Thousands of Miles to Bring Back 2 Feet

We are extremely excited to share our big news with you! You guessed it, the Lord is growing our family through adopting a child from China.  We have mentioned this briefly in our blog but this is our official announcement.  For many years, we have desired to expand our family through adoption and God has made it clear that now is the time, and China is the place.

The Lord has blessed us with 2 wonderful children and we are eager to extend our love to one more. With Sarah’s diabetes and our past miscarriages, it is risky to attempt another pregnancy, and we have always loved adoption. As Christians, we are adopted into God’s family. What better way to more deeply experience God’s love for us than by joining Him as adoptive parents?

Over the years, we have gotten to know many Chinese international students and, through these relationships, learned a lot about the country. You may be aware that due to Chinese culture and the one child policy, many families prefer to have a son. As a result, families will abandon their daughters simply because they are female or if they have special needs. Currently, thousands of children fill the orphanages of China, many of them girls. We desire to give one of these children a Christian home where they will be loved and cared for.

We began the process a couple months ago, and it will probably take about 18 months until we bring home our new little one. Aiden and Addy are both very excited to have a new little brother or sister. Right now, we are on the paper trail working to obtain all of the legal documents needed in our dossier to send to China. Please pray for us as it is quite an extensive (and stressful) task! The estimated cost of the adoption is $30,000. We also would appreciate your prayers for God to provide the finances we need.

Thank you for your partnership in our ministry as we trust God to use us to change lives of college students as well as to change the life of a child from the other side of the world!

Salt Life: Living It

 Living in Florida, I often see "Salt Life" t-shirts and car stickers.  In case you're not familiar with it, Salt Life is a popular surf shop and company that sells products for all kinds of ocean-related things from scuba diving to surfing to just hanging at the beach.  The salt life is nothing new.  Jesus talked about how we should all be living it but it has nothing to do with salt water.  In the Sermon on the Mount these are His words:

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." - Mt. 5:13
 
Thrown out?  Trampled?  Ouch!  With these strong words, it is obviously important to remain "salty." So what does it mean to live the Salt Life?  This comes right after the Beatitudes, so from this we learn that being "salty" requires things like hungering and thirsting for righteousness, meekness, and mercy to name a few. 

Immediately following is another illustration where the church is described as "the light of the world. A city set on a hill...."  This illustration is clear that God intends for us to be seen in the world and that our faith should not be hidden but lived out among others. 

As believers, God is calling us to step into the world and be seen making a difference - adding salt, shining light.  In a world full of sin and the consequences of greedy, selfish, power-hungry people,  the Lord has called His church to be the ones to shine light into the dark places and to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.  According to Eph 2:10, God has prepared good works for us to walk in.  God could have chosen to preach the gospel to the world through a giant megaphone, but He has chosen to use us - "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Similarly, He could have chosen to feed the poor with manna from Heaven, protect the oppressed with legions of angels, and wipe away every tear from every eye with His own physical hand.  Instead, He wants to use us to bring mercy, justice, and compassion to this world - to make it salty. 

I want to live the Salt Life.  I want to make a tangible difference in our world through the power of God's Spirit.  If it means taking risks and getting my hands dirty, then so be it.  Jesus was willing to leave Heaven and become one of us and even suffer and die by the hands of those He was dying to save.  The least I can do is hang out with non-Christians and engage in the world to help the needy and defend the oppressed.  In doing so, maybe, just maybe, God will use me to make our world a little saltier.