This was my 6th year leading a group of folks from CenterPoint Church, Utah down to Colima, Mexico to serve at the Hogar de Amor orphanage and each year God does something a little bit new, a little bit uncomfortable, and a whole lot deeper in me.I'll level with you: The trip is kind of a lot of work to put together. It turns out that arranging travel and logistics in a foreign country for 26 people of all ages and backgrounds is tough. And stressful. So why? Why do it at all?
Because I can't imagine not doing it.
Because my family gets to travel with our church family to visit our Mexico family.
Because it's not a visit; it's a reunion.
When we first started this trip, we did it for the kids: our kids and the kids of Hogar de Amor. I have two kids adopted internationally, and it was really important to me to keep our family connected to what it means to be a kid in institutional care. Adoption, the fatherless, kids in need are such an intimate, essential part of our family's story. Adoption is how God expresses his relationship to us: chosen and pursued and cherished (much more about that here).Over the years, God has used Hogar de Amor to break down my performance-driven tendencies and focus on relationship. The walls we paint will get dirty again and the curtains we sew will rip and the crafts the kids make will get thrown away.
the sure and certain knowledge we leave the caregivers with that they are supported, prayed for, and never ever alone in this work;
the kids knowing that they're worth coming back for year after year after year
that lasts.
And I get to be a little part of it.
Love... It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
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