Olive You So Much

It was a chilly Sunday morning in the summer. We had a different kind of morning planned for church; a different preacher than usual would be bringing the message that morning. My hubby pastor and his co-lead pastor were taking some of the summer Sundays to invest in lay leaders of our small church plant, offering them opportunities to use their gifts of teaching and preaching. This particular Sunday morning, Mr. Mike was up. He was preaching on the next section of the book of Ephesians (3:1-13) in our summer series, and the topic was "The Mystery of the Gospel."

He shared with clarity and passion, teaching so comfortably and engagingly about the Gospel, using many different scripture references on the screen along the way. During the sermon, one verse that he shared really stood out to me. It grabbed my heart and came alive in a brand new way.

Romans 11:17 (NLT) gives us such beautiful imagery of the spiritual concept of adoption, and the idea of the name "Olive" was etched on my heart that morning. 

At that point in the summer we thought that we may be matched that very month, as we had really hoped and expected that it could happen with the June referral group. (See previous blog post for full story.) Instead, the Lord had his perfect "Thai-ming" planned, and we were matched with a 16 month old little girl in the September group in mid October! As Steven and I prayed and considered names for many months, once we got matched, we felt peace about this name choice and its spiritual significance for our family, our faith, and for our daughter's adoption story.

We have a talented graphic artist friend, Erika who created some beautiful designs that represent her name and our Pink Link Adoption journey, and we are excited to announce a T-shirt Fundraiser that will help to support the financial expenses that we have remaining in our adoption process. 

As we welcome little OLIVE into our family, we pray that her adoption story will be a beautiful demonstration and reminder of God's adoption of us, His children into His Kingdom and Heavenly family.

Your purchase of a "Grafted In" t-shirt helps to support our Thailand Adoption! We have Adult Sizes XS to 4XL Available in both designs, and we are offering a limited number of Youth shirts (for local pickup only, no shipping.)

We are offering two ways to order:

1. Order and pay online & ship directly to your address using this link! (T-shirt company will print & ship after orders close on 12/8) 

OR

2. Place an order by emailing us here (kristinmelink@gmail.com) and pay via Venmo, Zelle, CashApp, Check, or Cash and then pick up your shirt(s) in person at the following event at our church coming up:

Phoenix Athens Holiday Market: Saturday, December 9th from 9am to 12pm at 660 W Broad St. Athens, GA 30601

Please Note: We have a limited quantity of Youth shirts and they will only be available for local pick-up orders and not for online orders that are shipped!

Shop Fundraiser T-Shirts

Thank you so much for all of the love, support, encouragement, and prayers in this adoption journey!!

"Grafted in" Meaning

I wanted to share a snippet from an article that helps explain the concept of  being "grafted in" both in horticulture and in the Biblical sense. See the full post here.

"To understand what the grafted in meaning is in Romans, we first have to understand the meaning in general of being grafted.

Grafted, by definition, means to cause something to unite with a stock. It is a process within horticulture where the tissues of a plant are joined together so that they may continue to grow as one plant.

The grafted in plant has two parts; the scion, which is the upper part of the plant where you would normally see leaves, fruit, flowers, etc., and the lower part known as the rootstock.

The rootstock is what supports the plant and provides its nourishment.  The scion produces fruit and flowers! One plant was chosen for the strength of its rootstock while the other was chosen for what it produces.

Israel here is the rootstock. It gave the world their Messiah. It supports the branches. It supports you as a believer!

Grafted In – Joined to the Olive Tree

Paul is telling the Gentiles [in Romans 11:15-24] that the Jews are in unbelief for a time so that salvation could be extended to the nations but, just as the “branches” were broken off to allow for the Gentiles to be grafted in, they too can be grafted back in at any time and since they are of the natural root, they will be easily brought back into the olive tree.

In this, he spoke of Gentiles being grafted in meaning an adoption into the root, but the natural descendants who were temporarily broken off are always able (and He desires them) to be grafted back in."