Romans 9 Part 3a Adopted into God's Family

4 year old orphan named Stephanie Fast who was born in South Korea after the war.

1) ABOUT HER

Her father was an American soldier whom she never met and Mom was Korean.

1) WHO SHE IS AND HOW SHE WAS ABANDONED

After the war there wasn’t a place for biracial children in that country. It wasn’t uncommon for mothers to abandon their children especially if they were biracial. Sometimes they couldn’t take the harassment, the social stigma, and being cruelly ostracized by others. They often left the children in train stations or other public areas.

Stephanie’s Mom abandoned her at the train station. She told Stephanie to get off at the next train stop and her uncle would be there to pick her up. No one came for her she was abandoned.

She waited until evening and the train master who was in charge asked what she was doing there. He called her a “toogee” and told her to leave.

It was the first time she heard that name. It was what they called biracial children and it meant garbage, dust, bastard, alien devil.

She said “from that day it was like my identity began with toogee and thats what the people called me.”

“to them I was a dirty toogee. and when you’re a little child and hear people call you that day after day you begin to believe it about yourself. She said I felt worthless. I was dirty. I was unclean. I had no name. I had no identity. I had no family. I had no future and no hope. Over time I began to hate myself.

2) A 4 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL

Here was a 4 year old cast adrift in a frightening and dangerous place that was predisposed to reject her - a world without grace.

I think of my daughter. She’s so protected, innocent, so tenderhearted, and so dependent on her family for everything.

3) NEXT 3 YEARS WERE MARKED WITH WANDERING’S AND ABUSE

She went on to describe what she faced the next 3 years wandering aimlessly and how she survived.

She said in the summer at night she would steel food from the fruit, vegetable, and rice fields. As long as she didn’t get caught she would eat. Plus the fields were full of grass hoppers, locusts, and mice.

In the winters she would steel from the villagers at night. To find warmth she found a foxhole to live in.

4) ABUSE

a) one day she was caught by the farmers that she was steeling from and thrown into a cold abandoned well hoping she would die.

She thought “why I’m I so bad that people want to kill me. Why can’t I be like other children who have a mommy and daddy?”

She screamed for help until the next day when she was rescued by a lady. The lady gave her something to eat and warmed her up. The lady told her:

“These people they will hurt you. But it’s very very important that you must live.

b) Another time she was tied to a active water wheel and left for dead. A older guy stopped the wheel and cleaned her up after her face was a bloody and swollen. He told her:

“Theses people they want to hurt you. Yo need to leave but you must live, little girl. Its very important. Listen to me you must live.”

c) she then went to the city near a river were there were hundreds of orphans on the street. There she was sexually taken advantage of and ended up very very sick with cholera.

5) RESCUED BY WORLD VISION

a)After awhile Stephanie was found on a garbage heap by a World Vision nurse. The nurse said she was more dead than alive.

The nurse was going to bring her back to the clinic but was told not to bring back older children because they were less likely to be adopted.

So she turned and walked away but as she turned to walk away her legs began to get really really heavy. She didn’t know why until she heard a audible voice say two words.

“Shes Mine!!” she said “I knew it was God - and I knew I had to answer him”

b) she was taken to a primitive orphanage where she was one of the oldest. She would spend the next 2 years helping with the babies and running shores.

6) THE ADOPTION

a) one day a missionary couple came to adopt. They overlooked all the babies and the husband was drawn to Stephanie even though she was older, still had dirt embedded in her elbows and knees, lice so bad that her head looked white, worms so bad in her stomach that when they got hungry they’d crawl out of her throat, a lazy eye that flopped around in her eye socket and couldn't see well from malnutrition, a face devoid of expression, weighed less than 30 pounds at 9 years old, had boils all over her and scars on her face.

b) Her account is “even with all my imperfections he still came over got down on his knees on my level and looked straight into my eyes. He stretched out his enormous hand tenderly stroking her face.”

“I sat spellbound. Here it was the image of grace I had been seeking. an aspiring father bringing unconditional acceptance to a child who had absolutely nothing to offer, no accolades or accomplishments, just herself in all of her vulnerability and scars and weaknesses.”

“my eyes moistened. This is the love of a dad. Maybe - just maybe this is the love of a Father.”

Her reaction because she was overwhelmed that she spat in his face.

c) The missionary couple said this is the child they want.

“ at the time I didn’t realize that I was being adopted. I thought I was going to become their servant.”

She thought “ I could pay off their kindness, I could work my way out of her indebtedness, I could repay them for taking a risk on me, I could earn my room and board”

Becoming a servant was the only way she could make any sense of her situation.

7) LIFE AT HER NEW HOME

a) after awhile she wondered why they were treating her so well and not putting her to work. She didn’t want to ask because she afraid to bring it up.

b) then one day her friend told her:

“don’t you realize that your not their servant but their daughter!

c) she said “I was astonished! I turned and ran out of the room and up the hill toward my house, thinking to myself, I’m their daughter, I’m their daughter, I’m their daughter! Oh that’s why I’ve been treated so good. That’s why no one is beating me. That’s why nobody’s calling me a toogee. I’m their daughter!

8) CONCLUSION

a) She said later in life that “I can honestly say there is no event in my life that I am better without”

We as Christians can’t fully understand grace apart from adoption. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.

God could have forgiven my past and given me a assurance of heaven and yet kept me at arm’s length. He could have made me a mere servant in his kingdom household. And even that would have been more than I deserved. But His grace is far more outrageous than that.

To be right with God the judge is a great thing but to be loved and cared for by God the father is greater.

John 1:12 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

I’m beyond forgiven, I;m more than a servant. I’m adopted by a father whose love is perfect, whose acceptance is unconditional, whose affection is never ending, and whose generosity is boundless. A Father who is for me forever.