orphan care - Blessings and Raindrops

Adoption is not going to solve the orphan crisis. Our family firmly believes in adoption and we know that it is a part of God’s plan for us. However, we strongly advocate for holistic orphan care for the hundreds of millions of orphaned, abandoned, and at-risk children around the globe.

For us, we dove head first into this work as a result of all that we saw and experienced in our daughter’s birth country (Democratic Republic of Congo).

We originally founded an initiative we called Feed Their Tummies simply as a response to an urgent need for food at a small orphanage in the heart of Kinshasa where our daughter had spent the first year and a half of her life. After our first food delivery in 2013, we partnered with a well-respected Congolese organization, Mwangaza International, to ensure orphaned and vulnerable children in desperate need of life’s most basic provisions are being fed nutritionally sound meals each and every day. We also partnered with local friends to start a local concert series we called Bentonville Sessions as a fun way to raise funds for the children in our program.

Since the inception of the feeding program in Congo, we collaborated with our dear friends at Help One Now.

Help One Now is a catalytic tribe committed to empowering and resourcing high-capacity local leaders who care for orphans and vulnerable children in order to transform communities and break the cycle of extreme poverty.

We’ve seen the power of community empowerment first-hand and knew we wanted to be a part of the good work being done globally by this organization. Dave and I have both traveled to Help One Now communities (Haiti, South Africa and Zimbabwe) in order to see the work and meet the local leaders. The sense of Hope in these communities is palpable and contagious. We are honored to be a part of this tribe and advocate for the work being done around the world.

After meeting Zimbabwean local leader, Pastor John Chinyowa and visiting Musha Wevana Children’s Home, Dave and I both felt God calling us to advocate for and work toward a sustainable resource for this community…

This led to the launch of The Berry Farm.

In partnership with Help One Now and Pastor John and other local leaders in Marondera, Zimbabwe, our farm will provide resources to train and empower teenagers and young adults to transition into adulthood with the skills that they need to succeed.

The wall of HOPE at Musha WeVana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.

Meeting one our sponsor kiddos, Blessing, in Zimbabwe.

What Dave and I have learned on this journey is simple: open your hands and trust God with your steps. He has called us to care for the orphaned, widowed and oppressed explicitly throughout scripture. The path may be unknown and everyone’s story will certainly look different and unique. Yet, there is work to be done and the starting place is simple. Sponsor a child, host a garage sale for orphans, work at the local food pantry, pick blueberries with your family… simple, good, life-giving work.

The work doesn’t need to be big or grandiose or “successful” by the world’s standards. Small is the way of the Kingdom. Start small. Love big.