Yesterday I read a great post and wanted to share it with you. I will be taking these questions with me on the plane and hopefully it will help me to reorganize and refocus my priorities. I like to stop several times a year and reflect where I am at. It helps me to see where I have deviated and also let the Lord show me areas in my life that need attention. Needless to say this past year I have neglected this more than usual.
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The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.
What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?
Whitney writes:
The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.
Whitney also offers an additional 21 questions to help us “consider our ways.”
I am sorry I haven't made any updates to the boy's situation. There is not a whole lot to tell. All efforts were blocked and we do have some limited information that I am hesitant to divulge online for fear that it would hurt our case. I am hoping that we can share more of the pieces of this story when we get over there.
I know I keep saying this, but your prayers are so appreciated and felt. Things are soon approaching for our leave date. I am a little overwhelmed and relieved at the same time for some forward movement. We continue to pray that our desires would be secondary to what the Lord's will is for us and for Jonathan and David. Nothing is too big or difficult for the Lord and we are leaning on Him and trusting that He knows best and ultimately that He is in perfect control. I quake at the thought of me being in control. I would mess everything up....so we rest in HIM and wait.
Today I read Isaiah 53 53:5-7 says "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - everyone- to His own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth."
This was just a small portion of a glorious text. I sat there weeping and realizing that the Lord bore the full wrath of His Father and He bore the weight of the world's sins on His shoulders. How little is my pain and suffering compared to Jesus'. I rejoice in these struggles if to only be close to my Savior and to fellowship with Him. Though we had never thought this adoption journey would lead us down this path, we rejoice and thank Him through it all. In our weakness His strength is evident and our heart's desire and prayer is that no matter what the end of this story is, the Lord will get all the credit and praise. His ways are not our own, but we rest in His perfect sovereignty and plan, even if we don't fully understand or comprehend it.
The last few days have had another full range of emotions. The verse that keeps running through my head is this: "The steadfast love of the Lord never changes. His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness." When things keep changing and stresses keep coming, the Lord's love is always steady. His truth never changes. His grace is always sufficient for that particular moment. I try not to think beyond today, because I know that the Lord hasn't given me the allotted graced for those days ahead. He only gives me the perfect amount this moment. I shudder and almost cry thinking what it would be like to go through hardships and life without the Lord. All the untruthfulness and confusion that we have experienced has made me even more thankful for the Truth of His Word that NEVER changes and is the foundation to our lives and in all the craziness we feel.
We have a christian driver and interpreter that is working for us in Ethiopia. He has helped several families in the past and we were blessed to come across the right people to get the connection to him. He visited the transition home yesterday and they told him that the boys were back with their father. After talking to the person that is connecting us, we decided that the only way we will know the truth is to find out for ourselves. So as of this morning we received this email: On A mission. Our "helper" in Ethiopia is driving 6 hours one way to their regional orphanage to try to find out what is happening.
So my plea is this...please pray for our helper and please pray that the truth will come to light. I don't know if the transition home is helping him with info in regards to where the boys are located, but we are confident that the Lord will help him. I am praying that the Lord will prepare our hearts for whatever we hear. Believe me, I have cried my tears and at some level I am not sure how I will feel if I know they are with their father. We will still want to meet them regardless of where they are at.
Jason gently reminded me yesterday that we want to adopt children who desperately need a family. If the boys are able to go back to their family and are taken care of, that is our greatest desire for them. It's about their well-being not ours!
Also yesterday we found out that most of our funds are in for our trip!! Again, more tears shed with thankfulness for the Lord's provisions and clear hand upon this journey that He has called us to. Thank you all who gave to our trip. We thank the Lord that He moved through you to bless us.
Things are starting to wind up pretty quickly. I can't believe we are literally a few weeks from going to Ethiopia. Time seems to be a blur in my eyes and I literally have to will myself to slow down and enjoy each day's blessings.
Thank you all for your prayers for us during this past year and this past week for our boys and our transition of moving to Ethiopia for awhile. What a joy and privilege it is to be used by our Lord. This journey has been hard, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. He has taught me so much about myself and HIM and trusting in Him alone....mm, you would think that would be an easy lesson!! :)
The latest update we have is nothing....we tried to find out an explanation as to why the boys are no longer up for adoption and back with their family(especially after we had heard encouraging news a couple months ago). After talking to others, our instincts do have some grounding. The opinion is that they may be with their family, but probably not. We really don't know what is happening. We are so ready to go over there and find out what is truly happening. I am frustrated by the lack of communication and help we are getting from the people that are supposed to be doing this stuff!! We feel very alone in this endeavour.
The Lord has brought some people into our path that are and will help us out in Ethiopia to find out what the truth is. Please continue to pray. In all honesty, this last piece of news was hard, but hardly surprises us because we keep having one obstacle after another. We know we are doing the right thing and are at peace with pursuing these boys to the very end of whatever the Lord has for them and us.
This past week, I kept wanting to know what the last chapter would be in this book of our adoption. It hasn't seem to reach the climax yet! :) At some point everything has to start fitting together somehow.
So we continue to trust the Lord and wait and pray that His will be done and knowing full well He is capable to move mountains.
So we got another update today. Shimeliss told Hope adoption which told Lisa that our boys are no longer available for adoption and that they are back with their family. Shimeliss had mentioned that he had already told Lisa that, which he hadn't. SOMETHING DOESN'T ADD UP. We have been offered new referrals and new children TWICE and since the boys are back in their regional orphanage again, they have no jurisdiction over them. My fear is that this may just another way for them to get us to move on? If they are back with their families again, great, I can deal with that and are would be happy that they are with some sort of family. But something in my spirit doesn't feel right. I can't put my finger on it. Our updates have hardly ever seemed to add up and sometimes been contradicting. I have no reason to trust them, even though I want to. PLEASE PRAY FOR US, we need wisdom. I feel so trapped, angry, devastated and in tears. I can't let this rest until we have more details, because of course, we didn't get any of those.
I posted this video last year and again I find myself praying for our sons this Christmas season that the Lord would hold them close and all the other orphans in this world that don't get to experience a family's love. I pray that the Lord would hold each of them closely to His side and that they would experience His peace and love midst pain and confusion.
Many of you know that we are in the process of adopting two boys from Ethiopia.Some of you have also heard of the Lord's leading in our next step of faith: the Meyer family is moving to Ethiopia for next semester (January through June).We will be working under the leadership of SIM (Serving in Mission).SIM is an interdenominational mission organization whose main focus is to glorify God by evangelizing, ministering, discipling, and establishing national churches that fulfill the Great Commission.My main ministry opportunity in Ethiopia will be teaching the Gospels at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.We would love to explain how the Lord has worked in our hearts to lead us to this exciting decision.
We began to be confronted with the idea of moving to Ethiopia as we meditated on the meaning of the gospel.It all started when one of our agency workers recommended that we seek a referral for a new child because of certain difficulties in the adoption process with our two boys.Those words were unthinkable and unsettling, but the situation brought the gospel into clear focus.We owe our salvation to the relentless, loving, patient pursuit of God.God in Christ took a "whatever it takes" approach to redeem and rescue us when we were helpless sinners.Therefore, we long for our relentless, loving, patient advocacy for these boys to serve as a model of the gospel.
Having resolved that we were not going to give up on them because God never gave up on us, we considered how we could expend every effort and use up every option at our disposal.The gospel surprised us again with its challenging, yet compelling beauty.The glory of the incarnation is that Jesus left heaven to come to earth and dwell among us in order to bring us into God's family.Suddenly, the distance did not seem so great between Louisiana and Ethiopia.The "sacrifice" seemed surprisingly small to leave the comforts of America for Ethiopia when we compared them to Christ's loving act of leaving the glories of heaven for the hardships he faced on earth.We are gladly bringing our family to the boys rather than waiting to bring the boys to our family.
Our time in Ethiopia is now about so much more than the adoption of our two boys.We have a chance to proclaim the true gospel.One of the problems in Ethiopia is a false teaching that Jesus is part God and part man, not fully God and fully man as the Bible teaches.It is no coincidence, but providence that they assigned me to teach a class on the Gospels!We long to see the Ethiopians worship Christ in His full glory because He alone is worthy of their praise."Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you" (Ps 67:3). Our prayer is not to be seen or to be admired as we take this step.Our prayer is for Christ to be seen and admired in all the stunning beauty of His majesty.O how we long to see Him more clearly and proclaim His glory more faithfully and passionately in and through this mission.It has the potential to be the biggest catalyst for spiritual growth that we have ever experienced together as a family.
My main purpose for writing this letter is to enlist an army of prayer warriors for prayer support for our ministry in Ethiopia.We are also beginning the process of fund raising. We will need to raise $19,504 to cover flight costs, medical insurance, and living expenses while in Ethiopia.The financial support for this trip must be raised before we can leave the U.S. on January 11.If the Lord leads you to partner with us financially, you may return your gift with our STA#33929 on the enclosed response card to the SIM office.SIM will send you a tax-deductible receipt for your gift. Please know that this is not a "we will mention prayer in passing, but we really hope you give money" kind of letter.We pray that the Lord will lead you as He sees fit.We pray that He will raise up many to give cheerfully to this cause, but our greatest need is for many more to intercede for us faithfully before the throne of grace because His grace is our greatest need.We know that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).
Yours in the greatest cause,
The Meyer family
202 Iris Park Drive Pineville, LA 71360 318-542-2823
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