Adopting Swanns: Orphan Awareness Small Group Outline

My awesome hubby is on staff at our church as Home Group Pastor. He writes the home group outline each week so that the home group leaders/facilitators can lead their group through a discussion/meeting time. For this blog post, I copied and pasted his recent home group outline that was written for each of our home groups to use sometime during November. Although I live with this man, and we have been in the adoption process for close to 2 years now, it's not like we sit around and discuss these things daily. It brought tears to my eyes as I sat through our home group today and we went through this outline. He.is.awesome.?

We can raise awareness for the fatherless any time of the year. Even if you aren't in a home group, this outline would be perfect to use in a Bible study or Sunday School class to plead the case of orphans, widows and those marginalized in our society.?

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God?s Heart for the Orphan ? Global Orphan Awareness Month This home group outline is action oriented and is intended to be put into practice. As you begin:

• Be ready to THINK about things you may have never considered.
• Be ready to DO things in Jesus? name you?ve never dreamed of doing.

This month is National Adoption/Foster Care/Global Orphan Awareness month. Today we?re going to explore God?s heart for the orphan in his word and some practical ways you can make your heart, his heart.

1. OPEN YOUR HEART TO ORPHANS.

• Psalm 10:14 and Psalm 10:17-18
• James 1:27
• How does caring for orphans define your faith?
• How is caring for orphans a reflection of what God has done for us?

2. RECOGNIZE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

????????? Matthew 10:8 ????????? Psalm 68:5 ????????? What is our responsibility in caring for orphans as Christ followers?

3. HELP ORPHANS IN PRACTICAL WAYS.

????????? Deuteronomy 10:18 ????????? Relieve their hurts. (Matthew 25:35-36) ????????? Defend their rights. (Deuteronomy 24:17-18) ????????? Accept orphans into families. (Psalm 68:5-6) ????????? What are some practical ways you can accept orphans into your families that aren?t necessarily adoption? ????????? Ephesians 1:4-6

4. WE HAVE INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP SHAPE THE ORPHANS LIFE.

????????? Proverbs 24:12 ????????? James 4:17 1.????? Read Ephesians 1:5. The good news of the gospel is that you were adopted. What does the idea that you are adopted by God mean to you? 2.????? Read these verses. Psalm 82:3, Deuteronomy 26:12, Deuteronomy 27:19, James 1:27. What do these verses tell you about God?s heart? 3.????? Psalm 68:6 says, ?God sets the lonely in families?. How does he do that? What might be your role in his plan? 4.????? The next page will give you some statistics and practical ideas.

• In the world today there are 143 million children who have lost one or both parents. That is almost one half of the population of the United States.
• Every 14 seconds an AIDS death leaves another child orphaned.
• Every year 12 million children become orphans.
• 87.6 million orphans live in Asia.
• 43.4 million orphans live in sub Saharan Africa.
• 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• In Ukraine and Russia 10-15% of the children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.
• There are currently 500,000 children in foster care in the U.S. Approximately 118,000 of these children are available for adoption.
• Every year in the U.S. alone, over 25,000 children age out of the foster system with no family to belong to and no place to call home.

Practical Ways to Do Something This Week

• Pick up the 40 Day Prayer Guide for Orphan Care at HFC and begin to pray through it.
• Sponsor a World Vision or Compassion child.
• Pack an Operation Christmas Child Shoebox.
• Pray for and encourage a family you know who is adopting or a foster parent.
• Consider financially supporting a family who is adopting.
• Pray for our own Rebecca McCoy who is serving orphans at Maria?s Big House of Hope in China.
• Consider becoming a Resource or Relief parent for Big Oak Ranch. Contact Adam, David, Dave, or Eric for more info.
• Consider Foster Care.
• Consider Adoption.

Source: http://adoptingswanns.blogspot.com/2012/11/orphan-awareness-small-group-outline.html

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