Summer of Hope

"I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." John 14:18

Swimming, boating, horseback riding, gymnastics, soccer...these are but a few of the activities that make up a summer camp experience for children. What is unique about Summer of Hope is that the camp participants are orphans - children without families who reside in orphanages across the world. They travel to the U.S. and spend four weeks experiencing life with a family. Host families recruited from the community provide housing and care for the children during their stay.

For the children, it's a vacation away from the often grim, institutional setting of the orphanage. But it's much more than that. It's a chance for these children to be given a future and a hope for a better life. Every day thousands of children reach the age when they are no longer adoptable. Their greatest fear is being forced to leave an institution with no one to belong to and no place to call home. These children have been passed by year after year because people generally want to adopt babies and are often afraid of the unknowns and challenges they will face if they adopt an older child.

The Summer of Hope program can take some of the fear and risk out of adopting an older child by giving prospective families an opportunity to see and evaluate first-hand what the challenges and rewards would be. Through Summer of Hope, many of the children find permanent families as a result of their sojourn to the U.S. In fact, the Summer of Hope program boasts an 85% success rate. Over five summers, a total of 119 children from Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia and the Philippines have participated in our program. Of those children, 104 have been or are in the process of being adopted.

Summer Of Hope 2009

The Summer of Hopeprogram was conducted in Bozeman and Hamilton, Montana this year. Twenty-three children, ages 6 to 14, participated with 7 children hosted in Bozeman and 16 children hosted in Hamilton.  Aside from one single boy, the Hamilton children consisted of five sibling groups of three children each!  Twelve families went through the preparation process to either host or serve as back-up families.  Each community held a Hope Walk/Run to raise the funds to cover the airfare of the children and theri escorts, passports, visas, medical insurance and other expenses associated with carrrying out the summer program.  The children arrived on July 13 and had a great time during their four week stay.  They were exposed to many new ideas and experiences and had lots of fun participating in all of the activities that were provided for them.  The children and escorts returned to the Philippines on August 10.  We are please to announce that 21 out of 23 children have families moving forward with adoption.  We are advocating for a family for the remaining two children.  The Summer of Hope program continues to be a successful strategy for finding adoptive families for children who are considered hard to place because they are older or part of a sibling group.  We are grateful to the families who opened their hearts and homes to host and to give these children a wonderful vacation in another country and culture.  We are also in awe of the families who, in faith, are stepping out to make these children a permanent part of their family.  They are aware of the challenges that lie ahead but are responding to God's call to care for the orphan.

Summer Of Hope 2010

We are presently recruting Host Families and Volunteers for this year's Summer of Hope programs in Bozeman, MT and Boise, ID.  We will be bringing children from three countries for Summer of Hope 2010 - Philippines, Ethiopia and Colombia.  Watch this site for upcoming details on how you can be involved.

Read Art King's article about Advocating Adoption for teens for couples in their 50's