The Numbers DO Lie

As a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I followed the Albert Pujols saga this past off-season with a surprising (for me) disinterest.  Sign him and see him finish out a Hall of Fame career with the Birds on Bat.  Let him go and see my favorite team have flexibility to sign more good players to put together a better club.  Either was okay with me.

What I didn’t pay much attention to were the numbers.  The 10-year, $240 million contract (plus perks) he signed with the Angels was reportedly about $40 million more than the Cardinals offered.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how to compare those numbers.  I wouldn’t know the difference between making $24 million a year and $20 million a year.  Heck, I don’t think I could spend the difference in the two contracts over 10 years.

Orphan care numbers tend to work like that.  The conservative numbers say that there are between 132 million and 170 million orphans worldwide.  Those numbers are as incomprehensible to me as Albert Pujols’ contract numbers.  I can’t imagine 4theVoiceless or any other orphan care ministry impacting even a fraction of 38 million orphans, the difference between the two estimates.

But here’s the thing: those numbers lie.  The numbers don’t include countries (mostly Islamic nations) who don’t report orphan statistics.  They don’t include kids living in the streets.  They don’t include victims of child trafficking or child slaves or child soldiers.  The numbers lie.

I preached about God’s commands for caring for the voiceless this past Sunday at Wesleyanna UMC in Star, Mississippi.  I told about what God is doing for orphans through the ministry of our church locally and internationally.  I shared one story of two of our teams who recently built a playground for students at a school for the deaf in Jamaica and the fact that, while those students may not be included in the world’s orphan statistics, they were away from their parents much more than they were with them.  This sparked a response from my brother, who works at a facility that provides services to developmentally delayed or challenged children.  Just like those students at the deaf school in Jamaica, these kids are away from their parents for the better part of the year.  The worldwide orphan statistics don’t include those kids, either.  

The numbers lie.  The worldwide orphan crisis is even bigger than the numbers suggest.

A problem can reach a tipping point where we simply do nothing in response to the need.  As God’s people seeking to follow His revealed will to us, giving up and giving in is simply not a positive option.  When we do not attempt to do anything, well...nothing gets done.  (Feel free to Tweet that pearl of philosophical awesomeness…)  However, when we as Christ-followers begin to move toward something that God has already called us to do (like caring for orphans), it is pretty amazing how He opens doors to ministry that we didn’t even know existed.

As one individual, one family, one church at a time begins to move toward caring for the world’s orphans (including those who aren’t a part of the official numbers), things will change.  Maybe not noticeably at first, but they will change.  What’s your part?

Thanks for reading,
Al

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