Thanks for an inspiring evening.

Thank you everyone who joined us for the Orphan Awareness night. Our team was so encouraged by the turnout, the feedback and the excitement surrounding what God is doing in Canada! It was great to be in a room full of people that are hearing the call of God to respond to the needs of the orphan and add their voice to the growing movement. We are more and more convinced that God is speaking to people about a common vision for Canada. We had approximately 90 people in attendance, 17 churches represented and a  number of people interested in starting an orphan ministry in their church. We also heard from a number of people that are considering starting the adoption process. Last week, we met with a couple that has started down the road of beginning an adoption ministry in their church. We came away from the meeting so excited that the heart of the couple was to join forces with a network of adoption ministries. We feel so strongly that God’s Kingdom vision is to set our personal agendas aside and work together, in unity, for His purposes. God is connecting us with people from different backgrounds and denominations that have a common desire to see children brought into families and adopted families supported. We have a vision to see a network across Canada of ministries that accomplish this purpose. We want to help churches start ministries and walk with them as they grow. We envision ministries that share insight, wisdom and resources to accomplish a common goal.

This Sunday is a big day for the ministry as we are launching our first Orphan Sunday! This will be the beginning of awareness in Southgate Church about Above and Beyond Orphan Ministry. Our pastor will be sharing about orphan’s from Ephesians and then we will be sharing about the ministry, our team, vision and how the congregation can take part in what God is doing. Please pray for us, that God would speak through us and stir the people’s hearts to compassion and excitement for what He wants to do through this ministry in Southgate.  

The Stirring in Canada

It seems that every great preacher, at one time, has started their sermon with the Webster’s definition of a word to launch into their sermon on a topic. So we feel the time has come for our blog to begin that way! So here is what came up when I looked up stirring. “characterized by action rather than by contemplation or speculation” and “giving rise to excitement.” Well, that seems to pretty much sum it up! This is what we’ve been experiencing over the past few months as we’ve begun to connect with more and more people that seem to have a similar story. They have a passion in their heart to do something about the orphan crisis. It breaks their heart, but they’re not sure where to start and they’re not connected with others that have the same passion in their heart. I love “characterized by action rather than by contemplation or speculation.” Sometimes there can be so much talk and dreaming about a movement, but action is what is needed. Don’t misunderstand, we wouldn’t be here without the dreaming, but sometimes we just need to step out, take action and see what God will do.
 

Here is a quote from an email we received the other day. “things were still burning inside me and I had no clue how to see change in Canada. It also seemed to me that there was no one else really doing anything in this realm.” We have had many conversations like this over the past months. We continue to meet people or be contacted by those that want to get involved in the growing orphan movement. It seems as though God is stirring His people from all over the country and beginning to organize and introduce them to each other!

 

We are realizing that we may have been dreaming too small when we started this ministry. It now seems like God is giving us vision for a Canada-wide movement! We are realizing that we are going to be meeting people from across the country, connecting and working together for a common goal; to see the Church of Canada take it’s proper place on the front-lines of the orphan crisis. We don’t feel that it’s biblically accurate that the government should be leading the way in orphan care! It seems clear in scripture that God has commissioned His people to lead the way in creative ways to meet the needs of the orphan.

 

Please join us this Friday night for our Orphan Awareness Dessert Evening at Christian Life Assembly (21277 56ave, Langley) at 7:30pm. You will hear information on what this ministry and other’s like it are doing, how you can get involved and help the orphan, how we can help your church can start an orphan ministry and even how you can adopt. There will be testimony from an adoptive mother and her adopted son. The evening will be exciting and we are expecting God to speak powerfully to everyone in attendance about His heart for the orphan and His desire for His church to engage in relieving their plight. We look forward to seeing you there. Please email any questions to tamara@southgatechurch.ca