- Hands and Feet Project -

November is known as being Adoption Awareness Month. It's another awareness month that people mention every now and then, but usually forget about in the shuffle of every day life that consumes every other week and month of the year. Or they mis-understand it and think that it's mainly about pet adoptions instead of the life and well-being of a child waiting for a forever family. This year I am hoping that I will not fall into that tragic trap, as well as be able to spend a great deal of time writing, praying and reading about adoption (domestic and international), foster care and the world-wide need for the Church to step up and live out James 1:27.

Even though it's not November yet (there are still about 30 hours of October left), I have already begun reading and composing thoughts in my mind. Yesterday, I read Choosing to SEE by MaryBeth Chapman (wife to Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman and founder of Show Hope). And today I read Hands and Feet by Audio Adrenaline (a Christian rock band and founders of the Hands and Feet Project in Jacmel, Haiti). Both books have been on my shelves for years and read multiple times. They are ones that I think paint a beautiful picture of how big dreams can become reality and how James 1:27 can truly be lived out despite being counter-cultural.

I am not going to write too much today. I just want to share some of the pieces of Hands and Feet  that really struck me today. Then tomorrow or Friday, I will come back and start working through some of my thoughts about adoption, orphan care and what Spencer and I can do specifically. So, here are 4 fairly significant paragraphs that speak volumes. Enjoy.

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"Of the just over 8.2 million people who live in Haiti, children under the age of 18 make up almost half of the population. There are 1.2 million children under the age of 5, and over half of these suffer from malnutrition. Only 25 percent of Haitian children have the vaccines they need to survive, making Haiti the country with the lowest vaccination rate in the world. The infant mortality rate in Haiti is 76 of every 1,000 live births, more than twice that of any other country in the Western Hemisphere. More than 462,000 children in Haiti are orphans. Some of these children are sheltered in orphanages and foster homes, but the majority of these children are forced to sleep on the streets with no food, no shelter, no families and no hope (page 23)."

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"When I (Mark Stuart... former lead singer of Audio A) think about this place, so much of it is about wanting to get kids to go on trips and to understand the Third World and the need that is out there. It seems like the Church is so absorbed in building things and getting their numbers up, or what their carpet looks like, or what their pews look like. yet the Church, to really be the Church, needs to be more about community and serving. Our hope is that this place can help the Church become outward-focused rather than inward-focused. Hopefully, after coming here, people can go home and say, 'How can we serve our community?' Ultimately, it's about getting people in the Church to serve where they are and where they live to hopefully change the community.... We're not just talking about the island of Haiti; we're talking about something bigger. You don't necessarily have to come with us to Haiti; you can be hands and feet wherever you are (page 59)." 

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"It's like as a Church, we've fallen asleep, or have had our heads stuck in the dirt. The Church seems so caught up with so many things that truly don't matter, and I think the world is watching. We need to be the champions who lead the rest of the world in doing great humanitarian acts. We need to be the ones standing up against social injustices - not waiting for the world to act, but acting first ourselves, leading the way. The world is watching, but I think all they see right now is a Church that is fragmented, disjointed and dysfunctional (page 68)." 

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"Understanding that we have been invited to be a part of this great Kingdom movement is central to the Christian faith. This is why it is essential for those who follow Jesus, in every part of the world, to stand up on behalf of the widows and the orphans, the marginalized, and the oppressed; to act to change issues of poverty and injustice. We need to be involved with these things not because they make us better people, but because God's desire is for us to help transform this world. His desire is for us to partner with Him to align this world with the way He intended for it to operate. We are partners with God in the restoration and reconciliation of all things (see 2 Cor. 5:17-19). We have been invited to bring the light of God to a world that is filled with darkness, despair and brokenness (page 111)."