We definitely had a spiral of emotion last month when we thought we were heading to FL to adopt Jamaican twins, one boy and one girl. It fell through. Perhaps the mom changed her mind or someone in her family stepped up to the plate. We simply don’t know. After the mom initially contacted the adoption agency she never responded again. Of course I can only imagine the emotion she was going through. That’s anything but a small decision. God bless her and the babies.

So Amanda and I are back to the glorious waiting in the adoption process. We’re so grateful for the many people that responded immediately to our need and then insisted that we keep the funds for a future adoption when we notified them that this particular one had changed direction. Praise God for generous people that love kids.

We’re waiting and praying.

Wes, Amanda, Owen and Maci

We said yes to adoption earlier this year and finished our homestudy this past April. We’ve been waiting ever since. Today, out of the blue, we got a call and there are twins being born this Monday in Florida. We know the mom is Jamaican, not sure about the dad. The babies are one boy and one girl and they’re healthy. That’s really all we know. We said yes immediately and are now waiting for the final confirmation. We should know within 48 hours.

We’ll need $30k total of which we have $10k ready to go that we’ve already set back for this. We weren’t expecting the double cost but here we go!

Pray and Give if you can. If we don’t get the babies we’ll be waiting again. Apparently this can happen at any moment, keeps it interesting for sure

Any questions let me know.

Thanks for reading, praying and standing with us.

God bless the Martin Family of KC!!!!

Wes

Here is a piece of text cut out of our “Charli and Ali” page found on our website. Their 5th birthday is tomorrow, Nov. 1st, 2011. They only lived a short time yet their lives touched us so deeply. Amanda and I will never forget them.

Around the sixth month of pregnancy we began Level II ultrasounds as most twin pregnancies do. We found out that something was wrong with the girls. When scanning the head of Charli (baby B as we knew her then), the specialist began to notice excess fluid on the brain. As we went from week to week the diagnosis changed and adjusted as we would see more as the girls grew. We soon found that Ali was also affected.

Over the next couple of months we went on a roller coaster ride of hope, fear, sadness, and peace. It ended up that both girls suffered the lack of formation of the brain altogether. Still to this day there is no known reason why. The specialists all agree that somewhere around day 3 or 4 of conception something went wrong causing the brains to suffer correct formation.

Charli and Ali were born on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 early in the afternoon and some early MRI’s confirmed what we were seeing. Neither of our daughters had formed a brain beyond a bit of brain stem. Charli lived until after 4pm on the following Monday, the 6th, and Ali passed away early in the morning ten days later on the 16th. We only got a short amount of time with them but the time was profoundly impacting, joyous, affectionate, and satisfying. We would not trade the time spent with our daughters for anything.

Amanda said it best as we were holding Charli moments after she died, “I only got 5 days with you and I would do it all over again for 5 days.” If we could do it all over again for only a few short days we would not hesitate. Charli and Ali were an absolute delight and our hearts were and still are filled with love towards them. That little time changed our lives forever. Our daughters taught us how to love better and honor life to a whole new level. read more…

I spoke on this subject several months ago at our Sunday service here at IHOP-KC and the theme keeps coming up. It’s very simple. It’s a “meat and potatoes” message so to speak, some of the basics of our Christian faith. The point is to engage with the Person of God while reading the Bible. This must remain our goal in Bible study.

If you’re like me many times I feel the pressure to get through the study, complete the chapter, or get to the next book of the Bible. It’s like an unspoken presence that insists I get done so I can check the box that I completed my study or devotion for the day. At that moment I must ask myself what my goal is in the Bible study. Is my main goal to complete the devotion so I can feel good about my accomplishment? If so this will lead us to a Christianity based on rituals, rules and disciplines that lead to no true life in God. read more…

onething regionals are the International House of Prayer’s conferences for young adults, held in cities throughout the United States as well as in other countries. We end each yearlong tour in downtown Kansas City with our annual onething national gathering. This last year over 30,000 registered for the 4-day event.

At this important time in history, God is raising up a movement of young adults and awakening their hearts to intimately encounter Him, that they might give themselves to love Jesus with all their hearts, proclaim His Word to their generation, and bring the kingdom to every sphere of society.

onething regionals exist to communicate these truths to high school and college students everywhere. It is our dream to see thousands upon thousands make the decision to embrace the glory of living a life of one thing, as expressed by King David in Psalm 27:4.

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple (Ps. 27:4, NKJV)”

This year we’ve already had 3 regionals. We gathered just over 1,300 young adults in Orlando, FL in January as we partnered with the Orlando House of Prayer (OHOP), 1,100 in Rockford, IL and most recently 1,500 in Pasadena, CA. Each regional has it’s own unique story as we connect with what God is already doing in that region. We’re constantly encouraged to see how many different congregations and denominations are working together in prayer and outreach. And then to see all of them join efforts in hosting onething and get to serve alongside of them for a weekend is always a tremendous highlight.

Pray for us. We still have a full schedule ahead of us for 2011. We’ll be heading to Nashville, TN next, just over a week away. After that we’re off to Dallas, Detroit, Ohio, New Jersey, Houston and then Raleigh-Durham.

Be blessed.

Wes

Director

onething regionals

All of our paperwork is done, application filled out, referrals, background checks, finger prints…check. Our first meeting for our home-study is next week. We’re full steam  ahead with pursuit of bringing in another child to the Martin Family. We’re pumped, nervous, excited and sobered by this unbelievably great opportunity. Amanda and I both feel the pleasure and fear of God.

We could have a child as early as May. That is crazy.

Pray for us and believe God that His face will continue to shine upon our family.

Amen.

Wes

This past Sunday, 12.12, we hosted Convoy of Hope as they launched 12.12 Global Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering. We prayed from 12pm to 12am for God to raise up workers that will minister, for food, water, healthcare, education and shelter to be given and for Jesus to be powerfully preached amongst the poor. It was a sobering and powerful time as the 12-hour duration was met with the grueling facts of the numbers globally that are in profound lack. The Lord was moved. We were moved. And we know that many were affected because of the prayer that went forth.

Look for 12.12 in the future to be an established day in the Christian calendar. This day will soon be an annual time that the church worldwide is intentional about praying for and giving towards the poor and suffering of the earth. My personal commitment is that the 12th of every month I will be intentional to pray the poor in my own community and a specific nation that the Lord puts on my heart. There are several nations already on my heart but I’m asking God to give me insight and a spirit of prayer specifically for one of them.

Hopefully by this posture of prayer for the poor we’ll gain a heart to minister to the poor and truly be people of compassion.

Pray with us.

Wes

When the love of God touches my heart I feel as if I’m unstoppable as it relates to serving Him and loving others. What a powerful way to lead a people. This is the way in which Jesus leads His church. He reveals His love for us and in return we willingly and sacrificially offer our lives in love and service to Him, each other and to a lost and hurting world. This order is imperative. The order of loving God with all of our heart before service. Christianity must never be about serving and loving others above and before growing in our love for Jesus. Lovers will always outwork workers.

Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. This is our greatest commandment and our greatest reward. There will never be a more impacting statement about your life than the statement of God’s love for you. You will never possess a greater reward of success than the reward of God Himself being yours and you being His. As we grow in our security of this truth our life begins to radically line up with godly alignment. We hear and see the perfect will of God so much clearer.

Set it in your heart that you will love Jesus with all of your heart. I love speaking this to Him out-loud. I do it privately and as I confess it with my mouth it’s as if I can instantly feel the Holy Spirit’s presence bearing witness upon my heart. We were made to love God with all of our heart! When we set our hearts and minds to do so we will feel alive on the inside.

Be blessed,

Wes

This last Sunday I spoke at our Forerunner Christian Fellowship church services on the subject of fasting. I hope to post the video of it here on the website soon. Here is the link if you wish to watch it now: Wes Martin @ FCF. I called everyone to fast two days a week for the rest of their lives As impossible as it may seem to do this it’s the payoff that will actually compel us to reach for this for the next decades.

Jesus prophesied in Matthew 9:14-15 that there would be day when His people would fast for Him. He interchangeably uses mourning and fasting, describing that the context of their fasting would be from the pain in their heart of missing Him. In essence He was saying that people would long for Him in an expression of fasting. This would be the basis of their fast. They would be lovesick in their hearts, in pain, longing, aching for Jesus to be with them in the way that is intended from God’s own heart.

As believers we are meant to have this pain in our hearts. It should be real for every believer, to be in pain, to ache, to mourn for Jesus’ manifest presence in our own lives and within society. The pain, like mourning the loss of a loved one, represents the love and desire we have for Jesus. We desire Him in every arena of our lives but most importantly we simply desire Him, the Person, as our Creator-God.

It is wrong to let any pleasure such as food, recreation and our social life become more important to us than God. When we don’t adequately feed our inner-man on God’s presence and His Word this is the very thing that happens. Our desire for God is quenched, it’s put a side and a lot of times barely sustaining life. When we overindulge in the natural pleasures of life our inner-man is weakened and becomes lethargic. read more…