Not Your Ordinary Sunday...

Adopt an Orphanage from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Since it was first introduced to the US in 2003, Orphan Sunday has continued to grow. Today the Christian Alliance for Orphans provides a wealth of resources and stories atwww.orphansunday.org, hopeful to inspire the church towards caring for the fatherless. May we, in our wealth, reflect God's heart to those who need it most.

At Lifesong for Orphans, we want to help inspire you to take action this Orphan Sunday. How can you be a part of this movement? Host a prayer group. Teach a Sunday school lesson. Encourage your pastor to preach about orphans. Host a gathering or lecture at your college campus. Take part in a Both Hands project. Serve Gobena coffee at your church. Launch an adoption fund or Adopt an Orphanage program at your church.  Orphan Sunday Partnership Packages are provided online for more ideas and help on how to utilize resources provided by orphan care ministries throughout the country.

November 7, 2010 marks another Orphan Sunday. Another day to focus on the "least of these." Another day to give voice to the voiceless. Another day to bring awareness to the church and inspire action towards a solution. Don't let this day pass without you. 

We have all been adopted into Christ's royal family. Just as we cannot imagine the Gospel without salvation, we cannot tolerate a Christianity that does not welcome the orphan into the family of Christ. On Orphan Sunday, join us to demonstrate the validity of the Gospel through our love for the widow, the poor and the orphan.  

Keith Swartley, Team Leader, Caleb Resources

What can you do for Orphan Sunday?

Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 7th!  It's time to start planning what we can do to make this Orphans Sunday one to remember!

Here are some ideas!

- Have your pastor preach a sermon series on orphan care or adoption

- Plan a special Sunday School program or activity

- Get a prayer group together

- Serve Gobena coffee

- Host a Both Hands project

- Launch a Church Adoption Fund

Whether your event is big or small let's make this Orphan Sunday a time to reflect, worship, and inspire the church to care for the fatherless!

Check out more ideas at orphansunday.org

A Tough Road Worth Taking!

This post was featured on Together for Adoption and written by Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans -

Last weekend, my brother and I hiked deep into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our mission: to re-supply my father and his two close friends who are filling a lifelong dream of hiking the John Muir Trail, 210 miles of breathtaking, rugged wilderness. Their faces glowed as they described the glories of God’s creation they’ve encountered, from Alpine meadows to granite peaks. But my father’s friend Henry, though never losing his smile, also reminded, “There’s been real pain, too.” Severe blisters, cramping legs, shoulder pain, biting hailstorms and cold to the verge of hypothermia were just a partial list. It was clear the three hikers were having the time of their lives, but pain was interwoven with the journey.

It is easy to feel it should be otherwise. Something deep inside us still recalls the world before the Fall, and joins creation in groaning at all the things that aren’t the way they should be. But this side of heaven, most anything worth doing comes with pain—care for orphans via adoption, foster care or global ministry as much as any.

Of course, keeping our roots in Scripture (from Jesus’ words about “counting the cost” to Hebrews 11:36-38) disabuses us of any fantasy that health and wealth are guaranteed compensation for faithfulness. Yet still there is a temptation to gloss over the difficult thing or just shove them under the carpet. In adoption ministry, for instance, there can be a pull toward making “ministry” mainly a “cheerleading” for Christians to adopt with little emphasis on support after the child has come home. There’s certainly a place for helping people see the beauty and purposefulness discovered in adoption and other forms of orphan care. But ultimately we need to know: there will be pain, too.

What’s tremendously heartening is that the movement of Christians committed to orphans is coming to embrace that truth. I increasingly hear church orphan ministry leaders talk about the journey—that long, often beautiful, often difficult road that comes with loving anyone for a lifetime, especially a child coming from a hard place.

My prayer is that more and more, church orphan ministry will be a place where this beauty-mixed-with-pain is shown for what it is: an inescapable reality of life in a broken world and a journey worth taking. May it be that in Church, like nowhere else, worn out foster parents, struggling adoptive families and weary orphan care workers can speak transparently about their burden. And where others can help them bear the load in discerning, well-prepared, sacrificial ways. That’s church orphan ministry—and just plain Church—at its very best."

Mark your calendars!

Make your plans for...

ORPHAN SUNDAY 

November 7, 2010

From Christianity Today to Catalyst, God’s call to “defend the cause of the fatherless” is echoing in ways not seen in generations.   Orphan Sunday is your opportunity to spread this passion as part of a nationwide movement.

Each Orphan Sunday event is led by local Christians committed to the Gospel and the orphan: from Sunday School classes and sermons to student-led fundraisers and foster family recruiting.  Here is just one testimony of the thousands of lives that were touched last year by Orphan Sunday...

“Orphan Sunday at Morningside Baptist in Sioux City, IA not only became a catalyst for us to launch an orphan ministry—including a new adoption and orphan care fund—but also spurred many church members to consider adoption, including a church elder whose family will be adopting in 2010 as a result.” --Jim Reynolds, Church Elder

 Hear the personal story of a family changed forever through Orphan Sunday 2009! 

Get Started Now...

www.orphansunday.org

What is Orphan Sunday? 

Alongside local events, a national concert featuring The Desperation Band will be simulcast live from Colorado Springs to high school and college groups nationwide on the Friday of Orphan Sunday weekend. 

The 2010 campaign aims for more than 2,000 events across America the weekend of November 7^th.  The ultimate goal:  to call Christians to make the Gospel visible in adoption, foster care and global orphan ministry.  Start planning your Orphan Sunday event today! 

Don't forget to put your Orphan Sunday event on the map!

Reflections from Summit VI

Well bloggy friends... we've been wanting to post a Summit follow up, but have been utterly speechless at what we experienced! In the midst of processing all the emotions the weekend entailed, we've come across some INCREDIBLE postings from others which sum up our thoughts quite well.

One of the special apsects of Summit is to see the Body of Christ (church, gov't, non-profits, individuals) working together in unity - it's all too rare.  It was thrilling to see the high quality "equipping" that was going on in the breakout sessions." - Andy Lehman, Lifesong for Orphans

What just a few years ago was essentially a small, disconnected and often isolated hodgepodge of orphan and adoption advocates…has grown into an increasingly intertwined, unified, mutually-nourishing movement that grows daily.  Clearly, there’s something more at work here than human hands." - Jedd Medefind, Christian Alliance for Orphans

Summit VI stirred so many emotions in my soul and helped reaffirm the knowledge of God’s loving, persistent and personal invitation to join Him in His mighty fight for His children.  I pray that each of us that were blessed to be there would take the words and images that we heard and saw and let them sink deep into our mind and hearts and ultimately produce fruit with our hands and feet as we together seek to bring glory to our Heavenly Father." - Leah Gerber, Lifesong for Orphans

What blew me away was thinking about just how many children each of those hands will come to represent in the months and years ahead as they go out and “vindicate the weak and fatherless . . . ” (Psalm 82:3). - Jason Weber, Hope for Orphans

A countless number of churches, that up until this conference did not have an orphans ministry, were represented by lay people impassioned to get involved. That means, churches from coast to coast, who did not have orphans ministries, will now have the ability to be mobilized. I am truly excited to see how many of these local champions will have success stories to tell at next year’s Summit VII!!" - Shane McBride, Hope for Orphans

YES... you HAVE to go next year!