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Real Big Deal Festival
Friday, September 5, 2008 at 01:08PM Ark of Hope For Children will have a booth at Gainesville, Florida's "The Real Big Deal Music Festival" Sept. 13-14.
Come visit us!
Orphan’s Rights to Life, Love, Family & Faith
Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 02:59AM 
It’s May 15, 2008 and hopefully this day will go down in history for 2008 as the day Bloggers United For Human Rights. Thousands of bloggers worldwide are uniting with BlogCatalog to bring awareness to their causes. I cannot imagine any more weighty than the worldwide orphan crisis.
I consider myself to have my wide eyes open to the plight of hurting children. As a parent of ten children, five that have been adopted from U.S. foster care, I am keenly aware of the pain orphans face. My wife and I since founded a planned community, Ark of Hope For Children, that will allow us to keep some abused siblings together that live in U.S. foster care. In the U.S. there are currently 514,000+ foster children living in “Domestic Orphan Care.” That’s a huge number right?
As part of the Christian Alliance For Orphans in their 4th annual Orphan Summit in May 2008 
we sat with 600 individuals, representing dozens of worldwide nonprofit organizations discussing how we could all unite for the sake of the orphans of the world. I soon realized I had carved out my piece of the pie but my vision was too small considering the 143 million orphans in the world. That is truly a staggering number.
143,000,000 children arm in arm would stretch more than 4 times around the world! That’s almost equal to ½ of the population of the United States! As a colleague shares, “Can you imagine if one out of every two Americans was a child living on the streets, living in absolute hopelessness and despair?”
Consider these statistics that I gathered from the Christian Alliance partners;
- 44,000 children are orphaned every day
- 16 million children were newly orphaned in 2003.
- 87.6 million orphans live in Asia.
- 43.4 million orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Each year, millions of children are being orphaned or abandoned in Africa as a result of the AIDS pandemic.)
- 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.
- More than 800,000 children pass through America’s foster care system each year
Challenges facing orphans worldwide …
- Orphans are 13 percent less likely to attend school than non-orphans.
- Only 10 percent of all the children orphaned because of AIDS have access to critical social services.
- Children who lose their parents, especially in the developing world, often face years of economic hardship, lack
of love and affection, little education, abuse and risk of HIV infection, malnutrition and illness, stigma, discrimination, and isolation. - Orphans have few means of supporting themselves and are often forced to work in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service, and in the sex trade.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, one in six households with children is caring for at least one orphan. Yet this still leaves millions of children who are left in the care of strangers — or with no one.
- In countries increasingly ravaged by AIDS, orphaned children not only lose their parents but also teachers, health workers and civil servants who die of the disease.
Challenges facing domestic orphans in the U.S.
- · 65% of foster children have 1 or more siblings
- · Only 30% of siblings live together in foster care
- · Foster children often bounce between 2 to 6 homes per year
- · Each year 20,000 domestic orphans “age out” of the U.S. foster care system at 18
3+ years after “aging out” in the U.S.
- · Up to 60% have experienced homelessness
- · 40+% of U.S. prison population spent time in foster care (estimate)
Adoption in the U.S.
- More than one-third of Americans have seriously considered adopting, but no more than 2% have actually adopted.
- Only 4 percent of families with children (1.7 million households) contain adopted children.
- 118,000 U.S. children were waiting to be adopted in September 2004. (72,000 had been waiting for 2+ years)
- On average, children waiting for adoption have been in foster care for 43.8 months, almost four years.
At the Orphan Summit we were a representative of an army of Christians that are laboring to meet the monumental 
physical and spiritual needs of the world’s orphans. But what about the millions who will still be suffering? God has a plan for them too. His plan for them is you.
It’s time for the body of Christ to step up through every denomination of “the Church.” The urgent needs of orphans around the world are calling the Christian community together in a radical step of faith. Every church, family and person can make a difference. It is time to mobilize the body of Christ to take action on behalf of the orphan. “The world sees God’s heart when people see Him working through his people to help the helpless. Caring for orphans is such a perfect picture of our relationship with God.”
Christian Alliance For Orphans
In the midst of this crisis, organizations from around the world are joining forces to make a difference. The Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAO) seeks to “motivate and unify the body of Christ to live out God’s mandate to care for the orphan.” Sponsored by Dennis Rainey’s FamilyLife, Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and Steven Curtis Chapman’s Shaohannah’s Hope, members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans are lifting the cause of orphans with one voice in order to see Christians, churches, and organizations united for change. We believe that “you are God’s plan for the orphan” – each of us with our own role to play in caring for His children.
The Christian Alliance for Orphans has four categories for membership: Orphan Care, Adoption and Child Placement, Church-based Orphan Ministry, and Advocacy and Awareness. These mission organizations serving in a host of countries, including the U.S., are ready for any type of support you can provide.
How you can help
· Sponsor a fund-raising event to help rescue orphaned children
· Start an orphan care ministry in your church
· Sponsor a child
· Have your group sponsor a cottage of 8-10 children
· Adopt a child or two
· Provide assistance to a family that has adopted or fostered children
· Take part in one of many National Foster Care Prayer Vigils - May 19 - 25, 2008
A “short” list of countries served by CAO member organizations (many include orphanages supported or run by member organizations)
Burma - Cambodia - China - Columbia - Dominican Republic of Congo -
Ecuador - El Salvador - Ethiopia - Guatemala - Guyana - Haiti - India -
Indonesia - Kazakhstan - Kenya - Kyrgyztann - Liberia - Mexico -
Myanmar - Philippines - Russia - Rwanda - Sudan - Thailand - Uganda -
Ukraine - United States
With 143 million orphans in the world today. Only one “organization” has enough reach, resources, and people to connect with every one of these children: it is the church. Thousands of remote villages around the world don’t have a store, a school, or a medical clinic. But they have a church. There is a rapidly growing movement of churches who have made orphans ministry an integral part of what they do. Imagine if, because of this, every orphan knew someone who loved Jesus. Maybe God has a plan to start an orphan ministry in your church. Maybe His plan starts with you. As you ponder how you might be able to help consider the following borrowed from a CAO member website;
In the past hour…
· 1,625 children were forced to live on the streets by the death or abuse of an adult
· 1,667 children under the age of five died from malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases
· 115 children became prostitutes
· 66 children under 15 were infected with HIV
· 257 children were orphaned because of HIV/AIDS
Blair and Verna Corbett, Ark of Hope For Children and the GiveitaKiss.com/blog are proud to rub shoulders with such sacrificial, loving and active Faith based organizations. The most current list we could find is below.Click any of the CAO member (or as in Ark of Hope’s case, soon to be member) links to learn more about them. And please pray about how you, your small group or your church might get involved for the orphans of the world.
Other contributing nonprofit orphan/foster care minded organizations
Place of Hope Hosanna Homes His House Children’s Home Taylor’s Closet
Melodical Hearts Foundation Battle Cry Rezolutionz Share Emmanuel Foundation
"50 Files" musical video & CD project lifting up U.S. domestic orphans
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans for whom orphan care is their primary area of focus:
Advocate for Orphans International
All Kids Can Learn International
Forgotten Children International
Warm Blankets Orphan Care Intl.
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans for whom foster care is their primary area of focus:
Ark of Hope For Children (future member)
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans for whom foster care is their secondary area of focus:
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans who are local churches with established Church Orphans Ministry:
Calvary Church Open Arms Ministry
DFW Alliance of Adoption & Orphan Care Ministries
First Church of the Nazarene Adoption Ministry
Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle Adoption & Orphan Care
Tapestry (Irving Bible Church)
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans who focus on serving churches in the launching and growing of Church Orphans Ministry:
Antioch Adoptions (Antioch Bible Church)
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans for whom adoption is their primary area of focus:
Antioch Adoptions (Antioch Bible Church)
International Christian Adoptions
Nightlight Christian Adoptions
Hope INC (future member)
Members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans for whom adoption is their secondary area of focus:
Advocate for Orphans International
Advocacy and Awareness organizations that are members of the Christian Alliance for Orphans include:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families . . . Psalm 68:5-6a
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. Deut 10:18
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:3-4
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; Isaiah 42:3
"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Mark 9:37
Nationwide Foster Care Prayer Vigil For Domestic Orphans
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 05:37PM May is National Foster Care Awareness Month
What can you do?
Join us at the national First Annual Foster Care Prayer Vigil
As you know may know the Corbett family, founders of Ark of Hope For Children, have always had a heart for domestic orphans. Currently with 10 children, 5 which were adopted from foster care, their hearts over flow towards all of the children that must live in U.S. foster care for their own safety. You also know of their passion to build a community in High Springs, Florida where siblings from foster care will be able to stay together while in care. Recently were encouraged and blessed by joining agencies from around the world in the fourth annual "Orphan Summit." Now it is our 
pleasure to join with these united agencies in the first annual national Foster Care Prayer Vigil.
Across the U.S. Christians will petition God on behalf of the 514,000 domestic orphans living in our nation’s foster care system and their caretakers. During the week of May 19 - 25 Christians will unite in a multi-denominational effort to call the believers in their city together to pray on behalf of the foster children in their state. In the Gainesville, High Springs area of North Central Florida join together to interceded in guided prayer with Ark of Hope For Children.
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To locate a foster care prayer vigil elsewhere in the U.S. click Hope For Orphan's Prayer Vigil National Locator Map.
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Every city has them. They aren’t obvious by the way they look, or even by the way they talk or act. You may very well have walked by one today without suspecting it. They are our nation’s foster children. Children come into the U.S foster care system for various reasons, including neglect, abuse, abandonment, and substance abuse by their primary 
caregivers. They are most often placed with complete strangers, and nearly every aspect of their lives is decided by adults who don’t really know them.
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The bottom line is this; These children are hurting deeply and they need prayer. So do the adults in their lives—their birth families, their foster families, their social workers and the agencies they work for. Join with us as we join God in His mission to redeem the lost and heal the broken. Won’t you join Ark of Hope For Children and dozens of other agencies and churches across the U.S. to intercede on their behalf?
Ark of Hope For Children
May 22, 2008 - 6:30 till 8:30pm
at Living Faith Fellowship Church
5510 NW 39th Ave., Gainesville, FL
Click here to visit our news page on our website for all of the details!
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To locate a foster care prayer vigil elsewhere in the U.S. click Hope For Orphan's Prayer Vigil National Locator Map.
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The national Foster Care Prayer Vigil efforts are organized and promoted by;
Family Life's "Hope For Orphans"
Steven Curtis Chapman's "Shaohannah's Hope"
Be a blessing and be blessed, Blair Corbett, Ark of Hope For Children
Reba, Michelle & Lee Ann join foster/adoption video
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 07:30PM Ark of Hope - Project 50 Files
Reba McEntire, Michelle Wright and Lee Ann Womack have all joined the star studded music video & CD compilation Project "50 Files." The multi talented video and CD collection is dedicated to celebrating and promoting foster and adoptable children. This great project will benefit many high integrity nonprofit organizations around the country that work with children and youth in foster care every day. Sales of the Project "50 Files" will ONLY be through the website's of the selected agencies. We're very excited to be adding these great performers to the line-up of stars.
To read all about the project, see the full list of artists, videos and songs and how it will help Ark of Hope For Children click here.
Blogging For Human Rights: CopyWriteInk: Project 50 Files
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 02:32PM Wow! I am back just in time from a hiatus due to extreme work overload. The overload is far from gone but I am back anyhow.... And just in time! BlogCatalog is preparing for another "Bloggers Unite; Human Rights" campaign, this time we are blogging for human rights. If you've never joined this global effort now is definitely the time.
Copywrite, Ink.: Blogging For Rights: BlogCatalog.com
As you are doing so keep Ark of Hope For Children in mind. We are working hard for abused siblings, children, youth that live in foster care. After building our first home and filling it with adopted and birth children totaling 10 so far, we are raising fund to build and fill our second home, this time with sibling foster children! Read about our efforts here but there's much more!
In our own "Hype For Hope" Ark of Hope and I have partnered with a huge music video & CD double disc project that will celebrate and promote foster care and adoption. Set for national release and in pre-recording prep is The Melodical Hearts Foundation's "Project 50 Files." Project 50 Files is unique because it incorporates a plethora of national recording artists that are passionate about foster care and adoption due to their time as foster parents, as part of the foster care system, as adoptive parents or having been adopted. Artists to include; Jewel, Steven Curtis Chapman, Faith Hill, Wayne Warner, Sheryl Crow, Taylor Swift a complete children's choir and many more!
Click GiveitaKiss.com/project-50-files or Ark of Hope For Children/Project_50_Files help drive this campaign!
Ark of Hope and many other nonprofit agencies that care for abused children 24/7 will benefit directly from this project! This effort has the potential to build Ark of Hope For Children's second home while blessing the 514,000 children in U.S. foster care and the 119,000 awaiting adoption from the U.S. Please click on GiveitaKiss.com/project-50-files or Ark of Hope For Children/Project_50_Files to learn more and help us drive this campaign.
We are heavily trying to promote everyone's efforts through many channels including but not limited to a brand new Project 50 Files MySpace Group and our Project 50 Files Facebook Page and Change.org Causes about Project 50 Files. Let's join these, invite our network of friends to join and even donate to help us in this great effort.
Many updates to come and we thank you in advance for your support!
Blair Corbett, Ark of Hope For Children, GiveitaKiss.com and GiveitaKissTravel.com
Music video project helps abused and neglected children!
Monday, April 14, 2008 at 07:58PM | Help bring hope to abused and neglected children during Child Abuse Prevention Month, April 2008! Through an amazing music video project a group of national recording artists will bring their celebrity power together to equip and empower children living in foster care. Ark of Hope For Children has the opportunity to be blessed by this project. Can you help us through our Cause on Change.org by donating, copying it to your blog and networking? |  |
Blair Corbett and Ark of Hope For Children are privileged to be working closely with country music artist Wayne Warner and The Melodical Hearts Foundation on a new music video & CD double disc promoting foster care and U.S. adoption. The dual disc is scheduled for release in Spring 2008 just in time for Foster Care Awareness Month in May.
Passionately entitled "Project 50 Files" the project will feature nationally known music artists Steven Curtis Chapman, Sheryl Crow, Wayne Warner, Faith Hill, John Michael Montgomery, Allison Krauss, Taylor Swift, Jewel and many others! Every one of the artists involved has been involved with foster care or adoption on some level; they have adopted, were adopted, spent time in foster care or are now foster parents! Now they are all coming together on the “Project 50 Files” double disc set to promote and celebrate previously abused children in foster care and awaiting adoption in the U.S.
Proceeds will benefit Ark of Hope For Children and many other nonprofit agencies that work with abused children living in foster care on a daily basis! This ambitious project is attempting something never before accomplished in the music industry. Watch the videos then read more below.
The goal of the "Project 50 Files" double disc is that it will be exclusively distributed on the Internet by one (or two) high integrity foster care or U.S. adoption agencies from each of the 50 states! These selected agencies from each state are affectionately called the "Friends of 50 Files." Each nonprofit organization will share in revenues from the sale of "Project 50 Files." Due to the star power behind the project each can receive a wealth of statewide and national publicity.
As bloggers and Internet networking junkies we can all help make a difference and put our "Blogging for Hope" skills to work! We can drive our own “Hype of Hope” campaign for abused children through "Project 50 Files.” In doing so we'll assist all the great nonprofit agencies involved and ultimately every one of America’s 514,000 abused and neglected children living in foster care and the 119,000 awaiting adoption from foster care.
Amazing sponsorship opportunities of the entire project at a variety of levels exist. We will blog and post about those soon. Subscribe and help as we work to bring real hope to these children during Child Abuse Prevention Month this April.
Check these website links to read more about “Project 50 Files”, read the lyrics, check on current artists and agencies and more!
GiveitaKiss.com/Project 50 Files
Foster Care Dialogue
Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 03:45PM Have you or someone you know been involved with foster care in any way? Take the survey and dialogue about it on the Foster Care Dialogue blog. Who knows, maybe you can be an agent of change! 
Foster Care survey 
www.fostercaredialogue.blogspot.com
"A place for foster children, former foster children and others to engage in a dialogic discussion of the foster care system. Our goal is to provide an environment in which users can voice their opinions, comments and concerns about foster care without judgment or recrimination. We encourage all users to be respectful and open-minded in their dialogues so that optimal communication can be achieved."
Want to have an amazing Christmas?
Monday, December 17, 2007 at 10:41PM My family of 13 loves Christmas time but not for the normal reasons. Now we don’t mind the decorations and trees but it’s all gotten so commercialized. Gifts, shopping and more shopping… not for us! Maybe we got that way trying to buy gifts for ten kids aged 13 to 23! Whatever it was we’ve decided not to just put “Christ back into Christmas” with attitude. This year, thanks to Blog Catalog and their “Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness” competition we’re blogging about it too.
Why is it that on Christmas, when we’re celebrating someone else’s birthday we buy ourselves presents? Imagine the scene; it’s your 2,000th birthday, everybody shows up and you get to watch them all open presents for themselves… and you don’t get even one! Then they all have a massive feast and you don’t even get any food! To top it off they gather 
around the piano and sing about some overweight weirdo in a red suit with flying deer that visits all of our kids in the middle of the night! Yikes! Spend weeks preparing for some predator on drugs then sing about it? Now, if I was Jesus, I would take the Christ out of Christmas myself!
So at our house we’ve turned Christmas back into what we feel it should be. Our “Act of Kindness” this time of year is to “adopt” a local building in nearby Gainesville, Florida that’s filled with welfare recipients. Many of these people live on the ragged edge of homelessness all the time. By the 25th of the month their money often has run out and they have little food to last until the first of the month when their next check arrives. Although our “Act of Kindness" isn’t until Christmas Day many close friends are already preparing to share an extra special day with our family.
As a mission family that is developing a non-profit organization for abused children, Ark of Hope For Children, we can get 
food from our local food bank. Then we hit the supermarkets. We gather friends that want to take part and cook turkeys, ham and all the trimmings in everyone’s home kitchen. Then, we all will deliver our hot Christmas meal to these often lonely people on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. This year’s celebration will be on Christmas Eve. They have a small meeting room with tables, enough to seat about 100 people. We decorate, turn on a little Christmas music and serve our new holiday friends... just like Jesus would.
There will be from 60 to 100 guests attending our feast. We will sing songs, tell stories and give many hugs. All of the host adults serve the plates of food and all of the children help deliver. During the meal adults and older teens will wander through and ask everyone for prayer requests, then pray with each person individually. Five of our children were adopted from foster care after facing much abuse. We watch these children, that had so little at one time, reaching out to those who have very 
little now, and it’s wonderful! It's such a blessing to see the loving reactions of total strangers.
At the end we take all of the left-over dry food and separate it amongst the residents. Teens along with the children help them take the extra food back to their rooms. In the end, I believe we, the host families, are blessed more than the people we are blessing. At our house we don’t share gifts any longer, partially due to finances but mostly because it’s not our birthday… it’s His! Our family feels we get enough during the rest of the year, this is one of our chances to give back. At Christmas time we entertain angels. It’s our most special time of year and dearly treasured by every one of our children.
Keep your heart open and ready to respond to that little, small voice that pushes you to get involved. There's a special blessing waiting for you… don’t let it pass you by. God Bless you and your beautiful family this Christmas season!
*We never take actual pictures out of respect for our resident guests. Pictures included are not of the actual event.
Blair Corbett - GiveitaKissTravel & Ark of Hope For Children
Technorati tags: Bloggers Unite, Acts of kindness, Christmas, family, serve
Links to a few blog posts from friends "Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness" blog posts; 
Bob Angus; Teaching my 5 year olf the gift of giving
Frenchkys; Starlite Acts of Kindness
crpitt; A little piece of me: Bloggers Unite
Pinoyhood; Grander than the bell and the red suit
lfwaterloo; Bloggers Unite in acts of kindness
Raven's Roads; Bloggers Unite: Save some cats
SiteProPlus; Acts of Kindness
Pulse; Acts of Kindness; Now Showing
My Den; Bloggers Unite in Actos of Kindness
Diana13; Living in a box
Rich; Sharing Acts of Kindness, Bloggers Unite