Jesusfreakhideout.com Music News, January 2014: SHOW HOPE DESIGNATES JANUARY AS ADVOCACY MONTH

SHOW HOPE DESIGNATES JANUARY AS ADVOCACY MONTH

NEWS SOURCE: Merge PR
January 23, 2014

23 January 2014 - Nashville, Tenn. - On the heels of celebrating ten years of service in 2013, Show Hope™ is kicking off the new year by promoting their advocates movement. Show Hope, a nonprofit orphan care ministry founded by GRAMMY® award winning Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth, continues its topical monthly focus by highlighting this grassroots program that raises awareness and funds for orphans.

What is a Show Hope Advocate?
The advocates program enables each person to use their passions, talents, and hobbies to raise funds and awareness to transform the life of a waiting child. This movement is made up of people whose combined grassroots efforts make a much larger impact than any one individual could do on their own. To date, Show Hope celebrates 450+ advocates raising more than $550,000.

From donating your birthday by inviting others to give to Show Hope in lieu of presents, having a bake sale, raising awareness at your church, to collecting your spare change, the ideas are endless. When Steven Curtis Chapman went on tour in 2007, Show Hope invited people across the U.S. to collect their loose change for orphans. Thousands answered that call and Show Hope was able to award adoption aid grants to more than 60 families from the funds raised.

One Show Hope advocate is Robby Mathew who in 2013 raised $2,400 by garnering support to run a marathon, impacting children around the world as he by doing something he enjoyed. "The love and support I received from family and friends was tremendous, but I was even more encouraged to see people excited about helping orphans in need," Robby shares. "All of us may not be called to adopt, but there are always other ways we can get involved. Whether that means being the one raising money, the one giving money, or the one who prays diligently…I encourage you to see what role God would have you play in transforming the life of an orphan."

Show Hope also encourages advocates to share stories and photos of their efforts by emailing advocates@showhope.org. Stories may appear on the Show Hope website or newsletter, in turn encouraging others to become advocates.

"Advocates are core to the foundation of Show Hope," shares Scott Hasenbalg, Executive Director of Show Hope. "One of the reasons Steven Curtis Chapman started this organization was so that he could more effectively advocate for waiting children, and we are excited to see thousands of people standing beside him as advocates in this movement to care for orphans." You can become a Show Hope Advocate by visiting showhope.org/advocates.

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About Show Hope:
A ministry founded in 2003 by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth to help care for the millions of orphans around the world, Show Hope™ helps to provide waiting orphans with forever families by giving adoption aid grants to adoptive families. In just ten years, Show Hope is an internationally recognized voice for orphan advocacy and has given more than 4,000 financial grants, affecting the lives of children from 50+ different countries, including the U.S. In addition to giving financial grants, Show Hope also empowers families, churches and communities with adoption and orphan care resources and advocacy efforts to change the world for orphans.

Expanding its remarkable worldwide impact, Show Hope also provides for orphans with special needs in China through its four Special Care Centers. One of these centers is Maria's Big House of Hope, a six-story healing home facility located in Luoyang, China. Opened in the summer of 2009, its mission is to provide the highest level of care for orphans who are in desperate need of surgeries and medical attention, thus enabling the children to thrive and increase the orphans' chances of being adopted. With the three additional centers in the Henan province of China, to date the organization has been able to provide essential medical care for more than 1,000 orphans with special needs.

Along with leading mission trips to China and Haiti, with consecutive Red Bus Project tours each spring and fall, to conferences and resources that equip foster and adoptive families, to a new artists and advocates program, Show Hope celebrated an incredible ten years in ministry in 2013 and looks ahead to an even brighter future. For more information, visit showhope.org.

For more info on Steven Curtis Chapman visit the JFH Artists Database.