Food for Thought.....

The following post is taken from a blog called "Once Upon A Mooncake". I believe Patty, the blogger, has many good points to consider.


Yesterday I was poking around the web and made a few discoveries. One of them being that Washington State, where I've lived most my life, is ranked number 7 in the most international adoptions to take place last year. There are only six states that brought home more children last year.

Do you want to know how many children were adopted internationally last year in WA?

502

Yup. That is a 5-0-2.

Our neighboring states don't even come close. Oregon had 242 adoptions. That's roughly the size of my church. Idaho--came in with 74.

Do you want to know what else interesting? My state is the most unchurched state in the entire nation. WA boasts of having the highest percentage on non-religious people living here. Church membership is the lowest of all the other states in the nation. Yet we are number 7 in adoption last year. Strange, considering adoption is such a "trendy" thing to do among christian circles right?

Or not.

Here's some more numbers for you. The top 16 churches in the US have well over 13,000 members. The number one church has over 40,000 members, followed by two mega-churches with over 20,000 members each.

Total international adoptions last year?

12,753

Do these numbers bother you?

Now before you get defensive..........let me just say, I know that adoption is not for everyone. I know that, I really really do. I know it is hard. It is messy. It is cluttered and draining. I know that not everyone is in the position to do such a thing and that many churches are filled with elderly, young, sick, hurt and so on.........people who could not or should not be adopting.

But let me ask you this..........if you are one of those who is able...........why aren't you?

What are you investing your life in? What does your heart value? What does God's heart value?

I believe wholeheartedly that if every able christian would adopt just one child, we could wipe out the entire orphan crisis in this world. (both here in the US and internationally.....I'm only speaking of international because that is what our family is involved in and where I can find good statistics because of the amount of visa's issued. I would hope that all children would be valued and christians would consider adoption regardless of where a child is born.)

When I was looking at these numbers it reminded me of when we were in China in 2006 getting our son. We were in Beijing and I'd sat on a bench next to a guy that turned out to be a police officer that worked at the airport. I asked him what he thought of all these americans coming over there adopting kids. (you may have heard this story already......)

His response?

He said he didn't get it. He said nobody cared. He repeatedly said "no one cares, they are just orphans. We don't want them, no one cares."

And then his girlfriend leaned over and asked me if I knew "christian". I asked her if she was talking about Jesus and she got very excited and said "yes yes, Jesus. I know Jesus too" and then told her boyfriend "that is why they come, they know Jesus and they love orphan".

That conversation has never left me.

Yet when I look at these statistics........12,753 adoptions---and who knows how many of those were actually by christian families---I have to wonder. Do we care? Or are they just orphans.

Christian friends, we have alot of work to do.