Adoption Adventure Network
"Expressing the Father's care by creating an opportunity for each child to find their forever family."

Article for FRUA Newsletter, Jan. 2003
FRUA (Families for Russian and Ukranian Adoption)

How's your investment portfolio doing? The concept of having resources set aside for future use is common. Friends discuss investment tips at parties. Some people form clubs where they pool their money together. Getting the best return on your investment is an acceptable topic of conversation, even among strangers.

But what if wise management and good stewardship of resources didn't end just with the instruments of commerce, like money and stocks and certificates of deposit? Bruce Wilkinson, in his best-selling book "A Life God Rewards" offers a perspective of investing for the future that also includes spending our energies and efforts in endeavors that have eternal value based on God's standards.

A group of passionate volunteers and team members have been making just that kind of eternal investment in the lives of 29 Russian orphans visiting the Los Altos area in early January. The return on their investment won't be measured in dollars but will be the eternal effects on the lives of the children and the families who participated in Adventure of Hope Bay Area-Winter 2003.

If you were to visit the Day Camp at Immanuel Lutheran Church where the children met each weekday for two weeks, you would see the same kinds of activities going on as in most Sunday school classes or summer YMCA programs - crafts, music, games, free play and field trips. But the difference is that the objective of the entire Adventure of Hope team of leaders and volunteer staff is to extend God's care toward these children by creating an opportunity for each one to meet their forever family.

The stakes in this game are incredibly high. Every year thousands of Russian orphans reach the age of 16 and are then released from the system into the streets. The statistics show a staggering saga of misery for these kids - at the end of the first year, half of them are incarcerated, prostitutes, or dead! The effort to create an alternative opportunity for these orphans by matching them with families impacts their entire reality by changing their living environment, improving their health and vitality, and receiving the love and guidance from parents that will affect the course of their entire lives! Truly there are eternal matters at stake here! There is a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and beauty to be rescued!

The battle to fight is against the ravages of being unloved and lonely in this world. The Bible says that "God sets the lonely in families" and "God is a father to the fatherless". There is a battle going on at the cosmic level to disconnect children from the love and nurture of a family and sever them from the blessings God wants for them. The adventure to live comes from our volunteering to join the battle and then observing with our own eyes how God overcomes circumstances and hurdles to accomplish his objective to reach these children with His effective care through us! And the beauty to rescue is the innocence of childhood that rests in each of the children who participate in the Project Hope program.

When people volunteer freely to participate in this cosmic battle the forms take on unassuming and small proportions. There were mothers who brought snacks, high-schoolers who guided the play times, and helpers who cleaned up the crumbs on the tables and floor at the end of each day. There was a photographer and a video producer who gave of their time to provide flattering photos of the children and a program video that was emotionally impacting. There were families who drove the children to and from the Day Camp and provided meals and clothes for them. There were translators who formed a vital communication link between the families and the children who were being considered for adoption. There was the host father who obtained VIP tickets to a Sharks hockey game to provide a memorable time for the escorts and a few volunteers. A renowned Los Gatos restaurant (California Café) provided a generous credit to a dinner for the escorts; a lovely time was shared getting to know each other. A Crossroads Church member delivered and set up the PA system for the two presentations by the children. All of these people contributed in simple ways that had a profound effect when combined together with the other members of the Adoption Adventure team.

The effect was that 25 of the 29 visiting children have families in the process of adopting them at the time of this writing. You can register to view the photolisting of remaining children or register to host a child during the next Adoption Adventure program by visiting the website: www.AdoptionAdventure.com