YOU ARE INVITED....Friends, family and the church

Trying to do some research for Orphan Sunday this is what I found....And I truly do believe that our churches NEED to be stepping up to this...unfortunately we don't come from an area that has this as a main mission of the church...and it saddens me and makes my heart very heavy.
• There are 143 million orphans in our world.  If all the orphans in the world were moved to the country of Mexico, Mexico’s population would more than double, growing from 108,700,000 to 251,700,000
• Over 16 million children were newly orphaned in 2003
• There are approximately 17.5 million orphans who are ages 0-5
• There are approximately 47 million orphans who are ages 6-11
• There are approximately 79 million orphans who are ages 12-17
• 87.6 million orphans live in Asia
• 43.4 million orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa
• There are as many orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia as there are people in greater NYC
• 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Almost 1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe
That’s our world.
With this many orphans in the United States and in the world the church has a monumental task before it if it is to practice true religion. James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undeled before God, the  Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afiction." Clearly, the church has its work cut out for it. 
We're not saying you all need to adopt an orphan. We truly believe people are called to this journey...but those of us that do feel this calling CANNOT do it WITHOUT our family, our friends and OUR CHURCH.  We currently are doing fundraisers and we dont even expect you all to be part of them, but we do ask for a significant amount of prayer.  After enduring through this journey, I can honestly say this has been one of the longest and even one of the most stressful journeys we've been on.  The rollercoaster of emotion can be very heartwrenching but yet rewarding all at the same time.  So I have also found a VERY interesting and IMPORTANT link that gives other ways you can be involved in Orphan Care if you arent feeling the call to expand your family!!
http://524hosting.com/os_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/10WaysPoster.pdf 
Tomorrow Nicholas and I start a 40 day prayer for the orphans.  At one point we were praying for our child.  The child we would adopt one day...and now....God's changed our heart and our prayers.  OUr pray is for every single one of the 147 million children walking this world without a family to love them.  God is moving mountains in our hearts. Our prayer now is that He opens the hearts of all our friends and family and church for this ministry.  We invite all of you, OUR FRIENDS, OUR FAMILY and OUR CHURCH to join us on this 40 day journey. 
Below is the link of the guide we will  be following.  I am going to try and post the 40 day prayer guide but if I dont get it you can surely follow the link!!  Help us pray for our area churches, families and all the children in this broken world! 
http://www.pearpod.com/oc/downloads/40DaysofPrayer.pdf