Compassion for His Children...

Passion for the Giver of All Good Things.

Wow, they say that time flies when you're having fun. Well, I must be having the time of my life. It seems every time I look up from existence, another week or even month has passed by. So it's been the past two weeks. Around our family, we've been struggling with a virus that has attacked all of us at one time or another. Austin's doctor finally decided to put him on a strong antibiotic to try to get his body back on track, while Lily's doctor decided that she just needed some strong cough medicine. Funny, Austin and Lily both had doctor's appointments at the same time in different cities. I took Austin and Connie took Lily. Connie joked that if we had another blessing, who would have taken that one to the doctor? Hopefully they're both on the road to recovery, but now Connie is taking her turn. Ugh!


"Oooh, rocking horse ... "Eh, sit down, Granny, ride horsey!"


"Oh, no, Granny ... what next?"


"Time to go home, Lily ... But first, a picture with the colorful cow. Show us your teeth!"

Now the reason for the post title. This past Thursday night, we attended a worship service at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. It was labeled as a concert featuring Aaron Shust, Audio Adrenaline, and MercyMe. But those who were in attendance know different. The Holy Spirit filled that arena that night to the point of all musicians and entertainers leaving the stage to allow Him to work amongst His people. There is nothing so sweet as to hear several thousand people sing praises to Jesus, being led only by the Holy Spirit, without accompaniment, or professional vocals. We sang I Love You Lord, Amazing Grace, and several other favorites. Everyone knew the words and sang to honor God!





In the middle of it all, God was at work, ensuring His plan (and not ours) was taking center stage. See, for those of you who do not know, Audio Adrenaline is doing their last series of concerts, er, I mean worship services, after 16 years. Several of the band members and their families are moving on to another ministry, Compassion International. They will work in Haiti, building orphanages for children who need God's love to reign down on them. The band members took time out of the worship, er concert, to describe Compassion and how we could help. Now, you know by now that many of the Christian artists do this, but what struck me was the commitment of these awesome warriors for Christ who are planning to uproot themselves and their families to achieve this part of God's plan. They asked us to consider contributing to Compassion instead of purchasing Tee shirts and CDs. So, you feel that little tug and go out to try to get to the Compassion table. Oh, there's too many people in line, MercyMe's gonna start any minute. I better get back inside. I'll do something about this on line later.

And then, just like clockwork, God's plan is put into action. "Oh missed the opportunity Thursday night, did you? Check this out." Sunday morning at church we had a special video before services. Something about helping children in need... Something called Compassion International. OK, ok. Got it. Where do we sign up? Give me the forms. How does this work? We ended up sponsoring a little 7 year old boy from Honduras. He likes music (that fits), playing with cars (fits), and art (ding ding ding ding!). Maybe one day we'll get to meet Olvin, but for now, we'll settle for providing what we can through Compassion International. Please pray for Olvin as Compassion International ministers to him to raise up a child in the ways of the Lord.

In case you're curious, or even a bit cynical as I am usually about these things, check out the web site for Compassion - I've added it to the sidebar on this blog. Turns out their mission statement is lifting children out of poverty for Jesus Christ. Their first and foremost objective is to glorify our Lord by ministering to the "least among us." The current President of Compassion International grew up as a missionary kid in Africa and so he knows firsthand the difficulties that poverty inflicts upon children, he himself living in fairly destitute circumstances. All in all a great organization to partner with in the name of Jesus, ... Compassion for His Children, .... Passion for the Giver of All Good Things!

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, ... and Olvin!