All posts by Matt Bullen

Again today, Tuesday January 22, 2013, God blessed us with a wonderful day. We spent the day with Maranatha International Foundation. They have a very interesting ministry. They focus on three different projects. The first is a Habitat for Humanity type ministry where they build houses for the poor in Bogota. Their goal is to build 100 houses. The second project is evangelistic events where they bring in evangelistic speakers like Nick Viujicic and hold giant evangelistic meetings. They have had approximately 95,000 conversions recorded in the last 6 years. The third project is Hogar De Paz (Home of Peace) where they take in children from the street each day and feed them, educate them, and win them to Christ and disciple them. This is the project that we came to see today. We were immediately impressed with the appearance and spirit of the place when we walked in. It really is a home of peace.

We had breakfast with them and then we spent the morning learning all about their foundation and about the children they serve. It was very refreshing to see a ministry serving vulnerable children whose main focus is the gospel and discipleship. They do many of the same social programs to help the children as others but their main focus is the heart because they know that true transformation of a child’s life is a supernatural happening brought about by the Holy Spirit. And all of the other needs in their life are secondary to breaking the cycle of sin, hopelessness, and abuse prevalent in their families because the life that Jesus gives is absent.
In the afternoon the children arrived and we played at the park for awhile and then came in to play board games and puzzles. It was so much fun playing with these sweet and happy children who once were withdrawn and angry and had witnessed horrible atrocities on the street and in war but now through the work of Hogar De Paz and the glorious gospel they are new little people. I had the most fun playing a memory game with a bunch of kids where we had these giant cards with pictures of all different faces of dinosaurs on them. We had the whole table covered in these cards face up and then we would give each child two seconds to look at the cards and then we turned them all over and they had to guess from memory where the duplicate cards were located. I was stunned at how smart these little 5 and 6 year olds were as they would just walk up and pick out the pair over and over again. It was so wild because they would scream and dance and jump around when they got it right. It was too cute.

An hour before it was time to go we gathered up for devotion. Some of the parents of the children who are now working during the day while the children are at school and then Hogar De Paz began to drift in while we were singing worship songs and then the children sang several songs and then it was time for the devotion. Each of the team members got up and gave their testimony and it was amazing how some of the team members childhood testimonies resembled what these children have seen and how good it was for them to hear the difference that Christ has made in each of our lives. David Attaway gave the entire gospel message from Romans and all of those parents were sitting there listening intently.

God is doing a great work through Maranatha and we were very blessed to spend the day with them. God has given us a very blessed, calm, and intimate trip and we are grateful and blessed. One of the team members this morning, Jay from Chicago, said that he originally was supposed to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua but it didn’t work out and so he sort of felt at the time like he was settling for the Colombia trip but WOW has God blown his mind and he knows that this is where he was supposed to be. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Another wonderful day today, Monday January 21, 2013, started early as we picked up Pastor Timothy Vowell at the airport at 5:30 am. I am so happy to be cooperating together on this trip.

I had a wonderful surprise when my precious goddaughter, Ginary, showed up to have breakfast with us. She has grown into such a sweet young woman. Brooke and I were so blessed to get to spend some time with her yesterday and then again today. She aged out of the orphanage last month and we are working on a long-term plan to help her in life. Please pray with us that God will send the resources and opportunities as she moves into adulthood. We will see her again on Sunday.

We headed over to see our new friends at Colombia Chiquita again today. I had noticed yesterday that they had a little church next door called Iglesia Misionera Santa Sion but I didn’t realize it was their own church and not actually next door but was a part of their house.

As soon as we walked in the door Esperanza said, “You are sharing the word in the church today.” I looked at Oscar and said, “You ready to preach?” They opened up the church which has a garage door which opens onto the sidewalk and they set up chairs all the way out to the curb. Pretty soon people came from everywhere including the children and filled up the little church out onto the sidewalk. We sang and sang and prayed and prayed and then Oscar and I preached. It was awesome. I shared that John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God, though a small verse tells the story of the reason for the existence of the universe, relationship. The blessed Trinity was in a beautiful, loving, harmonious, joyful, loving relationship before the world began and they created the world and us so they could share that beautiful relationship with us. God came and walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. We were created for relationship with God and nothing in this world can satisfy that need but Him. We try to substitute drugs and sex and alcohol and money and position and accomplishment and many other things in place of the real thing we need, the only true ultimate satisfaction, which is found in a genuine relationship with Christ. God blessed us with His presence and it was a delight to see the smiles and the nods and the Amens from many in the crowd. One teen girl in particular who came to the foundation in a lot of trouble a year ago and is now a sold out Jesus girl was very touched.

After the message headed out to the park to play soccer and the little kids played on the playground. I sat in the shade and enjoyed a steady stream of young people who came by to talk to share with me about their life and I was able to encourage and minister to each one. The other team members made friends and ministered too. Brooke had a long and deep conversation with one of the young workers there and I know they were both blessed.

We came back to the house and ate lunch and then we sat around the table and talked kingdom strategy for most of the afternoon. We had arepas, an amazing Colombian delicacy made with corn meal, white cheese, and butter. And of course we had lots of Colombian coffee. Esperanza and Colombia Chiquita have a big vision for a ministry center someday and we even pulled out the blueprints and prayed over them. As we talked and prayed Esperanza said, “I have to introduce you to my pastor! He is the president of a national pastor’s association here in Colombia.” She picked up her phone and called him and set up a breakfast meeting with him for Wednesday. It will be exciting to get to meet with him and some of the other leaders of their association. She also invited us to speak at a national pastor’s congress in November. I am excited about the ministry that we will do together, God willing.

Their most desperate need is for child sponsors to help them feed, clothe, and house these precious children who otherwise would be on the street but who are now being discipled into men and women of God. Esperanza told me that she needs 30 sponsors right now at $45.00 a month.

I made so many little friends and my heart was stolen once again for the children of Colombia as they lined up to hug my neck as we were leaving. What a delightful mission and people. Thank you Lord. Help us to help them.

Today, Sunday January 20, 2013 was a beautiful day. I am so excited to start my fifteenth trip to Colombia in 4 years. God has abundantly blessed me with this calling and the joy I feel when my feet touch Colombian soil is hard to put into words. We arrived last night late and today we had the wonderful pleasure and priviledge of preaching for our dear friends Pastor Lucas and Pastora Doraynne at their new church in south Bogota, Rios De Vida (Rivers of Life). Their’s is the family that Brooke stayed with for two months this summer. It was so sweet to see Brooke reunited with her Colombian Papa and Mama and her sister Sara and the little ones. It was so great to see Javier and Cindy and the worship team. They are awesome.

Our dear friend Oscar translated for me and God showered us with His presence. I preached from Matthew 13:33 on the triumph of the gospel. The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman hid in three measures of flour until it permeated the entire lump. Every day we are hiding the yeast of the gospel in the dough of the world and it will not fail to spread to the whole world. I was so blessed to see the shining faces and bright smiles as the people soaked up the word of God. What a blessed work God is doing in this very poor section of Bogota. God bless Rios De Vida!

After church we were so blessed to visit Colombia Chiquita, a Christian foundation ministering to deperate children and families displaced by the guerrilla fighting in Colombia. The founder, Esperanza, is an amazing woman of God. She was in a terrible accident several years ago and was in a coma and lost a leg. The Lord raised her up and shortly after she was walking on the street with crutches and a little boy came and stole her crutches. She asked him why he was doing this and he replied that he was starving and needed them to sell. God broke her heart right there for the children of Colombia and she has been taking them in off the streets and raising them to be men and women of God ever since. What a joyous afternoon we spent with her and her workers and thirty of her children that she has in the house in Bogota. She also has other houses other places and many children around the country. We played and told stories and sang and ate and prayed. Oh! did we pray.

At one point Esperanza and her daughter Sara prayed over me for a long time. I understood every word and I must tell you I have never been prayed for like that before. They prayed some huge blessings and huge vision down upon my head, my hands, and my lips that will remain in my heart forever. My faith was so elevated as these two precious saints lifted me and my family and my ministry up to the throne of God. No wonder they live totally by faith. Praying down their monthly and even daily needs and have been doing so for years. It was a delightful time and we switched between crying and laughing or both. What kindred spirits. I am so grateful that God brought them across our path through our friend and colleauge in orphan ministry Pete Johnson. God bless you Pete! We get to go back and spend the whole day with Esperanza and Colombia Chiquita tomorrow. Thank you for the prayers and the support. Thank you Pastor Timothy and Relationships for Christ for making this trip happen. Thank you to our board member, David Attaway and his sister Michelle for their huge hearts. And to Oscar, I love you man!

Looking forward to an amazing week in the fields of the fatherless for Jesus, with Jesus and to Jesus we go.

Matt Bullen

[lightbox full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” title=”Paul’s Missionary Journeys” /]

Missions Ambition

 
Romans 15:20 I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

Often times we think of raw, unchecked ambition in a negative connotation but Paul was not shy in stating that he had a holy ambition… a missions ambition… and we should have it too.

If God has saved us and made us His own, be assured, it was not just so we could sit back and relax. He saved us and has called every single one of us to join Him in His mission to save the rest of the world. Missions isn’t just the job of a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is each of our calling.

I love how Matthew Barnett says it,

[quote]
“When you were born, God instilled many things within you. One of them was a great CAUSE that He wants you to embrace. In His unique grandeur, He created a universe in which the cumulative effect of all people faithfully pursuing the cause within them would result in a transformed world – one in which everyone’s needs would be met and every servant’s heart would be filled with the joy of blessing others. Unfortunately, we live in a traumatized world – in part because so many people fail to identify and pursue the cause He has given them. Even though it would provide the happiness and fulfillment they have been seeking, they have failed to build their lives around that cause.” – Matthew Barnett
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God has more for us to do and to be a part of than we have dared to dream. We need to get a holy ambition to impact the world.

[quote]
“If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small.” – Brother Andrew
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So why does the great majority of church going, faith professing, Christians live lives that don’t reflect this kind of raging ambition? Somehow we have been lulled into the thought that impacting the world for Christ is a calling reserved for a radical few. We have traded God’s plan for the Christian life for one of our own making.
[quote]
“We tend to drift away from God’s bold vision, replacing it with a safer, tamer vision of our own.” – Richard Stearns
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Many of us at some point in our lives get an inkling that something isn’t right. We read the book of Acts and wonder… “Why doesn’t God work the same way today?” For a moment we wonder if we aren’t supposed to be doing more for God and experiencing more of His power and seeing more transformation in the world. We wonder if we shouldn’t break from the norms of our culture and give ourselves to the work of God completely. Then fear strikes. “We can’t just give up everything. I mean we can’t all be gospel agents can we? Somebody has to be average American Christians.” We look around and notice that no one else seems disturbed with the disparity between the Bible and our lives and so we shrug, assuming that we have just experienced a brief lapse in reality. After all, “we must submit to the demands of our society. How can we provide for ourselves and our family if we don’t stay in the rat race? Radical ministry must be for someone with less responsibilities and encumbrances than me. Some of us are made for big dreams but not me.” I’m tempted to believe it but then I read quotes like…
[quote]
“We need to dream big dreams because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence. Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. “ – Mark Batterson
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or like…
[quote]
“God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” -William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
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And I know that I can’t quit. It’s why I love to keep quotes like these around me. Because the enemy is always trying to lull me back to sleep but the future generations of the Bullen family can’t afford for me to get distracted. The hundreds of orphans our ministry serves can’t afford for me to get distracted. The young ministers and missionaries whom I have the joy of mentoring and encouraging can’t afford for me to get distracted. The seasoned saints who have invested in me over the decades can’t afford for me to get distracted and squander their spiritual investment. The lives that I will touch with my simple obedience can’t afford for me to get distracted. My own soul and my joy and my happiness can’t afford for me to get distracted. I am addicted to the mission of God and I can’t live without it. My mind and soul having been stretched to know this amazing life can never retract back to their original smallness. I must press on. I have a mission ambition to push out the boundaries of His kingdom until all know Him and worship Him. I’ve read and believed quotes like the ones below and they have stretched my heart beyond the point of no return. I’m hopelessly consumed with an ambition… a mission ambition…
[quote]
“One of the reasons that we are often not as happy as we should be and could be is that our vision of what our life is about is too small. We try to find happiness in our work, our family, and our friends. He wants the whole world to be embraced by His saving glory in Jesus Christ and He wants you and me to be involved in this. Our hearts can expand with joy in God as we watch Him triumph in the world. One of the reasons that missions is so advancing to our happiness is because you are engaged in something that not only is God very excited about but that cannot fail… we are linking our lives to something global, something absolutely indomitable, and something absolutely eternal and when you are linked to big things, strong things, sure things like that your joy is deeper, stronger, and bigger.” – John Piper
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[quote]”‘Not called!’ did you say?
‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say.”
— William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
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[quote]
“I pray that the Lord might give you a dare-devil spirit, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom ‘fanaticism’, but known to God as that saint-ly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross—and Glory!” – Jim Elliot
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So, will you take up the challenge? What Holy Ambition is God stirring in your heart even now?

In the late 1800s Logan County Kentucky was as wild as wild could be. It’s nickname was Rogue Harbor. If you were a murderer or thief or any kind of criminal in the big cities of the east you knew that if you made it to Kentucky you would be safe. It was a lawless and reckless land. BUT GOD. Thankfully God in His grace chose to send there a praying preacher with only one (obvious) claim to fame. He was extremely ugly. His name was James McGready and my family owes him an eternal debt of gratitude but I will get to that in a minute. First, listen to J. Edwin Orr tell about him.

[quote]
“There was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister named James McGready whose chief claim to fame was he was so ugly that he attracted attention. It was reported that people sometimes stopped in the street to ask: ‘What does he do?” “He’s a preacher.” Then they reacted, saying: “A man with a face like that must really have something to say.” McGready settled in Logan County, pastor of three little churches. He wrote in his diary that the winter of 1799 for the most part was “weeping and mourning with the people of God.” Lawlessness prevailed everywhere. McGready was such a man of prayer that, not only did he promote the concert of prayer every first Monday of the month, but he got his people to pray for him at sunset on Saturday evening and sunrise Sunday morning. Then in the summer of 1800 came the great Kentucky revival. Eleven thousand people came to a communion service. McGready hollered for help, regardless of denomination. Baptists and Methodists came in response and the great camp meeting revivals started to sweep Kentucky and Tennessee, then spread over North and South Carolina, along the frontier. Out of that second great awakening after the death of John Wesley came the whole modern missionary movement and its societies. Out of it came the abolition of slavery, and popular education, Bible societies and Sunday schools, and many social benefits accompanying the evangelistic drive.”
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What Pastor McGready couldn’t have known when he started his people praying in 1879 and that is incidental to the world but monumental to my family is that two young men, a Mr. Yarbrough and a Mr. Harrison would be greatly impacted by the revival that issued from those prayers. Mr. Yarbrough would become an evangelist preaching under the brush arbors of those camp meeting revivals in Tennessee. Mr. Harrison and his family who lived on the Tennessee/Georgia border would sing and pray in many of those camp meetings. Many of their offspring for generations would be preachers and mighty women of God of whom my wife and I are examples for her great-grandfather was Mr. Yarbrough and my great-grandfather was Mr. Harrison the two patriarchs of our respective families and both had an incalculable spiritual effect on our lives. To God be the glory.

From the very earliest days of my own journey following Jesus I have been strengthened and encouraged by the biographies of those who have gone before and done great exploits for God. I often wonder how any Christian today can hope to know God, understand the Bible, and have a chance at a solidly biblical worldview without an excellent working knowledge of church history and observing the patterns that God has followed again and again down through the centuries with His people.

One of these luminaries that my mind often goes to is John Bunyan. But before we talk about Bunyan I must introduce you to three poor women sitting in the sun and knitting. The place was Bedford, England and the year was 1652. One of the women was Mary Fenne, another was called Norton, and the name of the last we don’t know. This day they were talking about their great love for Jesus and the unspeakable joy they shared in knowing Him and of His great love for them. As it happened in the providence of God a young tinker (repairer of pots and pans) was passing by and was arrested by their conversation. As he listened his heart was opened and a great hunger came over him to know this new birth that they spoke of. To him it seemed that they had the answer that for so long his heart had longed and he was so eager to hear more that they invited him to come the next day and speak with their pastor Dr. Gifford. That he did and thus began an incredible ripple in the kingdom of God. That young tinker of course was John Bunyan. Those precious daughters of God couldn’t have known what the Holy Spirit would do with their joyous sharing of their love for Jesus with a passing poor and uneducated tinker.

John Bunyan was discipled by Dr. Gifford and in a few years became known all over the counties surrounding his home for his powerful preaching. Soon however the government changed and his preaching was outlawed. He continued preaching anyhow and eventually was arrested and spent 12 years in prison. His first wife dead, he had recently remarried and his new wife was left to care for his four children. They suffered terribly and had to depend on the other poor Christian’s charity in their community. It was a terribly lonely time for Bunyan who once remarked, “I have but one Friend, but He is all sufficient.” Bunyan’s oldest daughter Mary was blind and when they would come to the prison to visit he said it was like “tearing the flesh from his bones” when he had to tell her goodbye each time. Bunyan could have been released at any time if he would only promise not to preach but he would reply, “If you let me out to-day I will preach again to-morrow, by the help of God,” he declared. In the eyes of the world a great tragedy had descended upon the Bunyan family and indeed it was tragic but they couldn’t have known what God was going to do with that tragedy for His kingdom.

While in the prison Bunyan wrote an allegory about the Christian life entitled The Pilgrim’s Progress. The book swept the world like wild fire. Outside of the Bible it is the most printed and the most translated English work in the history of the world. It has been translated to date in over 200 languages. It has been translated in over 80 African languages alone. The Pilgrim’s Progress was such a powerful tool for evangelization that missionary ships going to new lands would be loaded down with thousands of Bibles in the language of that land and an equal number of The Pilgrim’s Progress in that language.

When Alexis de Tocqueville, French nobel and author of the famous Democracy in America, toured America in 1831 he was astounded to find a 98% literacy rate because nearly every home had a copy of the Bible and The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Only heaven knows the impact of that little discussion those three poor women had that day with that poor tinker but we do know the world was never the same after. We can’t know what God is up to in even the smallest efforts we are making for His kingdom. But He does… and who knows what future generations will look back upon as a result of our mustard seed faith and simple obedience?

Matt Bullen

I am really enjoying this series and since I am meditating on it stories seem to pop up everywhere. The Lord has encouraged me over and over with it. Here are a few more examples that I’ve “stumbled” across recently.

One day a teenager in Akron, Ohio was on his way home from work at a tire company and overheard a street preacher say: “If you don’t know how to be saved… just call on God.” Upon returning home, he climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice. We don’t even know the street preacher’s name and he couldn’t have known the incredible harvest that God was going to give him from that sermon because that teenager was A.W. Tozer. Tozer was a pastor in the first half of the twentieth century and is one of the best loved Christian writers of all time. He wrote over 40 books including the Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. He is oft quoted and one of the most quotable authors ever. In the vein of this series, one of my favorite of his quotes is this: “We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day – but remember at the time they didn’t know they were heroes.” Untold thousands have been blessed by Tozer’s ministry. It’s certain that the street preacher never knew the impact of his message until he arrived in Heaven. He couldn’t have known. He simply obeyed the Spirit and preached, amazing. We never know fully what God is up to in our lives.

On October 5, 1783, a pastor by the name of Dr. Ryland baptized a young man. That evening the pastor entered in his diary, “This day baptized a poor journeyman shoemaker.” Of course Dr. Ryland couldn’t have known when he lowered young William Carey into the water that Carey would go on to become “The Father Of Modern Missions” and bring the gospel to India. There is no way that Dr. Ryland could have known that this young cobbler would be a genius of Bible translation and would translate and distribute “more than 213,000 volumes of the Divine Word, in forty different languages.” and many other things. His life and ministry inspired thousands to give themselves to God in missionary service and his impact on India and the world is still felt today. Dr. Ryland couldn’t have known what God was up to and neither can we.

In January of 1850 a 15 year old boy was trying to get to church in a snowstorm. The blizzard was so great that he couldn’t make it to his church so he turned down a lane and ducked into a small Primitive Methodist Chapel. The pastor was snowed in and couldn’t be there so a poor tradesman in the congregation stood up to attempt to preach instead. Years later the 15 year old boy wrote about that morning. Here is what he wrote.

[quote]”He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus: ‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, “Look.” Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just “look.” Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, “Look unto Me.” ‘Ay,’ said he, in broad Essex, ‘many of ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves.’ Then the good man followed up his text in this way: ‘Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look: I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O, look to Me! Look to Me!’ When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes, he was at the length of his tether. “Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.’ Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: ‘And you will always be miserable — miserable in life and miserable in death — if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’ “Then he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ.’ There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the Precious Blood of Christ.”[/quote]

We don’t know the poor tradesman’s name that “preached” that day but the whole Christian world knows the name of that 15 year old boy who came to Christ that day. The tradesman couldn’t have known that the teenager he spoke those anointed words to would go on to become C.H. Spurgeon “The Prince of Preachers.” The next year at the age of 16 Spurgeon would preach his first sermon and by the age of 21 he was preaching every Sunday to crowds of 5 to 6 thousand people and continued for over 30 years. I’ve included below a newspaper artist’s sketch of a Sunday morning at Spurgeon’s church, The Metropolitan Tabernacle. Millions of his sermons have been printed and distributed around the world. The expanse and impact of his ministry only heaven knows. They couldn’t have known dear friends and neither can we. How do we know what God is doing and will do with the young people around us that we are ministering to everyday? We can’t. We must simply sow every seed God puts in our hand and trust Him with the results.

Matt Bullen

When I am plodding along in pain, sickness, and difficulty attempting to live out the indescribable passion that God has placed in my heart for His kingdom, I often disarm the enemy of my soul as he is attempting to lure me into a comparison of my current accomplishments with my much larger vision and desire, by remembering the stories of men and women whom God used mightily to impact the kingdom but who at the time could’ve had no idea what God was up to. David Brainerd is such a man.

David Brainerd became a missionary to the indians of New England on April 1, 1743. In his wildest imaginations he could not have foreseen how God would use him and especially the WAY God would use him. As it turns out he would work as a missionary for less than 4 years and all the while suffering horribly with his health and many other trials and yet God would use him mightily in those 4 years and Brainerd’s story would go on to change the world after his death in October of 1747 at the age of 29. He couldn’t have known.

Another person that couldn’t have known what God was up to was Jonathan Edwards. Pastor Edwards took into his home the dying Brainerd for the last months of his life. During this time, he was nursed by Jerusha Edwards, Jonathan’s seventeen-year-old daughter. The friendship that grew between them was of a kind that has led some to suggest they were romantically attached. He died from tuberculosis on October 9, 1747, at the age of 29. Jerusha died a few months later as a result of contracting tuberculosis from nursing Brainerd and was buried next to him in New Hampton.

What appears to be a senseless tragedy for the young missionary and the sweet family that nursed him turns out to be, in God’s grand design, an amazing epoch of kingdom shaking proportions for you see the next year Jonathan Edwards published a biography of Brainerd with a compilation of his journals and that story went around the world.

Brainerd’s influence grew remarkably within the transatlantic evangelical community through The Life of David Brainerd, Edwards’s most frequently reprinted and widely read book. It was the first American biography to reach a large European audience. It became the best-selling religious book in nineteenth-century America (with more than thirty different editions) and remains in print to the present day.

John Wesley read it and urged: ‘Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd. Let us be followers of him, as he was of Christ, in absolute self-devotion, in total deadness to the world, and in fervent love to God and man.’

The story of his life influenced William Carey, Samuel Marsden and Henry Martyn to become missionaries. Through these, David Brainerd spoke to India, to New Zealand and to Persia. Other missionaries who have asserted the influence of Jonathan Edwards’s biography of Brainerd on their lives include Henry Martyn, Jim Elliot, and Adoniram Judson.

In 1769 John Newton (writer of Amazing Grace) wrote: “Next to the Word of God, I like those books best which give an account of the lives and experiences of His people… No book of this kind has been more welcome to me than the life of Mr. Brainerd of New England.”

Brainerd’s missionary career spanned less than five years, but Edwards’s Life of David Brainerd revealed a missionary hero whose impact was astounding. The little book made a significant contribution to the new era of missions that sent British and American Christians to many parts of the world.

Archibald Alexander said that a missionary spirit was enkindled in the New Side Presbyterian Church as a result of the publication of Brainerd’s diary.

As William Carey prepared to go to India, Brainerd’s Life was “almost a second Bible.” When Carey, Ward, and Marshman signed the historic agreement that laid down the principles of their missionary work at Serampore, they agreed to “often look at Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen without whose salvation nothing could make him happy.”

Robert Murray McCheyne was deeply moved when he first read Brainerd’s Life in 1832. He remarked that as a result of Brainerd’s example he was “more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.” A few years later McCheyne wrote in a letter: “O to have Brainerd’s heart for perfect holiness.”

Oswald J. Smith, founding pastor of the People’s Church in Toronto, paid tribute to Brainerd with these words:

‘So greatly was I influenced by the life of David Brainerd in the early years of my ministry that I named my youngest son after him. When I was but eighteen years of age, I found myself 3,000 miles from home, a missionary to the Indians. No wonder I love Brainerd! Brainerd it was who taught me to fast and pray. I learned that greater things could be wrought by daily contact with God than by preaching. When I feel myself growing cold I turn to Brainerd and he always warms my heart. No man ever had a greater passion for souls. To live wholly for God was his one great aim and ambition.’

David Brainerd couldn’t have known… Jonathan Edwards couldn’t have known… You and I can’t possibly know what God is doing in us and through us and for us. We must keep on keeping on.

Matt Bullen

[lightbox full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/praying_handssm.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/praying_handssm.jpg” title=”Praying Hands” /]

Many if not every great move of God in the world began in a prayer meeting. From the pages of church history come some amazing stories of prayer meetings that God used to change the world beginning with the 120 in the upper room that culminated in Pentecost. The people that knelt down to pray couldn’t have known what God intended to do through their simple obedience to seek Him in prayer. They simply couldn’t have known what was about to happen as they began to pray. I mention some of these prayer meetings below to illustrate.

-Moravian Prayer Meeting

Count Zinzendorf called the 300 Moravians living on his property together on the night of August 12, 1727, and they conducted an all night prayer meeting. The next day is referred to in history as “The Moravian Pentecost” (August 13, 1727) The Holy Spirit visited them in a supernatural blessing of love, unity, and power. They decided to form a 24/7/365 prayer meeting… They signed up for prayer slots around the clock, 3 praying together at a time every minute of every day… the prayer meeting lasted 110 years.

Six weeks into the prayer meeting Zinzendorf stood up and challenged their little band to go to the nations. The next day 26 of their group stepped forward and gave their lives to go to the mission field. Some of them were too poor to go so they sold themselves into slavery to get a free ship ride and to be missionaries to the slave trade.

In the first 28 years over 200 missionaries were sent out of a their little community of 600 people.

They excited a missions passion everywhere they went and inspired thousands to follow their example and go to the nations. They dramatically impacted such notables as John and Charles Wesley, William Carey, and many more. They couldn’t have known… but God…

-The Holy Club

John and Charles Wesley and later George Whitefield formed a prayer meeting when they were students at Oxford that became known on campus as the Holy Club. Later John was changed forever by his contact with the Moravians. Out of that Holy Club prayer group the Wesley’s ushered in the great awakening in England while George Whitefield along with Jonathan Edwards ushered in the great awakening in America. They couldn’t have known… but God…

-Concert of Prayer

John Erskine, a Scottish pastor in 1742 suggested a concert of prayer for Christ’s kingdom to advance to all the nations of the earth. In 1744 the Scottish leaders organized two years of concerted prayer at designated times for international revival. Word of this prayer concert reached Jonathan Edwards in America and he published a little booklet encouraging the colonies to join together in these prayer concerts. The great awakening and the American Revolution were the result. They couldn’t have known… but God…

-Union of Prayer

Following the above examples a movement of prayer began in Britain through William Carey, Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe—and other leaders who began what the British called “the Union of Prayer.” it was resolved to set apart an hour on the first Monday evening of every month, “for extraordinary prayer for revival of religion, and for the extending of Christ’s kingdom in the world.” Out of that prayer meeting came the Baptist Missionary Society and the beginning of modern missions.

At about the same time in America, Isaac Backus and Stephen Gano, along with twenty-three other New England ministers, distributed a circular letter in 1794, which called for a concert of prayer of believers to pray for a general awakening. Having been directly influenced by the First Great Awakening, they invoked the memory and authority of Jonathan Edwards, and agreed that, beginning in January 1795, two o’clock on the first Tuesday of the four quarters of the year would be set aside for a concert of prayer in support of the new awakening. This prayer concert would launch the Second Great Awakening… Out of the second great awakening came the modern missionary movement, the abolition of slavery, popular education, Bible societies and Sunday schools. They couldn’t have known… but God…

-The Haystack Prayer Meeting

Five Williams College students met in the summer of 1806, in a grove of trees near the Hoosack River, then known as Sloan’s Meadow, and debated the theology of missionary service. Their meeting was suddenly interrupted by a thunderstorm and the students: Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared.

It was the first documented resolution ever made by Americans to begin foreign missionary work. In its first fifty years, the group that resulted sent out over 1250 missionaries. Today it has sent out nearly 5000 missionaries to 34 different fields, and it all began with five young men praying in a haystack. They couldn’t have known… but God…

-1859 Prayer Meeting

“In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory building, in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of the population of a million showed up. But, the following week, there were fourteen, and then twenty-three, when it was decided to meet every day for prayer. By late winter, they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church of John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in downtown New York was filled.

“Horace Greeley, the famous editor, sent a reporter with horse and buggy racing around the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying: in one hour, he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6100 men attending. Then a landslide of prayer began, which overflowed to the churches in the evenings. People began to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone.

In America more than a million people were converted to God in one year out of a population of thirty million. Then that same revival jumped the Atlantic, appeared in Ulster, Scotland and Wales, then England, parts of Europe, South Africa and South India, anywhere there was an evangelical cause. It sent mission pioneers to many countries. Effects were felt for forty years. Having begun in a movement of prayer, it was sustained by a movement of prayer. They couldn’t have known… but God…

As Mission Critical International seeks to impact the world as God has clearly and miraculously called us, we must begin with prayer.

Here at Mission Critical we set aside every Thursday of the week for our 24-hour prayer day. Eventually we believe that God will give us enough prayer warriors to have a 24/7 prayer concert for the nations.

To facilitate this we have established a prayer team page at… 24/7 Prayer

Simply click on Thursday Prayer Concert to go to the calendar and then click on the Mission Critical box on the day you wish to sign up and time slots will open for you to sign up in 15-minute increments. Initially we will start with as many slots as we can fill up and expect more as more warriors come on board.

We will cap our Thursday prayer concerts with a call in prayer meeting every Thursday night at 7:00 pm for those who can.

Conference call number is (605) 475-4000 and Participant Access Code: 507167#

Join us in asking God to make His kingdom come among the nations…

I recently wrote about how the disciples couldn’t have know all that they would see and experience by obeying the simple command of Jesus to “Follow Me.” In a subsequent post I wrote about how Hudson and Maria Taylor couldn’t have known what God would do when they obeyed the simple command of Jesus to “Go.” And I would like to share another of my favorite stories about a man named Edward Kimball and what he couldn’t have known when he obeyed the simple command of Jesus to be a “fisher of men.”

Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher in Chicago, Illinois. He went one day to the shoe store where one of his pupils worked because he felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to share Christ with this young man. He almost backed out because of fear but went ahead and that young man came to faith in Jesus as a result. That young shoe salesman’s name was D.L. Moody.

Shortly after Moody’s conversion he heard a man named Henry Varney say, “The world has yet to see what God will do with one man who is wholly consecrated to Him.” Moody left that meeting saying, “I will be that man.” Moody went on to be a world famous evangelist of whom it was said that he gathered two continents in his hands (North America and Europe) and brought them both closer to God. He preached to an estimated 100 million people, established colleges and schools, and left his imprint on 19th-century Evangelicalism. His was a remarkable life. Untold numbers came to Christ through Moody’s ministry. There is no way that Edward Kimball could have known that day at the shoe store what God was going to do through him and his simple obedience by faith. There is no way Henry Varney could have known what his anointed words would do.

But there is more… much more… for you see at one of Moody’s meetings one day he spoke to a young man about his assurance of salvation and greatly encouraged that young man whose name was J. Wilbur Chapman. D.L. Moody couldn’t have known that day that Chapman would go on to become a great evangelist in his own right and lead thousands to Christ or that Chapman would mentor an ex-drunkard professional baseball player named Billy Sunday who would go on to become a great evangelist and lead hundreds of thousands to Christ.

Billy Sunday inspired a group of Charlotte, NC businessmen to hold a revival in 1932 and invite evangelist Mordecai Hamm. A lanky 16 year old would be saved in that revival. His name is Billy Graham. Edward Kimball couldn’t have known. D.L. Moody couldn’t have known. J. Wilbur Chapman couldn’t have known. Billy Sunday couldn’t have known. The Charlotte Christian Businessman’s Association couldn’t have known. Mordecai Hamm couldn’t have known. Good thing they trusted God and obeyed their calling.

But there is more… much more… for you see at another of Moody’s meetings one day he cried out to the crowd, “Faith Can Do Anything!” A young man present believed him and went on to become a great evangelist and D.L. Moody’s closest friend and associate. That young man was R.A. Torrey. Torrey preached to millions, brought tens of thousands to Christ, founded schools and churches and wrote over 40 books. Kimball and Moody couldn’t have known. One day a young man heard Torrey preach and gave his life to Christ.

His name was Oswald J. Smith. Oswald went on to build one of the greatest churches in the world in Toronto, Canada, The People’s Church. In later life he became a missions mobilizer and statesman and preached all over the world bringing thousands to Christ. Kimball, Moody, and Torrey couldn’t have known what their simple obedience would do and how God would use them. There are many many other stories that trace back to Edward Kimball’s winning Moody and the people that he subsequently influenced like F.B. Meyer and many others but the story of Moody and especially the link to Henry Varney and Oswald J. Smith bless me personally in three ways.

First, the night I was saved, July 21, 1982, the twenty-two year old evangelist, Jerry Johnston, (who would go on to win tens of thousands to Christ) told the story of D.L. Moody and the quote from Varney, “The world has yet to see what God will do with one man who is wholly consecrated to Him.” And then Jerry looked right at me in the crowd (or so it seemed) and said, “Will you be that man?” When the invitation was given I beat it to the altar, or as close as I could get for there were dozens of other teens already there before me, and I knelt down in the aisle and said, “God if you want me, I want you.” I left that night on fire for God and have been pursuing him for just over 30 years now.

Second, Two years later in September of 1984 I was at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO. My 18 year old soul was hungry for God. I had a little money that someone had sent from home and so I went to the college bookstore looking for some soul sustenance. I asked the Holy Spirit to show me what I needed and I stumbled on a book called “The Passion For Souls” by Oswald J. Smith. I had never heard of him but the title set my heart to burning so I bought it and went back to my dorm and read it through stinging tears in one sitting. It was a life altering read. It put a hunger in my soul for the power of God in my life and ministry that has never waned. The next year I became a youth evangelist and God blessed me to see hundreds of teens come to Christ many of whom are in ministry around the country today and then family discipleship and pastoring and now missions and the impact of his book is still working in my life. I haven’t shaken continents for God… at least not yet :-). Oswald J. Smith couldn’t have known how he would impact this one life. I’m holding that same book I bought so long ago in my hands right now and it is tattered and worn. I have read it so many times and used so many colors of highlighter on it that some pages look like a rainbow. I flipped through it just now and read a few lines and my heart began to burn and tears filled my eyes. My daughter Brooke came in from work just now and said, “Dad! What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I held up the book. She smiled gave me a hug and went on.

Third, at the height of Oswald J. Smith’s People’s Church in Toronto, Canada a young man named Dan Schiel was a follower of Smith’s who came to Conroe, Texas and started a church in Conroe, Texas called The People’s Church. He began to preach and souls were saved and the church grew and today, decades later, it is known as Christ Church of Conroe and Dan Schiel still pastors there. The personal connection for me is that Dan Schiel has a granddaughter named Misti who grew up in his church and learned to love Jesus and serve Him with all her heart. Misti is married to my oldest son Luke and they work with us at Mission Critical International. She is a wonderful wife to my son and a wonderful mother to my two sweet grandbabies, Joy and Joseph. It may be a stretch to say that Edward Kimball’s obedience to share Christ with D.L. Moody in that shoe store that day has a direct connection to my life, family, and ministry today… but I’m not so sure. All I know is that they couldn’t have known what God would do with them and for them and neither can we. So we must keep pressing on in His kingdom work and only eternity will tell all of the stories of how God used our mustard seeds of faith and obedience to change the world.

Matt Bullen

I was so blessed to speak at Spring Baptist Church today about missions. Thanks to David Attaway for making it happen. Here is the audio…

I know it may sound wrong in our “politically correct” christian circles to ask such a question. We might even hear someone comment “don’t say that you might get struck by lighting” like we are going to step on God’s toes or something for questioning Him. But in these last couple of years I have found myself asking it more and more even out of anger sometimes. I just could not shrug the feelings of guilt and obligation that I felt in my soul. I know the Sunday school answer God wants our “everything”. I am always like what does that mean everything? What does that look like because the people that are usually telling you that are the ones whom themselves are just living the typical christianized american lifestyle.  But before I run off on a rabbit trail I don’t think I have it all figured out yet but I would like to share some of what I have been learning. This morning I was reading Psalms 1-5. One part struck a nerve with me that I wanted to share. Psalms 2:10-12  ¹⁰Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. ¹¹Serve the Lord with fear,  and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Now I am sure you are a little puzzled but bare with me for one minute. I am going to substitute a couple of words for other words that could also be used.

O ____ insert name, be wise: be warned, O people of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Jesus, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

The reason for substituting the words kings and rulers for more general words like your own and people was to show that this passage could be personalized it is not just some Psalm written long ago for a single purpose but it can hold meaning for us as well. As you can see I substituted Kiss for pay homage to. If you look up that word in the greek that word can also mean “do homage” so out of curiosity  I looked up homage and it means – a feudal ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself the vassal of a lord. I also substituted Son with Jesus because any time you see the word Son capitalized it is referring to Jesus. So when the psalmist said “Kiss the Son” what he was saying was pay homage to your lord acknowledge yourself to be his subordinate.

So to go back to my original question, what does God want? I believe what he wants from us is total surrender and to stop serving everything els in this world and to serve him with everything in us. For us to give up everything in our lives that distracts us from Him. Most Christians here in the States say that they don’t pray and read their Bibles more or at all because they are to busy. Busy doing what? Working to make money or spending that money on more or better things. So what we are really saying is that serving money and things is more important to us than spending time in the presence of the one we call our Lord and Savior. What He desires is more than our words saying thanks or singing praises with hands raised. He desires total and utter submission and obedience to His will. That is the hardest thing for us to give because we want control, we want to decide what to spend our money on and time doing. We don’t want to really believe that God is going to hold us accountable for how we have spent the time and resources that God has given us. We like to think that so long as we thank Him for all that He has given us that it is up to us how we use it. We don’t have to worry about the billions of peope that have little to nothing. I am not trying to tell you what you should or should not do but I am saying seek after your Lord pay homage to Him, surrender yourself to His will, put yourself at His mercy before you are out of time and find yourself on the day of Judgement and find that you have wasted your life seeking after the comforts this world has to offer and missed it and have to suffer His wrath.

As I wrote in my preceding blog, I love to think about how simple obedience to the call of God on our lives can bring about gigantic kingdom results that we never could have foreseen when we stepped out on faith. Jesus loved to tell us about these through parables. He talks about the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree that the birds of the air can lodge in. He speaks of the tiny yeast that a woman puts into a lump of dough and it eventually permeates the entire lump and so on.

Of course there are hundreds and probably thousands of such kingdom stories that have played out in the ensuing two thousand years of church history since Jesus’s illustrations but one of the most stunning examples from history that I often think about and am encouraged by is the life of J. Hudson Taylor, legendary missionary to China. I recently read the old book, Hudson Taylor, the man who believed God by Marshal Broomhall, a descendent of Taylor. I thrilled at the story of the very humble beginnings of the ministry of Hudson Taylor, The China Inland Mission and the incredible kingdom advance that resulted.

Taylor was the son of a third generation methodist preacher who dreamed of going to China but never made it. He passed on his passion and vision to his son, Hudson but neither of them could have known what God was going to do. In 1853 Hudson sailed for China. He was 21 years old. He had to return to England in 1861 due to poor health. He sought the Lord mightily and made plans to return to China in 1866 with his family and 16 other missionaries they had recruited. But he was wracked with doubt and in 1865 he wrote in his diary, “For two or three months, intense conflict … Thought I should lose my mind.” A little while later while walking on the beach at Brighton his gloom lifted and he wrote, “There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to obey and to follow him.”

That day marked the founding of the China Inland Mission and when his little party landed in China there were only about 400 known Christians in the entire country. After much hardship, struggle, loss, and an amazing amount of prayer, faith, and work, J. Hudson Taylor died in 1905 and it was estimated that at the time of his death there were approximately 18,000 Christians in China.

The number of other missionaries who were inspired by him only heaven knows but some notable names are Amy Carmichael, Henry Martyn, Gladys Alyward, William Borden, and many others. And like Hudson Taylor, they couldn’t have known what God would do with their mustard seed of faith. Their stories are the stuff of legend as well. But even at his death, there is no way that Hudson Taylor could have known what God would continue to do through his obedience. 45 years after his death when the communists expelled his China Inland Mission from China it is estimated that there were 1 million Christians in China. But even that couldn’t stop the mustard seed from growing.

Today, missiologists estimate that there are 100 million Christians in China and that 10,000 per day are coming to Christ! There is no way that James and Amelia Taylor could have known when they prayed over their infant son Hudson for God to send him to China what God would do with that prayer. There is no way that Hudson and Maria Taylor could have known when they set sail in 1866 for China what God would do. And friends there is no way that you and I can know what God, even now, is planning and doing with our little mustard seed of faith that we have planted and that we are watering and praying and working on to advance His kingdom. There is no way. So keep looking up and moving forward.

Do you ever think about how amazing it was that in Luke 5 after Jesus bids Peter and the others to let down their nets and they pull in what was probably the greatest catch of their careers “they left everything and followed Him.” (Luke 5:11) when Jesus said, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” (Luke 5:10)? I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last few years.

The passage always amazes me because at first blush it seems like they gave up a lot and they took a great risk leaving their livelihood to follow this Rabbi who “had nowhere to lay His head” and maybe that is part of why Jesus said, “Do not fear” but in retrospect they were trading very little for the most incredible adventure in the history of the world. When Jesus said, “follow Me” there is no way they could have known the incredible adventure that awaited them. In that split second where they made the decision to follow Him there is no way they could have known what that meant. As they were walking away from their father, their boats, their nets, and their wealth there is no way they could have known that they were going to see the blind, lame, diseased, and dead healed before their very eyes! They couldn’t have known that they were going to be on the mount of transfiguration and see Jesus in His glory speaking with Moses and Elijah! They couldn’t have know that they would see God clothed in flesh die to ransom humanity and then see Him raised from the dead and ascend to heaven. Peter couldn’t have known that when he left his nets he would preach and see three thousand saved and baptized in one day! In those simple words “follow Me” were concealed huge miracles, intense suffering, wonderful marvels, deep pain, unspeakable joys, not to mention the presence of Jesus, the most lovable and admirable being in the universe.

The astounding truth however is that each of us have been called by the same Rabbi to “follow Me” and the same adventure is waiting for us if we will leave our shore of Galilee and follow Him and it excites me daily to think that there is no way we can know the incredible things He has in store for us if we will say yes! We may have to leave familiar surroundings, careers, family, and more and there is no guarantee that we will ever return (all the fishermen who followed Jesus from the shore that day were killed in foreign lands for the gospel) but I know that if those fishermen had it to do over again they wouldn’t trade their adventure with God, their Mission Critical, for a quiet life on the shores of Galilee and neither should you or I.

What God sized adventure is awaiting us? There is no way we can know unless we drop the nets and follow.

To Be Continued…

Relationships part 2.

In my last blog I shared a lesson that I have learned on how relationships affect and touch people’s hearts, I want to share similar stories about a couple other girls in my next posts, from now on in my blogs I would rather keep their names anonymous for their protection.

Almost three years ago on my first trip to Colombia, I connected with one girl because both of us share a common characteristic, we both love to play rough and a little on the side of a tomboy. Well we talked a little and shared a couple of conversations, but never really connected on a deep level. I thought a couple smiles and a hug was enough. Now don’t get me wrong. God can use whatever we can give, but for me, I knew I had more than I was giving, I knew I was holding back to protect my heart from pain. I held this “arms length” attitude with most of the children up until my last two months in Colombia. God broke down my walls. He showed me that every child is important. He is concerned for every child.

So last month I started holding daily English classes with this particular girl that I met three years ago. She is so eager to learn and very intelligent. Other than my African sister, Mercy, I have never seen anyone learn so fast.

I was at a loss how to reach deeper with her, to really get past her “friend” to being her true friend, letting her know how much God loved her and I truly cared, so I prayed for God to show me a way and finally He answered. One day during one of our many classes, I noticed that she had scars on her upper arms, I had never noticed before because she always wore long sleeves. I told her that I had the same type of scars on my arms. She was very surprised and asked me if I was embarrassed by them. I explained that before I was, but that God has showed me that He made me just the way I am. After a long two hour conversation God helped me to explain to her that she is perfect, and that God loves her just the way she is. God softened a very locked heart that day, in the end she said she felt closer to me like a sister, and “Hermana” was her name for me the rest of my time there. God is still working on my friend, but I know that He has plans for her. She is a born leader, and very open to God. I used to be so insecure about how to help people, how to change people, but God has shown me, we only plant the seeds, the Holy Spirit is in charge of what happens after that, it is His work not ours, but He graciously invites us along for the ride, as my dad likes to call it, “Going to work with Daddy” He gets the glory and we get the joy.

Love Brooke

I feel I learned a valuable lesson from the children of colombia. As I have witnessed time and again, people respond to relationship. They respond to time and effort on getting to really know them. I learned that if you want to affect a persons life, take the time to convince them you mean business, you are here to stay, that you truly love them and care about them.

About 20 times in the new testament it says that Jesus reached out and touched people, He did not throw out some religious words at them and keep moving. He did not casually wave His hand and heal people as He passed carelessly by. He took the time to care about people. He touched them. He listened to them. He took the time and energy to show that He cared. This is not as easy as some would think. To give all you are and open your heart to the danger of being trampled, or rejected, is a very difficult undertaking. Sometimes it can be the most painful experience, especially when dealing with the people that need it the most.

For example Andrea, a beautiful girl that I met at Santa Maria. She was a newer girl so she lived in the “house of the stars.” I had been watching her for a couple weeks. She struck me because she always wore very thick eye liner and was always in the principles office at school. One day my ”Colombian mom” came home and told me that one of the girls had tried to commit suicide and was in the emergency room. I prayed for that girl that night, unknowing that it was this same girl I had been watching. Twice during my time there she went to the emergency room for this reason.

Finally one day my friend Oscar invited me to come and have a sit down with this girl. She was a little shy of me at first, because prior to this I had not met her face to face. I had just waved hi a couple times and we exchanged a couple smiles. But as we talked and I just sat there and listened she eased up and began to just speak from her heart. She was so afraid of being judged, but once she realized I was not perfect and just wanted to listen to her, she was able to confide in us and tell us the reasons for her actions. This girl had not only twice tried to take her own life, but 12 times. She had scars all up her wrists and bandages from her many attempts. She fully expected me to jump on her and tell her how wrong and sinful it was to try and play God, to take her life into her own hands, but… I prayed silently to God, “what can I possibly say to this girl, if she is so low, to try to even take her own life, how can I help her? What words can make anything better,” But I felt that God was telling me, this girl did not need a sermon, this girl needed to see Jesus, to feel his arms around her. God did not preach to the harlot. He showed her love, and said, “sin no more.” I took her hands in mine, and said, “you are beautiful, just the way you are. God made you just how He wanted, and He loves you and has a purpose and a plan for your life.” From that day on she called me her big sister, and always said hi to me with a smile. I had many other opportunities to show her the love of Jesus.

The lesson I learned was, people don’t only need to hear about Jesus, but we have to establish the relationship first, no one is going to listen and truly hear someone that has not first gained their trust, respect, and shown that they truly care. Anyone can throw words at a person, not everyone can give their time, effort and heart into helping a person.

To be continued…

Love Brooke

In my recent two month internship in Colombia I spent most of my time in an institution called Santa Maria, this is the same institution where my God-sister lives.

On one occasion I was invited by my friend to a prayer meeting that is held one night a month at every institution. This night I went to the one held at San Miguelito. When we arrived all the little boys and babies were patiently waiting for us in the group room. One by one the pregnant mothers entered the room and sat down I was able to see Louisa again and her best friend. I can’t remember her name but we were able to catch up and share some time together. Afterward we sang a few songs and a few of the kids got up and read prayers out loud for the group. It was amazing to see these kids ministering to each other at such a young age. Then it came time for all of us to pray together. I felt God hard on my heart that night to pray for these precious kids. As I stood there praying I felt eyes on me. I looked up and saw a young mother, watching me pray. I just flashed her a quick smile and continued. After we had finished, a little girl came up to me and asked my name and why I was in Colombia. I introduced myself and told her that I felt God calling me to come and serve the children of Colombia. She smiled and shook her head. We talked for a little and then she had to go to bed. She said she hoped to see me again soon and thanked me for coming.

Shortly after my friend ushered me upstairs to the pregnant mothers room. Many of these girls are barely into their teens. They are victims of rape, abuse, trafficking, and sin. As we approached a bed my friend explained that one of the girls was having pain in her stomach and had been bleeding for two days, but she was only five months along. I kneeled by her bed and put my hand on her stomach. My friend spoke softly to her, asking if she knew who Jesus was and what He meant to her. She said through tears that she did and that she had trusted Him as her Lord and Savior but she was very concerned for her baby. We asked if we could pray for her, she was more than happy to accept.

After we had prayed and were about to leave a young mother ran up to me and grabbed my hand, I recognized her from down stairs, she was the one who had been staring at me during prayer. It was hard to make out what she was trying to say at first, she seemed very distressed. I got the idea that she was seven months pregnant and was very scared. She was not ready to be a mother, she was concerned about how to raise a child, and what the future held for her. She asked me to pray for her so I gave her a hug and prayed. I felt so lost as to what to say to this girl. I could not say that everything was going to be fine. I did not know what to do. But after we prayed together, I saw a bit of peace come over her face. I knew God was at work in this girl, I told her that He has a plan for her life, and for the life growing inside her, and that if she trusted Him, she would not have to worry.

When I reached home that night, I knelt by my bed and just sighed a prayer for both of those girls, and I thank God that the one is now fine and her baby is fine too. God is good. Please keep all the young mothers of San Miguelito in your prayers that God would give them strength and peace.

These last two months have honestly been the best experience of my entire 19 years, I cannot thank God enough for the two months He allowed me to share with His precious angels.

On my second day in Colombia, I visited a little institution named San Miguelito, (little saint michael), I had visited this institution on prior mission trips and knew a couple of the children there but of course felt a bit uneasy and awkward at first, but my fears subsided quickly as I was led into a room full of the most adorable 2-5 year olds you can imagine. I spent about an hour playing with them. They love to sit on my lap and show me their elephant pictures made out of glue and macaroni pieces. I had been in that room for about an hour when I heard a familiar voice call my name. I looked up and peeking through the door was my friend Louisa, who I had met about a year ago and had not seen or heard of since. I cannot explain the joy that flooded my heart as I saw her smiling face. She took me upstairs and introduced me to all her friends and also to her baby boy Andres (Andrew). She is still seven months pregnant with him but she put my hand on her stomach and said, “this is my angel.”

I am so grateful to God that I was able to reunite with my friend and know that she is safe, we spent the whole day together just catching up and sharing dreams for the future, this was a major highlight for my time in Colombia, please keep Louisa in your prayers, and all the beautiful children of Colombia.

On January 30, 2011 I wrote a blog called Power Through Weakness that is near and dear to my heart and to which I received much positive response. Here is part II.

“Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Ghost works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble?” – Andrew Murray

Jesus is our example in everything and readers of this blog and those who have attended mission trips with me know that I love to highlight certain areas in Jesus life that are heroic and admirable and encourage the imitation of such. But in re-reading Andrew Murray’s sermon Absolute Surrender, I remembered another area of Jesus life worth exploring. His weakness.

Some of the most anointed and powerful victories in Jesus life and earthly ministry occurred at moments of His greatest human weakness.

Take for example His being tested in the wilderness for 40 days. After fasting, being alone, no comfortable bed, no shelter, with wild beasts, and so on for 40 days Jesus must have been nearly as weak as a human being can get but no one can deny the incredible power of the Holy Spirit that was upon Him as He thrice defeats Satan, the arch tempter of the universe. Luke says, “Luke 4:13-15   When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.” In His human weakness the Holy Spirit was strong. And so with us.

Again, at the well of Samaria Jesus is so exhausted and hungry that the disciples leave Him there and go into town to buy food. But though He is weak in body Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit and He begins to witness to the Samaritan woman and a whole town gets saved. Power through and in spite of weakness.

There are others (asleep in the ship but rises to calm the storm, weary and seeking a quiet place but ending up feeding 5 thousand, and more) but one of the most heart-wrenching examples may be in the Garden of Gethsemane.

About this Andrew Murray says, “Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, ‘through the eternal Spirit,’ offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed! Externally, you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there. And even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God’s Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.”

And who could miss the significance of Christ’s human weakness at the trial, the scourging, and the cross. And who could deny that though outwardly it appeared that the young Rabbi from Galilee had lost and lost big yet behind the scenes the greatest victory in history was taking place!

Let’s not get distracted with our weakness and our losses in this realm and forget that just behind the curtain God may be doing something incredible as long as we stay submitted to and resting in Him.

Blessings,

Matt

Read Part III HERE

Where to begin, it is dificult for me to decide. It all started for me about three years ago, well I will go even further back than that, it really started for me way back when I was a little girl. I grew up the youngest of five kids, the baby of the family, and as awesome as being spoiled and babied was, I always secretly longed for a younger sister, I even used to pretend to teach her how to ride a bike or to make a bed. I never shared this desire with my parents but it stuck with me until about six years ago, when a friend of the family adopted a beautiful little girl from I think it was China, this really started me thinking, and eventually praying, one night as I laid in my bed, I said a silent prayer…… God please give me a baby sister, and if she can not come to me, please send me to her some day, here am I Lord send me that was my prayer every night for the next two weeks, little did I know that three short years later my prayer would be answered, I met my sister Mercy the first time when I was about 15, she came to visit me at my house, I would never at the time had guessed that God intended this to be the answer to my prayer, but she was, over time she ended up part of our family.

Then in June 2009, my Dad and my sister told us that they were going on a mission trip to Bogota Colombia, I was not very interested, to me that missionary stuff is good for some people but not for me, I was good right where I was. It was even worse when my Dad and my sister came back broken, and totally sold out for God and the wonderful children of Colombia, especially two little angels Heidy and Ginary, Story after story, tear after tear, photo after photo they retold the story of their ´´heavenly heart break´´ as my sister in law Jana puts it. I have to admit I was jealous, the obvious love and adoration my Dad had for these kids tugged at my selfish side, and because of this I refused in my heart to care or to participate in the excitment my family shared over this door God had opened for us, But as always God had a different plan for me, and I eventually found myself on an airplane to Colombia with my dad and my two sisters, my plan was to just enjoy myself and have a vacation and not get ´´heart broken´´ over a bunch of kids, well I for the entire week I did just that, I enjoyed hanging out with the kids, but I refused to get close to anyone, and I definatly did not cry. On the last day, we visited the institution where my sister heidy lived at the time, we went through the normal rutine, playing games, holding precious broken conversations with our little gangs, and just enjoying eachothers company. Finally it came time to say goodbye, and to my surprise, my heart hurt, I had tried to hard not to be touched, not to be pulled into the emotion of it all, but as I hugged my baby sisters goodbye, I felt the knot roll in my throat and had to step away to keep my composure.

Back home in Houston, my family made the desicion to adopt these two beautiful girls, I had to admit I was really excited, I felt as though God had given me again what I wanted, another answer to my prayer, unfortunately prayers are not always answered the way we want them to be, our plans are not God´s plans, and we were unable to adopt the girls, the day I heard the news, I remember running to my favorite place to sit and think, I ran and plopped myself down in the soft grass, I sat in silence for a while and then wispered to myself, why God, why?……. why??? why put us through this? why could we have just never met them? why get my hopes up and then dash them? is this what I asked for? I did not understand why that had to happen, why God would let that happen not just to us but to them, but somehow we made it though.

That next June, my dad and my sister in law Jana where planning to go on another trip to Bogota, I desperatly wanted to go, and somehow felt that I really needed to, that I was supposed to, and as God would have it, the plans with my sister in law fell through and I was able to go with my mom and my dad, I have to say, I was not prepared for what God had for me, I was not ready for this one week in my life to be my turning point. God touched my heart that week in a way that I cannot explain, and cannot replicate, I always look back to that week being the happiest of my life, for the first time in my life, I felt like I had built my house directly under the waterfall of grace, I felt like my heart was one with Jesus, and every child I saw I wanted to hug and give a huge kiss, and that is just what I did. I met a little boy on that trip named Andres, I dont know what it was, but he made me love life, he sat with me as I made bracelets out of string and just talked and talked, I did not understand of course, but I did not care, this little boy wanted to tell me his life and I was more than ready to just sit and listen, when I got on the bus to leave, I could not stop the tears from flowing, my lips were salty from kissing his sweaty cheek, now any other time in my life I would have cringed at the thought, but this time, I felt privileged to be able to kiss this little boy, to love him, he inspired me to write my poem “Kissing the face of Jesus”.

How many times have I longed
To see my Lord, to sing Him songs

To stand before Him, to give Him love?
To live with Him in His home above?

How many times have I cried
He said He was here, I felt He lied

“Lord I want to see you, to touch you”
And then I learned what I never knew

I found Him right were He said
In his tiny home, in his tiny bed

A little child, across the world
He warmed my heart, which once was cold

I found what I sought in the least of these
Now to my heart he holds the keys

Jesus’ true face, without pride or care
A find like this though humble is rare

This is why I write this rhyme
I will never cringe at the dirt or grime

When I kiss the cheek of mi amigas
I am kissing the face of Jesus

When I arrived home at the end of this trip, I grabbed my dad and said, “I do not want to go back to normal life, I can´t, there is an emptiness in my soul that can only be filled when I am serving God´s children and showing them His love I am ready to go back home.” And since then I have been trying to get back every chance I get. My heart is in Bogota Colombia, my family is here, my baby sisters live here, this is my home, I just live in Texas right now, When I told the people I work with I was taking two months to live in Bogota Colombia and spend my days with orphan kids, they all said….. “why?” I wish I could say it is out of some sense of spiritual maturity, but really it is because this is where I am happy, I am more blessed then I can bless. I am out served at every turn. And I feel like I am doing what I was put on this earth for. I have purpose. I am more than a wandering soul with no plan. God had this in motion before I was born and I would not wish it any other way. And this my friends is why I am in Bogota right now.

Love Brooke

I met Constance Carter the first month of working as a manicurist at Radiance advanced skin and body care in the Woodlands. She was my client. It didn’t take long for me to realize God had set me up. About 5 min into the appointment she abruptly waylaid me with the question, “So do you believe in God? Do you know who Jesus is?” I laughed to myself “Lady you have no idea who you are talking to.” I politely responded to her “Yes, I was actually raised in a Christian home and we all love God.”  From that point on for the remainder of our time together we talked about God, people, our experiences with church and ministry and mainly our love for Jesus and the gospel. She quickly detected that I was a bit jaded toward church and she probed me with questions about it. I made it evident to her that I loved God with all my heart and my desire was toward ministry and loving God and others but experience had put a bad taste in my mouth toward “church people”. She encouraged me to follow my passion and to not let the fire God had put in me to burn out but to get active with it and allow it to heal my heart. I definitely felt a special presence of God with us in that room as we visited and I knew God was up to something.

Constance shared with me about her calling namely prison ministry and near the end of our time together she invited me to come with her on her next visit to the women’s prison in Texas City. I knew when presented with such an opportunity to love God by loving others I could not say no. We exchanged numbers and I told her to count me in. When she left I prayed, “God, I don’t know what you’re doing but I can’t deny this is you. If you have something for me with this lady and prison ministry make it plain and give me the courage to follow through.”

The day before the appointed date for us to go she texted me to profusely apologize that the chaplain at the prison had made a mistake and did not put my name on the list for visitors the following day. I wasn’t going to be able to come this time. I told her it was all right and to just count me in the next time. I sighed and thought to myself, “it just wasn’t meant to be.” The next morning Constance calls me and says, “I don’t know what happened but I called the prison and when they read the list of visitors to me you are actually on it!” She was excited and so was I. We both agreed it was spiritual warfare and we were back on track. On the drive over to the prison we had great fellowship getting to know each other and singing worship to God. Upon arrival we all checked ourselves for contraband and prepared ourselves mentally and spiritually for what God would have for us this trip. I had never been to a prison so it was all mind blowing from going through the gate and security about three or four times to passing the “pill line” and arriving at the chapel. Constance amazed me. Every person we talked to she would greet with a big smile and an enthusiastic “how are you?” and when the exchange was over she would joyfully tell them “Jesus loves you!” As we walked through the prison heading toward the chapel every inmate we passed, Constance would greet them with her usual pleasantry and then invite them to “church”. Once we were in the chapel and ready to go the six of us in the group wandered around greeting and hugging the ladies that showed up to church. There were about 30 or 40 altogether. We began the service by singing, singing, and singing worship to God. The ladies love Constance and joyously joined in the praise. After we had sang 2 or 3 songs their choir came forward and sang Days of Elijah. When it got to the bridge they sang their hearts out to there’s no God like Jehovah, there’s no God like Jehovah, there’s no God like Jehovah! During the song they had three women with a beautiful sash in each hand dancing down the isles with the sashes streaming around them and above them as they skipped up and down the isles. It was breath taking. One of Constance’s dear friends there at this point had a song she had worked on for Constance and she wanted to come and perform it for her and more importantly for her Savior.  She was a dancer and had developed choreography to the song. The song was about being in the presence of God and the freedom, love, peace and joy of being in His arms. It was simply beautiful what the girl had done with the song and the entire time she had a big gorgeous smile on. Later I learned she is struggling with Lupus, 50% of her lungs work and she has a pacemaker. But you would never have known for the joy she displayed while dancing for Jesus. After more singing Constance introduced me as a new visitor and explained how we met and left me to share with them what God had on my heart for them For 5 min. I told them that I had not prepared anything because I knew if I was meant to share something God would give it to me when the time came. I explained to them that I was very nervous and felt very humbled to speak to them because coming from a family that loved me and cared for me and raised me in the path of Christ I did not feel I could not even begin to understand all that the women there had gone through and how could I begin to know what to speak into their life or have the audacity to feel the right to do so. I gave them a bit of my testimony and experiences. My focus was if you are not gravitating toward Christ you are gravitating away from Christ. God is the hound of heaven. He is love, joy and peace. He wants each of us but we have to stop running from Him. I told them whatever their experience in life is to not mistake that as God. That is what we so often do. I told them to let God woo them. Then I felt led to sing “Orphan’s of God” to them by Avalon. Many of them began to weep. The other women came up and shared. Our time was up so we took a moment to pray over the pregnant ladies and to speak with and pray with anyone else who wanted to. It was at this point Nancy came up to me. She was one of the inmates. She told me that even though I didn’t feel like I had anything to give these women what I had shared touches these women and reaches them deeper than I realized. She told me to take my experience and all that I had learned from my family and follow my calling. She looked hard at me and said this is your calling. You could save so many women by your obedience to Christ. She then gave me her testimony. She said there was hardly anything out there she hadn’t done and she is now serving her 13 year sentence for it but God had pursued her and she surrendered to Him one stormy night and she will never be the same. She says she knows what it is when the scripture says once I was lost and now I’m found. When it speaks about having an old man. She says she will not and can never go back to her old self. She is a new woman. She began to tear up at this point and we hugged like we were sisters and we’d known each other our whole lives. After we prayed together it was time to go.

Our group decided to stop at Denny’s for something to eat on our way back so we could share our experiences during our visit. We laughed, we cried and thanked God for blessing our trip. During our time there our waitress overheard what we had been doing at the prison and after pouring some coffee she said, “I just want ya’ll to know I think what you’re doing at the prison is awesome and keep it up don’t get discouraged because some of us actually are listening and what you’re doing isn’t in vain. I’ve been out for 6 months and I’m not messing up again.” We all just looked at each other in amazement and said you know I think we’ve just entered the twilight zone. And for all of you reading this anytime God presents an opportunity for you to love Him by loving others, when you chose to follow him into the entire world preaching the gospel it is like entering the twilight zone. You will be on the ride of your life and you will never experience His love so deep or be so fulfilled because you did what you were made to do.

Love Beverly Bullen

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Well this is my first blog post ever! To be honest I am not sure what to say or where to start. So I am sure the best place to start is to introduce myself. My name is Luke Bullen I am fixing to be 26 years old next month, I am married to Misti Nichole, we have been married for 3 years, we have 2 children Joy almost 2 years, and the new addition to the family Joseph who will be 4 months on the 23rd. I work for the the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (corrections) and have been there almost 3 years now but my hearts desire is to go into full time missions work. I am sure some of you are wondering and if not I know I am. So why now? We have seen your dad around and heard him talk about missions and seen him serving orphans but we have not seen you not even in any of the pictures. Well to be honest I do have a pretty good excuse but thats all it really is but here it is. I had just gotten married in April of 09 two months before my dads first trip to Bogota prior to that I had been working in Dallas Tx for about 4 months and had been doing my own thing. I had pulled away from doing ministry work after going to college I tried to get my heart back in it when I came back but after my family had gone though a rough patch my heart was no longer in it. I was more focused on my job and education. Don’t get me wrong I helped out with my dad’s church even sang in the coir but thats what it was my dad’s church I never really took ownership. While away at college I had given the devil a foothold in my life and have up to this point not been actively pursuing God. Believe it or not marriage has taught me a lot about God. God has been using being married to my sweet wife to knock me to my knees. As well as working with some of the worst of humanity at the prison. Over the past couple of years the questions would come to mind questions like what does it really mean to be saved?, what does it really mean to have a relationship with Christ?, and is it enough to just get by? and not just the sunday school answers I know all the sunday school answers I have been the one to tell them. I want the true answer the one that stings when you hear it cause it make you have to get up and do something or make a change in your life. What I mean by that last question is is it enough to just go to work every day and go to church on Sundays, if you can make it, and live the Christian cultures spin of the american dream is it enough to get you into heaven. One question I have wanted to ask someone is what is you biggest fear? Mine is to come to the end of this life and have never done something worth doing. To find myself at the judgement seat of Christ and not hear the words well done good and faithful servant. So why now? because I have come to the conclusion that living life just trying to make it is not enough. If we do not actively pursue God with everything we have until the day we die and live life like He is watching us and it matters to Him how we live it. We will be surprised when we come to the judgement seat of Christ and our name is not called and we hear the words “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matt. 7:23 What I get from that verse is that we must actively pursue a relationship with God almighty for Him to “know” us. Sure He is God He is all knowing He knows everything there is to know about us. He knows us better than we know ourselves but in the end according to Matt 7:23 if we do not walk daily with Him and actively pursue that relationship we might as well stop lying to ourselves and live it up because all we are doing is playing at it and it will get us know where in the end.

Please give me your feed back or questions I will answer them in later posts. I will be writing another blog as a continuation of this one this is just an intro. I want to talk more about what it means to have a relationship with Christ. I am on a path to learn what having a relationship with Christ really looks like and invite you to walk with me.

The one prayer that I find myself praying more than any other is, “Lord, make me hungry for You.” The one prayer I pray for my family and especially over my children more than any other is, “Lord, give my children such a hunger for You that nothing in this world will be able to fill it.” “Lord, let them and let me not be satisfied with anything short of all that you have for us in You. I have discipled them, I have taught them Your word, but unless you create a hunger in them so great that it overshadows all the things this world throws at them they will not be all that they can be for You.”

Ministry, marriage, family, career, etc. must always be gushing out of the overflow of our personal passion for and relationship with Jesus or it will soon bury us and cease to transform lives, ours or theirs. David’s prayer in Psalm 63 never gets old for me. I could pray it 10 times a day and still choke up when he says things like, “my soul thirsts for You and my soul pursues hard after You.” Soul hunger is the ignition of mission and the resulting passion and enjoyment of God when He answers is the fuel. And so I pray for hunger!

I seriously have no words to type right now, even now after two and a half weeks when I get a moment to stop and think where I am what I am doing here, it blows my mind. I am so blessed to just be here with these wonderful kids ¨´serving´´. I say ´´serving´´ because as always they bless and serve me more than I could ever give back. My first week I spent most of my time in Santa maria, one of the larger institutions, getting to know the girls and reuniting with old friends. From braiding hair to making a fool of myself showing off my ´´dance moves´´ every second with these precious people is a gift. I have been able to spend a lot of time with my godsister Heidy and have some much needed sister time and conversation, it has been a big relief for the Profesores to have a fellow peer the girls can confide in and be positivly enfluanced by.

My first English lesson was very nerve wrecking for me, first of all because, as I tell my Colombian mom, I have never taught anyone anything in my life, and also cause my limited spanish makes teaching english difficult, but thankfully the girls are always patient with me and love to learn anything they can. One of my high lights here is that I was reunited with a friend from the vacation host program last summer Louisa. I didnt have the slightest idea that when I walked into San Miguelito (a smaller institution for babies and pregnant mothers) that I would be greeted by one of my best friends whom I had lost contact with a couple months ago, the joy I felt and still feel everytime I visit is unexplainable. I am constantly reminded every day of the words No Orphans Of God, this statment is so true, the more time I spend with these girls the more I fall in love with each and every one of them, and if I a sinful being have such love in my heart for them how much more does their Holy Heavenly Father love them, I cannot but be humbled and blessed to be allowed to live here and love on these amazing people.

’cause Lord with You…… there’s nothing I cannot do….
—
Your friend!
Brooke,

Our daughter Brooke left on Friday for a two month internship teaching English and Bible in an orphanage in Bogota, Colombia and we are so proud of her and so excited for her. She sent me a message last night with only three words, “unspeakably awesome day!” God is so good to allow us to do ministry together.

In the last two months all of our children, ages 17-25, have come to me at different times and reaffirmed to me their desire to, at different levels, work together with us in ministry to the nations. I could not have heard words more precious to my father’s ears. Of course, they are their own people now and have their own relationship with God and He may send us to opposite corners of the globe in the years to come but right now we are headed in the same direction and it is incredibly BLESSED.

Blessed to be back in Bogota this week on an exploratory trip. God is moving in some new ways in my life, family, and ministry and I am very excited about all that He has in store. Please pray for our family as we wait on Him and seek His presence, purpose, purity, and power for the things that he has in store for us.

Several people have mentioned to me recently that they are experiencing a new awakening in their life and in the people around them as if God is preparing them for something big that is coming. I believe it! The Holy Spirit is moving and Satan is attempting to flex his muscles in response but as one dear Colombian friend said this week, “But God always wins so we are going to be fine!”

I had a wonderful prayer time tonight with some dear Colombian saints. They kept saying, “We must be quiet, we must wait upon the Lord, we must seek Him more than ever, we must pray because He is preparing us from the inside out.”

In what ways do you sense the Spirit moving in your life, in your family? Can you see ways that He is preparing you, maneuvering you for a greater cause?

As I was reading the scriptures this morning this came to me and I had to share with you all.

The Cost of Adoption

Once upon a time there was a young Jewish man from the town of Nazareth for whom God had a mission. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:20-21)

Basically what the Lord told him was, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to adopt a little boy named Jesus.” God’s main mission in life for Joseph was the adoption of a very special child.

I’m sure, just like any young man, Joseph had dreams and ideas about his future. He was engaged to Mary and he probably already had some children’s names picked out in his mind. He probably had visions of expanding the family carpentry shop and working along side of his sons and living a quiet and peaceful life in Nazareth. But God’s mission changed everything… adoption changed everything… there was no way that Joseph could have known the cost of obeying the Lord in this seemingly harmless adoption of a baby but here are some of the ways that I thought of this morning that his life was dramatically changed.

First, Joseph has to endure the disdain of his town and probably his family for agreeing to marry a pregnant girl this is why he intended to release her from the engagement privately before the angel appeared to him. You see the angel appeared to Mary and to Joseph but not to the rest of the town…

Second, God orchestrates the Roman government to take a census in which Joseph and Mary will have to uproot and travel to Bethlehem because Jesus needs to be born there to fulfill prophecy. Everything Joseph has worked to build up in Nazareth is gone. So they start all over in Bethlehem.

Third, Joseph is faced with the stress of his young bride having a baby in a stable because there is no room in the inn. None of this would have been his plan A for his life.

Fourth, After 2 years in Bethlehem suddenly a king, of all things, is after his son and God tells him, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” (Mt. 2:13) The little family has to flee in the middle of the night and once again start all over in Egypt. Imagine a Nazareth small town boy now in a place he knows nothing about. This adoption has now completely altered Joseph’s life in ways that he never could have imagined.

Fifth, After a few years in Egypt he is once again told by the Lord to pick up and move. “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” (Mt. 2:20) He heads for Bethlehem but then hears that Archelaus  is reigning and fearing for his young son goes back to Nazareth where he and Mary are undoubtedly notorious.

Sixth, The next time we see Joseph he and Mary travel to Jerusalem for passover and lose track of Jesus and spend several days backtracking and losing time looking for him. Once again we see how this adoption impacted and disrupted Joseph’s life.

Seventh, Though Joseph was not around to see it, this boy, Jesus, ends up being tried as a criminal and being executed. But not only that, he involves his brothers, Joseph’s blood children that he no doubt prayed for, loved, and was proud of. This Jesus involves them in His mission and they are all eventually executed as well.

I’m sure when Joseph accepted the mission to be an adoptive dad, he couldn’t have foreseen the cost and the trouble that it would bring to his life… but neither could he have seen the immeasurable blessing and eternal impact that this one act of obedience allowed him to be a part.

When Mary says in Luke 2 that all future generations will call her blessed, she is right because God chose her to be the mother of God. But think about how blessed Joseph is in heaven right now because he got to be the adopted dad of God. Wow!

Adoption has been called the living gospel because it depicts what God has done for each of us (John 1:12; Rom. 8:15&23; Gal. 4:5; & Eph. 1:5) but it also depicts in an earthly sense the amazing mission that God gave to Joseph of Nazareth and it should encourage us to follow his example and obey and endure because we don’t know what God may have planned for our adopted child.

Russell D. Moore in his book Adopted For Life says, “Joseph serves as a model to follow as we see what’s at stake in the issue of adoption. Joseph, after all, is an adoptive father. In some ways, his situation is, of course, far different from ours. In other ways, though, Joseph’s mission belongs to all of us. As Joseph images the Father of the fatherless, he shows us how adoption is more than charity. It’s spiritual warfare.”

Saturday was another thrilling day. We met in the Dream Center gym for the weekly Adopt-A-Block rally before heading out to the streets to minister to the blocks. I was amazed at how many people were there and how excited and blessed they were to be allowed to go and love on the people of L.A. What a testament to the presence of the Holy Spirit in this ministry. Jonathan, Rebekah’s boss, led the rally. It started out with 30 min. of corporate prayer. They turn down the lights in the gym and people are encouraged to pray however they feel led. Some paced, others faced the wall with their hands raised, others knelt, and others formed circles holding hands and praying in succession. Jonathan told us that the prayer time is us going to God on behalf of the people we are about to serve and then Adopt-A-Block is us going to the people on behalf of God.

After standing and praying for awhile, Rebekah came and got me and asked me to circle up and pray with her team which was going to Nickerson Gardens. I was so charged up. I acknowledged first in my prayer that transformation only comes from the Holy Spirit. We plant and water but He gives the increase. I asked God boldly to transform through us today. Transform the hearts of children and moms and dads and grandparents as we talk with them touch them and smile at them. Transform families, blocks, neighborhoods, cities, nations and the world! Let these young people praying with me be catalysts to ignite a spiritual awakening in this nations. Make our clay jars safe receptacles for Your glory so that we can carry it to the world.

We split up, Jonathan had some announcements and then we went to load up the donations and food and head out to the blocks. Rebekah’s bus had about 60 people on it headed for Nickerson Gardens (one of 15 sites being visited today), the largest projects west of the Mississippi. It was awesome! We arrived, unloaded the food, spit into groups of 3 to 4 and began to mingle with the people. We stopped at one house where a little boy who regularly comes to church with Bekah wanted us to hear him play a drum solo on buckets and pie plates. It was awesome. He has some rhythm for sure.

Next we went to a house where they were having a birthday party. They were so excited that we came. They have been inviting Rebekah for weeks and they were so “honored” that she brought her dad from Houston! Their hospitality was amazing. They served us Puerto Rican chicken and Mexican beans and pupusas. They tried to feed us cake and coke and jello too but we couldn’t eat another thing. We had fun playing with all of the neighborhood kids who just magically appeared when the candy came out. Jenny, the grandmother, asked me to pray for her daughter who is involved in the occult and drugs. The daughter asked me, “why do you people come here to the projects every week? I wouldn’t use my Saturday for that.” I told her that Jesus has put so much love in our hearts that we have to share it. She just looked at me for a long time.

Others in our team had similar experiences with other families. With us today was one group of boys from Calgary, Canada. They are a skateboard club that were on their way home from a mission trip building houses in Mexico and stopped off to participate in Adopt-A-Block here in L.A. before continuing their journey back home to Canada. They ended up spring cleaning one ladies whole house. What a blessing. On the way back to the Dream Center I “just happened” to sit by Josh, the leading chaperone of the skaters. He and his wife have 5 children 7 years old and under and they are trying to raise them up to serve the Lord. I smiled and told him that my wife and I have 5 kids 7 and under once upon a time who, by the grace of God, have grown up to make me very proud and that is why I am here at the Dream Center is to visit one of my daughters. I pointed her out and he said, “Oh, she’s the leader of this site, right?” “You must be very happy to see your daughter serving in a ministry like this.” I assured him I was and that if he and his wife just stayed faithful to pursuing Christ and discipling their children in the things of God that I could assure him that there was a marvelous God-adventure ahead for them. He was so encouraged and thanked me for sharing with him and thanked God for sitting me next to him on the bus. It was sweet.

After we got back Rebekah walked me all over Hollywood and we enjoyed a fun evening. Following her up and down the hills of this town on foot all week has sure put me back into shape. I hope I keep it up when I get back home.

Today, Friday, was a little slower pace and I enjoyed the time that Rebekah and I had to just catch up. In the morning we separated all of the things that have been donated this week for Adopt-A-Block tomorrow. It was raining most of the day so when we had a chance we quickly got the work done.

Before lunch we went to a presentation by The Movement students in the chapel. The Movement is a Bible college on steroids here at the Dream Center. The presentation was very moving. It was a smattering of drama, testimony, and a powerful message at the end from Caroline Barnett, Pastor Matthew’s wife. It reminded me of Life Action Ministries from when I was a kid. Everything about this place reminds me of the dreams and goals I had as a young Christian. My kids at Teens Unlimited, my youth ministry when I was a 22 year old youth pastor, and I used to talk about having  a big building where we could house homeless teens, gang members, and runaways. At the time they were living at my house, on my couch, and sleeping on my porch. Matthew Barnett has stayed young and not allowed the world to douse those childlike dreams of what God can do and it has refreshed and restored my soul. In the message at the end Pastor Caroline challenged us with the idea that there are more than enough Christians in the world to solve the world’s problems if we were just willing. God is not limited. Wow! So true. After the presentation I was able to speak with the director of Project Hope here at the Dream Center. Project Hope is the human trafficking outreach here. They literally rescue women and girls out of the sex trade and hide them, counsel them, and take care of them until it is safe to help them back into society. Since Colombia is the second leading sex trafficking country in the western hemisphere behind the Dominican Republic, I wanted to know all about what they are doing here. In a short period of time Project Hope has become the largest rescue operation in America.

After lunch we went with Rebekah’s Adopt-A-Block tract to a nearby retirement home and spent some time with the lovely residents there. I sat next to a sweet lady named Dora and a sweet lady named Alicia. Alicia was from Sau Paulo, Brazil and spoke only spanish so I enjoyed being able to talk to her and learn about her life. We colored with crayons but Dora insisted on watercolors so the nurse gave her some watercolors and she painted beautifully. I commented to the nurse how awesome Dora’s painting was and she handed me a notebook full of beautiful paintings that Dora had done. Dora told me that she used to sew and embroidery a lot as well but now she can only paint. It was obvious that these dear people look forward to the Dream Center kids coming every other Friday. It was so funny when one of the old gentlemen pointed to me and said, “I thought this was the Dream Center group, why is that old guy with them?” When they explained that I was Rebekah’s dad he said, “Ok, I was wondering because usually the Dream Center people are young.” Too funny.

We were supposed to go to skid row tonight but we were rained out. Rebekah also sometimes goes and witnesses to the prostitutes on sunset strip until 3 a.m. on Fridays but that was rained out as well so we sat in the Dream Center coffee shop and talked and dreamed and planned until bed time. What a lovely day.

Today, Thursday, was another life changing day for me. We started out at Rebekah’s office where she spent the morning answering calls and doing paperwork for Adopt-a-Block. After lunch we went out with an outreach called Project Prevention which works with family services here in L.A. to help families who are about to lose their children to foster care. Many families in L.A. lose their kids simply because they can’t afford to meet the legal requirements of the state such as owning a refrigerator, or having a real bed for their child to sleep in or owning a crib for their baby. If they don’t have these things or enough food their children are taken away and put into foster care and sometimes they never see them again.

Two years ago Pastor Matthew Barnett’s wife Caroline discovered what was going on and started Project Prevention. Social services will call the Dream Center when there is a family that is in danger of losing their children because of poverty. Project Prevention will then go visit the family and begin to help them with the things they need to keep their kids. Sometimes the family is homeless and so the Dream Center has built out an entire floor of their main building to house these families until they can get back on their feet so that they don’t lose their kids. Often Project Prevention with cooperate with Adopt-a-block as well if those families are in a 5 mile radius of one of their blocks. Rebekah usually delivers furniture and things to these families one day a week.

Rebekah and I had the privilege to tag along with this outreach today and we took food to four families and it was an amazing blessing. Two of the families had already had their children taken away before Project Prevention got involved and so the Dream Center people went to court with the family and helped them get their kids back and then worked with them to keep them. They help them to get jobs and whatever they need to begin living a productive life. And, of course, the spiritual renewal that takes place as these families interact with the Dream Center and Angelus Temple is dramatic. Many of them end up being lasting members of the church. One of the ladies that we visited has 7 children living in a one bedroom apartment and her husband recently left her for another woman. Without the Dream Center her children would have been scattered to the wind. Another lady gave us her amazing testimony. She has four daughters. One of her girls was being molested and the mom and girls had no where else to go so they ended up on skid row with two blankets. Project Prevention got them off the street and into an old house. The mom and daughters started cleaning up around the house and painted it inside and out. The landlord was so happy that he came in and fixed several things that weren’t working. A family at the church bought them a new stove and a refrigerator. The lady wept as she told us the story and praised God. She has family worship every day with her girls and reminds them of what God has done. The City of Los Angeles recently sent Project Prevention a letter thanking them for the amazing work that they are doing and shared that the city had estimated that Project Prevention is saving the taxpayers of Los Angeles $500,000.00 a year in court costs, foster care payments, etc. By the way, the Dream Center receives no support of any kind from public funds. It is solely supported by the private donations of God’s people.

Angelus Temple

After we returned from Project Prevention it was time to ride the bus out to Rebekah’s site at Nickerson Gardens in Watts and pick up her families for Thursday night church at Angelus Temple (the Dream Center church). I was so excited to visit this amazing church and I was not disappointed. The place was packed. We sat in the first balcony with Rebekah’s families. The worship was over the top awesome. My heart leaped as I looked across the crowd and saw dozens of men in black T-shirts (the men who are in recovery) and in another section dozens of women in black T-shirts (the women who are in recovery) all praising God.  I gazed around the cavernous auditorium and saw people from dozens of nations and ethnic backgrounds praising God. I stood with tears streaming down my face and my hands raised enraptured by the blessing of joining in the praise that was surging up from that place.

Then came the message. Lisa Bevere, wife of John Bevere spoke and I have rarely been so deeply touched by a message. It was so anointed and so uplifting and so encouraging and so Christ honoring. The tears that had started during worship never stopped flowing. When Pastor Matthew invited people to come to the stage and ask God for more, I jumped to the aisle and made my way down with the hundreds and hundreds of others. He paced back and forth across the stage praying and begging God to meet our needs. It was electrifying. I left with a new vision and passion to believe God for big things. To say the least my dream was radically expanded. That’s why they call it the Dream Center.

I have been so blessed as well to see the amazing change in my daughter after six months of serving here. She has a boldness and a confidence mixed with awe and humility that is awesome. I’m so thankful that God brought her to the Dream Center.