Christians Adopting More "Special Needs" Children

Christianity Today reports that as countries place tighter restrictions on international adoptions, more Americans are expanding their view of adoption and adopting those with "special needs."
(Please excuse the inaccurate and offensive title of the article.)

Adoptable Kids in Short Supply

But demand is high as evangelicals adopt wider variety of children than ever.  
by Ken Walker

Tighter government restrictions have reduced the number of children adopted from overseas to a 15-year low. In response, evangelicals—more willing than ever to adopt—are broadening the type of children they are willing to take in. More families, for example, are taking special-needs children, older kids, and those in foster care. Meanwhile, agencies are developing childcare subsidies and other programs to facilitate in-country adoptions.  

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Together For Adoption's National Conference

Early bird registration for Together For Adoption's October 1 & 2 National Conference in Austin, TX ends June 30, 2010.  This year's theme is “The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis.” Guest speakers include Dave Gibbons, Darrin Patrick, Dr. Karyn Purvis, Matt Carter, Bryan Loritts, Tom Davis, Dr. Susan Hillis, Carlos Whittaker, Aaron Ivey, and others. 

For more information and to register:  http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?page_id=11

Orphan Care Groups Come Together to Help Haiti

An article from Yahoo news:
Disaster Response Experts Team With Orphan Care Organizations to Create Long-Term Solutions in Haiti
Unique team to deploy Valentine's Day

RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A volunteer team of U.S. disaster response experts and orphan care providers is coming together to provide strategic help to Haitian churches. The team will equip and train Haitian church leaders to provide local, long-term care for orphaned Haitian children in the aftermath of the January earthquake.

The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is a cooperative volunteer effort of disaster response experts and orphan-care professionals from many U.S.-based ministries that have joined forces to respond to the crisis in Haiti. An initial HORT on-the-ground team will deploy for a two week period beginning on February 14, 2010. The team will work to identify churches in Haiti that can be paired with U.S. churches for ongoing partnerships in caring for orphaned children, so that local resources can sustain this effort beyond the HORT team's deployment.
"We know that this disaster is not going to be fixed overnight, but by putting in place key pieces of infrastructure, efforts can be sustained and strengthened long after the HORT team has returned to the United States," said John E. Roberts, past Director of the Federal Government's National Interagency Training Center, and Incident Command System (ICS) team commander for HORT. "We are looking to build a long-term solution to the immediate crisis."

Recognizing that many Haitian church facilities were destroyed, HORT will use advanced mapping techniques developed by the U.S. government to physically identify the church facilities that are best able to provide long-term solutions to children now and in the future.

"We are looking for churches that want to become part of the long-term solution to the orphan need in Haiti. Â We encourage U.S. churches to come alongside the churches of Haiti to address this catastrophe," said Paul Myhill, President, World Orphans, and a member of the deployment team.

A Valentine's Day fund-raising drive is under way to help HORT deploy. Donors can personalize an eCard with a Valentine message and for every eCard sent, the team will personally deliver a Valentine to a Haitian orphan.

"Outside help alone won't reach Haiti's deepest need. If we're serious about helping Haiti's orphans toward a bright future, it'll be absolutely vital to equip and support committed local Haitian churches to care for the orphans in their communities," said Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.
More about HORT can be found at: http://www.haitiorphanrelief.org/

Collaborators in this effort include:
Christian Alliance for Orphans, http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/
Global Aid Network, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, http://www.gainusa.org/
Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife, http://www.hopefororphans.org/
Lifesong for Orphans, http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/
Love Haiti, http://www.lovehaitimissions.com/
Loving Shepherd Ministries, http://www.loving-shepherd.org/
Sweet Sleep, http://www.sweetsleep.org/
Together for Adoption, http://www.togetherforadoption.org/
University of North Carolina, School of Public Health, http://www.sph.unc.edu/
World Orphans, http://www.worldorphans.org/


(http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100209/pl_usnw/DC52297)

A Church-Centered Initiative to Serve Haiti’s Orphans

Announcement from Together for Adoption:  Please help us spread the word as we seek to mobilize the church to be the hands and feet of our Haitian brothers and sisters to care for their orphaned and vulnerable children.

As you know, the Haitian church has been devastated by the earthquake.
Pastors are dead.
Church buildings have been demolished.
Our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering in inconceivable ways.
To use an analogy, if the Western Hemisphere is the setting of The Parable of the Good Samaritan instead of the land of Israel, the church in Haiti is the man half dead and we are the neighbor. Our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ have immense needs, and God has given us the opportunity and responsibility to care for them as the Good Samaritan cared for the man who fell among thieves.


As you have likely heard, many more children have become orphans as a result of the earthquake. What was already an orphan crisis in Haiti has become an exponentially greater crisis. Since the church in Haiti is itself suffering terribly from the devastating earthquake, they are not in a position to even begin to care for their orphans.


So, we are actively working on an initiative to mobilize the U.S. church to be the hands and feet of the Haitian church to care for its orphans. We want to serve our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ by coming alongside them and doing for them what they cannot do themselves: care for their orphans in crisis.

As you can imagine, executing an initiative like this is complicated. We are working to put a clear plan of action together. If you are interested in knowing how you and your church can participate, please send an e-mail to dan.cruver@TogetherforAdoption.org and keep checking the T4A website for updates.

More information will be coming. In the meantime, pray that we as the church will rise up to come alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of Haiti’s orphans

http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?p=5175

Announcing a Hope for Orphans Event in Greenville, SC

On Saturday, October 17th, Hope for Orphans will present "Your Church and the Orphan" at First Baptist church of Simpsonville, South Carolina (http://fbcsimpsonville.org/). Together for Adoption is privileged to be one of the sponsors of this excellent event. Join others from your church who are passionate about the needs of orphans at this group workshop experience led by Hope for Orphans (http://www.hopefororphans.org/), a ministry of FamilyLife. It will be a powerful, interactive, and fun one-day event that will provide the necessary information and tools to explore how your church can effectively minister to orphans and waiting children. This workshop will be from 9:00AM - 4:30PM on Saturday, October 17, 2009. The $20 per person cost includes lunch and snacks. To register call 1-800-358-6329 or visit: http://www.hopefororphans.org/Display.asp?Page=scheduledworkshops

Reminder: Together for Adoption Conference 2009

Join the 400 people who have already registered for Together for Adoption Conference 2009 at Christ Community Church (Franklin, TN) on October 2-3. The uniqueness of T4A’s conferences is that they focus primarily on vertical adoption (i.e., God adopting us in Christ), with a secondary and necessary focus on its profound implications for orphan care and horizontal adoption (i.e., couples adopting children). With over 132 million orphaned and vulnerable children in the world, what our world needs is Christians who have been freshly gripped by the stunning vertical reality of their adoption by God. If anything can mobilize the church to address our world’s orphan crises, it will be the good news of vertical adoption. Join us as we seek to connect the dots between our adoption by God and the adoption of children.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN.

Conference page for Together for Adoption Conference 2009 Nashville: http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?page_id=11

Worship will be led by Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace (http://www.igracemusic.com/).

Check out our new T4A video. It connects the glory of the gospel (i.e., the treasure that Jesus is) with the global orphan crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCK8dMoErRA

Freed to Visit Orphans (Ethiopia)

Together 4 Adoption has just released a new video to raise awareness of the current global orphan crisis and to promote their upcoming October conference. It connects the glory of the gospel with the orphan crisis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCK8dMoErRA