For those who are a bit like me, John, and might not make it all the way to the bottom of this long post - check out the email thing to the right.
from an email sent July 2010...
So we have some news to share. It’s quite a lengthy story, but a good one yet.
It begins back in February of 2010. An opportunity came up at work (a children’s home) for our organization to become involved with a children’s home in Belize. Our children’s home, the Presbyterian Home for Children / PHC, has worked over the past seven years with a mission organization, The Word at Work – twaw.org. This organization has developed a significant presence in Belize and helps support various children’s homes and other projects in the country. Because of TWAW’s relationship with the government of Belize and due to their successful track record they were approached by the government about taking over the operation of a children’s home in Belize City. Those discussions led to conversations with PHC about helping to operate the Belize City children’s home. Those conversations made their way to me and the possibility of taking part in operations of the Belize children’s home became a decision to consider.
By March we, Michelle, Josiah, Matthias, and I, began praying about this decision. Matthias regularly prayed, “Not what we want God, but what you want”. Michelle, Josiah, and I each asked God for a verse that would reveal to us His will.
The verses God provided for us:
John –
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. – Matthew 16:24-25
As the weeks went by with this verse but without any clear direction towards our decision I began to understand that the end result was not the immediate point. The point was that as a disciple, follower of Christ, I am called to obedience, the cross.
As you read of Jesus’ last moments before his arrest a picture is given of the Christ asking his father to – if possible – remove this cup from him. Then he states, "not my will but yours".
Philippians 2:1-11 frames this as Christ being obedient even to the point of death on a cross.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
I told Michelle that I didn’t know what the future held for us, but I knew we were being called to obedience no matter what the cost and no matter how it affected our plans or culture’s ideals.
Josiah –
Josiah’s verse is interesting because he felt he had it not long after we asked him to begin seeking God for a verse. One Sunday night as he was climbing up in his bed I asked him if he had been seeking God about his verse. He said’ “Yeah, and I think I know what it is! He proceeded to tell me the verse. Not only did the verse not fit my idea of what we were looking for, it was his memory verse from Sunday school that day. So in all my great daddy wisdom I told him to keep seeking just to make sure.
He never came up with anything different.
Jo's verse:
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. – James 5:15
In a bit I’ll get to my realization of this really being Josiah’s verse.
Michelle –
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27
God began to impress this verse upon Michelle around the same time she came across some very startling statistics and posted them on Facebook:
- if only 3% of the world's self professed Christians adopted a child, there would be no more orphans in the world. If only one family out of each church in our country adopted one child from foster care, there would be no more adoptable foster children in America... She asked the question, "How have we let this happen?!
Initially, Michelle thought her verse might be weighing heavy on her because of the statistics. However, it eventually became that somehow this verse played into what God was calling us.
We began to discuss adoption and the various possibilities. One of the disheartening things about adoption is the outrageous cost. We soon learned that Child Protective Services would absorb and cover the cost of adopting a child from their care. We looked into this as a possibility. We even discussed looking at special needs children, but that is where things ended for a time.
Even though we had verses for myself and Michelle, remember Josiah’s is still pushed aside, we were still pretty lost. Outside of “we need to be obedient and do what we are called to do no matter what it looks like in our eyes” and “this might include adoption”we were pretty clueless.
Enter my trip to Belize with PHC. The first week of June I helped take some of our PHC kids on the annual mission trip to work with a children’s home in Belmopan, Belize. After being in Belize and at the home for a few days I wanted to look up our verses. I read through mine and then went to find Michelle’s. I knew it was in James….James 5:15….yeah, that’s right.
No, that was not right. That was Josiah’s verse. As I laid there behind my mosquito netting and read Josiah’s discounted verse everything fell together in one perfect puzzle. My verse, Michelle’s verse, Josiah’s verse, the statistics, and our willingness to adopt all suddenly made perfect sense.
While working in the children’s home I met a boy named Alfred. As soon as the puzzle became a picture it was clear that we were to adopt this boy.
Honestly, there was a period of time that Michelle and I had to let go of our ideals and all the questions that this adoption would bring. This is where the second part of my verses and Michelle’s verse began to make sense. If we held onto our plans or the ideals culture places before us we would not move forward with adopting Alfred. It is vital that we let go of our plans and accept God’s, or as Matthias so often prayed, “not what we want God, but what you want”.
We have talked this through with the boys. They became excited as we told them this news. One of them asked what the boy’s name was, and as I said, "Alfred," Josiah said, “I knew that was his name. I just knew that is what you were going to say.” "Actually," he said, “I was thinking Alfredo.” “Funny enough” I told him, “that’s what his house mother calls him”.
This has been an awesome process to this point. Alfred’s caseworker has been in touch and will be providing the process for out of country adoptions.
About Alfred –
This is where Josiah’s verse comes into play.
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. – James 5:15
Alfred is 11 years old. He has been at the home since he was about ten month’s old. The home provides a loving environment, but due to some medical conditions Alfred has he is limited. He has difficulty keeping food and water down. This is a likely reason for his being undersized, smaller than Matthias is at 6. He does not speak except to say a word that sounds like “hungry” and a word that sounds like “agua”. He says mama pretty clear. He uses this only for the house mother. His teeth are pretty much rotted out from the vomiting ect. He seems to see well and hears when he wants to. His understanding of language, while delayed, seems to exist.
I have never been one to much demand things from God. Plead, bargain, and beg yes, but never much demand. So I must say I initially approached praying James 5:15 with a bit of timidness. I would pray such things as, “God I believe you will heal Alfred as you see fit”. All the while not wanting to sound like I was telling God I thought I knew what he should do.
Earlier this week it occurred to me that God had already told us, through Josiah’s verse, what he wants to do. We are now praying specifically for healing in the areas of Alfred’s mind, speech, emotions, psychological (both of these last two we are praying for healing of the effects of being in care for 10 years), vomiting, general health, his teeth, physical growth and development, and any other things we are unaware of or are not thinking of.
Matthew 16:19 speaks to claiming things on earth that have already been done in heaven. It is in this manner, spirit and authority that we are praying Josiah’s verse for Alfred.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. – Matthew 16:19
We would love it if right now and often you would offer these prayers in faith. Please also pray with us for the actual adoption. In all ways this will only get done through God’s hands and under His authority.
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Even though we are still waiting to make that trip to Belize, God has done some amazing things! Laws have changed, health has improved, and we are closing in on the final stages of adoption.
In the weeks before we head to Belize I hope to play story catch-up and then keep things rolling in somewhat realish-time while in Belize. Somewhere on the right of this page you should be able to sign up to get an email when a new blog entry is posted.
Thanks for jumping on board this crazy-fun ride!
John, Michelle, Josiah, Matthias, Jacob and soon to be Alfred
yes he will make the 4th boy!
