What do you want for Christmas?

Do you have a wish list for Christmas?  Perhaps a new toy, a power tool, or a piece of jewelry?  Maybe you have everything you need and you are grateful to God for that.  I hope most of all that you are focused on Jesus Christ and the reason He came to earth as a little baby.

I've been trying to find ways to focus my mind and heart on the true meaning of Christmas and to help my children focus on more than what "people are going to give me."
Have you heard of "The Advent Conspiracy?"  It is one way to refocus the season for you and your family.  It has been helpful for me.  There are four parts: 1) Worship Fully, 2) Spend Less, 3) Give More, and 4) Love All.

There are children around the world who are asking this Christmas for a mom, a dad, or a family.  Music and pictures together really get me so grab a tissue and sit down and watch this short video. ~Jason Wiens (adoptive dad)

Adoption/Redemption

Some day I hope my children will all be "Born Again."  We read about Nicodemus in Sunday School this past week and how blown away he was by Jesus' words to him.  He thought it was impossible.  Many people today think the same thing.  They don't want to submit their lives to Christ and say, "take control of my life, I'll do what you want me to do."  Both births can be messy but the end result of both is also beautiful.  I hope all of my children will be born again some day.  It will bring me great joy.

For some, "Born Again" can mean "Twice Adopted."
My youngest son is adopted.  I hope someday that he will accept his adoption into God's family and find joy and peace with God as his father.  But both of his adoptions come with grief and loss on one side, and joy, peace and security on the other side.  Did you come into God's family kicking and screaming?  Many of us look back on the life of sin we once lived and are tempted to go back to its worldly pleasures.  This concept was expressed so well by Dr. Moore in his book "Adopted for Life" when he talked about the day he drove away from the orphanage in Russia with his two boys.  They had joy, security, love and true pleasure awaiting them in their future but they had never been outside the walls of their orphanage.  The noise of the car they were in, the wind on their faces, the bright lights... all of it was freaking them out.  We must recognize that although we are doing a good thing when we care for the orphan, there is grief and loss experienced by the child as well as members of the birth family/adoptive family.  It is our job to help our children as they wrestle with these overwhelming feelings.
Too often as members of God's family we lose sight of the beauty and the outrageous scandal of the story we live in.  Listen again to what the Bible says about this story.
Jesus says, "you did not choose me but I chose you." (John 15:16)
Jesus says, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." (John 14:18)
The Bible says that Jesus died for us while we were His enemies. (Romans 5:8)
You might think that the beautiful part of the story is that you were so smart that you chose to be part of God's family.  It's different than that.  God has been called by one poet, "The Hound of Heaven."  He pursued you and sought you in some pretty dark, lonely places to bring you to Him and bring you into His family.

One adoptive dad writes about his thoughts and experiences with adoption.  He says,
“My friends, adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous.  Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him. And when He redeems us, we can’t even really appreciate or comprehend it, just like Dimitri will never comprehend or fully appreciate what is about to happen to him … but … he will live in the fruit of it. As his Daddy, I will never expect him to understand all of this or even to thank me. I just want to watch him live in the benefits of my love and experience the joys of being an heir in my family. This is how our heavenly “Papa” feels towards us. Today, settle your busy heart down and rest in the benefits of redemption. Enjoy the fruits of His goodness, and stop trying to “pay Him back”. You’ll never get close you goofy little kid.” - Derek Loux

Orphan Care Ministry Prayer Time

Join us on Sunday, December 5, from 6-7 pm at church for a time of prayer.  The focus of this prayer time will be on our orphan care ministry.  As we begin this ministry together as a community of faith we desire to know what God would have US do together for Him.  What an exciting time!

Orphan Care and The Gospel

You hear it every sunday when you come to CTR and it is written on the front of your bulletin, "Christ the Redeemer-An Evangelical Church.  We exist to glorify and enjoy God as we build a community of Gospel-centered people."  It is simple but very profound.  How does orphan care fit into "The Gospel" and living out "a community of Gospel-centered people?"  Watch the short video below for one perspective on how that works itself out.  ....We were once all orphans and strangers in this world but Our Father set us an example by adopting us into His family.

Orphan Sunday 2010 from Matthew Wilson on Vimeo.

I would like more information about fostering and/or adopting.

If you would like more information about how to begin the process of fostering and/or adopting please send a message to offthewallministries (at) gmail (dot) com and we will try to put you in contact with a resource person at CTR who has been through the process.  Hopefully by having been through the process once or twice already we can help one another and remove some of the barriers and hurdles along the way.

I am willing to help out in orphan care in this way.

One of our first posts was "10 ways for every Christian to be involved".  We also did a little brainstorming and put together a list of practical ways you might use your gifts here at CTR to care for orphans.  Please add a comment below about how you would like to be involved or you can email us at offthewallministries (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ideas of ways to be involved

Babysitting

Blog and web development

Media/Video/Story Telling

Setting up for a conference


Encouragement (note, phone call, email)


Cooking Meals

Fostering

Adopting

Respite Care-for those fostering

Prayer

Fundraising

Giving

Notary Help

Legal Help

Medical Help

Counseling Help

Building Help

Plumbing Help

Mechanic Help


Orphan Care Ministry Team

other....

I would be interested in attending a meeting/day conference to learn more about adoption.

Hopefully in the late spring or early fall of next year (2011) we will have a conference on the topic of orphan care.  We are in communication with some other Christians in Spokane who also have a heart for orphan care.  Perhaps we can pool our resources with these people and learn together how we can be more organized, more intentional and more supportive of one another as we seek to care for one of the most vulnerable populations on earth.

In the meantime here are a couple of conference resources to check out for your enrichment and edification.

1) Here is a link to a good website with a conference called "Adopting for Life" put on in February of 2010.

2) T4A or Together for Adoption put on their annual conference this past October 2010 and they will have audio available soon as well which will be a valuable resource.