The Father Himself is the father to the Fatherless - Caring About What is Most Precious to Him

What Does the Bible Say about Orphans?

1. God calls Himself the Father of the fatherless.
Psalm 68:5, "A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation."

2. God considers caring for orphans to be pure spiritual service. (and) a religion that does not care for orphans is no religion at all.
James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress."

3. God's people are commanded to care for orphans. To see an orphan afflicted, and to turn a deaf ear, is sin, even rebellion.
Exodus 22:22, "You shall not afflict any widow or orphan."
Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."
Isaiah 1:23, "Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless."

4. We can be the hands and love of Christ Himself by providing practical care.
Deuteronomy 10:18, "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing."
Psalm 10:14, "But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless."
Matthew 18:5, "Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me."
Matthew 25: 45, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto Me."

5. Orphans are to be taken care of with the same honor and provision as a Pastor or Priest.
Deuteronomy 14:28-30, "The Levite (priest), because he has not portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do."

6. A portion of all that we possess is sacred and belongs to the orphan.
Deuteronomy 26:12-14, "You shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments."

Adapted from Tom Davis, author Fields of the Fatherless.

HAITI: Only a 90 minute Flight From Miami, but poorest country in Western Hemisphere

Orphan Statistics (Haiti)
• In Haiti alone, there are 490,000 orphans.
• In addition, 300,000 children are in slavery.
• One in seven children in Haiti dies before their 5th birthday - mostly of preventable diseases
• 60% of Haitian children do not have access to the most basic medical care.
• 25% of infants suffer from low birth weight. Sometimes it is fatal.
• 24% of children suffer from stunted growth as a result of malnutrition.
• Roughly 46% of children are not vaccinated against polio and measles.
• Nearly half of the population of Haiti are children under the age of 18 years.
• 48% of the adult population is illiterate.
• 200,000 orphaned Haitian children live in institutions (the rest are fostered, live with relatives, or are street children).
• Child-headed households are becoming more common as potential guardians succumb to AIDS or other causes of death
• 9.71% of children die before or during birth.
• Every year, over 5000 babies are born infected with HIV.
Source: UNICEF, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

A Day of Preparation

Tonday feels like a day to prepare. Prepare communications. Prepare budgets. Prepare lists (which may last more than one day to put together). I am thinking it's a day to prepare hearts and minds for what He is doing. Preparing our hearts for what we do not even know we will experience yet.

Pray for us on that one. Pray that we listen and obey. Thnk you in advance for praying!

Oswald Chambers words today are-

If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, "Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful." And Jesus says to us, ". . . I have called you friends. . . ." Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.

Get Moving! Abide in Me . . . . John 15:4

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, "Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then." Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future. Oswald Chambers

We could have done anything this summer. Well no not quite. God became our summer plans in a way that is not subtle. How could spending 30 days in Haiti be subtle. In the midst of unemployment, looking for a job or contract, here is what God lands right in our laps. Who else could drop what they are doing and go? Who else could? That's not for me to answer because God happened to place the opportunity for me. So I guess it's like this is my job for the next 3 months--the month getting ready, the month we are there and the month getting back, debriefing, and speaking again and continuing the decision making process.

Robenson is the oldest young man there. He is in 8th grade and is 17. The same age as our boys Blake and Ethan. He loves the Lord and one day wants to be an Ambassador. My boys need to meet Robenson. Robenson needs to meet meet them. They have alot in common. Worlds apart. But they are brothers.

When I left down there about 2 months ago, the night before I left I met with the older boys from ages of about 12 to 17. These would be the faces we would see on a regular basis if we we there, calling Ouananminthe home. These would be our boys. Our sons. I did something I knew God was leading me to do. After we had a time of some Bible reading and sharing verses that were important to us and maybe a few reasons why. It was time to pray. I am thinking this had never been asked of these young men before. But they stepped right up without hesitation. We had been talking about the decision at hand and why I was there. I was asking them to pray for me. But I wanted them to come and pray over me while I knelt before them on the floor in the cafeteria. I moved into place and suddenly I saw around me feet. I realized what I was seeing were soles/souls. The prayers--they began slowly and then more frequent and then there was not taking turns--all at once. I felt God's presence. I knew nothing of what they were praying. But I do know this. We are heading out on July 13th for 30 days. My entire family will meet these boys. Faces will be real and the hugs will be firm. I don't know what they prayed, but I know God has moved and will continue to move to provide the means for us to arrive on July 14th.

We have been somewhat silent about what the Lord has been teaching and leading us over the past few weeks or so. Our focus has been to really talk to the Lord, study, and just be quiet before Him to understand His desire for our lives. Things happen fast it seems once you push off the dock. Here's an excerpt from Oswald Chambers this week--

"If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment."

So, the big shove out of the harbor is July 13th. We leave for 30 days to work at the Hope For Haiti Children's Center in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. Overwhelming peace about something that is a total contrast to the peace and quiet calm of the harbor. All five of us. The task is so large, audacious and outrageous that it will only be a God venture. In the next few days there will be more info, details for prayer, ideas and help with fundraising, just not a lot of time. I know that I will be speaking at the New Canaan Society Men's group in Winston on the 26th at the River Birch Lodge in Winston-Salem, NC. I am looking for more opportunities. More times to speak and share the story. The story about the significance of 143 million orphans in the world and the call to minister to those children that God the Father Himself refers to as His very own--the Father to the fatherless.

Our goal is to understand the reality of living in Ouanaminthe as a family parenting kids that have never had a father, bringing people (the Church, contacts, friends, family) as close as possible virtually via social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Blogs), and how the ministry of orphan care and adoption has more to do with the message of the Gospel and evangelism than it does to just creating another social program in the Church. Obviously, a life changing opportunity for our Blake and Ethan as Seniors to minister and reach out in discipleship and help the older boys closer to their age to understand better the love of a family and Savior.

Jesus promised his Disciples in John 14:18 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you." The Message

Ok, more later. But we would immediately covet your prayers for God's provision for finances, for health, for protection and for immediate/ongoing clear effective communication.

Blessings--

Tim, Cindy, Blake, Ethan & Levi

Why am I blogging?

The story about 143 million stories. They all matter. I guess it all started now so many years ago, before Blake and Ethan were even born when we realized that as a couple we were to go the path of dealing with infertility. I/we do not necessarily feel the sting any longer, but we certainly know what it feels like. Our path began and we were blessed with tow wonderful boys that came along with a message from the Lord. "Children are always a gift. Children are always a blessings. Children are never an accident." So here we go--22 years of marriage, 1 Gotcha with our Levi from Fujian Province, CHINA and now we are on our way for 30 days into the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the 2nd poorest country in the world. How in the world did we target Haiti? Why did God select Haiti for us? We will know more as time passes I'm sure. For now--we have shoved off the dock and although we are still well with in the protection of the harbor, we feel the breeze from open waters and assurity of our sails, because the force of the wind that pushes us is not self generated.