300=$24,000

This is a post from my amazing hubby. He really wanted to add his thoughts so here they are.




A single man can do a lot by himself, but when a task is completed, or a goal reached, it is only him who can celebrate.  When a single man does something for the Lord, we know (from the Bible), that nothing is impossible.  Now imagine a group of people, trusting in the Lord, setting out to do something.  That is just what my family and I are doing.

  My wife and I are very family oriented, and believe the Lord has called us to have a large family.  He has blessed us with four beautiful children, but we believe He wants us to have more.  My wife and I have always talked about adoption, but never took the conversation much further.  That was until now.  Through much prayer, we believe the Lord is calling us to adopt, and to adopt from Ethiopia.

  We are not in a position to finance this mission on our own, and for too long this is what has stopped our conversation from turning into action, until now.  Looking at the 14^th Chapter of Matthew, just after the great miracle as Jesus feeding five thousand men, another incredible miracle took place.  Jesus walked on water.  Not only did he, God, walk on water, but He allowed Peter to do the same, as long as Peter trusted in Him.  And from reading verse 30, the winds picked up, and Peter began to fear, so he started to sink.  But, the Lord reached out his hand and picked Peter up.

  What the Lord has shown Melissa and I is we need to trust in Him, and get out of the boat.  The boat represents our lives, and how comfortable it is.  Going to Ethiopia to adopt a child is scary, and the financial burden is heavy.  Just imagine Peter looking out of the boat.  Scripture tells us the wind was strong, and the reason Jesus had to walk on the water is because the waves pushed the boat out away from land.  Peter trusted in the Lord enough to get out of the boat and walk.  Melissa and I believe Jesus is calling us to get out of the boat.

  Jesus will provide for us, beyond what we can imagine.  I do not know who said this, but it is something that has had a great impact on my life; “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.”  I do not know how we are going to get to Ethiopia to pick up our son, but I know God does.

  If you are reading this, and think we are crazy, I am sorry.  Not sorry because we are going outside of our means, but sorry because you do not trust in Jesus.  I trust that if this adoption works, it is because Jesus made it.  I trust that if this adoption does not work, that Jesus did not want it to.

  James, the half-brother to Jesus, wrote this (James 1:27): “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:  to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  Melissa and I, along with many others, do not just want to visit the orphans; we want to bring them into our lives.  Treat them as one of our own children.

  By writing this, I am not trying to talk anyone into adopting, or justify my actions.  The judgment that I seek is from the Father, not from man.  The main reason I am writing this, is because I am asking for you to accompany us in this journey.  I am asking that you pray daily for us.  Open yourselves up to receive the Lord, and he will use you.  Just as Peter began to fear, Christ reached out his hand and stopped Peter from sinking.  Through this journey, fear might strike us.  Jesus can use you to pick us up.

  Secondly, I ask that you pray about helping us financially.  This is the hardest thing for me to do, to ask for money.  I would do anything possible to earn it on my own, but that would not glorify Him who sent me on this journey.  If Melissa and I did this on our own, with Jesus of course, we would gain a son.  If we did this with you, we would gain a family.  You might feel that adoption is not for you, and you might be right.  But I hope you feel that adoption is necessary, for there are too many orphans out there, needing a parents love, and more importantly, to teach them about Jesus.

  We are at the beginning stages of this adoption process, and we now only need to raise approximately $24,000.  I am not asking for a single person to stand up and write me a check.  I am not even going to ask for a couple of people to take this step.  I would love to see a large number of people come together in this journey.  To make the numbers easy, if 300 people answered this calling, they would just have to give a onetime donation of  $80.  To make it even easier, that would be just $20 a month, for four months, or, $10 a month for eight months.  That could be $5 or $10 a paycheck (if you get paid biweekly).

  I ask that you pray about helping us, and any contribution is helpful.  Even just passing this message around can help.  If anyone has questions about this process, or just about adoption, I would love to talk about it.

In HIM,

Jonathan