In Giving We Receive

It’s a pretty common principle that we’ve seen in our lives many times before. It seems that when we GIVE of ourselves to a particular ministry or to bless another person, we end up being blessed in return. That is definitely how we felt as we hosted Trent and Kristi last week. Trent and Kristi are friends of ours from our undergraduate time at Moody Bible Institute. When we found out last Spring that they were adopting two children from Ethiopia, we were elated with the possibility of hosting them. Well, the time was approaching and right away we found ourselves GIVING. At first, it was GIVING answers to their questions in preparation for coming. What fun it was to help them get a picture of what they would see and to know best how to prepare for their week here.

Finally, their arrival date came and we ended up GIVING again, this time we had to give up sleep in order to pick them up at the airport at 3:15am. The only available room in our guesthouse only had a full size bed and was too small to hold a crib as well, so we made the logical choice of moving ourselves in there in order to GIVE our room to Trent and Kristi for the week. Over the course of the week, we GAVE a lot of our time to spend with them, we GAVE some of our food in the meals that we prepared; we GAVE of our knowledge of Ethiopia and we GAVE of our limited ability to communicate in Amharic when necessary.

In comparison to all that we GAVE to Trent and Kristi during their stay, we can confidently say that we RECEIVED far more. We RECEIVED the fulfillment of our requests for a solar calculator, sunscreen Tupperware and the safe delivery of the silk sleeping bags purchased by my aunt and uncle (oh and did I mention RECEIVING one Tupperware filled with Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups – they’re priceless!). Apart from the things they brought, we RECEIVED the treat of being taken out to some of the nicest restaurants in Addis Ababa. Not to mention the promise that we will RECEIVE a DVD with all the pictures and videos that they took during their visit (this also is invaluable to us since we are not nearly as diligent in taking pictures as we should be). Far above these earlier mentioned things, we RECEIVED two things whose descriptions are beyond the adequacy of words. First of all, we RECEIVED the fellowship and encouragement of home friends coming to experience a slice of our life here in Ethiopia. The hours ticked by too fast as we really enjoyed Trent and Kristi’s company. Although hosting guests requires a lot of GIVING on our part, we are at the same time RECEIVING valuable fellowship with those whose heart’s resonate with what we are doing here.

Lastly, and more significantly, we RECEIVED the privilege of being a part of the adoption of Madalyn Yabsera Hunter. We got to visit her several times in the last few months and then we got to be there when she met her parents for the first time. We shared the tears of joy in a new father’s opportunity to hold his 9 month-old girl for the first time. We RECEIVED the privilege of meeting with her biological mother and observing all the dynamics of parenthood present there. We RECEIVED the privilege of watching this little girl grow in her attachment to her new parents. We RECEIVED a visual reminder of our own adoption into the family of God. Being participants in the consummation of the adoption process was a profound privilege that we would not trade for anything. In this alone, we RECEIVED far more than we GAVE. Isn’t that often the way God seems to work?