Chosen

"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan." Ephesians 1:4-11

This weekend our pastor discussed the topic Base Camp. Our church is starting a new journey of buying property to build an even bigger building. Visit reallifeministries.com for more info and to listen to his sermon from 9/10/06 (it is worth it). God is amazing at how these sermons manage to parallel my thoughts and feelings. While in Ethiopia my hubby and I really struggled being there and dealing with all the poverty, sickness, and culture shock. Since returning home we have really prayed and focused on what life and our purpose for being here is. There are two regrets I have from that trip. 1) Not enjoying our short time there and 2) Making ourselves travel to the Wolaita area to see where our boys grew up and try to search for their families. I plan on returning to Ethiopia, whether through adoption or just to visit and I hope the second trip I will be able to do these things. Everyday my heart breaks for my children for the life they had, the life they will have and the memories of their minds. Giovanni used to go to the market to buy potatoes, bread and sugar cane. I think these were their main staples. He used to pick coffee beans for food. We think Caleb was raised by his teenager/young adult brother and had to carry water far distances. And we know it was probably rare for them to have a full belly. I hope to post part two of our journey soon.

How wonderful that we have the lives we have here in America. We could have easily been born in a different country, with different lifestyles, a different income. I question everyday why I was chosen by God to live here. Why did He chose us to care for these precious babies? Because He loves us. He loves each of us. We are chosen to be in His Kingdom, to be blameless, holy, adopted, forgiven, and purchased for the highest price ever. Who has ever done anything this great for me before? NO ONE! My heart breaks knowing there are so many people out there that don't know the price Jesus paid for them. They worship their sins, other religions, women, drugs, sex, their jobs, their kids, their money rather than the one person that is the EASIEST to worship, God. There are no strings attached when we worship Him. He only wants us - not our wealth (it is His money anyway, right?), our beauty, our cars, our homes, our up-to-date hairstyles. He wants us to put away our idols and come to our knees before Him, humble and faithful. This is all it takes - our faith - to get to heaven. God doesn't give us rules to make life "hard" or boring, but to make our lives beautiful and full of joy. Only God can give us this unexplainable joy.

Our pastor explained to us what it might be like on the day of judgement. We will all be before the Lord, whether we worship Him or not, on the day of judgement. Sitting at the right hand of the Lord will be Jesus. In His hand is a ticket. This is the ticket to eternity in heaven. When you reach for this ticket, does Jesus give it to you joyfully because of your faith, or does he withhold from you because you didn't have faith. How sad would it be to have our Savior tell you "I don't have a ticket for you now. I offered you this ticket a hundred times, but you were to busy worshiping your idols to take it. I made it easy for you. Instead you wanted to follow your friends and your sins and not me. I cannot give you this ticket." It really is that easy to take the ticket. My life is so much better than it ever was before. When I face trials I know that the Lord is on MY side, protecting me. We are on earth only for a blink. This life is truly temporary. Shouldn't we live for the Lord? We hope to adopt again. We are just waiting on funding for our next journey. We want to fill our home and show these kids the love of the Lord. That is what He has called us to do. We are adopted into His family. So we, too, are to adopt children into ours.

So, I challenge all of you. What are you doing for the Lord? Are you in ministry in your church? Do you volunteer somewhere? Are you sharing the Good News? I know I fall short everyday to glorify God. How many times have people asked me about the adoption and I leave the main part of the story out - God. Sometimes "I just don't want to offend". I have learned it is more offensive to withhold God than it is to share Him. How sad that I may be one of the "hundreds of times" Jesus offers the ticket to someone and I don't share my faith with them. My Ethiopian New Years resolution (it was September 11th by the way) is to bring Jesus into what I do, what I am thinking, and what I say RIGHT NOW! I am working in God's time, not mine. Be a light to the world, it is truly a dark place. Understand that you ARE chosen by God to be more than a pawn for evil. We are all to be drawn to Him, to love and worship Him.

So, please pray for our family. We are having a hard time dealing with the emotions of the loss for our children. They miss Wolaita and their siblings a lot. They can't wait to return to see them. Please pray for Giovanni's little brother. That someday we can adopt him or at least meet him. Please pray for our little girl, Nafkot, that we sponsor at AHOPE - an HIV/AIDS orphanage in Ethiopia. Please pray for those who don't know the Lord.

Thank you all for reading and your prayers. We love you!