journal : : field notes
Help! My Senator Contacted Me!
I've heard from a few of you that your elected officials have contacted you about your call for the U.S. Government to act appropriately regarding Guatemalan adoptions. First, let me thank you. Bekah and I are blessed to have such a support network. Second, it's encouraging to hear that some elected officials want to help.
But I'm sure you're wondering, "What do I tell them?"
So here are a few points you can make:
1. The main message you want to get a cross is that current 'in-process' (pending) cases must be grandfathered in and completed under
current adoption law. The U.S. Government has a responsibility to ensure that it's citizens, who are pursuing adoption legally and ethically, are able to complete their adoptions.
2. The department your elected officials should contact is the U.S. Dept. of State. The main official in charge of the Guatemalan adoption situation is
Gerry Fuller. He's the one who needs to hear from your elected officials.
3. This is also a matter of international relations, so your elected official should contact the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, and strongly encourage the staff there to convince the Guatemalan government to complete in-process cases. The embassy's job is to nurture U.S./Guatemalan relations, and to protect the interests of American citizens. I can think of no better exercise of their purpose than this.
4. The major question: Why is the DOS failing its mandate under the Hague Convention to ensure that adoptions proceed expeditiously under the terms of existing law? The ratification and implementation of the Hague includes THIS condition, and our government must legally pursue it.
If you want ANY more info, don't hesitate to contact me: drewmoser[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks again for all your help.
By the way, the
online petition demanding U.S. DOS action currently has 12,000 signatures! Way to go!
The Petition is Live
The online petition re: the U.S. DOS and Guatemalan Adoptions is now live. Take 30 seconds to sign it
HERE. Let's get thousands upon thousands of signatures, and let the government know that we're expecting them to act on our behalf.
Sample Letter Re: Guatemalan Adoptions
[This is in reference to our plea for you all to act on our behalf. It will only make sense if you
read this post first]
-----------------------------
Dear [insert elected official's name here]:
I'm writing to plead for your action, as my elected official to respond and act upon the recent warning, issued by the U.S. Dept. of State on the status of Guatemalan adoptions. The statement can be found
HERE, and refers to the implementation of the Hague Convention on International Adoption on Jan 1, 2008. The warning indicates that when the Hague is implemented on Jan. 1st, adoption cases in-process (pending) will not be grandfathered in under current law and, even worse, may not be able to be completed.
The prospect and threat of thousands of American families losing it all due to the transition to the Hague Convention is simply unjust to those families currently in-process, and to the Guatemalan children who desperately need families. Rendering pending cases as un-adoptable could cause an orphan crisis in Guatemala, and would result in thousands of U.S. families losing months and months of waiting and paperwork submitted, not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars already spent by American families in each pending case.
It is incredibly discouraging for the Dept. of State to simply report that pending cases will likely be terminated as of Jan 1. They have presently offered no support to families whose cases are pending, and have taken no steps to ensure that this injustice is corrected. As a government that exists 'of the people, by the people, and for the people', American families deserve better.
I'm asking for your help, as my elected representative, to represent American families, and fight for justice for them. Use your influence to demand that the U.S. Dept. of State, the DOS Guatemala Adoption Desk (202-736-9090), the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, as well as the appropriate Guatemalan Government officials to ensure that justice is served for pending adoption cases in Guatemala. Guatemalan orphans and American families deserve assurance that their cases will be processed under current adoption law, and will NOT be terminated due to the implementation of the Hague Treaty.
Thank you for your assistance on this matter.
Sincerely,
[insert your name and address]
----------------------------------------
[There it is. Use it. Please.]
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
(warning: This post is a bit long, but please, please, please take the time to read and respond. I don't often beg, but this is one of those times. We really need your help.)So, things are getting very, very scary for families trying to adopt from Guatemala. It's a complex issue, but here's a sufficient recap:
There's an international law drafted on international adoption called the Hague. The Hague's intent is to raise the ethical standard and bring greater unity among countries regarding international adoption law. Whether or not this is the best way to achieve this is another matter for another day.
Guatemala and the U.S. both have plans to implement and abide by Hague law. Guatemala plans to implement it Jan 1, 2008 (roughly 3 months from now). The U.S. plans to implement it sometime in the spring of 2008.
The U.S. Dept. of State
just released a statement on the status of adoption cases in-process (pending). Our case currently falls into this category, and the bottom line of it is this: Unless our adoption is completed before Jan 1 of 2008, it is likely that Guatemala will terminate our adoption, since they are implementing new adoption law.
The injustices here are hard to even count:
- The prospect of thousands of orphans suddenly becoming un-adoptable is unjust. These babies deserve loving families.
- The prospect of thousands of American families being barred from adopting the orphans they've paid tens of thousands of dollars and waited months and months for is unjust.
- The prospect of NOT being grandfathered in under current adoption law is unjust.
- The fact that the U.S. DOS is doing nothing right now to help families in limbo is unjust. They are taking no steps presently to ensure that our case will be processed and completed.
So here's how you can help. EVEN IF YOU AREN'T AN ADOPTIVE PARENT, WE NEED YOUR VOICE!
1. Pray-Get on your knees and pray for God to intervene. Tug on the robe of the God of justice, the KING OF KINGS to act JUSTLY for orphans and the loving families who seek to adopt them. Beg our father God, who adopted US as SPIRITUAL ORPHANS to make good on His promise to 'set the lowly in families'.
2. ACT-You can contact the appropriate officials and let your voice be heard. We need as many people as possible to tell our government that they have a responsibility, as our elected officials, to ACT. Here's how [You can find a sample letter to use
HERE].
- First, tell 'W' what you think. He needs to hear about this from thousands of concerned citizens:
- email: (see 'elected officials' site, linked below)
- call: 202-456-1111
- fax: 202-456-2461
- write: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
- please, do all of the above.
- Second, call the U.S. Dept. of State's Guatemalan Adoption Desk 202-736-9090. Tell them that it is unacceptable for both governments to allow pending Guatemalan adoptions to NOT be completed
- Third, contact your other elected officials. Go HERE, and let them have it. All you have to do is plug in your zip code, and it automatically brings up all of your elected officials to contact, and provides one contact form to let your voice be HEARD.
- Fourth, sign the online petition, which is still in the works (stay tuned)
Don't forget to use the sample letter, which
can be found HERE.
Also, for those not well-versed in the talking points on Guatemalan adoption,
Tricia has a great list here. Read up and get informed.
I'll be posting this on our adoption blog, my own blog, and our family photo blog (it's that important). Sorry for the repeats, but we want to be sure and recruit as many readers as possible.
Thank you for your help. We're hoping that a government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' will listen to the cries of its citizens and will act.
Labels: adoption, Guatemala, Guatemalan Adoption, Hague Convention
RE: Numbers
I promised long ago to follow up on my
brief numbers post. To refresh your memory:
1: The number of times in Scripture Jesus tells us to "Be born again..." (to Nicodemus in the Book of John)
33: The number of times in Scripture Jesus tells us to "Follow me..."
So here are some of my thoughts:
I think we first should understand that numerical statistics don't alone provide an airtight case for anything in Scripture...but they sure can be telling. In other words, just because the imagery of 'being born again' only occurs once doesn't mean it's not important. IT IS. I strongly contend for a supernatural conversion experience in salvation.
But I can't help but wonder at what cost we, the church, have upheld 'being born again' as THE litmus test for who's in the heaven club. We've reduced 'born again' to 'do you adhere to conservative evangelical belief?'.
When this happens, the life transforming essence of being born again (new, fresh, different) is lost. It's not an intellectual shift, though it includes it. Rebirth is, in a word, transformation.
It's as if the rebirth is the end-all of all end-alls. The hard work is done.
But it's only the beginning.
You see, the call to Christ is rebirth, transformation, redemption, and DISCIPLESHIP. A radical, nonconformist, passionate following in the Way of Jesus. Disciples follow, plain and simple.
So, are you born again? Good. That's a great start. But what I want to know is, are you following Jesus?
I can just picture Jesus in Jerusalem coming up to a man, giving him the opportunity of a lifetime, "Come. Follow me."
The man replies, "Jesus! Hey, I knew you existed. I believe in you! I let you enter my heart 3 weeks ago! I walked down that aisle. I'm born again! You're the Messiah! I now have eternal life in you!"
Jesus replies, "That's great. You obviously have great faith. But I'm asking you to come follow me."
The man: "But Jesus I believe. Isn't that enough?"
Jesus replies: "I'm happy that you believe. But will you follow in my footsteps?"
Simplistic? Sure. A caricature? Maybe. But I look around, and this is the disconnect that I see: a lot of Christians who've signed on the dotted line, but won't get off their duff to truly LIVE it. And so often I'm one of them.
Back to numbers. I think that spiritual rebirth is a supernatural, miraculous, cataclysmic event in the soul of an individual. It's apparent that the contemporary church only needed to read this once in the Bible to cling to it. But today's churches seem full of believers, and void of FOLLOWERS, those who will truly 'take up their cross' and follow Jesus.
Maybe this is why Jesus had to say it 33 times in the New Testament. Believers are a dime a dozen. But He's looking for followers...To the poor. To the outcast. To the mission field. To the orphans. To the unreached. To the ghetto. To flip tables and throw chairs in corporate America. To challenge the religious status quo. To call politicians to account. To call televangelists out for their health and wealth message. To stand up to racism, bigotry, spiritual apathy, pop atheism, legalism....TO LOVE THE LORD THEIR GOD AND THEIR NEIGHBOR.
I could go on, but I'm indicting myself as much as anyone. Time to go for a walk in the footsteps of my Master.
Interesting...
Just made an observation. Notice any resemblance?
Go Cubs Go...
The Cubs Theme Song. To Watch a packed Wrigley Field sing it at the top of their lungs is a beautiful thing.
Go Cubs GO!
Here it is....
What kind of van does a tattooed, flat cap wearing,
tomshoes totin', twentysomething dad drive?
This kind...I guess.
We love it.
And Ben approves (after a thorough inspection).
Time to fill the seats with kids!
Article Alert: God's Hiddenness v. God's Absence
My recent post of "God's Hiddenness v. God's Absence" found it's way to the recent edition of
The Next Wave. You can read it in article form
here. It's not very polished: more of a blog ramble than an article, but nonetheless, it's there for the interested to read. (Thanks to
Bob Hyatt for publishing it)
Hilarious...
[no, i'm not going to read it. hat tip to my long lost college buddy jeremy for this one]
My weekend
Last weekend? Crazy.
- Wrote a 12 page paper on the intersection of the cyberchurch and the Jesus Mosque/Messianic Muslim movement.
- Test drove a mini-van
- Decided to buy the minivan
- Watched the Buckeyes win...
- Put our car up on Craigslist.
- Sold the car within 48 hours of listing it (who needs auto-trader?)
Yes, my Islam course is now DONE, and I've now completed 15 credit hours thru Gordon-Conwell's SemLink program. (phew)
Phyllis, our beloved Camry is moving onto another home. (sigh)
A 2002 Honda Odyssey is on its way to our home. (hooray!)
We've been pinching pennies for months to make this happen, and selling our Camry was essential to affording this van. (limited indentured servitude to a bank)
We'll be able to stick to our 1 car/family policy. (hug a tree)
Now we don't have to strap one of our kids to a roof rack. (good to be legal)
We'll post a pic tomorrow night. (stay tuned)
Jena Six Petition
If you haven't heard of the Jena Six, just google it, and read up on it. It's embarrassing that pockets of our nation are still so backward, prejudiced, and full of hate.
For more info, and to sign a petition seeking justice for the Jena Six, go
HERE.
Stop the hate! One love, people. Peace.
Pastoral Confessions...
I've been
tagged again by Todd Hiestand (He must be a faster runner than I). He's asking for pastors to post some 'pastoral confessions'. Here we go:
- I confess that all the money and time spent in seminary insufficiently prepared me for pastoral ministry. I believe the knowledge and growth gained from seminary was invaluable, but it's certainly no comprehensive preparation for ministry.
- I confess that I'm too tempted by performance and statistics based ministry.
- I confess that I've often asked God, "Why the H**L did you call me to be a pastor?"
- I confess that, as a pastor, some of my darkest and most discouraging moments have come on Sunday mornging [gasp].
- I confess that I'm terrible at managing ministry programs. I would make a horrible CEO, and it's unfortunate that contemporary pastoral ministry is so closely aligned with corporate America.
- I confess that I have serious, serious, questions in my soul about the problem of evil. I constantly am wounded by the thought of a good, mighty, all-powerful God who allows for such suffering in the world. This often leads to an internal struggle over the role and power of prayer...
- I confess that I'm too tempted by the notion that I can shatter preconcieved notions of what a 'pastor' is. I confess that this rebellious tendency is partially from a self-consciousness about my role and identity as a pastor.
- I confess that, in a world of poverty, hunger, and disease, I feel guilty pulling a full-time salary for my job as a pastor.
- I confess that I cringe when, before a group meal, everyone expects me to say the prayer, because "He's the pastor!"
I also confess that pastoral ministry has exposed and dealt with so many personal weaknesses, and I'm a better husband, father, and child of God because of it. In spite of all of the above 'confessions'. I praise God that "His grace is sufficient, for His power is made perfect in weaknesses." (2 Cor. 12:9)
I'll tag some pastors myself:
Joel NewtonBob HyattDustin Bagby (I know you hate this stuff, but I think this one is good)
Trevor Lee
Numbers...
1: The number of times in Scripture Jesus tells us to "Be born again..." (to Nicodemus in the Book of John)
33: The number of times in Scripture Jesus tells us to "Follow me..."Interesting, isn't it. Thoughts? I'll post my own later this week, but I'd like to hear from some of you first.
[Misc.]
- You might be a redneck if....you're going to a county fair demolition derby tonight. I am. Pics definitely to come. Stay tuned...
- I'm reading book 2 of Harry Potter currently. I'm loving these books. Rowling is a master storyteller.
- The Fantasy Football season officially starts tonight. I can't wait. Have you set your lineup yet?
- No adoption update, unfortunately. We've been in the final court (PGN) for 11 weeks now, with no visible end in sight. I'm going to push for some answers today. I didn't need any more encouragement to be skeptical of the effectiveness and intentions of governments (it's the Mennonite in me). International adoption has only fanned that flame. I'll save that rant for when our daughter is safely home, as blogs are being shut down due to the sensitive nature of international adoptions (No I'm not kidding; so much for free speech).
- The Office season premiere countdown is officially at 21 days. The Lost season priemiere countdown is officially at 1,000,000 days (give or take a few).
- Apple came out with new iPods. Again. I'm still toting my 4gb 'mini' (which was long ago put out to pasture by Apple, Inc.). Tiny black and white screen. No video. I'm basically Amish.
