Acres of Hope for U, 2...

Posted by Jenny Rae Armstrong in Mystical Meanderings of a Love-Struck Soul

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What would you do if one of your heroes showed up at your church one morning? And I'm not talking about the sweet little old lady you haven't seen for a long time sort of hero, (although those are great, too!) I'm talking about a Mother Theresa, Coretta Scott King sort of hero. The sort of person who when they walk into a room you blink, rub your eyes, and try to figure out if it's really them without seeming to stare.

I tell you what you do. You don't blink and rub your eyes, because you're up front singing, but the second the song is over you book it off the stage to catch them in the lobby before they leave. At least that's what I did when Patty Anglin and her family visited my church yesterday.

Patty Anglin and her husband Harold have been fostering and adopting special needs children for decades, throwing themselves into loving children society had thrown away. (Sometimes literally!) You can read the first half of their story in Patty's excellent book, "Acres of Hope". When they adopted their son Tucker from my childhood home, Liberia, in 2003, they were so moved by conditions there that they started not only an orphanage, but medical, educational, and feeding programs to help the devastated country back to its feet. You can read more about that at their website, http://www.acresofhope.org/aboutacres.htm.

You can see why she's my hero.

The incredible thing about Patty is that she's an ordinary person doing extraordinary things. She didn't graduate from Harvard with a PhD in Piety, she's not a rock star using her international fame to attract attention to the plight of the world's most vulnerable people, she's just a strong, spunky woman who didn't shrink back from her calling, but embraced it with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That, more than anything, is why Patty Anglin is my hero. I hope I can be as passionately committed to God's call on my life as she is to her's--as soon as I figure out what God's call on my life might be! :-D For now, I will remain passionately committed to being passionately committed, and to God, who created all of us for a special purpose, whether we are a limbless Liberian baby who survived an abortion, a busy mom in Northern Wisconsin, or a rock star who uses their international fame to attract attention to the plight of the world's most vulnerable people. Whatever the call, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right; She moves in mysterious ways...