Unbelievable!

Pete, one of the fathers in our group, decided to put together a worship service for tonight. ...and it was incredible!

Just when I started thinking that few people outside of our church were serious about worship, God used a whole collection of folks from all over the US to humble me and show me that there are lots of folks who are very serious about focusing all of the attention on the Lord. (NOTE: The paragraph above has caused some hurt feelings within my circle of friends. Still, it is an honest account of my arrogant thinking, which is sin against God that He broke down and replaced with humility while I was in China.)

Pete's encouragement to us was three-fold:

• Keep following the leading of the Lord.
• Enjoy your children, they are gifts from God.
• Live in a manner that humbly shows Christ to everyone who sees your family.

I was blessed to get to pray for two specific items:

1. That the hearts of the children and the adoptive families would be open to fully receive each other.
2. That the chain of generational sin would be broken within each of us, and in our new children.

Then, after open testimony time (which was great!), Kevin directed each father to come forward and collect the communion elements to administer to his own family. The reality of servant-leadership within each of our homes really came alive to us all tonight. It was the Church glorifying God with overflowing hearts.

Marc Quigley led the worship in singing, and started his time by asking the families to shout-out the states that they came from. A majority of the US was represented in our little service tonight.

Palmer closed us in prayer - and sent us out with confidence and clarity about what we are doing here, as well as the God who sustains us.

...And God was lifted up above all else.