A lesson on perspective and possibility
Back in the day, my wife and I operated a program Adopt a Child to service children in
New Jersey’s Department of Children and Family Services (DYFS) who had fallen into the Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
Adopt a Child identified kids in the local area who had been abused and subsequently placed in foster homes. DYFS would provide a list of names and their Christmas wishlist and we would advertise the cause in our newspaper and helm the charitable giving. During the month of November, each Saturday from 8-12pm, our house became a collection center for the hundreds of gifts, labeled and wrapped for each DYFS child. At the end of the giving period, my wife and I would host a Christmas party for the DYFS children and their caretakers at our church to wrap up the season. Over the eleven years we ran Adopt-A—Child, we were able to see 20,000 children blessed with 50,000 gifts. In the year 2000, Adopt-A-Child was recognized by the state of New Jersey and my wife and I accepted an award for Volunteers of the Year. Adopt-A-Child was the largest donor in the state.
But in the Fall of 2008, I sensed God was trying to shift my focus from Adopt-A-Child. I went to my wife and we started to look at the program we’d built. While it was good, we both agreed it wasn’t great for either of us to continue with it, that God had something else for us ahead. We had hit a wall with Adopt-A-Child, in more ways than one. But God was putting a new purpose in our hearts, one with far more eternal value.
It was time to stop. My wife and I agreed. But when we notified the appropriate personnel, they were not happy. As the largest donor in the state, our cessation left a big hole. It wasn’t easy to leave behind, but my wife and I knew God was calling us to do something different which would shift our roles of service.
Legacy Minded Men was born to touch the lives of men with the gospel, equip them and connect them in community. Years of working working DYFS opened my eyes to the absent father problem. It was good to serve and love those kids around Christmas time, but what if we could reduce the number of DYFS kids by serving, loving, and strengthening their fathers to be better fathers? Legacy Minded Men, as of this writing, has touched hundreds of thousands of men’s lives, and by extension, the lives of their families as well.
God put a new dream in my heart that was even greater, but here’s the thing about God: He’s always outdoing Himself. What’s great today might be good tomorrow as He calls us another step forward!
What in your life is good? What if God’s pulling you towards something great around the corner? Will you trust Him?
Yorumlar