In This Issue
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From the Director
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Spotlight: Bulgaria
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Completed Adoptions
Prayer Requests
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We
encourage you to pray fervently for the children of the world who are
waiting for their families to find them.
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Pray for the adopted children and
their families, particularly as they go through the sometimes-painful
process of getting to know each other and becoming a family.
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Pray
for The Shepherd's Crook Ministries: that God would bless us financially
and allow us to continue doing this important work in His name
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From the
Director
I was privileged this morning to watch some video from this past
weekend's Dove Awards program, in which Third Day performed their song,
"Children of God." After the song finished, and after Tim Tebow spoke briefly, Steven Curtis Chapman and his
wife, Mary Beth, were invited up onto the stage to be recognized for their
work in the field of adoption. The Chapmans
founded an organization, called Show Hope, to provide assistance grants to
families pursuing adoption. Mary Beth's remarks were poignant and touching,
and especially as she remembered their little Maria, adopted from China,
who was killed in a tragic accident in 2008.
One of the things Mary Beth mentioned in her talk was the fact
that more than twenty-seven hundred families had received grants since the
founding of Show Hope. That is a lot of families, a lot of money, a huge impact. As I was thinking about all of this, it
occurred to me that Show Hope has been involved in nearly ten times the
number of adoptions The Shepherd's Crook has been a part of, during roughly
the same period. Initially, that made me feel sort
of small. It made me think thoughts about insignificance and lack of
impact. And it made me think about the very large number of small
organizations like ours, compared with the relatively few that are like
Show Hope. I wondered how much point there was for all of us little guys to
be doing what we're doing, when our actual impact on the overall problem is
so . . . well, small.
As I thought about it some more, though, I realized that I was
looking at this the wrong way. First, if there are in fact a whole lot of
little organizations having an impact similar to that of The Shepherd's
Crook, then we aren't really so insignificant after all, not in the
aggregate at least. But that isn't really the point, either. The real point
is that God uses both big guns and little ones to do His work. We have many
examples of "big guns" down through history. People like the
Apostle Paul, and William Tyndale, and Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards.
In addition to these big names, history is replete with
little people, ordinary Christians who live and work and raise their
families, all to the glory of God. In fact, some of the most critical
players in the panoply of God's redemptive history have been unknown to
most of us. They have been the mothers and fathers and Sunday School
teachers and preachers and evangelists who have played key roles in the
lives of the ones who went on to become the pivotal influences. That simply
is how God chooses to do His work. A few really well-known
personalities in each generation, and countless unknowns all along the way.
The Shepherd's Crook is content to be one of the unknowns quietly
doing God's work in the light He has given us. We are happy to work
alongside of organizations like Show Hope and Family Life Today and Focus
on the Family, doing our little part as a portion of the huge overall
picture. We thank God that He brought us into this world of adoption and
into this work, and we pray that He will continue to give us work to do and
to lead us as we do that work. And we are thankful for the three hundred or
so families that have been a part of the work we're doing, and the children
whose lives have been forever changed as a result. We are thankful to the
many volunteers who have given so much to make this ministry the success
that it is. We thank all of the many, many supporters who have donated
money and who have prayed so faithfully over the years. Without all of you,
this ministry could not and would not continue to exist or be able to do
the important work God has given us to do.
Soli Deo gloria!

Spotlight:
Bulgaria
Bulgaria—known officially as the Republic of Bulgaria—is a former
Soviet country nestled in Eastern Europe, bordering Turkey, Greece, and the
Black Sea. It is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe in terms of
geographic size, and its population of about seven and a half million ranks
it ninety-seventh in the world. The majority of Bulgaria’s citizens are
native Bulgarians, who can trace their country’s political and cultural
history to the late seventh century A.D., when the First Bulgarian Empire
was founded. There have been several political changes since that time,
including Bulgaria’s conversion to communism following World War II, but
today it is a republic with a prime minister, a parliament, and a president
who is elected directly by the people. Bulgaria has worked hard in recent
years to foster relations with other leading countries of the world,
including acceding to the European Union and implementing the Hague Convention
on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
In
2009, UNICEF estimated that there were ninety-four thousand orphans in
Bulgaria. Sadly, the number of adoptions from Bulgaria to
the U.S. have fallen from a ten-year high of 295 in 2001 to only 40
last year. There are a couple of potentially encouraging details in this
picture, however. In 2008, there were only five children adopted from
Bulgaria by U.S. citizens, so we are once again seeing an increase in
adoptions, albeit a slow increase. The U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria has also
said that the Bulgarian adoption authority—the Ministry of Justice—gives
priority to parents who want to adopt a child with a medical condition.
They estimate that eighty percent of the orphans adopted out of Bulgaria
are special-needs orphans, and the Embassy expects that this trend will
continue.
We have had only a handful of children from Bulgaria come home
through the efforts of TSC, and we would certainly like to see more
families adopt these waiting children. Right now, there are some four dozen Bulgarian orphans listed on our
site. Please join with us in praying for these children, as well as for
the other orphans in Eastern Europe.
Completed
Adoptions
The following children have come home to their adoptive families
since TSC began in 2000. We include them as representatives of all of the
children who have come home. Their faces provide just a glimpse into how
significantly these lives are changed, as the children transition from the
hopelessness and aloneness they once knew, to the comfort and security that
come from belonging to a family. Thank you for helping us make these dreams
realities, both for the adopted children and for their families.
Levi was adopted
upon his birth,
right from the
hospital, so no
before picture is
available
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Nathan, at home
in Washington
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