Summit Orphan Care2

Tuesday June 22^nd 2010 will be a night the Summit Church looks back on as historic.  Not because 200+ people packed the Bay to learn more about adoption and foster care.  Not even because of the orphans that will be cared for by those people.  No, we will look back on June 22^nd as the night the church began to pursue the care of orphans as a response to God’s adoption of us in the gospel.

 If you missed this meeting, you haven’t missed your chance to be involved in orphan care. You can get the audio from it here. You can also hear the messages from the Fatherless series here.  If you have further questions regarding foster care, adoption or the orphan care ministry, contact us at summitorphancare@gmail.com.  

Here is a little taste of our vision as stated by Brian Fleming:

God has a record in Scripture of doing incredible things for his glory through those that others have written off as useless.  What we don’t often realize is that for us who believe the gospel, you already closely identify with one of these groups- orphans.  Why?  Because we are, as Scripture tells us, adopted by God through Christ.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. -Romans 8:14-17

 If you are a Christian, think about your life before this adoption. You were completely separated from your Father and buried in so much sin, despair, and hopelessness that you could never get yourself out.

 In much the same way, children around the world are experiencing this same despair and hopelessness as you read this. To be exact, most estimates put the number of orphans in the world upwards of 150 million! Many of these children are homeless, literally starving and worse yet, have never known the love of a mom or dad.

 Overflowing gratitude to an ever-loving Savior is what will lead us to take action and truly love the fatherless.  Our adoption of them should be a response to God’s adoption of us.  

 Providing a home to a child without one, through either foster care or adoption, is one way we can respond to the gospel. With the millions of orphans around the world and hundreds in need of a foster home right here in the Triangle, there is a huge need, and the church’s response should also be huge.

 Maybe adoption or fostering has never even crossed your mind, or maybe it’s something you and your family have frequently discussed but just never taken the next step. Either way, we encourage you to consider and pray about it now.

 There are dozens of other families at Summit who have already fostered or adopted and others who are currently in the process that we’d like to connect you with.  These mentoring couples have made themselves available to walk with you in this process.  Please contact us (email above) if you would like to know more about this ministry.