Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Orphan Sunday 2014

This past Sunday, around the world churches celebrated Orphan Sunday in a variety of ways.  In our church it was a day of big announcements.  We heard that another local church was merging with ours and that we were becoming a single church with multiple locations.  One of the amazing things about this merger for our family is that it means that The Michael Project (the orphan care ministry that we work with) now becomes a part of our local church, rather than just being a part of our family of churches as it was before.  This is so exciting for us!!

My husband and I were given the opportunity to share about God's heart for the orphan, our role to play and how we can do that here in Zimbabwe.  Our church was able to celebrate that two families from our congregation and that we have done well to love them through their journey.  Then we challenged ourselves to do more! 
However one of the things that we have constantly talked about over the first year of our marriage is how much we enjoy serving and ministering together as a team.  This past Sunday was no different...even though everything went wrong and we were a little bit short --and maybe even shouted at each other that morning (when I saw we shouted, I'm sure you know us well enough by now to know that only one of us shouts...) When we sat together before church started and prayed together we were able to quickly ask forgiveness for these unloving actions and it all disappeared.  I love that through this first year of marriage, we have learned to try not to take offense and when we do to forgive quickly. 




It was an interesting day: that morning everything that could go wrong did, from not having water or electricity to the car not starting. Add that all to my massive onset of pregnancy brain and you have a picture of how we were prepared.  I even left the flash drive behind with all of our photos and prayer points! (UGH, seriously for the past 8 days I haven't been able to remember ANYTHING! I literally left my shoes at Nyasha's cousin's house the other day--who does that?)


Speaking about God's heart for His children and especially the orphan is something we are so very passionate about.  Doing that in our church is not easy, not because people don't love well--because they do-- but because so many are already serving God in multiple ways, so many people are already giving so generously, challenging people to hear what God is saying to them about possibly doing more is always a bit intimidating.  

After church we had conversations with so many people who are interested in serving in some capacity with The Michael Project, but what excited us the most is the messages we received and conversations we had with people in our lives saying, "We had a conversation about becoming a place of safety or foster parents!"  A place of safety is a temporary placement for children who are entering the system.  Often they have been abandoned or orphaned and need a safe place to go while a suitable placement is found for them-- either being reunified with a relative or being placed with an adoptive family or an orphanage.  Harare is in need of an enormous amount of these registered placements.  


What a joy it is to see the body of Christ respond to the Holy Spirit, regardless of the flaws of the messengers!


If you missed the video we shared in church, check it out here: