Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Wow. It's been awhile.

When Christy emailed me asking when I planned to update my blog I didn't think it had been THAT long. I guess it has been a couple weeks. Whoops.

Life has just been busy. Nichol has school projects, all the kids are in Awana, school fundraisers, birthday parties, and friends who are struggling as their children battle cancer. Our hearts are heavy and we try our very best to do whatever we can to walk along side them as they face these battles. Which means blogging takes a back seat. :)

Even in all of this David and I are excited about supporting a new project that we are SO thrilled to be apart of. Amy Bottomly wrote a big ole post about it here. I'll cover the basics again and you can check out Amy's blog for more info.

The reason I mention this here is to encourage you to join us in this awesome opportunity. We've always been advocates for child sponsorship. This is child sponsorship taken to the next level. Not only is it an online group of people coming together for the cause of the orphan in a powerful way, it is also offering the opportunity to see things first hand. To be involved in the lives of orphan children for the LONG TERM. I want to be able to walk with the child we're sponsoring, I want my kids to meet them, encourage them, and just be with them. Children's HopeChest does just that. Their orphan care model is amazing and we are honored to be apart of their latest project in Ethiopia. You can be too! You can join us and the other online/blogger families or you can put together your own group, church group, youth group, or other group of people to support an orphanage together! Here's how it works:

Taken from Amy's post.

Sponsoring an ORPHAN via Hope Chest looks like this...
-You will be assigned an orphan from your sponsored orphanage.
-$35 a month will meet your child's physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
-you will exchange letters with your child (either via email through Hope Chest or handwritten via Hope Chest)
-you will know who else is sponsoring the other children at the same orphanage
-An annual trip will be offered in which you will have the opportunity to go to Ethiopia, spend time with your sponsored child, their orphanage, and the online sponsoring community. (How amazing would it be to be in Ethiopia together loving on the same sponsored orphanage!)

A few things that Hope Chest does that makes this opportunity unique and different. The orphanages they work with are not currently enrolled in any other sponsorship programs... the child that you will sponsor will have your family as their only sponsor. Hope Chest is able to provide everything for the orphanage and thus able to create a tight, LONG TERM, relationship between the sponsoring community and orphanage. Hope Chest has local staff that check in on the orphanage regularly, mentor the children weekly, and share Jesus with them.


How cool is that?! Sponsoring an orphan, building a relationship through email/snail mail communication, AND meeting your sponsored child face to face! Totally awesome in our book! Just think about the opportunity for churches to get on board with this and how amazing it would be as a church community, blogging community, whatever to sponsor an entire orphanage?! It is our prayer that local churches get on board and see this as an amazing ministry opportunity as well. To truly be the hands and feet of Christ ministering to the least of these in a very real and tangible way.

I can't even tell you how amazing it is to us that people across the country, through an online community, (RLC) most who have never met are taking on an orphanage and supporting each of the children there. Incredible. We are blessed to be apart.

If you would like more information feel free to post questions here, on Amy's blog, - read at Red Letters Campaign, or check out Children's HopeChest. If you want to be a part of the RLC group gearing up to support an orphanage please email Amy - amyde63@hotmail.com this will help the team figure out how big of an orphanage we'll be able to take on.

To God Be The Glory!

11 comments:

Heidi Klopfenstein said...

I am very excited about this!

Bethany Fegles Photography said...

Wow! This is the first I've heard of these organizations and it was so cool to sit and read about these!! It stirred my heart and really excites me. :)
Since photographing a family who just adopted two beautiful children from Ethiopia, I've been thinking of them daily. This is such a tangible way to get involved!

Christy. said...

Oh man, I totally want to sponsor a child. Tell me what to do.... Maybe we could visit the child when we hopefully travel to pick up our own. :0)
Tell me how to get started!

Amy said...

Thanks for posting this... I am going to send out an email to all those interested here tomorrow hopefully! We have a conference call scheduled, but still waiting to figure out the info. :)

Nicholas said...

Yes! I love it too!!

emily said...

So great! Love the organization and ministry.

Thanks for your steadfast love for friends and Ethiopia! I appreciate you.

God's Girl said...

So great... I will be praying. This is such an awesome concept. I love it.

Hey, Nicole said I was on her blog list. I can't seem to get on to say hello. ??

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful family you have! Thanks for your comments on my blog :0) Nice to know someone is reading! I do believe i have lurked on yours at some point from Em Alexander :0)

atHisrighthand said...

Wow.. that sounds super cool..

Erin Sager said...

How wonderful!!!!!

Lauren said...

This is so awesome! I'm excited for you, and I will be praying for success and safety on your trip!

Wanna hang out again soon by the way....we had wayyyyy too much fun the other day. :)