Orphan Care-Rick Warren

This week is Cry of the Orphan week at several large pro-family organizations. Focus on The Family, Family Life Today, Crown Financial and Shaohannah's Hope have teamed up together to draw national attention to the plight of the orphans of today. I have such tremendous respect for these ministries for what they are working together to do.

I have been listening to the several radio broadcasts they have dedicated to the orphan this week. I cried many tears yesterday as I listened to the story of a woman, who 20 years ago, when she was 17, found herself pregnant. She told how she struggled with whether to abort her baby, keep it or allow it to be adopted. After a Focus on the Family broadcast, she decided to give her newborn son to a Christian couple. Now, many years later, she has met her son and they have a relationship. He loves her and respects her greatly, for the selfless sacrifices she made so that he could have life and grow up in a loving, God-fearing home.

Also, yesterday, during the Family Life Today broadcast, I cried as Rick Warren told how he and his wife Kaye, began their church's orphan ministry. Rick Warren is the pastor of one of the nation's largest churches, Saddleback Community Church in Southern California. He told how, while on a trip to a tiny village in Africa. He visited a church there to discover 50 adults and their families along with 25 young AIDS orphans, worshiping together. He came away with the realization that the tiny church in Africa, was doing more o help the orphans than his mega-church. It convicted him tremendously and he began an Orphan ministry in his church.

The facts and figures given yesterday during the broadcast are heart breaking. The broadcast is a repeat so these numbers are a bit old. Right now, a I write this, there are 150 million orphans in the world. 150 million! Over 40 million of those orphans are in Africa alone. There are 115,000 children in the United States, right now, that do not have a family of their own. This is America, and we have orphans looking for a Mom and Dad to call their own.

With 150 million orphans in the world currently, if we assume a typical orphanage takes in 100 children(a high estimate in most cases), it would take 1.5 million orphanages to care for them all. In reality, an orphanage is not God's plan for His children. Ideally, each child should have a family. I will speak more on that in a few days.

God has put the orphans on Shannon's and my heart since we were dating during our teen years. We talked about foster care even back then and it has graduated to adoption and now, moving to Africa, to try to make a difference in more lives. What is God asking you to do for the orphan? There are so many ways you can help- foster care, domestic or international adoption, misssions, or financially supporting those who are doing any of that. Please, ask God how he wants you to help. Those dirty, snotty, fly-covered and yet beautiful faces you see on TV are real. Each of those children has a soul and a need for love, care and Christ.