Julie Gumm - Author

Setting up House…in Haiti

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Oh wait, no we’re not moving…

But World Orphans is doing something very cool.

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, World Orphans opened the Orphan and Vulnerable Child (OVC) Program in Haiti – a country we had not previously worked in. We identified 24 churches who are already caring for orphans but need the financial resources to continue to do so.

What our team saw on their trips to Haiti was that 90% of the orphans in these church communities had already been taken in by the other families – the church of Christ in action! But the reality is that, in a time of dwindling resources, those families may later find themselves unable to provide for these children and they are still vulnerable for abandonment.

The Haiti OVC brings U.S. churches alongside those Haitian churches to provide the financial resources for food, medical care, education and trauma counseling for those kids and families.

As we partner churches together we realized that we are going to have a ton of U.S. church teams traveling to Haiti to visit, encourage and help their Haiti partner church. It became clear that it would be more cost-effective for us to secure our own guesthouse that could be used by these teams as people from other mission organizations.

A generous church partner has paid for the lease on the building for a year and now we just need to finish it out – make it a home. We need to raise approximately $8,000 by June 11th for things like a generator, furnishings, kitchen appliances, security measures, etc. We have a church team traveling on the 11th ready to do all the work to put it all together. Then the first mission team arrives on the 19th!

There are five (5) bedrooms and three (3) bath rooms, and it is big enough to accommodate 24 guests at a time. It survived the earthquake and is built to withstand the hurricanes.

If you feel led to help, you can donate to the “Home Away From Home” campaign I set up on the new World Orphans web site.

Here’s some more pics of the house “as is”…

Raising Children to Change the World

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The international adoption journey changes you. It changes your family. And not just because you suddenly have new family members. Or because you have ties to another country that now feels partly like home.

But somehow, along the way, it is impossible to not look beyond the children whose faces stare at you from the photo on the refrigerator. And you begin to see the other faces; 143,000,000 orphans, countless single moms struggling to make ends meet, fathers desperate to provide for their families.

For Mark and I, our adoption journey changed the entire course of our lives. The things we learned and the things we saw contributed to a major shift in our lives that caused us to forge new careers and put our family onto an entirely new path.

But next comes the task of influencing that same sort of heart change in our children. How do you make your kids care more about widows than the wii?

That question has been weighing on us even since we had the chance to visit Wears Valley Ranch in March and see their Biblical Family Care model. We realized our kids were capable of so much more than we had been asking.

It was just a couple weeks later that I received an email from Julie Ferwerda asking if I’d like to participate in the blog tour of her new book “One Million Arrows: Raising Children to Change the World.”

Um, YEAH!

One Million Arrows is call to raise our kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ  – for them to be sharpened with education, faith and a heart for the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and then be launched into the world to save lives.

If we want our kids to discover their purpose, if we want them to live with passion for the Kingdom, then WE as parents need to be intentional in our parenting. It is not the churches job to do this, it’s not the job of the Christian school we send our kids to. It’s our job!

Julie’s book includes a whole chapter with the stories of other families, including the Tebows and the McDowell’s, and the intentional choices they made along their parenting journey.

Is it overwhelming? Definitely! Are the outcomes guaranteed? No. But all God calls us to is OUR part just King David encouraged the temple builders.

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged by the size of the task, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. He will see to it that all the work related to the Temple of the Lord is finished correctly.” I Chronicles 28:20

There’s way more than one post worth of highlights so I hope to post more as I have time to delve into them even further. I highly recommend this book for any parent who wants to raise their children to make an impact on the world far outside themselves.

Links:

P.S. Check out that World Orphans mention on page 101 🙂

About the Author

Julie Ferwerda is recognized for making the Bible exciting and relevant to everyday life through her writing and speaking. Her articles are featured in many Christian magazines and websites for both adults and teens, and she frequently volunteers her time and talents to international orphan ministry. Learn more at OneMillionArrows.com.

Why now is NOT the time to adopt from Haiti

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I’ve been following the story of the Rescue Children orphanage in Haiti and the Lifechurch members who quickly got there to help this orphanage they had been supporting. There are many other orphan/adoption related stories coming out of Haiti, of course. When you scroll down to the comments on these stories there are inevitably a dozen or so that say “How do I adopt one of these kids?”

On the one hand, my heart is thrilled that many new eyes are being opened to the plight of the orphan – not just in Haiti but hopefully all over the world. While circumstances are desperate right now, none of these children were living in ideal circumstances before. Many orphanages cannot even provide 3 meals a day for the kids in their care – something we take for granted.

However, what most people do not realize is that international adoptions in Haiti are most likely going to come to a complete halt.

The Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) is working hard on developing a plan to help those U.S. families already in process to complete their adoptions. These are often families who have been matched with children for several months, many who have visited Haiti and met their children before coming home to let the Haitian courts complete the process. I am praying fervently for these families and their children.

Why not rush to get these other orphans adopted and out of this dire situation? The JCICS site explains it perfectly with this statement…

Bringing children into the U.S. either by airlift or new adoption during a time of national emergency can open the door for fraud, abuse and trafficking. Every effort must be made in a timely fashion to locate living parents and extended family members. Many children, who might appear to be orphaned, may in fact be only temporarily separated from their family. Our efforts must be to provide the families and children of Haiti with shelter, nutrition, water and safety. Once the situation in Haiti stabilizes and timely reunification has taken place, adoption may be an option for the children who remain outside of permanent parental care.

So, if you’re one of those that have begun to think about adoption, I would urge you to do 2 things:

  1. Find a way that you can help the orphans of Haiti right now. Of course I’m pretty biased to World Orphans – we’re putting long range plans in place to engage Haitian churches in caring for the orphans in their communities. This is something World Orphans does all over the world and is well equipped to train pastors and church people in the holistic orphan care model. Give to World Orphans Haiti Relief.
  2. Pray about adoption and see if it is something that is right for your family. Photos and moving news stories can kick in our “save the world” instinct and often create a dreamy picture of “rescuing” a child in need. There is certainly nothing wrong with that desire, but it has to be more than that. Your adding a child to your family that you must love as much as your biological children. They will be forever yours. It will not be a walk in the park. Even the “easiest” of adoptions isn’t easy. Trust me. If adoption is something you are considering there are a ton of great resources online – below are a few to get you started.

If you have questions about adoption – international OR domestic, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them and point you in the right direction.

Update: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced the provision of “humanitarian parole” for certain Haitian orphans. For now that means  children that have previously been documented as eligible for adoption and matched with a U.S. family for adoption. More Info.