Ministry to the Lost

“Our power in drawing men to Christ springs chiefly from the fullness of our personal joy in Him, and the nearness of our personal communion with Him. The countenance that reflects most of Christ, and shines most with His love and grace, is most fitted to attract the gaze of a careless, giddy world, and win restless souls from fascinations of creature love and creature-beauty. A ministry of power must be the fruit of a holy, peaceful, loving intimacy with the Lord.”

- Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1995), 13.

What an encouragement to us to be witnesses for Christ among the lost! Our chief aim should be to be so filled with joy and pleasure in what our Lord offers us that others can't help but desire to know this God we serve. The most obvious ministry to the lost I think of is my little ones. I know I make mistakes as a mom and often show impatience and pride but I pray my children will be drawn to Christ most of all because they see a real, intimate, fruitful life of love to my Savior. Are your little ones and those God has given you opportunity to witness to seeing joy from communion with Christ and a life filled with fruit and happiness?  

Kids at Play......

First of all to those who asked about which song it was that I used on my "Faces of Ethiopia" slideshow, the song is Bethany Dillon and it is called "On our Side" from her album Waking Up. We have been enjoying ourselves and the nice weather as it comes.
I have also recently been viewing these from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Mark Driscoll is a good teacher and has been very passionate about keeping the gospel at the core of the church. The series is called: Religion Saves + nine other misconceptions. Check them out if you like. Well here are the latest pictures of our growing brood, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

* Job wearing one of Felicity's hats!

*Phinehas always seems to be smiling - especially when he's been outside playing in the mud (notice the dirt!)





* Don't you love it when your children wear underwear like a hat? Always good for a laugh until it's your own granny pannies...these, for the record, are Felicity's that go with a dress...

Day 2

We slept pretty good the first night. I think we were just so tired from missing sleep the night before because of flying. Felicity woke up once around 12A to eat and then slept until 7AM. When I woke up and the sun was coming through our windows and I could hear cars and goats. There are a lot of sherperds and herders with sheep on the streets. Well we got up and had breakfast and enjoyed getting to know some of the other families staying at the guest house. There were some families from Norway and other parts of Europe. They said it takes like 2-3 years for them to complete their adoptions - forget us complaining at 11 mos! Helen (the owner) said there are a lot of families from Europe adopting from Ethiopia. One of the little girls had been referred around 14 mos but was now around 3 I think. Can you imagine not getting your little one but having their picture so long? I am amazed that they perservere. We were the only Gladney family there at the time since the other families did not arrive until that evening. We did some shopping, I found Felicity some traditional dresses for her at this age and around 5 or so and then as a young adult. They are very beautiful. We also got the suggestion to purchase some tablecoths we could use for birthdays so we found two really nice ones. We also quickly found a favorite hot spot for coffee - La Parisienne - REALLY good Machiattos and flaky, yummy crossiants. Taffesse said when the guy opened the place he was the only shop with crossiants and people would buy them out every day. They also have something there called Caldi's. It's funny because the environment and art and logo is JUST like Starbucks but it's called Caldis. We had lunch at a Buffet and was the first time to try Ethiopian food and the Injera. It's good and the Injera is very sour but it tastes great with the Ethiopian dishes because the spices mix well with the sour. We headed back to relax at the guest house and had dinner there. They make a really good Ethiopian dish with chickpeas, theres a red one with more spice and a sweeter yellow one and you mix them and eat them with Injera. I also got a recommendation and plan to purchase a book called "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking". So we chatted and watched a little tv, the satelite tv comes in from Dubai, so that was very interesting to watch. Then we hit the sac.

*These next pics are just a few shots of the first few days with her at the Guest House. She had a fungal skin infection that was clearing up but had discolored her face. It's amazing what some good skin cream will do because her face has almost completely cleared up. It was almost gone by the time we left. *

* The dining area of the Guest House*

*Hanging laundry in the courtyard*