John 14:18

It is no secret that we Langford’s have a special place in our hearts for orphans and adoption. However, the words of David Nasser at the National Worship Leader’s Conference in Kansas a couple of years ago really changed my whole perspective. What he said made me catch my breath and then weep. He said, “There are 150 million orphans in the world. However, if only 8% of the church would adopt, there would be no more need for orphanages.” Wow! That is not 8% of the world but 8% of God’s people who are instructed to minister to the widows and orphans.

James 1:27
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Do we not want to offer up to our Father what is pure and undefiled?

Beautiful Brokeness

Saturday night, I was sitting in my living room which was unusually crowded with people. All around the room, sitting in pulled in kitchen chairs, couches, piano benches and the floor and standing in open doorways were the members of the faith family that is our small group. We were all listening intently as our new friend, Kristy O’Leary, shared with us her family’s vision for the plight of the orphans in Ghana, Africa. I watched faces and reactions, as I typically do, and saw hurt, heartache and brokenness. We were weeping and wrapping our hearts around those too far for our arms to reach. When all questions were answered and all concerns voiced, we stood together; hands and hearts joined in prayer. Seconds before the amen was whispered, my head still bowed, I opened my eyes. A tiny flash caught my vision, almost like a falling star until it splashed on the floor. There were more; small wet circles where droplets had landed before the feet of many around the circle. An instant later, feet shuffled and small puddles were wiped away. I cherish that vision. My faith family, sweetly broken for orphaned children a world away.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of us that night :)

Forget the Frock Easter Challenge

For Easter, our bible study group and 60 other members of our church family chose to feed orphans for Easter instead of buying new clothes.


Almost the whole gang


Our Family (minus Joshua)


The Murphys


The Rhodes


The Johnsons

Stones Rolled Away

Today, Easter Sunday, as I rejoiced over my risen savior, I also found myself thinking about those women who went early to the tomb of Jesus. I was sitting in our sunrise service this morning when I began to wonder how those women thought they would move the stone from the entrance of the tomb. How would they convince the soldiers to let them try to move the stone? Surely they knew that they would face these obstacles yet, they rose early in the morning and set out for the tomb to properly anoint the body of their Lord.

How different the Easter story would be if those women, when considering the obstacles, would have thought the task before them impossible and not even tried. Christ would still be risen, the world would still never be the same, but those women would have missed the blessing of witnessing the empty tomb. Mary would not have been the first to see the risen Lord. She would not have heard him call her name.

I began to wonder how many blessings we miss because we look down the road God is calling us to walk and only see the impossibility of the obstacles in our path.

What if we simply began to move forward in faith, knowing that our mighty God who is more than able, will make a way?

Would we build houses for orphans, would we feed the hungry, clothe the poverty stricken, begin a revival? Would we witness, first hand, God doing the impossible?

Bunnies, T-Shirts and Feeding Orphans

Our God truly works in amazing and sometimes, unexpected ways! He can choose to use any circumstance or situation for his ultimate glory. Isn’t it just like God to use the most benign occurrences to do something awesome! This is exactly what happened when we met the O’Learys.

Over a year ago, I found myself riding with my husband and two of our children out to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, to pick up some free rabbits and a hutch that had been advertised on our local homeschool loop. The middle of nowhere turned out to be somewhere near Loudon, TN, about an hour from our house. At the top of a long driveway that seemed to go straight up, we met some very friendly dogs, a couple of cuddly bunnies and the O’Learys. We stayed longer than anticipated enjoying the easy conversation that typically comes when God’s people meet. After loading the rabbits and hutch in our truck we headed home. I remember my husband saying what nice, down to earth people were and what a shame that they lived so far away. We would most likely not see them again.

A few months later on a very cold morning, I was wandering around in a huge yard sale that was happening about 20 minutes from my house. I was paying for an armload of homeschool books when one of the women working there asked if I had picked up some bunnies and a hutch a few months back. It took a few minutes for Kristie O’Leary and I to catch up on the bunny business and then she began to tell me of her families plan to adopt from Ghana. Her story grabbed my heart so much that I found myself reading her blog for about an hour that evening. I reminded my husband about the family and shared the news with him of their pending adoption. I think that was the first time God planted the seed of the possibility of international adoption for our family. I bumped into Kristie again at another yard sale. Again, she recognized me and asked if I had picked up some bunnies. I do so wish that I were better at remembering names and faces.

Recently, we were walking through the Knoxville Zoo and instead of watching the animals, I found myself admiring a family. It was so obvious that this family was one of those precious ones of God’s amazing design; one where he had mixed children born of mother’s body with those born of her heart. A beautiful little girl had just smiled at me as she held her mother’s hand when I heard a voice that seemed familiar say, “Didn’t you come pick up some bunnies?” I nearly cried when I realized I was face to face with the children we had been reading about a few months back.

As we traveled home from the zoo that day I began to feel and share with my husband that these chance meetings were not just coincidence but, divine appointment. That evening we revisited the “From God the Ghana” blog and the new Feeding the Orphans website. We were amazed at what God was doing with this family.
I found Kristie on facebook and just a couple of weeks later, I found myself reading a post of how a mother was moved to purchase Love Orphans t-shirts with the money she would have spent on her family’s Easter clothes. My husband, who had been reading over my shoulder said, “Look’s like it’s t-shirts for us this year!” After talking to our children about the Easter shirt challenge and seeing how excited they were to be able to feed hungry children, God led us to share the challenge with our church youth group and then with our entire church body. We were amazed at the response we got from our church body.

Now here we are, two days before Easter. Two bunnies, a couple of yard sales and 74 t-shirts later, there are lots of orphaned children being fed in Ghana, Africa because of the response of just a few of God’s people in Knoxville, TN.

Through this process, I have learned to look for God in every instant and in every circumstance of every day. When we are willing beyond our abilities, our God is able beyond our limitations.

The Year of New

The first few days of each new year always feel so clean and fresh like sheets of unprinted paper. The days seem crisp – unused. The reality is, of course, that each day really is new. Though, as the year trails on, days seem somehow tainted by pressures, responsibilities and failures. How amazing that our God makes all things new.

As our family turns the corner into 2011, the year is ripe with possibilities. I don’t recall ever being this excited to see what God has in store.

When I considered the possibility of giving a theme to this year, a name – as we do when most things come to life – God’s precious word, that is alive, sprang in my soul giving a new breath of life to one who desperately needs daily reviving.

“Behold, I will do a new thing;…” Isaiah 43:19

The patiently loving Father regards His child – the refashioning work of the potter’s wheel takes time, the refining process is slow and sometimes painful. In hindsight, the breaking and reshaping – He knows what we need, and when. The vessel, still flawed, but somehow more able – ready for a new thing…

A new use, new work, new day, new season …Behold, I make all things new. Revelation 21:5

Welcome, the Year of NEW!

The Smell of Fall

When I rolled over and slung feet over the edge of the bed this morning my eyes were barely open. As my husband would say, you could have blindfolded me with a piece of dental floss. I slipped my feet into his shoes because they were closest to the bed, walked mechanically through the living room, clicked a leash onto the dog's collar and opened the front door. That's when it happened!

A familiar scent, so faint that it could have gone unnoticed, kissed my nose. I shut my eyes tighter, leaned against the unfinished porch post and breathed deeply. There is was again, I knew it! As I stood there, the same breeze that brushed across my cheeks swept through the trees and made the smallest rattling sound. This is not the brushing sound of a summer breeze that moves through leaves moist and alive but the sound of leaves drying and tapping against each other before they fall to the ground. This opened my eyes.

The sky was that amazing color of blue that you can only see when the summer haze starts to fade away. It is bright and vibrant, and though all of the greenery around may be dying, this blue reminds you that something is about to come to life. I closed my eyes again and smiled, this time anticipating things to come.