I am always hearing about ways you can help orphans, and there are things at every level, in every budget, for every ability, that we can do.


If you have little money…
Advocate & pray for an orphan. Print out his or her photo, carry it in your wallet, tell people about her. Blog about her. Have a fundraiser for this child. A great time to get involved with this is Reece’s Rainbow’s Angel Tree event in November and December. Talk to your pastor about having an Orphan Sunday at your church.

If you lack the time, but have money…
Add some money to a child’s grant on Reece’s Rainbow. Find a family who is adopting to “adopt” and help them bring their child home. When you buy things online, go through Reece’s Rainbow’s iGive.

If you can’t commit long-term…
Consider a program like Christmas for Orphans in Ukraine. You get to sponsor a child for Christmas. Put a quart size bag full of goodies together for that child. Get involved with a Buddy Walk, volunteer, and educate others about Reece’s Rainbow.

If you want to be involved and commit to a particular child, but you can’t adopt…
Sponsor a child long-term. Send him or her at least two packages a year. Send some money for her to have a real birthday party. Bethany has some HIV+ children on her website who need sponsoring.

If you have room in your home for a season, but cannot adopt or just aren’t ready to adopt…
Host an orphan. Over the summer or for the holidays.

If you have room at your table and room in your heart…
ADOPT.

No excuses. There is something simple & completely manageable each of us can do for these beautiful children who need a family.

I mentioned to you a few posts ago that I ordered the book Radical by David Platt. I received it earlier this week and I am about halfway through.

I’ve really been enjoying it, agreeing with what he has to say, but this really hit home…

“It is easy for the numbers and statistics regarding the poor and needy to seem cold and distant. The idea of billions in poverty or twenty-six thousand children dying from starvation or preventible disease before we lay our heads on our pillows tonight seems hard to imagine.

This was the case for my wife and me when we began the process of adopting our first son. We had read the statistics before…. and they were staggering. Millions of orphans in Africa, a number that is rising dramatically as a result of the AIDS crisis that is currently taking the lives of moms and dads across the sub-Saharan plain. Millions of orphans in Asia, many if not most of whom are destined for lives in crime and prostitution if they are not adopted. Millions of orphans in Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

As overwhelming as these numbers were to us, I have to admit they were still just numbers to us before we traveled to Kazakhstan to get our son. It’s not that we didn’t care. After all, we were going through the adoption process. But the numbers still seemed distant, removed from our daily life in suburban Birmingham.

But everything changed when we made our first trip to the orphanage in Kazakhstan. We saw children playing outside. We walked past their rooms inside. Suddenly those numbers on a page came alive in our hearts. We realized it was Caleb who was sleeping in one of those cribs, and it was Caleb who was included in those numbers. All at once the numbers became real… and personal.

We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend that they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes. “