We were pretty happy with our lives, content with watching others do the Lords work and sending a check to support this or that! But i always admired the faith of others that seemed to be just a little more in Love with Jesus than I. I remember many times praying that Jesus would give me "That kind of Faith"! What i really imagined was Jesus kind of snapping his fingers and Shane would awaken with a deeper Love and faith in Him. Silly me! I look back and realize that if Jesus were to do that there would have been no point in our creation in the first place. But the prayer was made and Jesus answered in His way. He started showing me things that would tug at my heart, and we would send a check. Then he started showing me things that would absolutly break my heart, and we would send a check. Then he dropped the bomb on me, he showed me something that need to be addressed and that a check would have no effect on, he showed me the children that live life without Love. After all, isn't our entire purpose on earth to LOVE? It is our greatest Commandment!
I read this story by Katie Davis and it through me into tears:
Monday, December 15, 2008
I found this story in my journal last night... its fairly old but still has the same meaning. As you hold the ones you love this Christmas, please keep in mind those who have no one to hold them.
Yesterday a sweet little girl named Rita came to my house with two teeth that had been completely eaten through by a cavity and were almost completely rotted away. The holes looked like they were starting to get infected and the nerve was exposed; I cant imagine how much pain she was in. I took her to the dentist, and they said they were closed. The dentist was in a hurry to leave and wouldn't help me, but he said I could use his things and do it myself. Of course I was terrified, but I was more scared to think about the teeth not being removed immediately; they looked so painful. I gave her a shot to numb her mouth, waited about ten minutes, tried to sterilize these tweezer things with a match and dug out what was remaining of her poor little teeth. I don't think she could feel it, but my heart hurt for her.
I took her back home, made her a hot bath and some soup. Then she had ice cream and slept in my bed under a big blanket. As i tucked the covers in around her and kissed her head she looked up at me with these big, wondering eyes. Unbelievable as it is, she was SOOO happy. She told me that this was the best day of her life, even though her mouth hurt. She said that she would get her teeth pulled every day if she could stay with someone like me. And that made my heart hurt even more.
There are so many children out there that don't feel loved on a daily basis. So many children that don't have a person to hold their hand or rub their back when they are scared and in pain. So many children who don't have the simple pleasures of taking a warm bath or sleeping under a blanket. I would move all of them, ALL of them into my house if I could. I wish I could love them all. I wish more people cared enough that they also wanted to love them all. Sometimes I just can't even believe how blessed I am. I have always been loved, always been cared for, always been warm and well-fed. Its frustrating sometimes, but mostly its just motivating. Sometimes I feel so tired, and then something like this happens and I am reminded that I can give a child the best night of her life simply by making her soup and kissing her forehead. Simply by loving her.
Sometimes I feel so tired that I think if I give away any more of myself I may actually be empty. And then I remember, It is only in giving away the love given to me by the Father that I am ever actually full. And so I keep going because of Rita. Because kissing her forehead and saying 'I love you" actually did change the world for that little girl. Because maybe through my hands she can get just a glimpse of a fraction of the love her Maker has for her. There is nothing better.
It can be found at this link: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-found-this-story-in-my-journal-last.html
After reading this story i realized that there are children in this world that will never know what Love is. They will never know the warmth of a hug or the security of knowing you have a family that you can fall back on when your hurt or lonely. I thought, what kind of world do we live in that a little girl says she would have her teeth pulled everyday for a bath, cup of soup and a kiss on the forehead? So that is why we dediced to adopt! Because if we didn't these children have no hope and will never feel LOVE!
The Bible says: "Once your eyes are open you cannot pretent you don't know what to do". With the new found deeper Love for Jesus I couldn't imagine how i would be able to explain to Him that I did nothing to show Love to the Unloved!
Now about "OUR GIRLS"! God sends you in the direction we're supposed to go. With our girls, it was Love as first sight, as He intended! He knew He had conditioned our hearts for this, that I had a good job and great insurance, so therefore we could handle this assignment. So he showed me a picture of Oksana. I must have stared at it for hours. To this day all we know about her is she is 6, has HIV, she doesn't smile in any of her pictures and we are incredibly in love with her! Along with her in another picture were 4 others girls that Oksana had grown up with in the orphanage. We talked about it and decided that if we were going to do this we will do it to it's fullest. We decided that if possible we would bring them all home as sisters. Later we were told that one of the girls, Irina was already spoken for by another family. We were happy for her and sad that she would be split form the girls she grow up with. But God is amazing and soon we found out that he had a plan to address our concerns! Irina was being adopted by a Christian family right here in the Chicago area. She looks exactly like her new Daddy! And she will know Love and the Love of Jesus! And!!!! She will get to see her "sisters" often!!!
Statistically, there are 147 million orphans in this world. If Orphan were a country, it would be the 9th most populated country in the world! 99.6% of all orphans will never know the Love of a family through adoption or otherwise. There is an 85% failure rate for all orphans in the Ukraine that age out of an orphange. 15% commit suicide within two years. 70% of the girls are trafficked or turn voluntarily to prostitution to survive. Many of these girls are never heard from again because there is no one looking for them! But for our girls the story is even worse. Because they are considered older children (That baffles me that 5, 6 and 7 year olds are considered older) they will very likey never get adopted. Add to that they have HIV and thier chances go to zero! If that wasn't enough, they only have access to two ARV medication there. They take one until they build up a tolerance and then are switched to the other. When they build a tolerance to that one they are switched back. But possibly eventually they will build a tolerance to both and will die there in an orphanage without ever knowing Love and the Love of Jesus! But the good news is we are going to get them. With us they will know love and the love of Jesus and here in the USA we have access to 97 medications and eventually they will be undetectable!
We are not perfect! It seems like everyday i am reminded of how imperfect i am...Praise God! But there can be little doubt that these girls will be better off in an imperfect Christian home than the place they are at now!
Happy New Year Everyone!
Shane
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Rollcoaster ride............
Hi all! We were reminded today that we haven't written in awhile to keep our friends and followers updated.
Fundraising is still in progress and we are setting up our next two fundraisers as of this writing. Homestudy is still in the works and is mostly completed.
It has been a very busy time as it is the Holidays and i'm working every available minute of overtime i can find. Sometimes i'm worried that we won't raise the money we need in time and other days i go with Michele Perry's saying "His will, His bill"!
It is a nervous time for us at the Lewis house. We love these girls so much and we are faced with the reality that until they are here with us nothing is for sure.
Please pray for us and our girls.
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
Shane
Fundraising is still in progress and we are setting up our next two fundraisers as of this writing. Homestudy is still in the works and is mostly completed.
It has been a very busy time as it is the Holidays and i'm working every available minute of overtime i can find. Sometimes i'm worried that we won't raise the money we need in time and other days i go with Michele Perry's saying "His will, His bill"!
It is a nervous time for us at the Lewis house. We love these girls so much and we are faced with the reality that until they are here with us nothing is for sure.
Please pray for us and our girls.
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
Shane
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
JESUS HAS AIDS!
Jesus Has AIDS
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 10:00 PM
Russell D. Moore
Jesus has AIDS.
Just reading that in the type in front of you probably has some of you angry. Let me help you see why that is, and, in so doing, why caring for those with AIDS is part of the gospel mandate given to us in the Great Commission.
The statement that Jesus has AIDS startles some of you because you know it not to be true. Jesus, after all, is the exalted son of the living God. He has defeated death in the garden tomb, and defeated it finally. Jesus isn’t weak or dying or infected; he’s triumphant and resurrected.
Yes.
Yes, but, what we’re often likely to miss is that Jesus has identified himself with the suffering of this world, an identification that continues on through his church. Yes, Jesus finishes his suffering at the cross, but he also speaks of himself as being “persecuted” by Saul of Tarsus, as Saul comes after his church in Damascus (Acts 9:4).
Through the Spirit of Christ, we “groan” with him at the suffering of a universe still under the curse (Rom. 8:23,26). This curse manifests itself, as in billions of other ways, in bodies turned against themselves by immune systems gone awry.
That’s why the church is to suffer, continually, with Christ as we take his presence into the darkness of a fallen creation. The Apostle Paul says, then, “I rejoice then in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24).
Some of Jesus’ church has AIDS. Some of them are languishing in hospitals right down the street from you. Some of them are orphaned by the disease in Africa. All of them are suffering with an intensity few of us can imagine.
Some of you are angered by the statement I typed above because you think somehow it implicates Jesus. After all, AIDS is a shameful disease, one most often spread through sexual promiscuity or illicit drug use.
Yes.
Yes, but those are the very kinds of people Jesus consistently identified himself with as he walked the hillsides of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem, announcing the kingdom of God. Can one be more sexually promiscuous than the prostitutes Jesus ate with? Can one be more marginalized from society than a woman dripping with blood, blood that would have made anyone who touched her unclean (Luke 8:40-48)? Jesus touched her, and took her uncleanness on himself.
AIDS is scandalous, sure. But not nearly as scandalous as a cross.
At the crucifixion stake, Jesus identifies himself with a sinful world (including the scandal of my sin). He was seen to be cursed by God (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). This is why it seemed so reasonable to the shouting crowds to curse him as a false Messiah, because only those rejected by God would ever be hanged on a tree. And that’s why the apostle Paul had to repeatedly insist that he was not “ashamed” of the cross. At Golgotha, Jesus became sin (though he never knew it himself) by bearing the sins of the world (2 Cor 5:21). Now that’s scandalous.
Moreover, some of you are angry because you believe that the statement I typed above is an affront to the dignity of the ruler of the universe. He doesn’t have some immune deficiency disease; he’s ruling from the right hand of God.
Yes.
Yes, but we cannot see Jesus only in his Head but also in his Body, also in his identification with those he calls “the least of these, my brothers” (Matt. 25:40). Jesus isn’t right now hungry, is he? He isn’t naked, is he? He isn’t thirsty, is he? He isn’t in jail, is he? Well, yes, he is…in the nakedness, hunger, thirstiness, and imprisonment of his suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
When we stand in judgment, we’ll stand, Jesus tells us, accountable for how we recognized him in the trauma of those who don’t seem to bear the glory of Christ at all right now. We see Jesus now, by faith, in the sufferings of the crack baby, the meth addict, the AIDS orphan, the hospitalized prodigal who sees his ruin in the wires running from his veins.
I wonder how many of us will hear the words from our Galilean emperor, “I had AIDS and you weren’t afraid to come near me.”
And so, if we love Jesus, our churches should be more aware of the cries of the curse, including the curse of AIDS, than the culture around us. Our congregations should welcome the AIDS-infected, and we shouldn’t be afraid to hug them as we would hug our Christ. Our congregations should be on the forefront of missions to AIDS-ravaged regions of the world. Our families should be willing to welcome those orphaned by this global scourge.
Through it all, we should be insistent in gospel proclamation. To those whose blood has become their own enemy, we should announce blood they know not of, the blood of One who can cleanse them of all unrighteousness, just as it cleansed us (1 Jn. 1:7); the blood of One who is forever immune to sin and death and hell (Jn. 6:53-56).
Jesus loves the world, and the world has AIDS. Jesus identifies himself with the least of these, and many of them have AIDS. Jesus calls us to recognize him in the depths of suffering, and there’s AIDS there too.
Jesus has AIDS.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 10:00 PM
Russell D. Moore
Jesus has AIDS.
Just reading that in the type in front of you probably has some of you angry. Let me help you see why that is, and, in so doing, why caring for those with AIDS is part of the gospel mandate given to us in the Great Commission.
The statement that Jesus has AIDS startles some of you because you know it not to be true. Jesus, after all, is the exalted son of the living God. He has defeated death in the garden tomb, and defeated it finally. Jesus isn’t weak or dying or infected; he’s triumphant and resurrected.
Yes.
Yes, but, what we’re often likely to miss is that Jesus has identified himself with the suffering of this world, an identification that continues on through his church. Yes, Jesus finishes his suffering at the cross, but he also speaks of himself as being “persecuted” by Saul of Tarsus, as Saul comes after his church in Damascus (Acts 9:4).
Through the Spirit of Christ, we “groan” with him at the suffering of a universe still under the curse (Rom. 8:23,26). This curse manifests itself, as in billions of other ways, in bodies turned against themselves by immune systems gone awry.
That’s why the church is to suffer, continually, with Christ as we take his presence into the darkness of a fallen creation. The Apostle Paul says, then, “I rejoice then in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24).
Some of Jesus’ church has AIDS. Some of them are languishing in hospitals right down the street from you. Some of them are orphaned by the disease in Africa. All of them are suffering with an intensity few of us can imagine.
Some of you are angered by the statement I typed above because you think somehow it implicates Jesus. After all, AIDS is a shameful disease, one most often spread through sexual promiscuity or illicit drug use.
Yes.
Yes, but those are the very kinds of people Jesus consistently identified himself with as he walked the hillsides of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem, announcing the kingdom of God. Can one be more sexually promiscuous than the prostitutes Jesus ate with? Can one be more marginalized from society than a woman dripping with blood, blood that would have made anyone who touched her unclean (Luke 8:40-48)? Jesus touched her, and took her uncleanness on himself.
AIDS is scandalous, sure. But not nearly as scandalous as a cross.
At the crucifixion stake, Jesus identifies himself with a sinful world (including the scandal of my sin). He was seen to be cursed by God (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). This is why it seemed so reasonable to the shouting crowds to curse him as a false Messiah, because only those rejected by God would ever be hanged on a tree. And that’s why the apostle Paul had to repeatedly insist that he was not “ashamed” of the cross. At Golgotha, Jesus became sin (though he never knew it himself) by bearing the sins of the world (2 Cor 5:21). Now that’s scandalous.
Moreover, some of you are angry because you believe that the statement I typed above is an affront to the dignity of the ruler of the universe. He doesn’t have some immune deficiency disease; he’s ruling from the right hand of God.
Yes.
Yes, but we cannot see Jesus only in his Head but also in his Body, also in his identification with those he calls “the least of these, my brothers” (Matt. 25:40). Jesus isn’t right now hungry, is he? He isn’t naked, is he? He isn’t thirsty, is he? He isn’t in jail, is he? Well, yes, he is…in the nakedness, hunger, thirstiness, and imprisonment of his suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
When we stand in judgment, we’ll stand, Jesus tells us, accountable for how we recognized him in the trauma of those who don’t seem to bear the glory of Christ at all right now. We see Jesus now, by faith, in the sufferings of the crack baby, the meth addict, the AIDS orphan, the hospitalized prodigal who sees his ruin in the wires running from his veins.
I wonder how many of us will hear the words from our Galilean emperor, “I had AIDS and you weren’t afraid to come near me.”
And so, if we love Jesus, our churches should be more aware of the cries of the curse, including the curse of AIDS, than the culture around us. Our congregations should welcome the AIDS-infected, and we shouldn’t be afraid to hug them as we would hug our Christ. Our congregations should be on the forefront of missions to AIDS-ravaged regions of the world. Our families should be willing to welcome those orphaned by this global scourge.
Through it all, we should be insistent in gospel proclamation. To those whose blood has become their own enemy, we should announce blood they know not of, the blood of One who can cleanse them of all unrighteousness, just as it cleansed us (1 Jn. 1:7); the blood of One who is forever immune to sin and death and hell (Jn. 6:53-56).
Jesus loves the world, and the world has AIDS. Jesus identifies himself with the least of these, and many of them have AIDS. Jesus calls us to recognize him in the depths of suffering, and there’s AIDS there too.
Jesus has AIDS.
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