Waiting Children Video

I want to thank those of you who responded to our year-end Orphans Ticket Home campaign.  It was encouraging to have some of you support this work.  I hope you all enjoyed receiving the 2010 calendars.  Every year I look forward to receiving this calendar and I’ve heard positive feedback from some families already. 

In the beginning of the new year, I thought I’d take a moment to remind you that our staff meets for prayer every morning from 9-9:15.  We generally read a chapter from the Bible and/or a devotional reading and then spend time praying for the day, our work, waiting families, traveling families and, of course, praying for the kids that are waiting for homes.  We want to know how we can be praying for you.  Email your family coordinator if there is something we can be in prayer for – especially as it pertains to your adoption or a child you’ve adopted.  We have seen God’s faithfulness in answering prayers over the years – and we hope that many of you will join us in praying for God’s wisdom and grace for our work.

A new year is here; families that have been waiting for a long time might find a new year a huge milestone which they didn’t expect:  “How come my adoption isn’t finished yet – I thought this would be done in 2009…â€.  I want to encourage you that our LORD knows the timing of everything and encourage you to trust Him and His sovereignty.  I remind myself that the Apostle Paul said, “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!† (2 Cor. 5:17).  As new creations we can look with faith into the future and know that God, “Knows the plans I have for you…plans to prosper, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.†(Jeremiah 29:11)

At the beginning of a new year, it’s also a good time to look back on our past year and thank God for the many things that we have to be grateful for; I am particularly grateful that God was so gracious to our agency financially in 2009 – a tough year economically for our country, but still we managed to stay within our budget.  We are grateful for the work we’ve been able to support through the Orphans Ticket Home campaign.  In 2009, we saw the first Orphan’s Sunday event with the Christian Alliance For Orphans.  We are grateful for the hundreds of children who we placed into families this year and for the many new families that we’ve begun working with.  We have much to be grateful for and we look expectantly to 2010 and pray that God would continue to use America World in building families according to His plan of adoption. 

Finally, I wanted to share a video with you all that I’m really excited about.  We interviewed and filmed a few families that took part in our China Waiting Children Program and this video is the result: www.allenfilm.com/awaa.  We will be putting this on our website, but wanted to send it to you so you can enjoy.  We’re grateful to all the families that allowed us to interview them and use the interviews to help inform more families about the Waiting Children Program.