Marked By LoveMark me with your sign of love. Plan only the best for me, God!

Finally, after months and months of waiting this week I will be starting as the Campus Pastor of Element Church, Adrian. We are so excited and we wait expecting God to build His church as we respond in obedience to His call. We have spent many months seeking God for what he has for us here in Adrian and we have been waiting dependent on him to move.  One thing I have learned in this  season of waiting, is you can never go wrong waiting on a God who is good, faithful and right on time.  Today, I was reading a quote that said, “Waiting intensifies pain because it forces us to see that we are dependent creatures.”  As we move forward with the task a head of us, we know that it will not be easy, but we do not know what is going to take to move this church forward.  All we know is we get to invite people to wait expectantly on God and to pray for discernment to see with His eyes, what it is that our community needs.  We get to invite people to live a life completely dependent on our Father.

The journey up to this point has been painful, but the pain has moved us closer to God.  The path that He has chosen for us to journey on, has taken us to different parts of our story that we could have never dealt with anywhere else.  I can say that through the pain, I have experienced a supernatural freedom and tender heart that could only come from the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

So, here we go as friends and family would you begin to pray for us.  Pray that we would live everyday with expectancy. Pray that God through His love and grace would give us discernment to see.  And pray that He would give us wisdom and obedient hearts to act on all that he reveals.  And last pray that people would Love God with everything they have, so that they can truly love others out of the overflow of that love.

Thank You so much for your love and support.

CJ and Katie

This is our last full day in Ethiopia.  We fly out tomorrow night at 10pm.  It’s been an amazing trip!  We now know what it feels like to fly to another country and adopt a child…..words can’t explain.

Today we were able to meet Kalkidan’s birth mother.  After our meeting it was pouring rain out so we offered to give her a ride home.  What a gift from God that turned out to be.  When we arrived, we happened to ask if we could come inside to see her home, and she felt honored to show us.  When we walked into the 10×10 room that was her home, there were pictures framed on a cabinet.  They were of Kalkidan as a little girl!  We were able to look at tons of pictures of her growing up!  It was a very emotional visit to say the least.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn about our daughters life…..it was a GREAT day!

Here are some pictures Kalkidan said we could share.

As we wait for the call that we have a court date and as we prepare to bring a beautiful girl into our home, we cannot begin to tell you how faithful God continues to be.  He has continued to provide in ways we would have never imagined, and for any one who has felt God asking you to do something, know that He will be faithful till the end.  We cannot wait to see all that He will do in the months and days leading up to bringing our girl home.

We are hoping to get rid of the rest of our shirts and bags, so while supplies last we have marked our remaining shirts down to $15.  Feel free to check out the store and get your shirt or bag today!

Click Here to visit the store.