We are so excited to introduce you to this gem!! Her name is Meggan and she is a momma to 2 BEAUTIFUL Ethiopian sweeties!
I mean come on!! Isn't this one beautiful family?
Here is meg to fill ya in one what sparked her to give 2 weeks of her commission from selling 31 Gifts
to Awake and Alive...
while her honey is currently unemployed!!
That takes some faith and passion!
Here is the floor Meg,
The journey to starting a family hasn't been an easy one-after 3 tubal pregnancies, a miscarriage at 12 weeks after one round of intense IVF we KNEW we were fighting a higher power at the whole biological children thing...
Long story short, we quickly fell in love with the images of the children in Ethiopia, our hearts grew BIGGER that we had ever imagined in such a short period of time for them and their country-I had NO idea exactly how much my heart would be pulled at! I can't even begin to describe the raw emotion i have felt for our children's birth country in the last 4 years, everyday it becomes more and more clear how God has been and continues to use and teach me to be an advocate for these amazing children and the people of Ethiopia.
Fast forward to where we are right now. Ryan had an "amazing job" (or so we thought, i mean he made really good money, he was gone all the time, he put in 60+ hrs a week, didn't get to see us very often, stressed to all get out, etc etc)
BUT the income was really good-so who cares right? The amount of money you make-does that make one an amazing person? Does the amount of money you make put you at a higher status? Unfortunately it does. For 3 months now Ryan has been looking for a new job as he was let go from his position in May.
The last 3 months has been the BEST thing for our family.
We have grown so much in our faith, as a family, and as a couple. He's gotten to see our kids do things that he wasn't around for before, he gets to get them breakfast in the morning, he gets to have dinner with us at a normal time, he has time to think about other things other than what his commission check will be or has to be at the end of every month.
So, I have decided to donate my whole commission for this fundraiser for Awake and Alive, and by doing so i STILL have MORE than what we need here.
We're put here for a reason, and I have felt very strongly about paying it forward and giving back, i just feel fortunate that I am in a position to have a job that allows me to do that,
and to have a heart big enough to WANT to do it and a strong faith to teach me WHY we do it!
That is some serious faith... am I right?!?! Thank you sweet Meggers for this huge sacrifice, given in love for the children in Kechene, Ethiopia!
Here are a few very precious moments of mine. I (Jolene) am sharing them with you all only in hopes that just one person might be inspired to be the difference in the life of an orphan!
This morning I reflected on the difference between justice and mercy. It all began by my devotional reading of 2 Chronicles 1-6. The verse that most struck me was 3:1- “So Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to Solomon’s father, King David. The Temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the site that David had selected.” Several things about the Temple’s location caught my attention.
The first was the reference to Mount Moriah. Traditionally, this was where Abraham had been prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac, when the Lord sent a ram to take the boy’s place on the altar. Genesis 22:9-14 describes “When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood on it. Then he tied Isaac up and laid him on the altar over the wood. And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to kill his son as a sacrifice to the Lord. At that moment the angel of the Lord shouted to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I’m listening.’ ‘Lay down the knife,’ the angel said. ‘Do not hurt the boy in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me.’ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar in place of his son. Abraham named the place ‘The Lord Will Provide.’” Notice that Abraham’s knife was lifted when God mercifully stopped him from following through with the sacrifice.
The second reference was about 700 years later, during the time of King David. I still don’t really understand why it was wrong, but somehow David sinned by taking a census and God punished Israel by sending a plague. 1 Chronicles 21:14-22:1 teaches us, “So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand people died as a result. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was preparing to destroy it, the Lord relented and said to the death angel, ‘Stop! That is enough!’ At that moment the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, stretched out over Jerusalem... Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to build an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite... So David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings... Then the Lord spoke to the angel, who put the sword back into its sheath... Then David said, ‘This will be the location for the Temple of the Lord God and the place of the altar for Israel’s burnt offerings!’”
Both stories involved a sword being drawn, a life ready to be taken, and a last minute rescue according to the command of the Lord. In both cases, God mercifully and lovingly allowed animals to substitute for the lives/ deaths of the people. This becomes the site of the Temple, where sacrifices are made daily to atone for the nation! And not just the nation, but Solomon’s prayer of dedication in 2 Chronicles 6 was for the entire world! Abraham was considered the Father of God’s covenant people, while Araunah was a Jebusite- a foreigner to God’s promises. And God had mercy on them both. Furthermore, Araunahhadn’t even called out for help. It was David who heard from the Lord and made sacrifices on Araunah’s behalf, yet God still rescued him. Solomon prayed “when foreigners hear of you and your mighty miracles, and they come from distant lands to worship your great name and to pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. Then all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do.”
So I asked the Lord as to the meaning of all these awesome truths to me, today. I asked God how my heart could be purified and I could be brought into greater love for and understanding of God through all of this. My heart heard the following-
People deserve death. As unpopular an idea as it currently is, this is the Bible’s teaching. Solomon recognizes- “[Your people] sin against you- and who has never sinned?...” His father, David, a man after God’s own heart, angered God by taking a census which resulted in 70,000 deaths! Have I not done worse? We all deserve death. One of the absolutely central ideas of both Judaism and Christianity is that God’s mercy and love rescues people from what they deserve. Except for God’s great love for us, we would be consumed. Rescuing people who deserve what they’re getting- redeeming lives that don’t deserve redemption- is our way of reenacting our history and present experience with God. When social justice is our concern, we help those who deserve it. We are strategic in the ways in which we get involved with the poor and suffering. Justice is a Godly charge. But this morning I was focused on something all together different. It wasn’t justice that caused God to relent in the stories surveyed, but mercy and love. In this world, we are charged with helping those who help themselves and equipping all people with the resources to live meaningful lives. But in the kingdom of God, we are commanded to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is not justice, but a reflection of our understanding of what the Lord has done for us. Both are necessary for the believer. Let us be faithful to articulate each.
Alyssa Mezsick
Saturday, August 6, 2011
"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing." — Mother Teresa
It is true you can now find Jolene Shrock on Twitter... Go find me! I want to know whats happening in your day to day just as much as you want to know about whats happening in mine..
The first time I heard this song, I immediately noticed something about myself. Something I’m willing to bet you and I have in common—especially if you’re an American. It’s this: I live my life anticipating that it will be a long one; that I’ll live to be in my 80’s with my wife, children, and grandchildren surrounding me. Somehow I’ve bought into the fact that the next 60 years are guaranteed when, in reality, I am not guaranteed tomorrow. It’s phenomenal.
Some argue that it’s not practical or responsible to truly live as if today is our last day. Regardless of where you fall in that debate, there is a challenge in this song worth considering. If we truly believe that tomorrow is guaranteed, chances are we are also putting off some very important things that need to be addressed now. Take a step and do that thing you’ve put off for a while now, that thing that will make you burn out bright.
We are not promised tomorrow, and we would do well to not anticipate it so much.
I mean come on!! Isn't this one beautiful family?
