Overview of Ministry Activity
International Orphans\' Foundation (IOF) serves as an educator, advocate, and catalyst for the ministry of adoption--addressing the issues surrounding the institutionalization of children. The ministry focuses on determining workable solutions that can help move orphanage children, domestically and internationally, into permanent families. IOF seeks to:
- Partner with overseas churches and foreign orphanages with Christian-based care. IOF partners with other like-minded organizations to effectively carry out our mission to minister to orphans--maximizing efficiency through specialization.
- Build awareness of the plight of orphans, providing a biblical perspective on adoption, encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ to become proactive members of one body to serve as a witness towards the multicultural ministry of adoption. IOF does educational and advocacy workshops and speaking engagements almost on a weekly basis at various churches and Christian organizations.
- Design programs aimed at reducing barriers to adoption—addressing fears, uncertainties, by demystifying the adoption process and dispelling taboos and myths of adoption. With multiple programs that present varying levels of commitment, IOF proactively recruits prospective adoptive families from the Christian community to partake in our programs that fit their comfort zone.
As many will attest to, having an emotional connection is the key compelling factor for someone to take action. IOF\'s goal is to create environments to make these faceless children become visible—and impossible to turn away from—allowing for a bond to form. This is done in 3 ways:
- Sponsorship: This is the easiest way for someone to begin connecting with a child who is need of a family, whether it is the sponsor who ends up adopting the child, or through their prayer and financial support that he/she becomes a featured child and becomes adopted via the exposure.
- Short-term missions trips: Coordinating groups comprised of people who have a heart for orphans, some may feel moved to adopt a particular orphan they interacted with.
- Summer hosting program: This program has the highest successful adoption rate, where prospective adoptive parents host an orphan in their home for 5 weeks. Last year, all the orphans who participated in the program became adopted within Christ-centered families that were recruited by IOF.
Interwoven as part of God’s tapestry, IOF seeks to collaborate with other Christian-based organizations that admirably provide relief care for orphans while they reside in the orphanage. Complimenting efforts to facilitate the process of adoption, IOF pursues a non-competitive partnership to avoid duplication of efforts, and to effectively serve God. IOF wishes to support existing ministries, with the end-result being a win-win situation where the prospective adoptive parents find comfort in moving forward with adoption knowing that quality Christian care has been present at the orphanage. Any (or all) of the above 3 points above would be the result of the partnership.
IOF is looking to partner with orphanages that:
- Offer Christian-based care for the orphans on a consistent year-round basis, where the teachings of Jesus are shared with the orphans along with the fulfillment of their other needs
- Have a minimum of 10 orphans within the orphanage that are/will be available for adoption
Without interfering with the specific system of relief care provided to the orphans, IOF will proactively promote the monthly financial sponsorship of orphans who are in need of adoption. This will essentially provide an additional revenue stream to an existing ministry w/o any extra effort on their part. There are many missions efforts that take care of orphans who constantly pray for Christian parents to adopt them...providing permanent care for the children while making room for more children to come into the orphanage. This would be a perfect fit. IOF will take care of the administrative and promotional aspects of sponsorship. Orphans who become sponsored will also become part of our featured children within our prospective adoptive parent recruitment programs.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
