She pokes her head into the front door, "Mum, Mum," her beautiful dark hair is covered by a bright pink shower cap, I am rewarded for my slow response with, "MUM!!" I finally make it to the front door and she tosses a wet wrist watch my way and smashes back out the front door to resume her water balloon fight with her 5 siblings and multiple neighborhood children (all of whom found her pink shower cap quite funny). Day 8 and I am quite sure I have arrived as Mum, times 6; when you burst in my front door and throw things (soaking wet things at that!) in my general direction then I know I am Mom or Mum if your country of origin is ET. It is good, God is good and we see that everyday, more and more.
Recap of the last week ~ wonderful and exhausting. We have not quite mastered that poopy toilet paper belongs in the toilet, but we are confident that we do not have to wash our underwear and socks in the sink at night (with Mum and Dad's bar of soap, Yea!!) We have slept well and eaten A LOT!! We have laughed and cried (Will has always been a cry baby) and we have stared at each other countless times in total and complete confusion (English vs. Amharic vs. Ethiopian Sign Language vs. American Sign Language is quite a challenge!) They have ridden their bikes until I thought they would drop; by the way this family of 8 on bikes is entertaining, Trae rocks a pink bike, Nat looks like she is riding a clown bike and Will's bike should have hit the junk yard several years ago but we have a good time anyway. I have begun to learn the meaning of an Afro and spent over an hour and $50 in the Glamour store trying to figure out hair care products and still have no idea what I am doing! Fortunately I have a wonderful and dear friend who has adopted 6 children from ET and she is ever patient with me and answers all my crazy questions. I have also begun to appreciate the deaf community and our entire family is committed to ensuring that Rue does not live her life out in silence, which means we carry an ASL dictionary around everywhere we go and have multiple aps on my phone, iPad and computer. Let's see what else, I have found food hidden in beds and jacket pockets hanging in the closet; when you have gone hungry before you do what is necessary to prevent hunger again. So, I throw away the apple cores and nuts and remind them again that there is plenty of food, let's eat it in the kitchen. "Eshee, Mum, eshee." Ok, Mom, ok, for those of you who are not fluent in Amharic (myself included). We are learning everyday that family and love are not about the color of your skin, your country of origin, language, or anything of that nature, but family and love come from the heart of God and true family and love is birthed out of the heavens and spills down upon us when we ask and He has opened the floodgates of family and love upon us and we are blessed and undone. And on day 8 I find myself scouring the internet looking at waiting child photos, frustrated that I have not found the next Ruppels. Have I lost my mind? Without a doubt, but now that I have seen and felt the heart of God nothing else will do and these children, these 6 children, making a mess of my front porch and screeching and squealing, these children are the heart of God and I want more of that in my life. I want to be a part of His family. And in the moment that I find Trae on his bed crying because his sister can not hear and he wants to learn sign language so well that he can always translate so she can hear through him, in that moment I know this family has been assembled by the hand of God. So, in my free time I will continue to search for our children who do not know they are Ruppels yet and pray God gives us the privilege of throwing away their hidden apple cores and holding their barf bags.
He is pushing, driving His church, His bride to a new, deeper awareness of His meaning and purpose for our lives. I see it and I feel it all the time; we were never intended to pursue wealth, success, comfort and our own glory. Our purpose is first and foremost, and always, to bring Him glory; no guarantees of wealth and comfort, just the guarantee of those wonderful words ~ "Well done good and faithful servant." We have placed the American dream above His purposes and we live spiritually deflated lives while millions suffer and perish without the hope of eternal salvation. In the land of the plenty we have clasped our greedy little hands around that plenty and we squeeze the life out of ourselves and our faith. All the blessings He has bestowed upon us have become our undoing because we have refused to bless others with His blessings. It was always intended to be shared, to be taken to those that are in need, it was not intended to be used to buy a bigger house or a new boat; He blessed us so that we can bless others.
Psalm 68:10 ~
"... You, O God, in Your goodness did provide for the poor and needy."
There is only one problem here in the American church, we are not poor and needy, not even a little bit so we do not experience His goodness. So, He pushes us and drives us to give of ourselves in every capacity, so that we will be in need and we will feel poverty and then He provides for us out of His goodness and His goodness far surpasses anything this sad, little world has to offer us. But,we have to be in a place of poverty and need to truly live in His goodness and He loves us in all of our extravagance and excess and He wants what is best for us so He says unbelievable things such as, sell all you have and give it to the poor! Don't shoot the messenger, Jesus said it, not me. Well, He did not mean actually sell everything and give it all to the poor, what He meant was give a little to the poor out of your excess ensuring that your 401k, college fund, and vacation fund are still in tact and of course we could never give up our nice, big house and eating out and trips to the salon and golf course, right?! Jesus loves me, he would never want me to be without the perfect tint in my hair or that brand new pair of running shoes! Here is the question for us today ~ when did we start putting words in Jesus' mouth? and why do we pick and choose what we take literally out of the Bible? We surely take His promise to never leave us nor forsake us literally but the one about hating your family in comparison to your love for Him, well that is a different story. While we are busy rewriting the Bible we are missing out on God's goodness and we are allowing several billion people to live out their lives dogged by starvation, surrounded by disease and poverty, and completely unaware of the love of God. And we all lose, we lose with all our excess and they lose with all of their lack. And God wonders why we don't heed his call to go into all the nations and He waits for us to lay it all down and Satan laughs at us as we grip tighter to our American dream and we strangle the life right out of ourselves and the dying lost go right on dying.
We were good right up until the barf bags and apple cores right? I know, me too, it is tough medicine to get down but get it down we must if we are going to allow God to revive His world through us, through me and through you.
On Saturday morning we drove through our base during the annual triathlon and I fought back tears; I argued with God and used words like unfair and unkind. Why can they race and not me? I wanted to be racing, not headed to an adoption fundraiser in my minivan loaded with kids. Racing is fun, actually it is amazing and I loved every minute of it BUT one day I will hear "Mum" in heaven and she will smile at me with that silly, pink shower cap on and so I am reminded that I am running the right race, the only race that matters.
So, we race on and we race hard because time is short and the field is white with harvest.
Give a girl some love in her pink shower cap!
Recap of the last week ~ wonderful and exhausting. We have not quite mastered that poopy toilet paper belongs in the toilet, but we are confident that we do not have to wash our underwear and socks in the sink at night (with Mum and Dad's bar of soap, Yea!!) We have slept well and eaten A LOT!! We have laughed and cried (Will has always been a cry baby) and we have stared at each other countless times in total and complete confusion (English vs. Amharic vs. Ethiopian Sign Language vs. American Sign Language is quite a challenge!) They have ridden their bikes until I thought they would drop; by the way this family of 8 on bikes is entertaining, Trae rocks a pink bike, Nat looks like she is riding a clown bike and Will's bike should have hit the junk yard several years ago but we have a good time anyway. I have begun to learn the meaning of an Afro and spent over an hour and $50 in the Glamour store trying to figure out hair care products and still have no idea what I am doing! Fortunately I have a wonderful and dear friend who has adopted 6 children from ET and she is ever patient with me and answers all my crazy questions. I have also begun to appreciate the deaf community and our entire family is committed to ensuring that Rue does not live her life out in silence, which means we carry an ASL dictionary around everywhere we go and have multiple aps on my phone, iPad and computer. Let's see what else, I have found food hidden in beds and jacket pockets hanging in the closet; when you have gone hungry before you do what is necessary to prevent hunger again. So, I throw away the apple cores and nuts and remind them again that there is plenty of food, let's eat it in the kitchen. "Eshee, Mum, eshee." Ok, Mom, ok, for those of you who are not fluent in Amharic (myself included). We are learning everyday that family and love are not about the color of your skin, your country of origin, language, or anything of that nature, but family and love come from the heart of God and true family and love is birthed out of the heavens and spills down upon us when we ask and He has opened the floodgates of family and love upon us and we are blessed and undone. And on day 8 I find myself scouring the internet looking at waiting child photos, frustrated that I have not found the next Ruppels. Have I lost my mind? Without a doubt, but now that I have seen and felt the heart of God nothing else will do and these children, these 6 children, making a mess of my front porch and screeching and squealing, these children are the heart of God and I want more of that in my life. I want to be a part of His family. And in the moment that I find Trae on his bed crying because his sister can not hear and he wants to learn sign language so well that he can always translate so she can hear through him, in that moment I know this family has been assembled by the hand of God. So, in my free time I will continue to search for our children who do not know they are Ruppels yet and pray God gives us the privilege of throwing away their hidden apple cores and holding their barf bags.
He is pushing, driving His church, His bride to a new, deeper awareness of His meaning and purpose for our lives. I see it and I feel it all the time; we were never intended to pursue wealth, success, comfort and our own glory. Our purpose is first and foremost, and always, to bring Him glory; no guarantees of wealth and comfort, just the guarantee of those wonderful words ~ "Well done good and faithful servant." We have placed the American dream above His purposes and we live spiritually deflated lives while millions suffer and perish without the hope of eternal salvation. In the land of the plenty we have clasped our greedy little hands around that plenty and we squeeze the life out of ourselves and our faith. All the blessings He has bestowed upon us have become our undoing because we have refused to bless others with His blessings. It was always intended to be shared, to be taken to those that are in need, it was not intended to be used to buy a bigger house or a new boat; He blessed us so that we can bless others.
Psalm 68:10 ~
"... You, O God, in Your goodness did provide for the poor and needy."
There is only one problem here in the American church, we are not poor and needy, not even a little bit so we do not experience His goodness. So, He pushes us and drives us to give of ourselves in every capacity, so that we will be in need and we will feel poverty and then He provides for us out of His goodness and His goodness far surpasses anything this sad, little world has to offer us. But,we have to be in a place of poverty and need to truly live in His goodness and He loves us in all of our extravagance and excess and He wants what is best for us so He says unbelievable things such as, sell all you have and give it to the poor! Don't shoot the messenger, Jesus said it, not me. Well, He did not mean actually sell everything and give it all to the poor, what He meant was give a little to the poor out of your excess ensuring that your 401k, college fund, and vacation fund are still in tact and of course we could never give up our nice, big house and eating out and trips to the salon and golf course, right?! Jesus loves me, he would never want me to be without the perfect tint in my hair or that brand new pair of running shoes! Here is the question for us today ~ when did we start putting words in Jesus' mouth? and why do we pick and choose what we take literally out of the Bible? We surely take His promise to never leave us nor forsake us literally but the one about hating your family in comparison to your love for Him, well that is a different story. While we are busy rewriting the Bible we are missing out on God's goodness and we are allowing several billion people to live out their lives dogged by starvation, surrounded by disease and poverty, and completely unaware of the love of God. And we all lose, we lose with all our excess and they lose with all of their lack. And God wonders why we don't heed his call to go into all the nations and He waits for us to lay it all down and Satan laughs at us as we grip tighter to our American dream and we strangle the life right out of ourselves and the dying lost go right on dying.
We were good right up until the barf bags and apple cores right? I know, me too, it is tough medicine to get down but get it down we must if we are going to allow God to revive His world through us, through me and through you.
On Saturday morning we drove through our base during the annual triathlon and I fought back tears; I argued with God and used words like unfair and unkind. Why can they race and not me? I wanted to be racing, not headed to an adoption fundraiser in my minivan loaded with kids. Racing is fun, actually it is amazing and I loved every minute of it BUT one day I will hear "Mum" in heaven and she will smile at me with that silly, pink shower cap on and so I am reminded that I am running the right race, the only race that matters.
So, we race on and we race hard because time is short and the field is white with harvest.
Fundraiser rather then triathlon ~ a new kind of race!
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