"Sometimes I would like to ask God, why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it... but I'm afraid He might ask me the same question." Anonymous

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Hole in Our Gospel

"The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns.
Stearns, President of World Vision has written this powerful book. One chapter reads... "One Hundred Crashing Jetliners. Whenever a major jetliner crashes anywhere in the world, it inevitably sets off a worldwide media frenzy covering every aspect of the tragedy. I want you to imagine for a moment that you woke up this morning to the following headline: "One hundred jetliners crash, killing 26,5000." Think of the pandemonium this would create across the world as heads of state, Parliaments, and congress convened to grapple with the nature and causes of this tragedy. Think about the avalanche of media coverage that it would ignite around the globe as reporters shared he shocking news and tried to communicate its implications for the world. Air travel would no doubt grind to a halt as governments shut down the airlines and panicked air travelers canceled their trips. The national transportation safety board and FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement agencies and their international equivalents would mobilize investigations and dedicate whatever man-power was required to understand what happened and to prevent it from happening again. Now imagine that the very next day, 100 more planes crashed---------
and 100 more the next, and the next, and the next. It is unimaginable that something this terrible could ever happen. But it did--------and it does. It happened today, and it happened yesterday. But there was no media coverage. No heads of state, parliaments, or congresses stopped what they were doing to address the crisis, and no investigations were launched. Yet more than 26,500 children dies yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today, tomorrow, and the day after that. Almost 10 MILLION children will be dead in the course of a year. So why does the crash of a single plane dominate the front pages of newspapers across the world while the equivalent of 100 planes filled with children crashing daily never reaches our ears? And even though we now have the awareness, the access, and the ability to stop it, why have we chosen not to? Perhaps one reason is that these kids who are dying are not our kids; they are somebody else's."

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.  At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.  Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he would gathered little did not have too little." 
2 Corinthians 8:13-15

1 comment:

  1. Wow! Most of the church of American has ignored that verse haven't they?!

    ReplyDelete

Current time in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa

Adoption Time-line

02/02/10- Ethiopia adoption application & fee sent.





02/17/10- Accepted into America Worlds Ethiopia Program!





02/20/10- Paid initial AWAA program fee.





Start paper chase...



03/02/10- Ordered our birth certificates.



03/02/10- Spoke w/and chose GLAD as Home-Study Agency.



03/03/10- Got Angi's employeement & life ins. verification.



03/04/10- Received Tim's birth cert. in mail.



03/04/10- Went to courthouse, got Marriage Cert.



03/05/10- Received Angi's birth cert. in mail.



03/05/10- Scheduled Tim's phys. letter doctor appt.for 3/8



03/08/10- Mailed GLAD application letter & fee.



03/10/10- Ethiopia made big change- 2 trips required now.



03/11/10- Rec'd GLAD/AWAA Post Placement Agreement.



03/11/10- Rec'd Tim's Health/Life Ins. letter.



03/12/10- Jack & Annie rabie shots/Home Study Requirment

03/13/10- Rosie & Sara rabie shots.



03/21/10- Began Hague on-line required training course.



03/22/10- GLAD beginning our background checks.



03/22/10- Our HIV tests and Tim's HEP B blood draw done.



03/23/10- Tim's TB Test scheduled for 3/30/10.



03/25/10- Notary notarized all paperwork we've collected.



03/26/10- Kyla, our social work came for 1st & 2nd home visi



03/26/10- Adoption Tax Credit raised to$13,100.00! Go God!



03/27/10- Kyla finished 3rd Home Study visit.



03/27/10- Finished family photo pages.



03/30/10- Tim rescheduled TB Test until 4/6/10.



03/31/10- Picked up Tim's HEP B test results.



04/02/10- Received Archie's referance letter.



04/06/10- Tim had TB test placed.



04/06/10- Angi got bloodwork records.



04/06/10- Re-did Financial Statement/faxed to AWAA.



04/09/10- Tim's TB test results- negative :)



04/10/10- Completed Hague On-line training course.



04/10/10- Dog vaccines done.



04/20/10- Faxed Florida CPS request to FL today.



05/03/10- Had our physical visits today.



05/26/10- Angi's bloodwork drawn.



05/28/10- Angi's bloodwork result- normal.



05/28/10- Tim's bloodwork drawn & normal result.



06/01/10- Our 14th Annivesary- Renee notarized physicals!



06/07/10- Picked up our physicals & faxed to GLAD/AWAA.



06/07/10- Found out GLAD rec'd FL CPS checks 6/4/10.



06/07/10- Requested Dr. letter for Angi.



06/10/10- Picked up & faxed Dr. letter to AWAA.



06/10/10- Waiting for AWAA to approve Home Study.



06/15/10- AWAA read Home Study & requested corrections.



06/23/10- GLAD corrected and sent H.S. back to AWAA.



06/24/10- AWAA approved our Home Study!



07/01/10- Got money order for final GLAD payment.



07/01/10- Met Klya/GLAD in Vincennes, got final HomeStdy



07/02/10- Mailed I-600A application & fee.



07/09/10- Renee notarized rest of Dossier paperwork.



07/09/10- Sent 2 papers to IN State Dept.for Authentication



07/12/10- Fed-Ex package received at IN State Dept.



07/13/10- We rec'd Authenticated papers in mail!



07/14/10- Rec'd Immigration Fingerprinting appt for 8/9/10



07/23/10- Went early-Immigration/Indy. for fingerprinting.



07/26/10- Called USCIS & left msg for Immigration Officer.



07/29/10- Officer Opfer called, USCIS back-logged 3 weeks.



08/05/10- Rec'd I-171H today!Thanks Officer Opfer-speedy



08/06/10- Renee notarized new MOWA letter & I-171H.



08/06/10- Got Cashier's check to go with Dossier.



Paper chase completed!





08/06/10- Shipped Dossier to AWAA by Fed-Ex.



08/10/10- AWAA received Dossier packet.



08/13/10- AWAA approved Dossier, maybe DTE next Fri?



08/13/10- Rec'd U.S.State letter stating I-600A sent to ET!



08/19/10- AWAA Fed-Ex'd our Dossier to Ethiopia!



08/25/10- Dossier arrived in Ethiopia today!









The WAIT begins...