Opening Session, CAFO Summit

Jedd Medefind (Christian Alliance for Orphans)

It is not about just taking up another cause. A gospel-fueled love for Orphans entails:

When the going gets tough, duty, guilt, and enthusiasm are not enough. We need to be people connected to the Source.
2. When we choose to love the orphans, when we open our homes, when we break into our safety accounts to give, we are forced to give up our false Gods.
We must reflect the story of how we have been taken into God’s family.

Florence Muindi (Life in Abundance International)

We thought our hands were full but God helped us realize a deeper kingdom opportunity.

“I saw children that were in desperate need but children that were equally loved by God. In those children, I saw the face of Christ. I was ashamed, convicted, and changed. I realized I had to respond. I battled for several days. Then I realized I needed to do things differently, I needed to utilize the local church– decreasing myself, so Christ can be lifted up. I needed to craft a response that was both curative and God dependent.”

God cares about how we help. We need to spend time in prayer not just about the what, but about the how.

We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. If we employ our mind in this response, we will see that communities of children are broken. Dealing with a child is only dealing with an outcome. We need to address the system that is producing orphans.

Together we can move past the initial response and get into the transformation process. This would look like restoring children AND empowering the destitute, mending the care and support systems of a community, and aiding in development.

Dennis Rainey (Family Life Today) interviewing Carolyn Twietmeyer (Project Hopeful)

“Growing up I never could reconcile why there were people who needed so much and we had extra to share, but we weren’t.”

Carolyn had 4 children. She and her husband had 3 more together. Then they adopted 3 from Ethiopia, one with HIV. While in Ethiopia, met another girl with HIV whose health was rapidly deteriorating. Went back to get her. Then adopted her brother and sister. This Easter they adopted a little girl with Downs Syndrome.

Not independently wealthy and her husband Kyle makes $64,000. Took extra mortgage on their home. Got no grants. She believed that God is going to pay for the adoption. She didn’t know how, but she acted in faith. Found out while in Ethiopia, someone made an anonymous donation of $20,000 for their adoption.

Russell Moore (Southern Seminary)

We are afraid of orphans. Because orphans are unpredictable. There is always some kind of tragedy. We would rather not think of such things. We are afraid of the mark left on the victims of tragedy.

God, in his adopting power thru Jesus, has brought us into his family. We reach orphans as ex-orphans ourselves.

As we move into the dangerous we places, we empower others to live courageously. What do we have to be afraid of anymore? Jesus has given us a path. When we love in the sad, dark, haunted places; children who we are afraid of, we follow Jesus there.