more thoughts on the Summit...

It has been over a month now since the Orphan Summit, and I am finally able to put a few thoughts together to share with you.  There is so much I want to share, but my mind has been on Doug Sauder author of "The One Factor." 

He talked about how adoption is like an infection.  He says if we can get just one foster or adoptive family in a church,  it makes it real, people will watch that family, and think "Hey, I think I can do that!"  They start talking, thinking and praying and before you know it, they DO it!  And so it goes!  Love for orphans transforms orphans, and us, and the world around us!  Amen to that!

He shared his thoughts on Haiti, and how he believes it was a teachable moment for the church.  So many people woke up to the need for adoption, by seeing the plight of the orphan.  Sometimes God uses events to produce thoughts and provoke the heart of his people.

As an orphan advocate, we build a bridge between the people who are "busy doing life" and the children with the needs.  Kay Warren once said "There are 143 million orphans in our world, most Christians can't name 5 of them!  My husband is taking another team of teens down to Lily of the Valley orphanage in Mexico in a few weeks.  I am so excited for them, it truly does change your life to visit Lily!  Our church family knows their names, and I LOVE that!(I so wish I could go and love on those precious children)

James 1:27 (New International Version)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Obviously not everyone should adopt, there are so many ways to live out James 1:27.  Visiting widows and orphans.  The poor, needy, anyone in distress, they are all around us, we just need to reach out to them. And of course keep yourself from being polluted by the world...which usually proves to be much more difficult than the looking after orphans and widows!!  {don't ya think?} 

Well, that is just one page of notes I wanted to share, there is more, so much more...