Adoption Summit To Be Held at Focus on the Family

May 8, 2007

Colorado Springs, Co. – Focus on the Family will for the first time host the Evangelical Orphan Care and Adoption Summit at its Colorado Springs headquarters on May 9-11. The goal of this year’s event: to educate, mobilize and equip leaders in the evangelical community to practically take on the challenge of local and worldwide orphan care. Prominent leaders including Rick Warren, Jim Daly, Dennis Rainey and Steven Curtis Chapman will be in attendance.

Also present will be presidents and CEOs from over 60 organizations, plus church leaders from around the country. Attendees will represent government agencies, adoption services, churches and parachurch ministries. The summit will feature keynote addresses and workshops including “Building Alliances Between State Foster Care and Local Churches,” “Ministering to HIV/AIDS Orphans,” and “Orphans, Colorado and the Church.”

The summit was birthed out of the biblical mandate to “look after orphans and widows in their distress,” and is a practical step toward mobilizing the evangelical community worldwide to accomplish that goal. Organizers are planning on tangible results, including the sponsorship of orphanages, the establishment of adoption support groups and financial aid initiatives, and, perhaps most importantly, the visible decline in the number of orphans due to active and intentional adoption of children into “forever families.”

Focus on the Family has joined with FamilyLife and Shaohannah’s Hope in spearheading this initiative, having taken on orphan care as one of its newest and most ambitious projects in 2007. Mark Andre, Director of the Orphan Care Initiative at Focus on the Family, is already excited about the potential for change.

“Historically, Christians have cared about orphans,” said Andre. “And we still do. But we need to raise awareness of the practical means for translating care into action. Churches and families need the facts, resources, encouragement and support to take on this challenge in a way that gets the job done. We want to see these children in permanent, loving homes, and the goal of the summit is to support that mission with greater purpose and urgency.”

For more information on the adoption summit at Focus on the Family, or to schedule interviews, contact Lisa Anderson at (719) 548-5883 or by email at lisa.anderson@fotf.org.

Focus on the Family, founded in 1977, is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing and defending families worldwide. The “Focus on the Family” broadcast has over 1.5 million listeners daily in the United States alone. Focus on the Family has offices worldwide with a total audience of over 200 million.