Love from India
Psalm 119:105-106
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous ways.
As I reflect on this journey I am struck by God’s mercy and grace in my life. I need to start my story in 2007. Four years ago God began a work in my heart for India. I remember when I was a teenager I always dreamed of going to China, but India looked so terrifying. The image that is in my mind is the masses converging on the Ganges to bathe. It looked so crowded and dirty, why would anyone on earth want to go to India. I made up mind then and there as a teenager I would indeed never go to India. God answers our prayers and gives us desires that would other wise never be in our hearts. It began with a little boy in China, God not only answered my prayer to visit China, but gave me a wonderful son who is fully and so wonderfully Chinese. While in the process of waiting to bring Wu, Chong li home God showed me a face in India. The face of girl that he wouldn’t let me forget about. I said, “Ok, Lord I will inquire about this face that you won’t let me forget about. Maybe I am just to pray for her family to come and adopt her.” Next thing we know the agency the little girl in the peach shirt is listed with says if you are serious about your interest in her you must travel to India next month to meet her. She has special needs and has been rejected by other families so you must be sure. Well, if this is what I have to do I will go. God removed my fears and I was prepared to travel alone. God knew that I could take this task on alone and so my mother’s very best friend from childhood said she would take the journey with me. God’s peace was with her and she knew she must go . After my first trip to India my life and heart were at an all time valley. How could I possible provide for a child that will NEVER be independent? I battled in my thoughts and constant prayers to the Author and Perfector of our faith. How could this be you send me to Hades on earth, I can’t even sleep now and I will never be the same again. I closed my eyes to hear car horns and see the toddlers wandering on the side of a busy high way. Children begging on a two foot strip of land between six lanes of traffic. God answered me very simply, but firmly,”If you don’t go get her there is no one else in the entire world that will!” There it is the beginning of my love for India. God planted the seed in my heart and I tried to pull it out many times. He is patient and waits for us to understand.
The last four years for the Arnold family have been full of joy and many hardships. Brent was laid off upon our return from China with Elijah. Step out and the attacks will come, but God always has the best strategy and protects his flock without fail. Brent was able to work at his dream job sending teachers to China for about 10 months while we were waiting for Sneha. Then the unthinkable happened again. Brent’s job was eliminated , two times in two years in the middle of two adoptions. The same day the social worker called to set up our final home study update for Sneha’s adoption. Lord how could we follow your will to India to be cut off, Please Lord save us………Brent needed a miracle, a job within a week to be able to bring Sneha home. Once again we doubt….How could this happen, how can we find a job in a week. WE can’t do anything in a week, but look what God did a week. The creation of everything in a week and I am not sure if he can give Brent a job in a week. Fast forward to Sterling, Colorado this is where we live. This is where God placed our family quite intentionally and provided the impossible job in less than 1 week. As many of you know our Sneha came home in November 2009. After our move to Sterling God sent us to Emmanuel Baptist Church. Of course no secret to our Father that Emmanuel began a journey to India in 2007 as we did. I am so thankful that God remembered the smallone in a small orphanage hidden away in a city of 15 million.
Romans 3: 10-12
AS it is written: “There is no on righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands and seeks God. All have turned away they have together become worthless; there is not one who does good, not even one.
Elijah Chongli
Elise
Sneha
Graedy
1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him."
Psalm 119:105-106
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous ways.
As I reflect on this journey I am struck by God’s mercy and grace in my life. I need to start my story in 2007. Four years ago God began a work in my heart for India. I remember when I was a teenager I always dreamed of going to China, but India looked so terrifying. The image that is in my mind is the masses converging on the Ganges to bathe. It looked so crowded and dirty, why would anyone on earth want to go to India. I made up mind then and there as a teenager I would indeed never go to India. God answers our prayers and gives us desires that would other wise never be in our hearts. It began with a little boy in China, God not only answered my prayer to visit China, but gave me a wonderful son who is fully and so wonderfully Chinese. While in the process of waiting to bring Wu, Chong li home God showed me a face in India. The face of girl that he wouldn’t let me forget about. I said, “Ok, Lord I will inquire about this face that you won’t let me forget about. Maybe I am just to pray for her family to come and adopt her.” Next thing we know the agency the little girl in the peach shirt is listed with says if you are serious about your interest in her you must travel to India next month to meet her. She has special needs and has been rejected by other families so you must be sure. Well, if this is what I have to do I will go. God removed my fears and I was prepared to travel alone. God knew that I could take this task on alone and so my mother’s very best friend from childhood said she would take the journey with me. God’s peace was with her and she knew she must go . After my first trip to India my life and heart were at an all time valley. How could I possible provide for a child that will NEVER be independent? I battled in my thoughts and constant prayers to the Author and Perfector of our faith. How could this be you send me to Hades on earth, I can’t even sleep now and I will never be the same again. I closed my eyes to hear car horns and see the toddlers wandering on the side of a busy high way. Children begging on a two foot strip of land between six lanes of traffic. God answered me very simply, but firmly,”If you don’t go get her there is no one else in the entire world that will!” There it is the beginning of my love for India. God planted the seed in my heart and I tried to pull it out many times. He is patient and waits for us to understand.
The last four years for the Arnold family have been full of joy and many hardships. Brent was laid off upon our return from China with Elijah. Step out and the attacks will come, but God always has the best strategy and protects his flock without fail. Brent was able to work at his dream job sending teachers to China for about 10 months while we were waiting for Sneha. Then the unthinkable happened again. Brent’s job was eliminated , two times in two years in the middle of two adoptions. The same day the social worker called to set up our final home study update for Sneha’s adoption. Lord how could we follow your will to India to be cut off, Please Lord save us………Brent needed a miracle, a job within a week to be able to bring Sneha home. Once again we doubt….How could this happen, how can we find a job in a week. WE can’t do anything in a week, but look what God did a week. The creation of everything in a week and I am not sure if he can give Brent a job in a week. Fast forward to Sterling, Colorado this is where we live. This is where God placed our family quite intentionally and provided the impossible job in less than 1 week. As many of you know our Sneha came home in November 2009. After our move to Sterling God sent us to Emmanuel Baptist Church. Of course no secret to our Father that Emmanuel began a journey to India in 2007 as we did. I am so thankful that God remembered the smallone in a small orphanage hidden away in a city of 15 million.
Romans 3: 10-12
AS it is written: “There is no on righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands and seeks God. All have turned away they have together become worthless; there is not one who does good, not even one.
Elijah Chongli
1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him."
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