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Listening Hearts. Shifting Focus. Five Tips for Hurdling Over Alternative Orphan Care Conversation Starters

Watching the Olympics, I find myself mesmerized by the skill, timing, and rhythm of the hurdlers. With ease, they keep their momentum moving forward until the finish line is in sight. But what happens when their tempo is suddenly interrupted by an injury or when another athlete unexpectedly comes into their lane? They fall down—sometimes in pain or defeat. Have you ever felt like you are stumbling over a hurdle when talking to someone about a topic that is important to you? Even if you think you know the perfect conversation starter, awkward silence, unsure words, and feeling unprepared in [...]

Listening Hearts. Shifting Focus. Five Tips for Hurdling Over Alternative Orphan Care Conversation Starters2024-01-10T23:50:06-05:00

Foster Care in Panama: Our Journey

Tags: Foster Care Growing up in the U.S. I dreamed of moving to Africa to start an orphanage. But I met and married my husband at a young age, and in 2008 we moved to Panama City, Panama, with our then three-year-old daughter. Our new Panamanian church had a volunteer program that involved holding babies and playing with children in local orphanages. When I signed up I didn’t know anything about institutionalization (what a mouthful), attachment disorder, or alternative care. It didn’t take more than a few visits to see the children were not thriving. [...]

Foster Care in Panama: Our Journey2024-01-17T17:20:15-05:00

Two Stories of Transforming Good Intentions into Best Practices

"Be brave, be fierce, be visionary. Mend the parts of the world that are within your reach. To live this way is the most dramatic gift you can ever give to the world. Consider yourselves assigned.” - Your Assignment by Clarissa Pinkola Estes Even without reading her words, many impassioned young people have taken the poet’s assignment to heart. When these individuals are confronted with the brokenness of the world, seldom are they content to ignore it. There comes a deep desire to restore what is broken. For many, Christians in particular, this desire is manifested in a calling to [...]

Two Stories of Transforming Good Intentions into Best Practices2024-01-17T17:13:18-05:00

A Place to Call Home, A Person(s) to Call Family

Tags: Economic Empowerment Millions of children in Africa are growing up in orphanages, residential care centers, and children’s homes. Most of these institutions identify themselves as “homes” and “family” to these children. But are these residential care institutions really “home” or “family”? I grew up in an institution, and it didn’t feel like a family and I didn’t have the feeling that I was home. On the contrary, the place gave me a feeling of emptiness, uncertainty, and confusion. My two siblings (younger sister and older brother) were taken to a hospital, then to an [...]

A Place to Call Home, A Person(s) to Call Family2024-01-17T17:32:08-05:00

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community Church

Tags:  Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roblealto Child Care Association puts families at the forefront of its work with vulnerable children in San Jose, Costa Rica. Roblealto supports a holistic approach to restore at-risk children to loving and supportive relationships with their parents and provides resources for parents to achieve self-sufficiency for their families. Roblealto’s programs include four child care centers throughout San Jose, group homes, and a youth alumni group to support and empower youth leaving their programs. Child care centers seek to prevent separation of children from their families and strengthen family support [...]

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community Church2024-01-17T17:28:29-05:00

The Role of Parent Education and Support in Strengthening Families and Improving Child Well-Being

We all know that parents and other individuals responsible for the daily care of children (usually referred to as “caregivers”) need good parenting and caregiving skills to support their children’s healthy development and well-being. Most parents and caregivers do fairly well raising their children without receiving any parenting education or external support. However, some do need it. This is particularly important for parents and caregivers with little education, who don’t have access to health and social services, and who are dealing with different stressful situations in their family, such as poverty, disability, substance abuse, domestic violence, illness and death, [...]

The Role of Parent Education and Support in Strengthening Families and Improving Child Well-Being2024-01-17T17:26:19-05:00

One Step at a Time Toward a World Without Orphans

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Economic Empowerment A World Without Orphans—it’s a huge dream that lives in the hearts of thousands of people who believe that every orphan should live in a loving family and work toward this great goal daily. I sincerely believe in it too. And I know that the church is capable of solving this problem through welcoming the fatherless and motherless into their homes and working with crisis families. Although the idea of a church caring for every orphan (we like to call it one church, one child) is simple [...]

One Step at a Time Toward a World Without Orphans2024-01-17T17:25:05-05:00

Lectio Divina: Listening to God’s Heart for Children

The Faith to Action Initiative works to educate and mobilize Christians to respond to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, upholding the vital importance of family and community. In doing so, we engage with a variety of different Christian traditions with the goal of working together to care for children and families in collaboration and unity. Evidence-based research, case studies, and learning from fellow orphan care practitioners are vital to growth in this field. As Christians, we have the additional dimension of being guided by a faith that leads us to action. We believe that it is of [...]

Lectio Divina: Listening to God’s Heart for Children2024-01-17T17:22:21-05:00

La Providencia: A Lifelong Commitment to Care

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Economic Empowerment Anthony’s* feet swung from the chair, hardly touching the floor. He was eager to talk and happily answered the government-appointed psychiatrist’s questions, unmindful that he was being evaluated. She asked him to draw a picture of where he lived and who lived with him. He drew a picture of his house with a mom and a dad and himself along with six children. The fact that the government considered him an “orphan” wasn’t apparent to him. In his mind, he had a family that loved him and his [...]

La Providencia: A Lifelong Commitment to Care2024-01-17T18:05:32-05:00

Finding Life After Institution

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In Kenya, a movement of remarkable new leaders is working to assist young adults who have aged out of institutions and are trying to find their way in life. This network of people is the Kenya Society of Careleavers (KESCA) organization, “by and for adults (18+ years), who spent all or part of their childhood in children homes, orphanages, and/or rehabilitation centers.” The systems that “raised” them often provide no mechanisms for navigating life after they leave the institution, and with no familial support network, life can be devastatingly [...]

Finding Life After Institution2024-01-17T18:01:43-05:00

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural Development

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roots. They dig deep into the soil, drawing up water and nutrients so the rest of the plant can flourish and bear fruit. If roots are infected, or too shallow, or lacking essential nutrients for survival, the entire plant will become susceptible to disease and fail to thrive. Similarly, children rooted in chronic poverty are far more susceptible to exploitation and abuse. When we talk about the root causes that create vulnerable conditions for children and orphans, we often have to dig deep into the brokenness lying beneath the soil’s surface. [...]

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural Development2024-01-17T17:57:06-05:00

Protecting Children in Post-Earthquake Nepal

Tags: Community Strengthening It’s hard to visit Nepal and not be awe-struck by God’s handiwork: the soaring mountains, the fields of golden mustard, the laughter and artistry of Nepali people. Yet this same beauty has at times made Nepal particularly vulnerable to poverty and natural disaster. The mountainous topography makes infrastructure a constant challenge, and for decades scientists have been predicting a major earthquake. These vulnerabilities then breed exploitation and conflict. My first visit to Nepal in 2003 coincided with a lull in the midst of the nation’s decade-long civil war. I was immediately captivated. [...]

Protecting Children in Post-Earthquake Nepal2024-01-17T17:47:48-05:00

Learning from Jesus to Serve Children

I spent ten years serving the world's most vulnerable children as a humanitarian professional, but it took having my own children for God to teach me some important lessons about the humility and sacrifice required in serving children, and appreciation for the adults who love and care for vulnerable children up-close. I loved my career as a champion for children's rights and protection with World Vision International. I felt privileged to be paid to put my faith and vocational calling into action through serving staff around the globe as they empowered children with skills and opportunities to speak their [...]

Learning from Jesus to Serve Children2024-01-17T19:17:29-05:00

My Most Important Lesson as an Adoptive Mother

Mother’s Day is a fun celebration in my home. We go to church in the morning and then spend the afternoon taking a local hike as a family. If we have any energy left, we end the day with a trip to our local garden center, where I pick one last tomato plant to put in the garden before summer arrives. It’s a fun day, but for my family it’s also underscored by pain. As an adoptive family, we never forget that the creation of our family is predicated on loss. Before I met my daughters, I learned about [...]

My Most Important Lesson as an Adoptive Mother2024-01-17T19:14:17-05:00

Out of Isolation and Into Families

Tags: Transitioning | Economic Empowerment In Armenia there are around 4,500 children living in residential institutions, a situation caused by the weak social protection system, an insufficient number of community-based services and lack of gate-keeping mechanisms due to overall weakness and inefficiency of the system, leftover from the Soviet Union. In the last decade, the Government of Armenia (GoA) initiated the process of reorganization of residential institutions for children and began making significant investments in the development of social services and program alternatives to residential care. However, Armenia faces multiple difficulties in sustaining various initiatives [...]

Out of Isolation and Into Families2024-01-17T19:10:03-05:00

God’s Word: The Heartbeat of Love for the Orphan

Tags: Community Strengthening “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 Where in the world today is the church responding to the orphan crisis? Ethiopia, home to one of the largest orphan populations in the world, has over five million orphaned and vulnerable children. Bethany Christian Services (BCS) is answering that call by using the power of God’s Word to support local Ethiopian Christians to provide [...]

God’s Word: The Heartbeat of Love for the Orphan2024-01-17T19:07:44-05:00

The Invitation and Hope of Advent

The season of Advent is upon us. Advent, which means coming in Latin, invites us to slow down and actively wait with great anticipation for the birth of Christ. The rhythm of Advent draws us closer to God in hope, preparation, joy, love, and through the presence of Christ Himself. In the midst of the holiday season, we are also reminded – through daily headlines and through our care for and connection to others – that we live in a world of profound brokenness. With more than 153 million children that have lost one parent and 18 million that have [...]

The Invitation and Hope of Advent2024-01-17T19:32:16-05:00

The Concentric Circles of Strengthening Families

Millions of children around the world are orphaned. I feel helpless to take action in terms of these staggering facts. What can I possibly do to help with the problem? I feel so overwhelmed by the issue. But, understanding the importance of strengthening families is something I can wrap my mind around. In fact, it is something I am already doing in my everyday life. I spend a lot of time with children. During the week, I am with my own three preschool-age children all day (they are 5, 4 and 2 years old). I clean up crayons and [...]

The Concentric Circles of Strengthening Families2024-01-17T19:29:11-05:00

Gotcha Day: Local Churches Support Adoptions and Families

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Transitioning | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In our family we have “Gotcha Day” celebrations for our two adopted children. It’s a special day each year when we celebrate and relive the story of bringing home a baby from Russia to become a part of our family. We have fun with cake and a special meal then sit together and go through the photo album. We remember all the special events surrounding the adoption and becoming a new family. I believe our Gotcha Day celebrations [...]

Gotcha Day: Local Churches Support Adoptions and Families2024-01-17T19:28:25-05:00

Considering Poverty in Orphan Care

For many orphans, poverty is a common denominator. Some children become orphans because the lack of adequate food, clean water, or health care resulted in the death of one or both of their parents. Other children have been placed in the care of orphanages by living parents who cannot supply for their children’s needs because of poverty. Because poverty is a factor in so many children becoming orphans, understanding orphan care requires an understanding of poverty. In fact, the Bible beseeches us not merely to fight poverty, but to understand poverty. Psalm 41:1 reads, “Blessed is he who considers [...]

Considering Poverty in Orphan Care2024-01-17T19:27:48-05:00
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