Ethiopia….

I have started this blog several times and not been able to finish it.  I guess because of the images i have seen, the people in such desperate need, your mind says, this can’t be true, there was a moment that i was overwhelmed and my mind said this is too much, there is no way to fix this.  However as I watched my friend Pat and the different leaders of the medical clinic and the feeding centers and the ministry to prostitutes it caused me to realize, what I have been saying is true.  We can’t do everything, but we can do something, and what we will never do is nothing!

Engacha Ethiopia is the most inexplicable place I have ever seen.  It seems to be ripe with resources but because of a lack of education on how to use the land, and a lack of money to resource education, and medical care and day to day living, this place for many is a nightmare.

My friend Jennifer wrote a while back, after she had visited this place, that it was one of the most difficult things she had ever seen or done.  We literally have to choose the worst of the worst to help, because they are all in a bad way.  You have to turn off your mind, which says, “There is too much need, what can we do?”  It says, “I can’t take this, I will put it out of my mind.”  We don’t want to know that there are people living like this, starving, dying of malnutrition, dying of disease and sickness that would not kill them if they had proper medical care or could afford any kind of medical care.

So, I am shouting it from the housetops, don’t turn your head, don’t act as if it’s not happening, do something, pray, give, go, do something.  People like Pat and ICA need our help.

It’s the same problem that we have in getting people to decide to help fight human trafficking.  It’s not that people don’t care, it’s not that people are unwilling, I truly believe that in our pristine world we just can’t fathom that there are people who buy and sale humans for the purpose of perversion.  We want to think that people who are being prostituted are choosing that life, and that somehow gets us off the hook from helping.  When we find out that these are little girls 4, 5, 6 years old and up are being sold, or tricked, or kidnapped for the purpose of prostituting them for people who are so depraved that they would have sex with a child.

Its ugly, we don’t want to see it or know it.  There is an indictment on the church, and that is we are condemning not caring. What if a person has chosen this life?  What if they said I want to do this to make money, would we then say, you deserve what you get, or would we try to reach them with the love of Christ?  What did He do with the woman at the well, the woman caught in the act of adultery, or Mary Magdalene, he didn’t disqualify them from his love, they all made choices, but he loved them any way and helped them.  Let’s not consign people to the dark while we are holding the light, even when they are guilty by choice.  I know that I was guilty by choice, and Jesus reached me, and I know that you were guilty by choice but he reached you.

And if we are supposed to reach those who are guilty by choice, then we definitely have a responsibility to reach those who are captive to injustice.

The good thing is that someone is doing something about it.  There are great people in this world, who are giving their lives to the cause of Christ.  They are praying, giving, going, and changing things to reach those who need our help.  In Engatchah, they have put in a new clinic that is seeing lines of patients a day.  The doctor their used to live in this community he got out and the opportunity to go to university and was at the top of his class, he could have chosen a lot of posts, but instead he said I want to go back to my home and help my people.  There are people who are manning these feeding clinics, who are building orphanages who are planning to teach community farming that will help them find their own solutions and bring dignity to their world.  Pat would not want me saying this but he is a real hero, and he is doing something to change the world.

They all love him and respect him for what he has brought to this area.  He has made a way for people to have a changed life.  There is a local governmental leader whose name is Ababa, and he has done so much to help ICA because they are helping his people.  He said, “I am so happy these things are happening for my people, and I would rather die, than think that this change was not happening.”  He said he would rather die, then live and know his people were not being helped or learning to help themselves.

Oh God let us say with the passion of our hearts that we would rather die, than to live and know that nothing is being done, about starvation that nothing is being done about human trafficking, that nothing is being done about the injustice in the world.  Please, I mean this please pray for Ethiopia, pray for Engatcha and hosanna Ethiopia.  Find a way to help, there or around the world in other works that we are doing.

Find a way to help right here in our own community.  Does it really matter how people got in the situation they are in, or do we just need to do something about it.  I will not stand before God and say, I would have done something but they chose that life; imagine if Jesus had said that.  Remember our light can only shine its brightest in the darkest of places.  Remember John 3:17 For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

This is only the beginning and I am going to put one picture on this blog that can give you a bit of an idea of what it was like, I really don’t know how to put it in words, but it should inspire us to say, right here in my own city, in my own neighborhood I will find a way to help people who need help.  Whether it is just love or acceptance they need, or whether it is money or resources they need, or just dignity or education or food, or someone to care.  Please, please get it in your heart, get it in your mind, its not enough to know God, we must make Him known.

David

Where the Asphalt Ends

first let me say there may be several mistakes in this blog because I am using a keyboard that is set up a little different.  I am currently sitting in the Niarobi airport, waiting on a flight to Ethipia to continue this great adventure.  The story I am abut to tell you is true and one of the most impacting of the time we have been here. 

The team in uganda really had one objective when they came here, and that was to build an educational faciltiy for watoto and to connect with the kids, and we did that every day.  At night after the work day was over, we would walk into the community and mingle with the people, talk to them, give them gifts, and just get to this neibhborhood.  This district had a huge nighlife, and we got right down in the middlle of it. 

Tyson had met a young man whos name is Alex, alex is about 24 and a year and a half ago he gave his life to Jesus.  He has a little sidewalk shop where he sales shoes, im sure you will see pictures of it later.  He is doing his best to make a living for he and his family.  He is responsible for his mother, his sister and his baby.  He had a wife and she ran away, she had the baby, left her with the family and ran away.  She is a precious littl baby girl named praise.

Alex, is not only a shoe salesmen but also a preacher, he goes up and down those streets, and preaches to the pimps and prostitutes and addicts and impoverished and everyone he can talk to about Jesus.

Before i arrived from Rwanda the team had gone out ministering and i hadn’t gone yet, it was evening and dark so Tyson, John and I went to the slums.  This is what they call it.  Its off the beaten path.  The main road is one club after another, one pool hall after another, one shop after another, but when you go up this road, where the asphalt ends and you are walking on mud and dirt, the further you go the worse it seems to get.

We took Alex so he could interprate and we went up into the slums.  There were people everywhere, kids roaming the streets, there parents not having any idea where they are, if they have parents. There are men and women out and the smell of marijauna is pungent in the air, and merchants selling their wares, and prostitutes doing the same.  It was shocking how many kids are out and roaming.  We had made a friend, his name was mike he was nine years old, his mom died, his dad moved away and he lives with his older brother, who i don’t get the feeling ever knows where he is at.  It is a sign of friendship for friends to hold hands, so Tyson and John are carrying bags with bibles and goodies in them and michael and i were walking along and michael was holding my hand, and alex was telling me of the great things God is doing in his life.

We started handing out bibles, you would have thought we were giving out free food, we gave out 100 i believe and we could have easily given out 1000, Tyson was brilliant though, he would tell them, “i am giving you this, share it with all your friends, bring them over and you all read it together.” 

So we would give out bibles talk to different ones abuot Jesus, and tell the Jesu akwagala, Jesus loves you.  They would grab those bibles and say thanks.  It was really amazing.  We continued to walk up the street and we came to a church, I’m sure it is nothing like what you may picturing right now in your mind.  It was a one room building, beat down and run down, but they were keeping it the best they could and were very proud of it, it was called ”Christ in you the hope of glory church. We walked in and there were several women and a few children, worshipping God, they were praying, we asked if we could join them, it was one of the neatest moments, i wish i had pictures of tyson, worshipping with them, but i didnt have my camera and the moment was not appropriate for a picture, it was one of those times that is so surreal you have to remind yourself its actually happening. 

After we prayed we begin to sing songs with them, they danced, and we loved on them, and we felt like giving the church an offering, i think what we gave was about 100 dollars, which would probably far surpass the budget for a year, you would not believe the response, they shot off like a rocket, and begin to dance and shout, and we were overjoyed by there gratefulness and simple thanksgiving.  So alex said, pastor you should share with them, and so i preached a short sermon to which the responded with great joy.  We prayed with each of them, and hugged them and the crowd grew by double by the time we were finished with kids and women who heard the commotion. 

As we walked back down, we gave away neclaces, candy, treats and bibles, and we shared our faith with them.  We had told Alex earlier that we were interested in ministering to the pimps and prostitutes, and wanted to give them a bible, so we were walking down the street he had us by the hand, and all of a sudden we ducked into this dark ally, very narrow place, and as soon as we did there were men who grabbed our hands and begin to offer women to us.  It was a disgustingly filthy place and very dark, there were men standing, and many women setting on a bench waiting to be sold.  These were not women being forced at least it didn’t appear that way and alex said these were women who didn’t want to do anytihng else, so they did this, he said he frequantly tells them they need Jesus and they need to Him to change their lives.

It became very uncomfortable very quickly, so I leaned in to Tyson and I said they are obviously misunderstanding our purpose here.  Which is fairly naive of us, white men from america, handing out gifts and walking straight in to prostitute central, what were they going to think.  I said, “lets back out and try this another way.”  We backed out and sense they know Alex and that he preaches Jesus to them and does not approve of their lifestyle we sent him in with a bible.  Then we walked off, knowing we did the right thing, we stopped and had a coke, and when we did the most miraculous thing happened. 

We turned around, and there was one of the prostitutes she had followed us out, she said, “I want to know Jesus.”  We were a bit shocked, but right there on the street, we prayed with her and she gave her life to the Lord.  When she asked, another young teenage boy who was standing there said, i want to know Jesus too, so he prayed with us and received Jesus.  While we were basking in the glory of this moment, another prostittute came, she was probably 17 and she said i want what they have, so we prayed with her too, about that time, the pimp sent one of the girls down to tell the two who had given their lives to Jesus not to ever come back, and we said praise the Lord!  We used wisdom and left at that point, but left knowing that we had shared the love of Jesus with people who were hurt and bound by sin, and just let Jesus does, He set them free.

Sometimes we need to leave the asphalt of our lives, we need to say goodbye to the good road and go ahead and trek up that muddy dirt road of the world, and well find that there are people shining a light there, and we will find there are hungry hearts there, we will find people who need Jesus there, and if we take the love of Jesus where the asphalt ends, it will change us as it changes them.

What is the asphalt in your life?  Your comfort?  Your status?  Your pride?  Your fear?  Step onto the dirt, and get your feet dirty, it will be the greatest experience of your life.

My next blog I will tell the rest of the story, we went to alexes house, to reach his mother, it will break your heart for those who need love and help, and inspire you to do what you can to reach another’s world.

Please excues type o’s and blunders i am using a keyboard that is not like what we are used to and can cause more mistakes than normal, which i’m famous for anyway.

David

An eye opening experience

Yesterday was incredible! We started the day with an early breakfast, and a small meeting as a team, just to talk about the day and what our expectations were and the attitude we wanted to take so we would be the most effective in our ministry to these wonderful people.

After eating we boarded the van to go to a group home for Rwanda survivors. These are homes that are set up with extended family members who come together to help one another. This particular home had several young adults and teenagers, cousins who lost all of their immediate family and were helped by having this home provided for them and receiving support to be able to function. These kids were all trying to get their education and were helping each other live. There were children and early teens and young adults. 32 People in this house. It’s better than nothing, but it’s no near enough space. They are still facing difficulties like money for education, transportation for education and work, and money for medical bills.

We met with them as a team, and after the formal introductions and a bit of small talk, we ask them to tell us their story, one 23 year old young man stood up and begin to speak. He was very unassuming and humble and maybe a little intimidated. I will tell you now the story he told is hard to imagine, hard to even think about, never the less he actually lived it.

He was about 9 years old when the genocide came into full effect, and he was in his home with his mother and Dad and his two sisters. The soldiers busted down the door, they came to kill the family. According to his account they chased his mother and father around the house with machetes and killed them. They then proceeded to chase down his two sisters and killed them both. They came back and got the young boy, and built a coffin in front of him, and told him we are going to bury you in that coffin alive, in fear of such a tortuous death he ran for his life. He hid in the woods and waited to see if it was safe. They had a practice of burning the wooded areas and all the refugees would run out of hiding, when they thought they would burn to death. That’s what they did that day. So when it started burning he ran out of hiding and continue to run, until he ran into a lady who said she would help him, she told him not to worry, then she started berating him for his race, she threw him on the ground and said you are worth nothing, I know this is graphic but true, she then proceeded to urinate on him as if to say you are lower than human waste. She then had him beaten and cut and he showed us scars on his arms and legs and head where he was cut with a machete. They then pulled this nine year old boy who had just watched his mom and dad and two sisters massacred, stripped him of his clothes and tied him in the crucifixion position to a tree, and beat him, and left him for dead, to make sure he would die they set him on fire, then left. Amazingly the fire burned through the ropes and he was spared, when the ropes burned and ran to safety.

As we set listening to the young man it was hard to believe he was standing there in front of us even able to communicate such an occurrence. Can you imagine what this must have done to the mind of an impressionable nine year old boy.

They were made to feel like trash, lower than trash, like nothing. Like they didn’t matter, they were referred to as cockroaches.

As we listened the Lord prompted me to tell them the story of Joseph and how he was abused betrayed and was completely innocent, and how God had given him a vision, and I related to them that God has a plan and purpose for their lives as well, and they should hold on to that and move forward. We then prayed for those who were still suffering physically and emotionally from things that happened during that time, three of them had been shot and still suffer physically as a result.

Pastor Jackson, a man of faith and an excellent spirit is a great visionary and he and his church provide for this home and 23 others. The Church is alive and Well in Rwanda.

We then proceeded back to our meeting hall and had a great first day of conference. The people are wonderful, and have a true heart for God. We did worship, several of our team shared, and I spoke on the identity of being a child of God. The one thing that this nation struggles with is identity. We declared, you are Christian this is your identity, which transcends the thoughts or limitations that man puts on us.

We had a great time with the team and some pastors that with us to hang out, we had some great bacon cheeseburgers, yep that’s right, right here in Kigali. Things are going well, our team is awesome, let me say people of harvest are just a different breed and really live to serve.

Today we start the pastor’s portion of the conference and we hope to help them with church growth, reaching out and leadership development.

-David

My hero part two…

Hero’s are truly all around us.  In my mind a hero is a person who is actively involved in making a positive difference in the lives of others, by sacrificing themselves.  I know numbers of people like this.  People who have been blessed and see life as an opportunity to be a blessing to others.

Hero’s see need and say, something has to be done.  To them this is not a suggestion, rather a statement of fact.  Hero’s never point at others and say you should do something, they take the responsibility themselves and do what they can.

Hero’s realize they don’t have all the answers, and they can’t fix all the problems, but the difference between a normal Joe and a hero, is action. Normal Joe says, “someone should do something,” hero says, “I will do something.”  We can’t do everything, but we can do something, and what we must never do, is nothing!

Whether you are a teacher in the classroom, a professional in business, a mechanic in a shop, a worker in a plant, a doctor in a hospital, a pastor in a church, we can all do something.  Will it take us beyond our level of comfort?  Yes.  Will it require sacrifice?  Yes.  Will it feel like its more than we can do?  Yes.

I think we should all go that extra mile, stretch beyond our boundaries, lead beyond our level, and achieve change.

Pat Bradly, of International Crisis Aid, is one of my hero’s.  Pat is a man who is truly doing things to change the world.  A few years ago he was in a crisis moment of his life, and he asked God to help.  God helped him make a major life change, which saved his marriage and his life.  He has an advertising business and is a blessed man, and is a blessing of a man.  Pat with his non-profit organization International Crisis aid, goes into “no go” zones.  He feeds the hungry, brings medical care to the malnourished, and is helping to rescue young women out of the sex trade, which is modern day slavery that is effecting the entire globe.

Here is a man, who is as down to earth as it gets.  Hes normal, fun, excited about life, has a great family, and is making a difference.  The way you know a person is really making a difference is they will always say, we need to do more, which I hear Pat say frequently.

So Hats off to my hero, Pat Bradly.

-David

Did You Change the World today….part 2

I met an educator today that is changing the world. As I have said before my wife is an educator and I am a Pastor, so our lives are great, we find ourselves in the path of need all the time, and get the opportunity to change our world one individual at a time, which is usually how it works. Never underestimate the power of one or few to bring real change. One of my favorite quotes is…

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

I also Love Proverbs 31:8-9 (MSG)

“Speak up for the people who have no voice,
for the rights of all the down-and-outers.
Speak out for justice!
Stand up for the poor and destitute!”

Its important that those who can speak out, those who can help, do. If we don’t who will. There are those who can’t speak up for themselves or stand up for themselves, and even if they did they would not be seen or heard. We as teachers, have that responsability, because in my mind the most injustice in the world finds its focus on children or the young, and it is our responsability to teach, train and help them learn and grow, to partner with their parents to build a strong foundation for their future.

I connected with a young lady today that is doing just that. She is an assistant principal in one of our local middle schools (Del Crest Middle School, Midwest City, Ok). This particular school has a fairly impoverished population and she knew that a lot of her kids would be home alone over spring break, she wasn’t sure what they were going to eat, or if they would get breakfast and lunch, and she knew that most of them would be home that whole time by themselves and the idle time spent can easily turn into trouble. So She created a program where they could come to school over spring break. There were a certain number of Kids invited and then a certain number of students above that who could sign up to be a part.

She Invited some of her students who were struggling academically and this afforded them an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and get great tutoring, becuase the ratio was about one teacher to ten students.

She had 90 students show up and attend all week. She told me that it has been incredible. She and 10 other teachers gave up their spring break to be there for these kids. We played a small part by providing breakfast and lunch one of the days for everyone.

Wow! As I spoke to her I could see the fire in her eyes, she had great expectations for these students, and she got the results she expected. What a great thought, what a great educator to think beyond the norm, to think at the level of the students need, and how it intersects with the teachers dream. I am so impressed, and I will support her and work with this school as much as we can to be a help to someone who is changing her world today.

Inspired

David

Did you change the world today?

Just about every evening, my wife Janae and I will ask each other, “did you change the world today?” Most of the time when people think about changing the world we think in terms of massive amounts of money, major world shaking projects, and political power and influence. What I have found to be true however is that most major world changing goes on every day with normal people who decide to live their lives with purpose and passion about making a difference today.

I am a Pastor and my wife is a teacher, so our occupations put us in position to truly, effectively change the world. The truth is however, I know a lot of pastors, and teachers who are passing up opportunities to change the world. We can all effectively change things for the better, but it is not something that happens automatically, or without intention and purpose.

A pastor can have opportunities to bring change, but get busy with urgent unimportant activities, and have day after day go by not having changed anything, or brought help to anyone. A teacher can get caught up in the day to day, and even be resentful of parents who wont help or kids who wont behave, and just do “the job.”

Every day everyone of us, no matter what we do, have opportunities to bring change, to help someone, to raise the bar, to care, to love, to change the world.

My wife works in a school system with great need. She has been working with her second graders on a presentation they were going to make. They had to make a report get their parents involved, and then present it in front of the class and their parents.

As it drew near many of them, because of the lack of parental involvement, didn’t appear to be ready. She could have given in to the status quo and accepted it as the norm, instead she made an impassioned plea to the kids, and let them know her expectations, and because she has spent time loving them, and going the extra mile caring for them, it has created an atmosphere of trust and respect. They arrived on presentation day and did an outstanding job. She has created in these kids a desire to learn.

Kids in these situations are many times aware of things that never enter the mind of kids who aren’t living in poverty. They’re aware of facts like “no one in their family graduating from high school or going to college.” She has inspired many of them in second grade to say, “I will finish high school and I will go to college.”

She has also brought a great change in many of the parents, getting more active with their kids, realizing how special their children are, and becoming proud of their accomplishments. She has a word for these kids who have been beat down, and had very little expectations placed on them. She calls them scholars, she says to them, “you are my scholars, you are brilliant, and you will succeed.”

So do what you can today, and when you go home tonight ask your loved ones, “did you change the world today?” With a little effort we can say, “yes, I did.”

-David

We can learn from anyone especially our kids…

Great day yesterday….very productive. I had the privilege to attend open house at my daughter Sydney’s school. She is in first great and very smart by the way. She really is a brilliant child. Sweet, Kind, sharp, funny, and very expressive. It was good to observe her element. We see our kids in our element all the time, but do you ever stop to just watch them around their peers, and at their school.

We looked through all her papers, and we did a math center together, then she read me a wonderful story about the friendship between a boy and his pet. She also reads well. Am I bragging to much? You’ll get your turn. I was truly blessed by her for an entirely different reason.

As we walked through the halls, different kids would say, “hey Sydney”, “how ya doing Sydney?” and they were all very enthusiastic about saying hello to her. At one point i was talking to the school counselor a friend of mine, and as we stood there talking a young Hispanic girl came up and hugged Sydney around the neck and the whole family said hello to Sydney. The counselor said to me, “did you see what just happened there?” I said yeah, they said hi to Sydney, He said, you have to understand this is who Sydney is. She befriends everyone, especially the kids who have obstacles to deal with. This particular girl speaks very broken English and her family as well.

He said Sydney really connects and cares about people, and doesn’t let any barrier keep her from connecting.

This gives me pride. I love people, I love to be around people, I love to deal with people issues, its what I do. However i have to admit, sometimes when there are barriers, I find it easier to move on then take the time to cross them.

One more thing she showed me, was her “I have a dream” paper.  They did a section on Martin Luther King Jr.  She was very artistic and her coloring exquisite of cours…”here i go again,” but what she wrote was the most important.  She wrote…”My dream for the world, is to love God, and everybody everyday,” and “My dream for our country, is no war, and no more arguing.”

I think if will listen, we might learn something.

Lets all take it from Sydney and develop relationship beyond any barriers. I think it would make for a better world….

What do you think?……..

When Compassion and Need Meet

    It’s interesting to me how uninterested we can be at times about real need.  I don’t think we are bad people, but there are a number of reasons why we turn our backs on needs around us and around the world.  One reason is denial.  I used to be the person who would see an informercial about starving children in Africa, the kids with bloated bellies and swollen bodies because of malnutrition, or the skeletal looking kids appearing to be just skin over bone, and plauged by flies all over everyone.  I would turn the channel as fast as I could.  I think, not because i didn’t care, but because i did care.  It was hard for me to understand how that could be real.  I mean, look around us in our culture.  We have our share of injustice, and there is plenty of poverty, and we have a responsiblity to help those who need it locally as well as globally, but we do the same things locally that we do globally, just ignore it.  Act like we don’t see it.  Turn the channel quick.

Another reason for a lack of interest in need is our personal pursuits.  We are so busy trying to be successful, which is a great pursuit, but we obsess to the point that we ignore need so as to not be inconvenienced by it.  Lets move from successful to significant and make a difference for others as well as ourselves.

There are many other reasons we turn our backs on need, the point is we do.  We can so easily forget how hard some people have it.  As long as we and our family are making it ok, we can forget that others are starving, we can forget there are kids right here in our city, being educated in schools that are completely underfunded.  We forget about precious wisdom in our elderly, consined to nursing homes never to be remembered or visited.  We forget about the literal millions of people who have been killed or are being killed by genocide, the systematic destruction of a people based on race or religion.  We forget about the millions of children around the world being sold like a posession after being kidnapped or bought in a multibillion dollar a year business called human trafficking.

I think if we would stop for a moment, and realize, someone has to take responsibility to help the forgotten, someone has to remember.  We would then act, like Jesus did.  If we would not deny but embrace the fact there are real issues, real people, real problems that need solutions. I think if we took the time to look long enough the compassion in our hearts would compel us to act.

Jesus, when he was on the earth, obviously had a strategy.  He had three and half years to teach, train, and develop 12 men to carry out His plan, and purpose of the Gospel once he was finished.  What I notice about him, however is he is never to busy to stop.  The bible talks many times about Jesus stopping and being moved with compassion.  When he saw the woman burying her only son, he stopped.  When He was asked by Jairus to heal his daughter he stopped and went with him.  While on His way, the woman with the issue of blood touched his garment and He stopped to speak with her.

There is another phrase I love in the bible.  “When Jesus passed by…”  In John 4, it says when Jesus passed by he saw a blind man.  We know what happened.  When He passed by the leper, he healed him, When he passed by the crippled, He healed them.  You see when Compassion and Need intersect there is a powerful opportunity for change.

So lets allow compassion to rise up in us, to shake us out of denial, and to stop our busy lives long enough to help with the needs of the forgotten.

Everyday we come to intersections of need, lets be fueled by compassion and remember the forgotten

David