Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday... a day dedicated to remembering, serving, loving, and praying for the world's orphans. Those who know me would agree that every day is Orphan Sunday for me. Orphan care is an issue that I became passionate about during my mission work abroad in Africa and Central America. But not everybody has had personal experiences with orphans and not everyone will. Irregardless, today is about honoring God's word and command to us as Christians to care for orphans. My favorite bible verse is this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27

There are more than 147 million orphans in the world. 44 million of those orphans live in the sub-saharan Africa region alone, the region that's home to Tanzania. Every 14 seconds another child is orphaned by AIDS. Every two seconds an orphan dies from malnutrition. Today I want you to think about what you'll do to alter these statistics. Will you pray? Will you give financially? Will you serve? Will you adopt? Will you love the world's orphans? How will you fulfill God's call to act?

Today I remember my time with the children at the Nkoaranga Orphan Center in Tanzania. My time spent caring for 30 of the world's orphans changed me. It opened my eyes to the realities of orphan life. It taught me what self-less, unconditional love felt like. It showed me that God really is the Father to all the children of the world. And most importantly, it gave me the chance to open the eyes and hearts of others. Someday I will welcome an orphan into my own family... for now, I will continue to support and love from afar and pray that God opens the hearts and minds of others to do the same.