An Orphan is a child that has been deprived of one or usually both parents or of some protection or advantage. Or, another definition is: A child that is deprived of the benefits of parenting by death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, separation or loss from, one or usually both parents. One child welfare expert recently defined an orphan as a child with no functioning parents.
Everyone, Listen, even you foreign nations across the sea. The LORD chose me and gave me a name before I was born. Isaiah 49:1
Each and every orphan matters to God. He knows each one of them by name.
What's in a name anyway? No matter how we feel about our name, it was given to us and it is something we respond to when our name is spoken. A name means you are someone - your name matters. A couple of years ago I was in line to get hot chocolate at our local coffee shop and the gal asked what my name was so that she could put it on my cup. I told her my name and that it didn't matter how she spelled it, it would come out the same. The man standing in line behind me said "Your name and your spelling matter - it is important. It is who you are." While I thought he might have went a little overboard at the time, I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. I have never forgotten that moment. Our names do matter and so do the names of every orphan. You can imagine the names that they are called on the streets, I am sure that it is hurtful. God knows each of their names and I believe that He wants us to know them too.
I want to encourage you to commit to praying for orphans. Find one orphan that you can commit to praying for during the month of November.
Here are a couple of websites I would encourage you to visit.
Reeces Rainbow - http://reecesrainbow.org/
Project 1.27 - Portraits of Hope - http://project127.com/?page_id=2440
AAC Adoption and Family Network -
http://www.aacadoption.com/adoption/waiting_children.aspx
Your prayers will make a difference in the life of the child God is calling you to pray for. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment