About Hope for Orphans
There are fatherless children in America. There are fatherless children around the world. There are fatherless children among unreached people groups. The Lord says that they are precious because they are made in His image and that “pure worship is loving them, widows and aliens” (James 1:27). That means the more vulnerable a group of people the more valuable they are to God. That also means loving orphans is not optional for a gospel-centered church. We are persuaded that the Church is God’s means to reach every orphan.
Hope for Orphans was launched in 2001 and is led by Paul and Robin Pennington and their children, five of whom came to their family through adoption. Over the past 20 years, God has used Hope for Orphans to equip thousands of churches and tens of thousands of families in adoption, foster care, and orphan ministry through our events and resources. We have also had the privilege of leading the development of the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), a worldwide alliance of over 190 respected organizations and over 650 churches united in inspiring and equipping Christians to care for orphans and vulnerable children.
At Hope for Orphans, we believe that the greatest need of all children, including orphans, is to know the saving and transformational love of Jesus. Attaching to Jesus as sons and daughters redeemed from sin through faith alone and grace alone is our heartbeat. We believe that when the church joins God in loving orphans, the result will be the experiencing of the reality of God.
We believe loving orphans is directly connected to completing the Great Commission and part of taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem.
We believe that God wants to use your church for His glory in caring for orphans both spiritual and physical, but also in serving families called to take at-risk children. We exist to provide you resources, tools, and insight to fulfill this mission in your church, your family, or small group.
We believe that loving orphans is the Visible Gospel and brings glory to the name above every name. To that end, we are about “Serving Every Church to Reach Every Orphan.”
Hope for Orphans is engaged with the mass mobilization of the Church in Gospel Driven orphan ministry.
We do this through our key initiatives:
- ROOTED is video-based gospel centric parenting content for struggling families
- Project Lionheart is our video-based children’s curriculum for introducing and equipping kids in orphan ministry
- If You Were Mine is our video-based Adoption Workshop for families used by hundreds of churches and families. Now available on Vimeo on Demand and Right Now Media
- HFO International is our outreach serving the local church globally thru foreign language resources, events, and trips in Great Commission completing orphan ministry
- Church Equipping: HFO provides a variety of resources for the establishment, development, and execution of orphan ministry in the local church
- HFO Live Streams: In 2014 HFO began providing Live Stream programming with special guests on a variety of topics touching families and the local church in adoption and orphan ministry. These programs are also archived for future viewing.