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Youth Rally @ Epic

The weekend following Orphan Sunday, come to the Orphan Sunday Youth Rally and learn how young people can make a difference in the lives of orphans! The event will feature live bands as well as several great speakers who will inspire students to take action on behalf of orphaned children. Opportunities for involvement with missions will be highlighted and you will be able to shop for cool stuff the proceeds of which benefit orphans and local adoptions. Students who attend are encouraged to bring a pair of new shoes to donate to our Shoes for Orphan Souls Fall Shoe Drive. For each pair donated, students will receive a ticket that makes them eligible for the We Heart Orphans drawing which will feature fabulous prizes! Please tell your friends! Hope to see you there!

See the Calendar of Events for more information!

Orphan Sunday: Voice for the Orphan Event- coming up!

Orphan Sunday is a national day devoted to standing united as Christians on behalf of the fatherless. Hundreds of events will be held on November 7th across America and beyond, all sharing a single goal: that God’s great love for the orphan will find echo in our lives as well. Join Christians here on the Gold Coast as we gather together from churches throughout our region to discuss the plight of orphans both domestically and internationally and what we all can do to help. The event will feature great speakers, live music and the We Heart Orphans Benevolent Bazaar where you can buy unique gifts that support orphan care and help fund local adoptions. Free information and resources will be available on many areas in ministry including praying for orphans, sponsorship, missions to orphans and adoption. Families will also be able to learn more about applying for funding to start an adoption through the Gold Coast Orphan Alliance Community Adoption Grant Fund. We hope you will join us and be a part of what God is doing here in our community on behalf of His precious children. As always, we hope you will encourage your friends and families to join us at this event as well!

Free childcare is available with pre-registration. To register for childcare or for more information about the event, please contact info@weheartorphans.org. Families interested in childcare, please email us with the names and ages of your children so we can plan for taking care of your little ones while you attend the event.

It has been a while since the last post, but I just wanted everyone to be sure to check the calender- it is updated with the latest GCOA events!

Our Website Is Now Up!

Hello GCOA family! Our website is now up and running! We will no longer be using this blog as our website is now live. Please check us out at www.weheartorphans.org.

Pizza Party and Ugandan Orphans Choir - Join Us!

Join us on March 14th for a fun evening together on the first day of daylight savings as we celebrate the coming of longer spring afternoons. We will be share a pizza dinner together at 5pm at Pirate Park (Ed Hunt Rehab Point) and then head over to Church for the Nations in Oxnard to see the Ugandan Orphans Choir. The free concert begins at 7pm. Pirate Park is located at 1601 S. Harbor Blvd. in Oxnard.

This should be a great time of food, fun and fellowship for kids and grown-ups alike! Please RSVP by March 12 to the email listed here on the blog or via the Gold Coast Orphan Alliance group on Facebook to let us know how many from your family will be coming so that we can order enough pizza.

Please plan to bring your own drinks and $5 to help cover the cost of pizzas. Jackets are also a good idea as Pirate Park is near the ocean and can be breezy.

We hope to see you there!

We Heart Orphans Family Day - What Fun!

GCOA's February event was a great success with families from across the region joining together to celebrate Valentine's Day by showing our shared love for orphans at our "We Heart Orphans" Family Day at Padaro Beach Grill in Carpinteria. We made fun crafty picture frames with Mod Podge to remind us all to pray for orphans and had fun playing in the sand, getting to know each other and eating way too many french fries. The event brought together forever families with children adopted both dometically and internationally, as well pre-adoptive families, and individuals who came out to support the cause of orphan advocacy in our community. We hope everyone enjoyed this first year of the year - a social one that allowed us all to get better acquainted. We also hope you were as encouraged as we were by how many people in our region truly care about orphans. One of the highlights of the day was meeting a woman - who just happened to be at the restaurant for lunch - who had been praying about adoption for two years. When she inquired about who we were, we were able to invite her to join our group and share a variety of resources with her. As it turned out, several of the families who were there for our event go to her church and are involved with an orphan outreach group there. She was able to immediately get connected and told me that meeting us that day really affirmed the calling she was feeling from God. If the entire event happened just for her, it was worth it. Thanks to all who came out to join us on such a gorgeous sunny day in Carp. We look forward to more opportunities to build our orphan advocacy community in 2010! Check out our Facebook group for more fun pictures!

Join Us for Family Day at Padaro Beach Grill

Hello, Gold Coast Orphan Alliance! Now that the new year is in full swing, we are excited about connecting with all of you and working together in our community for the plight of the orphan. Given the recent tragedy in Haiti, the need for orphan care and support is even more critical and timely.

We hope you will join us for our first "We Heart Orphans" event of 2010, a family day at Padaro Beach Grill in Carpinteria, on February 13th from 11-1. This will be a casual "Meet and Greet" event to allow pre- and post-adoptive families and individuals in our community that are passionate about orphan care to get to know each other. Padaro Beach Grill has great food and a huge sandbox and grassy area that is perfect for kids (adults also manage to get a conversation or two in here sometimes!). We will provide a fun love-themed craft about caring for orphans for the kiddos and a special dessert. The purpose of this event is to help build a community that extends across churches in our area purposed to take action for the cause of the orphan.

We will also have information available that day about some smaller groups that are forming to support pre- and post- adoptive families in our area.

We hope you can join us! Please invite any of your friends who care about orphans to join us at Padaro Beach Grill for our get-together. Also, feel free to bring any relevant information about orphan-related projects that your church is working on that you may want to share with others.

In a month where we celebrate love, what could be more fitting to focus on loving those who need it most. Hope to see you there!