About a year ago, we felt God tugging on our hearts to begin
pursuing our second child. I struggled with this, wondering how we would raise
the necessary finances, wondering if we were supposed to do something, or a lot
of things, or if He wanted us to sit back and see what He would do. But God’s call was clear, as was the strong
assurance from Him that He would provide all we needed to bring this child He
had placed in our hearts home.
As we prayed, a friend pointed us to a great book called Adoption Without Debt. An article about a “fund-raiser” in that book was life-changing for us. It is called BOTH HANDS and is a project that would be similar to a charity Golf outing, or a walk-a-thon. But the big difference, and the one that pulled us immediately on board, was that, instead of doing a one day project just to raise money without any other lasting benefits, this is a one day project that is life changing, community building and affecting lives, literally, around the world.
Here is the premise.
An adoptive family, desiring to bring home a child, yet lacking finances
to do so. A widow or widower, trying to
hang on to their house, but unable to make needed repairs. A group of friends coming out to work on the
house, along with those behind the scene folks that helped procure
supplies. A whole host of friends and
family willing to “sponsor” the adoptive family and friends for the day. We
later found out that donations can be accepted on our child’s behalf up until
the child comes home!!
In the end, the widow is blessed, a large group of workers
meet and make new friends with each other as they create much more of a sense
of community around them, local businesses become involved, and ultimately,
others are given the opportunity to be a part of helping a widow and knowing
that they were able to help bring a child to their forever family.
James 1:27 tells us “Pure and genuine religion in the sight
of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and
refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
To see more details, including a short video of the day (a
picture really is worth a thousand words!!) check out our page at www.bothhandsfoundation.org/tim-and-debbie-swingle.aspx
So thankful that our project brought in about 20% of our total adoption costs!! Yeah God!!!
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