Dear Family and Friends,
“A father of the fatherless…God setteth the solitary in families…” - Psalms 68:5,6
Some of you know we have felt called and directed by God to adopt a “fatherless” child(ren) into our family. We are adopting from Sierra Leone, West Africa. We just received news in December that the adoption law in the country is set into place and our next step in the adoption and hopefully the final step is traveling for another 2 weeks, going to court while we are there and bringing the boys home.
Did you know it is estimated less than 10% of all orphan children are adopted into evangelical Christian families? According to current estimates, if only 10% more Christians in America would adopt, it would be equivalent to providing homes for all the orphans in Eastern Europe (1.5 million), Latin America (400,000), and the US foster care system (150,000).
Some of you are probably wondering what has prompted us to adopt. Well, primarily, we’ve felt so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him, and we also desire to give an orphan child a family that he probably won’t otherwise have. God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for and adopted into Christian families – ultimately so they can become saved, and be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ! There are so many things God has used to prick our hearts and move us to adopt, here are a few:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction… James 1:27
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will – Ephesians 1:5
The biggest challenge for us is not opening our hearts and home to another child, but it is in finding the finances to make this happen. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $21,000 - that’s certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace we’ve been able to pay the initial $8,200.
Honestly, it’s a little difficult (because of our pride), to make our needs known to the Body of Christ around us, but we also know it’s very Biblical to do so. We appreciate your friendship very much and would like you to pray & consider helping us in our adoption. There are two ways you can help:
1. Prayer – Please pray God would tenderly care for Kevin and William in Sierra Leone until we are able to bring them home, that God would prepare Emma and Jayden for the upcoming changes to our family, and that God will give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise Kevin and William to know Jesus Christ.
2. Financial support - Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $12,800 in adoption expenses, to bring our boys home?
Lifesong (www.lifesongfororphans.org) has graciously given a Matching Grant of $5,000 to help pay the remaining adoption expenses. If you would like to be a part of God bringing William and Kevin home, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and February 9th 2011 to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on William and Kevin’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received.
1. Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “preference Johnson #1693 Adoption” in the memo section of your check. (*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use.)
Mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Attn: Johnson #1693 Adoption
PO Box 40/202 N.Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744
2. You can also give directly thru Paypal thru this link http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html MAKE SURE to note in the comments section PREFERENCE JOHNSON #1693 ADOPTION or this will not be applied to our account.
Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances – it will be an investment with an eternal return! (Matt 6:20) We’ll give you an update with a picture of the boys and details as we receive them. Please pray this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes!
In Christ,
Rich, Tiffany, Emma and Jayden Johnson
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