OOOOH Goodness - I have been SO bad about taking the time to BLOG - Buuuuuuut... thanks to the WONDERFULY Awesome Bentley Family - I have a REALLY SUPER DUPER great reason to.... right NOW! :) I TOTALLY - wanna take a sec to give a BIG HUUUUUUUGE shout out to a dear friend - who hugged and loved on our baby girl in Ethiopia - when we were miles and miles away... who sent me pictures and video of her changing, growing... SMILING - YES! SMILING!!!! ...here are just a FEW of the AWESOME pics we received from Brittany and her family...
So.... this Momma's heart was melting a million miles away!!! ...and as I was being blessed by photos in anticipation to see lil Mihret's face for REAL... The Bentley's were in Ethiopia meeting their beautiful daughter, then bringing her HOME - God had placed the burden of orphans and widows on their hearts - but they were soon to find out he had placed even more there than they were aware of...
PLEASE take a minute and read about the Bentley's story - out of obedience for the God of the UNIVERSE they are not ignoring what has been placed on their hearts and they are doing what they were called to do... maybe you have a passion to help the orphans in this world, but don't know how - and don't feel called to adoption... THIS is an AMAZZZZING opportunity to be a little part of something so BIG!
PLEASE READ, WATCH, PRAY, DONATE....
Bentley FAMILY
“LEARN TO DO RIGHT; SEEK JUSTICE. DEFEND THE OPPRESSED. TAKE UP THE CAUSE OF THE FATHERLESS; PLEAD THE CASE OF THE WIDOW. – ISAIAH 1:17
Adoption…what’s your first thought when you hear that word? Overwhelming, expensive, crazy, paperwork, complicated, life changing, emotional…so many other feelings and emotions that can be added to these but for us adoption has become the catalyst leading us back to Ethiopia.
Isaiah 11:6 “…and a little child shall lead them.”
In 2008 our eyes and hearts were opened to the cause of the estimated 163 million orphans in our world today. While we found this statistic overwhelming, it began to ignite the fire in our heart when we started to place a name and face to the “statistic”, even asking the question of what if that was Parker or Clayton, our two biological boys…
IF THAT WAS ONE OF OUR CHILDREN! That’s a game changer and fueled the fire already blazing in our hearts for these children.
After bringing Selah home in 2011, our hearts continued to be broken for these precious children we had seen and loved on during our time in Ethiopia. God had deposited something in us during our two trips to Ethiopia. Our expectation of coming home and getting back to “business as usual” wasn’t something that was going to work. We soon realized that this journey God had us on was far from over and in many regards just beginning.
(be sure to turn off the lil ipod of music on my sidebar to watch the videos)
Loving the Least of These - Ethiopia Adoption from
Ian Bentley on
Vimeo.
In late 2011, we began to seek God for direction and peace over this unsettled heart for Ethiopia. With open hearts to God’s best in our life, we started to pursue a number of opportunities around the world. It was quickly clear that God had placed this fire in our hearts to do something more in Ethiopia.
God has called us to Ethiopia, and we believe even beyond, to serve Him by serving others, specifically the orphans and vulnerable, while working to educated and empower them through sustainable development. As you can imagine, there are a many challenges in moving a family of five to one of the poorest countries in the world…we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities!
Over the past few months God has been knitting us together with Ethiopian and American organizations that are working with the people of Ethiopia.
CHILDRENS HOME. It’s not right for children to be neglected on the streets. God has opened up the opportunity for us to partner with a local organization in Addis Ababa to open a children’s home. The home’s purpose will be to partner with the Ethiopian government by rescuing vulnerable and destitute children who have been orphaned and/or abandoned. A final goal will be to try, if possible, to reconcile and/or reintegrate a child(ren) back into the community by placing them with family members and/or parents if found, or through domestic adoption.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Ethiopia has a strong entrepreneurial pulse but is oftenlacking the right tools to address the opportunity. Our desire is to leverage our gifts, education and entrepreneurial experiences to help with practical and holistic strategies for sustainable development. We are currently working on ideas to take woman off the streets from the commercial sex trade and create sustainable business through vocational job training. Other ideas include simple job and skills training/education with the goal of empowering people with local resources.
We want to make a lasting difference in Ethiopia and are committed to this calling.
WILL YOU STAND WITH US TO GIVE A VOICE TO THE VOICELESS?
To learn more head on over to the link below...
