I am worn out! Today has been incredibly emotionally and physically draining. I have been exposed to things that are sometimes much easier to talk about than to experience up close and personal! When you hear about sex trafficking and talk about it, that is one thing. But, when you meet a 13 year old girl that is a prostitute for a local pimp that has a daughter that is 3, your mind has a hard time processing that! God uses those situations to give you a heart for justice! It is very easy to become totally become overwhelmed and think that you can't even make a dent in this. However, we can make way more than a dent for one, or two, or three! Jesus said that whatever we do for the one the least of these, we have done for him. We are commmanded to use the gifts God has given us to steward them for the Kingdom.
It is late right now, and we have a big day tomorrow. We will be visiting the worst slum here, ,and I have a hard time picturing things getting worse than today. I will try to post pics when I get an opportunity. Right now I just have thoughts and stories from the day running through my mind. I will expand on them later.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Vision Trip in Dominican Republic- Day 1
My amazing husband is taking over my blogging duties for the next couple of days. He is in the Dominican Republic with a missions team. He will explain what all they are praying to do on this trip. I gotta say that I am a little jealous with the work that he is going to be doing, but I am so excited to see how God is glorified on this trip! If you would like, give him some love in the comments just to let him know that you are praying for him and the team while he is gone. K and I are doing some visiting with family back in our hometown. I will post again once we are back home. So, with further ado, the blog is all yours babe!
So, I have not blogged very much on this site, but I wanted to chronicle some events and thoughts while I am in the Dominican Republic for the next couple of days. I am here with various people from various industries and ministries to do some visionary planning for how we can best take care of and equip the orphans in the DR and refugees from Haiti to be able to have the life skills they will need when they are no longer in the orphanage scenario (or no longer just a kid on the streets) and are forced to make it on their own. I have come to learn that the Dominican Republic is in the top 5 countries in the world for sex trafficking. With that being said, there is not much opportunity if they are not equipped not only with skills, but most importantly with the Gospel. I am working alongside Lifeline Children's Services with their ministry called (un)adopted. We are strategizing and vision casting for how God would have us to best serve this country and these people. While we are here, we are building relationships with local pastors and business people in order to have a ministry that is sustainable locally once we help to get it started and cast the vision.
Today we rode through one of the worst slums here, and you could just see the lack of hope on people's faces. When we came out of that slum, we visited a church service that was in progress just a half mile from there, and the difference in their faces was staggering! They were worshipping Jesus and their faces were full of hope. One of our group members, Siran Stacy, got up and proclaimed that we were here in the name of Jesus to proclaim hope to the hopeless. This was followed by resounding Halleleiugh's! These people really know what it means to have Jesus as your only hope. We, as Americans, have so many other things that we can place our hope in that takes the place of Jesus. It such a great reminder and foundational to see that He truly is all that we need to have great joy!
We must be very careful while we are here to not position ourselves as the hero. These people are used to having gringos come in and give them handouts and satisfy a temporary need and then leave. Our goal is to see internal transformation through the power of the Gospel so that their hope is in Him and not in Americans. The partnerships we are forming seek to make sure that happens.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day as we actually get out and mingle with some of the people in the slums and get to know them for the unique people that God created them to be. We want to help them to see the gifts God has given them and help to plant a vision in them to maximize that gift for His glory. We will seek to figure out how we can help them in doing that. I will keep you posted!
So, I have not blogged very much on this site, but I wanted to chronicle some events and thoughts while I am in the Dominican Republic for the next couple of days. I am here with various people from various industries and ministries to do some visionary planning for how we can best take care of and equip the orphans in the DR and refugees from Haiti to be able to have the life skills they will need when they are no longer in the orphanage scenario (or no longer just a kid on the streets) and are forced to make it on their own. I have come to learn that the Dominican Republic is in the top 5 countries in the world for sex trafficking. With that being said, there is not much opportunity if they are not equipped not only with skills, but most importantly with the Gospel. I am working alongside Lifeline Children's Services with their ministry called (un)adopted. We are strategizing and vision casting for how God would have us to best serve this country and these people. While we are here, we are building relationships with local pastors and business people in order to have a ministry that is sustainable locally once we help to get it started and cast the vision.
Today we rode through one of the worst slums here, and you could just see the lack of hope on people's faces. When we came out of that slum, we visited a church service that was in progress just a half mile from there, and the difference in their faces was staggering! They were worshipping Jesus and their faces were full of hope. One of our group members, Siran Stacy, got up and proclaimed that we were here in the name of Jesus to proclaim hope to the hopeless. This was followed by resounding Halleleiugh's! These people really know what it means to have Jesus as your only hope. We, as Americans, have so many other things that we can place our hope in that takes the place of Jesus. It such a great reminder and foundational to see that He truly is all that we need to have great joy!
We must be very careful while we are here to not position ourselves as the hero. These people are used to having gringos come in and give them handouts and satisfy a temporary need and then leave. Our goal is to see internal transformation through the power of the Gospel so that their hope is in Him and not in Americans. The partnerships we are forming seek to make sure that happens.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day as we actually get out and mingle with some of the people in the slums and get to know them for the unique people that God created them to be. We want to help them to see the gifts God has given them and help to plant a vision in them to maximize that gift for His glory. We will seek to figure out how we can help them in doing that. I will keep you posted!
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| Part of the slum we visited |
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| Church service |
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Going Private
Ok, the time has come that I am going to have to stop blogging about our adoption on this blog. We are getting closer and closer to knowing who our son is and for his privacy (and ours) I have set up another blog to keep family and friends up to date on where we are and what is going on.
This blog will remain open.
If you would like to follow our adoption journey, please either leave a comment with your email address, or send me an email at kings4ua at gmail dot com. Also, if I don't personally know you, can you tell me who you are and how you found out about us? I know that sounds crazy, but just being cautious!
Thanks friends!!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Pumpkin Patch
K loves Fridays because Brad is usually home when she wakes up from her nap, which means play time for the next two days! Yesterday was no different. When Brad went to get her up from her nap he asked her, "K, do you want to go play football with daddy?" K replied, "Daddy, do you want to have a tea party with K?"
Brad and I just cracked up! I was able to broker a compromise and we went to the pumpkin patch instead.
The place was almost empty and we were able to do some really fun stuff that we wouldn't have been able to do on a weekend day. (Like take some really cool pics without other people in them!) :) We were able to talk with the family that runs the farm and K got to help them feed the baby cows and the goats! She had a blast!
Here are a few of the pics from our day:
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Together for Adoption 2010
Brad and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to T4A in Austin, Texas this past weekend to represent (un)adopted. Let me just tell you, the things that God did there were AWESOME to watch! Since we were at a booth, the sessions that we actually got to go to were limited, but what we did hear was some moving and powerful stuff!! If you were in there and didn't feel the heart of God for the orphans of the world then something was seriously WRONG! I am still dwelling and processing a lot of it, but I am sure that you guys will be reading about the truths that were instilled and reinforced in me there for months (and years) to come. Here are a few pics of our time in Austin:
The above (and below) pictures were taken on Lake Travis at a wonderful restaurant called The Oasis. My dad grew up in the Hill Country of Texas, so I was able to go numerous times in my childhood. But it had been at least 13 years since my last trip there. Let me tell you, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!
The above (and below) pictures were taken on Lake Travis at a wonderful restaurant called The Oasis. My dad grew up in the Hill Country of Texas, so I was able to go numerous times in my childhood. But it had been at least 13 years since my last trip there. Let me tell you, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!
Sunset at The Oasis. Talking about taking care of orphans while observing the handiwork of God, WOW!
Lifeline / (un)adopted booth
A couple of very dear friends, Suzanne and Gwen. The things that God is doing through these two women for orphans around the world is just amazing! Go check out www.147millionprhans.com for more about them and their story! And just a side note, we would have not known about Sampson if it were not for Suzanne. She has been a God send in our lives in more ways than one. Thanks Suzanne for loving Jesus, loving orphans and loving us!
My new friend Carolyn! Us meeting and getting to hang out was another huge blessing from God. Her booth for Project Hopeful was right across from ours. Carolyn and Project Hopeful has done more for changing laws and exposing the lies and stigmas that come with adopting children with HIV than anyone else that I know. I cherish the down time that we had to hear her heart and how we can help Project Hopeful spread the word about how adopting children with HIV/AIDS is really a matter of life and death. If nothing else came out of this conference than my friendship with Carolyn then I am a blessed woman!! (But praise be to God that He gave me that and SO MUCH MORE!!)
So that is the cliff notes version of our weekend in Austin. I could go on and on about all of the amazing families that we were able to meet there, but I just don't have the time right now! More to come though.
While we were away my amazing, awesome, wonderful mom kept K for us. They had a blast, but I think that K was ready for mommy and daddy to be back. (I think that mom wore her out with all of the playing!!) :) I know that I sure was ready to be back home with her! On top of keeping K for us, mom had dinner cooked for us for the next day! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!! God has truly blessed my life with amazing friends and family.
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