Today is Orphan Sunday. It's one day in the a year where many churches come together to bring awareness to children in need around the world. It's also a great time for pastors to remind their congregation that we are also orphans, that is until we are adopted by God through Jesus. "
he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:5-6
Today our church family recognized Orphan Sunday by having a Child Dedication Service. Three families whose lives have been changed by adoption dedicated a child today, our Mercy being one of them. Three very different testimonies of how the Lord has brought three different children into three different families. All with challenges, all beautiful, and all changed for the better.
Last year I wrote a post about Orphan Sunday, you can read about here: To Jesus Everday Is Orphan Sunday. Not much has changed since this post. There is still an orphan crisis. There are still millions of children living in situations that make them fatherless, without a family, in need of love, in need of Jesus. And the gospel hasn't changed either. Today, tomorrow and everyday is Orphan Sunday to Jesus.
Here is what has changed since last year. Last year on this exact same Sunday we didn't even know the face of our child. We were still waiting, praying, dreaming of a future day. Today that dream is reality. We not only know her face and her name, but we hold her, we kiss her, we love her on a daily basis. She is a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece, a cousin and she is ours. It was a joy filled day to have her in our arms, up on stage, dedicating her the Lord. It was a joy to share this with our family, friends and church. It is a day to celebrate because this little girl that the Lord hand picked just for our family, she is His. We are just the fortunate and blessed ones that get to love on her and care for every day and teach her about her Heavenly Father who loves her more than we do.
Scott shared a testimony today. It's as follows:
"I’m Scott
Miller and I was born in Kansas. I don’t remember that time of my life, and it
doesn’t define who I am. It’s really
become just a footnote on the pages of my life – because God had another plan
for me. My family moved back to
Pennsylvania where I grew up, eventually met my beautiful wife, and started a
family here – with Mercy as our latest addition. God had a plan for her life too, that was not
defined by where it started.
Many people
have said to us “what a lucky little girl, or how great of you to rescue this
little girl…”, but that characterization is so far from the truth. I wish I could say we were that noble and
fearless and strong, but we’re NOT – we’re just a regular family trying to
follow the Lord’s will for us. And His
plans for us just happened to overlap His plans for her. But make no mistake; He had a plan for
her. A great plan to love her and care
for all her needs. And His plan would
not have been thwarted if we had given in to our fears and said no to His
voice. No, He would have taken good care
of her without us. She would have been
fine. But we would have missed it! We would have missed out on the great
privilege of being a part of the Master’s plan, and being a part of Mery’s
life! Our family would not have been all
that He intended it to be without her.
This journey began with small steps, each one
bringing about new fears. It challenged our hearts, revealing a lack of
trust in God. Yet God met us in each one
of those fears and showed us He is trustworthy. He didn't beat us down
for doubting, He didn't condemn us for having little faith, instead He lead us
with grace; gently, faithfully, one baby step at a time. With every
decision and obstacle we faced God guided us. From the decision to pursue
adoption from China, leading us to fundraise for financial support, through
processing the endless paperwork, to the night we received our referral.
This was the night we saw Mercy’s face in a picture for the very first
time. We thought we would open her file from our agency and know
instantly that she was the one. But surprisingly, more doubt and fear
came. But once again God was faithful. Jeremy and Julie took time to sit and
listen to our fears and pray with us, the Reinfords, Mellingers and Witters
prayed for us and in the end God was faithful to assure us this was the very
child He chose to bring into our family. Then came our trip, where God
provided more blessings: airline seats became available on a fully booked
flight just when we needed them, Annie and Becky signed up to get us to the
airport, the Frank’s to get us home again, Jane’s mom, the Godshalls and the
Stehrs stepped in to care for our kids and best of all, in the midst of the
chaos, an incredible, unexplainable peace filled our hearts and minds.
The day we met Mercy was one of the most
amazing days of our lives. In the most surreal moment all those fears,
all those doubts just faded away at the sight of this little girl. The
one we prayed for, dreamt about, held in our hearts for what felt like
forever. There she was right in front of us, we could finally hold her,
kiss her, and touch her. She wasn't too sure about us, but it didn't
matter because we had a determination to win her heart. This first meeting was
only the beginning of a new chapter in our story: to earn her trust, teach her
what love looks like, and work hard to gain her affection in return. We
could now see a new purpose to our Lord’s process in leading us to this point: as
He walked patiently with us, building up our trust, assuring us of His love and
erasing our fears and doubts one by one – He was preparing us to do the same
for her. Mercy grieved hard in China. Our gaining a new daughter
came at a very great loss to her. She was giving up the only life she had
ever known, the only people she had ever known, to be with complete strangers
who didn't even speak a language she understood. She was terrified.
Trust and security came slowly – in fact the
process is still continuing today. She
has been home five months now and at times she still seems unsure if we’re
going to leave her and not come back. So
keep praying for us, that God would continue to build her trust and soften her
heart, and give her confidence that she is part of our family forever. Very
much the same as it was with our other kids; it didn’t take long before it was
hard to imagine life without her. Even
with all the headaches that a two year old can bring, everything’s washed away
with the wave of joy that just one little smile can bring. Our heavenly Father really does delight in
giving us good gifts doesn’t He!
Praise Jesus
that when we kept coming to Him with the same fears and concerns, He met us
with comfort. And every time we said
“But what if?”, He met us with peace.
And when we demonstrated again and again by our every anxious thought
that we just didn’t trust Him enough, He met us with grace. Thanks to each of you who prayed with us and
prayed for us through those hard days of doubt and uncertainty. Thanks to those who cared for our kids and
our home when we traveled so far away.
And thanks to everyone who continues to encourage and strengthen us now
in these times of change and adjustment.
It means a lot to us that we are not in this alone.
On this day,
even as we celebrate the joy of having these three new additions to our church
family, we wanted to remember the countless thousands of children around the
world who are in need, and the call of the Psalmist “to do justice to the
fatherless and the oppressed.” Our Lord
and Savior has a plan for each one of them too.
Be attentive to His voice; He may be asking you to be a part of one of
those plans. You heard about Operation
Christmas Child last week, and this week there’s another resource in the hub in
the form of an advent calendar from Lifesong for Orphans. It’s another great organization whose mission
is “bringing joy and purpose to orphans”, which they do through child
sponsorships, providing resources to adoptive families, and many other
services. These calendars provide a
scripture verse each day, as well as a fun family activity such as collecting
twenty cents for each winter coat you have in your closet to help provide for
children in need around the world.
These are just
two of so many ways you can act as the hands and feet of Christ in this area. And maybe, just maybe, He is speaking to some
of you right now about adoption. Let me
encourage you to listen carefully to this call.
You may think you’re not prepared for something that big. Guess what – you’re not. We’re not either! But He is bigger still! If He is truly calling you to this, He will
surely equip you for it. He “is able to
do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is
at work within us.” The Lord doesn’t
call everyone to this particular mission, but if you feel His prompting in your
heart – please don’t give in to fear.
His plans will be accomplished anyway, but you don’t want to miss your
opportunity to be a part of them. The
rewards are too great!
These kids all belong to Him ultimately. And as we celebrate that these three are now
part of our families, and part of your family!, we also commit them back to Him
today, and pray that they would grow to find their purpose in Him. We look forward to a future day when our
little girl will not think of herself as “I’m Mercy and I was born in China.”
or even “I’m Mercy, daughter of Scott and Jane Miller.” but as “I’m Mercy, daughter
of the King of Kings!"
We ended our celebration at a local Chinese Restaurant with family.
