Our Response to New York

"But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day." 2 Peter 2:7-8

I think many Christ followers around the world this week have felt the same way Lot is described as feeling here. I know I have. I have felt a quite literal weight in my soul this week as the wickedness of our culture is continually more and more extreme. I inwardly pleaded with the Lord to come quickly this week, more fervently than I have before. I have read friends Facebook posts, memes, and satire about the tragedy of the new legislation passed this week, allowing late term abortions. I felt burdened to post something of my own. But what? What could summarize the weight, the lose, the saddness of this issue?

I delayed and delayed my Facebook reponse to this evil because it just didnt feel like ENOUGH. I realized this week, a blatantly obvious fact, that abortion and adoption are two solutions the same problem. Our child's mother could have easily chosen abortion instead of adoption and I have prayed quite often for her to be blessed for choosing life for our child. 

Today our Pastor boldly spoke to our community of believers about what love truly is.

Love SEEKS

Love SERVES

Love SHARES

Love SACRIFICES

Love SAVES

Love SHARES

and . . .

LOVE SPEAKS

Friends, we are entering an unprecented time in history. More babies are being killed than people in the Holocaust and we can't simply content ourselves with a Facebook post that states our disagreement. 

Did you know that around 6 millon people were killed during the Holocaust? 50-60 million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade! Have you ever thought about what you would do as a Christian living in WW II? Would you storm a Nazi emcampment? Make plans to stop an Auschwitz bound train and free all it's prisoners? Would you weasle your way into the Fuhrer's inner circle to try and destroy it all? We are in a crisis much like this today however because it is glorified by the media and hidden in a doctor's office, we find it easy to forget about. 

As Christ followers, we have a grevious responsibility at this point in history to continue to proclaim the Lord's name by loving others sacfricially and seeking justice for the weak. 

"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Prov. 31:8-9

We must SPEAK OUT. 

Before we begin though, first let's examine our own lives. Does your life SHOW that you are PRO LIFE or just your timeline? Our lives must show that we believe in the immeasureable value of life at it's earliest form and that children are a blessing by what we DO. Love is in fact a verb and we are not loving others well (specifically pregnant women and unborn children) when we simply push "publish" and move on with our day. 

Does your life SHOW that you value children? Even when there's a crying infant on your plane ride? Even when the toddler next to you at dinner, at your favorite restaurant, is throwing a massive fit? Or are you more likely to be the one rolling your eyes and asking to be moved? I fear that abortion is an exaggerated view of children that we already have; they are annoying,a nuisance, and bothersome. If we are preaching PRO LIFE, it doesn't end in the labor and delivery room. 

"Children are a heritage from the Lord.." 

Psalm 127:3

There are so many ways we can act on our belief that life is valuable and must be protected.

So in an order to help you decide HOW you should act on this belief, I have compiled some resources that can help guide you, as you prayerfully consider what the Lord wants your response to be. I wanted to provide you with some tangible ideas that could be next steps for your family's response to the NY legislation this week. A few places to start are...

Educate Yourself: Have you ever seen a video of an abortion? I really didn't think I could stomach watching one. However, if you haven't seen it, I really feel like you dont get the full impact of what's happening at an extreme rate around us. 

WARNING: I will warn you, this is an animation but nevertheless very disturbing.

You can watch a video here

Reading about the affect abortion has on women can help to get the entire perspective of the problem. You can go to the sites below to read more about women experience after abortions and statistics on abortion. (Click the link below to visit the site.)

What To Expect After an Abortion

Bound 4 Life Statistics

Abort 73 Statistics

Volunteer: There are AMAZING pregnancy centers set up and ready to take in and care for pregnant women. Join them in caring for these ladies. Below are a few local pregnancy centers you can volunteer at.

Prestonwood Pregnancy Center

Thrive Women's Clinic

Pray: This is a map of all the planned pregnancy centers in North Texas. Pray specifically for each of these clinics to employ people whose hearts are soft and tender to the Lord. That the Lord would turn these workers to Him and discontinue this practice. Pray that the women who enter this clinic would not go through with abortion but that God would miraculousy intervene. 

Planned Parenthood Map

Pray also to be connected with abortion minded women, so that you can share the Lord's love with them! Be ready to give of yourself, your time and talents in order to help a hurting pregnant women make an alertnative choice. 

Adopt: Aren't you proud of me for not being biased and putting this first? Ha! I know it may seem extreme but if we're going to insist on women NOT aborting their unwanted children, then we are going to have to stand in the gap for those children once their born. Is your heart tender towards adoption? Ask the Lord to soften your heart in this area and listen for his sweet voice. You may be suprised at where He's calling you. You can get some great info on adoption from our agencies website;

 Dillon International

Foster Care: Again, this is part of us stadning the gap for kids without a home. There is a HUGE need for foster care families, especially in the Dallas county area. Is this something you are open to? Why not? Pray about this and gather some information here:

CK Family Services

Upbring

*If you think you're too old to foster or adopt, you could become a respite care giver. Read more about this at the links above.

Support Recovery: Often time women who have aborted children deal with an aray of physical and mental issues. They are often hurting and overlooked. Watermark has a great ministry to help these women through the grieving and healing process called "Someone Cares". This is a great resource you can extend to a women going through this crisis.

 Someone Cares

You can also email healing@watermark.org

Friends this is NOT an exhaustive list! These are just a few ways your actions can speak for your belief in the sanctity of life. These are just a few ways we can

 SPEAK LOVE.

Our job as Christ followers, is to seek justice for the least of these but to also love the mother well. 

"By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:35

At the beginning of the post, I talked about how writing my own facebook post wasn't "enough". Please dont think that THIS post is "enough" either. Only Jesus is ENOUGH and we are responsible to speak that truth to the hurting world around us. 

If you've read this post this far (bless you, I know it's long) I've already prayed for you! I've prayed for the Lord to begin to stir your heart towards one of the action steps above. Please pray with me that the Lord would make us doers of his word and lovers of his people. 

Prayer

HA! 

Ever have one of these moments?!  I dont think Michael Scott is the only one who's ever felt this way. 

(I bet you didn't think a post titled "prayer" would start with a reference to The Office.) 😄

I was in this same freakout mode on Sunday as I was reading an email from our adoption agency.  We got some pretty scary news that could be a pretty big threat to our adoption process in Korea. We would covet your prayers on this issue and for our hearts as we walk through this uncertain time. 

The issue is about a law in Korea and is basically political mumbo jumbo but for the sake of understanding, I'm going to try to explain it as best as I can. So.... here we go. 

To adopt in Korea right now it takes an agency IN Korea + an agency IN the states to work together to get things done. There are currently 3 large private agencies in Korea who ALL international adoptions run through. Of course both the US and Korean governments are involved to some extent but the process is mainly run through private agencies.

There is a group of politicians in Korea right now who want to close all of the private agencies and instead have all of the international adoptions run through the Korean government itself.  This would be the first step in this political groups bigger plan of closing all international adoption in the Korea for good. 

This group feels deep shamed that so many Korean children are being adopted internationally instead of being brought up in their homeland. While this is an understandable sentiment, completely shutting down  international adoption will only create MORE orphans for the country and less opportunity for these children.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

James 1:27

Since Korea has been open to international adoption, the US alone has adopted over 100,000 Korean children. There will still be a large need for adoptive families if these agencies close. Korean are traditionally very unlikely to adopt domestically because their is a high value in the family blood line, adopted children don't fit well into this idea. Single mothers face detrimental social stigma which also contribute to the number of children put up for adopt each year. Neither of these factors are likely to change by simply closing international adoption and thus the problem will still remain. 

Phew! OK- hopefully you were able to stick with me through that. 

For Blaine and I specifically, if this law passes, there are lots of different possible effects but the process would most definitely become MUCH slower and the program would be MUCH less stable. Ha! What a shock to us when we picked this program specifically because it was exactly the opposite- fast and stable! 

After we read the email about this proposed legislation on Sunday, we walked outside and noticed a rainbow over our backyard. The Lord was so sweet to remind us almost instantly of His promises and love for us in the face of such hard news. 

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Phil 1:6

Would you pray with us that:

1. IF this law is NOT in the best interest of Korean orphans and won't provide them with forever families, that it will not pass and be voted down.

2. IF the law DOES pass, please pray that the Lord would redeem it and somehow make it an avenue to bless more children with stable homes wherever that might be. 

3. That we would trust the Lord, who began this work of adoption in our lives, to see it through.

4. That our hearts would not be anxious about this possible legislation but  would instead rest in the sovereignty of the Jesus, who was not at all surprised by this.

Thank you so much for praying with us through these uncertain times. We are praying that the Lord would help us to be faithful in the midst of such uncertainty.  Having such a wide net of support helps us to be able to walk through this season with confidence!