Today is Orphan Sunday ~ Please take a moment to pray for all the orphans - an estimated 147 million worldwide. That's a lot of kids with no mama or daddy, no home, no family, no hugs before bedtime, no one to kiss their owies when they hurt themselves, no one to tell them Jesus loves them.
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine, your son or daughter that you love more than life itself, living in an orphanage somewhere, all alone with no mommy hugs and no mommy kisses. Cold in the winter, perhaps not enough food to eat on a daily basis, nothing to call their own. Not a change of clothes, not a baby doll to love on ...
Hard to imagine isn't it? Seems unreal to imagine your kid in that situation. Yet it is the reality of 147 million kids.
I've read that if only 2% of all believers would adopt an orphan, there wouldn't be an orphan crisis in the world. All may not be able to adopt, all my not be called, all may not want to bring a child into their home, but we all can pray. We can pray for these kids, we can pray for those families that are running the race, doing the paperchase, fundraising to be able to afford to bring a little one home to their forever family.
We as a body of Christ can help these families that are called, we can support their adoptions not only by praying, but by donating financially, purchasing items they are selling, leaving a comment on their blog with encouraging words.
Are you called? Has God placed the orphan on your heart but society is telling you you're too old? The world telling you it costs too much ~ heck it costs about the price of a new Chevy Silverado but when you purchase a new truck your friends give you a thumbs up. How do you put a price tag on a human life? How do you put a net worth on someone's life?
Adopting one child will not change the world, after all, what's just one kid out of 147 million right? But you know what? God knows that one kid, God knows every single hair on that kid's head. And HE loves that one little one. And HE tells us when you do for the least of these, you do for ME. It won't change the world, but the world will change for that one little human being who is all alone in this world.
Will you take a few minutes and spend time in prayer for these families and these precious little ones?
Resting in the SON,
~s
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Love Is Not A Color
I just love love love this t-shirt that embracingtheleastofthese.blogspot.com is selling. And, they are only $10! And, they will help bring their little one home.LOVE IS NOT A COLOR - what a powerful message, because love isn't a color. Red, yellow, black and white, they are ALL PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT.
$5 for a chance to win this - $20 donation gets you 8 chances to win!
Wouldn't this make someone happy finding it under the Christmas tree?
You can enter to win this over at onelessbrokenheart.blogspot.com. They are having their first give~away right now that will help two families bring their little guys home from Ethiopia.
I read of a family that is doing all their gift buying for Christmas from fundraising families working hard to bring their little ones home. Isn't that awesome?
I just LOVE watching the body of Christ come together and unite to bring these orphans home to their forever families.
You may be thinking, 'how could $5 make a difference in an adoption that could potentially cost $30,000?' IT DOES! Every single dollar bill, five dollar bill, ten dollar bill, it may not seem like a lot but it is. And every dime is appreciated by the family working so hard to raise the funds needed to get their little one home.
Don't let the enemy fool you by telling you it won't make a difference. The enemy comes to lie, cheat, steal and would love nothing better than for you to believe that your $5 or $10 won't make a difference.
IT.MAKES.A.HUGE.DIFFERENCE!
How about these cool tshirts the Reeves family is selling! You can learn more about their journey at reevesfamily-fun.blogspot.com.
Make a difference, in a child's life.
Resting in the SON,
~s
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Other Families That Are Adopting
November Is Adoption Awareness Month
I'd like to share about some other families that are adopting. This is what it is all about, helping each other spread the word and bring their children home to their forever families. Take a few mintues and pop on over to these other blogs and say hello, leave some encouraging words, become a follower, lend support.
Christie and her hubby have five beautiful daughters that they have adopted from China. You can visit them at porknbeansinchina.blogspot.com. They have been chosen as the family of the month to work with Hip Mom Adoption Jewelry. Check out the jewelry at hipmomjewelry.com.
Bryan and Kim are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. Their dossier has been in country for five months now! You can visit them at journey2ethiopia.blogspot.com.
Sallee and Monti and adopting Samson Jude from Ethiopia. They will be meeting him in person in December! You can help them out by stopping by their blog at itspoppydipblog.blogspot.com you can click on their button on the side bar. Six Seed magazine has chosen then as one of their families for the month of December. You can help them out by heading over to their blog and clicking on the link to Sixseed and leaving a comment under their interview. Each comment left gives them $2 towards their adoption expenses. All it costs you is a couple of minutes of your time.
Onelessbrokenheart.blogspot.com has their very first give~away going on right now thru November 21. This give~away will help bring two little guys home from Ethiopia. There is a Nintendo DSi, a blog creation, a parent/child apron set and a few other great things. $20 donated gets you 8 entries!
This is what it is all about, pulling together as the body of Christ and helping each other out to bring our kids home. You may not always be able to help financially, but you can pray for each of these families.
Let's all do what we can to make a difference.
Resting in the SON,
~s
Sunday, October 31, 2010
One Less Broken Heart Give~Away
Hop on over to One Less Broken Heart and help two families bring their little boys home. They are having their first give~away and have lots of neat stuff.
How about a Nintendo DSi
Or maybe a blog design
Or how about matching adult/child aprons
Or a really cool necklace
Or a custom made family values canvas
Or do you need someone to help you design and print your adoption fundraiser t-shirts?
Lots of cool stuff and all it takes is $5 for an entry into any one of these give~aways.
$20 gets you 8 entries and you can enter all them!!
Let's help two families bring their little guys home.
Resting in the SON,
~s
Thursday, October 28, 2010
God Doesn't Call Us to Be Comfortable
“It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But, it is absolutely vital to grasp that he didn’t call you there so you could settle in and live your life in comfort and superficial peace…God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through” Francis Chan
Lord, I am trusting you completely and while I am waiting on you Lord
I will move ahead, bold and confident
Takeing every step in obedience
While I'm waitingI will serve You
While I'm waitingI will worship
While I'm waitingI will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait
Yes Lord, I will continue to run even as uncomfortable as it is right now, because he is worth it.
Resting in the SON,
~s
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Prayer and Fasting
I try to set aside one day each week to pray and fast. This week, today is the day. If you have any prayer requests, please leave me a comment and I will be glad to spend time with the Lord and pray for you.
Resting in the SON,
~sMonday, October 25, 2010
Do You Know How Far I Travelled To Get You?
I'm reposting it from The Loux Family Blog. This is one of the most powerful blog post I've ever read in my lifetime. It's not just about adoption, it's about redemption. And those go hand in hand. For those who don't know the story of The Loux Family, it's important that you know that Derek Loux, the author of this post, is now in Heaven. He was called home to be with Jesus last Christmas after an auto accident. He wrote this post about redemption a year before he went to live with Jesus. Derek's wife and their ten beautiful blessings continue to live out James 1:27. And now, here's one of the most life-changing blog post I've ever read, authored by Derek Loux:
Friday, December 12, 2008
Renee’ and I are sitting in the office of a telephone company in Novograd Valenski, Ukraine, using wireless internet. We are in the middle of adopting three special needs boys from an orphanage here. Two of the boys have Down Syndrome. Roman is high functioning, energetic and happy.
Dimitri has serious mental retardation, failure to thrive, and though he is five years old, he is the size of a 1 year old. He has sores on his face, a distinct smell of death on him, and yells out if we try to do anything with him other than hold him. Because he has less ability to respond and learn, he naturally gets less attention and care from the orphanage workers in this world of limited resources. The harsh reality of the “survival of the fittest” principle is a life and death struggle that this little boy is losing fast.
Our third boy Sasha, is a brilliant six year old who has Spina Bifida (the condition our son Josiah died from in 1996). He is like a learning sponge that can’t get enough! He is happy and alert and thirsty for knowledge and experience. So with two of our boys, we get an immediate return on any investment we make. With Dimitri, there’s not much immediate gratification. In fact, it’s unknown when and if there will be a return at all. This is the kind of situation that makes the carnal, fallen, human reasoning think, “Why try? What’s the point? What will this produce? What good will this do? Why not select a boy who has more potential? This looks like a lost cause.
Two days ago we drove for hours into the Ukrainian countryside to the village where Dimitri was born. We met with officials there and signed papers and answered their questions. We also went and saw Dimitri’s house. The day had been long, we were still recovering from jet lag, I was beginning to really miss my six daughters at home and all the familiar things our fragile human hearts entangle themselves with in feeble attempts to feel secure.
Sitting in the dark on our very long drive back to Novograd that night, the Holy Spirit began to whisper to my heart, and new understanding about redemption began to take shape.I was thinking, “Man, adopting this little boy has been so much work. This is exhausting, expensive, uncomfortable … and it doesn’t feel very rewarding right now.” What am I doing in some little Soviet car in the dark, in the middle of rural Ukraine in frozen December, as the driver dodges cats and potholes? What if Dimitri doesn’t improve at all? What if we get “nothing” out of this? …
Ahhh, there it was; that dark, fallen, unreedemed, selfish human love, rooted in the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil”. The love the Greeks called “erao” love. The love where we treat someone as precious and treasured for what we can get out of it. This is unlike “agapeo” love, the God kind of love that treats someone as treasured and precious for their good, not for my good. It’s when I love a person in order to meet their needs, having no expectation of them meeting any of my needs. At a whole new level, God is working His kind of love into my weak heart, and He’s using little Dimitri to do it.
On the drive home that night, the Lord whispered in my ear, “This is Redemption. Derek, do you know how far I travelled to get you and bring you back? I had to be separated from my Son, in order to get you, just like you are separated from your children in order to get these boys. Do you know how expensive it was for Me to purchase you? It cost me everything. Do you know how broken, sick, damaged, twisted, dirty, smelly, and hopeless you were? And at the end of it all, you had nothing to give me or add to me. I did it for you. I emptied myself and became nothing so that you could have it all. This is redemption.
My friends, adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him. And when He redeems us, we can’t even really appreciate or comprehend it, just like Dimitri will never comprehend or fully appreciate what is about to happen to him … but … he will live in the fruit of it. As his Daddy, I will never expect him to understand all of this or even to thank me. I just want to watch him live in the benefits of my love and experience the joys of being an heir in my family. This is how our heavenly “Papa” feels towards us.Today, settle your busy heart down and rest in the benefits of redemption. Enjoy the fruits of His goodness, and stop trying to “pay Him back”. You’ll never get close you goofy little kid.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, here's a follow-up post of The Loux's, which is a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness. Here's the post that The Louxs authored about 9 months after Derek wrote the post about redemption, 9 months after these 3 boys joined their family. Here's the follow up post found on The Loux Family blog on September 30, 2009:Ethan’s progess has been nothing short of a miracle. Derek and I were looking at some past pictures of Ethan when we first took him out of the orphanage. We were shocked at the shape he was in! It’s amazing how your mind forgets some of the hard details of the past when such growth has been made. It’s good to see the growth and it’s also important to remember God’s faithfulness and all the Lord has brought Ethan through. Ethan is truly a miracle child! All our boys are!When Derek and I were in Ukraine going through the process of adopting our three precious sons, Derek went though a really difficult time connecting with Ethan, who at that time was named Dimitri. On December 12th, Derek and I were sitting in the office of a telephone company using the wireless internet to write some emails. Derek began to write a post for our adoption blog. As he was writing the post, he had tears in his eyes. I knew the Lord was speaking something powerful to his heart. We wanted to re-post Derek’s post again to remind you of God’s greatness and His power! When you read the post below you will be reading the names Roman, Dimitri and Sasha as the three boys we were in the process of adopting. We changed Roman’s name to Silas, Dimitri’s to Ethan and we kept Sasha’s name. When we left Ukraine with Ethan, he weighed 11 pounds at 5 years old. He now weighs 26 pounds and has grown 8 inches in 9 months. He laughs, he smiles, he talks, he’s learning how to walk and he is very smart. We were told he would “do nothing.” What a testament to the Lord’s awesome power!Those of you who follow our blog are aware that since this post below, we have not only adopted our three boys but have also brought in two new daughters, Leeann and our little Sana. God is good! What an amazing heavenly Father we have! His love endures forever and we have 10 beautiful blessings to prove it
Resting in the SON,
s
Friday, December 12, 2008
Renee’ and I are sitting in the office of a telephone company in Novograd Valenski, Ukraine, using wireless internet. We are in the middle of adopting three special needs boys from an orphanage here. Two of the boys have Down Syndrome. Roman is high functioning, energetic and happy.
Dimitri has serious mental retardation, failure to thrive, and though he is five years old, he is the size of a 1 year old. He has sores on his face, a distinct smell of death on him, and yells out if we try to do anything with him other than hold him. Because he has less ability to respond and learn, he naturally gets less attention and care from the orphanage workers in this world of limited resources. The harsh reality of the “survival of the fittest” principle is a life and death struggle that this little boy is losing fast.
Our third boy Sasha, is a brilliant six year old who has Spina Bifida (the condition our son Josiah died from in 1996). He is like a learning sponge that can’t get enough! He is happy and alert and thirsty for knowledge and experience. So with two of our boys, we get an immediate return on any investment we make. With Dimitri, there’s not much immediate gratification. In fact, it’s unknown when and if there will be a return at all. This is the kind of situation that makes the carnal, fallen, human reasoning think, “Why try? What’s the point? What will this produce? What good will this do? Why not select a boy who has more potential? This looks like a lost cause.
Two days ago we drove for hours into the Ukrainian countryside to the village where Dimitri was born. We met with officials there and signed papers and answered their questions. We also went and saw Dimitri’s house. The day had been long, we were still recovering from jet lag, I was beginning to really miss my six daughters at home and all the familiar things our fragile human hearts entangle themselves with in feeble attempts to feel secure.
Sitting in the dark on our very long drive back to Novograd that night, the Holy Spirit began to whisper to my heart, and new understanding about redemption began to take shape.I was thinking, “Man, adopting this little boy has been so much work. This is exhausting, expensive, uncomfortable … and it doesn’t feel very rewarding right now.” What am I doing in some little Soviet car in the dark, in the middle of rural Ukraine in frozen December, as the driver dodges cats and potholes? What if Dimitri doesn’t improve at all? What if we get “nothing” out of this? …
Ahhh, there it was; that dark, fallen, unreedemed, selfish human love, rooted in the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil”. The love the Greeks called “erao” love. The love where we treat someone as precious and treasured for what we can get out of it. This is unlike “agapeo” love, the God kind of love that treats someone as treasured and precious for their good, not for my good. It’s when I love a person in order to meet their needs, having no expectation of them meeting any of my needs. At a whole new level, God is working His kind of love into my weak heart, and He’s using little Dimitri to do it.
On the drive home that night, the Lord whispered in my ear, “This is Redemption. Derek, do you know how far I travelled to get you and bring you back? I had to be separated from my Son, in order to get you, just like you are separated from your children in order to get these boys. Do you know how expensive it was for Me to purchase you? It cost me everything. Do you know how broken, sick, damaged, twisted, dirty, smelly, and hopeless you were? And at the end of it all, you had nothing to give me or add to me. I did it for you. I emptied myself and became nothing so that you could have it all. This is redemption.
My friends, adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him. And when He redeems us, we can’t even really appreciate or comprehend it, just like Dimitri will never comprehend or fully appreciate what is about to happen to him … but … he will live in the fruit of it. As his Daddy, I will never expect him to understand all of this or even to thank me. I just want to watch him live in the benefits of my love and experience the joys of being an heir in my family. This is how our heavenly “Papa” feels towards us.Today, settle your busy heart down and rest in the benefits of redemption. Enjoy the fruits of His goodness, and stop trying to “pay Him back”. You’ll never get close you goofy little kid.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, here's a follow-up post of The Loux's, which is a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness. Here's the post that The Louxs authored about 9 months after Derek wrote the post about redemption, 9 months after these 3 boys joined their family. Here's the follow up post found on The Loux Family blog on September 30, 2009:Ethan’s progess has been nothing short of a miracle. Derek and I were looking at some past pictures of Ethan when we first took him out of the orphanage. We were shocked at the shape he was in! It’s amazing how your mind forgets some of the hard details of the past when such growth has been made. It’s good to see the growth and it’s also important to remember God’s faithfulness and all the Lord has brought Ethan through. Ethan is truly a miracle child! All our boys are!When Derek and I were in Ukraine going through the process of adopting our three precious sons, Derek went though a really difficult time connecting with Ethan, who at that time was named Dimitri. On December 12th, Derek and I were sitting in the office of a telephone company using the wireless internet to write some emails. Derek began to write a post for our adoption blog. As he was writing the post, he had tears in his eyes. I knew the Lord was speaking something powerful to his heart. We wanted to re-post Derek’s post again to remind you of God’s greatness and His power! When you read the post below you will be reading the names Roman, Dimitri and Sasha as the three boys we were in the process of adopting. We changed Roman’s name to Silas, Dimitri’s to Ethan and we kept Sasha’s name. When we left Ukraine with Ethan, he weighed 11 pounds at 5 years old. He now weighs 26 pounds and has grown 8 inches in 9 months. He laughs, he smiles, he talks, he’s learning how to walk and he is very smart. We were told he would “do nothing.” What a testament to the Lord’s awesome power!Those of you who follow our blog are aware that since this post below, we have not only adopted our three boys but have also brought in two new daughters, Leeann and our little Sana. God is good! What an amazing heavenly Father we have! His love endures forever and we have 10 beautiful blessings to prove it
Resting in the SON,
s
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