Abba's Hands & Heart

Something exciting is happening at our church this Sunday!  We are unveiling a new ministry called "Abba's Hands & Heart."  It's purpose is:  sharing God's love through orphan care, adoption assistance, and foster care support.  

Back when Heath and I were in the adoption process (for Tabitha I think), I read a book called "Launching an Orphans Ministry in Your Church."  I thought it had some great ideas, and I daydreamed about how exciting it would be to have something like that at our church.  But, being in the midst of the adoption process, our efforts were focused on that.  I remember thinking that someday, once we were finished adopting, that would be a neat thing to do.

So, fast forward to last spring.  Rayanna had been home with us for several months, and we had no plans for more adoption.  (In other words, no excuses for why we couldn't start a ministry like this.)  I started talking to Heath about it, and he was excited about the idea and agreed we should take action!  We talked to two of our pastors about it last March.  Then, from May up until last week, we had a series of meetings with other interested people from our church.  

It's been amazing to see God put the group together.  We asked a big list of people we thought might be interested.  Some were adoptive parents; some were not.  And in a couple of the cases, they've shared how God had been stirring in their hearts to do something in this area, but they weren't sure what.  We had no idea what was going on in their hearts--we'd only asked them because they were people who loved God and loved children, and had helped us with our adoptions.  But to hear how God set up the timing, and led us to share with them, and to see how perfectly they fill a need in this planning group....it's all been amazing to see!  We had been expecting to get two or three interested families, but it turned out to be about 10!

After all these meetings and all the months of talking and praying and planning, we are ready to launch!  This Sunday (Orphan Sunday) will be the big day.  Our group will be sharing the ministry with the church body and inviting them to join us in helping orphans!  We'll be sharing some opportunities for right now, as well as some ideas we have for later.  Some of the opportunities we have right now are orphan sponsorships, hosting an orphan for a month, financial support for families who are hosting or in the adoption process, and encouragement to consider adoption or foster care.  We also want to be a strong support network for families who are adopting or doing foster care, helping them through the challenges and the adjustments.  

Please keep this ministry in prayer.  Pray that God uses our church to glorify Himself and do great things in the lives of His most vulnerable children.  And, on a very practical note, pray that our church building has power restored by Sunday!  

We hope to have a website for the ministry pretty soon, and I'll share that link once we have it.  Thanks for your support!