Hope... through child sponsorship

New years bring new commitments. New resolutions. New promises to take better care of ourselves, our finances, our stuff, etc. What about considering a new way to give hope? I know of a great opportunity to directly influence children's lives with the love of Christ in 2010.

Please go visit my friends Candy and Karen. Their blogs give details on how you can bring real, life breathing hope to partial and double orphaned children of Ethiopia. You can also go to Tom Davis' blog to learn more about Children's HopeChest, the ministry responsible for the child sponsorship program to which I am directing you.

God calls His children to be His hands and feet. Pray about how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus. For $34 a month, you can provide regular meals, basic life necessities and Christian discipleship and education to children. I bet most of us could think of one less meal we could eat out a month, or some other simple pleasure we take for granted (or maybe are very thankful for, but still...) on a regular basis and have $34 to give hope to a child who has not... every month. I am not working on making you feel guilt to sponsor-- many of you already give generously, sponsor children in need, etc. But, if you have been following our family's story of adoption and wanting to know how you can make a difference or even if you ever could-- YOU CAN!!!! Here is an opportunity, and an amazing one, at that :).

May God bless you and keep you this 2010 as you consider how you can care for the widow and the orphan and give hope...

Grace and Peace,
Shari

An Opportunity for Living Faith

Tom Davis is on a mission. He is raising money to buy a specialized formula for our malnourished babies living in AWAA's Transition Home.

Who is Tom Davis?

Tom Davis is a photographer, author and advocate for orphans worldwide-- in particular, Africa. He has written some great books, including Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds-- a statistic filled, reality check, call to action for Americans; especially Christians; who are supposed to "be the hands and feet of Jesus" or "live the red letters" of the New Testament but sadly seem strangely absent from the front lines on the war against poverty. He has founded an organization called Children's Hope Chest-- with this mission:

Children’s HopeChest believes that every orphan has the right to know God, experience the blessing of family, and have the opportunity to develop independent living skills.

Tom has teamed up with OUR agency, America World Adoption Agency (AWAA) to provide formula to the malnourished infants which arrive in our Transition Home. It is as horrific reality. Infants who are 6-12 months old weighing less than 7-8 pounds. Several of our babies at the Transition Home this very day are on feeding tubes, because their little bodies are too weak to intake nutrients any other way.

PLEASE be a part of this campaign of Tom's to provide Nutramigen-- a specialized formula-- for the babies of our Transition Home. As I stated at the beginning of this post, he is on a mission to raise $12,500 by Mother's Day, so our babies can have a chance at life and to experience the love of a "forever family"!!

Visit Tom's Blog to learn more. Read his interview with AW's Duni Zeneye, and then please consider giving. Think of it as a Mother's Day gift. Give so that another child may have the chance to know the love of a mother. Give so that another mother may have the chance to know the joy of loving a child. Give so that they both may experience the love of the Father through the blessing of adoption.

Grace and Peace,
Shari

PS-- Just a note... the picture of the infant in the picture at the beginning of this post is NOT one of our AW babies. That would violate privacy laws for our TH children.