This post is the fourth in a month-long series on the Miracle of Dunkirk, a call to all-in, bring-your-boat, daring and courageous orphan care inspired by the But If Not campaign of Sage Harvest Gourmet Jerky. Join the cause to stage the NEW greatest rescue mission in modern history — the Miracle in China.
Nine days.
That’s how long the Allied Forces and merchant marines and British boat-owning citizens and every kind of volunteer vessel captain took to evacuate more than 338,000 troops from the beaches of Dunkirk before German forces captured the beach port.
They didn’t have weeks. They didn’t have months. With advancing German forces, they didn’t have the luxury of time on their side.
The more than 700 to 800 British boat owners who mounted a flotilla of unconventional maritime vessels to SPEED to the beaches of Dunkirk had nine days before the more than 350,000 Allied Forces surrounded on that famous beach in France became casualties in what could have been one of the deadliest battles in World War II history.
But because these brave boat owners understood the urgency of the situation — because they saw the dire circumstances and said yes despite the danger — they changed the story ending for 338,000 troops who had no hope without their participation in these service members’ lives.
Like the British Admiralty who stared out onto the soldier-saturated beaches of Dunkirk and called for back-up and for help, we, too, are sounding the alert, because we, too, have a dire situation on our hands.
There are more than 600,000 orphan superheroes whose special needs are just superpowers in disguise now stranded on the beaches of China.
NGOs have run to them. Missionaries have run to them. Medical professionals have run to them. A handful of adoptive families have run to them.
But they, like the Allied Forces who were too great in number to be served by the British fleet alone, need more hands. They need more feet. They need more able-bodied help. And they need it NOW.
Because this evacuation, too, has an expiration date.
The responders at the Miracle of Dunkirk had nine days; we, Orphan Warriors, have 14 years.
The day a child turns 14, he becomes ineligible for adoption, and he becomes lost at sea — forced to navigate life without the comfort or compass of parents — forever.
We’re losing more and more of these special superheroes every single day.
Like Allie Jo, who turned 14 last Saturday and now faces the harsh truth that she will walk this world an orphan … for the rest of her life.
Like the group of teenagers who now reside in a Love Without Boundaries facility that cares for children in the gap between aging out and adulthood who told LWB founder Amy Eldridge that living life as an orphan “hurts worse than death.”
Like our friends Colt and Leo, who, if they don’t find families in the next few short months, will be lost at sea forever.
There is no time to waste! There is no time to lose! There are precious and innocent children on the line, many without hope, many stranded in their circumstances.
Unless we MOVE, unless we ACT, unless we allow ourselves to be compelled by the love of Christ and get in our boats and GO — to serve, to provide, to finance surgeries, to adopt, to do whatever it takes to stop the orphan crisis before it even begins — these superheroes become the casualties.
We don’t have time to debate whether we’re perfectly equipped. We don’t have years to figure out if the timing is right.
There is no convenient time for a child to remain an orphan.
Like the responders to the urgent British Admiralty’s call, we must move, and we must move NOW.
There is an expiration on our action.
And no child should ever be a casualty.
#operationorphanwarrior #miracleofdunkirk #miracleinchina #changetheorphanstory
Read the rest of the four-part series on the Miracle of Dunkirk HERE:
Part 1: Calling All Vessels for Another Miracle in the Making
Part 3: Shorebound: The Ones Who Missed the Miracle
Editorial Update 5/30/20:
On May 28, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed into law the first CIVIL CODE OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, which overarches all civil laws, including China’s Adoption Law.
The Adoption Law, with eligibility parameters that have only gotten stricter in our years of advocacy, formerly stated that a child ages out of the adoption system at age 14.
Orphan Warriors, after all the time that NGOs and orphan advocates and beautiful lovers of valuable superheroes have been praying for and advocating for these precious children who deserve a family at 14 as much as at 4, with the president's signature, this law has now officially been changed. 😱
As of January 2021, the cut-off age for the adoption of Chinese orphans is no longer 14.
It's 18. 🎉🎉🎉
A Chinese orphan now has the opportunity to become a son or daughter all the way until he or she is a legal adult. ❤️
It's a HUGE step.
It's a small step.
It's one more step in valuing the lives of those who have been voiceless, vulnerable and marginalized for so long in our world.
And it reminds me today that speaking for, advocating for and fighting for EVERY image bearer of God is ALWAYS worth the fight. 🙌
World changers and orphan advocates, warrior on. 💪