Answer the Call to Care for Children

Published first in Purpose Driven Magazine: April 15, 2009

By Kay Warren & Elizabeth Styffe

Last year, Saddleback Church  launched Orphan Care Initiative—a signature ministry of the church—with a focus on helping the 143 million orphans around the world. The initiative began when the two of us had our own hearts gloriously ruined by God’s heart for orphans in Scripture, and by what we had seen in the eyes of orphaned children in dozens of countries around the world.

In Rwanda, we saw silent, hollow-eyed children living in mud-walled homes the size of most American bathrooms. We had become accustomed to seeing impoverished housing in the developing world, but this was like nothing we had ever seen. Dirt floors, no running water or lights, not a single stick of furniture, only a few pots and pans in a corner. Child-run households—with no parents left—were the tragic norm in village after village. In one small home, a 10-year-old girl had nothing to eat, no one to hold her at night, no mother to whisper in her ear that she is a beautiful, precious child of God.

Countless tears flow for orphans around the world, including those in America, where there are currently 500,000 children in foster care. Of these children, 118,000 are eligible for adoption today. If just one family in one out of every four churches would adopt, there would be no more orphans in America. At Saddleback Church, our dream for the Orphan Care Initiative is that every member will engage in ministry with orphans and vulnerable children both locally and globally, or support other members who do (see “The Six Key Values of O.R.P.H.A.N. Care” on page 49 to learn how to accomplish these goals).

We hope other churches will follow our example. Many already do. Sometimes it starts in the heart of a pastor and his wife. Sometimes it starts with a church member. Sometimes it bubbles up seemingly out of nowhere, but suddenly, helping kids is on everyone’s lips. Regardless of how the awareness and passion begins, thousands of believers across America are responding to the call to care for orphans and vulnerable children.

One example is in Possum Trot, Texas. For Bishop W. C. Martin and his wife, Donna, their call to care for the vulnerable children in their community came out of the loss of Donna’s dearly loved mother, Murtha Lee Cartwright. The Martins were busy pastoring Bennett Chapel Baptist Church in Possum Trot, working second jobs and raising their two children. But when Donna’s mother passed away suddenly in 1996, Donna was torn apart with sorrow. After nearly two years of paralyzing grief, she begged God to help her move through her sadness. Donna heard him speak two words:  “foster” and “adoption.”

Immediately she phoned the county officials to get information about how to become a foster parent.

Donna and Bishop Martin adopted three children through the county’s foster-to-adopt program. The pebble they threw in the pond produced a ripple as others in their church followed their example. Bishop Martin and his church members could have reasoned that since they were a small church in a rural, low-income community, God didn’t expect them to respond to the truth of James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” But they took that command from Scripture seriously. Eleven years later, more than 75 children have been placed with loving families from Bennett Chapel.

In nearby Tyler, Texas, Rocky Gill, a member of Green Acres Baptist Church, had a heart for orphans; he and his wife, Carrie, had adopted a daughter from China. Six years later, sitting in church one day, he realized his church could do more for children. The church isn’t called to be “fat, lazy, self-centered, and not focused on the world around us,” he recalls thinking. “If orphans are on the heart of God, why aren’t we doing more?” A dream was born—a dream of helping his church do something significant for not just one child, but dozens. Gill wanted to challenge the Body of Christ to experience the joy found in selflessness.

He approached his pastor, David Dykes, with a plan for the church to place a special emphasis on adoption. He envisioned a special Sunday service where 100 families would choose to adopt through a program he called “Hope for 100.” Pastor Dykes enthusiastically supported Gill’s idea.  The pastor preached two sermons on orphans and adoption and issued the challenge to raise up 100 adoptive families. The church then held two information events, using the Hope for Orphans curriculum, If You Were Mine (hopefororphans.org).  Gill’s dream was for 100 couples to adopt 100 children—but so far, 300 couples have expressed interest. Green Acres Baptist Church has created a template (hopefor100.org) so other churches, regardless of their size, can host their own Hope for 5, 50, 100—or even 1,000 or more.

At Saddleback Church, we have embraced the challenge of James 1:27.  We are no longer content to just feel bad when we see a picture of an orphaned child; we have decided that God holds us responsible for the 143 million boys and girls around the world without moms and dads. We realize that we have been given much, and therefore, much is required of us. Our dream is for every believer to be engaged with helping vulnerable children.  We long to see thousands of children around the world cared for through the church-to-church model that we’re developing.

The primary motivator for starting an orphan care ministry at your church should not be guilt, but God’s Word, coupled with compassion born out of love. Ephesians 1 says that God ordained for us to be adopted into his family before the foundation of the world. God made the world so he could adopt all of us. At Saddleback Church, we believe that ordinary believers can be empowered to take on extraordinary challenges.

There are many ways to help, including providing school supplies to vulnerable children, or offering a county social worker helpful kindness, mentoring a child or welcoming a child into your home through foster care. In collaboration with other area churches, we provide foster care information classes on our campus, as well as other programs to help children before they enter the social services system.