The Face of the Orphan Crisis

Child sponsorship is an incredible thing. 

My family sponsors 5 precious children (I sponsor 2) that I never would have known existed if CRF had not begun projects in their villages.  

The statistics of global poverty and the orphan crisis are so vast that it’s truly impossible to wrap your mind around the numbers. People empathize with people more than they do with numbers, which is why I tell stories of individuals more than I share the statistics. 

When you choose to support a child in a developing country, that child becomes the face of the orphan crisis to you. And when you see this child grow and transform and gain literacy, you see extreme poverty fought and conquered on very real and personal terms. For me, when I think of the orphan crisis, the face I see is my Naomi’s. 

The first time I met my sponsored daughter, my world froze. She was real. She was huggable. She was beautiful. And to see her world of struggle was to see my own collapse around me. 

It’s like everything you know about your world is a lie when you are forced to face the truth of poverty. Because in reality, there are millions of children like my Naomi.  Her story caused tears to stream down my face because I saw how she lives and what she’s lost and because I love her. And there are so many in her shoes. 

I think about God’s intimate love for every child on this earth and how his heart must break daily on account of the 132 million orphans who are like my beloved Naomi. And my heart has broken a thousand times over for her story. Why don’t our hearts break more for what breaks the heart of God? 

Child sponsorship forges a relationship that never would have existed otherwise—two people living across the globe from one another who love each other like family. It’s precious. It’s a Christ-like model. 

Sponsorship forever changes the lives of both people involved.

Sponsor a child today.