Christianity Today

I received this from Elizabeth Wiebe at the Christian Alliance for Orphans. Exciting news!

We wanted to share with you some rousingly good news. As we’ve anticipated for some time, July’s edition of Christianity Today is centered on adoption and orphan care. Four different articles help sound a clarion call to the Church: God cares passionately for the orphan, and His people are called to do so as well. Although the articles won’t be posted online until later in the month, here’s a preview of them from today’s Alliance blog post from Jedd Medefind.

July’s CHRISTIANITY TODAY: Why Every Christian Is Called to Rescue Orphans

It’s a beautiful thing. For Christians who yearn to see the Church grow impassioned for the Gospel and the orphan, the newly-arrived July edition of Christianity Today is little short of thrilling. The cover declares, Abba Changes Everything: Why every Christian is called to rescue orphans. Inside, the framing introduction to the magazine is headlined, “Adoption is Everywhere. Even God is into it.”

That the leading print voice of evangelicalism in America would choose to make orphan care and adoption the center of its July magazine underscores what many of us already knew: God is stirring His people to again be known as those who “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Is 1:17).

Page 18 begins a tremendous article by Russell Moore, which gave the magazine its cover language, “Abba Changes Everything.” I’ve heard Dr. Moore articulate this message from the podium, via radio and over the dinner table, but I must admit I felt my heart expand against my ribcage as I read this fresh expression. Beautiful and heartbreaking; daunting and inspiring; and profoundly rooted in the ultimate reason for it all: the Father-love of our God revealed through the Gospel.

Page 23 starts the cover story, “Coming Alongside Parents: Churches are getting real about adoption’s challenges—and helping families after the child arrives.” It shares the experience of Summit VI and highlights the robust growth of orphan ministry within churches. Writes author Carla Barnhill, “…[T]he Summit drew more than 1,200 attendees, most of them ministering to orphans through their home churches. Watching those gathered, I knew this was not my parent’s generation.”

Finally, page 52 carries a list of list and descriptions titled “My Top 5 Books on Orphan Care” that I had a chance to provide: Russell Moore’s Adopted for Life, Dr. Karyn Purvis’ The Connected Child; Melissa Fay Greene’s There is No Me Without You; Tom Davis’ Fields of the Fatherless, and Doug Sauder’s The One Factor. (Several others came to mind after I’d submitted that I wish I’d included as well, but five was the limit).

If you can, pick up a copy of CT from the newsstand today. If not, all these articles will come available online over the month ahead, and we’ll post them on the Alliance blog as they do. In the meantime, advocates of the orphan care take heart: God continues to build both passion and action in His Church for these children He so deeply loves.

Elizabeth Wiebe

Director of Outreach and Member Services

A Great Fundraiser

I think I'll be doing some Christmas shopping on Tuesday. How about you? Help bring Elaina home (I know...her parents are spelling her name wrong...but I love them anyway!)

http://purposedrivenfamily.blogspot.com/2010/06/july-6th-one-day-fundraiser-event-for.html

How Can You Help?

Obviously, the plight of orphans is dear to my heart. As we have worked with starting an orphan ministry at our church (http://firstfreehopeforchildren.blogspot.com), we hear so many comments along the lines of "I could never adopt" or "our family is complete." I'm not going to dispute or argue God's call on families. But I do maintain that Scripture is pretty clear about caring for orphans. No, everyone isn't called to adopt, but we are all commanded to take care of orphans throughout the Bible.

This morning, I received a message out of the blue from a college friend, who is now a music therapist in California. She gets it:

I was brainstorming while listening to KLOVE and driving today trying to think of how I can make a difference. I have also had all the orphans around the world on my mind since following Sofia and a number of families on their journeys.

Do you know if the various adoption agencies have ever sent various therapists into the orphanages? I was thinking it would be really cool to band together a group of therapists including Music Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Infant Educators to go an visit the orphanages for a period of time and work with the children. It would also be cool to organize fundraisers to leave equipment, materials, etc that could be left for those children to utilize.

I am familiar with Reese's Rainbow, are there other agencies like this that would be open to exploring some options. I don't know if adoption is right for our family or not but doing our part to reach these children by providing interaction and some hope through Music Therapy and other therapies would be a cool new avenue that would open the eyes of many to the world of adoption and what these orphanages are like. Any suggestions? I would love to shoot for doing something next summer.

I sent her a little information, and I'm praying that the wheels will start turning quickly for her. What an amazing heart! Thanks, Bessie.

Divine Appointments

We attend a local free concert series every summer. Each week, we take a picnic, enjoy the jazz and see friends. This year, we never really saw anyone we know until last night, which was the final night of the series.

I posted my birthday invitation a few weeks back. The response has been underwhelming. Of over 300 people I've invited and asked to send a God story, I've received fewer than ten. (The invitation, by the way, is to participate by sharing a God story, not necessarily by your physical presence.) This has discouraged me to no end, led to sleepless nights and quite a bit of frustration and expectation adjustments.

Last night, my friend Nora and her children (both great buddies of Dayna) wandered by and decided to join us. The next hour and half led to Nora telling me the sweetest story of how God has worked in her life through the illness of both of her parents this spring and the temporary loss of her mother last month. To see Nora's faith shine through, and her quickness to acknowledge God's hand in all of it, was such an encouragement to me. And the timing couldn't have been better...it was a great reminder to me that people do still take the time to see God's hand in their lives and share it with others.

Thanks, Nora for sharing your story and your friendship with me last night. You are a dear, dear woman.

We Interrupt this Moment of Intentionality...

...for an impromptu tea party. Sorry...no pictures. Dayna made invitations this morning for her dad & I to join her. We set the time for 10:30. After starting the cookies and realizing I'm out of cocoa, we took a quick walk to the store. Wouldn't you know it...with 1 hour's notice, we had mint chocolate cookie bars, a steaming pot of Organic China Breakfast tea, our best china, a (mostly) cleaned living room, and a lovely tea party. Dayna even invited four of her stuffed animals. She and I were wearing gobs of plastic jewelry, she had her finest hat on her head, and even took the time to put on her "makeup" (Tinkerbell lip gloss).

You know...I wouldn't trade this impromptu tea party for all the housework in the world.

Intentionality

6 weeks. That's about all we have left before Dayna's world changes. Before our slice of the pie decreases and the number of outside influences in Dayna's life take a larger bite. 6 weeks to help her learn how to make friends. 6 weeks to develop work habits. 6 weeks to refine our sharing skills, including the limelight. 6 weeks to find our new family routine when I'm working full-time. It seems daunting....

But I'm reminded that our lives won't end in 6 weeks (God willing)...He's gracious, and many of these things will be works in progress for years to come. However, I still intend to make the most of these weeks and fill them with intentional moments with my daughter. I suppose I should start by getting off the computer...

Terror: Tantrum or Trust?

Dayna has had a rough summer so far in the swimming pool. It looks so fun and inviting, but we have this little problem. She doesn't know how to swim.

And apparently the healthy fear of water we thought we were instilling in her has become terrifying to her.

So, while we were enjoying our Disney vacation earlier this month, we bought her some of those water wings to help make pool time a little more fun. No such doing...every time we went into a pool, she would cling to us with the death grip. Every swimming outing became a complete meltdown temper tantrum.

We knew she could trust us, and that she could trust the wings. And mostly, that she could trust God. But she didn't know that yet...

Upon our return, I immediately signed Dayna up for swimming lessons. Her teachers quickly discovered her death grip. After a week of lessons, she was a *little* more comfortable, but would still cling to anyone while also hanging onto some sort of flotation device.

Everybody but Dayna knew how much fun she could have if she would just learn to trust, but she still couldn't let go. And the tantrums, while not as strong, continued.

Until last week. One afternoon, Dayna discovered that her little fishy ring would hold her up. And she let go. And she had fun. Giggles ensued, as well as the now familiar refrain: "Let ME do it."

She's so excited that she learned to trust, even though we knew all along that she would be okay and enjoy herself more.

Which makes me think...how many times to we respond to fear and uncertainty with our own little temper tantrums instead of just trusting God, who knows infinitely more than we do?