"I pray for them every time I poop."

Yes, that is my husband's direct quote. I shared this with Sally in an e-mail, and I'm sure it touched her.
To explain, I put our wonderful missionary friends, the Estes', picture on the wall facing our toilet. It didn't start out there. It used to be on our bathroom mirror, but I quit seeing it there. So I moved it to face the toilet. I sit down there several times a day. I forget boys only sit down to poop. Good thing my husband's very regular. TMI??)
I try to keep it visible on a daily basis so that I NEVER FORGET to pray for them. Why? Because, we are their Senders.

Rom 10:13-15
13 For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Jon and Sally were in our HOPE group. We heard their hearts, broken for the lost, and burdened for North Africa, where you could fit all the Christians in their large country in our one church building...probably in our fellowship hall...maybe in our house. Anyway, this young couple with a little boy (the same age as Treston) left everything and everyone behind for atleast a season of life in North Africa. They are learning what has to be the hardest language to learn, Arabic. Sally has been so good to share with me the joys, struggles, and culture shocks along the way, helping me to know how to pray for her. I have tried, and could definitely be doing an even better job, to let them know they are not forgotten.
We are all called to be missionaries. And all of us should play a part in international missions. I want to not only financially support mission work in places that are so dark and desperate for the Light of Jesus, but I want to encourage and help hold up those who are actually going!
There was a time when a missionary was completely disconnected from home, except by letters, if they made it.
Now, we live in a new time. We have SKYPE!!! Wow! We have e-mail, we have cell phones, we have texting!
Sally and I can talk face-to-face on Skype on our computers, and I get to pray for her, see her belly grow, (she's due in about 2 weeks for their second baby!) and love them.
I need to do that more! I need to send more packages! I need to do a better job of keeping them updated from home! I want to be the Sender that we're supposed to be.
So here's my encouragement in this...pray for your missionaries. The kids and I cover our missionary friends daily in prayer.
Make sure they know they are not forgotten.
Pray like crazy for their effectiveness in the Kingdom where they are.
See their fervor for their mission field, and be convicted for your own.
Pray for Jon and Sally, little Jude, and baby Brennan to come. They will be delivering with medical care not quite up to our standards, and language barriers are their biggest enemy in that. (They are learning Arabic, but people also speak French there. They are not learning French.)
Pray for their team, and their continued guidance on where God wants to use them.
Be a native missionary, and a Sender.

Watch This...

My awesome brother Brian works for Compassion and he is in Ethiopia right now. He is chronicling his trip on his blog, and it's amazing. What makes it even more moving is that his family is going to adopt from Buckner's orphanage there, and he is right there near it. His future children are right under his nose! I can't imagine what all he is feeling on this trip. Getting to see the pics and read his words is a gift.
He is travelling with his brother-in-law and dear friend Shaun Groves, who you may know, is a Christian artist. Brian posted this short video of Shaun's footage of this trip. I just watched it, and I'm still trying to type through the tears.
Take a quick look at a fraction of what Compassion is doing in Ethiopia.

Fellow Bloggers! Lend me your ears, lend me your tupperware!

God is doing a work in our hearts about missions.
Our church is being challenged like never before to look beyond ourselves here in America, where we are overfed physically and spiritually, and ask ourselves what role we play in sending the gospel out to the nations.
I have been wanting to involve my kids in our support of mission work. We have done that by making them very globally aware (learning about all of the continents, and the places around the world where people live in poverty and where people don't know Jesus), and by praying for missionaries and occasionally sending them care packages, put together by them.
But I have wanted us to do something more as a family that requires more than sending checks and sending our Daddy on mission trips. I want my kids to put thought and action into something...
This is the perfect way to do that!
My brother is involved with this organization, Living Water.
He goes on these mission trips where they dig wells and bring clean water to a community that has none, and then they bring the gospel message to them.
This is awesome, to see they meet their physical need for clean water, and then bring them the water that Jesus said will cause you to never thirst again!
I can imagine, after you do something like that for a community, you have their attention.
Chris' kids have done some fund-raising on their own for Living Water, and I thought that would be great for my kids too!
Our pastor just returned from India, and he said it only takes $1,000 to dig a well for a community that needs it there.
This is something I want our family to be apart of!
I watched this video from the website. I actually didn't know that the music was my brother's song, and my brother Chris is in it, when I clicked on it, so that is pretty cool. (Chris is the one with the scruffy goatee.)
It's short, so take a moment to see the people in Nicaragua revel in clean water.
Then I will tell you our game plan, and how I need your help!

Okay, so our plan is to make homemade salsa, and sell it to neighbors, etc.
We have had kids in our neighborhood hitting us up for whatever they're selling for years. And being the sucker I am for the cuties, I almost always buy something. Year after year, we buy wrapping paper, popcorn tins, and raffle tickets for stuff we desperately do NOT need so that the PTA flourishes, they get new band uniforms, and soccer teams can offer scholarships. That is all fine and good, but it's my kids' turn to hit up the neighborhood, and I want it to be for something eternally valuable!
So door-to-door we will go, selling salsa, and our goal is $1,000. If we sell them for $10, this means we need to sell 100 of them. This is going to take time for me to make that much salsa, obviously, but we hope to make it!
What would cut our costs cosiderably is this...if you could donate to me little storage containers, then I wouldn't have to buy jars to put it in. I plan on using the little Glad containers that we get when we buy deli turkey. Do y'all have those around your house? If so, and you live near me, would you mind collecting some for me and sending them my way? That would help the kids and I a ton!
Also, if you'd like to buy some salsa, that would help too!
We are excited about this opportunity. My dream is for the kids and I to someday to go on one of these trips. I know my brother goes frequently. How amazing would that be? I pray that this will cultivate a heart for missions and for those in need in my children as well. I pray God will move in them as He is moving in us.
Who will be able to resist my four adorable, little ones, pulling their wagon of salsa to their door? Hopefully, no one!

Missions and Orphans

This is my family.
It's no secret, we are passionate about adoption. We are especially passionate about trans-racial adoption. There is a recent post on the Lily 7 blog that I started about racism in the church. I would love to see some of you comment on it. That will be another post on this blog, specifically about trans-racial adoption.
This post is about caring for the orphans.
This post has been brewing in me because of what's been happenning in my extended family lately...my brother Brian and his wife Amy are pursuing adopting two kids that have been a part of a foster family in my other brother, Chris', church. (Confusing?) Chris has been burdened for these two sweet foster kids who have been in the system for over a year, and no family has been found for them. They have already been separated from a sister, and she was adopted out, but Andrie and Patience have been waiting. The agency is not a Christian one, and the likelihood of them going to a homosexual couple is increasing. The foster Mom has been hoping and praying that someone in their church would pursue them, but they have not. Chris was telling us a few weeks ago, when we were all together for my sister's graduation, about these kids. His face was literally pained as he told us about them. My brother Brian and his wife felt God prompting them through this, even though they live in TN, have four kids, no room in their house, and no money to spare. They have prayed about it, and felt a clear word from the Lord to pursue these kids. They are rushing through the paperwork and homestudy to become candidates with this agency in hopes that they will soon have 2 & 3 yr. old Patience and Adrie. They are African-American, and BEAUTIFUL kids!!! What a blessing that will be for my kids to have them as cousins. Please pray for God's hand in this and his favor as they move through this process.
It sparked a discussion in my family.
How should we feel about the orphans among us? When we received the call about fostering Treston, James 1:27 spoke to Rusty.

27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.

Some other words in scripture about caring for orphans...

Ps 82:3-4
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Isa 1:17
17 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.

It's a clear mandate in scripture to care for the orphans, but what does that really mean to us?
Well, I think it's exactly how we should feel about missions.
We should all care about missions.
It's a clear mandate in scripture as well to "take this message of repentance to all the nations." (Luke 24:47) No one questions that. Does that mean that EVERY ONE of us is supposed to do foreign mission work?
No.
But we should at least be asking ourselves about the role WE play in missions.
1st, what kind of missionaries are we here, where we live?
2nd, ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO FULL-TIME MISSION WORK WHEREVER GOD CALLS?
3rd, If not, then are we funding the people who do?
4th, are we training people in our own churches and sending them out?
5th, Are we praying for missionaries and their work?
There are so many roles we could play in this call to missions.
There was a time in my life when I didn't care enough about missions. When I was in HS and college, I respected missionaries...I had done GA's and Acteens...I did my steps...I got my crown...(if you're not baptist, you might be confused here.) I knew missions was very important. But it had nothing to do with me, and I was too self-absorbed to REALLY care.
As I grew in maturity and in my faith, I felt more and more burdened for people all over the world to hear the Good News of Jesus, and come to know Him as I do.
Rusty and I have asked ourselves all of those questions, and we are playing a role in many mission efforts. If the Lord calls us to be missionaries outside of Bryan-College Station, then we will go. The great thing about God is He will make it clear to us if that's the role we should play.
I think it's the same with caring for orphans.
Does this mean that every family should adopt or foster?
No.
But it means you should at least be asking yourself if you should.
What role do you play in caring for orphans?
You could help fund adoptions for families who want to adopt and can't afford it.
You can fund agencies like New Life that do amazing work in the lives of women in crisis pregnancies, unborn babies, and families who adopt.
You can join in mission efforts in orphanages around the world.
There are many roles to play.
What we CAN'T do, is look at the orphans among us and think they are someone else's problem to solve. Or that we don't have what it takes to help.
We have more than enough.
Romans 12 is one of my all-time favorite chapters, and the words have struck me anew in verse 13; "When God's children are in need, be the one to help them out."
I like how that's put. Don't wait for someone else to do it. Be the one. (Anyone remember that old Al Denson song? I just got a lift your lighter and sway back and forth youth group flashback. Wow.)
Again, I'm not saying that this means everyone should foster or adopt.
I just think we should at least consider if that's what it means.
If the answer is yes, you will know it. He has made that crystal clear to us twice. He has changed our hearts and minds to match His will. When he tells you to go get a baby, like he's told my brother and sister-in-law, it becomes a drive in you that you can't turn off.
If the answer is no, then choose another way to help.
But can we continue to call ourselves Christians and feel no burden for the children that aren't our flesh and blood?
1 John 3:17 speaks to that.

17 But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help — how can God's love be in that person?

I write this as a person who has a long way to go in applying this verse to my life. I know God has so much more to teach us about giving and doing what we can and should for the needy.
I hope all of us, and our families, will be open to what God has to say to us about this.
What will our families and churches look like after we've heard Him speak?

*I'm adding an addendum to this post. Does everyone love the word addendum?
If you want to act now, the Henry's are adopting Camille, formerly known as Denaya. (cute little thing!)
For those of you who don't know them, Mark Henry is our discipleship pastor at LH.
We don't want this adoption to be a financial strain for them. We want their financial focus to be feeding those six kids, and putting gas in their 15 passenger van. (Ouch!)
So they need $900. What a privelege it would be for us all to share in this adoption by helping them financially!
If you're interested, contact me or Heather and we will arrange it, or give it directly to the Henry's.
Also, if you're curious to know about the costs of adoption, I would gladly talk with you.