On October 9, 2010, a few other photographers including myself volunteered to photograph orphans for a mission called the Pulaski County Heart Gallery. We had no idea how much our lives would be forever changed as of that day.
Matthew 25:35-40
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
God’s forgotten children, the orphans of America.
About 520,000 children are in foster care each year in America and that number continues to rise. In Arkansas alone there are over 7,000 children in our foster care system.
On average, children stay in the system for almost three years (31 months) before either being reunited with their families or adopted. Almost 20 percent wait five years or more and the statistics on teens never being adopted are around 70%.
Yet, somehow even with over 450,000 churches in the United States, these numbers remain. In some states, it would take less than 1 family per church to adopt a child and there would be no kids in their state’s foster care system.
So one can only wonder “Why is this?”.
God has commanded us to take care of the widows and the orphans/fatherless on numerous occasions in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
One of them can be found in James 1:27 (NIV):
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
But somehow most of us manage to look the other way and pretend it doesn’t exist or make excuses as to why they can’t adopt.
Some turn spare bedrooms into offices, game rooms, or exercise rooms instead of a place for a child to feel safe and loved as if that’s somehow more important. Some would rather live lavish lifestyles or take expensive vacations while “not having money” is their excuse for not adopting a child. Some feel they may not be able to provide the child with the absolute best and instead leave them where they are so they can continue to feel neglected, insecure, poor, and in roughly 25% or more cases, be abused by the foster parent and even higher percentage of those abused by older foster kids in the same home.
Have we become a nation of people who’s sole concern is their own desires at the expense of injustice for the children? We follow a Savior who gave everything for us, yet we reject His children because it may mean giving up something far less meaningful and somehow conclude we are seen as being “right with Him” in His eyes?
Consider this….
This world is full of tragedies every day and many have comforted those who have been through them. Let’s say, God forbid, you have children and you and your wife have a “date night”, which tragically ends with your children being left without parents and no one to take them.
They are put into the foster care system and faced the statistics every other child in the system faces. The laughter and games that once brought you joy is the trigger for their guardians to shout at them and hit them. They loose everything they once knew and the church you were committed to stood by and did nothing because just like you, they don’t hear the cries of the orphans and ignore the commandments of God.
What if due to your rebellion when God told you to help them and you did not listen, He allowed you to watch as these things happened to your children, helpless to do anything.
If that would highly disturb you, then why do you do it to His children? Each and every orphan God loves far more than you love your own children and He’s given you the ability and will provide what you need even though it might cost you comfort or money. But at what price do you say your children aren’t worth rescuing?
The faces of the children I photographed and saw playing haunt me, because they very easily could be my own children’s faces. My prayer is that as you look at the photographs I’ve shared below and the one’s on the Heart Gallery’s website, that their faces will haunt you every time you close your eyes and that you can hear their cries, feel their pain, and think of them until you are moved to take action.
If you can look away with a clear conscience, then so be it, but if you can’t, then delay no longer. As a good friend of mine once said, “Satan isn’t going to tempt you into adopting a child, so there’s no need to pray about that part.”
Resources:
The C.A.L.L. in Arkansas – http://www.thecallinarkansas.org/
