The global church is finding its way back to the ancient foundations of family restoration. Today this shift is creating brighter futures for children and families around the world. This is the story of where we come from and why it is important.

The prophet Isaiah echoed this timeless truth in a far deeper way:

The Father Heart of God

The God of the Bible has always been for the family. He loves His people so deeply that He was willing to sacrifice Himself to build a bridge between a fallen world and His holiness, so that we could be adopted into a family union with Him.

Those who have encountered this radical, transformational love have carried it as a blueprint for extending God’s love to the rest of the world, so that many more could experience it too and find their way into the Father’s arms through Jesus Christ.

​One of the most tangible expressions of that love is caring for children who lack parental care. It’s worthwhile to pause and recognize how the Church has lived out this calling throughout history, and how it continues to embody it today. 

The Early Church and Vulnerable Children

In the earliest days of Jewish faith and Christianity, caring for orphans and widows wasn’t a program, it was a way to worship God and a way of living, taught by the Holy Scriptures. The early church embraced the vulnerable as part of their God-given family.

There’s no evidence that the orphanages existed in the first century, but the children in need were surrounded by caring communities like extended relatives, neighbours and fellow believers, living out their faith by taking in the children who had lost their parents. ​

When Orphan Care Changed

Over time, however, this biblical, deeply relational model began to shift. As plagues, wars, and poverty left growing numbers of children without parental care, the church sought new methods and solutions to respond to the growing crisis.
Institutions were created to house and educate the children in need. During the Industrial Revolution, orphanages became more common and spread across in the larger cities of Europe and North America, often built to remove children from poverty and danger, train them in moral discipline, and in many cases prepare children for labor or service.
The followers of Christ never stopped responding to the call to care for the most vulnerable. Yet, while following these new methods, the heart of that mission -  the individual child - was sometimes overshadowed. The new model for caring for orphans often had cracks in its foundation, but many churches kept building on it, believing it was the best way to help.

In the colonial era, Western Christian missionaries brought this institutional orphanage model to many regions in the Global South, where it had not existed in the same form. Over time, institutional care became the default, even in places where extended family structures remained strong, disrupting the traditional care systems like kinship care and community support.

Returning to God’s Design

But today, something remarkable is happening.
​
A growing number of churches and faith-based communities across the globe are reclaiming their roots. From Sierra Leone to South America, from Kenya to Cambodia, Christians are leading the way in deinstitutionalizing care and restoring children back to families.

They’re investing in family strengthening, kinship care, foster care, and community support systems, choosing models that reflect the heart of the early church: personal, loving, and rooted in relationships.

The global voice of the Church has begun to rise. It carries a new tone that echoes the sound of the Father. This voice is shaking the unjust foundations, increasingly taking responsibility for the past mistakes and pointing back to the ancient way of wisdom and the power of selfless love. It’s a radical faith in action.

Orphan care is changing as the global Church reclaims its roots; recalling ways that strengthen families, empower communities and are placing children back to the family environment where they are surrounded by love, care and belonging.
​
The future of orphan care is not in buildings, but in belonging, so that every child can grow up in the safe embrace of a family. 

Dig Deeper: Scripture and Resources 

The Church’s call to love, restore, and welcome children into families is deeply rooted in Scripture and history — here are some key passages and resources to help you go deeper and live it out.
God’s Heart for Family & Adoption

• Ephesians 1:4–6 – “In love he predestined us for adoption…”
• Romans 8:14–17 – “The Spirit you received brought about your adoption…”

Caring for the Vulnerable

• Deuteronomy 10:18 – “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.”
• James 1:27 – “Religion that God our Father accepts…”
• Isaiah 1:17 – “Learn to do right; seek justice…”

Restoring Families

• Psalm 68:5–6 – “A father to the fatherless… God sets the lonely in families.”
• Luke 1:16–17 – “He will… turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…”

Theology & Biblical Foundations

• Book of Resolutions: Support for Adoption – United Methodist Church – An official UMC statement connecting God’s love, adoption, and the Church’s calling to care for vulnerable children.
• Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel – John Piper – A concise theological reflection on how God’s adoption of believers shapes our mission to care for orphans.

Historical Context

• Christianity: Care for Widows and Orphans – Encyclopedia Britannica – An authoritative historical overview of how Christian communities have cared for widows and orphans from the earliest centuries.
• Early Christians and Care for the Poor – Yale Divinity School – A historical overview of how the early Church responded to poverty and cared for vulnerable children and families.
• Orphan Care in the Early Church: A Heritage to Recapture – NACSW (PDF) – A faith-based reflection on how caring for orphans and widows has been central to Christian mission throughout history.

Global Shifts in Orphan Care

• From Faith to Action – Faith to Action Initiative – A practical, research-based resource on the global movement from institutional care to family- and community-based models.

    •        •    United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children – Save the Children Resource Centre (PDF) – The most widely recognized global framework guiding how governments, NGOs, and faith communities care for children today.

Two relationships. Two kinds of responsibility.

HCW’s work sits in the middle of a triangle:

• Churches, volunteers, organizations, and donors who contribute resources, prayer, and advocacy
• HCW as a connector, steward, and technical partner
• Local organizations doing the daily work with children and families, inside their own systems and communities

All three matter. But the relationships are not interchangeable, and each has a specific role and responsibility.


Partnerships: shared mission, shared stewardship

When we say “partnership” in describing a relationship, we’re naming something with defined expectations:

• You are investing in a mission you believe in.
• We owe you transparent stewardship of that investment.
• You should expect clear reporting, honest updates, and responsible oversight.
• You have a role in the work: through giving, learning, praying, advocating, and staying engaged with integrity.
• You should expect we will listen respectfully and take your feedback seriously. 
• We are engaged in an agreed upon joint undertaking.
• We are each investing in something together. 

Partnership is a mutual commitment where resources and accountability are central, because stewardship matters. When people give sacrificially, they deserve clarity about what their gift is doing, and what it’s not doing.

Allyship: local leadership leads, outsiders support

When we say “allyship” with local organizations, we’re naming a different posture:

• Local organizations are not “our field.” They are not “our projects.” 
• They are leaders and experts in their own context.
• Our job is not to direct them. Our job is to support, strengthen, and walk alongside them.
• Our investment is in their ventures. 
• When that investment includes building capacity, maintaining a firm boundary between those roles is essential for success. 

Allyship is often a relationship where one party could yield disproportionate power and exert control (usually resources, access, global voice), but instead intentionally chooses to use that power carefully to avoid destruction of sustained progress. 

Allyship means we show up with humility and seriousness:

• We listen first.
• We invest in capacity, not dependency.
• We share decision-making, not just tasks.
• We tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
• We stay committed for the long haul.

Allyship isn’t charity with a nicer label. It’s solidarity, skill, and accountability.

Eight years ago, I received a phone call from Pastor Jared Priset at Church of the Lakes in Canton, Ohio. The clinic in Manjama, Sierra Leone, had closed, and the future was uncertain. He asked a simple question: could Church of the Lakes partner with Helping Children Worldwide to help restore what had been lost?

That question did not come with guarantees. It came with faith. 

At Helping Children Worldwide, our mission has always been rooted in a simple calling: to connect the resource-rich with the resource-poor, to strengthen systems that sustain families, and to equip local leaders to carry that work forward. We believe every child deserves to grow up in the safety and stability of a loving family, and that the strongest way to protect children is to strengthen the families and communities that care for them. We see ourselves as having an Orphan Prevention mission, rather than an Orphan Response mission. We partner and ally ourselves with like-minded people across faith traditions, alongside secular NGOs, and with government leaders, without discrimination, because illness, poverty, and vulnerability do not ask what you believe before they strike.

Compassion should not either.

We are unapologetically grounded in our faith traditions. Our mission grew organically - a seed that was planted not in the ground, but within the hearts of two United Methodist pastors. Seeing the horrors  visited on innocent children who grew up in a civil war that engulfed the West Coast of Africa, they joined forces to act and call for others to join them. Their call was nourished by the generosity of a congregation who believed scripture that directed them to care for the least, the last, and the lost in this world was the worship God required - it was more than pretty words. Their answer to  the call to action - to minister not just to those in the community they could see, hear, and touch - but to answer a call to help in the world beyond has saved tens of thousands of lives and raised the quotient of hope - of good - that will one day wipe away the evil of that war.  Jesus gathered the believers and set them on a course of action that would change the world forever.  We gathered the helpers, because we knew we needed every helper we could gather to make a difference for the most vulnerable children in the world - our calling. The work to gather resources requires collaboration.

​But resource gathering of this sort is built on something deeper than strategy. It is built on radical trust. Trust in relationships formed across cultures and continents. Trust in the calling God has placed on local leaders to guide and sustain their own communities. Trust that when we invest in people—not just programs—lasting transformation follows. Faith-led partnership requires humility. It requires listening. It requires believing that God is already at work in places we may never have imagined, and that our role is not to control that work, but to faithfully walk alongside it.

Over the past twenty-six years, and especially through faithful partnerships like the one with Church of the Lakes, we have seen what sustained commitment can build—not just clinics, but stronger families.

At Mercy UMC Hospital in Sierra Leone, investments in infrastructure—triage systems, blood banking, anesthesia equipment, solar-powered electrical systems, and operational improvements—have transformed what is possible. Today, Mercy covers 60% of its operating costs through earned income while expanding care to families who cannot pay. Mothers survive childbirth. Children receive treatment for diseases like malaria and sickle cell. Parents are able to remain healthy enough to work, provide, and care for their children. These are not just medical outcomes; they are family outcomes.

Through microfinance, family strengthening programs, and community-based care, parents gain the tools and stability they need to provide safe homes. Children who might otherwise face separation are able to remain with their families. Local social workers, clinicians, and community leaders are empowered to guide and sustain these efforts, building systems that will endure for generations.

​And yet, the need remains urgent. Malaria is resurging as access to medications has become less reliable. Maternal health risks remain among the highest in the world. Families face economic and health pressures that threaten their stability. But through Together for Global Health, and with the support of partners including Christian Connections In Health, we are strengthening systems that allow local clinicians and leaders to meet these challenges directly and protect the families they serve.

We are also building awareness and connection across borders. Our podcast, Optimistic Voices, now ranks in the top 50% of podcasts globally, helping connect practitioners, churches, and communities committed to ethical, effective global health and family strengthening.

This work has never been about quick solutions. It has always been about empowerment.

Empowering parents to care for their children.
Empowering communities to protect their most vulnerable.
Empowering local leaders to guide their own future.
Because when families are strong, children thrive.
When children thrive, communities flourish.
And when faithfulness endures, hope lasts.