Orphan Alliance Summit Take-Aways

I love that God had me go to this event. I thought it was to equip me, but really, it was to fill me. He has been growing this passion for orphan care in me for many years now, and since our hands have felt tied for the past 3 years regarding adoption, it is easy to wonder WHY God planted this passion in me if He won't let me do anything about it!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!

But...

The conference was used by the Lord to reassure my heart about many things. Here are just a few:
1. I am an orphan advocate. No formal title or training, no degree or certificate. We are all called to be speak up and fight for them, ALL of us. "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." -Prov 31:8-9 I am an advocate simply because I desire to obey God. I will speak out my story, and that means I will tell of all the fatherless that he has exposed my heart to... I will speak when they cannot. I may not have orphans in my home yet to care for, but God has given me a story to tell, and I will tell it.

2. I must align myself with God's spirit and hear HIS voice before I can truly speak out on behalf of the orphan. I cannot bring my own preconceived ideas about what God will do with me and how he will do it... that is foolishness. I must seek him and be willing to do what he has for me to do. So often I have wondered why he has not allowed Jason and I to adopt yet... "what's so wrong with us?" I can't help but ask now and then. But if I am willing to lay down my own plans and pick his up, I will not be disappointed, even if the path he takes us down looks entirely different than I had imagined.

3. In God's timing, nothing is a waste. That's a hard one for me. It feels like a waste. It feels like a big, fat, gigantic, huge, triumphant WASTE. But, I was reminded in a session that Moses and Abraham had MANY more years of preparation for their calling. God used all those years, and all the situations and circumstances of those years to prepare them to do what he had chosen them to do. And it was major. I want to be majorly used. I want to learn to appreciate this time as God's preparation for me to be used majorly, even if it's only in the life of ONE child, someday.

4. In orphan care, I must seek to find out what the children need, not impose what I think they need. Just thought this was so good to remember. Us good ol' Americans are notorious for assuming things (and we know what that makes us!) upon others. We go on a missions trip to serve in a poverty-stricken country, with good intentions, and give out money... and we create a dependency in others that breeds corruption and temptation for the poorest of the earth to steal. I'm not saying missions trips are bad! I'm saying that we need to be VERY careful in the way we go, in whose name we go, and in how we serve. It matters.

5. "There is no event in my life that I would be better without." ~Stephanie Fast
That's a quote from a woman who was a Korean orphan during the war there many years ago. She was taken to the train station by her mother and abandoned. She was around 4 or 5 years old. She was on her own for YEARS. No food but what she could find in the garbage or steal from others, no clothing, no shelter, no family, no medicine. She was beaten, raped, spit upon, cursed at, violated in every way. She was an outcast in her own country because she was bi-racial. She was rescued. Everyday people like you and me obeyed God and helped her. She was rescued and she was adopted. Just like every one of us who knows we need Jesus. Rescued and adopted. So she said this quote to us as she spoke, and she went on to say that it is true because she had found God's love, and he took every event and loss and pain, and breathed life into it, and now uses it for good. ~Surely, I can look at my own losses and pains (small in comparison, but mine to feel) and proclaim that "there is no event in my life that I would be better without." As heartbreaking as our adoption journey has been in moments, I can honestly say that I would not wish those pains away, because along with them would go the refining and the seeking and the growth, and the joy and peace of feeling God holding me in it all.

6. I am a frail, weak vessel... a clay pot, and yet God is pleased to use me. He WILL use me. He IS using me. I thought he'd use me to mother children who needed mothering. I still think he will one day. But, He is confirming to my heart that he is using me RIGHT NOW. If nothing else, people who know me now know where a little country called Liberia is. They know names of beautiful children. Their hearts are invested because they've watched our story unfold. I need to see that as enough, God wants me to acknowledge that that is not pointless.

7. I want to "steward my story" well. Mary Beth Chapman spoke one night. It was amazing to hear her speak about the loss of her daughter, and the way the Lord has been healing her family over the last 2 years. But the thing that captured my attention was when she spoke of the story God had given them to steward. We talk all the time about being good stewards of our money. What about the stories of our lives and circumstances? We have a choice about how we handle the things God has allowed to touch us. We have a choice about how we speak of them and how we speak of him. We can let our stories destroy our faith and even our lives, or we can ask God, in his mercy, to allow us to steward them well, to USE them. I want that. I have always been very aware that others are watching how we will respond to heartache and disappointment, but I am challenged to let the Lord use our story for his good... for his glory and his name's sake.

8. God has broken our hearts for the things that break his. And I am thankful. I am not saying it's easy, but I wouldn't want it any other way. If we are not broken over his people, over his children, then we need his softening. I did not ask to be broken hearted for children in the foster system. Or medical needs children. Or severely handicapped children (at the hands of their birth families). Or siblings groups of 4. Or 2. Or 8. Or biracial infants that no one seems to want. Or orphans in Africa. Or Liberian beauties by the names of Kelvin and Hawa. Or AIDS orphans. Or young women who are trafficked. Or starving children. Or children with diseases.
I did not ask to be heartbroken for them, but now I am. And there's no turning back. I am aware now, I am responsible to act now. I cannot turn away and leave them. Maybe all I can do is tell their story right now... but at least that's something.

9. God brings rain to the dry ground, and he rebuilds the pieces that he has torn away. He confirmed to me, over and over in the last week, that he will bring healing and rest and hope. He already is. I trust that he will complete what he has begun in me. I trust that he will continue to hold me close and teach my heart. I trust that he will care for those I love. I trust that when the tears come, he understands and is longing with me for the things that have captured my heart. What a great God we serve.