Family Friday: Joshua & Shayla

I love Family Fridays. It's hard to top seeing God fulfill His promise of placing the lonely into families.

This week, allow me to introduce to you Joshua and Shayla. Knowing that their Father God had spiritually adopted them, they felt God's prompting through James 1:27 to adopt a child into their forever family.  This spring God perfect orchestrated their journey to their little girl, Zola, this spring. 

 Everyone at Lifesong was super friendly and responsive. They would get back to me very quickly. It was very stress-free; it was one of the only 'easy' [parts about adoption.  When we got the "call" that our baby was born and ready for us in Florida, we had already had tickets bought for the next morning to Florida for a vacation! Such a God thing!

-Joshua & Shayla 

Please join us in rejoicing with this family by leaving them a comment!

Simple Act With a Big Impact!

In partnership with Lifesong for Orphans, The Forgotten Initiative, seeks to bring joy and purpose to the foster care community.

They have many different avenues of how we can get involved and one is creating "Journey Bags" for your local foster care agency--ultimately reaching foster kids in your community. What is a Journey Bag you ask? Children often come into foster care with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Journey Bags are backpacks filled with personal items for kids to have when they are abruptly taken out of their homes.

I invite you to listen in as Heather, a foster mom, shares the impact these Journey Bags had on her foster kiddos!

Last night at midnight three precious little beauties showed up on my doorstep.  They each had with them a blanket, a stuffed animal, and a book bag....their Journey Bags of course.  I kept waiting for more, anything more, but nothing came.  The investigator told me that yes indeed this was all they had. 

Our 5 year old had come with shoes which were so bad they had to be thrown away, one of our two year olds had no shoes, the other two year old had two left shoes.  When I asked about getting anything out of the home the investigator said it just wasn't going to be possible.  The kids had nothing.  There worldly possessions consisted of Journey Bags. As I stared at those bags I began to cry.  What if no one took the time to fill those bags and deliver them.  What would our children have then.  Absolutely nothing.  Nothing to claim as their own, nothing to protect or cherish.  Thank you for all you do.  Thank you for my kiddos Journey Bags.

--Heather, Foster Mom

Interested in reaching out to your foster care community through journey bags? Check out The Forgotten Initiative's website to find out more!

We'd love to hear form you! What are other ways that YOU are reaching out to your foster care community?

Serving the ONLY true God - Lifesong India

**New Opportunity**  We invite you to share a words of encouragement, prayers, or message to our staff at Lifesong India. To send a message, please comment on the blog and it will be forwarded to our staff. Thank you in advance for your kind words of support!

Listen in with Bob Stoll, Lifesong India, as he shares about the baptisms he witnessed while in India,

"One of the greatest joys as believers in Christ is to see others converted and saved. In our local churches and on the mission field, the resulting baptisms are a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving to God. This is especially true in India where idol worship is so prevalent. 

During our visit to Lifesong India earlier this year we witnessed the water baptism of many new converts to Christ.  

Baptism in India has great significance. It is a public statement to a multi-god community that the person has received Jesus Christ as the ONLY true God. This testimony does not come without a price as the converts are now part of a minority community and sometimes suffer persecution in their villages and also in their families. Nevertheless, even with many obstacles, your prayers and financial support of this ministry are continuing to bear much fruit. This is because our village pastors and the children's home staff are faithful in their responsibilities as teachers of the word of God.

Only your faithful support makes this fruitful ministry possible. Thank you for helping. Please pray for our newly baptized brothers and sisters."

"Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you." Psalm 51:13  

Family Friday: Cory & Jamie

Here we are for Family Friday again!

Three months ago, Cory and Jamie brought home Zion and Isaiah into their forever family from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  We Care for Orphans Adoption Fund (in partnership with Lifesong) were able to come alongside this family and offer an interest-free loan as well as fundraising support to help overcome some of their fananical costs.    

Listen in as Cory and Jamie share what God taught them through this journey and the unepected ways He provided for them!

God used this adoption journey to open our eyes to His heart for the least of these – orphans – in this world.  He placed in us a love and purpose – to care for, adopt, and give Life to orphans.  We see Him building this Life within us daily, to then give His Life to our children – both our biological children and our precious sons through adoption.

God worked each detail out exactly. Right before our boys came home, we needed to buy car seats and much more.  Our total cost was $500.  We were going to take it out of our family’s grocery budget, which was not going to work so well, especially in December when we tend to spend more on food.  

My husband and I hung up from a discussion about it, followed by a prayer.  Seconds later, we received an unsolicited email from a friend who said God had put it on their hearts to set aside $500 for us at this point in the adoption (most other adoption bills had been paid at this point).  It showed us how God provides EVERYTHING, down to the last detail of car seats and high chairs, cribs and clothes and diapers.  He is completely faithful and a good Father.

-Cory & Jamie

Vote for Lifesong and help orphans!

"RK Dixon, is a market leader when it comes to copiers, printers, networks, and pure drinking water systems."

As an office, Lifesong for Orphans have used the products of RK Dixon to enhance our technology and internal network.

RK Dixon is featuring a "Make My Non-Profit Run Better" contest and offering an office technology make-over! We couldn't help but apply. Who doesn't love winning contests, right?

Would you help us by going to their website and voting for us? With your vote, we have a chance to win technology that will help us meet needs that would allow us to run more efficiently as we work towards bringing joy and purpose to orphans!

How to vote:

-Click here!

-Select the circle to the left of "Lifesong for Orphans".

-Push vote on the right side of the screen. (yep, it's that easy!)

-You can do this daily from now until July 25th to help Lifesong for Orphans as we serve God while loving orphans!

Thanks for your help!