aheartfororphans

Images from Mexico City

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Busy Week

It’s been a busy 7 days.

I spent last Thursday and Friday in St Louis visiting Covenant Seminary. I’ve been wrestling with the prospect of seminary for the past 2 years. Visiting Covenant certainly solidified the location; I loved the campus, the environment and the theology. I’m considering a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree via distance learning (on-line) and 1 week on-campus intensive courses. Now I just need to pray through how I will afford and dedicate the time it. Hard to imagine right now how those 2 things will work out, but I suspect they will.

After returning home, the weekend was set aside for Norah’s baptism. As a family, we find great comfort in God’s sovereignty. We also find great comfort in His covenant - a covenant of grace, a covenant of redemption. On Sunday, we celebrated that covenant. We had Norah baptized as a sign of that covenant. Debbie and I believe that God’s plan of redemption includes work in and through families. And that by our faith in Christ, God will be active and involved in the life of our family.

 

Clearly this baptism doesn’t signify that Norah has a saving faith, the decision to put her trust in Jesus is hers to make. However, we have great hope for God’s work in Norah’s life, through our family. A family that includes Norah thanks to God’s sovereignty, grace and plan for adoption.

On Monday it was off to the airport for a flight to Mexico City. Thanks go out to the Williams family (CAM International missionaries) for graciously welcoming me into their home and special thanks to Craig for shuttling me around and introducing me to quality/faithful pastors.

Pastors like Ulysis, once sentenced to 96 years in a Mexican prison, labeled a dangerous criminal, only to be regenerated by God, converted into a pastor with a soft heart and a passion to care for children. Pastors like Manuel, a preacher and a businessman – giving tremendously as he self finances many of the social ministries within the church he planted, a church that has grown to 500 in only 3 years. Pastors like Emilio who started Adulam (a church and street child ministry) over a decade ago, who is using care for street children and kids clubs as a church planting strategy throughout Mexico and in Cuba.

It’s Thursday again, I’m at the airport again, on my way home again. This time for a while as I have no further travel plans until June. A welcome time of rest at home to enjoy my family.

Social Security Administration gets it?

Yesterday I went to the Social Security Administration office to get Norah a social security number. I completed the necessary application, waited in line to the prerequisite 45 minutes and presented the required documents to the lady sitting behind a very thick piece of glass. She asked me a few questions and began entering Norah’s information into their database. She then printed out a summary page and asked me to read it and attest that everything had been entered correctly, thus ensuring the card would be right.

I read through the summary sheet….

Name – check

Address - check

Date of birth – check

City of birth – check

Parents at birth – Scott and Debbie Vair – check!!!!!

I am amazed at the beautiful ways that God creates families, one of which is through adoption. I also believe in the sovereignty of God and that our adoption of this particular child was no accident. The Chinese government "assigned" Norah to us, but He created her to be a part of our family. We were chosen from before time to be her parents at birth. Not her birth parents – but her parents at birth.

So, the question is – did the behind the scenes computer code writer "get it" and intentionally write the program to reflect Gods sovereignty, or was this simply an act of Gods providence. In either case, it changed a potentially laborious "red tape" process at the local Social Security office into a heart warming affirmation of the sovereignty of God.

I leave you with this quote from John Piper…

"It is not merely that God has the power and right to govern all things but that He does so always and without exception." - John Piper

And with this verse from Ephesians…

"In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" Ephesians 1:11