Mission NYC

Last night we had our first missions team meeting for a trip to New York City. For Bethany and I it will be a return trip (our third) to serve in several ministries in Brooklyn and the surrounding areas. I love doing mission work in New York City because of the diversity you find there. We will encounter different ethnicities, cultures, and languages within a few blocks of where we are staying. It reflects the diversity that we strive to reach with the gospel and the very diversity we become as the body of Christ. We will be leaving June 30th for this project to do evangelism and construction so we appreciate your prayers as we assemble the team and make preparations.

We have also received word that our family now has Kayli and will be traveling over the next few days. The pictures on her website are worth more than a thousand words and everyone here is anxiously awaiting their return. Continue to pray for them as they travel and bring her safely home. You can read more about their travels and see pictures of Kayli here.

Prayers for Kayli

This is Kayli Madison Ling Alexander. If you are reading this any time in the next week I want to ask you to pray for her and my family members who are going to China to bring her home. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law left with their parents yesterday for a long flight overseas and will be returning home on the 17th. This has been around a three year wait and we are all incredibly excited to see the newest addition to the family. This child is going to be so loved (and spoiled for that matter) and there will be a long line of people waiting to hold her and play with her.

I love adoption. I believe in it for several reasons, especially considering I was adopted myself. No, I wasn't adopted the way Kayli is adopted, but I am adopted in the way I pray she will be one day - by God. In fact, the whole concept of the church is grounded in adoption (Romans 8:14-23). This is reflected in the diversity of the universal church. If you read this passage it is clear to see that the unity of the church is not centered around an age, ethnicity, economic status, worship style, or background. Personally, I believe the greatest impact of the body of believers comes when there is no other reason that two people would meet together except to profess, "Jesus is Lord". That in of itself is enough reason to be unified and celebrate the common adoption that has made us part of this family. At the end of this age, Christ will stand victorious with the cosmos as his inheritance. Just as Kayli is now family, those in Christ are sharing (and will share) in the sonship and inheritance of our "Abba". I've heard several people comment about the adjustments that Kayli may face that will be helped by her young age, not to mention the adjustment of her parents! I can't help but think of the more dramatic and eternal adjustments that our spiritual adoption has meant. When this precious young Chinese girl looks at her new parents and says "momma" and "dadda" it will be perfectly and beautifully true - and a joyful reminder that you and I can come before our Abba as His child.