When the Church is Moved

Published by Faith to Action Initiative

Growing up in a small southern town, my travels by the time I made it to college consisted of trips to my grandparents’ farm in Kansas and one failed family vacation to Six Flags in Texas.  I was raised in a Christian home in the heart of the Bible belt and participated in everything from vacation bible school to church camp and all the youth group get-togethers in between.  I listened to Steven Curtis Chapman and loved to belt out Carman ballads.  I learned about the needs of the world through sermons and videos and even started sponsoring my first child through World Vision my senior year of high school.  I had a lot of head knowledge that pulled at my heartstrings but I had never seen the needs of the world with my own eyes.  Honestly, I lived in a comfortable Christian bubble.

My first trip abroad was to Asia, where I encountered street children in Mongolia who were fending for themselves in sub zero temperatures.  A few years later, I moved to North Africa when I came in direct contact with people living in poverty and specifically orphans. I experienced shantytowns and children begging on the streets.  I felt helpless in the enormity of needs and lost in how I could do anything to make any sort of change. I questioned God and His providence for these beautiful yet neglected children; I questioned my own upbringing; I questioned the role of the church. The impact this had on me was profound.

This shock to the senses has been the experience of many who grow up in a comfortable home in America and had their hearts moved with compassion through a trip abroad.  For me, the real test came after the trip was over and the pictures had been shared.  How do we even make a dent in the overarching needs of the poor?  While the church’s response is substantial and not lacking in compassion, what is needed is strategic compassion.  A convergence of the heart and a working knowledge of the issues and challenges in order to equip the church with the best practices to care for families and communities at risk.

During my time in North Africa, I visited and volunteered in a variety of orphanages from a large-scale institution with several children and few caregivers, to smaller “family style” orphanages.  It was the beginning of my journey in strategic compassion.  One of the things that surprised me was some of the negative effects on children being raised in orphanages.  The caregivers were precious people with amazing sacrificial love for these children with a commitment that stretched over several years.  They were meeting an immediate need by providing shelter, food, and education but there were still many needs that they could not provide.  Some of the young adults who had grown up there struggled to connect with their community and expressed a lack of purpose after they had aged out of the facility.

Orphanages recognizably play a significant role in caring for children at risk but an institution can never provide the individual care and sense of belonging that a family is able to give.  Children who are raised in a family style setting, whether by extended family, in foster care or by an adoptive family, will develop better physically, mentally and developmentally.  Family-based care should be given highest priority when responding to the needs of orphans.

I have also been surprised by the fact that the vast majority of children living in orphanages actually have a living parent or extended family that would care for them if they had the means to do so.  As an aunt to four nieces and three nephews, I cannot imagine being faced with putting one of them in an orphanage after the loss of their parents because I didn’t have the means to care for them.  Yet this is the heart-wrenching dilemma that so many families face.  I recently read a statistic that stated, “50-90% of children living in orphanages have at least one living parent.”  This is astounding and more work should be done to provide families with the support to keep them together and children out of facilities.

            We in the church are called to play a significant role in responding to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children.  The issues are complex and require wisdom and research to determine which solutions and practices are best to make lasting change.  May we grow in strategic compassion by taking to heart Proverbs 23:12, “Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.”