HOME FOR GOOD

Adoption

I’m going to ask you to imagine the unimaginable.  Think of a child you love. It may be your own child, grandchild, a niece or nephew, a godchild, the child of a friend or neighbour.  But it’s a child you care about.   Now imagine that for some reason this child is tragically orphaned.  What would you want for that child?  Would you want the child to be placed in an orphanage?  Or would you want them to be placed in a family?  What would you choose for them?  Most, if not all of us, would choose the family; a home where that child will be loved, nurtured and enabled to thrive, whether that’s with a long-term foster family or with a new family through adoption.  God has always known that this is the best place for children.  He is the Father to the fatherless; the God who sets the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6).
 
November 3rd is National Adoption Day.  The aim of this day is to raise awareness of children who are in care and who are waiting to be welcomed into their family.  In the UK there are around 95,000 children in the care system.  Of these, over 2,500 children are waiting for adoption and almost half of them have been waiting for 18 months or more. 
 
Time and again the bible demonstrates God’s heart for the vulnerable, and children in care are amongst the most vulnerable people in our society.  Many of these children will have suffered neglect or abuse and all of them will have experienced some level of trauma and loss.  In Isaiah 1:17 God tells us what he would have us do: “Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the Fatherless.”
 
Home for Good is a charity that takes up this cause.  Its primary aim is to make adoption and fostering a significant part of the life and ministry of the church in the UK, by raising awareness of the need for more foster and adoptive parents and by equipping churches to be a welcoming community for those families with fostered or adopted children.
 
Not everyone is called to foster or adopt, but you can still support the vision of Home for Good by committing to praying regularly for children in care, for foster carers and adoptive families and for the work of Home for Good.   God encourages his people to ‘take up the cause’ for vulnerable children as part of the wider call to justice. I hope that on this Adoption Sunday, you too will pledge to take up this cause.
 
For more information about Home for Good go to www.homeforgood.org.uk. 


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