Love is a Decision

The word "love" is thrown around today like yesterday's trash is thrown out. Boyfriends and girlfriends tell each other "I love you," only to break up the next month. We rave about how we "love" Owl City or "love" the Avengers or "love" vintage-style clothing. Singers and bands sing about love, love, love. (seriously, just listen to your radio for two minutes, and you'll probably hear something about "love") Google defines "love" as "an intense feeling of deep affection" or "Feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)." Google uses words like "affection," "fondness," "darling," and "passion" to describe "love." But what is love really?

Love is a decision.

It's not a feeling. It's not affections, fondness, passion, or feeling romantic or sexual attraction to someone. John 15:13 says this: There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. Love isn't affections or fondness. Note that the verse says "there is no greater love..." It doesn't say "there is no greater affection, fondness, or sexual attraction that to lay down one's life for one's friends." That's pathetic. Loving is not deeply enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich. Loving is going out of your way to help others, even if it's not "convenient" for yourself. Love is treating others the way you desire to be treated, even when you don't think they necessarily deserve it. Love is Matthew 5:44, which says:  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

(via google images search)

Loving orphans isn't just feeling we experience for a short-lived moment. Loving orphans has to be something we decide to do. We've got to decide that we will pray for them, love them, treat them like our own family (and perhaps, for some of us, even adopt them into our family). And not just orphans, but everyone we meet. We decide whether or not to love someone.

Love is a decision. Will you choose it?   

-Talia 

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Depraved Indifference

There is a condition that is rapidly spreading in the world.

It's like a sickness, a disease...only worse.

So many people fall victim to it, it's sad. No, it's awful. It's heart-wrenching, heart-breaking...

It's depraved indifference.

We applaud celebrities, athletes, musicians...we put them on pedestals, admire them, and envy them. We wish we were like them.

We go to sleep in our cozy homes each night not worrying whether or not we'll wake up in the morning.

We feed (and often over-feed) our bellies with whatever pleases us. We complain if we don't like the taste of something.

We have many possessions, toys, gifts...and we just keep wanting more.

But there are people across the globe - children, even - that have nothing. No clothes, no food, no one to care for them. Could you imagine your life without someone to love you, without food and water in your belly, without somewhere besides the hard, dirty ground to sleep every night?

Sure, we know that there are people who have less than us. We care, even. But we have become indifferent to them and to that life. It's someone else's problem. Let someone else care for orphans, for the unloved, for the starving.

But what if we stopped being indifferent and started taking action? What if we DID SOMETHING about it? What if we stopped worrying about our hair and clothes while some children and adults worry if they will survive the night? What if we stopped complaining about our possessions when children in other countries have to sleep in trees because there are hyenas that will eat them if they don't?

Think of the person you love the most. Now, imagine that they were across the globe somewhere, starving, with no clothes and no one to love them. Would you leave them there, declaring that it was someone else's problem? No! You would try to get to them as fast as you could, and if you couldn't personally reach them and help them, you'd get someone to do it - you'd see to it personally that the one you loved the most was cared for, fed, loved.

But those starving, lost, hurting people across the globe are God's children. It breaks His heart to see them in such a state.

But we just sit around, doing nothing.

Do not become a victim to depraved indifference. DO SOMETHING.

 

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A Real Difference

My family has done Operation Christmas Child for years. Operation Christmas Child (in case you're unfamiliar with it) is an organization that distributes shoe boxes filled with toys and gifts to children around the world who don't have much (if anything). All over the USA, people pack shoe boxes to send to children. Many times, the toys inside the shoebox are the only toys a child has.

I've always included a letter and picture in my Operation Christmas Child box. When I was younger, a friend of ours got a letter back. I thought it would be so cool to get a letter from a child across the globe.

A couple years ago, I packed and sent a shoebox to a girl aged 10-14 with a letter and picture inside. A few months later, I received a response from a girl in the Philippines named Ria! I was so overjoyed to receive the letter. In it, Ria thanked me for the gifts. I sent a letter back, but didn't hear back from her for a while.

One day a couple months ago, a letter came addressed to me from Ria. I was so excited as I opened it. Inside was a letter, and this small paper with words written on it that mean so much to me:

Wow. That impacted me so much. A young girl thousands of miles away thanked God for me every time she thought of me. Talk about humbling. I feel completely and totally blessed to be able to write every once in a while to Ria. She is a blessing to me.

Many times when we help orphans and children by sending money, sending gifts, and sponsoring them, we don't really know if we're making a difference or not. Sometimes we think, Well, maybe this will feed the child and give them new clothes, but will it really impact their life? Or we may doubt that we can do anything to help orphans since we're only teenagers. The truth is: we CAN make a difference in a child's life. We shouldn't let the world's low expectations of teens hold us back. Our shoe boxes, donations, sponsoring, and prayers really do make a real difference in a child's life...a difference that will last forever.
-Talia

1 Timothy 4:12
Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.


Matthew 25:40
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

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Different Gifts - One Purpose

Adoption is an amazing experience like no other.


We've been stressing that a lot here on the Project 147 blog. We believe that God calls us to care for orphans and show them the love of Christ (James 1:27). But not everyone is called to adopt.

As you most likely know, everyone has different God-given gifts, talents, qualities, and abilities that we can use to serve Christ. Some of us share His love through writing devotions. Others go to different countries to preach the Gospel. Still, others share His love through acts of kindness. Some of us may be gifted to encourage, while others are gifted listeners. The list is endless. But all Christians have one purpose for these gifts: to serve God and to show His light to others. Each Christian's gift is different, but the goal and purpose of all of the gifts is the same.

It's like that with adoption. God calls us all to love and care for orphans, but He doesn't call all of us to adopt.

Take prayer, for instance. Many people think it is good to pray and perhaps even do so regularly, but do not think that it is going to produce any kind of outcome. The truth is, God hears and answers every prayer - even if how He answers is not how we think He will or should. Praying for orphans is vitally important, and it can be just as affective as adoption.

What I'm trying to say is: what's your gift? How has God gifted you in the area of orphan care? Is He calling you to adopt a child, or perhaps help someone else adopt? Does He want you to start programs that raise money for orphans in your church or start a prayer group for orphans among your friends?

We are all called to love and care for orphans. In what way has God gifted you to do just that?

- Talia

(picture via google search)

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Our Adoption Story

"When love takes you in and everything changes // A miracle starts with the beat of a heart // When love takes you home and says you belong here // The loneliness ends and a new life begins // When love takes you in." - When Love Takes You In, Steven Curtis Chapman


Adoption was on my heart from the time I was very young. I loved everything about it - taking in a child without a home, giving them hope. I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert with my family, and he sang the song "When Love Takes You In" and talked about the Chapman's adoption of their daughters from China. It was around that time that I approached my parents and told them, "I want to adopt."

My parents looked into China adoptions, but we didn't qualify, so Mom and Dad sold all our baby stuff and announced that our family was officially "done" (as in, we weren't adopting). We wanted to help others adopt and stress the importance of helping orphans in our church, but we didn't think adoption was for us.

We were wrong.

I don't remember how adopting from Ethiopia came up, but we all prayed about it and decided as a family to send in an application for Holt International. We prayed, "God, if this adoption is your will, please provide the money." We started out with only $200, which was (obviously) not enough to fund the adoption in full. We said that we weren't going to get into debt for this adoption.

God proved His faithfulness in many ways during our adoption, one way being that He provided all of the money through friends, family, and organizations, and we did not get into debt.

We had originally applied for a child one year old or younger, and we were matched with a beautiful little girl named Fasika.

My mom was looking over paperwork and noticed that Fasika's immunizations took place before she was born. She contacted the agency, and we discovered that Fasika was actually five months older than the original birthdate we had been given. There had been a mess-up on the paperwork.

We had a family meeting, and Mom and Dad asked if we would still like to adopt Fasika, even though she was five months older than the age we thought we wanted. We all still wanted to adopt her. We didn't know her, but we already loved her.

In May of 2009, Mom and Dad brought our beautiful baby sister Fasika home.

We cannot imagine living without Fasika. She is such a joy and a blessing, and we know that it was definitely God's plan for her to be a part of our family. If there had not been a mess-up on her papers, she would not have been matched with us.

It's awesome to know that God has a good plan for each of our lives! Now we are in the process of adopting a boy from Uganda.

-Talia

"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}

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