Celebrating 20 years with a big announcement!

Dear friends,

We have some very exciting news about what God is doing in our family. For years, we have talked about adopting, both because we love children and because God does. We knew that "some day" we would do it, and for us, some day has come! God has been breaking our hearts for the 145 million orphans around the world, and so we have talked with our kids and we have all felt a strong leading from God to pursue this, for His glory.

God has been preparing our family for this for a long time. So many of our friends and folks we admire are passionate about orphan care and adoption, and we have and continue to read many great books and have life-changing conversations with others about these issues. It seems God is awakening the church all over the world to care for these kids and He has been speaking to our family as well. Our family devotions have pointed toward making a difference and living a life sold out to God’s will. We have particularly studied and been captivated by Isaiah 58:6-12

⁶"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
⁹Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
¹¹And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
¹² And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

We are so humbled to know that God is blessing us in this way! What a privilege to get to do this! We are just starting out on this journey. We would covet your prayers for us as we navigate much paperwork and red tape. You may not be able to adopt, but you can help in this Orphan Crisis with your prayers and resources. Not just for us, but for the many families in the process of rescuing these children. Please pray about how you can be involved in helping these children who really are the “least of these”.

Roger, Caroline, Bennett, Sam, Emmie, and Isaiah

Links about adoption:

http://reecesrainbow.org/

http://www.showhope.org/Resources/TheNeed.aspx

http://www.theorphanfoundation.org/resources/The_Orphan_Crisis.pdf

http://www.allgodschildren.org/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/rick-warren-puts-spotlight-on-orphan-crisis-biblical-mandate-45108/

http://www.projecthopeful.org/

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!

Overdue overview!

We are back in the land of stars and stripes, leaving the maple leaf behind. I wanted to share what we saw and learned on our trip to Southwestern Ontario.



There's a beer store on every corner. No, really. It's like McDs or Tim Hortons. Every few tenths of a mile. They love their beer.



They are very eco friendly! We saw several wind "farms" with many wind turbines. Not to mention that almost every farm we saw had solar panels! Pretty cool. Also, every farm or home that you see is neat as a pin! We noticed this before when we would drive into Canada from Maine. You could always tell you had crossed to border.


This is St. Thomas, ON. Really sweet town of about 38,000. They have a couple of larger churches there. Roger talked with a Pastor of one of the churches who said they would welcome the help- that they are not reaching the younger crowd.

Main Street, St. Thomas, Ontario

They like their coffee too- Tim Hortons, Second Cup of Coffee, Coffee Culture, and of course Starbucks!



There is one of these in every little town. A Catholic Church. They are all beautiful and well kept.


St. Thomas has a lot of American "chains". Walmart is at the end of Main Street.


This town was my favorite- Chatham in Kent. About 100,000 people. Very quaint and sweet downtown on the Thames river. We met several "persons of peace" while walking the streets briefly on our way to Windsor. Again, same story. The churches are not reaching the young people.



Windsor, Ontario is a nice city of around 220,000 people. We visited with the Director of Missions and the Missions director from the Michigan Baptist Convention. They drove over to Windsor to meet with us and to probe the area a little with Roger. The kids and I drove through the neighborhood below- it's called Ottawa Street and there are 2 Ukrainian Banks there and an Orthodox church.

Holy Toledo! Is that some cheap gas? Why yes, found in Toledo, Ohio!

We stopped in Fort Wayne, Indiana for the night on the way home. Fort Wayne- lovely town- who knew? We spent the morning at the Botanical Gardens, History Museum, and the Children's Science Center. It is really a nice town- reminded me a lot of Greenville, SC.

Isaiah loved the butterfly hut!

Sam did not love the creepy talking tree!

Emmie really can make friends wherever she goes!

We had a great trip. We made some really wonderful contacts and gained a lot of information on the state of the evangelical church in Southern Ontario. There is so much work to do there, but we are very encouraged by the show of support and interest throughout Clear Creek. It's a God sized job- can't wait to get started!

London, ON

We arrived in London, Ontario last night. 13 hours in the car, but a relatively easy trip. We traveled through Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit, Michigan before entering Canada at Windsor, Ontario. I get really nervous at the border check- afraid I will say something weird or wrong! I played it cool this time, except when they asked us if we knew anyone in London and I shook my head no when Roger was saying yes! We decided later, that this is definitely the case- he knows the guys he's talked to there, but I don't! Checked into the hotel after eating at a double decker McDonalds- which the kids thought was really fun.



Cheap gas? I think not- that's $127.7 per liter! 4 Liters per gallon= $5+ per gallon! The dollar menu at McD's is $1.39! Everything here is a little more expensive. The US dollar and the Canadian dollar are at about even right now. The last time we went on mission to Canada, we could get 1/3 more for our dollar. Yikes! Needless to say, we are watching our budget very carefully and looking for deals.



Sam thought this was a funny picture....notice the sign! We stopped for Timbits (donut holes) between church services. Tim Horton's is like McD's in the US. There is one every 1/4 mile! They call it "Timmies". We used to eat at them in Maine after church- yummy soup and sandwiches to0.

We attended two church services this morning. They were very different from each other. The first one was at a large "mega" church that has 2300 people in attendance over the weekend. The service was well done, the building very nice, everything was very pleasant. Of course, we can't help but scope out things, and found it lacking in authenticity. No one greeted us. No one told us where the restrooms were (Nat!). No one pointed us to childcare (though we possessed an 18mo old). The service was smooth. The sermon nice. But that's just it! I'm not sure that Jesus was invited. The bible story (not even Jesus) was presented as a life additive.


Next, we worshiped at a multi-cultural worship service that was help in a secondary school. Much more authentic worship. Many cultures represented- 5 different African countries. Today they celebrated World Refugee Day because many of those present are refugees from their own countries. The Pastor/Elder leading this ministry has a real heart for these people. He told us that 20,000-30,000 people live within about a mile of the school where they are meeting! There are a lot of high rise apartments in the area. So, we enjoyed this experience much more. Isaiah didn't exactly blend in with the other kids!



After church, we went to the city center to walk around. There were a lot of people out and about. The weather was really nice and there were two festivals going on down there. We ended up eating at..... you guessed it- Subway!!! LOL!!! The best part was when the kids asked for American cheese and the young adults guys behind us made fun of us. the. whole.time.we.were.there. Roger talked with them and asked them to friend him on facebook. They were actually very nice!

Tomorrow, we are off to one of the outlying counties around London. We are headed into the areas where we have heard there are no churches. It will be interesting to see if that is true and to try to get a pulse for those communities.