the church

Unexpected Bonus

Posted on by kimnjed

Back in August when we realized God wanted us to head on over to Eastern Europe we were starting from scratch.  We had no idea what we were heading into.  We didn’t know who we would meet with, how we would save enough money…we knew nothing.  All we had were the email addresses of a couple people whose stories had touched our hearts.  I had been reading these two families’ stories on their blogs for quite some time, so of course I felt like I knew a lot about them, but they knew nothing about us.  It was a little strange to make contact and let them know of our plans. I mean, for all they knew we could be complete crazy people!  
(Ahem, no comments from people who know me in real life…I can see that evil glint in your eyes…) 
Anyway, it felt weird and strange, but I just knew I had to contact the ones who had gone before us, the ones who knew of this need that had touched the core of our hearts and the pit of our stomachs.  We had to tell them, and ask them to pray.  If anyone knew what to pray for, it would be them!  They’ve seen the need, they’ve touched the need, they’ve looked into the eyes of the lost and had to leave them behind.  They loved these children deeply, before we even knew they existed.  I know God’s approval is ultimately all that matters, but we truly wanted their blessing.  So, I contacted Julia and Melanie, despite feeling a bit ‘stalker-esque’, and I will be forever thankful I did.  You know why?  
They are AMAZING.
Julia and Melanie are my unexpected bonus.  I know they have prayed, and will be praying.  I know they ‘get it’.  They have fundraised, they have encouraged, they have trusted us to be the feet going where they so badly desire to go.  I do not take that lightly.  I am humbled.  Their faith has encouraged me and challenged me.  After the sometimes romantic-sounding adventure of  the adoption process was over they kept on, doing the day-to-day stuff of raising their rescued boys, yet not forgetting for a moment the ones left behind.  
So, there you have it!  My unexpected bonus is new friends who didn’t freak out when a stranger sought them out, but took the time to get to know our hearts and now have become amazing supporters of what God is doing through/in us.  Thank you Julia and Melanie.  Your support means so very much to us. 
If you want to see just how cool these two are…
 you can find Julia at her blog here where she does some pretty stinkin’ amazing advocating for the least of these.  You’ll also get to meet her former Lost Boy, now rescued and cherished, Aaron, whose dimples are to die for!!!  
And then please, please, pretty please go check out Melanie’s blog here where she advocates, shares her heart, and lets you in on the life of her former Lost Boy, the amazingly sweet and beautiful Judd.  Melanie is doing one final fundraiser to help send money with us to spend on the Lost Boys.  Check it out quick!  You don’t have much time!  GO GO GO!!!!  🙂
Is the Body of Christ amazing or what???

Rockin’ Week!!

Posted on by kimnjed

Oh my goodness this has been an AMAZING week!!!  God is showing us again that we are heading in the right direction and He’s got it all under control.  I’m amazed by Him.

Back up to August when we first decided to head to Eastern Europe for a “scoping it out” trip, we decided that the best time for Jed to take time off work would be in April.  April became our aim.  
Our local church here is a Vineyard Church, so we thought it would be cool to see if there were any Vineyard churches where we are heading.  We googled it, and low and behold there are 5!  We saw that there is a Vineyard church here in the US on the East Coast that has a partnership with those churches overseas to help shepherd them and send mission teams and such.  Cool!  We contacted a man named Vitaly, the church leader on the East Coast who is in charge of the partnership and found that he’s a native of the EE country and has lived in the States for 12 years.  Jed and Vitaly have been playing phone tag and email tag off and on since September! Jed wanted to find out from him if any of the churches there are doing orphan care and if there’s any church in particular we should try to visit.  


Well time passed and we were never able to really connect with Vitaly.  So, we booked our tickets and decided to just find those churches on our own once we arrive.  We knew of one particular city that looked like it had a thriving Vineyard church, so we planned to make that the last stop of our trip.  Fingers crossed someone there speaks a bit of English, right?  🙂  We already had our appointments set with orphan care organizations, so it wasn’t imperative that we find the church, but it would be pretty cool.  


This is where things get GOOD.  On Thursday Jed gets a call from guess who?  Vitaly!  They talked for a while and totally connected.  I love that about the Body of Christ.  Strangers are instantly brothers when they share a common heart and passion.  Vitaly shared his heart about the local church in EE taking ownership of the orphan issues.  He shared that mission teams are great and do amazing work, but if the local church doesn’t buy in the work doesn’t continue.  We totally agree!  Jed and I are local church people all the way.  We understand that we can bring our gifts and talents, but until it’s culturally relevant it’s only partially effective in making a long-lasting difference. 
So, Vitaly asks what dates we will be in EE, and guess what??  He arrives there the exact same day as us!  SHUT UP!!!!  Yep, he’ll be visiting from the US because starting the last day we are in county they are having a nationwide Vineyard conference -get this- in the exact town where we planned to be for the end of our trip! 
WAHOOOOOOOO!!!  God amazes me.  Apparently all the churches there have orphan care as their main outreach as well.  Sweet.


I contacted our travel agent right away to find out if we could change our departure date so we’d be able to be at the conference.  She said yes, there is availability, but it will cost about $640.00 to change our tickets.  Ummmmm never mind.  Jed says if God wants us there, He’ll let us know.  What’s $640.00 to Him when He’s provided so faithfully for the rest of the expenses for this trip?  


Then yesterday I get a text from a wonderful friend: “Change your tickets, I’m going to fund raise for the extra money, oh and if I can’t raise it all I’ll cover the rest myself”.  Bingo!  We have such a wonderful group of friends around us.  God comes through once again.  Seriously, how many signs and reminders do we need to show us that He is up to something big?  Just when I was starting to panic “What are we doing?  We don’t even know anyone in EE!  I don’t speak Russian!  We are really leaving our kids for over 2 weeks while we fly across the world to ‘check things out?’  We are nuts!”  Just then, God kicks in with awesome acts of faithfulness.  


He’s just plain good.  There’s no ifs ands or buts about it. 



I Love November

Posted on by kimnjed

November is National Adoption Month and Orphan Awareness Month.  Jed and I have been hard at work preparing a presentation for our church.  I am so stinkin’ excited to share with our body what we are most passionate about.  For our presentation we’ve been filming people from our church who have either been adopted, adopted a child themselves, fostered children, or somehow are actively doing orphan care.  It has been awesome.

I think sometimes when us passionate-about-orphans people get to really thinking about all the fatherless out there, all the babies without mama’s, all the boys without daddies, it can get extremely overwhelming.  God, why aren’t people doing more?  Don’t they even care?  I sometimes feel alone in my passion.  I think about the fatherless every single day.  I pray for the orphaned ones every single day.  I look into the face of my baby and wonder what his life would have been like had he been born in a different country.  Would he have been abandoned?  Would he be languishing in an orphanage with no one to hold him when he cries?  Most likely.  It’s too much.

Then I lift my head up and I look around.  I start thinking of ones I know who I can get on film from our church.  I think of name after name of those who have answered the cry.  

Phil and Kathy- fostered over 30 teenage girls and adopted their daughter through foster care.
Tim and Rosa- running an orphanage in Asia for disabled children.
Debbi- adopted as a child and so thankful to share how she was rescued by her parents.
Sam and Angie- some of our very best friends who are in Bulgaria RIGHT NOW! visiting with their children they are adopting.

Yes, the need is great.
Yes, many ignore the need.
Yes, the church needs to rise up.

But,
Many are answering the cries.
Many are not ignoring the need.
Many are rising up.

I know God is on the move and He WILL NOT forget His children.
And I am encouraged.

 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.  John 14:18