It’s been amazing to read the myriad stories still coming in from Orphan Sunday 2011.  Later today, we’ll share thirty brief glimpses of what we’re seeing.  But to whet your interest, here’s just one for starters….

As highlighted in In Culture Parent magazine online, Orphan Sunday at Kings Park International Church interwove local and global issues.  In the foyer, a Heart Gallery greeted church-goers with pictures of children waiting to be adopted from local foster care.  During morning services, the church highlighted orphan-serving projects around the world and also dedicated ten children adopted from near and far, representing six countries.   During the service, an adoptive mom read a letter that had been slipped to her by two sisters in the orphanage from which her son had come.  It read, “Dear Ejigayehu Mama, We are so happy that our friend has you as a mother. We think of you as our mother even though we don’t have one yet. Please tell your friends that we are good children and will promise to be wonderful daughters. You are doing such a happy thing to call Ejigayehu, Yared and Kidist your children. God will pay you back. We pray we too can come to find a family. With God all things are possible. But please tell your friends about us and promise not to forget us. We want to know you forever….Tsion and Meskerem.”

–from Kings Park International Church in Durham, NC