Its amazing to sit back and watch this whole adoption process unfold. We knew this would be a complete act of faith. There is no way, on paper, we can come up with the amount of money we need. Add in two kids under two, full time jobs in ministry during the fall, and four major events like weddings and church wide outreaches- raising $10,000 seems impossible. But God is so faithful. I love the words of Karl's song this morning taken from Psalm 89, "O LORD God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you."
And its true. His faithfulness has been so visible. From the countless people who have donated items for the yard sale coming up, to the hundreds that have lifted us up in prayer, God is showing His faithfulness through His church. So far we've raised about 60$ not counting our savings. Just this morning a man walked up to me who I had never met. He heard about our adoption and handed me a check. I thanked him honestly for the 20 or 40$ I thought he had given. But when I made my way into the church, I began to cry. The check was for $1,000!
We now need about $8,910 to reach our goal, and we're not worried one bit. We know God will use people we don't even know in the coming months to bring our precious little child home from Africa. And I'm so excited to watch as God proves His faithfulness to all those that our watching. I know will do much more than simply rescue a little child. He'll bring glory to His name and call many other children into a relationship with Him through this. For that's truly His heart. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 68:
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
Selah
Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
We Are All Adopted
Well, its been a few weeks since we started this whole adoption thing. And the funds haven't been piling in as we first thought. The whole "announcement" of our intentions to adopt was a little anti-climactic. We thought everyone would be super excited and hop on board, but what we received was a few passionate responses and a lot of blank or empty stares. The whole concept of adoption seems to be a bit frightening in our consumer "me first" American culture. But we have seen God use those few passionate people to deeply impact us and give us great hope for what He is doing. We are also growing stronger in our trust of this 11:59.59 God who usually comes through at the last possible second in order to assure all those watching Who is actually doing the great work.
A few passages from Paul's letter have made me as excited as ever about this adoption. In Romans 8 Paul states:
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.And by him we cry, "Abba,Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Later he states:
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
And in Ephesians 1 he writes:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
And it dawned on me through these passages an amazing thought. I'm not sure if you realize it or not, but, if you call Jesus your Savior, YOU ARE ADOPTED! All of us, born into the sin of Adam, raised far outside Eden, in a sick and poor world, have been rescued from our hopeless plight by an amazing Father who has freely and joyously made us a part of His family forever. This is great news!
And what gets me so excited and pumped about this is that we all serve a God who is in the business of adoption. One of His number one passions is to seek out those who not a part of His family and to adopt and unite them into His family through the precious sacrifice of His son, now our older brother, Jesus Christ.
So no matter how many blank stares or curious looks we get, I can trust that God is beaming! That He is overjoyed at our choice to model, though imperfectly, what He has been doing since the creation of the world.
I'm excited because God is excited. I'm overjoyed because Jenny and I get the awesome opportunity to display God's never ending and furious love to all those that are watching our lives.
So, to all those who are considering adoption but haven't quite felt the "spirit's leading", I say, "Go for it! God has already given you the green light. Sell your car...cash out that 401K...and bring a precious little child into your family and display in brilliant clarity the love and grace of God to the world that needs to see it so badly!"
Until next time...
-Chase
A few passages from Paul's letter have made me as excited as ever about this adoption. In Romans 8 Paul states:
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.And by him we cry, "Abba,Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Later he states:
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
And in Ephesians 1 he writes:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
And it dawned on me through these passages an amazing thought. I'm not sure if you realize it or not, but, if you call Jesus your Savior, YOU ARE ADOPTED! All of us, born into the sin of Adam, raised far outside Eden, in a sick and poor world, have been rescued from our hopeless plight by an amazing Father who has freely and joyously made us a part of His family forever. This is great news!
And what gets me so excited and pumped about this is that we all serve a God who is in the business of adoption. One of His number one passions is to seek out those who not a part of His family and to adopt and unite them into His family through the precious sacrifice of His son, now our older brother, Jesus Christ.
So no matter how many blank stares or curious looks we get, I can trust that God is beaming! That He is overjoyed at our choice to model, though imperfectly, what He has been doing since the creation of the world.
I'm excited because God is excited. I'm overjoyed because Jenny and I get the awesome opportunity to display God's never ending and furious love to all those that are watching our lives.
So, to all those who are considering adoption but haven't quite felt the "spirit's leading", I say, "Go for it! God has already given you the green light. Sell your car...cash out that 401K...and bring a precious little child into your family and display in brilliant clarity the love and grace of God to the world that needs to see it so badly!"
Until next time...
-Chase
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Unexpected Places
Chase teaches guitar to a little boy on Mondays. His 9 year old sister and her friend held a car wash this past weekend and raised $50 for the adoption! This was a great encouragement to us and we are so thankful for their generous hearts. On the envelope that held the money they wrote "for the welcoming of a child". I also had a volunteer in the nursery give us a check and that was completely humbling to see people sacrifice in that way. We now have an updated goal of $9,910 by November 28th. Keep praying, God will take care of the rest!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
PayPal Correction
Our Apologies,
If you have tried to send funds via PayPal, it wasn't working correctly. We have identified the problem. The correct email address to send fund to is mrsgardner07@yahoo.com. That's a zero before the 7. Thanks so much and lets get this 10,000$ raised before November! God Bless
If you have tried to send funds via PayPal, it wasn't working correctly. We have identified the problem. The correct email address to send fund to is mrsgardner07@yahoo.com. That's a zero before the 7. Thanks so much and lets get this 10,000$ raised before November! God Bless
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Sustained by Him
Hello Everyone,
I am not a fancy writer like my husband but I do want you all to know what God has been doing in my life this week. You see I have a passion ignited by God for this adoption. I also have no control over the process so it's completely humbling to rely on the Lord. I have been so encouraged this week. Just when I feel discouraged someone comes up to me or writes me about how they want to help us with the yard sale or that they are faithfully praying for us. I keep thinking how God knew that we would adopt even when I was a small child and about His plan and how he brought my husbands life and mine together to bring Himself glory. It's just really humbling... Also I had a strange thought today. Being a Christian is kinda like an out of body experience, almost like you are a shell and you can view your life from a third party perspective. Long story short, it's almost a physical thing to die to yourself and let Christ live in you. You just don't care as much about yourself or what people think of you or how things effect you. I have a reaaalllly long way to go in this direction. Sometimes though I find myself say "my rights, what rights"? I really don't have any rights. This life is just a blink of an eye. If I can allow my life to bring life and possible Heaven to a child in desperate need, there needs to be no discussion with myself. It just is what it is:)
Jenny Gardner
I am not a fancy writer like my husband but I do want you all to know what God has been doing in my life this week. You see I have a passion ignited by God for this adoption. I also have no control over the process so it's completely humbling to rely on the Lord. I have been so encouraged this week. Just when I feel discouraged someone comes up to me or writes me about how they want to help us with the yard sale or that they are faithfully praying for us. I keep thinking how God knew that we would adopt even when I was a small child and about His plan and how he brought my husbands life and mine together to bring Himself glory. It's just really humbling... Also I had a strange thought today. Being a Christian is kinda like an out of body experience, almost like you are a shell and you can view your life from a third party perspective. Long story short, it's almost a physical thing to die to yourself and let Christ live in you. You just don't care as much about yourself or what people think of you or how things effect you. I have a reaaalllly long way to go in this direction. Sometimes though I find myself say "my rights, what rights"? I really don't have any rights. This life is just a blink of an eye. If I can allow my life to bring life and possible Heaven to a child in desperate need, there needs to be no discussion with myself. It just is what it is:)
Jenny Gardner
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