Is Bigger Really Better?

Orphanages are attractive. Who can help but feel moved by pictures of a large group of adorable orphans? We all went to go visit the orphanages and love on the kids...at least I sure do. When we think of Children At Risk, we think of orphanages, and there are a lot out there who are doing a great job. But there are also alternatives to that.

When I was a child, I was fascinated by orphans. I remember reading a story of little girl on the “orphan train" and loved watching movies such as “Annie”

At 8 or 9 years old I asked to go visit an orphanage, but my mom told me that we don’t have any in the USA, because all the orphans are in foster care or adopted. I must admit, as a child, I was rather disappointed by this discovery.

Phil, our speaker this week, works with “Casa Viva” here in Costa Rica. They network with local followers of the Father to find foster families. Casa Viva provides support and training for the foster families, and has counselors and physiologists available for the children and the families.

The ultimate goal is to reunite the children with their biological families, but if that’s not possible, then for the children to be adopted. That whole system might sound complicated to set up, but compared to an orphanage, it has quicker start-up time, lower start-up costs and on-going costs, and is not dependent on construction of facilities.

Think about your children. If something happened to you, where would they go? Hopefully a relative could take them in. If not, maybe someone else would adopt them, or they could at least have a foster family, or a family-style children’s home with consistent “parents.” But picture your children, brothers and sisters being sent to separate orphanages, being raised as one of many children, with staff and volunteers coming and going.

In Costa Rica there are 1910 children in orphanages, that may seem like a huge number, but there are 3,000 groups of followers of the Father, so if even half of those groups had 1 family who would take in 1 child, there would be no more orphanages. Yes, being raised in an orphanage is better than living on the street or being prostituted, but it is an orphanage the best option for the child?

The Word says, “He places the lonely in families” (Ps 68:8) and it sounds like a good plan to me.