In this episode, guest host Rev. Tom Berlin, Senior Pastor of Floris UMC in Herndon, Virginia, and co-founder of the mission of Helping Children Worldwide, interviews a panel of representatives from the UMC Strong Family for Every Child initiative. The panelists include Emmanuel Nabieu Director of Mission Advance and Partnership from Helping Children Worldwide, Rev. Wayne Lavender of Foundation for Orphans, and Sheree Reece, Director of Global Missions from Church of the Resurrection. Foundation for Orphans supports several orphan missions in Mozambique COR is the largest UMC congregation in the world, located in the Kansas City, Kansas region, with a large outward-focused mission directive, and site for the annual Leadership Institute in September. Sheree hosts the popular new podcast Bridging Cultures.  Along with the panelists, the episode features special appearances by Rev. Gaston Warner and Reegan Kabieriof Zoe Empowers in a pre-recorded segment.

The panel examines the global orphan crisis through the lens of family separation, agreeing with our friends at Faith to Action that the solution for orphanhood isn’t an institution or a building, it’s a family. The panelists describe the diverse range of family-based options that are available, and agree no matter which option they find most appealing, that their individual and collective faith calls for them to provide family for every orphaned child, rather than build orphanages to house a few.

For more about the work of individual panelists, or the Breaking Bread From House to House Table Fellowship at the COR Leadership Institute, please check out these links.

Reverend Tom Berlin

Reverend Gaston Warner