It was Orphan Sunday 2009. Camden was ill, so he and I stayed home while Trevor and Melia went to church. When they returned home, we were getting lunch ready and he mentioned to me the number of adopted children in our church. A seed had been planted in my sweet husband's heart that day, a seed that God began to plant through several mounting events in the previous years.
Today I am thankful for so many things:
1. That families in our church had been obedient to call for orphans through adoption to show us what that looked like for a family
2. That God led us to a church full of orphan-caring and God-fearing Christians
3. That our second child had been so difficult his first year, snuffing out our desire to birth another child so that we could be sensitive to His desire for our family to adopt
4. That Trevor was open to God's call to adoption
5. That God placed just the right people in our lives at just the right time to steer us toward Ethiopia
6. That God's hand was so apparent in our entire process, just as it is so apparent in our family as we live life together today
My prayer for you this Orphan Sunday, friends, is that you will be open to God's call to care for orphans, whether that is adopting children into your family, blessing an adopting family financially, fostering children in your community who need the love of a family (and who need to know the love of Christ), participating in an orphan-hosting program over Christmas or Summer, participating in a mission trip at an orphanage or financially supporting someone who is going, supporting or starting an orphan care ministry in your church, sponsoring an orphan through a program such as Compassion International...the ways you can fulfill God's command in James 1:27 are truly endless.
What is God calling YOU to do for His children today?
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