Ten Ways to Care for Orphans

iFamily -iadpot

 

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

As we read this passage, we should ask “How can I help fulfill that?”  How do I obey this truth?  There are thousands and thousands of orphans and widows in our state.  These people desperately need the love of Christ experienced through the power of the church.  Before we get started on the application, let’s recall the proper interpretation of this passage.

As we learned yesterday, in this context, to “visit” means to “care for” or sacrificially serve or oversee where needed.  The Greek word “Epikeptomai” is from the same root word, episkopos, which means to oversee, and sometime translates as bishop (Acts 20:28, Phil 1:1, I Tim 3:2).  To visit means so much more than to stop in and chat, it means exercising oversight and pastoral care of some sort.  I’ve included 10 ways to apply this passage.

  1. Pray for God to guide on how to be involved in orphan care.
  2. Visit orphans in Mexico on a church trip.
  3. Sponsor a child or family in Mexico through our church.
  4. Serve in our NV Kids ministry where there are kids that have been orphaned.
  5. Serve as respite for families that are fostering or adopting in the church.
  6. Attend a Foster / Adoption Awareness Class offered in the church.
  7. Serve as a Safe Family.
  8. Start to foster.
  9. Start the process of adoption.
  10. Give financially to our Hope Offering to help in foster care and adoption efforts.

For more information on these issues, please email leslie@northvalleychurch.org