Let God Dream for You!!

Many have asked things like - "Why adopt two older kids?"; "Are you sure about the risks??" ; "Wow, .....boys?!",
when we tell them the ages of our new sons, Matthew (12), and Isaac (11).

And then their eyes sort of glaze over.

These are indeed the questions Joe and I would have asked of anyone else 12 years ago when the Lord first laid adoption on our heart. You see, at that time, we were convinced it would be a baby, or at least a toddler, perfect and squeezable and smelling of Baby Magic lotion......not 2 rowdy and uniquely fragrant prepubescent boys.
But God, in His wisdom, sovereign power and dominion over time, chose to stretch us, and to grow us up, preparing us for His dream, 12 years later.

This not to say that couples who adopt infants or younger children are any less spiritually mature; or that adopting itself makes one "spiritual" or "godly".
Oh, no-- not at all.

It's just that when God gives a burden; a passion .... a dream...it often ends up looking a whole lot different than you originally thought. But it will be beyond what you ever imagined!!

Take our dear friends the Gregory's, now missionaries in Brazil. They were mid- twenties, newly married with a heart for reaching the lost in the Amazon basin. They had applied and were making plans to be interviewed by the Missions Board, when Connie got sick.
And not just with the flu.
Long story shorter, she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and it was progressing rapidly. They were told that in 10 years, she would be in a wheelchair, and in 20, unable to care for herself. Needless to say, they were devastated.

They struggled with this situation, knowing how the enemy would try to thwart any advance of God's kingdom. They struggled with the loss of their dream, one they believed had been given by God. And they struggled with their faith, knowing God could- even instantly---heal her, and resurrect the dream--His dream.
After all, He was God- all powerful, all knowing, all sovereign. So why didn't He?

Fast forward 20 years, through seasons of loss, infertility, international adoption, financial hardship, and faith-testing of varied sorts. God had moved them out of their comfort zone, both physically and spiritually. He had brought them to a new city, new ministry and new job. While they clung to Him, He had drawn them into new seasons of faith, showing Himself ever-faithful. And one day at a yearly check up with her Rheumatoid specialist, her Rheumatoid factor came back negative.

Three. sequential. times.

According to the doctor,who is not a believer, there "is no cure for RA; it just doesn't happen." But God had healed her, in His timing.

And the God- dream was still alive within them. Except now, they weren't 20 something, they were mid-late forties.
Go to a third world country, new language, no retirement or insurance securities.... it was a no- brainer for most. Yet, in all the things God had taught them over the last 20 years, they knew that God's dreams are bigger than we can imagine.

To be walking under His will and in His power is a place beyond imagination.

"Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him." Isaiah 64:4

So they went.

And may I say, God Is doing what He does best.
Using broken people who hang on to Him to accomplish His very big dreams.
Not without struggle, opposition or effort, but BIG.

Brent giving out the Word, friendship ministry, mentoring, souls delivered and saved, cell groups mutiplying, their sons active in ministry..... I could go on and on.

As Brent and Connie have shared with us many times, God had used the 20 years of waiting
and what happened in them to shape them to fit into God's dream, quite different from the one originally pictured.

"I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. Isaiah 45:3

The treasures of darkness .......
the times of waiting, where we can only hold onto God and let Him shape and lead us.
Today, as we look back on how God has unfolded our story(to be shared in the next several days), and see His dreams for us and for our boys' lives; we stand in AWE .


Now, God has not called all of us to be foreign missionaries or into the ministry of adoption.
But God is calling you, nonetheless. Specifically. Creatively. Lovingly.
He is dreaming for you.


Maybe today, God is calling you to simply forgive,
or trust Him to provide for your finances,
or in your health, or with your marriage.
Maybe today He is calling you to not just know about Him, but to really know Him, in faith...
or more intimately in his Word.
Perhaps today, God is asking you to hold His hand and venture out from the safe shore, where His dreams for your life will totally amaze you!

It was as if Sir Francis Drake in the mid 1500's had been watching and praying for us 12 years ago when he wrote the following:


Morning Prayer

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life!


Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity;
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storm will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.


We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
and to push us in the future,
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our
Captain, who is Jesus Christ
Amen.~

~Sir Francis Drake




Gratefully,
Nancy