For the cause of an orphan

It started about 6 years ago, when Caden was just a little tyke. "I'm going to this adoption seminar that the seminary is hosting".  "Ok" was my response.  I didn't have much interest.  Working full time, taking classes and heavily involved in a church, I didn't have time to think about orphans. I mean - we weren't really going to do that, were we?  Adopt a child?  Why would we need to do that - we had a healthy boy and Summer was pregnant with our second. I had two more semesters left and then it was time to find a ministry position. No, there was no time to think about an adoption - that was great for people like Steven Curtis Chapman and others, but it wasn't for me.

The topic kept coming up, and I kept saying, no, not really. Then, in the spring of 2009, the idea began to enter my mind all on my own and I actually started thinking... well, maybe. Just as I began considering it on my own, we received the news of our fourth pregnancy, and so the idea got shelved again. And, as you know, God had other plans for this fourth pregnancy.

After Michael's death, we committed ourselves for a year, based upon some sound advice, not to make a decision or even have a lot of discussion, toward having another child in our lives.  When January came - the year anniversary of Michael's birth and death - it was as if God opened the door of our hearts and the door toward adoption all at once. And not only adoption, but the even deeper calling toward the cause of orphans and specifically a calling we have toward the orphans in Honduras.

So, after weeks of contemplating our next step, and Summer doing a TON of research, we decided to take a risk and apply through America World - an International Christian adoption agency.  As of last week, they have accepted us into their Honduras program - God keeps opening up doors and we keep walking through them by faith.

This risk makes no sense  - we don't have near the amount of money it takes to fund an adoption. However, in our perception of things, God often doesn't make sense. It probably didn't make much sense to Peter that he was able to stand on the water either - and his faith failed, yet he experienced God's hand pulling him up in that time of unbelief. I expect there will be times like that in this journey.

The call, however, is too great to be led by fear. We are called to make disciples and what an opportunity we have with our own children where we are called to "train a child up in the way he should go".  To have the opportunity to do this with a child who is not our "own" biologically will be a great privilege and will display to others and our own children what it means for God to "adopt" us and call us His children (Rom 8, Gal. 5, Eph 1). God could still say no to us with this adoption - and we will need to be ok with that.  But as long as He says yes, we will follow and trust Him.

We value your prayers and encouragement along the way.  We'll post more info about the journey as we go along  - specifically we're praying for God's blessing on a garage sale we are having this coming weekend. Looking forward to seeing His hand in this!

World Gospel Outreach in Honduras

Check out what Summer and I will be doing in Honduras:  http://www.wgoreach.org

Heading To Honduras

We're at 13 days and counting till Summer and I leave for a medical and evangelistic missions trip to Tegucigalpa,  Honduras. For those of you who have received our letter via snail mail, THANK YOU for supporting us through prayer and financially!  We are blessed beyond words to have so many faithful family and friends in so many places supporting us in this outreach to the Honduran people.  


For those who haven't heard about our upcoming outreach trip, here's the scoop: 

World Gospel Outreach has been developing numerous ministries to the Honduran people, including a medical brigade ministry, providing medical, dental, and optical care over the last decade. Through the brigade, hundreds of people are helped and also hear the message of Christ shared. Many come to  faith in Jesus Christ. Our mission team will be involved with the medical brigade while in Honduras and we expect to touch the lives of close to 2000 people. 

We will be traveling with a team of over 30 people from our church and neighboring churches. We leave July 24, flying to Atlanta and then on to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We will spend a week ministering primarily in the area surrounding Tegucigalpa and will return on July 31.

This will mark the first time in our (almost!) 10 years of marriage in which Summer and I will be on a missions trip together. We are excited at the opportunity to grow spiritually together as we make ourselves available for God's work in Honduras. 

Our goal for this trip was to raise approximately $2800. Praise the Lord that more than half of this has been raised!  Another point of praise is that our childcare for while we are gone has been answered and we praise the Lord for the loving hands that our children will be in while we are gone.  

We ask for those prayer warriors out there to continue in prayer for us. The enemy hates it when God's people step up and get out of their comfort zone to minister and be involved in Kingdom work. At times it seems like he is working overtime. One of our team members has had to drop out because of health issues.Additionally, the distractions of the busyness of the summer has been an issue in our home, causing miscommunication. To minimize distraction, Summer and I will be fasting from Facebook and other media outlets for these next two weeks leading up to the trip.  We desire to be strong in our relationship with God and in our relationship with each other in preparation for this ministry. Please pray for us to that end and for the team as whole - for good health, attitudes and fellowship with each other and God. 

In addition to praying for us, if God so moves you to also contribute financially to help us meet our goal, you can still do this by mailing a check to Cary Grove EFC, 525 W Ada St., Cary, IL 60013. In order to conform with IRS procedures, on the memo of your check please write: Honduras July 2010 Team. However, do not write our names anywhere on the check. All gifts are tax deductible and you will be issued a tax deductible receipt.

We are expecting great things for the Honduran people - healing, both physically and spiritually!  Thank for your continued prayer.  We will be sending out an update soon after our trip.

~ Rick and Summer

toothless and growing

There he is - my toothless wonder. And yet another reminder of how fast he is growing up and how much less time I have to establish him in the understanding and knowledge of grace, wisdom and hope. Isn't it funny how we have this tension in life? We can't wait for our children to gain some independence so that they are not so dependent upon us, yet we want so badly to slow them down, to keep them "frozen" in place and to savor this time we have with them more.

The growth of his adult teeth propels me to take more seriously the growth of his mind and heart and spirit into adulthood. What am I doing to cultivate his physical, mental and spiritual well being? What am I doing to instill virtues such as patience, self-control, love and honesty? Virtues that are needed to live a life of godliness for the purpose of pointing others to God and for the purpose of a life of peace and good choices.

If you have children, what are you doing to instill these things? If you are in the empty nest stage of life, what have you done or are still doing? As believers - we must live out our lives in the world, but not of the world.  This faith practice plays out in the way we our parent our children and will leave a legacy for generations to come. It is such a burden, but one that can be light through the empowering presence of the Spirit and our daily surrender to that presence.

In Genesis 18:19 we read, "for I [God] have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

In a similar way, God has chosen us to "direct" our children and our household to do what is "right" and "just" - not in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the Lord - the way of the Lord.

Let us all hold fast to the role of directing in our homes - directing that is displayed through the example of righteousness and justice, having an aim only for being Christlike - for Christ embodies righteousness and justice.

It has been a couple of weeks since I have last posted and has been a difficult time, but these past few days I have returned to the office, garnered some strength and am able to look ahead a bit.

I was listening to the radio today and was touched by a poem by Amy Carmichael that someone read. "Touched" is probably too light... "Convicted" is more like it.

It reminded me of how my wife seemed so selfless in the moment of greatest tragedy. In the midst of great suffering, she considered others above herself by asking the doctors, nurses and the family around her on that January 22nd day how they were all doing with such a hard task ahead of them of delivering a baby that would not survive. She felt bad that they had to be the ones on call that day. She empathized with them, when it seemed to me that the natural, worldly response would be to hide in the pain. She did this because of what Christ has done for her - for what Calvary Love has done for her. May we all hold fast to live with Calvary Love as our motivation and our aim.

Calvary Love

by Amy Carmichael

If I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting "Who made thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou hast not received?" then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I find myself taking lapses for granted, "Oh, that's what they always do," "Oh, of course she talks like that, he acts like that," then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvarylove.

If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior than for my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can rebuke without a pang, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my attitude be one of fear, not faith, about one who has disappointed me; if I say, "Just what I expected" if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, "You do not understand," or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying "Peace, peace," where there is no peace; if I forget the poignant word "Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I hold on to choices of any kind, just because they are my choice, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am soft to myself and slide comfortably into self-pity and self-sympathy; If I do not by the grace of God practice fortitude, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have "a heart at leisure from itself," then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If, the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing my threshold, I do not shut the door, and keep that door shut, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily, if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel injured when another lays to my charge things that I know not, forgetting that my sinless Savior trod this path to the end, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel bitter toward those who condemn me, as it seems to me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the praise of others elates me and their blame depresses me; if I cannot rest under misunderstanding without defending myself; if I love to be loved more than to love, to be served more than to serve, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that to another the word of release may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not forget about such a trifle as personal success, so that it never crosses my mind, or if it does, is never given room there; if the cup of flattery tastes sweet to me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If in the fellowship of service I seek to attach a friend to myself, so that others are caused to feel unwanted; if my friendships do not draw others deeper in, but are ungenerous (to myself, for myself), then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I refuse to allow one who is dear to me to suffer for the sake of Christ, if I do not see such suffering as the greatest honor that can be offered to any follower of the Crucified, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my interest in the work of others is cool; if I think in terms of my own special work; if the burdens of others are not my burdens too, and their joys mine, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed; if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God.

Amy Carmichael, "Calvary Love," from If, by Dohnavur Fellowship.