That's right, I'm back. Actually, I've been back in country for almost a week, but haven't written anything for the need to process everything from our trip. It was a great trip in so many ways, and even now I don't feel like I've been able to wrap my head around what took place. One of the things weighing on me has been "How do I convey what happened (both in writing and in person)?" It was too much. I've seen and heard too many things. I've been impacted by so much. I've been encouraged and humbled, broken down and rebuilt. It was more than I could have possibly hoped for. But now what? As we flew back a quote from the Lord of the Rings popped into my head (imagine that... me using a movie quote to quantify a milestone in my life haha) It's from the end of the Return of the King and Frodo is reflecting on the journey:
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back?"
Seeing all I've seen, how do I reconcile my drive to help the ministry and the need to uphold my daily responsibilities? How can I live in the midst of this society that champions consumerism when all I want to do is give it all away? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start over.
I realized as I came back that pretty much anyone who's read my blog knew I was going to Germany and Albania... but pretty much didn't know why. (Which in my defense I could not have explained before due to my lack of really knowing WHY I was going in the first place.) Jennifer and I had put our names on a waiting list to take a group to Albania to visit the ministry of Adopt-A-Child. (I'll explain what that is in a minute) But due to some change-over in personnel the ministry had to cancel all group trips for 08, including ours. No big deal, we started working on another option (which became the trip taken to India in July). But shortly after that, Jennifer and I were contacted about an opportunity for the two of us to join with another group and go at the end of August. We immediately jumped on it. The tricky part was we didn't really know why we were going. We hadn't filled out an application, or designated what type of trip we desired. All we knew was there was an opportunity to go, and we went. As we started to learn more about the trip and who was going, we realized we would be with various staff of the international Adopt-A-Child (AAC from here on out) offices. Now that sounds like it should clarify why we were going... but in reality we didn't even really know there WERE international offices. So it didn't help much. We didn't work for AAC, weren't looking to and now we're on this trip with other staff. We didn't know if we were just tagging along, just getting an in depth look or coming back as staff, ha. I mean, we just wanted to visit the kid we sponsor, lol. Anyway, time to leave came and we just left in faith that God would show us why on earth He'd asked us to travel across the world.
Now I need to stop for a second. SOOOOOO much happened on this trip that it's pretty much impossible to put it all in one post without writing a novel. For the sake of space (and my sanity) I won't go into what happened exactly in this post. I will put more in subsequent installments, but for now I'll just talk about WHAT Adopt-A-Child is for anyone who doesn't know.
Adopt-A-Child is a ministry based in Guatemala and Albania. It sets up feeding centers in villages for the children of the area. There are 3 (soon to be 4) in Albania and 9 in Guatemala. The children come and get nutritional meals, limited dental and medical treatment, and spiritual care. These are not necessarily starving or abandoned children. But many are malnourished and in need of basic medical care. AAC allows any child who wants to come to eat and then have the opportunity to attend bible classes afterward. The classes are not mandatory, it's totally the choice of the child. At the bible classes, the children are presented with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are given opportunity to receive salvation, taught how to pray and sing LOTS of songs. As the children grow older they are given the opportunity to attend discipleship classes which teach more than the basic intro to salvation, but how to live a godly life and in turn live out their witness. Each child that comes is registered and tracked with a namecard. Then AAC gives people in other countries (such as the US, UK and Germany to name a few) an opportunity to partner with them and sponsor a child. The sponsor gives roughly $30 (or however little or big they can afford) to help offset the costs for feeding. The sponsor is also given the opportunity to interact with the child through letters and pictures.
That's a basic overview of what AAC does. What I didn't realize is exactly how it does it. There are multiple offices internationally, there are multiple internation directors and then support staff of various regional influence ranging from overseeing whole countries down to the church contact who is the local face of AAC. The only face I'd ever known for AAC was Ron and Pat Kelly, the top dogs. We've known them for a number of years and they are good friend with Dad. But due to the vast amount of responsibility/traveling that they do, we don't see them in person much. And because they were the only face of AAC we'd known, we were in the dark about the rest of the structure.
Now you might be thinking "that's great, but there are A LOT of feeding programs out there, what makes Adopt-A-Child so special?" I'm glad you asked:
1.) AAC is not a feeding program. It is a ministry that uses food as a way to open doors. The main focus is NOT the food. The food is simply a tool. The focus of the ministry is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Where there is free food, there will be kids (duh). Then the team has an opportunity to share the love of Christ with those kids. BUT because they want to make sure the kids are doing well in all aspects, the team will also do home visits to check on the child (and see if there are siblings who might want to come as well) which gives the team an opportunity to share the love of Christ with the parents. It's all about sharing the gospel. That is what is of the utmost importance in this life. You can feed starving children, which is absolutely a good thing to do. But whether a child is starving or full to the brim... if he or she does not have a personal relationship with Jesus, they are going to Hell when they die. And we're all going to die. You can rid the world of hunger, but it's still just a giant band-aid. It's just delaying the critical point. We all die and without Christ we go to Hell. Period.
2.) I can vouch for the fact that AAC is not going to steal your money. 90% of what is given goes directly into supporting your child. Only 10% is taken out for other costs. You can either believe me or not, and that's all I'm sayin on that.
3.) If the host countries would suddenly decide that all foreigners had to leave, the ministry of AAC would continue. Why? Because the ministry is staffed and run by nationals. All of the feeding/serving/teaching done in the feeding centers is done by local people. They have been mentored and trained and are now turning around and mentoring/training others. I've seen too many foreign missions works fall apart because it all relied on one or two people usually the visiting missionaries. And if those people had to leave the whole thing would fall apart. This is not that type of ministry. That was so exciting for me.
4.) The financial support of the sponsor is great, but it's really the corespondence that is vital. I saw kids who had every letter/picture/gift from their sponsor in places of honor. It's really about that relationship that makes AAC special. Some people are put off by the name "Adopt-A-Child". No this is not an adoption agency. In fact, it's near impossible to do that from Albania. Many of these kids have their families intact. That's not what it's about. What it's about is spiritually adopting a child/family. It's about becoming invested in a life and being a spiritual father or mother. And while I am NOT saying that adopting children in the natural is not important, is adopting someone in the spiritual any less vital?
Ok, that's my spiel for now. good grief this is long. I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip. (And yes I mean just a few, I don't think you want me to post all 480 pictures Jennifer and I took... nevermind the 3 gig of pics we got from everyone else. :D) But before I do, if you would like more information on AAC you can either contact me or check out this website www.adopt-a-child.com (This is the UK site, the ministry is working on kicking off a new site, but it's still in the construction phase.) If this has tweaked your heart I STRONGLY encourage you to find out more and get involved. When I mentioned the Lord of the Rings quote I really meant that's how I feel. Just FYI you'll be hearing a lot more about AAC from me... Jennifer and I are in the process of becoming representatives with authority to speak/promote the ministry whereever our shoes may tread. :D Now the pics...
p.s. The boy in the picture with us is the child we sponsor.
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