The Spirit of Elijah and Justice in the End Times

Mike Bickle from the International House of Prayer here in Kansas City gave a message on the coming crisis and the role the Church has in caring for fatherless children as we get closer to the return of Jesus.

Click here to watch the video >>

One thing he points out is that the fatherless are those without a father in their life, not just orphans. We often only think about orphans half-way around the world while neglecting those at home. God has called us to be neighbors to those hurting and broken families here around us. We can engage both after the crisis and before; both in the foster care system and strengthening families so that kids are prevented from going into foster care. When the prophet Malachi said that the hearts of the fathers would be turned to the children before the day of the Lord, this could be seen in 3 ways:

1. The hearts of natural fathers turning to their natural families
2. The hearts of spiritual fathers (men and women) in the Church to mentor younger people
3. The hearts of fathers in society (church, government, marketplace, etc.) to the fatherless.

Whether you are part of a local church, a mission organization or a house of prayer, I challenge you to embrace God’s purpose for the fatherless. God’s plan is to take the fatherless and make them fathers in the end-time church and He’s going to use us to do that. A phrase Jesus spoke over and over again throughout the new testament was “He who has ears, let him hear.” Are we listening? Do we have ears to hear?

Launching a New Ministry in KC: Safe Families For Children

Adam Parker on Safe Families For Children from OrphanJusticeCenter on Vimeo.

After many years of much prayer, research and discovery we are launching a new ministry in Kansas City called Safe Families For Children to help children and families in crisis. Safe Families For Children is a national ministry we are partnering with to bring to KC as a program of Orphan Justice Center.

Already we have more than 40 people intersted in working with Safe Families in some capacity or volunteering to be a Host Family for a child. We also have an amazing staff on our Safe Families team.

Several months ago I went to Chicago to for training and orientation and toured their operations. We met with a family coach who was working with a victim of a human trafficking bust that happened the week before in Chicago. One of the girls was 17 and her aunt’s house was not a safe place and was given the option by the response unit to either go to a homeless shelter or to go live with a Safe Family. She chose the Safe Family. Her story brought even the seasoned police and social workers to tears and she was placed with a family who had previously been in Africa on an extended missions trip working with human trafficking victims. God knew exactly what she needed. We are excited to see the lives impacted for the Kingdom as we reach out in compassion to the poor and the homeless and empower the Church of Kansas City to begin to open their homes to the broken and wounded souls of our city.

The Lord is shining an incredible light in the darkness here in urban areas of Kansas City where the average age of a homeless person is 7 years old.

We hope to make many new friends and partners in this community as together we bring hope and the love of Christ to many children and families in crisis.

My Life is a Series of Goals: Part 2

My life is a series of goals. With 6 children and the desire to have/adopt more I am constantly trying to evolve my parenting style to one that works best with a large family. I don’t just want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my kids to be well loved, well educated, and well behaved. Here are my current goals and how I’m trying to achieve them:

1) Be more soft spoken with the children
2) Utilize the buddy system
3) Get help from the kids so I can focus on being Mom

In the last post I talked about being more soft spoken. This post I’m going to talk about “The buddy system” and “Getting help from the kids so I can focus on being Mom.”

The Buddy System
Wow, what I life saver. I have been using the buddy system for a year and a half in a very minimal way. Whenever we go out an older child is paired up with a younger child. They are in charge of holding their hand and helping them to obey outing rules and keep up with the group.

I have recently realized I have been underutilizing the buddy system. I shouldn’t only be using it while I am out. I should also use it at home. At home is where life can get most crazy and it is probably because I had been allowing all 6 kids to play with whomever they wanted, however long they wanted, wherever they wanted….recipe for disaster; especially when 3 of the kids come from hard home lives before coming to us. Now, we have the buddy’s stick together for play time, school time, and chore time everyday. You are allowed to play with a non-buddy during specified times and under mom supervision.

Now this rule will probably change eventually as behaviors improve, but for now I’m loving it. I am having the older children mentor the younger children instead of two younger children pairing up and trying to outdo each other with bad behavior. There is peace in our house again.

Getting Help From the Kids So I Can Focus On Being Mom
Lastly we have started having the kids help out with way more than just keeping their rooms clean. David is in charge of dinner and my bedroom. Daniel is in charge of all laundry (cleaning, folding, putting away) and trash. Gabriel is in charge of all bathrooms. Noah is in charge of all dishes and Elisabeth is in charge of keeping all countertops and tables clean. Most of these jobs are just a tiny bit too hard for the kids, so they require some supervision and teaching. But teaching is so much easier than having to do it all. Now I have more time and peace of mind because I’m not pulled in so many directions. I am able to do a better job parenting and a more consistent job homeschooling. Meanwhile, the kids are learning valuable life skills and are feeling the rewards of contributing to the household.

Life is a constant journey of trial an error when you grow from a family of four to a family of eight in the span of a year. I don’t know much, this is just what works for us….right now.

My Life is a Series of Goals: Part 1

My life is a series of goals. With 6 children and the desire to have/adopt more I am constantly trying to evolve my parenting style to one that works best with a large family. I don’t just want to survive. I want to thrive. I want my kids to be well loved, well educated, and well behaved. Here are my current goals and how I’m trying to achieve them:

1) Be more soft spoken with the children
2) Utilize the buddy system
3) Get help from the kids so I can focus on being mom

Let’s start with my first goal: being more soft spoken.
I am finding that even kind words, when spoken out of exhaustion and frustration come across harsh. I want to be a household where my kids obey not because I yell and scream, but because I have molded their character to care about honoring me through obedience. So, this first goal is to change MY behavior and not my children’s.

I am determined to say everything in a soft voice and even a little babyish of a voice. I swore, before I became a mom, I would never do this. I hate hearing adults speaking to teenagers or even other adults in a voice like this… but do you know what I hate more? Hearing people speak with anger and meanness in their voice. I have realized in order to completely eradicate the latter from my life I need to go to the extreme. I am going to practice intentional optimism in my speaking.

David questioned why I was talking the way I was the other day. I told him, “because I’m really stressed and if I don’t talk like this I’m pretty sure I will be yelling.” He said, “well you sound really weird.” I’m sure I did sound weird, but I’m glad the memory of that outing is a mom who talked a bit funny rather than a mom who was stressed and took it out on him and yelled at him.

Part 2 Coming soon…

We Got the Van!

For all of those who are subscribed to our Email List and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. You already know this and have seen the pictures. But for everyone else, I thought you might want to know. We got the van!

We are so thankful for all who partnered with us and gave toward our new van. We were able to raise the entire amount. It is truly amazing to have such a great vehicle. Our kids love it and we love it. We recognize that this was a gift from God and that we could not have done this without such giving and compassionate hearts as yours. Thank you from the entire Parker family!

Adam, Stephanie, David, Daniel, Gabriel, Noah, Elizabeth and Ellie

Only $5,000 Away! With Matching Donation!

We have 5 days left to raise the remaining $5,000 to purchase a 12-passenger van for our family. This will be extremely helpful to our adoption so that we have enough seats for each person in our family.

In addition, one of our partners has agreed to MATCH UP TO $2,500 for any donations we receive toward the van.

Please repost this on your Facebook/Twitter/Blog to help.

Please click below today to give.

How to Give:

• (Check By Mail) Tax Deductible Giving through IHOP-KC: You can make a check out to IHOP-KC and send it to the address below: Please email me at adamparker@ihop.org and let us know that you are sending something in the mail so that we can count it towards the MATCHING DONATION within the next few days.

  ATTN: Parker Van Fund
  8330 E 133rd Street
  Grandview, MO 64030

Inviting Your Participation!

Someone once said, “life as a missionary is a balance of trust and testimony. It can be back and forth of miracle story, midnight hour, miracle story, midnight hour, repeat until faith is established or shaken.” This is very true in our journey. There have definitely been nail-biting seasons, but through our 5 years as missionaries God has been very faithful.

We serve at IHOP-KC by helping to maintain a watch in a 24/7 prayer room, promote the rescuing, adoption and restortation of orphans and children in crisis through our work with Orphan Justice Center and IHOP-KC’s Children’s Justice Initiatives, and most recently am running Safe Families For Children Kansas City to engage the Church in caring for children and families in crisis (without taking a salary)… – because we feel it is the calling of the Lord on our lives.

I’m asking you to partner with us in helping to change the way the Church thinks about adoption and orphan care and to equip and empower the Church to walk out James 1:27. Help us give hope to children and families in crisis and courage to families who would open their homes to those in need.

I’m asking you now because the need is real, but also because I believe we are on the brink of a season of great effectiveness.

If you have been impacted by what God has called us to and would like to know more about our family’s specific, immediate needs, email me.

However, in general, here is the run down:

• We need a van! Pronto! Our adoption of our 3 little ones is months away from being finalized. It is looking like a March/April court date. And with the addition of our little Eliyah, we are a family of 8 with 7 seats in our current van… The past few months have been a little crazy when we want to go places together. We’ve found a van that will meet our needs in both seats and not break our budget with gas mileage, but we still need about $10,000. Click here to help >
• We also need Monthly Partners at $20/month, $50/month, $100/month and $500/month. Our partners are those who have really been impacted by our vision and want to hearts changed and hope brought to children and families. Click here to help >

God, the One who LOVES Justice

This article was first published on the Justin Rizzo Blog.

Someone once asked me the question… “Why should we ask God for His justice? Shouldn’t we ask Him for His mercy?” I began to think about this question, because we should ask Him for His mercy. But should we juxtapose these two attributes of God and set them against each other? Can God love mercy and love justice, yet have no contradiction?

“For the Lord loves justice, and does not forsake His saints; they are preserved forever…” (Psalm 37:28) 

Justice is at the core of the gospel of the kingdom. A description of God in Psalm 97 says that clouds and darkness surround God and “righteousness and JUSTICE are the foundation of His throne.” The establishing of justice is not only at the core of God’s throne, but central to the 1st and the 2nd coming of Christ. This is seen clearly in Isaiah 42 when God speaking through Isaiah says about Jesus (“My Elect One”), that “He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles… and He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established JUSTICE on the earth.” 

God’s mercy and His justice are both expressed equally and without restraint through the cross. His heart for justice was never lessened when He displayed His mercy by becoming sin for us so that we might be justified before the Father. It is because God is a just judge and loves justice that a sacrifice had to be made in the form of God living a sinless life and dying in our place for our sins.

Our God is good with no shadow of evil. All of His ways are right, blameless, perfect and faultless. It is because He is righteous that His justice required Himself to become sin for us so that we might escape the consequences that we so fully deserved. What Jesus came to do on the cross and what He is coming to do at His 2nd coming is this: to make wrong things right. When sin entered the world it affected all areas of life as we know it, which immediately made it necessary for a sacrifice to be made. We are able to stand justified before God because of God’s mercy and His justice at the cross.

At the same time God cares immensely about injustice in the earth. Isaiah 59:14-15 shows us a God who is not indifferent about injustice, but is displeased when He looks on the earth and sees the injustice of the orphan, the poor, abortion, sexual immorality, racism and much other corruption at the hands of humans.

God become a man, took on our flesh to make the wrong things right so that we might be saved and His goodness would be seen throughout the earth. God has given us the solution to injustice and that is intercession. Intercession is the action of intervening on behalf of another. We must first act through prayers of intercession, yet it must not end there. We must also physically act and be the hands and feet of God’s desire to make wrong things right.

We must not downplay the effectiveness of prayer. Our God moves at the sound of our voice. Jesus even said in Luke 18 that God will bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night. Yet we must also not neglect doing good and displaying the goodness and love of Christ through deeds.

James 2:14 says “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 

We must love justice, just as God loves justice. Jesus came the first time to make wrong things right and He is coming again to make wrong things right. We must agree with His heart through prayer and commit to making wrong things right through action in both word and deed.

What is keeping you from fulfilling James 1:27?

A friend from work named Randy Bohlender has put together a video addressing the questions people have for adoption. Some have never asked these questions, but need to and some are using them as an excuse.

I really recommend reading James 1:27 and asking yourself how you can walk this out. If you call yourself a believer, a follower of Christ, a Christian, then you must deal with this verse and figure out how to put it into action in YOUR life.

What role does God want you to play in caring for and looking after orphans? Is the American Dream keeping you from fulfilling James 1:27?

Must Read: Is the Church Ready for the Abortion Law to Change?

This article was written by Kinsey Thurlow over on the Orphan Justice Center Blog. It is a great article and if you consider yourself a Christian it requires a response.

Life is valuable in the womb, and we must see that this life still remains just as valuable when the child is out of the womb, whether that child is 2 months old, 4 years old, or 17 years old.

The ending of abortion cannot be separated from the raising up of an adoption movement. Both concern wanting and loving children, born and unborn—and loving them enough to make them our own sons and daughters if they are left fatherless. In the Father’s house, there are no unwanted children.

Consider a 15 year-old girl who finds herself pregnant. She is certainly very scared, and the seemingly easiest way out is to abort her baby. However, through some counseling, she decides to keep her baby. Do we now breathe a sigh of relief because the baby wasn’t aborted? Is the life of her child still valuable 5 or 6 years later when we learn that the child has been abused and neglected and is now living in foster care? Do we still care about the child’s life?

Continue reading the rest of this article at Orphan Justice Center…