Keep It Filled

Right now my house is a disaster! There is not one clean inch. Every inch is covered with mud, dirt, and grass! The reason is that I had about 40 teenagers in my yard tonight playing water games and having fun. These are the teens in our ministry. For that reason, I love to have a dirty house! I praise the Lord for the dirt, grass, and mud. Just a few minutes ago I was on my knees on the dirty, grassy bathroom floor-with tears streaming down my face-praying that my house would never be empty. Do it Lord..Keep it filled. Keep them coming that I might be able to overflow your love onto them.

Fill this house Lord with those children who need a family! Fill this house!! Do it quickly!! My teens painted Jillian's new room, the empty bedroom upstairs, while I was gone in Guatemala. Empty now but waiting to be filled with her sweet face when she enters our family! I can't wait to hold her. Sometimes the waiting is just too much to bare. I can't explain how you can love someone so much that you don't even know or who may not even be born yet. Until she comes, Keep it filled Lord with as many as you can! What a blessing it is to be fellowship with the ones who love the Lord!! Keep it filled Lord!! Company makes waiting more bare able!

The face of the fatherless

Looking directly into the face of the fatherless, the poor, how can it not just break your heart? I have spent this last week in Guatemala doing that nearly everyday. I have been broken beyond belief with the knowledge of God's love for these children. He has laid on my heart, as a believer, to be a part of caring for them-financially. One of the highlights of my trip was getting to meet this sweet boy who I sponsor through Compassion International Ministries. His mother is a widow and has five other boys to care for at home. She works hard each day doing laundry to try to provide for her family. This little man is five years old and is served through a compassion project in his neighborhood. I send him $38.00 a month and because of that he can attend school, receive nutritional meals, and is able to learn of the Savior's love for him. Again and again his mother thanked me for being her son's sponsor..for helping her to take care of her children as she is not able to do it on her own. I have to admit to you that $38.00 a month is not really a sacrifice for me and I almost feel guilty when I meet one of my sponsored kiddos and am received this way. For me (and for most of us), $38.00 a month is really no big deal. Giving up this money each month doesn't really keep us from getting or doing anything. To this little boy, my $38.00 a month means everything. It means he can eat, go to school, and learn of God's love for him. To him, my $38.00 a month is a BIG DEAL!!! Sometimes we feel like we can't do much for all the hurting and fatherless/poor in the world.. If each one of us just does what we can, together we can do much. Go to www.compassion.com to get information on sponsoring a child somewhere in the world who needs you. You can make a big difference for one child today!!!

Without Words

I can't believe that we have been in Patalup, Guatemala for an entire week already! I am without words, but be sure that God is working! We are experiencing Him all around us!! I will post more when we get back in the states. These people are truly amazing and have been a blessing to me much more than I have been to them! We are building houses, running ministries for teens, women, children, and distributing food and clothes. We are even running a medical clinic with the help of a national doctor. All ministries are overflowing with hundreds of people walking miles daily to be cared for physically and spiritually. God is good to allow me to be a part of the work here. Please continue to pray for us as we finish our work tomorrow and head back to the states this weekend. Thank you for your support. You are so much a part of all that God is doing here.

In Christ Jesus we are all sons of God through faith

Sean here- This is from Galatians 3:26, a powerful passage that teaches us we are adopted into the family of God when we believe in His Son. We become full heirs with all the rights and privileges that are afforded all His children. I had the opportunity to preach on this passage this weekend and it was a great experience. As I was studying verse 26, I read that the greek word used was the legal term used in adoption and legal inheritance papers. The adoption of our Jillian made me think about her gaining all the rights and privileges that are already afforded our daughter Emily. We will love and care for Jillian just like we do Emily. In the same way, God loves us and cares for us no matter where we have been or what we have done. Once we are adopted into His family we are His forever. Now that is something we can all get excited about!

A Different Sort of Journey

Tomorrow at 3:30 AM, I will embark on a journey that may seem to have nothing to do with adoption. I will board a plane and fly to Guatemala City, Guatemala. From there I will take a bus to a small village known as Patalup. Patalup is home to a small tribe of Mayan ancestral people who, by the grace of God and His love, I have the pleasure of serving and loving on in the week to come!

So, what does this have to do with adoption? Last year when I traveled to this village and as I viewed all the beauty that this country has to offer, my heart was broken for the poor and the fatherless who live there. This is where God wants us-serving the poor and the fatherless where ever it is we can find them-in Guatemala, at home, or close by.

God stirred my heart through last year's trip in a way that I had never experienced before! Children, hundreds in this small village alone, without enough food, in homes that we would consider shacks, begging for the chance to attend school because they did not have the money to go, and yet so joyful!! Without even the basic necessities of life yet so open to receiving Jesus's love!!

The one thing that they are lacking is someone to bring the news of Jesus's love to them! I am traveling with a team of 23 willing servants to this small village to tell them of God's salvation and the love that He has extended through Jesus Christ. Please pray for us as we leave tomorrow and arrive home on Sunday, June 27. Recently the village has been heavily affected by a tropical storm and severe mudslides. We are going to rebuild homes destroyed by the mudslides, run ministries designed for children, teens, women, men, and pastors, and bring food they desperately need because the mudslides have devastated many families' crops.

Guatemala's adoption program is rumored to be reopening soon! In the next week, I may be caring for a child that God has set apart to place in your family. Is God stirring your heart to care for these children and other children who are fatherless all around the world and in our backyard? If not you, pray for God to raise up His people to fulfill His mission!

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction..

And She Shall Be Called...

I remember the week before we began our paperwork trail. We decided we were in this thing and, because I am one obssessed woman when God puts something on my heart, we talked about the adoption every single day-multiple times!! (Still DO!)

What a sweet Thursday night it was when my dh, my darling kiddo, and myself where all lounging in the master bedroom dreaming of our new little one. We honestly love spending time together this way. There's no tv, no activity, and no agenda. We were just spending some time being still together. We enjoy each other soo much and being able to bring another little one into our quiver is beyond words!!

I asked, "What will we name her?" It was so fun to laugh, giggle, and imagine God's plans for this little girl. We threw out all the names that came to our mind from ridiculous to serious. My dh and darling kiddo are serious goof balls so there were many ridiculous names thrown out.

And she shall be called....Jillian. More important than Jillian, she will be called daughter, sister, loved, adopted, accepted, and a host of other things. She will be given a new family, a chance to know Jesus love for her, and a new beginning. Only God knows the results of these new beginnings, but we pray that she will enter into a relationship with Jesus, devote her life to Him, and serve Him with all that He has given her.

He will do it!!

Adoption costs alot of money and while I was certain that God was calling us to do it after that Tuesday night Bible study, I had no idea how. We certainly don't have loads of cash reserve around. My husband is in full time ministry and I am a teacher. Regardless, I boldly stood before my Tuesday night sisters in study group and said God will provide all we need. (That didn't make it any less miraculous when He did though! :)

It was so early on in the process (one week in), we hadn't shared our decision to adopt with too many. Our families didn't even know or have any idea. We filled out the preapplication papers with our agency, All God's Children, on that Tuesday night the week before and now here I was the next Tuesday night before my sisters again ready to jump off the deep end into this whole new adventure-international adoption. I said God would provide it that night, but I am not sure I honestly believed He would do it so quickly or in such grand fashion!

Wednesday night of that week came and I joyfully went to our youth ministry meetings. My husband and I shared our update and excitement about this possibility with our students. We prayed and studied the goodness of God that night. We read Psalm 34:8 Taste and See that the Lord is good. It struck me that tasting requires action on our part. We have to physically put food in our mouth if we want to get a taste of it. It doesn't usually happen by mistake. I thought about the adoption situation. We had done our part by filling out the papers. We had taken action toward tasting the goodness of God. Now it was up to Him to provide.

Thursday, April 21 I was so frustrated. I felt like God was leading me in circles and I just didn't know where to go or how to get there. I got a call from a friend and she really encouraged me! I came home and received another call. This time from the agency we had preapplied to. Tiffany was calling to tell us that someone had anonimously given a $15,000 donation toward our adoption!!! I said God was going to do it! I thought He would, but never the less this is the most amazing and miraculous thing that I have ever experienced God do!!! $15,000 provided so quickly!!!! Can you imagine our parent's surprise when we called to tell them to expect a new granddaughter and someone gave us $15,000 toward the cost?

:) God is so incredibly good!! His will is so much stronger than our doubts and Oh how blessed I am to have Him as my Savior!! $15,000...Can you even imagine anything like that??? Praise God for the faithful believers, whoever they are, who were so lead to provide a father for the fatherless and share their abundance with us! To God be the glory!!

1 Thessalonians 5:24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Leslie

Make Him Known!!

On April 13, 2010 our family stepped out in obedience to Him and started this journey to fulfill God's call on our lives to take care of orphans. I attended my Tuesday night Bible Study that night like every other Tuesday determined not to leave until every question in my heart was answered about the adoption process and where to go by a new friend that God had lead into my life through this Bible study. She is a faithful believer and wonderful new friend whose family had themselves adopted internationally. As I approached her, she teared up a bit and said that she had been speaking to her husband all week about the prompting that God was laying on her heart to ask me if I had ever considered adoption before. This was confirmation in my mind that God was up to something big. This blog is a way for me to make known the GIGANTIC things He has done on this journey already! It is my prayer that He is made known through this blog and that His story is written all over our lives. Want to hear some more of the miraculous works of God in our life? Stay Tuned-there is $15,000 to come!!!