Go on a Mission Trip to an Orphanage

Buckner Orphan Care

Opportunities: Deliver shoes, construction, VBS, share Christ with a child, humanitarian aid, and medical aid. Countries: China, Kenya, Guatemala, Latvia, Peru, Romania, and Russia. Trips last 8-10 days. A Baptist Ministry.

Global Aid Network Missions

Opportunities: Outreach to orphans and needy children. Give compassionate aid and share Christ. Trips last 10 days to 2 weeks. A Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Vision Trust Mission Trips

Opportunities: Labor on orphanage or school, VBS, discipleship training, neighborhood evangelism, dental and medical care, sports clinics and camps. Countries: Brazil, Thailand, and Dominican Republic. Trips last about 1 ½ weeks.

Warm Blankets

Opportunities: Assist at an Orphan Baptism Retreat at the South China Sea, fellowship with the children. Country: Cambodia. Trips last about 1 ½ weeks.

Visiting Orphans

Opportunities: Childcare, camp counselors, building construction, and Bible school. Countries: China, El Salvador, Russia, and Ethiopia. Trips last: 8-15 days

Children's HopeChest

Your family can volunteer to help at a Christian summer camp for orphans. Opportunities: Lead devotions & prayer, tell your testimony, participating in U.S. culture night, performing in the talent show, sports and camp games, help organize events, arts and crafts. Country: Russia. Trip lasts: 2-8 weeks

Philip Hayden Foundation Children's Villages
Opportunities: Help at the children’s village (homes for orphans). Country: China (near Beijing) Trips last: 7-14 days. Additional: Visit the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. The Children’s Villages earn money to care for the orphans by hosting visitors.

Participate in Orphan/Adoption Sunday

Many churches choose a day to share about orphans and adoption with the congregation. Since November is National Adoption Awareness Month, many churches pick a day in November.

Here are some ideas from the Shaohannah’s Hope site:

1. Establish a date convenient for your fellowship. Preferably around other adoption related events/celebration. Historically, National Adoption Day is celebrated the Saturday before Thanksgiving during National Adoption Awareness month (November). Although any time is appropriate there are a few important dates to note that might help in encouraging your leadership to participate. Possible dates: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the Sunday after National Adoption Day, or a Sunday in November, National Adoption Awareness Month, or May, National Foster Care Month.
2. Advertise around the church on bulletin boards or where appropriate using “Adoption Sunday” posters.
3. Encourage your senior pastor to preach about God’s heart for orphans, using resources from Inspirational Materials or the Show Hope Store.
4. Play Build a Bridge of Hope video narrated by Steven Curtis Chapman , the Family Testimony video, the Hidden Treasure video, or the Facts video available on the Show Hope DVD.
5. Allow an adoptive family to give their testimony.
6. Dedicate a percentage of offering to your own adoption/orphan care ministry.
7. Bring ALL adoptive families on stage for closing worship/prayer.
8. Have a time of “Special Music” using one of the adoption songs mentioned in the Inspirational Materials, or show the “When Love Takes You In” music video.
9. Provide bulletin inserts using the H.O.P.E. guidelines with information on http://www.howtoadopt.org/ for those who may be interested in adopting.
10. Announce the first Adoption Ministry small group meeting. You may want to consider organizing an adoption workshop in your church as well.
11. Consider providing a departing gift or some materials for your church members.

Raise Money for Orphans

You can raise money and send it to a Christian charity that helps orphans.

Here are some ways to raise money:

• pop can drive
• penny drive
• garage sale
• bake sale
• make and sell Christmas ornaments
• make and sell Holiday baskets
• sell Christmas trees
• collect and recycle scrap metal
• talent show
• art contest and sale
• car washing
• dog washing
• door-to-door window washing
• mow lawns
• read-a-thon or walk-a-thon
• babysit
• birthday donations
• community auction

Cry of the Orphan Campaign in November

Encourage your Christian friends and family to listen to certain radio shows during the Cry of the Orphan week - November 17-21, 2008.

In November, the Cry of the Orphan campaign informs listeners about the orphan crisis and the need for Christian adoption. Christian radio hosts devote a week of broadcasts to orphan stories and information. The participating shows are:

• Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey
• Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson
• Money Life with Chuck Bentley
  

Collect Coins in a Baby Bottle

You can help Vision Trust International care for orphans. Ask others to help you fill a baby bottle with pocket change and then send the money to Vision Trust.

Host a Baby Shower

Have a baby shower to help orphans - at your church or in your home. Ask the guests to bring gifts like:

• clothing (infant- teen)
• bedding (crib - twin)
• diapers, wipes, and rash cream
• baby toiletries
• toys
• soap, shampoo, and dental care items
• Pedialyte
• walkers, and swings.

Then, send the donated gifts to Buckner Orphan Care International

Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid
5405 Shoe Drive
Mesquite, TX 75149

Sponsor an Orphan

Vision Trust Child Sponsorship
Orphans in Brazil, Central African Republic, Dominican Republic, India, Peru, Southeast Asia, and Thailand

Compassion International
You can choose to sponsor an orphaned child.

World Vision
When sponsoring a Hope Child you are helping a child that has been orphaned due to AIDS.

Bethany Christian Services
Orphans in Albania, China, Guatemala, Korea, Romania, and Ukraine

Hopegivers International
Orphans in Africa and India

Philip Hayden China Orphan Outreach
Orphans in China

Shoes for Orphans

Shoes for Orphan Souls is a Christian ministry program of Buckner International. They distribute new shoes to orphans and at-risk children throughout the world. One of the greatest and most immediate needs of these children is a pair of shoes - the ministry has an ongoing need for donations.

Your family can help by sending in a new pair of shoes or hosting a shoe drive for this Christian ministry.

Support Grants for Adoptive Parents

Shaohannah's Hope is where you can donate money to help Christian couples with the expense of adoption. Adoption grants are given to help reduce the financial barriers so that more children can be adopted into Christian families.

Hold an Orphan Gift Fair at Church

Set up a table displaying items that orphan organizations are requesting. People can browse through and pay for an item to be sent to an orphan.

Here are some things that you can display on the table:

• clothing, bedding, diapers, toiletries for Buckner Orphan Care
• hand knitted blankets and hats for Lifeline of Hope
• pairs of new shoes for Shoes for Orphan Souls
• care packs for Global Aid Network
• have laptops displaying the online gift catalog for God’s Kids

Adoption Promotion Music Video

Help a Foster Family

You can show your appreciation and support to foster parents by volunteering to help them out. Here are some ideas:

• offer to babysit for free
• make a meal
• clean the house
• give free diapers and other supplies
• tutor the children
• be a mentor
• ask the family what needs they have and offer to help

Shop Online Gift Catalogs

You can buy items for orphans from online catalogs. Children will enjoy looking through the sites and picking out things to give.

Samaritan’s Purse Catalog
Give an orphan a month’s worth of care, rescue a child from bondage and abuse, and care for orphans with HIV/AIDS.

World Vision
Care for orphans affected by AIDS, share of a home for orphans, send an orphan to school, and the widows and orphans fund.

God’s Kids
Nutrition, shelter, medical help, education, agriculture, physical needs, and leadership

Motivate Christian Families to Adopt

Promote adoption in the church.

• have special guest speakers talk about adoption
  
• show a movie to raise interest in adoption
• have a sermon about the need for Christians to adopt
  
• host an adoption workshop
  
• start an adoption fund for Christian families called to adopt
• have a fund raising event to help with a couple’s adoption expenses

Video: Foster Parenting

Make and Send Care Packs

Global Aid Network, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, reaches thousands of orphans and other needy children through their Care Packs project. The Care Packs are personally delivered by outreach missionary teams, who also share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the children and their adult caregivers.

You can help by putting together a Care Pack. Items to include are:

• 2 pencils
• 2 ballpoint pens
• 1 package 8-12 colored pencils
• 1 box of crayons (16-24 pack)
• 1 notebook or tablet (6″x7″ minimum)
• 1 ruler (with metric)
• 1 eraser (not pencil top kind)
• 1 small pencil sharpener
• 1 package of colorful stickers
• 1 toothbrush (in original package)
• 1 comb
• 1 letter and photo of you
• 1-2 gallon size “zipper bag”
• $5 per Care Pack to help deliver overseas

To each Care Pack, Global Aid Network will add: a gospel bead bracelet with a printed explanation, a translated copy of a children’s Bible storybook and a book like Josh McDowell’s More Than a Carpenter with the gospel of John.

Video: International Orphans and Adoption

Support Orphan's Promise

Orphan's Promise helps the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of orphans. They are a ministry of the Christian organization Operation Blessing and they provide:

• orphan and adoption advocacy
• academic opportunities
• life training skills
• career placement
• mentoring
• health programs
• food and vitamins
• clothing
• after-school programs

Start an Orphan Ministry at Your Church

Family Life’s Hope for Orphans has resources to help your church establish an orphans ministry. They have a goal to help 1000 churches do this by the year 2010. Here are some orphan ministry ideas that your church may want to get involved in:

• pray for orphans waiting to be adopted
• start an adoption assistance fund
• provide financial support and humanitarian aid to an orphanage
• have fund raisers to support Christian orphan organizations
• make and send items to orphans
• hold an orphan gift fair
• have a baby shower to collect items for orphans
• recruit adoptive families
• hold adoption workshops
• get involved in the foster care system and mentoring
• support pregnancy care centers
• take members on mission trips to orphanages
• sponsor an orphan and raise money for orphans in the children’s church

Form an Orphan Prayer Group

Pray for orphans, waiting children, those who are caring for orphans, and families who want to adopt. Your group may also want to sponsor and write to an orphan.

Video: Considering Adoption?

Donate Gifts to Lifeline of Hope

Lifeline of Hope invites businesses, church groups, organizations, and individuals to donate gifts in kind to help orphans.

They accept new items such as:

• children’s clothing and winter items
• personal hygiene products
• vegetable seeds and gardening tools
• woodworking hand tools
• sewing supplies
• vitamins and OTC medicines (like acetaminophen, cold pills, topical ointments)
• medical supplies (like band-aids, gauze, tape, scissors)
• bedding (like quilts, sheets, blankets, pillows)
• diapers

You can send your donated items to:

Gifts in Kind
Lifeline of Hope
135 Kelly Road
Kalispell, MT 59901

All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law. (Please provide Lifeline of Hope with a statement declaring the value of your donation.)

Donate Your Car for God's Kids

You can donate your old car to help orphans. The Christian organization, God’s Kids, works with Car Program LLC. They will pick-up your vehicle donation at no cost to you. They handle the title transfer requirements and provide you with a tax deductible donation receipt. You can call them at 1-800-237-5714 and make sure to tell them you want the donation to go to God’s Kids.

Adoption Promotion Music Video

Your Church Can Sponsor an Orphanage

Through Warm Blankets Orphan Care you can help sponsor a church orphan home in Africa, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, or Thailand. Your church can pay a portion of the orphan home’s monthly expenses, or it can sponsor the entire orphanage.

Volunteer for an Orphan Ministry

Bethany Christian Services is a Christian adoption and family services agency. There are 75 offices through out the United States. Volunteer opportunities include:

• help at fund raisers
• clerical work
• get baby items donated
• mentor a foster child
• transport children to appointments

The Global Aid Network Warehouse in Lancaster, PA welcomes volunteers to come sort, pack, and help ship donated items to orphans. They have special work projects planned during the year. You can register at their website to receive information about upcoming volunteer opportunities.

Your Local Adoption Agency may need help with the following:

• clerical work
• computer and website work
• drive birth parents to appointments
• community outreach and information distributor
• volunteer to help at fund raising events
• counseling

Knit for Orphans

Use your knitting or crocheting skills to help orphans.

Lifeline of Hope is a Christian organization that currently supports over 17,000 orphans through financial donations and donated gifts. You can knit warm items like blankets, hats or mittens and send them to:

Gifts in Kind
Lifeline of Hope
135 Kelly Road
Kalispell, MT, 59901

One Family's Adoption Video

Adoption DVD Workshop for Churches

The Christian ministry, Family Life Today, now offers it's adoption workshop on DVDs that you can show in your church.

The If You Were Mine Adoption Workshop investigates adoption from a biblical and practical perspective. You can us it for small groups, a one-day event, or for individual families.

This DVD workshop costs $99 and includes - live workshop footage, interviews, video vignettes, and written materials. In this resource you’ll find:

• Seven DVD sessions that explain and help prepare you for your adoption journey
• One Leader’s Guide
• One Participant’s Workbook
• One CD-ROM packed with promotional material — video trailer, posters, flyers, and more