The picture showed up on my Facebook news feed and I couldn’t look away.
I know that boy from somewhere! How do I know him?!
I would have kept staring at the picture as I wracked my brain for how I knew this boy, but life called. So I took a mental picture and was bound and determined to figure out why his picture sparked such familiarity.
Maybe two months later, a friend of mine was visiting from Russia. One of my first questions for her was about that picture.
Soon, all of the missing pieces came together in a beautiful mosaic that only God could create.
My friend was at a wedding and saw him. Much like his picture generated warranted memories for me, seeing him run around the room and play with friends did the same for her. Unlike me, my friend knew exactly who he was.
The boy in the picture was a child we met in one of the orphanages we served in while living in Russia.
It only took asking a few questions to learn that his once tragic story had taken an unexpected, but fairytalelike turn. He had been adopted by the pastor and his wife.
A couple weeks later, my friend had the opportunity to visit with his adoptive mother and learn more about his story. He was adopted into a family that has ample amounts of experience with adoptions. His brothers and sisters were also adopted. Much of their experiences, feelings, and reactions were similar. There was one drastic difference, however. His mother went on to explain that he was the only one of her adopted children who knew who Jesus was prior to being adopted. He was also the only one who brought crafts, Bible lessons, pictures, and other personal items with him.
The crafts he brought were the crafts he had done with The Boaz Project’s teams.
The Bible lessons he knew were from lessons taught by Boaz teams.
The pictures he had were of him with Boaz team members.
The other personal items he was able to call his own were from the Christmas gifts that were bought from money YOU donated. And delivered to him by Boaz teams.
His mom is forever grateful for how God used The Boaz Project in the life of her son.
I can’t help but wonder how God has used us elsewhere without us even knowing it…
