Praying for Monica
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!” Psalm 119: 18-19 (ESV)
To sojourn is to stay somewhere temporarily. It is being somewhere on purpose yet knowing that place is not the final destination. The Psalmist says here that his sojourn is on the earth. All of the earth, the Psalm teaches, is but a temporary stay on the journey to something greater. Yet there are glimpses of that “something greater” even on the sojourn. These stanzas bear out the beauty and necessity of delighting in the things of the Lord. The Psalm says that home is in the very Word of God. Young Jesus echoes this when his parents find Him in the temple after searching for Him. “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? (Luke 2:49)”
This heart of thinking about ourselves as sojourners is what prompted our College Ministry to lead the partnership of our church with Hope Local. We mentioned this yesterday in the worship service. If you did not see that announcement, you can find it in the sermon by clicking this link: https://ubcfortworth.org/media/sermons/. Hope Local is an organization that exists to “help churches help vulnerable kids and families.” The number of children in the foster care system in the state of Texas is staggering. As Believers, we are called to fight for them (see Jamse 1:27), but that fight can feel overwhelming with numbers so great. What Hope Local does is match a church with one specific child to intercede and advocate for. For UBC, that is Monica.
Monica is a 15-year-old girl in the foster care system who wants a “forever family.” She currently wants to be a police officer so she can “save people’s lives,” as she told us in her video. When she found out a church would be praying for her, she was so excited that she told everyone she lived with. She loves farm animals, especially pigs – which make her light up with smiles and giggles. The beautiful thing about this partnership is that we get to learn who Monica is and share her with the world, not as a project to be completed but as a person to be loved. Hope Local is the intercessor between us and Monica. We may never meet her in person, but by the grace of God we may get to introduce her to her new family someday.
Statistically, Monica is in the least likely demographic to be adopted – teenage girls. Statistically, she has the greatest chance of aging out of the system and the greatest chance of falling into extremely hard circumstances quickly thereafter. But we serve a God who is greater than statistics. We serve a God who has literally written adoption into the fabric of our faith by adopting us as sons and daughters into His family. (For more on Biblical adoption, see this previous post). Our adoption guarantees us a home in the Kingdom where broken families are restored and tears and heartache are washed away in the radiance of the glory of the King of Kings. It also calls us to action now – to advance those same causes here on earth. And for now, we do that for Monica.
This will begin to take shape with firm action steps being given on November 8th – National Orphan Sunday. Be sure to tune in to the sermon that day. Until then, we are focusing all of our church into a singular, earth moving, generation changing step: prayer.
- Pray for Monica to find a forever family that will love her unconditionally, whether a family in our church or through our social circles.
- Pray that she would come to know Jesus.
- Pray for God to heal Monica’s heart and mind from past trauma.