New Blog!

For anybody who is still following this blog directly, I wanted to let you know that we have moved over to Tumblr because of their clean layout and easy features. Please update your links to www.theclairmontfamily.com.

Thanks!
Randy and Vanessa

Living for Your Glory

And take my life, let it be everything, all of me
Here I am, use me for Your glory
In everything I say and do, let my life honor You
Here I am living for Your glory

As the New Year has come and gone and the blogosphere is abuzz with the best and worst of 2011, I sat down and began to think what 2012 is going to look like. I could list all of the things that I think God is going to do this next year, make predictions or resolutions that I probably won't keep, but instead I want to make it simple: in 2012, I am going to live for His glory.

Two summers ago, I first sang this song at a church in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and I think it was the first time I could sing those words "here I am, living for Your glory" and truly mean it. Since then, it still is a chorus that stirs my soul and makes me weep because I want nothing more than to be an instrument of God, to be used for His glory and to let my life honor Him.  

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” - James 4:13-15

I don't yet know what 2012 will hold, but I can say that God is making mighty changes in our lives, in shaping our ministry, and in using us for His glory. I am excited to see what the next 12 months will hold, because I know that living for God's glory is never dull.



Much Has Been Given

This was a post I had originally planned a week ago, but alas, my master’s thesis got in the way. Thanks for your patience; hopefully I can blog more frequently in the coming months now that it is complete.

Freedom isn’t free. Elections in America are something that we take for granted, a routine, sometimes even almost annoying, cycle that comes up every few years. We spend months (or years) talking about the candidates, debating the issues, raising funds, and eventually casting ballots for our candidates. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but invariably, life continues until the next election cycle.

In many other developing nations around the world, this process is nothing like it is in the US. In many places it is tumultuous as best and deadly at worst, and nothing exemplifies this more than the recent elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Only the second elections in the country’s history, on November 28^th, this country undertook the task of polling its 70 million citizens for presidential and house seats. Over 18,500 people were on the ballot, and distributing materials across a country the size of Western Europe with no roads is a mammoth task.

Leading up to election, violence spread in many areas, usually from mobs rallying to support their candidate and clashes between parties. Human Rights Watch estimates that 18 people died directly from violence at polling stations on election day. Following the election, all of the ballots were shipped to the capital in Kinshasa, where millions of paper ballots were spread in warehouses and counted. It took over a week, but it was announced, not surprisingly, that the incumbent, Joseph Kabila, had won the presidency. Immediately the other candidates claimed that the results were fraudulent, and several even declared themselves to be president.

So far, the situation has yet to erupt into widespread violence, as it did following the 2006 elections were the opposition leader marched his army into the capital, but things certainly been anything but smooth.

I write all of this to say that we are certainly blessed to live in a place where freedom and peace go hand-in-hand. But this also means that we have an obligation. An obligation as a nation to stand up for the oppressed, the silenced and the forgotten. An obligation as individuals to stand up for our brothers and sisters around the world. An obligation as Christians to pray for and serve the least and lost.

Christ said in Luke 12:48 “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” As we are in this Christmas season, I challenge you to take a long, hard look at the things that you have been given: family, friends, home, job, car, health, church. Now ask yourself “If I have been given this much, what has Christ demanded I do with it?” This Christmas, let’s do more than just give iPads and Xboxs to each other, but let’s truly do what Christ has called us to do, which is “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

Number Three!

After several months at number five, we are very excited to say that we have moved up to NUMBER THREE! We are two numbers closer to seeing our child's face and starting the second half of this adoption journey.

Also look for another post tomorrow on the recent elections in Congo.

Grateful

I decided to study and learn more about gratitude and thankfulness this month since I was beginning to feel down. In the process, I thought it fitting to make a list of what I am grateful for. I thought about setting a goal of how long I wanted the list to be, but since I’m so goal oriented, for me it would become like a game of scategories, writing every item that pops to the top of my head. I didn’t want to just list items for the sake of listing them, I really wanted to meditate on gratitude and think through what I was writing. I struggled with what it meant to “give thanks always and for everything” (Ephesians 5:20). As I made breakfast this morning, I pondered, am I thankful for Peanut Butter? I use it every morning to spread on my toast, I love the taste, but am I truly “thankful” for it? Could I live without it? Would my life really be any different if peanut butter wasn’t in my life? Probably not. But I am thankful for access to healthy and nutritious food, to have the knowledge to know what a balanced diet is and to have the means and opportunity to nourish my body with food. So while peanut butter didn’t make my list of being thankful, it reminded me of the many blessings I have and to give thanks to my heavenly Father for providing for me. How often do I focus on what I want rather than on all that I have? I don’t think Paul meant I had to be thankful FOR everything, but that no matter the situation, I have reasons to be thankful and to give praise to God.

We are still waiting for a referral and haven’t moved on the list in over a month (still number 5). After the referral it will be more waiting, possibly up to a year. The waiting is longer than we initially thought and hoped, and I’ve finally reached a place where I can be thankful in the waiting because of all that I’m learning. I’ve been challenged to trust God in ways I’ve never had to. I’m reading a book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, she reminds me that “It’s only when you live the prayer of thanksgiving that you live the power of trusting God.” I’ve witnesses these words in action in my own life – as I’ve focuses on gratitude, my trust in the God of the universe has multiplied. A dear friend reminded me to never despise anything that drives you to your knees. It’s so easy to get discouraged, to whine, to feel entitled, and to sink further into the dark hole of discontentment. As I give thanks for anything and everything, it brings me step by step closer to the light and into the freedom of breathing the fresh air of gratitude and trust.

Thank you for……..
1. Saving Grace
2. A husband who loves the Lord and me
3. Crisp morning air that takes your breath away
4. A creative creator
8. A sister who is a best friend
23. A house to call a home
25. Friends that point me to scripture
38. A God who supplies my every need
41. Broken hearts on bended knee