Orphan Care Weekend 2022 at Timberline Church

Orphan Care weekend featuring guest speaker Diane Herman from House Of Hope.

Transcription:

- The first day I met my mom, it was at an I Belong Project video shoot for an adoption. I was getting my video like recorded at the time. I was pretty angry and I wasn't very happy with the way things were going for myself. My decision was to just not be adopted and my plan was to just age out of the system and go live on my own. I was just listing off things about myself and what I wanted to be in the future. And I mentioned diesel mechanic and that caught my mom's attention.

- I was like, my gosh, that's crazy because my dad is a lifetime career diesel mechanic and our oldest son, Jonah, is a diesel mechanic. So, I left that day just thinking, my gosh, we weren't planning this, but maybe are we supposed to consider adopting this kid.

- When she first came to me with the video, it didn't take any convincing. I mean, I watched it once and then I think I might have watched it two or three times back to back to back. And yeah, I was just like, all right, well, what do we need to do to get this kid in our house? Like he's supposed to be here, so, let's not waste any time.

- About seven months after I moved in with the Rudds, we decided to do, like a family picture photo shoot.

- Right before we went to get the family pictures, like that same week, we had found out that we didn't know, when the court date was gonna be, it several months away still. So, in his head, he was still kind of nervous of, is this really gonna happen? Is this really my forever family?

- I felt kind of nervous, uneasy in a way, mostly because it was the first time, I've done something like that.

- He shared with us after that day of getting our pictures taken together that it pretty much solidified for him that feeling of, this is my family. This is a real thing. I'm part of this family forever.

- I saw it as a sign of, you're here to stay, like you are part of the family.

- The first day that Nathan then came to our house, Jonah and Morgan came over as well. And he just welcomed him as though he were always there, he was always their brother. Jonah took him out to go driving in his car, he has a cool 87 Firebird. And Jonah just immediately, they went and did something fun. And Morgan, she wasn't shy at all with him, he treated her as though she were his sister, right from the get go.

- I feel like what really secured me and gotten me back on track and happy with life, was the thought. And knowing that it could be just anyone, but I know that I will have that person, whether it be mom, dad, mom and dad, that I will have somebody to care and love for me and to just be a family.

- Hey, good morning church. Welcome to Timberline. We're so glad you're here. And special welcome to everybody joining us online as well. If you are able, would you stand with us? So, we get started and worship. Let praise be the weapon. ♪ Let praise be a weapon that silences the enemy ♪ ♪ Let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety ♪ ♪ Let it rise, ♪ ♪ Let praise arise ♪ ♪ We sing Your name in the dark and it changes everything ♪ ♪ We sing with all we are and we claim Your victory ♪ ♪ Let it rise, ♪ ♪ Let praise arise ♪ ♪ We'll see You break down every wall ♪ ♪ We'll watch the giants fall ♪ ♪ Fear cannot survive when we praise You ♪ ♪ The God of breakthrough's on our side ♪ ♪ Forever we lift Him high ♪ ♪ With all creation cry, God, we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ Sing let faith. ♪ Let faith be the song that overcomes the raging sea ♪ ♪ Let faith be the song that calms the storm inside of me ♪ ♪ Let it rise, ♪ ♪ Let faith arise ♪ ♪ We'll see You break down every wall ♪ ♪ We'll watch the giants fall ♪ ♪ Fear cannot survive when we praise You ♪ ♪ The God of breakthrough's on our side ♪ ♪ Forever lift Him high ♪ ♪ With all creation cry, God, we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, ♪ ♪ we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ This is what living looks like. ♪ This is what living looks like ♪ ♪ This is what freedom feels like ♪ ♪ This is what Heaven sounds like ♪ ♪ We praise You, we praise You ♪ ♪ This is what living looks like ♪ This is what freedom feels like ♪ This is what Heaven sounds like ♪ ♪ We praise You, we praise You ♪ ♪ This is what living looks like ♪ ♪ This is what freedom feels like ♪ ♪ This is what Heaven sounds like ♪ ♪ We praise You, we praise You ♪ ♪ This is what living looks like ♪ ♪ This is what freedom feels like ♪ ♪ This is what Heaven sounds like ♪ ♪ We praise You, we praise ♪ ♪ We'll see You break down every wall ♪ ♪ We'll watch the giants fall ♪ ♪ Fear cannot survive when we praise You ♪ ♪ The God of breakthrough's on our side ♪ ♪ Forever lift Him high ♪ ♪ With all creation cry, God, we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, ♪ ♪ we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, ♪ ♪ we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, we praise You ♪ ♪ Oh, we give You praise ♪ Yes, God we've come to worship you this morning, we give you praise. You're the only one deserving of it Lord, we thank you for what you've done, to make a way for us to come in your presence this morning, thank you Lord. Before I spoke. ♪ Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me ♪ ♪ You have been so, so good to me ♪ ♪ Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me ♪ ♪ You have been so so kind to me ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God ♪ ♪ Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, ♪ ♪ leaves the 99 ♪ ♪ And I couldn't earn it ♪ ♪ I don't deserve it, still You give yourself away ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God ♪ ♪ When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me ♪ ♪ You have been so, so good to me ♪ ♪ When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me ♪ ♪ You have been so, so kind to me ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God ♪ ♪ Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, ♪ ♪ leaves the 99 ♪ ♪ And I couldn't earn it ♪ ♪ I don't deserve it, still You give yourself away ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God ♪ ♪ There's no shadow You won't light up ♪ ♪ Mountain You won't climb up ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no wall You won't kick down ♪ ♪ Lie You won't tear down ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no shadow You won't light up ♪ ♪ Mountain You won't climb up ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no wall You won't kick down ♪ ♪ Lie You won't tear down ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no shadow You won't light up ♪ ♪ Mountain You won't climb up ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no wall You won't kick down ♪ ♪ Lie You won't tear down ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no shadow You won't light up ♪ ♪ Mountain You won't climb up ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ There's no wall You won't kick down ♪ ♪ Lie You won't tear down ♪ ♪ Coming after me ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God ♪ ♪ Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, ♪ ♪ leaves the 99 ♪ ♪ I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it, ♪ ♪ still You give yourself away ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God ♪ ♪ Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, ♪ ♪ leaves the 99 ♪ ♪ And I couldn't earn it ♪ ♪ I don't deserve it, still You give yourself away ♪ ♪ Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God ♪ Isn't that an amazing truth, that no matter how far away we are, God's love can find us there. So, awesome. That's why we're excited about this weekend. It's Orphan Care Weekend, and we're about to sing another song called "Waymaker". But before we do that, we're gonna show just a little video here of some kids, singing it in the Dominican Republic. These are kids from the first Haitian school that was started by my missionaries from right here at Timberline that we support. And so, we're just gonna watch this video and then we're gonna give it up, we're gonna sing the whole song together right after.

- So awesome, let's sing this together. ♪ You are here, moving in our midst ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ You are here, working in this place ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ You are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ You are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ You are here, touching every heart ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ You are here, healing every heart ♪ ♪ Oh, I worship You ♪ ♪ Yeah, I worship You ♪ ♪ You're turning lives around ♪ ♪ You are here, oh, turning lives around ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ You are here, and You are mending every heart ♪ ♪ I worship You, yeah ♪ ♪ I worship You ♪ ♪ And You are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Yeah You're the way maker ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ Sing that is who You are ♪ ♪ Oh, that is who You are ♪ ♪ And that is who You are ♪ ♪ Oh, and that is who You are ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ Lord Jesus, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, come on, even when ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, You're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, You're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ And even when I don't see it, You're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, You're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, You're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it, You're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop , You never stop working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, You're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel it , You're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop, You never stop working ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Sing that is who You are ♪ ♪ God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ Oh and, that is who You are ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ Yeah, and that is who You are, yeah ♪ ♪ That is who You are ♪ ♪ Oh, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪ ♪ Yes You are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness ♪ ♪ My God, that is who You are ♪

- You know, sometimes we need to be reminded. Sometimes we're going through life and we need to remember, God is our way maker, our promise keeper, our miracle worker, I wanna encourage you today, to receive that. Let's pray together. Dear God, Lord we do thank you, God, that you are our way maker, our promise keeper, our miracle maker. God, we just love you so much. We love you, we're so grateful that we can be here together today. Lord, as we go into listening to the message, we pray that you would open our eyes, open our heart to what you would have for each one of us today. We love you Lord. And we give this time to you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Good morning. So, good to see you, so good to see you. Before you have a seat, please turn to your neighbor, greet them and let them know, if those kids put a smile on your face. Again, I wanna extend a welcome, if this is your first time at Timberland Church, here in person or online, I wanna say welcome. And my prayer is that you feel at home today. There's a connection card in the chair back in front of you. You can also access this online, on our app, but it's a way for you to get to know, what's going on at Timberline Church. But it's also a way for us to get to know you, how we can connect with you. I always like to point there's a portion on there that's for prayer. If there's something that you would like us, our team, our staff, to be praying for. Please write that on there. I wanna tell you it's an honor to journey with you in prayer with that. As Matthew said, this is Orphan Care Weekend. My name is Kari Stewart. I'm the Missions Pastor, Orphan Care Weekend. I get emotional about it 'cause it's super special, to my family. God invited my husband and I into the journey of adoption, over 27 years ago. We had three biological children and God would invite us to add six more through adoption. Yes. So, it's been a blessing, but thank you. It's such an honor to have this weekend, 'cause intentionally I want you to know, it's part of Timberline Church. We are intentional about standing in the gap with vulnerable children, teens and families. And we use this weekend to share with you, to invite you. We invite organizations that we partner with, some are hosting tables on the mall for you to meet with. I just, am so blessed that we get to have a weekend like this. Something else we're super intentional about. We really wanna connect people at Timberline Church with missions. We do that through Bible studies. We do that through missions movie nights and tonight is one of those missions movie nights. It's a documentary called "Children of Shanghai". And it's about one family's yes, that changed the lives of hundreds of children in China. I'd like you to watch this trailer.

- This is a story of how a million children were placed with local foster families through an unlikely Alliance between the Chinese government and a British footballer. Parents from all walks of life, share their stories of overcoming the one child policy by taking in orphans. With unprecedented access across the country. This is a unique insight into the lives of the 90s orphans, now driving the 21st century's fastest growing economy. This story needs to be told across the world at a time where there's so much negativity and cynicism, here's proof that a single leap of faith, can change the world.

- We're super honored to have Robert Glover with us. He is that footballer. He is the family that I mentioned that said, yes to an invitation by the Chinese government to go from UK to China. Robert, it is a pleasure to have you with us this weekend. You know we about a lot about missions, our yes. Our yes is impactful, our yes has ripples effects. What did this yes, look like for you?

- Well I think yes was easy as a football player, soccer player, you call it here. gotta get it right, I mean, I know. You know, we give a hundred percent, if we don't give a hundred percent, you go out 50 or 75% you lose the game. So, you learn to be a hundred percent. So, when we looked at our faith, we didn't wanna be 50% Christians. You don't wanna be 50% Christian, do you? You don't wanna be a 75, just turn up on Sunday and then forget it for the rest of the week. We wanted to be a hundred percent 'cause we realized what Jesus done for us. We wanted to give everything. I like telling stories. And I think once I had that, yes, I spent quite a long time in China and I was their consultant. They had a one child policy and I had six children and we all laughed about it. I was working with the Chinese government. I built relationships with those guys and you might say, well, where's God in all this? Well, I took this journey on a train with a senior member of the communist party. He knew me, he knew I was a Christian and he was teasing me on the train and saying, there are no Christians up in this city where we're going. They're all Buddhist and they're all Taoists and Confucian and I said, I don't care. God told me to put children in families because he made the family for children. Children should grow up in families. So, he said, okay. And he kept trying to persuade me. We got up there and we went to the Great People's Hall in this city. And he got up and told a joke about me and my Mandarin wasn't too good I didn't understand, it was something to do with football and being a big man and he's a Christian and no one laughed. They brought in the first 20 families that were gonna take the children. And he told the story again and again, no one laughed. And then one woman put her hand up, she said, I'm a Christian. And then the next one and then the next one, all 20 were Christians, all 20. You can imagine how embarrassed he was on the train journey home. He was saying to me, how come it's the Christians are doing this? I said, well, it's in our DNA, that's who we are. It's part of our Bible, in our scripture we're taught. And he said, that is remarkable. I'm gonna do some research in China. I'm going to research three provinces to see how many families, by this time we'd gone to hundreds of thousands, are Christians. And I don't know if you guys know this, but the greatest revival of Christianity was happening, while we were in China. It is massive. I bumped into the Pastor Job in the house church in the earthquake in 2008. And he mobilized 10 million people in this churches to take the children, incredible. About two months later, that senior official came back to me and he said, Robert, he said, I don't believe this. He said 80% of the children, the families are Christians. You see sometimes, what God asks us to do, is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. We don't have to do the whole jigsaw puzzle. You know that song, waymaker, miracle maker. You know, I'll mess up every time, but when God comes in, he finishes that jigsaw puzzle. And if you wanna come along tonight, you'll get the story of how God in China, took those little children from ashes in the orphanages and placed them into Chinese families in China. And that's a remarkable story, so, yeah, please come along tonight.

- Well, Robert and I would love to invite you tonight, six o'clock South Auditorium. We do ask you to register 'cause we are providing dinner, so you can register online or at the table at the mall after service. I want y'all to just say thank you to Robert for being here. Such an honor. As we continue, as we continue on with Orphan Care Weekend, we are super blessed to have Diane Herman, who is part of our Timberline family, come and share her story. Her story that is full of heartbreak, but where it intersects hope and is bringing life to thousands of children. We're so grateful.

- Thanks Kari.

- Welcome.

- Thank you so much. So, it'll be in June, it'll be a year, our 10 years, this summer that my husband and I and our family sat in a little conference room over there getting prepared to be missionaries in Guatemala. And I had no idea what was on the horizon for us. And now looking back, it's been quite a journey. Today, we're gonna talk about House of Hope, which we got to open in Guatemala. And it's so exciting, all the things happening there. But first I wanna go back and give you kinda some background about how our family got to House of Hope opening and opening it in Guatemala. My husband, Travis and I were from a small town in western Kansas. He was the oldest of four boys and I was the youngest of three girls. After high school we went to Kansas State and where we started dating our sophomore year. And got engaged our senior year in August and life was really good. We were just really living the dream. And then we went home in March to do some finishing touches on the wedding. And his mom thought he looked a little pale, so she took him to the doctor and it was a week or two later, when he was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. And our world kinda stopped. And it was the first time in my life, where I had to trust the Lord wholly with one of the gifts he had given me, but it wasn't gonna be the last. Travis had surgery and had two feet of his colon removed and started chemo about seven days before our wedding. Whether it was gonna be one day or the rest of my life to be by his side, that's where I knew I wanted to be. And so, we were able over the next three years after we got married to start a family and we had three beautiful children, Slate, Hope and Isabelle. And Travis' cancer returned about every year to 18 months, to his liver, five different times. And we did all kinds of treatments, chemotherapy, traditional treatments, natural treatments, we did it all. He wanted to live. He loved being a dad. He loved being a family man and he was an amazing person on this earth. But in this, God taught us many, many lessons and first was perspective. And that was not to sweat the small stuff in our little marriage and in our little family. And also perseverance and how to hang on, when you have a rapidly fraying rope, we learned to live our lives with a very heavenly perspective, teaching our children that this is not our home. After a 13 year battle, Travis moved on to his eternal home and some people leave a mark on your life and some people leave a crater. And Travis was definitely a crater kind of a guy. So, we took our little family and we prayed a lot. And with that, Isabelle, the kids were 10, eight and five at this time. And I tell you being a single parent is no joke. Isabelle cried every night for a year, for her dad. And before my husband had passed away, he asked his younger brother, Justin, to take care of his family. And as you know, in our culture, kinsman redeemers aren't really a thing. So, we kinda had to just pray about that and see where to go. But we were both so broken and so devastated over the loss of Travis that we decided to get married. We felt God was calling us to that and saying, doing it now, do it now. So, we had one date, going into Bisetti's in Old Town with Isabelle in tow. And then on June 4th, we got married in 2006. And I tell you, it was a new journey for me, living a life with a normal routine. 'Cause with Travis, our life had been in three month increments. So many people of fought cancer that you know the drill three months, you get a checkup. If you're healthy, it's three months. And so, we learned to live our life in three month increments. And with this new life we had, it was interesting to see how other people lived, you could like plan a vacation six months down the road and go to it. And so, it was a new season that we were enjoying figuring out, how this was all gonna work. And pretty soon, Hope, about six weeks later had a soccer injury. She was a fourth grader and took her to the doctor for her deep thigh bruise multiple times and turns out she had a tumor in her femur about the size of a softball. And you know, our world was shattered. I was just stunned at the Lord and stunned at what he had called us to travel through. And we just took one day at a time. The next 18 months were just pretty brutal, Hopie would throw up 18 outta 21 days of her cycle and then repeat it. And I'd watched Travis 13 years of cancer and I had never seen anything like this. And she just, during that season, we did a genetic testing to figure out why, she had been, had cancer too. And it turned out she had Li-Fraumeni syndrome, it's a childhood disease causing syndrome. So, Travis had had that, Hope had that and Isabelle had the gene and Slate did not have the gene. So again, God just called me to trust him with these gifts, he's given you, given me. And you have, when you have the gene, you have about a 50/50 chance that you will sometime in your life have cancer. And so, Hope was eight during this time. And through the season of suffering we had, there was so much unknown, but Hope had clung to her faith and she trusted the savior, every day. And I begged and pleaded, in my prayers for her healing and sometimes God just says, no. And wrestling with that, pushed my faith and caused me to look deeper into who he is? And what he wants from me? Hope taught me so much during this season. She walked with grace and fully trusted God, his plan and what he had for her in this life. I watched this kid, who I'd taught for so many years that this is not her home. And she started to look towards heaven. So, in January of 2008, we could tell that she was getting near the end. So, I'm holding her in my arms, at home, in my bed and just praying for the Lord to deliver her from this. And she looked up at me and she said, how do I die, mommy? And I said, close your eyes, Hopie and look for Jesus 'cause he's there. And she closed her eyes for the last time and I felt my heart just shatter in a million pieces. And the next years, were a season of really circling the wagons in our family and walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And that time I had to be still, pouring into who God is and why we're here on this earth. And in 2011, our little family decided to go on a mission trip here with Timberline and we went to Guatemala. And when we got there, we got to work in an orphanage, where I got to see so many kids that needed advocates for them. And it just really rocked our world 'cause we were so broken and we were so empty and searching to see what God had for us on this planet. So, we came home and prayed about it for about nine months. And then we went and moved down in June of 2012 into full-time ministry. And I started volunteering at an orphanage called God Bless the Children. And there was this little boy there who was a newborn, he was born without a finger and a thumb and a big toe. And without the leg below his knee, he had constricted band syndrome. And I could tell this little guy, was gonna need a lot of help and advocates for him 'cause he had another band on his other leg that was squeezing to threaten his foot. So, I got to take Isabelle over there and we went over three times a week, at least, or more to work on his little foot and massage that blood back in there and work on getting him into a surgery. And for Isabelle, that was such a huge thing in her life, she was 12, such an impactful time for her to learn, how important it is to pour out and to focus on things besides yourself. It was a critical time in her relationship with the Lord and it was a true miracle in how it works down in Guatemala with adoption. But we got to adopt that little boy in 2015, so his name is Max and he's nine now. And is the joy of our lives and keeps us humble every day. So, in that same year in 2015, we got to open a House of Hope and this is a home for children that are abandoned and abused. And it's an amazing thing to have a front row seat, when the Lord trades your beauty for ashes through so much work done by teen and so many giving, generous donors. We were able to transform this little house from a little three bedroom home to what it is today, which is multiple buildings on the campus. And from a chain link fence, people came down and built the wall and worked with us. And it's a beautiful place and it's just amazing, the kids are just thriving there. Today we have 18,19 kids this morning. And the oldest is five, so you can about imagine how much of a party that is. So in Guatemala, it's really important to work in the courts because so many kids go in these orphanages and then they're just left there. And I know, that kids need families and my heart is restoration or adoption and not to leave these kids in these homes, their whole lives. So, we do all of our own investigations and our home evaluations 'cause we've learned not to trust the system. 'Cause I wanna see for my own eyes, where these kids are gonna go back. So, our team does all of these amazing things. So, but we have a lot of fun with these kids. As you can see our pool day pic, we do lots of fun activities and all we did was blow up a pool and fill it with water. And I mean you would've thought it was Disneyland and it was funny. We have lots of babies, so, those are definitely my nannies sitting in that pool. So, the next pictures, a couple of kids, Lupe and Francisco and they've been with us for several years now. They came when Francisco was a baby and their parents were both killed. And our team worked so hard to get these kids declared adoptable, but I cannot even tell you the cluster it is down there to make this happen. You have to investigate every person, every family member, anybody that could take these kids and see if they will and do that. And it takes a lot of work. And I have a rockstar director, who's also a lawyer. I met her at Max's adoption, which was just totally a God thing. She was an atheist and she got to watch us with what we were doing and she's like, why are you guys doing that? And so, little by little, I got to just share the gospel with her, just through what we were doing. And pretty soon she became a believer, which just was amazing. And now, she is just an advocate for our kids. Last week, she worked on a piece of legislation. She's been working on it for a year and a half to, and she presented it to the Congress, so that we can have baby boxes in Guatemala. 'Cause right now it's illegal to give up your children, so that's why so many of these girls, who have been trafficked and are pregnant that are 12 to 15 years old, dump their babies in the trash. So, that's where we get the kids, a lot of times, is from the garbage, the trash, the street and abandoned. So, we want to give those babies a safe space to be able to work with them. So, the dinner table at House of Hope is a party. Also you can about imagine, I had a table custom made 'cause I want everybody at the same table. So yeah, our nannies are amazing. But I really feel like I want them to know this is a family and they belong here at the table. And I think that's really important feeling for them all too, to feel like a part, even if we have a baby or two sitting in the middle of the table, it still works. We're so grateful for all the incredible people that have helped us. And I've been able to watch with each kid, we help at House of Hope, piece, my piece, my heart has been put back together. And God has been so faithful in restoring my heart with pouring out to these kids. Another part of our ministry is a medical ministry. And we didn't start out wanting a medical ministry, but sometimes God just moves and you see this huge need. So, there's so many kids and villages around the country that need a lot of help with their physical needs and surgeries and things. And so, one of the little people we had was named Katherine and she came to us and she was from a village far away. And another missionary had brought her to us 'cause he heard we had a medical facility and I'm like, we don't have a medical facility, we help kids. And so I'm like, I'll take her to the doctor. So, he pulled up and I pulled this blanket back and I see this tiny little emaciated body covered in Scurvies and this part of her body was just sucking in. You never wanna see that with your kids and so I knew, I didn't need to take her to a pulmonologist, I needed to take her to the ER. So, we went to a private hospital and a long battle, we helped with her double pneumonia and she was finally fixed with all the outside stuff like that. But then we had to work on her different issues that she had that had got her to that place. So, we had her for three or four years over the time, trying to get her back to her family, who was a loving family, but just was very, very poor in a village. And so, a year ago, Timberline stepped up and donated to have a house built for her and a Pila, which is where they wash clothes and store water in a bathroom with a shower and just clean water. And it has changed her life and she's still there. And so, Max and I went out a few weeks ago and took that long journey high up on that mountain and got to check in on her and seeing her flourish was just a beautiful thing. And so, I just wanna say thank you for the amazing gift that you are to that little girl. So, another part of our ministry is called, the LUM Project and I've done a lot of working with trafficking in Guatemala. We've done a lot of rescue, but I love prevention, prevention is my heart. 'Cause if you can step into the path of that vulnerability, it is a beautiful thing. So, our LUM Project, I have a video to kinda explain what we do there. LUM is a project inspired by the many amazing women, I have met in the villages of Guatemala. Many families make barely enough to buy food and for single mothers, the struggle is even worse. Healthcare and education become luxuries that are unaffordable to many in this country. Millions of children are lucky to get one meal a day that usually consists of tortillas and rice. After working in the villages for several years, I have felt the need to help these women that I have grown to love. Out of this desire, LUM was created, Our partner, Anita at Lake Atitlan grows the cotton, it is then hand formed into thread. It has dyed organically and then weaved into beautiful products. She learned the technique from her great-grandmother and wanted to help them many women in her area that were needing work. It started with just a few, but now there are 25 women in the co-op. In another area of Guatemala, closer to Chimaltenango, are another group of women who work with LUM. They are women I have known for several years now and we have walked through many things together. One of the weaver's name is Candelaria, she was one of the first women I met in Guatemala. When I met her sweet family for the first time, I noticed her little girl was bald. She was two years old and I could tell she was not well, Candelaria told us how her little Erica had cancer and she had been on chemo treatments. My heart sank, it had only been four years since Hope, our 11 year old daughter had passed away from cancer. The things Candelaria described were very familiar. I just couldn't imagine trying to fight cancer living in this village. They did everything they could, but soon Erica passed away in her mother's arms. I walked through this dark time with her family. I have found there is no other comfort after losing a child like the comfort of another mother who has lost a child. The LUM Project is going to help this mom be able to send her daughters to school. Beauty for ashes, it is how God works. During this time of working together, we are able to study the Bible too. There are four daughters in this family, who will be learning this trade as well as they grow up. I am teaching them to dream big and also how to seek God's will for their lives, one weave at a time. We plan to export these products in order to keep from competing with other Guatemalan's. My desire is to be able to grow this project, both spiritually and financially to change the lives of women in Guatemala. I hope to empower them as women and to encourage them to grow in their relationship with Christ. So, that's our LUM Project. We're super excited about it and where our tables are out in the mall that have a lot of the beautiful products the women have made. And they're just an amazing group of women that have taught me so much about trusting the Lord for food for the day. It's an example, and I know they're praying for us today too. It's been a cool friendship and sisters in Christ. So, the next project that we have down in Guatemala, is called Finca Isabelle and it's our newest project. In 2018, we purchased some land about 20 minutes from House of Hope with a dream of being able to work with more vulnerable children in Guatemala. 'Cause trafficking is just very real and we see it so much. On this property, we've been able to grow crops and provide for many families who live in poverty, especially during the COVID season. Our team has built a road and a security fence around the property. And we would like to build a church next and a playground, so that we can start doing discipleship day camps for kids that are in other orphanages, along with our own. So many of these kids are stuck there for life. So, I feel like if we can get their hearts, when they are younger and teach them on a consistent basis about Jesus and doing it in a fun place like this, it's almost like the Garden of Eden there. It's just beautiful. So, we're excited about doing that next step in our ministry. So, in 2018, all was going really well. Izzy was a second year student at Liberty University and Slate was a second year Law Student at CU Boulder and Max was a big first grader. And then I received one of those life changing phone calls. It was my son Slate. And he had gone to the doctor earlier that day because he was feeling kinda tired. It was 11:00 PM at night when the phone rang and he said, mom, the lab just called and said, I need to go right to the ER. I'm like what? So, I hung up with him and called the lab and they said his white cell count was over 270,000. And I didn't wanna ask this question, but I said, is this leukemic? And she said, yes, it looks like that. So, I hung up from him and wanted to call my husband, but he was on a 15 hour flight. He had just boarded from Mumbai with this church on a CrossFit mission trip. So, the Lord and I had a lot of time that night to just talk about this. And I just asked him, what do you want from me, Lord? I love you. I love you so much. Please let me keep my children. So, I dropped Max off the next day with a friend 'cause his Visa was needing updated and I came to Colorado and hit the ground in the afternoon. And Slate was already starting the process of getting ready to start treatment. They diagnosed him with ALL, which is a form of leukemia. And my heart just broke 'cause he was my non gene carrier. We'd been doing Isabelle's clinical trial for 10 years, watching for cancer because she had the gene. So, I didn't see that coming. So, I crawled into the wing of the savior 'cause sometimes you just have to go there and hang on. 'Cause I knew I had a big road ahead of me. So, Isabelle knew, how we do in our family, when we're fighting cancer and we kind of circled the wagons and so she wanted to come home. And so, she'd been fighting walking pneumonia and struggling on campus. So, I sent my sister to go move her home and Slate had started treatment on Tuesday day, so we had him going and so, I took her to the doctor. And it was a friend of ours and he called me, he said, she has no platelets. And so, I just knew, so we checked it out and sure enough, they had diagnosed her one week after Slate with ALL also. And I was just blown away, was devastated. And again, crying out to the Lord, but trusting him with the amazing gifts he'd given me. So, Slave's leukemia, he went in remission after 30 days and in the leukemia world, that's great, but you have a long road to go. So, then he had another year of chemo and he had two more years of maintenance, two and a half more years of maintenance chemo. So, he just finished this past January and he went finished law school and passed that bar on chemo brai which is a total miracle. And now he's working at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC and got engaged actually through the chemo journey, found an amazing wife.

- Yeah, so that's Abby, she's on the right. And you know, when you travel the road that we have traveled, you just appreciate these moments so much 'cause they are the good stuff. So, we're so excited, their wedding is June the fourth. And then on the left, our girl McKenzie, she is our Discipleship program girl that's just become knit into my heart. So, we're so thankful for that. Isabelle didn't quite do as well with her treatment. She did not go into remission at 30 days. And so, after a couple of CAR-T fail, transplants that failed, she about a year later, went into a bone marrow transplant. And that was in October, 2019. And she was a ballerina and she was an amazing girl, who loved Jesus. And I had raised that girl to know this is not our home and the world is not about you. And she had poured out every day of her life to other kids and other people and that was such a gift to me. On February 21st, 2020, after being in the hospital for a hundred and one days, 74 of 'em in the ICU intubated, she closed her eyes and went to be the Lord. It was so hard, she was my best friend. And she had walked through the journey of the missionary world with me. And she was my right arm, in the village, in the medical clinics, in the orphanage and I miss her every day. But this life I have lived, I know one thing, the goal of this life as a believer, is not to live the longest. If it were, then when Jesus pleaded with the father to pass this cup, he would have. Sometimes God says, no. And Jesus, instead of living a long and happy life, poured out his life as a servant And I don't have this life all figured out and I miss my people, every day, but I know I need to trust Jesus and pour out. And I've learned to love all of my children deeply and hold them loosely, whether they're my bio kids or my House of Hope kids, God prepared my heart for that. And the work of House of Hope Ministries, is a direct reflection in the outpouring of my grief. I found the key to working through grief, was to living my life serving others. It's the key. When I am still on this, while I'm still on this earth, I will throw myself into the work God has for me to do. And if you wanna help us out today, we would love to have you become part of our team. But if you don't, that's totally awesome because there's so many places right here that you can plug into, your neighborhood, your work, your life. I just want you to be inspired to make this life so much bigger than your own. 'Cause it's so much better when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, to be able to focus on others and to pour out and to focus on eternity 'cause we're headed that direction. This is not our home. In closing, take a listen to my girl, Hope, she's sharing her secret to this life with you. Her courage to live each day, looking forward to eternity was a gift to me as she closed her eyes and looked for Jesus.

- ♪ In Christ alone my hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light, my strength, my song ♪ ♪ This cornerstone, this solid ground ♪ ♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ ♪ What heights of love, what depths of peace ♪ ♪ When fears are stilled, when strivings cease ♪ ♪ My comforter, my all in all ♪ ♪ Here in the love of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ There in the ground His body lay ♪ ♪ Light of the world by darkness slain ♪ ♪ Then bursting forth in glorious day ♪ ♪ Up from the grave He rose again ♪ ♪ And as He stands in victory ♪ ♪ Sin's curse has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ For I am His and He is mine ♪ ♪ Bought with the precious blood of Christ ♪ ♪ No guilt in life, no fear in death ♪ ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From life's first cry to final breath ♪ ♪ Jesus commands my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell, no scheme of man ♪ ♪ Can ever pluck me from His hand ♪ ♪ Till He returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ I'll stand ♪ ♪ In Christ alone my hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light, my strength, my song ♪

- You think the third time this would be a little easier In Christ alone my hope is found. So, first I wanna share with you Psalms 59:17, "you are my strength, I sing praise to you. God, you are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely". Diane just showed us how you do that. Diane, thank you so much, for sharing, for being with us. And I don't know about you, but I just feel like we have been on sacred ground, hearing this story. And I wanna invite you, as I'm sitting there listening to Diane, there's some of you who feel like God has said no to you. Maybe you feel like God is not listening to you right now, I wanna invite you, if you're able to stand, at this time we're gonna pray. So, if you'd stand with me, Dear God, we just lift up this time, Lord, I lift up those individually, who feel at this moment that you are possibly saying no to them and we know, God that you're with us in the yes. And you're with us with a no, but God I just pray, right now, whether they're in person here in this sanctuary or they're online, that they feel your presence, they feel your comfort and their care for them. Lord and together, together we say, we trust you. We trust you, with what we can't see and what we can't control because we know you are greater. in Christ alone, our strength is found. Thank you for that promise today, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. You know, at this time, I do wanna invite our prayer team forward. At the end, if you feel Diane's story, touched that place in your heart, where you're struggling, you feel like God is saying, no to you or you're not hearing a response. Please don't leave without having someone pray with you. You're not intended, God does not for you to carry things alone. He invites us to ask people to join us in prayer. I also wanna say, thank you, thank you to all of you who give through Timberline Church. We always say, when you give through Timberline Church, you're making an impact globally, nationally and locally. And you got a picture of that today. Timberline Church is a part of what happens at House of Hope, Baby K's house. It was so exciting to be a part of it. We couldn't send a team, it was during COVID, but it was exciting to see this house built for Baby K and her family. I wanna say four times a year, we give you an opportunity to give through missions. And this specifically goes to Orphan Care projects like House of Hope, Cherish Uganda, Royal Family Kids, again, it's global, national and local response. There's a way you can give online. There's a dropdown for Orphan Care, you can give one time, you can set up a monthly. But again, this is above your tithe and offering and it's just an opportunity for you to participate. You know, as we conclude our time together, I wanna invite you to go out to the tables in the mall, visit with Diane and her team at the LUM Project. Robert Glover is out there. The book that we talked about, "As Many As The Stars", he has that out there, I'd love for you to meet him and our other table hosts that we have, they partner with us here at Timberline Church. You're a part of what they're doing because you give through Timberline Church. Something we say around here is, let love live. And I wanna encourage you as you go out these doors and you go out into your week that you let love live in your workplace, at the grocery store, at your schools. Any place you're present with people, be conscious of what your actions and your words. Are they letting love live? So, let's say it together before we go, 1, 2, 3,

- [Kari And Congregation] Let love live.

- God bless you guys, have a great week.