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My wife, Loretta, and I traveled to beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, last week to take part in Summit 9, the annual global orphan conference put together by the Christian Alliance for Orphans. In nine years Summit has grown from just over 30 people to this year's over 2,500 (with registration closing early due to space limitations). At least 25 countries were represented as well as 49 states (Come on, Vermont!). The energy, focus, and passion of this year's gathering was most inspiring and contagious, most challenging.
I will not try to summarize everything that we experienced, though much of what I learned and was challenged with will find its way through the blog in days to come. For today, I have pulled five nuggets from my notes, each with a question to challenge you to action on behalf of the millions of at-risk children in the world. As you consider each question, though, don't think in terms of millions; think in terms of individual orphans that you may or may not yet know. Kids who are waiting for you to act on their behalf.
Nugget #1
Stephen Ucembe, a Kenyan pastor who was orphaned in a tragic way at age five, shared that he hated the term "I love you" because he never heard it as a child. He recalled that when visitors came, they always picked the cutest kids to hold and to play with; he was never chosen. His most beautiful memory of childhood was receiving a Christmas package from a lady in her 70's, a lady he had never met, from England. In that package was a four-page letter in which she wrote, "I love you."
Many of you already sponsor at-risk children around the world. We might think that our $25, $30, $35, $40 per month sponsorship is bringing great blessing to those children (and it is!), but would you go a step further and also write a letter to your child in which you tell him/her "I love you"?
Nugget #2
U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann from Minnesota, a leading Congressional advocate for orphan care, was introduced to foster care through a friend at church. In the years that followed, the Bachmanns brought 23 foster kids into their home, and each one graduated high school (If you have ever looked at the statistics, you know that this is an amazing feat!). She recalled how therapeutic it was for the older children to engage with the younger children and for the younger children to engage with the older.
How will you intentionally train your children of whatever age to wisely engage with at-risk children?
Nugget #3
Jedd Medefind, president of Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), announced to the crowd in the sanctuary of conference host Brentwood Baptist Church and to those in the overflow room that Summit has always been held in a local church because local churches were the answer to the world's orphan crisis. I'm not sure any more profound words were shared in the entire conference.
Simply, what are you doing in your local church to carry out God's command to His people to care for orphans? If you are a part of our faith family at Colonial Hills Church and you don't know what this looks like for you, I would love to sit down and have a conversation with you about how much there is to do and how you can get involved.
Nugget #4
Bishop W.C. Martin of Possum Trot, Texas, absolutely captivated the crowd with his larger-than-life personality and the story of how his church, Bennett's Chapel in the tiny little town of Possum Trot, has adopted over 70 children from foster care. They have not provided out of their excess but out of a compelling desire to follow God's command to care for the orphan. Their story has put Possum Trot, Texas, on the map. (Just in case you were wondering, Bishop Martin reports that Possum Trot is "on the other side on Coonville.")
Will you consider the needs of children at risk from God's perspective and the child's perspective before your own perspective and see how God compels you to act out in faith?
Nugget #5
"Adoption begins with a parent's initiative, not with a child's choice.""An orphaned child (who was ultimately adopted into a family) has no idea of the pursuit that had taken place on his behalf."
"The gospel does not begin with our pursuit of Christ but with His pursuit of us."
-- David Platt
If you have been involved in any aspect of caring for orphans -- adoption, helping others adopt, fostering, local and global orphan homes, whatever your involvement may have been -- how will you use your experience and your stories to share the gospel?
Thanks for reading. Now take action. I would love to hear your responses to the challenges I have set before you today.
4theVoiceless,
Al
