Speaking Up for Teri Lynn

This little girl seems to get lost in the crowd.

She doesn't have a gripping personal story that tugs at the heart strings. She doesn't have more photos that give a bigger picture of who she is and what she likes to do. Just one blurry picture.

She does have people who care about her. They're praying for her. Speaking up for her. Trying to raise money and find her a family.

She is a beautiful girl who will turn six this year. She needs a family to want her and love her. She needs someone to rescue her from the baby house...not wait until she is transferred to someplace worse.

One blurry picture. A very short listing on the little girl's page. The remaining months of this year. People willing to speak up and raise money for her grant. Those things make up the best opportunity Teri Lynn has.

There is only one week left of the iPad2 and More Giveaway.

Please consider sharing her sweet little face with others so her family can find her.

Sell What You Have

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 12:33

Until recently, I didn't care much about money. As a stay at home mom with a large family, I tried to be frugal and be content with what I had. My husband worked and paid the bills. Overall, I just didn't think about money much. 


When I became aware of the needs of the orphans in Eastern Europe, and then became friends with some of the people living there, serving these children, money suddenly became more important. Suddenly, I wanted some so that I could help.


One great source of money to be able to give, is selling stuff. Look around your house and see through new eyes. When you want to help little children and your brothers and sisters in Christ, you start to see your stuff so differently. You see so many things that you don't need, things that you would rather give to be able to help someone. It becomes uncomfortable to live with excess when others live in need.

There is One Church, One Body, One Family. The Bible says when one part of the Body suffers, all suffer.


A friend of mine was able to cut her grocery bill by about half one month and use the money to help an orphan in need of a family! That to me is a picture of New Testament Christianity.


I often ask, Does God bless us just so that we can be blessed? Are we to stick our blessings into a big fat cushion and sit contentedly upon it? Or are we blessed so that we can share our blessings with others and then receive an even greater blessing ourselves than what we had to begin with?


The verse I shared in the previous post is a parable showing that we can persistently go to our Father when we want to help others. Sometimes though, He will show us things that we can do. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor." 

Persistent Prayer

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. Luke 11:5-8

This passage has become very special to me since I've started to seriously intercede for others. When we intercede for others, the Holy Spirit fills us with God's love for those we pray for. We care so intensely and we realize, like in the parable, that we have nothing to set before our friends. We are powerless and in poverty ourselves, so we go to God and ask Him to provide for them. Our love for them drives us to continue to pray and ask and not give up until our prayers are answered.

We may wonder why doesn't God just do those things anyway? Why do we need to ask? It certainly isn't because God doesn't care...it's because we need to care. We need His love and we need to love others.

Over the last several months the Lord has shown me over and over again that He cares about what matters to us. When He gives us His love for people we can't help but pray.We don't give up because we feel such a side-by-side love for them. We are compelled to keep asking because we see their need so greatly and we see no other option.

These little ones are worth loving with Christ's passionate love. They are worth persistent prayer. 

 

   






My eight year old daughter, Hannah prays for Delia every day. She said that Delia means so much to her that she will not give up until she gets a family. She says that the other children who get families give her hope.

Graduation

Graduation. Most of us think of graduation as a positive event. Finishing high school or college. New adventures. A new start.

Today I read of a different kind of graduation.

Imagine you are16 years old. You live in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. You live with your friends and the people paid to work at the orphanage. You don't have any family at all, or you may have some relatives, but none that can care for you.This place where you live is all you know and everything that you have. It is May and graduation is approaching.

You are in the oldest group of children. In a matter of weeks you will be turned out with the clothes on your back. You are old enough to take care of yourself now. What will you do? Where will you go? It is hard enough for anyone of any age to find work in your country. It will be harder for you. Everyone will know where you grew up and they will look down on you for it.

Your whole life will become about survival. Finding food. Keeping warm. Keeping safe.

Today I read about this graduation  here on The Bible Orphan Ministry's blog. They have a heart for these children. They know them. They know what will happen to them. They want to help, but they need resources in order to help.

We are all able to help a little. The Lord can take our little and make it into more than enough. That is the idea behind the iPad 2 Giveaway that my friends are doing. It is to raise money and awareness for Teri Lynn and The Bible Orphan Ministry. The money raised for the Bible Orphan Ministry will go directly to help them with their project to help meet the basic needs of these "graduates".

Please pray for the "graduates" and for the ministry team that is trying to help them.

Meet Macie

Now that Kathleen has a family, I'm going to advocate for a new little girl.

This is Macie. She is listed here on Reece's Rainbow's waiting children list.

Isn't she positively precious?? She reminds me of Kathleen.

She is already 4 years old. Wouldn't it be great if her family found her and brought her home before she turns 5?

This is what her Reece's Rainbow profile says:

Girl, born March 2007


This little rosy-cheeked dolly has Down syndrome; no other health issues were listed.


A family met Macie in spring 2011 and say she was all smiles and cooperative for her caregivers.  She was excited to give hugs to the family's lawyer, and they were told she is a very sweet and bright girl. Also, based on the group of kids she is placed with, she must be very high-functioning.




 

iPad 2 Giveaway

The iPad2 and more Giveaway is still going on for the rest of the month. My friends are raising money and awareness for both Teri Lynn, a little girl listed on Reece's Rainbow, and The Bible Orphan Ministry. It goes through this month and then they'll draw for some great prizes including an iPad 2 and a $100 visa gift card and whole list of other prizes.

Kathleen's family has this verse on their blog:

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 

I love that verse. When I have an opportunity to help, I always feel that I am the one who is blessed. I am praying that the Lord will bring others who feel blessed to have an opportunity to help Teri Lynn and the Bible Orphan Ministry.

Thanks to those who have donated already!!

More answered prayers

My main goal for this blog is to advocate for orphans and for the people wanting to help them. I wasn't planning on doing much sharing about me or my family. But God has answered a prayer that is personal and goes along with the purpose of this blog, so I want to share what He has done.

Last year we were hoping to adopt a little girl with special needs from Eastern Europe. We spent time doing research and talking with people from different agencies.  We have a large family and it didn't look like we would be able to qualify, but we were praying that the Lord would make a way for it to happen.

We first saw the little one we were hoping to adopt on Reece's Rainbow, but after a month or so she disappeared. When we inquired, we were told that they had to return her file because they didn't find her a family. We felt that she had lost her voice...her place to be seen.

We found a couple of agencies where she was listed on their waiting child lists. We were in contact with one particular Christian agency that had her information.We did everything we could before we found out that we would not qualify to adopt this year. We reached a point where we knew that the door was closed and there would be nothing we could do except pray and wait for the Lord to open it. We are still waiting.

But we did not stop praying for her. She turned 5 in April. We didn’t feel that she had a good “chance” at being adopted, but we prayed that the Lord would bring her a family and that she would not have to wait. We didn’t know if it would even be possible to ever find out if she was adopted.

Last week I was flipping through my notebook where I write my prayer requests and answers. I saw her picture and said a prayer for her. I felt very strongly to go check the online photo listing of the agency. Her picture wasn’t there.

I contacted the agency to see if they could tell me if she had a family and I got an e-mail back today. She is being adopted!! A Christian family is working toward bringing her into their family. I am so happy. God is so good all the time. The little girl we loved will be loved and will get a family. And the Lord allowed us to know that our prayers were answered. We can have peace in our hearts about her and not feel like we let her down.

I am just now able to see that He is working so much good through our having to wait. There aren’t even words for how awesome our God is.

Faith for Christopher

I thought that Kathleen would have a family before Christopher. I thought she had a better chance. Chance? Really? But I prayed for Kathleen to get a family. What did chance have to do with it? I know it's really silly to pray about something and then think in terms of statistics. How often do I pray about something then start doing the math and decide it's unlikely to happen?

There are 53 boys on the Down's Syndrome Boys 6+ page. Wow...53. He seems so lost on that page. What are the chances of Christopher getting a family? I'm just being honest...I think that very thought sometimes.

But I need to stop thinking that thought. If I'm praying, I need to have faith in God alone and stop taking any account of anything else.

Lord, Please help Christopher. Please make a way for him to feel Your Love. Please keep him safe wherever he is. Please bring parents who look into his eyes and see their son. Please make a way for him to be rescued.