About a year and a half ago, I stepped into a journey, a journey of exploration, to learn everything I could about orphan care. I had heard the alarming statistics at Catalyst and felt a tug to be a part of the solution. Whatever that meant.

 I just want to know more about what options I have for helping alleviate the orphan crisis. We are called so clearly throughout scripture to care for orphans. And I want to know how.

I quickly discovered the issue was quite complicated, there are no easy answers, and that we will all have to come together to make a dent in this worldwide crisis. 

I have been to conference after conference, listening and wondering what my part is in this story. I haven’t felt the call to adopt, at least not now.

It wasn’t until I was in Ethiopia on Saturday that I knew. Through FH’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children and Child-Headed Households programs, I could impact the lives of orphans around the world.

We met a 17 year old boy, Bona, who lost both of his parents. While he had some distant relatives who could take him in, without the care of a mother and father he remained vulnerable. But FH stepped in and sheparded the boy. He is now first in his class, studying to take his 12th grade exams and dreaming of the day when he can be a doctor.

We met a 16 year old girl, Mehret, who lost both of her parents to AIDS. She is now responsible for caring for her brother Bedilu {11} and sister Lydia {14}. All three HIV-positive and have the added burden of fighting the stigmatization of those with the disease. Community members had shunned them but FH rushed to them, loved on them, provided food and clothing, offered them legal support for their inheritance, built them a lavatory attached to their house, and trained Mehret to be a hairdresser so she could help provide for her family.

FH might not be all about adoption.

But FH is all about orphan care.

Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an A29 church in Tacoma, WA. He is leader of leaders and a coach and trainer for church planters. His background includes music, business management, working with youth, training youth workers in North America and Europe and starting new churches. Jeff moved to Tacoma from Chicago with his wife Jayne to begin planting Soma. Jeff leads a Missional Community and the Downtown Expression, and he serves all of Soma in the areas of vision and teaching. Jeff is also on the Board of Acts 29, a church planting network. Jeff and Jayne have been married over 15 years and have 3 kids: Haylee, Caleb and Maggie. He loves watching movies that make you reconsider your worldview.

Jeff’s Thoughts

Anytime you put your hope, your sense of significance, your sense of purpose, is in anything other than God and what He has done, you are choosing the world over God.

What if we start looking at our neighbors as the lost children of God?

What if you start loving other kids like you love your own kids?

We want the world to know what our Father is like. He is the father to the fatherless.

Most of our lack of love for other people is our lack of understanding of God’s love for us. Do you truly understand the depth of God’s love? You can rest, you don’t have to hide, you don’t have to perform. His love is unfailing.

We are called to be advocates for the voiceless, like Jesus was an advocate for us. Stand in the gap. Exercise advocacy. But don’t do it out of a need for advocates. Do it because some advocated for you.

Don’t let need motivate you. Let the Gospel motivate you. We are not called to be replacement saviors for the world. They aren’t going to get any help if they don’t get Jesus.

You are never going to be ready. You don’t have what it takes. He never calls you to do what you can do. He calls you to do what He can do. So that afterwards you can say,”I don’t know how we did it. But I know God was in it. May He have all the glory.”

You will never properly care for the least of these unless you realize you were the least of these.

Don’t hold onto your life. Don’t be motivated by guilt or shame. Don’t ever think that you don’t have everything you need. Love in the same manner in which you have been loved.

Let love be our motivator. And Love be our method.

Dan oversees Together for Adoption and provides thought-leadership on the theology of adoption as a team member of ABBA Fund. Before co-founding and directing Together for Adoption, Dan was a college professor of Bible and Theology. He has also served as a pastor of family ministries. As one who has been adopted by God and has adopted two children, Dan founded Together for Adoption to equip churches and educate Christians theologically about orphan care and horizontal adoption. Dan regularly writes and speaks about the Gospel and its implications for solutions to the global orphan crisis. He is the editor and primary author of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father, wrote the foreword to Heirs with Christ: The Puritans on Adoption by Dr. Joel Beeke and is a regular contributor to The Gospel Coalition Blog.

What does God really want from you?

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm 82:3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
James 1:26-27 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. [27] Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Isn’t there something much more fundamental about what He wants from us?

Matthew 22:37 And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

The question should actually be, who is God? God is the fountain of life.

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

We can’t live the Christian life well, if we think of God as primarily wanting from us.

To serve the orphan well, we must think of God primarily as a giver.

Psalm 36:1-12 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. [2] For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. [3] The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. [4] He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil. [5] Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. [6] Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.[7] How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.[8] They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.[9] For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.[10] Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart! [11] Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. [12] There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Why this Psalm at an orphan care on adoption? 

1. There is a strong connection in this Psalm to what Scripture calls sonship.
2. Drinking from the fountain of the Father’s lavish delight in us actually empowers us to live on the razor sharp edge of the world’s profound brokenness.
3. Orphans need Christians who feast on the abundance of God’s house and whom God causes to drink from the river of his delights (Psalm 36:8).
4. Christians who experience God the Giver are much better equipped to love the child who comes from or lives in the hard place.

What orphans need is Christians, who by the grace of God, drink the spirit that is “the Niagara” of Jesus. 

Let the Together for Adoption Conference session notes begin. First up was Darrin Patrick.

Darrin Patrick serves as lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Missouri, which he founded in 2002. Darrin also serves on the board of directors of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network as Vice President and is a regular contributor at the Resurgence. His passion is to help the church understand and live the gospel in the world. Today, The Journey runs eight services across four campuses and continues to aggressively plant new campuses and churches in the Saint Louis region and beyond. He has written two books, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission and A Church for the City with Matt Carter. Darrin is married to his high school sweetheart, Amie, and they have four beautiful children: Glory, Grace, Drew, and Delaney. Darrin enjoys vacations with his family, basketball, good food, good books, good movies, and weightlifting.

“I didn’t want to build a good church, I wanted to build a great city.”

But here were the alarming stats in the city where he lives and works, Saint Louis: 15,000 single moms, 30% of people living in poverty, 3,000 kids in foster care, and 54% of kids not graduating from high school.

His Thoughts

Preaching and gathering (proclamation) was not enough. We needed to do something.

We are called to love God and love people. If you don’t understand that is a tension. You aren’t doing either.

There is a natural tension there. Jesus felt it too. Yet, He was never so distracted by the needs of people that He failed to reach their greatest need through ministry and teaching.

Social justice will distract people from the gospel. It is imperative that we nail down the definition of the gospel. And understand that we don’t do works to receive grace but because we have received grace.

If you don’t know your neighbors, don’t go and do something to change the world. Go, get to know them, and go meet some of those needs.

Social injustice is taking advantage of people who have little or no power. Social justice is meeting the tangible needs of those who have little or no power and fighting systematic oppression that drives the injustice.

What do we do?

The church is called, first and foremost, to proclaim the gospel.

You must not use social justice to avoid the offense of the cross.

Churches should plant other churches.

The “institutional” church must equip individuals who will become the “organic” church.

Want to learn more about missional living and our call as Christians to care for orphans in their distress?

Join me and a host of others from October 21-22 in Phoenix for Together for Adoption (T4A) Conference 2011. Over 1,200 people will gather together at Redemption Church (Gilbert Campus) to explore the theme Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care. One of the primary objectives for this year’s conference is to create a forum to consider the good news of the Gospel, explore its implications for how we think about and implement orphan care strategies, and discuss how we can move toward greater collaboration as the people of God for the sake of orphans worldwide.

General session speakers include: Darrin Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Tim Chester, Bryan Loritts, Juan Sanchez, and Jeff Vanderstelt.

Worship Leaders: Shaun Groves, Aaron Ivey, and Jimmy McNeal

General Session Hosts: Shaun Groves and Johnny Carr (National Director of Church Partnerships at Bethany Christian Services)

Register for Together for Adoption 2011 Conference in Phoenix for just $75 Monday, July 25th, through Saturday, July 30th. This limited-time discount is over $30 less than the current early bird special.

See you in Phoenix?

Jedd Medefind (Christian Alliance for Orphans)

It is not about just taking up another cause. A gospel-fueled love for Orphans entails:

1. When the going gets tough, duty, guilt, and enthusiasm are not enough. We need to be people connected to the Source.
2. 2. When we choose to love the orphans, when we open our homes, when we break into our safety accounts to give, we are forced to give up our false Gods.
3. We must reflect the story of how we have been taken into God’s family.

Florence Muindi (Life in Abundance International)

We thought our hands were full but God helped us realize a deeper kingdom opportunity.

“I saw children that were in desperate need but children that were equally loved by God. In those children, I saw the face of Christ. I was ashamed, convicted, and changed. I realized I had to respond. I battled for several days. Then I realized I needed to do things differently, I needed to utilize the local church– decreasing myself, so Christ can be lifted up. I needed to craft a response that was both curative and God dependent.”

God cares about how we help. We need to spend time in prayer not just about the what, but about the how.

We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. If we employ our mind in this response, we will see that communities of children are broken. Dealing with a child is only dealing with an outcome. We need to address the system that is producing orphans.

Together we can move past the initial response and get into the transformation process. This would look like restoring children AND empowering the destitute, mending the care and support systems of a community, and aiding in development.

Dennis Rainey (Family Life Today) interviewing Carolyn Twietmeyer (Project Hopeful)

“Growing up I never could reconcile why there were people who needed so much and we had extra to share, but we weren’t.”

Carolyn had 4 children. She and her husband had 3 more together. Then they adopted 3 from Ethiopia, one with HIV. While in Ethiopia, met another girl with HIV whose health was rapidly deteriorating. Went back to get her. Then adopted her brother and sister. This Easter they adopted a little girl with Downs Syndrome.

Not independently wealthy and her husband Kyle makes $64,000. Took extra mortgage on their home. Got no grants. She believed that God is going to pay for the adoption. She didn’t know how, but she acted in faith. Found out while in Ethiopia, someone made an anonymous donation of $20,000 for their adoption.

Russell Moore (Southern Seminary)

We are afraid of orphans. Because orphans are unpredictable. There is always some kind of tragedy. We would rather not think of such things. We are afraid of the mark left on the victims of tragedy.

God, in his adopting power thru Jesus, has brought us into his family. We reach orphans as ex-orphans ourselves.

As we move into the dangerous we places, we empower others to live courageously. What do we have to be afraid of anymore? Jesus has given us a path. When we love in the sad, dark, haunted places; children who we are afraid of, we follow Jesus there.

For the next couple of day, I am in Louisville, Kentucky at Southeast Christian Church at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit (aka #summit7). The Summit brings a wide variety of people who are orphan advocates. As Brett Devries said in his opening comments,

We are called together to inspire, equip, breathe life into the church so they can go out and care for orphans.

Just wanted to give you a heads up before I flood you with notes from the conference. I hope you will take a few minutes to scan through them and see if there any topics that interest you.

You will quickly see that orphan advocacy is more than a conversation about adoption. It is also a conversation about legislation, foster care, mentoring, trafficking, supporting indigenous cultures and families, and most importantly emulating God’s love for us.

Thank you for following along on this journey. If you would like to follow others who are passionate about this issue, be sure to check out the conversation on twitter.

What do you know about orphan advocacy?

Listening to the myriad of speakers at Idea Camp expounding on Orphan Care, I was struck by the fact that we live in a fallen world. An ugly, broken, fallen, world. And even the best of intentions can be distorted into well, evil.

It breaks my heart. Really.

Before Idea Camp I over-simplified the problem and the solutions.

There are under-resourced kids desperate for parental care. And there are over-resourced people who want to expand their families and follow God’s not so subtle commandment to look after the orphans. We just need to implement system that is a win-win. A system that matches the haves and the have-nots. And remove all that sticky-red-tape.

But sadly it is not that simple.

We are too used to getting what we want, when we want it, in just the right package. Money exchanges hands. Children are plucked out of their homelands to start a new life.

Sometimes beauty is made from ashes. But, the alarming reality is that, sometimes families are not just created in the process, families are broken.

There are difficult questions the Church needs to be asking about how we ethically “do” adoption (I do wholeheartedly believe in adoption) and other forms of orphan care, about how we help without hurting, and about how we leave everyone we encounter confident in the the hope of the Gospel.

We must refuse to accept ignorance because it is easier, because it is more convenient, and because we are afraid of what answers we will unearth. Our efforts on behalf of the orphans need to be clothed in knowledge and in Truth.

I left Northwest Arkansas with more questions, more ambiguity, and more confusion, than I had when I arrived. But I also left with an ignited passion to learn everything I can about how I can best serve this important group of children that God loves so fervently. I consider myself blessed to have been a part of such an incredible event, and of such an open and raw conversation.

Did you attend or follow along with Idea Camp: Orphan Care? What were some of your takeaways?

So, I’m sorry. Really sorry. I STILL owe you a post on my ever-evolving thoughts on Orphan Care. Tuesday, I promise. My only excuse is that I got about half way through a draft and then got sucked into the craziness that is Catalyst West.

Orange County was absolutely beautiful. I ate In-N-Out Burger twice. The speakers were wonderfully challenging. I met several new friends and reunited with a ton of old ones. Catalyst West is definitely worth the trip.

Oh, and I had the opportunity to sit down with Bianca Juarez and Brian Wurzell on Catalyst Backstage and talk about…well, I will let you watch and see for yourself. Stick with it and you will see me go from winter white to a brilliant shade of red.

Click here to watch.

Were you at Catalyst West or did you watch along online? If so, what were your highlights?

Making my way towards California for Catalyst West and have finally found the first quiet time to begin to process, to deconstruct, everything I took in at Idea Camp: Orphan Care. What an incredible couple of days. I’m so glad I followed God’s nudging and ventured out to Northwest Arkansas (which surprisingly is a pretty incredible place).

I stayed with Amber and Seth Haines because they offered, and I have learned my favorite part of traveling and attending conferences is the relationships I bring home with me.  There is no better way to get to KNOW friends than being fully immersed in their lives. I loved waking up each morning and to non-stop questions from the 3 Haines boys. It took about a minute for them to steal my heart. Sadly the answer to “Lindsey, do you know what?” and “did you know?” always seemed to be “no.” But I left Saturday well-versed in all things Star Wars, Shrek 3, and even learned the difference between dying and “passing away”. You can’t get that kind of knowledge at a hotel!

And the conference, well, the conference was thought-provoking, mind-blowing, and perfectly overwhelming.

I went in looking for answers. (I always go in looking for answers.)

What are the different ways individuals can get involved with Orphan Care?

How can God use me to make a difference?

And even…Could I, should I, adopt a child…someday?

But left knowing only one thing for sure.

Conferences are not the place to go looking for answers. They are the place to go to encounter new people, to explore new ideas, and to stretch your preconceived notions.

When in search of answers, I need to look inside myself and to God and reconnect with who I am and where God is leading me.

In one rare moment of quiet and clarity, I heard God say, “Do the work. Figure it out. It’s all there. Dig for it.”

So that’s where I am.

Working, figuring, digging.

Are you like me and tend to look anywhere, everywhere, for answers that only God holds?

And for those who are interested in learning more about orphan care, tomorrow I will share my thoughts on what I heard from the experts who are in the trenches caring for orphans.