It’s hard to believe that it’s almost Thanksgiving. After a busy October and first 2 weeks of November, here is an update for you. Our Adoption Home Study has been completed and approved. So we are now waiting it finish some other paper for Russia.
November 2011 and Adoption Update
Here is our September 2011 update. Enjoy! Feel free to send us a comments – we would love to hear from you!
Matt and I are so excited to be adopting a child from Russia! My heart is overflowing with joyful expectation and anticipation of the road ahead. We love the heart behind adoption, especially in light of the fact that our Heavenly Father has adopted us as His children. John Piper does an excellent job sharing The Foundation of Adoption:
The deepest and strongest foundation of adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his ordinary providence in the world; it is at the heart of the gospel. Galatians 4:4-5 is as central a gospel statement as there is: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” God did not have to use the concept of adoption to explain how he saved us, or even how we become part of his family. He could have stayed with the language of new birth so that all his children were described as children by nature only (John 1:12-13, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”). But he chose to speak of us as adopted as well as being children by new birth. This is the most essential foundation of the practice of adoption.
As those adopted by God, Matt and I want to extend this blessing to others!
God gave me a heart for international adoption when I was a kid. I still remember the conversations girls would have at the lunch table in elementary school – how much do you weigh? what’s your bedtime? how tall are you? and . . . do you want to adopt kids?! Since God gave me this desire to adopt when I was young, I’ve had many years to pray for my kids and their birth parents.
Almost 4 years ago (October 2007), God gave me a tremendous blessing: Matt called to invite me to a pumpkin carving party. I was thrilled since I really liked him (and wasn’t sure if he liked me)! In the course of our conversation at the party Matt mentioned that he was adopted. I was so excited to learn this, and later wondered if Matt thought I was strange!
This dream of many years has come true as Matt and I adopt this child that the Lord has for us! Will you join us in praying for our child and the journey ahead?
We have some exciting news to share! We would love to hear from you. Also, you can subscribe to receive our updates automatically by submitting you email address. Or feel free to check back as we will be periodically posting updates about our story.
Click here for our July 2011 Prayer Letter. Here is a wrap up of our summer and our staff conference. For more details, questions, or concerns, feel free to contact us or go to www.ccci.org/cru.
July 2011 Letter
And here is what John Piper had to say about the name change.
Here are other endorsements from Christian leaders.
May is Internet Evangelism Month. Everyday millions of people are on the internet, and what a great place to reach them – at a time they are in need. People have questions about God, Jesus, and life topics. They may not know anyone who they trust to provide the answers to their questions. They want to know Jesus and how they can have a personal relationship with Him.
I’ve been an Online Missionary for about a year, and have corresponded with over 300 people, from all over the world. That’s over 300 people who want to know the truth about Jesus. Being an Online Missionary is evangelism in slow motion because email is slower than face-to-face conversations. With internet evangelism, I’ve had conversations with people I’ll never would have met otherwise. Watch the video below to learn how you can be involved. Technology has given me the opportunity to share the truth about Jesus and how He loves us, with people from different cultures, countries, and stages in life. And you too can do this too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItVsZzhQFJ0
Click here for our April 2011 Prayer Letter. We had the privilege of meeting one of Margaret’s Online Missionaries.
April 2011 Letter
Click here for our March 2011 newsletter. As always, we would love to hear from you and pray for you.
At 10:45PM, Pacific time, 1,500, 285 million people were exposed to the love of Christ in the form of a website through Global Media Outreach. This was all God and His love for all peoples, tribes, and nations. Visitors from over 100 countries came to know that God loves them, that they have been forgiven of their sins, and that they can have a personal relationship with God. Seeing over 1.5 Million people hear or see the Gospel is not about what man can do, but what God can do. As Great Commission 2020 was rolling over, I was in a room with about 20 other people all waiting to see the same thing I was, 1.5 Million people be given the opportunity to know Jesus. What the 1.5 Million people do or decide to believe is God’s role. Our team was responsible for giving the people the opportunity and leaving the results to God. Most likely, I’ll never meet anyone in person that clicked on one of our sites today, but maybe in heaven, I’ll meet someone, from the Middle East, or Central Asia, who was introduced to God and started a personal relationship with Him by visiting one of our websites. I see it as a privilege and honor to work with people who have the same vision of giving as many people possible the opportunity to know Jesus and trusting God for the results. Margaret and I will continue to trust God for big things and keep leaving the results up to God. God is bigger and more powerful than anyone of us could imagine, and that is really exciting. Tonight, at 2AM, as I am rolling into bed, I think of Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Here are the final numbers for March 24, GMO’s first day to expose over 1 Million people:
1,094,614, Gospel presentations
111,859, Indicated Decisions
13,514, Emails sent to GMO
Only God knows, the hearts of these visitors and the decision they made. It is very humbling to know that every single person was led by the Holy Spirit visit our sites. God is at work and He will continue to be at work leading people to have personal relationship with Him. For some, it might have been their first opportunity to hear about Jesus, and for others, it might have been to 10th opportunity to hear about Jesus. It will be exciting to meet all these people in Heaven!
