Part 4 – The Earth is the Lord’s….but it takes money
Now that we’ve built a foundation through prayer and partnered with the church, we can hit the ground running with fundraising and planning where the orphanage will be. Like most things in this world, building an orphanage takes land and money to accomplish.
Much like in part 2, prayer should be our first step in this endeavor. Matthew 7:7-11 states,
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Although we do not think much about it, everything on this earth belongs to the Lord (Psalm 24:1), including money. It is up to Him to determine what we are stewards over. Although asking the Almighty for money may seem like a daunting or frivolous ask, let me remind you that He describes Himself as a good Father. He knows what we need and how much we can handle. On top of this, we are not petitioning resources for ourselves, we are gathering funds needed to help lost and broken children.
While God will always be our first call, there are others we can partner with as well. Ideally, the partnership formed with the church (in part 3) would not only be a source of wisdom but generosity. After all, the church has the same mission as us in glorifying God and caring for orphans. Ask your pastors, elders, and leaders to guide you on what is the best way to fundraise in the church community. This may look different from church to church. This can be anything from a direct gift to setting up a booth on Sunday to explain your mission to the congregation.
You may even find partners in other nonprofits, private foundations, or even government funds. Who knows who or what God will bring? All we know is that we can trust Him to provide what we need.
Speaking of providing what we need, there is one other asset that we need to discuss: land. While we may expect to buy the land through the funds we raise, finding and buying the land may not be as simple as expected. There are many factors that go into obtaining land for an orphanage.
Where would be a good/ safe place to put an orphanage? What is surrounding the land? Is it near a church, school, hospital, etc? Where do we even begin to look?
I can answer that last question, and by now, I bet you can too: prayer! As stated before, the earth and everything in it are the Lord’s. So once again, pray for His guidance. He may provide through wisdom, or He may directly intervene. One of our first orphanages was built on land leased to us by a relative of someone in our partner church’s congregation. It stands right next to the church to this day. You never know the miraculous generosity of God until you ask Him. Sure, human plans are great, but letting God provide extends far beyond what we can fathom.
Psalm 37:28-31 (NIV) states, “For the Lord loves the just, and will not forsake his faithful ones. Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed; the offspring of the wicked will perish. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip.
While we are not righteous in our sin, through the sacrifice of Jesus, we are made righteous and purchased to be adopted sons and daughters of God.
We inherit the land as heirs, not by our own goodness but through the goodness of our God, who purchased and adopted us. Now it’s our turn to use that land and resources to bring orphans to become adopted not only to loving families but also to the God who fathered them when none would.
A special “THANK YOU” to Paige Slatton for contributing this blog post!
