Hope for Orphans

NOTE FROM PAUL PENNINGTON
Executive Director, Hope for Orphans

There was another 4.9 aftershock in Haiti this week. There are aftershocks of a different kind still rumbling through the church in North America. At Hope for Orphans, we often say that when followers of Christ experience the reality of the orphan in a personal way, they are changed. Through the world of instant video and news, millions have seen this reality of lost children -- children with no family to take care of them -- with fresh eyes.

The Bible says that we are not to be just hearers of the word, but doers. The Bible says that we are not just to be sorry for orphans; we are to visit them in their distress. Proverbs 31:8 says that we are to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

It has been a great encouragement to us at HFO to see the amazing response of the Church in these last few weeks for the people of Haiti and especially the orphans. The poorest people in the Western Hemisphere have taught us, the richest people in the Western hemisphere, that it is people, not things, that matter.

As the spiritual aftershocks of this new perspective touch your soul and that of your church, what will be your response? For many, this new realization is giving great momentum to launch orphans ministries in their churches so as to be a part of solutions for orphans here and around the world. For others, they are considering seriously for the first time if God could use them to give a child a family.

In the days to come, will we step up and do what we can to love orphans in Haiti? Through their eyes, will we see the millions around the world and in foster care that need us as well? Will you seek to understand God’s invitation in your life and your church for how to love orphans in sustainable and meaningful ways? Hope for Orphans exists to help you and your church to do just that and in doing so bring glory to the name of Jesus. I hope you enjoy this e-newsletter as a step in that direction.

Blessings,

In this issue:

	2010 National Foster Care Prayer Vigil Calls on All 50 States to Pray For the third straight year, Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife, will partner with Focus on the Family and Show Hope to sponsor the National Foster Care Prayer Vigil, to be held from May 16-23, 2010. The purpose of the Prayer Vigil is to bring groups of believers together to pray for the children of the foster care system, in addition to the adults who influence their lives. Last year, there were 220 vigils held in 47 states (plus Canada and Uganda!). This year the goal is to ensure there are vigils in all fifty states. The vigils can be formal and community-wide, or they can be very informal gatherings in homes. Other possibilities might include your workplace, a city park, a Sunday school class, a small group Bible study, the beach, a prayer walk through your city, etc… For more information on how to hold a Prayer Vigil for the foster children in your area, please visit FosterCarePrayerVigil.org. Please be sure to register your vigil!

	Christian Alliance for Orphans Announces Summit VI The Christian Alliance for Orphans’ sixth annual Adoption and Orphan Care Summit (also known as Summit VI) will be held at Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota (in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area) on April 29th and 30th, 2010. Featured speakers will include John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman of Show Hope, Tom Davis, author of Fields of the Fatherless, and Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There will be many practical breakout sessions for local church lay/staff leaders and for nonprofit ministries as well. The event will also include an extensive exhibit hall. If you are (or would like to be) involved in adoption or orphans ministry through your church, you won’t want to miss what promises to be a wonderful event. For more information on Summit VI, including a special video invitation from John Piper, please visit Christian-Alliance-For-Orphans.org/summit/.

	*How to host a Hope for Orphans Your Church and the Orphan Workshop* in Your City by Shane McBride** Do you want to share your passion for orphans with others in your community in such a way that they, too, become involved in caring for orphans through their churches as God leads them? If so, then please consider applying for your church to host a Hope for Orphans’ Your Church and the Orphan Workshop -- an interactive workshop designed to help people like yourself launch an effective and sustainable orphans ministry in their church. Hope for Orphans has been conducting these events since September 2007 and, to date, have equipped local orphans ministry champions from more than two hundred churches in eight cities to launch orphans ministries. We receive inquiries all the time from people interested in finding out what it would take to bring an event like this to their city. The best candidates for hosting are those who are already engaged in orphan ministry to some degree. Leaders of established ministries, or perhaps leaders of fledgling ministries that are looking for ways to grow are encouraged to prayerfully consider applying to host.. We highly recommend that you have a strategy for a network of local orphans ministry champions in place in your community as well, so that there is a support system for the area churches after the event. If you believe God is leading you to apply to host a workshop, then there are some basic requirements that will need to be met, in terms of a facility, marketing, etc… For more information about the specific requirements, please see the link below. Eventually, if your application is accepted, we will work with you to help you fill the room with passionate like-minded people. We will then bring a team of speakers, all the materials, and the practical know-how to inspire and equip you and others launch church orphans ministries. If this is something that the Lord has placed on your heart, then please prayerfully consider filling out an application. You can learn more about this process by clicking here.

	Local Church Orphan Ministry Spotlight: Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX is home to a thriving orphans ministry that is currently engaged in all three channels of orphan ministry – orphan care, foster care, and adoption. Watermark is part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Alliance of Adoption and Orphan Care Ministries (consisting of more than 20 churches in the metropolitan area). On the orphan care side, Watermark has been partnering for about three years now with a ministry that works through local churches in several countries in Africa. Watermark’s orphan care involvement thus far has been predominantly in Uganda (though they have limited involvement in Burundi and The Congo as well), where they are sponsoring close to 300 kids with the goal of sponsoring 600 by the end of 2010. Church families sponsor the children, with the money going toward their school fees. In addition to the individual children’s sponsorships, the church supports the ministry corporately. With this support, the ministry administers a mentoring program which helps connect the kids to a local church and provides them with discipleship, counseling, trauma healing, purity and hygiene training, conflict resolution tools, and other resources as needed. This broader support also allows for water wells, theological training, microfinance, the development of laws protecting women’s rights, etc… For more information about what God is doing through Watermark in Uganda and beyond, please click here. On the foster care and adoption side, Watermark’s Tapestry ministry supports foster and adoptive families through various initiatives, including adoption education, matching prospective foster/adopt couples with mentor couples who have been through the process, and support groups for foster/adopt dads and moms. They have also recently begun hosting a seven-week series on adoption using Hope for Orphans’ If You Were Mine DVD Adoption Workshop (more than twenty couples are going through the series). For more information about what God is doing through Watermark’s Tapestry ministry, please click here. Watermark’s orphans ministry is not just having an impact on kids in Africa or adoptive and foster parents in their church. The church itself is being impacted as well, as is the surrounding community. As one of the ministry leaders, Beau Fournet, puts it, “Through supporting these children physically and spiritually, the gospel is being proclaimed in word and deed to our church members, these children, and a watching world in Dallas and Uganda. God is receiving all of the glory, with all of us growing in our recognition of His provision and grace.” We thank God for His work through Watermark and we look forward to hearing what He does through their ministry in the coming years.

	Hope for Orphans Welcomes New Team Member In January, Hope for Orphans welcomed a new team member, Glenda Rodenberg, who will serve as Administrative Assistant to Executive Director, Paul Pennington. Glenda is a graduate of Baylor University and Louisiana State University. She was married to Dr. Neil William (Bill) Rodenberg for 28 years until his passing in 2001. Glenda and Bill served with Campus Crusade for Christ and Probe ministries while he was at Dallas Theological Seminary. They served together for many years at Scofield Memorial Bible Church where Bill was Pastor of Evangelism and Pastoral Care. After Bill's death, Glenda has served with the Jesus Film and most recently as Office Manager at The Center for Personal Finance. Glenda is the proud mother of 2 daughters and 1 son. She is also the grandmother, she says, of two future linebackers. Glenda has written that her "greatest desire is to have my life count for eternity by living a life that reflects Christ's love to others by pointing them to the Savior." We are excited and blessed to have Glenda join our team and we know she will be a blessing to others as she reflects Christ’s love with those she comes in contact with.

	Update on Haiti Many people continue to monitor the situation in Haiti, particularly regarding the adoption of Haitian orphans. The United States Government continues to work with Haitian authorities to free up children who were previously matched with adoptive families, so that they can travel to the U.S. and be united with their families. For the most up-to-date information on adoptions from Haiti, please click here. Others continue to advocate for the multitude of children who are orphaned but were not previously matched with adoptive families. There are two bills in Congress that could lead to more adoptions of orphans in Haiti, and beyond, if passed. For information about The Families for Orphans Act, please click here. Representative Pete Hoekstra introduced the HOPE Act, also known as the Haitian Orphan Placement Effort Act. According to the representative’s website, the act is “aimed at helping those Haitian orphans that are eligible for intercountry adoption but did not yet have a prospective family at the time of the earthquake. The HOPE Act would expand the Department of Homeland Security’s humanitarian parole policy on a case-by-case basis to children who were legally confirmed as orphans eligible for intercountry adoption prior to the earthquake but did not meet the specific criteria announced by DHS. If a suitable family is not found to provide care for a Haitian orphan, they would be eligible for placement in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program.” For more information on Hope for Orphans’ (and others’) involvement in the crisis in Haiti, please visit the Hope for Orphans blog by clicking here.

February 2010 Enewsletter