Jane’s vision for Naomi’s Joy

I have on my heart what I believe to be an opportunity that God is calling us to, as couples, families, communities, and as a church.​

We have an opportunity to actively pursue the form of religion James calls us to in James 1, the first part of Verse 27:

Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight. The Message – Eugene Peterson

….or said another way……Religion (worship) that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” TNIV

​Added to this we read in verse 22 and 25: Act on what you hear.

That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. I.e.: sticking with the revealed counsel of God.

My personal journey

I share this not only so that you’re in a position to understand the context of my message, but also see that I never dreamed I would end up here in my efforts to be faithful and try and walk in obedience to what I have understood to be the directions of our Father.

In the late 1990s I felt God challenge His church regarding orphans and that He was bringing back to the church a heart for the orphans.

In 2004, I had a second revelation of how, by adopting orphans, the church could impact a generation, a nation, and therefore the Kingdom of God.

In 2005, I was still feeling God prompting me to highlight what I believed was His Word and to speak this vision and the potential role of the church towards orphans. I also felt God saying that I could be a demonstration of this vision, and so I held it in my heart and asked God to open others’ hearts to this, starting with my husband, Hamilton and my own family.

In 2007 my husband and family were in agreement regarding adoption, and we joyfully received a 9-month-old son into our family. 7 years down the line we feel the challenge that we chose to take on in response to God’s calling, has become a challenge that stretches beyond our immediate family, with the question: “Only one, are you going to help only one?”
Jane’s Family

The reality is that there are an estimated 3.7 million orphans in South Africa and only 800 000 of those in some care of some sort, such as child-headed households, volunteer networks, foster care and children’s homes. It is estimated by UNICEF that these numbers will escalate to 5.5 million in 2015, with the adoption rate dropping by 49%.

There can be no doubt that we are in great need as a nation to find ways to help these children and to find families to love them and take them as their own.
Isaiah 58 verse 6 – 10 says: “What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad and being available to your own families.” The Message – Eugene Peterson

So we do have a sense of what is the ideal picture, by God’s prompting?

The Dream

My heart is to see babies given the best start they can get so that they go out into their future knowing love, prayer and trust. The vision put in my heart, is to see Christian families taking responsibility for the orphans in our nation.

The ideal would be for us, as Christians, to be in a position where we could help vulnerable children in their distress, by creating a safe place for them. A place where they could be nurtured, loved, touched, smiled at, interacted with, well fed and covered with prayers and destinies prophesied. A place of caring until God sends a mommy and daddy for them to call their own.
In this way, we would impact our church family and greater natural families and ultimately the impact would be generationally positive. The ideal is that we impact a generation, a nation, and more importantly the Kingdom of God.

Bringing this vision into reality

We have created a Not for Profit organisation to help abandoned and orphaned babies. We have named it Naomi’s Joy, as Naomi means ‘my joy’. The name also reminds us of how Naomi went from a place of bitterness to a place of joy and this is the heart of Naomi Joy, to take babies who are lost and broken and give them hope and a future.

Who we are:

A Christ-centered network for the care of vulnerable babies, until adoption.

Objectives:

  • To give vulnerable babies a loving environment where they are cared for medically, emotionally, developmentally and spiritually.To train and support the caregivers of these babies.
  • To work together with social welfare, private social workers, other like-minded organisations and adoption agencies, to care for these babies until they are adopted into loving families.
  • To provide ongoing care for these babies until they get adopted.
  • To welcome volunteers who love and serve Christ passionately to help in various areas with special emphasis on vulnerable babies.
  • To create an awareness of the impact that adoption will have on the next generation, our nation and the Kingdom of God.

Governance:

We have created a core Management team of 5 that have agreed to share in, abide by and agree to a clear vision and set of values for Naomi’s Joy.

  • Spiritual needs/responsibilities
  • Health and medical considerations
  • Administration/coordination
  • Finances (and fundraising)
  • Legal requirements

Status:

We are a registered NPO in SA, ratified by DSD. We achieved our independent verification certificate from Viva and Connect Network on 21 Nov 2019.

Ultimate goals:

  • To see vulnerable babies being placed in loving Christian homes.
  • That every child we touch, will find their way to salvation and this impact will be felt in this generation and change a nation, by impacting it with the Kingdom of God.
  • The impact on the local church is positive and challenges our hearts on many levels.
  • The benefits of adoption go beyond the vulnerable babies and extend into the family, even to the families who do not adopt, as they support those who are adopting. We believe it takes a community to raise a child.
  • Our own adoption by our heavenly Father becomes very tangible and real to us.

Conclusion:

As I believe God is presenting an opportunity to us, to provide vulnerable babies with hope and a future, raised in Christian homes and every child finding their way to salvation, I’d like to challenge you with the following:

  • Prayerfully consider all that’s been shared.
  • Consider being a part of this vision.
  • Offer what’s ‘in your hands’ in skills, time, homes, care families, funds, prayers etc.

Lastly, consider this;

If only 7 percent of professing Christians around the world responded, every single orphan in the world would have a home.
– Thomas Davis, Fields of the Fatherless

God bless you,
Jane