General Conference Invites Potomac Member to Join Task Force for Orphans

Story by Beth Michaels

Restore a Child, a nonprofit organization founded by Potomac Conference member Norma Nashed in 1999, was recently selected to participate in a special task force that will recognize and defend orphans and others with special needs as a new global outreach by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Larry Evans, assistant to the General Conference (GC) president for Special Needs Ministries, a new church initiative, invited Nashed, a member of the Takoma Park (Md.) church, to be the first person to discuss the new initiative with him during a personal meeting last fall.

Nashed reports that at meetings at the church world headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., earlier last year, Jonathan Kuntaraf, director of the GC’s Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department and Restore a Child's chairman of the board, gave a presentation about the initiative. He emphasized the importance of orphans as a biblical mandate and reported great interest in Restore a Child. 

“It breaks my heart to see children hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, homeless, and we live in comfort and ease,” say Nashed. “I'd rather die than not respond. What a new meaning and fulfillment and joy I have now. Nothing in this world compares to serving the destitute children.  … These children are the future educators, engineers, doctors, business leaders and world leaders, if we only give them a chance.”