I want to let you know about the World Vision Experience: AIDS, a free exhibit that will open your eyes to the AIDS crisis. This amazing walk-through village takes you on a virtual journey to Africa, where you'll walk in the steps of a child affected by the AIDS crisis. The interactive exhibit features a stirring audio tour combined with captivating photography that will transport you to the heart of Africa. You'll gain a completely new perspective on the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time: AIDS.
I encourage you to visit the website, www.worldvisionexperience.org/hendersonville for more information and to reserve a FREE ticket today!
6.11.2009
6 months of waiting
Well, our computer is down so I don't have much time to type but I wanted to update everyone. Tomorrow is the 6 month mark for our wait. The current wait with AWAA is 9-11 months. But we got some SUPER EXCITING news today. We went from #6 to #2 on the infant boy waiting list!!!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! I CAN'T.
I didn't expect this to happen so quickly.
We are in the midst of moving right now so things are CRAZY!
Hopefully, we will see the face of our child soon!!! I cannot wait.
I didn't expect this to happen so quickly.
We are in the midst of moving right now so things are CRAZY!
Hopefully, we will see the face of our child soon!!! I cannot wait.
6.02.2009
God is stirring in the hearts of families all around me. Two more of my friends have just told me that they feel God's calling on them to adopt. Praise God!!
Will you let God use you to save a child or children? Not just save their lives but their souls!
Read this devotional from A Godward Life by John Piper
James 1:27 NASB ~ Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Local businessmen in Brazil call them “vermin.” Garbage. “If we let them grow up, they will be criminals, a blight on our society.” There are an estimated twelve million homeless children on the streets of Brazil. Their parents lost them in the crowds, put them out, died. However they got there, they are there. They beg, they steal, they sell their bodies. They eat garbage. They start scared and end scarred, hard, and dead.
Some policemen and others moonlight by contracting to kill street children so that they will not menace the city. In 1992 average of 400 of these children were killed monthly.
It’s the same in other big cities. The Philippine government estimates that there are fifteen thousand child prostitues in Manila between the ages of nine and twelve. One estimate suggests that in Thailand there are eight hundred thousand girls between twelve and sixteen years old involved in prostitution.
Is your first thought merely human? Like, “If I can barely rear my own children to walk worthy of the gospel, what hope would there be to change the lives of these street kids?” Or, “If it takes ten thousand dollars worth of Christian counseling to stabilize a mature American Christian who was sexually abused, what in the world would we do with thousands of adolescents who knew nothing but abuse and lawlessness and violence on the streets?”
Do you find yourself looking (in good American fashion) at the bottom line and saying, “The turnaround on this investment would not be good”? Or, “The growth potential in planting churches among street kids is not very great. There are too many obstacles.”
Shift your thinking a minute (or a lifetime). What about the widow who put in her last two pennies? Jesus said she gave more than anyone (Luke 21:3). What about John the Baptist who lost his head on a dancer’s whim and never did a miracle? Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John” (Matthew 11:11 RSV). What about the poor in spirit? Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What about the meek? They inherit the earth. What about those who receive one child in the name of Jesus? At that moment they receive God (Mark 9:37).
What effect does it have on your longings when you think that God says true religion is to visit orphans (James 1:27)?
The effect it has on me is to make me want to love like Jesus loved and not always be thinking of the earthly payoff. Face it. A few kids are cute, but most street kids will be thankless, rude, dirty, diseased, scar-faced, shifty-eyed, lice-infested, suspicious, smelly, and have rotten teeth. If we minister mainly for the earthly payoff, we will burn out in a year.
Jesus did not say, “True religion is converting orphans.” He did not say, “True religion is making orphans mature and successful adults.” He said, “True religion is visiting orphans.” Results are God’s business alone. Obedience is ours by His grace. More specifically, by faith in future grace. Perhaps when we grasp this, we will be freed from our earthbound way of thinking and released to minsiter to the ones who are least likely to thank us.
Will you let God use you to save a child or children? Not just save their lives but their souls!
Read this devotional from A Godward Life by John Piper
James 1:27 NASB ~ Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Local businessmen in Brazil call them “vermin.” Garbage. “If we let them grow up, they will be criminals, a blight on our society.” There are an estimated twelve million homeless children on the streets of Brazil. Their parents lost them in the crowds, put them out, died. However they got there, they are there. They beg, they steal, they sell their bodies. They eat garbage. They start scared and end scarred, hard, and dead.
Some policemen and others moonlight by contracting to kill street children so that they will not menace the city. In 1992 average of 400 of these children were killed monthly.
It’s the same in other big cities. The Philippine government estimates that there are fifteen thousand child prostitues in Manila between the ages of nine and twelve. One estimate suggests that in Thailand there are eight hundred thousand girls between twelve and sixteen years old involved in prostitution.
Is your first thought merely human? Like, “If I can barely rear my own children to walk worthy of the gospel, what hope would there be to change the lives of these street kids?” Or, “If it takes ten thousand dollars worth of Christian counseling to stabilize a mature American Christian who was sexually abused, what in the world would we do with thousands of adolescents who knew nothing but abuse and lawlessness and violence on the streets?”
Do you find yourself looking (in good American fashion) at the bottom line and saying, “The turnaround on this investment would not be good”? Or, “The growth potential in planting churches among street kids is not very great. There are too many obstacles.”
Shift your thinking a minute (or a lifetime). What about the widow who put in her last two pennies? Jesus said she gave more than anyone (Luke 21:3). What about John the Baptist who lost his head on a dancer’s whim and never did a miracle? Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John” (Matthew 11:11 RSV). What about the poor in spirit? Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What about the meek? They inherit the earth. What about those who receive one child in the name of Jesus? At that moment they receive God (Mark 9:37).
What effect does it have on your longings when you think that God says true religion is to visit orphans (James 1:27)?
The effect it has on me is to make me want to love like Jesus loved and not always be thinking of the earthly payoff. Face it. A few kids are cute, but most street kids will be thankless, rude, dirty, diseased, scar-faced, shifty-eyed, lice-infested, suspicious, smelly, and have rotten teeth. If we minister mainly for the earthly payoff, we will burn out in a year.
Jesus did not say, “True religion is converting orphans.” He did not say, “True religion is making orphans mature and successful adults.” He said, “True religion is visiting orphans.” Results are God’s business alone. Obedience is ours by His grace. More specifically, by faith in future grace. Perhaps when we grasp this, we will be freed from our earthbound way of thinking and released to minsiter to the ones who are least likely to thank us.
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