Saturday, August 27, 2011

Quote of the Week



I love the recklessness of faith.  First you jump, and then you grow wings.
                                                                                                                   --Author Unknown

Friday, August 26, 2011

Lifesong Grant

We have been floored by God's provision for us throughout this adoption process.  Recently, we were given a $2500 matching grant by Lifesong for Orphans, an organization that exists to "bring joy and purpose to orphans".  They received the grant through a donation by another organization called Run for Orphans which is co-founded by two guys who run across the country in hopes of earning $100,000 to help assist 20 families to adopt a child. 


What an honor to be one of those 20 families. We are so grateful for ministries like these that make adopting children attainable for families like ours! 


Watch this video made by Lifesong for Orphans that reflects the heart behind their ministry.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

One Less

Is God calling your family to make a way for one less?



Will you begin to pray about your role in caring for the fatherless?
Will you and your spouse prayerfully consider adopting a child?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Quote of the Week


"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
 and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail."
                       --Isaiah 58:9-11

Monday, August 15, 2011

Trading the American Dream

Recently, my husband and I listened to a Focus on the Family broadcast where David Platt, author of Radical, was interviewed. His is one more voice calling Christians to evaluate their Western lifestyle to see if pursuing the American dream is really in line with how God has called us to live. It's worth a listen.

We also viewed a short video this week at church about what it means to be a "Trader":someone who trades in the pursuit of the American dream for a world that desperately needs Christ.  This has been one theme that God won't leave us alone about!  What are you willing to trade?

Side note: You don't need to purchase the video in order to view it--click on it, and it will play for you.


"God, do a work in me that is utterly disproportionate to who I am." 
                                                                                                  --David Platt

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Beautiful

God is still good.  Even though there are over 147 million orphans worldwide.  Even though millions of girls are being trafficked around the world.  Even though 30,000 children have starved to death in the past 90 days in the Horn of Africa.  I know this, but was reminded to the point of shedding tears after reading this beautifully written blog post by Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are:   http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/08/the-problem-of-evil-what-of-the-problem-of-good/


Lord, help me to share.  Break my heart by the things that break Yours.  Continue to teach me how to love others deeply from the heart.  Amen. 

Monday, August 8, 2011

Quote of the Week



"To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving."
                                                                                               -- William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Update

Waiting is the foundation of the spiritual life.

Many of our friends and family have been asking us lately if we've heard anything.  The answer is, yes we have!  We found out on Wednesday that we are number

on the watiting list.

To be honest, we were a bit disappointed because we were 14th a month and a half ago and I was hoping we would at least be like 5th or 3rd or some other single digit number.  On a positive note, we are thrilled that we are 11 spots away from laying our eyes on our precious boy for the first time!  We will continue to trust that God's timing is perfect, and that the moment we've been waiting for will come at just the right time.

As we wait, we continue to pray and prepare and enjoy our little girlie loves.  One of which we'd like to have potty trained before L comes home.  Needless to say, we have plenty to keep us busy as we wait.

We got another call this week from the school that we wanted Grace to attend.  They were calling to let us know that she got in!  Our awesome, sovereign, humorous Lord, however, has been working in my heart since February, and we feel that He's leading us to homeschool.  Today I made the call to give up our spot at said school ("We're really doing it, Harry!"), and I am refreshingly, delightfully excited.  I found a curriculum that I love, and I'm looking forward to returning to my career as a teacher--this time with a classroom of one! 

My classroom of one.


Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.     -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Quote of the Week


"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for good men to do nothing."
                                                                                            --Edmund Burke

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Guest Blog from my Hubs: Hunger Pains


     The summer is a great reading time.   As a teacher, the normal school year (fall to spring) does not allow me to read as much as I would like to. Summer, however, is a great time to create a reading list and go at it. I would not say that I am a fiction reader. At times I have enjoyed fiction, but usually I lean toward non-fiction.  A quality fiction book for me is like a really good dessert that I don't have very often, where non-fiction for me is like a hamburger and fries type of meal--one that you get full off of and eat much more often!

    


Now that I have gotten you hungry, let’s get into the meat of my reading list. The first book that I want to feature was one that I was surprised by.  It's called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  Her claim to fame is her other book Seabiscuit (another great read and movie). Due to my love of Seabiscuit, I decided to try her sophomore read. What can I say but gripping and intense.  The story is a biography about a man, Louie, who was on track (literally and figuratively) to be one of the best mile runners of all time and break the 4 minute mile, he came in 7th in the 2 mile at one Olympics and was preparing for another when World War II broke out. After becoming a bombardier in the Pacific theater, his plan was shot down, he lasted for 47 days in a life raft with two other survivors. Then when they were rescued they were rescued by the Japanese who put them in POW camps where he stayed for three years. After WWII, studies showed that in Germany POW camps about 1% of the prisoners died, in Japan the percentage was 37%. Louie was tortured, starved, and degraded for three years while in the POW camp, especially by one man, the head of discipline in the camp, known as “The Bird”.
The other book that has caught my attention came from a talk on Focus on the Family, {http://www.focusonthefamily.com/popups/media_player.aspx?MediaId={EA92E46B-D63A-4CDC-9341-28971B9D4A04} it is an autobiography of George Mueller.
A preacher in Bristol, England in the late 1800’s, the book is aptly titled, The Autobiography of George Mueller. This read is actually a collection of his journal entries as he lived out his life of faith and prayer. After doing some research on him, I have found that at one time he said that through his journaling he had seen God answer over 50,000 of his prayer requests in his lifetime. That makes me realize he had to pray over 50,000 times! The thing that I was interested in George was that through his ministry he felt called to create orphan houses. He started out with one female orphan house, and then added an infant orphan house, then a boy’s orphan house. As he grew his ministry, he did it without ever telling anyone of his financial need, he only relied on God for his provision. As his ministry grew, so did his faith for God to provide. He built an orphan house to spread the gospel for 300 children, then another for 700 children. So at one time, he was able to house over 1000 orphans in England and care for their needs through the grace of God.
     The fact that brings these two books together is that both of them deal with hunger pains. For Louie, it was true starvation, to a point that he was a grown man who weighed 93 pounds in the POW camp. That after the war, he had such depression, anxiety, and fear that his only thought was that he needed to go back to Japan and kill his captor to get the pain out of his life. For George, the hunger was different; it was to show the church and non-believer that only God can truly provide for all of our needs. His hunger was to be “a friend to the orphan.” The outcome I have found is the same in both stories.  Without ruining the ending, I'll say that for Louie, it was at a Billy Graham revival that he found the only thing that could take away the pain and fill him up. To a point that on the night he accepted Christ as his Savior, the nightmares of war left and never came back for the rest of his life. For George, it was the constant answer to prayer that God would sustain his needs. At no point was he or his organization ever worldly rich, but they never went hungry, because the great provider provided.

     So what are my hunger pains? I think it has been unbelief that we will every actually get Lincoln home, that when I pray for big things I don’t believe they will be heard, that the world’s answers are bigger and more powerful than God, and that I don’t think I am capable at times and forget that God knows I am not capable so he will be there to make me capable. These two books remind me that these types of hunger pains can be easily taken care of.  I have had the blessing of rediscovering that through these books.