Labor Day

For many of us, this weekend is the last hurrah before schedules tighten up, bedtimes get earlier, and we brace ourselves for the influx of papers and homework! I’ve always loved the back to school buzz and I still get excited to shop for school supplies and pick the first day outfit.  I love the excitement of change and something new getting started, which is why I also love our fall season in the church. People start attending more regularly and we kick off Small Groups, Youth Ministry, Family Faith Nights, and our Missions Catalog and Weekend!

But I would be remiss if I didn’t pause and spend some time in gratitude. Here are the top 3 things that I am thankful for this Labor Day weekend:

1. I’m thankful that my kids are able to go to school.  Around 125 million children do not get to go to school.  My children are able to not only get a great education, they do so without living in fear of violence.
2. I’m thankful that we have a home with running water and plumbing. 783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. We are able to shower, make food, clean dishes and wash clothes all within the comforts of our home and without fear of getting sick.
3. I’m thankful that this Labor Day, my husband and I are both employed and we really enjoy our jobs.   We get paid, we get benefits, and we get time off.   In the world, 29.8 million people are slaves; men, women and children are forced to work, sell their bodies, fight wars, and be sold as property.   We are free to choose our careers and the path we take to get there.

I don’t want to take these sort of things for granted when so much of the world doesn’t even begin to know what freedom looks like. I would encourage you to take some time to be grateful this weekend with your loved ones.  And if you have some school agers in the house, here’s a great conversation to have with them before Tuesday!

Lisa Adams,
Director of Missions and Care

Go Love People

Lisa Adams is on a much deserved vacation this week, and I’m here to fill in.  Hi. I’m Nicole. I work as the Web Administrator here at Crossroads. I also volunteer with our High School Ministry. This year, I had the privilege of spending the year with a group of 12th grade girls who have added so much laughter and love to my life. We went from just meeting on Tuesdays to coffee dates to them showing up on my door step because they had nothing else to do. Our small group became like family. They left for college this week, and my heart is overflowing with love and excitement for them.

One thing you should know about me right away is that I’m a relationship person. I love being with people. It’s always surprising who God puts into my life and how they’ve shaped me in ways I can’t even begin to explain. Most of the time it’s people I would have never expected, in a time that is completely inconvenient. But, I love my people. They are a melting pot of ages, genders, and walks of life. They are a hilarious bunch that keeps me laughing and keeps me honest. I am so grateful for their time and love.

Much like God, or, rather, because of Him, we are also in the pursuit business. At the heart of everyone is the need to belong. To be loved. To be valued. We spend our lives looking for the people that bring out the best in us. The people with whom we can truly be ourselves, our people.Many of us are lucky enough to have it. Our people get us.  They know us. They see us. They’ve been there with us.  They’ve held our hands. They’ve helped us fix our broken cars, and broken hearts.  They’ve celebrated and cheered us on. They are the type of people we can’t get rid of because they’ve become a part us.  And, well, you just don’t want to take the chance that old prom pictures or videos from the 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s will end up on a Throw Back Thursday.  Am I right?

The truth is, though, that life with meaningful relationships is the way that we understand better what Jesus’ love for us looks like.  Author Shauna Niequist says, “When we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life.”  And how true is that? If we have people who love us even after we’ve hurt them or after we’ve told them all our junk, don’t we begin to see what unconditional love looks like, just a little?  When we let people know us, we get to see more of who Jesus is and how he pursues us.

There are people who don’t know love like that. They could be sitting next to you, or down the road, across the oceans or border. They, too, desperately want to be known, and seen and loved. We have an amazing call in our lives to be the people who love them. To be the people who were found and now are finding others. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Serving is about relationships. It’s about that first step of saying “I see you,” and moving towards “I want to know you.” Whether we’re at a food shelf or tutoring a kid or if you’re in Mexico or Africa we are looking past the brokenness, past the dust, past the language barrier, and we are seeing people. People created in God’s image, fearfully and wonderfully made, who are just waiting to be seen and to be loved. When we serve, we are linking arms saying, “We’re in this together, friend, I will not let you down.”

Is there someone in your life who needs to be seen? Have you thought about reaching out to a child to give him a place to belong through adoption? Have you thought about a mission trip? Why not start taking steps now, to make those thoughts actions?

If you’re not sure where to start, I urge you to pray into those feelings and ask God to lead you…somewhere. I pray that you have the boldness and the bravery to go where He’s leading.  We’re also offering a Strengthening Families Roundtable on Sept 15, which will offer information on adoption and foster care. Also, there is an informational meeting about a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico in October, details here.

Who knows who you will meet and what that meeting will do in both of your lives, and how God will work in all of it to bring a little more of Heaven on earth. This weekend we are bringing ourPursued series to a close with a very special story about the Andersons’ pursuit of their daughter, and how it has changed all of them. You won’t want to miss it!

As Bob Goff says, “Just go love people”…now that’s an order I can get behind.

See you this weekend!

Nicole Case
Web Administrator  

Soaking Up the Sun

I’m getting ready to head out on vacation on Saturday and I honestly can’t wait!   I’ll be taking the next 2 weeks to relax, sit lakeside, read a book or 2, and spend extra time with my boys before school starts.   This summer is coming to an end and I want to make sure that I take some time to soak up the sun before we are watching the twinkling of the snow.

Last weekend, A Touch of Home had their annual fundraiser and they raised over $2,000!  That money will be used to ship boxes to our trips over the next year. Thank you for being hungry!!  Their next packing opportunity is on Saturday, September 13^th at 9:30am at our Woodbury campus. They would love to have you join them.

This weekend we are in part 3of our 4 part series, Pursued.  The story this weekend comes from the staff member who is usually behind the camera, but this weekend, she shares a bit about her story of adoption.  Michelle is also responsible for connecting me to the young mom who lived with us for a brief time last year and, for that, I am so grateful. Our family was able to get to know and grow to love a young woman who was pregnant and help her transition into motherhood.  One of the biggest blessings from the last year for our family!   Michelle is fantastic and I’m glad you all will get to see that!

One last thing, I want to say THANK YOU to those of you who filled out the missions survey this past month!   Over 130 of you filled it out!   Now we begin the process of reading, analyzing, and putting the results in some sort of organized way of looking at it. For those of you who left email addresses, we plan on following up with you soon!

Lisa Adams
Director of Missions and Care 

Some next steps:

• On the evening of September 15^th we are hosting a Strengthening Families Roundtable at the Woodbury campus at 6:30pm.  It will be an evening to discuss adoption and foster care. Information will be shared regarding domestic and foreign adoption, foster care, foster-care-to-adoption, and ways that we can help families in crisis. You can register HERE.
•  The monthly GOment is a diaper drive that is benefiting Safe Families. Safe Families seeks to prevent abuse and neglect and come alongside parents in crisis by placing children in volunteer homes temporarily. Through a network of host families including singles, empty nesters, families with kids in the home, and even families with both parents working. Kids are being kept safe and being deflected from the foster care system. Meanwhile their parents are given tools and support to restore stability in their lives and ultimately are reunited with their children. We will be collecting diapers throughout the month of AUGUST to show our support to the families who are demonstrating hospitality and love by helping children and their families in crisis.  Diapers that are new and unopened will be accepted at the Woodbury and Cottage Grove campuses. Sizes 3 -5 are the most needed.
•  Serve His Kids  has set the dates for their fall trip to the orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico. The trip will run from Saturday October 11 to the 18^th. There are two informational meetings at the Washington County Library in Woodbury. Saturday August 16th from 10:00 AM to noon and Saturday September 27th from 10:00 AM to noon. The team will serve and share God’s love with the kids at the Pilar Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico!  Kids, education, sports, crafts, work project and more ministries.  For more information contact Rick Ross –rickross400@msn.com; 651-442-8314.

Restoration

Over the past couple of years, God has been placing people in my life who have done some amazing things.  Now they wouldn’t say that they are amazing, but I don’t think that they see themselves the way that I do. They have sacrificed SO much. Their time, resources, energy, security. They have put their faith into action.  And when people see them, they see Jesus.  It’s impossible not to. Last week you met Daryl via video.  He’s smart, articulate, and thoughtful. He’s also incredibly brave. He shared his story of adoption and what it looked like to place a child up for adoption. If you missed it, you can watch it HERE.

This week, you will meet the Burrows. Robyn volunteers with the Cottage Grove campus and getting to hear her story of adopting has changed me. It changed the way I saw foster care and the way that God pursues us. If you need to see how love wins, this weekend will be the perfect time to witness how Jesus uses us to bring restoration to a fallen, broken world.

Sometimes we think of orphans as abandoned children in faraway lands.  It’s easier (not easy, but less hard) to think of orphans being so far away…it’s difficult and expensive to change their lives.  Most of us don’t have plans to travel hours in a plane to pursue a child that doesn’t even speak our language. But the truth is, we have orphans in each of our communities. Right here, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our churches there are kids who have been abandoned and given up on and are desperately looking to belong and be loved.  We don’t have orphanages and we don’t call them orphans. We have foster care and if you are abandoned you become a foster kid. That’s harder to accept because that means that God wants us, Crossroads, to be a part of the solution right here at home.   His desire is that we pursue those kids:

• Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of thefatherless, plead the case of the widow.
• Psalm 10:17-18 Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.  Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.
• James 1:27  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
• John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Each of us has a role that God created us to fill.   My prayer is that you come away from this series know what your role is in caring for the orphans of the world; both in faraway lands and right next door.   

Lisa Adams
Director of Missions and Care 

Some next steps:

• On the evening of September 15^th we are hosting a Strengthening Families Roundtable at the Woodbury campus at 6:30pm.  It will be an evening to discuss adoption and foster care. Information will be shared regarding domestic and foreign adoption, foster care, foster-care-to-adoption, and ways that we can help families in crisis. You can register HERE.
•  The monthly GOment is a diaper drive that is benefiting Safe Families. Safe Families seeks to prevent abuse and neglect and come alongside parents in crisis by placing children in volunteer homes temporarily. Through a network of host families including singles, empty nesters, families with kids in the home, and even families with both parents working. Kids are being kept safe and being deflected from the foster care system. Meanwhile their parents are given tools and support to restore stability in their lives and ultimately are reunited with their children. We will be collecting diapers throughout the month of AUGUST to show our support to the families who are demonstrating hospitality and love by helping children and their families in crisis.  Diapers that are new and unopened will be accepted at the Woodbury and Cottage Grove campuses. Sizes 3 -5 are the most needed.
•  Serve His Kids  has set the dates for their fall trip to the orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico. The trip will run from Saturday October 11 to the 18^th. There are two informational meetings at the Washington County Library in Woodbury. Saturday August 16th from 10:00 AM to noon and Saturday September 27th from 10:00 AM to noon. The team will serve and share God’s love with the kids at the Pilar Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico!  Kids, education, sports, crafts, work project and more ministries.  For more information contact Rick Ross –rickross400@msn.com; 651-442-8314.

The month of August brings lots of exciting things for me. For my family , it means that we rent a cabin at the end of each August and UNPLUG for a week.  It’s my favorite thing and I just love everything about it.  For work, it means most of our fall plans are getting locked in and we can begin working on the details of events and launches. I love getting ready for the return to church and school!  This weekend, the teaching team kicks off one of the most anticipated sermon series of the year for me, Pursued.  You will hear stories about people from Crossroads who have been impacted by adoption and God’s pursuit of them. They are simply incredible.  God’s love for us is beyond anything that we can understand.  But somehow adoption gives us a glimpse.

While preparing for this series, we all wanted to make sure that there were plenty of options for each of you to participate in some missions that were serving in the area of adoption/foster care/orphan care/crisis. (That’s really a mouthful!)

• On the evening of September 15^th we are hosting a Strengthening Families Roundtable at the Woodbury campus at 6:30pm.  We are hosting an evening to discuss adoption and foster care. Information will be shared regarding domestic and foreign adoption, foster care, foster-care-to-adoption, and ways that we can help families in crisis.  There will be a Q&A time for any questions you might have. Crossroads families who have experience in these areas will also be on hand for you to speak with them. You can register HERE.
• The monthly GOment is a diaper drive that is benefiting Safe Families.   Safe Families seeks to prevent abuse and neglect and come alongside parents in crisis by placing children in volunteer homes temporarily. Through a network of host families including singles, empty nesters, families with kids in the home, and even families with both parents working, kids are being kept safe and being deflected from the foster care system. Meanwhile their parents are given tools and support to restore stability in their lives and ultimately are reunited with their children. We will be collecting diapers throughout the month of AUGUST to show our support to the families who are demonstrating hospitality and love by helping children and their families in crisis.  Diapers that are new and unopened will be accepted at the Woodbury and Cottage Grove campuses.  Sizes 3 -5 are the most needed.
• Serve His Kids  has set the dates for their fall trip to the orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico. The trip corresponds with the MEA school break and will run from Saturday October 11 to the 18^th.  There are two informational / team meetings at the Washington County Library in Woodbury.   Saturday August 16th from 10:00 AM to noon and Saturday September 27th from 10:00 AM to noon. The team will serve and share God’s love with the kids at the Pilar Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico!  Kids, education, sports, crafts, work project and more ministries.  For more information contact Rick Ross – rickross400@msn.com; 651-442-8314.

Hopefully you made it this far because that was a ton of details!   Before I sign off, I want to leave you a couple of the Bible verses that have been on my heart and mind in preparation for this sermon series.

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Psalm 82:3

He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses. Proverbs 28:27

Learn to do good: Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

I am so excited to hear about how God pursues us and see how we will respond to the pursuit of others!

Happy August,

Lisa Adams
Director of Missions and Care