November 8 Is Orphan Sunday

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November 8 Is Orphan Sunday

Special Report - November 4, 2009
Churches and families are preparing for Orphan Sunday coming up on November 8th to raise awareness of the more than 140 million orphans worldwide and how churches and families can respond to God’s call to “Defend the cause of the fatherless…” (Isaiah 1:17). Individuals and churches organize local events for the day. Cry of the Orphan, sponsored by Focus on the Family, Hope for Orphans, and Show Hope, is sponsoring a national live Web cast and satellite concert from Nashville with Steven Curtis Chapman and other singers and guest speakers, hoping “to give a megaphone to the cries of the millions of orphans around the world.” Over 120,000 of the more than 500,000 U.S. children in foster care are waiting to be adopted. Eighteen percent of those children are adopted each year after spending an average of two years in foster care.

This is the fourth year for Orphan Sunday, sponsored by the three aforementioned organizations with the message that “YOU are God’s Plan for the Orphan.” Recognizing that no more than two percent of Americans have adopted a child, Focus on the Family is seeking to “raise awareness of and recruit families for the 127,000 children waiting in U.S. foster care for adoptive families.” Hope for Orphans has been providing connecting resources for churches and families serving orphans since 2003. Show Hope engages churches in their efforts to serve orphans and help “Christian families reduce the financial barrier to adoption.” Cry of the Orphan suggests that those families who cannot adopt pray for orphans by name, mentor vulnerable children, financially support orphans, orphanages, and families going through the adoption process, take mission trips, or consider being a foster family.

Cry of the Orphan has posted sample posters, bulletin inserts, sermons, partnership organizations, events, action items and more on their Web site at www.orphansunday.org. Suggested activities for individuals or churches to organize include Sunday School classes and sermons on Biblical themes related to orphans and God’s heart for orphans, prayer gatherings, concerts, lectures or movies with orphan-related themes to spur discussion, and fasting from a meal to devote time to prayer and money to helping orphans.