Kerry Hasenbalg

When Ashes Remain - Part III

“There was given to me a thorn in the flesh… three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” 

-2 Cor. 12:7-9

We too often look to see beauty only in and through our circumstances, when God desires most to use the “ashes” in our lives to develop the beauty in us.  When we love as Jesus loved, we will be changed, even and especially when we are not loved in return. 1 Peter 4:12-13 states, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”  Squeezing of the honeycomb brings the honey sweet, and pressing the flower brings out its perfume beautiful. God will bring all things to completion in His place and in His time.

I encourage all who have ashes remaining to ask three questions: 

•    Am I willing to turn over my ashes to God instead of clinging to the ruins out of fear of disappointment or my prideful desire to stay in control?
•    Am I expecting the transformation to be according to my time frame, or am I willing to wait for God’s timing? 
•    Am I looking for the transformation in the wrong places instead of trusting in God’s faithfulness to “work all things for the good”?

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  - Romans 8:7-18

When Ashes Remain - Part II

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea… God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 

-Rev 21:1, 3-4

There are those times when we lay our ashes continually at the feet of Jesus, perhaps asking for God to heal a child or relationship, yet the healing never comes. 

I met an orphan who had to live like an animal in the African wilderness, abused by too many to number.  Her body was so destroyed and her spirit so broken that she was merely a shell of a child. I wondered how God could ever turn ashes such as this into beauty. Would pain and hurt be her only destiny? Yet, to my heart I heard the Shepherd say, “For hers is the kingdom of heaven.”  Her life at that moment had immeasurable eternal value – and to me her very existence represented the longing that God desires of all of us – to long for our heavenly home. 

I could not fix her, but what I could do was hold her hand and cry over her pain.  While I sat beside her I thought that perhaps those of us whom the world deems as healthy, whole, and successful are perhaps the most lost, sick, and broken of all.  And I also wondered why we expect God to fix all things broken in this life, when it is the life to come for which we are to live and long.  An adoptive mother, whose child had no legs, recently told me that she longed for heaven because it is there where she will see her son “walk for the first time.” There are times when God knows that to accomplish his purposes, He cannot let this “cup" pass from us, but we know He will be faithful to make all things new in His time.  Let us simply trust and obey; faith is what is necessary to please God.

When Ashes Remain - Part I

“How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?”

-Ps 13:1-2

We know God is at work giving us beauty for our ashes, but sadly, there are many times when the ashes seem to remain even after the spirit of adoption has diligently ministered through God’s people.  Why God? Why do some children not attach? Why do some adoptions fail?  Why is love not enough to fix the problems and heal the pain?  Why does it seem too late for so many?  And why are some children never taken in at all? God clearly promises beauty for ashes and because we know that He does not lie, there must be answers to these questions.  I do not profess to know the answers to any person’s specific situation and my heart goes out for the families and children who suffer. I want to share, for what it is worth, some of what the Lord has ministered to me when I have inquired about the ashes lingering in my own life and in the lives of hurting children I love. 

There once was a boy who had many broken toys.  So, he took his toys to the toymaker and asked, “Will you fix my broken toys?” The toymaker replied, “I most certainly will.”  The next day the little boy looked and much to his disappointment he saw that his toys were still broken, so he asked the toymaker again, “Will you please fix my broken toys?” And again the toymaker replied exactly as He did the first time, “Yes, I most certainly will.”  The following day the boy looked and once again found that his toys were still broken.  So, he decided to ask the toymaker a different question, “Sir, if you said you would fix my broken toys, why have you not done it yet?” And the toymaker answered, “Because you will not let go of them!”  In order for God to turn our ashes into beauty, we must be willing to let go and entrust our ashes to Him!  As we bring our ashes to the foot of the cross, let us believe that He will be faithful to exchange our ashes for beauty in His time and in His way.

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” -Psalm 55:22

Beauty for Ashes

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted… to give them beauty for ashes… that He might be glorified."  -Isaiah 61:1-3

The word “ashes” in the Bible represents great pain, sorrow, and even death.  Those who have spent time walking in the fields of the fatherless,visiting the lands of the marginalized, or sowing seeds in the soil of the destitute have witnessed some of the greatest ash heaps known to man. 

The Word tells us that Jesus Christ was sent to replace these ashes with beauty, and through working in the area of adoption, I have witnessed literally hundreds of lives completely transformed in this way.  Where once were found lives mired in the ashes of miscarriage, infertility, and the death of children, there now can be found through the miracle of adoption the beauty and blessing of children.  Where once we saw children’s lives devastated by abuse, abandonment, and the death of parents, now we find happy children blessed with loving parents.  In adoption the fearful become beloved, the scorned become adored, the nameless become cherished, the lonely become the laughing, and death becomes life abundant.  In adoption ministry we can clearly see God taking ashes from here and ashes from there and making something truly beautiful out of it.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isa 43:19

Holiday Traditions - Entertaining Royalty

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. -Psalm 68:5.

It was Christmas 2004, and my husband and I invited special friends of ours, two young ladies who became orphans during the Rwandan genocide, to spend the holidays with us. In preparation for their arrival, I was furiously cleaning, decorating my house, and preparing a holiday feast like I had never done before. Taking a breath for a moment, I leaned against the island in my kitchen and began to laugh at myself thinking, “Why in the world am I preparing like this – as if the Queen of England is coming to stay!”

Immediately, I heard that still, small voice of God whisper to my heart, “Members of My royal family are coming to stay with you.”   I was stirred with the realization that the King of Kings is serious about being the father of the fatherless.  Orphans truly are members of God’s royal family, and I am humbled and blessed by their continued presence in my life.  These children are not objects of charity, pity or scorn, but are princes and princesses in God’s Kingdom, and they deserve the royal treatment.

Man Is Without Excuse

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. -Romans 1:20

A large percentage of orphans around the world are considered orphans because one or both of their parents have abandoned them or have neglected to provide for their basic needs.  I met one such orphan while spending time in Africa, and God used him to answer a question I had asked God many years before: “If you are a fair and just God, how it is possible for starving children in places like Africa and India to know about you when they have not heard the gospel from missionaries… Do YOU reveal yourself to everyone?” 

My grandmother had introduced me to the idea of a “spiritual clothesline”, a concept which allows me to “hang” my questions for God aside and wait patiently for Him to answer.  As it turns out, it was an African orphan whom God used to take this question off the line.

Sitting on a log in the Masai Mara, writing in my journal and quietly singing worship songs by the campfire, I heard a voice speak from out of the darkness, “I know your God is real!”  I was startled because I hadn’t even seen that anyone was there until he spoke these words to me. 

He stepped forward and said, “People call me Gideon and I would like to tell you a story about why I know your God is real.”  He continued, “I was only twelve years old, the eldest of my siblings, and of the Masai tribe.  My father had abandoned us, and my mother could not provide us with enough food. So, one day I took the village gun onto the Savannah to kill something for my family to eat.  After much searching, I remember asking God in my heart– a God I did not even know existed- why he was allowing my family to starve.  And I asked Him to provide for us.  Just then a herd of impalas came running by and I began to chase them.  They were very fast and I tried desperately to follow them around some trees and brush. I assumed that I had lost them but when I came around the other side, much to my astonishment, there lying completely still at my feet was one impala, looking up straight into my eyes.  I could not believe it!  I took my foot and pushed on the stomach of the beast, but it still did not move and continued to stare at me.   But, then I said in my heart, ‘This animal must be lame and not good for eating, surely God did not do such a thing.’ And at that very moment, the animal stood up and ran away!  I could not believe it; God is truly real!  He answered my prayer!  I immediately ran to the village and shared what had happened and then I traveled far into the town to tell everyone that God is real!”

Gideon experienced the God of creation that day.  And that same God continued to answer Gideon’s prayers, preserving him over the years and bringing him to my fire that night. I never did see him after that, but God used his testimony—the testimony of this orphan, one among the “least of the least”—to bring my question down from the “clothesline”.   Because of Gideon, I now know that God certainly reveals Himself to those who seek and ask, even and especially the starving children of Africa.

When we step out of our comfortable lives surrounded by safe people and risk-free situations, when we reach out and embrace the mysteries of One who dwells among the least, we join Gideon in experiencing the God who makes Himself known.  I want to be found there.

What You Do to the Least (Part 2): Christ in Disguise

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me'." 

-Matthew 25:40

In 1992, I was volunteering as an interpreter with a mission organization in St Petersburg, Russia.  While attending one of their evangelical outreaches in an underground metro station, I saw a young girl sitting on the filthy metro floor.  She was wearing a jacket that was horribly torn and dirty, and stroking a dog that was lying in a puddle of blood.  It was heartbreaking to see a child in such a state, but I was fascinated to see that her concern was only for the injured dog lying beside her.  Sitting down next to her, we began to chat in Russian and I learned that her name was Ira and she was twelve years old.  She had found this bleeding dog in the station and had tied up his paw using a piece of cloth ripped off of her own jacket.  After talking with her for some time, I found out that she had been living on the streets after running away from her orphanage because she was being abused there.

She was cold, hungry, and alone, so I took her back to the hotel where I was staying with the mission team and we ate dinner together.  That evening she stayed in my room and read me her journal.  It told of all the people who had hurt her and all the places she had slept along her young life’s painful journey: in alleys, hallways, cold filthy streets, and under bridges.  She told me about how the orphanage director would punish her by stripping her naked and making her stand in front of the window so that she would be humiliated before all those who passed by.  We gave her new clothing and a warm jacket and began discussing how we could get her some real help.  Yet, two days later, I awoke to find that she was gone.  She has lived in my heart ever since, because she changed me.

The deep aching I had in my soul to see God in this life had somehow been met for the first time.  But it was replaced with a broken heart for the suffering and a clear purpose all at the same time. What had happened? Who was she?  Did I help her or did she help me? Although I did not realize at the time, I now understand that this experience with Ira was to be one of many serendipitous encounters with Christ in disguise.  He was answering my cry for more of God:  for when I saw her, I was seeing Him, when I touched her, I was touching Him, and when I showed her love, I was loving Him.  Being close to the hurting, the lonely, the poor and needy - caring for the orphan - was the piece I was missing in my fellowship with God.

What You Do to the Least (Part 1): Experiencing God

“My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” 

-Job 42:5

How is it that I had such excellent Biblical teaching and training in my youth, but still seemed to miss the path to fully experiencing God? Ever since I was a child, I had an unquenchable hunger for God, and in an almost desperate way, I wanted to know Him, see Him, and touch Him.

Even though I had already been “born-again” at an early age, in my quest for more I continued to go forward at altar calls, especially when they were broad enough to include rededications and those seeking a deeper walk with Jesus. I understood that men are saved by grace and not by works, but I wanted all of Jesus.  It was my parents who first explained to me the importance of living beyond the altar call—of not just giving God your life when the preacher asked it of you, but continually. My hunger for God drove me to engage in Bible College, church fellowships of many varieties, regular times of prayer and confession, small groups, and many evangelical outreach opportunities.

But despite participating in all of these valuable aspects of the faith, I really felt I was missing something in my fellowship with God.  No matter how much I tried to ignore it, suppress it, or placate it, there remained a nagging knowledge that I was made for more than this.  I found myself praying that He would give me the puzzle piece missing in my walk.

It has been through my encounters with the needy, the poor, and the orphan, serendipitous encounters with Jesus in disguise, that took me beyond my questions and into answers, beyond my knowing and into experiencing, beyond my longing and into touching God. He is forever invading our world: waiting for us, calling for us to join Him. It was as if I was hearing whispers of truth I had never heard before; slowly, God was getting my attention.  He was saying, “I am right here, where I said I’d be, with the least of the least. Come and know Me now.” Will we join Him?

You can do nothing apart from Me

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." 

- John 15:5

Recently, I was asked to share on orphan care and adoption ministry at a ladies’ brunch.  Yet, each time I sat down to prepare, I would not get far because without fail my newborn infant would cry out in need of one thing or another – to be fed, to be changed, to be held, to be rocked, or to be fed some more.

The day was rapidly approaching, and I still wasn’t ready.  While caring for my little one, I would ask the Lord to show me what I was to share with these women because He alone knows how to direct them individually in ministering to orphans. Yet the more I called out to God, the more my baby cried out to me.  “Little one, you are distracting me from hearing from God,” I thought. Infants are incredibly needy!

The day arrived, and before speaking I was determined to find the perfect scriptural introduction for my talk.  However, I realized that if I did not use the time to feed my baby, she would inevitably cry out while I was sharing and distract me.  While I was nursing her, I was literally crying out to the Lord over and over again, “Kyrie Eleison, Christie Eleison,” which means Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy! 

And just then, as I came to the end of myself, He responded to my heart, “Tell them that I am El Shaddai – The Lord God Almighty, The All Sufficient God.”  Interestingly enough, I had just learned that the root word of El Shaddai -“Shad” ironically means breast!  Just as a mother is to meet all the needs of her infant child, so, too, God is to be our total provider in all things.  When I would call out to the Lord asking Him to show me the essentials for success in orphan ministry, He would faithfully answer each time through my infant’s cry.  He was whispering “I am El Shaddai; just as you are to be all provision for your child, I, El Shaddai, am the complete provision for you, these women and for all my children in everything.”

When we consider what God has done for us and how we are to respond, all that we do must be through Him, by Him, and in Him, in order to have a Kingdom impact.  He is our source.  Let us not go out into the fields of the fatherless in the flesh because we can do nothing apart from Him that is of any worth.  And these children desperately need something that’s of worth.  May we be as infants in the arms of the Lord relying on Him for all things – including the way we walk the paths of righteousness and provide for the Least of the Least.

“You brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.”
- Psalm 22:9

God's Mothering Heart

But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Sometimes there is just so much to get done around the house that I can’t figure out how to possibly do it without getting a little bit of help.   I recently had one of these kinds of days.  After I had finished home-schooling my 6-year-old son, Cole, and after my 2-year-old daughter, Maya, had gotten up from her nap, I decided to solicit Cole’s help in attending to Maya so that I could get a few things done upstairs. “Cole, would you mind keeping an eye on your sister for a few minutes while I straighten up the bedrooms?” I asked.

“Well, sure, Mom,” he replied.  But after only about 10 minutes, Cole called loudly up the stairs, “Excuse me, Mom. Maya is sad and I think she really needs you.”   

“What’s wrong Cole?” I asked. 

“She needs to get back to her natural habitat,” he responded. 

What? “What does that mean, Cole. What’s Maya’s natural habitat?” 

Cole answered, “Don’t you know a child’s natural habitat is with their mother?”

At first I thought, He’s watching way too much animal planet. But then I thought, There’s some real truth in this little one's words.   I had recently learned that the root of the name of God, El Shaddhai, is actually Shad which means "breast."  We translate it most often as "the all-sufficient One." And as any mother who has nursed a child will tell you, a mother is her child’s all in all. You are an infant’s complete source for everything—food, drink, movement, and comfort.

Several weeks after this incident with Cole, God shared more with me about His nurturing and mothering ways.  Scott and I found ourselves at Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman’s home crying out to God in prayer.  It was only a few months after we had lost our daughter, Isabella and only about a week after the Chapmans had lost their precious daughter, Maria.  But the reason we had come together in prayer was actually to intercede on behalf of a mutual friend of ours who had suddenly lost his ability to walk. With all this loss and pain, the four of us were are all struggling to even know how or what to pray.   

Just as we began our time of prayer, my daughter Maya, who was very tired at the time, began to cry and to call out for me, “Mama, Mama, please hold me, Mama.”  So I took her up in my arms and she quickly became quiet and calm.  And just as she did, Steven prayed, “Lord, this is exactly how we feel right now, just like little Maya.  We don’t know what to do or say.  We just know that we need you to hold us and comfort us, Lord—just as a child needs a mother to hold them.”

And at that very moment I really understood the great truth hidden in the words El Shaddhai. Now I really know, as my son Cole pointed out, that a child’s natural habitat is truly with its mother. Children really do need mothers to comfort them just as we as adults need the great heavenly Comforter.

Why is church so unfulfilling for so many?

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”  

-James 2:26

In much of the American church today there is a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of fulfillment, particularly among the youth, and I believe this is due in large part to how many of us have missed a major ingredient of Biblical Christianity: caring for the Least. Throughout Scripture and throughout the history of His people, God has called His chosen ones to spend themselves on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, the prisoner, and the stranger in the land.  Because many in the church have turned inward, ignored the outworking of their faith, and have forgotten the poor and needy, our knowledge of God is to a large extent merely intellectual, and hence our faiths often appear more dead than alive.  This certainly is not true of every church, every believer, or every mission, but it is true enough because it was true of me.  I was afraid to be like those who were trying to earn their way to heaven with good works because I rightly knew that salvation is by God’s grace through faith alone.  But out of this fear, I, like many others, stopped working all together.  Somewhere along the line, I unconsciously began living a lie which says that learning about God, singing about God, and speaking about God is more important than walking like Him. 

Like so many well-intentioned Christians before me, I had thought I could live out my Christianity in church buildings, in Bible studies, and among friends.  I had anticipated a comfortable future of growing and learning and discussing and growing some more. But as I took small steps of obedience, God kept leading me into the fields of the fatherless and the widow, the needy and the marginalized.

The call to follow Christ and the path of the crucified life is difficult, requiring self-sacrifice and obedience, and God has given us a social context in which to live out these truths and walk in His love.  Much of the evangelical church is longing for a deeper experience of God, and the irony is that it is among those we too often ignore and avoid, the orphans, widows, poor, sick and oppressed, where God said He would be, and where we would experience Him – see Him, touch Him, and walk with Him. 

P.R.A.Y.: God's Best

“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” 

– Eph 2:10

I have heard it said that for those who have only a hammer, every thing looks like a nail.  And it is often the sad truth for those children who do not have families that when we come to help, we fail to evaluate their situation properly and cause more problems than we solve.  What makes it so tragic in such cases is that those who are most hurt by our ignorance and insensitivity are the beautiful, beloved children of God.  We must come before their Father and beseech His infinite wisdom before we attempt to “fix” their situation.  What if we build an orphanage when the child’s family simply needs support?  What if we adopt the child when what she really needs is to be placed with kin in her own culture?  What if we leave the child in a hopeless situation when what he needs is an adoptive forever family?

It may be helpful to use a simple P.R.A.Y. acrostic as a prayer guide in caring for orphans. This acronym may not only help us remember that there are a number of paths which God may direct us to meet the needs, but it also provides a systematic approach to ensure good practice in orphan care and adoption ministry.
 
Preservation - Preservation of the birth family—preventing children from becoming orphans

Reunification - Reunite abandoned children with their birth parents or kin when it is safe and possible to do so

Adoption - For those orphans who cannot be reunited, help provide an adoptive home
- by opening your own home or support those families who are adopting
- An adoptive placement in the child’s home country should be considered first, but if an appropriate home cannot be found quickly, a child should be placed in a loving, adoptive home somewhere else in the world.

Youth Support  - Provide for orphans while waiting for a family or those who may never find a family
- Post-adoption support for children and families 

May we be known as true prayer warriors on behalf of the least of God’s children who have no power or protection; our Father knows best.

P.R.A.Y.: God's Leading

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

- Jeremiah 29:11

In July of 2005, I traveled to Northern Uganda, an area which has been ravaged by 18 years of war and terror at the hands of the terrorist regime known as the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), who are notorious for recruiting child soldiers and abusing children in all manner of horrible ways.  I witnessed first-hand the desperate situation of the children known as “Night Commuters,” who live lives fleeing the soldiers of the LRA.  While we were there, I met a 3 year-old little boy who had been found on the roadside and placed in a center for those who escape from the LRA.  Other ex-captives recognized him and they said they believe his name was “Rejection,” his mother had died in captivity, and the LRA had simply left the child to die. What a parallel this little boy’s name invoked in my mind, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Mark 12:10). 

After sharing the story of “Rejection” with a pastor and his wife back in the U.S., they asked if they could adopt him.  They were overwhelmed with a sense of love which they could not explain; a sense I have heard many people describe when they feel the nudging to adopt.  We spoke about the fact that this strong sense is first and foremost a call for them to pray for this child.  Only God knows his specific circumstances and how to heal his life.  He alone knows how to best set this little one into a family, whether it be through reuniting with other family members or finding an adoptive home in Africa or in America. 

This couple was so compelled by God’s “Spirit of Adoption”, that they prayed continually for God’s perfect will in his life. At the same time, their commitment to him was so strong that they completed all the necessary adoption paperwork in the event that he was to join their family.  Just as they were about to travel and adopt little “Rejection,” they were told that his birth mother was alive, had escaped from captivity, and had finally been reunited with her three year-old son.  I believe whole-heartedly that God, through the power of this couple’s prayers in Jesus’ name, freed this young woman from the bonds of slavery and reunited her with her precious son. 

In light of God’s omniscience for all men, including the weakest of the weak, we must be extremely prayerful when seeking to meet the needs of orphans, and allow God to lead us.  We must not assume to know their individual needs.  We do know that all of them have suffered great loss and are in need of the body of Christ to reach out in love when God calls. The most important thing we can do for orphans is to first pray: intercede for them and inquire of God regarding their needs.

Known by God

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” 

- Psalm 119: 13-14

Statistics like 143 million orphans worldwide and every 14 seconds another child is orphaned by HIV/AIDS can be overwhelming and paralyzing.  Yet, it is critical to remember that God knows each one of these children individually, knows their specific circumstances, and that He has very unique plans and desires for them.  He even knows the number of hairs on each of their heads.  Thinking that helping one child will not do much to alleviate such great suffering is a lie. It makes a profound difference in that child’s life and affects those whom he touches.  Let us imagine God’s perspective. When someone adopts one of these orphans, it is as though God is saying “Little one you are so special to me. I knew where you were, and I picked you out and placed you here--knowing you would be here from the beginning of time.” 

A few years ago, my husband, Scott and I had two older orphan girls staying with us during the Christmas holiday.  Although they did not know one another well, they had much to discuss because both had lost their parents in the Rwandan Genocide. One evening they had been reading the Bible together and much to their amazement they discovered that they had the same life verse, Psalm 119: 13--14.  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” It was this verse which had “kept” each of them fighting to survive through unthinkable trials and gave them peace in extreme times of loneliness.  Orphans often have a sense of being throw-away children, left without anyone who experienced their births and even their childhoods.  When these girls thought that no one was left who really knew them, they held tightly to the idea that GOD DID!

A group of African orphans shared with me that the most comforting worship chorus for them to sing is, “Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name.”  The nameless and faceless orphan found in statistics is by no means nameless or faceless to God!

Loving in Word and in Deed

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.  If you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.  But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.  If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” 

- James 1:22-27

All who have ears to hear, let them hear what the Spirit of God is saying to the Church!  Are we worshipping God with our mouths only, or are we worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth just as He desires and requires of us?  God, through the prophet Haggai, continually asked His people to “consider their ways.”  Let us each consider our ways and compare how we are now living and acting in the light of God’s Word.

The Church has understood very clearly Jesus’ message that ‘we must go into the world and preach the gospel’.  But is this to be interpreted that we simply go and open our mouths?  Jesus is our example.  And we see clearly that he did not just go and preach but that He was attentive to the physical needs of those around Him.  He fed the five thousand who came to hear his message of hope.  He reached out and touched the blind man who came to Him; he restored the man’s sight and took away the man’s spiritual blindness as well.

While in Rwanda, Africa in November of 2004, I attended a meeting with President Kagame where he talked about how foreigners from wealthy Christian nations had come to teach and “help” after the genocide. Rwanda lost nearly 1 million people in less than 100 days, and the land was riddled with dead bodies and large numbers of orphans who were left wandering the streets.  The President said to us regarding the “help” they received from these nations, “It is one thing to come and talk about things such as human rights, religion, and democracy.  This only builds a foundation; people must have their needs met.  What do human rights and democracy mean on an empty stomach?  People listen better when their stomachs are full and their basic needs are met.”

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18)

God's Holy Dwelling: Our Calling

A father to the fatherless is God in His holy dwelling.

- Psalm 68:5

I have walked out of countless orphanages comforting myself with the scriptural notion that God is the father of the fatherless and that somehow apart from man’s efforts or lack thereof, God would eventually meet all their needs.

It is not that God cannot do so without men; it is simply that God did not design things to be that way. God says that “He does not dwell in houses made with hands.” He dwells in those who believe. In Heb. 3:6 it says that “Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house if we hold on to the courage and the hope of which we boast.”   Are we really clinging to those things we openly boast about:  courage in doing what is right and the hope of Christ and all this entails?
God desires that we step out together as His body and love these children as our own - as the spiritual house in which he dwells here on earth.  God not only calls us to this, but he equips us as well.  Where God guides, He always provides; and he has done so through His Spirit - “the Spirit of Adoption,” which He gave to each of us the moment we first believed.   “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

Again, what He has done for us is what He requires that we do for others.  “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2Cor 1:4)  

God's Holy Dwelling: His People

A father to the fatherless is God in His holy dwelling.

- Psalm 68:5

I sat next to a young man at a prayer meeting who had grown up in the U.S. foster care system. His life story was of the most heart-breaking kind, as are the stories of so many orphans who have been scarred by evil.  During the prayer meeting, I found myself quietly questioning God, “Where were you for this young man? I have always taken comfort in the fact that your Word says you are the father of the fatherless.”  Aren’t the heavens your tabernacle?   Aren’t you taking care of the needs of orphans from there, your holy dwelling?

Immediately, God, by His Spirit, tenderly reminded my heart that He dwells in me and in all who believe in Him— we (the body of Christ) are to be His hands and feet—His holy dwelling.  Thoughts began to flood my mind of all the children I had seen in orphanages who had been abandoned and abused.  Then thoughts about the brokenness of the church came to mind and the realization that many do not even realize that caring for orphans is a critical part of our call as God’s people.  Churches so rarely address this issue. 

We are to be His hands extended in caring for the orphans just as God Himself would.  God’s plan for his people has always been for us to represent him to the world.  We are each called to be a living stone built up into His holy dwelling, fitted together with our brothers and sisters.  In I Corinthians 3:16, Paul addresses believers corporately; “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Are we properly representing the Lord as his temple?  Are we living lives that are set apart from the world, holy, and united with one another.  Are we reaching out to love the fatherless as our own?

By God’s grace, that young man I sat with at the prayer meeting has since joined my family for Christmas and family vacation, as my family has sought to embrace him with God’s love.  In doing so, we have been the ones truly blessed.  The church, the body of Christ, is God’s answer to the “orphan crisis.”

Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted… to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.  

- Isaiah 61:1-3

While visiting a Siberian orphanage, a little girl named Masha came up to me with great sorrow in her eyes and said, “Why did other children here get parents, but no one wants to adopt my sister and me?”  If Shakespeare was correct and it was possible to die of a broken-heart, I would have died just then!

Well, Masha and I came up with a plan and washed this plan in prayer.  She wrote a letter for me to share with folks back home telling all about her sister and herself.  It expressed their desire to have parents and why they would be the kind of children someone would want.  I returned to the States feeling as if the letter I was holding was the most important document ever penned. In my head, I knew that their chances of being adopted were slim based on their ages, as most people desire to adopt children who are very young.  Although my head was filled with doubt, my heart knew that God was in the business of miracles and that I was only responsible to walk in faith.  Just as God is in the business of doing, He answered our prayers.  He set her and her sister into a godly family who had read her letter.  If we are willing to take even small steps of obedience, God will bless our steps and do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine because this is His mission on earth and is what He delights in doing!

When God’s people walk as Jesus walked, they will be taking part in replacing beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and praise for heaviness. And they will not only be affecting the ones whose lives they touched directly, but they will be planting trees of righteousness who will bear their own fruit in due season and bring glory to God.

Imitation of Christ

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound… to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion-- to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.  

- Isaiah 61:1-3

What a magnificent description of the ministry of Jesus!  He was sent to preach good tidings; mend broken hearts; free captives; give comfort and joy to those who mourn; and replace their ashes with beauty and heaviness with praise.  Now that is good news!  1 John 2:6 states, “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”  God’s people are called to this kind of ministry – to be His hands and feet in this world.  Just as with Jesus, these are the very same reasons that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us.

There is perhaps no earthly picture that speaks to me of this reality as profoundly as caring for orphans.  I have never seen children in more lowly circumstances or souls as meek as those I have met in orphanages around the globe.

What is more beautiful than freeing those bound by orphanage walls or enslaved by demons of the streets? What is more glorious than giving joy to a child who mourns the loss of parents? What is more magnificent than seeing a child who was once heavy-laden with pain and brokenness, now with mended heart, dressed in garments of praise?  So, it is no wonder the Word says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” because the ministry of Jesus is one which not only speaks but acts.  Those who are “in Him” are those who not only bring good news in word, but in deed – just as Jesus did.  Let us consider today how we can love.

The Mundane and The Extreme

"I am with you always," says the Lord  Matthew 28:20

I have tried several times to write an inspiring post, but words just seem to fail me. I am just too busy processes all that is happening.  So, I suppose this could be the first real blog I write - stream of consciousness right?!  

In the last three weeks - I will share both the mundane and the extreme:

* (extreme) - found out my cousin's wife, Laurie, who's a mother of two little ones,has stage four colon cancer

* (mundane) - packed up everything I own and moved from our rented house where we've been for two years to the house we bought (well, which we are renting from the bank like the rest of America)

* (extreme) - found out a dear friend, adoptive advocate extraordinaire and father of five, Paul singer, has a serious brain tumor.  

* (mundane) - Taught 15 homeschool lessons of Math, Phonics, Bible, Science and History

* (extreme) - Found out my dear friend Josephine who lost her children in the genocide and was held as an innocent person for 14 years before being released, now has advanced cervical cancer

* (mundane) - Did approximately 20 loads of laundry and unpacked probably 60 boxes

* (extreme) - two couple friends of mine who were just about to bring their adopted children home - ended up with empty arms (one child died, the other was too sick to bring home)

* (mundane) - we all have colds and so I have wiped little noses hundreds of times

* (extreme) - many loved ones lost their retirements  in the stock market crash

* (mundane)  - had a reunion with my girlfriends from high school and chatted about old times

* (extreme) - my other cousin's girlfriend, Ann, died today

The great irony of the average and the extreme, the mundane and the extraordinary....trials and blessings...all happening, all the time, all around us.

And in the midst of it all, although I understand very little, I do understand it is important to keep praying. So, I find myself praying continually to the only One who does know and understand and is on the other side where we are all headed.  As I try to make some sense I find myself parked in the book of Ecclesiastes.  There's a time for everything...all is vanity...but God is in control. And all along and in the meantime I  am trying desperately to do the best job I am able to love the people in my family and the ones whom God brings across my path.

What all this has done to me so far is to keep me from a few useless things - like unforgiveness, gossip, and self-pity.  Although very little makes sense to me right now, those things make the least sense of all.  

For those of you who have shared your pains and trials with me on this blog, I want to say thank you.  I have prayed for you...but your sharing has done something huge for me as well.  It has continually reminded me that suffering is very common and that there is no reason to drown in self-pity - because I am not the only one in pain.  The Lord told us in the book of First Peter to consider our brethren who are suffering around the world.  I think He did this to help us know we are not alone.  Thanks for reminding me that I am not alone.  You too are not alone.  

Oh, and by the way, Heaven is very real!!!!!

Cleaning House

"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like launderers' soap.  Malachi 3:2

Preparing for house guests seems to be the main motivator for me to get my house cleaned.  We have guests so often that my mother calls our house the “Hasenbalg ministry of the revolving door”.  As a result of this perpetual hosting, I have never needed a house-cleaning schedule.  I usually end up having to clean before it really feels all that dirty to me.   

  But this past January after Scott and I suffered the loss of the baby girl I was carrying, we decided to take a break from hosting and just take time to heal alone as a family.

Quite a number of weeks passed without us hosting any guests, and as a result I had let the house cleaning go for far too long without realizing it.  Then one day, as if coming up for air for the first time, I took a look around my house and there it all was waiting for me…the big mess…tons of clutter, smudge, dust bunnies and toys downstairs and clothes and blankets and more toys upstairs…And then there were the many piles of laundry…uuggh!  Since Scott had already returned to work, and the kids are quite young and because the laundry can’t do itself, I realized I was the heir apparent and that I better get started. 

I have to admit I was a little hesitant to get back to “real” life because I had found myself in sort of a spiritual cocoon of sorts - a safe place in the harbor of God’s Word – constantly in prayer for the healing for my heart and my family.  There seems to be this amazing grace that comes over the believer immediately following a big tragedy.  I had never had the Lord teach me so much about His love, His ways, His character, or about myself as I had in this particular valley of life. So, in a sense, I was afraid to “leave” this place of grace and learning.  But, real life was calling and it was my call to answer.

After about five hours in and out of the laundry room, I remember stopping in front of the washer and taking a minute to talk to God.  He and I had done a lot of talking together of late and it just seemed natural to talk to Him - even there in the laundry room.  I said, “Lord, please don’t stop pouring out your great grace on me or teaching me or healing me, particularly now that I am stepping back into life and am feeling afraid of the days to come.  Please keep teaching me, even in these simple things of life.”  I, then, can clearly remember wondering if there could possibly be anything spiritual about doing laundry.  I also remember feeling very silly thinking such a thing.

Later that evening I finally had a quite moment to open God’s Word.  I decided to return to reading the book of Malachi, which I had been studying just before the loss of our daughter.  I picked up in Malachi chapter 3…and right there it was, the answer to my silly question…What could possibly be spiritual about doing laundry?... Well, here was the answer in Malachi 3:2,  "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like launderers' soap.

  Why had I never ever seen this or heard this before. Can it be that God comparing Himself to Laundry soap.  I had read Malachi several times before, but I must have just ignored this part of the passage.  The first part of that scripture about Him being like a refiner’s fire I knew by heart. But the second, I couldn’t recall ever even hearing it once before.

  My mind turned to the Biblical concept found at the end of the James 1:27 verse about keeping ourselves unspotted by the world….then I moved on to the necessity of continually be washed by the water of the Word…and then How Jesus is the Word…and now I realized first time how He also describes Himself as the launderer’s soap.  So amazing. God is so specific and He loves to answer us, even our silly questions.  But for me reading this at first showed me God clear desire to teach, reach and relate to the heart of women as well as to men.  It was not just the male blacksmiths being used as human examples for this deep spiritual truths but also the housewives as well.

  But I sense there was more for me in this scripture than just Him wanting to answer my question from the laundry room or to relate to me as a woman.  And there most certainly was more.

  I also got this sense while reading this verse that my five hours in the laundry room was really representative of the extended period of time, which I had just spent with God in the past weeks of grief and mourning.  Trials have a way or revealing the dirty build up on the garments of our souls.  I hadn’t had any real visitors to my soul of late – you see in the months proceeding our loss, I had no desperate felt need for Jesus, so I suppose I didn’t really notice all the spots of the world which had built up in me.  But then when we lost her and my heart was in desperate need of healing, I ran to invite the Healer to come and have his way in my house of my heart.  And well, when He arrived, the light of Him who is loving and Good, shown upon my heart and what I saw caused me to agree with my guest that in fact the house of my soul was in some real need of house cleaning. Having guests sure does have a way or revealing the need to clean house!