Visiting Orphans

The Lord has given my wife, Melissa, and me the great privilege and joy of adopting two boys. It continues to be an occasion for us to rejoice in God's grace to us in the gospel. Melissa and I are coming to see more clearly that the ministry of caring for orphans in their affliction through adoption finds its basis and ultimate significance in what God has done for us in Jesus. When I read the following paragraph by T.F. Torrance, the flame of my passion for adoption is stoked afresh.

In Jesus God himself descended to the very bottom of our human existence where we are alienated and antagonistic, into the very hell of our godlessness and despair, laying fast hold of us and taking our cursed condition upon himself, in order to embrace us for ever in his reconciling love. He did that in such an incredible way that he pledged his very Being incarnate in Jesus for us as the immutable ground of our salvation and peace against all the onslaughts of the forces of evil (T.F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, 43-44).

Why care about adoption? Because in Christ God has laid fast hold of us in our affliction "in order to embrace us for ever in his reconciling love." Believers should visit orphans in their affliction because God has first wonderfully visited us in our desperate affliction. Adoption is a breathtakingly beautiful way to live out the gospel of Christ among those who are afflicted.

Below you will find an organization that provides opportunities to serve orphans in China, Russia, Honduras, and Ethiopia. We were members of the team they sent to Fuling, China this past July. I'd love to go here or here this summer. If you are at all interested joining one of their teams, they are sending eight teams to China and one each to Russia, Honduras, and Ethiopia.

Here are the blogs of a husband and wife who, like us, have adopted transracially. I just recently had the privilege of meeting them in the blogosphere. Give them a visit.

Pilgrim in Progress: Life. Family. Thoughts. Culture. Church. Gospel
James127: Spirit of Adoption

If you are interested in reading about the gospel-basis for adoption, read Orphans, Adoption, and Fuling, China (James 1:27). It's really a biblical theology of adoption.