Sanctity of Life...

Sunday was Sanctity of Life Sunday.  We were blessed with the opportunity to share Luisa's story with our church family.  Ryan spoke on the value of life, especially one little life that has changed our whole world.
He used the story of lepers in Jesus day, and how Jesus responded to them. (Luke 5:12-13)  He had compassion on them, he touched them, and he healed them.  The same actions are required of us today, we are to have compassion on people that society casts off, we are to reach out to them and touch them, and we are to heal them, or pray that God would heal them or offer them the life saving medications that they so desperately need.  We are not to be like the shepherds God talked about in Ezekiel 34. 

...‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? ³ You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. ⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured....

He talked about the faith steps we took as we set off to do what we felt God was calling us to, even when it did not make sense to do it.  About how we are to say "YES LORD" even though we have no idea how things will turn out.  Too many times Christians take 'safe steps' rather than 'faith steps.'  If everything we do can be accounted for from a human perspective then what difference is there between us and the rest of the world?  He also shared Psalm 40:1-5

 ³ He has given me a new song to sing,
      a hymn of praise to our God.
   Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
      They will put their trust in the Lord.

 ⁴ Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord,
      who have no confidence in the proud
      or in those who worship idols.
 ⁵ O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us.
      Your plans for us are too numerous to list.
      You have no equal.
   If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds,
      I would never come to the end of them.

Then it was my turn to share a bit of Luisa's story (I condensed the story I have posted on the blog under the header if you have not read it before and are interested.) Then we shared the vehicle story and how God has been funding this adoption.
We also shared the Truth Pandemic video with the congregation and God blessed us with an amazing doctor from Grand Rapids, (who is a friend of a friend) that came up to share as well.  He did an incredible job explaining HIV/AIDS and how it is, but more importantly how it is NOT transmitted.  The reason we say it was such a God thing is that, we had asked our dear friend who is a nurse, to share the medical side of HIV, as we felt people would be more inclined to believe a 'professional' than what we, the adoptive parents would say.  She said she would be willing to share...BUT GOD...laid it on her heart to have her dear friend the doctor share, and (at the last minute I might add) he was not only willing, but also able to come up and share. And what a complete blessing he was.  Only God could have orchestrated that the way he did! 
We are so thankful for our church family, their love and support has been amazing!
*And no, we still have not heard anything from our agency...so we still have not booked our flights!  But, I checked today and Spirit Air has a sale going on the flight we will probably take so this delay could be a good thing?(IF we hear something SOON!)  We shall see... I will post as soon as we hear anything!  Thanks for checking in!