The Beginning

My introduction to orphan ministry came in February of 2008. I was speaking at three day men’s retreat called Tres Dias and my dear friend Allen Pate was also speaking there. During his message on Christian Action, he told the story of how he and his wife Cindy had been called into orphan ministry and had consequently adopted two sons from Kazakhstan and two daughters from Colombia. During his whole message my heart burned and hot tears rolled down my face. I recognized this feeling as the moving of the Holy Spirit in my heart. I had felt it before with life changing results. At the same time thoughts were running through my mind such as, “I’m a busy pastor, father of five, author, conference speaker, construction manager, and I am fighting an incurable disease.” “What business, Lord, do I have getting involved in orphan ministry?” “I don’t have time.” “I don’t have money.” “Surely this is my imagination and not You Lord.” And then I had an idea. A safe prayer that would get me off the hook. So I prayed, “Lord, you know my heart. You know that I am willing but I don’t know where to start. If You will drop an orphan on my doorstep, I will take it in.” I gave Allen a big hug after his message and told him how moved I was and asked him to pray for me as I sought how the Lord would have me be involved in orphan ministry. I went home and told my wife about my “safe” prayer. She responded, “Great!” “IF GOD DROPS AN ORPHAN ON OUR DOORSTEP… we will take it in.” Be careful what you pray for… God takes you seriously.

Two weeks later we received an email asking us to help a 13 year old girl from Liberia, Africa who was 48 lbs. and dying and needed a life-saving surgery. We said yes and over the next several months we helped this girl named Mercy and eventually on July 3, 2008, some people brought her and dropped her on our doorstep. We took her in and loved on her and ministered to her for 22 months before she moved on. Having Mercy in our home and hearing her horrible stories of abuse, poverty, famine, disease, danger, and war softened our hearts for the orphans of the world and made us ready for the next calling of God on our family which I will share in the next post.