The striking similarities between urban ministry and adoption.

The past few weeks I've been struggling a lot, thinking a lot about the future of our ministry here in Northside and thinking a ton (as usual) about our adoption process.

There are so many similarities between what we do in ministry here and adoption. Adoption is not the only way in which Christians are called to "defend the cause orphans" (Isaiah 1:17) As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say adoption is actually a very small fraction of the way in which we are called to care for orphans. Often in the Bible  orphans are referred to as fatherless as opposed to simply using the word orphan. (What I'm about to say is not in any way meant to be insulting to single parents.) When I look around me, I see so many fatherless children. So many boys growing up with no male role model, just wandering the streets and trying to figure out what it means to be a man.

When I look at our world and the brokenness in it I'm left wondering what in the world can we do? I see broken homes, broken school systems, racism in our community, selfishness, greed, loneliness, violence...

And that's just on my street.

When I begin to ponder the HIV/AIDS and poverty crises happening in Africa and the famine currently in the Horn of Africa - it just all seems to much. I am currently reading There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene and the way in which she writes about the multi-faceted reasons for the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has begun to haunt me. The role that the Western world of wealth and greed has played in the deaths of so many people and the creation of millions of African orphans disgusts me.

I think the two are connected. I think that all poverty that we see in the world, be it in Africa or be it in Northside, all has the same root cause: selfishness. When I hear the arguments presented for how we ought to deal with poor both here and there I hear a lot of talk about fixing a "problem". I hear about how we need to correct people's behaviors, we need to teach people how to be more socially acceptable, we need to correct bad habits. And while that may sometimes be true - we won't ever help anyone out of poverty by looking down at them. We won't ever help the fatherless by simply attempting to correct their behavior. We won't ever be able to change a situation if we are only doing it for our good instead of for the good of the people who need help. For in the end, we must see that we all need help. We all need change.

First, we must learn to love each other. We have to learn to put others before ourselves. Only then can we step back and truly see how to help those throughout the world living in generational poverty, sickness, and loneliness. Adoption is part of that story. Adoption takes children with no home and gives them a home and a family. But it's only a tiny part. For the 1 child that is adopted there are millions more who aren't. And those millions, both here and there, need people to reach out in love and show them they are important, loved, and have purpose. We need to begin to share resources, to share relationship, to share ourselves with people around us who are hurting.

It's been a tough year for me as I'm quite discouraged often feeling like there are too few people who are truly committed to the cause of caring for the poor and fatherless. But I know that there is One who cares. And He is with us. I know there are many who feel the same, who feel alone. But we are not alone. Hallelujah.