Show Hope

We got to volunteer at the "Night with the Chapman's" tour for the Show Hope booth! It was so so much fun and was especially fun being our first time with Chayah there with us! Chayah absolutely loved being our little helper for the whole evening. She even stood behind the Show Hope booth after intermission and helped the new Show Hope sponsors fill out their sponsor forms! Sarah had a very fun time too, seeing as she has proclaimed herself to be Steven Curtis Chapman's "biggest fan" :) She was playing before the concert started though and fell on the stairs at the venue and hurt her ankle..so she spent the rest of the evening either sitting and watching the concert (always fun, and also does not require moving), hopping on one foot, or being carried around. Poor girl, her ankle was in a lot of pain but she was a little trooper and still had a lot of fun watching SCC and helping out for Show Hope!

Show Hope is such an awesome ministry, started by the Chapman family. For those of you that aren't familiar with Show Hope, they offer adoption grants to families with financial need to help bring their child(ren) home. They also have started Maria's Big House of Hope in Luoyang, Henan province, China which is a special care orphanage for special needs orphans in China. They have also started two special care units in other orphanages in China, each as an entire floor caring for special needs orphans and have a vision to start many more!

Both Sarah and Chayah were special needs orphans in China. Then God spoke to our hearts and led us to bring them home. And He provided the way-- every step of the way. Sarah and Chayah both came home through Show Hope grants and we are SO grateful to them!! At the concert, we had the opportunity to represent this amazing organization that is making such a huge change in the world- through care of orphans and through helping orphans become beloved children with forever families of their own.

And for $35 a month, we saw lives changed by signing up to become Show Hope sponsors- giving to help children still left as orphans and also helping to provide grants to families who otherwise would not have been able to adopt.

This little girl, my Chayah Elizabeth, came home through a Show Hope adoption grant. Show Hope and those partnering with Show Hope as sponsors made her adoption possible.

I just don't know what I'd do without my Chayah! I am so happy that God chose me to be her big sister-- I am so incredibly blessed!

The fact is that the world we live in is so far detached from the orphan's world. And that makes it so easy to just turn away. It makes it easy to say that we've done enough already and to question whether what we have to give is really good enough.. It makes it easy to say that someone else will step up, or someone else will show hope..

But with over 145 million children as orphans throughout our world today, I think each and every one of us needs to step up and follow God's calling to care for the "least of these".

And when you do that, you may just get to see a life totally transformed from being a six year old orphan in China, with hair almost shaved off, and no one to call "Mommy" or "Daddy" to being the happiest, silliest, and sweetest, most beautiful little eight year old girl you will ever meet.

Or see a little girl go from being the most fiercely independent and self-sufficient two year old the world has ever known to being such a sweet, loving six year who is so breathtakingly beautiful inside and out and has a huge heart for those children left as orphans and a desire to show them hope!

Or you may find that by changing an orphan's world, your own world is completely different. Your goals, your hopes, your passion, and your life mission have been totally shifted. And it's all so worth it because it is so much better than anything you ever could have imagined for yourself.

The concert was awesome and the message shared for showing hope to orphans is the best!

Steven Curtis Chapman

Caleb

Mary Beth Chapman


"Showing hope" is an extremely important thing to do! Reaching out and caring for these orphans that literally have no one is what this is all about. It's about showing God's love to "the least of these" through caring for those who have nothing or no one. Through showing hope to them, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus.See these kids on the sign - they were once orphans too before they were shown hope.

Daddy and one of his little Cinderella'sThe beautiful Sarah Lu

The adorable Chayah

With the very awesome Julia of Show Hope

There are 145 million orphans around the world today. No matter how hard we try to put that fact out of our minds, that is the reality. No matter how far detached we try to keep ourselves from the situation, that is the truth. And it's important that we respond to that.

"Once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and and keeps our souls, knows that we know and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

"I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." Matthew 25:35-45

How will you respond?