Remembering God's Faithfulness

I think that every so often God has me share my testimony to remind me of what HE HAS DONE and is doing!!!  Tomorrow, Greg's Mom and I will be speaking at a women's banquet at the last church that Greg's Dad pastored, Calvary Baptist Church in Bristol, PA.  Mom is sharing about purpose and passion.  She asked me to share testimony of God's work in our lives.  As I have been preparing to speak, God reminded me of the journey that He placed us on.  God has taken me to a place many times in my life when I've had to submit to his purposes and his plans and dreams for me.  I'd like to share the end of my testimony.  I wish I could share the whole journey with you, but you wouldn't want to read that many pages on my blog...:)  So, I'll just share the last of what I will say tomorrow (though I'm sure I'll expound some as I speak :)):  It is nothing deep or profound, only truths that we all need to be reminded of time and again - truths that I need to be reminded of often. Preceding what I share tomorrow, as posted below, I will expound on our journey through serious health issues (Meningococcemia), Greg losing his father and dealing with deep, deep sadness, me feeling neglected and angry with God, infertility, God's healing hand and reshaping of our purposes and passions, and His triumph over evil during the difficult adoption of Jachin & Josiah.

And what now? We continue to walk with each step of faith to love as many orphans as God allows us to. And we try to encourage others to live out James 1:27, however, God calls them. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” God has called all of us to keep from being polluted by the world; we forget that part of the verse sometimes. And He has called ALL of His adopted children to look after orphans and widows. I encourage you to ask God how He would use you in the lives of orphans and widows.


We also will continue to ask Him how He will use us in the lives of widows and little ones around the world. There are children all over the world who have no family to call their own, who many times don’t have enough to eat or drink, a place to lay their sweet heads, someone to kiss them goodnight. These are the dreams that God has replaced my dreams with. You see, He reminded me that I am an adopted daughter of His. I was an orphan, without hope, and he did everything He could to adopt me. As I understand the truth of my adoption in Christ, I love even more that God has asked us to give up our desires for biological children, for His desires of creating our family through adoption. Right now, we are on another faith journey. This time God has led us to Ethiopia, where there are over 5 million orphans alone and we hope there will be two less in the coming year. We are in the process to adopt two children from Ethiopia, and we are trusting God to guide us and provide for us.


I want to leave you with a rich nugget that Ralph Robinson, my father-in-law, left with Greg.
Greg and his dad were working together the morning that he died. Before he went to be with his Lord that morning, out of the blue, he looked at Greg and said, “Greg, this world has nothing to offer you. Seek first the kingdom of God.” And I say to you today. Ladies, this world has nothing to offer us. This world has nothing to offer our hearts. Seek first the kingdom of God! There are no purposes or passions in this world worth holding onto or pursuing.


We cannot always know the mind of God in our circumstances, but we can trust His promises as revealed in His Word. He took our circumstances and pain, and molded our hearts to have a passion for orphans and a deeper understanding of our adoption in Christ.
I wouldn’t have chosen the pain that I had to go through to be reshaped. I wouldn’t have chosen it then, but I would never change it now.
There may be times in your life, and will be in mine again I’m sure, no matter what stage in life you are in, when God will reshape you to give you His passions and purpose for your life. During those times, we must remember that this world has nothing to offer us – Only Christ can give us fulfillment and purpose, and passion to live as He has created us to live – for His glory.