November 11, 2009

He was under strict orders from his wife "not to fall in love with any more orphan girls in China" but it was too late. Steven Curtis Chapman had already met little Maria, and his heart immediately was taken.  

As he explained from the stage of Christ Community Church in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday evening, God had a purpose for bringing Maria into the lives of the Chapmans, and also for taking her from them on May 21, 2008. 

"God had a plan for this little girl," said Chapman. "His plans included us getting this incredible gift and also being entrusted with an incredible grief and sadness that would, in many ways, redefine who we are.

"God's purposes and plans for our lives are good," he continued. "If it's not true, I better stop singing right now and shut down and never sing or say another word. That's what God's Word says. We don't get to pick and chose the parts we like. It's either all true or it's all bogus. I believe it's true."

As an adoptive father of three orphans, including Maria, Chapman's voice was one of many heard around the world this Orphan Sunday, trying to draw attention to more than 140 million orphans crying out for love and a family of their own. 

There were voices like Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, who knows the loneliness orphans go through. After being abandoned by his alcoholic father at age 5 and losing his mother to cancer four years later, Daly endured several tough years as a foster child. His story represents the more than 500,000 children currently in the U.S. foster care system. 

There were other voices, too, like musician Geoff Moore, FamilyLife President Dennis Rainey, and Christian Alliance for Orphans President Jedd Medefind - each an adoptive father. Along with Chapman's Show Hope ministry, their organizations joined forces for the fourth year to sponsor the Cry of the Orphan campaign, as well as this first live event.

In addition to roughly 1,000 who attended the Nashville concert, people around world heard the messages and songs via a satellite simulcast on the Moody Radio Network. Close to 500 churches in the United States and in nations such as Guatemala, Uganda and the Philippines held local events ranging from sermons, Sunday School classes and prayer gatherings, to concerts and service projects.  

"Each local Orphan Sunday event is a candle, lit to cast light on the needs of orphans and God's invitation to take up their cause," said Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. "Taken together, they add up to a nationwide blaze." 

The Alliance is comprised of more than 50 Christian organizations such as Show Hope, Focus on the Family and Bethany Christian Services, along with small nonprofits, adoption agencies, and global orphan care advocacy groups.

"The idea is that they are doing great things on their own," said Medefind, "but there are certain things we can do better together, like Orphan Sunday. When it becomes a movement, people being to rally around it."