God's Response to my World's Hungry Post

OK, so a couple weeks ago I posted about the world's hungry and how that didn't set right with me ... well, God heard my concern and He sent me this email from World Vision...

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Mengistu, 4, and his father in Shone.

"He used to run to help us when we came from the garden. Today, he cannot express his feelings verbally." — Mengistu's father

Acutely malnourished little Mengistu needs your prayers and support. At age 4, he suffers from severe malnutrition in the wake of a recent drought in Ethiopia and is being treated in a stabilization center. His progress is very slow, and tragically, his situation is not unique.
Because of the growing global food crisis in this center and in many others throughout the developing world, there are sick, weak, and hungry children crying out for help. Chronic hunger doesn't look as alarming as rapid starvation, yet it's just as deadly. These children are starving to death — just slowly. Right now, one child dies from hunger every seven seconds. That's more than 14,000 children every day. And millions more are suffering.

Today, you can help provide life-saving essentials to hungry children and families who are in desperate need, and, thanks to government grants, any gift you give will multiply 6 times in impact to help provide:

• Emergency food
• Seeds to grow maize, beans, and fruit
• Cows, chickens, goats, and other livestock
• Training about choosing and preparing nutritious foods
  

Right now, through our generous friends like you, World Vision is working hard to make this happen in 35 countries around the world, including Haiti, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Thank you for your concern and your prayers for those whose futures are threatened by hunger — and for responding today to help.

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So, if you got that sweater or tie you didn't want/need and it gets returned, think about giving something to World Vision, especially since our donations get multiplied SIX times. Click here to give.

Thank you LORD for showing us ways we can help YOUR children!

Hope every one had a Merry Christmas!

Quote of the Day

I still gotta get my 2 posts done but had this come through today and thought it was good...

"A man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away."
~ CHARLES M. SCHWAB

In my definition, being tolerable to everyone makes you lose everything. Don't trim away the absolute TRUTH that defines you....

Stay warm, folks ... it's downright cold out there!

Where'd it go?

Man, I just looked that the last post was a week and a half ago ... how does that happen?

First, CONGRATS to all the AGCI families passing court and getting travel plans ... that is so exciting and encouraging ... it creates that longing I know we'll have once we have our referral...

An update on us ... there have been no referrals and probably none before the new year. Our hope is that once the new year is here, there will be a flurry of them coming through. We contacted the Vanderbilt Adoption Clinic and have the forms to fill out for our preadoption meeting and for them to review our referral once he/she is known. Amber and I have been praying daily for our child and it's crazy to think that he/she could easily be born and in this world...

We went to give blood tonight ... the Red Cross is super low on supplies so if you have a chance before Christmas, please go give blood ... it's something God has given us that replinishes, doesn't cost us anything except a little time, and it can save a life ... thanks!

I also have 2 posts in mind that I need to get down and unfortunately they may have to wait until we go to Indiana and Illinois for Christmas due to time constraints over the next few days. One is an answer from God about my last post regarding the food shortage and the other one is us seeing out a flat-out miracle by God ... absolutely unreal...

Stay tuned...

...and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

World’s hungry close to one billion

Quote from this article published today...

The vast majority of the world’s undernourished people ... live in developing countries, according to FAO estimates. Of these, 65 per cent live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
In sub-Saharan Africa, one in three people – or almost 240m – are chronically hungry, the highest proportion of undernourished people in the total population.



How can this be right?? How can I be ok with about the same amount of people not having access to clean water?? How can I sit in my warm home with my decorated Christmas tree about to eat dinner and block out these visions running through my head?

We do give to some causes but for some reason, I feel like throwing money at it isn't the right answer for me in this season of my life ... I'm not sure what the right answer is right now ... a definite prayer point for me...the notion of teaching the man to fish and not giving him a fish is running through my mind ... but you gotta give them some bait to catch the fish...hmmmm.....

All I know is that we can't let this be ok on our watch ... at the end of our days, we will be held accountable for what we did with our time on this planet ...

December Official #'s

OK, we just got off the phone with our Case Manger and received our new OFFICIAL #'s...

#11 boys

#21 girls

Being that there were some referrals last week, we know that our unofficial #'s are close ... she said to watch for the bi-weekly email that will come out Friday and that will tell us where we are "unofficially."

In any event, to move 4 spots on the boys and 5 spots on the girls in 3 weeks is amazing. We know that we are fast out of the gates and it's a marathon but it's hard not to be excited about it. It's encouraging that there is movement happening in Ethiopia.

It is also great that we have such a great ambassador running our orphanage, Hannah's Hope, in Ethiopia. From everything people have said and wrote, she is an amazing saint and I can't wait to meet her in person in Ethiopia one day soon. To know the love she gave our child and the battles she fought on our behalf .... well, it'll just be very humbling to meet her. Thank You 'A' for all you do for us!

Movin' on up....

Wow ... there has been some major referrals this week...CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO HAVE RECEIVED A REFERRAL.

Of course, we are all trying to figure out where that puts us ... there were a couple unknown people that received girl referrals that we think were on the boys' list as well... we were supposed to get a call from our case manager today ... however, she emailed saying she's been so busy with traveling families and referrals that she didn't get through all her waiting list calls so that'll come Monday to get the official numbers.

Nevertheless ... we're thinking that we are unofficially...

on the boy's list (almost single digits!) and...

on the girl's list (we're in the teens!)

OUTSTANDING!

GOD IS GOOD AND ALWAYS FAITHFUL AND WE KNOW HIS TIMING IS PERFECT! (We're definitely fans of Him moving things along ... a prayer that Amber and I say every morning)

We didn't think we'd be this far along at the beginning of December ... again, it's unofficial but it's a great feeling knowing there is movement going on.

Amber and I have been babysitting tonight for a friend's 3 year old ... good practice, I suppose. He's a really good kid and his mom had the opportunity to go to the Toby Mac concert in Nashville tonight so we couldn't say no...

We went and got our Christmas tree last night and decorated it tonight (with the 3 year old's help ... he had a blast!) We put it in the almost-finished living room ... it's always the little things that take forever to get done. And we're still fans of a live Christmas tree ... we're hoping that doesn't change as we get older...we think it'll be a great tradition picking out a tree together as a family...

Have a GREAT weekend!