Make A Difference

There are about a million things running through my head that I want you to know. I have been praying all day that I would chose the "right" topic to share tonight... Then I opened my email and saw these precious faces:

 I'm not able to copy and paste their story but you can read it here. (scroll about half way down and look for the same picture)

Please read their story and donate toward this little girls medical care. Know that every dollar you give will go to her and give sacrificially.

Share her story. Share it with your family. Share it with your friends. Share it with your kids.

Maybe they have a birthday coming up and instead of requesting gifts they can request donations for her surgery? Maybe they can mow a neighbors lawn for some extra cash? Maybe you can sell something on ebay? Maybe you have $4,000 laying around somewhere collecting dust? (hey, it's possible)

We all have more than she does. And we can all stand to loose some of it for her.

Sponsorships 101

Perhaps the easiest and quickest way to make a difference in the life of an orphan is to sponsor one. Sponsorships provide life-saving financial support to children and families in need. It works like this: You are matched with a child and given a picture and a brief bit of info on them. Here's what we received on our guy:

You make a monthly contribution towards the care of that child. Most sponsorships range from $30 - $45 per month. The sponsorship funds cover basic needs - food, clothing, shelter, schooling, etc. Without sponsorships, most organizations would not be able to care for the number of children that they do. A couple of our favorite orgs that offer sponsorships are Harvester's Reaching the Nations (HRTN) and Compassion International.

HRTN has two orphanages in the Republic of South Sudan (shout out to the world's newest nation!!). One in Yei and the other in Terekeka. They have over 180 children in their care and few of them are fully sponsored. Check them out here!

Compassion has children in need of sponsorships all over the world. They have a really cool search feature on their website. You can search for kids by country, gender, birth date and more. I know many families who sponsor kids that are the same gender and age as their own kids. This is a really great way to teach your kids about orphan care!

Moses "sponsors" a 6 year old boy named Kenyi. We pray for Kenyi, write letters and color pictures for him. We talk about his life. Moses knows that Kenyi doesn't have a mommy or a papa and that we help take care of him. He knows that Kenyi doesn't have lots of toys. (Since this has been explained Moses has also been praying for his toys at night. I think he might be a little nervous.) I don't want our family to appear holier than thou so I must admit that we have also pulled the "What do you think Kenyi is eating for dinner?" card when Moses has balked at his dinner plate. Just keepin' it real with you folks.

I really want to challenge you; if you are not sponsoring a child to pray about what is standing in your way. You really don't need to pray about whether or not you should be caring for orphans. Gods word is clear on that one. You should. (and maybe you are in some other way)

What are you clinging to that He is calling you to give up for the one of the "least of these"?

A couple latte's each week?

Your data package?

Another pair of shoes?

Pray for God to reveal what is standing in your way and to help you respond in faithful obedience. You will be blessed beyond belief. And so will an orphan.

Refocus

I have thought about the blog quite a bit these past few months. Although thinking about it hasn't led to any telepathic posts... Aside from the fact that life moves at light speed, I've struggled with the question "What is our blog about?" More importantly, what are we about? (it ain't cancer folks!) We've been talking and praying and searching and reading. What are we, the Wallace's, about?

There are lots of things to blog about - meal planning, being frugal, being "green", film making, parenthood, marriage... We read blogs about all of these things. But what is the word from the Wallace's?

It's slowly become clear, that we are about orphans. We're about orphans not because it's trendy or heroic or because they're cute. We're about orphans because our God is about orphans.We're about orphans because he has given us a heart and a mandate to love and care for them.

He tells us so in James chapter 1 verse 27 - "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." Pure and undefiled. TRUE. True religion is to care for orphans. Not super religion or hero religion or varsity religion. True religion. It is a central, integral, essential part of being a Christ follower to care for orphans and widows.

So what does that mean? What does it look like when you don't feel called to sell everything you have,move to Africa and start an orphanage? We are slowly figuring it out.

For us, the first step was to start the adoption process, so one focus of this blog will continue to be adoption. We want to be and provide resources for families interested in adoptions and foster care. We want to encourage them and pray for them and support them in any way we can.

BUT, there is so much more to James 1:27 than adoption. We are just starting to unpack it. And as we do, I will be blogging about it. I promise. My hope and prayer in redirecting the focus of our blog is that the Holy Spirit would stir in your hearts the same conviction and desire to care for orphans that He has stirred in ours.

And when I say we, I mean WE. For me, I have never felt surer of anything in my life than I do that this is my purpose for His kingdom. And when William and I came up with the Top Five Focuses of our family, my sweet husband listed orphans as #3 after God (#1) and our family (#2).

Moses is the most vocal about his love for the orphans. (anyone surprised? Moses, vocal?) Since taking a trip to Target to buy needed items for his "friends" at Harvester's Reaching the Nations (HRTN), packing them up and taking them to the post office, the kid cannot stop talking about his friends in Sudan. We've also started sponsoring a boy from HRTN and Moses talks about him. Daily. He also asks at least once a day "When are we going to Sudan?"

Meadow has yet to show us in what way she will care for the orphans but some of the focuses here will be how to care for orphans as a family and raising kiddos with a heart for orphans.

I'll also be blogging about the theology of orphan care, suffering and God's sovereignty, organizations that are doing orphan care well (and how you can support them) and life and how we are living it.

We'll also be including resources for the different areas of "orphan care" - adoption and funding, foster care, human trafficking, orphan sponsorships and more.

I'm hopefull and encouraged by what the Holy Spirit will do through all of you who will be following along.