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Commentary: Our tragedy and God’s love for orphans

Editor’s note: Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter, Maria Sue, was killed in an accident in May in the driveway of the family’s home. Chapman, a Grammy winner, will talk about the family’s grief and faith on Larry King Live on Thursday, 9pm ET.

FRANKLIN, Tennessee (CNN) — According to UNICEF, there are 143 million children in the world who have lost one or both parents.

In America alone, there are half a million children in foster care, and approximately 120,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted. In many countries, children are too often orphaned or abandoned because of poverty, disabilities and disease; every 15 seconds, a child loses a parent because of AIDS. These are staggering facts that can seem overwhelming and discouraging, but I believe that God has a loving plan for each child, and that plan is you and me.

Caring for these children is not the job of governments or institutions; instead, it is the job of families, people and communities. As Christians, our compassion is simply a response to the love that God has already shown us. Mother Teresa would constantly remind those who worked with her that the Bible clearly teaches that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Jesus. So in a very real sense, caring for orphans is a chance to meet the person of Jesus in the guise of human suffering. This is an invitation from the heart of God to know him and to experience his love.

Nine years ago, my wife and my eldest daughter, Emily, traveled to Haiti on a mission trip. Having been exposed to extreme poverty for the first time, Emily returned home with a determined passion to make a difference in the lives of at-risk children.

Only 12 years old, Emily went on an all-out campaign to persuade us to adopt. She bought a book on international adoption with her Christmas money and would read it to us regularly. She began fervently praying and writing letters to Mary Beth and me, encouraging us to consider giving a waiting child a home. Emily knew God was leading us in the direction of adoption; however, Mary Beth and I were not yet convinced.

My wife and I had always supported the idea of adoption, and as Christians, we understood the importance of loving and caring for others. But what I had not yet grasped was that adoption is a physical picture of what Jesus has done for me. I did nothing to deserve God’s love; in fact, I was living as an orphan, without hope. Yet God chose to pursue a relationship with me, and through the death of his son Jesus, I was adopted into God’s family.

My wife and I began moving toward adoption with fear and trembling and asking all the questions people ask. I remember Mary Beth crying herself to sleep at night saying, What are we doing? I can’t do this. However, God kept reassuring us that this was the direction he was leading us. It was a huge journey of faith for us.

In May of 2000, we found ourselves in a hotel room in China’s Hunan province, welcoming the newest member of our family, Shaohannah Hope. From that moment, we began our journey into the world of adoption, orphan care and Shaohannah’s Hope. iReport.com: Send a video question for Chapman

We went on to adopt Stevey Joy and Maria. Recently, our youngest daughter, Maria, passed from life on this earth and is now safely in the arms of Jesus. We have been completely overwhelmed by the love and support of so many during this time of deep, deep sadness. Through all that we’ve experienced, one thing we still know is true: God’s heart is for the orphan. Watch Chapman home movies

In our travels to Latin America, Africa and Asia, we have visited many different orphanages. If you look past the surroundings and into the eyes of the children, they all have the same look. They seem to convey, I don’t think this is what I was made for. Where do I belong?

These children are crying out for the hope of a family, for the hope of community, for the hope of a permanent love. Our mission, and the mission of our adoption charity, Shaohannah’s Hope, is to show hope to these children and to mobilize people, families and communities to be living examples of God’s love for them.

We started Shaohannah’s Hope in order to connect willing families with waiting children, but the reality is that there are many orphans who cannot be adopted. Even though we may not be able to bring them into our homes, we still have the opportunity to show them the hope we have.

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Navy says sub leaked radiation since 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A U.S. Navy submarine leaked trace amounts of radioactive water for two years as it made port calls in Japan and other Asian nations, the Navy said Thursday.

Last week, Navy officials told Japan that the USS Houston, a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, had made one port call — in March — while leaking the contaminated fluid.

But after reviewing records of the sub, the Navy told Japanese officials Thursday that the Houston had been leaking much longer, since June 2006, and had made port calls to Japanese bases at Sasebo, Yokosuka and Okinawa before the leak was discovered.

Officials also have told the governments of Malaysia and Singapore that the sub made port calls to those countries while leaking the radioactive water, Navy officials said. The Houston also made stops in Guam and Hawaii.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tokyo appreciated the United States reporting the new information promptly.

At the same time, what remains to be nailed down is the cause, said the spokesman, Hiroshi Suzuki. We still need to get to the bottom of the cause of this leak. We would like to get a full explanation.

Suzuki said the U.S. government has assured Japan it is taking all precautionary measures to guarantee safety. In addition, Japan also conducts round-the-clock monitoring of U.S. vessels in Japanese ports.

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Bush praises South Korea, rebukes North

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — U.S. President George W. Bush praised the U.S. relationship with South Korea on Wednesday and said the two nations should continue to work together to eliminate threats from North Korea.

Bush spoke during a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The stop in South Korea is part of Bush’s weeklong Asian tour.

Our relationship is important vital and I believe it is strong, Bush said.

Bush said he was still concerned about North Korea and said the country has a long way to go before it is taken off his axis of evil list as well as removing it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

I am concerned about North Korea’s human rights record, Bush said I am concerned about the uranium enrichment…

He spoke hours after thousands of protesters packed the streets of the South Korean capital Tuesday. Watch Bush speak on his hopes for his axis of evil list

While some demonstrations were peaceful, violence erupted at other protest sites. In one instance, riot police fired a water cannon to keep the crowds at bay.

Police said they detained about 80 protesters. They estimated about 2,700 people were participating in the protests, which included a candlelight march and a sit-in. But the organizers said some 10,000 were taking part in the demonstrations.

Bush’s weeklong trip to the region is his ninth visit as president. See a map of Bush’s itinerary

His stop in Seoul comes just a few months after violent street protests erupted over worries about the safety of U.S. beef imports.

While those tensions seem to have eased, the United States’ nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea is also a concern.

Michael Green, a former Bush adviser on Asian affairs, and now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says Seoul’s proximity to North Korea contributes to an ongoing unease.

The North Koreans have 11,000 artillery tubes and rockets aimed at the South Korean capital, so any little thing that we do with North Korea makes the South Koreans very jittery, Green said.

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9 believed dead, 4 injured in firefighter helicopter crash

(CNN) — Nine people were missing and presumed dead and four were hospitalized Wednesday after a helicopter carrying firefighters crashed the night before in northern California, aviation spokesmen said.

The Sikorsky S-61 helicopter entered a remote area to pick up firefighters battling wildfires, said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash happened about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 35 miles northwest of Redding in the Trinity Alps Wilderness area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Two crew members and 11 firefighters were aboard, Gregor said. Three of the injured were contract firefighters, and the fourth was the pilot, said Sharon Heywood, the forest’s supervisor.

All of the injured initially were taken to Mercy Hospital near Davis, California. A firefighter in critical condition and two people in serious condition — a firefighter and the pilot — were transferred to the University of California Davis Medical Center, Heywood said.

The third firefighter remained at Mercy in serious condition Wednesday, she said.

Heywood said the crash site was difficult to access because of its terrain.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Daria Day said the helicopter, assigned to a group of four fires burning in the forest, went down near the north end of the so-called Buckhorn fire. She said she didn’t know if the helicopter was landing or taking off.

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Let the Games begin, online

(CNN) — The Beijing Games have officially become the first YouTube Olympics.

Earlier this week the IOC reached an agreement with Google, owner of YouTube, to allow highlights to be broadcast in 77 territories around the world where digital rights to the Games haven’t been sold.

And in countries where digital rights have been sold the pressure to prevent illegal piracy is being stepped up.

As Beijing clears the streets in sweeps for pirated DVDs, the Chinese government’s National Copyright Administration announced stiff new laws prohibiting the uploading of videos of Olympic events to unauthorized Web sites or face fines up $15,000.

With the profusion of social networking and peer-to-peer file sharing Web sites, does this mean spectators will be shaken down for every video camera and digital phone held aloft during Olympic events?

No, says Stephane Kanah, head of digital media for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). So far as the IOC is concerned, the message to individuals who want to share personal videos online from Olympic events is this: Go for it.

For a spectator to take pictures or video and put it on a blog, usually we tend to tolerate this, Kanah says.

They are not really competing with the broadcasters?it’s more of a, ‘Look, I was there! Look at me!’ kind of quality.

In fact, theIOC is investigating ways to incorporate more user-generated content at future Games.

We would like to be able to capture some of that … how can we invite users who have content to share that? What kind of platform can be used? How can we create something through social networking platforms? Kanah says. We encourage [licensed rights holders] to do the same.

NBC Universal, the U.S. broadcast rights holder, has ambitious plans to stream online 3500 hours of footage of the Beijing Games, and it isn’t worried about the lone cameraman purloining broadcast rights.

Unlike pirating movies, live sports events require dozens of cameras from multiple angles and a great deal of coordination.

With sports programming, it’s so complicated to produce, so difficult to get the data out there in a way that [viewers] can understand what they are seeing, says Perkins Miller, senior vice president of digital media for NBC Sports and Olympics.

Even if NBC wanted to harness user-generated content to complement its broadcast, the sheer amount of video makes the task daunting.

There’s really a tremendous amount of volume being produced already, which requires users to be able to find it easily and to be able to navigate the site, says Miller.

Targeting peer-to-peer sites

The real target of the online piracy crackdown are peer-to-peer Web sites where unauthorized video produced by the IOC or Olympics rights holders are captured and uploaded online.

The IOC, CCTV.com and NBC Universal have contracted Vobile Inc, a Californian company, to use its VideoDNA technology to help stop piracy.

Two or three years ago, to examine [online video for piracy] you had to have people comparing footage frame by frame, says Yangbin Wang, CEO of Vobile.

VideoDNA software works like biometrics for security purposes?scanning the image of the iris or a fingerprint to identify copied video online in real time.

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