Poem

I saw this poem on the Ethiopian adoption group we are members of.  I thought it very good and wanted to share it.

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.

But those who make their journey home across time and miles,

growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them.

Are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us

by God's very own hands.

God at work

My best friend goes to church with a man who is a grandfather to a young girl who has moved to Ethiopia on a mission for one year.  I believe she has been there for just over 6 months now.  Recently on her blog she posted about seeing God at work.  How often we miss it because we either dont ask God to open our eyes to see it, or we simply arent looking.  As I watch my daughter each day, I know that God is at work.  His amazing love, and his faithfullness is a daily reminder to me when I simply hold her in my arms, watch her kissing Lisa, or playing with my other children.  Know this, God is always at work!

If you would like to check out the blog I mentioned go to:

http://anyroadanycost.wordpress.com/

Security tank / Love tank

Since our daughter has been home we have discovered something about her, something she is lacking and she needs desperately.  Security, or maybe its just good old fashioned love.  Lisa tells me almost every day as I am away at work, how Lillibet will cry even if Lisa goes into the other room for but a brief moment.  Lisa loves that she needs her so desperately, of course at times it makes it very difficult to do anything much at all, and Lisa can get mildly frustrated.  Mostly though Lisa patiently loves her.  I told Lisa a few weeks ago to think of it as just filling her love tank that needs filling.  I have been staying with Lillibet on Wednesdays when Lisa and the girls are at church, this past Wednesday I experienced the same thing. Lillibet would cry loudly and come crawling towards me desperately trying to find me.  I took her for a walk in her stroller, I noticed about half way through the walk she began looking up to see my face every few seconds, she wanted to know I was still there and had not left her.  Sometimes its difficult to even think about all the transitions she has had in her short life.  She is only 15 months old, but she was with her mother for 6 months, at an orphanage in Southern Ethiopia for 4 months, and in the Care Center in the capital city for 3 months before coming home with us these past 2 months.

Someone recently commented, after watching Lillibet for just an hour or so, that you can tell she really gets a lot of attention.  Lisa said that yes she has 4 siblings and a mommy and a daddy, plus her doggie at home to take care of her.  As we thought of that comment, we thought of how misunderstood Lillibet was by this person.  How her deep need was not clear to this person, this person was not aware of her brief history here on Gods Earth.  At first it upset me and I wanted to say something, try to explain how deep her need is and what has happened to her in her life, to share her deep need.  Then I began to think of how much I misunderstand when I look around at others.  Had I not walked this adoption path for over 2 years now, read all the books and other information that I have, how I would have had the same perception.  I wonder how much we all misunderstand?  Who do we judge based upon our experiences not understanding the deep needs of those around us.  Maybe, just maybe we all should take a deep breath, stop assuming we understand what others have gone through in life, and just simply try to fill their love tanks.  Let them know we will just be there for them, no matter what.  So that when they look up from that stroller every few moments, they see that were still there, still walking with them.

Blessed with a burden

My wife and I today watched the movie "Freedom Writers" which is a story about a teacher who helps change the lives of many inner city kids who live in a area where gangs and violence are part of everyday life.  It was a touching story of how one person really impacts the world.  There is a part in the movie where her father and she are talking.  Earlier he had told her that her work at the school as a teacher was just a job.  After seeing the changes in her kids over a 2 year period, he tells her a different story.  At one point he tells her that she has been blessed with a burden.  A burden that kept her inspired through all of the tough times during the 2 years she was teaching her kids.  As I heard him share those words, my mind shifted to the burden Lisa and I have for the children of the world.  How it kept us inspired through all the ups and downs during our adoption journey.  There is just something about an inspired passion, a burden, that keeps you pushing forward.  As I type this my mind now wonders to those of you reading these words.  What burden has God blessed you with?  What need has he called you to meet that he made you and planned for you to meet before you were ever born.  I cant answer that question for anyone other than myself, but what I can say, without hesitation, is that while the burden he gives you will at times seem overwhelming, the blessing you will feel, the joy you will experience, while you are in the work he called you to, will far outweigh cost of the burden you will pay.  The best analogy I can think of is labor pains during child birth.  Once that child is in your arms, all the pain is long forgotten and only the joy remains.  So let me ask you, what burden has God blessed you with?

In the middle of the night

Last night around 330am Lillibet-Joy woke up crying, she had fallen to sleep on our ride home from the concert at our church last night.  The roads were horrible, overall I think we have 16 inches of snow.  It took my son and I about 3.5 hours of shoveling today to dig us out.  Anyway, the ride home was very slow and so she fell to sleep.  We put her to bed for the night but then at 330 she was up.  Lisa usually is the one who gets up but since I was off Friday on a vacation day to take Lillibet for some tests, and since its now Saturday and I am off work I went and checked on her to let Lisa sleep.  I was up for about 1.5 hours with her to finally get her back to sleep.  I tried rocking her in the glider we were given from a family that had adopted previously, in her room, but it did not work.  Then I took her to the living room to lay with her in my big comfortable recliner and after about an hour there it worked.  As I layed there wanting to get back to sleep and wishing she would just fall to sleep, I began thinking what it would have been like laying on the ground in a hut trying to comfort her in the middle of the night.  I began to be very grateful for the comfortable recliner I was lounging in with her.  Its amazing how perspective can really change the way you are thinking or feeling about something.  We, no let me say I have so much, so many conveniences so many things to make like easier, and yet we, no I still complain.  I can see already how God is using Lillibet and what he allowed us to see while in Ethiopia to change us.  I only hope he never stops working on me.

Be still and know that I am God

I was just sitting in my living room watching my kids play with Lillibet-Joy, we were playing a cd of kids music, songs like Lion King, Chitty chitty bang bang, This little light of mine etc etc.  My oldest son Joshua who is 19 was dancing for her, she had her on his shoulders, then my youngest Hope who is 11 was doing the same.  Lisa was there and Charity also, it was so funny watching them all playing.  Lillibet was giggling and just loving all of them.  I began pondering all that we have gone through these almost past 2 years raising funds, mounds of paperwork, doubting at times if we would ever get there.  My eyes began to peruse my living room where my wife has hung many inspirational plaques, they kind of make up a border of sorts.  My eyes fell on one plaque in particular, its message brought me into a moment of worship.  A time to thank God and praise him.  The plaque simply said, " Be still and know that I am God".

Transformed

As I have thought about all that our daughter has seen, experienced, felt, tasted, smelled and lived through these past few weeks, I was struck with how this for her is very similar to something else. She has traveled over half of the world to find her home. Her life is completely transformed. She now lives in a home large enough to offer her her very own bedroom. She has food anytime she wants or needs it. All of her physical needs are met. She is loved wildly by so many I am excited just to type these words. The weather is completely different than what she is used to. The clothes she wears, the places she goes, just everything is completely different. She has been planted into a family and is now a part of it as if she had always been a part of it. This is exactly what God does for those who have accepted him. Those who have yielded their lives and humbled themselves, realizing that like every other soul on the planet, they have sinned (missed the target). They need a Savior and they accept Jesus and what he willingly gave up for them. In this acceptance of this free gift, they find their lives transformed. They find that they have been grafted into a new family, Gods family. They have a loving Father who takes care of them and cares for them. They find themselves surrounded by loving brothers and sisters who love them fully. I think this picture of adoption, and how it compares to how God adopted us, is so beautiful, I can only smile when I ponder it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We are very thankful for all of you and for all of the blessings God has given us, especially our new daughter Joy. Many of you if not all of you have helped make our adoption journey possible. We will never be able to put into words eloquently enough, to express how grateful we truly are. As we are nearing the part of our journey where we will be traveling to Africa, wow I thought I would never say that about Lisa and I, to meet our daughter and begin a lifetime of loving her, I want to ask all of you to pause for a few moments this holiday. Consider how truly blessed you are, and as you sit down with loved ones to eat your Thanksgiving Feast, reflect on those around the world who have very little to nothing to eat any day let alone a day like today. What can you, no, what will you do to help. God Bless!

Overjoyed about Joy

I have at times found it difficult to sleep when experiencing difficulty or sadness. Recently, with the loss of my Father there have been times, especially those first few days and weeks, that I would wake and immediately begin to think about my Dad. Several times I ended up just getting up for a while, sometimes returning to bed sometimes not. Last Friday, after the anonymous donor gave us the $4000 and we had all we needed, basically, for the adoption including travel, I experienced something new. I woke up Saturday morning around 5am and was simply overjoyed. I was so thrilled and in awe of God and what he had taken us through, I simply could not sleep. I got up and studied some, checked ESPN for scores etc. The very same thing happened Sunday morning as well, only this time it was 330am. Words can not adequately express the thankful hearts that we have for all of you that prayed, helped and gave. And of course most importantly we are in awe and overwhelmed that God moved so amazingly and so quickly to help us. We are simply OVERJOYED ABOUT JOY!

God is faithful

I stumbled by an old email a friend of mine sent me on March 26, 2008 when we were just beginning our adoption journey when we were faced with raising $20,000 we did not have. Its words were prophetic. Listen to what she said, and try to trust God for whatever your going through yourself. God is faithful!

"It's going to be awesome to watch how God works to raise those few measly thousand dollars. That is NOTHING to Him...but I guarantee it is going to be awesome to watch. I know I'M looking forward to it!! God knows your hearts, and I truly believe he is going to RICHLY reward you for your faithfulness! The neat thing about having to raise that much money is going to be all the people it is going to involve in one way or another. If you just had the money sitting around, or if someone donated all of it, you wouldn't get to see God at work. I know I've given you this analogy before, but I still think back to Gideon. God purposely dwindled his army down to nothing so they would KNOW it was God winning the battle. In addition, God is going to touch hundreds of lives through you along the way...just like the teller at the bank...and countless others who are watching you will never know about!! While the endgame is going to be beautiful, the journey along the way is going to be incredible!!!! Enjoy watching the scenery on the way!!!"

Its a miracle

Wow I have so much to tell everyone I cant believe it. For now Im going to just post a quick note as we have been so hectic with activity and my head is still spinning. We raised $3014 at our fundraiser dinner on Thursday night. This was enough along with the match to pay our final program fee to the agency. All that was left was the travel expenses. To make a long but beautiful story short, I went to the the bank Friday to make a deposit in our adoption account and someone had made a $4000 deposit that very day! You should have seen the joy all over me right there in the bank. The teller was laughing the other tellers were all looking. It was one of the most special moments of my life honestly. God showed up and showed off again. To God be all the glory. God is not broke, he owns everything and he loves so much that he even payed the way for a young orphan girl thousands of miles away to come home to her mommy and daddy and brothers and sisters. I just cant wait to see my wife holding her and kissing her. I cant wait to see my kids playing with her. God moved and many of you listened, words will never be able to express the joy and love we feel. Thank you all for every prayer offered, every donation made, every encouraging word along the way. God is so good!!

Telling Joy about you

I just finished watching the recent Hannah Montana movie with my family, ok please dont tell anyone or they will take my man card! As I was listening to the main song about the climb and the struggles we have I thought of all we have gone through on our adoption journey. In my mind I began thinking of many of you, all the money, the time, the prayers, the words of encouragement, the acts of service etc etc. I started thinking about Joy and years from now telling her all of your stories. Like today, we received a $40 check from someone I dont even know that Lisa knows only a little. I cant wait to sit her on my lap and tell her of all the amazing people who loved a little girl they never even met enough to give and give and give. I cant wait to see the smile on her face as she begins to think about all of the people who made it possible for her to come home. Most importantly I cant wait to tell her of a God who moved in all of our hearts to show how much he Loves us all. Even an unknown orphan thousand of miles away.

Dad

My Dad died June 25th, this past weekend we went over to his home and sifted through his belongings. It was a bit strange and evoked many memories. Finding some of his belongings that had special meaning to them was fun but also sad. Looking through old photos it was like living my life over again in those brief moments when I was flipping from photo to photo. Finding some old cassettes of music and listening to them also solicited the same emotion. A life lived and remembered. He is gone but his legacy goes on. As I think of my Dad, who was not perfect as none of us are, and what he meant and means to me still, I cant imagine going through life without one. What must be the sorrow of an orphans heart.

Thoughts for the day

Can you imagine your children so hungry that you offer to give them to strangers- just so they will live?

Bob Pierce once said, " Don't fail to do something just because you can't do everything." These are wise words to anyone overwhelmed with the magnitude of human suffering in our world. We are not asked to help all of them at once, just one at a time.

Somebody else's child continued

From the book-

" You see, our problem is that the plight of suffering children in a far off land simply hasn't gotten personal for us. We may hear about them with sorrow, but we haven't really been able to look at them as if they were our children. If we could, then we would surely grieve more deeply in our spirits. We would weep for their parents, and we would respond with far greater urgency.

How might God think about this issue? Does he look at the suffering of a child in Cambodia or Malawi with a certain sense of emotional distance? Does God have different levels of compassion for children based on their geographic location, their nationality, their race- or their parent's income level? Does he forget about their pain because He is preoccupied with other things? Does He turn the offending page to read the sports section- or is His heart broken because each child is precious to Him? God surely grieves and weeps, because every one of these children is His child- not somebody else's."

Chapter 6 "A Hole in me"

At the end of chapter 6 in the book the author shares an analogy of how our life of faith ought to be like. I thought I would share it.

" Think for a moment of your life as a house with many rooms. Your faith cannot be just one more room in the house, equal with your job, your marriage, your political affiliation, or your hobbies. No, your faith must be like the very air you breathe, in every room of the house. It must permeate not just your "Sunday worship," or even your vocation and your behavior at home, but also your dealings with everyone around you- including the poor. That's how deep the commitment must be.

So What does God expect of you then? Everything."

A few paragraphs earlier he is discussing the passage in James that speaks of being a doer of the Word not just a hearer and he said this.

" You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder. (part of James chapter 2)

Here James stated in black and white that belief is not enough. It must be accompanied by faith demonstrated by actions. My former pastor and good friend Gary Gulbranson once said, "It's not what you believe that counts; it's what you believe enough to do." I think James would have liked Gary's understanding of the gospel in action. "

The whole gospel in action

In chapter 5 the author shares this gripping account of a Cambodian Pastor and his church. It speaks for itself.

"We had traveled for some hours up the Mekong River in a wooden boat. Our purpose was to visit the pastor of a small house church, a man named Roth Ourng. Pastor Ourng was a small man with a big smile. He eagerly bade us to climb the stairs to his small bamboo house on stilts. Pastor Ourng's day job was rice farming, but he pastored a small church of 83 members that he had started a few years back. His congregation met in his tiny home each Sunday morning to worship.

As we sat with Pastor Ourng, we talked about his community, his congregation, and farming. He was eager to know about churches in the United States and whether we had Bible commentaries and study guides that helped us understand Scripture. His only book was a Bible in the Khmer language, a treasure to him. "But" he said, "this is a difficult book, and I would love to have other books to help me understand it." I realized that in comparison, I lived in a nation literally drowning in Christian books, commentaries, and resources.

Pastor Ourng showed us the handmade two-stringed musical instrument that served as his church's "orchestra" For a wedding or special celebration, he said, his church would send runners to two different churches, 30 miles in each direction to borrow their guitars. Then the next day they would run them back. This made me think of my own church's million-dollar pipe organ.

After a while I asked him, "Pastor, living in a country that is more than 90 percent Buddhist, how did you come to be a Christian?" The story he told me was confirmation of the power of the gospel in action.

"Five years ago," he said. "World Vision came to our community and began to work. I was suspicious of these outsiders to our community and was convinced that they had their own hidden agenda. You see, in Cambodia, since the genocide by the Klmer Rouge, we are always distrustful of strangers. But these people from World Vision [also Cambodians] set up a TB clinic to care for those suffering from TB. They improved the schools our children attended, and they taught better agricultural methods to the farmers to improve our yields. But I was still suspicious and even angry, convinced that they were up to no good. Why would these strangers help us? I thought.

"One day I decided to confront them, and I went to the World Vision leader and demanded to know why they were here. His answer took me by surprise. He said, "We are followers of Jesus Christ, and we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are here to show you that God loves you."
"I said in response, "Who is this Jesus Christ that you talk about?"
"The man went and got me this Bible that you see here today and gave it to me. He told me that everything about Jesus was in this book. That night I went home and read the book of Genesis. I was truly amazed because in this Genesis I met the God I had wondered about all of my life. I met here the God who created heaven and earth, the Maker of the universe. The next morning I ran back and told him what I had read but said that I still did not know that Jesus he talks about. He told me he would take me to the city to meet with a Christian pastor that would explain these things to me. Some weeks later he took me and my friend to meet the pastor. He opened his Bible and read to us many passages about Jesus and explained the good news of salvation. At the end, he asked if we wanted to become disciples of Jesus and commit our lives to Him. We both said yes and that day committed to follow Christ as our Savior."

I was overwhelmed by this man's story. His encounter with Christ began with Christians who came to serve the poor--nursing the sick, educating the children, and helping increase food for the hungry. So compelling was this service that it provoked questions in the mind of a curious man: Why are you here? Why are you helping us? The answer to these questions was the gospel, the good news.

"Pastor, that is a wonderful story," I said. "Now, what about the eighty-three peoople who worship at your church; how did they come to follow Jesus?" "I was so excited to learn about Jesus," he said, "that I had to share this good news with everyone I knew. These eighty-three, they are my little flock."

Wow. There, in a bamboo house in Cambodia, I heard echoes of the Great Commission: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). And I knew I had just witnessed the whole gospel--in action.

Quotes from the book

In the book there are many quotes at the beginning of the chapters all throughout, I thought I would just share many of them that I liked in no particular order.

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. Saint Teresa of Avila

Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.
Frederick W. Faber

The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment.
John Macarthur

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. Frederick Buechner

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. Gail Sheehy

Hell will be full of people who thought highly of the Sermon on the Mount. You must do more than that. You must obey it and take action. John Macarthur

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost

A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine. D. L. Moody

If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done. God will use anybody if you're available. Rick Warren

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. Mother Teresa

Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and the persecuted while it atrophies among the rich and secure. Philip Jenkins

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller

We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. John W. Gardner

He who is dying of hunger must be fed rather than taught. Saint Thomas Aquinas

Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when he could do something about it. Well, why don't you ask Him? Because I'm afraid He would ask me the same question. Anonymous

We've drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium.
Paul Harvey

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Mankind wants glory. We want health. We want wealth. We want happiness. We want all our felt needs met, all our little human itches scratched. We want a painless life. We want the crown without the cross. We want the gain without the pain. We want the words of Christ's salvation to be easy. John Macarthur

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap and then you grow wings.
William Sloane Coffin

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Mohandas Gandhi

A church that lives within its four walls is no church at all.
Pastor Morgan Chilulu

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito. African Saying

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. Henry Van Dyke

Make your life a mission- not an intermission. Arnold Glasgow

The one who says it can't be done should get out of the way of the one who is doing it. Chinese Proverb

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. Mother Teresa

Chapter 4 " A most distressing disguise"

The author explores the passage found in Matthew 25:40, "And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." He says this;

"The question for you and for me is this: will Christ find evidence of our genuine concern for his beloved poor when he looks at the fruit of our lives on that day? Further, what might He be calling you to do today? What new steps of faith might you take to demonstrate your own concern for the least of these?

One last startling aspect of this passage is the remarkable claim of our Lord that whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did it for me. Even the good sheep in this passage were surprised at this. What they had seen as simple human gestures of love to the needy turned out to be gestures to a Christ incognito. Mother Teresa once said in the faces of the poor whom she served, she saw Christ in his most distressing disguise."

Chapter 3 thoughts- Hole in our Gospel

I am almost finished with the book, its one of those that's hard to put down, so I am behind on sharing my thoughts. Here are some things from chapter 3 that really stood out to me.

The chapter is titled " You lack one thing" in reference to the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking for eternal life. After a exchange where he began to think he was already doing ok, Jesus tells him one thing you lack, go and sell everything and give it to the poor, then come follow me. Of course as he was very wealthy and had many possessions (see American Christians) he was not willing to let go of his "stuff" and so he walked away from Jesus and we never hear from him again. The chapter has a quote at the beginning under the title that really hit me. It was a quote by Frederick Buechner who said once, " The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the worlds deep hunger meet." I wonder, are we as American Christians listening to Gods call, are we there meeting the deep hunger we see from those all around us in the world, or are we like the rich young ruler, unable to let go of all of our "stuff".

Later in the chapter, when the author, Richard Stearns, who is the President of World Vision U.S., shared how he struggled when God called him to this position. He actually told the organization no at first. He continued to agonize over it and a thought came to him one night in a church service. His thought was simply,what if there are children who will suffer somehow because I failed to obey God? He thought hadn't I always taught my kids that actions had consequences? What if my cowardice costs even one child somewhere in the world his or her life? He recounts how he could not live with that thought, so he broke down. God had broken him and he knew he could no longer run from him. That reminds me of that moment in my life, as I walked out of the historic Moody Church in downtown Chicago, where I felt the pull clearly of God to go get that book from the speaker on orphans and the need for churches to get involved. I remember debating in my mind should I go or not. I thank God I did and we remain dedicated to do what he has called us to do, rescue just one child, who without our action, may lose their own life. We can't live with that!