Numbers and Thoughts

There are so many Christians in this world but why are there so many lost people? Why are there so many lost people? Why so many orphans?

According to UNICEF, about 10 million orphans die needlessly - and alone - every year. That's 25,000 children a day dying helpless and alone. There are between 140 to 200 million orphans in this world today. Roughly 7% of all children in the world are orphans.

But is there any hope for these children?

Facts from Show Hope:

The Facts

What is the need?

* Over 143 million children have lost one or both parents.
* Every 18 seconds another child becomes an orphan, without a mother or father.
* At least 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both parents.
* Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent due to AIDS.
* Conflict has orphaned or separated 1 million children from their families in the 1990s.

Where are they?

* 43.4 million orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa, 87.6 million orphans live in Asia, and 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
* 1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe alone.
* At any given point there are over 500,000 children in the U.S. Foster Care system.
* In some countries, children are abandoned at alarming rates, due to poverty, restrictive population control policies, disabilities or perceived disabilities, and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls.

What about AIDS?

* More than 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
* By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS globally is expected to exceed 25 million.
* AIDS is more likely than other cause of death to result in children losing both parents.
* As the infection spreads, the number of children who have lost parents to AIDS is beginning to grow in other regions as well, including Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

What happens to the children?

* Children are profoundly affected as their parents fall sick and die, setting them on a long trail of painful experiences often characterized by: economic hardship, lack of love, attention and affection, withdrawal from school, psychological distress, loss of inheritance, increased physical and sexual abuse and risk of HIV infection, malnutrition and illness, stigma, discrimination, exploitation, trafficking, and isolation.
* Orphaned children are much more likely than non-orphans to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and in the sex trade.
* Unaccompanied boys are at high risk of forced or 'voluntary' participation in violence and armed conflict.
* Orphanages, children's villages, or other group residential facilities generally fail to meet young people's emotional and psychological needs.

What about foster care?

* On average, children stay in foster care for 30 months, or 2.5 years.
* 118,000 children were waiting to be adopted on September 30, 2004.
* On average, those children waiting for adoption have been in foster care for 43.8 months, almost 4 years.
* Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people “age out” of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Of those who aged out of foster care:
Outcome
Earned a high school diploma: 54%
Obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher: 2%
Were unemployed: 51%
Had no health insurance: 30%
Had been homeless: 25% 23
Were receiving public assistance: 30%

Is there any hope?

* Yes. There is One who infinitely loves each orphan and calls His people to join Him in caring for the fatherless. Each one of us can Show Hope to an orphan.
* If only 7% of the 2 billion Christians in the world would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. We can each do something.



So, you see, my brothers and sisters in Christ, there is HOPE for these children, God's Children.

Giving hope to these children does not necessarily mean adoption. It means figuring out what that particular orphan needs and providing care for those needs. All children have different needs! Sometimes enabling families and communities to care for the children is the best thing. An organization (that my mom is a member of), called Orphan Justice Mission, helps a community in Rakai, Uganda care for the roughly 500 orphans in the area that became orphaned mostly due to AIDS. This is just one of the many places that orphans need love, support, and hope.

Please remember that the need for these orphans are not just medically or physically but spiritually. Usually, when the spiritual needs of these children are met, then the medical and physical needs will follow.

There are so many ways for you to answer God's call of you to care for orphans. Here are some ways to do so:
- Show Hope
- Compassion International
- Orphan Justice Mission (a local organization in SW Michigan with board members from our church)