Authored by Kathy Davis, Holistic Care

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ and a mighty man of faith, encountered affliction that left him so utterly burdened beyond his strength that there were times he despaired of life itself.

2 Corinthians 1: 9-11 reminds us that there is purpose even in hardship:

“This was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many.”

River Oaks Community Church in Maryville, Tennessee is preparing for their third annual partnership trip where a team of eleven will be going to serve alongside Fountain of Hope Church in Nairobi, Kenya. After three years in partnership together through World Orphans, these two churches have become far more than partners; they are a family who love one another deeply from the heart. This partnership takes seriously the privilege of praying and relying on God, as Fountain of Hope continues to provide and care for 24 orphans, plant new churches, and share the hope of the Gospel in their community.

Christ has mobilized the church to be the means of sharing resources for those in need. One of the most fruitful ways for two churches from across the globe to partner well together and to stay connected is through an ongoing commitment to uphold one another in prayer. With each partnership trip, River Oaks and Fountain of Hope anticipate the joys of spending time with the children, partaking in the ministry of the church, and sharing the hope of Christ in the community.

Partnership trips are full of opportunities to minister together with a common goal of seeing people find their hope and help in Jesus Christ. Whether preaching God’s Word, feeding the hungry, or encouraging those making a difference in the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children, one of the greatest blessings of Church-to-Church partnerships is to uphold one another in prayer whereby people are helped, Christ alone is seen as sufficient, and God is glorified. What an inexpressible joy!

Name and position with World Orphans..
Lori Resmer, Director of Journey 117.

What attracted you to your current position?
God has given me a passion for missions mobilization. I love to journey with people from the beginning of their calling to serve and help catapult them into the place that God is calling them to go. It normally requires a lot of faith to take these steps, so it is such a joy to link arms with someone and empower and equip them to take venture out into the unknown. Journey 117 allows me to do this and work with individuals all across the States who are discovering their role in ministry and orphan advocacy.

Where do you live and who do you live with?
I currently live in Denver, Colorado with my amazing husband, Jeremy, and my newborn son, Justice. Later this year we will be moving to Tennessee to finalize our adoption and welcome two more babies from the Congo into our family.

If you could give your 18-year old self one piece of advice what would it be?
Don’t grow up too fast and make decisions that you could potentially regret for the rest of your life! Be wise and prayerfully seek God’s heart for your life. Don’t think you have this whole thing figured out now – you’re young and have MUCH to discover about life, relationships, the world and your calling.

List three unique experiences in your life.
1. I met my husband while serving in a very remote area of Kenya.

3. I have horrible knees: I have torn my ACL 3 times. The most recent time was on the slopes in Steamboat Springs on the day that my husband had arranged to propose to me. Instead, I tore my ACL again and we ended up in the hospital before he had the chance to pop the big question.

What hobbies do you enjoy?
I enjoy playing sports such as basketball, softball and Ultimate Frisbee. Love being outdoors when I get the chance to do things such as hiking and camping. I love to travel and experience the world’s various cultures. I also love to sing (even though it’s just a “joyful noise”) and play the guitar.

Describe yourself in three words.
Passionate. Adventurous. Sarcastic.

One thing you always have on your person is…?
My iPhone.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Africa – love that place and hope to one day do life there with my husband and kiddos.

Follow Lori on Twitter at: @loriresmer.

Read Lori’s blog at: www.radicalheart.com

Authored by Alan Hunt and Amy Wingfield

Meseret and her son, Milon, live in a rental home made of sticks and mud in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their home is falling apart, listing to one side, slowly beginning to crumble beneath torrential rains and threatening to collapse. Milon and his mother are both afflicted with HIV/AIDs, and his father died three years ago. Meseret isn’t certain how she will make the home safe for her son and prevent what seems like inevitable collapse.

Zewede lives with her five-year old son, her grown son, her son’s wife, and her grandchild, in a house with a makeshift roof. Instead of the typical tin roof of local community homes, their house is covered with tarps, sheets, and bags that provide little protection against the rain.

But the widows and orphans of Addis Ababa are not alone. In fact, both of these homes are part of the Repi Kale Heywet Church home-based orphan care program, and they are partnered with the Journey Church of Everett, Washington. As a team from Journey Church approached the homes, they were moved to tears by the struggle of these families. It would have been easy for them to think they could fix it. It would have been easy to fall into the mindset that money would fix everything. Instead, the Journey Church experienced firsthand the power of partnership and the building of bridges between the church and the community it serves. The Journey team saw another need, completely separate from the need for physical materials and manual labor. The Journey team saw the need for this community to be raised up and supported by their own local church.

With all of those needs in mind, and the prayers of these families in their hearts, the team went to Repi Church and reported what they found. The church sent its own leaders to see the need themselves, and then, with the help of Journey Church, a solution was born. With funds provided by the Journey team, Repi Church could send its own leaders and members to work on these homes, to donate their time and their labor to improving the lives of the widows and orphans in their own community. This was true partnership – the American church coming alongside the Ethiopian church, and both working together to address a need in the community.

The side-by-side work of these two churches allowed each to see what they may not have seen individually. Repi Church was able to highlight the possibility of landlords taking advantage of the families by increasing rent once the value of the improved shelters was increased – a conflict the Journey team may not have foreseen. Utilizing this knowledge, a contract was negotiated to keep rent stable and affordable for the families. The Journey Church did not build an extravagant new home, out of place in its community, but rather helped Repi Church bring these homes up to local standards and make them safe without creating hostility among neighbors. Instead of seeing favoritism or gifts from faraway churches, members of the community will see their own church loving them, taking care of them, being the hands and feet of Christ in their daily lives.

Through church partnership, members of the Journey Church team lived out the mission of World Orphans to bring glory to God through each church, each child, each community.

Authored by Debbie Vair

We have been tremendously encouraged of late by the staff and volunteers of World Orphans. Many have agreed the February staff retreat was a wonderful time of fellowship and learning more about World Orphans and each other, and we are still seeing the fruit of it months later. In some cases, the retreat was an opportunity for co-workers to meet for the first time; for some it was putting a face with a name of a person in close communication but never having met; and for still others, it was the joy of seeing old friends with like-minded and like-hearted passion for serving the church and the orphan.
 
So here we are, two months later, and I continue to be impressed (it is making an “impression” on me) to see the mutual support, affirmation, burden sharing, equipping, praying, and simple friendship continue. We see and believe that the Lord has gathered a truly amazing group of people for this very time to do this very work, for His kingdom, seeking Him first. The fruit is becoming quite evident.
 

Romans 12:9-13 says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

 
I see these verses played out in the lives of our staff, not only through their service, but also in their relationships. As our team reaches out to tell the stories of the fatherless, and as they work together within our ministry, it is a beautiful thing to see them reflect this call of scripture.
 

1 Peter 4:8-11 says, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

 
What a delight it is to serve alongside these brothers and sisters and to see the fruit of the Lord’s spirit in the lives of our team. I so clearly see His hand uniting us, so together we can praise His name as we share His truth throughout the world. We trust in His provision and grace as we speak for those with no voice, bring hope to the hopeless and love to the unloved, through the promise of Christ.
 

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20

 
I truly believe this is a work pleasing to the Lord, and that He will indeed put to good use these hearts devoted to Him and to His work, carrying His blessing and hope as they go.
 

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 1:3-6

Name and position with World Orphans..
Kevin Squires, Senior Director of Advocacy.

What attracted you to your current position?
The idea of churches helping churches really stuck out to me. When I looked into World Orphans, I saw a humble ministry that simply wanted to help churches work together for the sake of the millions of orphaned and abandoned children throughout the world.

Where do you live and who do you live with?
I currently reside in West Virginia with my beautiful, supportive wife, Cassi, and my two sons, Grant and Jackson.

If you could give your 18-year old self one piece of advice what would it be?
Cherish your hair. Don’t over stimulate your follicles by using too much gel and hairspray. Remember, what the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. On a different note, don’t just follow the cultural flow of Christianity…it might take you in the wrong direction. Matter of fact, throughout your life you will often find yourself fighting against the flow of the Christian current in favor of pursuing a more holistic view of the Gospel. And remember, that’s OK… don’t feel guilty.

List three unique experiences in your life.
1. I hiked over 100 miles throughout the land of Israel studying the life of Christ.

3. I was once quarantined for the Ebola virus.

What hobbies do you enjoy?
Sports, reading, traveling, Disney.

Describe yourself in three words.
Visionary. Compassionate. Bald.

One thing you always have on your person is…?
My smartphone.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Orlando, FL.

Authored by Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families …” (Psalms 68:5-6 NIV)

The gods that the ancient world worshipped were concerned with great people — the mighty and cunning, the swift and the gorgeous. The rest of humanity served as a backdrop — bit players, foils, inconsequential fodder for the grand plans of kings, generals, and deities.

Not so with the God of the Bible.

We see God’s strange interest in the people on the margins carved upon every page of Scripture. It was evident in Yahweh’s selection of a nation of slaves to be his special people. It echoed in his choice of sheep-tenders to be the first to hear news of the Incarnation.

But perhaps nowhere do we see this curious reality more clearly than in God’s passion for the orphan.

We may miss how odd it actually is because we live in a culture that is deeply shaped by Christian assumptions. Though it is often violated, to care for the weak and vulnerable remains a Western virtue. This generally wasn’t the case in the cultures that surrounded Jewish and early Christian communities. Like modern Social Darwinists, ancient societies typically saw weakness as unworthiness to live. As the Roman philosopher Seneca described Roman culture during Jesus’ time, “We drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal.”

Consider then the marvel of a God who not only tolerates the feeble and lowly, but places special premium on defending and caring for them.

What a contrast. We see God, the most potent and self-sufficient Power imaginable, continually expressing profound concern for the least potent and self-sufficient — the orphan in distress. The Law describes, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow …” (Deuteronomy 10:18 NIV). The Prophets echo the same truth: “For in you the fatherless find compassion” (Hosea 14:3b). And, again, in the psalms, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families …” (Psalm 68:5-6).

As we grasp this outlandish, beautiful reality, we encounter the truth of God’s father heart. It pulses not only for the orphan, but for each of us as well. He pursued us when we were destitute and alone. He adopted us as his children. He invites us to call him “Abba” and to live as his daughters and sons.

Of course, we must not miss the fact that God calls his people to do the same. We are to live out “pure and faultless religion” by caring for the orphan and widow in their distress (James 1:27).

As we do this, we reveal God’s heart to the world. Whether by adoption or foster care or mentoring or supporting the local Church in care for orphans around the globe, we display that astonishing reality that the Great One cares passionately for the least. And in the process, we experience God’s heart more deeply ourselves as well — a peculiar, marvelous love for the orphan. A peculiar, marvelous love for us.

Talk About It

What does God’s consistent concern for the orphan tell you about his character?

What does it reveal about how he feels about you?

In what ways might you be able to reveal God’s peculiar, beautiful sense of priority to the world?