If you were like me, you were overwhelmed a couple of weeks ago with the amount of people saying “yes” to God’s call to address the needs of orphans in this world. What an honor to be a part of a movement of God like this! We had over 150 show up for an adoption interest meeting from our church alone. The person speaking was expecting 12!
Due to the large response, our leadership team stepped back and tried to determine the best course of action for our church. Jeff asked me to lead a team from our church to help bring some structure to this newly founded adoption ministry. We have put together a team of people who have all had different involvement in ministering to orphans.
With this team, we are going to outline a great way to establish your next steps whichever course you may choose. We heard many of you say you wanted to follow this route with Connie Maxwell. We also heard many who wanted to go straight to adopt a child, either internationally or within the States. We also heard that many of you wanted to financially support those who wanted to undertake this process.
We need all of you! The orphans of the world need all of you!
A team met on Sunday night – and we have a wonderful process in place. It was a great start!
Here is our team’s goal: to make orphan care simple. While some of you may think that is an oxymoron, it’s not. The process is consuming, but it can be simple, and this team is going to outline it so you can be equipped to leave your mark.
We are working to establish some detailed systems to help you in these five areas:
- Local Adoption
- Foster Care
- Family Support
- Respite Care
- International Adoption
We are planning a followup community meeting at the end of February (more details to come) to answer the questions of all those groups. We will contact you soon about the next meeting time. At this event, we are going to have so much practical help, you are going to be way down the road no matter what road you want to take.
During this waiting period, please pray concerning the state of orphans and your role in uplifting their conditions (James 1:27). I will be in touch soon.
Any questions or thoughts now?
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
I think it’s wonderful that North side has chosen to include “respite” in with ways that people can help orphans. As parents of 5 children under 3 years old, 2 of whom are adopted from foster care and 1 who is still a foster child, this is an area of desperate need, and one that not many people know about or are able to help with. Fostering or adopting orphans is different than having your own child in that things have happened to these children, whether prenatally or in their biological homes or orphanages, that probably won’t affect the average child in a Christian home. Specifically, two of ours were born with fetal alcohol effect and syndrome. Most articles that you will read on this subject address the fact that these children need constant supervision and are impulsive and often have serious behavioral issues. It’s exhausting caring for them! I know that it will be wonderful for the foster parents near you to get some time away, together as husband and wife, and even sometimes for older siblings to have time just for them. It will help them to be able to persevere through those tough days that are so difficult to get through sometimes. I encourage you, also, to make prayer a part of the plan- a way that people can help. We need people praying specifically for these children, caseworkers, judges, biological and adoptive parents, caretakers, etc. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the link to that booklet I sent you on facebook, I encourage you to do that. It gives great specific ways that people can pray. Again, thank you, North Side, for the passion you have for these children. I believe that the Lord is moving in an amazing way and that you’ll never know all the lives you have touched!
Travis – I know that right now in my life I am unable to adopt or foster, but I feel God’s call to do this. Can I attend meetings and be kept informed, even though I can’t help right now? Thank you so much for putting together all this information and making it available.
yayyyy
Wow – thanks for the great comments everybody!
Anna, I would definitely recommend you coming to the upcoming training and meetings so that when the time is right, you will be good to go. It never hurts to be qualified already.