Orphan Sunday – November 6, 2022, history, significance
Orphan Sunday is a time to stand up for the orphans of the world. In truth, there are likely no more vulnerable human beings in the entire world than those thousands upon thousands of children in this world who have no mother or father, due to all sorts of tragedies that have occurred in their lives, ranging from accidents, to sicknesses, to war. Whatever the reason, orphaned children need our help in any way we can offer it.
History of Orphan Sunday
Over the years, many different churches and organizations have hosted events they called, “Orphan Sundays” in an effort to raise awareness of the orphans in our areas, their problems and needs.
The Christian Alliance started their own version of Orphan Sunday back in when an American visitor to Africa Gary Schneider attending a church service in Zambia was moved by the pastor’s call to care for the numerous orphans in a local community plagued by hunger bordering on starvation, poverty and AIDS.
At that time especially, children who were orphans were in a particularly terrible situation, as they were often left to fend for themselves, a thing that no child is prepared to do.
Because of this, many children’s entire lives became jeopardized, as they had no way to make enough money to go to school in hopes of getting an education and a decent job in the future. Even though the locals attending the service were mostly extremely poor themselves, at the end of the service, many of them stepped forward to offer their support, some even giving away their clothes or shoes to help the children.
Moved by this display of generosity, Schneider decided to help Zambian leaders take care of the Zambian orphans by getting the word out about this new practice, and it spread like wildfire. By 2003 these efforts had spread to the United States.
The Christian Alliance honors the Zambian church Schneider had visited for the gift of Orphan Sunday and the inspiration they gave people all over the world to care about the orphan; in fact, Orphan Sunday is often called, “Zambia’s gift to the world”.
Nowadays, the Christian Alliance includes more 150 respected ministries, and Orphan Sunday is celebrated in thousands of churches across the globe in over 50 nations.
How to celebrate Orphan Sunday
The best way to celebrate Orphan Sunday is find something you can do for the sadly fatherless and motherless children the Zambians have been doing their best to look after for all these years.
And it doesn’t stop there! Though Zambia is where the whole event started, it is definitely not the only place in the world where we can find orphaned children—there are children who have lost their parents in every community that could use your help.
Orphan Sunday is your opportunity to rouse church, community and friends to God’s call to care for the orphan. Each Orphan Sunday event is different, depending on who it’s led by—the believer in any local church, along with their priest or pastor, get together to decide what actions they could take stand to benefit their local orphans as well as orphans worldwide.
Events range from sermons on God’s heart for the orphan, whose plight Christians believe is especially important to, to fundraisers, live concerts, and even to foster family recruiting.
