I am not understood by the world because although I am in the world I have been called to not be OF it. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever find even one person who will understand my unrelenting passion for children without a voice. My passion for victims of abortion, trafficking, slavery, and poverty. I didn’t choose that passion. God gave it to me, and I treasure it with all my heart. My friends are supportive. They love me even when they don’t understand me, but it isn’t about being understood, or about if I will ever find someone, anyone, who can relate to my heart. It’s about loving my father and following Him where He leads me, it’s about stepping outside my comfort zone even when I really don’t want to, and it is about becoming the daughter of my Daddy who loves these children more than I ever could. I was made to love Him and to praise Him every day of my life. “For whatever you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me.” The next time you look into the face of a child what will you see? They are the least of these. They are Jesus, and sometimes they cannot speak for themselves. They cannot be their own advocates. Once aware of a situation, we are responsible to act. We are responsible to LOVE. We are responsible to be the voice for the voiceless. Through our obedience to his call on the church to care for the oppressed and poor, we find meaning and joy in our own lives.
Isaiah 58 says this;
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen?
To loose the chains of injustice
And untie the cords of the yoke?
To set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
And to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?
When you see the naked to clothe him
And not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
It later goes on to say:
Then you will find your joy in the Lord
And I will cause you to ride on the
Heights of the land
And to feast on the inheritance of
Your father Jacob
The mouth of the Lord has spoken
Our JOY is in the Lord. What a profound, awesome statement. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will make your paths straight.” He’ll give you everything you need. He’ll fill that void in your heart that the things of this world cannot fill because He called us to something more than that. We were made for intimacy with our Father. If you pressed your ear against God’s heart, what would you hear? He loves us all with a passion that we’ll never fully understand. He wants us to feel whole and happy and joyful inside even when the world is looking for contentment in all the wrong places. We’re surrounded by materialism, conditional love, and hypocrisy. It makes the Lord so sad when He sees that. His children are called to so much more. This morning while I was reading my bible, I came across these verses in Jeremiah chapter 9: 23- 24;
This is what the Lord says;
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
Or the strong man boast of his strength,
Or the rich man boast of his riches
But let him who boast boast about this:
That he understand and knows me
That I am the Lord who exercises kindness,
Justice and righteousness on earth
For in these I delight” declares the Lord.
The Lord delights in justice. He delights in His people who walk uprightly with Him. Everyone has a calling on their lives for which once they know they are responsible, do you know what yours is?
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
How it all started......
Two years ago, when I was thirteen, I took a trip that changed the way I viewed the world. Before my trip, I was just a normal teenager living a normal, American life. The only life I knew was one of comfort. Of course I had heard the stories of the children on the streets and in the orphanages, but none of it seemed real to me until then.
In May of 2007 I traveled with my family to China to adopt my little sister. I had the chance to hold children who had once been on the edge of death, see kids who were beggars on the street, and to witness the lifestyle of people in a country where 15 million children have no family to call their own. It changed my life. Perhaps it seems hard to believe that some one's life can change all within a day, that their perception of the world can almost suddenly become one that you never expected them to have, but one look into the face of a precious child with no mommy or daddy makes all those stories you've heard become a reality.
I can't describe the feeling of that one day I spent at the foster home. I couldn't grasp how in the world anyone could stand to give these children up, and my heart broke for their birth mothers who couldn't take care of them. All of them were special needs children, but when I looked at them I could only see them the way Jesus saw them, they were beautiful. Each and every one of them had so much to give the world and one look into their bright eyes would melt your heart. I left the foster home that day with a purpose for my life that now, almost two years later is still my strongest passion.
Looking back on that trip now, I still marvel at the mark it left on my life. Ever since then, my heart has been in a constant state of brokenness for these children everywhere. Exactly one month after I returned from my trip to China, I left again to travel to the Dominican Republic where I spent two weeks working with impoverished children living in the dumps. Poverty became more real to me on that trip than it had even in China. These children lived in homes smaller than my own room made out of scrap metal from the dumps they lived in. After that trip I never took hot showers, air conditioning, or even a real home to live in for granted ever again.
For two years God has broken my heart for these children. He has used the adoptions of my sisters to help me learn how close the helpless are to his heart, and to reveal His plans for MY future as well. I am only fifteen years old and yet I know He has great plans to use me to reach His precious children with His love. I started this blog to record my journey to El Salvador this June, and for the trips I look forward to taking in the future. I pray future posts (especially from the trips) will help you to see the invisible, hear the silent, and remember the forgotten. If you want to follow my journey I would be honored to have you do so.
Blessings,
Hannah
In May of 2007 I traveled with my family to China to adopt my little sister. I had the chance to hold children who had once been on the edge of death, see kids who were beggars on the street, and to witness the lifestyle of people in a country where 15 million children have no family to call their own. It changed my life. Perhaps it seems hard to believe that some one's life can change all within a day, that their perception of the world can almost suddenly become one that you never expected them to have, but one look into the face of a precious child with no mommy or daddy makes all those stories you've heard become a reality.
I can't describe the feeling of that one day I spent at the foster home. I couldn't grasp how in the world anyone could stand to give these children up, and my heart broke for their birth mothers who couldn't take care of them. All of them were special needs children, but when I looked at them I could only see them the way Jesus saw them, they were beautiful. Each and every one of them had so much to give the world and one look into their bright eyes would melt your heart. I left the foster home that day with a purpose for my life that now, almost two years later is still my strongest passion.
Looking back on that trip now, I still marvel at the mark it left on my life. Ever since then, my heart has been in a constant state of brokenness for these children everywhere. Exactly one month after I returned from my trip to China, I left again to travel to the Dominican Republic where I spent two weeks working with impoverished children living in the dumps. Poverty became more real to me on that trip than it had even in China. These children lived in homes smaller than my own room made out of scrap metal from the dumps they lived in. After that trip I never took hot showers, air conditioning, or even a real home to live in for granted ever again.
For two years God has broken my heart for these children. He has used the adoptions of my sisters to help me learn how close the helpless are to his heart, and to reveal His plans for MY future as well. I am only fifteen years old and yet I know He has great plans to use me to reach His precious children with His love. I started this blog to record my journey to El Salvador this June, and for the trips I look forward to taking in the future. I pray future posts (especially from the trips) will help you to see the invisible, hear the silent, and remember the forgotten. If you want to follow my journey I would be honored to have you do so.
Blessings,
Hannah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)