Welcome to our refreshed and updated website! We want to be a part of the world-wide, gospel focused orphan care movement that God has been stirring up within his church for His glory and for the joy and well being of vulnerable children.
What does Bethesda Outreach do? What we do is assist local churches to meet the needs of orphans so that they may become followers of Jesus. The mission of our village with 6 family units onsite (one family offsite), a Christian School, team center and administrative staff is to provide a functioning model of gospel focused, family centered care. In addition, our village provides a training and resource center for churches and families.
Our intention is that this website, along with all our communications and efforts, will help us accomplish the above mission by doing the following three things. If Bethesda does these consistently and well, more churches will get involved in orphan care, better orphan care will happen and more orphans will be reached in better ways for God’s glory.
First, Bethesda Outreach raises awareness. Bethesda Outreach exists to raise understanding of both God’s heart for the fatherless and the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children. We believe that the average church member should know that God loves the fatherless in special ways. We also believe that the average Christian should know in specific ways the needs of orphan children in their community and around the world.
Second, Bethesda Outreach stimulates compassion. Compassion is applied and felt mercy. Following the pattern of our Lord, we look at the vulnerable children, we see them and then something explodes in our being that cannot be resolved without costly response. However, our compassion has a shelf life. We believe compassion must be renewed and fed by bringing people close in various ways to see the needs of the fatherless. We also believe that compassion is stimulated by reminding the church that individual participation matters – one child impacted is a big deal.
Third, Bethesda Outreach encourages obedience. We believe that God is at work waking his church up to an aspect of gospel ministry that has sadly been assigned to agencies, charity work, and the government. The glory of God seen in orphan care is missing from most church resumes. We believe that every church should be involved in orphan care both locally and globally. We want to be an encouragement to churches to obey God’s call to rescue vulnerable children.
This is what we want to do. Please help us. Please feel free to tell us how you think we are doing. Please pray for us.