Pictured above from left to right: Michael Wear (Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships), Kathleen Strottman (Exec. Director of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Ambassador Susan Jacobs (State Department), Steve Gillis (Patch Our Planet), Robert Clay (Deputy Administrator U.S. Aid), & Carolyn Twietmeyer (Project Hopeful).
What a whirlwind. About a week and a half ago, I received an invitation from the White House to present Patch Our Planet on one of the panels for National Adoption week. My answer was of course, yes. It was an amazing discussion of how government and faith-based organizations are working together to try to get orphans of all ages into forever families. And, it was our opportunity to emphasize that the Christian Church is the answer. Located on every corner of the world, the Church is in the position to do the most good. And, we have a mandate and a calling to lead the way. Patch Our Planet wants to help the Church by equipping and educating church leaders with a long term, holistic strategy that has the benefit of the foster child and global orphan as its main priority. You can read all the details and see the different Senators, Congressmen/women, government officials and National Leaders that were represented at the meeting here at the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/29/national-adoption-month-white-house
I am grateful to have had such a wonderful opportunity to speak on behalf of the foster child and global orphan. My prayer is that the Church would awaken to its responsibility and once again take its rightful place at the front of this epidemic. Each church doing something will be enough to eradicate this problem. It is my hope that in 10 years, we’ll look back and see such a great movement of the Church to care for orphans that we won’t be talking about 143-210 million orphans in our world. What if instead we heard stories of ALL of the 100,000 awaiting kids in the U.S. foster system being adopted by loving families? And, what if we hear how the Global Church moved to eliminate the word “millions” from the face of the earth when talking about the number of orphans in the world? It’s not that far fetched. With God, all things are possible. But, our inaction must now turn to action. Each one doing his/her part will make the difference.
“As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Here is a little snapshot of our time in Washington, D.C. Thank you for those of you who prayed for me and tuned in to the live feed. We are hoping to get a video up at some point. But, for now….here are the pictures:
