Only God ...

Today was full of God’s grace and mercy…only God can orchestrate something as perfect as this…only God! This morning Dave, Erica and her group met us at Levi’s and Jessie’s house at about 10am. Abdisa came shortly after and we all headed to church to meet our kids and for Bryan to preach. Jessie joined us, and God’s timing was just perfect. We drove out to the poorest part of town, sort of remote, with only dirt roads. We passed mud huts, and shacks. Poverty was abundant, including the witch doctors house. Abdisa took the time to show us how people lived and explained that there was no running water or electricity. The children around the neighborhood looked hungry and thirsty. The church was just off the road and was a make shift building with a play ground and a sanctuary made from big sticks and tarps. When we pulled into the compound all the children from the orphanage were standing in a group chanting “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,” and clapping their hands. Immediately we could see Meskerem, Eyob and Samuel in the mix of children holding flowers to give to us. We walked up and they came forward, scared and with BIG smiles on their faces and greeted us with hugs and flowers. Eyob was so excited to see Cadenn and Coral. He gave us all big hugs and told us we were welcomed. All of us were SO nervous, and there was not a dry eye among us. My hands were shaking as I greeted my daughter and my sons…ONLY God could put this together. What follows is amazing. We all walked into the church and they sat us up front of everyone, our whole group. Abdisa announced, “Halleluiah! God is good today is a good day. Meskerem, Eyob, and Samuel have parents today that have come for them. Welcome Bryan and Andrea! God bless you all.” The worship team was singing native songs and everyone was clapping their hands in joyful celebration of God’s love. After the worship team sang, Abdisa had us all introduce ourselves. When it was our turn, all of us got up and Bryan introduced his new family…ONLY God! Abdisa asked us to sing some songs and some of us took turns leading them in worship. This was much different than Kenya, where most people speak good English, hardly anyone knew what were saying, so Abdisa translated. After song, Bryan preached about a 40 minute sermon with translation…on God’s love and James faith without deeds. Everyone there said “Amen”, they understand what deeds are. They know that they are saved by grace, but they also know that we can’t say we love God, if we don’t show love to our brothers and sisters. Abdisa was passionate and was preaching like a Southern Baptist Preacher. Our kids constantly smiled and checked us out. You could see the excitement in their eyes, and the fear. But God is good and they listened intently…ONlY God! After the sermon, Abdisa added to Bryans teaching, translating for us now. He was saying that the love of God was shown in our deeds to be obedient to hear God’s word and come to show the love of Christ to them. That Jesus was glorified in our actions. That Paul taught grace, and James taught deeds, and one with the other is dead. The love of God in us is evident by what we do, and they could see the miracle of God today in these brother and sisters that traveled over 20 hours to come to Ethiopia to love the needy and share the love of Christ with them. They were all so thankful, “Amen, Amen, Amen”, they repeated over and over, then came the trilling of tongues and everyone shouting praises “Hallelujah, Amen”….ONLY God. Abdisa then called our children forward, we came too and he wanted to pray over us. His wife came out and hugged us and began the prayer because she was one of the primary care givers at the orphanage. She was beautiful. She prayed over us all, who know what she said but it was good. Then Abdisa began to pray. He prayed a blessing over each of our children. He was speaking Amharic and it was anointed. My children, Eyob especially were moved to tears. My heart was full and we were all crying, tears of joy, and tears of praise….ONLY God! After the prayer Abdisa announced God’s goodness that He would put together such a beautiful word from the Lord, and then follow it by these precious children gaining parents. He thanked us all and invited the congregation to greet us and shake our hands. The administrator of the church came up to us and introduced himself. He expressed his gratitude for the sermon and told Bryan he was so happy he preached on that subject, that the people could see the evidence of God’s truth in this group of people. ONLY God could make this come full circle. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN when you pick up your children. We met our children in a worship service…giving glory and honor to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! ONLY God could make this such a smooth transition…ONLY GOD!! Today I praise the Lord of this earth for our family. I praise Him for orchestrating such a beautiful worship service and bring a beautiful family together. The kids are home with us now. We went for an Ethiopian lunch where they all ate well. We enjoyed soda and laughter. Then we went to Kaldis (just like Starbucks) for some ice cream and coffee, it was the first time they had ever eaten ice cream…what excitement. Once we were done we came home. Thank God for play dough, it is a great thing to bond over. Right now, I sit in the living room, listening to the laughter of all 9 (Levi and Jessie have 4) children playing a game of football…ONLY GOD!!! Tomorrow we are off to the Thomas Center, to see the others meet their children they way we were supposed to meet ours. We will spend time at the Thomas Center playing with the kids and then I think we will go to the beauty salon for some special treatment. Our children are so beautiful. I was watching Bryan earlier staring at them with tears in his eyes. God is so good, we are so grateful…ONLY GOD!!!

God is Good...

Making Chapati...sort of like a tortilla

Abel and his mom...please continue to pray for healing for him

One of the board members with Pastor Cyrus and Corals crazy glasses

Phiny, me Justin and Brien after we passed out their clothes

Little Lucy, Pastor Cyrus' daughter

Dorothy and chocolate..YUMMY

The kids when we first met them, it was strange, because we were so stressed from the accident, but they were waiting with loving arms.

FREDS BIKE!!! Praise the Lord, now he gets to bike 12 miles a day to school rather than walk.

Praise the Lord!! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angles, Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters about the heavens! let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created!

First, I want to say Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you SWEET CAILEE!! We are so blessed to have you as a daughter, and we LOVE you more than words can say. We pray you have a VERY blessed day!!

Love you Chris, Chloe and Cyilea...You are so precious to us.

We are in Addis and loving it. The Lord has healed, and He has restored! Praise Him!

Today we went the NGO bizarre! So much fun! We met with Dave and Erica and their group and just had a great relaxing time. We were able to meet with other ministries and network and of course meet new friends.

AND.....Abdisa was there. He is our in country representative, who heads up the orphanage! He met with Erica the night before and asked if Bryan would preach on Sunday at his church. So when we met today (unexpectedly) he was so overjoyed and praising the Lord. He asked Bryan to come tomorrow to Bulbula and preach and lead worship! What a privilege it is to be in a foreign country and be asked to speak! We are so excited.

AND...Abdisa said that we will be able to meet our kids tomorrow instead of Monday!!!! They will be the church service, and will meet them during our worship hour!! We will be able to take them home tomorrow after the church service!! Praise the LORD!!!! God is so good. Not only will the Shubins be there, our new friends will be there as well! What an experience we will never forget. Just this morning Abdissa said that Eyob told him that his family was here and that he was so excited!

I am nervous and excited. Tomorrow at church. Please pray for our kids and us. Please pray for a good transition. We will have more time together and I know that the Lord is in control.

Tonight Pastor Cyrus called and the children sang for us over the phone! "Farewell, farewell, farewell...we will never, never forget you!" What a joy!

Okay friends, i know this is short and sweet, but we need to get to bed soon tomorrow is a big day!! I will try to post pictures now.

All of our blessings!

Jamba...Bisimono... Hello and Goodbye from Kenya

JAMBA….BISIMONO…. Hello and Good bye from Kenya! We obviously have not had internet connection so it has been silent, but we are alive and well. Actually I am typing in the Airport awaiting our fight to Addis. It has a been a long….4 day journey to say the very least. We have had some ups and downs and even downer (that is my new word), then up…and down again. However before I begin, I must praise the Lord for our safety and for the miracles He has preformed. Before we left for Africa, we had prayed over and over aging that the Lords glory would be shown to everyone we meet. Also that the people would see Jesus not us. We prayed for Gods will in everything. I had to be reminded of this the very first day in Nairobi. Our travels were long of course but we arrived in time into Nairobi. Pastor Cyrus was an absolute joy to meet. We found him holding a big yellow sign that said WELCOME BROTHER BRYAN, SISTER CORAL, BROTHER CADENN, AND SISTER ANDREA Welcome to Kenya. We were immediately warmed and greeted by big hugs and smiles. We rented a car in advance from a Christian organization and the driver and Ginny (a missionary) were there to greet us also. We arrived late so we drove to the worst part of town and there was our hotel.. Ginny warned us to stay with Cyrus and to hold on tight to our things…we were not to walk in Nairobi, we would be robbed. As you can imagine, we were not comforted. However, God is good and we were protected. We had a good night’s sleep and early the next morning we were off to the village. The drive was long about 8 hours. Cadenn sat up front with the driver, Evans, and Coral and I in the middle and Pastor and Pastor Bryan in the back seat. The towns were beautiful, and poverty overwhelming. I have seen poor, or so I thought…nothing could touch this. Kisii is thick with green and trees. There are huge banana trees, pineapple bushes (no they don’t grow on trees), tea farms, canopy trees, pine the whole gamete. The beauty of the rolling hills could not distract us from the lack of resources such as housing, food, water and clothing. About 30 minutes from home, we were coming down one of the hills at about 80 klm, that is 60 mph. when we would have to learn quickly what truly leaning on God meant. In Kenya, you drive on the left side of the road. Everywhere you pass there are people and children, walking to get water, or going to school. It seems the children know not to cross, or at least look both ways. There was nothing to prepare us for what happened next. There were three little boys on the right side of the road waiting to cross. Just as we were coming up on them at about 60 mph., one little boy ran out in front of the car. Evans stopped as hard as he could without rolling the van and we hit the boy, straight on, on the driver’s side going about 55 mph. Water from his jug splashed all over the window shield. His body flew to the left shoulder of the road and there he lay. His head was split open in several different spots, and I knew he was dead. Cyrus told Bryan that the boy was gone…no way he survived. We began to stop and Pastor told Evans to keep going. Cadenn, Evans and I were the only ones to actually see the boy get hit, and I was hysterically crying out to the Lord. Confused and listening to Swahili being shouted, I didn’t understand what was going on and why we would leave this boy. Cadenn was traumatized to say the very least, and in a shock like state..he didn’t even remember where we were going. We drove to the police to report the accident and then to the police station. Evans was immediately taken into custody, we were left by ourselves in the van crying and begging God for healing for this boy. This is where the miracles begin. First we are white skinned deep into Kenya, and we were not questioned as would have been normally. Secondly, sometimes the government will do more than just question, they will detain, arrest and interrogate. None of that happened. The reverse actually. The cousin of the fathers boy, actually came up to the car and saw us praying and crying and told Cyrus, that the boy was alive because we are pastors. Cyrus, told us that we needed to pray and then “Let God work”. The police came and released us and told us to go home. Cyrus arranged to get us to the village safely. We were all so sick to our stomachs, and Cadenn had broken down by this point. The ride to the village was sickening and I wanted to quit. How were we to go on and smile and be welcomed by the kids. The children were there, and the first thing we did was to gather the children and all, hold hand and sing, Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. The next miracle, they do trust Jesus. Not like I thought I did. They really trust. They pray ask for healing and then leave it with God. I trusted God could heal, but would he? What about my boy, what did he see? It would forever be an image in his mind, mine too for that matter. Did I really trust God? I don’t think so. All my logic was too strong and way more powerful than my Jesus, sad to say. Once we sang, Cyrus left us for the police station. The poor kids not understanding our tears, sat staring and wondering. Cyrus did return with Evans, the police released him, yet another miracle. We ate and were comforted by our new friends. Cyrus, kept telling us the boy was doing better, although I didn’t believe what he was saying. Not that I thought he was lying, but I thought he was trying to comfort us with empty words..especially Cadenn. By night’s end, we received a call from the cousin again, saying the boy was alive and being treated. He thought that he would be fine. Again, I didn’t believe, I didn’t receive the call and I knew Cyrus was so worried about me and Cadenn. That night Ginny called, and told me that this was a “demonic appointment” meant to discourage us and to drive us away. It was working. I could think about was to get on a plane to Ethiopia, and wait for our kids. No ministry, no orphanages, just hide. I was so sick, I couldn’t eat, couldn’t hardly talk…neither could Cadenn, or Coral. Ginny prayed for us that night, asking the Lord to heal the boy, Abel, and to bind that roaring lion, who only seeks to devour, kill and destroy. That night we slept better than I expected. I was worried for nightmares for the both of us…but God prevailed. The next morning, we ate with the precious children, and had to do business concerning the accident. Cyrus left us with our new friends, and we tried to relieve our minds by playing with the children. I have far too many details to share with you about the kids, and will at a later time. The next few hours were spent at the government officials office, and the police station. Cyrus always escorted us to safety a ways away from where the discussions took place because he didn’t want any problems with us. When we didn’t stop for the boy, it was the best and smartest idea, another miracle, we would have probably been mobbed by the people standing by. Cyrus knew this and decided that there were plenty of people to get the boy to the hospital, we would run and get the police (no 911 in Kenya). We got a call from the boys father saying that he was fine, and that were welcome to visit the hospital. That it was because we were pastors and praying for a miracle that the boy was still alive and healing. Now, logic….we hit this little (I mean little) 7 year old boy doing about 60 mph. He only stood at the top of the grill. We hit him so hard he flew to the side of the road. I knew he would be dead or die soon. The MIRACLE…the boy is healing well. “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding”….is truer than it has ever been before. I can believe, but I can’t. Our God is MIGHTY to SAVE…HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE! We went to visit Abel in the hospital (which in its self is a sad site) however, he was pretty battered, swollen face and eye shut, but ALIVE and talking and taking food and drink. Cyrus talked to him and he responded. Of course I just sat and cried as I watched him sit up in bed and half way wave to us. Mama by his side looking as worried as I would be if it were my son. Cadenn found healing as did I and Evans. Thank God He is bigger than we, I had him dead for sure. He WAS VERY ALIVE. As if we didn’t have enough excitement, Coral began to pass out in the hallway of the hospital…it took several of us to keep her eyes opened, so that she wouldn’t hit the ground. All I could think of was I didn’t want them to try and check her in. Today we got another report from the father…they are sending Abel home tomorrow…THANK YOU JESUS. It just showed me, that we depend way too much on our selves, if I have a headache I take an advil…if they have a headache, they pray. This was out of my hands…I would have stopped, I would have made very wrong choices…God was in control. Since then we have heard of many stories of a person hitting someone and then being mobbed..or worse killed…God is faithful to finish His work to completion. We left the village today…with a whole other set of drama nothing in comparison to the above story, which I will spare you all the details until I arrive, let’s just suffice to say we knew we would be in a major spiritual battle, but we never dreamed it would be like this. We are in Addis now with our new friends and relaxing…thank you so much for all of your prayers. I am still trying to process the greatness of God… Tomorrow we will meet up with Erica and Dave and do some stuff around town. Then hang out a bit and have a coffee or something. We are far more exhausted than we thought we would be, so we will see how the day turns out. Good news is we can be online here. I will try and upload some pictures later…for now, I am tired and must sleep. Blessings

Not quite there yet...

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
2 Corinthians 2:14

Is that not beautiful? Through US...He spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him. Thank you Jesus that you would give all of us the opportunity to know you and then to spread the lovely aroma of you to the lost and dying world.

We are in Detroit. Soon we will be on a plane to Amsterdam...we are right behind you Erica! This is sort of like a dream...our kids are waiting and only a few days separate us from them. I cried this morning when leaving. I was fine, but then looked at the faces of the four children left behind and they were wanting their mommy but desperately trying to hold it together to show their excitement for their siblings coming home. I was so proud of them and how they put on their happy faces and waved good bye. I did just fine too, until I rounded that corner, out of their sight, and cried. Why?? Why was I crying? Maybe after this long anticipation, it became SO real. Maybe, I am getting older and just don't like leaving my babies. Maybe I am hormonal for all that matter :) Never the less, I cried just for a moment. Then cried again a couple moments later when I thought of the sweet little brown faces that are going to greet us in Ethiopia, and call me mommy.

My heart is bitter sweet. Excited to meet our children, Pastor Cyrus and all the beautiful people we will encounter. Yet anticipating sorrow. Sorrow to leave behind 147 million minus 3 orphans behind. Sorrow to see a hungry nation, with a lot of loss. Excited to share the love of Jesus with them! Sorrowful to only be able to help a few.

Lord, You love these people...send your workers, the harvest is ripe!!

I sit in Detroit...my husband sprawled out on a stretch of three stuck together chairs, my son gazing out the window at the enormous bird we will be boarding, my daughter sitting and wighting in her journal. I sit, waiting... waiting... waiting.

I think the Lord is waiting... waiting... waiting... too, for his workers. The ones that profess His name with their lips. Waiting for them to take the first step of faith... waiting for them to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Him to all Ethne...all nations! He most certainly does not need us to accomplish his purpose, but He would Love to use us, if we are willing.

We are privileged to be on this journey with you. I am praying for you and the journeys you are on. May we all spread the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ!!

See you in Africa!!!

Three Days and Counting...

Okay, we have three days until we are on that big bird flying to Kenya...then Ethiopia. I can't tell you the mixed feelings I have about this. First of all..is this real? I mean we have waited so long (a year) and I can't believe in just a few weeks, I will hold in my arms the children that the Lord presented to me in a dream, for real! That just amazes me. God is amazing.

Secondly, I have done this before. The adoption of an older child..or children is so different from adopting a toddler. Part if it heart breaking, the other pure joy. The question our daughter of 11 years (at the time) got asked a lot was, "Are you excited?" I wanted to yell, "NO" of course she was not excited. To be taken from yet another home and find herself with strangers again...not to exciting. It is just about as exciting as it would be for me to be lost, by myself in a foreign country not knowing the language, or where to go. I think the thought of a mother and father is exciting in a way, but at the same time scary. However God is sovereign and He knows the plans He has for us...plans to prospers us and to give us hope and a future. I am nervous to meet them, yet ecstatic all at the same time. Pray that they will feel right at home.

Thirdly...I can't get my mind off Haiti. Call me crazy..but I find myself asking God to bring more kids into our house and we haven't even got our three home yet. I mean really what is a couple more. We have already decided, we are not saying no to God...so with that said, well you know...Yes! I would love to take in as many as the Lord allowed. I can't stand the thought of all these little children, so traumatized from a devastating earth quake, and not having parents, or worse yet, watching them die. What is my life for, if I am not about the work of my Father...if he says yes, then I say Amen!

We have only 3 days...3 days between us and Africa. Oh Lord, may they come quickly. We received new pictures of our sweet babies...I just knew I needed to share them with you.

Meskerem

SamuelEyob

Our Journey to China...

In light of our trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to pick up our three children Meskerem, Eyob and Samuel, I thought I would share with you, our journey to China, to pick up our daughter Cyilea almost three years ago. It is a little long, but well worth the watch. We also adopted our daughter from Russia, only 4 weeks before we traveled to China. God certainly blessed us in more ways than one. My mom was able to meet our two daughters before she went home to be with Jesus. I am still in awe with what the Lord is able to do through us...I am still giving Him praise and Glory!
For those of you who are still waiting for your referrals and to pass court...May God Himself the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it!! 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Enjoy!

Ready, Set, Go...

It started with a dream...a dream of three children in need of a dad and mom. We prayed and prayed, Jesus gave us confirmation and we stepped out and trusted, scared to pieces. The Lord was faithful and provided every step of the way!

Today we got our confirmation on our Embassy date in Ethiopia, February 2nd!! We are so excited. What once seemed impossible is right in front of us and is a reality. Only by God's grace are we able to adopt these three beautiful children. Only by God's grace were we able to raise the support needed to bring them to their forever home. Thank you Jesus, and thank you to all of you who prayed and donated!

Speaking of reality...we are going to have NINE children!!! Wow..that just hit me, again!

We have been so blessed on this journey, in more ways in one. Not only are Bryan and I going to Africa, our two children, Cadenn and Coral will be making the long trek with us. They are SO EXCITED!!

We are going to depart Phoenix on January 23 and head straight to Nairobi, Kenya where we will meet Pastor Cyrus. He is the pastor of a ministry our small group has just adopted through Remember the Poor. We have raised money for this ministry by fasting and having rice instead of a meal on our small group nights and we had a bake sale where we raised even more. We are so excited to be able to spend time in his village, getting to know the him and his wife better and meeting the orphans he has living with him. We will be in the highlands of Kenya for three days. From what I understand, there is no electricity and most of the houses are made of mud and hay...this will be an amazing trip that is for sure. We are not promising we will come back!!

After a short stay in Kenya, we are off to Addis Ababa, where we will meet up with our friends David and Erica!! Erica, made a trip to Ethiopia this time last year, where she spent time with our babies. She and two other friends, got to take pictures and love on our children for an hour or so. We have been praying that she would be able to see the kids, we didn't know that it would work out perfect! This is what you call full circle. The Lord orchestrated us being in Addis at the same time!! That blows me away.

Also, in Addis, we will be spending time with our new friends that run a ministry there called, Drawn From Water. If you have time, stop and visit their blog. They have so graciously invited us to stay with them in their home while in Addis, Praise God!! We are excited to serve along side of our friends (both sets).

February 1st we meet our children for the first time. Boy, I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I am just going to prepare myself to let the tears go, no sense in holding them back right? We have waited soo....long with many obstacles...He is faithful.

We will depart Addis on February 4th for home!!! We would LOVE to see you at the airport on our arrival to welcome our kids home!!

Please be praying for all of the details that must take place. Also please be praying for our kids and their siblings we are leaving behind. We will be gone on Cailee's birthday as well, so we will celebrate before we leave!! We will also be taking a lot of donations with us, so pray that they all arrive safely along with us. Also, pray for the ministries we will visit and the people we will encounter. Pray that they all encounter the Glory of God. The Lord is good and I know he has this whole thing in His hands. What a true blessing to be on this journey with you!!

We will be "trying" to update our blog while we are in Africa so stayed tuned!

One of the dorms in Kenya.

The children praying before they start their day.

Crops in Kenya.

And if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Isaiah 58:10

2010 The Challenge...

Another year gone...where does the time go. This year was full of ups and downs of course. It was also full of spiritual growth and Jesus lessons that I would never trade. During some of the hardest times in our lives, God is growing us into the women and men he desires us to be.

This year our family asked God to grow us in the area of giving and sacrificing for the sake of others and, he did just that. Some times it was easy, and others really hard, but all the time it was good and beneficial.

Through various avenues, we have been challenged to do things differently this year. The challenge that I am going to post is something our family and about 30 of our friends are going to pursing over the course of 2010. Please join us, together we can change the world!

We are committing ourselves to 5 specific challenges:
1. To pray for the entire world
2. To read through the entire word
3. To commit our lives to multiplying community
4. To sacrifice our money for a specific purpose
5. To give our time in another context

Pray for the entire world

Through the emphasis of prayer we will pray for the entire world using Operation World as our guide. By clicking on the link you will connect with their home page. Then click "Today" at the top of the screen where you will find the days prayer guide. If we pray through each day of this prayer guide we will have literally prayed for the entire world in 2010! You can also order a hard copy of this book at amazon.com. There is also a children's rendition of this book called Window on the World and be bought on amazon.com .

Read through the entire word

Together we will read through the entire word of God. You can download a reading schedule by going to Gateway Bible . This will also be accompanied by scripture memorization. Our group is memorizing the 1st chapter of James to begin with. However you can memorize a different scripture every week.

Commit our lives to multiplying community

We will commit ourselves to a small group that is intentionally sharing, showing and teaching the Word while serving the world together.

Sacrifice our money for a specific purpose

For the next year we will look at our finances as a family and community of believers with a specific need of the world in mind. We will set a cap on our lifestyles so that we can free up as much of our resources for the sake of the glory of Christ in His church, among the lost, and among the poor.

Spend our time in another context

As we continue to spend the majority of our time sharing Christ and making disciples in our local area, we will commit to give 2% (one week) of our time of our time in Gospel ministry outside our local area for the sake of Gods glory around the world.

Share your story...if you decide to join us in this challenge, I would love to hear from you as the Lord transforms your life, by His Word and by His grace. I am so excited to get started, I am praying for you as we launch into 2010!

Model taken from The Church at Brookhills