Hope you will rsvp for this on Facebook
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
June 11th Dessert Event with Carl Medearis and Tadele Lonsako
Hope you will rsvp for this on Facebook
Monday, January 18, 2010
growing via adoption
Over the last 2 months, Kand I believe that God has been preparing
us to adopt another child. Here's why:
--On November 10th, K'sbirthday, we received a call from the same
adoption agency that helped us bring our daughter into our family. They said a boy had just been born, and they asked whether we would allow ourselves to be considered. This call came totally "out of the blue" because
we had not paid the agency their normal fee that normally causes them to
consider a family. They just remembered us and thought we might make a good
match. We said yes because we'd been hoping to adopt again, but then,
within a few days, the agency told us that this mother was not actually
intending to follow through with an adoption plan for her child. This was
hard news after getting excited, but it prompted us go ahead and get back on
the list at the end of November.
--On December 21st, we got another call from the adoption agency while we
were visiting K's family in San Diego. They asked again if we'd be
willing to adopt a boy that was due to be born on January 1st. They asked
permission this time because of some special circumstances-since we were
already on their list wanting consideration. We said yes again, and, almost
a week later, we learned that this family had chosen us to be the adoptive
parents. We were concerned because I was scheduled to be in St. Louis for
the Urbana conference from Dec. 26-Jan. 1, and we didn't want my girls
to be alone dealing with a new baby. But the baby was not born before I
headed home from this awesome conference, and we've been waiting for news
ever since. There has been absolute silence, though. We believe this family
has now changed its mind about making an adoption plan based on the amount
of time that has now passed since their last call to the adoption agency.
Please pray with us for this boy to be blessed by God with all that he needs
to live and thrive.
--On January 8th, as we were expecting to receive some news about adopting
the boy we talked about above, we learned some other startling news from our
adoption caseworker, Renee. On Dec. 17th, the Tucson branch of the agency
presented our profile to another expectant mother whose baby is due on
January 11th. Without knowing that we were officially "on hold" because of
the boy we were hoping to adopt, this birth mother chose us to become the
parents of her little one-we don't yet know the baby's gender. Yesterday, we
all went to Tucson to meet this expectant mother and her own mother, at the
agency office, so they could meet us and confirm this decision. They also
wanted to communicate their hopes for this child's future and the ways in
which they wish to remain in contact. This will be an "open adoption" with
ongoing communication between families. We have the same agreement with
Emma's birth-mom.
So, as you can see, we have been having a little adventure that's not quite
over yet. We are so excited to be given the honor of welcoming this new
child into our home, and we pray that he/she will be blessed by God through
us. Would you please pray for us this week?
--For this new child's health.
--For the family making the adoption plans to be blessed through this
process even as they deal with loss.
--For K and I to be a unified team as we begin to care for this baby
while communicating with the agency, birth family, and our own family. Ask
God to help us be good listeners and prioritize many different details well.
--Pray for our daughter because she'll probably be at home with her grandma for
several days while we're in Tucson for the birth. Ask God to prepare her
heart to welcome a new brother or sister.
--Please just celebrate with us this miracle of new life in our home by
praising God with us. Our hearts are just full of amazement and wonder at
the ways He has used these months of waiting, praying, and preparation to
bring us where we are now. He has strengthened us when we have felt very
weak and given us encouragement to wait for the child He intended to bring
into our family.
Lots of people ask us this question about adoption: "Can the birth family
change their minds?" The answer is yes and no. The state of Arizona mandates
that adoption papers cannot be signed until 72 hours after the time of
birth, so a different decision can be made during that time. However, after
meeting the birth mother and her own mother yesterday, we feel confident
that they have come to a certainty about this decision. After the papers
are signed, then they cannot change their minds. The adoption is basically
complete pending court approval of us as adoptive parents.
It's good to know you are with us in prayer, and we'll keep you updated and
make some photos available to you when we have some.
Yours in Christ,
Jeremy, representing the clan
us to adopt another child. Here's why:
--On November 10th, K'sbirthday, we received a call from the same
adoption agency that helped us bring our daughter into our family. They said a boy had just been born, and they asked whether we would allow ourselves to be considered. This call came totally "out of the blue" because
we had not paid the agency their normal fee that normally causes them to
consider a family. They just remembered us and thought we might make a good
match. We said yes because we'd been hoping to adopt again, but then,
within a few days, the agency told us that this mother was not actually
intending to follow through with an adoption plan for her child. This was
hard news after getting excited, but it prompted us go ahead and get back on
the list at the end of November.
--On December 21st, we got another call from the adoption agency while we
were visiting K's family in San Diego. They asked again if we'd be
willing to adopt a boy that was due to be born on January 1st. They asked
permission this time because of some special circumstances-since we were
already on their list wanting consideration. We said yes again, and, almost
a week later, we learned that this family had chosen us to be the adoptive
parents. We were concerned because I was scheduled to be in St. Louis for
the Urbana conference from Dec. 26-Jan. 1, and we didn't want my girls
to be alone dealing with a new baby. But the baby was not born before I
headed home from this awesome conference, and we've been waiting for news
ever since. There has been absolute silence, though. We believe this family
has now changed its mind about making an adoption plan based on the amount
of time that has now passed since their last call to the adoption agency.
Please pray with us for this boy to be blessed by God with all that he needs
to live and thrive.
--On January 8th, as we were expecting to receive some news about adopting
the boy we talked about above, we learned some other startling news from our
adoption caseworker, Renee. On Dec. 17th, the Tucson branch of the agency
presented our profile to another expectant mother whose baby is due on
January 11th. Without knowing that we were officially "on hold" because of
the boy we were hoping to adopt, this birth mother chose us to become the
parents of her little one-we don't yet know the baby's gender. Yesterday, we
all went to Tucson to meet this expectant mother and her own mother, at the
agency office, so they could meet us and confirm this decision. They also
wanted to communicate their hopes for this child's future and the ways in
which they wish to remain in contact. This will be an "open adoption" with
ongoing communication between families. We have the same agreement with
Emma's birth-mom.
So, as you can see, we have been having a little adventure that's not quite
over yet. We are so excited to be given the honor of welcoming this new
child into our home, and we pray that he/she will be blessed by God through
us. Would you please pray for us this week?
--For this new child's health.
--For the family making the adoption plans to be blessed through this
process even as they deal with loss.
--For K and I to be a unified team as we begin to care for this baby
while communicating with the agency, birth family, and our own family. Ask
God to help us be good listeners and prioritize many different details well.
--Pray for our daughter because she'll probably be at home with her grandma for
several days while we're in Tucson for the birth. Ask God to prepare her
heart to welcome a new brother or sister.
--Please just celebrate with us this miracle of new life in our home by
praising God with us. Our hearts are just full of amazement and wonder at
the ways He has used these months of waiting, praying, and preparation to
bring us where we are now. He has strengthened us when we have felt very
weak and given us encouragement to wait for the child He intended to bring
into our family.
Lots of people ask us this question about adoption: "Can the birth family
change their minds?" The answer is yes and no. The state of Arizona mandates
that adoption papers cannot be signed until 72 hours after the time of
birth, so a different decision can be made during that time. However, after
meeting the birth mother and her own mother yesterday, we feel confident
that they have come to a certainty about this decision. After the papers
are signed, then they cannot change their minds. The adoption is basically
complete pending court approval of us as adoptive parents.
It's good to know you are with us in prayer, and we'll keep you updated and
make some photos available to you when we have some.
Yours in Christ,
Jeremy, representing the clan
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
a brief parable
No actual information about Microsoft is intended in the following story...
It's March 31, 2009 and Bill Gates has officially left Microsoft in great shape. Their stock is up higher than ever, they’ve left their competition, Apple and Linux, in the dust, and Windows software is selling like hotcakes. 90% of the developed world is now using Microsoft software. Before Gates left the company, he developed a manual for all the employees, teaching them how to run the company and outlining expected employee behavior. This manual became an unexpected best seller. Employees and competitors from around the world began to study it, memorize parts of it, and change the way they did business based on its principles. There was some dispute about the meaning of some portions of the manual, and people would define themselves and the way they did business according to what they felt were the most important parts of the manual. For instance, some people thought you shouldn’t be working on a certain day of the week while others thought it was another day, and still others thought it really didn’t matter as long as your intentions were good. It became the norm for employees to gather together once every week to listen while part of the manual was read and an advanced employee would interpret the meaning for them. Even children were taught from the manual in separate meetings. Some employees enjoyed this so much that they would meet together one or two more times to study and think about the manual. It was a rich source of wisdom. The purpose of all these meetings, so the employees thought, was to become better employees and thus improve the company and its image. They reasoned that if they knew the manual very well and obeyed its precepts then their neighbors would want to become employees too. Their company, Microsoft, would look great to the whole world and people would come flocking in...eventually.
However, for all of their studying and memorization, most of them did not grasp the primary reason why the manual was created by Gates in the first place. Yes, he wanted his employees to understand and enjoy his manual and not violate its principles. But the manual had been created to help the company complete a specific task after his departure. It gave instructions about how they were to do this, to whom, and even promised that Gates would take over again when this goal was reached. There were nuggets of wisdom throughout the manual that you could apply in many situations, but Gates was really expecting that his employees would use what he had written to expand Microsoft’s reach to every part of the world, so that every person would be able to learn about their products and become part of the organization. The employees who loved to have meetings about the manual saw this, of course--it wasn’t buried within the text. So they created a new department within the organization to make sure Microsoft kept expanding. Meanwhile, they spent most of their budget on meetings together and creating new meeting rooms for themselves. It became widely accepted practice for employees to see it as their job to attend 1-2 meetings per week, read the manual every day, and take another job in the meantime to support their family and lifestyle. Expanding the reach of Microsoft into places where the company wasn’t yet known became an extra activity an employee could do if they received lots of extra training and were willing to go find employees to fund their efforts from leftover income. Microsoft’s profits leveled off and started to decline a bit. There were many needs to fill and very few full-time employees left to meet them. The best they could hope for, they reasoned, was for people to keep showing up for meetings. They couldn’t reasonably expect them all to keep pursuing Microsoft’s goals all week long.
It's March 31, 2009 and Bill Gates has officially left Microsoft in great shape. Their stock is up higher than ever, they’ve left their competition, Apple and Linux, in the dust, and Windows software is selling like hotcakes. 90% of the developed world is now using Microsoft software. Before Gates left the company, he developed a manual for all the employees, teaching them how to run the company and outlining expected employee behavior. This manual became an unexpected best seller. Employees and competitors from around the world began to study it, memorize parts of it, and change the way they did business based on its principles. There was some dispute about the meaning of some portions of the manual, and people would define themselves and the way they did business according to what they felt were the most important parts of the manual. For instance, some people thought you shouldn’t be working on a certain day of the week while others thought it was another day, and still others thought it really didn’t matter as long as your intentions were good. It became the norm for employees to gather together once every week to listen while part of the manual was read and an advanced employee would interpret the meaning for them. Even children were taught from the manual in separate meetings. Some employees enjoyed this so much that they would meet together one or two more times to study and think about the manual. It was a rich source of wisdom. The purpose of all these meetings, so the employees thought, was to become better employees and thus improve the company and its image. They reasoned that if they knew the manual very well and obeyed its precepts then their neighbors would want to become employees too. Their company, Microsoft, would look great to the whole world and people would come flocking in...eventually.
However, for all of their studying and memorization, most of them did not grasp the primary reason why the manual was created by Gates in the first place. Yes, he wanted his employees to understand and enjoy his manual and not violate its principles. But the manual had been created to help the company complete a specific task after his departure. It gave instructions about how they were to do this, to whom, and even promised that Gates would take over again when this goal was reached. There were nuggets of wisdom throughout the manual that you could apply in many situations, but Gates was really expecting that his employees would use what he had written to expand Microsoft’s reach to every part of the world, so that every person would be able to learn about their products and become part of the organization. The employees who loved to have meetings about the manual saw this, of course--it wasn’t buried within the text. So they created a new department within the organization to make sure Microsoft kept expanding. Meanwhile, they spent most of their budget on meetings together and creating new meeting rooms for themselves. It became widely accepted practice for employees to see it as their job to attend 1-2 meetings per week, read the manual every day, and take another job in the meantime to support their family and lifestyle. Expanding the reach of Microsoft into places where the company wasn’t yet known became an extra activity an employee could do if they received lots of extra training and were willing to go find employees to fund their efforts from leftover income. Microsoft’s profits leveled off and started to decline a bit. There were many needs to fill and very few full-time employees left to meet them. The best they could hope for, they reasoned, was for people to keep showing up for meetings. They couldn’t reasonably expect them all to keep pursuing Microsoft’s goals all week long.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Agony and Blessing
Yesterday, I was running back and forth to the bathroom thinking I might have a kidney stone--I cried out to God as I chugged water and used some Ibuprofen to relieve my suffering. There's nothing like a bit of suffering to get your attention centered on relying on God.
This past week, we met with several friends who love us and vice-versa. Katherine made a dish with been, rice, and many kinds of Asian spices and served it to our grateful guests. We spent time praying with people, and my mother got the opportunity to hear how God orchestrated some of our friends from their first meeting Dec. 1 to their wedding on Dec. 18th. It's quite a story--made possible via Facebook. I got my first crown (upon one of my back molars), and I suffered minimal pain and felt blessed to have dental insurance, anaesthetic, and God's provision to afford the procedure, whereas so many others can't get the care they need. Also, Katherine had an MRI done on her knee that's been hurting, and we learned that the problem isn't a muniscus tear, which would have required expensive surgery--it's just a cyst, so maybe it will be small enough to deflate without huge expense. And our daughter, Emma, continues to amaze us with her joy and love of learning. God has been good to us, and I look forward to praising Him further this week.
This past week, we met with several friends who love us and vice-versa. Katherine made a dish with been, rice, and many kinds of Asian spices and served it to our grateful guests. We spent time praying with people, and my mother got the opportunity to hear how God orchestrated some of our friends from their first meeting Dec. 1 to their wedding on Dec. 18th. It's quite a story--made possible via Facebook. I got my first crown (upon one of my back molars), and I suffered minimal pain and felt blessed to have dental insurance, anaesthetic, and God's provision to afford the procedure, whereas so many others can't get the care they need. Also, Katherine had an MRI done on her knee that's been hurting, and we learned that the problem isn't a muniscus tear, which would have required expensive surgery--it's just a cyst, so maybe it will be small enough to deflate without huge expense. And our daughter, Emma, continues to amaze us with her joy and love of learning. God has been good to us, and I look forward to praising Him further this week.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Viewing Slumdog
I finally saw "Slumdog Millionaire," a new film by Danny Boyle, yesterday evening with a good friend. It was well made, an interesting, Dickens-esque story, somewhat suspenseful, had incredible music...but I don't know if I could bear to see it again. I'll ruin a little portion of the movie's plot now (rather than revealing the secret of the ending) to bring this up: showing kids getting hurt makes me nauseous and makes me feel angry--especially since what is practiced in the film's story actually occurs today in human slavery kinds of situations. It supposedly makes them more effective beggars. I saw evil revealed that I hadn't concerned myself with before, and I'm disturbed--not sure what I'm going to do about it yet either. I don't think it's the sort of thing you can just throw money at. But maybe there is some way to buy people out of slavery. Maybe adoption is an answer? I welcome comments...
Monday, December 29, 2008
Poem/Prayer by Sir Francis Drake
I was moved by this from 1577--hope you will be, too:
Disturb us, O Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves;
When our dreams have come true, because we dreamed too little;
When we arrived safely, because we sailed too safely to the shore.
Disturb us, O Lord,
To dare more boldly;
To venture on wider seas;
Where storms will show Your mastery
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes
and
to push us into the future, in strength, courage, hope, and love
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.
Disturb us, O Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves;
When our dreams have come true, because we dreamed too little;
When we arrived safely, because we sailed too safely to the shore.
Disturb us, O Lord,
To dare more boldly;
To venture on wider seas;
Where storms will show Your mastery
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes
and
to push us into the future, in strength, courage, hope, and love
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
If God wills...
I'm struggling a little theologically, and I think it's a good thing because I'm thinking about God a lot more and not making dumb assumptions. The topic on my mind is suffering, and there have been two voices in my life (one is from my church, while the other is John Piper) that are hammering the point that God not only allows and uses suffering to sanctify people, but He also intends suffering, plans the painful circumstances, and makes sure that suffering occurs in believers' lives. I could provide the links to these sermons, if anyone wishes. John 11 and the book of Job are used primarily to back up their points. I belong to a body of believers that's very concerned with God's sovereignty over all things, so if any suffering happens that opposes His will, that would be perceived as a threat to this aspect of who He is.
What troubles me a little is that a discussion has already been underway at my workplace, where church planters overseas are seeking to counteract what they term as "fatalism" among unreached people groups. For instance, in their countries, when a young person constantly makes stupid choices and dies on his motorcycle, since he wasn't wearing a helmet, his relatives console themselves with, "It is written." I myself have experienced some really crazy driving by foreign drivers, who keep muttering, "If it is God's will, if it is God's will..." as they make crazy, reckless moves into oncoming traffic. They reason that they may drive as bad as they wish because God's will is always going to be done, and they can't die until He wills it. Some of my co-workers want to counteract this philosophy and show that these deaths that keep happening could have been prevented. That they were not predestined.
I'm beginning to sense that I'm being called to adopt a few fatalistic principles--namely, seeing all suffering as God's will, in order to uphold the idea of God's sovereignty. In American Christianity, we don't call it fatalism, though. It's going to be called something more impressive because who wants to be known as a fatalist? I can tell you this--if/when my daughter gets sick, I'm planning to take her to the doctor, believing that God wants to heal her and use medicine, rather than passively waiting for the suffering she's going through to develop her character(?) take its full course and horribly weakens her. God has given me reason, and I'm going to assume, until I know differently, that He expects me to do everything in my power to fight against viruses and predators in her life and mine--even if they've been appointed, ultimately, by Him.
What troubles me a little is that a discussion has already been underway at my workplace, where church planters overseas are seeking to counteract what they term as "fatalism" among unreached people groups. For instance, in their countries, when a young person constantly makes stupid choices and dies on his motorcycle, since he wasn't wearing a helmet, his relatives console themselves with, "It is written." I myself have experienced some really crazy driving by foreign drivers, who keep muttering, "If it is God's will, if it is God's will..." as they make crazy, reckless moves into oncoming traffic. They reason that they may drive as bad as they wish because God's will is always going to be done, and they can't die until He wills it. Some of my co-workers want to counteract this philosophy and show that these deaths that keep happening could have been prevented. That they were not predestined.
I'm beginning to sense that I'm being called to adopt a few fatalistic principles--namely, seeing all suffering as God's will, in order to uphold the idea of God's sovereignty. In American Christianity, we don't call it fatalism, though. It's going to be called something more impressive because who wants to be known as a fatalist? I can tell you this--if/when my daughter gets sick, I'm planning to take her to the doctor, believing that God wants to heal her and use medicine, rather than passively waiting for the suffering she's going through to develop her character(?) take its full course and horribly weakens her. God has given me reason, and I'm going to assume, until I know differently, that He expects me to do everything in my power to fight against viruses and predators in her life and mine--even if they've been appointed, ultimately, by Him.
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