Do you Personally know an Orphan?

Many times I get asked when helping children in Africa if they are “real” orphans or are they partial orphans? Can you imagine? Should it matter- really? What makes a real orphan- real?  Some laws say that a “true” orphan is one with no parents. While others call a “social” orphan, a child living without parental care.

 

Webster Dictionary says it’s a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents.

Wikipedia states it is a minor bereft through “death or disappearance of, abandonment, or desertion by, or separation, or loss from-both parents. 

UNICEF says it is ANY child that has lost one parent as an orphan. In this approach, a maternal orphan is a child whose mother has died, a paternal orphan is a child whose father has died, and a double orphan has lost both parents. This contrasts with the other use of the word- half orphan- to describe children that had lost only one parent.

Even our U.S. Immigration laws have a description of what the word orphan means to them. (For the purpose of adoption)

A child may be considered an orphan because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents. The child of an unwed mother or surviving parent may be considered an orphan if that parent is unable to care for the child properly and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption. The child of an unwed mother may be considered an orphan, as long as the mother does not marry (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather) and as long as the child’s biological father has not legitimated the child. If the father legitimates the child or the mother marries, the mother is no longer considered a sole parent. The child of a surviving parent may also be an orphan if the surviving parent has not married since the death of the other parent (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather or stepmother).

Regardless, the need is all the same. To have someone say they value them and want them.
Does it need a specific label? Should it matter whether they are real, partial, social, half, paternal, maternal, or double orphaned? 

And while the name Global Orphan Outreach is construed at times, as an orphan outreach organization only, we have made it our mission to demonstrate the Love of Jesus by supporting outreach in all areas that build Godly relationships, increase awareness of opportunities to help others in need, and promote the collaboration of our resources and talents when helping others. 

For that matter we are all at one time or another “Orphaned”.  Not in the sense that we are starving children with no clothes or a home. However, we all have that core need, as God created us, to want, to need someone in our lives to “choose” us. To show us value and that we really matter.

 Whether it is an orphan in a third world country...

 or my elderly neighbor who is all alone.

 

Whether it is the child whose parents are too busy to notice he exists ...

 

or the girl prostitute working the streets for money and yes for love. (If only for an hour) 

No, orphans need NOT be across the ocean, a half world away needing us, to actually get our attention. One just needs to become aware of their surroundings here to see them. It is personal. It should be personal. Personal involvement requires us to help someone else needing to feel valued. Invest in them and you invest in God’s Kingdom. Some call it the “Social Gospel”. I say it’s God’s love in action.