Christian Recording Artist Puts Spotlight on Global Orphan Crisis
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
May 3, 2005
(AgapePress) - One of the most successful contemporary Christian music artists says the overwhelming problem of children without parents around the world -- a problem exacerbated by the global AIDS crisis -- is also a tremendous opportunity for Christians to model the heart of God.Dove and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman (Sparrow Records) recently wrapped up his 75-city "All Things New" tour, a national concert series featuring acclaimed special guests Chris Tomlin and Casting Crowns. The tour, sponsored by the Chapman family's Shaohannah's Hope adoption foundation, has already raised around one million dollars to assist adopting families in need.
Chapman and his wife Mary Beth co-founded Shaohannah's Hope in an effort to care for orphans by engaging the Church and helping Christian families to overcome the financial barriers to adoption. They believe adoption is a perfect picture of what God has done for believers in making them his children through Christ. Therefore, the singer-songwriter says, adoption is a way for Christians to share in God's story of redemption. (See earlier article)
The need for adoptive parents is great, Chapman explains, and is growing rapidly, in part because of AIDS. "There's 50 million orphans in the world," he says, "and all the studies are saying within the next six or seven years there's going to be about a hundred million."
Children orphaned by AIDS are found in almost every country of the world. In some countries, there are only a few hundred or a few thousand, while in other regions, there are millions. A report from the U.S. Agency for International Development points out that the already grim international AIDS orphan crisis is growing far worse daily, with Asia and Africa most heavily affected.
According to USAID estimates, more than 13.4 million children have lost one or both parents to the AIDS pandemic in the three geographical regions studied, and in those areas alone the number is likely to increase to some 25 million by 2010. And these will be only a small percentage of the children, both internationally and domestically, who are without families and homes for one reason or another.
"That's an overwhelming need," Chapman says, "but you know what? It's an overwhelming opportunity. It's an incredible privilege, and it's an invitation. God's saying, 'I want to show up, and I want to reveal Myself. I am the Father to the fatherless. Now who's with Me?'"
The Steven Curtis Chapman family | |
Chapman and his family have adopted three baby girls from China. The Shaohannah's Hope ministry is named after their first adopted daughter, and through it, families in the process of adopting a child domestically or internationally are awarded financial grants to help them bear the expenses associated with adoption. So far the ministry has awarded more than 125 adoption assistance grants, with hundreds more in process.The Stevey Joy Club program, another initiative of the foundation, is named after the Chapmans' second adopted child from China and is designed to offer people a way of sowing into the lives of Christian families that are opening their heart and home to a child in need. Club members agree to a minimum commitment of $20 a month, and through their regular giving they help support the assistance grant program.
Chapman and his wife encourage other believers to respond to the biblical mandate to care for orphans (James 1:27), whether by opening their hearts and homes to a needy child or by giving to assist other families who seek to adopt. And Shaohanna's Hope also urges church leaders to come alongside Christian families in their congregations by supporting their plans to adopt and helping to raise needed resources.
