Monday, March 11, 2013

It has been far, far too long since I have posted an update.  This post is not necessarily an update on China Baby but more about a great experience only God could orchestrate.  Sometime around October 2012 there was an insert on our notes at church for a organization called PRISM.  It stands for Pittsburgh Region International Student Ministries.  The organization is a program for international students and visiting scholars attending colleges in Pittsburgh.  One of their ministries is looking for families that are willing to host students in their homes for the holidays.  Most of these students have not experienced our holiday traditions in America.  Jason and I thought what a great way to bless someone and get to know people from another culture.  Haha, only God could work out what happened.  We ended up getting placed with 3 students from CHINA who spent Thanksgiving with us in our home.  It never even crossed our minds that we could get students from China.  God used them to stretch us.  This family of mine is going to be a American-Chinese family very soon and we learned so much more in those few hours about our new daughters culture than we ever would have reading books or searching the internet.  We had a blast!  It was hilarious to us that they had never had turkey, apple pie, lemonade, or stuffing.  We had so much fun sharing our culture with them and hearing about all they were experiencing while living here for this short time.  I love how God works our needs before we even realize we have a need.  One of the girls lives near Beijing and offered to meet us when we are there and show us the hidden gems of the city.  How fun!  And so random that only God could put this together.  The evening ended with us feeling unbelievably blessed possibly more than we blessed them.  We pray they left our house feeling loved, accepted, and seeing Christ in us.  Here is a picture of them playing with the kids.


Then at Christmas they came with us to the North Way's Oakland campus for Christmas Eve service.  PRISM does not usually facilitate families with students for Christmas but we fell so much in love with them that we invited them to church then went for chinese dinner after.  I write this because Easter is coming quickly!  The organization matches families for Thanksgiving and Easter.  If you have room at your table and in your heart, consider opening your home to the amazing people in our area.  They are so far away from their families and just may need a little bit of love shown to them.  You just may end up being blessed as much as we are by getting to know some of these students.  The website is www.prismpgh.org, call them, you will be glad you did!!

Love,
Dawn and the crew

1 comment:

  1. I love how God works!! We have a family in our church who ministers with PRISM and we often have friends of theirs in our church. A couple of years ago Eric and I kept a friend's boys for three weeks while they were in China picking up their daughter. Soon after that I had a Chinese student associated with PRISM at my house and was able to ask her questions and learn more about the Chinese culture. I love that your family willingly opened your home for the holidays. Thanks for the inspiration!

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