Home For Good

Krish Kandiah:

There are at least forty times where the Bible refers specifically to God's concern for the orphans or the 'fatherless'.

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What if Christians worshiped by caring for the children in the care system? What if Christians could be part of a campaign that brought fostering and adoption ministries back into the heart of the Church in our nation? What if we the Church could be known as the people who truly care about the pain and problems of children who have no other family to turn to and whom, it seems, nobody wants? What if the Church was known as the most compassionate and hospitable family in the country?

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It takes a whole church to capture the vision and work it out in our homes and communities. We couldn't make our family a home for good without:

• those long-standing friends in the church who know us well enough to write honest references;
• those members of the church who smile at our children, take time to make them feel special, care for them, pray for them, look out for them, and get to know their names and their needs;
• those parents in the church who allow their children to befriend our foster children, not knowing whether that friendship will last days, weeks, months or years, or how they will eventually explain to their own children why they had to move on;
• the leaders in the church who faithfully serve us, even though as a family we are rather unconventional and unpredictable;
• the network of friends of friends in the church who can source the strangest things at short notice.

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Some UK statistics from 2014:

• There are over 50,000 children on child protection registers.
• Around 900 children a month are coming into care, that is one child every 22 minutes.
• The government is looking for 8000 more foster carers.
• At any given time there are 4000 children waiting to be adopted.

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We don't need to sit back and watch the crisis in our own country unfold, wondering whether or not to intervene. We have this clear mandate from God:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

James 1.27