Today is Orphan Sunday.
A Sunday set aside to think and talk about the Orphan.
It is estimated that there are 147 million children
who are currently not being raised in a family
of their own.
Maybe their parents are dead.
Maybe their parents have abandoned them.
Maybe their parents have had them removed from their care.
But no matter how they arrived at the situation they are in,
they currently are NOT in a permanent family.
Maybe they are in foster care.
Maybe they are in an orphanage.
Maybe they are living on the streets.
But each one matters to God.
And He has commanded His church to care for them.
The widow and the orphans.
147 million is a big number.
But each one of the children
that each one of those numbers represents
have faces...
A face like Julia...
who was living in an orphanage.
A good one, but there was no one person to whom she belonged.
No one to listen to her fears, to tell her hopes and dreams to.
She had never had even a single visitor.
No one had ever come to see her.
And now she lives in a family who loves her.
She is full of joy!
Or a face like Hannes...
He was living in an orphanage...
one in a difficult country
doing the best they could with the little they had...
He spent much of his life in a crib, this crib - one of several in the room...
And his record shows that he never had a single visitor.
No one ever came to see him.
But now...
...now he has received the medical care he needed
and he is thriving in his family.
But these are just two of so many...
That we saw in just two of the many orphanages around the world...
We have seen them...
We have held them in our laps...
We have kissed their cheeks...
We have whispered love in their ears...
and then we left...
and they are still there...
And that really hurts my heart...
We spent every day of 6 weeks with these two...
loving them,
smiling with them,
playing with them,
and then we left
and Lola cried.
I still hear her cry in my heart...
It isn't easy
It's costly
in more ways than just financial
Broken children are broken
and they hurt
and they carry that hurt inside them
because they are supposed to be loved
and they know that...
God knows that...
and He has told the church that they are to care
for widows and orphans
two groups of people that are
so vulnerable.
There is much you can do...
adopt
foster
give time to a foster child
give to a family who is fostering (high chair, carseat, clothes, treats)
give generously to an organization who directly works with an orphanage
sponsor a child
give to a family who is adopting
pray for the children and the families..
It is big
It is hard
But oh the joy!!
The joy that they bring!!
Let this Orphan Sunday be the day that you do something for an Orphan...
