China Challenge

In a few short weeks, Sue and I will be traveling to China to spend time with my brother and his family. We've never been to another country so this will be both exciting and weird! Looking forward to eating some 'interesting' foods they have planned for me.
While visiting with them at my parents home this month, I had the privilege of 'meeting' (through Skype) a group of kids that my brother and his family have connected with. It's not just that the kids are cute and incredible that caught my attention.

They are being raised by a man who I will call 'Jim'. Jim is 51, never been married and never been a dad. He is an American living and working in China. Did I mention that he is raising these kids - all 9 of them? They range in age from 2 to 13 years old. He is simply amazing.

These are kids that are literally left on the street, simply because they aren't born perfect. The slightest defect can cause the birth parents to reject the child and they end up on the street if not in a government run orphanage. When a foreigner takes responsibility for a child they won't step in and stop them. It literally is one less mouth to feed for them.

So here's 'Jim' being Christ to these young kids. As I write this he is in the states gathering what he can to take home to his kids. And this is where the challenge comes in for anyone reading this.

Sue and I want to take a suitcase full of clothes with us and give it 'Jim' as a gift from his partners in Christ in Pocatello, ID. I am going to have a suitcase here at the church from now until the first week of March. In it will be the gender and age of each of the kids, and possibly some additional info on likes and dislikes. We'll treat this just like Angel Tree, where you come in and grab a 'tag' and then go get that for the child. Nothing expensive. Very basic.

And if we get so much that we have to take 2 suitcases - well okay!

Pray about what you can or should do. DO NOT GIVE ANYTHING TO THIS if you are not hearing God say to do so. I can support obedience all day long - disobedience gets to be a little harder to support!

I'll keep you posted on how it's going throughout the process and, once we return, share some pictures of these incredible kids and their amazing dad.

See ya in church...