The annual Bamboo Cousins Reunion has become my most favorite weekend of the year. Started three years ago as a way for an online support group to meet face to face, it has become a weekend of fellowship, laughter, encouragement and hope. Imagine the world's best summer camp, that you wait for ALL. YEAR. LONG just to meet up with your favorite friends again and to see God move among you--THAT is the Bamboo Reunion.
2016 Williamsburg, VA: 7 families, 8 Bamboo children, 5 states, 40 people
2017 Nashville, TN: 15 families, 20 Bamboo children, 9 states, 99 people!
The shear group size alone made this year's event particularly special. Several families were repeats from years prior, but for many this was their first year. Just think of the bravery it takes to pack up your family & drive cross country to meet up with strangers you met on the internet! Yikes! But strangers we are not. The shared experience of welcoming home a child with Down syndrome from China is special--the shared passion to encourage others toward Jesus along their adoption journey is precious. God picked the right group of people to be the Bamboo Tribe together <3
Just look at these lovely families!
We invaded a rural Tennessee state park: piled into their camp grounds and hotel; ate their food; hiked through their forests (found all their ticks!); explored their lake; and spent hours and hours swimming in their pool.
We laughed together. Prayed together. Stayed up late together. Parented together. Marveled at God's hand in our lives. THEN, we had an epic Pie Face Game with the kids!
And my MOST favorite part...we worshiped together. The worship absolutely melted me. Ninety-nine people from six or eight different denominations vulnerably pouring their hearts out in unison to our shared God. Literally, nothing else mattered. This must be what Heaven is like--when all the tongues & tribes unite at the foot of the Throne!
I am often asked WHY this crazy tribe of people works. I honestly don't know. If you wrote down on paper what we are and read it out loud, you would shake your head and roll your eyes. Strangers just don't connect like this in real life. But God. The Lord clearly states that He has called us to be in community with each other--we were created in fellowship to live in fellowship to minister in fellowship. And let's be honest, it's hard to develop deep and solid relationships in the best of circumstances. Stepping out into special needs adoption is treading water in rough seas in the relationship department. But then God... He promised to set the lonely into families--that is orphans into homes, singles into marriages, families into communities. And this particular community...this Bamboo Tribe...is a pretty cool village to be apart of.
I am often asked WHY this crazy tribe of people works. I honestly don't know. If you wrote down on paper what we are and read it out loud, you would shake your head and roll your eyes. Strangers just don't connect like this in real life. But God. The Lord clearly states that He has called us to be in community with each other--we were created in fellowship to live in fellowship to minister in fellowship. And let's be honest, it's hard to develop deep and solid relationships in the best of circumstances. Stepping out into special needs adoption is treading water in rough seas in the relationship department. But then God... He promised to set the lonely into families--that is orphans into homes, singles into marriages, families into communities. And this particular community...this Bamboo Tribe...is a pretty cool village to be apart of.
No comments:
Post a Comment