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Glorifying God Through Our Differences

May 17, 2019

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Conspicuous. Complicated. Inconvenient. Different.

These are just some of the words the Hostetler family uses to describe their tribe.

After living in various parts of China for the past ten years, Amanda Hostetler, her husband Doug, and their 13 children – Madeline, Nehemiah, Graham, Ezra, Isaiah, Gideon, Silas, Naomi, Eleanor, Faith, Abram, Lydia, and Tony – packed up and moved to Shoreline, Washington with the knowledge that God was calling them to partner in his plan for the Pacific Northwest. Amanda joined the King’s community at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year as one of the International Student Coordinators.

It all began in 2005 when Amanda recalled God vividly speaking to her and her husband to adopt.  “It was undeniable that He spoke to us, yet we had no context in which to frame it,” said Amanda. “We had not heard God speak like that before! We didn’t even believe He still did that! Yet, we had said we would do whatever he asked. We brought home our daughter in 2006. His plan for us included not just one child to call our own, but now ten who have come home through adoption!”

To the world, and even to the Hostetler’s themselves, their family is “different.” They stand out in crowds, get mistaken for being a school of students, travel in a fleet of red vans, and take up large sections on airplanes. The Hostetler’s are anything but ordinary.

“There can be an attitude in the United States right now which says ‘kids are inconvenient… kids get in the way. Kids cost a lot of money.’ It suggests that young people – children – are of less value,” Amanda remarked.

Who the world may see as orphaned, vulnerable, set aside and broken, the Hostetler’s see as ransomed, loved, wanted, displayers of glory, and created for a purpose.

Through adoption and expanding their family, the Hostetler’s have been given the platform to proclaim that differences are what God uses to display His glory.

“Differences and being conspicuous and being inconvenient and being uncomfortable and being complicated – these things exist in our world so God’s glory can be manifest,” said Amanda.

Join Amanda and the rest of the King’s community for Worship Night featuring the high school worship band on May 19th from 7-9 pm in Schirmer Auditorium. Amanda and her family will be sharing a special message titled, “When Faith Becomes Sight.”