New Direction, New Season, Renewed Passion

The mode for my life, my writing, my heart for ministry has again shifted.  I have decided after much thought that the main goal of this blog is bring attention to orphan care, foster care, and adoption, as well as my love for writing and my love for family.  It has taken some time to focus in on what I should be writing about, what my goal is for this platform, and today, after some serious thought, I realized that the main focus has to be more than me and my ideas and beliefs (although they may be in there somewhere).

I work as a foster home licensing worker (as my day job and heart beat/ministry).  I know people say that you shouldn't make your job your life in today's economy but one thing I had to ask myself was:  "What would I be doing if I wasn't doing this?"  And my answer is:  "This."  If I wasn't getting an income from this would I still feel this ache in my chest for the orphans (children in foster care, children that are displaced, children in need of families)? 

Unabashedly, yes.  Unashamedly, yes. 

I would find a way to reach children and youth that are on the edge of society, that are living in the marginalized areas of our world, even if that world is around the corner or down the street.  I was doing this work before I got to my position in the agency I work for and will be doing it long after my tenure is up.

That is what real ministry is.  That  is what real love is.  That is real passion.  If I wasn't in the location I am in, would I still care?

Today, at lunch time, I thought about how all roads in my life have led here.  As sunshine kissed my face and I wrote in my journal, I thought about how the family issues and the path I have traveled in such a seemingly round about way have led right here.  I even considered how this uncanny love for laws and policies and regulations have led here, because how can you right wrongs when you don't know the laws of the land?

Some years ago when I completed college in Grand Rapids, I thought I would travel far from the place where I am now sitting.  I never wanted to work in child welfare because quite frankly, I didn't think the ideals I stood for could mesh with the ideals child wefare agencies sometimes stand for.

But no one could have told me that my niece's journey through foster care would have opened up this desire within me to advocate for children and youth, to question even my own selfish motives and plans, to restructure everything so that my life would not be so hypocritical.  But here I am...and now I am deciding to let my writing be shaped by this call and passion for finding loving homes for children that are not able to remain with their biological families.

So, I believe because I say yes everyday, God finds a way to put my money where my mouth is, challenging me even beyond what a job description demands...because I would still be doing this, if there was no job description boxing me into the beaurecratic structure of things in child welfare.  There is indeed room for laws, but there is equal room for passion and faith and love and prayer.

So the focus, at least for right now, is this call and where it takes me and the way lives all around me are being changed.  I read a lot of blogs that have a focus and a pivotal point upon which all the posts are based. 

This is mine.