God’s Marvelous Provision

by Bruce Mills

Several months ago, my son and daughter-in-law decided that they would start the long and involved process of adopting a child. This was a decision they made after suffering the sorrow of multiple miscarriages. This was a particularly difficult experience for my daughter-in-law, as many of her friends were experiencing the joy of having children while she was unable to do so. But the Lord has used it as a means of spiritual growth for them as they have learned more about the sovereignty of God and His love for them than they ever would have otherwise.

But they decided to pursue adoption as a means of adding a child to their family. They began the process of saving and fundraising to pay for this extremely expensive process. At the present time, the cost to adopt a child is between $18,000 and $20,000, all of which must be paid before the child is taken home by the adoptive parents.  So it is a monumental task to gather that kind of money in a relatively short period of time.

After saving some of their own money and raising additional money through a large garage sale and t-shirt sales, they were doing well in gathering funds, but were nowhere near what they required. Suddenly and unexpectedly, their adoption coordinator called them and asked them if they were interested in pursuing the placement of a little girl due to be born on August 16th. There were some good reasons to pursue this particular child, particularly the fact that the mother had no addiction issues which almost always cause lifelong problems for the child. They were extremely surprised but decided that they would attempt to see if they could raise the additional funds they needed in the one month they had before the baby would come.  Plus they had to get an entire nursery ready, including painting and obtaining all the furniture and other supplies normally associated with caring for a baby.

After checking how much money they had accrued, they determined that they were $7,000 short. Using a new means of fundraising recommended to them by friends who have adopted, they began a Facebook-a-thon, seeking donations from friends and family to help bring this little girl home to a loving family.  That is when the amazing love of God’s people began to be demonstrated at a level that I must admit I didn’t expect. In less than two weeks, God used His people to generously give all $7,000 of the funds they needed! My faith was certainly far too small, as I never expected them to raise more than a couple of thousand dollars at the most. But God marvelously worked in the hearts of people to give far more abundantly than I could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20). All the glory goes to God alone, who has used His children to provide the opportunity for a sweet little girl who needs a family that will love her with the love of Christ to be able to bring her home.

Now, all we have to do is wait for this young birth mother to give birth, and pray that the baby is healthy and that the mother does not change her mind at the last minute. Please pray with us to that end.

Widows, Orphans, & Aliens

by Bruce Mills

Scripture repeatedly discusses three groups of people for whom God has a special love and concern. They are widows, orphans, and aliens.  There are ten verses in the Bible in which God emphasizes His love for all three groups (Deut. 10:18; 14:29; 24:17, 19, 20, 21; 26:13; 27:19; Jer. 7:6; Mal. 3:5).  There are many more verses which express God’s concern for only one or two of those groups. It is clear that those who find themselves in one of these categories are very special to our Lord.  He demands that they be given justice, that they are provided with the food and other needs which they require, and no one must ever cheat any such individual out of any money that belongs to them.

The question which arises is, what are some of the implications of these divine commands for us as we interact with those who are widows, orphans, or aliens?

In regard to widows, it means that we are to insure that the widows in our churches receive special attention in terms of financial support if necessary, assistance with maintenance and upkeep of their homes, transportation to medical appointments and grocery shopping if needed, and visits to their homes to encourage them that we care for them.  This may seem like a “no brainer,” but I personally know of a church in which it took a friend of mine about a year to convince the church leadership that a ministry that provides such assistance for the widows in the church was a good and godly thing to do.  He was told over and over that such a ministry was unnecessary.  It was as though they were oblivious to the biblical instruction regarding the believer’s responsibilities to widows.  It was only after he managed to get approval to give such a ministry a “test run” that the church’s leaders saw the value of reaching out to the widows in that church.

In regard to orphans, it means that we encourage Christians to adopt those orphaned children, and attempt to provide means by which potential adoptive parents can raise the funds needed to pay for an adoption.  It means that we hold up adoption to our congregation as an important way to advance God’s kingdom by adopting and raising those children in homes in which honoring and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ is the consuming passion of life.  Providing adoption seminars to help the couples in our churches to understand how precious orphans are to the heart of God and providing assistance with the paperwork and home study are effective methods of encouraging believers to consider adoption.

In regard to aliens, it means that we evangelize and provide for the needs of aliens who live in our communities.  Whatever one’s thoughts on illegal immigration, the fact is that God calls believers to treat those aliens living around us with compassion and generosity.  That means that we do not take advantage of them in any financial or business transaction, such as paying a lower wage than we would pay someone else to do the same job, simply because we believe we can get away from it because the alien will not complain to anyone.  It means that churches should consider sponsoring ESL classes to assist aliens in learning the English language, which provides an opportunity to evangelize them.  It means that churches consider establishing live translation of services into the language of the primary people group living in the area, thereby providing a means by which those aliens can hear the Word of God and be evangelized.

There are certainly more ways by which believers can provide practical assistance to widows, orphans, and aliens.  These are just a few ideas. God has made it very clear that all three groups are very special to Him and thus, they should be very special to us. We need to be obedient to Scripture and care for them in a way which brings glory to God and tangibly demonstrates His love for them.