Thursday, September 16, 2010
Our Web Page
We are pulling our orphan ministry web site off the web. Most of our traffic comes through our blog (which is free), so we've decided to stop paying for a web site and just make use of the blog. As you know, there are some definite shifts going on in our direction, but orphan ministry will remain on our plate and dear to our hearts. All of the info that was on the web site will be moved either to this blog or to another one. I will keep you posted as we move forward. :)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Special Needs Orphan Ministry
I was contacted by a wonderful lady who "provides early intervention services and support to orphans with special needs." She gave me her blog address, and I wanted to pass this along to you. Click on this link to visit her blog. She is advocating for several orphans in Ukraine, and she recently delivered hats, sun bonnets and orthopedic equipment to a Baby House in Ukraine. Precious ministry! This is her "brick." She's using her specialty and knowledge to reach out to orphans, and she's also advocating for those children who desperately need families. Please share her blog address with your friends and family. Pray for the orphans she is advocating for on her blog, and pray for her as she works on her portion of the wall of orphan ministry.
If you want to help out orphans but don't know how, a GREAT place to start is to simply advocate for orphans who need a family. They cannot advocate for themselves, so they need you! Just choose a few children and become their unofficial advocate. Go to Reece's Rainbow for names and pictures of many orphans who desperately need their forever family to find them. You can put their pictures on your blogs or share information with your family and friends. You can have a yard sale to raise $ to put into their adoption fund, and you place a photo and information of the child for everyone to see as they shop your yard sale. You can pray every day for this child, as it is quite possible that nobody else is praying for him/her. You really CAN do something! It may not seem like a lot to you, but for a child who cannot speak up for themselves, your little bit of help can make a world of difference.
If you want to help out orphans but don't know how, a GREAT place to start is to simply advocate for orphans who need a family. They cannot advocate for themselves, so they need you! Just choose a few children and become their unofficial advocate. Go to Reece's Rainbow for names and pictures of many orphans who desperately need their forever family to find them. You can put their pictures on your blogs or share information with your family and friends. You can have a yard sale to raise $ to put into their adoption fund, and you place a photo and information of the child for everyone to see as they shop your yard sale. You can pray every day for this child, as it is quite possible that nobody else is praying for him/her. You really CAN do something! It may not seem like a lot to you, but for a child who cannot speak up for themselves, your little bit of help can make a world of difference.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Changes
When this blog is silent, you can always be certain that something is going on.
It's been one of those seasons in life with a zillion questions and deep pondering... What should I pour my life into? What do I want my legacy to be? What really matters? What lasts for eternity? What should be my priority and focus?
It's been a season of reflection, seeking, praying.
It's been a season of testing and struggling.
While reading the book Live Life on Purpose: God's Purpose. Your Life. One Journey, I was hit by a statement: "Every map has an expiration date." Things change, life moves, time advances. And maps expire.
The point in that book is to line yourself up with God as a compass lines up with true north. Maps are great for the journey, but every map expires. If you're using your compass, you can still stay on course.
And this is where I find myself today. With an expired map. To be more precise, my map has some added things on it now. It's like the world globe I recently unpacked. It had been my grandmother's globe, and it was amazing all the changes that have occurred in the years since that globe was made! All the continents were the same, but some countries have changed names.
And my life map has been altered. Three years ago it read: "Orphan Ministry." No details. One year ago, it read, "Orphan Ministry: Rebuild the Wall." The plans of Nehemiah came into focus as a way to look at orphan ministry. We all have bricks...we all have a portion of the wall we can work on. And today the map reads, "Ministry: Physical and Spiritual Orphans." It's as if a "country" on my map has shifted its borders and created another "state."
The basic framework is there...orphan ministry. The basic blueprint is there...we all have bricks and can do this work together. But the vision has expanded.
I will soon share more details about that, as it is a blog entry in and of itself. But here's a short version that will catch you up to speed...
During every step of our adoption last year, God spoke in my spirit, showing me how it related to my own adoption into His family. The parallel was beyond coincidental. And on that day when we arrived at the orphanage and saw our not-too-receptive child who waved goodbye to us and wanted us to leave, I was struck by something. I could see the parallel so vividly in how God longs to adopt us into His family, but we don't see the need. Or worse...there are so many (millions upon millions) who don't even know that they have a Father who is longing to adopt them into His family as His very own children. Just as our daughter had never heard of us, they have never heard of this God of love. Instead, they worship idols, ancestors, etc.
These are what seem to me to be "spiritual orphans." They have a Father who yearns to adopt them, but they just don't know. They've never heard.
So, how do I serve these precious people?? Ahhh, now you know what this blog has been silent. It's a deep pondering to really truly seek God in this question. Will we follow Him to the foreign mission field? Honestly, I do not know exactly what He's leading us to do, but I DO know that I have to be 100% open to WHATEVER that is and WHEREVER that is. So, we've made ourselves available for Him to interrupt our lives in whatever way He wants. Dangerous prayers! :) We've agreed to say YES no matter what He asks us to do. That means that if He opens the doors for us to serve on the foreign mission field, we will go. So, there...I said it...I'm on call now!
There are other options that are just as powerful. I am being trained to be a prayer leader for a missionary agency, and we can enter into very focused and dedicated partnership with missionaries already on the field...to pray for them specifically, support them financially, etc. This is a support role that is just as crucial as actually being "on the field."
Options. Paths. Decisions. New maps. But same compass and same North Star.
There is so much more to say, and I will blog about it in segments as I can. But I did want to finally break the silence and spill bits of news.
It's been one of those seasons in life with a zillion questions and deep pondering... What should I pour my life into? What do I want my legacy to be? What really matters? What lasts for eternity? What should be my priority and focus?
It's been a season of reflection, seeking, praying.
It's been a season of testing and struggling.
While reading the book Live Life on Purpose: God's Purpose. Your Life. One Journey, I was hit by a statement: "Every map has an expiration date." Things change, life moves, time advances. And maps expire.
The point in that book is to line yourself up with God as a compass lines up with true north. Maps are great for the journey, but every map expires. If you're using your compass, you can still stay on course.
And this is where I find myself today. With an expired map. To be more precise, my map has some added things on it now. It's like the world globe I recently unpacked. It had been my grandmother's globe, and it was amazing all the changes that have occurred in the years since that globe was made! All the continents were the same, but some countries have changed names.
And my life map has been altered. Three years ago it read: "Orphan Ministry." No details. One year ago, it read, "Orphan Ministry: Rebuild the Wall." The plans of Nehemiah came into focus as a way to look at orphan ministry. We all have bricks...we all have a portion of the wall we can work on. And today the map reads, "Ministry: Physical and Spiritual Orphans." It's as if a "country" on my map has shifted its borders and created another "state."
The basic framework is there...orphan ministry. The basic blueprint is there...we all have bricks and can do this work together. But the vision has expanded.
I will soon share more details about that, as it is a blog entry in and of itself. But here's a short version that will catch you up to speed...
During every step of our adoption last year, God spoke in my spirit, showing me how it related to my own adoption into His family. The parallel was beyond coincidental. And on that day when we arrived at the orphanage and saw our not-too-receptive child who waved goodbye to us and wanted us to leave, I was struck by something. I could see the parallel so vividly in how God longs to adopt us into His family, but we don't see the need. Or worse...there are so many (millions upon millions) who don't even know that they have a Father who is longing to adopt them into His family as His very own children. Just as our daughter had never heard of us, they have never heard of this God of love. Instead, they worship idols, ancestors, etc.
These are what seem to me to be "spiritual orphans." They have a Father who yearns to adopt them, but they just don't know. They've never heard.
So, how do I serve these precious people?? Ahhh, now you know what this blog has been silent. It's a deep pondering to really truly seek God in this question. Will we follow Him to the foreign mission field? Honestly, I do not know exactly what He's leading us to do, but I DO know that I have to be 100% open to WHATEVER that is and WHEREVER that is. So, we've made ourselves available for Him to interrupt our lives in whatever way He wants. Dangerous prayers! :) We've agreed to say YES no matter what He asks us to do. That means that if He opens the doors for us to serve on the foreign mission field, we will go. So, there...I said it...I'm on call now!
There are other options that are just as powerful. I am being trained to be a prayer leader for a missionary agency, and we can enter into very focused and dedicated partnership with missionaries already on the field...to pray for them specifically, support them financially, etc. This is a support role that is just as crucial as actually being "on the field."
Options. Paths. Decisions. New maps. But same compass and same North Star.
There is so much more to say, and I will blog about it in segments as I can. But I did want to finally break the silence and spill bits of news.
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