Rescue Orphans

I have a co-worker who along with his wife have been in the process of adopting two siblings from Haiti for almost 3 years now. He affectionately refers to them as the Haitian Sensation. Their children are in the last stages of adoption with hopes of being here by February. Of course that was before the earthquake. Their adoption home was near Port Au Prince. We can all imagine the great anxiety they are feeling right now. They have been told in the last day or so that their children will receive their VISAs on Sunday, and that they should be prepared to be in Florida to pick them up! Praise God! David told me that there are about 300 children that should qualify for the 'early release' even though their paper work is not ready.

Recently, I read this on David's blog. It is an excerpt from an essay called The Mega Issue written by the President of World Orphans, Paul Myhill. Paul writes:

Do you desire to assist the poor and crush poverty? – Rescue orphans.
Do you wish to combat HIV/AIDS and other heinous diseases? – Rescue orphans.
Do you hope to prevent pedophiles from abusing young children? – Rescue orphans.
Do you want to stamp out prostitution? – Rescue orphans.
Do you yearn for the end of drug dealing and addiction? – Rescue orphans.
Do you crave to uphold the worth and significance of women? – Rescue orphans.
Do you long to stop violent extremism and the placement of children into radical schools? – Rescue orphans.
Do you dream to crush illiteracy? – Rescue orphans.
Do you aspire to eliminate child labor? – Rescue orphans.
Do you seek to eradicate the recruitment of child soldiers and atrocities they are forced to commit? – Rescue orphans.

Wow! That cuts to the chase, doesn't it? Who doesn't want to rescue an orphan after reading that?  And this month in the Southern Baptist Texan newspaper there are several articles regarding adoption and the New Testament Church."Adoption is not just about couples who want children—or who want more children," according to author Russell Moore. "Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself."

I also have a friend whose organization helps children in India.  This excerpt is from their website regarding the plight of children in India: "Out of the 1.2 billion people in India, approximately 200 million are children. Nearly 100 million of these children have little or no access to school. Most of these children are born into large families with illiterate, alcoholic and abusive parents. The children are left to fend for themselves. They end up working in small tea shops, hotels, sweat shops or beg on the streets." AIM

Perhaps we are not all called to adopt an orphan. But, there are other ways to be a part of their rescue. Pray, Give, Go.

Heartsick... but not without Hope,

To learn more about sponsoring a child in India click here.