Many of you watched the Superbowl last Sunday. For me, it was the first Superbowl that I actually remember sitting down and watching.I got to see Madonna perform for the first time. Besides the game and the glamor of the Superbowl, something stuck to me–the commercials!
The commercials were amazing. And of course the ads were as expensive as it ever gets anytime and anywhere in the world. As I thought about the commercials, I began to realize that companies know that the secret to success is not only a good product but also getting the message out.
The overwhelming majority of people buy products out of faith (believe) that the products will work. No body relies on facts alone apart from faith to buy a product. Companies over the years have realized that “faith comes by hearing” and they are willing to put their money where their heart is and pay millions of dollars yearly to advertise their products. So that by making people hear about their products over and over again, they build the faith in their products that is needed to cause a person to take out their wallet, remove money and pay to receive the product even when they have done no research about it. Again, no research can ever be sufficient in itself to cause anyone to buy a product. You would have to go and analyze the ingredients in coca-cola and then watch the production process and even then, you would probably want to go get a PhD in organic chemistry before you can be comfortable. After your PhD, you won’t buy coca-cola.
I began to realize that even hospitals and doctor’s clinics advertise. I have studied at or worked at a few hospitals which where well known in their cities. They advertised too. I often wondered why a hospital would spend money advertising. I often thought that a person would go to the hospital if they were sick, it’s for their good! Why spend thousands of dollars or millions advertising each year? The hospitals that do this are not by any means trying to get people who are well to go see them so they can make money in a dubious way. They know that even though they exist to offer a life-saving service to their communities, their service will be useless unless they get their people out to come benefit from the service.
Then I began to think to myself, if people are so busy that they need ads to get them to go see a doctor for their own health even when their back may be hurting all the while. If Coca-Cola that is well known still pays millions during Superbowl to remind them to buy a coke for their own refreshment, will even the good-hearted remember the pain of the orphan who lives out of sight on a different continent when no one reminds them?
I wouldn’t. If I wasn’t called and compelled to serve orphans, I probably wouldn’t even think about them. I would need to be reminded time and time again to pick up that wallet and make the donation. I may even prefer not to be reminded and find excuses to blame the organizations that care for orphans. I may say they are pushy or say something bad about them… I may “give the dog a bad name to hang him”.
But the truth remains. There are over 2,000 verses in the bible that talk about poverty and justice (to the orphan and the widow). God’s commandment to serve orphans is more urgent than the commandment to drink coca-cola. The commandment to advertise orphans is also greater. Paul said it well “how will they believe unless they hear?” I know that the job of convincing is left to the Holy Spirit. But the job of preaching (telling people, advertising) has been graciously given to us to perform using godly counsel.
Our TV and Radio programs will serve as the commercials we desperately need. I tried to convince myself against radio and TV by saying that there are some bad TV evangelists who do nothing but ask people for money while they live lavish lifesyles in million dollar homes and planes… It’s better not to go anywhere close to them. Then I realized how lame my excuse was. First, there are many companies out there that advertise bad products too. If a company comes around and makes a great product now but refuses to advertise because it doesn’t want to use a medium that has been abused, guess what, it is likely going out of business. Even the post office advertises! It is difficult to find a fortune 500 company that doesn’t spend millions on advertisements. None exists. The wise thing to do is to advertise honestly and not forsake advertising at all. Second, I thought to myself, if I really love the orphan in the street like my own child, would I think like that? If my child was missing, won’t I be running around frantic and putting up papers and signs everywhere? Would I not empty my bank account and sell all I have to pay for TV and radio time to run ads that describe him so that someone may help me find him? Of course I would do that and I would beg everyone I knew and borrow all the money I could to do that without thinking of how I will repay. I realized quickly that I was a hypocrite if I thought like that and then said that the orphans that are missing or lost, without a home, with no one to love them don’t deserve the same treatment. [There are about 165 million of them right now. Thousands die daily. The number will increase before we finish serving two million over the next forty years. And yes, at that time, there will still be orphans. But we must do all we can to serve God and save them.] If I avoided hypocrisy, I would be embracing wickedness and choosing a path Christ would never choose.
As I write this, my wife and I don’t have a bed to sleep on because our bed got bad and we are putting together everything we have to advertise our orphan children who are lost, hoping someone would see the ad and help us go and get them. Yes, literally, we put our mattress on the floor and are sleeping there. Ellen and I have also chosen for me to leave my residency (to work as physician) for now and pursue the path of orphans where I make less than half what a nurse makes and the pay is not even guaranteed to come at the end of each month. Some people think we are crazy for our sacrifice. But we think we have found the heart of God for the orphan and we don’t want to let go.
They say believing for two million orphans in 40 years is too much. Serving 600 right now is too much also. I ask them gently, which of the orphans do they want us to stop helping? It’s not like we are wasting efforts where someone else could help. Is it that people who speak like that are really saying that some children are not worth fighting for even when there is a chance that you could lose the fight? Will they say that of their own biological children? I don’t know. But I know that if God gives me the grace to believe for two million, I would believe even if I go crazy in the process or even if I fail. I would love to fail believing that God is able to do something rather than succeed thinking that he can do nothing.
What do you think? Would you label me for as emotional and pushing people to give to orphans or would you actually go and sacrifice all you have to help? Ellen and I call orphans our children, but they are yours too. Calling them that way reminds us of
1 John 3:16 and pushes us to sacrifice even when everything says we should give up.
If you are able to read this email, trust me, you are able to afford to sacrifice to advertise the two million orphans we want to reach with us. The question is not one of ability, but willingness.
[NB: I know that many of you, your jobs are your main ministry given by God. That is equally as important as what we do serving orphans. But the financial sacrifice and commitment to reach orphans still is something God expects all of us to do. Orphan care is like evangelism, we are all called to do it regardless of our main area of calling.]