Captured by the Call of Scripture

"JT, if you told me you were working on a widow’s house, I might sponsor you. But you’re just golfing. Nice cause, but not for my money.”

Those words shocked JT Olson as he read a friend’s response to his fundraising request for sponsorship in an annual golf tournament. Since his efforts were for a good cause, Olson didn’t expect God to use that rejection to cultivate a new calling on his life.

After receiving the donation-less letter, Olson began to wonder what – if anything – he could do to minister to widows. And before he knew it, the Lord reminded him of James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (ESV).As he reread the verse, Olson, an orphan himself, also became burdened to help families on their road to adoption.

In 2008 he founded Both Hands (BH), a ministry inspired by the call in James 1:27. Olson had devised a plan that could help prospective adoptive parents fund their adoption while helping widows repair their homes at the same time. To date, the ministry has served 1,218 families.

“I was 12 when I lost my parents, and I was 52 when I started Both Hands,” Olson told The Stand. “That’s 40 years. I feel like God was saying, ‘Did you think for a minute that I’m going to waste that pain or those tears?’ He told me that we were going to turn this pain into passion and make a difference for a whole bunch of people.”

Hope for the pocketbook

As a child, Olson’s world changed in the blink of an eye. When a fatal car accident stole the lives of his parents, he and his four siblings instantly found themselves alone. Although this life-changing event opened his eyes to the reality of orphanhood, it wasn’t until he and his wife Sara decided to adopt that he realized all it required.

“When we adopted Gracie in 2003, doors opened up,” Olson recalled. “It opened my eyes to adoption – to the joy of it, the challenge of it, and the cost of it.”

Depending on the route each family takes, BH estimates that adoption can cost anywhere between $20,000 and $60,000. The high price range makes adoption unfeasible for many families. But at BH, Olson and his staff hope to encourage couples not to let financial stress dissuade them. Instead, BH helps families raise adoption funds while ministering to widows.

How it works

BH operates by encouraging individuals to use both hands, as their motto states: “One for the widow. One for the orphan.” After a family decides to adopt, they can contact BH to complete a project application, then Both Hands guides them through the following four steps, as outlined on the ministry’s website (both
hands.org):

1. Gather a team – A project starts with gathering around 10 family members and friends to serve as the foundation and support group of the project.
2. Find a widow – Both Hands then guides a family through finding a widow in their community to serve for the project.
3. Serve for a day – On the project day, the family serves a widow alongside their team of volunteers by completing needed tasks for the widow that are labor-focused, such as painting, cleaning, landscaping, and de-cluttering. Families are also coached on how to get local merchants to donate any needed supplies.
4. Raise funds for your adoption – The family and their team raise sponsorship for their project day through sending letters and sharing their fundraising webpage.

“Have you ever thrown away a hand-addressed envelope you got in the mail from a friend without opening it?” asked Olson. “By sending out handwritten letters, we experience a 100% open rate.”

Ministering within the ministry

Since its inception, BH has raised more than $16.6 million through letter writing and online donations.

“One hundred percent of the money that we’ve helped families or organizations raise, goes to the cause.” Olson said. “We don’t take anything out for our operations.”

BH hosts an annual widows’ project called the Ty2 Vision Project to solicit volunteers and gifts for its operating budget. In memory of founding board member Ty Osman Sr. and his late son, Ty Osman Jr., BH leadership and volunteers join to serve local Tennessee widows. Last year, thanks to the help of 175 volunteers, the Ty2 Vision Project served 11 widows. This May, they were able to serve 20 widows with 220 volunteers.

All for His glory

For 2021 and 2022, families raised an average of $22,000 per adoption. But sometimes, Olson explained, it isn’t about the money raised but the hearts changed.

“One of the things I love about Both Hands is when a family does a project – and maybe they don’t raise as much as our average,” Olson explained. “Or maybe they do everything right, and for some reason, God still says, ‘No, you’re only going to raise $12,000.’

“They never are angry. They figure out pretty quickly this wasn’t about them – it was about the widow. And they’ll tell me about serving the widow and bringing this team together. They are not even thinking about the money.”