Provision: Part III (Nate)

In continuation of a theme that seems to be woven into our experiences lately, I thought it would be good to show more of God’s provision for His work through us.

Just before our June trip to Guatemala, a Sunday School class (The Black Sheep) from the morning service at Maryland gave us some cash to use to buy watches. They knew we were going to need some extra supplies, because every time we’ve gone down there has been more kids than we were previously told. The week before our trip, we ended up buying about 45 extra watches after we got an expanded list of kids we would be visiting. The money from The Black Sheep was enough for us to absorb the extra cost of gifts less than a week before we left! Perfect timing.

Talk about a crazy time of year, the week before our trip was our anniversary and Rachael’s birthday. Apparently we were supposed to enjoy these occasions, because we went out to eat for Rachael’s birthday and were surprised when the waitress returned to the table at the end of the meal empty-handed, saying that someone else had taken care of the bill. That’s the kind of church we go to where someone else will see a young couple and pick up the tab for their meal! As if that wasn’t enough, for our anniversary Rachael got to come along with me on an overnight work trip where everything was taken care of for us. Happy 4^th Anniversary to us!

We can travel light.  Really we can.  We can fit all of the things we need for a week in one suitcase (with room to spare, if we’re lucky), which means we can take three other suitcases (and two carry-ons) full of things to give away.  Of course, the airline likes to charge for these extra bags. Fortunately, we were told by Jody, our friend in charge of all-things-service at eXchange, that there was some leftover baggage money from the last time we asked people to sponsor bags, so the extra baggage fees were taken care of.

Finally, we had planned to nest all our baggage on the way home from Guatemala so we wouldn’t have to pay extra baggage fees for the now empty bags. But we were short one huge duffel bag. We asked Rachael’s parents to consider getting her a bag for her birthday.  A day or two after we asked, a co-worker of Rachael’s mom happened to ask her (Becky/Rachael’s mom) if we needed any more luggage.  She had a large bag sitting under her bed that she wasn’t using.  The duffel bag she gave us is approximately twice my size with nice wheels to make heavy luggage almost manageable in a crowded airport. I don’t know how we could have managed without it. 

Each of these stories are neat in and of themselves. But, when we look at them all together, we are blown away by how great God has been to us and how faithful He has been in providing for our needs.  Thanks to all of you who have been and continue to be a part of God’s blessing and provision in our ministry and our lives!

Way Better than Lunch (Rachael)

This past September, eXchange considered what Jesus meant when he said, “when you fast,” (Matthew 6:17) and came to the conclusion that fasting isn’t an optional discipline (Jesus said “when you fast,” not “if you fast”).  As is typically the case with our church, the point wasn’t just to understand this intellectually, but we were actually expected to follow through and spend time fasting.  So, September 8-14, 2008 was declared eXchange’s week of fasting.  For this one week, the entire eXchange community was supposed to spend less time with food and more time with God.  Nate and I decided not to go the whole week without eating, but we did take a break each day around lunchtime and, instead of eating, sat on the couch, read, and prayed. 

 

Along with the Bible, my book of choice happened to be one of our (current) favorite relationship books: Why You Do the Things You Do: The Secret to Healthy Relationships by Tim Clinton and Gary Sibcy.  I was reading it to understand myself and Nate and how our vastly different personalities and backgrounds come together.  I was not thinking of Guatemala as I was reading it, and I certainly didn’t expect to find in it a quote that would perfectly capture the heart of what we’re trying to do in Guatemala.  But there it was, on page 110, right in between two sections on child abuse and emotional neglect: “As one wise observer put it, ‘Children need more than food, shelter, and clothing.  They need at least one person who is crazy about them.’”

 

Bingo. 

 

That’s it.

 

That’s why people from eXchange keep going back to Guatemala. That’s why John and Emily are adopting Juan Pablo. That’s why we’re running with this crazy idea of setting up a sponsorship program linking families from eXchange and boys at the Guatemala orphanages.  It’s because these orphans are taken care of physically, but they need more.  These abandoned boys have food, shelter, and clothing, but something’s still missing.  Even after all their physical needs are met, they still need someone to make them feel loved, give them focused attention, and make them feel special.   They need to know that someone out there (even if they never get to meet this “someone” face-to-face) is absolutely crazy about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abundance (Nate)

A while back, our friend Emily Wiggins recommended a podcast about adoption and orphans (check it out here:
Crown on Orphans). A couple of things stuck out to me that I’d like to reproduce here, and then I’d like to share some of my thoughts and reactions.

In the podcast, Crown Ministries mention that “It is God who allows us to make money and earn a living, God who teaches us to manage it wisely, and it is God who expects us to use those resources to fulfill his purposes- and caring for orphans and widows is a huge part of God’s heart.”

I agree completely that God has given us abundant resources in the form of his creation (water, plants, dirt, sun, air) and that, combined with our reasoning abilities and physical abilities, give us lots of options for how to “make” money and live. I also agree that God had in mind some specific uses for the stuff he’s given us other than just entertaining ourselves. For instance, maybe my ability to make more than enough for me to live on is part of God’s design. In Jesus’ day, a man could provide for his whole family by using just a donkey and his own hard labor. Aren’t we now able to provide so much more since we have tons of machines doing the hard stuff for us? Of course. So what are we doing with the excess? If we were truly using our resources wisely and in the way God intended, we should be using our abundance to help widows and orphans, as God commands us to do. Stated another way, our ability to sustain life is abundant and should be shared with those orphans and widows because it is a huge part of God’s heart.

In the podcast, they also mention some depressing statistics about the 130 million orphans in the world, many of whom are economic orphans. It flattens me that some families give up a kid they brought into the world because they feel like they can’t provide for the child. But the podcast also points out the hope mentioned in Psalm 68 as well. Just in case you’re so depressed by the statistics that you’re incapacitated and can’t bring yourself to do a quick search at www.biblegateway.com, here’s the part I’m talking about:

Psalm 68

5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.

6 God sets the lonely in families, ^[b]
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

9 You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.

10 Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, O God, you provided for the poor.

If ever I feel overwhelmed that there are just too many orphans to take care of, or that widows are just a part of society, I should come back to this passage. God does these things! He’s a father to orphans and a husband for widows. He’s an adoption specialist!

Which makes me wonder, if God is looking out for the orphans and widows, that means I can go about making my wallet fat and eating as much protein as I can while driving an SUV right?

Well I guess that’s true if I don’t want to be a part of God’s purposes on earth or care about the things he does, which is basically not being a follower, or disciple of him. But that sounds pretty futile to me and probably is the most depressing thing I can think of.

Maybe I need to consider how God goes about doing these things. The podcast quotes Rick Warren saying that the Church is the world’s biggest distribution network and the thing we’re supposed to move is compassion. God pours out his love on us (one of the ways is in providing for our physical needs), and, in turn, we are to pour out his love to the rest of the world.

Which brings me full circle. I have an abundance. I have excess. I am capable of providing for more than just my family. And if I’m not, I’m being disobedient and not being a good manager of the resources God has given me.

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

–Nate