Her name is Maria Belen. Belen is 5 years old, owns a little dog named Chocolate and loves to dance and play hide-and-seek. She also does not speak any English.

Her beautiful smile was the first to greet me each day and she was the last one to give me a hug when I left. We often communicated nonverbally and by the end of the week I could understand her rather well. What I did not know was how much she understood from me.

Through my spotty Spanish and role playing, I shared with her several Bible stories and verses. It was rather entertaining to watch, I’m sure. Yet, apparently Belen was sharing with her mother each night what we had learned together that day.

At the end of the week Belen’s mother came up to me and handed me a yellow bag she made for me. Belen had shared with her mother that yellow was my favorite color, and she wanted to thank me for sharing the love and joy of Christ with their family.

This experienced reminded me that God’s power and grace is beyond languages and cultures. It is incredible to witness His gospel message spread worldwide through the faithfulness of his followers.

Spending time in another culture always produces barriers, but by actively showing love and leaning on God’s guidance, you can be a useful tool for the Gospel. Isaiah 55:10-11 is a beautiful picture of God’s word and how it flourishes and does not return empty:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

Jeanne Jacobs served as a volunteer with Project Go! last summer in Peru. The deadline to sign up to be a 2012 Project Go! volunteer is Feb. 5. Click here for more information. 

  
Prayers of the Week: Â
-God, thank you for breaking down barriers and accomplishing your will despite our limitations.
-God, help us to trust you and rely on you at all times and in all circumstances.

——————————-

Sign up here to have our weekly Faith Focus e-mail delivered to your inbox!

Each morning we would walk hand in hand with God’s children to and from the beach. Have you ever held the hand of a 5-year-old boy or girl? Do you remember the specific feeling that coincides with the grasp of a child’s hand in yours? That little hand resting in yours is the closest humanity can get to replicating the feeling of God’s unconditional love.

Each morning a young orphan would take our hand in theirs and teach us of God’s unconditional love. These children did not care about our past. They did not care about our accomplishments or wealth in this world. They only cared that we were there with them, hand in hand, in that present moment in time.

Such a profound experience stirs up many thoughts and emotions. As a team we felt helpless. Helpless that all the comfort we could provide them was time spent, touch given and games played. Helpless that all we could really give them was our love. Helpless that we could not give what these little loving hands deserved. Helpless that we must leave these children taking with us only our faith that they will be safe in His arms.

We felt helpless, but not hopeless. Although we as Christians are helpless to ultimately save these children, our Creator and our God is not helpless. Our God is greater, our God is stronger, our God is higher than any other.

As Christians we seek comfort and refuge in our faith that our God will provide for every need both physically and spiritually for His Children and now our children. At the end of our first week in Russia, we decided that Isaiah 40:11 said it best: “He tends his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.”

Kalie, Sally, Elizabeth, Sarah Anne and Clay were Project Go! volunteers last June in Russia. This devotional was taken from the It’s Your Mission blog. The deadline to sign up to be a 2012 Project Go! volunteer is Feb. 5. Click here for more information.

 
Prayers of the Week: Â
-God, prepare the hearts of young people to serve internationally this summer in short-term and long-term capacities. Be with those who feel called to go, but are hesistant. Help them to trust in you to provide.
-God, remind us to pray constantly for missionaries, especially those in countries where Christianity is illegal and Christians’ lives are in danger. Protect those who are risking their lives to serve you.

——————————-

Sign up here to have our weekly Faith Focus e-mail delivered to your inbox!

You have to use good judgment and think and pray about whether it is the right decision for your family. You should seek the advice of a doctor, maybe get insight from other adoptive parents and do a little research if the child has a specific diagnosis. 

But at the end of the day, it just takes faith. 

As the mom of three children with special needs I’ve also learned that it does not take a “Super Mom” or “Super Dad” to parent a special child. It takes trusting in our Super God. I remind myself frequently that he won’t give me more than I can handle with his help.

The blessings you receive from these amazing children will be beyond what you could have imagined. I am in awe every day of the attitude and disposition of my son who is in a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. As far as he is concerned, there is nothing he can’t do and he is no different than any other 11-year-old boy. 

In the times in which we live, I am also refreshed by the innocence of my 10-year-old son who has developmental delays. My 9-year-old daughter with attention issues gives me the blessing of laughter every day. They are each a blessing to us in their own special way. And we would have missed it all if we hadn’t taken that leap of faith. 

Jill Culbertson is an adoptive mom of three children from India. She lives in Ohio.
 
Prayers of the Week:
-God, be with those who are on the edge of taking a leap of faith, but are holding back because of fear. Help them to trust that you are there to guide and protect them. Give them the peace they need to make the leap.
-God, be with children in the U.S. and abroad who are waiting for their forever families. Please protect and comfort them.
——————————-

Sign up here to have our weekly Faith Focus e-mail delivered to your inbox!

Today at the Crisis Relief Center, where I work, God sends people to Buckner for encouragement and hope and we help them. He wants us to “serve the least of these.” Matthew 25: 35-40

It is never dull and is still exciting. Each day is an adventure and contains surprises.

I thank the Lord for calling me to service. I thank the Lord for allowing me to serve him and for the trust he has given me to care for his children and families at Buckner.

God wants us to follow him. We need to be willing to follow wherever he leads. Cherish the moments and thank him.

Jackie Belt is the director of the Buckner Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Relief Center in Dallas, Texas.
 
Prayers of the Week:
-God, you call all your children to serve you and to serve others in the name of your son. Show us how we can use the gifts you have given us to bless others.
-God, help us to see the excitement, adventure and possibility in each day of our work and life.
——————————-

The day after the first big snow hit, a great friend of mine who is a senior at Norman North High School came to church with a great idea. He came to me and said, “Joey, what do you think about taking a large container of hot chocolate over to the people staying at the Salvation Army?”

It is creative, personal and relational genius like this that characterizes the up and coming generation.

At 4:30 p.m. the next day, four of us ventured to the church kitchen to make a vat of hot chocolate. As it turns out, making hot chocolate in such large quantities should only be attempted by professionals–which we were not. But about an hour later, we arrived at the Salvation Army with a drink that was sure to warm your insides. We all enjoyed getting to visit with the people staying there.

Many of those who enjoyed the chocolate attend First Baptist Church of Norman on Sundays. When they showed up that Sunday, they had smiles on their faces and high remarks about the hot chocolate that was still delicious the next morning at breakfast.

What a great idea that was–a small investment in the right place making the biggest difference. It just takes something simple.

Joey Armstrong is part of a Buckner church collaboration with First Baptist Church in Norman, Okla. He serves as the church-community minister there.
 
Prayers of the Week:
-God, help us to be mindful of the simple comforts we can share with others. Remind us to put the needs of others above our own needs.
-God, we thank you for the gift of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

——————————-
If you are interested in submitting a devotional for Buckner Faith Focus, please e-mail lsturdy@buckner.org.

Sign up here to have our weekly Faith Focus e-mail delivered to your inbox!

This is the week of Advent in which we focus on Joy. As a hospital chaplain, I am witness to many forms of joy… receiving a good report from surgery, feeling the support of family and friends,  getting a beautiful bouquet from a loved one and, of course, taking home a healthy, newborn baby–my personal favorite.  

I’ve always felt that joy was a special gift from God that was icing on the cake. Not something that we deserve, but something that God wants to give us because He loves us. This is true, but it’s not designed just to make us happy.

Just as I’ve seen the happy moments of life in the hospital, I’ve also been present in the sad times that life presents…bad test results, complicated family relationships, disappointments, and of course, death. 

These events happen to Christians and non-Christians, alike….yet there is a difference. Just as Paul said in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have,” we too, as children of God, can experience joy no matter what happens.

The capacity for joy is the “gift that keeps on giving” because nothing on this earth can take it away. While we don’t always feel happy or giddy when we experience God’s special gift, we do sense that the meaning in life is not wrapped up in what we can see, touch, smell or feel on this earth, but in the everlasting love of our Lord. 

This is the true source of our joy and it is “home,” a place that will always be there for us, despite the ups and downs of life. When the world swirls around us, we can always go to the joy of our salvation and know the steadfast love of God is there.

“…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  Nehemiah 8:10 

Judy Phariss Collins is chaplain for Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Kaufman. 

Editor’s Note: This devotional was taken from the 2011 Buckner International Advent Guide. To see the rest of this year’s devotional guide, click here to download a PDF.

Prayers of the Week:
-God, you have filled the world with beauty. Open our eyes to see your hand in all your works, so we may rejoice in your creation and serve you with gladness.
-God, be with those who are broken in body and spirit. Heal them and turn their sorrow into joy.

Advent has its center in God’s love. Shortly after this passage, the writer says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” I am thankful beyond measure for His merciful, unconditional love.

But the best love stories end with the lover’s love returned. So how do I love God back? What gift says “I love you” to One who has everything? And can I really ask these questions—-is my love for God as true and deep as I want to believe it is? 

My heart knows I continually live in the now-and-not-yet season of Advent. It feels right to me that we sing the joyful lyrics of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” to a minor key. I celebrate God living within me, yet at the same time I thirst for Him to come again in new ways, to continue to mend my brokenness, and to continue finding me when I lose my way. 

The scripture today is a gracious gift pointing us to a way to love God, to a way to know we belong to the truth, and to a way to rest in His presence in the now-and-not-yet, even when our hearts condemn us. It teaches that loving others through our actions is a gift to us, as much as by us.

Father, thank you for first loving us. We want to love you back, and to know that we love you. Grant us opportunities and wills today to go beyond words—-to love others with actions and in truth, and in so doing, to demonstrate our true love for you. Amen.

Steve Brookshire is a Dallas businessman and a member of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

Editor’s Note: This devotional was taken from the 2011 Buckner International Advent Guide. To see the rest of this year’s devotional guide, click here to download a PDF.

 

“Give us this day our daily bread…” It’s the prayer we say without even thinking about what it really means.

We have enough daily bread in our homes to feed a small army, usually. If not, we can run to the store and pick some up. How many people around the world pray these words in earnest, gut wrenching hunger: “Lord, please give us this day, today, the bread we need to survive another day”?

Why did we adopt from Ethiopia? Because God has given us our daily bread and asked us to share it with others. Because 1 in 10 children in Ethiopia is an orphan. Because this summer, in the Horn of Africa, 29,000 children under the age of 6 died of starvation, and that’s not the first time.

Why adopt at all? God calls us to love and to give and to share our lives with others. The question really should be, “Why not adopt?”

There are 147,000,000 orphans in the world. That’s 147 million children without a family to love them, tuck them in at night, sing songs, read them stories, take them to church, make them laugh, kiss their injuries, celebrate birthdays or feed them their daily bread.

There are 147 million children ready and willing to love a family, to make them laugh, make them cry with complete joy, celebrate Mothers Day and Fathers Day, fight with siblings, play with the family pet, bring home great grades, help set the table, sing songs they learned in Sunday School and eat their daily bread.

The love goes both ways. People always tell us our daughter is so blessed, so lucky. We see it the other way as well. She has blessed us and brought us more joy and love then we ever imagined. She is our daughter and while her skin may be a darker shade of brown than her mom or dad, her heart and her insides are just like ours. Family doesn’t mean you all look just alike, just that you love each other as God loves.  Who is missing from your family? 

Sharon Kirkpatrick Felton and her husband, Keith, live in Hamilton, Texas. They adopted their 3-year-old daughter from Ethiopia in 2009 through Buckner. They have two biological sons who are 10 and 7 years old.