Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO)

Can't make it this year? We've got you covered! Watch the Livestream of the General Sessions on Facebook and YouTube. https://lnkd.in/ekf7RFJe #CAFO2024

Do you spend your time trying to communicate a compelling vision and mobilizing your community to care for kids and families in US foster care? Join the More Than Enough Vision Starter Guide Clinic on October 30th! Churches, organizations, and advocates rallying around a shared vision where you live can help drive community engagement and collaboration. And a unifying vision of more than enough for children and families can do just that—when it’s tailored to reflect the specific challenges and opportunities facing your community. But just like honing a specialized skill in a sport or playing an instrument, sharing a vision of more than enough where you live takes practice. That’s why CAFO’s More Than Enough initiative is offering the online Vision Starter Guide Clinic! This two-hour, interactive intensive will equip you with the language and skills to communicate a compelling vision of more than enough for children and families. It will also jumpstart your communications with coaching, insights, and examples alongside other leaders like you. Check out how the online Clinic works and what others had to say about it below, and then register at https://lnkd.in/e8WbjDzx

Meet Caleb Koala, the loveable main character in a new children's book that gently introduces the topic of resilience to the hearts and minds of young children. This heartwarming tale of a young koala who faces his fears and learns to overcome challenges is an essential read for adults caring for children who have experienced early adversity. Premiering at CAFO2024 in Nashville, "Caleb Koala's Comeback Ride" will be available first in the Summit Bookstore! Curious about Caleb's journey? Read the story behind the story: https://lnkd.in/e-rmReMf

CAFO President Jedd Medefind shared his sadness over the decision by China to close foreign adoptions and his sincere hope for believers in China to care for the many children who are left without the love and protection of a permanent family. “My earnest hope is that many caring Chinese families, especially the growing number of devout Christians in China, will consider adopting an older child, a sibling group, or a child with special needs. That'd be an incredibly counter-cultural choice in a society that prizes bloodlines and views both orphanhood and disability as permanent defects,” he says. “Committed Christians around the world – motivated by the love of God and their own sense of being adopted into His family – are increasingly making choices like that, and I have a great deal of respect for and hope in Chinese believers for this also.” https://lnkd.in/eDrhsJWs

We're excited to launch a new US Grant Opportunity! If you and other foster care leaders in your US community have imagined a project that’s bigger than anything your teams can do individually, let us help fund it with a More Than Enough Project Grant. We know finding funding for a collaborative project like this between multiple churches and organizations can be challenging, which is why this grant is designed for the realities of a shared project and has built-in learning and connection to help your work together thrive. So gather your collaborators and apply for a project grant to help your community reach more than enough before, during, and beyond foster care. Applications are due October 15th. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/etb3HqnU.

If you are working to care for children and families in US foster care, chances are sometimes you feel overwhelmed by the gaps you see in your community. Navigating the foster care system, coordinating your efforts, and expanding your work to meet these needs takes people, time, and funding—resources that already feel stretched thin. So this fall, come build skills and relationships that will help your work thrive. More Than Enough just launched our Fall 2024 calendar with all of the upcoming US foster care learning and connection opportunities! Designed with you in mind, these offerings—ranging from communications to collaboration to church engagement—will help multiply the impact of your time, people, and funding. And when you register by September 25th, you can get 15% off all of our courses and clinics with the code MTEFALL15. Explore the calendar and find what's right for you: https://lnkd.in/gvGGfm8u

🚨LAST CHANCE🚨 The application deadline for The More Than Enough Fellowship is tomorrow—August 31!!!

This past year, I’ve gotten to know some incredible folks working together in Wake County, NC. Last fall, they joined the More Than Enough Fellowship, a funded launch cohort designed to help guide collaborators through the earliest stages of working together to provide more than enough for children and families in foster care. During the Fellowship community discovery process, they identified wrap-around support as a crucial gap in their county, and they are now launching care communities with Promise 686. The Wake County collaborators saw an incredible response to their first pastors and community breakfast (pictured), and they are seeing momentum in their county that they wouldn't have imagined a year ago. I had the privilege of attending the gathering, and I was struck by how excited so many different churches and community partners, including local child welfare leadership, were about the collaboration that was underway. Keith, one of the collaborators, recently shared: "In some ways, I'm working less. . . .The work that we're doing is bigger and more complicated; it feels more high stakes, but I'm doing it with people in a way where it doesn't feel as heavy anymore. It feels fun. Like I've moved from being overwhelmed with the amount of things that I'm doing and feeling like I don't have time to then feeling like I'm doing things with people, doing it together.” If you’ve ever wanted to do something different--together--for kids and families like Wake County is, we’d love to help! The application for our next More Than Enough Fellowship cohort is live until August 31st, and it would be a privilege to help kickstart your foster care collaboration with coaching, support, and matching funding. You can apply for the Fellowship individually on behalf of your US community, and then we'll walk alongside you as you invite others to join you. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/g4XcTP9J

CAFO and The Worship Initiative Partner to Help the Church Know, Love and Worship ‘The Father to the Fatherless’ Three new songs to debut at CAFO2024 Summit with resourcing for worship leaders. DALLAS, Texas (Aug. 22, 2024) – Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) and The Worship Initiative (TWI) have partnered in a rare collaboration to write and produce three new worship songs reflecting God’s heart for the orphaned and vulnerable. The new songs will debut at the CAFO2024 Summit in Nashville, Tenn. before being released to the public on Sept. 20, 2024. The new songs titled, “Faithful to Me,” “Home in the Family,” and “What a Father’s Like,” were written to help God’s people know, love and worship Him as the Father to the Fatherless (Psalm 68:5-6). “Throughout history, Christians at their best have been known for their special care for children the world discards,” said Jedd Medefind, CAFO President and former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush. “This care reveals God’s character to the world – the One who is both all-powerful and yet also so tender and near to the most vulnerable. We long for the Church and all people to know this God more deeply, and worship music can play a vital role in that.” Find the full post at https://lnkd.in/eVrDJm9h Following the release of the music, CAFO and The Worship Initiative will provide a full suite of resources – including devotions, song chords, charts, lead sheets and more – to further equip the church and worship leaders across the country. Resources will be made available for free beginning Sept. 20 so that worship leaders can learn and incorporate the music into their services for Pure Religion Sunday (also known as Orphan Sunday) on Nov. 10, 2024. “For any believer, understanding God as Father can be such a beautiful thing, but also a hard concept for those who don’t have an earthly father,” said Robbie Seay, Executive Vice President of Leader Development and Content at The Worship Initiative. “For us to look to the Word of God, sing that, and proclaim that, is a powerful thing.”

You're determined that foster care where you live shouldn't be defined by the words not enough. But chances are, you're beginning to think that getting to more than enough will take new ways of working together—and new ways of funding that work. CAFO's More Than Enough initiative would love to help. The More Than Enough Fellowship is a funded launch cohort that will guide you and other collaborators in your US community through the earliest stages of working together to provide more than enough for children and families in foster care. Alongside matching funding to fuel your collaboration, you’ll find deep connections with others working to rally the Body of Christ around children and families. And through customized learning and coaching, you and your fellow local collaborators will grow as leaders and create a plan to launch a local foster care network. And this fall, we've made a big change to help kickstart your collaboration even faster: you don’t need to have a group of collaborators assembled when you apply. You can now apply on your own, and then we’ll walk with you as you invite other leaders in your US county to join you. So if gathering people felt overwhelming in the past, take another look. The application deadline is August 31! https://lnkd.in/eEAATQUm