Monday, November 2, 2009

The Heart of the Ministry

What does "Engaging the Fatherless" mean? Where did we get this name? What kind of ministry is this? Okay, let me explain.

Recently, I was at an event where a teenage boy caught my attention. I can't quite put my finger on what it was about him, but there he was. I knew when I met him something was up. I have to admit to you, I didn't think it was something good. The whole evening I kept my eye on this kid. What was it? Well, the moment came when God was ready to reveal to me why this boy needed my attention. You know what I did? I ran! Yep. My first thought was, "No not me! Don't use me to do this!" But as God so gently does, he made sure I had no choice. I sat down with this child, and quickly learned what our Father in Heaven needed me to do. You see, I found out this boy was in foster care and had been for years. He shared with me how he really wanted to be adopted, but didn't feel like he ever would be. He was so sure nobody would ever want someone his age; they only wanted the younger kids. This boy was so sure of himself on this, his words went straight through my heart. I was able to share with him how our Heavenly Father loves him. HE has a plan for him and cares about him. Did this boy hear what I was saying? I don't know. But I can tell you, God wanted me to tell him that this particular evening. When I left this event and knew I would probably never see this child again, my heart ached. I was given an opportunity to engage in conversation with this boy, and thankfully our Heavenly Father made sure I didn't walk away from him.

This ministry is designed to help Christians obey God's command. The Bible says in Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause." So often many of us are just like I was that night, scared. I didn't know how to help this situation. I didn't know what to say to him, but God did. "Engaging the Fatherless" is designed to reach out to children in foster care, children who need adopted, single moms, birth moms and widows. We want to help families who have felt the calling to become foster parents, but don't know what the next step is. We want to come along side of couples who have felt God's nudging to adopt, but don't know anything about the process. We want to learn how to care for the orphans who live all over the world and in some small way share with them the simple truth, "God loves them". We want to be an encourager for the single mom who is bearing a difficult burden of raising her children on her own. We want to help birth moms who are dealing with the loss of a child. And we want to be a support to the widows in our Church.

Please join us in praying for this ministry. If you think this might be something you want to be involved in we would love to hear from you.

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