117 Project

I have been talking off and on the last couple of weeks about our new project. I have told you about my friend Amanda (who has and AMAZING heart for God) who felt burdened to help us raise money for our adoption. She created the 117 Project with the help of some friends. I am super excited about this as we are now kicking off our next fundraiser!!! I thought it would be cool if she could tell you how this all came about in her own words.


I've always been fascinated by the thought of adoption. Even when I was a kid I used to think how cool it would be to be adopted. Mind you, I had a wonderful childhood and would not trade my parents for anything in the world, but I used to think how interesting it would be if I had been adopted by them. I believe that to give a loving home to a child, who would not have otherwise, is one of the most honorable things that can be done.

Last year I posted on my Facebook a statistic that I read that simply broke my heart. "If just ONE family out of every church in the United States would adopt an orphan, there would be NO orphans in the US." That thought was staggering to me. My question was then, "Why in the world are there orphans?" How have we as a church failed so greatly at this? How far off the mark have we fallen from the "pure religion" spoken about in James 1:27?

That same Facebook post was commented on by several people and one person wrote, "Well, I can understand this, the adoption process is hard and costs a lot of money." What?!?!? So these two facts are what is keeping ONE family from adopting? Again, I asked "What in the world is wrong with this picture?" If the rest of the church cannot gather around to help and finance ONE family to bring a child into a loving home, we are completely failing the name of Christ! What if that is what Christ had said, "Oh no, that is going to cost too much and be hard" in His adoption for us? Where would be today?

I am not currently in a life position to adopt. While I know there are many single women who adopt in order to fulfil the longing in their hearts (and I commend them), at this time I do not feel that is the direction God has for me. However, I absolutely feel that I am to help financially, emotionally, physically and any other way that I can to help bring these children to loving homes.

As I began to explore what more I could do to help those in the process of adoption, I realized that this has been a life long dream deep in my heart. A dream that I did not know dwelt there until I began to pursue thoughts and ideas around how to help raise funding for my friends who desperately want to adopt and change the life of a child.

With this dream in mind and with the help of several amazing and talented people I am launching the 117Project. This organization is in the beginnings and while not quite fully formed has a mission to fulfill the charge of Isaiah 1:17 --learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widows cause.

There is a lot of work to be done, and details to work through, however, at this time we are set to launch the first project on March 17th. Stay tuned for more details...

Feel free to follow Amanda's blog at tigpan.wordpress.com