"Adoption!"

I was reminded recently by Stephanie Koster, a member of our church, that November is the month of Adoption in the United States. She shared with me her blessing of adopting her daughter, Jackie. Then I was reminded that in our choir we have our own little Roxxy Blair who received the blessing of being adopted as a baby by her family. What a blessing it is to be adopted! We have many of our church members who have received this blessing, either by being adopted themselves or by adopting a child into their family. And the blessing continues as those adopted children grow to be a blessing to all of the people around them! Our church just wouldn’t be the same without Jackie Koster and Roxxy Blair who insist on pouring out dozens of hours a month to be great encouragers of others!

This blessing of adoption so closely aligns itself with our Washington Cathedral culture.

Look at our Purpose Statement, Our Mission Statement and Core Values and see if you don’t agree:

Washington Cathedral Purpose Statement:
Care for the people you find and find people to care

Washington Cathedral Mission Statement:
“Building the greatest caring network the world has ever seen by empowering people to begin their journey into a growing faith in Jesus Christ and live in a healthy community of Christ Followers!”

Washington Cathedral 10 Core Values:
#1 We believe a Christ centered positive faith is essential!
#2 We prize greatly a joyful servant lifestyle!
#3 We cannot imagine being anything but a church that reaches unchurched people!
#4 We value highly, diversity and the dialogue of healthy life-long friendships!
#5 Our aim is always towards being a grace-filled community!
#6 We cherish God’s word and walking in the Spirit!
#7 We consider living out the good news of the Kingdom of God and relying on miracles as essential!
#8 We value highly ministry to protect our environment and ministry from the beauty of nature!
#9 We believe teamwork and the collaborative approach is absolutely necessary!
#10 We value highly, excellence and investing our lives in a philanthropic joint effort to make our world a better place!

Have you taken the time to adopt a child in our congregation to be an extra “auntie” or “uncle” to encourage them in their dreams? Have you noticed a single mom or dad who would benefit from having an extra “dad” or “mom”, “grandpa” or “grandma” to encourage them as they raise their children? It’s not hard to do. Just be available andallow God’s love to pour through you! You can follow in the footsteps of last weeks Beatitude in the book of Mathew:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matt.5:6 NIV

As Pastor Tim said recently….. these are the people who just do something right… because they KNOW it’s the right thing to do!

Pastor Naomi