No it’s not how much money a full Beaver Stadium brings in.   It’s not how many cups of coffee I’ve had life-to-date, at least I don’t think so.  It’s not the number of times that Lynn has asked me to cut my hair, though she may hit that number before the scissors touch my hair.

It’s the number of orphans in the world today. 

143 Million children without a mom or dad.  143 Million children who have gone through the unimaginable hardship of losing the presence of parents.  143 Million children in serious need of love.

One of the things that I love about Calvary is that we are starting to take seriously the call to love and serve the orphans of the world.  From our 1% offering to people at Calvary heeding God’s call to adopt, to people who are giving their time and passion to serve children in Myanmar, Rwanda, and the Dominican Republic.

All of us have a part to play.  Begin preparing for our 1% offering — a year end offering at Calvary where we are challenged to give 1% of our annual income to serve the poor around the world.  Considering sponsoring a child in Myanmar, Rwanda or the Domican Republic.  Who knows perhaps God is even calling you to adopt.  Those of you at Calvary who have or are in the process of adopting.  You are my heroes!

One of our 1% offering projects this year will be to help people at Calvary go through the costly process of adoption.  I ran across this video, who knows maybe God will use it to draw you into adoption.