Adoption Update

Our paperwork is back in Ukraine and ready for submission attempts come the first of February!  Please pray our facilitator is successful.  Thank you.  

Meanwhile, you can keep up with dear friends (Rick & Denise) as they are currently in country.  Visit their blog at: www.mortonadoption.blogspot.com

Testimony from My Dear Friend, SaraBeth

A Trip to Ethiopia to "visit orphans"... (James 1:27)

SaraBeth with Benium and Yunas

"Hey everyone.  I might have had the best day of my trip today (even though it was my first day of ministry).  I can't imagine it getting any better.  We met with Ephriam, who runs a sports ministry for the street children in downtown Addis.  We went to play sports with the children (which of course I always love).  Many of the children are abandoned and actually sleep out on the streets (the youngest one was 5 years old!!!)  I thought we were leaving to go home, but 20 of the kids hop in our vans and we take them to a restaurant.  I can't even explain the looks on their faces when they were told, "GET WHATEVER YOU WANT!" Needless to say, the next half hour was PURE JOY.  Cheeseburgers, milkshakes, mango juice, icecream, and all SMILES!  These are my two new friends, Benium and Yunas."

Please pray for SaraBeth and the team visiting orphans and exploring ways to get involved in ministering to our precious neighbors in Ethiopia.  

Pray for the Persecuted Church in India

INDIA WATCH: Christians Detained And Attacked Across India

Friday, January 23, 2009 (12:42 pm)

By Worthy News International Correspondents Rodney Drinnen and Stefan J. Bos

NEW DELHI, INDIA (Worthy News)-- There was renewed concern Friday, January 23, over the situation of Christians in India as several remained  detained on charges of "forcible conversion" and others recovered from injuries after Hindu militants attacked homes and prayer services, Christian rights investigators said.

Read More...

May our Gracious Lord grant wisdom and courage for our brothers and sisters for His Name Sake!

ADOPTION UPDATE

Our updated dossier is one piece short of being ready for notarization and apostilling which will take about a week to be done and into the hands of our adoption agency.  I have everything updated (i.e. medical forms, State Police background checks, homestudy, marriage certificates, and countless other tedious documents, etc...) with the exception of a little letter from our mortgage lender.  

Prayer Request #1:

Please PRAY that CHASE Home Finance will be able to get that done for us (it's already been one week of waiting) as soon as possible!  :)

Our goal and hope is that we can get our complete dossier in the hands of our Ukrainian facilitator by February 1st and to translation officials.  Ukraine begins accepting dossiers for 2009 beginning on February 7th.  

Prayer Request #2:

Please PRAY that our dossier will be submitted in the month of February.    The likelihood of travel after submission is about 3 months later.  

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."  Philippians 1:3-6

Recommended Readings...

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed By A Relentless God

Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski

"Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions?  God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself.  Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts - it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same."

Just Courage

Gary Haugen

"There comes a time in the life of every believer... where a voice inside us simply asks, 'Now what?'  Haugen describes this phenomenon as, 'a voice of divine restlessness',  'a voice of sacred discontent', and a 'voice of holy yearning for more'."  Read More of a Book Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed both of these books.  They are a refreshing challenge to loose the bonds of comforts and control... to let go of selfishness... to seek God in His Word... to follow Jesus.