I'm not sure if it is normal to hate and love a day at the same time. Today is such a day for me, one I hate and love. Orphan Sunday makes me happy because it shows the Church being as it should and engaging to love, help, and speak up for the Fatherless as we are called to do. I just wish there were not a need for such a day. It exists because there are children who do not have families. That means there are children who've experienced the loss of parents through different circumstances and now do not have them. In short it means pain and loneliness.
I could show you plenty of statistics about these children. I could give you numbers that would help you see how many children do not have families just here in the United States, to say nothing about those around the world. But, you won't find any numbers in this years annual Orphan Sunday blog. If you give a face a number you can desensitize yourself to it. Numbers are sterile, not personal. We aren't called to go and help numbers, we are called to help people. That is personal. That is real. While there is a benefit to knowing those numbers and I've shared them before, this year I want to focus on the realness of this day.
"We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces."-David Platt
When you assign them a number that is when they go from people to statistics. Their identities get lost in a wash of this circumstance or that one. We might feel bad for them for a moment but then that fades and we are back to thinking about something else. If we make things personal, if we get to know their stories and their faces then they stick with us. Why? Because we aren't just reading a number attached to a group we are looking into the life of a real child who has faced real pain. That makes all the difference.
This is where actually doing something comes into play. We can't just look,feel, and walk away. Action is necessary. Compassion is the catalyst. Feeling means compassion and compassion means to suffer with, that means we've got to get our hands dirty and allow ourselves to take the risk of getting close to the hurt these children feel. One of my favorite organizations that does this is Show Hope. It was started by Steven Curtis Chapman after he brought home two daughters from China. This is an organization that not only cares for children in China you can help fund adoption grants for parents who need help bringing their children home. Beyond that they keep this act of love personal. Each month a different child is prayed for specifically, not just by name, but by face. They e-mail, tweet, and post on facebook and Instagram about that month's child and ways you can pray for him or her. They don't shy away from the hard stuff but instead allow you to see that this isn't an easy thing, that there are risks, but we are called to love the fatherless, so they do it, and they do it well.
We are called to care for and love the fatherless. The only question you need to answer is how you will personally go about doing that. I would encourage you to visit Show Hope's website to learn more about what they do.
Show Hope
If you're looking for a different way to support orphan care and like to read you can get yourself a copy of my book The Forgotten 50% of the royalties goes to Show Hope and TN Baptist Children Homes. The idea of the book is to do just that, raise awareness for the children who do not have families. We cannot forget them they need to know that they are loved.
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