When Love Takes You In

Several years ago a young girl by the name of Sofi was born in Siberia, a bitterly cold and desolate area of Russia. A difficult place to be a child but Sofi’s life was going to be even rougher than most. She was an orphan and most likely would remain in that orphanage until age 15. Then suddenly at the age of 2 she was adopted, sight unseen, by Laurie Collis a single mother in Scottsdale, Arizona.

At home in the U.S., Sofi adjusted to her new life and was doing well. So well in fact, that she entered an essay contest and out of 10,000 applicants, she won! As a result, she came to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the lift off of the Mars Rover.

While there she was asked to read an excerpt from her winning essay. Here is part of it: "I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely. At night, I looked up at the sparkly sky and felt better. I dreamed I could fly there. In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for giving me the ’Spirit’ and the ’Opportunity’."

Today, years after landing on Mars, little robots named Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring opposite sides of that distant world. By now you have figured out that the contest Sofi entered and won was to name these two Martian vehicles. But what you don’t know is that "Spirit" and "Opportunity" are not just the names of the Mars rovers. They are also the two attitudes she said she discovered in her new home in America.

Like Sofi, orphaned and abandoned children around the world today are often the most helpless and hopeless of all people. Sadly, they are also (all too frequently) the most oppressed and abused as well. With all of this sadness it would be easy to think that God just doesn’t care but He does – and He will judge those who hurt them as well as those who chose not to help, who chose to walk away, who ignore the cries for help. You see, God is the only judge that matters on the Supreme Court and He has a huge heart for the least of these. Thousands of years ago, this truth was written:

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling (Psalm 68:5)

The Bible has a lot to say about orphans, and about the fatherless. Why does the Bible mention orphans and the fatherless so often? I believe it is because God values them and He wants us to value them as well. Although some try to find a way out, there is not much wiggle room in this passage written by the Apostle James:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

I am convinced friends that with God’s help, each of us can change the world and leave it better than when we found it. Some may be called to adopt from Siberia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti or elsewhere. And some can be involved right here with children in our communities without moms and dads. There are thousands of children in foster care who need families, who need to know that the Father loves them and that they are valued for who they are – life created in His image. They will not know that truth unless we become like Jesus to these children.

Many that I speak with say that becoming a foster care parent is not for them. That’s ok BUT we need to know that there is more than one way to "look after" (the verb that the Apostle James used) these children. If our heart is aligned with Jesus, He will show us how to help. We need to remember that He took the first step. It was His love that took us into His arms when we were still orphans of God.

That’s a beautiful thing when loves takes you in, isn’t it? Every Child's Hope is to have a home. Next weekend - you can find out how. See http://www.everychildshope.info/ for more information.

Caution: Cardboard Children Ahead

One year ago this month, life-size cardboard cutouts of children started appearing on the National Mall in Washington, DC at the rate of 850 a day. Why? To illustrate just how many kids are entering foster care on a daily basis.

The exhibit, Forgotten Children -- Foster Children Take a Stand, was intended to raise public awareness of the struggles of an estimated 513,000 foster kids nationwide, many of whom were removed from their original homes because of suspected abuse or neglect.

A study done by the Dave Thomas Foundation, identified the fact that 48 million Americans have considered foster care. Most Americans however, have misperceptions about the process and the children who are eligible for adoption. These misperceptions include the following:

• 67 % of people considering adoption from foster care are concerned that biological parents can return to claim the children. Truth is that once the court finalizes the legal termination of parental rights, the parents can never return to claim the child.
• 46 % mistakenly believe foster care adoption is expensive. Truth is that there is very little cost to adopt from foster care, with financial support when necessary.
• 45 % believe children in foster care are juvenile delinquents. Truth is that the vast majority of children entered the system through no fault of their own, as victims of neglect, abandonment and/or abuse.

The problems of foster children in this country are largely invisible because most people don't see these children. But the Lord sees them and knows them by name.

Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest." Luke 9:48

The greater Cincinnati area has a large population of Bible believing churches that come alive on Sunday. During the week many of them are involved in making our communities a better place to live. Wouldn’t it be incredible if these churches began to “see” these foster care children as the Lord sees them? Wouldn’t it be incredible if these churches left the 99 and went to find the 1 that was lost?

There are 22 churches in Cincinnati now that have become part of this miracle, they are the Coalition of Care churches. They can be found at www.achildshopeintl.org/CoalitionPartners.html

It will take more than these 22 churches to solve the foster care problem in the greater Cincinnati area but it is a start – a good start.

Is your church involved? It can be. Speak to your church leadership about the Coalition of Care and share with them the love of the Father for these special children. Encourage them to share the message of Every Child's Hope Weekend which will happen on May 29-31, 2009. Check it out at www.everychildshope.info

Every Child's Hope.... is to have a home. Is there room in yours?

The Spectator

Do you see the spectator in this picture? Probably not. The spectator is holding the camera. In 1993, Kevin Carter made a life changing trip as a photographer to Sudan. The story tells of him hearing the sounds of whimpering child outside of a local village. He followed the sounds to an emaciated toddler, a little girl stopping to rest as she tried to get to a feeding center nearby. There was another figure in this scene, the vulture waiting for the little girl to die.

At this point in the story, it is unclear what happened next. Some say that Carter simply turned and walked away. Others say that he chased the vulture away. What we do know to be true is that the little girl remained there in the dirt, without help and without food. The photographer was just another spectator who could have helped but did not - he passed the girl by. As did a religious leader and a “Godly” person in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Like Carter, these people had important work to do and this unfortunate distraction was not in their vision statement, agenda nor in their budget plans.

Carter sold the photo to the New York Times where it appeared in March 1993. A year later, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in May 1994.

Three months later, in July 1994 Carter drove to an area where he used to play as a child, and took his own life at the age of 33. The note he left behind tells of nightmares he could not forget.

Today, in full view of the world, there are 30,000 children who die daily from hunger and the effects of extreme malnutrition. 30,000 children who are weak, starving and alone. As with the vulture in this picture, death awaits them.

There are many “Churches” like Carter who are spectators to the suffering of the innocent, seeing and then passing by. Even when told of the need, they make intentional choices:

• To do church as normal - busy within the church but seldom outside the church with those who need help
• To offer great exposition on suffering, with deep theological treatises - but never getting down in the dirt
• To withhold help offering wise retorts instead - i.e. didn't Jesus say we would always have the poor with us?
• To spend the offering on important things - but seldom sacrificing for the poor, the oppressed and the hungry

Although Luke 10 does not state why the “Church” walked by the suffering man, it could be that any of the above choices would have applied back then as they do today.

Thankfully, there are many vibrant and caring churches around the world that are living out the Gospel. Sadly though, there are far too many Churches that are nothing more than Spectator Churches – seeing the suffering of the innocent and walking away from their biblical responsibility.

Like Kevin Carter, a Spectator Church may win an award or two for wonderful worship programs, great seminars, a new book or a fantastic web site. Like Kevin Carter, they will not last. The Churches that will last Cry for the Children.

What is a Restavec?

Some of you have helped provide food to the malnourished children of Haiti through our Kids Against Hunger program. In case you are wondering, we are not done! Even though the recession has hurt us, the work must continue even during these hard economic times – and Lord willing, we will!

There is a large group of Haitian children that you may not be aware of. Children called restavecs.

If you are a restavec:

• You are one of 300,000 Haitian child slaves.
• You are from an isolated, rural area of Haiti where there are no schools, no electricity, no running water and no future.
• You now live in the city with a family who is not your own - not adopted, not as a foster child, but as their servant.
• You are between the ages of 5 and 15.
• You are three times more likely to be a girl than a boy.
• You get up before dawn, to serve your master, his wife and children and go to bed only after your work is done.
• You empty bedpans, prepare meals, haul water from the well, clean inside and outside the house, and do laundry.
• You don't get paid for any of these activities.
• You rarely get to see your family. You might not even remember where they live.
• You rarely, if ever, go to school.
• You do not get enough to eat especially for someone who works hard all day.
• You are subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
• You are a child slave.

A local group trying to help these “restavec” children will be stopping by the "Factory" next Saturday to see how we can help them. They need food for the families that are releasing their children as restavecs (a French word which means to "stay with"). These families want their children but cannot feed them. In many cases, they believe that their children will be better cared for by others. They do not know that they will become child slaves. Now you do.

The poverty that paralyzes Haiti today was not always there. That island was once free, idyllic and safe for children to live, grow and to have families of their own. But slavery changed all that. We must remember though that a time is coming when the Great Emancipator will come back. Until then, He has commanded us to go, He has empowered us to serve and He has blessed us with the resources needed to set the captives free.

Paul once wrote (Galatians 4:13)
My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything that you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love

Right now, children in Haiti and ALL OVER THE WORLD are being sold into slavery. They have no choice. We do. So here comes the question:

Is your freedom working to serve others?

A Child's Hope International exists because the children are waiting – will you help us? Visit the website at http://www.achi.us/ to find out how. We need your help. Donate if you can, email us on the web site or leave comments here on this blog to encourage the team involved with this work.

The Elephant in the Room

"So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound… But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

(Martin Luther King Jr. - Excerpts from his Letter from the Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963)

This martyr spoke about the elephant that nobody wanted to admit was there. Back then, it was the elephant of black injustice in America. For the most part, the Church ignored that the elephant was there even though it was huge and could not be avoided.

Just last week I returned from Haiti, a small Caribbean island just south of Cuba. Ravished by years of poverty, the toll upon the women and children there is tragic. Reports by CBN, claim that one in five children die from hunger causes. Can you imagine your children so hungry that you offer to give them to strangers - not because you don't love them - but so that they will live? That happened to us on Saturday night. A peasant woman handed us her son Job, just 6 weeks old, because she had no food for him.

One out of four children in developing countries is underweight. 350 to 400 million are chronically hungry. 40% of the people of the world live on less than $2 a day. One child dies (dead) every six seconds from hunger related causes. Thankfully, the Church is helping to correct this modern day injustice – defined so clearly in the Bible. But read this carefully: the American Church, with the wealthiest Christians in all of history, gives less than 2% to assist the poor worldwide.

Friends, there is an elephant in the room of the Church and sadly, many are choosing to ignore it. I have heard some leaders shrug and say that is not their fault that so many are poor in the world today. Some church leaders believe that the elephant will go away on its own. Others say that the government must care for the elephant. Still others say that it is the mission of the church across the street to care for the elephant. The elephant is like a prophet of old telling us what we do not want to hear. The elephant trumpets loudly that God says WE are guilty if we allow people to remain deprived when we have the means to help them. Why are there over 2,000 passages in the Bible dealing with poverty and injustice? Are we to cut those passages out and ignore them? Some do because it is easier to deny that the elephant exists than to do something about it.

Friends, we cannot continue to spend more on hiring staff, more on building plans and more on worship venues until we address the needs of the poor. Martin Luther King, Jr was correct in his jail house writing from 1963. Now nearly 50 years later, what MLK wrote is still true: We must re-capture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church or be dismissed as a country club for the elite.

We all need to ask our leaders about the elephant we see in the Church. Ask for and examine the church budgets. Churches need to pay staff and they need to expand - but how much and to what extent? Ask these questions in the context of all tithes and offerings that are given:

• How much is spent on salaries, benefits, expenses for the staff?
• How much is spent on worship expenses and activities? Or on a planned new Sanctuary?
• How much is spent every year on correcting known injustice in the world (AIDs, the plight of the 143 million orphans, the slave trade of children, etc)?
• How much does the church sacrifice, really sacrifice to feed the 10 million children who will starve to death this year?
• Who is getting the largest piece of the missions budget?

I encourage you to read The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. Ask your leaders to do the same. If the elephant is still not acknowledged, then you have a decision to make. Stay or find a church where the whole Bible is preached and not the one with the holes in it.