Thanksgiving

If all you held dear was removed; if your future lost its luster fading into the shadows of heartache; if God then said, "I love you." Would you believe Him? Would you still bow with thankful heart and confessing lips, "Jesus is Lord?"

Thanksgiving: A punch into our "normal" to remind us that we are to "in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Here We Go Again...

Here we go again...in just a few hours an adoption case worker will be visiting our home. We will drop off Gage at school, put the dogs in the master bathroom, make sure the house looks okay...hopefully all in time for our 9 a.m. appointment with Raleesha. She is going to finalize our reassessment for becoming approved with OKDHS to adopt.

We have taken this journey before - one that had many twists and turns and not just a tear or two. It can be a gut-wrenching process sometimes to walk this path toward adopting - it's even tougher for kids though whose little hearts are made whole or broken by decisions of others:

*"Will someone want me?"
*"Will I have a forever family?"
*"Why do I have to move again?"
*"Who are these people and what are their rules?"

Please pray for us, me, Ali, and Gage, as well as the child God intends to bring into our home. Gage so wants to be a big brother and we want to give our last name to another child...and embrace them with our lives and love. This is orphan-care-evangelism: Bringing an orphan into our little family (providing a temporal home) believing that in doing so God will bring this child into His family (providing an eternal home).

So, hopefully by sometime early 2012 you'll see another precious child with us. Will you pray with us?

Thanks

OK Foster Wishes

‎8,500 - that's the approximate number of kids in the Oklahoma foster system currently. Would you like to make sure one of them has gifts under the Christmas tree this year?

Our church is partnered with OK Foster Wishes to help make this happen. Each wish list has a child's first name and two personal wishes totaling $50 or under.

To get a child's wish list please contact James Hunt at jhunt@councilroad.org or call 503-4092. Gift collection must be returned on Sunday, December 11 in the foyer of the worship center.

Leave Some for the Desperate

Is there a portion of your life (income, effort, energy) devoted to the care of those in desperate need? God commanded His Old Covenant people to remember the fatherless, among others.

"When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not glean what is left. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this."

So if we were to modernize this passage (and bring it into the New Covenant) it might say something like, "You used to be a spiritual foreigner, a spiritual orphan, a spiritually vulnerable person needing the compassion of your heavenly Father. You received that compassion and are no longer a stranger, an outcast, an orphan. Now then, go bless others and care for them in My name."

What are you doing for the foreigner, the fatherless, the widow?