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Hurray, we had our last Home Study visit Saturday. We passed our physical standards, talked about our marriage, how we plan to meet the required competencies, and answered miscellaneous questions that she wasn’t sure she had the answers to. We were told that they have 120 days to complete our study from our first class which was September 18th. We still have one class this Thursday night which is specific to our licensing agency, Missouri Baptist Children’s Home. After that we don’t have anything else we can do we just wait to hear back about our Home Study. I am searching photolistings of children in the foster care system that are waiting for families. We can receive further information about Missouri children but no one will send information to us about out of state children without a completed home study. We are interested in adopting a sibling group so please join us in prayer that we will rest in God’s timing and have wisdom in preparing ourselves, our home, our schedules, and our family for the challenges in our future ministry to hurt children.
The Abba Fund Blog There are lots of great ideas here about how to finance your adoption and remember the cost to adopt from U. S. Foster Care is only $2,500 or even less. There are 10,000 missouri children currently in foster care.
“You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow’s garment in pledge.” Deuteronomy 24:17
Session II
Eight steps to launching an orphans ministry in your church
Overview of the Eight Steps
1. Approach a key leader with your vision.
2. Identify passionate people to join you in prayer.
3. Dream together about the possibilities.
4. Determine your channels of orphans ministry.
5. Plan the strategies of your ministry.
6. Establish the proposed leadership structure of your ministry.
7. Develop a formal proposal for church leadership.
8. Launch your orphans ministry!
“He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.” Deuteronomy 10:18
This past weekend Brent and I traveled to Sioux Falls, SD to attend a workshop. Hope for Orphans presents Your Church and the Orphan: A Group Workshop Experience on Orphans Ministry in Your Church. It was very profitable and here are the areas that were covered (in a nutshell).
“Least of These” Theology 101
A. The Bible mentions caring for the poor and oppressed approximately 2100 times in Scripture.
B. Who were the poor?
1. Aliens (strangers)
2. Widows
3. Orphans
4. Other: destitute, opressed, sick and in prison, hungry, need shelter, and are naked, weak and afflicted.
C. Where does caring for these groups of people rank on God’s priority list?
Exodus 22:21-22, Ezekiel 16:49, Micah 6:8, James 1:27
Historical Overview of Orphan Care
A. The seven primary ways by which orphans have historically been cared for:
1. Extended family
2. Intra-community
3. Inter-community
4. Foster Care
5. Group Home
6. Orphanage/Children’s Home
7. No Care
The Twenty-First Century Church and the Orphan-Care Crisis
143 million orphans–can we get to them all?
There are approximately 380,000 churches in North America.
There are approximately 2.3 billion professing Christians worldwide.
In Summary
1. God has always had an expectation that His followers will care for those in society who are marginalized.
2. Orphans have been cared for in a number of different ways throughout history, all of them having various advantages and disadvantages.
3. The church is God’s answer to the orphan question.
One thing that was discussed that really stood out to us from this section was that people are not aware of the orphans in the United States. In the past their was an orphanage or orphanages in each city that held the orphans and people were aware of it and took gifts, adopted out, etc… Now our orphans are in foster homes across our nation and are invisible. That is not to say that all children in foster care are without parents but almost 120,000 have had parental rights terminated and are available/need to be adopted.
This one is a real tear jerker:
