Caring for orphans is a vital part of our worship of God.

Orphans need us because they cannot defend themselves. And we need the children because our worship is made alive as we love and care for them.

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)

The vitality of our relationship with God is connected with how we treat the poor. God insists that if we are going to come to him in worship we must also be working to bring justice to the weak, including orphans.

As individuals, we cannot take care of all the world’s needy children. But God addresses his commands about the fatherless to the community. We are called to work together for the weak and victimized.

We don’t want our busyness and distance as excuses to suppress our compassion for vulnerable children. We would do what we could to care for any orphaned baby left at our doorstep. It is harder when the babies are hidden from us in the foster system or overseas orphanages. Our own face-to-face encounter with orphans has changed our lives. We invite you to read about our day in an orphanage.

As we decide to face the need and consider what God would have us do, He may bring us the gift of adoption. He may lead us to sponsor a child. He may give us a career in social justice. There are many possible adventures for those who decide to bring love and justice to vulnerable children.

When we give ourselves to others, wholeheartedly following God’s commands to care for the poor, he promises to richly bless us:

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” (Isaiah 58:10-11)

Jesus tells us that when we welcome a child in his name we welcome him. Listen for his voice as you enter into the lives of ‘the least of these.’

A country’s orphans are like fingerprints that reveal that country’s social breakdowns. Loving the children can lead us to understand and care for whole countries. For information about the needs of children in different parts of the world, please click on the following links:

• Overview of the World
• China
• Guatemala (with Latin America)
• Russia (with the Ukraine and East Europe)
• USA
• Vietnam