Saturday, September 1, 2007

New Friends from Old Familiar Places



Yesterday we got to meet Jonas, a beautiful 5 year old adopted by another family here in Louisville who also used Wide Horizon for Children. Jonas was actually at Horizon House when we went to get Greyson and I am sure we met him while we were there. He has been home for only a few weeks and is doing incredibly well. Communication is still an issue since he speaks mainly Amharic but it is amazing to see him flourish in his new environment.


His new mom Tera is wonderful. We share the same passion for orphans in Africa. I think the difficult part for both of us is trying to figure out how God can best use us to deal with such a major problem. It becomes overwhelming because you feel like you are making such a small dent in such a HUGE HUGE issue. It almost seems unsurmountable. I shared with her my dream of ultimately being able to start a foundation to fund a christian based orphanage/school in some part of Africa.


Its cool to meet others who have been given the same burden- especially when they live right down the road and you never even met them until they came back from traveling across the world. Pretty wild how God works...

4 comments:

Tara said...

mmm, I share your same burden for those precious children in Africa. As exciting and life changing it is to adopt our son-it feels so insignificant to adopt just one, or 2 or even more when there are millions more just waiting! But it is hard to know what else to do?!

Lela Kay said...

Hey! Joshua and I know the family that adopted Jonas. Joshua actually knows David better than I do, but he leads up the camps that Joshua and I actually met at and then Joshua later worked at part time in Cedarmore, KY for a time after we got married. I haven't met David's wife, but they seem like loving people with a wonderful testimony of God's working in their lives from David's stories. How awesome for you to have a support system in other Christians serving God in a similar way.

Matt & Elizabeth Vaughn said...

I have been so encouraged to read about your journey. I relate to your adventures as I too traveled to Addis Abba in 2004. There is nothing like witnessing with your own eyes the magnitude of the social issues we face of our day. We must give these kids a platform and be avalible and sensitive to the whispering voice of God because He alone knows how to handle and carry the burden of Africa. We are clearly told in James that pure and undefiled religion is to care for the orphaned and the widows. God is pleased and makes provision for whatever He has called us to. It is through Him alone that such love for Greyson even exist because love does not exist outside of Himself. Have peace, as we are not called to fix the world, just to do our part.

Sojourning Mom said...

Way adorable, but I am a bit biased! I really enjoyed our visit. Looking forward to many more :)