Three years ago, before we even knew her, American Missionary, Abigail Harkson had lived in an orphanage in India for several months, loving and caring for the orphans there.

We first met Abbie only 3 days before she was scheduled to return to India for her second 5 month stay at the orphanage, and she shared with us that she was not ready to go because her purpose for the trip was not clear. Her heart was burdened to do more for the orphans than just visit them again, but she was still waiting on the Lord to give her a specific reason for her visit. As we shared the vision of adoption ministry with her, we both soon realized this was a "divine appointment," and it was exciting to watch God work as He began to confirm in Abbie's spirit that adoption ministry was the reason for her second missionary trip.

Abbie returned to India a few days later, and you can read below how God opened her eyes. It's hard to imagine how we can be so blind, but thats exactly how I was when I worked in an orphanage. Abbie wrote her story below right from the orphanage in India.

This year I feel like God has unlocked a world of insight behind each grin that I never before noticed during my first stay in India in the "Glorious Children's Home" orphanage.

Considering the circumstances, the facility is most definitely glorious. In contrast to living on the streets, the girls receive the highest care, a quality education, ample meals, and a personal cubby to store all of their little trinkets and the things most valuable in the world to them. But for most-the absence of the most valuable thing, a family, makes living here fall very short of glorious. Though you'd never know it at first glance.

My first "awakening" occurred after daily hearing the girls quiz me about their names. They repeatedly ask me, "What is my name, Abbie Auntie? What's my name?" They are fully aware that I can recall their names, but somewhere embedded within each one of them is a stirring desire to be known. Hearing their name spoken over them is a glittering sign of their identity and worth. I can only imagine with forty-something girls and only two wardens (care-givers), that their names being affectionately spoken or lovingly called is a rarity.

Two wardens is hardly a sufficient number of individuals to pour out the love, attention, counsel and care these girls need. In one sense, their situation is worlds better than the alternative of a street life, a life of prostitution, or a life of begging. In another sense, being raised in an institution-regardless of the quality-is not comparable to God's ultimate plan: Living life with a family; having a mother and father instead of being raised with throngs of competitive peers; having a special seat at the dinner table instead of a patch of cement floor to sit on while eating repetitive meals cooked for masses.

And what happens when these girls grow too old to live here in the "Glorious Children's Home" any longer, when they "age out" and have to move on? My heart is overwhelmingly burdened by the absence of options they have to move on to. There is of course, for some, the hope of marriage. But who has raised these girls to be Godly women, loving wives, and caring mothers? When motherhood is a foreign concept, why would they desire it for their own life? Two evenings ago I asked Pravina, a ten-year-old, if she wanted to raise a family someday. Her head shook drastically as she puckered her face with a look of disgust. It seemed, to her, "mother" was the last thing she desired to be. I don't blame her. Why would Pravina aim to be a mother when she has never experienced a truly loving touch or the gentle "good night" a mother whispers in her ears before bed? I watched as Pravina's eyes pooled with tears-a reaction she quickly buried behind a wall of exterior toughness as she grabbed a stack of my photos to divert her attention. Her internal pain was so obviously overwhelming; she had to convince herself not to feel at all. I tried to hug her, but she wouldn't hug back. I wrapped my arms around her waistline even tighter, but her arms remained stiff at her sides-her eyes glancing up and away from me.

When Pravina left my room, I buried my face in the long scarf around my neck and wept. I wanted to run after Pravina, but I couldn't think of a word to say to her. How do you explain hope to an orphan? How do you explain the comforting love of a Heavenly Father when the reality of a father is void? I was left in my room with insurmountable pain. I couldn't even think of a single word to pray. I wanted to cry out, but I was speechless, overburdened, emotionally collapsed.

My mind began to revert to the words of Kay Warren, an adoption advocate, who so beautifully stated that we have to stop questioning what is so wrong with the world and start questioning, "God, what is so wrong with me that I am not seriously disturbed by what I see?" We must be, she says, "seriously disturbed and gloriously ruined."

When we shed our apathy, our ignorance, our desire to remain naïve to prevent inevitable pain from ensuing, we begin to see and experience the very pain that Jesus himself is burdened by. Jesus told us in Mark 8 that, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Jesus left Heaven to die on a cross because He was so disturbed by our pain and our lack of hope. If we truly love Him, we would do the same. If we really belong to the Lord, we will pay whatever price it costs. We will be willing to be gloriously ruined for the Kingdom. We will be seriously disturbed by the cry of the orphan. Disturbed by the very things that disturb Jesus. We must "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves." (Prov. 31:8).

How do we find ourselves gloriously ruined? How do we advocate for orphans who are too numerous to comprehend? We can start by ceasing to ignore what disturbs us. We can ask God who shares our pain to let us be a part of His story of hope.

March 10, 2008

When friends from our home church returned from Africa after adopting two teenage girls, they reported having seen several men hanging around the orphanage gates. A social worker at the orphanage told them the men are predators who wait for the young girls to be released from the orphanage when they age out, which could be anywhere from age 15 to 18 depending on space in the orphanage. This is the beginning of the pipeline for approximately half of the supply of children for human trafficking and the sex slave trade.

The director of a well known American adoption agency, told me that he has personally witnessed the predators at the gates of European orphanages, already armed with the names of the girls and the dates they are scheduled to be released.

A pastor who adopted from Russia reported observing two fancy black limousines arriving at the orphanage while he was there. The finely dressed men had come to pick up a strikingly beautiful teenage girl from the orphanage. He couldn't help but wonder why they would kiss the orphanage director as they left. Was it their thanks for this incredibly valuable prize they had just been given? Millions of girls like her have been lured into sexual slavery with lucrative job offers from finely dressed men just like these.

So many people have given so sacrifically of their time, their love and their finances to care for these children for as long as 18 years. Its a shame that so many of them will go from the institution directly, shortly or even eventually into the waiting arms of predators and slave traders. But that's exactly what happens to many orphans and foster children today if they are not adopted.
www.howtoadopt.org/TheGreatNeed/  Paragraph 5

If we're not offering orphan children a permanent solution that gives them a sense of value, self-worth, and belonging, and the skills to cope with life, they have few or no options, and will be easy victims for predators.

Adoption by a loving Christian family is the Best Solution.

Adoption gives orphan children a sense of self-worth and belonging, and is the best way to keep them out of the reach of predators. It's far better to prevent human trafficking, than to rescue children from the resulting slavery, after their minds and their lives have already been destroyed.

We need to display strength and take action to ensure that more orphan children are adopted. Empowering the Christian families in churches around the world who already want to adopt, would go a long way toward accomplishing that objective.

This year, nearly a million women and children will be sold into sex slavery. If you are as outraged about this as God is, you really CAN do something about it. If you're not called to adopt, you can help make adoption affordable for someone you know, who already wants to adopt.

Predators lurk at the gates of many orphanages, already armed with the names of the girls and the dates they are scheduled to be released.

Every year nearly a million children and women are sold into sexual slavery. Nearly 30% are between the ages of 9 and 15, and some as young as 5 or 6.

In the U.S., one out of every three teens will be lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving "home" (if they have no one to belong to and no place to call home). Within 3 months, 90% will have turned to sex.

Pastor Jon Courson of Applegate Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, Oregon recently announced, for the first time, that a family in the congregation needed, and deserved financial assistance to raise money for adoption expenses. Rather than relegating this important ministry announcement to posters and bulletin inserts, Pastor Jon personally endorsed adoption ministry from the pulpit during Sunday morning services, and again at the Wednesday evening service. The announcement invited members of the congregation to donate cash, or good quality household items that the family could sell. He also recorded the same announcement which was then broadcast to the public on Applegate's Christian radio station, KAPL in Medford, Oregon. In the first two weeks after his endorsement, people had already donated over $3,000 in cash plus several truckloads of quality furniture, household goods, clothing and art, which we eventually sold in our Thrift Store for $10,000.

Not only does God love to bless pure and undefiled religion (caring for widows and orphans. James 1:27), so do people outside the church! Nearly half of the donations came from the general public as a result of Pastor Jon's radio announcement. A significant percentage came from one person, a total stranger who did not attend Applegate Church, and did not even know the adopting family.

But it goes even beyond that! Matthew 5:16 tells us to let our light shine before men in such a way that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. People like the lady who gave the large donation of furniture and art, frequently glorify God by telling us they are delighted to help fund adoption because it is such a wonderful ministry. We had an opportunity to pray with this lady, and she wept tears of joy as God blessed her with His presence. Adoption ministry not only blesses orphan children, there is no doubt in my heart that this donor was blessed by God, and by a church body that is practicing pure and undefiled religion!

Pray with us that this success will be an inspiration for other church leaders to follow Pastor Jon's example of enthusiastically endorsing adoption ministry in their respective churches.

In this Blog

Rather than relegating this important ministry announcement to posters and bulletin inserts, Pastor Jon personally endorsed adoption ministry from the pulpit, during Sunday services, again on Wednesday evening, and also on the Radio!

Nearly half of the donations came from outside the church!

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