Making Our Needs Known

When the funds we need to complete the adoption come our way, it will be only because of the grace of God.  Not because we worked hard to sell our house.  Not because we were diligent selling tee shirts.  Not because of our choice to downsize.  Not because we've been so wise with our money all these years, even if we had been. God will provide because He is gracious and because He will finish the work He began when He put it in our hearts to adopt.

From the beginning of our adoption journey, Ken and I have not felt a strong leading or motivation to do a fundraiser.  We did research our options and read of families who sell flip flops, tee shirts, host auctions and garage sales, or simply do a letter-writing campaign to help raise money to fund the adoption.  (We are working on applications for a grant, matching grant and no-interest loan.)

Initially, I thought about all the stories we have read in school about George Muller. If you read a little about him, you'll see that he's well known for living by faith and never asking one person for help.  He prays and trusts God to provide for his needs. God does!  The stories from Muller's life are incredible.  They build my faith and encourage me to grow in my own.  

As I've thought and prayed over it, the idea of raising support keeps coming up.  First of all, I was connected to a new twitter friend and read her blog post titled "The Blessing of Fundraising".  She said, "We need the people of God to come alongside us and partake in the story."

Ken and I have had friends tell us they want to be a part of our story.  They can't adopt at this time, but they want to be a part of what we're doing right now to bring these boys home.  We had our own experience of wanting to do something to help friends during their adoption journey.  We couldn't give money, but offered babysitting and were thrilled to do it.

I decided to see what God says about asking for money.  Why do I wait!!??  I just blogged about this less than two weeks ago!  Sure, George Muller was an amazing man of God from whom I can learn much, but he isn't God.

At the end of Romans 15, Paul asks for the church to assist him and contribute to the poor among God's people in Jerusalem.  In 2 Corinthians 8:1-15,  Paul talks to the church at Corinth about giving.  I camped out quite a while here.  The passage overall shows me that making your needs known is not wrong.  Paul also says "[The Macedonian church] urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people...they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us."  Each person's choice to give is by the will of God, not his own goodness.  Again, we can't boast except in Him.

After I saw from scripture that asking for support wasn't wrong, I then struggled with the idea of asking for support for an adoption.  Every example I saw of fundraising in the Bible was for those in full-time ministry or for a specific building need (ex. the temple).  But God brought to mind the "adoption" verse:

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

(Job 31:17, Deuteronomy 14:29 and other verses tell Christians to care for orphans.)

There is much more to study and cite on this topic, but basically, we are going to let our needs be known and ask you to pray.  More details will come in the next entry.