Archive for January, 2010
Prayer Guides for the Sake of Orphans
Recently LOCI held their first monthly Prayer Vigil. Attached are a few guides which proved helpful in focusing our prayers.
by Dan Cruver, Together For Adoption:
10 Prayers for the Sake of Orphans in 2010
Listed below is what I’m asking God to do in the church in 2010 for the sake of the orphan. Will you join me not only in praying but also in striving to be an answer to our own prayers? I am praying that:
1. 10 pastors in each state will preach a sermon for the first time that proclaims God’s heart for the orphan. Result: 500 churches begin thinking about how they can care for the orphan.
2. 10 pastors in each state will preach a sermon series that considers God’s work of adoption within the story of redemption and how it should inform our care for orphans. Result: 500 churches think about adoption and orphan care more deeply than they ever have before.
3. 10 pastoral staff teams in each state will prayerfully work through Russell Moore’s Adopted for Life to explore how they may equip and mobilize their people to care for orphans. Result: 500 pastoral staff teams uniquely positioned to mobilize and unleash their people for the sake of the orphan in unprecedented numbers.
4. 10 churches in each state will lead their church’s children through God’s Heart for the Orphan . . . and Me! Result: The next generation catches a vision for God-centered orphan care.
5. 10 small groups in each state will prayerfully work through Adopted for Life. Result: 500 small groups mobilized to care for orphans that have not yet been cared for.
6. 10 churches in each state will launch a vital orphan care ministry. Result: 500 churches caring for orphans in substantial ways for the good of thousands upon thousands of children.
7. 10 churches in each state will contact their local Department of Social Services to ask about how they might serve their state’s foster children. Result: 500 churches testifying to the glory of the gospel in both word and deed.
8. 10 colleges will have someone preach in chapel on gospel-centered orphan care. Result: Hundreds of college students commit to caring for the orphan through the local church.
9. 10 seminaries will have someone preach in chapel on gospel-centered orphan care. Result: Hundreds of future pastors and missionaries gripped by the importance of caring for the orphan by the power of the gospel.
10. 10 churches in each state will send a group of people to attend one of the following: Adopting for Life conference, Summit V, Tapestry (2010 conference TBA), or Together for Adoption Conference 2010. Result: 500 churches networking with other churches for the sake of orphans all over the world.
Imagine the results if God should so graciously choose to do far more abundantly than we ask or think . . .
One Hour Prayer Guide for the Fatherless
40 Day Prayer Guide for Orphan Care
Post-Adoption Fellowship Meeting, Theme: Sharing the Story
Title: Post-Adoption Fellowship Meeting, Theme: Sharing the Story
Location: Highview Baptist Church Fegenbush campus, room 229
Link out: Click here
Description: We will be exploring how we, as orphan care advocates, adoptive parents, and Christians, can navigate healthy and appropriate ways to share our family’s adoption story with others while protecting the feelings and privacy of our children, including how to handle awkward questions that our children often are asked. We will also look at helpful communication strategies with our children and enjoy a couple of role play activities.
Start Time: 7:00 pm
Date: 2010-01-12
End Time: 9:00 pm
Southern Indiana Churches Orphan Care Brainstorming Meeting
Title: Southern Indiana Churches Orphan Care Brainstorming Meeting
Location: Graceland Baptist Church in New Albany, IN – Hospitality Room
Link out: Click here
Description: The goal is to gather Indiana Churches to brainstorm ideas together on how to “care for orphans” and support the families that already do. It is important to note that this meeting is about combining the efforts of these area churches in order to minister to our adoption community more effectively. It is hoped that by uniting we can be a more effective force for LOCI in Southern Indiana. Anyone interested is invited to attend.
Call Cyndee Gillmore at 256-5947 for more info.
Start Time: 5:30 pm
Date: 2010-01-15
When Passion Becomes a Burden
by Jason Kovacs
I heard someone say something along these lines the other day – “this used to be a passion of mine but now it is a burden.” It struck me because it describes how I have been feeling lately when it comes to the plight of the orphan.
Not that I am no longer passionate about caring for orphans but that passion and excitement to see lives changed – orphans sponsored, fed, adopted – has grown into something that feels deeper and more painful. The excitement and joy and desire to see more lives changed remains but I find myself more aware of the pain and injustice that exists. It makes me ache. It burns. Children in my own city and millions more around the world who have no parent, no one providing for them, protecting them, loving them. Why? How? Surely we can do something. We can and we must do something.
More specifically, I feel this burden growing to see the global church grasp that we are responsible for these children. That together as Christians from the west and east – America, Africa, Asia and other nations – we would seek the permanent care of every orphan we can get too.
That’s what I’m burdened by, dreaming of, and praying for! God is big. He can do it. He cares more about the orphan than I do.
The thing I love is that I am not alone. There are so many others who are passionate and burdened for these precious children. And God is raising up a beautiful mosaic of specific burden carriers who are doing amazing things for their joy and care.
Oh Lord, take this burden and passion that I know also burns in thousands of other hearts and continue to unleash it for the sake of your glory and justice and love towards the fatherless of our world!
January LOCI Prayer Vigil
Title: January 2010 LOCI Prayer Vigil
Location: LaGrange Baptist Church, LaGrange, KY
[Click HERE for directions]
Description: This is the first in a series of monthly prayer meetings in the Kentuckiana area. Everyone who is passionate about the needs of the children in the foster care system as well as orphans both nationally and internationally are urged to attend this event.
As a group of unified believers we will petition God together for these children as well as for God to identify forever-families in the Christian community. Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is not for the work of God, prayer IS the work of God.
Please join us and lift up your voice in prayer on behalf of those who have no voice.
Start Time: 3:00 pm
Date: Sunday, January 10, 2010
End Time: 4:00 pm
Please call Bobbi at 502.243.3597 for more information.