{"id":580,"date":"2006-12-21T23:05:36","date_gmt":"2006-12-21T23:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html"},"modified":"2006-12-21T23:05:36","modified_gmt":"2006-12-21T23:05:36","slug":"a-blizzard-of-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html","title":{"rendered":"A Blizzard of Orphans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We just got nailed with a nasty blizzard here in Colorado Springs. 24 inches of snow, 5-6 foot snow drifts, airports closed, Interstates closed &#8211; and yes, we had the throw-up bug running around in full force last night! What a blessing. It took me all day to attempt to dig out of our driveway. Emily&#8217;s sister is supposed to be here in the morning so we&#8217;re throwing up major prayers that happens. The Denver airport is shut down until noon &#8211; at least that&#8217;s what they say. <\/p>\n<p>Tonight, as am sitting in my warm house surrounded by people I love, I can&#8217;t help but to think of the millions of orphans in the world that will never experience what I&#8217;m experiencing. Listen, I don&#8217;t feel guilty, I&#8217;m thankful for my life, it just always helps me to remember the &#8216;other side&#8217;&nbsp; which is reality for many children. Last year UN statistics said there would be over 108 million orphans in the world by the year 2010. This year the number has been increased &#8211; over 143 million. That&#8217;s half the population of the United States. It will get worse in the coming years, I promise you. <\/p>\n<p>This holiday, as you are around your table and enjoying family and friends, just say a prayer for orphans who will never have the chance to experience what we are experiencing. That&#8217;s all. Compassion starts by remembering &#8211; remembering leads to action. Remember them, and see what happens.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, I&#8217;ll be posting pictures throughout the holidays of the family and Christmas. Stay tuned. And Merry Christmas to all of you. I really hope it&#8217;s the best Christmas ever!<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg\" alt=\"https:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/\/DOCUME~1\/TOMDAV~1\/LOCALS~1\/Temp\/moz-screenshot.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We just got nailed with a nasty blizzard here in Colorado Springs. 24 inches of snow, 5-6 foot snow drifts, airports closed, Interstates closed &#8211; and yes, we had the throw-up bug running around in full force last night! What a blessing. It took me all day to attempt to dig out of our driveway.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Blizzard of Orphans - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Blizzard of Orphans - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We just got nailed with a nasty blizzard here in Colorado Springs. 24 inches of snow, 5-6 foot snow drifts, airports closed, Interstates closed &#8211; and yes, we had the throw-up bug running around in full force last night! What a blessing. It took me all day to attempt to dig out of our driveway.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-21T23:05:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Blizzard of Orphans - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Blizzard of Orphans - Red Letters","og_description":"We just got nailed with a nasty blizzard here in Colorado Springs. 24 inches of snow, 5-6 foot snow drifts, airports closed, Interstates closed &#8211; and yes, we had the throw-up bug running around in full force last night! What a blessing. It took me all day to attempt to dig out of our driveway.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2006-12-21T23:05:36+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html","name":"A Blizzard of Orphans - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg","datePublished":"2006-12-21T23:05:36+00:00","dateModified":"2006-12-21T23:05:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/communications\/newsreleases\/2004\/blizzard.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2006\/12\/a-blizzard-of-o.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Blizzard of Orphans"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}