Extravagant Love*

过年好 Happy New Year!

By Julie on Jan 23, 2012 in Culture | 0 Comments

过年好 (guò nián hǎo) I can just imagine all of China bursting with life and festive decorations. When we took our first trip to China to bring Madison home, it was Chinese New Year, and everywhere we looked had lights, lanterns, and fruit trees. They are preparing for their biggest holiday of the year, the Spring Festival.

I love what a new year symbolizes. Fresh beginnings. New life. A very significant part of the Chinese New Year is family. It is a time to return home and be together. As my heart draws near, and enters in to the celebration, it dawned on me. What better time to announce a new beginning, a time of returning, a time of focusing on being together and joining as a family?

We have been praying, watching, and waiting to see how God would unfold a future trip to Heng Feng. Our trip last year was incomparable to any I’ve been on before. Our team was so close and we had incredible laughter, joy, and fun. But it was also a beginning chapter. It was the start of relationships of family. We took the first step to reach our hands and our hearts across the world to Heng Feng.

Have you ever been reached by someone walking with you over time? Not just in a quick (albeit meaningful) encounter, but in a way of joining hands that says, “I’m still here. Let’s keep walking.” Not only do we see Heng Feng for a few days, but we see and hear and remember over time. We’re willing to walk together and continue on.

The crazier life becomes — full, hectic, busy…and sometimes even broken or hurting, like the state of our economy — I am more and more convinced that staying connected matters. People, relationships, and family matter. If we don’t hold onto each other, life has a way of flying by, and we lose ourselves in the frenzy.

It was a powerful experience to meet the precious people of Heng Feng, and to shower them with love and tangible help. We prayed it would count for eternity, and I believe it does. But I also believe seeds were planted that need to be cultivated. Particularly when we can’t openly explain our faith, our commitment to remain, abide, stay close — speaks volumes to them that our words cannot.

So here we are in a new year. Ready to keep walking. In the spirit of the season of Chinese New Year, and turning our hearts toward our Chinese family, we are ready to return.

Our website will be undergoing updates and changes for a new year. We have been so blessed to open up the trip to an even larger family, the body of believers, who uphold us in their prayers and bless our hearts with their encouragement. We hope and pray you will keep walking with us.

We return to Heng Feng June 14-24, 2012. We are currently praying that God will rise up who He wants to make the trek with us. There are many ways to do that, all of them crucial to the success of our trip.

First and foremost, we are asking you to PRAY. Ask God to stir hearts to go. Ask Him to move mountains to provide abundantly for trip costs and for a donation to the orphanage. Ask God to pour out the faith and courage that each heart needs to see this calling to fulfillment. (We encourage you to check out our Prayer Guide that will be updated regularly.)

Secondly, if you want to go with us, we are excited to officially open up the team. You can contact Becki, myself, or Visiting Orphans at www.visitingorphans.org. They are ready to receive your application.

Finally, and also very important, is the financial contribution that some of you are willing and able to make. God has provided for your needs and this is an opportunity to give back to Him and thank Him for all He has done for you. It is a tangible way that you can remember the orphans and the nation of China with your gracious support. Check out our Get Involved page to find out how to donate, as God stirs your heart to give.

All of these facets are important and they all work together. If we lay the foundation right, by lining our hearts up in prayer with God’s purposes, He will take care of the rest. Please pray about where He might be blessing you by inviting you into the journey.

We will be posting with updates, prayer requests, scripture and encouragement as we take one step at a time back to Heng Feng. Miraculously, all those little steps will lead us clear across the world. We hope and pray you’ll join us.

(adapted from the archives)

Winter in Heng Feng

By Julie on Dec 9, 2011 in Updates | 8 Comments

My heart has been drawn close this year more than any other. As the snow falls here in Ohio, I am mindful of our friends in Heng Feng that have no heat. As I skype with Qiao in northern China, he shows me the portable heater at his feet as he works in his office. My heart is right there.

It has been so endearing to be in touch in the recent months — to hear who is being adopted, who is already home in their forever families and where they live now. I am drawn right back to China as I overhear Qiao speaking Chinese on his cell phone, checking in with Liu to hear about the babies, and then translating to give me an update. I can’t wait to go back! My heart longs to be there!!

God is building His team!!! You can check out our prayer needs and join us as we bring another trip to Heng Feng into fruition in the summer of 2012!!

If you are interested in joining our team, you can register here with Visiting Orphans.

God is doing AMAZING things!!!! What an incredible opportunity we have to join Him!!!

God. Will. Come. Through.

By Julie on Jul 12, 2011 in Faith, From the Heart | 7 Comments

Two years ago, I wrote a post called An Open Door. If you take a moment to go back to this link you can read the background to the following story…..

Sometimes when I pray, God gives me specific words or themes to pray about. Central themes of wisdom and provision started off our year in my household. It was only with time that I was able to see why God had laid those on my heart. What my family has since embarked on is a road of deep healing. We have truly needed God’s wisdom and provision to know where to walk and how.

It has been the hardest year of my life in so many ways. At the beginning of this year, my husband lost his job. This was a crisis in and of itself, but God spoke clearly that it wasn’t to be our priority. We had immediate needs for healing, and God put in our hearts an earnest desire to follow Him wherever that healing needed to take us. In the months that followed, we went through some intense challenges, refining, and growth. For months I wondered if God would even allow me to go to China this year. I remember feeling absolutely determined that the enemy could not take anything more from me. I believed God for this China trip despite all the horrific things our year has thrown at us.

Since the beginning of summer, God has spoken to my heart to wait, have faith, believe. We continue to walk unemployment, which can send ripples of anxiety and fear through my heart. God brings me back to allow this refining to do its deep work, as He asks me, “Do you have what you need today?” I do, Lord. And it becomes a waiting for His precise timing. He will unfold His plan. He will provide. He spoke to my heart to wait and believe, and then He gave me a picture to pray for OPEN DOORS. In the past month, we’ve had some very distinct closed doors, which I tried to encourage myself by saying those are answers too. But after all the bumpiness we’ve endured, I’m ready for the right door to open. A door not only to a job that will provide for the needs of our family and our further healing, but also a door to our calling to fulfill the purpose God made us for.

As I was back in China this time, and praying fervently for open doors, my heart remembered the painting in 2009 that I had walked away from. I was wooed by the thought that maybe God would bring me to a new open door this year….one that would redeem my past loss. This time I would learn to embrace the gift and not walk away. This time would speak so personally to me as my family desperately holds onto God in this season. So I went looking. Amidst all the searching for family gifts, a small window of time, Chinese voices calling out for me to buy their souvenirs, it came down to the final moments before we had to board the bus. I finally found a few bracelets that would suit the three men in my household, and bought them from a sweet woman named Wendy. Then I suddenly remembered again about open doors. I asked to see her paintings.

I set them all side by side to compare them. They were all beautiful, but only one looked like rural China to me. This was the one. She said the price would be about 850 yuan, but since we had become friends, she would charge me 450 yuan, a special price. I told her my story of why we were in China, to help at the orphanage, and how on my last visit I was unable to buy the painting of an open door. I opened my envelope of Chinese yuan and took out all that I had left. 270 yuan. I said dui bu qi (I’m sorry), this is all I have. It is everything. And somehow she believed me, felt captivated enough by my plight that she let me have it. I was so humbled. I realized there was something to this story that it would cost me everything I have. That has so been the case for my refining this year.

I showed Chen (our guide) my painting and asked him to translate the banners that were surrounding the door posts of these open doors. Chen gave me the literal translation, and together we talked as I added the meaning it had for my faith. On the threshold was a banner over our home, that God would provide for what we need. He will take care of us and provide the job we need. On the right side of door is a banner that says that the sun will always shine on this home, and it is bright — God is shining down on our family. We will have a bright life, living for Him! On the left side of the door is a banner that says we will have many children with good health! While we already do, I also thought about all the babies I have in China that live in my heart! Two additional banners cover the door, that God will protect us from the evil spirits that try to harm us. How appropriate, that this year has felt like it nearly destroyed us — but God is there protecting us!!! Hallelujah!!!

The battle can be fierce sometimes. It is hard to hold our ground in the midst of horrific storms. Trouble and chaos abounds this year for my family. BUT GOD has been here in the midst of it all. His promise is true. My God will come through. Always.

My help is coming!!! In the praying, in the waiting, in pondering the open doors of my Chinese painting, I am holding on with renewed hope. God. Will. Come. Through. And when He does, He will carry me over the threshold of those open doors…. glory to God!!

Extravagant Love