Mission Safari: The Next Chapter(s)

Snowmen In Williamsburg

Well, I think we have not only survived our 2nd winter storm this winter but we have rather enjoyed it.  By far this has been the most snow we have seen since we moved to Williamsburg - somewhere between 8-10 inches has fallen here in the past 24 hours.  Not much by most winter standards but a veritable blizzard here! 

I worked yesterday when we had most of the snowfall.  But I didn't let that get in the way of having a little fun with the snow.  This here guy to your left was my little portable snowman.  I brought him in and out of the ER to show my little pediatric patients throughout the day.  He was a hit.

This guy here was built in the ambulance bay at the ER.  All the nurses, medics, and other docs got a kick out of him.  He took about 20 minutes to build.  I gave up my lunch break to make him.  I couldn't figure out how to bring him inside.

I wasn't the only one who had fun in the snow.  Sam, Sarah, Ben, and Amy all played outside yesterday.  Marti says the big kids played outside almost all day.  That was pretty good given that Sarah was in a bad mood Friday night about the "stupid snow storm" coming.  

Today church was cancelled.  The roads are all pretty much still under a couple of inches of snow.  Driving is going to be a mess the next couple of days as the snow melts during the day but then ices over after dark.  Anyway, today we went out in the snow again.  We built two more snowmen.  The first is on our back deck.  The second is out front.  We had a great time building them together.  It makes us really look forward to our ski vacation in two weeks.  We have a cabin rented in Banner Elk, NC.  It should be a great time.  We are hoping for even more snow that week.

   

Sam Is 9

Sam is 9. By all accounts he had a great birthday bash yesterday.  It was basically an all day affair.  It started with breakfast in bed (Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Sugar Toast and juice), included a trip with two of his buddies to the Virginia Air and Space Museum, and ended with a birthday party with homemade ice cream cake and hamburgers hot off the grill.   

As you can see from the pictures below, it was a Star Wars Theme.  The birthday party included only his immediate family but with the seven of us there was enough mayhem, chaos, laughing and noise that any 9 year old boy would enjoy.  Some of the chaos included Amy crawling all over the table right after dinner.  Anyway, it was a great day. 

We can't believe our little boy is already 9.  He is still a sweet little vibrant soul who rushes headlong into his days.  Sam doesn't let many days get away where he isn't having some fun and learning lots of stuff.  We look forward to seeing him continue to grow in all ways this year.  Happy Birthday Sam.

And, as promised here are some pictures from the all day birthday bash.  More pictures are located in the photo album to the right.

 



    

Making Jesus Famous - Williamsburg

Back in November of last month my brother Todd was in town on business.  He started telling us about a project he was involved with at his church with the youth there.  They called it Making Jesus Famous.  They basically were doing some outreach projects in their community such as work-days at Big Brother/Big Sister gyms, making cookies for firemen, and the like.  Somewhere along the line someone printed up some T-shirts and the participation took off.  They were doing simple things to include the youth and to encourage and engage their community.  We all thought it was really cool.

For Christmas, Todd gave all of us some Making Jesus Famous T's.  We were all excited.  He asked us (or rather challenged us) to start the "Williamsburg Chapter" of Making Jesus Famous.  And so we did.  He also asked that we take some pictures, post them on the blog, and make sure that Jesus was being made famous in Williamsburg.  And so we have! (At least the taking pictures and posting them on the blog...we will leave the results of becoming famous up to Jesus.

Our project for January was to go to the grocery store and purchase food for the local food pantry.  We were able to buy two full grocery carts of food. The kids thought it was a lot.  I realized that it would probably only feed our family of 7 for about 7-10 days.  It was sobering.  

We then delivered the food to the local food pantry FISH.  This group serves the Williamsburg area.  As the economy has stalled the past 12 months, their volume of clients has soared.  For 2009 they saw a 30% increase in demands for food compared to 2008.  They anticipate a great need this year as well.  We were glad to help in a small way.

It was neat to see the kids get into the project.  At the grocery store they looked for good deals as well as for items good to eat.  Ben and Sarah even showed some concern for making sure we got some nutrition meals as well.  Sam of course had the two best comments about the endeavor.  First, he said, "This is fun!"  Second, he said, "Daddy can we just buy the whole store?"  What a great spirit to have...Lord, this is fun serving you,  and can I give you everything I have?  

And the T-shirts really helped.  First they gave us a sense of purpose on our mission.  Second, it invited comment by others...at least 3 different people commented on the shirts (hey, love the shirt).  Third, it reminded us of why we were helping out, to Make Jesus Famous.

We'll keep you posted on next month's Williamsburg Chapter's MJF Project!

Kate's Baptism

Today has been a long but good Sunday.  Church was good, we had a great lunch afterwards at our favorite Mexican joint, and in the afternoon, I took the big kids to the grocery store to get dry goods to donate to our local food pantry.  I will blog more on that tomorrow.  However, the highlight of the day by far was Kate's baptism.

Our church is really blessed to have a lot of young families.  And, as young families do, we are having a lot of babies.  Thus, we do a lot of baptisms.  And I love it.  I am constantly encouraged and humbled during this part of the service when I see families bring their young babies up and make a commitment in front of the local church body to raise this child to love the Lord.  And the church in return also makes a commitment to the family to encourage and support them in this endeavor. 

The month before we left for China to get Kate, I remember being really moved by the one or two baptismal services.  In fact, when the church had us come forward to pray for us before we traveled I shared how I looked forward to the day when we would bring Kate forward to present her for baptism.  Well, that day finally arrived.  And it was a blessing.

 In our church, before the sacrament of Baptism is performed, our pastor will explain what Infant Baptism is and what it is not (and for the purposes of this blog, I am not going to get into that...I know it is a sensitive issue for some).  Then he invites the family forward which in our case was done with some trepidation taking two toddlers forward for the service.  Once we are on stage the pastor asks the mother to read a portion of Scripture that is to be a blessing or encouragement for this child.  Marti read from Psalm 139:14-16 today.  It reads:

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

 15 My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

Then our pastor asks the father to pray for the child.  The following is what I prayed for Kate:

• Thank You That You Are Our Father
• Thank You That You Choose Us, Spiritual Orphans
• Thank You That You Are The First Adoptive Father 
• Thank You For Moving Our Hearts to Adopt
• Thank You For Meeting Every Financial Need for the Adoption
• Thank You For Ministering to Us While We Waited
• Thank You For Adding Kate to Our Family

• We Praise You for Her Good Health
• We Praise You for Her Growth Since We Returned
• We Praise You for Her Adapting to Her New Family
• We Praise You for Her Siblings Accepting and Loving Her
• We Praise You for This Body Who is Encouraging US and Loving Kate

• We Ask that You Continue to Blend Our Family
• We Ask that You Continue to Help Kate Grow Physically and Spiritually
• We Ask that You Help Her Meet All the Challenges that Lay Before Her As An Adopted Daughter
• We Ask for Guidance, Strength, Patience, Love to Bring Kate Up To Love You
• We Ask that Kate Love You With Her Whole Heart
• We Ask that Kate Would Never Know A Day without Your Love 
• We Ask that Use Kate as an Example of YOUR Adoptive Love for Your People

• We Pause and Lift Up China
• We Pray For the Thousands and Thousands of Children Orphaned Because they Were Born a Girl, or With a “Defect”
• We Pray that China Would End their One-Child Policy
• We Pray That China Would End Their Persecution of Christians
• We Pray For The Chinese Church to Grow in Maturity and Love
• We Pray That The Chinese Church Will Show Love to the Orphans in China

• Finally We Pray For Grace Covenant to Continue to Become a Place that Ministers to the Orphan, the Widow, and the Oppressed 
• We Pray for Other Families Here to Consider Adoption and That the Church Will Help These Families With Encouragement and Resources

We Come to You as Joint-Heirs With Jesus,

In His Name We Pray,

Amen

Finally, the pastor will perform the sacrament and then pray for us.  Even though it only took 5 minutes of the service time it was an incredible time to stop, commit ourselves publicly to raise Kate to love the Lord, and for Kate to be welcomed into the visible church as a covenant child.  Yes, some day she will need to accept Christ as her Lord and Saviour, but today was an incredibly important and meaningful day for her and our family. 

MTW Haiti Update - #2

The Disaster Relief Ministry of MTW has had an Advance Team in Haiti since late last week.  They have done a good job of getting around and meeting the various church leaders in Haiti.  It looks like they are sending a medical team with 8 members by January 29th to help assist with wound care.  They are praying to take a surgeon and at least one counselor.  I would love to go on this first team, but it doesn't look like it will work out.  We are continuing to monitor the situation and pray about how God would use me in this situation.

You can follow the work they are doing by following their Facebook page at:

MTW Facebook

Also, here is a good YouTube video from MTW explaining what they hope to do in Haiti:

A Quick Update on Kate

Just a quick note on Kate.  She continues to do well and adjust at home.  It is a real joy to see her "catch up" in her physical growth and abilities.  But probably more important is watching her develop attachments and relationships with all of us.  We really see God working these things out. 

For instance, Kate is learning and accepting that she is loved.  She is really learning how to hug and kiss.  She is showing real affections for us.  She has always allowed us to hold her and hug her, but now we see her "receiving" these actions and reciprocating.  She now "leans" into her hugs.  She will bury her head on our shoulder or chest.  And she seems to differentiate between us and friends at church.  This is a good sign.

Also she is forming attachments to the kitty, Holly, and our dog Jack.  She loves to hold them, pet them, and (yuck!) kiss them.  Besides these attachments, she is learning to play with dolls.  The other day she picked one up, held it, and gave it her bottle.  Things and actions that seemed "natural" with the other kids are milestones for her.  And we are excited about it.  And we thank God for these small miracles.  She is loving because she is loved.

And isn't that an encouragement for us this week?  We can love on people because we are loved by our Father. Go hug someone today! 

More Thoughts on Haiti

The earthquake in Haiti has certainly captured my attention and prayers.  We first became alerted to the disaster because of a prayer request from a medical resident (who worked with us as a student in Kenya for a month) who was in Haiti when the earthquake struck.  It took 36 hours or so before we heard whether this resident was actually safe; happily she was.  But as the story unfolds on the internet and TV our hearts are heavy for the people there.  This is certainly a disaster of epic proportions.

A few thoughts about how you can get involved.  First, pray.  There are many needs. Second, please consider giving if you haven't already.  My recommendations are either the Red Cross (which you can donate $10 immediately by texting "Haiti" to 90999) or the MTW Minuteman appeal (see previous post).  Because the earthquake took a heavy toll on the infrastructure (which was already challenged) in the capital, aid relief is very slow in getting to the people; everything is scare - clean water, food, fuel, medical supplies. 

Also, please pray about my involvement with the Disaster Relief Ministry of MTW.  They are trying to arrange for a Advanced Needs Assessment Team to get into Haiti this coming week.  After the ANAT assesses how best to help with disaster relief in coordination with the local church there (there are some MTW missionaries in Haiti), they will put together teams to go into Haiti.  Pray that my schedule will remain flexible in the coming weeks to be able to participate if God leads.  Also, keep updated with the  at the following link: 

MTW Disaster Relief Ministry to Haiti.

May God use this tragic disaster to bring glory to His name.

Haiti Response

As many of you know, I not only served as a medical missionary to Kenya, but participated in the Disaster Relief Ministry with MTW.  I was humbled to serve in 2005 in Sri Lanka after the Southeast Asia Tsunami.  It was an incredible experience to serve there.

I am sure many of you are astonished at the amount of pain and suffering going on in Haiti since the earthquake two days ago.  Even last night the U.S. Military was still having trouble getting in.  Hopefully they will be able to help provide relief and security in the coming hours and days.

Right now Mission to the World (MTW) is collecting funds to assist with the aid there.  They have both national pastors and American missionaries in Haiti right now.  Funds collected will assist in the relief effort there.  If you are interested in giving click on this link: MTW Haitian Relief Fund.  If you want to learn more about the relief or MTW go to this link: MTW.  Please do consider giving.

Also, pray about their efforts to send a Disaster Relief Team into Haiti.  They are trying to get an advance team assembled and sent to assess how MTW's DRT can help.  After the advance team gets there, they will make a determination as to how they can best be used.  I have let MTW that I am willing to go if the logistics and my schedule can come together.  Pray that God will use me however best in this situation.

More importantly pray for the people in Haiti who are suffering.  Pray that they will experience the grace of God and His love through this horrible time.

Also, MTW has a page on Facebook if you want to follow along.

Ben is 14

Ben turned 14 last week.  We had a great time celebrating here at the house.  The kids still love having themed parties so this year Ben celebrated with Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here he is trying to look like an intense, mean, half crazed pirate.  He still doesn't scare me (although he is probably a 1/8 of an inch taller than me)!  But as you can see from this picture below, Amy was a bit concerned!

Besides the decorations, we had tacos and nacho chips.  Ben's cake was homemade chocolate chip cake.  Again, from the picture below, you can see that it was enjoyed by all (especially Amy).  Ben also enjoyed opening some presents including a winter coat, an Xbox Madden 10, and some model rockets.

We are proud of Ben.  It is hard to believe he is already 14 years old.  He is great with his siblings (especially the younger girls), he works hard in school, and generally makes us all laugh.

Happy 14th Birthday Ben.

  

Winter Photo Shoot

In early December we met up with a photographer to do a "photo shoot" over at Colonial Williamsburg.  It only lasted an hour, but there were some great pictures of all the kids.  Below is just a sample of some of the better pictures from that shoot.  And yes, I am proud of these good looking kids!

 



      

Happy New Year from the Hutchisons (plus a Few Thoughts about 2009)

Happy 2010.  It is hard to believe we are starting a new year and a new decade in the (relatively) new millennium.  SO MUCH has happened the past year I don't think I can really fully grasp and communicate all that 2009 has meant.  But as I give pause to what has happened and what is coming, one thing comes to mind - we have been blessed as a family in 2009.

We have been blessed as a family.  Marti and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary this past year.  We still enjoy hanging out with one another. We love seeing our kids grow up.  Speaking of the kids they are doing well in school, they are maturing, they love one another, they love us, and they love the Lord.  They generally put others first.  This is a real blessing.

Obviously our family has also been blessed with Kate in 2009.  All the long years of waiting, paperwork, and preparation has finally born fruit.  Kate joined us in September.  She is a sweet little thing.  She is also growing, maturing, catching up, and fitting in.  She is also a wonderful reminder of how God brings us into His family.  That is a blessing.

Work has also been a blessing.  I really love what I am doing.  The hours are sometimes long, but when a lot of my colleagues are frustrated and wringing their hands about the future of healthcare in America, I have been able to go to work day after day and enjoy the opportunity to take care of patients.  It has also been a tremendous blessing to work so close to home (instead of driving one hour to work one way, I am only driving 25 minutes one way).  That is another blessing.  Oh, and I think I can safely say that Marti also sees her part-time job as Children's Ministry Director at our church as a blessing.  It has been an opportunity for her to use her gifts in our local church.

Our church has also been a blessing.  Grace Covenant PCA continues to grow.  Week after week the preaching is solid.  The fellowship is growing.  Our home groups are coming closer together.  I look forward to seeing what God will do in the coming year.

There are so many other blessings from 2009; the malpractice settlement was a relief, vacations were refreshing, birthdays were a joy (we celebrated milestone birthdays like turning 13, 16, and 40), and visiting with family was great.  Even disappointments and losses in 2009 were a blessing; we saw God's hand at work in our lives as we dealt with the frustrations, tears, and discouragements.  

And so, we look forward to 2010.  We anticipate there will be more challenges, disappointments, joys, and surprises.  We know that in all of this God will be constant.  He will provide direction, comfort, reproof, and ultimately blessing.  We pray that no matter your circumstances in 2009 that you will see some of the blessings.  We are pray that in 2010 you will see God more active in your life.