Report on Orphan ministry in S. Korea
God continues to work in powerful ways on behalf of the orphan. Earlier this month, the Hope for Orphans team traveled to South Korea to serve the local church in several ways:
- The HFO team led the first international “If You Were Mine” adoption workshop for those exploring adoption
- HFO partnered with MPAK (Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea) to hold a thank you lunch and discussion for nearly 40 Pastors and their spouses already serving orphans through adoption and orphan ministry (adoption runs counter culture in Korea – these Pastors are truly stepping out in faith)
- Paul Pennington, Hope for Orphans Executive Director, was invited to preach on Orphan Sunday at the Onnuri Church, the largest English speaking church in Seoul. The re-broadcast and webcast of this service will reach over 100,000 people! (link: http://onnurienglish.podomatic.com/entry/2011-11-07T08_57_55-08_00)
- A highlight was the return of the Pennington children to their birth country. A touching and tearful moment occurred when Noah Pennington reunited with his foster mother who lovingly cared for him as an infant for 18 months (vimeo.com/32288126 <http://www.vimeo.com/32288126>). Returning adoptees spoke in powerful ways with nearly everyone we met.
- Paul’s daughter Elizabeth Golic also spoke about adopting Ben from Korea and their family’s journey of faith through Ben’s life and death earlier this year.
The HFO team is humbled and honored that God allowed them to serve on behalf of the orphan in Korea. They truly believe that He is stirring and preparing the hearts of many Koreans to be the visible gospel in a significant way.
Click here to see a few of the highlights from the trip (works best on full screen mode): <http://www.photosnack.com/slideshows/f609e30b3a036b78934b6f8da2036743>
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Our Adoption Agency Celebrates 40 years of Finding Forever Families
In 1996, Karana and I began feeling led to pursue adoption. We wanted more children but were pretty sure doing it the old-fashioned way wasn’t a good idea due to health concerns. When we began praying about it, the Lord answered our prayer very clearly through a FamilyLife Today broadcast with Jorie Kinkead about international adoption in which Dennis Rainey, in his usual fashion, challenged the listeners to consider whether there was room in our homes for another child. We felt that call very clearly.
We began looking for an agency to help us and spoke to several. When we spoke to the folks at Dillon International in Tulsa we very quickly knew that we had found the right ones. Their heart of service and of love for our Lord Jesus came through loud and clear. They walked and prayed us through the journey of adopting our son and then, 2 years later, our daughter from Korea. We not only got the help we needed, we found some new lifelong friends.
2012 marks the 40th year of Dillon International serving the needs of adoptive families before, during and after their adoption. As November is National Adoption Awareness Month, it seemed like a good time to share. Soon, we hope to take a trip with these wonderful folks back to Korea with our 3 youngest children (the oldest 2 have already been) to visit our adopted kids’ homeland and possibly meet their birth parents. You can be praying about that as it is quite expensive to travel internationally.
Thank you Lord for Jerry and Deniese Dillon, their vision to serve you through adoption and all of the wonderful team that you have assembled to help make that vision a reality! We have been blessed.
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First Hope for Orphans Pastor’s Conference held in Korea
If you know our family, you know of our heart for Korea because our family is now Korean/American. That’s why I was so excited to see this note from Paul Pennington, Director of Hope for Orphans, FamilyLife’s orphan awareness ministry. Gotta love the kid front and center in the picture, too! Kids are the same everywhere 
Today HFO participated in our first ever Pastors Conference in Korea. It was a great day of testimonies and vision casting. We prayed that God will bring an awakening in the Korean church for the thousands of children waiting for a home.
In this picture, with our team, are all pastors associated with our partner MPACT along with their wives. I believe that every single one of them is an adoptive parent in a culture where very few believers would even consider adoption. They are pioneers. They especially enjoyed the Q&A time with Ethan, Hope and Noah.
Thank you for praying for our team. Last evening we had a wonderful worship service at Onnuri church that none of us will ever forget. The Spirit was present in a powerful way. Tomorrow, we travel to Holt Korea and the orphanage that our grandson Benjamin came from. This work is a pioneer in making it possible for Koreans and we believe now US citizens with dual Korean citizenship (living in Korea) to adopt domestically at ZERO cost.
Blessings
Paul
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Orphan Summit VI Report from Dennis Rainey
Just received this email from Dennis Rainey who is at the start of Orphan Summit VI. This is exciting for me as I was here at FamilyLife when the first Orphan Summit was called by FamilyLife’s Hope for Orphans and 38 people got together at FamilyLife HQ to brainstorm ways to work together to meet the needs of orphans worldwide. After the first few, the group outgrew our room and has been moving around to various other venues. Here’s Dennis’ post along with a really lousy pic from his iPhone
What started at FL 6 years ago with 38 people representing a couple of dozen Christian organizations, is now meeting in MPLS at a leading church in the Twin Cities. I walked in and saw the crowd and had chill bumps as 1100 leaders from all over the world are here. Amazingly 80% of these leaders are first time attenders. Just outside the auditorium there are more than 80 different organizations who have booths. Give thanks to God for how God has used Paul Pennington and his team to be a catalyst for this movement of God to continue to expand.The former First Lady of Guatemala is speaking about the spiritual condition of her country and explaining that the country is poor because they have followed ancient religions and not read the bible and worshipped the One True God. She shared how she became a believer in Christ at the age of 25 and how she became of single parent of two after her husband was killed. She remarried a man 30 years ago who was a politician and she began working with the street children of her country. There are thousands. Faces that are dirty. Sad. Violent. Gangs. Drugs. Abuse. Bad memories of their father. She invited them to come to a safe place, away from the streets…first came 1 child, then 17, now 500. They now have very old houses that house them and volunteers that take care of them and changing their hearts by introducing them to Jesus Christ.
This morning Paul called an early breakfast meeting of some of the leaders of the largest orphan care organizations here to discuss how we could partner and help a nation who wants to address the needs of their children and build families. Interestingly, ALL agreed that if the church doesn’t doesn’t address the needs of families, the orphan crisis is destined to perpetuate itself. All this has HUGE implications GLOBALLY for all the resources we are creating and will launch this August/fall.
Aslan is on the move.
Dennis
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Orphan Sunday is Nov 8th
As you may know, November 8th is Orphan Sunday. Hope for Orphans (a ministry of FamilyLife), Focus on the Family, and Show Hope are joining forces to bring a special live event from Nashville that your church can be a part of. Watch live as Grammy award-winning artist Steven Curtis Chapman, Jim Daly, the President of Focus on the Family, and FamilyLife President, Dennis Rainey pour out their hearts for over 140 million Orphans and challenge the Body of Christ to respond. Other guests include Geoff Moore and the Children of the World Choir.
On that day, there will be Orphan Sunday events happening in churches all across the country. Please consider how you and your church can participate in this special live event at 4-6 P.M. (CST) on November 8th. It will be available at no charge through webcast, satellite and also on a number of radio stations throughout the country. To learn more about how to engage your church in this historic event, visit CryoftheOrphan.org today.
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