God's Providence, Part 1 - Monday Praises

Sorry no pics today.  :(

God’s Providence, Part 1

In the end of 1997, Jaime and I, a starry-eyed newlywed couple, were visiting fellowship groups and couples Bible studies at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and we met Josie and Gabe Wilmarth. Josie knew American sign language like Jaime, and they hit it off right away and it was right around the time Josie gave birth to their firstborn Andrew. In fact the Bible study had multiple pregnant women at the same time; they said it was something in the water.

We ended up staying at that fellowship group, and after their first son, Andrew was born, they were the first couple to reach out to us in hospitality and to invite us to their home, which I still remember. It was a small guest house but their gracious kindness and hospitality impacted us and true friendship and fellowship developed between us. We were not only in the same Bible study together for years and shared many meals together, but we went camping together in Yosemite, and enjoyed many fond memories with bears, long hikes to waterfalls where we ended up carrying their kids on our backs, freezing cold water we swam in, and other memories that are not appropriate to share here but were very funny.

We were also neighbors more than once in apartments in the San Fernando Valley, 2 different buildings in particular in Van Nuys. Josie was an apartment manager and Jaime followed in her footsteps in 2 different buildings that they managed. The sad day came when the Wilmarths announced they were moving to Northern California just outside Sacramento where Gabe had a good job as a ER nurse and where they could buy a house. “Northern California?!” we half-jokingly confronted him. “Why in the world would anyone want to move to Northern California?” (just a few years later we understand why and are so glad that God also moved us to Northern California, a much better community to raise a family, and in God’s providence, not too far from our friends the Wilmarths)!

They soon invited us to their house in Orangevale and told us about their new pastor and about family camp, and said I should meet their pastor and ask if we could go camping with them. Before we knew it, we were camping again with our friends at a joint family camp with a church we now consider a brother church (Grace Bible Fair Oaks) and have partnered with their church on many events, a wonderful working of God’s providence.

Then last December 2010, our friends the Wilmarths again in their hospitality invited us to their new home and we shared with them about adoption and Didier and the orphanage here, and the Lord was moving in their hearts to pursue adoption. They also shared with Stuart and Jennifer Loucks about Didier, and the Loucks now have 2 beautiful girls from this orphanage in their home in Fair Oaks. On Thursday/Friday Josie and Gabe will be bringing home their precious twins Brandon and Kara and it has been a priceless experience to be with them in this time that I wouldn’t want to miss for anything. Jaime wrote to me the other day that one of the great blessings in all this is if weren’t for our heart to adopt and providential connection with Didier and these friends, Stuart and Jennifer wouldn’t have Jamie and Jordan in their home and Josie and Gabe wouldn’t be bringing home Brandon and Kara. It is very special for us to see how God’s providence has used us to bring such joy to these families.

Nearly 14 years after I first met this sweet couple, the Wilmarths, God has not only reunited us in Northern California, but has brought us together in Africa to experience the sweet hospitality of another couple who are greatly impacting us, Pastor Didier and Annie. God’s providence moves in mysterious ways, and Gabe’s training as a registered nurse and Josie’s fluency in French and my pastoral background has been used in many neat ways by the Lord already that are so obviously His handiwork. Here are just a few of the blessings that God’s providence has been unfolding just on Monday, as shared by my long-time friend Gabe. It’s a joy to truly rejoice with those who rejoice and I will share the rest of Gabe’s blog today, hoping you catch some of the joy as well:

‘Our hosts are some of the most gracious people in the world.  They go out of their way to make us feel at home and they are extremely hard working.  It is amazing to see the Lord at work in the lives of people who live in such a poor land.  I am told that the unemployment rate in DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] is 80%.  Most people do not have jobs, and in spite of the low average income the cost of [food and some items is] more expensive than in the United States.  It is a strange economic and political world that we live in.  The natural resources of the Congo could make it the wealthiest country in the world and yet it is one of the poorest.  It makes you wish you could do something about it.  We are left with doing the little bit we can to glorify Christ in our small sphere of influence and trusting in our Sovereign God with the rest of the circumstances that we can’t control.

God through Christ has taken us from rebellion against him and through love for us has made us His children.  Interacting with Brandon and Kara [his twins from the orphanage] gives me insight into the full extent of God’s graciousness toward me.  These children obviously want to be loved but they are not sure if they trust their new parents yet.  Sometimes Kara will avoid me when she sees me coming.  Other times she will walk into room and greet me.  I’m certain she is tentative about the “unknown” future and having difficulty trusting that we will stay with her and care for her in the future.  Each day involves a little inexplicable crying when Josie or I will hold her.  I see the same response in myself often in my lack of trust of God.  He is able to take care of me, and loves with an infinite love, and promises to do so without end; and yet I sometimes lack the full confidence of His capability and live in fear.  As the years go by I pray we will both grow in our trust and love for God.

… [the first praise is for the provision of passports, longer story than we can share here, but a significant breakthrough]

The second hallelujah was a stop at the DHL office where we picked up the visas for the children.  We finally can take the children home!!!!! [If you know Gabe and Josie’s story, this is a huge answer to prayer and just in time as we leave in 2 more days!]

The third was a stop at the local emigration office to show them the passports for the children and the adoption judgments.  Didier has a connection at this office ... [How did this providential connection come around? Didier has known this man for years. God’s providence is so very evident in these details that it makes our hearts want to burst for joy]

Item number four.  We stopped at the office of the local civil judge who gives the “Act of Judgment” for each adopted child within Lubumbashi and the surrounding area.  He is in a powerful position, one of only seven judges in the DRC.  We wanted to be a verifying testament from the other side of the Atlantic that the children being adopted through the Kitumani orphanage were going to loving families and that Didier was very trustworthy.  Judge Puna invited us to his house at 5:00 for a more in depth discussion after his day ended.  What a blessing it was to sit for about an hour and explain the vision and goals of the orphanage and the whole ministry that is going on here.  His response amazed us.  He said “I want to be a part of this ministry also and be used by God in any way I can”.  This is huge.  This man is very influential and makes the function of the orphanage possible.  In a country where corruption abounds this means a future of great potential for other children as he has the ability to ease and expedite the legal processes that are required. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Number five: We then picked up the “Authorization Parental” from the notary to transfer parental rights from the orphanage to us. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are not on U.S. soil yet but I’m starting to get the feeling that these children will be ours after this six month long process.  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is amazing to see how smoothly everything is going.  Josie’s French speaking ability and Phil’s influence as an American pastor and the desire of all of us to see this orphanage be used in many children’s lives is having quite an effect.  God put together a good team here.  We just wanted to help a couple of young children through this adoption process but we have had the opportunity to contribute to a much bigger plan that wasn’t even ours.  We are very excited people as we write this tonight. !!!!!!!!

Can you tell? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Phil’s P.S.: On the judge’s wall was Proverbs 29:14, and on the wall at his house was a poster on the names of God that reveal His character. One that we saw there as well as on a store name in town was “Jehovah Jireh” = “the Lord provides.” He certainly does!]