Ottawa churches celebrate Orphan Sunday

Matt Charbonneau
Special to Spur Ottawa

Ottawa churches seek to add local flavour as they join churches around the world to recognize Orphan Sunday. The day, landing on November 11 this year, raises awareness of the need for foster and adoptive care for children.

“There’s a whole culture we’re praying will take hold of Ottawa’s churches,” says Hildy Sloots, a leader in organizing Orphan Sunday in Ottawa. “We’re trying to develop this culture in Ottawa and unite the churches to the cause.”

Sloots underscores the dire need for more foster and adoptive parents, particularly within the Church. She says the number of children needing care is exploding and they are often overlooked.

“Churches are the right audience to be stepping up to this challenge,” says Richard Long, a lead pastoral elder at Vineyard Ottawa Church, which will be participating in Orphan Sunday. “It’s a very basic biblical challenge to people of faith. God says He cares about the orphans, so this is simple obedience to God’s call. If we care about what God seeks, this is a natural fit.”

“Every child in Ottawa should have a family and every family should have a church.”

Sloots says Ottawa’s current foster and adoptive families would each have to care for between three and four children if all Ottawa-area needs were to be met.

Speaking of her own experience as a foster mother, Sloots say, “Our life has been very full.” She and her husband, Matt, recently fostered two children and have five children of their own. Sloots’ brother has also served as a foster parent, along with other relatives and friends.

Sloots was a key organizer of the All In Conference, last March, that encouraged church members to apply to become adoptive or foster parents. Working with the ministry Orphan Care Ottawa, she continues to advocate for the needs and rights of vulnerable children.

“That is an explosion of my heart, to be honest,” she says. After the All In Conference, she says she “had this vision of something greater in Ottawa, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.”

Ultimately, it led her to bring Orphan Sunday to Ottawa. The primary goals, she says, are to educate families and churches about foster and adoptive care in Ottawa, encouraging their involvement, and equipping them with resources to effectively support foster and adoptive parents.

“The churches need to be right at the core of it.”

“Every child in Ottawa should have a family and every family should have a church,” Sloots says. “The churches need to be right at the core of it.”

Local ministries, including Love Ottawa, are also throwing their support behind Orphan Sunday.

“We’re trying to help get the word out for orphan care in Ottawa,” says Long, who also serves as director of Love Ottawa. “When an individual decides to foster or adopt, it’s a huge task. Having a community of faith around the family, it gives an immediate support system to deal with all the matters that come with it.”

While church registration for the event continues, Sloots remains hopeful there will be strong participation from local congregations raising the importance of caring for orphans.

“God’s heart is for the orphan and the vulnerable,” she says. “There’s definitely an excitement in the churches about this movement. I know Ottawa’s heartbeat is for the vulnerable and caring for the fostered, which I’m super thrilled about.”