NGOs

Hundreds of Christian-sponsored events nationwide will take place Sunday to draw attention to the half million children in the U.S. foster system today.

The national Orphan Sunday campaign, led by the Christian Alliance for Orphans, is an annual grassroots event calling Christians to be involved in adoption, foster care and the global orphan ministry. Local events across the country seek to raise awareness about the orphan crisis and infuse passion into the church to tackle the problem.

“While everyone may not be called to adoption, we are all called in the body of Christ to do something on behalf of the orphan,” said Kelly Rosati, senior director of the Sanctity of Human Life Division at Focus on the Family, in the video program called, “Answer the Cry.” more >>

Well-known U.S. Christian leaders met with President Obama Monday to press him to take a stronger stance on poverty and hunger.

Millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs, make payments, and put food on the table amid the economic downturn, highlighted the delegation that included the heads of Church World Service and the National Council of Churches. Although many of the groups present at the meeting are helping to provide meals and assist those impacted by the economic hard times, more needs to be done, they stated.

“As families in the U.S. find their household budgets more and more strained, families in the developing world are hurting too,” said the Rev. John McCullough, executive director and CEO of CWS. “Today, we asked for the President’s leadership in crafting policies that ensure men, women and children have access to enough food and adequate nutrition for all, particularly children, as well as policies that support sustainable, diversified food production.” more >>

A men-only ministry embraced women and united with Jews on Saturday at a Dallas megachurch.

The Promise Keepers event, held at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in South Dallas, drew at least 850 people and was the first time women in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were invited to a conference organized by the world’s largest Christian men's ministry.

Since last year, Promise Keepers began opening its conferences to women, largely because women are increasingly the head of the family in single-parent households, the group explained. So far, there have only been a handful of U.S. cities that have hosted PK events that include women. more >>

A pending bill that seeks to bar government funding for non-profits that have a religious requirement in their hiring process is a “serious assault” on faith-based charities, said the senior vice president of the world’s largest network of Christian communicators.

The SAMHSA Modernization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5466), sponsored by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (R-R.I.), threatens to cut valuable social services provided by faith-based groups, wrote Craig Parshall, the National Religious Broadcasters’ senior vice president and general counsel, to members of the network last week .

“[T]his bill represents a serious assault on non-profit faith groups as it threatens to cripple faith-based humanitarian and charitable organizations,” he added. more >>

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a $40-billion plan Wednesday to help improve child and maternal health – one of least improved areas out of the eight addressed by the Millennium Development Goals.

Funding from the plan is expected to go toward saving the lives of 16 million women and children over the next five years. Governments, foundations, businesses and non-governmental organizations contributed to the funding, the United Nations reported as this week’s high-level MDG2010 Summit was coming to an end.

Notably, however, four times as much money, or $169 billion, is actually needed to save the lives of 16 million women and children, according to Robert Orr, a senior aide to Ban. Orr told reporters that the initial $40 billion in pledges is expected to bring in more funding in the years ahead. more >>

The standard of life in South Sudan is so far behind modern society that it dreams to one day reach Third World status, says the head of a missions group that works in the region.

So if South Sudan voted to secede from the North in the January referendum, it would need “a lot of external help,” warns Bill Deans, president of Mustard Seed International.

“For the past three generations they’ve been in war. Every family is touched by that,” reports Deans, whose organization ministers to the "least of these." more >>