Orphan Summit 9 - Nashville 2013

Christian Alliance For Orphans' annual Orphan Summit 9 - amazing, moving, challenging, motivating, overwhelming, and inspiring!  I'm just back from the Summit in Nashville and thought I'd share on the experience.  This is our 2nd time attending the Orphan Summit and I'd have to say that it was just as excellent and overwhelming as last year.  The very first Orphan Summit - 9 years ago - had 39 people in attendance.  This year there was a record-setting 2,500 people!  Brentwood Baptist Church was maxed out and, for the first time ever, CAFO couldn't accept registrations at the door.  If you didn't pre-register, you didn't get in.  Mary and I were relieved to have pre-registered of course!  

 Mary & I on Wednesday evening after checking in.  We got our cool name tags and free coffee and sat on the lawn to dig through our goody-bags and enjoy the Nashville sunshine!

My really cool name tag! 

 We stopped at the help-desk to pick up some ribbons to add to our name tag.  It made us feel pretty important to sport all those ribbons for the causes we're connected with.

Thursday morning began with worship and opening prayers by Pastor Mike Glenn of Brentwood Baptist and Pastor Daniel Kaggwa from Uganda.  Over 25 countries were represented at the Summit as well as every State in the Union except Vermont.  We will have to do something about that!  Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance For Orphans welcomed us and our very talented emcee was Peder Eide (worship leader, speaker, and adoptive dad).

On stage:  Congresswoman Michele Bachmann with Dennis Rainey & Bob Lepine from Family Life.

 Aside from being pro-life and pro-family, Congresswoman Bachman and her husband fostered over 25 older kids in there home while they were raising their own little ones.

After the morning General Session we attended breakout sessions throughout each day.  Pictured below is Dr. Karyn Purvis.  She is the the teacher that Wayne & I went to see at the Empowered To Connect conference last September.  She will also be at an adoption/foster care conference in Albany on Friday, which I plan to attend as well.  I highly respect Dr. Purvis and have learned so much from her regarding parenting "kids from hard places."

After lunch on Wednesday Mary and I watched a movie screening on the documentary "Stuck."  It detailed the painful realities and conflicts that arise in the process of inter-country adoption.  It was emotionally draining as literally millions of children are "stuck" in orphanages around the world with no hope for a family.

The Wagner Family interviewed by John Carr from Bethany Christian Services.

 The Wagner family (parents seated far right) have 3 biological kids and fostered/adopted 5.  They were featured in the Orphan Sunday 2012 video.  In the evening we were treated to some music by recording artist, Show Hope founder, and adoptive dad - Steven Curtis Chapman.  It was a real treat.

Friday began with worship and another live interview by Dennis Rainey & Bob Lepine of Family Life radio.  This time they spoke with Bishop W. C. Martin of Possum Trot, Texas.  He pastors Bennet Chapel and in 1997 he and his wife began fostering and adopted 4 children.  Since then his small congregation has stepped up to foster/adopt 76 children.

George Dennehy playing guitar with his feet.

 A while back I saw a video on facebook about adoption and it featured the Dennehy family.  George is one of the several children they have adopted.  He is from Romania and was born with no arms.  When he was adopted at 14 months old he only weighed 9 pounds.  In many Eastern European countries, if a child is born with a deformity it is considered a curse of God.  So in the orphanage he was given even less care then the other orphans.  Adopted by the Dennehy's it was discovered that he has musical talent.  He can play the cello, piano, bass guitar, and acoustic guitar.  George treated us to "Amazing Grace" which he sang and played the guitar for.  He has an incredible sense of humor even telling us that his nick-name is "no arm guy"!  He has been able to travel back to Romania recently to meet his birth parents and even spoke about how adoption saved his life on the radio in Romania.  Romania is currently a closed country as international adoption is not permitted there.

Mary and I with Bishop Martin.

 On Friday we attended a lunch meeting for Orphan Sunday coordinators.  We learned about some new OS resources to help us in connecting with churches to promote Orphan Sunday.  Pictured below from left to right (Larry Bergeron pastor and author of Journey to the Fatherless, David Aruda - pastor and OS coordinator for Massachusetts, and Jodi Jackson-Tucker - international director for Orphan Sunday.

 Orphan Sunday first began when a pastor in Zambia wanted to inspire his poor congregation to help the orphans in their community.  An American pastor attended that service and was so moved that he brought the idea back to the States and since then Christian Alliance For Orphans has spearheaded the campaign to rally the Church for the cause of the fatherless.  In 2013 it bounced from Zambia, to the US, then back around the world with a million Christians in Ukraine celebrating Orphan Sunday last year.  It has been reported that pastors of churches in Ukraine want to make a "Ukraine without orphans!"  They are promoting foster care and adoption within their own country.

Above is the new face of Orphan Sunday for 2013!  I'm thrilled to report that this face is of a Ukrainian orphan!  Posters and post cards as well as other resources will be available at the Orphan Sunday website.

Some of the other workshops I attended included Biblical Counseling and a Successful Orphan Care Ministry, Building A Church Orphan Ministry 201,  Human Trafficking Targets:  How You Can Help Protect Orphans & Children in Foster Care.  We also watched a screening of the movie King's Faith  which depicted a young man aging out of the foster care system and how he got a second chance on life.  Friday evening's General Session included a performance by recording artist Nicole C. Mullen (also an adoptive mom), music and testimony by country performer Jeremy Wayne.  Jeremy was a homeless street kid at age 13 when his mom and step father abandoned him on the side of the road.  His story was amazing.  The last speaker, pastor, author, adoptive dad, David Platt, challenged us with a message reminding us that adoption is the Gospel.  Using Ephesians 1 (God chose us in love...He predestined us for adoption) Platt pointed out that adoption begins with a parents' initiative to adopt, not a child's.  The Gospel does not begin with our pursuit of God, but His pursuit of us.

All in all it was an excellent conference.  I came home inspired to adopt some orphans and do foster care.....and of course rally the Church for the cause of the fatherless!