Several years ago the Lord placed the plight of the orphan on the heart of our family. We felt strongly that we are being called into the ministry of adoption. While our circumstances have not allowed us to adopt yet, we have not lost that calling in our lives.

At the beginning of the year the Lord impressed it on my heart as I watched a family from our church raise funds for their adoptive daughter Emaway from Haiti. While I was preparing a meal for my family, I prayed about what the Lord would have me do to support them. I knew that the small amount we could afford to give would not add up to much with the big price tag they had to pay to give Emaway a forever home. Then an idea came to me, I believe it was the Lord prompting me to step out and into something bigger than I could ever imagine and it would involve our entire family. We felt that the Lord was calling us to do more than just give money or pray alone. He was calling us to be His hands on the earth and go to work for the Kingdom. With my husband Danner’s blessing I contacted Shelley Womack and received her permission to make fresh homemade Vietnamese egg rolls and spring rolls to raise funds on their behalf. We moved on to praying for provision of supplies and cooking equipment. One by one people brought their deep fryer, a full tank of propane, and other items to help with our effort. The word spread fast through the facebook community and orders started pouring in to support the great cause.

Danner went from one Asian Market to another to gather ingredients to fill our orders. We packed our daughter Allison’s overnight bag and sent her to Danner’s parents so we could focus on the task. Together we prepped everything the night before and rose before dawn on Sunday to begin wrapping, frying, boxing and passing out of orders after church let out. It was not easy work but we covered ourselves in prayers and met our goal. We truly felt the Lord blessed our marriage because of the fund raiser. We were thankful when all 30 orders were picked up and money came in. We felt even more blessed when our daughter handed the money to the adopting family.

October came and we felt like it was time to do another fund raiser for Randy and Tina Kacirek’s adoptive son Maxim in Ukraine. In Ukraine and some other Eastern block countries, children who cannot feed themselves, walk or talk by the age of four are sent to institutions where they will lived the remainder of their lives. In 2006 Tina visited Torez mental institution to care for the children and pray for more doors to be opened to minister to these children. There she met Maxim and felt a special bond, a connection that could only be orchestrated by God. When she inquired about him she learned that none of these children were being allowed to be adopted because it was unknown where the paperwork for the children was. They were not registered with the adoption authorities in Ukraine. Most of these children when they die are placed in a wooden box and buried in unmarked graves behind the institution. Tina vowed the day she left Maxim, to both him and God, that if a door were opened and if a way made, she and Randy would return for him. In April of this year, Father God revealed to Tina that a way HAD indeed been made for Maxim to be adopted.

It was obvious that the Lord had weaved Maxim into our hearts before we even met the Kacirek family face to face. We were touched by his life and Randy and Tina’s dream to bring Maxim home. This time we prayed to expand our fund raiser further. The Lord answered our prayers by allowing us more time and more strategic planning to almost double our orders of eggrolls and spring rolls. This time we asked for help from family members and friends to make it a successful fund raiser. We even included our daughter in the whole process and now we are so proud that she understands the meaning of adoption at the age of two. Upon hearing about our last fund raiser, several people approached us with seed money that enabled us to get all the supplies we needed. It took us two weekends to complete all the orders. To accomplish our monetary goal I volunteered to detail a truck at a local detailing business in Siloam Springs to wrap up the whole event. When we were done we were able to see how God multiplied our work ten fold. This will not be the last fund raiser we do for families who are adopting. We plan on continuing to grow both the number of families that we can bless as well as the amount we can bless them with. We even created a name for our fund raising, S.A.V.E. (Spring rolls And Vietnamese Egg rolls) for Adoption. More than anything we want to show people that you don't have to adopt a child or give a lot of money to make a big difference in the Kingdom. Just listen to what the Father’s heart tells you and then do it. It's that simple.