Love God Love Others Tag

Circle Up Ags!

I am a proud member of the Fighting Aggies Class of 1995. All you need to know about that sentence is I believe in loyalty and tradition. I am also a proud Aggies for Christ alumni. We have a 50-year tradition as a campus ministry of gathering weekly at  Academic Plaza, every Thursday night at 9 PM for at least 100 college students joined together in fellowship, hearing God’s word, and worshipping Him through acapella praise. At the end of every Thursday night, you hear someone yell in a Texas drawl “Circle Up Ags and Uncover!” That’s our cue for every single person to loop an arm over the shoulder of the people standing next to you, take off any hat in reverence, and bow in prayer together as a united community coming humbly in the presence of God.

My whole adult life this has been my image of what it means to be a member of the family of God. Circled together in unity through prayer and praise for anything that might come our way in this life. 

This is also my vision for Harvester Christian unleashing hope for children in need of foster and adoptive families.

I have a dream that starts with the question “What if we…?

• What if we as a united church family could circle up around at least one child in our community?
• What would God do if he saw our humble obedience to provide a safe, stable, loving environment for a child whose parents are struggling to provide for that child?
• What could our future look like if one more HCC family decided to receive the blessing of a child in need of adoption?

Now hold up, I can almost see you pulling back. You may have just said in your head “I don’t know if I could be a foster parent and potentially have to give a child back to his or her family.” “I don’t know if I could love another child that was not my own.” I have all kinds of responses to those particular statements that will save for another day but what if we ask this question together?

• What if we circled around families in our church who need support as their children are in Safe Families or foster care?
• What if we circled around families in our church who have answered the call in obedience to be a foster family or Safe Family?
• What if we circled around the families in our church who have answered the call in obedience to be an adoptive family?
• What would our city look like if we unleashed hope together circling around these children?

I think you know that serving is not something we check off our to-do list once a year. Consistently serving others is a key part of all of our continued spiritual formation as we strive to become more and more like Jesus. But what we if are missing a straightforward, accessible, and meaningful approach for serving our community by circling around families in need of care and families providing that care through foster and adoptive commitments? 

• What if you provided child care for a foster or adoptive family?
• What if you brought a meal once a month to a foster or adoptive family?
• What if you taught children living in an HCC Safe Family to bake or fish or took them on a hike on the Journey Trail?
• What if your small group decided every March that you would collect diapers for HCC foster and adoptive families?
• What if your small group decided to provide back-to-school clothes and school supplies for HCC foster and adoptive families?

If we as individual in the HCC church family chose to circle around Safe Families, foster families, or adoptive families it would allow us to meet people’s physical and emotional needs and would also open doors to have a critical impact on the kingdom.

You have an opportunity to learn about many aspects of Safe Families, foster and adoptive families on 8/31 during the Unleash Hope for Children: Foster/Adopt Info Meeting. I am praying 25 people are in attendance to ask the question with me “What If We…”