Last week, I had the privilege of attending CAFO's national conference. Almost 2000 Christians gathered in First Baptist Church Orlando to sharpen and strengthen to Church to "take up the cause of the fatherless." (Isaiah 1:17) The conference is representative of what Christianity Today calls the burgeoning orphan care movement.
If you are wondering: What is CAFO? The Christian Alliance for Orphans truly is what it says it is: An alliance of organizations, churches, and individuals who seek to help vulnerable children (whether it be through foster care, adoption, global orphan care, or orphan prevention through family preservation). Motivated by their common love for God and shared values of compassion, generosity, and strategic awareness, CAFO explicitly states: "If the gospel is not at the center of any orphan care event or movement, it will not stick."
Six things that I (and the #CAFO2016 community!) took away from the conference...
dun, dun-dun, dun...
1. “Why do we care about the fatherless? It is not guilt or duty or even idealism that motivates us to care for the orphan. We love because He first loved us.” (Jedd Medefind, CAFO President).
2. “Every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive adult” (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University).
3. “Kids spell trust T-I-M-E” (Josh Shipp, former foster child, author and speaker). Children don’t need perfect. They don’t even want perfect. They want us and our undivided attention.
4. "There is no worse poverty in the world than the poverty of LOVE." (Ann Voskamp, adoptive mother, author and speaker). Every person is fatherless and impoverished before being enveloped into the family of the Father.
5. Caring about orphans is more than adoption. It means caring enough about the family to show up to help them before there are more orphans." (Ann Voskamp). Family preservation and orphan prevention is a key part of strategically caring for the vulnerable child.
6. "The world doesn't need more tall Christians. It needs more DEEP Christians." (Jedd Medefind). Every Christian is given a seed. We can eat the seed, or we can plant the seed. If we plant it, it can grow deep, or it can grow tall. We were encouraged to grow deep before growing tall, to pursue authentic, thoughtful ministry, rather than numbers or noble recognition, in our pursuit to help the fatherless.
If you would like to join me in my pursuit to help the 153 million orphans around the world, email me at audreyj275@gmail.com to learn of needs and opportunities.
A current volunteer opportunity: I'm looking for someone to help me transition this blog into a website. Do you have expertise and time to lend toward this? Let me know!
Oh this sounds like a good conference! So glad you got to go!!! My friend from New Hope Uganda is visiting in a few weeks and I can't wait to hear firsthand news from there and how things are going. It's good that messages like this are getting out more and that there seems to be a deeper interest in orphan care and prevention. Good encouragement to spend more time with my own kids today ;)
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