Why Teach Students About Orphan Care?

by Dan Cruver Published Jun 17, 2011

Guest Post by Josh Cousineau. Josh is the Youth Pastor and an Elder at East Auburn Baptist Church. He and his wife recently adopted a daughter from Uganda. They have been married for 8 years and also have two sons who are 5 and 3. Josh’s blog. Follow Josh on Twitter.

Why would you take time as a youth pastor to teach students about adoption and orphan care? I have never been asked this question directly, but it has come up in round-about ways.

“What can students really do for orphans? They can’t adopt. So why spend time teaching them about orphan care and adoption?”

The reason we should teach students about adoption is that it leads us to the very heart of the gospel. We were the fatherless that God came into the world to bring into His family. Your students need this theological truth. For example, since in Jesus Christ they have been accepted by the God of the universe, it matters not what their friends think about them. Students need to know that they are loved, accepted, chosen, cared for and have been given the ministry of reconciliation. If they are believing in Jesus, all of these things are true for them now. These are realities that they don’t have to wait until they are adults to enjoy. They can and should live in the reality of them now.

Furthermore, if God cared for us and adopted us when we were rebellious, rejecting His Fatherly love, how much more should we care for needy children who fatherless by no fault of there own. We were fatherless by choice. They are fatherless by no choice of their own, and the gospel is big enough to fix both.

It is imperative that your students know they have been adopted by a loving Father. They need to see their former (or current) state and the state of their friends and family as orphans unless they have been accepted by God through faith in Christ. They need to know that adoption and orphan care is not just a nice thing to do; they are a window into the heart of the gospel.

And this truth should lead them, as it did the incarnate Son, to set aside the comforts of social networking, video games, TV, computers and the complacency of this world to plead for the fatherless, because that is what Jesus did for them. It is simple yet profound. It is the gospel in its purist form, and that is something your students can know and love. Besides, there is much a student can do for the fatherless of the world.

In my next post, we will consider How to Teach Students about Orphan care and the Fatherless.

http://fosterpodcast.com Wendy M
Josh, good post!
How do you handle the discussion of orphan care when you have orphans (e.g. foster children) in the room? I’m thinking of how I talk about orphan care to my 11- and 12-year-old foster sons, who are processing their social reality while hearing about their spiritual reality.
Maybe that’s in your next post. Looking forward to reading!
http://joshcousineau.com Josh Cousineau
Wendy,
Yeah some of the *how* will be in the next post, but I think your situation is a little different. I have had one time in my own ministry where I talked about Orphan Care, and looked at what we, as a youth group, could do in real tangible ways. In the midst of the conversation a guys, who was helping with sound or something, stood up and shared that he was adopted, he had been through the ‘system’ until he was about 10 or so, and a family adopted him. His response was one of joy that we would talk about it, and he said he had told very few people because they had *not* talked about it and he said he thought they would think he was strange. So for him it was something that gave him freedom.
I think that each person will deal differently and different at different times. Talking to your boys outside of a group setting would be key. I think the conversation could go this way; ‘each person in their spiritual life is in the same place you were, no one to call family, yet Jesus made a way for us to be called family. This is the simple gospel truth that helps us understand our sonship in Jesus.’ If you teach it like it is strange, then they will take it strange. Meaning if you go into it with hesitation, it is not good. Our adoption is central to our redemption; therefore it must be central to our teaching in everything. I don’t know if any of that helps.
I think I will just pray for you; “Lord, I pray for Wendy. I pray you would give her the opening to share your love with these two boys. May they see her love and acceptance for them as a picture of your love for us, and them. Spirit may you break into there hearts and point them to Jesus, their elder brother who sought them to give them *true* love, acceptance, forgiveness and a family! We thank you, in Jesus name AMEN.”
I will be praying for open doors!
http://fosterpodcast.com Wendy M
Josh, great response. Thanks for commenting back and for your prayers!