Daniel Ausbun
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Give 5 (from Sherri)

3/28/2013

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"We care for orphans, not because we are rescuers. We care for orphans because we are the rescued." -David Platt

Since we have announced that we are adopting we have gotten a lot of well meaning “whys?”

In the United States alone there are over 400,000 children in the foster care system, out of those, 100,000 are adoptable. Worldwide there are currently over 153 million orphans.  

In China, there are not foster parents but orphanages. When children are born with physical or mental ailments in China they are often considered bad luck by the families because of a strong belief in feng shui. Instead of receiving proper medical care they are abandoned, not to bring disgrace to the family. If these special needs children are discovered, they are brought to orphanages. Medical care does not await for these children at the orphanage. Due to a lack of financial resources, they struggle daily with medical conditions that can be treated easily in the United States.

While orphanages and foster care are helpful solutions to children in need, it is not what God intended when He created families. “God sets the lonely in families” Psalm 68:6. God created families to nurture and raise children, to show them His love. As children, we learn about God’s love through our parent's love.  

Today, Daniel and I start our Give 5 campaign. Please consider partnering with us to help unite our family.

www.ausbun.give5.us

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Picture Perfect (from Sherri)

3/18/2013

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Waiting for our little girl!
We have started the process of telling everyone about our adoption. What better way to spread the word than pictures, right? Saturday we embarked on the process of pictures with 3 children, 7 years and under. Oh me! The goal was to have everyone looking at the camera and possibly smiling. I guess you can look at the pictures and see if our goal was accomplished.  

I have to say I probably didn’t win mother of the year award after 2 hours of picture taking, but what a blessing my family is, even in the stress of picture taking. I constantly think that God is working on my patience and I wish that I learned more quickly. I am so thankful for God’s “kindness, tolerance and patience,” as “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance” (Romans 2:4). I strive to be be the type of parent that mirrors God’s love towards my children.

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Action shot! Our balloon popped!
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Just horsing around!
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How to Talk Someone Out of Committing Suicide

3/15/2013

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Every 40 seconds someone takes their life in the world. 1 million people per year. In America it's every 17 minutes. It is the 10th leading cause of death in the world.

Pictured above is the white chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, England - one of world's most popular places to commit suicide. People are unhappy, lost a job, had a breakup, committed a crime, incurred gambling debt.

Depression, despair, mental disorder and substance abuse are all major influences in suicide.

Some people have planned it for months, others have been thinking about it for a few hours - when someone is talking about killing themselves, you must intervene. 40% of teenage suicides are impulsive.

7 people in the Bible committed suicide, most notably King Saul (1 Samuel 31:4) and Judas (Matthew 27:3-5).

Here are some tips to share when you hear the threats:

First, offer a boatload of hope. Remind them about their children, good memories from the past and how their temporary circumstances or pain will pass. Hopelessness will always be a leading cause of suicide. Financial debt or pending prison is better than ending your life.

Second, remind the person that suicide is murder and breaks the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13). If the person threatening is a Christian, remind them their bodies belong to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:20). They would kill themselves and literally seconds later must give account for the sin they just committed. This is certainly not the preferred method of reaching God.

Third, tell the person God has a plan for their life. His plan is life not death. Jesus came so people can have an abundant life (John 10:10). If they repent and begin to call on the name of the Lord, He offers the life they're longing for.

Is suicide unforgivable? No. Romans 8:38-39 reminds us that not even death or life can separate us from the love of God. Christ offers the greatest victory over someone considering suicide - hope and life in Him.

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Change (from Sherri)

3/14/2013

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I have finally caved...after months of nagging Daniel about his blog, I have finally joined alongside him! Really, it is for a great purpose, to announce the addition of our 4th child. We were officially accepted through our adoption agency to begin the adoption process as of March 12, 2013. Our daughter Elizabeth has been so faithful from the start of this process, as she always prays “for our adopted little girl from China” at each meal time. I pray that I can have such glorious child-like faith. We are planning on adopting a little girl from China and cannot wait for God to lead us through this process.

From the beginning of our marriage I always imagined 4 children. We were shocked to discover we were having twins with our last pregnancy and the grand total would make 4 children! However, the second twin was a vanishing twin and the outcome was one child, our youngest Benjamin. Benjamin is a miracle. We were told that he did not have a stomach via ultrasound and that when he was born he would have to have immediate surgery. God led me to James 5:14-15. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” Daniel and I asked the leaders of our church to hold a healing service for our son while I was still pregnant. The next day we went to have an ultrasound and God had healed our son!!! It was a miracle and with this we promised God that we would not have any more biological children. God told me in a dream to name our youngest son Benjamin so that I would always remember my promise.

I struggled with only having a family of 5, because I had always pictured a family of 6. Perfect number for riding roller coasters, no one is ever left out and everyone has a buddy. God placed the idea of adoption in my mind and one day I casually brought it to Daniel’s attention. Almost thinking I was in for a battle I suggested the idea. To my surprise Daniel thought adoption sounded like a great idea and thus God has led us to this point. Thank you for wanting to follow our story, we can’t wait to see where it goes.

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Dads, Your Daughter Could Be Human Trafficked (aka a Sex Slave)

3/6/2013

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It began as a friend request from a cute guy. She didn't know him, but wanted a boyfriend. 3 months later her pimp was arranging 4 customers a night and 3 porn videos during the day. This is the life of a sex slave in Atlanta.

Kidnapped, Deceived, Abused, Fearful, Embarrassed, Raped, Silent & Disease describes the life of human trafficking. This is a 32 billion dollar industry. The Super Bowl is the biggest human trafficking event of the year. If you view porn, frequent a massage parlor, stop by a strip club or buy an escort, the young lady is likely a sex slave.

Earlier this year in Atlanta was Passion 2013 led by Louie Giglio. He raised awareness to modern day slavery, which is flourishing. This is a hard truth to handle, and Christians must respond. Atlanta is the number one city in America for human trafficking and Thailand is the number one country in the world.

Be Aware:

It's embarrassing and shameful. A couple of weeks ago I was scammed for $75. I was embarrassed and couldn't believe I fell for it. What if the stakes were higher? What if my boyfriend turned into a pimp and sold me for 6 months? How could I tell my friends? My parents? Many girls (and boys) live with the regret they were fooled into this.

They target certain girls. If your parents are incarcerated, if you're from a broken home, or if you write all over Facebook/Twitter about wanting a boyfriend - a pimp will be searching you. 18 and 19 year old girls are a prime age because they're no longer minors.

Educate your daughter. Dads, you must prepare your daughter how to respond if they're approached by a guy who gives them lots of attention yet barely knows them. Don't believe the lie when your daughter turns 18 that she's now an adult and can make her own decisions - that's when she's most vulnerable. A pimp is preying on attention-needy young ladies - with lies of becoming a model and making lots of money. Run away if a guy ever asks if you'd like to become a model.

Resources:


Street Grace in Atlanta
FBI Human Trafficking
Polaris Project

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5 Things to Know About Leading Sports Ministry

3/4/2013

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Tomorrow begins First Baptist Moreland's 6th season offering Upward Soccer. Last fall was our 6th season of Upward Flag Football & Cheerleading. Upward Sports is the largest Christian Sports Ministry - over 2,600 churches partner with Upward. It began in a basketball gym at First Baptist Spartanburg, South Carolina - set-off by a message from Johnny Hunt to Caz McCazlin about the importance of reaching one more.

I've coached nearly every season, sometimes two teams per season. It's time consuming, but worth it. Here are 5 facts I've learned from 6 years of Sports Ministry:

1). Sports Ministry requires alot of time. If you're looking for something quick and easy, running a football league isn't it.

2). Sports Ministry can be self-sustaining. Sell concessions, sell pictures (you should receive 20% of all sales), and ask for sponsors. People will give for little Johnny to play soccer and learn about Jesus.

3). People like to register and pay all online. The days of evaluations, try-outs, and waiting in a registration line are over. We began using online registration with Blue Sombrero our 3rd season and now the majority of our registrations are online. We meet the player at the first practice.

4). You need an updated Sports Ministry Facebook page. Remember, most parents in your league are in the under/around 40 crowd, which means they're all on Facebook. Post game-day pictures, schedules, and promote the players and coaches on the page. The key is to keep it updated. If your page is boring info updated from last summer - then parents are going to believe your league is boring and outdated. Here's our page.

5). The secret to success are the coaches. Bottom line: good coach = fun experience for the child = they'll return next season. Even if you have sub-par facilities, if your coaches are prepared and pour their lives into the kids - it will be a great season. The coach has the most influence - over devotions, sharing the Gospel and inviting players/parents to church. The coach will determine if they play again. I coach because of this reason. There are people now born-again Christians because I took the time to coach. Your league director/minister of recreation should invest a great amount of time into their coaches.


Sports Ministry is time consuming, costly and requires many leaders. Is it worth it? Absolutely. There are millions of Americans who will never set foot into your sanctuary, but will pay hundreds of dollars to play on your soccer field. Jesus' greatest sermon, the Sermon of the Mount, was preached outside...

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