Teamwork

My wife Lisa and I have been amazed lately at how many people are involved in helping us bring our child home. We currently have about 70 places of business that have donated for the auction and we know of about 20 more that will be in the next few days. We have too many friends to count that are helping us. Its just been really inspiring to see everyone's hearts getting touched and getting involved. My wife has an idea and we are working on it now to make a blanket, the colors will be of the Ethiopian flag. She will be making it and we plan to have it at the dinner/auction. We have special markers made to write on cloth and we will be asking everyone who came to the dinner to eat, to participate in the auction, to help with the cooking, the tickets, the auction, the clean up etc etc to sign it. We want to give the blanket to our child so he or she will know how much they were loved, how many people sacrificed their time, their talent and their treasure to help rescue them from a life without a family. I think this idea is really a cool one. I hope to see you all there and watch you sign your names to the blanket. A legacy of love to share with one of God's children. Only 12 days left. Are you planning on being there??

Red letter day

Today was a great day. We had lots of positive things happen today for the dinner / auction. We were given a $30 gift card to a restaurant, a $25 gift card to a grocery store, 2 golf lessons from a pro valued at $30 each, about $45 in value of books from a book store, enough food to feed about 180 people for our rigatoni dinner and most likely will get the balance of the food donated from a friend of ours as well. All of this happened about a few hours apart. As I was driving home from collecting most of these items, I was thinking of how God is providing each day something positive. He keeps us encouraged with something new every day. I am reminded that his mercies are new every day and so is his generosity. He continues to grow all of our faith as we see him providing for our adoption. This was TOO big for us on our own, God had to be in it for it to work out and he is at work. When God shows up, he shows off.

Why

We have been asked why are we adopting so many times lately. I thought I would share this verse. It has become very special to me.

James 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Did you notice that it says before God. It does not say before men.

Godcidence

Hello all,
Always in the midst of chaos, God is right here beside us: Planning for the fundraiser, running around to different businesses getting donations, trying to secure food donations, living life with two teenage boys and two younger girls, working a job, keeping the house presentable(most of the time) :)
Today I (Lisa) went to the park with the girls I babysit and my girls. I was pushing the twins on the swings and I recognized the lady right next to me. I had met her one time on a field trip for homeschooling families two or three years ago. I said to her "Isn't your husband in some kind of Christian ministry?" She said, "Yes, we were missionaries to Ethiopia". I was so excited to hear that. Isn't God amazing!! He meets us right where we are, and responds to us in the tiniest details. This lady said that she would be willing to teach us some words of the language of Ethiopia before we go over there. What an awesome God we serve and love.

Pride

I thought I would share some of my feelings as I have been running all over town asking for donations. Sometimes when I first get started its difficult. You get funny looks from people, you get some quick rejections and you feel like you should just give up. But we cant! We have to keep on asking and keep on working. I spent 2.5 hours tonight and I went to 20 different places asking for donations. Tonight we had 4 places graciously give. I guess when you do the math thats a pretty good %, but sometimes that old stubborn pride gets in the way and you dont want to deal with the rejection any more. I start thinking about what people are thinking of me as they hear me asking for the manager and then tell our story briefly. Sometimes, I wonder if they believe me. I am sure there are many con artists out there and I surely understand that. I just wish I could show them what I have seen and try to convince them of the great need for orphans all over the world. So we trudge on forgetting our silly pride and keep on asking without apology.

Iron Will

The other day we watched a movie that was from 1994 called Iron Will. Its one of those inspirational stories about a 17 year old boy who wins a dog sled race to save his families farm. Its really a good movie. As the story unfolds, the country unknown to Will learns of him through a newspaper reporter. The country begins to look to the young boy as a hero. One scene really impressed me. He is coming close to the end of the race that no one expected him to survive the first day of. He comes through a small town in Minnesota and the townspeople are lined up on the small main street of town and are cheering him with all sorts of fanfare. American flags are everywhere, bands are playing and people are everywhere cheering him. He is told of all that the nation has know of him for weeks and he is amazed. He is encouraged and he goes on. That reminded me of how God has encourages us during this giant project of adoption we have going. It seems like whenever the obstacles become too large, whenever our courage waivers, whenever we cant see our way through, whenever we think there are too many tickets to sell, too many forms to copy and mail in, too many people to ask for donations for the auction, something small hits and we go on. Like yesterday. I emailed a sports talk show I have listened to for years, and within a few hours the host graciously emailed back telling us how he would be helping, or like today when some friends went door to door selling tickets and one lady bought 2 tickets but then donated an extra $10 just to help our cause. Its all of these little things that really helps us to keep on working. To not give up.

God is an ontime God isnt he! He knows when his kids need some encouragement.

Olympic Teams

Last night my wife and some friends of ours watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Before it started we walked around in my neighborhood and sold tickets for the adoption. We only had about 30 minutes to do this as we wanted to get back and watch the event. We went to maybe 10 homes in the time we had. Not one home said no to buying a ticket. A few said come back today or next weekend but no one said no thanks. One house purchased 4, another 3. In the short time we had we sold 14 tickets. As I have thought about that, I have been amazed at folks generosity, their willingness to help. We have several friends selling tickets for us, donating themselves, volunteering their time for the night of the fund raiser etc etc. This is really a team effort and I am proud to know their is so much love and desire to help out there.

As I watched the ceremony the time came to see all of the worlds athletes nation by nation walk out into the stadium. As I waited to see the U.S. team, I found myself anxiously waiting to see the Ethiopian team as well. My vision for others I have found has grown during this adoption process. I think God is pleased when we begin to realize that our little circle in the world, is not the only place where God is working and where his love is. Isnt it comforting to know that God loves all the little children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight!

Steven Curtis Chapman Family

Tonight my wife and I watched Larry King Live which had the Chapman family on. They told the story of the tragic loss of one of the 3 daughters they adopted from China. It was very moving. What an incredible family they are. I was struck by one particular thing. The son who accidentally ran over his sister, was asked by Larry had the family helped him make it through. He said very much so, but he specifically spoke of his brother Caleb who was right there right after the accident. He said all he wanted to do was run away, get away from the scene of the accident but Caleb ran him down tackling him. He held him down and hugged on him telling him everything was going to be ok. I thought of how much that is like God. When we think we have hit rock bottom, he will run after us and hold onto us telling us everything will be ok. The only question is will we let him. Will we listen to his loving plea or will we continue to run away in our shame. Wow, what a testimony this family has. If you have the chance, watch this program.

My 2 sons

I am very proud of my 2 boys. They are both on a missions trip in the Bahamas this week. They are both working at the Y as swim instructors and life guards and they both chose to use their own money to pay for the trip. We gave them both some money and there was some donations that helped but they both used somewhere in the area of $700-800 of their own hard earned money to pay for the trip. I hope that they come away from this trip understanding how much God has blessed them and begin to develop a heart for those less fortunate throughout the world. As I have shared before here on the blog a missions trip I took to the Dominican Republic back in 2005 planted a seed that in part brought about the fruit of the adoption we are pursuing now. Here is a picture of a drama my youngest son Christian is a part of. He is the one with the Love banner hanging on him. The youth group at our church has a website where you can read about what the group is doing on the trip and see other photos. The site is, http://www.connect316.com/ .