Sunday, June 1, 2008

Colorado with Dr. Davidson

It's been another busy weekend! I flew into Denver Thursday and met Brad Davidson. Friday was full of meetings with Vision Trust (Matt), Focus on the Family (Reed), World Orphans (Paul, Mike and Scott), Children's Hopechest (Tom), Saint's Coffee (Brett), Hope's Promise (Melissa) and HISG (Mike). Many great orphan care projects going on, especially in Africa. Also, there was much interest in the ABBA Fund and church partnerships for adoption assistance. It was a busy day!

Saturday we visited Estes Park and then met the Blount family (Timberline Church and Chili's!) in Fort Collins. They have 6 children and two of them were adopted. Barry and Julie have been a huge inspiration in my life. They were very involved in our 2002 adoption from China and it was great to see them and to thank them again after so many years! I took lots of pictures Heidi. Carrie is really growing up! She's 8 and 1/2 now! Katie is 10 and she wrote a letter for me to bring home. Looking forward to heading back in the morning.
Hard to belief that it was only a week ago that I was in Nashville for Maria's memorial service. Everyone we met with this weekend is still praying for the Chapman family. It has been hard for all of us that have been impacted by the Chapman's ministry but some of the close family and friends really need our prayers as they try to be strong for the Chapmans and also cope themselves. Brad has a CD that we listened to in the car today of E.V. Hill from 1987 as he preached his wife's funeral. He shared that he experienced two things: "Tears and Strength". Praying that as tears are shed that God will continue to strengthen...