Many of you know the story of our friends, Phil and Jaime Layton, (he is the Pastor at Gold Country Baptist in Gold Country). We expressed to them last fall that we were considering adoption and they told us about Didier's Orphanage in Africa. They were in the process of doing preliminary paperwork to adopt in the Congo at the time. It turned out months later that we were going to get to travel together with Phil to pick up our twins and their 3 month old baby, Mark Joseph. Three days before we were scheduled to fly to Africa, the Lord saw fit to take their little baby's life. It was indeed a shock and very difficult for the poor Laytons~ to say the very least...
In regards to the trip, we just figured that we would be flying alone. To our surprise, Phil decided to still go. He wanted to be a source of great encouragement to Didier even though it was going to be very difficult for him. God certainly granted his wish and Didier was encouraged in many ways by Phil's presence.
Two days before we left the Congo to come to the US (all of us had been praying for the Lord to provide a new little person), the Lord did provide, once again! A child, a sweet boy of 18 months named, 'Bonheur' (french for happiness). Phil left the Congo with a full heart, trusting that one more little person would be an orphan no more.
Phil has now returned and brought Jaime back to the Congo! They arrived this past Tuesday October 4, 2011. Jaime is only staying 2 days and then flies back home. She had to go in person if they wanted to streamline the adoption process. Phil flies tomorrow with their little son Matteus (who they re-named), to Kinshasa, the capitol city of the Congo, and will attempt to do what Stuart did with his girls. He has to get Matteus' passport, go to the two embassy appointments, then fly back to Lubumbashi, wait for the visa then hopefully fly home to the US with their new son! Please do pray for them! They already had a wonderful praise in that they got their adoption deed done yesterday! That means they are officially his parents on paper. God is already answering prayer! They have lots of photos and their story in detail on their blog site: lifeatthelaytons.blogspot.com
We realize that many don't know our connection with the Layton's. I started typing up history, but remembered that Phil already did. The following was taken from Phil's blog while we were in the Congo together. It describes the weaving of our lives together by the Master Weaver:
"In the end of 1997, Jaime and I, a starry-eyed newlywed couple, were visiting fellowship groups and couples Bible studies at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and we met Josie and Gabe Wilmarth. Josie knew American sign language like Jaime, and they hit it off right away and it was right around the time Josie gave birth to their firstborn Andrew. In fact the Bible study had multiple pregnant women at the same time; they said it was something in the water.
We ended up staying at that fellowship group, and after their first son, Andrew was born, they were the first couple to reach out to us in hospitality and to invite us to their home, which I still remember. It was a small guest house but their gracious kindness and hospitality impacted us and true friendship and fellowship developed between us. We were not only in the same Bible study together for years and shared many meals together, but we went camping together in Yosemite, and enjoyed many fond memories with bears, long hikes to waterfalls where we ended up carrying their kids on our backs, freezing cold water we swam in, and other memories that are not appropriate to share here but were very funny.
We were also neighbors more than once in apartments in the San Fernando Valley, 2 different buildings in particular in Van Nuys. Josie was an apartment manager and Jaime followed in her footsteps in 2 different buildings that they managed. The sad day came when the Wilmarths announced they were moving to Northern California just outside Sacramento where Gabe had a good job as a ER nurse and where they could buy a house. “Northern California?!” we half-jokingly confronted him. “Why in the world would anyone want to move to Northern California?” (just a few years later we understand why and are so glad that God also moved us to Northern California, a much better community to raise a family, and in God’s providence, not too far from our friends the Wilmarths)!
They soon invited us to their house in Orangevale and told us about their new pastor and about family camp, and said I should meet their pastor and ask if we could go camping with them. Before we knew it, we were camping again with our friends at a joint family camp with a church we now consider a brother church (Grace Bible Fair Oaks) and have partnered with their church on many events, a wonderful working of God’s providence.
Then last December 2010, our friends the Wilmarths again in their hospitality invited us to their new home and we shared with them about adoption and Didier and the orphanage here, and the Lord was moving in their hearts to pursue adoption. They also shared with Stuart and Jennifer Loucks about Didier, and the Loucks now have 2 beautiful girls from this orphanage in their home in Fair Oaks. On Thursday/Friday Josie and Gabe will be bringing home their precious twins Brandon and Kara and it has been a priceless experience to be with them in this time that I wouldn’t want to miss for anything. Jaime wrote to me the other day that one of the great blessings in all this is if weren’t for our heart to adopt and providential connection with Didier and these friends, Stuart and Jennifer wouldn’t have Jamie and Jordan in their home and Josie and Gabe wouldn’t be bringing home Brandon and Kara. It is very special for us to see how God’s providence has used us to bring such joy to these families.
Nearly 14 years after I first met this sweet couple, the Wilmarths, God has not only reunited us in Northern California, but has brought us together in Africa to experience the sweet hospitality of another couple who are greatly impacting us, Pastor Didier and Annie. God’s providence moves in mysterious ways, and Gabe’s training as a registered nurse and Josie’s fluency in French and my pastoral background has been used in many neat ways by the Lord already that are so obviously His handiwork. Here are just a few of the blessings that God’s providence has been unfolding just on Monday, as shared by my long-time friend Gabe. It’s a joy to truly rejoice with those who rejoice and I will share the rest of Gabe’s blog today, hoping you catch some of the joy as well:
Gabe writes:
‘Our hosts are some of the most gracious people in the world. They go out of their way to make us feel at home and they are extremely hard working. It is amazing to see the Lord at work in the lives of people who live in such a poor land. I am told that the unemployment rate in DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] is 80%. Most people do not have jobs, and in spite of the low average income the cost of [food and some items is] more expensive than in the United States. It is a strange economic and political world that we live in. The natural resources of the Congo could make it the wealthiest country in the world and yet it is one of the poorest. It makes you wish you could do something about it. We are left with doing the little bit we can to glorify Christ in our small sphere of influence and trusting in our Sovereign God with the rest of the circumstances that we can’t control.
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