Overcoming

"I have said these things to you that you, that in Me you may have peace.

In the world, you will have tribulation.

But take heart;

I have overcome the world."

~John 16:33~

I would like you introduce you to the Gould family. The Gould's have five children, Molly, Max, Tanner, Tate, and Ian--- who you may remember as Sho. Now that this family has blog, I think I can call their children by their actual names. :)

Molly and I at B* camp last summer.

The Gould's have decided to open their home to one, possibly two, little girls from Ethiopia. My family and I are absolutely ecstatic to get to walk this journey with them as the third Ethiopian adoption family in our church (actually, one more family who I don't know very well is starting the process as well, hopefully we'll have four families with ET babies soon!) We have already started busily preparing an fundraiser! I can't wait.

Anyway, hop on over to the Gould's blog and read how the Lord is overcoming the world through them. I am so amazed by this family. They have such a beautiful faith. They have FIVE young children already, the youngest of whom with special needs. Does this sound crazy to you? It is crazy. It is so so so crazy. When Christ said that HE had overcome the world--- He wasn't kidding! Despite distance, despite finances, despite already full-to-the-bursting homes, Jesus is overcoming the world one family at a time.

All I can do is thank Him.

Watch this video!!!

The Welcome home of Nate, Mercy, Isaiah, and James Mihnovich! This video was made by my beautiful friend Elle--- check it out!

http://ourunveiledfaces.blogspot.com

Mission Photo Monday: a little mission

Mother Teresa Orphanage, Ethiopia
Kidmia, Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Walliso, Ethiopia

These pictures were taken last summer in Ethiopia.

When someone says "Ethiopia", or, "Africa", particularly referring to the Eastern and Horn of Africa area, what do you envision? Famine? Deserts? Desolation? Barren land? Death?

While all of these things are accurate descriptions of some parts of of Africa some of the time, my love for Eastern Africa and the African people drives me to want my friends and family to see the beauty of Africa. So, a little mission that I have whenever the opportunity presents itself is to share the beauty that the Lord has given to His children in Africa.

"The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world, and those who dwell there in, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers."

~Psalm 24:1~

There is no part of the Creation that does not reflect the glory of the Lord. Even in the wilderness, we see His face. And usually it is in the wilderness that we see Him most clearly of all.

PRAISING!!!!!!!

I'm am so unbelievably happy for my wonderful friends, the Mihnoviches! They have been faithfully praying for and pursuing four beautiful children, Nate, Mercy, Isaiah, and James from Ethiopia for adoption for a year now and passed court today! Their oldest daughter Elle goes to school with me and went to Ethiopia and Uganda this past summer with me as well. I love them so much and couldn't be happier--- I can't wait to meet the newest members fo their family! For some reason my little link thing won't work, but if you type in http://ourunveiledfaces.blogspot.com it will take you right there! Happy Happy Tuesday!

Amharic (and Happy New Year!)

Happy 2010, folks! If I were the reporters on T.V. I would say something like: "Well, a lot of people had a really tough 2009, and we are all looking forward to 2010 being a very promising year for the economy" because they say that every year, and it's usually true. But, since I'm not on T.V. I'd rather say something like: "God is faithful last year, and God is faithful this year. Praise Him." Because that is sure to be true.

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but this year (or last year, I guess) I began studying Amharic--- the official language of Ethiopia. I felt very convicted that the Lord was calling me to learn this language, because let me tell you, otherwise I would have quit months ago. I'm still just barely beginning, but it is certainly getting easier now. The biggest problem is that they have a different alphabet, which makes translating take two steps: translating it into English letters and then translating the actual word. Oh, and this isn't just any old different alphabet, no, it has 251 letters. Yeahhhhh. I about cried when I found that out. To give you an idea, here is a picture of the traditional Amharic Fidel (alphabet).

The other thing is, there isn't a very consistent way to translate from Amharic to English, and not many learning tools for it. I'm homeschooling myself in this course, but I'm sure it would be far easier to just live there for a while and pick it up.

Frustrating? YES.

But when I think about this face:

And this one:

And this one:

I know its worth it. :)

October Challenge

My new blog-world friend Molly started a new blog called This Next Generation for and about the young people that God is raising up in the church who are called specifically to loving the orphans. Anyway, her "October Challenge" to get it started off is for us to be purposefully and daily in prayer for widows and orphans around the world. I thought I would expound on that idea by giving a specific example of how we can be praying for them.

I suppose I'll start with a story, what else? I mean, that is really how it all started.


While in Ethiopia, my team and I for just a few short hours visit AHOPE (and HIV/AIDS orphanage) in Addis Ababa. Most of the older children were having school while we were there, so it was mostly all children under the 5 or 6. Some of us took a brief little tour of one of the house where the little kids slept, but it was mostly empty because the kids were outside playing with the rest of our team. Mostly empty.




But...


In one room there was a little child curled up on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, I thought it was a boy, and I thought he was asleep. This wasn't really that surprising, because the further advanced that the HIV is, the more tired and lethargic the kids get. The other thing is, many of them are sick and/or have warts all over them. I absolutely wanted to get out of that depressing room and play with the happy kids outside, and I started to. I'm telling you, I wanted to leave. Right then. But in the Lord's mercy, He held me there and I had the most amazing privilege of getting to stay, to pick up little "S" (she looked about 4 years old), and carry her outside. She was weak and shaky and didn't move her legs quite normally. She didn't smile or talk, just sat in my lap and watched the other kids play while I spoke the little (very very little) Amharic that I knew to her, and some English too. She began warming up, and then I had to set her down to help with a little puppet show that we had prepared for them. It was so much fun, but the very very best part was seeing "S" absolutely shine. She smiled and giggled and even outright laughed while we played with the puppets, colored paper bags, and painted fingernails.

I can't really explain the bond between "S" and me, because I don't understand it. Other than this: the Lord chose for us to spend those few short hours together on that day, on that time, in that way, for His glory, since the beginning of time. He has a purpose for our relationship, even though I'll probably never see "S" again.


The orphanage director's English was very good and he told me that "S" is being adopted!!! He offered to let me write a letter to her family with my information on it so that they could contact me, and he would give it to them when they came to get her. I did, but I haven't heard from her family.


The thing is, since I've been home, I've had a hard time trusting the Lord that He really loves "S" even more than I do. That He really does know what is best for her and will do it. I've been afraid for her health, I've been afraid for her relationship with God. I've been afraid that maybe her family won't care for her, or that they won't raise her up in the church, or that they'll be abusive or neglecting. Or, that the orphanage director was confused, and that they aren't coming at all.

The focus of the October Challenge is to give these precious children, "S" included, who are already the Lord's, over to His care. To pray for them, and to trust Him that He hears and has an even better plan than we do.


I think that there are three ways that we can pray for the orphan crisis: for the children's physical needs, their spiritual needs, and for the church to take action and to follow the Lord where He leads.


Ways to pray for the Orphans
Physical: As you probably all know AIDS is prevalent in almost every country on the world but especially in 3rd world countries where it is taking a staggering tole on the population and leaving so many millions of orphans behind. But God is still faithful and He is still bigger than this horrific pandemic. We can pray that God will have mercy on the children orphaned by AIDS and those infected by HIV. He is faithful through sickness and He is the God who does more than we can ask or imagine. He is a Healing God.


Spiritual: That the Lord will reveal Himself to the HIV positive children of the world and not only draw them to Himself, but use them as mighty tools for His kingdom.


For the Church: Aids is a bad, horrible, terrifying thing. The people who have Aids are not. They are not just a problem to be dealt with, or to be pushed out of our minds and hearts as I tried to do that day at AHOPE. They are children of the Living God. We can pray that God will place the Aids crisis in our faces so that we might be driven to action. My biology teacher is one of the leading DNA specialists working on finding the cure for Aids. He is right in the inner circle of all the newest discoveries and they are so so close! The church can take heart and have hope in that! We can pray for the few Godly scientists in that field that they will remain firm in their faith and determined toward their goal.

"Death is swallowed up in victory

Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death where is your sting?"

~1 Corinthians 15:55~

"S" and I

Welcome

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for visiting. I don't have a super clear vision of what this blog is going to look like so far, but I am excited to have a place to record this time in my life.

A little bit about me:

More than anything, I am loved by my Savior, who I seek to glorify with all of my life. His faithfulness is unfailing and His mercies are new every morning. I am very blessed with a amazing family who loves me and accepts me. I am the oldest of five children with two younger brothers and two younger sisters (Joseph 13; Lela Grace 10; Michael 3; Julia 3). Michael and Julia are twins and they came home to our family from Ethiopia when they were 6 months old. I have attended the most amazing classical Chrstian school in the world since my sixth grade year and am blessed by the my teachers, friends, and education there every single day. My family and I are renewed every Sunday at a beautiful little church in my town that is associated with my school, so we get to fellowship with many of the same families in both places. Finally, and the biggest reason for me starting this blog to begin with: When I was 11 years old, my mom and I traveled to South Africa and Kenya on a mission trip. Since then, the Lord has slowly but surely called me to serve His children in Eastern Africa. When I was almost 13 Michael and Julia came home and since then I have had a tried to use every oppurtunity to spread African Adoption/Orphan awarness in my community.
My desire for almost 5 years was to return to Africa, and this past summer God fufilled that dream as I spent a week in Ethiopia and a week in Uganda on a mission trip visiting orphans. It was definetly a learning trip for me, and I know I'll be going back one day. I hope to live there either full time or at least for a while whenever God directs.

"To whom much is Given, much is expected."

The Lord has definetly blessed me immeasurably, even though many things aren't perfect and evey day there is something new to wrestle with and to learn from. But more than what God has given me, I am blessed by who He is. Lord help me to keep that in front of me at all times, and to not get caught up in what is going on around me and loose sight of who You are.

ps. I am somewhat modeling this blog after another girl's who I met in the blog world who also has a heart for orphans. Reading her blog (http://guatemolly1.blogspot.com/) encourages me all the time. It is also somewhat modeled after the first blog I ever followed, a friend of mine's from church (http://raechelmyers.blogspot.com/).