If You Build It They Will Come

If you build it they will come.....  I remember the first time I heard the concept that orphanages create orphans.  I was sitting at a missions event listening to some missionary from across the world share about a project he was working on when I heard him say something that shook my heart.  He said he believed that the construction of orphanages was not necessarily a good thing, he believed that orphanages created orphans.  He felt that orphanages provided a way out for parents who either could not, or would not, care for their own children, and that the construction of the orphanage was just an answer that created more problems.  I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.  He didn't know what he was talking about.  I felt angry when I heard his ridiculous opinion.  I knew that he didn't understand the true concept of what it meant to be an orphan.  I felt like with this one statement he undermined my mission and made a mockery of God's word. You see God's word tells us to care for all the widows and orphans in the world.  He doesn't say care for the mothers of the orphans, or teach the father of the orphan to farm, although those are perfectly wonderful things to do.  He says "care for the widows and orphans."  He must have known that in this fallen world, this was going to be a problem.  

I went home that night thinking "Wow, Lord, if your own people don't see the need to care for orphans, who else will?"  Was I wrong in thinking these buildings were a part of the answer?  Was I wrong in believing that God was calling me to care for these orphans?  The next day, I did what I usually do when I think someone is crazy, that their beliefs are completely wrong, I searched google and the Bible for some truths.....and I got them.  God provides us more than 100 verses on caring for orphans.  As a matter of fact, it is the only thing he calls "true religion" in the Bible.  Now, why would He tell us to do something 100 times if it wasn't going to be necessary to actually do it?

To be fair, what the gentleman was saying was not that he didn't care for orphans, just that he believed that we should focus our attention on fixing the family unit so that there were no orphans in the world, rather than focus time and money on orphan care. Great idea if those family units want to be fixed, or if the children who are currently orphaned can sit around and wait until we fix the world.  Also, remember, God said care for the orphans.  

Whether it is ultimately the responsibility of parents to care for their own children or not is completely irrelevant here because often times, the parents either can not or will not care for these children.  Which means that the responsibility has to fall somewhere else, the answer has to come from somewhere....and as Christians we are that answer.  God tells us we are.

In a perfect world there would be no orphans; there would be no poverty, sex trafficking, crimes against children, or slavery.  In a perfect world, all parents would love their children, mothers would never die, and father's would never abandon their little boys and girls, and if they did, a great fairy god mother would swoop in and provide a castle for them to live in.  In a perfect world we wouldn't have to worry about building homes to protect orphans, because there wouldn't be orphans.  And, in a perfect world, Jesus would not have had to die for our sins and tell the recipients of His grace that we are now part of his solution to the world's problems.

But, this isn't a perfect world and no matter how you roll the dice, there are still more than 153 million orphans worldwide.  That number does not include the uncounted masses of children living in garbage dumps, or sold into slavery.  We are talking true, abandoned, no one cares for them, alone in this world, orphans.

I believe it is important to build up the family unit.  I believe that if we can help a single mother get a job so that she can feed her kids, we are providing a viable solution so that maybe she won't have to give up her children.  I believe that men can be taught to be fathers.  I also believe that these solutions are not necessarily going to fix the world for every abandoned child.

What about the orphans living in the trash piles in Tanzania?  What about the little girls rescued out of sex-trafficking in Thailand?  What about the children in South Africa who are alone because both parents have died from aids?  What about the babies in Haiti that are abandoned on the roadside because they are thought to be cursed because they are born with six toes?  When the Lord asks whom shall I send?  I say "send me."

You see the problem with that man's solution is that there has to be someone who cares about being a parent to that child in order for focus on the family rehabilitation to occur.  Many of these children have no one to rehabilitate.  Thank goodness that God cares for our spiritual needs and our physical needs.  

God cares so so much.  You see God knew mankind and because of our fallacies He knew He would need to create a safety net for the least of these.  That safety net is me....it's you....it's anyone who claims to be a child of the King of Kings. That safety net is the church, it's Fish Company, it's the body of Christ.  

That safety net is churches that provide food and shelter to children who previously lived on the streets; it's orphanages in India sandwiched between churches and homes; it's gardens in Haiti that provide food and nutrients; it's wells that provide fresh drinking water; it's Hope Centers and sewing schools that provide education; it's Fish Company.  Fish Company is God's answer. 

Please consider donating now and help us make the world a better place for orphans across the globe.  

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