by: Scott Vair | President/CEO
In 1993, a group of friends got together to help a church in Nicaragua buy a house to care for some street boys. With that, World Orphans was born. This year, we are celebrating 30 years of empowering the church to care for orphans and vulnerable children.
We have learned a lot over the years. Our vision and programming have evolved and expanded. We have learned and grown. Even how we care for “orphaned” children has changed.
One of our most significant shifts has been the move away from children’s homes or “orphanages” to a model of family-based care. Our goal is to preserve families and keep them together. With an estimated 80% of children in orphanages having at least one living parent, family preservation is critical in the battle against abandonment and abuse.
Both social science and scripture speak to the value of caring for children in families. We don’t see any references to orphanages in scripture, but we sure do see a ton about family.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.”
Psalm 68:5-6 NIV
Today, World Orphans is committed to wholistically caring for children in families, in partnership with the local church, as we seek to meet their spiritual, physical, economic, social, emotional, and educational needs.
As I reflect on the past 30 years, I am filled with both joy and sorrow. The past is filled with stories of triumph and disappointment. There is much to celebrate and also things to lament. While we have helped so many children find help and hope, there are still so many children who suffer in unthinkable situations of abuse and neglect, forgotten and abandoned. Through no fault of their own, these children face an uncertain future. This is my sorrow: After 30 years, the situation remains dire for so many. They desperately need others to step in and help break the dangerous cycles of poverty and abuse.
But there is hope! In the midst of the hard places are local churches working to live out their faith by caring for the vulnerable. There are nuggets of encouragement and stories of true transformation, like when we see cycles of poverty broken, or when we see mothers get their children back from an orphanage, or better still, mothers able to keep and care for their children.
In this edition of World Orphans Insight, we will revisit some of our favorite stories and provide updates on the children, families, and churches since the original stories were published. We hope you’ll find these stories and updates as encouraging as we have.
We also pause to reflect on the role of Jesus in this ministry of justice and compassion. Since the fall of man, God has been about renewing, restoring, and redeeming all of creation. He’s doing it now. It is happening before our very eyes. One day we will see it in all its fullness, but not yet.
Until Jesus establishes a new heaven and a new earth, the opportunity before us is to participate with him in bringing about the Kingdom. When we act in kindness and mercy, when we extend grace and forgiveness, when we put others’ needs ahead of our own, we participate in bringing about God’s Kingdom.
When we love like Jesus loves, when we care about the things he cares about, the Kingdom grows. Jesus clearly cared about the orphan, the widow, and the refugee. Caring for the vulnerable is one way we get to love like Jesus.
This is my true joy. This is our hope.
This article was originally published in the World Orphans Fall Insight Magazine 2023.