Wow I am over whelmed with how blessed I am to just be here and work with this ministry. I am honored to be working with a group of people that are on fire for God and are passionate about helping the needy. I already feel at home and I am in the perfect place for me to do what God has called me to do. I have felt like I really need some alone time with God in the mornings, time to just get closer to Him and to let the fact of the incredible journey I am on sink in. Just to give you all a hint this is a part of what I wrote in my journal this morning. “I am in awe of what Jesus has done and is going to do for thorough me this year. Just to be able to stand and see LA’s sky line is so amazing and I am so full of thanks giving! I stay amazed by You Lord.” I am working with the Adopt a Block Family as they call it, which is one of my favorite program I read about in the book A Cause with in You. Jonathan Martinez my team leader story of how he was a gang leader and found Jesus at the dream center discipleship program is also in the book. When I meet him and found out He was my team leader I was like, wow really God how cool is this to be able to work with one of my heroes and to work at the best job ever! I have so many stories that I can’t share then all but I will give my three favorites. First is my second day here I went with my team to a family’s apartment to give them some furniture. When I walked into there apartment I was shocked to see in a one room apartment a mom and her two kids sleeping on the floor with only blankets and no pillows. They also had no furniture at all not even a chair. We gave them a dresser, a table, some chair and three mattresses. Dave one of my teammates also went to Ross and bought the family three pillows and I got the one year old little girl a teddy bear. J Friday night my team and about 15 people went to Skid Row to give out food and blankets to the homeless. It was heartbreaking to see so many people, it was like literally one after another seeping on the sidewalks in tents and in wheelchairs and just on blankets. Lastly to day I went on my first Adopt a Block it was amazing to see how many people really love to team that visit’s the same site ever week. We even were able to go to a little girls birthday party and jump in the jumper with all the kid. Just to see how two people that would have not even spoken to each other because it is not socially expectable to be best friends is just God. Well I hope to write every week I can’t sooner because of the internet and I am working almost every day.

Yesterday I saw my 22 year old daughter, Rebekah, off at the airport with much happiness. She is serving a one year internship at the Dream Center in inner-city Los Angeles. Her long-term dream at this point is to take what she learns there and apply it to our future center in Bogota, Colombia. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I know that I am Daddy-biased but I also know that she is an exceptional girl for whom God has great plans.

I am a man who is blessed beyond explanation (apart from amazing grace) with several wonderful children and as I think especially of Rebekah today, away on her new adventure for Christ, my heart swells with a few of the things that I love about her the most.

Rebekah is the personification of the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. From the time she was a little bitty girl she has been a servant. Whether it was mothering her four siblings, sometimes to their chagrin, or going to work with Daddy and the boys every Saturday for years doing moonlight remodeling jobs (I thought it was solely because she loved being with Daddy but she confessed to me later that it was also because I would stop and get yummy breakfast burritos on the way to work), or helping Mommy in the kitchen, or taking care of lots of children, or helping plant churches, or speaking with Dad and Mom at home school conferences, or loving orphans in South America, or loving and serving the many people who have come through our home over the years, or working at a job, Rebekah has exemplified loving servanthood. I’ve called her Beka the horse since she was a little girl, not only because she could outrun every boy within 50 miles, but because she could outwork any two people I’ve ever known.

But Rebekah was not just a Martha growing up. She also had a Mary relationship with Jesus that challenged and humbled me. Her prayer life and her fervent love for Jesus keeps me thirsty to know Him more. She regularly out-reads me, which is no small feat, putting away two to three books a month for years and years. There is a pile of books next to my chair that Beka has read and is waiting on me to read so that we can share in the joy. She regularly lights up and says, “Oh Daddy, I can’t wait until you read ________ so we can talk about it.” We are a family of voracious readers but nobody knows our multi-thousand volume library better than Rebekah. One of the greatest joys in life is the love we share for missionary biographies… and a good cup of coffee. We spout names, dates, and miracles from christian history to each other like sports fans quoting the stats of their favorite players. She led me to love Amy Carmichael, William Carey, Gladys Aylward and so many more. Another thing I love about Rebekah is her depth of understanding in theology. She is somewhat shy compared to the rest of the boisterous Bullens but I love the way our mouths would drop open in amazement when a theological discussion would come up and Beka would weigh in with her very strong and well thought out opinions, quoting from Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and others.

I could go on and on about her big heart for people, and especially for Daddy 🙂 but I’ll stop here.

I’m going to miss her terribly but that emotion doesn’t even approach the feeling of joy in my heart that Rebekah is in a great place, learning from great people, doing what she loves most (serving “the least”), on mission with a great God!

You can follow her exploits at www.QuestToKnowHim.blogspot.com

“Because the church has lost Holy Ghost fire, men go to hell-fire!” – Leonard Ravenhill

 

Read the beginning of the series HERE

 

We were very sad to leave our teenagers in Roswell, NM but we were also excited about what God had for us. My sister, Melanie, who had moved to Roswell to live with Lisa and I when she was 15 went off to Bible college and we moved back home. I had always felt that God was calling me to be an evangelist/revivalist and so I believed that this might be the time when God would bring that to pass. So in the spring of 1987 we moved back to Albuquerque, rented a broken down little house with my younger brother, Mark, who was preparing to go to Bible college, in a neighborhood known as “the war zone” because of the crime, drugs, and gangs that lived and operated there. Five people were murdered within a block of us the year we lived there but it was what we could afford. Our neighbors were pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and immigrants.There was some kind of war going on around us every day.

 

In our youth ministry in Roswell I had become extremely close to one young man, Rusty, who didn’t have a family. Rusty was my right hand man. He led the Bible study at Goddard high school and generally spent every minute he could at our house. It killed him and us to have to leave him there. Shortly after we moved back to Albuquerque he was able to come and live with us and became like a son. We joined a church in the city and I began to work and pray to establish an evangelistic ministry. I got a few opportunities to preach here and there but things were slow and we literally lived meal to meal but Rusty, Mark, Lisa and I grew ever closer to the Lord and we were enjoying our baby, Luke and it wasn’t long before our second son, Levi was born. We were so blessed to have a family!

 

I was reading everything I could get my hands on about revival and I concluded that I needed to go have a prayer retreat so Rusty and I hiked up to the top of a mountain near my parents home. We built a lean to with tree limbs and we camped out and spent many hours with the Lord. From one side of the peak I could see Interstate 40 snaking its way east to Texas and beyond and I prayed many a prayer during the days we were up on the mountain that God would give me invitations to travel that road to preach across America. I named our ministry Save America Ministries and printed business cards and a brochure with lots of quotes from the great evangelists of the past. I even got to meet with my hero, Jerry Johnston, and share with him about what I intended to do. It wasn’t long before we were packing our car and heading east on I-40 to points unknown preaching through the midwest at youth camps, Christian school graduations, church revivals or wherever God opened a door but always returning to our little house in the war zone. I was so excited and scared and excited.

 


 

Many sweet little providences continued to reveal to me that God’s hand was upon our lives and he was moving us to His rhythm. Many souls trusted Christ or had a spiritual awakening in their life. Some thought we were crazy and there were plenty of people telling me that I was not being responsible and getting and education and getting a good job and settling down now that I had a baby and one on the way but I just couldn’t see any fruit in their lives that would make me want to listen to them. Soon our second little boy was born and we were so thrilled.

 

Every time I came back home to the war zone I would get convicted that my own neighborhood and city needed Christ and I began to pray and to witness to people in our neighborhood. Ever since I had come to Christ I had made a habit of sometimes praying late at night on a mountain, in the woods, or in a city park. One night I went to pray at Trumbull Park in the war zone. Trumbull Park was where everything bad happened in the war zone. Drug deals, gang wars, etc. In fact we called it Rumble Park when I was a teenager. So I am walking and praying in the park at about 2 a.m. and this huge guy comes up to me with a huge knife and tells me he is going to gut me. I looked him straight in the eye and I said, “If God wants you to do that you can, but if He doesn’t want you to, I am invincible until God is through with me.” I was as serious as sin and he could tell. His eyes got big and he said, “You mean you are not afraid of me?” He waved that big blade in my face and slashed like he was going to cut me. I said, “No, I know that I’m invincible until God is through with me and if He is through with me on this earth and He allows you to kill me then you are just going to send me straight into the arms of my Lord and to my reward. What is there to be afraid of?” He just stared at me for a minute and then he put that big knife away and he said, “You’ve got to come to my house and talk to my mom about this.” I said, “Are you sure?” “It’s 2 a.m.” “I wouldn’t want to wake her up.” He shook his head, “No, she will want to be awakened to hear this. She loves this kind of stuff. She is always trying to push God on me and telling me to clean up my life.” So off to his house we went and woke up his mom and it turned out she was a Jehovah’s Witness but she was so impressed that her son had listened to me and brought me home they both asked me to tell them about Jesus and we had a revival meeting in their living room until the sun came up. God began to break my heart for the war zone. I fell in love with the place and the people.

 

One Sunday my pastor came to me at church and said that a church in Tucumcari, New Mexico was without a pastor and they needed an interim pastor until a permanent one could be found. I was thrilled. The next Sunday we loaded up our little car and headed to east on I-40 to Tucumcari 3 hours away to preach. It was the sweetest little church and amazingly enough the man, who had given us the $20 dollars a few years before when we ran out of gas in Tucumcari, went to church there. I ended up preaching there every Sunday for several months. It was a blessed time. One Sunday on the way home our car broke down in the middle of the desert an hour and a half from any size town. We were heart sick. We had a baby with us and it was blazing hot outside and this was before the days of cell phones. We were really in trouble. We said a quick and desperate prayer and I stepped out of the car to see what I could do but I knew the engine was blown. I no more than stepped out and closed the door and a big silver cadillac pulled up with a white haired couple in it and asked us if we were ok and needed any help. I explained our situation and they said they were going right by our house in Albuquerque and they would be glad to take us. Lisa and I looked at each other in amazement and climbed into their air conditioned car with leather seats. We took off and we began to tell them about ourselves. “Turns out” that they were very familiar with the college that Lisa and I had met at and even knew many of our friends there. The grandmotherly woman held our baby and we talked about the Lord all the way home. The hour and a half seemed like 10 minutes and when they dropped us off at our house and we said goodbye Lisa and I turned and looked at each other and at the same time we both said, “Angels, uh huh.” out loud. We shook our heads and said it again, “Angels, uh huh.” Then we went in the house praising God.

 

I was still preaching wherever God opened the door and souls were coming to Christ everywhere we went. We were still living meal to meal but we never went hungry. My brother went to Bible college and Rusty followed him not long after and for a little while it was just our little family. Rusty and Mark are still in the ministry today.

 

About this time the youth pastor at the church we were attending took a pastorate in another city and the pastor asked me if I would take over the youth group. We prayed about it and felt that this was an invitation from God. The next Sunday we met our 19 young people that we were to shepherd. We began to put our heart and soul into these young people and God began to move. We named the youth group, yes you guessed it, Teens Unlimited and I had some business cards printed with these words across the bottom “Albuquerque’s Fastest Growing Youth Outreach”. And the ministry began to grow like crazy. Lisa and I and our babies would be out all week winning young people to Christ on the streets and then bringing them in on Sunday. My burden for the war zone continued to grow and I was constantly praying.

 

 

One evening Lisa and I were driving down the street to our house and I saw a group of punk rockers on the corner. I had never seen anything like these teenagers before. They were all dressed in black leather with punk rock band patches all over them. One of the boys had a mohawk that stood at least 9″ straight up from his head and the rest of his head was shaved. One of the other boys had his haired glued in spikes like the statue of Liberty and the rest of his head was shaved.  The girls all had heavy black eyeliner and black lipstick. I looked at them and laughed out loud and made a comment like, “look at those freaks” as I drove on by. Immediately I was devastatingly convicted in my spirit and I felt the Lord say to me, “Don’t laugh at them. I love them. You have been praying to me for the war zone, well, they are the war zone. They only look like that because they are lost and they are trying to find what only I can give them.” Rarely in my life have I felt such a clear impression from the Holy Spirit. I drove around the block and came back around to where they were standing. I pulled up and rolled down my window and asked them if they would come to Teens Unlimited with us on Friday night (We had a Friday night youth revival service  and fun activity every week). To my utter amazement they said, “Sure, that sounds cool.” I found out that the two boys names were Count and Adam. I gave them all one of my cards and we agreed to pick them up on that same spot on Friday night. As we drove away I was humbled, scared, and elated all at the same time. I doubted they would be there on Friday night but I was glad that I had obeyed the still small voice of the Spirit. To my utter amazement when I pulled up there on Friday night there they stood with 6 more of their friends all dressed the same way they were. We packed them into our car and headed off to the church. Miraculously, no one else showed up that night. (which was highly unusual because we normally had 30-40 youths back then on a Friday night).

 

I’ll never forget one of the punk girls named Janice.  She was Count’s girlfriend and had a spider web painted across one side of her face with eyeliner. She had spiked jet black hair and a black miniskirt and she was scary. Janice was perhaps the hardest hearted 15 year old girl I had ever met. She was venomous in her hatred of God and His men. She told me so in language that would make a sailor blush. She stared a hole through me as I preached the gospel that night until it made me very uncomfortable. She was not happy about being there that night but the rest of the teens listened intently and when I urged them to trust Christ, one of the girls had tears in her eyes. We had a great evening and on the way home I invited them to come with me on Sunday and they all said, “Cool.” Sure enough the next Sunday they were there waiting and ready to go and you can only imagine the looks that I got from the church when I walked in with those 7 or 8 teens in tow. Oh my. But I was as happy as I could be because I knew that God was doing it and not me. On the way home that day I learned that Count and Adam’s father was in prison and their mom worked two jobs and so they were on their own. I also found out that they hadn’t eaten in a couple of days (no wonder they were so skinny and deathly white) and that they were planning to go dumpster diving (which I had never heard of) behind the McDonald’s on the corner after church. I invited them to come home and have lunch with us and they hungrily accepted. My sweet wife cooked everything that we had in the house (that was supposed to last us the next week) and they ate every bit of it. I had never seen a truly hungry person eat and it was eye opening. We realized that day that we could talk about Jesus all we wanted if we loved them and fed them because they were absolutely starving for both and so we did. It was amazing how they would show up at our house every night around dinner time with some theological question for me to answer 🙂 and of course we always invited them to eat with us. They had some pretty crazy theological questions for me too. Like one day Adam is at our house and he says, “Brother Matt (that’s what everyone called me back then) I want you to tell me if you think this is a sin. You see the guys and I go up to the gay bar on the corner and all the guys hide around behind the bar and they send me in cause I’m the best looking and I get friendly with some old gay guy and pretend like he can take me home and then when we walk out to the parking lot the guys and I roll him for his wallet and run off. Now that’s not a sin right Brother Matt because God hates gays too, right? Wow, talk about discipleship. These boys and girls stretched me to the limit sometimes.

 

I was out praying on my porch one night and I saw Adam walking down the street picking up cigarette butts, lighting them, taking a few puffs, and lighting the next one because they had no money for cigarettes. I was appalled. Nothing in my experience to that point had prepared me to fathom that kind of desperation so I went to the store and bought a pack of cigarettes and I gave them to Adam. I just knew I was going to hell for contributing to his demise but it hurt me to see him smoking those nasty butts off the street. He was so excited about that pack of cigarettes. He would smoke three or four puffs from one and then put it out and put it back in the pack to save it for later and make them last as long as he could. He asked me to hang on to them because everyone else would steal them. So every night he would come down and have a smoke on my porch and I would talk to him about Jesus and that’s how I won him to Christ. Eventually he got saved, his little sister, Laura, got saved and started winning her friends to Christ.

 

Those church teens got excited too and started winning their friends to Christ and bringing them and before long we had gone from 19 teens to 200.

 

About this time Count came to me and told me that his girlfriend, Janice, the scary 15 year old hard hearted girl was pregnant and that her parents had kicked her out on the street and could she stay with us. Lisa and I said of course but inside we were scared. We had a “hide a couch” with a bed in our tiny living room and we made it up for Janice. I’ll never forget as long as I live the fact that she stayed with us for over a week and she never spoke a word to us. Not one. The first night I asked her if it would be ok if we went ahead and had our normal family worship and would she sit in. She never looked at me just moved to the side of the bed and sat through our family worship. We were begging God to save Janice. One night I couldn’t take it anymore and Lisa and I sat up half the night literally preaching the gospel to Janice and pleading with her to come to Christ. She sat there the whole time looking at the floor and never said a word. The next day she was gone. She and Count had stolen a car and ran away to California. We never saw Count again. I was heart broken and I remember complaining to the Lord that I really really wanted to save Janice and I wasn’t happy that I had failed. Three years later Lisa and I had been through some major disappointments with churches and ministry. We were walking out of Walmart and this beautiful young woman with long brown hair in a nice dress came running up shouting, “Brother Matt, Brother Matt and threw her arms around me.” I was stunned. I didn’t know who she was. I was looking at Lisa with a shrug like, “I don’t know what’s going on here.” After a huge hug she pulled away and said, “Don’t you remember me?” “It’s Janice.” “I stayed on your couch and you told me about Jesus.” Lisa and I were shocked. We both grabbed her and hugged her and then she began to tell us that she had given her life to Christ and that she was living back at home and had reconciled with her parents and she was soon to be married to a young man in her church. We were overjoyed! She had started a craft business and was in front of Walmart selling her wares. She ran over and picked up a clock that she had made that looked like a woman’s summer straw hat. She brought it back and handed it to us and said some of the sweetest words that I will probably ever hear in this life. She said, “I hope that every time you look at this clock you will be reminded that what you are doing is making a difference in people’s lives. You may not think they are listening but they are. You may not think that your love is touching them but it is. Please never quit.” We hugged again and walked away with tears streaming down our faces. Janice is still serving the Lord today.

 

One day I was walking down our street and I recognized two captains from the gang “South Side Locos”, Anthony and John. My brother had witnessed to Anthony years before and Anthony had even stayed with Mark for awhile. I could tell that they had been on the street for awhile. I stopped and invited them to come home with me and have something to eat and clean up. They happily agreed and they moved in and became part of our family. Eventually other gang members came to live with us too. So we traded a house full of punk rockers for a house full of Latin gang members. My dear sweet wife always welcomed in every soul that I brought home and somehow we never went hungry. We did add water to the milk sometimes and the lights and gas got shut off pretty regularly but we always found a way to get them turned back on. God was teaching us so much and we were just walking through the doors that He opened in front of us. Anthony eventually became my right hand man at Teens Unlimited and stayed with us for a couple of years.

 

Yes, another Teens Unlimited 🙂

 

Soon I was asked by the pastor to go on staff full time as youth pastor along with my brother Mark as co-youth pastor. We set out to build the city’s biggest youth ministry and change the world. But very shortly Mark and his wife returned to Illinois to plant a church. Lisa and I had a baby daughter named Rebekah (which means enchanting beauty) and no man was ever more excited to be the daddy of a daughter than I. Her first night home from the hospital she slept through the night on my chest and she has owned my heart ever since. The ministry continued to grow dramatically. We started Bible clubs in several high schools. We revived the red satin jackets, went street preaching, had youth rallies, went on inner city mission ventures, I got physically carried off by Bon Jovi’s bodyguards because I was preaching and handing out tracts with some of my young preacher boys in front of one of their concerts. Hundreds of teens gave their life to Christ. I would baptize 5 to 10 young people ever Friday night at our youth revival service. Many of them are some form of ministry today.

 

The stories are endless but I will share three of my favorites. First, I still had the bug to do old fashioned itinerant revival ministry and so I loaded up our little family, Luke was 3, Levi was, 2 and Bekah was 6 months and several of our teens in a church bus and we spent two weeks going throughout Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma preaching in churches and singing and challenging the young and the old alike to live for God. It was the most wonderful trip ever. The second story was when an inner-city ministry that had a youth camp in the mountains invited us to bring all of our inner-city teens free for a week long summer camp with lots of activities and preaching every night. Lisa and I and our team put the word out on the street in the war zone and all over town about this free camp. On the day we were to leave we drove through the war zone with our big old church bus and I was so delighted to see our teens and lots of faces I had never seen stream out of those shacks and projects with a few clothes and maybe a blanket to go to summer camp. It was surreal seeing these gangsters and hoods excited about going to camp. It was a wild week as they rode horses, played capture the flag, ate and ate, and listened to a fiery evangelist each night preach the gospel. One of those young men is a pastor today. Praise God.

 

My third story is one of the highlights of my life. I wanted to have a real live city-wide youth evangelistic meeting like Jerry Johnston had in Albuquerque back when I was in high school but I wanted to preach at this one. So we planned it all out. We got a loan at the bank to buy the hundreds of free pizzas for the event. We printed tickets and flyers and bumper stickers. We got free TV and radio spots and we got a really good deal on billboards all over town. We contracted with Dominoes Pizza to make as many large pizzas that night as we needed and have them arrive right after the altar call. But most importantly we prayed. For weeks leading up to the event I would walk to the park and pray for hours, sometimes all night begging God to touch my city like I had been asking Him since I was 16 years old. A few days before the event the pastor of the church asked me how many people I thought might be coming. I said that our goal was 500. He informed me that the largest attendance ever at the church was 600 and that was for a nationally known preacher so not to set my hopes too high. After he walked away my dear wife turned to me and she said, “Matthew, the Lord has shown me this week that we are going to have 1000 teens here.” Like any good husband, I smiled, patted her, and said, “That’s great honey but after what the preacher said we should probably plan for 400.” She meekly said, “Do you mind if I go ahead and have the team set up for 1000 just in case?” I said, “Sure. That can’t hurt.”

 

The night of the event, October 21, 1989, I couldn’t bear to look until the last minute so I stayed upstairs in the youth room with the lights out praying until they came and got me that it was time to start. I had told everyone that I didn’t want to know how it was going until I walked out on the platform to preach because I wanted to stay focused on my message. When they came to get me the people that were walking me to the auditorium were white as ghosts and uncharacteristically quiet and I thought, “Oh, this is going to be bad.” I’ll never forget stepping through the door and onto the platform and seeing 1200 teenagers crammed into that auditorium. As I am typing this my heart is in my throat, I can feel the butterflies, and tears are filling my eyes. I stepped to the podium and told my story of how lost and alone I was and how Jesus pursued me and how he changed my life 7 years before and how wonderful it was to serve Him. (Original audio below)

 

 

It didn’t feel like I was doing well but it was all I had to give. I invited those who wanted to give their life to Christ to come forward and the aisles flooded with hundreds of young people. Teenagers were all over the altar and up onto the platform at my feet praying to receive Christ. I had to back up to the choir loft. Hundreds confessed Christ that night and we baptized scores of them the next Sunday morning. After the service the teens went out into our gymnasium and consumed over 300 large pizzas. Lisa had called the 4 pizza places earlier that day that we had contracted with to shut down their stores that night to make pizza just for our event and told them to have enough pizza for 1000 teenagers and we did. I went back upstairs to that dark youth room and danced for hours and threw my shoes up in the air and praised God for answered prayer. It was one of the greatest days of my life. At our Friday night youth revival the next week I baptized kids from the pizza blast until my arms ached.

 

But there is always a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes in any successful ministry and shortly after the Pizza Blast I was called in by the senior pastor and told that my vision didn’t match his vision. He told me that he didn’t want to be Punk Rock Baptist Church. That my vision for the street kids was more fitting for a para-church ministry or something. He told me that his vision was to have 50 cream of the crop teens and that he felt that “the Holy Spirit was leading me elsewhere” and I was fired and I was not to share with anyone why I was leaving and especially I wasn’t to tell the parents and teenagers. I was to leave quietly. I felt like all the blood had drained out of my body as I walked out of his office. I was 24 years old and I was devastated. The next Sunday when I tried to go to the youth room and tell the teens goodbye I found the pastor had stationed men there with instructions not to allow me to speak to the teens. When they realized that I was ready to throw down if they didn’t let me pass they stepped aside and I was able to say goodbye to my teenagers and try to explain a little but it was pretty ugly. The saddest thing was that we had a separate service on Sunday afternoons for our inner-city teens from the war zone that ran about 80 teens per week and that afternoon my phone started ringing and the teens from the war zone were telling me that the service has been cancelled permanently and that the church had left the 80 teens standing on the street corner with their Bibles and they were told to go home.

 

My wife and I had never felt pain like that before. We were shell shocked. Our life stopped. Our income stopped. And our hearts nearly stopped. My brother had started a church in Pekin, Illinois and we put our stuff in storage and headed out for Illinois to try and help them with their church but we were dead inside. We were living in my sister in law’s grandmothers basement and my brother and his wife were living upstairs with Grandma. We were working three jobs. Lisa and I would work at the church all day (we were remodeling an old building my brother’s church had purchased) then we would catch a few hours sleep then leave our sleeping children in the basement (my sister in law would check on them periodically) and go load up our van with newspapers at 1 a.m. and deliver them to the paperboys in all the little towns around Peoria, Illinois until 6 a.m. Then we would drive 75 miles to Bloomington, Illinois where we had a job cleaning a Pharmore Store (similar to a Walmart) just trying to make ends meet. We would finish that by 9 a.m. then drive 75 miles back and work on the church. It only took a few weeks of that and our broken hearts for us to completely melt down. One night we came in and my brother had left a letter on our bed informing us that he thought we should go back home and get some financial integrity and that we were no longer welcome to stay in the basement. I tore the letter up in little pieces, we packed up our 3 children and I drove straight from Peoria, Illinois to Albuquerque, New Mexico 32 hours without stopping except for gas. We lived on my mother’s living room floor in her apartment for 3 months until we could get an apartment. I went to work laying railroad ties for $5.00 per hour during the day and vacuumed offices at night for $3.80 an hour and I felt like Samson grinding in the mill but I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong. I knew God didn’t fail me, and I knew my brother was a good man, and I had loved and looked up to my pastor so it must have been something wrong with me. It was about this time that we found out we were expecting our fourth, Beverly. I was so happy. I started to think about all the pastors (including the one who had just fired me) and missionaries I knew whose children were living for the Devil and I decided that God had given me a wife and 4 little children to disciple and to provide for and I was going to pour myself into being a provider, a godly husband, and a great dad and I was going to tuck all those dreams of saving the world away and hope that one of my kids would fulfill that in my place someday. I decided I was going to build a godly family… Aflame For God 12 – Warriors For Christ

This song by Casting Crowns so adequately explains what looks like to know Jesus in a special way,

To Know You lyrics

 

To know You is to never worry for my life

To know You is to never give into compromise and

To know You is to want to tell the world about You

‘Cause I can’t live without You

To know You is to hear Your voice when You are calling

To know You is to catch my brother when he is falling

To know You is to feel the pain of the brokenhearted

‘Cause they can’t live without You

More than my next breath

More than life or death

All I’m reaching for, I live my life to know You more

I leave it all behind, You’re all that satisfies To know You is to want to know You more To know You is to want to know You more

To know You is to ache for more than ordinary

To know You is to look beyond the temporary

To know You is believing that You’ll be enough

‘Cause there’s no life without You

All this life could offer me

Could not compare to You, compare to You

And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You

All this life could offer me

Could not compare to You, compare to You And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You

This is my hearts desire to know my Lord and Savior more every day!

“One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4

I thought that my life would slow down slightly after the vacation host program but I have been running harder than ever before. God is moving on so many fronts that my head is spinning. We have many exciting things coming up for Orphan Hope that we would love for you to pray with us about and join in as the Lord leads you.

Missionaries

Our missionaries are getting closer every day to being able to head to Colombia. They are working on VISAs and insurance and so on. Chris had a wonderful benefit dinner last weekend and raised about 6 months worth of support. We are so happy for him and his folks. They have been a blessing to watch and we are excited that they are going to be even more involved with OHI as we go forward.

Vacation Host

The 2011 summer vacation host program is bearing wonderful fruit. Several families are moving forward with adoptions and Padrino relationships. Please contact me at 832-359-9781 if you know someone who may be interested in older child adoption.

Vision Trip

53 days and counting to our church leadership vision trip to Colombia. Please contact me at 832-359-9781 if you know someone in church leadership who may be interested in this trip. The dates are October 22-28, 2011.

Share The Hope

72 days and counting to our 2nd annual Share The Hope fundraising dinner at Westland Baptist Church on November 11, 2011. Please mark your calendars and join us for a wonderful evening.

Mission Trip

137 days and counting to our January mission trip. We will have solid dates and links to sign up very soon. Don’t miss this exciting God adventure into the fields of the fatherless.

Marathon

165 days and counting to our first annual Orphan Hope Marathon. Jenn Burton and the team are working very hard to make this a wonderful event to raise money for Bogota safe houses. For more info contact Jenn at 832-449-0309. Also you can keep up on Facebook by “liking” our page.

Please continue to pray for the presence of God in this ministry as we watch him transform the lives of orphans and those ministering to them.

Matt Bullen
Director
Orphan Hope International
Matt.Bullen@OrphanHopeIntl.org
Mobile: 832-359-9781

Well as you all can see I have made some changes to me blog. 🙂 I am going to LA at the end of September but my sisters are not abel or ready at this time to come with me but I know that God has given me this incredible opportunity to serve Him and share His father’s heart to those that are hurting in Inner-City LA. The passoin of my heart is to know my Savior for who He really is, not who everyone say He is, but that I would know for myself who Jesus is. So that consuming desire sent me on a quest to know Jesus’s heart. To know someone you must find out what they are passionate about and what they spend their time doing. My first glimpse of the true Jesus of the Bible was through missionary biographies and reading the Gospels and Acts. I found that Jesus’s passion was for people. He gave up everything we call dear and spent His hole life serving and loving others. But my first experience of Jesus’s heart was on my first mission trip to Colombia, it was the first time I was abel to know Jesus’s love for the broken hearted and know He was hurting over their pain. I had read about it in those Missionary biographies but now I was the one cry with them and knowing Jesus was crying through me. I am now hook was my Dad would say 🙂 and loving every minute of being Jesus’s hands and feet.

I have been so busy with our first ever TVHP that I haven’t blogged in a while. It was a wonderful program and the hand of God was evident upon it at every turn. We had multiple events and lots of fun with our 19 Colombian guest while they were here.

There are too many sweet moments to tell about them all but suffice it to say that we were all moved, touched and changed by these sweet children and by the knowledge of their aloneness in the world.

The happiest part is that we know that several, if not all, of them have found a forever family!

There are not enough words to share how wonderful the entire team was that put this program together from OHI, Grace Fellowship UMC, Katy, the host families, the translators, the Grace Fellowship small groups, the Colombian chaperones and our alliance partner Tayakai and on and on. It was a wonderful thing to see so many people working together so smoothly and harmoniously. What a monument to the grace of God upon this whole program.

It was a bitter/sweet tearful goodbye at the airport as we said goodbye to our little friends but definitely not for the last time 🙂

Below are some fun pics from different events.

Today was a wonderful Sunday. This day was part of an ongoing story of God connecting us with others of His messengers to the nations. Recently Bill Byrd and I were blessed to meet with Omar Garcia, missions pastor at Kingsland Baptist Church, and Omar suggested that Bill contact Pastor Gorge Cardenas, of Church on the Rock, Katy because he is Colombian.  Pastor Cardenas put Bill in touch with Missy Christie of Conviventia, a ministry in Bogota. We visited with them and saw one of their projects when we were in Bogota last month. We were meeting with them again the other day and we mentioned our vacation program and that we wanted to take the kids to a Spanish church service while they were here and Mitzy, Missy’s assistant, shared with us that her husband is Pastor Cardenas’ Assistant Pastor and that we would be very welcome.

Long story short, Bill and Morgan Pylant of Grace Fellowship, Katy set everything up with Pastor Cardenas and we had 90 people from Orphan Hope in the Spanish service at Iglesia Sobre La Roca (Church on the Rock) today. It was marvelous. Pastor Cardenas preached a wonderful sermon, the worship was amazing, I was able to share a little about Orphan Hope with the church, and then we shared a wonderful Colombian lunch together. One of the most amazing things was that Pastor Cardenas’ son just came back from Colombia from a trip with his dad and mom and he is selling everything he has and returning to work in one of Conviventia’s schools in Cartagena just like our three OHI mission trip attenders are preparing to do. Pastor Cardenas leaned over to me and said, “I don’t know what God is doing but He is doing something special for the children of Colombia right now.” His son and I traded information and we promised to stay in touch and see how we can work together. When I hugged Pastor Cardenas goodbye I told him we would come again and visit and he said, “Oh yes!” “We will be seeing more of each other since my son is going to be working together with you guys.”

One of my favorite things about this ministry is getting to rub shoulders with God’s people who have a heart for the nations. It is exhilarating to be around people whose hearts are near to the hear of God.

After 4-1/2 months of paperwork, a special trip to Bogota, hundreds of emails and phone calls, trainings and orientations, and many prayers, our 16 little Colombian orphans arrived this morning at IAH at 6:00 a.m. There was an expectant and excited group of host families and ministry partners there to greet them with signs and balloons and all kinds of neat things. The local television news media was there to film all of the hoopla and interview several families and ministry personnel. When the children finally came through the doors a great shout arose. There were many hugs and kisses and gigantic smiles. I was so glad to see some of my little friends from Amparo De Ninas in Bogota. Yuly, Nicoll, Luisa, Paola, and others that I have grown very fond of on previous trips came running up to hug me. It always delights my heart to be in the presence of The Good Shepherd’s little lambs. If you are interested in meeting them while they are here go to www.OrphanHopeIntl.org/events to see what is happening and how to get involved. Below is the Houston Channel 11 news video. My daughter Beverly is holding the Orphan Hope sign.

After many photos, much conversation, and some more interviews we headed out to the local International House of Pancakes for breakfast. We had called ahead earlier in the week but they were still a little overwhelmed when 65 of us walked in. But we all jumped in to help and breakfast went wonderfully. As I looked around the room of smiling faces and saw conversations, laughter, translators at work, and so on, I turned to Bill and Shoby and said, “At this moment, the endless hours of work and the $45,000.00 price tag seem like nothing compared to the reward.” They heartily agreed. The impact on the lives of these children and families in the future and on into eternity and the national and global ramifications of that impact is incalculable. As C.H. Spurgeon once said,

“Ah! dear friend, you little know the possibilities which are in you. You may but speak a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian church in years to come.”

After breakfast we went our separate ways and I was blessed to catch a nap in my lounge chair before heading over to one of the host homes for an interview with the Houston Chronicle. The photographer was there when I arrived and he was catching some wonderful shots of the family and their 3 children and their 3 host children finishing up their lunch. Soon the reporter arrived and I was interviewed and then my daughter, Rebekah, who was with me and I went to play with the kids while the mom and dad were interviewed. Rebekah went to play with Marian, one of the Colombian girls and I got to play with Omar, her brother. Omar is 6 and he had a nerf dart gun in each hand and an ample supply of nerf darts. It wasn’t long before I was playing the monster and he was shooting the fire out of me with nerf darts. We had a wonderful time. It took me back 20 years to playing “army” with my two boys. I’m glad I wear glasses now though because Omar knows that the best way to kill the monster is to shoot him in the eye! We had a blast. Meanwhile Rebekah and the mom and Marian were playing Jenga and they built up a big tower of blocks. I was once again amazed at how beautiful and how sweet these children are. It amazes me that no one wants them. I wish I could take them all but I am satisfied for now to get to be around as God continues to work through us here at Orphan Hope International to “Transform the lives of orphans and those ministering to them through Christ centered… Vacation Host Programs.

“Permit the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” – Jesus (my hero)

My friend Chris Poole recently went to Bogota with us as part of a team of 43. God so touched his heart that he came home, is selling everything, and is going back to work for Orphan Hope in country. Here is a brief account in his own words. Amazing!

In June 2011, I was given the opportunity to serve with Orphan Hope International in Bogota Colombia.  While in Bogota, I saw God. I felt his embrace, His kiss, I heard Him tell me how much He loves me. All of these revelations came from a beautiful, blue-eyed little girl, Vanessa. Vanessa is 10 years old and an orphan at Santa Maria, an institution outside of Bogota.  Colombia is home to an estimated 10,000 adoptable orphans, all-searching for one thing: Love.  Although I cannot personally father them all I do have someone that can! By bringing Christ into their lives they can find that love and even find themselves.

In order to return to Bogota a few things must take place.  I first must sell everything I own.  Most things have gone very quickly but I must also sell my vehicle.  I purchased this 2004 Mustang GT when I was 20 and thought I knew everything about responsibility and money.  Unfortunately, now I am upside down on the vehicle and I must clear that debt in order to return to Bogota.  In order to clear the debt, I am offering an opportunity to not only help me in developing my mission’s ministry but also giving away my once most prized possession, my Mustang. My parents will be hosting a mission benefit dinner, sponsored by Acts Outreach Ministries, on August 20, 2011 at 7 P.M.  We are selling 150 tickets at $100 each. At the end of the night, 1 of the 150 will be the new owner of a 2004 Mustang GT. By relieving this debt, this will help lower my monthly living expenses. I must make my monthly expenses as low as possible because upon my return to Bogota, I will be leaving my full time job.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to support not only myself but also the Kingdom of God, and many children just hungry for love!

From His Front Lines,
Chris Poole

Chris gave his testimony Sunday at our church and brought the house down. God is so good.

If you would like to support or just encourage Chris you can contact him at Pooleboy06@gmail.com

To see video of Chris’ testimony click here.

Bill and Sandy Byrd and Lisa and I were able to have dinner with Chris and his parents tonight and dream and strategize a little. It was a delightful time. God is mightily at work in all of us and we are so happy to be a part.

“Lead me with strong hands… Stand up when I can’t… Don’t leave me hungry for love… Chasing dreams, but what about us?”

I recently wrote about the joyous reunion we had with our African daughter Mercy after a year of trials and lessons. On July 4th we had another tremendous blessing to get to spend the day together. She has grown up so much and the Lord has given her a beautiful and radiant spirit since we first met her. I can honestly say that she is the single greatest miracle I have ever personally witnessed and I am humbled that God would allow me to be her daddy. We had a wonderful day playing cards (she was my partner and was so patient with me because I am terrible at it). We told stories and remembered old times. It was a generally awesome day. I couldn’t be more proud of her.

There were many sweet things that she said during the day that tremendously warmed my heart. Each time we would complement her on something she would say, “You guys made me everything that I am.” We know that it was God through us but it sure was nice to hear it. She told about how all of the scripture that mommy had taught her to memorize came back to her when she was without her Bible for awhile and so she got a notebook and wrote down all the scriptures she had memorized and carried that for her Bible. Her friends were shocked at how much Bible she knew by heart. We shared many, many “I love you’s” and many “I missed you.” She always knew that we loved her and we always knew that she loved us but we all realized on this day that God had taken us all to a new level of love for each other. I think maybe for the first time she felt like our little girl for real and it was incredibly sweet.

Later in the day we got to go hang out with some of our dearest friends and she got to meet Tanya for the first time and reunite with the Davis family. It was so sweet sitting on their couch with Mercy tucked under my arm with her head on my chest just like old times.

As Brooke and I took her home that night she delighted me with this question, “Daddy, do you remember how you used to tell me that I should write a book about my story someday, about how I survived being an orphan, running from the rebels, survived malaria, survived a cobra, survived being kidnapped and tortured, survived drinking lye, came to America nearly dead, had surgery and ended up in the Bullen family?” “Yes Mercy, I remember.” Then she said, “Daddy, do you know what a ghost writer is?” “Sure I do.” “Daddy, will you be my ghost writer and help me write my story and get it published like we used to talk about?” “Sure I will Mercy, I would be honored and delighted.” She said, “I’m ready to tell it all now. I’m ready to tell about how God had a plan for everything and how I would do it all again to get to America and be in your family and have you for a dad and mom for a mom and my brothers and sisters.” “And daddy, as soon as I turn 18 I want to go to Colombia and love on the kids with you.” “And daddy, don’t ever think that what you are doing doesn’t matter because it is bigger to those kids and to me than you can imagine” “And daddy, someday can we go and minister to the orphans in my orphanage in Liberia and love on them because I remember how lonely it was and how desperate we were for a kind word or a touch?” “And daddy, I’ll be the translator!” “Yes, baby.” I said through tears, “God will allow us to do all of that and much more, I am sure.”

Yep. Greatest personal miracle of my life. I love you Mercy Kandakai Bullen. You are a gift from God. You are a kiss on the head from my Father.

Today we admired…

Jesus the Focused

Matt. 4:1   Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.  3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Matt. 4:5   Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,  6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

Matt. 4:8   Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;  9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”  10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”  11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

My pastor, Frankie Mazzapica points out that Satan was trying to get Jesus to take a shadow mission, a distraction from His true mission of going to the cross but Jesus didn’t fall for it. He was focused.

Jesus earthly mission before going to the cross entailed two facets that were recently pointed out to me by Omar Garcia, pastor of missions at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX. He explained it this way. If you were to ask a person in the west, “Who is the greatest Christian of our generation?” most would answer Billy Graham but if you asked the same question in the east most would answer, Mother Teresa because the west prizes proclamation of the gospel, embodied in Billy Graham, and the east prizes incarnation of the gospel, embodied in Mother Teresa. Then Omar said, “What we need is to get Mother Teresa and Billy Graham to the altar and get them married because Jesus ministry was a balance of both.”

Jesus mission… Incarnation

Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good…

Jesus mission… Proclamation

Mark 1:38 He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”

Luke 4:43 But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

Our mission… most of our devotions this week have focused on incarnation, being the hands and feet of Christ, but today we want to focus on our mission of proclamation as well.

Mark 3:14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,

Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Acts 10:42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.

1Cor. 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

Proclamation will be resisted…

Matt. 24:9   “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

1Cor. 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the religious a stumbling block and to the heathen foolishness,

Adoniram Judson (father of American missions)

Suffered horribly in Burma. Preached 7 years without a convert. Wife and children died, second wife died, translated the Bible into Burmese.

Today there are 200,000 believers in Burma who can trace their spiritual heritage back to the work of Adoniram Judson…

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

1Th. 1:6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Today we get a chance to be our hero… We get to be Jesus… We get to be His hands and feet and HIS VOICE….

Today we split the team into two groups. One team went to Nuevo Mundo’s emergency center (San Miguel), safe house (Casa De Egreso), and baby orphanage (San Miguelito). I went with the other team to the emergency center that we went to on Sunday (Shamuel). They were just starting their weekly Saturday worship service when we arrived and we were able to enjoy and join in on the music and worship. Jair sang some and Hector’s daughter Heyli sang and then they called us up and introduced us and then we sang with them as well. I was asked to share my message about predators and I did. Then Pastor Hector gave a wonderful message from Psalm 148. He talked about how all of creation praises the Lord. It was excellent. After the message we distributed gifts to the children and then spent the afternoon playing and visiting. These children were so sweet. Several asked me to adopt them or find them a family.  We had a great time. They showed us how to make chocolates in different shapes and of course we had to taste several samples. I really enjoyed two of Hector’s kid’s friends, Patricia and Margarita.

By the end of the day Heyli, Caroline, Vale, and Andreas had everyone calling me Tio Mateo (Uncle Matthew). One little boy came up and told me his name was Mateo too and could he have a photo with me. The director told me that Mateo has no family at all and is available for adoption. So many sweet children, so much need. Soon it was time to go. We headed back to meet up with the other team and I was able to hug and kiss my friends at the safe house. I am so proud of them and how hard they are working at school and work.

We said goodbye and headed to the airport or so we thought… suddenly the bus turned into the Trail of Tears to Amparo De Ninas. They had worked it out for us to spend one hour with the girls before heading to the airport. What a treat!! The bus pulled up to the big steel gate and very soon we could hear girl screaming on the other side. They were aware that we were there. Pretty soon little hands started sticking out through the little porthole in the gate and we could hear more and more girls running to the gate and screaming like someone at a rock concert. It was so moving. Finally the gate opened and we poured through into the arms of 80 little girls. They were so happy and surprised to see us and we were as well. We gathered in the large room and visited… and got our nails painted again…  it was so great to be able to tell some of the girls that are coming next month on the vacation program that we would see them in 3 weeks. I was happy that the parting wasn’t as sad this night because we were all happy to just have that little one-hour surprise with each other.

We headed to the airport with happy hearts and a deeper commitment to help these beautiful children.

Ready for another update!? I am… It’s way over due. I’ve been so busy with work and everyday life but anyway we are still moving forward in the application process. We are all waiting for interviews and from there they will tell us what’s next! Still praying for funding… We are still unsure how God is going to meet that need. Please pray 🙂

Jesus the Protector

Jesus Protected Women

Woman at the well

John 4:27   At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 

Woman taken in adultery John 8:10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”  11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”]

Woman at Simon’s house Luke 7:36-50

Widow of Nain Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”  14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”  15 The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.  

Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus John 12:3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, *said,  5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?”  6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.  7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.  8 “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” 

Mary Magdalene – Mary stop clinging to me…

Jesus Protected Children

Mark 10:13   And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.  14 But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 

Mark 9:36 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,  37 “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.” 

Matt. 18:1   At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,  3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  5 “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;  6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Jesus Protected Minorities and Outcasts

Samaritans Luke 10 & John 4

Gentiles Matthew 21

Luke 7:22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.  

I love that Jesus is a protector…

Job was a protector as well.

Job 29:1 And Job again took up his discourse and said, 

2 “Oh that I were as in months gone by,

As in the days when God watched over me; 

3 When His lamp shone over my head,

And by His light I walked through darkness; 

4 As I was in the prime of my days,

When the friendship of God was over my tent; 

5 When the Almighty was yet with me,

And my children were around me; 

6 When my steps were bathed in butter,

And the rock poured out for me streams of oil! 

7 “When I went out to the gate of the city,

When I took my seat in the square, 

8 The young men saw me and hid themselves,

And the old men arose and stood. 

9 “The princes stopped talking

And put their hands on their mouths; 

10 The voice of the nobles was hushed,

And their tongue stuck to their palate. 

11 “For when the ear heard, it called me blessed,

And when the eye saw, it gave witness of me, 

12 Because I delivered the poor who cried for help,

And the orphan who had no helper. 

13 “The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me,

And I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. 

14 “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban. 

15 “I was eyes to the blind

And feet to the lame. 

16 “I was a father to the needy,

And I investigated the case which I did not know. 

17 “I broke the jaws of the wicked

And snatched the prey from his teeth. 

Job 31:16 “If I have kept the poor from their desire,

Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 

17 Or have eaten my morsel alone,

And the orphan has not shared it

18 (But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

And from infancy I guided her), 

19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,

Or that the needy had no covering, 

20 If his loins have not thanked me,

And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep, 

21 If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan,

Because I saw I had support in the gate, 

22 Let my shoulder fall from the socket,

And my arm be broken off at the elbow.

This is what God said of Job 1:8 The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” 

Stats… every year in Bogota, Colombia 800 orphans are put out on the street by the system because they have “aged out” at age 18. 15% of them will be dead within 2 years, many by suicide. 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution and trafficking. 70% of the boys will end up in prison.

Russell D. Moore – “Think of the plight of the orphan somewhere right now out there in the world. It’s not just that she’s lonely. It’s that she has no inheritance, no future. With every passing year, she’s less “cute,” less adoptable. In just a few years, on her eighteenth birthday, she’ll be expelled from the orphanage or from “the system.” What will happen to her then? Maybe she’ll join the rebels or find some job training. Maybe she’ll stare at a tile on the ceiling above her as her body is violated by a man who’s willing to pay her enough to eat for a day, alone in a back alley or in front of a camera crew of strangers. Maybe she’ll place a revolver in her mouth or tie a rope around her neck, knowing no one will have to deal with her except, once again, the bureaucratic “authorities” who can clean up the mess she leaves behind. Can you feel the force of her desperation? Jesus Can. She’s his little sister.”

One hero from history who particularly exemplified Jesus the protector was…

Amy Carmichael

Heard Hudson Taylor, decided she was going to China… was rejected by CIM because of her frail health. She suffered neuralgia, a disease of the nerves that made her whole body weak and achy and often put her in bed for weeks on end. Ended up in India.

Amy became a protector of little girls being trained as Hindu temple prostitutes. It all began the day a convert brought her a little girl named Preena who had escaped from one such temple.

“Come up here with me,” said Amy in Tamil, lifting the girl onto her lap. “Why, your tiny hands are scarred!”

     “From burns,” said the convert. “She was punished after an earlier escape.”

     “What a brave little soul you have, Preena.” Amy hugged and kissed her. The girl melted.

     “How desperately Preena wants that affection from her own mother,” said the convert. “But the first time Preena escaped from the temple and ran back to her mother – her ‘Amma’ – she was delivered right back to her pursuers.”

     “Amma, I want to stay with you always,” sobbed Preena.

     Amma! Amy had become the girl’s Amma, her mother, her protector…

Rescues…

Amy would stay 55 years in India and rescue over 1000 little girls. She died in 1951 but her work still continues today, completely overseen by the children of the girls that she rescued.

Orphan Hope International is working to open several SAFE HOUSES in Bogota.

Your presence here is helping us…

Once again today we returned to Amparo De Ninas orphanage in Bogota but on the way we made a stop at the national headquarters of ICBF, the Colombian family welfare department. They gave us a presentation about their work with children and thanked us for our work in the orphanages.

We arrived at Amparo and they were ready to take our annual 3 mile walk to “Lovers Park” (Parque De Los Novios). It is a beautiful park with a pretty good-sized lake in the center. One of the girls from our upcoming vacation host program, Yuly, walked with me hand in hand the entire way and I worked on my Spanish and she on her English. It was a fun time.

I was stunned when somehow the subject of God came up and Yuly said, “I didn’t used to believe in God but when I was selected for the Texas Vacation Host Program I knew immediately that it was a gift from God and that He hadn’t forgotten me.” I thought my heart would fall out of my chest. It’s hard to comprehend just how desperately these children long and hope for a family. This is why we do what we do, to give hope.

My pretty nails

We had a wonderful day at the park with lunch on the ground. After lunch a beautifully sweet girl named Tanya came up with a bottle of bright fuchsia/purple nail polish and demanded to paint my fingernails. I explained that I had been to Colombia on 9 trips and so far I had escaped, unlike many others of my comrades, having my nails painted. She smiled sweetly and said, “Well then, it’s your time.” Needless to say, I got my nails painted. Sarah John and Kim Williaford helped me out though they decorated my thumbnail with a white skull and crossbones over the purple to make it look more manly… Thanks so much ladies!

After lunch, Jair broke out the guitar and led us in some songs and then Liliana shared her testimony of how she came to faith in Christ and challenged the girls to give their lives and hearts to Jesus. Soon the rain came and we had to head back to the orphanage. Once there they opened up a large room they call the theater and we sat around in chairs and visited until it was time to go. Yuly and Tanya held on to me the whole evening like they knew that our time to leave was drawing near. We handed out Bibles and Spanish/English dictionaries and many of the girls had us sign their Bibles. Tanya asked me to show her a verse that she could memorize and I gave her John 3:16 and underlined it for her. She was so happy.

Then it was time to go. They clung to us weeping as we made our way to the gate. Girl after girl came to me crying, “Mateooo no nos dejan” (Matthew don’t leave us) and kissing me on the cheek and hanging on my neck or arm or leg. This is why I call the dirty little alley leading away from here the trail of tears. When the last hug and kiss and sweet words of parting close behind that iron gate all that is left are the tears. I walked onto the bus weeping and John and Matt, two of our faithful OHI soldiers hugged me tight as I wept and lamented to God for Him to let me do more for them in the years to come. I went to the back seat of the bus and wrestled with Him all the way home, “God give us more laborers, money, and spiritual power because the harvest is plenteous.”

Today in our devotion we looked at…

Jesus the Daring

Matt. 14:25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea.  26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.  27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Matt. 14:28   Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”  29 And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  30 But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  32 When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.  33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

There is something I admire in Peter and desire for myself. Peter had a growing heart hunger to be with Jesus, no matter the risk, wherever Jesus wanted Him to be. Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart! If we are going to follow Jesus we must be daring!

“The majority of the time when God calls, He calls into empty space.” – Jerry Rankin from the book Spiritual Warfare and Missions

Omar Garcia in his blog Go Beyond says the following…

“In each of our lives there is a line that marks the farthest we’ve ever been or the most we’ve ever done for God and His purposes. Everything on our side of that line is familiar, convenient, manageable, and comfortable. No big surprises, no daunting challenges, no uncharted territory. Crossing that line requires a commitment to venture to places we’ve never been and the willingness to engage people we’ve never met. Only those with the courage to overcome their fears and who have the determination to persevere will dare to cross that line. All others will keep a safe distance away from it.

We must go beyond — stepping boldly across the line in order to advance the interests of God’s kingdom in our world. I have heard people remark about how they long to be a part of something exciting for the kingdom, only to watch them aggressively avoid the context in which these things happen. We must be willing to place ourselves in a context where we will see God work in and through us in new and exciting ways, in ways we never imagined. We must be willing to spend ourselves for God and His purposes — to work toward the day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Step across the line and Go Beyond. Adventure awaits!”

One of my heroes from history who best exemplifies this was…

Gladys Alward

At 26 she failed the school of the China Inland Mission but she was not dissuaded. In 1930 took train across Russia to China to help aging missionary Agnes Lawson found an inn. The story of all that happened to her on the way is hair raising. 1932 Mandarin appointed her ‘foot -inspector’, a job she used to evangelize villagers all over his province. Prison riot valor in 1933 cemented her reputation as holy person and miracle worker. Became known as ‘Ai-weh-deh’, Chinese for ‘Virtuous One’. 1936 became Chinese citizen. 1940 wounded by Japanese soldiers, only months before she shepherded 100 orphans across mountains to safety. Nearly dead she ‘recovered’ to evangelize until Communists evicted her in late 1940’s. The Small Woman won her fame in 1957, increased by inaccurate but popular movie version ‘Inn of the Sixth Happiness’ starring Ingrid Bergman. Founded orphanage in 1958 in Taiwan, where she died January 3, 1970.

Gladys returned from China to England in the late 1940’s an unknown missionary. Alan Burgess, who was producing a series on war heroes for the BBC radio, visited her in the hope a missionary could tell him about heroes she had heard about in China. Well, no, she said in her rusty English. She didn’t actually know any heroes.

     “What about yourself?” he asked the little woman half-heartedly. “Did you have a scrape or two?”

     “I doubt people who listen to BBC would think I’ve done anything interesting.”

     “Didn’t you even come into contact with the Japanese invaders?” he pressed.

     “Yes,” she answered cryptically. It wouldn’t be very forgiving if she told Alan Burgess the Japanese had shot her down in a field outside Tsechow.  Bombed her too.  In Yangcheng.  Strafed her near Lingchuang too.  Smashed her on the noggin once with a rifle butt too.  Finally put a price on her head: dead or alive. “Some Japanese are very nice, you know,” she volunteered.

     “Apparently your life in China was rather sheltered,” he grunted dryly.

     Gladys had to offer the poor man something. “I did take some children to an orphanage near Sian.”

     “You don’t say?” he grumbled, not hiding disappointment. “Kids? To an orphanage?”

     “Yes, we had to cross some mountains.”

     Burgess perked up.  “Real mountains?”

     “Yes, I believe you would call them real mountains. The journey was made more difficult because we couldn’t walk on the main trails. Oh, and then we had to get across the Yellow River too.”

     “Isn’t that the notorious river that drowns so many it’s called ‘China’s Sorrow’?”

     Burgess was more and more aghast as Gladys detailed her trek. His voice choked. “You ran out of food? You had no money? Just you and 100 kids – many of whom were toddlers – trekked for one month across mountains, across the Yellow River, ducking Japanese patrols and dive bombers? And at Sian you were diagnosed with typhus and pneumonia and malnutrition? Yes, Miss Aylward, I think people who listen to BBC would think you’ve done something interesting…”

Today we get a chance to be our hero… We get to be Jesus… We get to be His hands and feet.

Today we visited Amparo De Ninas orphanage in Bogota. This is a place I have written of many times. I call the dirty, bumpy, alley that leads to the stone walled complex, The Trail of Tears, because I have cried so many on this road. It is the road I love to hate. I love it when we are arriving and I hate it when we are leaving.

They have been planning for months for us to return. Today they had a huge Quinceanera party for the girls in the orphanage turning 15. There was a worship service and then lunch and a fiesta. It was a very fun day. I was happy to see many of my old friends and make many new ones.

One of the workers told me that these children wait all year for the two times per year that we visit in January and June.

I was so happy to get to see my Goddaughter Ginary. She hugged me so tight when she saw me that it hurt. She is more than a Goddaughter to me. I love her as much as I love any of my children. I have tried several ways to bring her and my other Goddaughter, Heidy, home over the last two years but at this point God has given me the peace that I just have to live with two of my daughters in Colombia… the truth is though that my other four daughters have all told me that as soon as they can they will all be in Colombia too so maybe God will allow us to all be there together someday. I love this country and these people so deeply and desperately that it can only be from God. It is a supernatural love that defies explanation. I enjoyed being a one-day Daddy to many of the little girls here today. It always amazes me how desperate they are for a little father affection. My dear brother Dave Beach said something that so perfectly spoke to what was on my heart that I have to share it. He said, “Though I have 5 children, my heart is much bigger than that and so I need the Colombian orphans in order to fill it up.” Wow! That’s it. God has given me more love than one country can take. He has given me His shepherd’s heart for the other sheep (John 10:16).

Tonight we had a little surprise for the team. We took them up the cable car to the top of the mountain and looked down on the entire city. It was stunning. We had a worship service while we were up there that was breathtaking. First, Dave Beach gave a message about all of the mountain tops in the New Testament. It was excellent. He shared amazing points from the mount of transfiguration, mount of olives, mount calvary, mount of ascension, and others that were very pertinent to our mission here this week. Then Jair led us in several choruses of God of This City in Spanish and English. I have goosebumps right now just remembering.

Our internet was down the last 4 days of the trip so I am just now catching up with updates.

I awoke this morning thinking about and praying for my sweet daughter Beverly. She turns 20 years old today. She was with me on my first trip to Bogota 2 years ago this week and she turned 18 on that trip. She was not able to attend this trip as she and her 2 sisters Brooke and Rebekah are fundraising and preparing to go spend a year in the inner-city of Los Angeles in an intern ministry position in order to get trained to come and help us in Bogota in the future. They have a blog at http://purchasedinla.blogspot.com/ where they are chronicling their progress.

Today we are staying at the club and ICBF (the Colombian equivalent of CPS) is bringing 20 children on a mini, one day, vacation to spend the day with us.

On my way to breakfast this morning a saw a rainbow and it reminded me that my brother Lloyd had prayed over me the day before that God would put a rainbow over my life and protect my family and provide our needs. I saw that rainbow this morning and blessed God and blessed my dear brother Chihuahua! (Lloyd’s Colombian nickname)

After breakfast I shared another reason why Jesus is my hero…

Jesus the Recruiter

Luke 5:1   Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by Sea of Galilee; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.  3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.  4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”  5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”  6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.  8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”  9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”  11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

I love that Jesus is the great recruiter…

He could do the work by Himself but as my friend Bill Byrd says, “He cuts us in on a slice of the action.”

I recently used the illustration of a little boy going to work with Daddy to explain how I feel about this. Daddy sets the little boy up on the work bench, gives him a hammer and a block of wood to beat on. As the Daddy works the boy bangs on the piece of wood and then at the end of the day they go home and the little boy tells Mommy that he and Daddy built something today… I love that my Heavenly Daddy lets me go to work with Him.

The disciples could have said, “It’s too late for us. The Rabbis passed us up when we were 13”…. They could have said, “we’ve just had the best one-day income generation of our company’s history”… etc.

Would they have been bad Jews if they had stayed on the shore of Galilee? No, but think of what they would have missed. They had no idea to what Jesus was calling them. They couldn’t have known that they were going to see Him talking with Moses and Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration, they didn’t know they would see miracles, witness His death, burial, and resurrection. And preach the gospel over the then known world, Philip dying in Upper Asia, Matthew in Ethiopia, Andrew in Turkey, Mark in Egypt, Peter in Rome, Jude in Turkey, Bartholomew and Thomas in India, Luke in Greece, Simon in Britain, John in Greece and so on.

Omar Garcia – “Is this my new sea of Galilee?” “Have I become comfortable with the place I am at and is God calling me to something higher?”

Someone invited you to come on this trip but ultimately it was the Master who came to your heart and said, “Follow Me.”

David Brainerd

He preached all along the eastern coast, traveling thousands of miles on horseback in all kinds of weather. He suffered from tuberculosis, but he refused to put his health needs above the salvation needs of the Indians. One well-known story tells how the Indians who had crept to his camp intending to kill him left him alone after a rattlesnake refused to bite him.  The next day he was accorded a warm welcome to the village, and many were saved. At the age of 29, while in Edwards’ home, David Brainerd died of tuberculosis.

Jonathan Edwards edited Mr. Brainerd’s diary into a book that has been used by God to challenge Christians around the world to greater service. Though he lived such a short life here on earth, he became a great recruiter for his Lord. His story of missionary heroism to the Indians of Massachusetts inspired more missionaries than perhaps any other person in history. Nearly every great missionary since has sighted The Life of David Brainerd as one of the inspirations God used to get them to the mission field including William Carey and Henry Martyn.

Let’s go to work with Daddy today…

Today was a wonderful day. ICBF gave an hour presentation to the team about how our ministry has positively impacted national policy in Colombia and new rules and programs that are being set up to help us help the children. It was exciting and the statistics of what is happening to the children without our help was heart wrenching.

The rest of the day we rested and hung out at the club and loved on the 20 little orphan boys and girls who came. There was swimming, games, a great lunch, singing, etc.

Valleria

Hector and Lilliana’s teenage children, Andres, Heyli, Karoline, and nephew Rafael and friend Valleria were able to come today and it was a blessing to see these godly young people who will one day be some of the leaders of this ministry in Colombia getting to have a good time with their family. When Lilliana had asked me the day before if they could come I had quickly told her “of course” and then I told her that I thought of them as my nieces and nephews. She was so happy and when she called them to tell them they could come she told them that their Tio Mateo (Uncle Matthew) had invited them. When they showed up today it was so sweet for me that they all came running up to hug and kiss me saying “Tio Mateo!” God just continues to find ways to bless my life with the people of Colombia! Praise God.

Bill Byrd had set up a meeting for the board at 4:00 p.m. today to go and visit a new ministry partner in Colombia called CDA/Conviventia (Corporacion Dios es Amor/Living and working together). Bill had met them through our friend Omar Garcia, missions pastor at Kingsland Baptist in Katy. Omar had introduced Bill to a Pastor Cardenas who then in turn introduced Bill to Missie Christie, president of CDA. The week before the trip our board went and met with Christie. Her story is amazing. Her parents moved from New Zealand to Colombia when she was a baby to be missionaries and went through many trials. Now she is the head of a major ministry in Colombia and we are excited to be able to work together with them. You can see more about their ministry at Conviventia.org.

We jumped in their van and rode up into the mountains to a protection home for 60 little girls. We got out and were immediately surrounded by the cutest little girls you’ve ever seen. Jair and I reached down and picked up the first one we saw high in the air and very quickly a line formed for all the girls each waiting to be lifted up by us. I would have them clasp their hands over their head and I would lift them with one arm like a barbell. They would squeal with delight. Jair would throw them up in the air and catch them and they would also squeal. It wasn’t long before we were totally tuckered out and had to stop but it sure was fun while it lasted. We had a great tour and really enjoyed the staff, children, and grounds. We can’t wait to go back there next trip and spend a full day or two.

 

This morning after breakfast we resumed our series of devotions by admiring…

Jesus the Radical

I never read the book of Luke without being shocked and surprised at some of the things that Jesus says. No matter how many times I read it when I come back to it the next time I’m surprised at how radical what He says sounds to me. He says things like

Luke 6:2 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.  23 “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.  24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.  25 “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. 

Luke 9:23   And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.  25 “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?  26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 

Luke 9:57   As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”  58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”  60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”  61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”  62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 12:49   “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!  50 “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!  51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division;  52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.  53 “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 

Luke 14:25   Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,  26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,  30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?  32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Jesus was not the milktoast guy that is portrayed in the movies. Jesus was passionate for God and the expansion of His kingdom. The world wants a Jesus that is tame and manageable and they want His followers to be tame and manageable. But like Lucy in Chronicles of Narnia when she asked about Aslan, who typifies Jesus in the story, “Is He a tame lion?” and the answer, “He is not a tame lion… but He is good.” Jesus is not a tame lion. Jesus shook Palestine to its foundations. Jesus ruffled feathers and make no mistake about it. If you follow Him you will too.

Jesus ruffled His own family –

Mark 3:20   And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.  21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

Mark 3:31   Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.  32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”  33 Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”  34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!  35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” 

Jesus ruffled His friends and neighbors  –

Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. 

Jesus ruffled the religious leaders of His day –

Luke 11:53 …the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, 

Mark 3:22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

John 8:48   The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 

Matt. 27:1   Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death;

Jesus was just too radical in His devotion to God, His love for others, and in His boldness in following His calling. And if you follow Him you will be criticized and thought to be crazy too. But remember…

Heb. 12:3-4   For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin…

A man from history who imitated Jesus’ radical life was…

William Carey

A shoemaker in whom God lit a fire for India… 8 years of fighting against his denomination trying to get there… went to India in 1793… his wife refused to go… he went to the dock and then returned home three times to beg her to come and finally she and the children did come. Shortly after arriving he was swindled out of all of his money, went to work in an indigo mill, was misunderstood by his supporters for going to work and they cut off his support, his 5 year old son Peter dies, his wife loses her mind and even tries to kill him at one point. She dies. 7 years of preaching before first convert, floods, daughter in law and grandchild die in a river crossing, fire burns the printshop and all of the manuscripts he has worked years translating…  BUT GOD

When he died at age 73 (1834), he had led in the translation and printing of the Scriptures into forty languages, he had been a college professor, and had founded a college at Serampore. He had seen India open its doors to missionaries, and he had seen many converts for Christ.

“The Christian Church,” according to J. D. Freeman, “owes more to William Carey and his mission than to any other man or movement since the days of Paul.

God gave Carey Unconquerable Persistence.

Let’s not worry about being misunderstood or thought to be crazy… let’s imitate Jesus and Carey and go love some little children for Jesus.

We headed back to the sweet boys at Amparo De Ninos orphanage today. No sooner were we off the bus and a monster soccer game broke out. I got in on the Frisbee with Juan David and others. After a couple of hours of play two boys from the orphanage collided on the field and everyone heard the one boy, Nicolas’, leg snap! We got scissors and cut his pant leg and sure enough it was broke. We could see a large bulge on the side of his leg at the calf. Our team includes a doctor, nurse, coach, and former military personnel who knew exactly what to do. They jumped in and splinted the leg and got him on a bus and then several of our team rode with him to the hospital.

We had a nice lunch and were pleasantly surprised when Teresa, the president of Foundation Amparo De Ninos, arrived to share lunch with us. She is a very powerful person in Colombian politics and a great friend to Orhan Hope Intl. We had a great talk with her about future strategies as we work together to help the children of Colombia. The team came back from the hospital to let us know that Nicolas was resting well and the orthopedic surgeon was coming tomorrow to fix his leg. After lunch we took a nice walk in the pasture and checked out the orphanages little dairy and got to see them milk some cows.

Then we headed to the chapel for some worship and a gospel message. Jair led in several songs and then the little boys went with Lilliana and the ladies and the big boys stayed with the men and Pastor Hector gave a powerful gospel message. Nearly every one of the 40 or so older boys came forward to commit their lives to following Jesus. I was so blessed to get to pray over Juan David as he buried his face in my chest and squeezed me ever so tightly. He was so sweet today. He served me all day long and wouldn’t let me do anything. Every once in while he would come up and lay his head on my shoulder. He is 14.

After the service we broke out the treats that we had brought. We had chips and soda. Mike Ford brought a Texans jersey for every boy that YMCA donated and we gave those and several suitcases of clothes to the boys and then it was time to go. As I was hugging my dear friend Magnolia, the director of the orphanage, goodbye she pointed to Juan David and said, “Tu Ahijado?” (Your Godson?) and I said, “Yo quiero!” (I want Him to be). She smiled and said, “I will email you.” Juan David gave me the biggest hug and then held my hand as we walked to the bus and then we were gone. God is doing many mighty things with many of the team members here but I won’t steal their thunder. I will say that it seems that Orphan Hope International will have some young men living in Bogota full time and working with us very soon.

One of the things that we noticed over the last two days was the terrible condition of the boys shoes. We tried to figure out how we could come up with the $1000.00 dollars it would take to buy each of the 100 boys shoes. Sandy Byrd struck upon a great and radical idea. If we skip buying the nice dinner for the team on Thursday that we had planned and we all fast that one meal then we could do it. So that is what we are going to do. We will buy the shoes and have them delivered to the orphanage tomorrow. To God be the glory!

This morning the Lord lead me to forgo my devotion in order that two brothers, Dave Beach and Luis Escobar, could share some things that the Lord had laid on their heart.  Dave started out by sharing a little of how they came to the Orphan Hope International family and what God has been showing them in the last year as a result. Then he shared his vision for Colombia and what the Lord is going to do here. It was very encouraging and challenging. After, Luis shared the story that I wrote about yesterday about the girl he wept and prayed with. It was beautiful.

We headed out this morning to Amparo De Ninos (Protection of Boys) orphanage. I enjoyed the wonderful worship songs that Jair led us in on the bus and the awesome fellowship and spiritual companionship of my brothers and sisters on the way there. I sat next to Frank Kiser and we shared some heavy warfare stuff. It was powerful.

The orphanage is an old monastery out in the country that houses 100 boys 8 – 18. I was especially excited because this is the first orphanage I ever visited in Colombia. When we pulled up there were red, yellow, and blue (the colors of Colombia) balloons everywhere and the boys came out so excited to see us. They lead us into an auditorium that they had decorated with the flags of Colombia and America and red, white, and blue and red, yellow, and blue balloons and a big banner that the boys had hand made with the message in Spanish and English, “Friendship knows no limits or boundaries. Welcome!” and another banner that said, “God didn’t create borders; my goal is friendship with the world.” Everyone in the orphanage and on the team introduced themselves and then the boys did an amazing presentation of comedy, singing, dancing, and so on. It was obvious how delighted they were that we were there. It was humbling to hear that they don’t get visitors other than us every six months and that they had been planning for weeks for this presentation. I can’t describe how my heart cried out to the Lord to pour His grace on them and allow us to show them His love.

After the meeting we took a tour of the facility and my old friend Juan David, the first Colombian orphan my daughter Beverly and I ever met, came up and put his arm around me and said, “vamos” (Let’s go) he showed me all over the complex (even though I have been here half a dozen times) and we caught up and remembered old times. On our first trip to Colombia I brought my 17-year-old daughter Beverly with me. She had never flown on a plane or been out of the country except on a cruise. We arrived at Amparo De Ninas and this 13-year-old boy Jaun David took her by the hand and they became fast friends. Our second day there was her 18th birthday and all the boys sang happy birthday to her in English. Juan David begged me to be his daddy and asked Beverly to be his big sister. Jaun David took us up to the long room of bed after bed and picked up a little pink stuffed pig, the only toy he had, and handed it to Beverly as a birthday gift. She profusely refused but he would not take it back. I remember that she cried and cried that night. I saw a transformation take place in her that night that has existed to this day. She went from being a sort of serious Christ follower to a radicalized soldier of the cross overnight and that fire has not dimmed one iota. For months after we got home if someone mentioned his name she would start weeping. We tried to adopt him as well as our Goddaughters but found that we didn’t qualify economically, my health, and we had just recently adopted our African daughter. When Beverly returned to Amparo De Ninas a year and a half later she brought the little pink pig and gave it back to Juan David and they renewed their friendship once again. Well today after Juan David showed me all over the grounds he disappeared for a little while and then returned and handed me that little pink pig freshly washed and smelling of shampoo. He told me, “I just washed it, smell.” Then he said, “Wednesday is Beverly’s birthday and I want you to take this little pig back to her. Tell her I love her and that she can bring the pig back again when she comes to see me.” I took the pig and packed it away in my bag. After the tears subsided I texted Beverly and told her that I was with Juan David and gave her the message and sent her a photo with him holding the little pig. She texted me back and gave him her love and thanked me for making her cry ☺ I never dreamed that I would have a son and two daughters in Colombia that I can never bring home. The good thing is that they know that as long as I have breath in my body and God is willing I will come to see them again and again. Truth be told, my daughters and sons have dozens of little brothers and sisters living in orphanages in Colombia that they have given their heart to at one time or another and that they keep in contact with. Jesus said in John 10:16 “I have other sheep who are not of this fold, I must go and bring them also, they will hear my voice, and they will be one flock with one shepherd.” We are so grateful to be a part of connecting those other sheep to Him.

Then it was time to play. We had brought some sports equipment to give them and the boys broke out the soccer ball and soon there was a big game going, the USA vs. Colombia. It was so fun to see them out there playing their hearts out. When it was Colombia 3 USA 0 it began to rain and then hail and so we went inside and finished the morning visiting. The team had a wonderful time with the boys and then we had a nice lunch of beef and rice and potato. Half way through the meal the boys told us that they had slaughtered their cow the day before so that they could feed us this lunch. We sat stunned. Then Sandy Byrd said, “They killed the fatted calf for us.” “Wow!” Little orphan boys on another continent teaching us about love, hospitality, and sacrifice, humbling. I had an awesome visit over lunch with some of the older boys 16-18. They asked me what I do and I told them about all of the ministry things I am involved in. One of the boys said, “Are you a Christian?” (as opposed to Catholic) and I answered, “Yes.” He asked me what I believe and I was able to share the gospel and my testimony. It was wonderful. They were listening so intently.

About 3:30 p.m. it began to rain harder and the river at the bottom of the hill began to rise and we knew if we waited 30 minutes longer we would not be able to get out and get home. We said our hurried goodbyes and jumped on the bus. The road was already washing out and it was touch and go for a little while whether we would make it out to the paved road but we did and headed off to dinner to reminisce and share stories and testimonies and dream of what God is going to use us to do in the years to come. Tomorrow we go back to the same orphanage and we have many gifts and a big surprise for them. I can’t wait. I have a suspicion that we will leave the bus out at the main road and walk in tomorrow like we did the last time the bridge was out ☺

Your prayers are mightily felt here. God is at work!

Father’s Day Among The Fatherless:

I don’t think there are words to describe how amazing today was but I will try. Today was over the top anointed and blessed. We left at 7:00 a.m. and headed into Bogota to Hector and Lilliana’s church. We arrived at 8:00 a.m. and they had a beautiful breakfast spread for us. We ate and fellowshipped and took lots of pictures.

Many of the workers from the orphanages go to church there or came because they knew we would be there. Our dear sister Nelda was there and Sophia whom I wrote about in March. Some of our Goddaughters and friends from the Safe House were there. It was a great reunion and a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. One man came up and asked for a picture with me. He said he knew me from facebook but it took me a minute to remember. Ah! Brother Carlos! I couldn’t place him because his church is way over near Ecuador! He had heard that we were coming and had come all the way to see us. He asked me to come to their humble mining town and preach someday. I assured him that I would. Jose Vicente and his wife Diana were there and of course Hector and Lilliana’s beautiful teenage daughters and son and nephew. Hector came forward and spoke about the blessing of two countries worshipping together. They had a full size American flag and Colombian flag and they had me lead us in the National Anthem and then Hector and Jair led in singing the Colombian National Anthem. It was breathtaking!

Soon it was time for the worship to begin and when their children and Jair began to lead us in worship it was absolutely stunning. They would lead us in familiar worship songs in Spanish and then sing the chorus in English. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when they sang Mighty to Save in Spanish and then English. It was so powerful to sing at the top of our lungs, “Solo Dios puede salvar, mi Dios puede salvar!” Hector then read the story of the Good Samaritan and then the music started and we didn’t know what was coming next. Then the young people came in the side in costume and enacted the story of the Good Samaritan but in modern Bogota style. It was wonderfully done and very moving. Then Lilliana introduced Jair to come and sing some songs from his latest album Viraje. It was such a blessing because Hector and Lilliana were Jair’s pastors when he was a 10 year old boy in northern Colombia and for them to see this amazing man of God in action was a crown for them. Then Lilliana introduced me to preach and Luis to translate. I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to help me represent Him properly to these people and then shared the message that God had given me for this day. I have added my sermon notes below.

The God Who Pursues To Be Pursued

The God Who Pursues

Adam & Eve

Walking in the garden in the cool of the day… “Adam, where art thou,” is still the Divine call (Gen. 3:9)

The Woman At The Well

John 4:23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

The Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

  I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

                  Up vistaed hopes I sped;

                  And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

                  But with unhurrying chase,

                  And unperturbèd pace,

                Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

                  They beat–and a Voice beat

                  More instant than the Feet–

                “All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

                  I pleaded, outlaw-wise,

By many a window, curtained red,

  Trellised with intertwining charities

(For, though I knew His love Who followed,

                  Yet was I sore adread

Lest having Him, I must have naught beside);

1John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

Or as my pastor, Frankie, says, “You crave God because He first craved you.”

God is so wonderful that if you slow down long enough, get quiet long enough He will show Himself to you and you will be ruined for anything else ever again and then you will spend the rest of your life chasing Him.

O God, I have tasted your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and left me thirsty for more.

The God Who Must Be Pursued

Prov. 8:17  “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.

Jer. 29:13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Is. 58:2 “Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, They delight in the nearness of God.

Lam. 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.

Moses

At the burning bush Moses got a taste…

After walking with God through Egypt, the Red Sea, and so on Moses still wants more. In Exodus 33:18 Moses says, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And God did!

Heb. 11:27 tells us that Moses endured because he saw Him who is invisible.

David

David got a taste of God out watching his father’s sheep…

Psa. 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.

In my favorite chapter of the Bible he expresses beautifully his pursuit of God…

Psa. 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,

In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,

To see Your power and Your glory.

3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips will praise You.

4So I will bless You as long as I live;

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

5My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,

And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

6  When I remember You on my bed,

I meditate on You in the night watches,

7For You have been my help,

And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.

8My soul follows hard after you.

Paul

Paul found the pearl of great price… Phil. 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

I love the way Tozer says it… “The Holy Spirit is a Person, and as a Person, He can be cultivated; He can be wooed and cultivated as any person can be… People grow on us, and the Holy Spirit, being a Person, can grow on us… Be engrossed with Jesus Christ. Honor Him… The Holy Spirit will never, never flood the life of any man except the man in whom Jesus is glorified. Therefore, if you dedicate yourself to the glory of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will become the aggressor and will seek to know you…  As we honor Jesus, the Spirit of God becomes glad within us. He ceases to hold back, He relaxes and becomes intimate and communes and imparts Himself; and the sun comes up and heaven comes near as Jesus Christ becomes our all in all… I can walk with Jesus when I am doing the same things He is doing, and go the same way He is going and travel at the same speed He is traveling. I must be engrossed with Jesus Christ.” – A.W. Tozer

Some of you are running from God… you can feel His breath on the back of your neck. Just stop… just submit to Him… He will give you a taste of Himself that will be so fantastic that you, like the man who found the treasure hidden in the field in Matthew 13, will spend the rest of your life, your time, treasures, talents, and thoughts pursuing Him for more of that life giving Bread. Those of you, who have grown weary of pursuing God, don’t quit. Tell your Father that you, like Jacob, won’t let go until He blesses you. Tell Him that you are coming after Him and you want all that He has for you. Amen.

There were many tears and many hands raised to heaven as we prayed together aloud, “Father, we are coming after you! Give us all that you have for us!”

Next, a young woman and man came forward and played some traditional Colombian musical instruments. It was fabulous as well. The church leadership then presented each of our team a handmade Colombian gift. Then a lady came forward with a young man in her arms who suffers from acute cerebral palsy and several of us laid hands on them and prayed for them. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place then for sure. And last but certainly not least our brother Tracy Davis stepped forward with a short testimony. He shared how blessed he was by the service and especially the singing of Hector and Lilliana’s daughter Heyli and how God had spoken to him through them and that he could no longer look at them as Colombians but as family. He said that in coming to Colombia to minister to those without families, we were now without our families but the people of the church had taken us in and given us a home for the day and it was a beautiful picture.

We hugged and kissed and cried and took lots more photos and then we were on the bus and headed back to our lodgings. But God. Jose Vicente told us that he had an emergency center nearby with 100 orphans there and could we please stop and just say hi for a moment. We said absolutely! So we wound our way up the mountain a little to a house called Chamuel. We had to climb up a long stone path and there they were waiting for us with big smiles and a song.

We mingled and loved and got acquainted. Jose brought over three sisters ages 16, 13, and 10, Catalina, Geraldine, and Laura. Their grandfather died and their mother is a drug addict and they have no one in this world. They have been at this home for 7 months. Jose told us that he’s been so concerned for these girls and he thought that if he could just get us to stop there for 15 minutes we might be able to help him find a family for these girls. We assured him that we would try and he said that we had just given him the best Father’s Day gift by coming!

As we sat over lunch I asked my brothers and sisters what words they would use to describe today. The one that best fit I think was overwhelming… It truly was an amazing day. As we headed back to our rooms for some much needed rest I was surprised with one more story for the day. My dear Colombian brother, Luis, our main ministry translator stopped me and he said, “I know why we had to stop at Chamuel today even though it wasn’t on our agenda for the day.” I said, “Really, Luis, tell me about it.” He proceeded to tell me that he had struck up a conversation with a 13 year old girl who had been living with her grandfather in Spain but then he died and she had no one and since she was from Colombia they sent her back here. She was very sad and had become addicted to Marijuana and will soon go to rehab. Luis asked her what she thought about God and she said that she didn’t believe in Him because she couldn’t prove His existence. Luis kindly asked her if her grandfather had loved her. She replied that he had, very much. Luis asked her how she knew her grandfather loved her, what proof did she have. She told him that she could feel his love for her. Luis gently explained that this is also true of our Heavenly Father and us. We can feel His love for us. Luis told her that her Heavenly Father loved her more than even her grandfather and that He was always with her. This precious girl broke down and started weeping profusely and Luis started weeping with her and praying for her to know how much God loves her. They prayed together and then it was time to go. Dolly, one of our team members who was sitting with us said, “I saw you two weeping but didn’t know what was going on.” I looked at Luis and shook my head, “Wow!” “I guess you do know why we were supposed to stop there today.” “The Hound of Heaven was after that girl!” Praise God!

Thank you to the prayer warriors back home!

We had a little extra rest last night, which was wonderful. This morning, as was the case yesterday morning, we had no hot water in our cabin. The water heater was on high and burning but somehow no hot water. After an ice cold shower I was smiling to the Lord and I thought, “Father, was that cold shower to remind me that these children take an ice cold shower every day at 6:00 a.m.? Where you helping me to live incarnationally for a moment?” After breakfast my friend and roommate on this trip, Tracy, came up to me and said, “I was grateful for that cold shower this morning because it humbles me and makes me glad for what I have.” I told him about my musing to the Lord and he stared at me in disbelief. He hadn’t known that there is no hot water or heat in the orphanages and nights in Bogota get down in the 40’s at night all year around. He said, “Now I’m really glad for that cold shower this morning!”

In our devotional this morning we talked about Jesus the Orphan, or more accurately, Jesus the fatherless. Jesus came to earth not as a conqueror but as the child of a single teenage mother. I took some time this morning to look at Joseph who adopted Jesus. Imagine this Jewish man betrothed to a lovely young Jewish maiden and then he finds out that she is with child. What a shock! God speaks to him in a dream and he instantly obeys. He takes Mary as his wife, thereby adopting her soon to be born child, and becomes protector and provider for the infant Godman! Amazing! I’ve always pondered the thought that the angel came to Mary and God spoke to Joseph in a dream, but the angel didn’t go to the rest of the family or the town that we know of. Joseph took on a lot when he obeyed the voice of the Lord. Imagine the looks, the comments, etc. Then they have to travel to Bethlehem and the baby is born. Two years later in another dream Joseph is told to take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Then later they return. The point is that Joseph literally laid down his life, his dreams, his plans to provide and protect a fatherless (as far as the world knew) child and Jesus asks us to do the same.

Dr. Moore asks an astonishing question. “When James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. is it possible that he was thinking of the example set by his father, Joseph, in adopting Jesus? Fascinating! Joseph’s story reminded me of another hero from history who spent her life loving, protecting, and caring for Jesus through the poor that she met in the streets of Calcutta… Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa believed strongly in Matthew 25:40 ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ She used to say, “We are ministering for Jesus, with Jesus, and to Jesus” She was also famous for saying, “The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved, they are Jesus in disguise.” At her death she had been influential in establishing 610 missions in 123 countries.

Every good deed done for God’s glory… even a cup of cold water turns into worship of Jesus

Like Joseph, and Mother Teresa, God is asking us to love His Son through these little ones today. We get to go out there today and live the life of these heroes…

We arrived at the orphanage and our little friends from yesterday were so happy to see us. There were 180 girls here today. We were directed immediately to the lunch hall because due to the influence of our ministry here they have started a Saturday morning worship service every week. Pastor Lucas from La Libertad Church in Bogota and his wife and teen daughter led the worship and then Pastor Lucas preached from Psalm 148 on praise. It was beautiful. We spent most of the rest of the day playing with the children; we had an official tour of the facilities and heard many heart-rending stories of the work that is going on here. It was obvious that the team was having a great time, as were the girls.

I was blessed beyond words to get to hang out with and love on my Goddaughter as well as a slew of other sweet little girls. I love them so much. If God would let me I would take them all home and I have tried very hard to take at least two home to be mine but have not been able to overcome all of the legal hurdles. But God has repeatedly assured me that He wants us to help many more than just two and so for now we continue to pour our lives into promoting the need here and working to help these kids. Some of the little girls that kept a piece of my heart today were Marta, Marcela, Karen, Yecenia, Laurita, and of course Heidy. I had many wonderful conversations and was able to share about my hero, Jesus, with many of them.

Soon it was time to gather and sing and share the gospel with the children. First though we had a wonderful presentation by them. They gave each team member a hand made card with the inscription inside in English, “In the home Santa Maria of Fatima our dream are like a light more than the stars. Thank you for making our dreams possible!” Then they sang some beautiful songs and dances and at the end we all got to join in. It was very fun. Some of the team members threatened to put video of my dancing on facebook but I reminded them that, “What happens in Colombia, stays in Colombia!” Then Jair sang some wonderful songs of praise that he has written with his band Viraje. At the request of the director of the orphanage,

I came up and gave a short message to the girls about predators and the dangers of the sex trade here in Colombia. I told them that as often as I have been here and how much I love them and the fact that I have 4 daughters of my own that I felt it was my job to be their Daddy for a minute and warn them. Many of them go to school in the town nearby and then return to the orphanage at night. Recently 5 of the girls have been lured into the sex trade by evil men who wait to catch them on their way to and from school. I told the girls that Colombia is the second leading country in the western hemisphere in sex trafficking with over 35,000 girls sold each year. I warned them not to listen to men who promise them jobs, money, or a relationship. The directors were very happy because they said that the girls look forward to us coming for months and they will listen to us. Then my friend Mike got up and told a little about his very rough past and how Christ changed his life. It was very moving. Then Lilliana told the story of how an orphan, Hadassah, became queen and how God had a plan for every girl there. It was wonderful. Then we handed out a Bible and a Spanish/English dictionary to every girl.

Finally the time came for us to leave. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place as everyone said goodbye for the last time on this trip. There were lots of hugs and kisses. Many of the girls had made love notes for the team last night and they gave them out. We finally pulled away and got on the bus and as we drove away I could hear sobs all over the bus. As Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, used to say, “God has broken our hearts with the things that break His heart.”

This week we will be focusing on Jesus as our hero.

I heard John Piper say something that changed my life. He said, “If admiration of the truly admirable is one of the greatest and rarest pleasures, and if Jesus is truly the most admirable being in the universe, then admiring Jesus is the greatest pleasure.”

I agree and I love nothing more than talking about Him.

Jesus is my hero…

I love the story of a former Taliban fighter who came to faith in Christ. He said, “I was attracted to the character of Jesus and wanted to be like Him. I thought if anyone should be God… if there is a God….it should be Jesus.” He has since led over 1000 Muslims to Christ and started 70 house churches in His country.

Here is an aspect of Jesus life and ministry that I admire…

Jesus the Missionary

Jesus left His country and came to ours…

The first gift that God gave us to demonstrate His love was His presence on earth in the person of His Son Jesus. Emmanuel… God with us. He could have written us a message in the sky but He chose to come to where we were and for 33 years to become one of us and live with us… John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He gave us the gift of His presence and today we ask Him to use us to give these lonely, love starved children the gift of His presence in us.

Jesus came as a servant…

He could have come as a king… But He humbled himself, laid aside His glory and His rights. He stepped into our world and for a few moments in time. He became one of us. His mission was to adopt us and He came into the world as a fatherless child of a single teenage mother…

Phil. 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

2Cor. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Another hero from history who reminds me of Jesus the missionary is Hudson Taylor missionary to China. He adopted Chinese dress and hairstyle and his supporters in England were offended by it and cut off his support. He stuck to his guns and these stats reflect his legacy. In 1861 when he arrived in China there were 350 known Christians in China. In 1905 at Hudson Taylor’s death there were 18,000. When the communists kicked his ministry, the China Inland Mission, out of China in 1951 there were an estimated 1,000,000 Christians. Today there are an estimated 100,000,000 Christians in China and some analysts estimate that 20,000 to 30,000 Chinese are coming to Christ every day.

Today we get a chance to be our hero… We get to be Jesus… We get to be His hands and feet.

We climbed in the bus and headed for Santa Maria orphanage near Madrid. This facility houses 150 girls ages 8 to18. Some of us on the team have been here many times and it was a wonderful reunion as we climbed out of the bus and were thronged with little friends calling our names. Quickly the rest of the team was surrounded and led away to tour the grounds and make new friends.

My other Goddaughter, Heidy, is at this orphanage and I began to scour the grounds with my eyes looking for her. Suddenly I heard her little singsong voice calling across the complex, “Papi, Papi!!! She ran and jumped into my arms and we shared a few dozen “I love you-s.”

The morning and afternoon were spent in fun and games. Many just sat around visiting and enjoying the beautiful day. There was fingernail painting (which I fortunately escaped this time), sports of all kinds and more than a little horseplay. There was baseball, soccer, football, frisbee, ladder golf, and many other activities going on. Many discovered that love and happiness have no language barriers. They are their own universal language.

As is my habit I floated through the crowd and checked on each of our new team members and asked them how they were doing. One brother said with tears in his eyes, “I’m done. I know what God wants me to do.” Another said, “Don’t talk to me Matt Bullen or I am going to start crying.” Another said, “When are we coming back?” And I said, “tomorrow” and he said, “No, I mean when is the next trip!” All agreed that their lives were already changed. At one point Heidy sang me a beautiful daddy love song and made all the other girls squeal with delight and more than a few of the rest of us well up with tears. These are such beautiful children inside and out.

It was wonderful to see old friends again such as Pastor Lucas and his wife from La Libertad church in Bogota and Jose Vicente, the president of Fundacion Nuevo Mundo. I was so happy and surprised to look up at lunch and see Julie Dinkler and her daughters Brooklyn and Laura. Julie and her husband Chris are in Bogota adopting Laura from this very orphanage. They will be taking her home in just a few days. I’ll never forget Chris’s words the first time he came to Colombia with us. On the last day he said with tears running down his face, “The next time someone tells me they want to see Jesus, I am going to tell them that I know the address where He lives.” Now 18 months later they have a beautiful new daughter. Praise God!

In the afternoon we gathered everyone together and Jair got out his guitar and we sang worship songs and then Lilliana, the pastor’s wife from Bogota, shared a testimony about the amazing difference that Christ makes in your life when you commit to Him. Then we said our goodbyes but they were happy ones because they know that we will be back tomorrow. Tomorrow’s parting will not be so easy.

Every time I am here I gain a new appreciation and admiration for the man who said, “Permit the little children to come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Commit your works o the LORD And your plans will be established Proverbs 16:3

We had a sweet surprise when we walked out of the airport tonight in Bogota with 43 team members and 70 suitcases (1/2 of which are stuffed with things for the orphans). First, I saw Pastors Hector and Lilliana from Comunidad Christiana Fundamentos where I will be preaching on Sunday. It was so good to see them. Then I saw Jair and Shannon. What a blessing they are to have on this trip. Then out of nowhere a bunch of our little friends from the Amparo De Ninas orphanage showed up to surprise us and I got many hugs and kisses and then my Goddaughter Ginary popped out of the crowd! What a joyous reunion! They quickly loaded back into the van and headed back home. We will see them later this week but it was so great to be greeted by Jesus in disguise tonight. We are now bunked down and looking forward to a Spirit filled week as we walk with Jesus through the fields of the fatherless.

Orphan Hope Marathon | Huntsville, Texas 77342 | Saturday, February 11, 2012 @ 8:00 AM

An amazing thing happened to me today. I was sitting in a meeting with the owner of the building that I just completed and Ed Wong, a landscape designer whom I had just met that day. The owner of the building, (who is a strong believer and who knows that my job has run out and that this is my last week in construction and I will be launching out by faith in full-time ministry starting next week), asks me if I know how I am going to support my family and I respond that I don’t know yet but I am trusting God to take care of us. At this comment, Ed Wong’s head comes up and he says, “You know, J. Hudson Taylor said, ‘God’s work done God’s way will never lack for God’s supply'” I smile and say, “I love that quote! I am a big fan of Hudson Taylor. Ed smiles and says, “I am a good friend of J. Hudson Taylor  IV who is a missionary in Taiwan. He calls me whenever he is in Houston and comes and visits our little Chinese church in Chinatown. Here, I have a photo of him.” Ed pulls out his iphone and shows me a photo of J. Hudson Taylor IV and his Chinese wife. Then we shared Hudson Taylor quotes for a moment and then got back to designing landscaping. I don’t know if this little exchange was a message to me from God but I am receiving it as such anyway.

It’s been an eventful couple days! My family had some very special Colombian women fly in to visit. I was blessed to see a very dear old friend and spend some time with her. These kind of events remind me how sweet it is to be on God’s team and be involved in His work. Which further excites me about this new adventure in L.A. I’ve heard that there may be some interest in others wanting to join in and serve in L.A! I would love that! Please! Anybody who’s heard about our undertaking and may be interested let us know. We need all the help and encouragement we can get. This is still in it’s baby stages… all we know is God put a fire in our hearts and we are doing all we can to answer that call. Join us if you feel that tug as well.

As I have shared previously, we have the amazing and miraculous privilege to be a part of bringing 17 orphans to Texas in July to be hosted by 11 families in the hope that these children will find a forever family. Today we had training for the families presented by the Colombian officials. It was a great meeting.

Later tonight we had a fundraiser at the beautiful Fuller home. The total cost for this adventure is $42,000.00. A few weeks ago we held an orientation for the families that will be hosting and shared with them the financial need and asked them to share with their friends and churches. The Fullers immediately offered to host a fundraiser at their home for their friends and neighbors. We arrived tonight with our Colombian guests, Grace Fellowship leaders, and Orphan Hope Board members and were pleasantly surprised at an amazing turnout at a beautiful home, an amazing dinner, and the presence of God’s mighty hand on this night.

Bill Byrd and I were able to present the ministry and share the need. Others spoke whom we had just met tonight and their excitement for Orphan Hope and what God is doing in Colombia was wonderful.

We believe that we will see a good response financially and spiritually from the terrific people we met tonight. Time will tell how this night will impact the children of Colombia. To God be the glory.

Our family has the pleasure of hosting two Colombian officials today. We picked Sandra and Maria Elena, up at the airport this morning at 6:00 a.m. and have been shopping and eating ever since! They are in town for the weekend to meet with our ministry, Orphan Hope International, regarding this summer’s Texas Vacation Host Program where we will bring 17 Colombian orphans to stay for 3 weeks in July with 11 host families in the hope of finding a forever family. The festivities officially start tonight as we gather for dinner with the remainder of the Orphan Hope board of directors and their wives. Tomorrow we will meet with the host families and our partners for this program at Grace Fellowship UMC in Katy and then a fundraiser tomorrow night graciously sponsored and hosted by one of the vacation host families where we will give a presentation of our ministry. Sunday we meet with more families and another dinner and then Monday they return to Bogota. As we were walking around today I was thinking that if you had told me two years ago today that I would be hosting these two ladies today or be involved in all of the initiatives in Colombia that we are involved in, I wouldn’t have believed it. Thank you Lord for letting me be on your team. Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.