Team Sullivan

Kael's Story: Part 2

2012-01-27T07:52:00.001-06:00

On a Sunday morning last summer Dawn came up to me after our church service and said she had an idea, and she wondered if our non-profit foundation could help. In her words….

One thing I love to do is run and I spent several afternoons in 2010 running with the boys in our Burley stroller. Both the boys loved being outside and stroller rides. One day in May 2011, I was running and God had put it on my mind several times to set up a race in Kael’s name to help honor his memory and do good for someone or something. That morning as I ran, I asked God “what do you want me to do with this?” Then He answered me, “I gave Kael parents who loved him and took care of him. I want you to help the children I have already put on this earth have loving parents too. Use this race to help families who want to adopt and love children.”

WOW. Even more interesting, and what Dawn didn’t yet know, was that over the summer months God had started fueling my own brain to try and find a way to help adoptive families raise money for their adoptions. I thought that it would be great someday if our Kingdom Cares Foundation could raise money and give out adoption grants (I’ve been inspired by 3 different foundations that do some form of this, you can check them out here and here and here). Of course I knew this was a long-term goal, but I had started thinking of ways that our foundation could eventually grow into serving this purpose. You can imagine my excitement when Dawn shared her heart with me on this day.

From that day, plans for the race have been rolling ever since. Here are some specifics so you can save the date….

Kael Man 5K Run/ Walk
Saturday, July 7th, 2012 at 8:00 am
Ada Hayden Park, Ames, IA

Dawn is currently setting up a website for race registration - I’ll post it on the blog as soon as it is ready. For now you can keep track of things on the race Facebook page here. Dawn and Derek will use an application process to distribute the race proceeds/donations as grants to families who need financial help in their adoption process.

I SO wish you could meet this couple in person. In the midst of their tragedy I’ve told Dawn that many times I’ve worried about what words to say to them, or how to comfort them when I see them. Yet, when you are around them you can FEEL this tremendous peace about their spirit….it’s like they almost comfort you. The Bible calls it ‘peace that surpasses all understanding’ (Phillipians 4:7). That’s what I feel when I am around them. Though they are grieving and experiencing such awful heartache, I know that they find rest in God's Sovereignty. He is their refuge, He is their comfort, He is their strength. Like Dawn said - God put Kael on this earth for 11 ½ months for a reason. I think we are only seeing the beginning of how God intends to continue to use Kael’s life to impact many for His Kingdom.

Kael's Story: Part 1

2012-01-26T07:44:00.001-06:00

Today I have the honor of introducing you to my friends Derek & Dawn Grooters. Theirs is a story of suffering and tragedy. They have walked through the valley of the shadow of death in a way that no parent would ever want to experience. And yet, as they share their story of their little man Kael, in their words you will see something. You will see their unwavering hope in our God who gives and takes away. The same God who brought them to this has picked them up and is literally carrying them through…they feel it, and all that know them or meet them in person can clearly see it. Dawn has said that it has taken them awhile to come to terms with sharing their heart break out loud, but by doing just that they have seen God work in so many people. Today, you will hear part 1 of Kael’s story. Tomorrow you will see how God is using Kael’s story to help orphans around the world to come home to their forever families…

In Dawn’s words…

When 2011 started out, we had no way of knowing what God had planned in our lives. We started out January 1st, 2011 with 2 beautiful boys and we thought our life was so full. Kyler, our oldest son was 3 ½ years old and our 2nd son Kael was 11 ½ months old, he would turn one year old on the 26th of January.

But everything changed so quickly for us on January 7th, 2011. Our son, Kael passed away during a nap at his daycare shortly after he fell asleep. Kael was a healthy little boy and so full of life. We still don’t know medically why Kael’s little heart stopped that day, but we do know that God wanted to take Kael to heaven that day and we know that God has a purpose. We may never fully understand why our family had to go through this but in the grand scheme of things, our understanding won’t help us heal. We have seen God work through each one of us and he has helped us touch so many people through our faith and God’s strength he has provided for us. There are so many stories we have heard from people that have been inspired by our faith, but truly it is God working through us. There is no way we can get through each day and keep going without God’s continued strength and grace he provides for us.

Before I go on, let me tell you a little bit about our boys. Kyler is all boy and very energetic. He loves to run around, play with construction trucks, legos and loves everything orange. Kyler is just full of spirit. Kyler helped to keep us going this past year, and his childlike faith was an inspiration to us. We experienced several Holy Spirit moments with Kyler; it was so neat to see God working in Kyler as well. During the first few months after Kael’s death, Kyler would randomly sing Jesus loves me and that made us feel like God was right there with us in that moment.

Kael was our laidback son. He loved watching his brother and Kyler made him laugh more than anyone. Kael was crawling and had just learned how to walk. He had bright blue eyes and always smiled so much. He was a happy and content baby who loved to be held. He was such a joy to be around and his smile would light up a room.

About 1 ½ months after Kael passed away, we found out we were pregnant. This was a bittersweet moment. We were happy to bring another baby into our family, but it made us miss Kael more. We knew God had a plan for this baby and she is a gift that has helped our faith grow even more. God is good. She is an example of that and we are putting our faith in God to help us parent our children with the faith that God will take care of them. The birth of our baby also gave us something to look forward to especially on the dark days. Grieving the loss of my son and experiencing a pregnancy was not easy, but on the days and moments that were full of sadness, they were interrupted by kicks from a little girl who reminded me God is with me. Our beautiful baby girl, Kella Faith, arrived on November, 10th, 2011 and she has brought us so much joy. If you are a parent, you know that the more children you have, the more your heart grows and expands to love all your children. And that is what happened for us. Kella does not replace Kael or the love we have for him but she added much more love to our hearts. She is a blessing and we are so happy she is part of our family.

As we look back, before Kael passed away I know that God was preparing us for what we were going to experience in several ways. I knew how quickly the baby stage would be over so I always held Kael a little longer, hugged him a little closer and kissed him a little more. I just knew after having my first baby, Kyler, that the time goes so quickly so I was going to savor it with Kael. I think God put that on my heart so I would take advantage of the time I had with him on this earth. The night before Kael passed away, we finished his 1 year birthday party invitations and we made chocolate cupcakes and Kael got to eat one. It was his first cupcake and I was so glad he got to have a birthday cake here with us before he was gone. The morning of Kael’s passing I was listening to the Bible on CD as I drove. The last story I heard that morning was the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. As I listened to the story, I kept thinking how hard it would be for a parent to sacrifice their child. It is so incomprehensible and then I thought about how God sacrificed his son for us. That afternoon, I got the call about Kael. God was preparing me.

As we look back this year, there are so many events and ways God has helped us walk with Him through our grief. We were Christians before Kael passed away and afterwards we relied and trusted in God to carry us through this time. We never intended to inspire people by walking in faith but that is what happened.

Derek’s Lieutenant was the one to call me and tell me that Kael was in the hospital and that it didn’t look good. He was greatly affected by going through this with us. His family went to a church but never felt challenged in their faith. After attending Kael’s memorial service and watching our faith in God, he decided that he wanted to attend our church, Cornerstone Church. They jumped full into Cornerstone and their 2 kids absolutely loved the D6 kid’s ministry and Sunday school. Their family just told me how much their lives have changed and how much their children’s faith has changed in one year. They never would have imagined such a positive change in their family.

We just recently received a note from one of our pastors at church that told us about a junior high kid that accepted Jesus into his heart because his family started coming to Cornerstone after attending Kael’s memorial service. We don’t know who the family or child is, but we are so thankful God is using us to help people come to Jesus.

Last year, I was a sales rep and one of my customers was deeply affected by Kael’s story. In her church, she was asked to speak one Sunday. She asked me if she could tell her church our story and inspire people to live for God. As we sat in the back of the church we watched the tears flow and prayed that God would change hearts in this community as well. We initially said that if 1 person would become a Christian because of Kael’s life then this is worth it. We have seen this multiplied over and over.

Our story is still being written. The month of January has been hard for us. We just made it through what I call Kael’s Heaven Day. That day and the days leading up to the 7th of January were hard but God gave us what we needed to get through that time. We grieved the loss of our son but we celebrated the work God has done in our lives this last year. God put Kael on this earth for 11 ½ months for a reason. We are so thankful for the time we had with him and he changed our lives for the better. Kael’s life has brought so much glory to God and we want to continue that in any way we can. God is using his life to continue to change lives and though we will never know the full extent of what God is doing with Kael’s life for others, we want to continue to be a part of it.

To be continued tomorrow….

Adoption Needs in Ghana

2012-01-25T07:34:00.000-06:00

I have two specific needs I wanted to share about today that have pulled on my heart. These are current needs within the Ghana program of the adoption agency that we are using: Adoption Advocates International (AAI) [http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/Africa/Ghana/index.php]

1) AAI Ghana Program is in need of families who are interested in adopting children over six years old! They currently have no families approved to adopt who are waiting for older children. Wait times could be short! Larger families (6+ children) can apply on a case by case basis!

2) AAI is hoping to find a family for Baby A in Ghana.....
Baby A is less than a year old. She has been diagnosed with microcephaly (small head size) and cerebral palsy. There is a concern of cortical blindness. She may also have hearing issues. And yet, she is beautiful and just as much in need of a mommy and daddy as any other child! Her fees will be reduced. AAI is looking for a homestudy-approved family. Please contact anita@adoptionadvocates.org if you think Baby A may be your future daughter! [And please help AAI spread the word!]

UN-Wanted

2012-01-23T07:52:00.000-06:00

“You’re a mistake.”

“You’re a demon-child.”

This is what she has been told, by a man who calls himself her father.

A man who she so desperately wants to please, but fails to again and again.

He never wanted her. He tells her this face to face. He tells her this often. She buries her so-said worthlessness deep inside, and lives up to his low expectations because that’s what he says she’ll amount to afterall….nothing.

“You don’t understand!” she tells us with her heart exposed. “You don’t know what it’s like to have someone tell you over and over that you were a mistake! You don’t know how it feels.” Sobbing. Emptied. Rejected.

The one time that I am thankful for my past is now. In this conversation. I do know how it feels. Mine was a silent abandonment, not an out-loud one like hers. But still a big, fat, UN-Wanted. Just to hear an “I love you” from him. Just to have a father’s arms wrap you up and protect you from the crazy world. Just to feel valued in his eyes so you don’t have to go looking for it in other men when you are too young, too vulnerable, too needy for affection and worth. Just to hear him say, “You can be anything you want to be. You can do it. I believe in you,” and to see the confidence in his eyes. Just to have him say to your date, “Have her home by 11:30pm – or else.” Just to feel the comfort that he cares and wants to protect you like all good fathers want to protect their daughters. Just a phone call. Just a birthday card….just….anything….

Missing pieces.

Broken heart.

Scarred, damaged, and full of baggage for all future relationships.

Yet, there is hope.

Something she refuses to embrace yet, but maybe, just maybe this is how she will begin to SEE.

You see, she can be adopted. No not an earthly, physical adoption. A spiritual one.

“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18

He can be her Father.

He’ll receive her with open arms and rejoice with His angels in heaven over their relationship. In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10

She’ll find in Him that she was certainly no mistake. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139: 14-16

In fact He has great plans for her, a purpose for her life. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

If she messes up she won’t find Him keeping a record of her wrongs to hold it against her. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12

He won’t get drunk and in his stupor tell her how worthless she is. In fact, He’s gone to great lengths to show her His love. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

He sure ain’t the leaving kind. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5

While others push her away, His arms wait for her. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Psalm 27:10

These are His promises. This is His character. Whisperings of ultimate worth. I created you. I want a relationship with you. I love you. Leave your life of sin behind, and thirst no more. Rest. Peace. No striving. No hiding. Guidance into purpose. Strong arms of refuge. Complete fulfillment that enables healthy relationships with others. Protection......

She looks out the window, waiting for the mail to come. As soon as it does she runs out to the box, hopeful, expectant. Each and every day she is the first to open the mailbox. Day after day disappointment and sunkeness await. And she comes back in. “My Dad said he’s going to write me. His letter should be coming soon.”

She will wait. And wait. And wait for that letter. For just a tiny spark, a tiny showing that he thinks of her.

And He will wait - her Heavenly Father. He will wait and wait and wait for her change of heart. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). A book full of letters He has written her. Unfailing love He offers her. An awful-beautiful death on a cross ready to purchase her life and grant an adoption. An adoption unlike any other. An adoption that would give her the right to call the King of the universe “Dad”….

...you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. Romans 8:15-16

$howing Up Big Time!

2012-01-20T08:04:00.001-06:00

Ohhhhh my is God showing up BIG TIME to provide the finances for our adoption!!!!! Honestly, I am not kidding, as I wrote about here when we signed up to adopt back in August we had scrapped together $319.88 into our adoption fund over the summer. Our application fee for our agency was $300 which we paid and sent in on August 26th, leaving us with $19.88 in our account. From there God has been POURING out His grace and filling up our adoption fund in ways that we had never planned. As I eluded to in the above post, between donations from the churches Jake spoke at, to donations sent to us by our blog readers, to friends handing me checks, to our adoption tax refund being issued, we were able to pay the following fees for our adoption between August to November 2011:

8/26/11…$300…Agency application fee
9/20/11…$30…fingerprints for background checks
10/18/11…$3000…Agency processing fee
10/18/11…$1650…Homestudy fee and pre-pay of post-placement reports
10/29/11…$30…DCI checks for our Rosebud students
11/1/11…$70…Order of certified originals birth/marriage certificates
11/19/11…$890…U.S. Dept of Homeland Security for I-600A approval & biometrics

Then Christmas came. And once again, we were blown away by God’s faithfulness. Between a donation by another church that Jake had spoken at to our family and friends giving us money as Christmas gifts we were able to add $900 more to our adoption fund!

Last week when I went to Jake’s gym to pick Justice up from practice one of Jake’s 6th grade girl players slipped me a $50 bill with a smile and said “This is for your adoption fund from me and my sister.” :) Humbled.

Then, on Monday morning Jake went through a stack of mail that had piled up on the table since before last weekend. As I wandered into the kitchen he handed me an envelope and said, “This will start your day off this morning…” I pulled a card out of an envelope, opened it, and a HUGE wad of cash fell out and I caught sight of $100 BILLS! MANY $100 BILLS! In a split second I was tearing up and I started to read the hand-written card….

Hi friends!

So, I made a little request for Christmas this year. :) And boy oh boy did my family come through! Brian and I have been so blessed this year and we received so much for the wedding. I was really searching for a way around receiving more gifts. And what do you know, a little blog post from you gave me just the idea I needed! And so, with my heart overflowing with joy that I get to do this, here is $670 to add to your adoption fund!!!!!! WOOHOOOO!!! My family is so awesome! Praise God!

~Kellee~

WOW!

WOW!

WOW!

As I stood there in the kitchen holding that card and wad of cash I was left asking myself - Seriously, who does this? WHAT SELFLESSNESS! Of course our sweet friend Kellee would never want the applause for this, and in fact after I emailed her a thank you she emailed me back and said ~ “It wasn’t me, it was all because of Jesus, to God be the glory!!!!” How can we not shout an AMEN to the way that God stirs hearts when it comes to adoption?!?!?!?!

And yesterday, one of my blog friends emailed me to share how she wants to contribute to our adoption fund by way of her beautiful photography. Check out her Take Heart sessions just in time for Valentine’s Day….the sessions are just $25. You get digital images that you can purchase or order prints from, as well as 40 mini Valentines. She’s giving all proceeds/donations to our adoption fund. It’s just amazing the ways that God is working through others to bless us….we just had no idea any of these things were coming!!!!!

On top of all this, God continues to bless Jake’s side-business of individual training that he started at the end of September to help fund our adoption. He is putting in lots of extra hours on top of his already filled schedule of practices, tournaments, meetings and office work. But, it’s paying off. The amount varies from month to month, but on average he is making anywhere from $1000-$2000 a month for our adoption fund. We had NO IDEA that his individual training was going to be this big of a hit, but so awesome to think that God knew this would happen.

Yesterday I deposited the recent cash we had received and right now the balance of our adoption account is sitting at $8,197.31. I stared at the number on the deposit slip for a good 30 seconds just marveling at what God has done. Less than 6 months ago that was a two-digit number. God. Is. Faithful.

Our next big chunk due to our agency will be $3000 coming up in the next few weeks, and then $5000 due shortly after that before court. Both of these amounts are part of the foreign program fee which pays for the cost of dossier documents gathered on the Ghana side, social worker’s wages, court appointments, etc. We will also begin paying foster care fees of $150 per month per child once that transition has been completed. The rest of the fees will be due after court.

What can I say? Every day as this money comes out of the woodwork there is just more and more evidence of God’s heart for the orphan - as if His commands in the Bible weren't enough evidence. I trust no one but Him to continue to make a way for us.

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 7 (videos of library and medical clinic included)

2012-01-18T06:34:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Today as we rose from our slumber we were filled with excitement of what God might do on this final full day in Asikuma. At the same time it was a little sad knowing this would be our last day here until I get to come back in March. I knew I had to make the most out of today and I was confident that God knew just the plans for the day.

Following breakfast it started like every other day. The construction guys went to the library to complete more of the work, Typhanie and Nick and Britttany went to the clinic to paint all the shelving units that were installed, as well as the frames around the windows and doors. I soon found myself wondering what God had planned for me today. Then I heard four joyful voices as Fredrick, Manche, Asare, and Ali were wrestling with each other at the entrance of the hotel area.

As we started walking towards the clinic to scope out all the progress that was made throughout the week it dawned on me that a great way to show people what we are doing in Africa is to take short videos of the clinic, the library, and the roads of Asikuma. So, with my I-phone and help from the boys we set out to the medical clinic to video all the work at the clinic that has been completed (the videos are at the end of this post). The boys had never seen this feature of the I-phone before (and for that matter any form of video recording) so they were excited to join me and be as goofy as possible just so they could watch themselves on the video. The simple things that we take for granted in the United States can bring so much joy in places like Asikuma, Ghana.

Following our non-professional video coverage of what God is doing at the clinic we decided to head down to the library to do the same thing. As we arrive I hear Chris yelling my name from the top of the roof. I knew he needed something from me and I was just thankful it was not anything to do with construction. It was approaching noon and the construction team had recruited a couple of the local men to help with the finishing of the library. Over the past two trips Chris has done an excellent job of identifying who the most talented and reliable workers are and on any typical day you can find those guys working hand in hand with our construction guys.

However, no matter how hard these guys are willing to work it is still Ghana. Lunch time in Ghana can easily turn into a three hour process of waiting on Ghana time food service, and then the slow methodical eating practices, followed by a quick nap in the chair can really put a damper on construction when daylight ends at 6pm in Asikuma. Chris ordered me to head back to the hotel and have them take the lunch and put it into 15 to go boxes for the workers. Chris knew if we took a break for lunch not much else would get done that day.

So, without hesitation I took the group of boys that were with me and scurried back to the hotel to ask the cooking staff to create 15 to-go lunches. Well, this threw a curveball at the cooking staff which is never good in Ghana. The lunch was supposed to be served at 12:00pm and I think I actually had the to-go boxes in hand at 2:00pm; all the while Chris is texting me to hurry up as he was afraid the Ghana construction crew was going to call it a day at any possible moment.

I was told at least 30 times that lunch was coming that day as I sat and waited and discussed everything under the moon with my posse (also known as Albert, Manche, Ali, Asare, and Fredrick). The crazy part about the Ghana process of time is that it does not bother me at all. I actually wish at times the United States worked more like this. It is so funny at times how God has designed me for Africa. I like Africa time, I like the lack of rules and guidelines, and I like the genuine joy the people live with each day. In the United States we run from place to place all day just to be five minutes early. There are books full of guidelines and rules one must follow for everything someone wants to do or even thinks about doing. And, in general, most people I come across in the course of a day display little joy despite having so much - and all of these things about the U.S. drive me nuts!!!!

Ok now that I have gotten that tangent out of my system back to what God did today. After we had delivered lunch to all the workers I spent the remainder of the day hanging out in the school yard watching the construction guys, talking with the headmaster of the school, and trying to figure out what God wanted us to do next.

I know many of you that follow Christ know that some days it can feel like God is a million miles away. Other days it really feels like He is right there next to you talking to you and opening your eyes to everything He wants to accomplish for His purpose through you. Well, I had one of those days where I could literally feel God’s presence and voice with me in the school yard.

It is so hard to explain but it was like God was telling me to start looking for ways to empower more people within the community. Then it was like He opened my eyes to what the school buildings in Asikuma actually look like. We are closely moving towards having this beautiful looking library connected to an unfinished school building that you would not want lifetime criminals having to stay in - let alone 675 students going to school in. I also noticed that no matter how much progress we were making on the library there was no way we were going to be able to complete the whole project before we left.

While all of this is going through my mind God draws my attention to a Ghanaian construction guy named Sampson who had been working alongside our crew. Sampson had a work ethic and a diligence to his work that I have never seen by a worker in Asikuma. It was like God was telling me to find a way to empower Sampson and God would use him to accomplish great things.

As God was speaking to me I walked over to Sampson and pulled him out of the library where he was plastering the wall. I asked him to look at the entire school building and I asked him if he would be capable of plastering, painting, and finishing all of the school building not just the library. He looked at me and said of course. I asked him how much cement and paint it would take and what it would cost. He gave me a rough number and then I walked away and Sampson went back to work.

I knew what God was challenging me with so I shared my thoughts with Chris. I told him that I was thinking about leaving roughly $750.00 with Sampson to finish the entire school building. I told Chris that if Sampson could get the job done and be faithful with the resources it would open up a real door for us to accomplish even more in Asikuma. This would also give Chris the confidence of helping the community start a particular project and then leaving it in Sampson’s hands to finish.

After it seemed like Chris and I were on the same page we asked for Sampson to join us at dinner and that we would like to meet with him. Following dinner that evening Chris and I along with Nana (chief of the village) sat with Sampson and I explained the guidelines of our plans. We handed him 1,000.00 cedis which is equivalent to about $750.00 and told him he was fully responsible to finish the school building and library. He could use the money to buy supplies, hire staff, and other items that he may need to finish the project. The more efficient he could be with the money would ultimately mean more profit for Sampson for his time. We also let him know that if he was faithful with this project that this is something we could do again for future projects in Asikuma.

I am pretty sure Sampson left tonight thinking that he had won the lottery. We are excited to see his work and we will be receiving weekly updates of the progress that he is making.

Another really cool story from this last day in Asikuma is with a boy named Richard. As I was spending the afternoon at the library I realized that there was a 13 or 14 year old boy that was incredibly enthused by the whole construction process. He was hanging out trying to find any way possible that he could help. All of a sudden the cement guys ran out of water for the mixing of cement and without hesitation, without ever being asked, this boy was on it. The water well is about ½ mile from the school yard where we were working, but he could of cared less. He grabbed the wheel barrow with four gigantic water jugs and off he went. About 30 minutes later he returned with water so they could continue mixing the cement. You could tell how proud he was to be able to help out as he had a grin on his face from ear to ear.

As I witnessed all of this I walked up to him and asked him his name and he said, “Richard.” I told him that I really appreciated his help and then slid 10 cedis into his hand and told him that was for helping out. He literally could not stop telling me thank you as he probably said it 30 times in the next 10 minutes and it all came from such an absolutely pure heart.

Of course God was working again because Richard was not like every other kid. He was blind in one of his eyes. I asked him what happened and he told me his older brother got mad at him and stabbed him in the eye with a knife and that he could not see out of the eye. God was telling me to help the boy and was ensuring me that something could be done for his eye, so I told Richard to come eat dinner with us that evening and I would introduce him to Nana and see what we could do for him.

Nana took a liking to Richard right away and was willing to find a way to help. I agreed that Janel and I would donate the money for him to get to an eye doctor for an evaluation to see what could be done. If something could be done to save his eye we would do everything in our power to find a way to raise the money to have his vision restored.

Nana is working on getting Richard to a nearby eye clinic for that evaluation and we hope to have an update in the weeks to come.

God was working today. I just love these days. I love it when God seems so close. I love when God asks us to do something and then waits for obedience. I love not knowing how the story will end for Sampson or Richard or some of the other people he has called us to help. It is fun to have to rely on God. It is fun when the wisdom of the world can be stripped away and the power of God is all that matters.

Today was a great day and I thank God for the ways He showed up today and the way He constantly lets me know that He has definitely called us to this journey. Our job is to simply take step by step in obedience and faith.

Videos…..

Jake’s hope was that he could transport you to Asikuma and give you a good visual/walk through of all that has been accomplished! Thank you for your support of our projects – to God be the glory!

Library/additional classroom built onto governmental school:

Medical clinic:

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 6

2012-01-17T06:45:00.000-06:00

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Today we were all up with the rooster’s crow. The construction guys were headed to begin putting the roof on at the library, Doug and Emma were heading home as they had to leave two days earlier than the rest of the group, and Brittany, Typhanie, Nick and I were being picked up by Kofi to head to Kwahu to visit his new orphanage.

Kofi is the individual who handled our adoption of Justice and God has reconnected us recently through Adoption Advocates International. He will now be overseeing our adoption of ‘Y’ and ‘A’. Kofi was running on American time today as he was at the hotel to pick us up right at 8am. Typically in Ghana if someone is supposed to pick you up at 8am that really means 9:30 or 10:00. We often refer to time as American time or Ghana time when trying to figure out when we will actually leave for an activity or eat a meal. I think this is the first time this week that anyone in Ghana has operated on American time.

When Kofi arrived we piled into his vehicle and were off to Kwahu. We also have a few other sayings while we are in Ghana - “Nothing is as it seems” and “Always, ALWAYS expect the unexpected.” Well today that was never more true. I was under the impression that Kwahu was about an hour and half to two hours away. After about three hours into the trip we stopped at an Americanized rest stop which was the second unexpected surprise of the day. We bought some popcorn, crackers, went to the bathroom and then were getting ready to pile back into the car when Kofi points out into the distance and said, “See that mountain?” We said, “Yes.” Kofi followed up by saying, “Well Kwahu sits at the top of that mountain and it is the tallest mountain in Ghana and then he said, “We should be there in about 90 minutes. “ Yes today we are in the midst of the unexpected, but very excited about what God is up to.

As we climbed the mountain in our car I looked out my window and saw the beauty of God’s creation. I have never seen anything more beautiful in my life than being in the midst of the jungle slowly driving up the mountain. As I was enthralled with the beauty I looked down and all the beauty sunk to the bottom of my stomach and I now feared for my life. About three feet from my window was the cliff that dropped at least a few thousand feet. All that stood between us and the cliff were these two-foot poles that would likely not stop your car even if you did hit them. The thought did go through my mind that I may die climbing this mountain to Kwahu, but as we climbed the beauty of the area became greater and greater and my thoughts turned back to the wonders of God.

We had finally arrived at the orphanage that is still in the midst of construction, but is going to be an incredible place to care and love for the orphans of Ghana. Kofi has put all of his own money into the place up to this point and is about $15,000.00 - $20,000.00 away from completing the construction.

Once completed he will move the kids from the foster home (that is currently at his personal residence) into the orphanage. I am certainly looking forward to seeing how God wants us to partner with Kofi and his mission. I loved his vision and his obedience for what God is calling him to do in Ghana.

Kofi’s vision does not stop with just the orphanage. He has bought 32 plots of land that he hopes to develop that will ultimately fund the orphanage’s daily expenses and care for the children. He has started building the foundation of a 96 unit apartment building that he would rent out to the local people and would also serve missions groups and families adopting as well. The thing that is so interesting about Kwahu is that many of the wealthiest people in Ghana have vacation homes in the area. There were million dollar mansions surrounding mass poverty because of the beauty of the place. Many of the top executives from Ghana build get-away homes up in the area. Kofi thinks he can tap into that market with his apartment complex. He also has future plans on the land to develop a boarding school where the orphans and foster children would receive their education. Kofi dreams big and I know that God has big plans for Kofi and the orphans of Ghana.

After visiting the construction site we went over to the current orphanage/foster home that is located at Kofi’s house in Kwahu. The house is about a 500 sq/ft. three bedroom complex currently housing 14 children.

Many of the children in the local community also hang out there throughout the day. The coolest part about all of this is that Kofi got married in October and his wife is 100% behind what God is calling them to do. She is the primary caretaker of the children in the home and is a few months pregnant with Kofi's first son. There were also a few other part-time house mothers helping out and serving Christ through the care of the orphans.

The kids were incredibly well behaved and cared for. We spent the next four hours hanging out with the children reading books, jump roping, walking the village roads, and sharing the love of Christ through our desire to love them.

It seemed like just a few minutes had past when in reality four hours had gone by and it was already time for us to make our journey back to Asikuma. As we traveled through small villages, unpaved roads, hundreds of speed bumps, dodging random goats and cattle we finally made it back to Asikuma around 10pm. As I opened the car door and we pulled into the hotel there was peace and quiet for about 30 seconds until I heard footsteps running down the dirt hill to the hotel in the distance. Then I heard voices yelling “Hi Dad! We are glad you are back!” It was Albert, Fredrick, Manche, Asare, and their partners in crime. They had waited all day for us to get back and the hotel cooks kept the food out for us so we could feed as many kids as possible when we returned. That night we fed about 30 kids and we all laughed and joked into the night before they finally had to return home.

There are times on this journey that God has called me to in which I question it all. I question the best methods, I wonder if we are really making lasting relationships, and for me whether the youth God has called me to disciple are really getting it. Well, tonight God confirmed it all. Over the course of one year I have gone from obruni (white man/foreigner), to Mr. Jake, to Dad. As I crawled into bed that night I went to bed with a peace that only God can provide.

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 5

2012-01-16T08:49:00.000-06:00

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Each morning during this trip we have all been getting up with the rooster’s crow and enjoying breakfast together at 8am. Well that was not the case this morning. We did enjoy breakfast together, but it was not until after 10am. As we all shuffled out of our rooms our New Year’s bash of the card game phase 10 was still on most of our faces. No one heard the rooster that morning, and there was not much said during breakfast as we tried to shake the cob webs out since we knew God had great things planned for us today.

Following breakfast Chris, Tim, Doug, and Dan went out to continue their work on the library and school building. I went out to see the girl’s again and then to head into the village to meet people and see more familiar faces. Of course I had my crew with me with every step I took (in their sunglasses provided by Brittany nonetheless!).

I have come to love Albert, Fredrick, Manche, and Asare and will miss them greatly when the trip comes to an end. Typhanie, Nick, and Brittany also went into the village to continue to work on building long-term, sustainable relationships. Our hope is that the gospel of Christ can be something not just preached by some American Christian who is here one day and gone the next, but that we can truly take part in discipleship here – and that only comes through long-term relationships.

I know that many people are great at going into places and attempting to evangelize and share the gospel with everyone they meet, and that particular gift is something that amazes me when I meet those people. However, God has not necessarily designed me like that, and the more I study the continent of Africa the more I realize that evangelism within Africa has been extremely successful while discipleship has fallen by the wayside.

It seems that many Africans have accepted Christ as their Savior, but have never been discipled on what to do with the knowledge of Christ. They’ve never been shown how their life should overflow with the love that was poured out on the cross for all of us. Obviously this is not a problem only in Africa, but we have the same problem in the United States – allowing our lives to actually reflect the Christ who died for us. The difference is that in the United States this happens not because of lack of knowledge, but more because of our mere laziness, lack of trust in who our God is, and the constant reliance on the world’s wisdom. In Africa it is just truly a lack of knowledge. Sometimes a lack of literacy plays a part. Even more so, it is a lack of sustainable, long-term relationships with Christians from other parts of the world that have the resources to know who our God is and what His grace and power can do in one’s life. The great part about Africa is that there are so many people here who are thirsty to learn what to do with the knowledge of Christ. I enjoy walking life with people and sharing Christ as we walk along the roads. Each day when I wake up in Africa my goal is to walk with the people God puts in my path for that day. It might be through serving, loving, feeding, listening, laughing, or doing a bible study. Who knows how God will call me to share the gospel today, but I am sure He will give me ample opportunity to show His love and disciple the young people within the community.

The primary goal of our mission trips is to build relationships where we can disciple people on what Christ calls us to do while we have this short time on this earth. One of the great things about developing these relationships is that as much as we get to obey God’s word and disciple others, the people in Asikuma are teaching us just as much. They teach us about the purest form of joy, when all else is stripped away. There are many here who have nothing except the hope of what Jesus has promised in a life of eternity. Their lives are hard, burdened, difficult – physically and emotionally. And yet, they are so hope-filled and joyful. We can learn so much from them too.

I am so grateful for all the blessings that God continues to pour out on my life since He has let me see what He sees on a continent 6,000 miles away from the place I call home. It still feels like yesterday when I did not even know who Jesus was. It feels like just hours ago when I sat in church after Christ was revealed to me questioning why we have to go to the nations when we have so many people in our own backyards who are suffering. God brought me out of a place of such darkness and has given me a light for Christ in a far off land. The joy that fills my heart every moment that I am here in Africa is unexplainable.

Before we knew it, it was 1:30 in the afternoon and we all met back up for lunch at the hotel before heading back out again. After lunch I walked down to the library to assist wherever Chris could use my not-so-handy construction skills, which was not very many places. It wasn’t long before God pulled me away from the library to a different classroom at the school where I heard joyful kids singing praise songs to God.

As I peeked my head into the room I saw a couple of kids that I knew and I asked what was going on. They said it was Sunday school - at 3pm! This Sunday school session was the first one I had seen here with my own eyes. What a delight to see the local church investing in young lives for the sake of the gospel. This particular Sunday school class was a party to celebrate the New Year and praise God for his faithfulness in 2011, and to look forward to new blessings He will pour out on Asikuma in 2012.

The kids were singing praise songs at the top of their lungs and soon women from the community started showing up with food. As the women were setting up the food line; the pastor called me in to share whatever God put on my heart with the kids. I was not sure what to say as there were kids ages 5 -14 and the younger kids in the community typically do not speak a lot of English prior to going to school when they are 6 or 7 years old.

I simply shared with them how excited I was to be in Asikuma and told them that the reason I am here is because of my love for Jesus and what He did for me on the cross. I told them that God would call them to new places and have special plans for all of them. Then I prayed for all the kids that they would always have a heart for following Christ no matter where He calls them!

As soon as I got done praying more worship broke out and then it was time to eat. The church, which I came to find out, was the Asikuma Methodist church. They put together the small amount of funds they had in order to feed all the children in the church which was about 50. These kids got to ring in the New Year with full bellies.

I hung out with the class until they were dismissed at about 4:30pm and slowly made my way back to the hotel for dinner that evening. Prior to dinner we had planned on doing a bible study, but the hotel we stay at looked like it was to be the headquarters of the New Year’s Party in Asikuma. People began flooding into the hotel and the music was blaring at unsafe decibels with everyone dancing and singing. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before but I must say it was pretty cool to be ringing in the New Year African style.

At about 10pm we went back to our rooms. We found out that Tim was not feeling the best, so as guys do so well Chris, Dan, and I came into Tim’s room to comfort him. Ok we actually gave him a hard time and made him laugh even though he wanted to do nothing but crawl up in a ball on his bed. Before we knew it Nick and Typhanie walked into the room and a game of UNO broke out right there on Tim’s bed as he was curled up in the fetal position. I don’t think I have played UNO since I was 12 years old, but we had a great time. Our game of UNO did not conclude until a little after 1am with Tim’s snoring driving us all to our rooms.

Another day has come to end. 8am is going to come early and as always I am sure God has tomorrow beautifully planned for His purposes.

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 4

2012-01-13T08:14:00.003-06:00

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

The last day of 2011 arrived with a rooster crowing as the sun came up in Asikuma. We all rolled out of bed knowing it was going to be a great day. The construction team had finished the work at the medical clinic except for a few touch-up items that they would finish over the upcoming four days.

Entry right inside front door of clinic..................

The construction team was now headed to the school yard to begin work on the new classroom joined together with the new library for the school. They had their hands full as they headed towards the school, but with Chris Gardner from Bella Homes leading the team I was more than confident they would complete this project by the time the bus pulls out on Wednesday, January 4th.

Dan and Tim beginning work at the library...................

Later Chris and the others got the roof structure up..........

[ To read about how all this construction began, go here: http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/04/asikuma-projects-phase-i.html

To see where our projects had left off since our August trip go here: http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/08/construction-projects-in-asikuma.html ]

Brittany, Typhanie, and Nick would spend the day getting to know people throughout the community. They spent a lot of time playing with the kids and building relationships within the community. The hope is that by doing this the relationships can be long lasting and real fruit can be produced for the sake of the gospel.

On this day I only had one goal on my mind and that was to spend as much time as possible with ‘Y’ and ‘A’. I wanted to continue to get to know them and have the girls become more comfortable with me being around.

Of course it was no ordinary day in the middle of the village. As I walked around the corner through the village I heard music blaring, and saw people dancing and dressed in their finest clothes. Out of curiosity I had to ask what was going on. The elders of the community told me it was an engagement ceremony where the man actually gives the engagement ring to the woman he plans to marry. This entire party was going on only about 100 feet from where I was visiting ‘Y’ and ‘A’.

When I arrived at the shack it became chaos as always. The kids around the village are always intrigued by us and quickly migrate to where we are at. I had people touching my hair, rubbing my skin, and even pulling the hair on my arms as the idea of having hair on your arms and legs fascinates them - the Ghanaians typically do not have much body hair.

Despite the craziness of the engagement party and hundreds of youth flooding the area, ‘Y’ headed right to my arms and sat on my lap. ‘A’ on the other hand gave me a sassy look and started giggling and ran around the corner. She probably played the peek-a-boo game with me for 20 or 30 minutes until I pulled out my I-Phone and let ‘Y’ play the monkey matching game. As soon as ‘A’ saw this going on her curious nature got the best of her and she was soon standing between my legs trying to get a peek at the I-phone. Every time someone tried to push her away she would smack them as hard as she could. Let’s just say that she has lots and lots of personality and is certainly no push-over!!

As the day went on the chaos slowly subsided and by lunch time people were getting used to me being in the village just hanging out. It was a great feeling as people would walk by and say “Hi Mr. Jake”. There were no more laughs and giggles or “obruni” being yelled out which means ‘white man’. I was starting to become part of the community and it was an incredible feeling after working so hard to build relationships over the past 12 months.

As I continued to hang out in the village with ‘Y’ and ‘A’, an aunt, their grandmother, as well as a few other kids, we all got to know each other better. I got to take in the morning bathtime routine in which one of the girls was placed in a silver bowl and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed!

I got to playfully chase ‘Y’ and ‘A’ around the hut, snuggle with them as they sat on my lap, and of course I watched grandmother crack more palm nuts. I observed the aunt and a friend cook and they tried to teach me how to make banku which is a local dish. We all danced together throughout the afternoon as the music from the engagement party had everyone in a good mood. Today God did a work on my heart with two beautiful little girls that He has brought into our lives. I pray that the Lord allows the adoption of these two girls to go smoothly, but I do have peace knowing that His glory will be seen throughout the journey no matter what His plans ultimately are.

After a fantastic day with the girls the sun began to go down and it was time to head back to the hotel to do a bible study with our core group of village kids - Albert, Fredrick, Asare, Manche, Ali, Mauli, and Ophilia. Tonight’s bible study was about the idea that Christ came to serve and not to be served.

The topic really hit me today as I sat in the village. Because of the color of my skin and because of where we come from, everyone attempts to treat me like royalty. Every time I sat down someone was running over to me with a bench. One time I sat down in the dirt to play with the girls and everyone nearly had a heart attack. About 30 minutes later when I stood up I had people trying to wipe my pants off. During the afternoon I bought an entire pack of water satchels to give out to all the kids that were hanging out with us that afternoon. A satchel contains about 30 bags of water and probably weighs about 40 pounds to carry. As I picked it up I had about 10 kids run over to me to carry the satchels for me, and when I told them that I would carry it some of the older men around looked at me like I was an alien.

The thing about the Ghanaian community is that status is highly regarded and once you receive a status level everyone tries to do everything for you. It has really become a problem with many of the men in the community. For the men that have not left the village, the majority of them sit around under huts all day long talking and playing cards, while the women and children fetch water, prepare meals, sell on the side of roads, track down fire wood, and care for the kids. Obviously there are exceptions, but not a lot of them. I want the young people that we are beginning to disciple to not only see what it looks like to serve and work throughout a day, but more importantly I wanted them to understand that no matter what status they receive on this earth God calls us to serve. He tells us over and over in His word that the first will be last and the last will be first in the kingdom of heaven.

Following bible study it was time for a great African dinner of fried rice, tilapia, chicken, banku, and okra soup. The kids hung out until about 10pm with us and then they headed home for the night.

We thought Asikuma would be pretty crazy on New Years Eve, but it wasn’t. They explained to us that they celebrate and party on January 1st as they celebrate New Years and Christmas on the same day.

Since the kids went home for the night and us Americans celebrate New Years Eve we decided we would ring in the new year in Africa with the card game Brittany had introduced us to the other night - Phase 10 - AKA the single longest card game in the history of card games. As the game took us past midnight we celebrated 2012 ahead of all of our American friends who still had a few hours until it became 2012. We had a GREAT time together on this New Years Eve celebrating in Africa and I am sure it will be one nobody forgets!!!

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 3

2012-01-12T07:33:00.000-06:00

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Friday morning arrived way too soon and it did not help that the rooster at the hotel is a little confused and started crowing at 3am while it was still pitch black. The alarm went off at 8am and it felt like a semi-truck had just hit me. The good news was that everyone looked the same as we slowly shuffled in for breakfast. I think I ate three bofu balls which is best described as a big round deep fried donut. It probably is not on the recommended dietary guide but it tasted great none the less.

Before I knew it Nana and Michael were honking their horns at Doug, Brittany, Emma, and I as we were scheduled to head to Accra for the day to attend a variety of meetings and Esi’s party. The construction crew along with Nick and Typhanie were headed to the medical clinic to finish it all up today. Nick and Typhanie were in charge of all painting while Chris, Dan, and Tim were doing their thing.

We started in on the dreaded three hour drive from Asikuma to Accra. Of course we managed to squeeze six people into one vehicle with no air conditioning that is only designed to seat four people. The other vehicle could only fit two because of some weird permit on the car. Plus Doug Vander Weide believes he is an African driver now and was driving the car with the two person limit. I am not sure what would have been a better way to get to Accra as neither option was great. Ride with an American driving in a country that does not obey many of the basic traffic laws or be stuffed like sardines in a car with no air conditioning. I must say later in the day I did ride with Doug and he made an all-African U-turn in the middle of oncoming rush hour traffic which was quite impressive. I nearly threw up and saw my life flash before my eyes which would certainly qualify him as a certified African driver.

Our three hour journey turned into about a four journey of sweat and car sickness as our driver struggled with stopping in rush hour traffic without nearly jerking everyone through the front window. We did finally arrive at our first destination all a little nauseated to meet with the Kingdom Hoops Ghana basketball team. We have had lots of issues surrounding the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team over the past three months mostly regarding lying and mistrust. One of our host students that arrived about 8 months ago had to be sent back to Ghana due to age discrepancies. Once he found out he had to return back to Ghana he ratted out a handful of the players on the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team that were also lying about their age in order to receive opportunities through Kingdom Hoops Ghana.

I knew as the head of the team that I had two ways I could respond. I could respond with negative emotions or I could use it as a teaching moment centered on the scriptures. As hard as it was I tried to focus my energy on God’s word and His call for His followers to disciple others according to His word. I figure that I do the same things to God on a daily basis yet He loves me unconditionally and that is what I needed to do with the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team.

My conversation with them centered on the book of Haggai. Haggai was a prophet that came to the Israelites after they returned to the promised land. Haggai challenged the people of Israel that they were more concerned with building their own homes for themselves while God’s temple laid in ruins. Haggai showed them that no matter how hard they worked God would not bless their endeavors until their focus returned to what really matters in this world.

In my opinion the book of Haggai summarizes not only what was happening on the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team, but also what is happening throughout Africa. In Africa when individuals have an opportunity given to them they attempt to keep it all to themselves focusing on the building of their own personal interests ahead of even what God is trying to do. The Kingdom Hoops Ghana team was certainly no different. No matter what it took for them to receive an opportunity to build their own house they were willing to do it. It did not matter if their actions involved deceit and lying as long as they would be able to build their house. The craziest part about it was that over the past six months we have tried to help a variety of the Kingdom Hoops Ghana athletes receive opportunities to further their education on student visas. In the latter part of 2011, every student in our program that has went to the United States Embassy to receive their student visa has been denied. No matter what steps they took or how much diligence was put into the process God closed the door on them. It was as if God was saying to the boys ~ Until you start living to glorify Me (building God’s house) I am not going to bless your own house. God is certainly faithful and I praise Him daily for protecting our organization in the midst of such deceit, but even more so I praise Him for this opportunity to disciple these boys through this time in their life. Hoping that just maybe the next generation will learn the importance of honesty and the importance of building God’s house above their own.

Time will only tell how much the message will enter into the lives of these athletes. A few of them seemed repentant and understood the life Christ is calling them too. The majority seemed like it rolled off their back with the attitude that ‘this is Africa - get used to it’. The thing they don’t know about me is that God brought me here to rock the boat and not to conform. I know my God will lead me to individuals that want to create change in a continent for the sake of the gospel. I understand that this will be a journey that God will use to grow me as well, and it will certainly contain many peaks and valleys. It is exciting to be walking with Christ on this journey of discipleship and I can only pray He keeps me on this path.

After our meeting it was on to visit a private school in Accra. The headmaster of the school actually works for us part-time in Ghana helping coordinate our mission trips as well as the various projects that God has allowed us to start in Ghana. Recently the school lost its primary funding source as the non-profit entity that was helping the school out has actually been working as a fraud. The head master (Michael Sarpong), as well as the school pastor and the landlord wanted to meet with us to see if there was any potential for a possible partnership. It was a very successful meeting with the school and we are excited about a potential partnership down the road. We will have to see where God leads as there are still a lot of details to gather, but we know God will lead where His glory will most be seen.

Following our school meeting it was on to Esi’s 50th birthday party. Esi is the mother of our current Ghana host students Yaw and Peprah, and she has been an incredible resource during our time the past three years in Ghana. Like any Esi party it was decorated beautifully, the food was incredible, and I had the opportunity to connect with lots of new people from the Accra area. We could not thank Esi enough for the incredible party, and before we knew it we had to head back to Asikuma. We were all dreading the three hour car ride back to the village, but we were all excited to have the upcoming two days completely focused on the people of Asikuma.

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 2

2012-01-10T07:31:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, December28th, 2011

We have arrived in Ghana after a fairly smooth flight and no major delays. Of course no arrival at the Ghana airport is without excitement. Yes, we did arrive on time but we were soon at the mercy of the non-efficient baggage service at the Accra airport. About ninety minutes after our official arrival we eventually left the airport with 14 of our 15 bags. Brittany’s bag was nowhere to be found and I felt horrible for her as it is her first trip to Ghana - then being a woman with no luggage cannot make the trip any easier. Brittany has been great about it all and luckily Emma Vander Weide is with us and they are the same size so they will be able to share some clothes until Brittany’s bag shows up. We can only pray that it arrives sooner than later.

Following the airport adventures of Accra International Airport we headed to our charter bus that took us immediately to Asikuma. After having to deal with Accra traffic, 500 speed bumps, people running across the road, goats being stuffed into taxi cabs, and the gigantic cow in the middle of the road that we almost hit we finally arrived in Asikuma around 8:00pm.

As soon as our bus pulled into the hotel in Asikuma we were immediately greeted by Albert (one of our beloved village kids) and his crew who helped us get settled into our rooms and then decided to join us for a late dinner. Following dinner we all took a stroll up to the medical clinic under the night sky to check in on the progress of the clinic. To our surprise the clinic was looking incredible - the locals had put in significant work. We knew that God had allowed us to do a lot of work on the clinic in August, but it was with great joy that the community had taken real ownership of the place. There were a few new trees planted, flowers planted, part of the side walk finished, and all of the tile inside the clinic had also been finished by the some of the local workers. We were told by Nana, the chief of the village, that the clinic has seen 459 patients since opening in August. Who knows how many lives have been saved through the gifts and talents God has given the construction crew that has sacrificed so much to make this clinic a reality. All we could say as we concluded the night and went back to the hotel to get some rest is that GOD IS GOOD!!

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Today we woke up at 7:45am with breakfast being at 8am. By 8:30am we were all out of the hotel gate. The construction guys were ready to get started with the final touches of the clinic and I was excited to head immediately into the village and see all my friends from our past visits to Asikuma. Mostly I was excited to head into town to see ‘Y’ and ‘A’ the beautiful girls that God has put into our lives. There is never a day that goes by without me thinking about them, and during the hours upon hours of individual training that I am doing they are the ones who keep me going.

As I entered the village and walked around the corner their grandmother immediately recognized me and called out for the girls. The girls both came out of their small house and greeted me with smiles and open arms. ‘A’ who would not even let me touch her during our last visit came right into my arms and let me pick her up.

I spent the next two hours just sitting with the girls beginning to learn their personalities as I was excited for them to get comfortable around me. I wanted to see how they acted in their normal environment.

It was actually kind of crazy, but the best way to describe the girls is ‘Y’ is serious with a soft heart just like JJ and ‘A’ is sassy with a lot of personality just like Jayla. ‘Y’ never left my side the entire time as she sat on my lap, held my hand, and loved the games on my phone. ‘A’ on the other hand never sat still for more than 30 seconds. Anytime someone messed with her she would run up and spank them on the butt, run around in a circle with a shoe string swinging in the air giggling the whole time. She also liked to throw rocks in the air which got her in trouble by her grandmother.

It was an awesome couple of hours. After my time with the girls I began to run into some of the kids that we have decided to invest our lives into and disciple.

One of the kids is Fredrick. Fredrick is one of the biggest kids in the village and is kind of the body guard of the group. The more I was around him this morning the more I noticed that he was just not himself. He had very little energy and his one eye was almost swollen shut. The good news was that we had a clinic now up and operating and I thought this would be a great chance for me to see how the clinic works. I walked Fredrick down to the clinic and right into the nurse’s office. She looked at me kind of funny and I simply told her we would take care of the cost and she immediately went to work figuring out what was wrong with Fredrick. By the time the 20 minute look-over was finished he was diagnosed with a severe eye infection and a bad skin rash. They gave him some eye medicine, pills (of some sort), and a lotion to put on his skin. All in all the medicine cost us 8 cedis (roughly US $5) and I gave her 10 cedis for her service which is roughly (US $7). It was fun to see how the nurses go about their work. Let’s just say it is not done like the United States, but nonetheless Fredrick received treatment he would have otherwise not received just a few months earlier.

Next came a quick lunch of fried rice and something else that resembled a stew. Before we knew it we were back to what God had called us to do here. The construction guys were back to cranking out the finishing touches on the medical clinic ~ building shelves, pouring cement, and finishing the sidewalk.

Brittany and Emma were playing and dancing with the village kids…

and I snuck away to spend more time with ‘Y’ and ‘A’. As I arrived at their home I received a huge smile from grandma as she sat there cracking palm nuts that she will sell to make a living….

Upon seeing me ‘Y’ ran right up to me and I scooped her up. For the next three hours I sat on the ledge of the stoop of their small mud shack and played with the girls and learned more about their environment than I had learned in all my trips to Ghana. I learned all about the palm nuts. Grandmother cracks the nuts and then melts them over fire creating palm oil which is then sold. It was a very fascinating process to see completed.

During my time with the girls I got to watch an ‘aunt’ prepare dinner with incredible diligence in a little cooking hut that would not be approved by any city inspector. She was sitting in a little mud hut with a 5 foot ceiling made out of straw. In the middle of the hut was an open flame shooting 2 or 3 feet into the air. The little room was filled with smoke and wonderful scents of Ghanaian food. I sat there the whole time fearing for the worst as I was sure the roof would catch fire at any moment.

During the midst of me watching this shooting flame inside the hut a minor fist fight broke out between two men in the village which drew quite a crowd and ruckus. I have never seen so many Ghanaians yelling at each other all at one time, and the best part is a couple of women actually broke up the altercation. About 30 minutes after the altercation we all hear a huge pop that sounded like a gun or fire cracker - we really could not decide. Nana (chief of the village) had just arrived where I was sitting and we all looked at each trying to decide what that noise was. Nana finally looked at everyone and said - "I am so tired of the people setting off those Christmas fire crackers!" However, this pop was no firework. It was actually the sound of a gun. A man and wife were fighting over money and the man grabbed what most accurately would be described as a bb gun to end the fight, and somehow it went off in the middle of the crowded village. All of a sudden the police are chasing a man through the village, people are yelling and screaming, and a 10 year old girl got shot in the leg. A few minutes later a man was being arrested and a girl was being sent to the hospital in Juapong which is about 30 miles away.

Ever since our journey in Africa began three years ago we have always said to expect the unexpected when in Ghana and nothing is ever as it seems. This was never more true than today during my few hours hanging out in the village. In the midst of chaos I had a great time bonding with ‘Y’ and ‘A’ and seeing them become more comfortable with me was an awesome feeling. Today I got to see all kinds of exciting action just sitting like a local and watching what many normal days probably consist of. There is no way I would exchange these few hours for anything in the world.

Before I knew it the time was five o’clock and I was heading back to the hotel with our small group of children that God has called us to disciple for a bible study and then dinner. We brought each one of the kids their very own bible and we all huddled around the table and opened up to Luke 6:46-49.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I say? (Message bible actually says, why do you say yes sir, no sir, thank you sir, and yet your actions look nothing like your words). I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house, but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice, is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

I actually came across this while doing my personal bible readings prior to leaving for Ghana. I have heard this part of scripture a million times and have sung it an equal number of times. All the other times I have read or heard this verse I was sure the foundation described was talking about the acceptance of Jesus into ones’ life. However, the more I studied this part of scripture the more I realized that is not what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about believers who have already accepted Jesus into their lives. Once we have accepted Jesus we need to begin to take his words and direction that is written in the Bible and put it into our lives, so that we can learn to fully rely on God.

When I read this a few days before leaving for Ghana the verses came alive and I believe God was leading me to this scripture as a place to start with our group of young people in Asikuma. In Africa there are a ton of people that believe in Jesus. Many studies actually say that the most professed believers in Jesus Christ are in Africa and yet the greatest poverty and killings in the world also occur in Africa. The majority of Africans that are not professed Muslims understand who Jesus Christ is and accept the fact that Jesus died for them. However, very little in their life actually changes upon accepting Jesus. The ideas we really focused on with the kids and will focus on throughout the week is the idea of serving and not being served, as well as the responsibility we all have with the gifts and talents God has given us. Tonight we talked about once we have accepted Jesus in our lives that our lives should begin to look different from our peers and neighbors. When we read the Bible and God instructs us through His word on how to live we are supposed to respond in obedience with our lives according to His instruction.

It was so much fun having the kids’ complete attention as they were all so excited to be learning about the Bible. Even a few of the workers at the hotel came over in delight asking me if we were teaching the Bible and if we were whether or not they could sit and learn as well. It was with great joy and excitement to be able to teach the Bible to so many ears who had a desire to learn.

Following the Bible study we enjoyed a night of fried rice and tilapia and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of my favorite dish. The kids soon scattered home and it was just this trip’s team (Chris, Emma, Doug, Brittany, Typh, Nick, Tim, Dan, and I) left together in the eating area of the hotel. Before long Brittany broke out a deck of cards and taught everyone a new game called phase 10. She failed to inform us that it is the longest card game known to man and the game did not finish until 1:30am. It was a blast spending time with the team and laughing together until late into the night, but we will certainly pay the price in the morning.

Jake's Ghana Trip Journal ~ Day 1

2012-01-09T07:29:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

I don’t feel like writing at this moment. I have been on and off airplanes for the past 8 hours and we still have 7 hours and 15 minutes left before we touch down in Accra, Ghana. However, God is bugging me to begin writing about another journey He has me on. I have so many thoughts, emotions, ideas, and fears in my mind. Over the next 10 days during my 10th trip to Ghana I am going to begin writing about the cool things that God will do through us in a land 6000 miles away from everything that feels comfortable.

This is one of the few times in the last twelve years that I have been alone. Yes we have eight others on this trip to Ghana, but my wife and kids are at home. There is a comfort you receive when your family is with you. I think God is up to something on this trip and I am not sure what it is, but I think God is going to do mighty things in the lives of others on this trip and I think He will be doing mighty things in my life on this trip as well. For the next ten days I will be alone with God and I am excited to find out what He will teach me. For the next 10 days it is going to be me and my Lord. I am scared and excited all at the same time. My emotions contradict themselves minute by minute. I wish I could reach over to the seat next to me and grab my wife’s hand, but she is not there. I wish I could hear JJ ask me who I am going for in some bowl game only He has heard of. I wish I could see Justice’s gigantic smile and hear his booming voice, and of course I wish had some sweet kisses and hugs from Jayla.

Instead God has me on yet another adventure. However, I don’t think this adventure has anything to do with building something, coaching someone, discipling someone, or going to some unknown place. I think this adventure is going to be the adventure of me getting to know God at a deeper level over these next ten days. Who knows what that means, but I am sure God will reveal himself in mighty ways during this upcoming trip.

As I received my boarding pass today and gave everyone a hug and JJ hugged me and told me he can’t wait to see me next Thursday with a big tear in his eye I almost lost all emotional control. I wanted to so badly walk out of the airport and spend the next ten days with my family during one of the rare parts of the year that provides me some downtime.

However, as has happened over and over and over the past three and half years I heard God’s voice telling me to go. My mind is thinking for what? I am wondering ~ What God do You want to accomplish on this trip to Ghana and why have You called me to this far off land? I don’t necessarily have the answers; other than I know my God is calling me back to Ghana for His purposes. Despite the emotions of leaving my family for the next ten days tugging at me; I am filled with absolute joy and excitement to be heading back to a place that truly feels like home to me. I know the emotions contradict each other and are hard to explain, but when you are a heading to place on the other side of the ocean to share and demonstrate the love of Christ there is an absolute and complete joy that fills my entire being.

As I wrestled with the emotions of leaving my family for ten days and the call of God I wondered how many people actually put their family ahead of God. Many people think all of this is foolish. Many wonder why risk so much when God has been so good to me right here in Iowa. Others may even believe that God’s primary purpose for a Godly man is to ensure his house is in order and that it is not wise to take such unnecessary risk to fly across the ocean and leave one’s family behind for ten days.

Every day I hear reasons from very godly men about why they can’t open their house to a stranger, why they can’t take a financial risk for God, and why they can’t travel to a far off land because it is not wise for their own household. The more I study God’s word and learn about his true character the more I understand that the most dangerous thing to do is to put one’s own household above the one true God. As a man I actually think God wants us to go. God wants us to live a life that shows the love we have for Christ. God calls us to do “crazy” things for Him that may look foolish to the world around us. God calls us to go to the ends of the earth for Him. God calls us to throw all worldly wisdom out and rely on faith and the wisdom of His Word. Through a life that puts Christ at the center and above all other things is a life that will ultimately reward your entire family that we all are responsible for caring for.

God constantly tells us that we can’t love anything more than Him. This includes our wives, our children, our houses, our cars, our lake houses, our activities, our sporting events, our TV’s, and our comfort and security. Please don’t misunderstand me when I say these things. I love nothing more on earth than my wife and children, but I am simply called to love Christ more than them. When all the parts of my flesh say that I am foolish; God’s love tells me to take that next step. When I want to crawl up in a ball and cry because I miss them so bad and my 10 day journey is just starting; God ensures me that this is what he meant by a man leading his family.

Leading is not just taking your children to church and attempting to read your bible with them each week. I believe God wants more from men who are leading their families in the way of Christ. I believe He wants us to show our children what John meant when he said the Word became flesh. Yes, in context John was talking about Jesus coming alive to die on a cross for all of our sin. But, I also believe he was encouraging all of those who would believe in Christ to live the same way. God wants all of us to take what we read in God’s word – the Bible - and bring it to life. God, is not content with us just reading His word, studying it, memorizing it, pondering it, singing about it, and then not actually doing it because we are scared of what might happen to our families. Maybe we are just scared of losing all control of our lives and having to completely rely on God’s power alone. I am not sure the answer why we don’t allow the word to become flesh in many of our lives, but I am very confident it is what God wants more than anything else from those who call him Father.

A couple of weeks ago I heard a sermon by Francis Chan at a family conference. He titled his sermon “Don’t Focus on the Family.” The primary verse he taught over was 1 Corinthians 7:29 which reads ~ Dear brothers the time is short, so men that have wives live as though you have none. Does this verse not seem kind of weird? Especially since this is the same Paul who told men to love their wives as Christ loved the church? Now he is telling us men to live as though we don’t have wives. What could he possibly mean?

I have wrestled with the passage daily for the past few weeks since hearing the sermon and preparing to head to Africa for ten days without my wife and children. I am a very simple person and have a tendency to take the things of the Bible in very literal terms. So, every time God puts that verse in my head I try to decipher what in the world I am supposed to do with it.

I think He is making it clear in my life that what a husband and father following Christ is supposed to do is to live out Christ in his flesh. I believe it means that when my children ask my wife, over the next ten days; “Where is Daddy?” and she says, “Africa,” and they ask, “Why?” and she says, “Because of Jesus,” that it will begin to make an indentation on their heart by seeing their Dad live out Christ in the flesh.

I believe that God has designed men to be risk-takers for Christ. When you look at the men of the Bible whether it is the disciples, or Saul, Moses, Abraham, Nehemiah, or Daniel they all took great risks for Christ. We as men are called to live similar lives. I believe that today many men following after Christ have categorized leading their family by doing a family bible study or two each week. Those things are important and we need to all lead in those ways as well. But, there are times when God wants us to say yes to God for our families. There are times God wants us to go in order to demonstrate Christ for our families.

It is hard and it is scary. The flesh is torn to pieces when we are called to go somewhere for the sake of Christ, but it is what we must do. God gave us all so many examples in the Bible to follow and as I sit on this plane right now my flesh desires to be snuggled up on the couch in the safety of my house with my family, but God calls me to lead and I must follow His leading by heading back to Ghana, Africa once more.

Who knows what God has planned but without question it will be another great adventure.

Eternal Separation or Eternal Life ~ One man’s POWERFUL after-death testimony

2012-01-06T07:36:00.000-06:00

For Your Sake....So that You May Believe

2012-01-05T07:42:00.001-06:00

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived…the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” (John 11:1,3)

Lazarus, Mary and Martha were close friends of Jesus who lived a couple of miles from Jerusalem. At the time of this event, Jesus was on the other side of the Jordan River, a full day’s journey from Bethany.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. (John 11:5-6)

Now that doesn’t make any sense. In this day of quick-response rescue teams, everyone knows that when someone is seriously ill, delays can be fatal. But Jesus stayed where he was for another two days! What was going on in his mind?

Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But, Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days… (John 11: 7-8, 14-15, 17)

[The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, pgs. 197-198]

As we look forward to this new adoption, I’ve found that Justice and I are having many detailed conversations about his own adoption. He has always been open with us on the details of his life in Ghana whenever we ask questions, but lately he has been bringing up the things he remembers during his adoption process on his own. We got into a heart-to-heart conversation the night of New Years Eve. He was ready to talk….and talk he did…..I enjoyed listening and asking him questions to keep our conversation going for about 45 minutes straight with no interruptions from my other little red-heads who were asleep in the back seat.

There are so many details of God-stories woven into his little life from his time in Ghana. One such memory that he shared with me involved a very dark time in his life. And yet, during that time God provided a tiny tv set that was on the church channel each day that he was around it. He told me that each time it was on he would listen to the sermons and pray and pray that God would help him. I asked him if he knew God at that point. He said no, but that he believed God could help him. And help He did. It was during this time, June 2010, that Jake and I traveled to Ghana as advised by our agency at the time to ‘pick up’ Justice’s visa and bring him home. When the Embassy wouldn’t give us his visa and we realized that we were heading back to the U.S. without our son it was pretty hard to believe. In fact, it felt like a bad joke that someone was playing on us. Why God did you bring us all the way to Ghana fully knowing that his visa wasn’t ready? What was the point of all this? This doesn’t make any sense. I had never felt as much pain and broken-heartedness and anger and confusion as I had on that trip. I just could not understand what God was doing.

In fact, from our measly perspective the whole situation looked bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I felt awful that we had given such hope to Justice that he was going home, only to have to break the news to him that he actually couldn’t board the plane with us. I felt like a fool that had been tricked by the system. Yep, from every angle things looked bad and wrong.

But what we didn’t know was that our coming was actually God answering Justice’s prayers that he had prayed each day listening to tv church. Because, through all of the events that followed, he was taken out of the dark situation, and put in a loving home in Ghana to await his visa which came months later. Had God not brought us to Ghana in June 2010, Justice would have continued to suffer for months without us ever knowing it. If you don’t know by now, evil people cover up. They hide and deceive. And sometimes they do a really good job of it. But God knows and God delivers from evil. At face value that trip made no sense to us. But through that seemingly bad situation, God was showcasing His power, and making faith personal to a little 6 year old boy. For your sake….so that you may believe….

There are situations and circumstances happening right now in our current adoption in which I am rehearsing these past times when God has so powerfully displayed His Sovereignty, even when we didn’t understand right away. Do you know what it feels like when your heart begins to fret? It’s like you hear something or get some sort of information and your entire body goes tense and pure anxiety takes over your insides. My shoulders get all tight and I start getting snappy and having a short fuse with anyone who crosses my path. I used to enjoy escaping anxiety-producing realities through a glass of wine or venting to a friend, but indulging in those options are the default of a heart that is not trusting God. Not relying on God.

Time and again my fretting heart needs to dwell on the truths that I am in a relationship with a God who has changed the minds of kings. His plans cannot be thwarted. He doesn’t say something and never do it. His words stand forever – FOREVER! He can bring rulers to naught and nations to rubble. He hardens hearts and softens hearts. He breathes spirit into a dead body and takes breath away from the living. He raises the dead to bring them new life again. He perceives our thoughts. He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. He appoints the times and places that we would live. And although many are the plans in a man’s heart, He alone directs a man’s course. Even this man. Me. These are just a few reasons why my fretting heart can be stilled in His power, whether it requires blind faith like June 2010 did, or trust steps out of the boat onto the stormy sea waters that are being required now.

We serve a God who is not far off. He is not distant. When my heart frets I need just run to Him. Into my closet I run – you may giggle at the thought but there I can meet with Him undistracted. I shut and lock the door where my Bible awaits. I open it and breathe in His promises. Spill my heart, my fears, my questions, my honesty in prayer. And there He meets me. In my junky closet with clothes waiting to be hung, stinky shoes on the shelf, dirty laundry in the basket. There I meet with the King of the Universe. He listens to my needs big and little, to my desires and dreams, to my worries and circling thoughts. I drop it all at His feet and he teaches my heart to say Lord, not what I want, but what You want. Not my will, but your will be done. It is only when I am at His feet that I can look up and see His Sovereignty come into focus over my life. And this is where I want to be afterall, under His ways and His promises and His power. Because His plans are much more grandeur than I could ever think up.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus, once more deeply moved came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone….Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

(John 11: 32-34, 38-41, 43-44)

Where We Are At in the Process

2012-01-02T08:12:00.000-06:00

These are the next steps for our adoption process….

1) Social investigation report on girls [Will be completed anytime now]
-Collection of girl’s history (as much as can be gathered through interviews)
-Assessment of living conditions
-Collection of formal relinquishment letter
-Blood work, medical exams

2) Adoption coordinator compiles a dossier of documents for girls [Can take 1-3 months]
-Additional affidavits from biological family
-Parent death certificates
-Girl’s birth certificates
-Additional investigative report completed by Ghana social welfare

3) In the meantime, we - Jake and I - have also compiled our own dossier on us (home study, medical statements, marriage/birth certificates, photos, etc). Once the girl’s dossier is complete it will be sent with our dossier to the attorney in which he can go forward with final processes before our case can be submitted for a court date. [This final processing takes about 3-6 weeks]

4) From what I can gather, once dossiers are submitted it is taking on average about 3+ months right now to get a scheduled court date.

5) After the court date it can take anywhere from 1 day to 2 months to be granted the adoption decree. We need the adoption decree to file our I-600 form, which is the last approval needed.

6) Once we have the adoption decree we can choose to file our I-600 form either in Ghana or in the U.S. Approval typically takes around 2 months.

(With Justice’s adoption, all of the above steps were completed in 6 months, however, that was about 2 years ago now. The process has slowed since then.)

7) Once we are granted I-600 approval that means that our girls are officially approved as orphans by U.S. Immigration law. From here the process of acquiring our girl’s visas begins. If you remember (how could you forget?!?!) this was where all the junk happened in our adoption of Justice. We traveled to get him in June of 2010 thinking we were simply going to pick up his visa (which we thought had already been printed) and then bring him home. However, there were miscommunications and delays, and we ended up waiting 3 more months until his visa was printed. Current wait time for visa processing is 1-2 months.

8) After the girl’s visas are printed then we travel to bring them home.

So, we have a ways to go. This is where you just have to take a deep breath and trust everything – the timing, the paperwork, the court systems, even the mailman for goodnessakes – to the Lord. At any point in this process things could get messed up, rules can be changed, extra paperwork required, or unnecessary delays/hiccups can be thrown in. With international adoption you learn to roll with the punches.

I will be honest here. Until I received the picture of my girls with my smiling husband at 4am earlier this week I had been guarding my heart against entering into this adoption. I don’t trust this process. To be frank, I am just waiting until something goes wrong. But I took one look at that picture and I heard my Savior say trust Me. And I weeped. I felt ashamed that I was guarding my heart against attaching to them because I don’t want to get hurt. Ugh. I’m so selfish. I’ve realized that I am trying to grasp for control over my emotions because there is nothing else in this process that I can control. For days I’ve been whispering to myself hold on loosely until you can hold on tightly. Well, that motto has pretty much gone completely out the window since Jake sends me at least 10 pictures and multiple videos a day of our girls that he has spent almost 3 full days with now. In fact, I was actually beginning to tell myself that it was good that I wasn’t on this trip because it would be an awful feeling to create an even deeper bond with them and then have to leave. And then, this thought was stopped cold in its tracks. I was brought back to the week that adoption was first put onto my heart over 3 years ago. I had gone for a walk with a friend and confided all my worries and objections and reasons why we couldn’t possibly adopt to her. And she said to me gently yet boldly, “Adoption isn’t about you.”

This is what I needed to hear again. Today. 3 years after our first adoption started, and I am back at square 1, needing to remember the basics.

Other parts of this feel different. I am realizing that this process no longer requires my blind faith. I HAVE SEEN MY LORD move mountains on behalf of Justice. I HAVE EXPERIENCED HIM come through in the most desperate, hopeless looking situations. His faithfulness met us time and again in our last adoption. We no longer just hope in His character. And if we did that would be enough. But this time we have evidence of it in our lives. I am more sure of His ways than ever. His voice is clearer. His Sovereignty is stamped on my heart.

I watch a video of our girls with the dust of Africa in the distance as they play with sunglasses and Jake’s voice goes over it all “Say hi to mommy!!!” he says over and over. I smile and feel my heart break. I long to just hold them and cry. Cry over their past and cry happy tears over how our God has picked them out to give them hope and a future. Just like he did for me almost 8 years ago now when he intersected my mess of a life. Just as He promises to any who would come and bow down to His Son.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11~

Situations of the Orphan in Ghana

2011-12-30T08:19:00.002-06:00

When we were led to adopt from Ghana back in 2008 the program through our agency was considered a pilot program. We sort of got to be the pioneers for our agency as we took part in the adoption, not really knowing the ins and outs…just learning as we went. During our adoption I remember trying to educate myself on Ghana especially when it came to orphans. We had so many people asking us questions, and I wanted to be able to give factual answers. However, the information we had access to was minimal because at the time Ghana was fairly new to the idea of adoption, and our agency was new to Ghana as well. We ourselves were complete adoption novices and I found myself asking a lot of the same questions that family and friends were asking us!

This time around is already much different. We are using a different agency, and one of the first things we received in the mail was a thick educational packet all about Ghana heritage, history, education, social roles, and the process of Ghana adoption. It has been extremely informative…..I almost feel geeky over how excited I am to finally have all this information laid out for me! :)

One section that I found extremely insightful was a part entitled ~ Why do children in Ghana become available for adoption? We were asked this question a million times in roundabout ways during our adoption of Justice! Thought it would be good to share this section here on the blog in case others are interested in understanding the different situations of orphans in Ghana (these explanations are via our agency ~ Adoption Advocates International):

1) Inherited orphans: Traditionally, orphaned children are absorbed into the extended family. However, we have found that many family members only take on orphaned children out of a sense of familial obligation and in fact have no desire (or means) to provide for another child. As a result orphaned children may have extended family guardians that either treat the child as a slave/servant or provide the child with less than adequate care and love. When these guardians realize that there is another option (relinquish the child for care and adoption) they are many times very quick to make an adoption plan for the child.

2) One-parent orphans: Many children in Ghana are being raised by one parent that cannot provide adequate care due to poverty. The second parent is usually dead or has permanently deserted the family. Children who only have one parent oftentimes have no opportunity for education and are forced into child labor in order to help provide for the family. *This was Justice’s situation and why he was placed for adoption.

3) Two-parent orphans: It is outside the normal definition of “orphan” to describe an orphan as having two living parents. However, we do see this in Ghana. In these cases the parents, for whatever reason, have no desire to parent the children and abandon them permanently. The parents may be elderly and the child unplanned. The parents may abuse the child and recognize that they cannot adequately care for him/her because of their own psychological issues. The parents may be homeless and have no means to provide adequate food, shelter, or education to the child. In all cases, the parents must be living below poverty level according to local standards in order for AAI to take custody of the child. *This sort of situation reminds me a lot of children being placed into the foster care system in the United States.

4) Street children: Street children are a common sight in Ghana. These are children who have lost contact with their parents and may or may not know of any extended family. Street children can be referred to AAI by someone in the community or from social welfare. The best effort is made to find any living relatives but sometimes this is impossible. If a suitable living condition within Ghana cannot be found for a street child than a long-term care plan that includes international adoption can be put together.

I’ve also had a handful of people inquire about the age of children available for adoption in Ghana. Here is an explanation via our agency….this information is on their website as well (http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/Africa/Ghana/index.php):

Ghana Social Welfare prefers to place children through domestic adoptions, but when no Ghanaian family can be located for an adoptable child, they may be placed with an international family. Babies 0-36 months may be in need of adoption from time to time, but this is not an “infant/toddler program.” The large majority of children available for adoption are age 3 and up. Both sibling sets and single children are available. When in the best interest of the child, unrelated children may be placed in the same adoptive family. HIV+ children may be adopted from Ghana. There is a great need for families who will adopt children 6 years old and older. Most all children in Ghana have at least some English skills by the time they are adopted (many with moderate English). Children adopted through our program may reside in foster homes or children's homes in any region within Ghana.

Trip Details

2011-12-29T09:09:00.001-06:00

Got a text message from Jake yesterday morning letting me know that they made it safely to Ghana! Right after they got into the airport they hopped on a bus and headed out to Asikuma. They arrived in the evening, but they couldn’t wait to go and check on how the medical clinic was running! Jake will have more updates and blog posts when he gets back, but he did tell me a few details when I talked with him on the phone yesterday. He said they were absolutely blown away by the amount of progress that was completed on the medical clinic since we left in August. It was about 90% done, but seeing it yesterday Jake said they (the workers in Asikuma) had completed all the projects we left them with including putting in a sidewalk, landscaping, and a few other tasks on the inside. He said it looks awesome, but also that it is running and thriving. The clinic staff told Jake that they have seen 459 patients since it opened at the end of August – WOWZA!!!! We brought 3 construction guys on our team this trip and they will be finishing out the cabinetry in the medical clinic and also building more patient beds. In addition, Mercy Medical Center (of Des Moines) donated a load of medical supplies which filled 10 suitcases (!) and so Jake and the team will be stocking the clinic on this trip as well.

This trip was originally intended to begin the remodel of the structures that we planned on turning into a children’s haven like I had blogged about here and here. However, back in October we received an email from Chief Nana that delayed this project:

Hope you are all fine. I have some disappointing news regarding our children’s haven in Asikuma. The government of Ghana has approached us with an urgent request to give the place out to a construction company who are to reconstruct the road from Asikuma to the north. They are to rehabilitate all the buildings to use for a road camp and residential accommodation for their senior staff.

The contract period is between 18 month - 24 months. The condition is that all the rehabilitated buildings will be handed over back to us after the construction period. It is very unfortunate that all our landable plans will have to be reviewed.

Here are my thoughts:
1. We could shelve the children’s haven project until after the construction period and redirect our efforts at other areas. In this case we will benefit from improved infrastructure which we could use for the haven at no cost.

2. Alternatively, I could provide a piece of land measuring one acre. In this case we will have to plan to construct the building at our own pace.

This is food for thought. I know that the good Lord will give us bright ideas to fulfill our mission of supporting these helpless children.

So, this was quite an unexpected road block - literally. However, we are reassured in knowing that God already knew this was going to happen. Perhaps this is Him steering our children’s haven to a different location or just orchestrating the timing. We don’t have the answers yet, but are waiting expectantly as there are many options of how to move forward from here.

Since the children’s haven remodel has been delayed for now, we were able to use this trip to also finish up the library project that we started on our August trip - if you remember we only got it about 50% built (to read posts from our August trip go to my blog archive on my sidebar and click the month of August 2011 and all my posts will be listed out). This trip Jake and the team will also be visiting an orphanage in the Eastern region called Kwahu Orphanage. This orphanage was started by the in-country social worker (named Kofi) that handled our adoption of Justice. Jake will also be hosting a basketball tournament in Accra with the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team….currently there are 18 teams signed up for the tournament!

You never know how God will fill in the itinerary from there, and I am excited to hear the many stories that will come out of this trip. There are 3 tripsters on the team who have never been to Africa before, and I just love the excitement of wondering how God will change them through this experience!

Early this morning I received a text message picture from Jake of him with our two daughters and the little lions he brought for them. His text said: ‘A’ came right up to me to have me pick her up. My heart practically melted in my chest after taking this in at 4am and I could not get back to sleep (which is why some of you also got to enjoy that picture at 4am because I just had to share it)!!!! I just laid there for 2 hours thinking about our girls and adoption and praying and telling God that I trust Him with every aspect of this process. It’s so hard to see their little faces and know that Jake will be leaving them in a few days. My heart wonders how long this adoption will take and how smooth or rough it will be. I am so thankful that I can trust God with every detail. In my devotional this morning I was led to these verses in perfect timing ~

When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
In God I trust; I will not be afraid.
(Psalm 56:3-4)

I know from our adoption of Justice that this process is unpredictable, and will be full of opportunities for me to get nervous and fret about the details. I am setting my heart on God's Sovereignty today and choosing not to worry.

Trust Me with every fiber of your being! What I can accomplish in and through you is proportional to how much you depend on Me. One aspect of this is the degree to which you trust Me in a crisis or major decision. Some people fail miserably here, while others are at their best in rough times. Another aspect is even more telling: the constancy of your trust in Me. People who rely on Me in the midst of adversity may forget about Me when life is flowing smoothly. Difficult times can jolt you into awareness of your need for Me, whereas smooth sailing can lull you into the stupor of self-sufficiency.

I care as much about your tiny trust-steps through daily life as about your dramatic leaps of faith. You may think that no one notices, but the One who is always beside you sees everything - and rejoices. Consistently trusting in Me is vital to flourishing in My Presence.

~Jesus Calling~

She Reminded Us of Jayla!

2011-12-28T08:55:00.000-06:00

Took the kids to this movie last night...

And my goodness, the little girl in the movie was like watching a fast forward of my daughter in a few years!!!!! :) My mother-in-law and sister-in-law both called it first, and now we all agree that Rosie in the movie reminds us of Jayla!

The girl in the movie…

And our sweet Jayla...

Of course no one can ever compare to our Jayla, but I haven't yet seen anyone that even comes close to her coloring with hair and dark brown eyes, except this little girl in the movie (her personality mimics that of the character in the movie too which got me and the boys laughing at the similarities so many times)!

This was a good movie, but probably better for the older kids….like 7+ years....JJ and Jayla’s attention spans didn’t quite make it because of all the adult scenes. We were going back and forth between this one and Alvin & the Chipmunks but I decided to let Justice pick since he always gives up what he wants for what JJ and Jayla want. I am SO NOT a movie watcher, but my kids are turning me into one! Tonight they have a movie night planned here at home. I do have to say that I love looking forward to snuggling up on the couch by the fire with all my little loves! Winter break ROCKS!

Christmas in Pictures

2011-12-26T21:17:00.001-06:00

Our Christmas started off with a swoosh as one of Jake’s former players gave us tickets to his game in which his team (Lipscomb) came to town to take on the Cyclones!

That’s Jordan aka Burgie there shooting the three. Jordan was on the first team that Jake ever coached in AAU basketball. Jake coached Jordan starting in 7th grade, and then on up through high school. On this particular night Jordan’s team lost to ISU, but he had an amazing night, racking up 30 points which included 9 three’s. Jordan has a high passion for the game, and is quite the competitor making him so much fun to watch. I caught a lot of pictures of him shooting the three-ball!

After the game it was off to Grandpa & Grandma Sullivan’s house in Minnesota to celebrate Christmas a few days early.

Jayla and cousin Dakota...

Me and my cute-as-can-be nephew Chase...

Uncle Nick teaches Justice how to work his new remote control helicopter...

Grandma Sullivan with all her grandkids!

Jayla and Grandma like to keep track of this squirrel throughout the different seasons.

Everyone always asks me where Jayla and JJ get their red hair from….now you know!

Right before we left it snowed about an inch so we got a little glimpse of a white Christmas after all!

Before long it was Christmas Eve and the whole gang was dressed up and ready to celebrate (If you’re wondering where our Rosebud student is, she goes back to the reservation to be with her family during holidays. Yaw and Peprah are hanging with us over school break).

Our tradition!

The next day at Grandma Lori’s we did some more celebrating, and as my Grandma always says, “It’s just so nice to all be together.” :) I am thankful everyday that my grandparents get to enjoy their great-grandchildren! What a blessing!

My mom made a turkey for dinner, and Justice was so excited to see what an actual turkey looked like once it was cooked! He missed out on this part during Thanksgiving because it had been carved before we got there!

This year Jake had a couple of super-dooper gifts for me that he had been keeping a secret. Usually I can guess ahead-of-time what he’s gotten me (he hates that!) but not this year. This one totally knocked me off my feet, and I have to share….it’s a picture canvas with the verse that God has used to change and refine me….

That’s me and my future daughter (can’t show you her face yet) just moments after I was confronted with the reality that there was no mother for me to hand her to or to console her as she cried. I had not seen this special picture!!!!! One of the other trip-sters had snapped it and after all these months I had not come across it! What a beautiful and tear-inducing surprise. I so desperately wish that I could just blink my eyes and have them here with us. Jake is off to Ghana tomorrow but I am sitting this trip out and it is killing me to not be going. Jake will get to see our girls and we’ve packed some special things for them including these…

Love 'em! I’ll post more trip details and be back to somewhat ‘regular’ blogging on Wednesday....see you then!

Like Father Like Son

2011-12-21T13:36:00.000-06:00

Except JJ is a lefty :)

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

2011-12-20T07:32:00.000-06:00

A little over a year ago I was leaving church from my women’s bible study group at about 11am on a Thursday morning. I didn’t have my kids with me because Jake had happened to stay home with them that morning as we were going to be leaving for a tournament trip that afternoon. As I walked out the church doors I noticed a guy who looked to be in his late 20’s sitting propped up against a column outside. He had his cell phone in his hands and was looking straight ahead. As I went to walk past him I got this feeling that he needed something. But, since I have heard a few too many horror stories about this sort of scenario I walked on, heading straight towards my car. I almost turned around, but then didn’t and told myself that I was being sensible since I was all by myself and there was no one else in sight (all the other mamas from my bible study group were still gathering up their kids from their classrooms inside). As I got about 10 feet in front of the guy he called out to me, “Hey, you don’t happen to be heading into town, do ya?”

I turned around, “Um, yes,” I replied a little shaky.

“Well, could I get a ride from you? You see I was working on the pipelines in the construction area back there (pointing back behind our church) and all the other guys left for lunch. I was just finishing up some things and my cell phone died. I really need to get back into town because my girlfriend has to get to work and I told her I would be back to watch her son before then, and she doesn’t have a phone and…” His story went on for a few more sentences.

Classic story I thought to myself. In the next 10 seconds I began picking through his words in my mind to see if the details measured up. I believed that he probably was working on the construction behind our church because a bunch of workers have been out there for the past year working on stuff. He had on dirty work boots and construction looking clothes. However, I was little confused about why all the other workers would have left him there, and I was also confused as to why he didn’t just walk into our church into the office and call someone for a ride. Hmmmm….while I worked through these details the guy got up from the ground and stood there waiting for an answer. So, I said a quick prayer to God that went a little something like this Dear God, I am thinking about giving this guy a ride. If I should not do this, please stop me right now. Otherwise, please protect my life as I help him out. Please don’t let me wind up dead in a forest somewhere. Amen. A laughable prayer, but I was ~~dead~~ very serious.

So, I said I would give him a ride and off we went. We headed into Ames and I realized that this guy had a lot to say! He started asking me a few questions about our church. Then, this led him to say, “Yeah, I really need to get back to church. My life’s kinda messed up.” From that point on, for whatever reason, this guy went on to tell me his entire life story in the matter of about 10 minutes. I listened as he spoke about his past mistakes, and how his life was currently in shambles because of his poor decisions. As he spoke, I could see guilt spread across his face as he shared certain details with me and continued to say, “I hope you don’t think I am a bad person. I know I need to get my life in order. I need to get back to church.”

I started feeling awful for this guy and the burdens of guilt that he was carrying around. Eventually it was my turn to talk. He had mentioned multiple times this idea of ‘getting back to church’, so that’s where I started. And the first thing I said was “It’s not your church attendance that God wants. He wants your heart…”

In talking with my new friend, I had realized quickly what his impression of ‘the church’ from the outside looking in was. It seemed as though he thought that if he could add in a little ‘religious’ stuff to his life then his ‘bad’ could be outweighed by the good of doing ‘religious’ things – like going to church. I *totally* could relate to his way of thinking, because I used to believe this exact thing.

However, in the Bible, God makes it clear that this is NOT the way we can get right with Him. In Matthew 15: 7- 9 Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for this.

"You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men.’"

Basically Jesus called them actors. They appeared to honor God because they looked ‘religious’ on the outside with all their traditions and rituals and church-going and worship. But they were so concerned with their outward appearance of looking religious that they neglected the one thing that God really wanted – their hearts.

This is where we need to understand the difference between ‘religion’ and the gospel. ‘Religion’ is about behavior modification. It’s about observing certain behavior policies, and refraining from others. It’s about cleaning up your act, and obeying rules, and following standards and displaying good behavior. The truth of the Bible - the gospel – makes it clear that God does NOT operate on this sort of points system that ‘religious’ acts promote. He doesn’t chalk up a point for us when we do something good, and then erase it when we do something bad. In other words, we don’t have a certain amount of points that we must score with Him in order to be on his ‘good side’. Interestingly, Jesus spoke about this exact thing over and over in the Bible during His ministry on earth. There is a perfect section of scripture that displays this in Luke 18:9-14~

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Pharisee had it all wrong. Getting right with God (termed justification in the Bible) isn’t about banking on the things we can do and our own ideas of how to get right standing with Him - like adding in some religious things or right living. That sort of heart attitude is prideful, and only trusts in SELF – an idea Jesus abolishes. In Isaiah 64:6 the Bible says all our righteous acts are like FILTHY RAGS.

The tax collector had it all right. His prayer showed the overflow of his heart. He stood there, praying to God, so ashamed of his sin that he couldn’t even look up to heaven. He was overwhelmed by his recognition that he was a sinner. He confessed that he desperately needed God’s help. He cried out for mercy. The Bible terms this heart attitude repentance.

And mercy is what Jesus came to give.

A repentant heart is ready to receive the awful-beautiful act of the cross. As the nails were pounded into the cross, so was our sin. As His blood poured out, so did His mercy. As His breath ended, He took the punishment we deserved for our sin. MERCY. FORGIVENESS. ATONEMENT. JUSTIFICATION. RIGHTEOUSNESS. GRACE. FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVERY OF SIN. ETERNAL LIFE. That is what He gave us. All of our supposed ‘religious acts’ that we try to chalk up in order to be on His good side are a bunch of junk in comparison. The gospel isn’t about us – what we have or haven’t done. It’s about what Jesus has done for us. One man. Son of God. Jesus Christ. Mighty Deliverer. Prince of Peace. Savior. He came to die. So we could be in right standing with God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 ~ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

John 14:6 ~ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Until we realize that we are dependent people, who have NOTHING to give to God other than repentant hearts who are sickened over our sin and pasts, and ready for our Savior to rescue us, then we’ve missed it. We’ve missed the gospel and we’ve missed salvation. We’ve missed the point of Christmas and Easter and the whole entire point of our life. We can add in a bunch of ‘good’ acts to our life, but we’ll still miss it. We will continue to be God’s enemies, until we have hearts that trust in Jesus.

Jesus came first not to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive. ~Tullian Tchividjian~

Christmas-time Tradition

2011-12-16T13:07:00.000-06:00

Every year since I've been a little girl my mom and I always got together with my Grandma to schedule a baking day to make Christmas cookies and candy! This is a tradition I LOVE and that I am passing onto my kids. Some years they are more into the baking than others, but either way they so look forward to this day to hang out, relax, and be a part of whipping up the goodies. Here are some pictures from our Baking Day 2011!

Jayla and Great-Grandma

Justice and Great-gram make a good team!

The boys get to work on making peanut butter balls.

JJ was easily distracted by his wiggly, second loose tooth!

Cookie cut-outs with Grandma Lori (these are the kid's favorite thing to make....they get really zoned in!)

Sprinkles anyone?

♥

Busy Elves

2011-12-15T07:46:00.001-06:00

Scissors and markers, glitter and glue,
who knows, they could be crafting a gift for you!
If their handmade card you receive,
open it with joy and believe,
that although it may not be designer art,
it was created with love - straight from their heart.
♥

Jayla Reading to Me

2011-12-13T08:19:00.000-06:00

Jayla is on a new kick of wanting to read to me! She flips through her books, page by page, and makes up a story that goes along with the pictures. She would do this for an hour if I sat there with her the whole time. I decided to videotape her the other night so we could always remember this! Really wish I would have pulled her hair out of the way so you could see her emotions as she reads! She really gets into it! You have to turn your volume all the way up because the boys are chattering in the background…in this video JJ is heckling Jayla and she stops mid-read to correct him. :)

This next video is more of the same, but since the other got cut off at the end, fast forward this one to the end and you can see her GIANT smile of accomplishment once the book ends. It’s so sweet!

Joyful All Ye Nations Rise

2011-12-12T08:19:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago we ‘split up’ our Rosebud girls, and one of them is now with a different host family in a different home. There have been many confirmations that this was the right decision, and I’ll save those stories for a different day. :)

The other night in the car we got into an interesting conversation with our Rosebud girl. It went a little something like this:

Out of nowhere she said, “Don’t you wonder what the end of the world is going to be like?”

Her question was the perfect invitation into a spiritual conversation.

“If you would have been in church today you wouldn’t have to wonder. You would know,” I replied.

For the past few months we have been going through the book of Revelation at church, talking in depth about the end times and how it will go down. She had overslept that morning, and I had decided not to lure her/drag her/force her out of bed.

Without missing a beat she promptly responded with a giggle, “My mom and grandma think that aliens are going to come suck us up and take us away.”

Hmmmm, hadn’t heard this one from her yet. She started talking about some movie she had seen and going on and on about death by aliens. One thing that God has revealed about our Rosebud girl is that deep down she is very fearful about anything regarding death. Because of that, she likes to make little of the subject. She talks about death in very comical/non-serious ways. She was obsessed with Halloween this year, and would always excitedly point out lawn decorations filled with make-shift graveyards, and zombie looking creatures. She fills her mind with books and movies all about darkness and evil and she becomes completely numb to it all. Her assumptions on what death will be like for her arrive at very comfortable-feeling conclusions.

Unfortunately, death for the person who has rejected God will be anything but comfortable. I felt the truth starting to well up inside of me, just waiting to bust out of my mouth. I began to recap what we had learned in church about the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath (Revelations 16) and I shared about some of the plagues God will send when the world comes to an end.

“The seas, rivers, and springs will all turn to blood. That means toilets and faucets will only pour out blood. Those who reject God will break out with ugly, awful, painful sores. The sun will be given the power to scorch them with fire. Giant hailstones will be hurled from the sky each weighing a hundred pounds and they will fall on people...”

Then she said something that made me hurt for where she is at spiritually, more than I ever have. She said, “If all those things were happening, why wouldn’t you just crawl in a hole and die?” My mind wandered to a different section in Revelation which described this exact heart response. As she implied, some will continue to reject God even as He displays His power through these judgments and plagues that will be poured out onto the earth. They would rather die than fall on their knees and acknowledge God’s Sovereign power. Revelation 6:12-17:

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Those who in their life flaunted their disbelief and showed no reverence for God will find themselves face to face with God’s wrath if they are still living on the earth during this time. They will realize that they were wrong. And in these verses we see that rather than repent, rather than look to Jesus and believe, they instead call on ‘mother nature’ to have rocks fall on them and kill them as they hide from God in terror. Further still, others in their pride and arrogance will curse His name rather than bow down to Him. Revelation 16: 8-9:

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

As I pointed this out she listened intently and then said, “That’s what you believe. The Lakota Sioux believe….” And then she went on to explain a few of the spiritual stories of her people that have been passed down to her from generation to generation. This is the point that we always get to when Jesus comes up. Every. Single. Time. She’s mentioned that to her, our faith - Christianity - is ‘white man religion’. If she were to bow down to Jesus, that would be rejecting her culture, her family traditions, her very identity, and once again giving into the ‘white man’ - which all of American History has proven to be a bad thing for her people. When I look at this all from her perspective, I can comprehend the loyalty that she feels to what she has been taught her whole life.

But there is something that doesn’t quite add up, and she hasn’t been able to connect the dots yet. She has expressed many times that she doesn’t want to go back to the reservation. So when we got to this point in the conversation I said, “Do the people on the reservation seem to be living lives filled with joy, hope, and peace?” I already knew what her answer would be.

“No,” she said.

“And why don’t you want to go back there? Why don’t you want to grow up there and raise a family there?”

“Because there are horrible things there. The suicides, rape, alcoholism, murders, depression, teenage pregnancies. It ruins people’s lives.”

Exactly. And what I know that she doesn’t yet, is that those things that are ruining the lives of her people are the product of Satan’s hands. Satan is the great deceiver. He can use what looks like ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ to lead people astray - far, far away from truth, generation after generation.

I know I serve a God who came for all nations and all people (Matthew 28:18-20), although Satan would try to dishevel that truth. The new life that Christ can bring stands in stark contrast to a life of guilt, shame, and emptiness that plagues her people.

Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

She’s already seen lives destroyed. I hope that she will get to experience life to the full through a Savior that gave his life for hers.

We of course are not the first to discover this tension of Christianity being perceived by Native Americans as ‘white man religion’. That tension has just traveled into my home now, so I am becoming very interested in it. I just found out about this book:

(Book of Hope)
It is a collaboration of stories and testimonies written about Native American’s who have put their faith in Jesus. Our church also supplied us with this book when we signed on for the exchange program:

(One Church Many Tribes: Following Jesus the Way God Made You)

I have yet to pick this book up, however, reading both of these are now on my list to accomplish over Christmas break.

No Winter Blues 'Round Here!

2011-12-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

Our kids have been keeping busy this winter, with little imagination-inspiration needed from hibernating mom! They can have loads of fun with less than an inch of snow…

JJ and Justice are also on a tent-making kick!

Although it does take up almost the entire living room and makes the house look a little disheveled, hearing their little voices inside there talking and giggling for HOURS (yes, that’s plural) makes a momma’s heart smile!

They also like to cozy up with all their big comforters inside and sleep in there overnight like a campout. I did have to make a rule that the tent comes down on Sunday nights for the week….but can go back up on Fridays. :) It’s so fun to hear them talk about looking forward to putting up their tent throughout the week.

In this home, anything can turn into a competition, even balloon volleying. This don’t-let-the-balloon-touch-the-floor-game is a family favorite right now.

The other day Justice came home from school with this….

…..a handmade piggy bank! His ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher has been trying to teach him that reading is FUN and that it has meaning. So, she had him read through an instruction manual on how to make this. He was so proud of his creation, and of course JJ was quite wow’d and asked Justice if he could help him make one too. They started JJ’s bank while I was at a baby shower this past weekend, and Jake was in charge (ahem!). Justice couldn’t quite remember what it was they had used to make the newspaper paste in class. He thought that they had used some sort of powder mixed with water, so he opened up the cupboard to find something that looked like it….and apparently decided on pancake mix! When I got home later the boys were so proud to show me their start of a soggy pancake mix piggy bank. In the end they had to throw that one away, but started a fresh project once Justice located his copy of the instructions and realized that the paste was made of FLOUR! Of course JJ is happy to let Justice do all the messy work….

Justice also learned how to make snowflake cutouts at school this year, and is constantly creating new designs for me to decorate with at home.

So far, winter is oh-so-good, and we are excitedly waiting for the first BIG SNOW!

JJ Hoopin'

2011-12-05T07:49:00.002-06:00

This year JJ got ‘recruited’ to play on a YMCA kindergarten league out of Waukee (the coach has a 5th grade son in Jake’s program and a younger son that is JJ’s age). :) Wouldn’t you know it, JJ’s team is full of parents who are major Cyclone fans, but the name his team was assigned is the Hawkeyes!!!!! AHHHH! Thankfully it doesn’t say it anywhere on their uniforms so we won’t have to be reminded of it in pictures in the years to come! ;) Yesterday JJ had his first game!

Pre-game pep talk with Daddy…

Warming up...

They play 4-on-4 and substitute players every quarter. My action pictures didn’t turn out so great (I’m sure your shocked), but I got some good videos! Coach Hart is so good with the kids! JJ’s team can handle the ball well and each of the players have been pretty exposed to basketball, so Coach Hart decided to teach them how to set screens at the second practice! During the game they ran the play that they learned which is just a basic pick and roll….but it is SO STINKIN CUTE watching little five year olds execute on the floor! In this video watch JJ (#34) call the play right when the ball comes inbounds - then watch for #9 on the left come up and set a screen so that JJ can dribble around and get a shot off…

Love it! Now watch this one where JJ sets the screen (sort of) and then rolls and gets the ball for a shot.

LOVE that smile! And love watching these lil boogers!

It's Our Tradition

2011-12-01T07:47:00.000-06:00

♥

My Mom is Going to TANZANIA!!!!!!

2011-11-29T08:19:00.004-06:00

You may remember that my mom traveled to Ghana for the first time last December 2010 with Jake and some others on one of our trips. When she got home from that trip she was left asking herself and God….WHAT NOW?!?!?! This response is actually the main reason why Jake and I love to take anyone and everyone on our trips….even if they don’t feel like they know their purpose for going in the first place. Because once you SEE, your heart is stirred to take action. From there you just have to figure out specifically what it is that God would have you to do with what He has shown you. There is a verse in Proverbs that seems to explain this pull to action perfectly….

"...once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." ~Proverbs 24:12~

Yep, that’s right where my mom found herself early last year after her trip.

There was one little boy my mom met in Cape Coast named Edward…

Her heart was full of compassion for this little guy, and in the days after returning from Ghana she thought about him all the time. She wondered if he had a family, if he was an orphan, if he had enough money to go to school, and to eat. She wondered about his parents and if they were alive and whether they had jobs. She pondered where Edward might live in Cape Coast….probably one of the tiny little shacks that lined the shore line. As her heart continued to run through these things she decided that she would look into sponsorship programs. She would love to sponsor a young child just like Edward to be able to give him financial support for education and for his daily needs to be met. She began weighing the many options of sponsorship programs and thought that perhaps this was the action step God was leading her to take.

There was something else that had been in the back of my mom’s mind. Back in early 2010 my mom felt that God had placed it on her heart to renew her nursing license (you can read more about how that came up here). A looonnggg time ago my mom used to be an RN. But she had not been active in the nursing practice for years and years. She decided to start taking credits to get renewed. She wouldn’t be changing her day job (research & data collection on cancer for the University of Iowa), but as she wrote about in the post I linked to above, this nudge to renew her nursing license kept coming up. So she went for it and in September 2010 she started taking the credits that she needed. This of course was all before my mom’s December trip to Ghana and before we knew we would be building a medical clinic for the village of Asikuma! When plans for the clinic began to churn on our March 2011 trip earlier this year my mom got so excited! She thought that with her license renewal almost complete she could definitely serve at the medical clinic once it was all up and running! Not only that, but while Jake and I were on the trip, my mom’s employer (The University of Iowa) published the following article about a medical team that had just returned from a 5 week missions trip in Ghana!

http://fyi.uiowa.edu/03/10/iowa-magazine-ghana/

God continued to ignite this idea of medical missions in my mom’s heart. So, she decided to start looking around online for ‘village nursing courses’ to ready herself to serve in this capacity should the opportunity come up. On March 25th of this year my mom emailed me this:

Right now I’m looking for classes to find some type of instruction on remote village nursing care. I found an awesome study abroad class this summer through Michigan State Univ, but you have to be a student there :). There are a lot of ‘companies’ that have Ghana trips for internships, etc. My friend Carolyn has a sis/bro-in-law who live in Minneapolis. He is a doc and he does Doctors w/o Borders. There are even Mercy Ships/cruiselines that go to various countries and I found a group last night that works out of Takoradi.

I just want to learn more about Ghana health care and their health needs. Been reading lots of stuff. I know that God is up to something and I’m just open right now to what He has in mind. I feel strongly that if I serve more than a week here and there it needs to be health care related. Or maybe I need to become a midwife :).

And God was up to something. For over a month there on my nightstand had been sitting a packet of information and newsletter from an organization called STEMM which is based out of Sioux City, IA. Doug Vander Weide (a regular attendee on our Ghana trips) had given it to me to look over before our March Ghana trip. He had wanted me to see how a well-run missions organization was set up and how they communicated their trip accomplishments and fundraising needs. Being the self-admitted procrastinator that I am, I hadn’t even glanced at it. I had set it on my nightstand for the night when I had a little extra time to read before bed (yeah right!) and had literally forgotten about it. Stranger still, the night before my mom sent me the above email, I had come across the packet while cleaning and stuck it in my purse so I could read it over during Justice’s taekwondo practice. I figured it would give me something to do. So, what does STEMM have to do with my mom’s email? Well, STEMM stands for Siouxland Tanzania Educational Medical Ministries - they do MEDICAL MISSIONS TRIPS, and they do them well!!!!!!!!!!!!! What timing to have finally picked up this packet of info, read through it, only to get my mom’s email the next morning expressing that she was wanting to find a medical missions class! Heck, why not get the class with the trip all in one?!?!?! Immediately after reading my mom’s email I felt God speaking. I knew I had to get this information to her ASAP! I emailed her right away sending her the link to the organization's website (http://www.stemm.org/). That same day my mom contacted the organization’s coordinator. Here’s an email excerpt from their phone conversation:

Just got off the phone with Gail from STEMM! She talked to me for a long time. Wow, do they have a program! I can’t begin to tell you all the stuff they are doing, but she did talk about their work with Hospice and the HIV/AIDS people. I’ve been toying around with the Hospice volunteer program that the Hospice house in Marshalltown offers but the dates haven’t worked out for me. But I know now why I’ve been toying with it :). The AIDS/HIV has been a focus for me since I read The Price of Stones book and the orphans because of “Slim” deaths, as they call it.

Anyway, with the little girl on your blog today who needs surgery – STEMM is orthopedic focused. Not sure what they could do for this little gal, but they are doing surgery in Tanzania and have even done joint replacements. In that area of Africa there is fluoride that comes down the mountain in the water and makes their bones brittle, so they need osteotomies to straighten their legs. They are very cultural based, have a lot of government officials on board and someone from Parliament is on their executive board. She was very interesting to talk to.

Their trips are usually 2 weeks long and they do a 3-day safari in the middle of the trip for people to regroup and relax before digging back in. They also are getting children bibles translated into Swahili and doing bible studies with them, building chicken houses, and they have an orphanage where people work besides doing the medial trips.

WOW WOW WOW! This just seemed like the perfect opportunity….exactly what my mom was looking for to take the next step into answering “what now?” So, this was back in March of this year. This may all look like it was completely clear, but let me tell you that the idea of going on this entire trip was practically working my mom into cold sweats! Fear of the unknown can be so paralyzing, but little by little God gave my mom personal stepping stones into giving her the courage and confirmation from Him that He really was leading her to this trip. You can read more about how God led her to say YES to this trip in her mission’s story on her blog here: http://odlemountain.blogspot.com/p/my-mission-story.html

A major part of the ‘cold sweats’ was coming from the impending cost of this trip. Two installments of $2500 to be exact. My mom does not have the money to go on this trip which is coming up in June 2012. But, she too trusts that if we ‘bring what we have’ God will work in supernatural ways to multiply it and provide. If you feel led to donate to my mom’s trip fund there are many ways you can do so, starting at just $5:

1) My mom is the all-time homemade salsa maker in these parts. She has whipped up a bunch of jars from her summer tomatoes and is currently using them as a fundraiser – minimum donation of $5 gets you one yummy jar! She can’t ship these but she has contacts around Iowa in which she can hand deliver you a jar if you make a donation. (to order, email her by using the contact form on the sidebar of her blog).

2) My mom also does scenic photography. She has turned some of her best photos into note cards….perfect for sending an encouraging word or a little note through the mail or as a card with a gift. These cards will be an assortment of seasonal photography, 8 cards for $12 (envelopes included), blank on the inside. She can ship these if requested. (to order, email her by using the contact form on the sidebar of her blog).

3) Pampered Chef Open House & Fundraiser. You can purchase items as usual and her rewards will be turned into cash by the consultant to put towards her trip. All items are guaranteed by Christmas. To browse the online catalog and place an order online go here: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/jeriskitchen and click ‘shop online’. You will be prompted to enter my mom’s name (Lori Odle) so that your purchase goes towards her show.

4) Lastly, if you would like to just make a general donation without purchasing anything, you can go to my mom’s blog http://odlemountain.blogspot.com/ and donate via pay pal which is on her side bar.

Way to go mom!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited that you are taking this step of faith! Who can fathom what God will choose to do through you on this trip?!?!?!

Guest Post on Foster Care ~ The Wykle's

2011-11-28T08:05:00.004-06:00

You may have heard me talk about Jayla’s buddy, Max, a time or two here on the blog and on Facebook. This little friendship of 3-year olds has caused a bigger friendship to take root between me and Max’s mommy, Jenna. Earlier this year Jenna and I started having conversations about her and her husband’s heart for adoption. Over the past 6 months I watched as God led this couple to becoming foster care parents. This is a couple who has two tiny children at home and yet, they didn’t let that stop them from signing up to open their front door to strangers in need. This is a couple who is currently in between selling a home and waiting until the time is right to buy again. They didn’t let their temporary living quarters in a townhome hold them back from stepping forward in obedience to what God laid on their hearts. Over the summer they went through the 10 week course to become licensed foster care parents and now have their first placements! I have loved the heart-to-heart talks that Jenna and I have had about how differently you see things once God peels back the layers and confronts you with the needy lives of helpless, vulnerable children. God has personally been teaching Jenna and her husband so much through this adventure of becoming foster care parents. Though they are still new and green in the foster care world, I asked Jenna to write down some of her thoughts about their experience thus far so that we could all get a little glimpse into their adventure…..

My husband and I have been licensed foster care parents for a whole 4 months:) However, we got our first placements just a few weeks after receiving our license and in a very short time we have learned A LOT about God's heart for orphans and the challenges and victories we have seen in the foster care system. I haven't really had time to reflect on our experience, so this should be good to write it out.

First off, a little short back story to how we got to be foster parents. Since I was in high school I can remember feeling that someday I wanted to adopt. I would hear stories of orphans in other countries and my heart would be burdened for them. What started as a small feeling, God grew in me and eventually Nate (my husband) to put that compassion into action and obedience. The further I have grown in my walk with God, the heavier the burden to help orphans has grown and to simply say yes to Him and just obey. I didn't have all the answers...and still don't...but we just said yes to what he laid on our hearts. So after praying and following Nate's leading, we chose foster care over international adoption at this point. Even though I feel that some day we will adopt internationally, right now we are definitely where God wants us.

The fears we had starting out were very unfounded and most had to do with the unknown, because the unknown is very scary if we let it be. We wondered what our extended family would think. Some of them already thought we were a little crazy in our faith, so this would really throw them. We also were concerned about the effects it would have on our biological children. There are fears about getting a child that might hurt one of them or even us. There are fears about not knowing how to parent these 'troubled' kids when we are just learning how to raise our own kids. There are fears about what other people will think about us. So how did we get past these fears? After thinking this through, I see how far God has brought both of us in our faith. I can see that He truly is the one that is determining our course and He has protected us from Satan's attempts to throw us off course. Neither of us dwelled on our fears but rested in our faith. These are all the fear filled thoughts we had, but we didn't allow them to take over our minds or act on them, but instead let God determine the next step. So my answer to anyone who may be filled with lots of fears and trying to figure it all out is to rest in God and let Him guide you in your next step because He is so faithful and He absolutely will. I still have fears that creep in, but I don't let them stop me from obeying. Our God is bigger than our fears.

So right now we have a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl that have been with us since September. I should also say we have a 3-year-old son, Max, and a 10-month-old daughter, Mya, that are our biological children. Every single day has been a learning experience for us. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better first placement because these kids, despite their circumstances, are remarkable kids. They have fit well in our family and our son adores them both. Right there is one of the victories we have experienced. I know it probably won't always be this way with every placement we have, so I'm thankful that this has been the case this time. So saying that, I'll give you a glimpse of some of the top challenges we have faced.

1) LACK OF INFORMATION! I don't think I could say this enough times and the people closest to me are probably sick of me saying it:) It's very hard to get information on the parents' status, how long the kids will be here, when we go to court next, what happens if the parents don't do what they need to do, et cetera. And since this is our first placement, I really don’t know if this is normal or not, but this has been our experience so far. I do have a ton of compassion for the social workers because I know they are very overworked and are doing their best, but it is still hard to not have any idea how long the kids will be with us or what the probable outcome will be. Especially since the kids are old enough and they ask us these questions. This is an area of learning to rely on God's timing and knowing I really don’t NEED to know every fine detail but to just keep on going.

2) DISCIPLINE. This is a pretty major one for us. The tendency is to want to discipline them the way you would your own kids. The only problem with that is your kids (or at least ours) haven't come from a background anywhere close to foster kids. They haven't experienced neglect, abandonment, abuse, drugs, alcohol, violence, or anything remotely close to what potential foster kids could have gone through. So what may work with your children will most likely not work with foster kids. Another angle is during your licensing classes they suggest taking things away from the foster kids as a form of punishment. That sounds great in theory, but we have found that our foster kids don't value anything. And I feel that our current placements are a very, very mild case. I can only imagine that the more severe the children's behaviors and backgrounds might be, the worse this would be. They have very selfish hearts and like to 'hoard' a lot of things, but they don't value any ONE thing to take it away. So we are still trying to figure out the most effective tools for discipline and doing more training on that.

So those are probably my top 2 challenges we have been faced with so far. Now let me tell you that is nowhere near all of them, but I could probably write a whole book on them.

I'll just briefly share some of the heart challenges I specifically have been dealing with. I'm sure my husband would have totally different ones and I know everyone in similar situations can attest to different personal challenges, but here are some of mine: Probably the biggest heart issue I have had to deal with is my own selfishness. I never realized how extremely selfish I was with pretty much everything God has given me. My time....it requires a lot of time to take care of kids in general, but these are kids who need extra attention, extra love, extra patience, extra everything. It's exhausting. Yet SO worth it. I'm selfish with the time I want with just 'my' kids. There are days I just want to snuggle with my two kids and no one else. I have to realize 'my' kids belong to God and He gave them to me as a gift and we are teaching our kids what it looks like to help those in need and open up our hearts and lives to help other people. That's huge. Every possible area of my life that I could feel selfish with, I have. I know selfishness is something we all have somewhat of a struggle with, but I never knew to what extent I struggled with it. So that is a daily thing God has asked me to lay down so these kids can have hope and a chance in life. Someone said (and maybe it was you, Janel) that opening up your home is like looking in a mirror and it's so true. You lose your idea of 'a perfect little family' but saying all that, I have never seen God work so much in my heart and in our family than what He is doing right now.

One word Nate and I use a lot is PERSPECTIVE. It's so easy to lose perspective on why we are doing this. It's easy to get bogged down with the daily tasks of having 4 very needy children in your home. But we are doing this because we are called to take care of orphans and lay down our lives for our brothers. We know what self sacrifice looks like now. This is not easy. I think one reason God calls us to do 'radical' things is because there is absolutely no way I could do this on my own strength. I HAVE to abide in Him to get through the day. It is completely by Him that I am able to get up in the morning and take care of 4 kids...2 of which are not mine and being completely honest, there are days I'm not sure I even like them, let alone love them. But because this is where God is, I can love them, I can care for them, and I can provide the loving, nurturing home they need. We are doing this to give hope where there is none and to simply be obedient. Usually God provides 'perspective moments' for me throughout my day. When one of the foster kids tells me that Christmas is really about Jesus' birth and Easter is about Jesus' death and resurrection, that's perspective for me. When the other one says that she knows she doesn't have to be scared anymore because she now knows Jesus is always with her, that's perspective for me. And these are coming from mouths that have never been to church before. It's hard work, but the seed has been planted in two people's lives that no matter what their circumstances are, Satan can never take that seed away. Our prayer is God will water it and let it grow. And it's all because we said yes.

Sometimes it's easy to focus on the negative parts of foster care and adoption because that's kind of natural for us. However, I don't want anyone to read this and think that this sounds horrible and way too hard to do. It's hard, it's crazy, it's challenging, it's uncomfortable, it's awkward, it's not human nature, but it is sooo God. He meets us where we need it the most and He works THROUGH us. I can't love these kids on my own, but I can with His strength. Foster kids NEED to be in Christian homes learning about the hope that is possible for them and learning truth. I have this sense of peace and drive to help these kids and their families to know Jesus. It's addicting to say the least. My challenge is for other believers to just say yes to laying down your life for those in need.

For more information on becoming a licensed foster care parent in Iowa visit http://www.iakids.org/

Day 2 with Athletes in Action - A Powerful Testimony

2011-11-22T08:19:00.001-06:00

More reflections from Jake on his time spent at the Athletes in Action World Academy last week...

Have you ever read scripture and asked yourself the question of whether or not you really believe it? Of course if you are a follower of Christ you believe that Jesus died for you on the cross for all of your sins and rose three days later. We believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life and the only way to a true relationship with God. We believe the parts that will make us feel good. We believe the parts that give us strength during difficult times. But do we believe the entirety of the Bible? Do we really believe in the power of God?

When we read Proverbs 21:1 – The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases - Do we really believe this?

When we read Isaiah 40:22-23 – He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing - Do we really believe this?

When we read John 14:12-13 – I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it - Do we really believe this?

If we really believed these things with the same conviction that we believe Jesus died for us on the cross how much differently would our lives look? How much more would we accomplish to bring Christ glory?

I believe these things came alive to me in the form of a testimony today. I could share all the exciting things that we did today like attending the Wright State men’s practice and the leadership development sessions that we got to participate in. I could share more of the stories of how many laughs and funny moments we had together. However, all of the fun details of the day do not compare to the power of one testimony that shaped the entire day with Athletes in Action and will forever shape me as a believer as I begin to understand the true power of God.

Following breakfast Coach Mo, one of the head guys with Athletes in Action, introduced us to another staff member named Rayshon (I hope I am spelling it right). Rayshon came from the country of Kyrgyzstan which is located in Central Asia. Rayshon’s story is below and I hope that it will have the same power in your life as it has in mine.

Rayshon’s story began by discussing how his first twelve years of life started with his mother’s desire for him to become a devout leader of the Muslim faith. Each day his mother would take him to the mosque and he would study the Koran and pray all day long. However, when he turned twelve his father had different plans for him. He told his son that he was not be called to be a religious leader, but rather a world champion boxer. Rayshon’s Dad drove him to the local boxing academy in Kyrgyzstan and that is where he would spend the remainder of his childhood.

Rayshon went on to become the number one ranked boxer in Kyrgyzstan by the time he was 18 years old. He was told by his coaches that he would be attending the world championships and would then become the boxer representing his country at the Olympics. On the day he was scheduled to leave for the world championships his coaches informed him that the government would not allow him to represent the country because his parents came from Uzbekistan. Even though he was a citizen of the country and had trained his body to become the best, he would not be allowed to showcase his skills at the highest level. With that decision coming from the highest officials within the country he decided that there was no point to pursue boxing any further and hung up his gloves on that very day.

Once his boxing career had come to an end he turned to robbery and other various crimes within his country. Rayshon told us story after story about how he robbed people, beat people up, and took everything they had. Until the one day that he got caught. He spent some time in jail and upon his release he decided not to turn from his ways, but rather to be smarter about how he committed his crimes. He decided that the smartest thing to do was to enroll into college and study criminal law. Rayshon believed that he would continue to do his crimes, but would need to be more educated on how not to get caught.

A short while after enrolling into the University he saw a flyer floating around campus announcing that there were a few students coming from the United States for a semester of school at his university to teach English. With this knowledge he decided to enroll in the classes, not because he wanted to learn English, but because he thought there would be no better people to rob and steal from than Americans with a lot of money.

He enrolled in the class along with his other criminal friends. He told us how he and his friends tried to do everything to distract the American students leading the class. They were blurting out comments, kicking chairs, talking and being very disruptive. He said to his surprise these Americans just kept on teaching and showing us that they were truly in his country for a much bigger purpose. One day the Americans announced that they were going to teach the entire class how to play American football. He describes how his first thought was that this would be a great opportunity to hit these Americans as hard as he wanted. However, as that evening went on he had a great time and slowly these Americans began to break down the walls he had built up over the years.

As the weeks went by Rayshon’s relationship with the Americans grew. During the last few days before the Americans had to return home they invited him and his friends to their apartment for a movie. Rayshon and his friends accepted the invitation and soon they were sitting with the Americans in an apartment watching a movie on Jesus. Rayshon tells us how he remembers sitting and watching the movie and not being able to believe what he was watching. He had heard of Jesus, as Jesus is one of the primary prophets of the Koran. However, he had never heard about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. He was taught through his Muslim beliefs that Jesus was taken right up into heaven by their god allah.

Once the movie concluded Rayshon and his friends sat up into the wee hours of the night learning all about who the real Jesus is and how He died on the cross for all of our sins. They asked questions and conversed in some heated discussions. As the night concluded and the sun began to rise he had given his life to Christ.

Soon the Americans were gone. Rayshon had put his faith in Christ, but not much in his life would change until one day he went out to rob some innocent person. As he began to beat up this individual and take his money he began to feel sorry for what he was doing. He began to feel guilty about his actions. While in the middle of beating this victim up he decided he could not live like this any longer and he picked the stranger up, wiped his pants off, and handed him all of his valuables back. He told us that the victim after somehow grasping what had happened ran off, but not before telling Rayshon that he is the craziest criminal he had ever met. As Rayshon knows now, the Holy Spirit was alive in him and beginning to hold him accountable for his sin and raging war against all of his fleshly desires. His life would definitely never be the same!!

Once Rayshon fully realized that his life would never be the same because of this new Jesus that he knew, he decided it was now time to tell his family that he was now a Christian. As he returned home to share this new Jesus with his parents they became horrified. He said that the minute he told his father and brother that he was a Christian they began beating him up with no mercy. Rayshon told us that he could have easily fought back, especially since he was a world champion boxer. But he knew that if he would have done that it would have been disrespectful to his father and brothers. So, he lay there and took the beating. They kept telling him to deny Christ and say that he was a Muslim. He kept telling them that he could not do that and so the beating continued throughout the night.

Finally his father became so discouraged with his son that he told him he would rather have a son that is a criminal and a Muslim instead of a son who is not a criminal and a Christian. Rayshon said that since he would not deny Jesus that his Father told the family that it was necessary for him to kill his son. His Dad left the house only to return a couple minutes later with an ax. He was going to chop his head off with the ax. Rayshon says that for respect to his Father he knelt down on his knees and placed his head on the table and told his Dad it would be better to die because of the Jesus that he now knows than to deny his new Savior. He told us after he spoke these words he began to pray as his Dad raised the ax above his head. And then all of a sudden his Dad stopped and told him to leave the house and that he was no longer his son. Rayshon got up from his knees and left knowing that only God could save his family.

Rayshon said some time went by and he tried to reconnect with his family, but it would never be the same. With the reality of the situation with his family quite clear he decided to leave for Turkey as he had an opportunity to attend a seminary school there. As he left his country he never knew if he would see his family again, but he recounts how he prayed daily for God to save his family.

About a year after he left for Turkey a genocide broke out in his home country. The government was going around massacring large numbers of Uzbekistan descendants that now lived in Kyrgyzstan, and this would include his own family - or so he thought. Only by the grace of God, after months of silence did he reunite with his family in a refugee camp in Turkey. He talks about not only how God answered his prayers and saved his family from this genocide, but how only the power of God would allow them to end up in a refugee camp in Turkey very near to where he was attending seminary school at.

He remembers seeing his family for the first time in a long time, and the first thing he asks his father is, “Why did allah not protect you while in Kyrgyzstan?" He goes on to tell his Dad, “Don’t you feel it is ironic how my God brought you out of the country back to me in Turkey?” His father did not have any great answers and has not yet given his life to Christ, but like God did in Rayshon’s life, God is breaking down some walls and slowly revealing His power to his father.

Rayshon went on to tell us that it is funny how God is working in the smallest ways in his father’s life. Last Christmas Rayshon brought his entire family to the United States to visit. He told us that after a Christmas party that ended at about 2am he had a friend drive his father back to Rayshon’s house. While his friend was driving his father back to the house they stopped at a red light. Rayshon tells us that his Father apparently turned to his friend and said, “Why don’t you just go through the light? It is 2am and nobody is around.” Rayshon’s friend turned to his Father and said, “I can’t go through this light for two reasons. First, it is against the law in the United States to go through red lights. Second, if I knowingly choose to break a law it would not reflect well on my savior Jesus Christ.”

Rayshon goes on to tell us how his Dad brings this event up quite often. His Dad thinks it is amazing that these Christians that believe in the Jesus that died on the cross obey God even when no one is looking. The greatest part of the story is that Rayshon’s mother has given her life to Christ, though it is not something that is discussed much because of respect for his father. Rayshon concludes his story that he still prays daily that God will save his family once again from the eternal damnation they will face if they don’t repent and turn to the real Jesus. He knows God can do all things through His power as he has seen the reality of that in his own life!!

For me, I am simply amazed by the power of God. I am amazed at how God has orchestrated Rayshon’s life. If his Dad does not make him a boxer he may have never heard about Christ. If he would have gone on to the Olympics he would have maybe never heard about Christ. If he would not have become a criminal he maybe would not have ever heard about Christ. If he would not have gotten caught he maybe would have never heard about Christ. If he would not have gone to law school he would have maybe never heard about Christ. If those Americans would have never come he maybe would have never heard about Christ. If those Americans did not teach him how to play American football he maybe would have never heard about Christ. If the American’s would not have had the courage to show the Jesus film maybe he would have never heard about the true Jesus. And now you wonder maybe if there was never a genocide in Kyrgyzstan, maybe his parents would never have had a relationship back with their son who God may use to lead them to Christ. When thinking about all these circumstances in his life that have been orchestrated by God is it not amazing? Does it not make all the scripture about God’s power seem so real? How can we choose anything but to believe in the full and complete power of God? And, if we do really believe in the true power of God I wonder how differently our lives will begin to look. I know God has my life in the palm of his hand and he will most definitely direct everywhere it will go.

All I can say is what a couple of days this was with Athletes in Action!!!!! I can’t believe God has given me this experience. I am not sure where God is going to take all the new relationships that I have had the opportunity to create in just 48 hours. I know God is up to something pretty cool and I am excited to be participating on his team to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Athletes In Action World Coaching Academy - Day 1

2011-11-21T08:13:00.003-06:00

Last week Jake attended the Athletes in Action World Coaching Academy. He had stories coming out of his ears when he came home so I asked him to write about his experience in a few blog posts….here are his thoughts from Day 1….

In a recent song written by Casting Crowns called 'Courageous' there are lyrics that go as follows:

“In the war of the mind I will make my stand.”

When you read those lyrics can you relate? Do you take a stand or do you allow Satan to deceive you into ignoring where God is calling you? Does that war that is taking place in your mind prevent you from experiencing the awesomeness that is found in all that Christ is doing? For me personally that war rages daily in my mind, and almost prevented me from experiencing a couple of the most amazing days of my life.

On Sunday, November 13th I jumped on a plane headed for Dayton, Ohio to take in a couple of days of the Athletes in Action World Coaching Academy. Everything in my mind was telling me to stay home. I was weary from a few busy weeks with Kingdom Hoops, and was just coming off a busy weekend of coaching in Lincoln, Nebraska. I wanted to just stay home, stay in my normal routine, and be with my family. My mind was waging against me, but in my heart I knew God was calling me to attend this event. For weeks prior to me actually leaving Satan was using my mind to deceive me in wanting to pass on this opportunity and stay home. But, like God so often does, the Holy Spirit was speaking a little louder and there was no way I could just ignore God speaking so clearly in my heart.

I had to make a stand against my mind and against my flesh to travel to this coaching academy where I knew no one and had no idea why I was even going. I did not know where I was staying. I did not know who was picking me up at the airport. I did not know the itinerary for the couple of days I was going to be there. I kept wrestling with God why he even had me going to this event. However, I could hear the Holy Spirit asking me if I really trusted. I could hear God saying that it is not for me to know all the details. The days leading up to the event it was like he was telling me to remember that He is in the business of calling us and we are supposed to be in the business of following.

As I hopped on the plane for Dayton on Sunday night I picked up a book that I am reading called ‘Courageous Living’. In the book the author poses a question. If you look back on your life how many things have you accomplished that you had actually planned on accomplishing? His point was that God dictates our life. He said usually the times in which we don’t know where we are going are the times that God is most involved. This is my story of the past couple of days! All I know is that God moved in me in mighty ways and I pray that God can move in the others that I got to meet while in Dayton, Ohio.

Monday, November 14th – Day 1
Finally I arrive in Dayton, Ohio at 12:00am on Monday, November 14th. Craig Sladek a staff member with Athletes In Action (AIA) was there to pick me up at the airport. I had no idea Craig was picking me up, but it was a relief when he texted me that he was waiting for me outside the airport. I have come to know Craig over the past couple years as he actually lives in Johnston, Iowa, and is one of the few off-site staff that Athletes in Action has within the United States. It was great to see a familiar face at the airport. We took the 20 minute drive to Xenia, Ohio where the AIA headquarters is located. I got checked into the dorms around 1am, and it was immediately to bed as breakfast was being served at 7:30am.

As my alarm sounds on Monday morning it feels like I just fell asleep 15 minutes ago. I jump in the shower and I am off to breakfast with no idea of what to expect or what God was up to. I walk into breakfast and I am met by friendly faces from all over the world. There are coaches from Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Togo, Columbia, Jordan, Guatemala, Uszbekistan, Kazakistan, Turkey, and Canada. There are people speaking French, Spanish, English, and various other dialects. No matter what the language barrier there are smiles on everyone’s face and plenty of people to greet me as I enter breakfast.

As we finish breakfast it was time for what AIA calls “Team Time.” It is a large group Bible study where everyone discusses various scripture. On this particular morning we discussed the freedom that is only found in Christ. The study was centered around Colossians chapter 2, and it resonated loudly with so many of these coaches. Where many of these coaches come from freedom is a premium and in many of their countries it is something that is dreamed about daily. Many of these coaches come from cultures that hold back the gospel due to tradition, the large impact of the Muslim faith, or simply because they are scared, like many of us, of what others might think if they boldly profess Christ. No matter how long you have been a Christian, it is like drinking the most refreshing glass of ice water in the hot desert to be reminded about the freedom that Christ has given all of us, because of what he did for us on that cross.

After “Team Time,” we were headed to the 15 passenger vans for an exciting day in Cincinnati. I, being new to how the van situation goes, hadn’t noticed that all the vans were divided up by ethnic groups! Not even realizing it, I had jumped in the van with all of the Guatemalans and Columbians. It took us about 60 minutes to reach Cincinnati and it was an experience that I will never forget. I was completely out of my comfort zone in this South American van, and wondering why I did not pay more attention in Spanish class! I loved the South Americans and getting to know them, but through this small experience it was all the more clear to me that God has really ignited a passion in my heart for Africa.

Our first stop in Cincinnati was at a Christian training facility called Ignition. Ignition trains athletes of all ages and ability with the primary focus on speed/agility, acceleration, and strength training.

Their trainers are also responsible for training the Cincinnati Bengal NFL Football players which was a huge hit with all of the coaches even though many of them knew very little about American football. During our time at Ignition they put the coaches through various workouts and training methods that they can take back to their country. Our time was short at Ignition, but as God so often does he began working in ways that I certainly can’t explain.

As many of the coaches were taking in the various training methods by the Ignition staff I saw an African coach sitting against the wall. Most of the African coaches that were at the event came from French speaking countries, so I did not expect much conversation as I headed over to the wall, but I could feel the Holy Spirit nudging me to go. In one of the most awkward ways possible I simply said hi. I was only expecting a head nod, but to my surprise he responded, “Hello, how are you doing?” He spoke perfect English. Before long I was sitting along the wall with him learning all about his life and about the people of Uganda. The crazy part about this man from Uganda named Gad is that he comes from a village called Ogoli. If any of you know Dylan and Jen De Bruin this is the same village that God has led them to in caring for the orphans of Uganda (http://orphansofteso.wordpress.com/). During our conversation I also had the opportunity to share my story of what God has been doing in my life over the past couple of years in Iowa and Ghana, Africa.

When you get into conversations you never know for sure where God is going to lead it, but I soon found out that Gad actually is in the United States for a few months on a multiple entry visitor visa. I have no idea how he got this type of visa as it is very, very rare, but none the less he has it. Gad told me a story about how when he first came to visit the United States six months or so ago he was coming to visit his cousin in New York City. A couple of days before he arrived in New York his cousin received a job transfer to a city in Pennsylvania. He did not want to go to Pennsylvania so he spent a few days wondering around New York City. He said, he walked by a church and could feel the Holy Spirit telling him to go into this church and just to pray about what he was supposed to do. As he entered the church the first person he met was a lady from Uganda (go figure! God is working!). This lady introduced him to the pastor of the church and the pastor and his wife immediately took him in like family. For the past five months he has been living with the pastor and his family and you can simply see the joy in his face as he talks about them. This was one of the many times in the next 48 hours that God’s power would be so clear to me!!!

The next hour flew by and before I knew it we were all being escorted back to the vans to head for lunch. My new friend Gad told me to ride in his van and to my delight I was surrounded by seven African coaches and one lady from Canada named Steph who is part of the AIA staff. She was translating everything into French for the majority of the African coaches. All of sudden I felt comfortable and at home as we headed to Qdoba for lunch.

Over the course of lunch I met all the African coaches and got to hear so many incredible stories about the power of God in their lives. I also had the opportunity to share my adventure with Christ with all of them. Let me tell you if you ever want a challenge in telling your God story have a translator sitting with you interpreting all of it into another language. You have to break the story up into a few hundred fragmented sentences, but it did help refine my God story in as concise of a story as possible!!!

Following lunch we headed over to the University of Cincinnati to watch their women’s team practice. Upon arriving I of course had to sneak over to the Cincy football stadium to take some pictures to send to JJ.

The facilities at the University of Cincinnati are incredible and it was a great time taking in a practice with these coaches from all over the world. Here we are outside the Cincy stadium...I took all these pictures on my phone which is why I am not in any of them!

After practice concluded we had about two hours until dinner in Cincinnati and the AIA staff decided this would be a great opportunity to head to a coffee shop and break into small groups to discuss all that we were learning. Before I get into the details regarding our discussion time I want to paint a picture for everyone. Imagine you are standing in your local coffee shop trying to get your caffeine fix for the day or you just got off of work and before heading home you head to the coffee shop for some quiet and alone time. Just as you sit down the door flings open and 40 people walk in. Not just any 40 people, but 40 people from all over the world - multiple languages being spoken, a mix of cultural African scents invading the air, incredibly loud talking Spanish people, all with a group of white people laughing their heads off. Try to imagine what you would be thinking at that moment. I wish everyone could have seen the faces of all of those people in the Bruegger’s Bagels store that we stopped at. It was one of those priceless moments.

The AIA staff all split up in different areas where they had been ministering. Basically there were three tables. Central Asia, South America, and Africa. I was helping to lead the African discussion group. We all had two questions to ask our group. 1) What have we learned in regards to basketball? 2) What is going on in your heart right now? The first to speak was Jaqukes (it was spelt something like that) from Rwanda. He told us in French (thank God for the translator) that the thing he is learning in regards to basketball is the importance of assistant coaches. He said that in Africa nobody has an assistant coach except for the National team, because coaches don’t want to share their system or training methods with anyone else. They fear that if they share information other teams will pass them up and take opportunities away from themselves. This not only provided us leaders of the group a great opportunity to talk about working together for the greater good of the country in regards to basketball development, but even more importantly to intertwine the gospel into this conversation. We focused on two main areas regarding the gospel and the simple idea of having assistant coaches. First, we talked about the great commission as Jesus told his disciples to go out and share the good news and make disciples all over the world. We even posed the question to the group of African coaches that what if the disciples would have just kept Jesus all to themselves? If the disciples would have done this all of us sitting in Brueggers Bagels that day that have accepted Christ would not have eternal life because we would have never heard of him.

The second question we posed to all the African coaches was the idea of storing up treasures. Could the unwillingness to share information be that they were focused too much on storing up treasures here on earth? Many of the coaches were concerned with the fact that if they win a tournament/game they get paid more money, and if they don’t win enough games it could cost them a promotion. Through their conversations it was clear that they held opportunity and money at a high value – to the point where they don’t trust their fellow brother and are unwilling to help others become successful because it might take an opportunity away from them. During our entire discussion we never even had to ask about what was God doing on each individual’s heart in our group. We all knew the answer. He was challenging each of them to share what they are learning in order to allow the gospel to spread all throughout Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, and all of Africa.

Following practice it was back to the vans as we headed to Faith Bible Church in Cincinnati. They had a small group within the church cooking and serving dinner to all of us.

We had sloppy joes, rice and beans, and some pumpkin pie to top off the meal. It was so incredible to see all these ladies serving us! The exposure of culture and God’s ultimate love just spread throughout all the coaches and all the people serving. As we got ready to leave the Africans wanted to thank all of the people who served us with a little African song and dance! Of course the Guatemalans and Columbians were not going to miss out on this opportunity to sing and dance. They didn’t know the words since they don’t speak the same language – but that didn’t stop them from joining in!

After leaving the church we had about an hour drive home and like God so often does he used the insignificant moment of a drive home to show me how His power is alive in so many lives. On the way home two of the AIA staff shared their God-stories with me. I will share their stories in a future blog post. Let’s just say you will love the stories of how God’s power is leading people to the ends of the earth in order to see the gospel shared. These testimonies on this rainy drive home not only refueled me, but spurred me on to attempt to do greater things for God.

Before I knew it we were back at the dorms and we all headed downstairs to a 96 inch TV to take in some college basketball games on ESPN. This also provided an opportunity to be able to converse with these other coaches into the wee hours of the night. My favorite encounter of the evening was with the director of Athletes in Action in Uganda. He shared his story with me and I will be sharing it with all of you very soon. The other cool part is that I think it's going to work out for him to come to Iowa this week and experience Thanksgiving with my family before he has to return to Uganda.

As 1am in the morning rolled around we decided to go to bed or so we thought. My roommate and I headed to our room and before we knew it the clock read 3:39am as we shared our God-stories with each other and sat up into the night discussing the various challenges we face daily in our walk with Christ. To me it was incredible how something like this could happen. Two young guys from the United States that have grown up in two totally different environments that never knew each other 24 hours earlier were sitting up into the early morning hours of the next day talking about all that God is doing. Eventually we got ourselves a couple hours of sleep with a joy that can only be expressed by a day truly orchestrated by God.

For tomorrow’s blog post I will share all about day 2 with these men and women of God in Dayton, Ohio!!

Job, Angela & Godwin Vander Weide (Three less orphans)!!!!!

2011-11-18T07:55:00.001-06:00

Our friends the Vander Weide’s are moving right along in their adoption process of Job, Angela & Godwin from the Beacon House Orphanage in Ghana! I first blogged about this beautiful family stepping up to adopt here! Well, just last week they got to fly to Ghana to file their I-600 form which is the last approval they will need before they can bring their kids home. Getting this approval can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Once they have the approval the next step is to get the kids their visas, and then they will get to come home to West Des Moines, Iowa! I just had to post these awesome pictures of the time the Vander Weide’s got to spend bonding with their kids in Ghana last week. How I LOVE that Job, Angela, and Godwin are soon going to get a brand new life with a loving and caring FAMILY!!!!!!!!

Looking at videos from JD, Emma & Grace (the Vander Weide's kids back at home)....

Doug teaching Job how to shoot....

At the Beacon House they raise grass cutters (a type of animal that they eat in Ghana for a protein source). Angela doesn’t like them! As they were looking at them she said,“Mommy, protect me!”

Dawn and Godwin snuggling after his nap....

Dawn and Godwin....

The Vander Weide's took a night and had dinner with the Kingdom Hoops Ghana basketball team in Accra....

Grocery store in Osu....

Doug and Godwin eating cashews....

Dawn snuggling with Angela after her nap....

Job Vander Weide....

Angela Vander Weide....

Godwin Vander Weide....

Doug and Dawn got to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on their trip! They had a great dinner with Nana and Esi which included cow intestine soup!

I also wanted to include this little letter that Job had written to Doug and Dawn a few weeks before this trip. This boy is SO SPECIAL!!!!!!!

He also drew them this picture....so many of the young kids in Ghana have such artistic talent!!!!!!

Doug and Dawn actually saw that picture come to life on their trip when they got this close to some baboons!!!!

Loving on Godwin....

Dawn says Godwin loves to be held....

Yep, this pretty much says it all!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this family!!!!!

"Will adoption 'ruin' my biological children?"

2011-11-16T08:19:00.002-06:00

Too many times those of us who already have biological children who are weighing adoption think that adoption is going to ‘ruin’ our biological kids. That it is going to take away something that they deserve. I believe this sort of reasoning is a lie, straight from the devil himself, and I feel the need to expose it!

As I’ve said on this blog many times, over the past few years God has absolutely destroyed MY idea of what our family should look like. It started with our adoption, it continued with allowing our home to become open to those in need. With clenched fists I desperately wanted to hang onto the dreamy family picture that sat on our fire place back in 2008. In my mind, we embodied the perfect American family: a mom, a dad, a little boy, a little girl. I wrestled with God over how opening up our home to those in need was ruining my dream. Our time, our money, our everything was now being spent on OTHERS…not just our own children. It bothered me….I wanted my kids to have all my love, my attention, my energy, my wisdom, my gifts FIRST….and the ‘leftovers’ could be spent on others.

What God eventually revealed to me was that I had deceived myself into fashioning and forming my children into little idols.

I wanted to focus on raising my kids first, to protect them from everything ‘bad’ in the world, and to put them above all else. Don’t get me wrong, we do have an extremely important responsibility to care for, protect, and raise up our children that God has blessed us with. But, here’s the thing: as believers we have an enemy prowling around who takes his job of deceiving Christ-followers very seriously. Satan totally capitalized on these motherly best-of-intentions of mine by twisting them a little. Before I knew it, I had gotten myself caught up into all sorts of scenarios that ‘might’ happen. I became completely paralyzed in the decision to adopt because in every scenario there was the potential for our own kids to be affected negatively. I worried that bringing in an adopted child might ruffle our own kid’s feathers too much and could possibly mess them up. I reasoned that we certainly weren’t being wise to open up our home to a ‘stranger’ when we had such young kids at home. And it seemed that an adoption would take away from the time and attention on our own kids….

Jesus had something to say to me about these thoughts.

Matthew 10:37-39 ~ ‘Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’

This verse is now my reminder that my first devotion always needs to be towards God and His Kingdom. That might mean that He may ask me to do some hard things. Like adopt orphans into our already established family. Yes, it will change our family dynamic. But not as much as Abraham probably thought his family dynamic was going to change as he walked up that mountain to follow God’s command to sacrifice his one and only Son that he had waited years and years for (Genesis 22). And He stepped forward in faith, trusting that God’s plan and purpose was greater than even his own mind could rationalize. God isn’t asking me to sacrifice my one and only son. He’s asking me to give life to my son/daughter living on the other side of the world that I never even knew I had.

There are things that your biological kids WILL have to ‘give up’ in adoption (birth order position, a room all to themselves, etc). But contrary to what Satan would have you think, these things are not going to ruin them. You’re actually giving them SO MUCH more! For our family, adoption and opening up our home to those in need has taught our kids more about the gospel than any bible study we have ever done. Since they do have to give some things up, they experience firsthand what it’s like to love sacrificially - just as Christ loves us. They get to see us reach out to give hope, a future, and a family to the fatherless….just as God did for us when we were living without Him. They see what it looks like for others to be adopted into our family and have all the rights as sons and daughters, just like God adopts us as His children through the blood of Jesus Christ. They see in our family picture a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God will look like some day when we get to heaven ~ colorful! Again, these things are just tiny glimpses of the gospel, but setting our family up in this way is shaping and forming our biological kid’s character and personalities better than anything we could teach them with our words. Sure we could tell them with our words that Jesus commands us to love the unloveable, to seek justice on the account of the oppressed, to love their neighbor as themselves, or to lay down their lives for others just as Christ did for us. But through serving others and opening up our home and family by way of adoption, we get to SHOW them all these things and more. We get to live this out. Our kids are seeing that following Jesus can be quite the adventure. It’s not boring, it’s exciting. It’s a thrill to allow God to use you, and to watch Him work in supernatural ways, right in your very own home.

"I would adopt if only it weren't so expensive!"

2011-11-15T08:15:00.002-06:00

If you’ve ever said that then before you do anything else, take about 5 minutes and go read this blog post: http://ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-would-adopt-if-only-it-werent-so.html The points that she brings up cannot be any better said!!!! I especially LOVE her thoughts on getting over the hurdle of feeling bad about asking for money and recognizing that as a pride issue.

As the author of that blog post notes, of course nobody wants to go into debt in order to fund an adoption. Recently, another adoptive mom published a book called ‘Adopt Without Debt’. The subtitle is ~ Creative Ways to Cover the Cost of Adoption. Earlier this summer this mom/author was featured on The Dave Ramsey Show, and you can listen to her interview here: http://adoptwithoutdebt.com/?p=219 You can also order the book off that same link and check out the Adopt Without Debt blog.

As you read through each of the links above you will continue to come across this word: Fundraising!!!! Be creative! If you are the sporty type how about organizing a 3 on 3 tournament in which you can raise money through entry fees and spectator admissions? You could apply the same idea with a dodge ball tournament, or have runners collect pledges and host a 5k/10k in your neighborhood! We have friends down the road who raised over $3000 for their adoption fund on a weekend garage sale! Their friends and family donated items to the sale and it was a huge success! People are always willing to give you their old/unwanted/unused STUFF….so make use of it! I could write pages and pages of ideas on fundraising – from sending out support letters (just as you would do to raise money for a missions trip), to selling t-shirts (check out http://www.adoptionbug.com/fundraiser.htm), to hosting an event like a concert (maybe you have friends who are in a band), hosting a dinner/movie night at your local community center in which you can sell tickets beforehand, or maybe you have a skill/hobby in which you could sell your handmade items online (photography, jewelry, baked goods, cloth bags/purses,etc). Not creative? Sell merchandise already designed for adoption fundraising through either of these organizations: http://www.147millionorphans.com/147-Million-Orphans-Fundraising-Program_ep_51.html OR http://www.ordinaryhero.org/Ordinary_Hero/OH_Fundraising.html One of the churches that Jake recently spoke at asked for an offering for our adoption by having its congregation put in whatever they were going to spend on going out for lunch that day. What a great idea! This pastor knew about God’s multiplication! He got this offering idea from John 6:1-15 and the little boy who donated his personal lunch which became the pieces Jesus multiplied and used to feed the five thousand (I just blogged about this concept here: http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/11/bring-what-you-have.html) How about putting a pay pal button on your website/blog and simply asking people to donate their lunch money for one day? Watch it add up!

There are a few more things to look into in addition to fundraising:

A number of companies have adoption assistance programs built into their benefits with some providing between $2000 to $8000. For more information visit http://www.adoptionfriendlyworkplace.org/

An increasing number of churches are establishing adoption funds as part of their budgets. As I’ve blogged about previously, our church gives out generous adoption grants and have been an integral piece in us coming up with our finances to adopt. Ask your pastor whether your church has something set up. If not, ask about starting a fund.

A handful of our friends who are adopting have sought out their parents or family/friends for a loan to cover adoption expenses. They then pay them back when they receive their adoption tax credit which comes through on taxes after the adoption is finalized. If that isn’t an option for you there are many organizations that give out interest-free loans for adoption. Here are a few to look into:

-The ABBA Fund (http://www.abbafund.org/) is designed to help Christian families overcome the financial obstacles of adoption through interest-free loans that can be paid back over time. (I also stumbled across a really cool ministry of the Abba Fund called LegacyChild [http://www.abbafund.org/legacychild.htm] It is designed for families to set up memorial funds in memory of a loved one. The family is able to choose a pre-approved family that is waiting for funding for their adoption to receive an interest-free loan.)

-Lifesong (http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/) is another organization that provides interest-free loans.

There are also many foundations that give out adoption grants to those who qualify. Here are two:

-Show Hope http://www.showhope.org/

-James 1:27 Foundation (Iowa families only): http://www.james127foundationadopt.org/

And don’t forget to look into adoption through your state’s foster care system! The costs are minimal to none. http://www.iowakidsnet.org/index.cfm

Last, but not least, be honest with your friends and family on how much adoption costs, and at the same time be open about how you trust in God to provide those finances (DO YOU?!?!)!!!! When others realize how much adoption costs, God may stir them to bless you with a one-time gift to help out! :)

Please add more ideas or post your adoption finance success stories in the comments section!

Light and Dark

2011-11-14T08:25:00.003-06:00

This is what God the Lord says-
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk in it;
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
(Isaiah 42:5-7)

Reading these verses the other day immediately gave me a visual of one of our Rosebud girls.
There she sits, in darkness. No, you would never know by talking to her. She’s happy, social, and carefree on the outside. But on the inside her heart is cold, hardened, defensive. She goes her own way. Ignores warnings, suppresses truth. She knows scripture. She can read a verse and tell you what it means. She’ll sing to the Lord on Sundays when everyone is watching. But she’ll also tell you in the next breath that she rejects Him. “These are just stories to me,” she says holding up the Bible. She reminds us again and again that they hold no value for her life. To her, the message of the cross is foolishness. She’s purposefully distracting and unresponsive during family devotionals. So much so that one evening I got another vision of her. Sitting there at the table, I pictured her giving the middle finger to God. That’s the only way I could describe her blatant disregard towards the One who sustains her life. I’ve gotten so angry with her at times that I’ve screamed out, “Don’t you know that God could take away your very next breath?! You aren’t promised another day! If you die tomorrow….”

Oh boy. My responses to her are often so full of anger and without love. It’s not what I am saying. In a world full of lies she so desperately needs to be confronted with truth. But it’s how I am saying it. I think to myself Good grief, you are supposed to be making Christ attractive, and here you are getting all offended and shoving it down her throat! Time and again I resolve to be more gentle and compassionate the next time, knowing that I purposefully have to choose that heart attitude because it doesn’t naturally come.

On other days I’ve caught my heart on the verge of giving up. Why keep telling her about Jesus? She just continues to reject Him. Just let her go her own way. Let her be. You have too much going on to deal with someone who doesn’t even want help. Ugh, my heart is so ugly. I know Satan wants me to dwell on the thought that there is nothing in this for me, and that in fact, dealing with her is burdensome. Jake and I have had a handful of deep talks with her. Each time it’s like going down into the dungeon to sit there with her. It’s draining and I feel weighed down with her unrepentance and blatant rebelliousness. I feel unequipped to know how to reach her, how to connect with her, how to even smile at her when my heart is so turned away from her.

Jake reminds me that we don’t need to beg her out of the dungeon. “Jesus never begged anyone to follow Him,” he says, and he’s right. I know from scripture that Jesus does seek out the lost. He reaches out His hand offering release from darkness and fullness of new life, but it is everyone’s choice whether or not they will grab on.

So far, she’s not grabbing.

On the other end, our other Rosebud girl has responded to the gospel as I wrote about here. In her young teenage life, her responding ‘looks’ different than say what it would look like in a 30 year old. But Jake and I have watched her continue to take steps out into the light of God’s presence. It’s rocky and she’s young. There were weeks in a row when we questioned her genuineness. But day after day it seems that her excitement about God grows, her worship becomes more heartfelt. There are MANY lows in between the highs. Her tendency is to shut God out when things get hard, something my own heart is familiar with. But she always comes back to Him. When He gets too close she’ll push Him away, only to days later run back into his loving and forgiving arms. I know she is unfamiliar with what it is like to have a God who doesn’t keep score. Who loves no matter what. Who is a refuge. Who is safe. Who will never leave or abandon her. She’s never known this sort of relationship before. She’s testing it out to see if it will endure. In church yesterday we sang some lyrics to an old hymn. I know she hadn’t heard the song before, but once she got a hold of one line, she started singing it louder and louder each time it came around. By the end of the song she was belting out this particular part….

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love,
Here’s my heart Lord take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

Oh, how all of us who follow Christ can relate to these words. Standing next to her, listening to her sing, I felt a sense of relief that she was able to belt out the tug of war going on in her heart. This tug of war has become a current theme in her life. Days before she had shared with me how God gave her a vision one day when she was looking out into a grass field. She clearly saw two paths, one narrow, one wide. She went on to describe Matthew 7:13-14 in her own words. She said “I know God wants me on the narrow path. That’s the way I should go.”

Our Rosebud girls have come from the same place, the same culture, similar pasts, and dealt with similar patterns in their familial relationships. But their hearts are responding differently to Jesus. One sits in her dungeon, storing up wrath for herself without care. The other has taken a step into the light, lifted her head up, and tasted salvation. The hard part is that these two are the best of friends. The one who is stepping into the light doesn’t want to leave her friend in darkness. But the one in darkness wants nothing to do with the light. Since the one stepping into the light is the weaker, more timid of the two, she succumbs back under all she has ever known - her friend sitting there in the darkness.

For the past few weeks Jake and I have wrestled with the idea of separating our two girls….finding a different host family for one of them. We’ve gone back and forth trying to pick through the good and the bad of staying or splitting. But we keep coming back to this: our ‘light girl’ who is responding to the gospel needs to be able to breathe and to discover her identity without hiding under the other. This is just absolutely not possible with their current living situation in our home. When the two are together, they tend to stay in step with one another….feeding off each other in games of manipulation. Furthermore, we find our ‘light girl’ being pulled back into the darkness, enticed to take part in sin, and taking unnecessary steps backward. Jake and I know that her relationship with God needs to be priority over a friendship. Pretty hard for a teenager to understand. Or so I thought. I brought this idea of a split up to her in the car the other day when we were alone. I explained everything I’ve written here and, expecting the worst, I asked her how she would feel about a split. She said, “I think it would give me an option to come away from her.” Whew! That went over well. I think she’s been feeling suffocated and torn in two, but just hasn’t had the courage to bring it up. She actually sounded relieved at the thought of it.

Of course there will always be stumbling blocks in our walk with God, and we aren’t trying to shield our ‘light girl’ from developing the faith to get through them by initiating this split. We also know that God could eventually choose ‘light girl’ to draw her friend to Jesus. But if that is God’s intent, I know that them living under different roofs will not thwart His plan. In fact, our hope is that ‘light girl’ would so grow in her faith that she does become in a position to take the gospel to those who reject Him….for her that will start back on her reservation. I have so many hopes for ‘light girl’…..it seems that a split might just be the first step in helping her to blossom….

Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God's holy Temple? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

Bring What You Have

2011-11-11T08:50:00.000-06:00

I have a handful of posts I am hoping to write on adoption finances and fundraising. When I talk with people about adoption, the first thing that usually comes out of their mouths is “There’s no way we can afford that!” Yep, Jake and I said the same thing! But there is a way….many ways actually! There are just a TON of resources on this topic, and I will be blogging about them next week. But first, for today, we’ve got to get our perspective right. My mom’s comment on my post yesterday about ‘God’s multiplication’ is the perspective that we will be grabbing today. I’ve taken a little excerpt out of one of my favorite books, The Hole in Our Gospel (pages 251-253). Everything below was written by the author Richard Stearns - I added a few tiny thoughts in blue....

One of the most common mistakes we can make is to believe that we have nothing of significance to offer – that we’re not rich enough, smart enough, skilled enough, or spiritual enough to make much difference at all, especially in the face of huge global problems. Remember the words of Moses, when God asked him to go to Pharaoh and lead His people out of Egypt? “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” He had his excuse too: he wasn’t eloquent enough. And we’re just like him. Deluded, we sit on the bench, watching the game from a distance, content to let others play. But the very good news for those of us who want to follow Christ and be part of God’s plan for our world is that He uses what we have to offer, no matter how unimportant we think it might be.

In the New Testament, the story of the feeding of the five thousand is found in all four Gospels. Jesus used it to change the way we think about underwhelming resources in the face of overwhelming challenges (sounds like adoption finances to me!!!). We are told that as Jesus and the disciples attempted to retreat to a quiet place to rest, a large crowd of people, eager to hear Jesus’ teaching and to be healed, followed them.

The first thing we notice is how differently Jesus and His disciples viewed the situation. The disciples saw only a large problem: “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (Mark 6:35-36). But Jesus looked at the exact same situation and saw an opportunity: “When Jesus…saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things” (v.34). And according to the gospel of Luke, “He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing” (9:11).

When we see poverty and sickness, hunger and famine, cruelty and abuse, do we see them as problems, or do we, like Jesus, filled with compassion, see their human faces and immediately begin to respond – as a shepherd to his vulnerable sheep? The disciples told Jesus that He needed to do something: he should send the crowd away, so they could buy food. In other words, “Jesus, You need to deal with this problem!”

Of course, Jesus did not tell them what they wanted to hear. Instead, He calmly put it right back on them. “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16; emphasis added).

Now, this was an overwhelming predicament, from the disciples’ point of view. There were five thousand men present, “besides women and children” (v 21). Theoretically, then, there may have been as many as ten or even twenty thousand people present. At this point the disciples were getting a bit exasperated, and they panicked; Jesus couldn’t expect them to do the impossible, could He? They even did some calculations to demonstrate to Jesus the absurdity of His reponse. “That would take eight months of a man’s wages!” they told Him. (again, this sounds like an adoption finance thought!) “Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” (Mark 6:37).

There. Surely Jesus gets it now, they thought. There is no earthly way all these people can be fed. There are too many; it would be too costly; it’s not possible. But Jesus persisted.

“How many loaves do you have?” He asked. “Go and see” (v.38). Notice that Jesus did not fall into the same trap His disciples had, by being overwhelmed by the size of the problem. He didn’t ask about magnitude or strategy or feasibility. He asked not how much it would take to solve the problem, but only how much they had to offer. The disciples told Him that one boy had five loaves and two fish that he was willing to give. “Bring them here to me,” He said (Matthew 14:18).

The disciples had found just one boy who was willing to give what he had. Presumably there were others, too, that had some food. Thousands even. They could have offered it, but instead they kept it to themselves, perhaps rationalizing that “someone else” would respond. And one did – just one. So Jesus received this generous but meager offering and showed the disciples what God can do with even the smallest gift offered in faith. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over” (vv.19-20).

Can you see the real miracle at work here? Confronted with an overwhelming problem, Jesus did not ask the disciples to do the impossible; He asked only for them to bring to Him what they had. He then multiplied the small offering and used it to do the impossible. The principle here is so very important for those of us who are overwhelmed with the immensity of human suffering and need in our world: God never asks us to give what we do not have…But he cannot use what we will not give.

I used to wonder why we are told so specifically at the end of this story that there were twelve basketfuls of leftovers collected. Why twelve? Might it be because there were twelve disciples who needed a tangible reminder of their lack of faith? Each one now had his own basketful of God’s surplus. And as the little boy who had given his lunch looked on, can you imagine the joy he must have felt, seeing his gift multiplied by God to feed thousands of hungry people, many of whom he probably knew? It was his lone “puzzle piece” that completed this miracle of God. When we, as Christians, are willing to lay our pieces down on the table, we, too, can take part in God’s “multiplication”. But if we are unwilling, we will assuredly miss out on every opportunity to be used by God in a powerful and amazing way.

How Will We Afford Another Adoption?

2011-11-10T08:01:00.004-06:00

Let me start off by saying that I believe if God has put it on your heart to adopt, then He will provide. And sometimes, He asks you to take the step of faith before you have the answers of ‘the how’ (you can read more of my thoughts along those lines here).

As I’ve blogged about previously, this summer we had faced some major financial setbacks, and we weren’t sure how we were even going to make it through July both personally and with Jake’s Kingdom Hoops program. At the time we signed up to adopt we were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel through that trial, but we weren’t back on our feet yet. However, we trusted that we had heard God speaking to us on behalf of these girls, and we moved forward. As I posted on yesterday, earlier this summer I had opened up an adoption savings account to start putting away extra/unanticipated income to save for a future adoption. Now in case you didn’t catch this, let me highlight that at the point of application, that $319.88 was all we had for an adoption that will cost us somewhere in the range of $25,000-$30,000!!!! About now I can hear the wisdom of the world chanting ~ Fools! Unwise! What are you thinking?!?!?! But, I take delight in remembering that we are not trusting in ourselves to fund this adoption. We are trusting in the One who says that with Him nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26 ). And we believe it.

So, there we were, signed up to adopt these two sweet ones at the end of August…..just coming out of a financial hurricane from the past months…..and starting in on our homestudy update which was going to be the next chunk of money due. Now let me tell you how God is funding our adoption….

Around the end of September Jake decided to start calling the IRS every week regarding our adoption tax refund that we had yet to receive back from Justice’s adoption. With the first phone call they said they hadn’t even reviewed the stack of paperwork (invoices, copies of payments, receipts, etc.) that we had mailed in back in July (after our first two stacks of paperwork in April & June were rejected as not enough evidence of our adoption). By Jake’s second phone call a week later they said our refund had been APPROVED and would be issued within 2-3 weeks. Less than 2 weeks later we had $13,419.11 in hand and we took a big, huge, deep breath and rejoiced – with Him, nothing is impossible! About half of our refund will be spent on paying off bills that piled up over the last year. But, the rest we will be able to put in our adoption fund.

Another BIG chunk of our adoption fund is coming from the extra income that Jake has picked up through his individual trainings. He is working himself to exhaustion with these, but with his efforts we are able to actually put away money each month into our savings (our savings right now is our adoption fund) - something that has been absolutely FOREIGN to us the past few years.

Other than that, some unexpected things have happened that have brought us unanticipated money. These unexpected things are totally from the hand of God, and it just makes me smile that we had no idea these chunks of money would be coming to us when we signed up to adopt. First off, two different churches in Iowa asked Jake to come speak to their congregations regarding our Ghana projects. Jake has been able to share ‘our story’ of how God has opened up our eyes and hearts to the nations with the accompaniment of many listening ears. He's also been able to bring awareness of God’s heart for each individual Christ-follower to reach out to the 'least of these', care for the child that has no family, and visit orphans in their distress, in bold and courageous ways (for some this is adoption!). One of these churches supported our Asikuma projects earlier this year, and this time after hearing about our two girls they decided to give money towards our personal adoption fund…..$2500 to be exact. WOW! For those of you in the adoption process you know this is a HUGE chunk of money - when we opened their check that arrived in the mail we rejoiced with mouths dropped to the floor – with Him nothing is impossible! About a week after that we received another check in the mail from a person who goes to that same church who also wanted to contribute to our fund personally….that person blessed us with $225! We smiled knowing how God moves in the hearts of people when it comes to adoption – with Him nothing is impossible! A few weeks later at a different church, Jake got to share our story again, this time with a small-town basketball camp in the mix. All proceeds from the camp were to go to….you guessed it…..our personal adoption fund. This church is adding in a donation to the camp proceeds to go to our adoption and a check will be on its way within the next few weeks. Whooop whoop! With Him nothing is impossible! Two Fridays ago at the fundraising event, Jake had a chunk of time to share about our Ghana projects and he also included the announcement of our adoption and told the story of our girls. At the end of the night while we were cleaning up a grandpa of a family in our program walked up to me and said something like, “Keep up the good work.” As he said it he reached out to shake my hand and as nonchalantly as could be he slipped me a $100 bill! I was so surprised but I shouldn’t be - with Him nothing is impossible! Even yesterday, I got a text message from my mom saying: ‘Your brother just told me to cancel his Christmas list and use the money we were going to spend on his presents to give to you for your adoption fund’ !!!!! Are you getting my point? We did not expect ANY of these things to happen, but these little chunks of money here and there just keep adding up all into a whopping exclamation of WITH HIM NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! Do you believe it yet?

Jake and I are also blessed to be members of a church that ROCKS and is committed to supporting adoptive families financially. Our church gives out GENEROUS adoption grants to families who make an effort to take up fundraising on their own. I don't know if I can fully put into words how awesome these grants are. Our church truly sees adoption for the gospel-mission that it is, and to be able to rely on them so heavily with our funding relieves such a huge burden in our hearts.

Other than that I am also working on a few more traditional fundraising efforts…..I am currently giving out hand-beaded Ghanaian necklaces/earring sets for anyone who gives a donation of $50 or more to our adoption fund.

(Us girls are also wearing these in our family picture on our blog header)

If you would like to do this, you can mail us a check (or give cash in person) made out to us personally to: 315 Ridgewood Drive, Huxley, IA 50124. If you mail a check I will need your address to know where to mail the necklace to. Somewhere on the check note if you have a preferred color. Most of them are multi-colored in options like dark blue, turquoise, brown, red, orange, green, black/white, yellow, etc. I can’t absolutely guarantee what color you will get because it will depend on my current stock, but I’ll try my best. :) Or if you can catch me in person then you can just pick one out!

Also, for the past few months I’ve been working on starting up a sale of adoption themed t-shirts and hoping that eventually I can grow sales into an online store. This has been quite the process, and I’m facing some obstacles…not exactly sure if it will pan out, but we’ll see!

So, that’s the plan stan. Right now, if we include the anticipated grant coming from our church, we have 3/4 of the funds that we will need to pay for our adoption! For the rest we will continue to trust that God is BIG, and that with Him nothing is impossible!!!!

More ideas/resources on financing/fundraising for an adoption tomorrow!

Here We Go Again!

2011-11-09T07:32:00.002-06:00

Earlier this summer we felt adoption coming up again for our family. We didn’t know who we would be adopting, or where from, but we knew something was coming. Much of that was inspired by this sweet thang who wandered into our family for a few months……
Our whole family became attached to this little girl quite easily. Justice wanted to get her unbuckled from her car seat and carry her into stores, if Jayla saw her crying she would say, “Mommy, get her!” and she also loved the day-to-day taking care of ‘C’ like changing her diapers, filling up her sippy cup, and giving her baths. JJ LOVED to play with ‘C’ and hand her toys, chase her around the house, or jump on the couch with her. My heart would skip a beat as I watched my kids interact with ‘C’ and care for her so naturally. When Sam came to live with us over a year ago, I realized then that you just never know what could be around the corner and who God might choose to add to your family. Because of that experience there were times when I wondered if ‘C’ would be coming into our life more permanently. I had some very touching conversations with C’s dad that reminded me that people are hurting, and we talked often about the hows and whys of adoption. I came to love it when ‘C’ would come to our house, and each time she had to leave my kids would ask me every day when she would be back again. Eventually though, ‘C’ wandered out of our life, and I found myself left with a little spot carved out deeper for helping families in crisis through adoption.

Around the beginning of July I heard a whisper in my heart that we should start an adoption savings account. It felt a little crazy to do this since we were not anticipating any extra money to come in and since we were also struggling financially at the time, but we did it anyway. My birthday rolled around and I received some cash gifts, so I threw the money in the savings account which I had labeled as our ‘future adoption fund’. I had some items sell on my grandma’s garage sale, and pretty soon our adoption fund was a little richer. We got a random/unexpected refund back on our utility bill, and decided to send that into the account too.

August rolled around and we were off to Ghana to complete the medical clinic and library projects. What we didn’t know, was that God was going to use this trip to introduce us to our daughters. :)

Like I said above, you just never know what could be around the corner (literally), and who God might choose to add to your family. Many of you read this post after our August trip and got a first-hand glimpse into what my heart was feeling when I met these little orphans. But, there was something I didn’t tell you in that post, which I’ll get to in a minute. Now, it’s no secret that the plight of orphans is absolutely piercing to my heart. But, it’s also not feasible for Jake and I to personally adopt every orphan we come into contact with. That is why I keep this blog up, because I hope to moblilize other families to adopt! And some orphans can be helped in ways other than adoption too. All this to say, when I felt adoption coming up for our family again over the summer I had been praying that God would make it crystal clear to me when we were supposed to adopt again, and who. I remember often saying in my prayers "How will we know Lord? Please make it clear."

So, back to the scene in Ghana when I walked around the corner of that shack, looked into the eyes of those girls, heard their story, and held them. On the outside it probably looked to be quite the emotional set up. But, what I didn’t tell you in that post, was that the Holy Spirit was speaking to me in those moments as I was confronted with the reality that there was no mother to hand crying baby ‘A’ to….I heard 2 words that still echo in my mind…“You’re it.” Now, if you don’t have a relationship with God, then you are going to think all that a bit looney. But if you do have a relationship with God then you will understand what I mean when I say the Holy Spirit was speaking.

After we headed home from Ghana, I did start questioning what I had heard. Why do I always do that?!?! My fears started flying in and I started doubting! We can’t afford another adoption yet! What if I let these girls into my heart only to find out that adoption isn’t the plan chosen for them? And two girls – I had only been preparing for one! Thankfully, God is so gracious and patient, even in our doubting. In His grace, He spoke again through another series of events once we got home, and Jake and I knew without a doubt that we were to pursue the adoption of these girls, should social welfare choose adoption to be the long-term plan for them. And they did. On August 26th we sent in our application to our agency to get the process underway. We are using a different adoption agency this time, so I had not yet taken a detailed look at the breakdown of the fee schedule. But what a surprise to find that their application fee was $300….and that sitting in our ‘future adoption fund’ we had scrapped together $319.88. Do I think that was a ‘God-thing’? OF COURSE!

Now, we all know that it takes more than $300 to fund an international adoption. So, by now the next logical question would be, “How on earth are we going to afford another adoption?!?!?!” Well, you know my slogan ~ GOD FUNDS WHAT HE FAVORS! And He is! I will hopefully be able to share on that tomorrow!

Now, a few quick sidenotes: I have SO MUCH to blog about right now, but I am finding it really hard to make the time to get my lengthier posts put together. My blogging might be kind of sporadic for awhile as I try to fit in some other things into my day like conquering our adoption education training!!! Also, for the protection of our girls, it is an agency rule that I am not able to show their photos online until after we pass court…..and to be honest I will probably wait until our adoption is completed to post any pictures of them up online. Oh boy, that’s going to be SO HARD! But, if you want to see their sweet faces, I can show you their pictures in person. :)

So, I now sit here nervous, excited, and curious about how this adoption will play out! Honestly I am feeling much more laid back this time around compared to our first ride on the adoption roller coaster. We are so, so, so excited to be able to give these little girls a family. When we told our kids that we were adopting again Justice just about shot through the roof in excitement. The first thing he said was, “Now Jayla will finally have the sister that she’s always wanted!” And then immediately after that he asked if we were going to change their names and what their new names would be. :) JJ’s first question was “Where will they sleep?” He’s definitely the practical one. Jayla can somehow say the girl’s African names with perfect pronunciation (and their names are hard to say). She’s been running around telling everyone that she is getting two new sisters and then she rolls their names off her tongue like it ain’t no thang! Most people have no idea what or who she is talking about so it’s kind of funny.

So you can see the excitement is building around here! We have a long ways to go, but already we are really enjoying that our kids understand adoption and what will be coming! So, I guess I can now say it’s official….here we go again!

He Brought Us Out

2011-11-04T08:06:00.002-05:00

I don’t blog much about our finances, but since Jake and I blogged this and this over the summer, perhaps you are wondering what has happened since!

First off, our board of directors raised close to $30,000 in a little over a week (!) to cover the costs for our scholarship player’s travel and tournaments through the rest of the month of July.

We (unfortunately) had to cut our amount of full-time staff members.

Then, come August Jake sat down with his board of directors, which includes two members who do financial advising as well as one member who is an accountant, and they worked through numbers and budgets for the upcoming 2011-2012 year. The goal was to examine the fee structure of the Kingdom Hoops program in order to come out on top of the books instead of losing money - what a concept, right?!. As with any business, we do have real bills such as facility expenses, tournament entry fees, travel expenses, staff, uniform fees, etc. Added to that we also have the financial assistance budget in which we give out scholarships to allow families who do not have the finances to be able to participate and take advantage of the program. Each year, we need to raise roughly $200,000 to cover those fees for athletes that are part of our financial assistance program, and each year we fall drastically short. So, numbers were tried, crunched, rejected and accepted until it all worked on paper. The board of directors has also been key in setting out to raise the money needed to cover the financial assistance budget for the upcoming year. Numerous donations have come our way in the past few months, all due to the relationships that our board members have with giving people. We also have gotten the players involved in raising money which was the basis for the Kingdom Hoops Kick-Off & Fundraising event that I blogged about earlier this week.

At the same time that all this financial restructuring was going on it also was placed on Jake’s heart that his program had gotten too big, too fast. He felt that the size of the program was spreading him too thin. He was ultimately losing the intimate relationships that he desired to create with every player and parent within the program. It was not an easy decision, but he felt that in the long-term best interest of the program he needed to reduce the size of his organization. In doing this, he felt that he would be able to do a better job of maximizing opportunities for the kids that were in the program. Jake also wanted to become more ‘Kingdom’ minded. At the end of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Jesus clearly calls us to go into the world and make disciples. Moving forward Jake desired that his program become more about creating disciples who know Jesus and that would use the platform of basketball to glorify Him!

We’ve been under this new system of a smaller program size (literally cut in half) for about 2 months now, and it is SO MUCH BETTER!!! Like loads better. Jake can spend more time on relationships and discipling and less time on office work and organizing. There are a ton of other youth basketball programs popping up in Iowa right now, so many of the kids cut from Jake’s program still have viable options to continue their pursuit of their goals on and off the basketball court.

On a personal note…..

We had been trying to sell our house for the past year because too much of our income is going to our mortgage payment. A few years ago we were ok with how much our house costs us. But as God has opened up our eyes to the needs around us, we really desired that more of our income could be spent on helping PEOPLE! Then on top of that, over the past year it got really hard to make our mortgage payment every month! In September, after a little over one year of our house being on the market, we finally got an offer on our house. But the banks who do our mortgages would not agree to the sell because the buyer was offering below what we had paid for our house. Obviously we are not going to get the purchase price on our home in this economy right now. So, we’ve decided to take our house off the market. We still would desire that less of our income would go towards our house, but we know that if God would have that happen then He would make a sale possible….it just doesn’t feel like His hand is in the sale right now.

Jake has also turned his individual trainings that he started this summer into a side-business (kind of like having your own personal trainer but regarding basketball). These trainings have absolutely taken off in popularity, and Jake is bringing in a lot of extra income for our family. This has been one of the top ways in which God has helped us to personally recover financially from the hardships this summer. We are now able to crack into paying off bills that piled up, make our mortgage payment and car payments on time without tremendous stress, and keep up with our outrageous grocery bills! And I can’t even believe I am able to write this next part, but we are actually to the point where we can now start saving again!!!! And……we are saving……for something really exciting (to our family anyways) that I will be sharing with you all probably next week. I am so thankful that Jake works so hard to provide for our family. He’s always been the hardest, most dedicated worker I have ever known. He’s making so many sacrifices with his time and energy to provide for us. I know that he values me getting to stay at home with our kids while they are young, and I am thankful that he sees this as important. I feel so blessed that I get to be a part of our kid’s everyday moments. I will never regret this time that I have with them.

And lastly, we finally got our adoption tax credit back. WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!! We will be able to use about half of it to pay off bills, and the other half we are saving for something else……hmmmm….wonder what it is?!?!

So, our finances are recovering. God is providing, and showing us that for now this is where He is asking us to be.

As hard as it was to go through all that, Jake and I both know that we are better for it. Once again God taught us to depend and rely on Him in ways that we never had before. We were literally at the point where everything could have gone right down the drain (house, basketball program, etc) but through God’s grace He showed up when things were looking pretty bleak. I read a blog post over the summer that talked about how God always seems to show up at the exact moment when His glory can be revealed the most. Jake and I found much encouragement from the author's words....the blog post is a MUST READ! You can find it here: Ripe for Glory.

I know that Jake, as the sole provider for our family, was once again ‘refined through the fire’ in the area of our finances. This matured him, deepened his trust in God, and was a teaching point for both of us on God’s incredible power. I can’t even being to tell you how many times God just showed up when we were at the end of our rope….through a grocery gift card in the mail, a shake of a hand with a $100 bill slipped to us, or cards of encouragement from friends who themselves had been in this position before. Not to mention the support from the parents in the Kingdom Hoops program who stuck with us through the valley and encouraged us that God was using this program for great things, and He would sustain it. And the way God provided our board of directors who have been the key piece in helping us come up with a plan to get the program on track financially, set up meetings with giving people to gain donations, and just supporting Jake and I personally and lovingly.

As the page turns to a new chapter we fully realize that at any point God could choose to take everything we have worked so hard for. If He does we will continue to trust in His sovereignty!

God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to. ~Elisabeth Elliot~

Chef Justice

2011-11-02T07:07:00.004-05:00

For the past few weeks, every day when Justice gets home from school the first thing he does is make an omelet on the griddle – complete with chopped onions and tomatoes! And he makes it all by himself….I didn’t even show him how to make it the first time! One day I just smelled some cooking after he’d been home for a bit, so I went out into the kitchen and there he was standing at the griddle flipping the eggs! These sorts of omelets are really common in Ghana. In fact, when Justice's 'uncle' hosted us at his home during our first trip to Justice's village, his wife made us these omelets accompanied with bread and bananas. I asked Justice how he acquired his omelet skills yesterday when he started cooking….here is what he said:

After I took the video I realized that I should have asked him a few more questions while I was recording! Later I asked him how they cook the omelet in Ghana since they don’t have an electric griddle. :) He said they use a pan with cooking oil over a fire. I asked him what omelets are called in Ghana and he said they just call them ‘eggs’. He said he thought it cost about 10 cedis to get all the ingredients from street vendors….eggs, tomatoes, onions, and salt. I wish I would have asked him more questions while I was taping, because he was really willing to talk and share during these particular moments! It’s so fun that he can communicate easily in English now because he is starting to recall and be able to put words to a lot of his memories from Ghana!

Love him! ♥

Batman, Hello Kitty, & an Iowa State Football Player

2011-11-01T07:19:00.000-05:00

Quite the trio :)

♥

Kingdom Hoops Season Kick-off & Fundraising Event

2011-10-31T08:29:00.000-05:00

On Friday night we held our first-ever Kingdom Hoops Kick-off event which also doubled as an in-house fundraiser! It was a major hit! A few of our Kingdom Cares International board members organized the entire night which included shooting contests to raise money - half-court shot, hot shot, and a free-throw contest against Jake in which players had gathered pledges the past few months. The player who raised the most pledges won an IPAD2! There were also raffles, teambuilding activities like team-knockout, unveiling of the new uniforms designed by one of the players (Brady Elder), unveiling of the Kingdom Hoops spirit wear website via partnership with Sports Page (go to www.sportspageteam.com, click on team, then select Kingdom Hoops to order), team pictures, shirt order fundraiser, and a chunk of time for Jake to share his vision for the 2011-2012 season in addition to briefing the parents and players on our Ghana projects. The entire night was set to the back-drop of a dj who played all the latest hits, and there was lots of dancing going on! These kids may be basketball players, but they’ve got some mad dancing skills too! There was also a special surprise for the night that we knew the kids would love…..we got a fog machine and balloon arch and had the dj announce each player and team individually, just like they do in the NBA all-star game! You can imagine how much fun they had with it!

All in all the event cost us about $1500 to put on, but we raised a smidge over $12,000 (and that doesn’t even include the money we will make on the shirt orders that were also a huge hit)!!!!! Not too shabby for the first ever in-house fundraiser! This event kicks off the season for the 3rd through 8th grade teams as the high schoolers will be tied up with their school teams through March. Some of the high-schoolers that were at the event for their younger siblings were begging Jake to hold the kick-off event for their teams come spring!

I was busy gabbing most of the night so I got off track on capturing all the moments I had hoped to, but here are a few!

Some of the players show off the new uniforms and Jake & Alex sport the shirt we are selling as a fundraiser.

My kids and our Rosebud girls had SO MUCH fun hanging with friends and dancing!

Half-court shot contest......

The fog machine............................................................

I grabbed a cute video of Justice being announced with his team (he's playing with the 3rd grade boys this year). :)

Raquel Dickerson, player on the 7th grade girl's team, raised the most pledges for the free-throw fundraiser coming in at $1309! In the week leading up to the event all the players who participated in gathering pledges got to have a shoot out for the chance to take Jake on in one minute of free-throw shooting at the event. Lauren Riggs (pictured below), 7th grade girls team, and Collin Lister, 5th grade boys team, made the most free-throws in the team shootout and got to take on Jake. In one minute Lauren made 16 free-throws, but she couldn't catch Jake who made 24 free-throws! Collin came so close, making 21 free-throws, but Jake edged him out by making 22 free-throws. :) This part of the night was a fan favorite!!!!!

3rd through 8th grade boys and girls teams...................

So our first kick-off event/fundraiser was a definite success, and I only see this getting better and better each year!

I'll Be Thinking About Them All Day!!!!

2011-10-28T11:07:00.001-05:00

Around 2pm today our friends, The Lee’s, will get to start the next chapter in their adoption journey…..THEIR THREE KIDS WILL BE ON U.S. SOIL – finally! Jason & Jen will be meeting their kids for the first time this afternoon as their kids are escorted to the Chicago aiport by chaperones from their birthcountry. As our friends started their international adoption from C-country in Africa last year, Jake and I have ridden along their roller coaster ride of highs and lows, with the excitement building the past 4 weeks as we knew this day was getting closer and closer. All morning long my tummy has been turning in excitement, trying to picture what those first moments will be like as Jason & Jen get to meet and hug Zahra, Zoe, & Isaiah for the very first time this afternoon. This never gets old to me. It’s just so amazing to me that God had these children picked out for our friends all the way across the world….and now they are in the sky and on their way! You will definitely want to follow along this family’s journey as they enter this new phase of life post-homecoming. Jen is extremely prepared for the challenges that lay ahead and any adoptive mom will be encouraged by the information, resources, and insights that she shares on their family blog. Make sure to check out this post especially….. http://thejlees.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-to-expect-when-our-kids-come-home.html

Rejoicing with our friends today that God sets orphans in families! I know He will be glorified many times over through this family’s adoption!!!!!!!!!!!!

ABC 20/20 Documentary: Children of the Plains

2011-10-27T16:23:00.002-05:00

When this documentary aired on ABC a few weeks ago Jake and I made it a point to sit down and watch it. It was so extremely insightful to many of the how’s and why’s running through our minds the past few months as we’ve started on this journey of hosting our girls from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It answered a lot of our questions, and also brought up more questions that perhaps we will be able to shed light on as we continue with our hosting experience. This documentary was filmed at Pine Ridge, a neighboring reservation to Rosebud in South Dakota. Our church’s hosting program currently has 12 students from Rosebud, and 1 student from Pine Ridge. This documentary is about 40 minutes long, but definitely gives a vivid and honest glimpse into the culture, family dynamics, and living conditions on ‘the rez’. You can watch the full documentary here: http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55148316/2020-1014-children-of-the-plains

In Her Eyes

2011-10-25T07:52:00.001-05:00

A conversation with Jayla after watching a medical segment on the nightly news ~

Jayla: “Mommy, why do we have blood in our bodies?”
Me: “Because that’s how God made us.”
Jayla: “How did He make all these things?”
Me: “He just spoke and it happened.”
Jayla: “You mean, did He have a magic wand?”
Me: “Nope, He just had to say it – like ‘Let there be light’ and then the sun came out. That’s how powerful He is.”
Jayla: ……thinking…...“Did He have to go like this (flexing her muscles)?”
Me: “Nope. He just had to speak things into existence and then they happened.”
Jayla: “Oh....”
Me: ♥

Visiting Yaw

2011-10-24T07:39:00.001-05:00

Jake had the opportunity to be the speaker for a men’s conference at Morningside Lutheran Church in Sioux City this weekend. Yaw (our first ever host student from Ghana) is at Dordt College in Sioux Center about a 45 minute drive from where we were, so we swung by to see him Sunday afternoon!

He showed us around campus...

And we loaded him up with some goodies - college style!

We checked out his dorm room where he and his 6'5" roommate squeeze into their loft beds! I laugh just thinking about it! Yaw got us each a crisp new Dordt College t-shirt!

And of course Yaw wanted to show Jake the gymnasium where he will play all his games. We hope to make it up to a game before Christmas!

According to Yaw….

-The dorm food is bad (in fact he is the only one I know who has gone off to college and gotten skinnier!)
-His classes are good, and his teachers are very nice (he’s majoring in business).
-There is one other guy on campus from Ghana!
-No one can pronounce his name there – they call him Ya without the ‘w’. He said they just can’t seem to catch onto his name!
-He walks to church and catches rides to the store.
-His basketball team is picked to finish second in their conference heading into the season. Jake predicts that they will make a run for the NAIA Division II title this year!
-He and Ezekiel (who is back at Gillette College) talk every day.
-He won’t be home for Thanksgiving because of practices and a tournament, but he’ll be home for Christmas!

We are REALLY missing Yaw! Especially, you-know-who!

Days Like This

2011-10-20T08:51:00.001-05:00

Hosting these students has been the hardest thing I have ever been a part of. Emotionally, spiritually, physically I feel that we have been pouring our lives into them….only to see no fruit, hard hearts, more deceit, manipulations, and walls knocked down and then built up higher. There are many days when my head spins and spins trying to figure out how to climb out of their circles of lies and double-mindedness. There are many nights when I can’t sleep because my mind is filled with stress over their ways and my responses. I am easily fooled into their traps. I can’t decipher what is genuine and what is not. My spirit wars against so much of theirs. There are days when I sincerely from the bottom of my heart want to beg and plead with them to repent and change their ways. There are other days when I give up and wonder when the path of destruction they’ve chosen will catch up with them.

I could write 10 more pages on how drained, confused, lacking, defeated I feel in these moments. BUT, I would rather sing of God and how He is meeting me right where I am in this mess of broken, rebellious lives intertwined with ours. In the midst of days like this, I feel God’s presence so strongly. My heart wants to shout all day long about how good He is. I feel His light penetrating the darkness that we have opened up our home to. It is a mystery to me of how I can feel so depleted with these circumstances and yet so alive and satisfied in my soul at the same time.

The past few days I have been asking the Lord how He would encourage me to press on. He answered in a whisper. This is only a season. Only a season in a lifetime of moments. In the big picture this is such a small, small clip of days. This won’t last forever. I know that if I was in my right mind I would run in the opposite direction of them and their lives. But He reminds me daily that I am not in my right mind. I have a new mind in Christ. And because of Him I take another step closer to them.

This morning as I sat before the Lord I felt my heart turn to the Psalms. So, I flipped through them knowing that God was trying to point me to one. And I found it. I hope it encourages you today too, whatever season of life you find yourself in.

Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

9 They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Because He is Daddy

2011-10-18T07:43:00.001-05:00

Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
~Author Unknown~

Hair!

2011-10-17T07:58:00.000-05:00

♥

Why Would A Loving God Send People to Hell?

2011-10-14T09:24:00.001-05:00

Because He is just.

Imagine for a moment that you find yourself in a court room, observing the trial of a man who abducted, raped, and murdered a young child who lived next door to you (I am using this scenario because I think we would all agree that this man had committed horrendous sin). Now, what if the judge announced his ruling by looking the offender and murderer in the eye and saying, “You are free to go, just don’t do this again.” How would that sit with you?

I am guessing it would make you absolutely sick. In fact, our hearts would scream out for justice….that the convicted rapist and murderer would receive punishment for his crime, and would never be let out for fear that he would do the crime again. It just wouldn’t be right that someone who did something so awful would not have to be punished.

Now picture God as the judge. If we served a heartless, unaffected god that appeared to be an emotionless robot like the judge in the above scenario can you see how utterly frightening that would be? But we don’t. Rather scripture tells us that the Lord feels emotions! For example He is compassionate, He is tender, and He feels anger when He sees injustice. Furthermore, the Bible tells us that God grieves over our sins…

Genesis 6:5-6
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Our sin affects God. So much so that the Bible tells us our sin separates us from Him (Romans 3:23) in the form of a spiritual death sentence (Romans 6:23). It has to be this way because sin cannot be in the presence of a holy God. Sin must be cast out of heaven, and no sin can enter heaven (Revelations 21:27).

By now you might be thinking as I used to - Wait a minute, wait minute I haven’t done anything that bad….I haven’t murdered anyone for goodness sakes! But the Bible tells us we are all sinners (1 John 1:8). Have you ever lied? Then you’ve sinned (Romans 3:9-13). Have you ever participated in wild living and drunkenness? Then you’ve sinned (Galatians 5:19-21). This poses quite a problem for us. In our sinful humanness we find ourselves facing a death sentence, awaiting punishment.

But because God IS LOVING (John 3:16) He did something unheard of. Something crazy. Something that has dumbfounded scholars and theologians and kings and the entire human race for years. He sent His very own Son into the world to die a criminal’s death IN OUR PLACE. God’s Son, Jesus, took the punishment WE deserve for OUR sin, so that we don’t have to serve our spiritual death sentence ~ hell.

Romans 3:25-26
God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Sin cannot go unpunished. And God is just. But God is also loving. So He sent His Son to take the punishment for us. Justice AND love. Justice AND love. Justice AND love.

The Bible tells us that if we reject Jesus Christ, then we reject the payment for our sin (Hebrews 10:26). Which means that on our own judgement day (2 Corinthians 5:10) our sin will stand. It will condemn us (John 3:18). And we ourselves will have to pay. In hell. Forever.

Does God want people to go to hell? No. The very evidence of that is Jesus.

Will hell be a buddy-buddy party and celebration of moral badness and rebellion? No. The Bible speaks of being thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, and of being tormented day and night forever and ever. It will be a place of sorrow, devoid of happiness. The Scriptures talk of worms (literally maggots), of an intense darkness, of people weeping and gnashing their teeth in extreme anguish, of being parched with thirst, and of remembering this life and of wishing for no one to join them. It’s a place of lonely suffering (The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, pg 68).

The truth is that our loving God made a way for us to be saved from this eternal destruction - hell. His name is Jesus, and He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6), and to heaven itself (1 John 5:11-12).

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
~Isaiah 53:5-6~

Jake's Testimony

2011-10-12T12:08:00.003-05:00

Jake sent the following out to his Kindgom Hoops program this week, and I wanted to share it on the blog as well...

A couple of weeks ago I had a parent within the program call me up to do lunch. I was assuming this individual wanted to talk about his kids, especially since they are new to the program. However, I got a cool surprise. His first question for me that day at lunch was that he wanted to know ‘my story’ - or in more 2011 Christian language ‘my testimony’! It was a great lunch, and it was fun to share the journey God has had me on the past eight years. As I hopped back into my car that afternoon it dawned on me that I have never shared my God story with the program. My initial thought was how can I expect people to understand what we are doing as an organization if they don’t even know how this all started in my life. So, this week I have decided to share my testimony. Please note this is the abbreviated version. If I went into all the details this 'thought for the week' would be 30 pages long. I will do my best to keep it short and as concise as possible.

My journey to Christ started in college at Iowa State as God began to remove the things from my life that I had clung to deeply for so long. As I was losing so much that I had held dear, God began to bring people into my life that would show me a different purpose for living.

Over the course of the first 20+ years of my life I had created a god that was centered around me and basketball. I never really understood that while pursuing my dreams. I figured I was just pursuing a goal that I was extremely passionate about. The more success that I garnered on the basketball court the greater my desire grew for the status and recognition that came along with my success. I never understood that I had any platform greater than myself. Of course I did a lot of nice things for other people, and always had a passion for young people, but when you got down to the core of it, all of my nice actions were really to benefit me.

My college basketball career began similar to all that I had known in the past. I committed myself to being successful more than anyone else around me. Through all my hard work (or so I thought) I continued receiving as much praise and admiration as I did in junior high and high school. Then it all changed one July day in Norway. I was traveling in the summer of 2002 with the Big 12 all-star team overseas for a couple of weeks while we competed against international competition. I was playing the best basketball of my life, and without question was having the most fun I had ever had playing basketball. During the prior six months I had committed myself to losing 30 pounds, and I was beginning to see the aspirations of playing in the NBA just outside the reach of my finger-tips. It was our 2nd to last game during the tour, and during the last minute of the game I rolled my ankle pretty badly. I probably should not have played in the final game, but I said what the heck! I got it taped up and took some serious pain medication. During that final game I was 7 for 7 from the three point line in the first half, and with the adrenaline and pain medication I had forgotten about my ankle.

Then in the second half I felt something different. I could never accurately describe it, but I was pretty sure I tore whatever you can tear in your ankle. When I got back on the bus that evening I discovered that I could pop my ankle in and out of its socket. It was quite painful to do it, and I thought to myself that this can’t be normal. A few days later I returned to Iowa State and went immediately to the athletic medical staff. Within a couple of hours of bringing this to their attention I was in a tube getting an MRI. The results came back, and it showed no structural damage. They could not see anything wrong, and they thought it was just all the swelling from the sprain, and I was told it would be better in a couple of weeks.

As my junior season began in 2002 I definitely knew something was wrong with my ankle. At the same time that I was struggling with this injury God was putting people in my life that would eventually lead me towards Christ. Obviously, I had no idea that was what was going on, but as I look back on it I now I can see what God was up to. We had this manager on staff named Dave Edwards that gave me a Bible, and told me to read the book of James as it would help me deal with Coach Eustachy. A year and half earlier I started dating a pretty good looking girl, and she started to attend something called Salt Company at Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa. I thought it would be a good idea to attend if she was ever seriously going to date me! (This good looking girl later became my wife). On the basketball court everything looked great from the outside, but the reality of the situation was much different. I was taking anywhere from 4-6 vicodin pills per/day, and was getting shot up before every game. My ankle would dislocate 4 or 5 times per/game. I would bend over pop it back into place and keep playing. It helped that I was so drugged up that I really could not feel it anyways.

After the season was over I was in for another MRI, but again nothing. But, the doctors could now clearly see how easily I could pop my ankle in and out, so they decided to cut me open and see what was going on. To make a long story short my ankle was shredded into little pieces. The doctors went in a couple times to insert screws, repair tendons, and shave down bone. I rehabbed as hard as I could, but as I slowly returned for my senior year I knew this journey was coming to end. It is also important to mention that during all of this my head coach Larry Eustachy was in the middle of a huge scandal after a poor decision at the University of Missouri. The media was everywhere, I had a cast up to my knee for three months, and soon the guy who was responsible for bringing me to Iowa State was now resigning. Teammates were transferring and a new staff was being brought in. My previous best friend had transferred to Mississippi State a year earlier, and now my new best friend was transferring to Iowa. In the midst of all the chaos, God had started to reveal himself to me. I slowly began to understand the realization of what Christ did for me and all my sin on the cross. In September 2003 I surrendered my life to Christ and God started me on an incredible journey.

My basketball career ended at Madison Square Garden in the final four of the NIT in March of 2004. All those hours of hard work were now a distant memory. All the trials and tribulations on the basketball court were over. All the things I accomplished did not really matter any longer. Cyclone Nation was on to the new recruits and the new players that would continue Hilton Magic. Within a blink of an eye it was all over. A couple months after that last game in NYC I got married to the girl I dated all through college. I began to grow in my understanding of the Bible. I was now doing what good American Christians do! I was going to church every Sunday, I was actively a part of a young married couple’s bible study every Wednesday night, and yes I would grudgingly open my Bible on occasion to read it. My life had gone from a great adventure on the basketball court, to something that was simple, quiet, and in my mind pretty boring. During the start of this new life I had the opportunity to start All Iowa Attack alongside a successful Ames businessman, and soon found myself living a rather cushy life for being 25 years old. I was working for a successful business man, I had very little expenses, and I was making more money than anyone else my age that I knew of with the exception of my friends that went on to play professionally.

However, I was so BORED. In 2008 I was up visiting my parents over Labor Day. JJ was now 2 years old, and my wife and I had just had Jayla who was about 3 months old at the time. We had spent the morning and early afternoon on Saturday 2008 of Labor Day Weekend at the Minnesota State Fair. When we arrived back at my parents’ house everyone headed to take a nap. I was left alone to my thoughts in the basement that I grew up in. I had really been wrestling with this boredom in my life. I was used to playing in front of 15,000 people in Hilton Coliseum. I was used to a life that was always centered around goals that everyone always told me I would never accomplish. My basketball career had taken me to over half of the states in the United States, and handful of different countries. I missed the locker room. I missed my teammates. I missed the adventure of being an athlete. And, anyone who has had the opportunity to compete in athletics at a very high level will know exactly what I am talking about.

Now I was living a quiet life, coaching young people, in Ames, Iowa. I knew I was going to heaven, and I knew Jesus died for me. I was very grateful for this realization, but no matter how you slice the bread it was boring. So, with all of this swirling in my head all I really knew how do was just to tell God. I was pretty sure that I would totally offend him, but what the heck he might just answer my prayers. He always had answered my prayers from the first time I got to know him in 2003, so I thought that just maybe He would want to listen to me again. That September day in 2008 I got down on my knees and simply cried out to God. I told him how bored I was, and if there was more to this Christ thing than just going to church on Sunday, doing a bible study, and one day entering eternal life. I asked Him to show me what I was missing. Then as I closed out my prayer I told God that if there isn’t more to this journey with Christ on earth to just please take me to heaven now, otherwise I was going to drive myself nuts due to the shear boredom of my life since basketball had come to an end.

I finished crying out to God, and I wasn’t sure if He was even listening. About an hour later I got a text from a man in our church asking if I wanted to join his men’s group. I texted him back asking what time and when? He said, “6am, Thursday mornings.” For anyone that knows me I don’t do mornings. Usually I don’t go to sleep until 1 or 2am, so 6am just does not work in my schedule. Plus I suffer from something called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which I will share more about another week, but the less you sleep the more the symptoms of OCD manifest themselves. I quickly texted him back and said, “Maybe some other point in my life, but not now.” I wish I could say that was the end of the story. However, God bugged me about it all day, and the next morning for some reason I texted him back and said that I had changed my mind and I would see him Thursday morning. From this point on God began to show me that there is so much more to a life that is fully dedicated to Christ, but this did not get revealed overnight.

In our men’s group we were studying through the book of Isaiah. Most of our topic was that as men God has called us for a particular purpose, and we can either choose to join him or not. But, regardless of what we decide God’s purpose would be accomplished, so we might as well jump on his team and join in on the adventure.

Two weeks after starting this men’s group my wife and I are attending our Sunday church service when about 20 minutes into service she begins to cry uncontrollably. As any husband would do, I replayed every action that I had made in the past 24 hours that could have caused this anguish. I was sure I had done something wrong, but I was having trouble putting my finger on exactly what it was. Janel excused herself to the restroom, and came back about 10 minutes later. We made it through the rest of the service, and soon we were heading to the car with the kiddos in hand. During this walk to the car it seemed like the car was miles away. I had a huge knot in my stomach, as I was sure she was going to inform me of what exactly I had done wrong. Well, what comes out of her mouth next is not what I was expecting. Janel says, “I am pretty sure that God wants us to adopt, and when they were showing the video of the orphanage in Zambia it was like God was speaking directly to me.” I opened my car door and under my breath I said to God, “Thank you Lord that it was you and not me.” I then turned to my wife and said, “Sure that would be a lot of fun.” If only I knew what God was going to begin in our life.

About two weeks after my wife and I had officially decided we were going to adopt I got a knock on my office door, and it was the business man I worked for with All Iowa Attack. He informed me that he was selling the All Iowa Attack facility, and that I would need to find a place for our boys’ teams to practice as he could not have all those boys at his home gym practicing throughout the winter. I thought somebody had just punched me the face, and I looked up and said, “Seriously?” Oh, he was serious and I started looking for options. As I am out searching for options God is moving our adoption along. God was developing a strong passion inside of me to ensure that our adopted child would always understand where they came from. I wanted our yet to be named child to understand that God had simply allowed them to be adopted by a family from the United States, but they were not just escaping their country. Instead, I wanted them to always have a responsibility to make an impact in the place that God would call them from. With these thoughts swirling around in my head and some money saved up from individual training that I had been doing, I decided to start a 501C3 foundation called Kingdom Hoops. I had no business plan, and no idea why I was really starting this foundation, but I thought to myself if I ever needed it at least I would have it.

Before I could blink it was the spring of 2009. Our boys’ teams were now practicing at a facility in Ankeny. I had a foundation all set up, and was headed to Africa for the first time ever with no plan, and no idea what I was actually doing. In May of 2009 my All Iowa Attack partner and I decided to go different directions which removed me from the comfort of his umbrella. Our first adoption attempt had fallen through and cost us an enormous chunk of money in fees that we could not recoup, and we were choosing to start the process all over.

The rest is really history filled with a million different God stories along the way. God forever changed my life in 2008, and I will most definitely never be the same. In it all I became a believer in 2004, but God truly took my life from me in 2008. He continues to grow me, and challenge me daily. I have been in a place the past 18 months where I have nearly lost everything. There is no money any longer in my savings and retirement accounts. Most of my life makes little sense to the world. However, I take great comfort in knowing that Jesus said He would use the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). The adventure I was looking for has most definitely been found in Christ. He has taught me how to give up my life for His purposes. He is teaching me how to fully trust in His word and promises. I have seen His Glory shine when all seemed lost. One prayer, on one fall day, had changed everything. God showed up like I could have never imagined. There are many days I want to quit. But, then I think how easy it would have been for God to quit on me when my god was me and my dreams. Who knows where the adventure will lead, but I take great comfort in knowing that I am still part of a team, now God’s team.

JJ ~ ESPN Analyst

2011-10-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

Oh my sweet JJ….how I love him! I wish I could have a hidden video camera in our house keeping track of our conversations throughout the day. The video below was the best I could do to give you a little taste of JJ’s mind as it relates to sports. You really can't get the full-effect though until he engages you in a general conversation about teams, and upcoming games, and players....Jake and I call him a little ESPN analyst. :) I realized after I took this video that I forgot to ask him more of the scores from last weekend’s games….somehow he is able to memorize the final scores and team records and can recount them at the drop of a hat! Hang on until the end of this video to get your giggle in for the day!

This is another thing that JJ loves to do in random break-out sessions throughout the day….throw the ball up to himself and get caught up in imaginary games, complete with play-by-play announcing. He will do this for an entire hour without getting bored!

His mind is all about football right now….it will be interesting to see if he switches gears once basketball season rolls around!

Children's Haven Update

2011-10-10T08:23:00.002-05:00

My most recent post detailing the hearts of Jake and I to start up a children’s haven in Asikuma, Ghana can be found here.

In that post I talked about how we could feel God leading us to start construction on the children’s haven project as soon as possible, but we weren’t sure where the funds were going to come from. We decided to add the remodel of one of the buildings onto the tasks for our August trip anyways....knowing that doing so would cost above the $25,000 needed for the medical clinic and library/classroom alone. As you all know, we weren’t able to get started on the remodel for the children’s homes at all during August so we pushed it back to the December trip coming up. Well, something COOL has happened in the mean time. God just seems to have a way of funding things that are top priority in His mind. :)

Since we got home from our August trip our church, Cornerstone Church of Ames, told us that they wanted to help support us in our endeavors in Ghana. Our church has a large global ministry and they said that we should feel comfortable reaching out to them for help….that we don’t need to ‘go it alone’ so to say. Jake and I had many conversations about this, and in the end decided to put forth a proposal to ask our church to help us with the funding we need for the beginning construction/remodel of the children’s haven! We got to meet with a few of the ‘big wigs’ a few weeks ago and they have decided on giving us a one-time financial gift that will cover the remodel of 2 of the children’s homes, as well as furnishings, and an outside fence/gate to enclose the property. Can I get a WHOOOOP WHOOOOP?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!! Jake and I were SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! Once we get these first two homes up and running we hope to eventually remodel the other two buildings as well, but this will be a great start. Here are the items our construction team will be tackling on the homes this December:

-Patchwork/repairs to building structures and rooftops
-New window screens
-Enclosing porches
-Modernizing bathrooms
-New coat of exterior paint
-Pipe polytank water supply from medical clinic to children’s homes
-Fence/gate installed around perimeter grounds

Construction of furnishings:
-Bunk beds
-Cubbies/dressers
-Table & chairs for eating/homework

We are SO THANKFUL that our church ROCKS and will be supporting us with this project! We are also SO THANKFUL for all of you, who paved the way for our projects in Asikuma by donating to the first-fruits of our work in August. Because of the urgency of getting the children’s haven up and running, finishing off the library has been put on hold until our spring break trip in March. As for the medical clinic we left behind funds to have Nana hire out the remaining jobs to be finished. According to Nana, the clinic opened up about a month ago, and treated 43 patients in its first week open! We hope to get a much more extensive/detailed update to share when we are back to check on how it’s running in December.

Long-term, our Isaiah 1:17 Foundation will be responsible for covering the salaries of the house mothers hired to work at the children’s haven. At full capacity, each home would likely have 6-10 kids with 2 house mothers each. Our foundation will also cover the day-to-day operational costs for electricity, water, and building upkeep. Adoption Advocates International will cover the care fees for any child on the adoption track within their program including food, education, sanitary needs, and medical costs. The majority of the kids who will reside at our children’s haven will be in-process for adoption. :)

That brings me to a list of tangible items that are currently needed for our partnering NGO in Ghana – The Ripley Foundation. The Ripley Foundation works with many schools and orphanages who are in bad shape and could really use some donations. Our children’s haven will also need to stock up on these items as well, so we will be making room for as many of the following donations as possible for our December trip:

- Thermometers
- Blood Pressure cuffs
- Children’s play games (any that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
- Toys (Frisbees, nerf balls, wand bubbles, dolls, trucks – anything that would fit reasonably in a suitcase)
- ~~Shoes (Sizes 1yr to 15yrs)~~ I am crossing this one out because we already have PLENTY of shoe donations
- Boys Clothes (all sizes)
- Girls Clothes (all sizes) Anyone up for sewing more pillow case dresses? :)
- Bed Sheets (twin mattress size)
- Cups & Plates
- Kitchen cooking utensils for stovetop cooking (spoons, dippers, tongs, slotted spoons - preferrably metal)
- Diapers
- Baby Formula
- Socks
- School Items (educational items, crayons, coloring books, etc)
- Children’s picture Bibles

I think that about covers it for now! Can you picture it folks?!?!?!?!? Can you!?!?!?!?!?! Ahhhhhhh…..I can’t wait to see how God will bring this all to fruition and use these homes for His purposes!

New Moves

2011-10-05T07:52:00.000-05:00

Warm-ups….Jayla always likes to be nestled right next to the older dancers that help with her class. :)

I think I got first position down, mom.

When Jayla first started dance class over the summer she would get so distracted with seeing herself in the mirror that she couldn’t focus on imitating the teacher! :) Now she’s getting better at it!

They are learning moves to 4 counts right now. It’s so interesting watching their progression of skills that will lead them up to being able to do an entire routine during the spring recital. Rumor has it they are going to be mermaids! This ‘sport’ is all new to me, and I am having fun learning all the ins and outs as we go!

They do about 10 minutes of gymnastics at the end of each class….

Cartwheels.

Balance beam.

And they just started learning how to do back flips (is that what they are called? or are they back rolls? back bends?).

Jayla’s FAVORITE move from dance class is the bridge.

When we are at home she’s always asking everyone if we want to watch her do the bridge. “Yes, Jayla, we’d love to watch you do your bridge for only the 10th time today.” Gotta love it!

Oh, and, if you’re going to be a dancer, you’ve got to be able to display different emotions, right? Let’s just say we’ve got that part down too!

love, Love, LOVE, LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some fun ~ October Style

2011-10-03T08:19:00.000-05:00

Here-we-go-a-pumpkin-huntin

Everybody found their perfect pumpkin and Jayla is ready to go home!

Line 'em up folks!

Let the carving begin!

And that was about the last picture I got of JJ and Jayla. They enjoyed picking out their carving stencils and digging out the guts, but after that they weren’t so interested in the tedious work of the actual carving! Jake and I got to finish their pumpkins out. :)

Jake decided that carving pumpkins was pretty theraputic because you get to shut your brain off full speed and slow down a bit! That combined with all the fun conversations we had around the table made us start to wonder if perhaps our family should sit down and carve pumpkins every month! ;)

Victoria started off with a scary hand stencil, but part way through her carving she accidently chopped off one of the fingers and had to start over.

About half-way through our carving we decided we would have a little friendly competition on Facebook to see who's finished pumpkin could win the most 'likes'.....here are the finished masterpieces....

And the winner of the 1st Annual Sullivan Family Pumpkin Carving Contest was.....

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Miss Kiana, winning the most 'likes' on Facebook with her intricate spider carving! She now holds the title until next year!

Our family has never carved pumpkins before, but we sure had a lot of fun!!!! This will definitely go onto our list of yearly Sullivan family traditions! :)

Broken & Beautiful

2011-09-29T07:50:00.002-05:00

There she sat on our back patio. Vulnerable, emotionally exposed. Events from the past week had spurred this conversation. And now she was opening up about her life for the first time since she’s been here. Slowly, cautiously, and quietly. Careful to not make eye contact. Still and frozen she sat as she answered our questions. A few words at a time. And then her voice broke. And the tears came falling. And they couldn’t stop. There she sat. Broken in every way. Hurting in every way. Raw and ready to cling onto something – anything – that would take the pain away.

Her heart has been destroyed by the sin of this world. She’s been let down by the people who were supposed to love her the most. It hurts her. But it also angers her. She’s tried many things to make herself feel better. But the ‘feel-good’ things become fleeing fantasies, only filling the void for a short time. The pain stays, and she can’t get away. A deep hurt that nothing seems to cover, or fill, or take away.

This was the place that Jake and I had prayed that she would come to. A heart softened and ready for TRUTH to come busting in.

Jake begins to share his story. He knows about the internal prison. He knows what that feels like. Obsessions. Complusions. Racing thoughts. Acting on them so that they would go away. “But it never went away,” he said. “My obsessions just moved on to something else, and it became a vicious cycle. Until Jesus stepped into my life. And then I found freedom from my prison.” He shares parts of my story. Emptyness in the ‘missing piece’ of a relationship with my earthly father. The searching for fulfillment and identity. And finally, the realization that what I was thirsting for all along was actually a relationship with Jesus.

She looks up. For the first time these are no longer just words to her. Her eyes tell us she can relate. She waits for more.

“You can have a new life,” I say. “People will always let you down. But God never will. You can keep trying to chase after the things of this world to fill you up. But they only will for a time. You will just wind up empty again and again. That’s because simply covering up the pain will never get it to go away.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to go to church on Sunday,” she says excitedly and with a smile.

“Why do you like church so much?” Jake asks.

Silence. And then, “I love the worship time. I love singing to God,” she says.

“You feel close to Him when you sing praises to Him, don’t you?” I say. “I used to feel the same way in college. Church was where I experienced God, where I was pulled in and felt close to Him. But when I left church that feeling would always go away. I only experienced that high at church. Eventually I learned that it doesn’t have to go away! If you put your faith in Jesus he makes an amazing promise to you – He’ll give you his Spirit! He’ll live inside of you! You can have those same feelings that you have in church - every single day of your life! But first you have to surrender your heart to Jesus. Until you do that, His Spirit won’t come to you. God can see right into your heart, and He will know when you’ve asked Him to make His home there.”

This is not the first time she’s heard it. But now it’s starting to make sense. She’s starting to understand that she is talking to two witnesses of God’s transforming power. The evidence sits in front of her. It’s in our words, in our stories, in our past, in our present. She didn't know us then, but she sees it now. She gets it. God has given Jake and I new life, and now our lives are filled with hope. Hope. It’s so attractive to her.

Sunday comes. We sit in church. It is a day for baptisms. She listens intently to a girl from China, who spills her heart open in the baptismal waters. She sits next to me and takes notes as the young girl says, “When I first heard scripture from the Bible, they were just stories to me. I didn’t believe them.” The young girl from China goes on and speaks of her broken life, God’s transforming power, of hope in a Savior who she has now put her faith in. Another witness proclaiming that Jesus is real. His Spirit is real. His offer of life is real. The young girl shares her favorite verse, “1 John 5:11-12 says: This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ” Her pleading words hang in the air as she goes under the water, and then comes back up to an explosion of applauding and cheers.

Sunday afternoon rolls around. I take a break from cleaning and decide to check Facebook where a sweet surprise awaited. Her status: *I Am Ready To Surrender To My Savior! I Am Ready. Jake Sullivan & Janel Sullivan Can You Help Me? Surrender To Our Savior. I Don't Care If People Make Fun Of Me At Rosebud Or Anywhere I Am PROUD To Get To Know Jesus At Least I Give It A Chance. (: I Want To Share & Help People Learn About Jesus Christ.

She’s ready. She’s ready to surrender her life to the One, the only One, who gave His very life for her. She’s ready to accept His free gift of new life. I go get her and tell her to come upstairs. Jake and I lay our hands on her and pray over her. God’s Spirit floods the room - we all feel it. I lead her through a prayer, but they aren’t just words to her. She gets it. Her heart is genuine. She cries as she repeats my words back to her Savior God for the first time. Broken. And Beautiful.

Our prayer ends and a smile widens across her face. We rejoice together in her day of salvation, not because the road ahead will be easy, but because hope has enveloped her in an embrace. An embrace that will never let go.

She feels the magnitude of her decision almost immediately. Many of her church friends celebrate her faith and encourage her. Many more old friends hear of her new faith and insult her, reject her, and say hurtful things. They de-friend her on facebook and write her off. They tell her they will beat her up if she ever comes back to the rez. Already it’s hard. She’s had to choose Jesus over friends. She’s confused. Why are people making fun of her? Why would ‘friends’ leave her so quickly?

My mind wanders to His words, knowing He too was rejected by the very ones He came to save. It doesn’t make sense. But His words bring light, ‘Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don't like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this (Luke 6:22-23).’

Another reminder that in the end, people will still fail her, and her expectations of them will too. But now she can see things differently. Now she’s committed to following the One and Only True God who will supernaturally meet her needs with His grace, time and again, in ways that I will never be able to explain to her in words. Her Savior has given her hope.

Hope. It's what she needed all along.

A hope that will never fail her or leave her empty the way people and relationships can. A hope that no one could ever take away. A hope that that will always float, no matter the circumstances, no matter the trials, no matter if she fails again and again. A hope for this life, and an eternal hope for the next. This hope will not disappoint her. Ever.

All heaven applauds. The old self - broken. The new self - looking beautiful in the precious and redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. Broken, beautiful, and hope-filled. Let new life begin…..

Urgency

2011-09-28T08:11:00.002-05:00

As we’ve begun preparing for our December trip to Ghana, the urgency of getting the children’s haven up and running has been brought back into focus this week. We know the need for having a safe, loving environment for orphans as well as children in-process for adoption in Ghana is high, but emails like this will keep you up at night….from the Ghana coordinator of Adoption Advocates International earlier this week:

This is one of those days that I so wish the Children's Haven was up and running. There is such a HUGE need Janel! We've got one kiddo in a government orphanage who desperately needs to be where she can receive love and attention. We have another kid who, without great intervention, will probably die (at the same orphanage). I'm just sick to my stomach. =-(

And in a later email:
I am counting down the days until the Children's Haven can take in children! I know your ministry will make a life-changing difference to many children. I'm already praying for the Lord to prepare a "spot" for each child that is in the most need to be there!

An email like that first one above will also send my husband into a tailspin of action. Literally. Within a matter of seconds he practically had himself a plane ticket booked to Ghana and was ready to go and save the day! :) However, it’s also not an easy thing to get these children ‘released’ from the orphanage either. You have to have a ‘working/favorable’ relationship with them, as they hold the authority over kids who are abandoned at their facility.

The NGO that we have partnered with in Ghana, The Ripley Foundation, mostly utilizes private foster care homes for children in their programs. Recently they started advocating for the special needs children residing in this government-run orphanage….if an adoptive family is found for the children they can be released into other care….like a private foster home or group foster home like our children’s haven will be. Right now, however, all the private foster homes are full and our partners are running out of options. Getting this email yesterday was like a swift kick into reality. What a reminder that we are literally dealing with the difference between LIFE and DEATH here.

Thankfully, Jake knows a lot of people who know a lot of people who are literally waiting to pounce on a situation just like this and help out. After a few quick emails, we had a family ready and willing to pay the costs for “Baby O” to be released from the orphanage and admitted into a hospital where she can receive the medical attention and evaluation that she so desperately needs. It is likely that “Baby O” has microcephaly and could have a hospital stay of several weeks. For a family to step up and cover these costs of a child they have never met, never even held in their arms is SO WOW to me! Talk about turning compassion into action….sheesh…..another great example of that! Not only that, but Jake got Ezekiel in on the mix, and Ezekiel found a great foster family for “Baby O” all set up for once she is out of the hospital. You can read more about sweet “Baby O” here, although some of the details of her story have since changed….namely, there is a good chance that a forever family has been found for her!

One of the staff members from The Ripley Foundation also decided to care for the other child in the orphanage (a 2-3 year old girl with cerebal palsy) in her own personal home until her adoption is complete. This child can be released from the orphanage because she has already been matched with a forever family who just passed Ghana court a few days ago.

There are many families who are able to meet the needs of a special needs child and commit to developing their full potential. Some families are not able, and that’s ok! I did want to advocate today for some sweeter than sweet little brothers in Ghana who are currently waiting for their forever family to be found. I can’t share their picture on here, but I can share their info:

Beautiful brothers around 2 and 4 years in Ghana are in need of a forever family! We have an opportunity for these precious ones to go to court very quickly if we have a family that is able to move forward at lightening speed with all of the paperwork and fees required. Fees will be reduced! These boys are special needs, with significant hypotonia (unknown cause). Please email anita@adoptionadvocates.org for more information! Please spread the word!

To see pictures of these boys, as well as many other waiting children in all of AAI’s international adoption programs, visit: http://aainews.blogspot.com/2011/09/password-protected-waiting-child-page.html in which you will receive the contact info for obtaining the password.

By the way, I hope you have been keeping up with Miss Lucy’s progress over at our friend’s blog: Step Up Sister! Another great example of a sweet child with great needs that can develop and even thrive in a family filled with love, encouragement, and individualized help. Lucy’s story is one that will take your breath away!

Gotcha Day!

2011-09-26T08:10:00.000-05:00

Gotcha Day (sometimes called Gotchya Day, Adoption Day, Family Day, Adoption Anniversary Day) is a day celebrated by American families of adopted children to recognize the day they received their child. The Gotcha Day is the day that the child was placed into the family's home for adoption, in other words, the day the family Gotcha. It is the most celebrated of adoption related events.

Yesterday, September 25, 2011 was our Gotcha Day! It was 1 year ago that we arrived home with Justice!!!!!!! Over the weekend we had fun celebrating as a family with dinner and a movie. :) As part of our celebration, I also made a video recounting our adoption journey. I am not a techno wiz, in fact I couldn’t even figure out how to get music on the video (moving the files from I-tunes to the video didn’t work!) so this video is quite simple with nothing flashy. But hopefully you will enjoy entering back into our story through pictures....and there are lots of them....3 years worth! Enjoy the memories!

Veritas Forum on Social Justice tonight at ISU

2011-09-22T08:35:00.000-05:00

Veritas Forums are university events that engage the community in discussions about life's hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life. Started at Harvard in 1992, Veritas Forums are now hosted at dozens of leading schools in the United States and Europe. This will be the 2nd Veritas Forum at Iowa State University:

Mary Poplin is a professor of education at Claremont Graduate University where she has been, at different times, Director of the Masters program in teacher education and Dean of the school of education.

She has taught in public schools and received her Ph.D from the University of Texas in 1978. After many years of what she calls “searching the spiritual net,” she began to follow Christ in 1993. Her compelling conversion is a testimony to the power, faithfulness, and love of God in Christ to forgive, clean and transform us.

In 1996, she spent two months volunteering with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta to understand why Mother Teresa said her work was religious work and not social work. InterVarsity Press published her book ‘Finding Calcutta’ (2008) on what she learned from the experience with Mother Teresa, and her own struggle to find what Mother Teresa called “your Calcutta”.

Her recent education research was a five year study of 31 high performing teachers in nine low performing urban school in Los Angeles, the findings of which suggest that teachers who succeed most use traditional methods of instruction, are highly disciplined, strict, and believe their students can do much more. Over one half of these teachers said their Christian faith was central to their work in challenging schools and neighborhoods. She is the author of "Voices from the Inside: A Report on Schooling from Inside the Classroom" (1992).

More recently, Poplin has begun to work on the application of the intellectual, social, and psychological principles of the Judeo-Christian worldview as they apply to higher education, particularly among culturally and linguistically diverse peoples and the poor.

http://www.veritas.org/Campus/Schedule.aspx?cid=31

Guest Blogger: Tamara B with FOVC

2011-09-21T08:08:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine is posting today about some exciting work that she and her husband have become a part of in Ethiopia. This all started with them stepping up to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. Then, as God did with Jake and I in Ghana, He also led this couple into doing something more for their son's birth-country. In Tamara's words:

Thank you Janel for letting me guest blog today. For those who don't know me, I'm Tamara B. I met Janel through a common friend when we started the adoption process. Since that time I've kept up with the amazing work Jake and Janel are doing in Ghana. But more than that, I get encouragement and am challenged as a parent and a follower of Christ when I read her blog. Thanks Janel. I'm usually blogging one of two places. At Tamara B, I usually blog about normal life stuff - kid fun and dramas included. In 2009 while going through the process of an Ethiopian adoption, I began blogging at Journey 4 Hope. We adopted Judah and brought him home in May of 2010. What I didn't know at the time, was that our journey to Ethiopia would take us back again, and again. I'm guest blogging here today to share with you a little about the famine in the horn of Africa, how I'm directly involved with it and how you can help too.

My husband and I are average people who happened to open our eyes to the world we've encountered. You can read how we decided to partner with Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children on my blog here. If you don't want to click on the link, I'll just share real quick that FOVC is working in Southern Ethiopia - the region of our son's birth and first 24 months of life. FOVC focuses on several things relating to the orphans and widows in 3 small villages in Southern Ethiopia. It's a grassroots org started and run by a local Ethiopian. It has a holistic approach to how they do things, meaning they don't just give handouts or enable people. FOVC exists to help them help themselves. So, things like education, medical, and clean water for the orphans; training and micro-loans for sewing school, raising livestock, starting a business, etc. for the widows. I'm directly involved in developing the crops for widows program. Because they're a sustenance based society (meaning they live on what they can grow), it's important for widowed women to learn and know how to grow food. So 4 months ago, in June 2011, we travelled with FOVC to provide training. Ryan, my husband, treated livestock (he's a veterinarian) and trained a local guy while I focused on crops. It was at this time that we encountered more of the world around us and committed to continue to help.

Tamara pictured with the farmers.............................

A few short months later, after warning signs were ignored by deciding agency, a full on famine was, and is, ravaging the horn of Africa. (I blogged a lot about the details in July and August if you want to read those posts). That effects Southern Ethiopia. The place where not only my son was born, but the place where his Ethiopian momma and brothers still live. The place where I hugged and played with precious little children earlier this summer. The place that was no longer just a dot on a map but a real place with real people who were being affected. Did you know that by time the word "famine" is used, it literally means that thousands of people are dying a day? Let me say that again in case you're flying through this or got distracted, did you know that by time the word "famine" is used, it literally means that thousands of people are dying a day? This isn't a threat of malnourishment. This is people literally dying on the side of the road as they walk for weeks on end in search of food. Because of the direct impact on Southern Ethiopia, FOVC is in a full blown fund-raising, trip planning, relief giving, hope offerring process. Did that make sense? What I meant to get across is that FOVC is moving like wildfire having assessed the situation and is moving forward with a plan of action.

While we're sitting in our living rooms enjoying a warm cup of coffee, there are sponsored children in Southern Ethiopia thanking God for the one meal they received today but also begging Him to provide food for their neighbors who've not eaten for 4 or more days. While we climb out of our beds with an achy back, children in Ethiopia have never slept in a bed. And while we decide which place we'll go out to eat this week, children in Ethiopia may receive nourishment and might not. You see, children sponsored by Americans receive an education, food and medical care. But there are many children and families who have nothing, not even hope. I'm not trying to give you a sob story. Just trying to show you a few facts quickly. If you want the technical details click on the links above to my July and August posts.

Back to FOVC, they're doing several things. And because I whole-heartedly support them, I'm along for the ride. In October I will be with 3 other people headed to Ethiopia for famine relief. A medical doctor and the President will focus on bringing medical and food for the expected 4 months of famine. I, along with another guy, will be focusing on the long term hope of the project. We'll be training people on things they can do to grow their food even during a drought. If they can grow food during the dry/drought times, they will have food to eat. I'll be in-country for about 7 days. A short, but very focused, trip. After all, I stood and hugged Judah's mom in a tiny village who'd never before seen white people in June.

I told her that I loved her and prayed for her often. I can't imagine the impact this famine will have on her family and the many others in southern Ethiopia. This is one reason I'm going back. Another is that I believe the Bible where it says that it's my responsibility to help care of the orphans and the widows in their distress (found in the Bible in the book of James). Now, whether you believe the bible or not, you can still care for the orphans and widows and those in need.

Tamara pictured with some of the FOVC girls..................

Like Janel and Jake, Ryan and I have found our niche to be involved in. That looks a little different but the thing that is the same is that we're using our gifts, talents and passions to serve the God who loves us. The God who loved us "even when we were like that" as Janel said in a recent post. So, I'm here to share with you about the work that we're involved in with FOVC. But I'm also here to encourage you to find that niche. Is it sewing pillow case dresses for Ghana? Is it travelling with Janel and Jake to do construction? Is it mentoring a student who's a little rough around the edges? Is it taking a meal to your neighbor who's having a hectic week? Friends, we are so fortunate. We have so much. We don't go to bed hungry. We have multiple cars we drive. We are blessed, even when life is tough! I thank God for people like Jake and Janel who aren't perfect but who are using what God has given them to bless others.

I have no desire to take you away from what Jake and Janel are doing in Africa. However, if you would like to read more about what I'm involved with in Ethiopia, feel free to check out my blog http://www.journey4hope.blogspot.com/. Thanks again to Janel for allowing me to post today!!! If you have questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment and I can contact you. Thanks for reading!

-Tamara B.-