Hope for Orphans

Children are often seen as very inconsequential in our culture, and certainly not as spiritual leaders in the increasingly self-centered church of the west today. Conditions were similar in Jerusalem during the ministry of Jesus. I have always been fascinated by the passage in Matthew 21 where Jesus took very aggressive action to purge those who had made the Temple a "robbers den.” The account says that the blind and the lame came to Him for healing. But what comes after that, in verses 15 and 16, is wonderful to me:

“When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, ‘Hosanna to David's Son!’ they were up in arms and took him to task. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’

“Jesus said, ‘Yes, I hear them. And haven't you read in God's Word, “From the mouths of children and babies I'll furnish a place of praise”?’” (The Message)

Children sometimes become our spiritual leaders by modeling their simple innocence and trust. The children in this passage ran through the Temple porticos SHOUTING that this is the Messiah in fulfillment of prophecy.

At Hope for Orphans, for some time we have noted that children of today are more than simply capable of understanding the needs of orphans; they also want to do something about them. From a young Michigan boy collecting shoes to send to orphans overseas, to a teenage girl mobilizing kids to care for AIDS orphans in Africa, the next generation is poised and ready to be at the forefront of orphans ministry for years to come.

I am excited to tell you that Hope for Orphans is debuting its first churched-based resource for kids called “God’s Heart for the Orphan…and Me!”. This self-contained kit with workbooks, a game and leaders guide will be the first step in our vision to equip churches to introduce children to orphans ministry, and will give children a picture of the visible Gospel. You will learn more about this new resource in this month’s E-Newsletter. We believe that the Lord will perhaps bring a revolution of authentic Christianity to many churches through our children. We pray He will use this resource to that end.

Also, please don’t forget that you or your church can be a host for the LIVE from Nashville event with Steven Curtis Chapman, Dennis Rainey and Jim Daly on Orphan Sunday November 8th. To learn more, go to www.cryoftheorphan.org.

Blessings,

Paul

In this issue:

	Orphan Sunday, November 8, to Unite Christians Around the World In recognition of Orphan Sunday on November 8, churches are planning events all across the country. The goal of Orphan Sunday is to raise awareness of the needs of orphans and to mobilize believers to take action on their behalf. In addition to the numerous events happening in churches, Cry of the Orphan partners Focus on the Family, Show Hope, and Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife, will join together in a special event that your church can be a part of. Invite others to gather in your church or home, and watch live as Grammy award-winning artist Steven Curtis Chapman, Dennis Rainey, President of FamilyLife, and Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family as they pour out their hearts on behalf of the orphan. This special live broadcast will be made available though a web-based video stream, a satellite feed and also across a number of radio stations throughout the country. To learn more about how to involve your church in this historic event, visit CryoftheOrphan.org.

	New! Hope for Orphans Kids Resource Turns Kids into Advocates for Orphans We are excited about a new resource we are releasing this month that is aimed at sharing God’s heart for the orphan with kids. “God’s Heart for the Orphan…and Me!” helps children K through 5th grade understand God’s heart for the orphan and helps them plug into ways they can act in response. In addition to the classroom kit, we are creating a website, HopeForOrphansKids.org, that will help children learn more about the orphan crisis, God’s plan, and our part in that plan. Look for this exciting new resource, as well as the accompanying website at HopeForOrphans.org.

	Partner Spotlight -- Show Hope Helps Bring Children Home When 11 year-old Emily Chapman began her campaign to convince her parents to adopt, there is no way she could have envisioned what God would do through her family over the next few years. What began as an effort to open their home to a child in need has exploded into a ministry that is helping thousands of children find forever families…and more. Emily’s campaign to encourage her family to adopt led to the addition of three little sisters from China, and things literally took off from there. A ministry was formed (originally called “Shaohannah’s Hope” and now renamed “Show Hope”) that engages believers in caring for orphans in many ways. Hope for Orphans has been blessed to partner with Show Hope on a number of initiatives, including the annual Cry of the Orphan Campaign. Show Hope is “dedicated to engaging the church to care for orphans and reducing the financial barriers to adoption.” They are active in several ways: • They provide financial assistance to adoptive couples. They have given adoption grants to over 2000 couples and regularly grant over $1,000,000 per year in adoption funds. Show Hope also helps churches start adoption fund programs. • They participate in orphan care projects that seek to meet the needs of orphans wholistically, with the ultimate goal of finding forever families for them. They recently built a 60,000 square foot facility in China, called Maria’s Big House of Hope, which will provide medical care for up to 120 special needs orphans at any given time. • They are founding members of both the Christian Alliance for Orphans and the Cry of the Orphan Campaign, which help to mobilize the body of Christ to meet the needs of orphans around the world through whatever means God calls us to do. To find out more about Show Hope and how your church can get involved, click here.

	Hope for Orphans Welcomes Two New Team Members and Their Families Hope for Orphans is pleased to welcome two new members to the team. David Leventhal is our new Senior Operations Manager and Shane McBride will be our Manager of Church Mobilization. David and his wife of 11 years, Missy, live in Dallas with their four children, Daniel (6), Caroline (5), Abigail (3 ½), and Lillian (15 months). Three of their children are biological, with Abigail coming through adoption from Guangxi, China. David says that his family was “so impacted by the weight of the global orphan crisis and an ever-increasing burden for the ‘least of these’ that in late 2008, we followed God’s call to leave corporate America to pursue a vocation in the non-profit world. We prayed that the Lord would bring us to an organization that would allow me to leverage a decade of experience gained in banking and finance operations in a context that served the powerless and defenseless.” In his role as Senior Operations Manager, David oversees the day-to-day operations of the ministry. As David puts it, “One of the things that is most exciting to me about Hope for Orphans is the chance to use my talents, gifts and experience for something that really engages my heart. I also love that a thrust of Hope for Orphans ministry is to partner with the church – the only organization capable of solving the orphan crisis.” Missy shares her husband’s excitement for his new position, saying, “The two things I’m most excited about are getting to be a part of a ministry that will engage our whole family in helping to care for the fatherless and watching David get excited about the type of work he’s doing.” Shane and Mitzi McBride make their home in McKinney, TX, having recently relocated from Tennessee. Shane likes to say he “married up” when he and Mitzi got married seven years ago. Since their wedding, God has blessed them with two children, Zack (3 ½) and Kaytie Grace (2). They will soon travel to Ethiopia, where their 18 month-old son, Elijah, waits for them to bring him home. Shane and Mitzi are very excited about joining Hope for Orphans. As Shane puts it, “The Lord has refined our passion for orphans over the years through our experience in walking hand in hand with them. Seeing their need was so overwhelming and God would not allow us to forget them. Eventually, that led us to Hope for Orphans.” As our Manager of Church Mobilization, Shane will be working with churches around the country to build relationships that will assist in creating, building, and connecting orphan ministries. Shane shared, “Our passion is to see the church mobilized to show Christ's love and hope for His children that don't have earthly parents.” Mitzi echoes Shane’s enthusiasm, saying, “I am excited that we can pour our lives into something as a family that is so close to God's heart. I can't wait to see how God continues to move through Hope for Orphans, and how God will use that in our lives." We at Hope for Orphans are thankful for the new additions God has brought to our team and we look forward to seeing how God will use us together for His glory in the future. If you are interested in staff opportunities with Hope for Orphans that would involve raising financial support, please click here. .

	Hope for Orphans Makes Plans to Move to Dallas While Hope for Orphans has had some staff based at FamilyLife Headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, since its beginning over six years ago, our staff has never actually been housed in the same building together. Recently, an incredible opportunity arose for Hope for Orphans to make the move to a new building, called the Hope Center, which is a state-of-the-art facility opening in the next few weeks in Plano, Texas. It will be home to over 30 various ministries! Hope for Orphans is still very much a ministry of FamilyLife, and relocating to the Dallas/Ft. Worth provides the opportunity to become more centralized as a team. In addition, we will be closer to many of our partner ministries, some of which will be housed in the Hope Center as well. We are excited to develop some of those partnerships on a deeper level and we are also very excited to see what new partnerships God will bring us as we settle into our new home. Please pray for us as we make this transition. To learn more about the Hope Center, click here.

	Update on Rwanda Adoptions A few short years ago, virtually no children were being adopted out of Rwanda. Thanks in part to the efforts of our friends at the Gladney Center for Adoption, as well as Saddleback Church, that is now changing, and more children are finding forever families as a result. In fact, from 1998 through 2007, a total of 17 children were adopted into the United States from Rwanda. That number was matched in 2008 alone, as 17 children found their forever families in the United States. A bulletin posted on the Joint Council website in 2008 explained the evolving situation in Rwanda. The bulletin spoke of a delegation that met with Rwandan government officials and church and civic leaders in the summer of 2008 to discuss the orphan situation in Rwanda, efforts on behalf of orphans there, and ethical inter-country adoption, for which the Rwandan government expressed its favor. The bulletin goes on to report that the Rwandan government is seeking to secure laws and regulations that will protect its children and meet their needs. For more information on adoptions from Rwanda, please visit adoption.state.gov/country/rwanda.html. To read the Joint Council bulletin in its entirety, visit www.jcics.org/Rwanda.htm. To learn more about Gladney’s Rwanda program, please click here.

October 2009 Enewsletter