The Briefest of Updates

Hello everyone!

I'm David--one of the Sheppard kids--here to update you on some of the goings-ons with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family in Haiti. 

Hello everyone! I'd just like to preface this by saying that much has happened in our tumultuous yet blessed lives since the last post. I would like to give an overview of all of it, but that'd take too much time. So for this post, I'll share with you Mom's speaking engagement at the Orphan Summit last month. Also, there's another mission team leaving for Guatemala in a couple of weeks so please keep them in your prayers! 

Mom was invited on behalf of Chosen International to speak at the Orphan Summit back in early May this year. For any of you that don't know, the Orphan Summit is an event hosted by the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) with the aim of equipping people to care for orphans with wisdom and love. To those of you who know my mom, it must be very shocking to learn that she often is asked to speak about adoption, orphans, and attachment.

This time was no different. Mom taught a workshop on adopted teens and--more specifically--how important adoption advocacy groups, ministries, and churches can collaboratively support families with teen adoptees. Sounds very interesting, don't you think? I said as much to Mom and asked how she thought the workshop went. 

"Well," she said, "one of the women attending apparently didn't like it. I got some negative feedback from one person afterwards." The thing is, sometimes people want answers that don't exist. There are a lot of people who would gladly take Morpheus' proffered blue pill and live in a false reality. It's impossible to please everyone and even to attempt that is completely impractical. Sometimes the overwhelming difficulties people face causes a show of bitterness to anyone who reminds them of their pain. It's a natural response.That being said, someone from the popular magazine Adoption Today seemed impressed and even contacted Mom wondering if she'd be interested in writing an article on the subject of Teens in Adoption.  

Anyhow, Mom's other workshop was a gigantic success and she tells me she had a good time at the Summit this year. Her next trip is going to be to Guatemala from June 21 to the 29. It's a fairly small team with only 8 members including my mom. They're planning on providing medical care and education in Santa María de Jesus.

Traveling can be very tiresome and even a little dangerous. Please remember them in your prayers this month as they seek to alleviate physical ailments while--more importantly--they trust God will use them to minister spiritually to those they come in contact with.

That's it for now. Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and just general support you've thrown our way!

~God Bless