Sons and daughters to be

Lifestyle/Technology | Hope for Orphans helps Christians "become concerned about the things that concern the heart of God" | Susan Olasky

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Six years ago Paul Pennington and his wife Robin—parents of six children, five of them adopted—launched Hope for Orphans (HFO) as a ministry in their church. A year later they brought that local ministry under the umbrella of FamilyLife, which was looking for ways to take up the cause of fatherless children.

The result is a ministry that equips Christian families to adopt and assists churches to establish orphan ministries. Pennington said he became aware early on that a gap existed between the Bible's teaching about orphans and church preparedness to take up that burden. Some 81 million Americans have considered adoption, according to a study from the Dave Thomas Foundation, and nearly half of those in the study said they would expect to go to their place of worship to get more information about it: "Sadly, however, the church that celebrates spiritual adoption has been woefully unprepared to answer the most basic questions," Pennington noted.