Since Josh and Sarah will be leaving for Ethiopia this week, I asked one of our elders-in-training, Paul Boekell, if he would write out a prayer for them. Please read, agree, and pray along with this prayer. (Thanks, Paul, for serving us with this Christ-centered prayer for our lead pastor and his family!)
Father, you are the champion of adoption, the originator of buying children at high-cost. Jesus, you took a painful, wearisome, and emotionally taxing journey to the cross to bleed out the purchasing power required for our adoption. Holy Ghost, we have been born of You into our relationship with the Triune-God and our eternal family. So it is to you, God, the Sovereign Adopter of our Souls, that we lift the Perry Family as they embark upon one of the next-to-final legs of their journey to bring Sam home as their adopted son.
God we humbly ask these things of you on behalf of the Perrys:
PROTECT THEM PHYSICALLY… Be both their shield and their portion: with each leg of there journey, please be their shield from sickness, harm, and even death. And please be their portion, that you will give them physical energy that cannot be explained. That shorter amounts of sleep will feel like more than adequate amounts of sleep. That delayed meals or missed meals will have no impact upon their bodies. And that all of the emotions that normally would make the body feel spent and weary will be of no effect. Please protect the children as they remain state-side and please protect Sam on the other side of the ocean.
MAKE THEIR PATH STRAIGHT… We ask that you would make their trip completely free of any complications. From the car ride to South Carolina, to ticket counters, to seat placements, to food options, to baggage claims, to customs lines, and every single little detail of their travel… please blaze a straight trail for them. From any meetings with officials, to any paperwork, and the amount of time they spend with Sam (may it be much) and again every single thing in between… please make all the details complication free. And give them opportunities to speak of Jesus with passion and love.
CONTROL THEIR EMOTIONS… Please fill the Perry family with grace, patience, humility, endurance, and thankfulness. Be with Josh and Sarah as they miss their kids and as they meet their baby. Be with the kids as they miss their parents. Fill Daniel, Jack, and Ali with grace and humility and may they find more than enough room in their hearts as the prepare welcome Sam with love, patience, and servant attitudes. Be with Sam, even as little as he is, may he feel an instant connection with his new parents Josh and Sarah. Please give Josh a soft and gentle spirit and patience and grace as he leads his family in this time as a humble servant of Christ and may he find his soul ravished at the deepest level yet, with love for Sam. Give Sarah endurance and strength for this long and very emotional journey and give her the deepest peace in her heart as she is a world away from 3 of her kids and as she meets her newest one for the first time… may her mother-connection with Sam be instant and powerful and shake her to the very core of her soul and may love for Sam shake her afresh and to the core of her being. And as they leave Sam behind in Africa, may they feel the deepest peace inside of them that passes beyond our understanding.
DOMINATE THEIR SOULS … Finally God, we ask you to protect, nourish, and ravish the souls of the Perry family. That this trip will leave them fully leaning on You, fully trusting in You, and fully filled by You. That their heart for the nations, for the poor, for the hungry, for the thirsty, for the weak, and for the parentless will grow bigger than they imagined it ever could. We ask that this trip would bring Josh and Sarah closer to each other and deeper in love than ever before. We pray that the Perry family unit would grow deeper into love through this trip. And God, above all else, we pray that with every second of this trip you would grow the Perry family’s passion for the Glory of God and the Fame of Christ.
God, please make this prayer better than it is and may you control everything… even the things we haven’t thought of or prayed for…
and we ask all of these things in the name of Christ, the Great and Only Sacrifice, who payed for our own adoptions… AMEN
UPDATE: Sarah’s good friend Gina Smith has also written a prayer for the Perrys. You can read it here.
[...] for them as they continue their journey of adoption. Here’s a great place to start! And here is a prayer you can follow along and agree with, from one of the elders from their [...]
The Oliver’s are praying for y’all.