The gift that keeps on Giving

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

-- Proverbs 31:8-9


Looking for a gift that will go on giving after Christmas? How about a gift that you give, but that you receive a HUGE blessing for? Want to help little children have enough to eat, have good health care, and most importantly hear the gospel?
Then I have the a gift for you!

Sponsor a child through Compassion International!! $38 a month provides a child with good food and water, health care, educational help, and a chance to learn about Jesus. You can't beat it!

I am so excited to have become a Child Advocate for Compassion. In my role, I get to advocate for those who can't! For the little ones who need food. For those who need good health care. For those who don't know Jesus.

Our family has a wonderful time praying for our Compassion children. We write them letters and they write back. We learn about where they live and what they face each day. It is such a blessing!! Sheyla lives in Mexico and we have been praying for her because her Grandmother died. We have a strong connection to her, and we have come to love her.


So, here's your biggest question- How do you know that the money gets to the kids?
Last year over 82% of donations went straight to the kids! Wes Stafford, the CEO, of CI is one of the lowest paid CEO's of non-profits. I know, I checked. You can check too- go take a look at their financial integrity at Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/

CI earned 5 stars from Charity Navigator.

One of my favorite reasons to help care for children through Compassion International is that they give the money to the local church to help out in their own community. That is so great! The credit goes to the local church. The reputation of the local church and of Jesus is strengthened through this arrangement. The church is there- they are doing the work- they can be skin on to those around them. Having been a missionary, I know that this is so important. We would have mission groups come from somewhere else, and their help was very valuable, but at the end of the week, it was our church that was still there.

I have 2 children who need sponsors right now! They need to be sponsored by January 6! One of them has been waiting for over 7 months for a sponsor. Will you partner with us to sponsor one of them? Let me know and I will fix you up!

Bedo lives in Ethiopia and is 6 years old. He's been waiting for 7 months to be sponsored!

Darianny lives in the Dominican Republic and is 7 years old. She lives with her grandmother.

You can also follow the link below and look for a child to sponsor in any area that God may have placed on your heart.


If you don't want to commit to a monthly gift- there are many ways you can give this Christmas to help those in need. Follow the link below and click on Gift Catalog at the top- you can give animals, clean water, blankets, medical care and so much more through your one time gift!

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=122338

What Defines You?

Being made in the image of Christ- not in the image of the circumstances of our life.

So, what defines you? When people are asked about you, what do they say? She's bitter and angry or sweet and gentle? So many of us have allowed the circumstances of our lives to shape who we are. We believe that we deserve to be angry, or bitter, or sullen because of the things that have happened to us along the way. We become clothed in those feelings and people begin to only see us as that mean old lady! They walk a wide berth around us when they see us coming.

I have had my share of "events", some good and some bad. Roger and I were married on the day after my 21st birthday- he was still 20, and since we have been together we have lost all of our grandparents, his Dad, been through the divorce of both sets of parents and the remarriage of 3 of them, we have been hired and "moved along" from jobs, we have had plenty and we have not had plenty, had 4 children and lost 3 to miscarriage, and that's not counting the smaller and less important trials! (But who's counting?!)

There have been many days when I have allowed my circumstances to shape my feelings and define my life. Many seasons where I was a bitter, angry woman. I have lost so much during those times. Love and joy, peace and even kindness were lost to me as I focused on the bad and not Jesus. I lost the ability to do good to those around me. But most importantly I lost the chance to be shaped into the image of my beautiful Jesus who meant all of those things for my good.

Romans 8:28 says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

Those things in my life were meant for my sanctification- my drawing on His strength and for developing good and Godly behaviors in my life. They were to bring me close to Him. To be clothed in His righteousness and not my own. To help me to know a better path the next time. James 1 says to

" ² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." ESV

I want to be known as loving and kind. As someone who has used their experience to develop a sweet and abiding love for those around me. I want to be clothed in His righteousness and love so that when others look at me, they only see Him. To be defined by whose I am and not what has happened to me. To show the gospel with my life.

Why would a family with four kids want another child... part 2.

There are 143,000,000 orphans in the world

• There are an additional 20,000,000 “displaced children” in the world
• The combined count of these categories makes the orphan
population the 7th largest nation on the planet – slightly larger than
the population of Russia
• In Eastern Europe, less than 50% of the orphan population will live
to see their 20th birthdays
• In Eastern Europe, of the orphans that survive their 20th birthdays,
50% will end up in organized crime, drugs, or prostitution
• In Africa, homeless children are armed and used for war
• In Africa, there is a concerted effort to extend children’s lives
beyond 5 years of age
• In the US, 25,000 children will leave the foster care system without
families
• 25% of these foster children become homeless,
• 56% of these emancipated foster care children enter the
unemployment ranks
• 27% of the emancipated male children in foster care end up in jail
• 30% of the emancipated females in foster care experience early
parenthood
• 30,000 children in foster care are simply dropped from state care
because they have run away
• In the US, most young adults ages 18 – 24 still live at home with
their parents, while approximately 25,000 children are annually
released at age 18 from the foster care system without families to
support them.”

There are so many. We want to share the blessings that God has given us with one of these children. To make a difference in their life, and in the lives of their children, and grandchildren...

Please help us raise the money to start our home study. Every day we spend raising funds is one more day a child remains an orphan.

Check out our fundraiser here

or press the donate button to the right.

Thanks!

Update

Several of you have asked we where are in the process, so I wanted to give you an update. We have seen a child on Reece's Rainbow that we are praying about, and we will begin our homestudy in the next several weeks. We are currently raising funds for the homestudy (see our meter at the side), and we will be offering some fundraisers soon to help with that. So that is where we are! And for those of you who want to know the big question- where? We are feeling led to a certain Eastern European country! That's all I can say!!

Roger's Newsletter Article

Adopting For The Gospel

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:4-6

I was going to write an article this month on what I learned on my trip to Canada. And perhaps I will write that one soon. It certainly was an eye-opening visit and I wholeheartedly believe that God is calling Clear Creek to adopt southwestern Ontario as a mission field and to begin a church planting movement there [please see last month’s Ripple for an overview of this opportunity]. I would write this month on adopting this area for the gospel, but God is doing something in my family that is even more significant for us and may be for you. He has called our family to adopt a child or children for the gospel.

The need for adoption is profound: in the United States alone, more than 500,000 children were in foster care system in 2005, the last year for which federal statistics were available. About 115,000 were waiting for adoption. Around the world, there are an estimated 145 million orphans who need a home and family. But for us this is not about social justice, nor is it about our need to fill a void in our lives by having more children. Trust me, with four kids running around my house, there is no void! We are blessed and treasure our kids as a heritage and gift from God (Psalm 127:3) but we do not feel a need to have more. But like many Christian families, we are beginning to understand the significance of the doctrine of adoption. God has adopted us, grafting us into His family. And so for the sake of the gospel and the magnification of God, we want to respond in joyful obedience to his call to adoption.

We are, of course, not alone in this. Many of you have already responded to God’s call and adopted children of your own. And there is definitely something happening right now among the people of God, a movement of adoption for the gospel as a recent article on SBC.net shows:

“Something is afoot among Christian families and churches of virtually every kind,” says Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who wrote a resolution on adoption that was unanimously passed at the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention. “God is calling the people of Christ to see the face of Jesus in the faces of orphans in North America and around the world. Southern Baptists have affirmed our belief in the authority of Scripture, and the Bible tells us pure religion is defined by care for the fatherless.

“We’ve been defined by our commitment to evangelism, and there is no greater field as `white unto harvest’ right now as children in orphanages, group homes, and the foster care system, children who don’t know a parent’s love and who don’t know the name of Jesus. When Satan wars against children, we should be the ones who have compassion on them, even as Jesus did and does.

During the introduction of the resolution, Moore appeared on stage with Timothy and Benjamin, the sons he and his wife adopted seven years ago. More than 8,000 messengers met the resolution and its unanimous passage with lengthy, enthusiastic applause. “I was overwhelmed with emotion on the platform to see my sons, two little ex-orphans, looking out on a sea of yellow ballots as thousands of Southern Baptists affirmed that we want to be the people who love fatherless children,” he said.

“I realized that, in an alternative story, my boys would still be in an orphanage, not knowing even the name of Christ Jesus. But here they are, at the Southern Baptist Convention, calling by their very presence the world’s largest Protestant denomination to recognize there are hundreds of thousands of children as helpless and alone as they once were.

“My prayer is that twenty years from now there are thousands of Southern Baptist pastors, missionaries, and church leaders who started their lives as orphans, now preaching the gospel of God their Father.”

Caroline and I and our children rejoice that God might allow us to show forth His glory in this way and so we are pursuing adoption. We are early in this, and have not yet been matched with a child. The process is long and expensive and heartbreaking. And so we would appreciate your prayers.

As you may have heard me say before, everything is doctrinal. When we got married 20 years ago, I began to better understand Christ’s love for His bride, the church. When I became a dad, I began to understand what it meant for God to so love the world that He sent his only begotten son. And now as we begin this new chapter in our lives, I find myself looking in wonder at the doctrine of adoption. The more I see of God and the truth of His word, the more I am amazed at His grace poured out for me. May we respond to His faithfulness with our obedience, for His gospel and glory.

Resolution On Adoption And Orphan Care
Southern Baptist Convention, June 2009

WHEREAS, In the gospel we have received the "Spirit of adoption" whereby we are no longer spiritual orphans but are now beloved children of God and joint heirs with Christ (John 14:18; Romans 8:12-25; Galatians 3:27-4:9; Ephesians 1:5); and

WHEREAS, The God we now know as our Father reveals himself as a "father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5) who grants mercy to orphans (Deuteronomy 10:18; Hosea 14:3); and

WHEREAS, Our Lord Jesus welcomes the little ones (Luke 18:15-17), pleads for the lives of the innocent (Psalm 72:12-14), and shows us that we will be held accountable for our response to "the least of these brothers of mine" (Matthew 25:40); and

WHEREAS, The Scripture defines "pure and undefiled religion" as "to look after orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27); and

WHEREAS, The satanic powers and the ravages of sin have warred against infants and children from Pharaoh to Molech to Herod and, now, through the horrors of a divorce culture, an abortion industry, and the global plagues of disease, starvation, and warfare; and

WHEREAS, Southern Baptists have articulated an unequivocal commitment to the sanctity of all human life, born and unborn; and

WHEREAS, Churches defined by the Great Commission must be concerned for the evangelism of children—including those who have no parents; and

WHEREAS, Upward of 150 million orphans now languish without families in orphanages, group homes, and placement systems in North America and around the world; and

WHEREAS, Our Father loves all of these children, and a great multitude of them will never otherwise hear the gospel of Jesus Christ; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, June 23-24, 2009, express our commitment to join our Father in seeking mercy for orphans; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call on each Southern Baptist family to pray for guidance as to whether God is calling them to adopt or foster a child or children; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we encourage our pastors and church leaders to preach and teach on God's concern for orphans; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we commend churches and ministries that are equipping families to provide financial and other resources to those called to adopt, through grants, matching funds, or loans; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we encourage local churches to champion the evangelism of and ministry to orphans around the world, and to seek out ways to energize Southern Baptists behind this mission; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we encourage Southern Baptist churches to join with other evangelical Christians in setting aside a special Sunday each year to focus upon our adoption in Christ and our common burden for the orphans of the world; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we pray what God is doing in creating an adoption culture in so many churches and families can point us to a gospel oneness that is determined not by “the flesh,” or race, or economics, or cultural sameness, but by the Spirit, unity, and peace in Christ Jesus; and be it finally

RESOLVED, That we pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit on Southern Baptist congregations so that our churches will proclaim and picture, in word and in deed, that “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”

Why would a family with 4 children want another one? Part 1

The gospel.

Because of the gospel, and for the gospel. Plain and simple.

For the sake of His glory.

Because we were once orphans, and He came for us.

Because the gospel points to caring for the orphan and caring for the orphan points to the gospel (russ moore).

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”


What is the Gospel? The word gospel simply means “good news.” The central message of the Bible is the gospel, or good news, about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1–4, Paul provides the most succinct summary of the gospel: "¹Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ²and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ diedfor our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,"

Why adopt?

Because He first loved us. Because He tells us to.

^{1 John 3: 16-18 16}By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.


"What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing, but that, while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God’s hands, not ours. " John Piper

July 6, 1991- 20 years ago! To God be the glory!

20 years ago! I am so thankful that God in His infinite grace and mercy saw fit to give to me this godly, loving, kind man. Roger. He's still my best friend. It's amazing that I still feel giddy about him! We have been through so much, and I am thankful that God has seen fit to sanctify us and mold us together for His purpose through these past years. I can't imagine what He has in store for us for the next 50! The wedding was wonderful and pretty....but the marriage has been beautiful! Thank you Jesus!

Suspicion...

Products of our past, we act in ways that we never thought we would. A young woman showed herself at my door the other day. I opened the door a crack, then a little more. She wanted to know if we had any work for her friend. I said no, but call my husband. When I went in to write his number down for her, I closed the door behind me. Firmly. Without asking her in. Inside...out of the 95 degree heat.

Suspicion. I had allowed my actions to be ruled by my past experience. The unpleasant one where our house was broken into, and our stuff taken. My ring taken. So, instead of being ruled by love and by what Jesus would do, I failed.
I can't help think, what if she had been more than I thought. And even if she was mere mortal, she was more than I thought. Loved more by the Father than I allowed.

Next time...

Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

John 13:35
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Ephesians 5:2
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.