There are various ways we can fulfill the “great commission of Jesus Christ” in our lives. I always liked the story of Anne of Green Gables about an orphan. Typically, orphans are people that are lepers and people don’t want to deal with them. Foster children are the same way as far as going from one home to another home. It’s basically this “unwanted” feeling by others.
I believe what we go through in life makes us more sensitive to help others. I’ve supported the Julian Center since 1985, and it was because of coming out of an abusive relationship in my past, I know a lot of women who support Sheltering Wings and other shelters for abused women and children.
The ministry I have in life right now is helping other adult orphans get through life. I spoke to someone tonight who told me how she does not have any parents and her daughter is grown, and going to a Bible study where you only have a few minutes of fellowship does not “cut” it in the larger picture of life of really getting to know people.
Many singles are turning to more socials, because in the church, we are not making disciples or getting to know people on a daily basis. That is why I chose to sit down with many single sisters for dinner or coffee on a regular basis especially other widows to really “make a difference” in a person’s life. It’s a ministry I’ve continued to do for four years. Instead of sit with my husband every night for dinner which I miss, I try to meet with others.
My daughter in Los Angeles last Thanksgiving reached out to those singles who did not have any family or their family was out of town to invite them over to her home. I met one girl at her home who lost both of her parents in college. She was so much more mature than a lot of women I meet at her age that are single. My daughter also volunteers for the Boy/Girls club. I host Thanksgiving meals for the international students at work where I cooked a turkey the last few years.
Even before my husband passed away one of my divorced friends and I sat down at Chic Fillet on kid’s night on Tuesday with our grandchildren for two years.
I find when it comes to quality time when I was in marriage or with children, it’s really one-on-one time. Spending my life flopping in front of a television set does not cut it for being with the family. Sometimes my husband and I would take our chldren to a ball diamond and play kickball or baseball, because we had our own inbuilt team with six little children.
This past weekend, I enjoyed attending a woman’s retreat with a friend who is from another country and does not have any family here except for her own children. There have been many occasions where she had met me at single functions on holidays like the 4th of July since we both don’t have parents alive anymore.
I lost my father three months before I married my husband and my mother five years later. I lost my sister about five years after my mother and then my husband a few years after that. I’m and adult orphan along with others.
I find in boating that helping children of parents going through divorce or death has been a very rewarding ministry in bringing joy to them.
The Lord gave me that scripture, “It’s more blessed to give than receive." Acts 20:35
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. Psalm 68:5
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Isaiah 1:17
Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. Job 29:12
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Psalm 82:3
You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. Exodus 22:22
Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 1 Timothy 5:3-4
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