation even among critics as not just a master communicator, but also both an incisive analyst of international issues and a devout Christian.  During work-related travel in Zambia, we visited homes of AIDS victims together, and I saw in him a truly Christlike heart of compassion—one not content with just writing about needs, but yearning to address them as well.

The full article is definitely worth the read for anyone who has pondered the ethnicity issues tied up in cross-racial adoption.  Here’s a few highlights:

The relationship [of adoption] results from a broken bond but creates ties as strong as genetics, stronger than race or tribe …

After millennia of racial and ethnic conflict across the world, resulting in rivers of blood, America declared that bloodlines don’t matter, that dignity is found beneath every human disguise. There is no greater embrace of this principle than an American family that looks like the world.

Instead of undermining any culture, international adoption instructs our own. Unlike the thin, quarrelsome multiculturalism of the campus, multiethnic families demonstrate the power of affection over difference. They tend to produce people who may look different from the norm of their community but see themselves as just normal, just human.

Read the whole article here.

New adoption statistics from Alliance member Bethany Christian Service brought cheers from orphan advocates this week.  As reported by Bethany and covered in the Christian Post, January to June 2010 was Bethany’s “highest-ever increase in adoption placements for a half-year period.”

Bethany Christian Services reported that the combined international and domestic adoption placement increased 26 percent over the six-month period of January to June compared to the same time period in 2009.

Intercountry adoption inquiries were ahead by over 5,000 requests the first half of this year compared to 2009, totaling an unprecedented 10,567. Meanwhile, there were 8,037 domestic infant adoption inquiries, which is also higher than in 2009.

Alongside it’s excellent work in facilitating adoptions, Bethany is also providing remarkable leadership on other fronts as well—serving children that will never be adopted, and championing the “cause of the fatherless” in ways that benefit other organizations and expand Christian engagement in all forms of orphan ministry.  Internationally, this includes in-country care for orphans in more than 12 countries.  Domestically, Bethany is also helping expand the cutting-edge “Safe Families” foster care alternative beyond Illinois, where it has proven remarkably successful, to other parts of the country.   Bethany has also worked with the SBC to establish an innovative new fund providing scholarships to help SBC pastors adopt.

It’s thrilling to see organizations like Bethany acting out a vision that’s larger than their own organization alone.  Again and again, I’ve seen Bethany’s leaders work behind the scenes—in ways that will likely never be noticed or praised—simply to help advance the cause of the orphan and God’s kingdom.   Having friends and co-laborers like that makes work with the Christian Alliance for Orphans a privilege like none other.

It can be breathtaking to see all God is stirring for “the cause of the fatherless” on a broad scale, nationwide and beyond.  But most compelling of all are simply the individual stories of lives touched deeply through choices to open heart and home to orphans.  The truth is, adoption and other ways of loving parentless children echo; even small choices to care for orphans tend to ripple out far beyond the individual child and family.

One such story caught my eye, and my heart, today.  It’s a short post put up this morning on Facebook by Russ Weir.  Late last year, Russ traveled all the way to California from Texas to meet in person and strategize together about how to encourage and grow the orphan movement.  It was a rich time of fellowship and thinking, and I now count Russ a dear friend and true brother-in-arms.  Some of you may know him, too, through his leadership in the Red Letters Campaign.  His simple, poignant words speak for themselves:

In almost every way, today is ordinary. But while driving to work this morning, I realized that today is something particularly special. Four years ago, a sick and broken little 7 year-old girl was grafted into my family through adoption. Today, that little girl is 11 and she leaving me for 2 weeks to go minister to people that she can UNIQUELY relate to – impoverished indians in South Dakota.

This is Zoe in Guatemala when we first met her – she’s wearing the Christmas dress we bought her

For many girls her age, this would simply be another trip, but for Zoe this is so much different – it’s a milestone of restoration for a girl who faced a childhood of neglect, abuse, sickness, extreme poverty, days without food, mass death through natural disaster and child labor. For my Zoe, today begins a pilgrimage back to her sorest place and past. She will wrestle through memories of her pain and the loss of her childhood as she connects with people in similar circumstances. She will face her past head on and her mother and i will not be there with her. She may be too young still to recognize the significance of this or what lies beyond that door, but i am confident that she is now ready to face it.

For me, today i realized a tremendous blessing of adoption. Once again, i’m shown that adoption has little to do with what I can do for my children, but what God shows me through it. In only 4 years, i have watched a resiliant girl overcome untold odds and today, she is restored … not in the way that she doesn’t hurt, but in that the pain and fear that once reflected in her eyes has been replaced with a calm softness. Today, her brokenness is not a weakness … it’s an asset that helps her connect with and minister to other broken people in a way that I cannot.

Zoe with her sisters

It wasn’t an attractive process watching all of the pain that went into her come pouring back out onto us. But today … today … it just hit me that God has succeeded again where the world has failed. A girl with every excuse to harbor bitterness has grown perhaps the softest, most sincere and biggest heart i know. While He put Zoe in our care, He did not leave the job of restoring her to us. Instead, He is restoring US through restoring her. This realization has made an ordinary day quite special.

For all of you who have adopted or will adopt, i hope that this will be your blessing too. Thank you Zoe for this gift. You are a blessing, INDEED!

Two write-ups on orphans in China came across my radar today.  Both carry special significance for people with a heart for China’s orphans.

They also underscore a broader reality orphan advocates sometimes miss:  that the situation facing orphans in any given country can change markedly over time.  Drivers of change can range from more obvious factors like natural disaster or a jump in AIDS rates, to more subtle drivers like economic growth or decline.  As a result, the number of orphans, their typical characteristics, and the unique dynamics orphaned children face can shift dramatically, sometimes in short periods.

The first article describes a reality we’ve noted for some time:  the dramatic drop in healthy children available for international adoption from China.  It reads, “As China has prospered and government restrictions have increased… the number of U.S. couples being allowed to adopt there has dropped sharply, and experts say there’s little reason to believe the trend will reverse.”

The second piece—actually a blog recap of a talk given by Amy Eldridge on the changing dynamics of orphans in China—carries a deeply insightful view of the factors underlying the superficial “fewer-foreign-adoptions” trend.   (I can’t personally vouch for all the statistics shared, but the claims strike me as entirely consistent with things I’ve heard and observed as well.)  The blog post is a long read, but well worth it for people concerned about China’s orphans.  For those interested in a briefer read, below is a “Comment” posted by Amy Eldridge that synopsizes some of the key issues:

Amy Eldridge said…

As I mentioned to several people after the talk, the important thing for people to remember is that social issues around the world constantly change. We all know there was a time when there were thousands of healthy baby girls who needed homes from Chinese orphanages. Families from around the world sent in their files to adopt those babies. But with the decreased abandonment of healthy girls along with a marked increase in domestic adoption, the orphanage population has changed dramatically. Now when an orphanage gets in a healthy infant, it is the exception. And then there are many Chinese families in the cities who are willing to adopt a healthy child….so there are truly very few NSN children available for international adoption, except for older children.

The bigger issue is the increased number of children with special needs who need homes. More and more orphanages are willing to make their kids with SNs available to families through the waiting child path, but of course many families don’t feel they could commit to a SN adoption. That is why I believe education is so important, and why families considering Chinese adoption should educate themselves about the different special needs and the treatment required to see if it is a path they could handle. I think the important thing to remember, however, is that for most Americans who hear the label “special needs”, they are thinking of much more severe needs (often including mental retardation) than a lot of the kids waiting for homes today on the shared list. Almost all of the kids in our programs are classified as “special needs”, and they are these amazing, wonderful kids who would bless any family. And of course we need to keep encouraging people to at least consider a boy, as so many boys are never chosen, and they would be the most wonderful sons!

Everyone involved in Chinese orphan care is having to adapt. Orphanages are adapting to a changing population of kids and learning how to submit the files of kids with special needs. The government is adapting by increasing the per child stipend needed to provide for the essential needs of children and by introducing programs like the Blue Sky plan. Adoption agencies are having to adapt now that the NSN program has slowed and having to learn how to counsel parents considering children with medical needs. And charities are having to adapt as immediate access to health care has become such a critical need.

I am very happy for the changing attitudes that I see among so many young adults in China who now say it doesn’t matter at all to them if their child is a boy or a girl. But my heart is still burdened in a tremendous way for all of the children who have medical needs who AT THE MOMENT only have a real chance at a family through international adoption. I hope in the next ten years that we will see a marked increase in the number of Chinese families wanting to adopt through the SN path. But for now, finding families around the world is these kids’ real hope. And so anything that we can do to promote special needs adoption is very important. Even if a family decides they can’t personally take that path, they can continue to let other families know that the special needs program in China is a wonderful way to form a family.

The last post highlighted the need for men, specifically, to catch up with our stalwart sisters in taking up the cause of the fatherless.  My own father—who embodies for me the blend of gentleness and strength that marks  a man fully committed to Christ—shared with me a song last week that resounds with this theme as well.  It’s clearly from an artist with a vision for men stepping forward as fathers to the fatherless, country singer Randy Travis.

Raise Him Up

When I first met his momma
She was just 19
Couldn’t say for certain who the father was
I have known him since he was a pup
And I’m gonna raise him up

If you never knew your daddy
Like I never knew mine
It feels like everybody knows you’re fatherless
This boy may not be blood of my blood
But I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for him
Walk beside of him
I am strong enough
Cause it’s time he knew
What a son can do
With a father’s love
He can change the world

Ya’ll may have to look at Joseph
A couple thousand years ago
When he held a newborn baby he named Jesus
He said he may not be blood of my blood
Still I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for him
Walk beside of him
I am strong enough
I will show him too
What a son can do
With a fathers love
And he will change the world

33 years later
When the Son was in his grave
Broken and abandoned by a world he came to save
His real Dad said he’s mine
Blood of my blood
And I’m gonna raise him up

I’ll provide for you
Walk beside of you
I am strong enough
I have seen from you
What a son can do
With a fathers love
One man changed the world
And he can change your world
But you gotta raise him up
Raise him up

A Time for Men

It sometimes seems Christian men are ten steps behind the women in responding to God’s call to care for orphans, whether via adoption, foster care or global orphan care.  There’d be a lot to say about reasons why.   But whatever the cause, one thing is clear:  men need to know that when we talk about reflecting God’s heart for the orphan, masculinity is every bit as needed as maternal love.

Yes, to meet an orphan’s needs does call for much nurture and caregiving.   (I might add that any loving father should join and relish these involvements, too.)  But there’s another side to the call as well, a fiercer side.

The word translated “care for” or “visit” in James 1:27 is a much more potent term than we often imagine.  It carries a hint of the same thought as in our colloquial saying “show up”—as in, “…then, the Marines showed up.”   In Luke 1:68 the term is set in the context of God’s mighty rescue His people:  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people” (KJV).  We get a taste of this same call to masculine action in Isaiah’s mandate: “Defend the cause of the fatherless” (1:17).

Ultimately, the wellspring of all our actions on behalf of orphans is God’s action on our behalf:  His role as the rescuing and defending Father, His fierce pursuit and rescue of us.

This kind of active, pursuing, sacrificial, even aggressive “visiting” of orphans is a call to every man who claims the name of Christ.

The truth is, the fatherless child often faces the world without provider or protector; she lives on a precipice between poverty and predators.  Men are needed.  Real men.  As protectors and providers.  As adoptive fathers and mentors.  As defenders and champions.  The role demands struggle; we must grapple in prayer, in sacrifice, in wresting a young life from those that would use and abuse it.  This can be a bloody road, sometimes literally.  And it calls out for men to stand alongside their wives, sisters and daughters to truly “defend the cause of the fatherless.”

There is reason for hope.  Men are waking.  A small, hand-written note was left for me at Summit VI, unsigned.  It read simply, “I know of quite a few women in my hometown who would love to and have a desire to adopt or open their home for fostering children.  Sadly, none of their husbands are open to this in any way.  I’ve wondered, ‘Where are the men with a heart for the fatherless—a heart like my heavenly father.’  This is my first time at the Summit and I am blown away by the number of men here!!  And I am very encouraged.  Just wanted to pass that on.”

It’s a beautiful thing.  For Christians who yearn to see the Church grow impassioned for the Gospel and the orphan, the newly-arrived July edition of Christianity Today is little short of thrilling.  The cover declares, Abba Changes Everything:  Why every Christian is called to rescue orphans. Inside, an excellent introduction framing the magazine is headlined, “Adoption is Everywhere.  Even God is into it.”

That the leading print voice of evangelicalism in America would choose to make orphan care and adoption the center of its July magazine underscores what many of us already knew:  God is stirring His people to again be known as those who “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Is 1:17).

Page 18 begins a tremendous article by Russell Moore, which gave the magazine its cover language, “Abba Changes Everything.”  I’ve heard Dr. Moore articulate this message from the podium, via radio and over the dinner table, but I must admit I felt my heart expand against my ribcage as I read this fresh expression.  Beautiful and heartbreaking; daunting and inspiring; and profoundly rooted in the ultimate reason for it all:  the Father-love of our God revealed through the Gospel.

Page 23 starts the cover story, “Coming Alongside Parents:  Churches are getting real about adoption’s challenges—and helping families after the child arrives.”  It shares the experience of Summit VI and highlights the robust growth of orphan ministry within churches.  Writes author Carla Barnhill, “…[T]he Summit drew more than 1,200 attendees, most of them ministering to orphans through their home churches.  Watching those gathered, I knew this was not my parent’s generation.”

Finally, page 52 carries the section “My Top 5 Books on Orphan Care” that I had the opportunity to provide:   Russell Moore’s Adopted for Life, Dr. Karyn Purvis’ The Connected Child; Melissa Fay Greene’s There is No Me Without You; Tom Davis’ Fields of the Fatherless, and Doug Sauder’s The One Factor.  (Several others came to mind after I’d submitted that I wish I’d included as well, but five was the limit).

If you can, pick up a copy of CT from the newsstand today.  If not, all these articles will come available online over the month ahead, and we’ll post them on the Alliance blog as they do.  In the meantime, advocates of the orphan care take heart:  God continues to build both passion and action in His Church for these children He so deeply loves.

Cardus online carries the article, Crossing the Sahara. It explores a question that haunts many who care deeply about orphans, foster youth and other pressing needs:  Given the struggle and sorrow that mark so many attempts at bringing justice and mercy, is there really any motivation that can keep us in this work for the long haul?

Crossing the Sahara

A gripping scene in The Soloist is a moment of dark epiphany for the film’s antihero protagonist, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez. Casting about for a story to fill his syndicated column, Lopez discovers that a homeless schizophrenic he’s happened upon was once a virtuoso cellist named Nathaniel Ayers. Although Lopez has interest in little beyond good writing material, the clumsy relationship that grows between the two men slowly wakes him to genuine concern, setting Lopez on a quest to rescue Ayers from both mental illness and the streets.

After many false starts, Ayers seems to have finally turned a corner, accepting a rented apartment and playing the cello once again. But when Lopez asks him to sign some forms, Ayers’s paranoia re-ignites. He seizes Lopez by the neck and drags him to the floor, thumbs nearly crushing the terrified writer’s windpipe until Lopez finally wrests himself free and runs for dear life.  More…

One of the most thrilling things about a true movement is that new expressions of the “galvanizing conviction” start popping up everywhere.   That’s exactly what’s happening with conviction that God cares deeply for orphans and calls His people to do the same. It was just six years ago that the first Summit took place, an exciting but small and first-of-its-kind gathering.  Today, new events, conferences and regional orphan Alliances are visible and growing across America like new vegetation in springtime.  It is beautiful to see.

One upcoming event I’m particularly excited about is the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit on November 5-6, hosted by a remarkable team of local believers in Hershey, PA passionate for Christ and orphans.  With a first-rate lineup of speakers, the conference promises to be a rich and inspiring event.

But here’s another facet that’s particularly encouraging:  until recently, the Christian orphan movement was much less visible in the Northeast than, for example, in the South or Midwest.  I believe that’s starting to change, and this conference will be both a visible indication and a special catalyst of that expansion.

My prayer is that this conference will not only inspire and equip believers across the region for orphan ministry, but also bring together many men and women who’ve long been serving faithfully despite feeling a bit isolated in their mission.  The truth is, they are part of a much bigger, deeper, richer movement than they may have dreamed.  The Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit stands to be just what’s needed to give orphan advocates across the northeast and beyond a fuller sense of the countless passionate co-laborers they have in their work.