Thursday, February 18, 2010

2010 Programs

OK, little late on these ... sorry!  Also, please bear with us as we work on the design of the blog ... slowly but surely we will get it built to where we want it...alright, here are the proposed 2010 programs and events for The 1:27 Call…


Local Involvement

Our goal is to be involved with at least 3 events for both the Good Shepherd Children’s Home in Murfreesboro, TN and our local county’s Foster Parent Association. We hope to be able to do hands-on manual work at the Children’s Home to be the hands and feet of Jesus and hope to work with the Foster Parent association to be able to be a positive influence into the foster childrens’ lives. Programs for the foster children could include providing a "baby basket” for babies new to foster parents’ homes, a backpack with school supplies for the school-age children, an "essentials” package for kids to take with them if they are removed from a home (change of clothes, toiletries, toy, etc). We are still working out the best way we can partner with the Foster Parent Association.

Adoption Advocacy

We believe that fellowship with other adoptive families is one of the best things for families going through adoption or thinking about adoption. It also creates friendships and bonds with families that you would never get without that. These bonds could be based upon a number of criteria: adoption country, age of children, living in same area of town, etc, etc. Nevertheless, we feel these fellowships are vital to the adoption process. We plan on organizing at least 3 of these "Forever Family Fellowships” in 2010. Our first will be in May with more details to soon follow.
We are also creating a "library” of information for families. Adoption rules are so different between domestic, foster care, and international … with international being different per country. Our goal is to help families understand what the rules of each type of adoption are.
Another goal of The 1:27 Call is to be able to help these adoptive families out financially … to help them "over the hump.” Many people know about the federal adoption tax credit but that does not come until after you have spent most/all the money for the adoption. We would like to provide families a no-interest loan available through the Abba Fund to help bring their children forever home.

Church Engagement

Our goal here is simple … to engage the Church in orphan care. We feel the Church has missed the mark here. We should not have 500,000 kids in foster care and 147 million orphans in the world if the Church was being the Church God called us to be. Our hope is that we can partner with at least 3 local churches this year. We would like to show them what God says about orphans, what our response as Christ-followers should be, and initiate and build orphan care programs inside their churches that will be not only a ministry inside the church but also a change in "culture” for that church and congregation. We will help these churches start their programs, help with events/programs they do, and provide a matching grant to them for the adoption assistance fund through the Abba Fund. We will be first starting with local churches and hopefully growing out from here … we will also be hosting a "Get to Know 1:27" for local church leadership in the 2nd quarter of 2010. If you’re in the middle Tennessee area and want to see an orphan care ministry at your church, let us know … we’d love to talk to you more about it!

International Relations

We are currently working through possible partnerships for our international focus. We are praying about where God wants us to be engaged. We also want to ensure the organizations we partner with are on the ground locally, provide a daily difference in the lives of orphans, and have low/minimal overhead and admin expenses to ensure the dollars we send are really being used for the care, support, and love to the orphans of the area. We hope to have one partnership set up in Q2 and 1-2 more on the horizon by the end of the year. Our support here will be through prayer and financial donations to projects directly involving the livelihood and care of orphaned children.


Donor Relations

For our first full year as an organization, we believe God has set an aggressive but exciting schedule planned for us. As you can imagine, many of the programs and events above are tied directly to financial investments. As an organization, our board has chosen to cover all administration costs! Also, all of our directors and team members are VOLUNTEERS so there is no paid staff. We say that so that you know that 100% of all donations go directly to our programs! OK, this is where you come in now … God has given the job to all who follow Him to care for orphans … are you directly involved with that? If so, THANK YOU for serving these children. If not, please pray about it … it shouldn’t take long as God has already told us what to do! :) In order to fulfill our commitments and plans outlined above, we do need your help. Would you consider becoming a donor to The 1:27 Call? You can donate online here or you can mail a check to The 1:27 Call, PO Box 224, Murfreesboro, TN 37133.

THANK YOU for R.E.S.P.O.N.D.I.N.G. to help these children!