A central conviction underlying the work of the Christian Alliance for Orphans is that Christians can’t answer God’s call to care for the fatherless via formal organizations alone.  Rather, meeting the deepest needs of an orphaned boy or girl requires the personal, wholehearted involvement of caring believers:  as foster parents and mentors, adoptive families and engaged supporters of orphan care ministry.  Just as important, this personal involvement isn’t the role of an isolated family here and there acting alone, but ideally will happen as part of communities in local churches that walk this journey together, supporting, encouraging and enabling each other.

An article last week by our good friend Dan Cruver on www.edstetzer.com does an excellent job explaining why this vision isn’t the sole territory of the large, well-resourced church.  Rather, he explains that often it is the small church that embraces orphan ministry in the fullest manner possible:  not seeing it merely as “one more good cause” but as a core aspect of the church’s character, representing not only a ministry of mercy, but also a vital force for discipleship and proclamation of the Good News.

Read the whole article here.  And, if you haven’t already, make sure to register for Together for Adoption’s upcoming conference in Austin.

I spent the last two days in Louisville along with my trusted Alliance co-laborer, Elizabeth Wiebe, laying groundwork for Summit VII (May 11-13, 2011).  We came away full up with enthusiasm and certain there could not be a better location for next year’s Summit.

Louisville is a beautiful city and will be in top shape in mid-Spring a week after the Kentucky Derby (thankfully minus the crowds.)  Meanwhile, the facilities at Southeast Christian Church are nothing short of amazing.  The area is also easily accessible by road from countless southern and mid-western cities, and via air as well.

Yet there’s one factor far more compelling than any of the others.  Henry Blackaby urges, “Look for where God is working and join Him there.”  In orphan care, the Louisville region certainly fits that description.  Churches across the city and surrounding areas are at the forefront of the stirring that’s happening all across the country as Christians rise to God’s call to “defend the fatherless.”  The community is alive with energy for this work, from huge congregations like Southeast Christian Church and Highview Baptist, to an expansive network of small churches across southern Indiana, to the region-wide Orphan Care Alliance, to all that Russell Moore is doing out of SBTS.

Best of all, these churches and many others are taking a personal ownership of Summit VII.  It will not only be an event of national reach and global impact.  It will also be a conference truly rooted in the local church.  We’re excited to pair this local team with the volunteers that step forward from around the country to make Summit all it can be.

Elizabeth and I are now headed back to our respective offices on our respective coasts (DC and CA), but we leave refreshed by the time with such remarkable friends, new and old.  Just as much, we’re more excited than ever by the glimpses of all that God is doing in the area already, and by all that will happen when we (and you!) get to join Him there next May!

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.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of being interviewed by a friend, Ken Coleman, the voice of the highly popular Catalyst podcast series.  Catalyst is a potent influencer of young pastors and other leaders, so it’s been exciting to see how Ken and other Catalyst leaders are using their platform to challenge Christian leaders to consider adoption and other ways of caring for orphans.  Ken asked great questions as an interviewer—perhaps in part because he’s an adoptive father himself.  Hear the Alliance segment of the podcast here.

Last month marked the half-year anniversary since Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake. Aside from the small uptick in coverage at the milestone, the eyes of the world have largely turned elsewhere: oil leaks, soccer matches, November elections. Of course, this was all but inevitable. The 24-hour news cycle is fueled by “new,” and tales of ongoing struggle, grinding poverty, and a less-than-hoped-for rebuilding are anything but new.

There’s certainly good reason for frustration at the reality every news programmer knows all too well: news consumers rarely remain interested in other people’s tragedy for more than a few months, at most. Such is human nature, as much a testimony to evil in our world as Haiti’s earthquake itself. The truth is, if we tried to sustain concern for every tragedy we’ve ever seen on TV, we’d melt like cheese on a stovetop. So, as the media’s conveyor belt of heartbreaking stories rolls on, we are left making uneasy peace with an emotional journey that looks like an EKG: long stretches of numbed apathy spiked by occasional moments of empathetic sorrow. Is this really the best way to live?

Read the full article on Cardus online.

One of the slipperiest elements of orphan advocacy is the statistics often quoted to describe the number of orphans worldwide.

These often-varying estimates are sometimes misstated and frequently misapplied. For example, the various global estimates (143 M, 145 M, 163 M, etc) are often quoted in ways that imply that all of these children have no living parents.  It’s hard not to make that mistake, since most people typically think of an “orphan” as a child that has lost both parents.  But since global orphan estimates include children who’ve lost either one or both parents, roughly 90 percent of children classified as “orphans” have one living parent.  This does not mean that these children are not highly vulnerable, but it does mean that the best response to their needs is often not adoption or some form of orphan home, but helping the family remain intact or reunite.

In recent years, the most frequently quoted numbers have been UNICEF estimates.  However, the data used to produce UNICEF’s most recent estimate (145 million) is three years old.  Previous UNICEF estimates also include the frequently quoted 143 million figure.

The most recent and, according to many experts, most accurate numbers we have at this point are those delivered in a U.S. government report from late 2009.   These numbers are expected to be updated late this year.  This report projects:

• Total global orphan estimates for 2008 are 163 million (Children having lost one or both parents).
• Of these, an estimated 55.3 million have lost a mother and 126 million have lost a father.
• An estimated 18.3 million children have lost both parents.

In addition to the fact that such statistics are often misquoted or misunderstood, the simple truth is that statistics rarely motivate to action.  If anything, they create a paralyzing sense of “what can one person do?”  (See this prior blog posts on the shortcomings of orphan statistics).  So, while it certainly is important to have a good grasp of the numbers and what they actually mean, it is vital that advocates emphasize the most important statistic of all:  it only takes one caring individual to transform the life of an orphan.

Finally, Christians also need to understand that the biblical concept of “orphans” or “the fatherless” found throughout Scripture is a category that includes much more than just the boy or girl who has lost both parents.  Rather, it describes the child that faces the world without provider or protector.  Some children who fit this description have one living parent.  In some cases, such children may even have two living parents who’ve abandoned or abused them, or simply have no capacity to care for them.  No statistical analysis will ever perfectly capture the global number of children who fit in this category, but that need be of little concern.  Ultimately, God’s call is to defend the defenseless child—whatever the particulars of her situation may be.

I had the privilege recently of guest blogging for our friends at Together for Adoption–some simple reflections on the way adoption and orphan care so often blend beauty and sorrow…

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Last weekend, my brother and I hiked deep into California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Our mission: to re-supply my father and his two close friends who are fulfilling a lifelong dream of hiking the John Muir Trail, 210 miles of breathtaking, rugged wilderness.  Their faces glowed as they described the glories of God’s creation they’ve encountered, from Alpine meadows to granite peaks.  But my father’s friend Henry, though never losing his smile, also reminded, “There’s been real pain, too.”  Severe blisters, cramping legs, shoulder pain, biting hailstorms and cold to the verge of hypothermia were just a partial list.  It was clear the three hikers were having the time of their lives, but pain was interwoven with the journey.

It is easy to feel it should be otherwise.  Something deep inside us still recalls the world before the Fall and joins creation in groaning at all the things that aren’t the way they should be.  But the simple truth is that this side of heaven, most anything worth doing comes with pain—care for orphans via adoption, foster care or global ministry as much as any.

Of course, keeping our roots in Scripture (from Jesus’ words about “counting the cost” to Hebrews 11:36-38) disabuses us of any fantasy that health and wealth are guaranteed compensation for faithfulness.  Yet still there is a temptation to gloss over the difficult thing or just shove them under the carpet.  In adoption ministry, for instance, there can be a pull toward making “ministry” mainly a “cheerleading” for Christians to adopt with little emphasis on support after the child has come home.  There’s certainly a place for helping people see the beauty and purposefulness discovered in adoption and other forms of orphan care.  But ultimately we need to know:  there will be pain, too.

What’s tremendously heartening is that the movement of Christians committed to orphans is coming to embrace that truth.  I increasingly hear church orphan ministry leaders talk about the journey—that long, often beautiful, often difficult road that comes with loving anyone for a lifetime, especially a child coming from a hard place.

My prayer is that more and more, church orphan ministry will be a place where this beauty-mixed-with-pain is shown for what it is:  an inescapable reality of life in a broken world and a journey worth taking.  May it be that in church, like nowhere else, worn out foster parents, struggling adoptive families and weary orphan care workers can speak transparently about their burdens.  And where others can help them bear the load in discerning, well-prepared, sacrificial ways.  That’s church orphan ministry—and just plain Church—at its very best.

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.

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.”