orphans – Erin Ulerich

Is the God You Know Too Small?

My daughter and I are preparing for a mission trip to Africa. Most days I am excited about the trip. Some days I feel overwhelmed. And every day I feel the need to prepare for what we will walk into.

We are going to a very hopeful place; hope is even in its name: Hope for the Fatherless.

Caring for orphans has been a recurring theme in the life of our family. Each time we step into orphan care, my view of God gets a little bigger and my view of his tenderness toward the vulnerable goes deeper.

There is a truth that I’ve learned, seemingly opposites that we must hold in a careful balance.

Our world is broken and God is at work.

Our world is so very broken. No one can argue with that. Five minutes of the evening news or a couple of clicks on any screen will break the hardest heart.

Sometimes I look at the brokenness and I forget that God is at work in this world.

I look at the brokenness and feel helpless and I assume that God feels that way too. When I focus on the brokenness my view of God is too small.

Ready for a dose of reality?

God knows this world is broken, and moment by moment He is redeeming it. He is not wringing his hands in worry. He is not wondering how to work in spite of the brokenness of our world. He plans to work through the brokenness. He plans to work through the very things we try to avoid.

God is at work and He wants us to join Him.

He calls out to us, inviting us to jump in and take part of what HE is doing in and through the brokenness.

The first step is taking our focus off of the brokenness and placing it on Him. It is in saying “I know you are working. What would you like me to do?”

The second step is to dive into His Word. To see what God says about Himself and what He says about the vulnerable in our world. His heart is so tender toward them.

Orphan care is simultaneously heart-wrenching and hopeful. And we need God’s Word to give courage to our hearts and guidance along our path.

Through orphan ministry I’ve discovered that God does not always work the way I think He should. I discovered that He is bigger than I thought, and that His ways often don’t make sense, from a human perspective.

I also discovered that He relentlessly and unexpectedly weaves beauty and redemption in the darkest places, He gives hope where circumstances look hopeless, and He continually draws people to Himself.

I’ve written a seven-day devotional that helps us see the heart of God toward the helpless. It is a helpful guide for those new to orphan care.

The Hope of the Helpless is available on Amazon. (This is an Amazon affiliate link.)

Reaching Out and Fighting Doubt

If God’s vision for the helpless includes you and me, where do we even begin?

Let’s start with those doubting thoughts niggling away in your mind. I know, I had them too. But God placed a child and her adoptive process right in front of me. I wanted to be involved, and God wanted me to wade through these doubts and watch Him provide.

Doubt #1: If I can’t solve the problem, why even try? I wrote about wrestling with this question in the post Stretching Out a Hand of Relief.

Doubt #2: It’s such a big problem. 153 millions orphans! What can one person do to make a difference? Not much on their own. But one person can join with others who are reaching out by:

Supporting Organizations Reaching Out To Orphans & Children in Difficult Situations

Heritage Ukraine – Odessa, Ukraine

Read more about the amazing ministry of Heritage Ukraine in the post

Heritage Ukraine: A Light in Dark Places

Hispanola Mountain Ministries – Haiti and the Dominican Republic

French Camp Academy – French Camp, MS

Sponsoring Children in Difficult Situations

Hope for the Fatherless– Ethiopia

Compassion International

Cross Mountain Mission Legacy Centers – Nicaragua

Providing funding for homes for orphans who are too old to live in the orphanage.

Orphan Mission Transition Homes – Ukraine

Jeremiah’s Hope – Hope Market

Considering adoption

Walking beside a family in the adoption process.

The adoption process is filled with mountains of paperwork, moments of doubt, and uncertainty that all will work out. An adoptive family needs a network of friends who will pray for them, encourage them, and help them raise the necessary finances.

This post tells the story of an adoption process our family was incredibly blessed to be a part of: FIshes, Loaves, and Cookie Dough

If God Is King, What Kind of King Is He?

♥♥Day 3♥♥

What Kind of King is He?

Having someone in authority over us is fearful when we don’t know what they are going to do with their power. On the human level we have experienced leaders who wielded their authority in abusive ways.

If God is in control, what is He going to do with that control?

What kind of King is He?

He is the kind of King who was so concerned with our salvation, so moved by His desire to see His people face to face in eternity, that He who was 100% God also became 100% man.

Jesus went through the cities and villages, proclaiming the Gospel and healing every disease and every affliction. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36)

Jesus knew the people in the crowds were created for more than being harassed and helpless. He healed them physically to show His power to heal them spiritually as well.

He is the kind of King who lived in the broken world we live in and has felt every emotion we feel.

He knows what it is like to be abandoned.

He knows what it is like to feel broken-hearted over the helpless.

Knowing what kind of King God is helps us trust Him, especially when we don’t understand what He is doing.

When His path is untraceable, we can trust His heart.

List the words and phrases that describe the kind of King God is.

Isaiah 54:10 Psalm 12:5-8

Psalm 99:4-5 Psalm 146:9-10

Psalm 10: 16-18 Psalm 147:5

Deut. 10:14-15, 17-18 Zephaniah 3:17

Psalm 9:7-10 Hebrews 4:14-16

Psalm 107

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This is Day 3 of The Hope of the Helpless, a 7-day devotional I wrote as a guide for praying for orphans.

The Hope of the Helpless walks us through God’s heart for the helpless, His vision for their future, and His gracious invitation to join Him in caring for orphans.

In honor of the International Day of Prayer for Orphans on November 11, I am posting a devotional from The Hope of the Helpless each day this week.

I am looking forward to your responses, to having real conversations about orphan care, and to talking through your questions.

If you would like to receive these posts directly to your inbox, subscribe to my mailing list on the sidebar.

Stretching Out a Hand of Relief

Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s I spent part of my summers participating in a Multiple Sclerosis ReadaThon. I remember a few details about this fundraiser. I remember that the mascot was a dog dressed in a Sherlock Holmes style hat holding a magnifying glass. I remember folding and re-folding the pledge sheet with my sweaty hands as I went door to door collecting pledges.

I HATED going door to door, BUT I loved to read, and I loved the idea of helping others, so this fundraiser was a perfect fit for me.

One summer I held the information packet in my hand and a thought came, What difference could one little girl in Mississippi really make?

I never participated in the fundraiser again.

Research didn’t come to a stand still from the lack of my contribution. But something terrible did happen.

A lie, whispered as a thought, lodged into my heart and became a truth I believed.

If I can’t make a see-able, sizeable difference, what’s the use in trying?

Fast forward 25 years later when my friends, Matthew and Sheila Nasekos, responded to God’s prompting to adopt a 13 year-old girl from Ukraine.

I wanted to help, but I knew I couldn’t give them enough money to make a difference. They needed thousands of dollars and I didn’t have that. I felt paralyzed by that old lie that I didn’t even know I still believed. Although I didn’t say it out loud, it was there, lurking under the surface.

If I can’t solve the problem, why even try?

Thankfully, God didn’t let me stay in that frozen state.

I began studying James 1:27 and found an answer to that old lie.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

The Greek word for visit gives the idea of stretching out a hand to help, or to give relief.

In the chasm between problem and solution, we are called to stretch out a hand to those trapped in the gap.

We often feel the pressure to solve the problem, when that isn’t even our job.

We aren’t SUPPOSED to have a solution. Orphans and widows exist because of a broken world that contains death, abandonment, and abuse. The state of the broken world is God’s job to fix.

What God asks us to do is to stretch out a hand of relief to these forgotten groups of people who are helpless to change their situation.

There is blessing in being part of the journey, there is meaning in bringing relief to someone’s life.

Stretching out a hand of relief could mean giving to an organization that builds wells so that people can have clean water. It could mean sending birthday cards to children in orphanages so they don’t feel alone on their special day. It could mean using your profession as a doctor or dentist to offer free services to those in need. It could mean opening your home through a hosting program or opening your heart to adopt a child into your family.

And as we reach out toward the hurting and forgotten, the ones who can’t fight for hope on their own, we must keep two things in mind. Stretching out a hand of relief doesn’t erase wounds, doesn’t solve political issues, doesn’t change hearts. And more often than not, the see-able size-able difference will not be seen on this side of eternity.

But in eternity I believe we will see. And the spotlight won’t be on one person bringing a solution to the problem. It will be a beautiful patchwork showing the way God uses many people to touch each person’s life.

It will show how He speaks to the helpless and forgotten through those who are willing to offer a hand. It will show how He provides food, water, and encouragement through the giving and going of others.

On this earth He works through us, seemingly in the background. In eternity we will see that He really has always been in the forefront and we have been participating in His plans to bring healing to this broken world.

Fighting For Those Who Can’t

I love this picture.

This, to me, is a picture of hope. It looks like it was painted by a happy girl who is excited about a birthday or a special occasion.

But it wasn’t. And that is what makes this a perfect picture of hope. This little hope fairy in all of its pink glory was painted by a young girl in an orphanage in Ukraine.

The orphanage she lives in is drab. Grey and neutral colors are everywhere, except for the art room tucked away in a large classroom on the second floor. It seems as though all the colors in the rainbow have been reserved for that one room in the entire orphanage.

And this is where our little hope artist painted a sweet fairy with her arms open wide, inviting life in with a smile on her face.

This little girl painted hope when her circumstances pointed toward hopelessness. She painted hope when nothing encouraged it. She painted hope even though nothing changed day after day.

This girl is a fighter. A hope warrior.

This picture makes me want to stretch out my hand to encourage this young hope warrior. I want to say “Don’t give up! Keep hoping. Keep your arms open toward life!” I know that there are days when her circumstances mock the spark of hope in her heart. I can hear their dark whispers: “You are nothing. Nobody wants you. What a waste.”

I want her to win.

I want her to experience the beauty of redemption .

Fighting for hope means clinging to redemption. It means believing that God can redeem- buy back, rescue from loss, ransom in full – situations and relationships in our lives. Because of the beauty of redemption we can stand firm and yell what Dan Allender calls “the quintessential cry of hope” in The Healing Path

God turned into good what you meant for evil. (Genesis 50:20, NLT)

I call it the war cry of hope fighters.

Fighting for hope means believing change can happen. It means leaning forward into each day, fighting for traction, for momentum that can move us forward – even an inch.

And that’s the thing about fighting for hope. As we fight we recognize other hope warriors and we want to cheer for them. We know how hard it is to keep hoping and we know that hope is worth fighting for.

Fighting for hope for those who can’t means reaching out a hand of encouragement to speak truth: This is not the end. God will work. And in the reminding, God shines and the darkness fades.

Would you like an opportunity to encourage a fellow hope warrior?

Let me introduce my friends Slavik and Alonya. They live out the beauty of redemption and they are some of the finest hope warriors I’ve met.

They began the Nasledie HeritageFoundation because they wanted to serve orphans and troubled children in Ukraine. They saw great needs all around them and began reaching out. Instead of getting overwhelmed and saying “The problem is too big. What difference could we make?” they stepped out in prayer and began making a difference in the lives of children.

Today they have teams that go into 18 different orphanages to do winter and summer camps, Christmas programs, and fun activities wrapped in the hope that only Christ can bring.

And when war began in Ukraine, they saw an opportunity to reach out to the refugees pouring into their city and they raised money to open a place to minister to these people in need.

To find out more about their amazing ministry check out their Facebook page – Nasledie Heritage Foundation – and their blog at nasledieukraine.blogspot.com. This site shares the story behind the ministry as well as opportunities to get involved.

Fighting for hope on behalf of those who can’t nurtures a spark of hope in their lives. And hope only needs a spark to grow.