Caring for vulnerable children is both a noble calling and a complex endeavor that demands compassion, knowledge and dedication. With this in mind, we've assembled a collection of orphan care resources designed to empower organizations and individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of orphans.
Book Recommendations: Orphan Care
The Global Orphan Crisis by Diane Lynn Elliot
God's call to care for the orphaned and vulnerable children of the world is not easy or comfortable. And it will require willingness, commitment, and sacrifice. The more you know about the global orphan crisis the more your heart will break and it will cause you to want to do something... anything... to make the life of an orphaned child a little easier.
The need is overwhelming, but if you are willing, you can be part of the global orphan solution. It is a decision that will change your life forever. The journey will be worth the effort with countless blessings along the way. Together, with God’s strength, you can be the hands and feet of Christ and make a difference in the life of an orphaned child now and for all eternity.
Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care by Tony Merida and Rick Morton
Orphanology unveils the grassroots movement that’s engaged in a comprehensive response to serve hundreds of millions of orphans and “functionally parentless” children. You’ll see a breadth of ways to care with biblical perspectives and reasons why we must. Heartwarming, personal stories and vivid illustrations from a growing network of families, churches, and organizations that cross cultures show how to respond to God’s mandate.
Orphan Justice: How to Care for Orphans Beyond Adopting by Johnny Carr
Christians are clearly called to care for orphans, a group so close to the heart of Jesus. In reality, most of the 153 million orphaned and vulnerable children in the world do not need to be adopted, and not everyone needs to become an adoptive parent. However, there are other very important ways to help beyond adoption.
Indeed, caring for orphaned and vulnerable children requires us to care about related issues from child trafficking and HIV/AIDS to racism and poverty. Too often, we only discuss or theologize the issues, relegating the responsibility to governments.
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Based on his own personal journey toward pure religion, Johnny Carr moves readers from talking about global orphan care to actually doing something about it in Orphan Justice.
Why Not Today: Trafficking, Slavery, the Global Church . . . and You by Matthew Cork and Kenneth Kemp
When Matthew Cork, lead pastor of a church in a comfortable corner of Orange County, first encountered the Dalit (untouchable) people of India on a visit to Hyderabad, he was shaken to his core. Children begging at the airport. Elderly women sweeping gutters. Families living in discarded concrete pipes. He learned of the systemic bondage they had been in for thousands of years.
As Matthew came face-to-face with this suffering, he knew God was summoning him to help. He knew that the greatest hope for the Dalits lay in educating their children—something long closed to them. So God gave Matthew a vision that would transform him and his church, taking them on a journey from the suburban comfort of the US to the slums and villages of India.
Today a new movement is sweeping over the world, a movement to set oppressed people free—free from slavery, sex trafficking, poverty, and political and social injustice. Why Not Today is an invitation—and a challenge—to join in the efforts to bring freedom and hope to people suffering all over the world.
Perhaps God has stirred a passion in you to help the poor and overcome injustice. This story shows what God can do when we are willing to respond to that stirring. Why not start today?
Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis
Katie Davis Majors left over Christmas break of her senior year for a short mission trip to Uganda and her life was turned completely inside out. She found herself so moved by the people of Uganda and the needs she saw that she knew her calling was to return and care for them. Katie, a charismatic and articulate young woman, adopted thirteen children in Uganda and has established a ministry, Amazima, that feeds and sends hundreds more to school while teaching them the Word of Jesus Christ.
Kisses from Katie invites readers on a journey of radical love down the red dirt roads of Uganda. You’ll laugh and cry with Katie as she follows Jesus into the impossible and finds joy and beauty beneath the dust. Katie and her children delight in saying yes to the people God places in front of them and challenge readers to do the same, changing the world one person at a time.
In Pursuit of Orphan Excellence: My Kids, Your Kids, Our Kids by Philip Darke and Keith McFarland
The sad reality is that not everyone involved in orphan care is doing it well. Some find a way to profit from the situation. And many mean well but lack the experience or training to do the job right.
An anthology on orphan care, In Pursuit of Orphan Excellence compiles articles from a number of authorities in different spheres of expertise. Once the book establishes that not all orphans will be cared for by extended or adoptive families, the rest of the book is devoted to the question, “How do we best care for children without parents?”
Darke and Farland challenge the common approach that appears to provide for orphans from our excess “scraps” rather than prioritizing their needs as we would our own children’s. They encourage readers to create environments where orphans can not only survive but chase their dreams and become all God ordained for them.
Framed as a conversation, this book looks at best practices on topics from spiritual formation to dental care. It intends to make readers think not only about the fact that they should be involved in orphan care but also about how to be as effective as possible when they are.
Each chapter concludes with questions for individual reflection and application or group discussion.
Book Recommendations: Orphans and Me
The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? By Richard Stearns
Is our faith only about going to church, studying the Bible, and avoiding the most serious sins—or does God expect more? Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?
More than twenty years ago Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child. Stearns’s journey there took much more than a long flight to Africa. It took answering God’s call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office at one of America’s most prestigious corporations—to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world.
The Hole in Our Gospel features new content along with full-color graphics on poverty statistics, a guide for churches on short-term missions and international engagement, and an index of Scripture on poverty, justice, faith in action, and more.
The ONE Factor: How ONE Changes Everything by Doug Sauder
Can one person really make a difference in the world?
The answer is a resounding YES!
The ONE Factor traces the impact of a single person, moment, investment, and vision as it uncovers the Source of the one factor.
In The ONE Factor, you'll read stories of people who are changing their world. You're invited to join the conversation.
Book Recommendations: Orphans and the Bible
Adopted for Life by Russell Moore
Adopted for Life is a rare book that connects the Biblical foundation of adoption and one family’s experience of adoption. Intertwined is the story of the author and his wife’s adoption of two young boys from Russia. The narrative is a Biblical explanation and reminder that all who believe in Christ Jesus were once spiritual orphans and have been adopted as God’s daughters and sons.
The author challenges individuals and the Church to consider how our own adoption into God’s family must make orphan care and adoption a priority.
This book does not stop with the challenge but gives practical advice. From wise counsel on how to know if one should consider adoption, how to ask the uncomfortable adoption questions, how to navigate the adoption process, and an honest description of what it may mean to grow up adopted, the book is a transparent look from one who has experienced the realities of adopting.
For churches and the Christian community, this book is a call to make orphan ministry and adoption a priority as a reflection of love for God and care for His people.
Why Not Today: Trafficking, Slavery, the Global Church . . . and You by Matthew Cork and Kenneth Kemp
When Matthew Cork, lead pastor of a church in a comfortable corner of Orange County, first encountered the Dalit (untouchable) people of India on a visit to Hyderabad, he was shaken to his core. Children begging at the airport. Elderly women sweeping gutters. Families living in discarded concrete pipes. He learned of the systemic bondage they had been in for thousands of years.
As Matthew came face-to-face with this suffering, he knew God was summoning him to help. He knew that the greatest hope for the Dalits lay in educating their children—something long closed to them. So God gave Matthew a vision that would transform him and his church, taking them on a journey from the suburban comfort of the US to the slums and villages of India.
Today a new movement is sweeping over the world, a movement to set oppressed people free—free from slavery, sex trafficking, poverty, and political and social injustice. Why Not Today is an invitation—and a challenge—to join in the efforts to bring freedom and hope to people suffering all over the world.
Perhaps God has stirred a passion in you to help the poor and overcome injustice. This story shows what God can do when we are willing to respond to that stirring. Why not start today?
Castaway Kid: One Man's Search for Hope and Home by R. B. Mitchell
Abandoned by his parents when he was just three years old, Rob Mitchell began his journey as one of the last “lifers” in an American orphanage. He grew up with kids who were not friends but rather “co-survivors.” As Rob’s loneliness and rage grew, his hope shrank. Would he ever find a real family or a place to call home?
Find out how Rob was able to overcome his past, forgiving his relatives and forging healthy family relationships of his own. Heartbreaking, heartwarming, and ultimately triumphant, this true story shows how, with faith, every person can leave the past behind and forge healthier, happier relationships.
Book and Film Recommendations: Understanding Orphans
Psychology of Orphans by Dr. Ludmila M. Shipitsyna
Dr. Ludmila Shipitsyna brings to her book Psychology of Orphans a wealth of clinical experience as well as psychological theory. While much of this resource is valuable for anyone working or living with orphans or former orphans, it is particularly insightful for those working with children who have been institutionalized.
A highly respected researcher, Dr. Shipitsyna explains the results of research done in Russia. She then interprets the data to explain the needs of children from institutionalization and how to help them. With a candor that is uncommon when addressing these issues, Shipitsyna addresses the pitfalls of the current Russian orphanage system and proposes foster care (or, patronate care, as she calls it) as a preferred method of caring for children.
More scientific text than a parenting manual, this book is heavier on data than anecdote and analysis than compassion. But for those who are seeking to understand a child from Russia’s orphanage system, sifting through this book for gems of insight could be well worth it.
Children From Hard Places and the Brain by Texas Christian University’s Institute of Child Development
This video explores the impact of trauma on a developing brain and explains how fear and chronic stress damage the structure, wiring, and chemistry of the brain. This puts children at risk for a lifetime of social, learning, and behavioral problems if there isn’t intervention. Children from Hard Places and the Brain features experts Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, Dr. Karyn Purvis, and Dr. David Cross, and offers practical advice and tips for leading children of all ages—even teens—to new levels of healing.
The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Stock Kranowitz
Behaviors such as over-responsivity, cravings for sensation, and poor sensory discrimination are often the first clues to Sensory Processing Differences--a common but frequently misdiagnosed problem in which the central nervous system misinterprets messages from the senses. The Out-of-Sync Child offers comprehensive, clear information for parents, teachers, and professionals--and a drug-free treatment approach for children.
With over 25 years of experience and a network of like-minded people around the globe, The Boaz Project can help you show Christ’s love to scared and abandoned children.
To learn how you can help save orphaned children from life on the streets—connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or visit our website here.
I recently read the book “The Orphan’s Abba” by April Jurgensen. It was a moving combination of God’s love for His children, especially orphans, His call for us to help the orphans and the plight these orphan’s face without the help of people who really care and are dedicated to helping them. April and Jim’s hearts and work to find loving people and to set up the care for many of these unadoptable orphans is truly inspirational. There is always more work to be done and I’m sure the dedication of everyone involved in The Boaz Project will continue to work tirelessly to care for the orphans.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all know that helping others is a basic need God has instilled in all of us. Some people are just quicker to admit it and better at fulfilling that need.
God tells us over and over in the Bible to care for the widows and orphans. I personally feel blessed to be able to do something God has asked me to do. Sometimes we get to a place where we wonder what is our bigger purpose in life. Helping unadoptable orphans and their caretakers is truly doing God’s work here on earth. I know there are many organizations that help others and after getting to know the dedicated people and observing their love for these children, I know God is blessing everyone associated with helping these children. I know I have been blessed.