To Care for the Fatherless

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 

James 1:27

For almost 3 years, that has been one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 

The command to care for the fatherless. 

For the least of these.

It is all throughout scripture. We are to care for the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigners. 

Because that is what Christ does for us. 

This past Sunday, Danny Franks preached about this verse and the call to adopt for Christian families. He told his own family's story. They showed a video about their little girl that brought me to tears (granted it doesn't take much). 

I love how this family has lived out James 1:27 for our church. I love the way that their boys have stepped up and loved their little sister. I have been amazed as the boys that I knew as elementary schoolers have truly become young men of God in the past year or so. 

I love that our church is taking this call seriously. I love that there will be a packed house on Wednesday night as families come to learn more about adoption and fostering. 

I love that we want to follow Christ's command. I love that people's hearts are aching for the children around this city, country, and world who are alone tonight. 

I love it. 

I know that many of you were moved by Danny's message and by the words of the God coming alive in your hearts. 

I know that you feel the burden for these children. 

I also know that most of you are not in a place in your lives where you are ready or capable of adopting or fostering. 

I am single, in college, and 21 years old. I'm not going to adopt- that would be just crazy. 

But James 1:27 is talking to me. 

Some of you may be overwhelmed just trying to take care of the kids that you already have. 

James 1:27 is still talking to you. 

Adoption is beautiful. Watch the video of the Franks family, it is BEAUTIFUL. 

Adoption is not the only way to live out this command. 

I know 70 children right now who need someone to support them so that they can go to school. $100 per kid is all that it takes to educate a child for the whole year. 

That is caring for the orphaned. You may never meet the child your money went to, but you still made a HUGE impact on their lives. 

There are kids at the orphanage I work at that do not have sponsors and this breaks my heart. There are children who do not have someone here in America loving them, praying for them, providing for their needs. 

You may not be able to adopt. You may not have the finances for it or the mental capacity, but could you give $50 a month and love a child that you have never seen? 

I have been sponsoring a girl in India for the past 2 and a half years and it is the most fulfilling thing I do with my money. I love my girl more than I can express. She loves me too, she knows me from when I go, but she does not know that I am her sponsor. I don't want her to know. 

This trip, she told me that from now on, I'm her mom. My heart couldn't hardly handle her sweetness. 

You don't have to do either of the things that I just mentioned, but I will ask that you pray, truly pray and seek God's heart for the fatherless and the hurting children around the world. 

Our God is a great Father, and his heart aches for these children more than you or I could even imagine. He wants them to be cared for and loved, even in ways that may look different than we imagine. 

I will say again, this command to care for the fatherless is for every believer. 

So ask God how he would have you live it out. 

College men (cause so many of you read this blog) mentor a middle or high school student. That is a way of caring for the fatherless. 

Moms and Dads, consider sponsoring a child through some organization and tell your kids about it. Show them the pictures and have them write letters. Begin teaching them now to care for the kids like them who are less fortunate. 

I could go on, but I have to go to bed now. 

Above all, pray and then pray some more. God knows the children around the world who are without families. My daughter was not an accident, God knew when she was born and he knew the day that she went to live at that orphanage. Nothing that has happened in her life was outside of his great plan. 

God sets the lonely in families

Psalm 68:6

Here's the video of the super-awesome Franks family.

Thoughts on being home again

I have looked through the pictures about 10 times.

I listen to the music that we sang with the kids (including some awesome songs in Hindi).

I have talked about it some, but I know that with time, the stories will come and I will share more. I always talk about my trips gradually, not all at once.

What I haven't done is write and that is what I need to do the most. Because writing is how I think now.

I miss India, a lot. I miss my kids.

In some ways, this time returning has been the hardest yet. The trip was so short that I by the time I was back adjusted to India and loving it there, it was time to go.

I had to leave before I was beginning to miss friends and family back home, so now all I was left with was the pain of leaving the ones I love in India without the joy of seeing people that I was missing in America. (Not that I didn't miss people, but I wasn't even gone 2 full weeks).

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I am so so grateful for the trip that I was able to go on. It was a huge blessing from God. He provided the opportunity and the funding. Completely blew my mind with his provision, not just for me, but for my team members.

I had fully accepted that I would not return to India this summer and then God opened up this door. It was more than I could have asked for.

But leaving is always hard.

And the year stretching out in front of me until i get to return looks very long.

I miss my girls. I miss the boys that I am getting to know. I miss laughing at my terrible Hindi. I miss having chai. I even miss the heat.

God is good. He knows that plan that he has for me and these children. He knows when I will be able to see them again. It may be next summer, for all I know, it could be sooner. I have found that He likes to surprise us when we least expect it.

As it stands now, I may be able to return next summer and when I go back, I may be staying for 6 months. Nothing is set in stone, but R and I are talking about it.

The opportunity to go and stay for 6 months so soon after I graduate blows my mind. I have often said that if everything went my way, I would get on a plane the day after graduation, but that that would not likely happen. Well, now it may.

As I said, nothing is set in stone. I have a lot of praying to do. I do not want to do anything out of the will of God.

All that is to say, that while the year in front of me looks very long, I am begging God to show me how to cherish this final year. For all I know, this could be my last year permanently here in Durham/Chapel Hill. That blows my mind and terrifies me while it excites me.

I want to love this year, not wish it away. I want to cherish the time that i have with the precious little ones that I love here. As much as I miss Rani and my girls in India right now, I will miss the kids here just as much.

Even if I don't leave for India right away, at the end of this year, all of my college friends will scatter. Our friendships will change and adjust. I will miss them all very much. (I am terrified of being a senior, but that is different post for another day).

I am sad to have left India. I always want more time with the kids there and my friends. I am to the point where I feel like I have actual relationships with the people there (not just the little girls) and I miss those people. There are many things about the culture that baffle me, yet there are so many things that I miss.

I would give almost anything to be going to evening prayer with the kids.

But God wants me here. Its not my time to go yet. And so I am begging him to keep me content. And asking him to help me cherish my time here. 

Just checking in!

We are having a wonderful time here in India!! VBS is going wonderfully! Today was our second day. The kids are having a great time and the team has quickly fallen in love with the kids. We are teaching them about the different fruit of the spirit, so yesterday was love and joy and today was peace and patience. We have taught them several songs which they love singing and dancing to. It is extremely hot but the team is being wonderful troopers. I can't wait to share pictures with you when we get back! Thank you for all your support and prayers. You are so wonderful!

Headed to India

Hi all! I'm sure most of you know this, but I am leaving for India today. I am leading a small team of people from my church and a few friends to go work at the orphanage. We will be leading VBS and serving my friends while we are there. I will try my best to post something on here while we are gone, but no promises. I'm sure when we get back I will have lots of stories and pictures to share!

I would love it if you would be praying for me and the team as we go that we would be able to teach and love these kids well and that in all that we do, we will glorify our Father in Heaven. 

Have I ruined my life?

Recently, my friend, Becca, and I have been engaged in a really interesting discussion with our philosophy professor about Christianity (what we believe, how it affects our lives, things like that) on our class's online discussion board. I have been extremely impressed by our professor's respectful handling of this subject, even though he has said that he doesn't believe any of the Christian beliefs to be true. He has asked great questions that have made us think deeply about our beliefs and has just overalled, listened to what we have to say, he hasn't twisted the words of the Bible to meet his agenda or anything like that. I just wanted to preface with that so you know that our discussion has not been the typical sort people have here at UNC.

One thing in particular that he said made me really think though, and I posted it as a Facebook status, but I wanted to go into my thoughts about it a little more here. In my professor's explanation of his own beliefs, he basically said that by believing in Christianity and rejecting the things of this world we have ruined our lives.

At first, I was pretty upset that he said this. I guess I don't really see any way that I have ruined my life by believing in Jesus, if anything it has made it a whole lot better. I was beginning to come up with a great rebuttal to what he had said and prove him wrong and all that, but then I started thinking about Jesus and what he would have said on the subject...

Matthew 16:24-26

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would saw his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?"

Matthew 10:37-39

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will loose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Mark 10:21

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me."

Matthew 10:22 (repeated in Mark and Luke)

"and you will be hated by all for my name's sake."

It seems Jesus agrees with my professor. Following Jesus requires ruining one's life. At least the life that they had before following Jesus. 

This is certainly true in my own life. I had a nice, selfish plan for my life before truly surrendering my life to Jesus. (It was a ridiculous plan, but it was certainly what I wanted) Then I had a true run-in with Jesus and my life looks a whole lot different than I ever could have imagined. 

Now I plan on living the rest of my life on the other side of the world from everything that I have known and loved. I will have to give up all sorts of creature comforts that people work their whole lives to obtain- nice clothes, a nice house, nice car, heck, even air conditioning (in a place that hits 125 F, this is a pretty big sacrifice). I may never get married, never have kids of my own. And even if I do, my kids will grow up seeing their grandparents once a year or on a computer screen. 

Most people would say that this is crazy. They would say that I have ruined my life. 

Most people would say that I have ruined my life simply by choosing to major in education, since that's not exactly a career where you make a lot of money. 

And maybe I have. I don't want to sugar-coat what God has called me to do, it will be hard. I got a small taste of how hard it will be to leave behind everyone that I know and love and move to the other side of the world when I was overseas this past summer. It will be lonely and tiring and frustrating, and living a selfish life just seems so much easier. 

So why do we do it? Why am I going to move to India? 

I may be ruining my life here on earth, but I have the promise of so much more waiting for me in heaven. 

Mark 10:29-30

Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life."

Jesus may have ruined the plans that I had for my life, but in exchange, He has given me more joy and peace than I could have ever imagined. I love the girls in India more than my heart can stand sometimes. This calling is a blessing in my life, never a burden. I get to love girls who have never known true love before and I get to tell them about their heavenly Father who loves them more than I or anyone on earth ever could. I would take that over a fancy car, big house, and successful career any day. 

So my question: has Jesus ruined your life? Why don't you let him and just see what blessings he has in store for you. 

My Summer Adventure Part III- Greece

This is WAY overdue!! I have been hoarding pictures of the final part of my summer for quite some time.

For those of you who don't know, last summer, I went on quite an adventure. I was overseas for about 2 months. First I spent 2 weeks visiting my sister in Central Asia- check out these posts here, here, here, here, and here (I posted a lot when I was there haha). Then I went and spent about a month with these wonderful people in India. I didn't post as much in India, but I did put a lot of great pictures on my facebok, so feel free to go look there.

Then after all of that, my parents met my sister and I in Greece and we spent about a week and a half there.

I'm finally going to share some of the pictures from the time with you.

The Accropolis all lit up at night. Its a little blurry cause we were a little far away. 

I continued with my theme of taking pictures of the beautiful flowers that I found there. 

The theatre nerd that is still in me was so excited to be sitting here in the Theatre of Dionysis- where theatre began thousands of years ago. 

I just liked how the sun looked behind the ruins. Also, it took forever to walk up to see the Parthenon, so there was nothing else to do but take pictures. 

We visited a lot of ruins obviously. This is the Parthenon in Athens. This side you could actually see the columns and everything, on the other side, they were doing a lot of preservation so all we could see was was scaffolding and such. 

After Athens, we headed to the Islands for a few days. First, we went to Crete, but I don't have any pictures from there on my computer right now- I have to find them. Then we went to Santorini, where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed. I had one goal for this trip- to ride a donkey like Alexis Bledel. 

The houses were so cool and pretty built into the side of the cliff of the caldera. 

I got my wish- we rode donkeys, twice!!

A view of the city from the bottom of the cliff. 

Santorini is famous for their beautiful sunsets. 

All the people came out and watched the sun go down. 

I have even more pictures to put up, but that is all I'm going to post for now. I will put the rest up on my Facebook page eventually. 

How many slaves do you own?

I have about 33 slaves around the world working for me.

33

Back at the beginning of January, I went with a whole bunch of college students from RDU to Passion conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a fantastic 4 days full of worship, teaching, and fellowship with friends (old and new). We worshipped the God of the universe with about 45,000 college students from all across America and from all around the world. And next year its going to be even bigger- next year there will be around 70,000!! If you are between 18 and 25, you should really consider coming next year! It was the best way to spend the last little bit of winter break. 

The point of me telling you about Passion is that while we were there, we not only learned and worshipped, we also responded and were challenged to "Do something now." The focus for Passion this year was ending human slavery. 

We were shown videos of former slaves from around the world- a woman who was a sex slave in Greece, a girl who was a domestic slave in the Middle East, and a man who was a slave on a rice farm in India. 

Around the world right now there are more than 27 million men, women, and children living in slavery. Everywhere from the cocoa fields in West Africa to the red-light district of Amsterdam to downtown Raleigh, people are living in slavery. 

More people are enslaved now then ever before. 

We think of slavery as a thing of the past. Isn't that what the civil war was over? (if you didn't learn history in the south at least). 

Slavery seems old and barbaric, something that would not be happening in a modern world. 

But it is. 

And it happens here. 

Its not just something that happens in the developing world, its happening here. In New York, in Los Angelos, in Durham. 

But we are not powerless. Together, those of us at Passion raised over $3 million to give to organizations around the world fighting human trafficking and slavery. 

So what can you do? What can I do now?

First, find out your slavery footprint.

Slaveryfootprint.org is a great website that explains better than I can the state of slavery in the world today. They will explain where you have slaves working for you and what you should do about it.

I calculated my footprint and I own 33 slaves around the world. In Latin America, Africa, Asia, and India.

Note- these are estimates of course. There is no real way to know exactly how many slaves are affected by you, but still, the point is that my shoes, jeans, and car were made by forced labor around the world. 

Its sad, but the truth of the matter is that it is just about impossible to live in this world and not buy things produced by slaves. Especially if you are living on a budget. 

The point is not to right now swear that you will never buy anything ever made by a slave again, you won't last. You will burn out. 

The point is to take action, any action. 

Choose one product that you don't want to buy anymore. I wrote this post last year about Hershey. I will admit that I have gotten slack in this regard and given in to the temptation for Reese's a few times. 

Slaveryfootprint.org makes it easy to make a difference. They have an app (that I already downloaded) that helps you know if a product is made by slaves and if it is allows you to e-mail the corporation and make your voice heard demanding the end of slavery. 

You can also go right now and sign this petition from the International Justice Mission for President Obama demanding action to bring about the end of slavery. 

As believers, we cannot ignore this problem around the world. The Bible is clear on God's stand about justice. God hates injustice. He hates slavery. Let's hate what He hates and love what He loves.

 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
   he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Isaiah 61:1

For I the LORD love justice;
   I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 

Isaiah 61:8

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41-46