I should probably start at the very beginning. So here it is.
We're an unlikely band of misfits, otherwise known as Jenna's Tuesday Night Girls. And this is where it begins...
Bible study with Jenna brought about more than any one of us could have expected. Fellowship. Learning. Prayer. Encouragement. Challenges. Laughter. Occasional tears. Weeks of I-didn't-do-the-study-this-week-because-it-was-on-fasting and I-ran-after-the-Taco-Truck-again. In other words, true and deep community. All around a pan of freshly baked brownies.
For all the fun we had, we were also up to some challenges. Weekly plans. Life plans. Summer plans were a major concern even from our first August meeting. Each of us needed some clarity in one, if not all three, of those categories. Which is when China was brought up...
Jenna has four kids, and two of those are adopted from China. They're precious and just downright spunky. She likes to tell us she's left her heart in China and every two years or so she has to go back and visit it. So when she gently encouraged us to think about a short-term trip to work with special needs orphans in China, we all gave it some thought. Or at least I did.
We studied James in the spring. Underlined in red is this verse: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" James 2:27.
That was it. I knew I had to go.
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