Thursday, January 22, 2015

Meet Roman ~

Roma. New smile_Chernigov
This past Christmas season was extra special for a young man in Ukraine. A 19-year-old young man named Roman.
Unfortunately, at a very young age, Roman lost both of his parents. He was sent to an orphanage and later met local Christians who minister to children and young adults within the orphanage walls and after they age out.
Roman is a very curious kid by nature. He has asked many questions about life, about people, and about God. Another characteristic about Roman anyone would quickly notice is that he would rarely smile, displaying a tight-lipped frown on a somewhat gloomy face. Knowing the hardships of life he had faced, it didn't come as too much of a surprise.
This past September, as he entered a tech school to become a builder, he was invited to attend a Bible Study at a Lifesong Transition Home. He gladly accepted and started to attend. Although, he wasn't quite as quick to accept the invitations that were offered to attend church.The Lifesong staff started to pray for his repentance, as they sensed he was seeking the Lord.
As the staff continued to get to know Roman better, they discovered that his lack of smile had a reason behind it. Roman didn't have any front teeth! Our staff connected him to a charitable dentist who helped Roman at a minimal charge to bring his smile back. And guess what? Roman decided it was time to start smiling again. Shortly after, right around Christmas, he began to walk in fellowship with God, believing in Jesus as his Savior! And now, as you can see in the picture above, he hasn't stopped smiling!
Thanks be to God for drawing this young man to Himself! Please pray for Roman as he starts his walk with Christ, that He would be filled with the Spirit and walk in His Truth!

Learn more about the lives changing in Ukraine at www.lifesongfororphans.org/countries/ukraine.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

ONE

Greetings ~
It's been a big week here in Nashville - my dear friends Gwen Oatsvall and Suzanne Mayernick released their book!!  I mean not only are they wives, mothers to 13 kiddos between the 2 of them, run a successful non profit they know can add authors to their story. How cool is that!!  Anyways a few weeks back I had the privilege to read this inspiring book. And today I want to share the book with you. So leave me a comment on why you want to read the book and tomorrow evening I will select a winner from all the comments!

Want to take a peek inside the book or learn more about what Gwen and Suzanne are doing? Simply click on the photo



Wednesday, January 7, 2015

What is Gena and why do we celebrate it?


BRRRRR - it's a weee bit chilly here in Nashville today and while the boys are at school I thought I would stop by for a second and fill you in on what we are up to today. If you have friends who have adopted from Ethiopia you may have seen some posts last night and today saying Melkam Gena. Today is in fact Christmas in Ethiopia as well as places such as Bethlehem, Athens, Moscow and others that follow the Julian calendar.

So what is Gena? If you ask Tariku he will tell you it's the day he gets to eat all of his favorite Ethiopian dishes in one sitting.  If you ask me I will tell you it's Ethiopian Christmas - Jan 6th and 7th are known as the "Old Christmas Day" since that is the original designation of the birth of Jesus by the 1st christian roman emperor Constantine, in 325A.D. But in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII changed the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar and in doing so the Catholic church moved the celebration to Dec 25th. Since the Eastern church did not have the same beliefs in the pope they did not change their day.

I have been fortunate to be in Ethiopia for Christmas and I can tell you it is greatly different than ours. Church services would begin at 4am or so - everyone dressed in white - candles given out - there was not Christmas splashed in every store or restaurant. No sign of Santa Claus - no in Ethiopia Christmas is far more spiritual - far more simply about the birth of Jesus. And then once church is finished it is time to spend with family and friends. 

 So tonight our Ethiopian American family will celebrate we will dine on the boys favorite Ethiopian dishes, we will talk about the boys birth country it's past it's present and it's future and at the very end we will give our gifts to one another.  So from the Hammons house to yours we say