Our Story
In 1985, as a college student, I was introduced to the painful reality of formerly abused and neglected kids trapped in a broken foster care system. The church where I was serving as an intern, launched the first Royal Family KIDS Camp where these kids experience a week of love and lifelong memories provided by caring adults who give a week of vacation to pour into their lives. I had never seen a week make such a difference in the lives of kids who lacked something most of us take for granted…. Some form of a safe home and loving family.
Something changed in me through that experience. A fire was lit that has never smoldered…. in fact, it has grown exponentially ever since. My career has been shaped by a number of great adventures launching and supporting new church and non-profit organizations that are transforming the lives of people who lack hope in various ways. The margins of my time, passion, and energy have been given for the last 33 years to a growing number of initiatives that serve kids without families and the heroic adults who stand in the gap to offer them another chance through foster care, adoption, mentorship, or by launching initiatives that provide other critical kinds of wraparound support.
In 26 years of marriage, Kristin and I have experienced the heart-wrenching challenges and life-transforming rewards of kinship care, foster care, and adoption. We learned why so many families bail out of this sacrificial calling. The truth is, no family could ever really fully prepare themselves for the pain, isolation, and secondary trauma that often comes with the long and unpredictable healing journey these kids are on to try to repair trauma they have experienced by no fault of their own.
Navigating these challenges under our own roof and fighting to find every source of support available has only strengthened our resolve to support people who are on the front lines of this critical fight for hundreds of thousands of kids in our own country who remain mostly invisible in our culture. We have been blessed to discover countless ways to fill gaps of support for kids in the system, teens who are trying to successfully emancipate from the system with no support, families who are stepping up to provide homes, and non-profit organizations that have taken on the task of providing services to these kids and families.
Our Strategies
Catalyze
Collaborate and Connect
Capacity Building
Coaching
Caregiving
We are Catalysts
As CATALYSTS we have founded or co-founded three community-based nonprofit organizations (Mika CDC, Finally Home, SERVE 6.8) and served on three church planting teams. Each of these life-transforming organizations is thriving today and engaged in the work of serving kids without families in different ways. In addition, we have rallied community support and raised funds to bring proven models of serving orphans to new regions (Royal Family KIDS Camp, Safe Families, Run for Orphans).
We are Collaborators/Connectors
As COLLABORATORS and CONNECTORS we have worked to bring community influencers together in order to leverage shared passion and complimentary expertise for the sake of serving more people more effectively. Sometimes this means connecting leaders, donors, and volunteers with causes that are fulfilling and purposeful. Sometimes this means building organizational alliances to maximize the use of community resources. We have been able to effectively engage support for various community initiatives from all key sectors…. Business, government, philanthropy, non-profit, and the faith community. On a more personal level, we continuously connect families and individuals in need with helpful support resources and solutions they are often unaware of.
We are Capacity Builders
As CAPACITY-BUILDERS we are actively engaged in helping leaders and organizations to grow in areas of team building and strategic thinking in order to expand their personal leadership capacity and organizational capacity. This happens through sharing ministry and non-profit leadership lessons learned and through structured strategic planning for community serving organizations. Since 2013 we have facilitated StratOps for non-profit organizations and churches who focus on underserved families in their communities. This tool, created by the Paterson Center, is the best tool available to enhance organizational growth and development. Funds we raise provide scholarships to give community-based ministries access to these professional tools and support. Each one of these ministries reports increased capacity in key areas such as fundraising, team role alignment, clarity of vision, etc.
We are Coaches
As COACHES we have the opportunity to mentor many younger non-profit and ministry leaders formally and informally. Our biggest “wins” in ministry and leadership are the success of younger leaders that we have had the privilege of mentoring, coaching, and creating opportunities for. Over the years we have mentored dozens of leaders and interns with a passion for serving others. Since 2013 we have employed the Paterson LifePlan process to develop leaders by helping them to discover and align personal gifts and values. Through this tool we help leaders to develop a personal strategic plan to balance career, personal, and family goals.
We are Caregivers
As CAREGIVERS we have lived out the very personal calling of foster care and adoption to provide a safe and healing home for our girls who experienced extreme trauma early in their lives. We have also provided kinship care in our home for my brother who is developmentally disabled. All of the challenges, rewards, and learnings of over two decades of opening our home in this way has compelled us to serve as many other families as possible who are engaged in this important journey. We have learned that the key to facilitating healing for these kids is to support these families in ways that the system has no plan for. Encouragement and advice, connection to helpful resources, pointing them to hopeful outcomes, education and hands on support…. All of these ways and more that we work constantly to keep these families in the game and these home placements intact for the sake of these kids who are trying to find their way out of very difficult early life circumstances.
A Greater Sense of Urgency
In 2017 I had heart-attack that nearly took my life. According to my cardiologist, I beat extreme odds (2 percent survival rate) for the type of heart attack I suffered. I have come out of a full year of recovery and reflection with a greater sense of gratitude for every day I have to live. I am sure that I will be processing all the impact of this life-altering experience for a long time. One thing is for sure…. I am more determined than ever to advance the work that God has allowed us to be part of on behalf of kids, who by no fault of their own, have suffered abuse, neglect, and abandonment. As the orphan crisis in our country and our world continues to grow, our resolve to be part of the solution is stronger than ever.
Our Family and Ministry
Since 1998 Mark and Kristin Orphan have maximized leadership and influence in church and community ministry for the well-being of fatherless children as well as the families and ministry organizations that serve them. In 2001 they expanded their family through kinship care and in 2004 through foster care and adoption. Since then they have extended their impact through various orphan care ministry partnerships and founded Finally Home whose mission is to build community for foster, kinship and adoptive families.
Today Mark and Kristin are actively engaged in leading a number of orphan care initiatives. They have been active in church ministry leadership for over thirty years. With this experience, they cast vision with local churches through speaking, teaching, and music…challenging church leaders and attendees to find their place in our biblical mandate to care for orphans. They have been engaged as founders, fundraisers, and board members for a number of orphan care ministries over the last twenty years. With the strength of these ministry relationships, they currently advocate for strategic initiatives that provide support and opportunities for kids who are struggling without critical family support. Mark and Kristin share their experience and lessons learned as foster, adoptive, and kinship parents to support, encourage, and empower families who are in the thick of the struggle of raising kids who have experienced abuse, abandonment, trauma, and neglect.
800
foster/adoptive families served with at least 6 hours of certified Family Strengthening education
2200
foster adoptive kids who have experienced full-day Super Hero Academy
$65,000
donated to Crucible Fund scholarships at partner universities for former foster kids
1000
foster teens who participated in church sponsored camps facilitated by partner ministry, Teen Leadership Foundation
We’ve Raised Awareness and Funding for these Organizations
We’ve Partnered With
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
for children and the families who have given the gift of a safe and loving home.
Contact Us
Is your organization ready to align giving with foster and adoptive initiatives?
Are you ready to make a difference in the lives of foster and adoptive kids and their families?
Let’s talk!
Hello! I’m Mark.
Mark Orphan
Leadership Coach
Organizational Catalyst
Social Entrepreneur
Paterson LifePlan & StratOp Facilitator
I have been blessed to serve over 30 years in non-profit, community, and church leadership as pastor, church planting leader, founder, executive director, university teacher, public speaker, fundraiser, coach, mentor, and consultant. In that time, I have co-founded three community serving non-profit organizations and served on three church planting teams. Each of these organizations is thriving and transforming lives and communities today in Southern California and Northern Colorado. I hold a BA in Christian Education and an MA in Leadership Studies from Vanguard University of Southern California.
My wife and I have raised 4 great kids… two of them came into our family through foster care and adoption. One of our greatest life passions to create opportunities for kids who are caught in a vicious cycle of brokenness by no choice of their own. We work to strengthen and support the families that are giving these kids a second chance and by helping to expand the capacity of organizations that are providing key services to these kids.
Having coached leaders and provided strategic planning support for dozens of organizations, I chose certification with the Paterson process because it is the best tool I have ever experienced in truly creating clarity, alignment of vision, team ownership, focused direction, sustainable impact, and measurable results. Without exception, I have seen transforming results in key areas of organizational health and growth as I have worked with organizations to install the StratOp system. Likewise, I have seen leaders and individuals in transition gain life-changing clarity and focused results as we have worked together to create a LifePlan. These tools have enabled me to live out my greatest passion in helping others to step more fully into their unique purpose and most fulfilling areas of impact.
30 +
years of leadership
50 +
organizations served through capacity building and strategic planning
6
thriving organizations launched
What’s in a name?
I first discovered the importance of a good headwind in the early 1990s. Out of my office window in Costa Mesa, CA, my peripheral vision was drawn to something out of the ordinary…. airplanes landing and taking off at John Wayne airport going the wrong way! They typically took off and landed flying into the breeze coming off of Newport Beach…. left to right in my office window. On these days, the hot Santa Ana winds were blowing in from the desert in the opposite direction so the air traffic controllers reversed all of the flight patterns to fly from right to left in my window. Some simple research taught me that for planes and their pilots, a headwind is a good thing. This was counter to my instincts as a frequent flyer… and as a leader. I had always valued a good tailwind to speed things up. I always listened to the pilot’s preflight assessment of how a headwind or tailwind was going to impact how quickly I was going to get to my destination. As a leader I loved those seasons when everything was clicking with the right people and resources in place and we were growing at a faster rate than anticipated. Conversely, as a young leader, I was always frustrated by the times when unexpected organizational challenges slowed progress. Today I am no less motivated to find this seasons of exponential advancement, but I have learned to value and leverage the power of the headwind. One of the principles of the Paterson process is that we slow down and gather perspective in order to land on the best and most sustainable plans.
In our fast-paced culture we don’t naturally like to do that, but the reality is a headwind helps us to lift our heads (like the nose of a plane taking off into a headwind) and gain perspective that we need. Another key reality I have discovered as a leadership coach, is that people or organizations find themselves asking for this kind of help when they are experiencing resistance that feels to them like a headwind that is slowing them down. I have learned, this is the best time to embrace the resistance and gain perspective so we can see things more clearly and later, with greater clarity, accelerate our pace.
Services
Do you desire a more purposeful plan for your life?
I’d love to see you living how you want to live.
Does your organization need clarity to step out of uncertainty and into its true destiny?
I’d love to bring strategic coaching to facilitate meaningful growth.
Paterson LifePlan is a facilitated journey that helps you discover your unique purpose. Along the way, you’ll gain clarity on where you are, where you want to be, and the key next steps to get there. LifePlan is a roadmap for your life.
Paterson LifePlan is a facilitated journey that helps you discover your unique purpose. Along the way, you’ll gain clarity on where you are, where you want to be, and the key next steps to get there. LifePlan is a roadmap for your life.
Get Inspired
What People Are Saying
Who We’ve Worked With
Contact Me
There’s beauty in the headwinds.
Is your organization ready to align strategy with every day directives?
Are you ready to explore your personal purpose more deeply?
Let’s talk!