Abba's Hands

I am sorry that I wasn't able to find time to post everyday last week about the upcoming event, Orphan Sunday. But, I have incredible news to share. All the praise and glory goes to God the Father. I can't even begin to put into words how amazing He is. He is so faithful, good, just, loving, gracious, forgiving, and merciful. He is relentless in His pursuit of His children. I stand amazed by that.

Byron and I over the past couple of years have been seeking God. Seeking God to truly know Him and to know His heart. Its not been an easy road by any means, but I can look back really over my entire life and see God's mighty hand at work. I can't even begin to say how amazing His grace really is. Through this process God has placed a passionate desire, His desire, in our hearts. That passion is to care for the orphans. At times I think, was I really that foolish to not see that this has been God's heart from the very beginning of time?! It absolutely has been His plan from the beginning. Adoption is God's plan A! He knew when He made the world He was going to need a rescue plan, and that plan was to send His only Son, Jesus, to this earth to live a sinless life and take up on Him the sins of this world, to die on a cross, and to raise Him up to life again so we could be adopted into God's family forever!!! WOW!!! Once you get even the smallest glimpse into this picture your life changes. You immediately see how incredible the picture of adoption truly is.

For the past 4 or 5 months Byron and I along with our adult and family minister Chris and his wife Kristin, we have been working on an adoption and orphan care ministry for our church, Immanuel Baptist. This past Sunday we launched this ministry to our church. God went way beyond our expectations. We had an information meeting Sunday evening. We were planning for maybe 25-30 people. We had 65 show up. We had a sign up sheet for anyone who would like to be a part of the core group for this ministry. We had thought if we had about 8-10 that would be really good, we had 30 sign up for that. We also had about 10-12 application packets to become Foster Parents and they were all gone. AMAZING!!!

Abba's Hands ministry is a resource ministry. We are here to help in any area of adoption and orphan care. Our first step is to help in our local community with orphan care. We are currently putting together "Bags of Hope" for children who come into the foster care system. If its not hard enough to be pulled out of everything you know its to be pulled away with a trash bag to hold your belongings. No way is this okay. So we will give these "Bags of Hope" with essential items each child in need. Through our Missions ministry (which is one of the best I have ever seen) they have a great foundation already built with the youth shelter in Duncan. We hope to help there any way we can. Also, we do already have several families in our church who are foster families. We are coming along side of them to help in whatever capacity they made need. We also want to help gather information and support any families who are looking to become foster parents or want to adopt domestically and internationally. Our last area we are looking into is partnering with a church/orphanage in another country. We want to come along side of them in prayer, financial support, and also make it available for our church to actually go on mission trips to this church/orphanage and help in any way possible.

Its the beginning of something amazing, because its God's heart and His mission. We are just graciously blessed to be invited to be a part of it. We know that it is not a sprint and its a marathon, but we have the God of the impossible with us, leading us, and supplying all that we need. We will continue to be obedient and God will provide the results: lives changed for His glory!!!

(If you are on Facebook you can look for the group Abba's Hands and join. Hopefully, after the first of the year we will have a website up as well.)