Registrations are now at least 500 more than when we closed online registration last year…and the registrations continue to pour in until 12 PM.

That’s tremendous news, and also one more indicator of a vibrant, expanding movement.

But it’s also a challenge, given the space limitations we’re facing.  Let’s just say this:  Summit this year will be energetic, exciting…and cozy!

For this reason, we’re going to have to take the unprecedented step of not allowing walk up registration.  We’re truly sad to say that, but to make sure Summit is a tremendous experience for those who have registered, we’ll have to draw the line.

So…if you haven’t yet, make sure you register by midnight tonight HERE.  And if you have, know that you are in for an amazing experience!

My prayer for my church/community/home is that we would “expect great things from God and attempt great things for God” (William Carey) by consistently and confidently calling God into the orphan crisis through faith-filled prayer. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6)

Joe Gerber, So You’re Considering Adoption? Five Questions You Need to Ask and Where to Find Answers

My prayer for my church/community/home is that we would truly grasp how high, how wide and how deep is the Father’s astounding love for the fatherless.  I also pray that we, as His chosen people, would rise up more and more to answer the command to care, to give, to love, to go and to bring home the least of these…the ones who so desperately need us, His body!  Awaken us, Lord Jesus!

Adeye Salem, Special Needs Adoption: Myths vs. Truth

Oh Father, how it must grieve Your heart to see the brokenness of our lives and our exhausting efforts. Have mercy on us. Have compassion on us. Help us not only to know with our heads, but to experience in the depths of our hearts, Your unfathomable grace.  Help us to extend grace to others. May we be kind to families who parent children who don’t fit well in our Christian schools or churches. Help us to expect less from ourselves and more from You. Restore our hearts. Restore our families, and help us conform to Your image – not perfection and self-righteousness — but grace-filled families and communities who understand there is nothing easy, or clean, or romantic about stepping into Your story. Thank You that You continue to redeem the lives of Your broken children. Please start with me.

Paula Freeman, A Place I Didn’t Belong: Hope for Adoptive Moms

I asked this beautiful Summit community to share ways they experience Redemption, and I think you’ll agree that these answers are too beautiful not to share …

I experience Redemption when …

… God replaced the word “loner” with the word “devoted” as my identity in Him.

… I look into the eyes of each one of our six adopted children and I see His love which my heart cannot fathom–His redeeming love poured out for them, and for me.

… my special needs children make my heart happy every single day. Every one of them were at one time alone, abandoned & considered the least of the least. Every day, every smile, every new accomplishment is redemption. Every day we see the Lord through their lives.

… as an adopted person, not knowing who I was, who I came from, or who I was connected to, I now get to sit in a sacred counseling space and remind people of who they are – who God created them to be – and invite them to experience a deeper connection to the One who sees and knows and loves them from the beginning of time. And, as God has graciously helped me find my voice, to be able to offer my story, my pain, my heart to the world of adoption, to use it for good in the lives of those connected to adoption, to bring truth and hope and healing.

… I surrender. When I say, “pick me!” for this task, this relationship, this calling. When I realize then, I am over my head, and don’t have enough of anything (wisdom, resources, patience, discernment) to accomplish what He is asking. The breaking, humbling next steps are redemptive and restorative and full of rescue.  With that in my heart, I am now equipped for what He is asking…

… God reveals His guidance and shows favor to those serving the fatherless.

… I see adoptive moms grasp God’s healing for them: when they meet Jesus at that place they didn’t belong and recognize that this is exactly the starting point He had in mind for them all along. I experience Redemption when I see hope renewed, hearts set free, and laughter return. I experience Redemption when adoptive parents learn and grow and adjust their dreams to meet the needs of their children. I experience redemption when God uses my story of pain, depression, and healing to encourage and strengthen others.

… I can share my story as an adoptee and adoptive parent to bring glory to God.

… I see the nervous little shell of a girl open up and twirl across my living room as if she is …. Home.

Thank you all for sharing these beautiful words.  May we all find the kind of Redemption that allows us to twirl …

If you find yourself in such a point, there is a place for you at Summit.  There are people longing to talk to YOU …

This year at Summit, I hope to talk to adoptive parents who are hurting: parents who embarked on the high calling of adoption, but who now recognize they have children with challenges. Things aren’t turning out as perfectly as they had hoped, so they’re wondering if adoption is such a good thing after all. I also want to visit with pastors and adoptive parents who can help create grace-filled churches — places where all adoptive families belong. As an adoption social worker, and an adoptive mother, I understand the heartbreak and isolation that comes with some adoptions. This is not a final destination! There is a better way. I want to help people reclaim hope for their journey and provide them with tools that will help them understand they can be OK . . . even when their kids are not.  - Paula Freeman, MSW, Hope’s Promise, A Place I Didn’t Belong: Hope for Adoptive Moms

This year at Summit, I hope to talk to foster/adoptive parents and orphanage caregivers on their very special healing role in the lives of wounded children. Many of them have responded to the call. They have shown up and now need to be equipped for the journey. We hope to share with them the factors that will lead them to healthy and successful parenting and caregiving for everyone – themselves, the wounded child or children, their own biological children and beyond.  - Jayne Schooler, Becoming a Trauma Competent Healing Parent;  and Building Trauma Competent Caregivers

Redemption isn’t just a personal thing.  It isn’t just a family thing.  Did you know that God is raising up business leaders to step into this call to love the fatherless?

Greg Buzek will lead a session on this fascinating blend, sharing how God moved in him to mix business with orphan care.

Getting Business Involved in the Cause of the Fatherless is ideal for:

• Charities that want to engage businesses
• Business owners that are looking for major impact and significance, and
• Employees who want to engage their companies in the care of orphans

Just imagine … YOUR workplace … your business … your boss … your company … and its resources being utilized for the power of the Gospel.  Imagine the Redemption.

As a mother of nine children, who has lived overseas their whole lives, this is a subject dear to me. Teaching, then Engaging, Children in International Orphancare  will be very practical as I share specific ideas I have seen, as well as address the challenges.  I am looking to talk to children’s pastors and parents about how to shape their conversations with their kids so that they are full of substance on this critical issue. – Beth Guckenberger

If you want to see Orphan Care be made part of your family’s DNA, your Church’s culture, and see your kids reach out to children of the world, then don’t miss Beth’s breakout or any of the great sessions on Strengthening the Family!

I have so many favorite parts about Summit, but one of them is being surrounded by so many people from SUCH different backgrounds, with SUCH different gifts, with SUCH different ways to live out this call:  but the SAME FATHER who plants the heart-stirring that gets us all there.

I’m not alone in this – when I asked some of our breakout speakers to think back on their first Summit, this is what they said …

The reason I went to Summit for the first time was to be with other people with like minds who were thinking of all the possibilities that could make a difference in the life of a waiting child._

The power of collective thinking, planning, hope, prayer, resources would open doors for awesome possibilities.  

- Sharon Ford (Don’t miss Sharon’s sessions: How Do We Work Together? and Successful Private/Public Relationships)

My first Summit was an amazing experience. The opportunity to meet people from all over the world who share a passion for orphan care and the gospel was such a gift.

I have made so many tremendous friendships and ministry connections through the Summit. I thank God for the opportunity to gather each year!  

- Rick Morton (Join Rick’s session on Discipling and Orphan Care in the Local Church)

Summit is a unique chance to have this conversation TOGETHER.  For me, it was the birthplace of discovering true Redemption in facing the staggering numbers and challenges within Orphan Care.  If you’re considering attending your first Summit, don’t walk:  RUN to this time of discovering Redemption together in such a unique way.

But before Sunday came Friday: the day he was placed in the grave.  I have to confess that I’m rather fascinated with Friday because we coin it “Good”, and in my many years of church attendance I’ve always felt the tension from the church services that aren’t quite comfortable ending on a dark note.  Something makes it hard for us to talk about what happened that day.  We’d so much rather talk about Sunday.

My fascination with Good Friday started several years ago as I sat in a church service listening to some beautiful (and appropriately dissonant) choral music.  It struck me that Friday, when it’s boiled down to its essence, is this:  utter and complete disappointment.  With seemingly no room for a happy ending.  The biggest possible let-down of all time happened as the disciples watched their Messiah be arrested, crucified, and buried.  As I realized this simple truth, I had no idea that I was on the verge of a season with God that would absolutely rock me.  That would strip down my theology just like Friday rocked Peter’s.  I had no idea that I was entering a season of death, disappointment, frustration and loss.  I had no idea that my very own “Friday” was on the horizon.

Sitting from our vantage point in history, I think we’re quick to want to jump to the answers that Sunday brought;  but Friday brought SUCH important questions, and even though some of them are devastating (like Peter realizing that he WAS in fact capable of denying Christ), I think we have a lot to learn from Friday.  Because if we’re honest, I think we all know what Friday looks like in our own worlds:  when we thought our theology and our faith was enough to get us through (Peter: “I will go to the death for you!”) turns into fear and confusion and maybe even denial (Peter: “I don’t even know him!”).  In orphan care, the disappointments can be rather rampant and easy to see.  Heartache can be abundant at various stages of the journey towards Redemption.  Some of you are there now, on a Friday.  A time when your theology is clashing head-first with your heartache.

My first Summit was the perfect place for my heart to start reconciling the truth of both Friday and Sunday.  Of both pain and beauty.  Of both loss and Redemption.  The Gospel is both.  Orphan Care is both.  At Summit, we get to walk through both together:  the lows of Friday-disappointments and heartaches, and the highs of Sunday’s restorative work.

We’ve been talking about Redemption here.  Redemption is what happens on Sunday.  Redemption is Jesus conquering every disappointment, even death.  Redemption is what we will sing about for all time.  But Friday is what we need to be Redeemed from.  In fact, redemption means very little if we don’t take stock of what needs to be redeemed.  So today, take stock.  Be honest and real with your Savior if there are disappointments crowding out your heart’s space for joy.  And take stock if there are broken pieces that have already been redeemed.

And remember, there is power in sharing:  we want to hear your stories of Redemption here.  Leave a comment filling in this sentence:  I experience Redemption when _____________________.

As in building anything, two critical pieces include your foundation, and your support.  I want to introduce you to two specific breakout sessions that will help you make sure each are strong.

First, your foundation.  Biblical Counseling and a Successful Orphan Care Ministry will start the critical conversation about developing a Passion for the Father that then flows into a passion for the fatherless!  Following the path set forth by Pastor Daniel Bennett, author of A Passion for the Fatherless, this session will be ideal for those who are trying to grapple with the future of their orphan care ministry.  Be sure to check out the *free* small-group Bible Study that accompanies A Passion for the Fatherless!

Another critical component to a successful Church Orphan Care Ministry is support, and Regional Orphan Care Alliances have proven a great way to share resources, encouragement, and more.  Darren Washausen will be leading the conversation on Regional Orphan Care Alliances – Growth Beyond the Startup.  This year at Summit, he hopes to talk to those in the beginning stages and working to move forward with regional alliances. At Summit, he is most encouraged by the way that weary warriors come together and allow the Holy Spirit to re-energize them and connect them as the Body of Christ to continue on.  In his own home, God has built a heart for the orphan that looks like having 2 – 10 year old son in their home day to day, and his prayer for his community is that the Body of Christ  would lead the charge in caring for the fatherless of their region.

This is Redemption.  Together.  Let’s build it.  Together.

And remember, we want to hear YOUR stories of Redemption.  Leave a comment finishing this sentence:

I experience Redemption when _______________________.

There’s no denying it, Bloggers for Orphans love Summit!  Whether you’re there to learn about adoption, foster care, global orphan initiatives or to make meaningful connections with other advocates and families, Summit 9 has something for everyone.

This year we are pleased to announce our first Summit Conference package giveaway just for bloggers!

And we have not one, not two, but THREE prizes to giveaway! How’s that for a grand giveaway?

Contest is NOW OPEN until the close of day on Friday, March 29. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, April 2!

Now here’s the scoop and be sure to read carefully because there is a lot involved.

• GRAND Prize: 1 Full Conference Registration, Pre-Summit Intensive, and blog will be featured on the CAFO blog

• FIRST Prize: 1 Full Conference Registration

• SECOND Prize: 1 Half Price Registration

(1)  Like Us on Facebook OR Follow Us on Twitter

   (2)  AND Become a Blogger for Orphans (click here to fill out a simple form)

   (Eligibility requirements will be verified before prizes are awarded.)

(1)  WRITE A BLOG POST:  Write a post on your blog about why you want to go to Summit 9. There are SO many reasons, but we want to you why YOU want to be in Nashville on May 2-3, 2013!

(2)  Blog Post must include the words: “I am writing this post as part of the Summit 9 Blogger Giveaway. Check out all the details at www.summit9.org”.

(3)  Come back here and leave a comment on this post with the URL to your post so that we can find it and include it in the contest.

…

Contest will open on the morning of Monday, March 25 until the close of day on Friday, March 29. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, April 2!

If you are selected as a winner of the contest and you have already purchased your Summit 9 registration, we will work with you regarding your options.

We are thrilled about this giveaway! And we’re very much looking forward to sending three of our blogging friends to Summit 9!