A 54 year adventure

Tomorrow my wonderful wife and I will have been married for 54 years.

This is a special blessing because in February, 2009 she was told she had about 3 months to live, her liver was in the final stages of failure. By God’s grace, in answer to many of your prayers, the Lord used non traditional medicine and a doctor who has several Phd’s and his insight and knowledge.

Karen is still with us.

She does not remember much of 2009 and parts of 2010, she was in the ER 9 times in 15 months, had 3 long hospital stays, a heart attack, and diabetes.

My daughter Nanette has worked overtime with us to insure Karen was taken care of in the proper manner.

I just want to praise the Lord for her still being here. She just spent 2 weeks helping Nanette and her 4 boys get ready to go to Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan and spend two weeks teaching missionary children while their parents are in a retreat.  Karen painted, drew, sewed, showed the boys how to present a lesson, the oldest Nathan feels he is called into the ministry and has preached several times, the other boys have no experience in this kind of work, so their granny taught them how.   As many of you know she is one of the best at teacher training.

They left on Sunday, on the way home from the airport with eyes filled with tears, she said to me, “I can’t go and do it anymore, but I can still help others get the job done.”  She does not like going to Missions conference, it breaks her heart because she can no  longer go herself. She always leaves with a broken heart and many tears.

Once again, all this is possible because of God’s grace, your prayers and support.

Anyone who knows us will agree, she is the reason we have had ANY success in our ministry, she is the heart, conscience, and force that accomplished what we have done. I married way beyond myself, if anything I have held her back.

It has been an 54 year adventure, and I would change very little if I had the chance.

Sam Keller

 

Defend The Orphan – Wall Street Journal

Although I often make ‘tongue-in-cheek’ criticisms of our northern friends living in the so-called ‘land of the free and home of the brave’, I was impressed by the Wall Street Journal article about adoption. It is in part a encouragement (if not endorsement of) to John McCain to take a stand on matters relating to adoption as an opportunity to promote “adoption is part of a holistic sanctity-of-human-life ethic”. However it reveals that the anti-adoption philosophy so entrenched in Australian society is prevalent also in America.

The opening paragraph is something that Australian authorities should seriously consider:

In 1993, the McCains adopted a daughter from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh, and the senator has co-sponsored legislation to aid adoption, including measures that would provide tax credits for expenses and would remove barriers to interracial and interethnic adoption.

The self-appointed politically-correct authorities here in Australia, whilst claiming to have the “best interests of the child in mind” when managing and screening applicants for adopting also have onerous and obstructive policies. In our experience, rather than encouraging and promoting adoption as a valid means of creating or extending a family, they to seek to prevent as many as possible from adopting. Thereby denying orphaned / relinquished / abandoned children the world over the opportunities to grow up in a loving, nurturing, family environment. The result of their argument is that it is better for the child to remain in their own culture and continue to suffer a life of poverty, slavery, abuse, neglect etc.

The WSJ article, as also alluded to by Al Mohler yesterday, also mentions the contradiction of these same authorities when it comes to dealing with racial discrimination. The do-right-ers who want a society of tolerance, peace and harmony are the same pundits who regularly oppose trans-racial and cross cultural adoptions. Quoting a Ms Rosati:

“Both are saying the same thing, ‘Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.’ And both pretend they’re just being realistic about racial discrimination.”

Join the cause Defend the orphan and help all children reach their God given potential!

 

Care for the fatherless

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. ~ James 1:27

 

An Adoptee Investing in Champions

Troy Matthews, or Dr. Matthews as he is better known today, was Dean of Students at my Bible College and was also Associate Pastor at my church in 1989/90. Troy was adopted at birth and always spoke openly, positively and generously about his experience. Although I was only 17/18 years old when I was one of his students and not really thinking about my future family too much at the time, his example influenced me significantly when the time came that my wife and I were considering adopting.

There are some heart-breaking stories of cases where adoption hasn’t been approached sensitively or lovingly (towards both the child and the birth parents). Unfortunately, some of those stories get a little more air time than the great majority of ones where children and families flourish through their experience with adoption. Troy is a fantastic example of a man who not only flourished, but is now helping others flourish also.

Together for Adoption recently published Troy’s story:

Troy was born to a young mother in Snyder, Texas, and because of the closed adoption he doesn’t know much more than that about his fraternal parents. Simultaneously to this woman’s pregnancy, a young couple had battled several miscarriages and were urged by a local pastor in Snyder to consider adoption – particularly the adoption of Troy. They quickly realized that this was their “gift from God.”

Today, Troy puts it in his own words, “They were his gift from God.” …

Dr. Matthews is now a professor of “Contemporary Issues”, a course required by all majors at Liberty. The subject matter directly approaches one’s world view – affirming a Biblical world view and also applying it. Topics such as adoption, abortion, and a Christian’s moral responsibility to such topics and understanding of absolute truth’s found in Scripture. These courses are designed to affirm a believers responsibility to the world around them.

Troy is “a champion, … reinvesting in others to be young champions as well. – just as (he) was invested in.”

If you’re in Australia and considering investing in adoption, National Adoption Awareness Week can provide you with the starting point. Click on the link for your state to find out more. If you have already been involved with Adoption there are many opportunities for networking and support with other families and adoptees.

In the USA check out the links on the Together for Adoption site.

Karen’s Adoption Links has information for other countries.

 

Do orphans need saving?

This question is complex and volatile. There is a tendency to be over simplistic when talking about adoption using terms and phrases like “saving” the orphans. However it is important to distinguish between advocating adoption as a vital means to helping and serving children in need of a permanent family and “saving” them. Lets be clear about this, there’s only ONE saviourand it’s not me nor is it any other adoptive parent, advocate or ambassador.

Kawale Orphan Care in Lilongwe, Malawi

Kristen Howerton has a lengthy blog post about this and she deals with the issue with substance and sensitivity.

I don’t like the savior narratives applied to adoptive parents.  I don’t like people telling me I’m amazing just because I’ve adopted.  Because I’m not.  I am a very human mom who is sometimes shrill and selfish and impatient and just plain mean.  I did not “save” my adopted kids.

I am very careful to never give my adopted children the feeling that there is some extra gratitude required from them.  They are a part of my family just like my daughters.  They have every right to be ungrateful, or resent me, or wish that they had never been adopted.  I don’t talk to them about where they came from as if they needed to be saved.  So on the one hand, I do take care to avoid the savior meme.

Citing a detailed example from Haiti arising from the recent turmoil caused the earthquakes she urges readers, it’s time to sit up and take notice:

This is a long post.  I hope you will read the whole thing, and I hope you will read it without judgment of the people involved.  People who serve in Haiti face the awful task, every day, of how many people they can help.  Orphanages are overcrowded simply because some very good people have a hard time turning away one more helpless child.  If this outrages you, then think about what part YOU can play.  There can be no outrage at people who serve in Haiti, as we sit at our computer screens in our comfortable homes in America.  But you need to know that this is real.

… Please, read the full post

 

Learning from Indiana Jones

My daughter and I love to play the Lego character games. They have been a source of ‘sanctification’ in our lives as the frustration of learning to work together on a computer game and the patience and love needed to bear with each other when one makes a mistake that means you have start again has given many opportunities for repentance and forgiveness. USUALLY by ME having to apologise to her for getting cranky about something as silly as a game.

But, good fun nonetheless.