All posts by Matt Bullen

Some amazing DC stats: 600 housed daily, 3,700 clothed monthly, 36,000 hot meals served each month, 40,000 receive groceries each month, 1 million pounds of food distributed each month. 7000 volunteers provide staffing support annually. Monthly budget of $600,000.00.

The most refreshing thing so far though about the Dream Center is that they do all of these things as support to the preaching of the gospel and never in place of it. Every activity is designed to share Christ. The fruit is amazing as well. Nearly every leader of each of the over 200 outreaches here was originally won to Christ through the ministry. The testimonies I’ve already heard in two days just blow my mind. God is mightily at work here.

After I wrote my blog last night Rebekah and I went to a youth service in the beautiful old chapel in the main building (formerly City of Angels Hospital). The worship was outstanding! All the kids come up around the stage and lift their hands to the Lord and sing with all of their hearts. It was beautiful. The lead singer, Chloe, was unbelievable. After the service she came up and told Rebekah that she has her signed up to sing with her starting next week. Rebekah was terrified but excited. The youth pastor gave a wonderful message and many came forward for prayer. I had to laugh to myself as I looked around the ornate old chapel realizing God knew, as it was being built, that someday a throng of teens would be shouting His praise in this place. Amazing.

Under The Bridge

We went out this morning with a ministry called Under The Bridge which takes hot meals to the homeless on skid row and living under freeway overpasses. We spent the morning on skid row praying for, witnessing to, and inviting people to lunch later in the day. It was heartbreaking to see so many people living under tarps and in boxes and things. Many were there because of addiction especially along “heroin alley.” But many others were just there because things had gone wrong in their life and they had no where else to go. We were blessed to pray with, hug, and share Jesus with people who afterward thanked us with tears in their eyes and said things like, “God bless you and your family.” Under the Bridge comes here everyday and tries to get people to come to the Dream Center and get off the street. Many do but most are not ready to give up their addictions. Some came with us today and I pray that they stay and get discipled like so many from these mean streets that I’ve met here who are now radiant followers of Jesus.

We came back at 1:30 p.m. with the hot lunches. Some of us donned hairnets, aprons, and gloves in order to hand out food and the rest sang, prayed, and witnessed to the folks that came. We prepared and handed out about 200 plates. God continued His habit of surprising me with providential encounters. As we were serving food and praying for people the lady next to me who I knew was here from Sweden began to pray for a Mexican man in perfect Spanish. I was surprised. After she prayed she told the man that she used to be a missionary in Bogota, Colombia. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously, she and I spent several minutes talking about Bogota and she thanked me and thanked me for what we are doing there. She said that her heart still lives there even though God has her back in Sweden. Oh, how I know that feeling. I’ve posted some photos here.

Tonight Rebekah and I are attending an intern’s prayer meeting called focus. It is an hour of devotions and an hour of prayer. It is Rebekah’s favorite event each week. Cain’t wait.

Last year our family read the book, The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett, founder and pastor of the Dream Center in Los Angeles, California. We were so taken with the book and with the work that they are doing that our oldest daughter Rebekah decided to intern for a year at this amazing ministry. This week I have the awesome privilege to be her shadow and follow her around the Dream Center and see all of the amazing ministries that are taking place here. We will take part in a different ministry each day and I will share about it here.

First, a little bit about the Dream Center. Pastor Matthew started this work in inner-city L.A. at the ripe old age of 19 nearly 19 years ago. The ministry now has over 250 outreaches striving to be the hands and feet of Christ. It has grown from one young man and his dream to a monster for God ministering to an average of 40,000 people per month. From gang members, drug addicts, unwed mothers and children without parents, motorcycle groups, taggers, AIDS victims, and various subculture, ethnic and nationality groups, drug rehabilitation to prostitute ministry to homeless to vulnerable children to you name it they apply the gospel to it here and lives are consistently and dramatically changed. It feeds the homeless and others in need and runs a halfway house for released prisoners. Close to 600 people are housed at the center and receive rehabilitation. Their Motto is: “Find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it.”

In the first four years of the Dream Center’s establishment, prostitution and gang violence dropped 73%, the homicide rate dropped 28% and rape dropped 53%. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the City Council publicly acknowledged the dramatic impact of the Dream Center and praised its efforts. In 2000, President Bush, then Governor of Texas, visited the Dream Center and deemed it “a model for faith-based organizations.”

Today Rebekah and I went out with the “Food Truck” ministry to two different sites. They deliver an astounding one million pounds of food per month to needy families. The first site was Nickerson Gardens in Watts where Rebekah is the Dream Center’s site leader. She goes there about 4 times per week ministering to the 1100 families there. Nickerson is the largest “projects” west of the Mississippi. We arrived with the food and unloaded crate after crate of produce donated to the Dream Center by local grocery retailers. We then packaged the food evenly in grocery sacks for distribution. Then came the time to hand it to the crowd of waiting people and hear them say, “thank you, God bless you and your families.” It was very sweet. Many stopped so that we could pray for them. Some asked for specific prayer for things they are going through. It was amazing. See my photos here.

Rebekah and I are headed to a youth worship service tonight and then tomorrow we go out with the “Under the Bridge” ministry to literally go under freeway bridges and minister to the homeless who live there. Can’t wait!

 

About a year ago my friend Stephanie told me about a girl who was sold out to Jesus and missions and who might want to come on our June 2011 mission trip. Not long after my family and I had dinner with Stephanie, the girl Magan and her mom. We had a blessed time together and Magan signed up for the trip.

On the trip Magan surprised me with how quickly she jumped in and began to build relationships with the children. She was a natural with the obvious anointing of God upon her heart and vision. I could tell that God was doing a mighty work in Magan.

Last fall she went off to college but with plans to attend our January 2012 mission trip to Bogota. When it became clear to her that she was not going to be able to attend the January trip, I felt so bad for her when she sent me this message,

“Hi there! First off, how are you and your family? I miss serving with you and the rest of the team and I hope all is going well with everyone! I saw recently that the dates for the January trip were posted, and when I realized that my university goes back to school January 9th, my heart just sank. I know that God wants me here at UMHB, but my love and longing to be with my kiddos over there is still so strong. I kinda pushed it out of the way, just crushed since I felt like there was no other option or possibility. But when I began praying about it, I felt so dumb for letting something as silly as school stop God from working through me to reach those orphans. I’m continuing to pray about it and I’m still not sure what exactly God wants me to do. All I know is that He definitely doesn’t want me to give up on it. So my question to you is if you have any thoughts on this. Like, is there a way for me to go by myself or with a couple friends at the very beginning of January or December. I really have no clue as to how all of this gets worked out or if thats even feasible or anything really. At this point, I’m just trying to keep running towards God searching for the open door. I would appreciate so much your prayer and advice on this.”

I sensed the hand of God at work in this as I prayed with Magan and her approach to the whole thing was so Spirit like that I knew I had to help. We tried to work something out for her to go in December but it never materialized. Finally we were able to make a trip for her happen over spring break last month. Magan is back from her trip and we talked on Sunday and here is the rest of the story… so far… of what God is doing for her and through her.

First, she was able to stay with my dear friend, Nelda.  Magan told me about how every night Chris and Oscar and Javier would come over and they would have dinner and devotions and end with a prayer meeting. She said it was awesome.

She spent two days with our little friends at an orphanage in Madrid and was able to share her testimony of salvation and life with Jesus with three different groups of girls. She opened it up to questions from the girls and was amazed by the questions that the girls asked after each testimony. She said the questions were deep and sincere, like “How do know that God is with you all the time?” She was able to pour deeply into these precious orphan girls.

She was saddened by the amount of turnover in the orphanage. She didn’t see any of the girls that she had built relationships with the previous summer. She also took 100 hair bows and 50 Bibles. All the Bibles went to another orphanage that she visited later in the week.  She was able to spend time at a baby/toddler orphanage and at a safe house for aged out young people. All in all she said the trip was vastly beyond her wildest dreams.

Some people commented to her, “I can’t believe that you are spending your Spring break in an orphanage.” Magan simply replied, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

At the end of our conversation I asked Magan a question and was delighted and blessed by her answer.

Matt: Did the Lord reveal anything new to you while you were there?

Magan: It is mind boggling what God is doing and how He is moving in Bogota and I am even more excited now to be involved. My friend Brittany wants to go there for six weeks in the summer and we had talked about it before I went so I was praying about trying to go as well. While there I prayed about it so hard and I came home convinced that God wants me there for the summer. The night I arrived home my mom was filling out the paperwork for me to go to summer school and she needed a yes or no answer from me about whether I was going to summer school. I really wanted to pray more about it before answering her but I felt the Lord saying, “I have this all worked out.” One of my scholarships required summer school but recently they changed the requirement so my mom said, “You don’t need to take summer school.” I knew in my heart that my parents have already been reluctant about me going on these trips and I knew that if they said no about this summer that that was it. I would honor their wishes. I told them of my hearts desire and they said they would think about it. The next morning my parents texted me that they were 100% behind me going to Colombia this summer. I had to sit down when I read the text message. I felt God saying with a big smile, “I told you I had this worked out.” One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that anywhere God has called me to I have always been apprehensive about it at the start, so many factors, so much to figure out, but once I let go and decide that God is calling me this way then the doors start to open and they open beyond anything I could ask for. Shortly after my parents said yes, a lady from my church contacted me to say that she wants to buy my plane ticket for the summer. God is amazing.

It is one of the great joys of my life to walk beside, uplift, and encourage, young warriors for Christ like Magan. I can’t wait to see where God takes her. She knows that the Bullen family is behind her 100%.

My dear friend, Grove Norwood with Heart of Texas Foundation, is one of my heroes in the faith. His story of love and grace has been portrayed in a movie and that lead him to become involved in prison ministry. We met through Tres Dias and over the years have cheered each other on in our respective ministries. He has been after me for a year to come with him to visit Louisiana State Penitentiary otherwise known as Angola and see the amazing things God is doing there.

I knew that Grove had been going to Angola to learn what they did and duplicate it here in Texas starting with a seminary in Darrington Prison. This is an incredible undertaking with the potential to change the Texas prison system, the state, and the world. I am so excited to be an onlooker.

So I finally was able to go with Grove last week and it is truly an amazing God story… Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the U.S. It’s land area is larger than Manhattan Island, NYC. There are 5300 inmates. All are serving life sentences. Every other man is a murderer. Once notorious as the bloodiest prison in America with 40 murders in one year, 17 years ago Warden Burl Cain started a Bible College inside the prison and today there is no violence. It’s a prison full of preachers… They send out “missionaries” to other prisons in Louisiana. When they sent the first missionaries out, the new prison’s violence dropped by 1/2 in 6 months. Wednesday – Friday I was able to tour the prison with Warden Cain, Grove Norwood, and others from The Heart of Texas. What a faith builder! The gospel truly is “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16)

Warden Cain and the Heart of Texas team.

An amazing and totally unexpected thing happened that made me think that God may have had me on this trip for more than one reason. There are over 400 inmate led worship services here in Angola every month. In one of them on Thursday I met Miguel “the chin” Velez (aka Cumbamba), Medellin Drug Cartel founder Pablo Escobar’s Colombian hit man who spent 23 years in solitary confinement here at Angola. He is now a passionate follower of Jesus and he was thrilled to hear about our ministry in Bogota and gave me some contacts there of old associates who were at Angola and are now serving God back in Colombia. Miguel and Gary, the chaplain, asked me to look them up when I’m back in Colombia. I told Miguel I would and let him know how they are doing. Amazing.

You never know where God will take you when you sell out to Him. I just want to be with you on mission Lord. Take me with You.

 

I have discovered over the years that I can only give away what I possess. This is never more true than in the spiritual realm. Ministry must happen from the overflow of my relationship with and pleasure in God. Therefore, I must prioritize time with Him and I must constantly be seeking those things that feed my soul and add to my love for Him, my understanding of Him, and my motivation to serve Him. Consequently, I read many blogs, journals, articles, and sermons on a daily and weekly basis and I always have two or three books going at the same time mostly out of self preservation. I can only give from the overflow of what I have and I long to give. I long to be used up for the expansion of His kingdom in this world. Recently my wife has taught me a new method of reading (or should I say digesting) a book. She reads it straight through (sometimes first in audio version), then reads it again with a  highlighter, then reads it again, outlining and taking notes as she goes. It doesn’t allow me to gobble up as many books as quickly as I once did but I must say that I really know and understand and comprehend the contents when I am done. Below are the books I’ve enjoyed and benefitted from in this first quarter of 2012. Click on the cover to read more about each book.

Saturday was  a great day of fun, fellowship, and missions awareness. It was my family’s first opportunity to participate in Relationships For Christ’s annual March For Missions. It is a 10K run/walk to raise funds and awareness for different mission projects around the world. This year was to raise funds for Project Samuel, a project in Zambia, Africa for vulnerable children. Our friends, the Vowell family, head up this ministry.

I had signed up to form and lead a team of runners/walkers for this event. I was blessed to win an award for having the largest team.

The largest part of my team consisted of my friends from Team 2:10 (Do good works Eph. 2:10) who are a part of Masterpiece Fitness our partner in the Orphan Hope Marathon. John Hurtado, one of the Team 2:10 members was the first to finish the race and he won a trophy.

This group inspires and encourages me with their big hearts for orphans and missions. I hope to work with them on many projects to come.

My dear friend, Mike Ford, was also on my team and won 3rd place. What an inspiration he is. When I met him just a few years ago he weighed in excess of 400 pounds and now he is a fitness trainer and competition runner.

We had a wonderful time. Lisa, Beverly, Brooke, and I set out together but Brooke quickly joined the runners, Lisa took off with a fast walking friend, and sweet Beverly stayed back to hold my arm and plod along with slow dad. We had a wonderful time to talk and enjoy the beautiful Woodlands day. Because of my battle with Lupus and the pain and inflammation that always is ravaging my body, I didn’t think I would be able to walk even 1/2 of the specified distance but Beverly and I just kept walking and walking and our conversation helped me to ignore the pain and the next thing you know we were at the finish line! It was fun and Relationships For Christ raised $8,000.00 for Project Samuel. Praise God.

One of the great joys of following Jesus these past 30 years has been investing in younger men and women and seeing them become leaders in the kingdom of God. Again and again over the years God has put young people in my life, sometimes for a very short period of time, and has allowed me to pour into them from the overflow of my relationship with Him. Since my junior year in high school I have had a passion to build young leaders. It probably arose from the fact that the young evangelist who led me to Christ was only 22 years old and he had such a profound impact on my life that I wanted to pass that on. Later as I read the Bible and church history I realized that this is a repeating pattern in God’s strategy for building His kingdom.

Lisa and I have had the great joy of having dozens of young people live with us and hundreds sit at our dinner table over the years as we encouraged them in the Lord. We have been so blessed to see many of them go on to be pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, and church planters serving all over the U.S. and on 3 continents. We regularly have the joy of hearing from many of them and this week was no different.

What a joy to spend time on the phone this week with Chris, our young friend in Colombia, and hear what God is doing for and through him. What a blessing to spend a couple of hours on the phone this week with Brian, a young church planter in San Angelo, Texas, that we have had the privilege of mentoring for several years now and hear all that God is doing in their family and young congregation to reach the nations.

This morning I was blessed to receive this message from another young man who worked for me and my sons one summer when he was home from Bible college and he and his new wife at the time spent time at our dinner table.

“Hey Matt not sure if you remember me, but i would like to say thank you your influence and kindness to me and my wife. I think back to working with you and your sons often. God has worked in our family alot since that time we now have 3 kids with one on the way. And God has called us to be apart of a church plant in the Southern Houston area “Advance Church” http://www.advancehouston.com/ We are reaching out to change the World and doing so by starting a multi-lingual Church and sending the reached back to there home country to spread the Good News of Jesus. Did not think God would ever call me back to Houston and now he has and I am trusting God to do something, Amazing! I would love it if you and your family prayed for us during this time. Thank you so much.”

Randy Rutledge
Advance Church – Advancing Christ to a Changing World – Coming to Houston in 2012
www.advancehouston.com

Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a little part of what you are doing in the world. I can’t wait for heaven when all the stories that we don’t even know about now will be told.

June 16-23, 2012 is our next mission trip to Bogota, Colombia. If you feel even the slightest tug in your spirit to come on this trip, act on it! 🙂 You will never be the same.

http://www.orphanhopeintl.org/summer-2012-mission-trip/

Giving the gift of presence to the lonely and forgotten…

Saturday, February 11, 2012 was one of the greatest days of my life. The inaugural Orphan Hope Marathon Trail Run was a huge success! See photos HERE See videos of the start below.

It all started in February of 2011 with an email from a friend and fellow soldier in orphan ministry, Jenn Burton,

Hey matt,

I was out walking today and thinking and wanted to run something by you. I am not sure if you knew but I have a non-profit fitness ministry. We do bootcamps at different churches and just have a heart to help women get healthy in all aspects of their lives. So I also now have a heart for these orphans so as I was thinking about the 2, I think it would be really amazing if masterpiece fitness (my ministry) put on a walk-thon with the goal of raising enough money to give to orphan hope to build another safe home. We currently have about 200 girls in the ministry and that seems to be growing by the day. We could put on the walk (a big one) and then follow it up with a mission trip to Colombia for the women and their families that want to go. What do you think?

Jenn

Matt and Jenn Burton on Saturday

I have learned that God uses our passions to lead us into ways that we can expand His kingdom with incredible enjoyment and I recognized this as one of those opportunities and so I told Jenn, “Absolutely, let’s do it.” Neither of us knew the huge effort and blessing that was ahead.

L to R Mel, Ken, Jenn, Dawn

The rest of Jenn’s fitness team, Dawn Rodgers, and Melanie Gonzales immediately jumped on board and we were off and running. It wasn’t long before God sent what the girls describe as “an angel” in Ken Johnson. Ken is a retired Lt. Colonel in the Army who has run marathons for decades and even written and published on the subject. He lives in Huntsville where we held the race and very early on he joined the planning team. These three girls and their team and families worked endless hours to make this race happen. It was a full year of donations, planning, scheduling, studying marathons, purchases, and so on and it culminated in a smashing success on Saturday with 416 runners and $40,000.00 raised for the Bogota Safe House that we will open this year. The goal was $60,000.00 so will still have a way to go. We are still taking donations at www.OrphanHopeMarathon.com for the Safe House.

We had a wonderful  pre-race sit down dinner on Thursday night with live music, wonderful food, and testimonies about the importance of the cause. The Attaway family came together and organized the entire thing. They are amazing!

Over 150 volunteers worked Friday and Saturday. The after race meal consisted of over 500 barbecue sandwiches prepared by Dawn Rodgers father and family (28 briskets!). There were so many miracles that happened along the way that it made it really fun to see God’s fingerprints on the whole thing. People came together, worked, donated, and with such wonderful attitudes it was a delight to work together with each and every one of them. Jenn and some of her team spent most of the day Friday marking every inch of the 13.1 mile trail through the woods of Huntsville State Park while the rest of us set up tents and stretched flagging and lots of other items.

My sweet wife, Lisa, along with our girls were in charge of setting up and manning the Orphan Hope International booth and they did a beautiful job of representing our ministry at the race.

We all got about 3 hours of sleep Friday night and then hit the ground running at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning. I couldn’t have been more proud of the way Beverly, Brooke, and Jana jumped in and helped both on Saturday and Sunday. They were a huge blessing.

It was so exciting to see the hundreds of people come flooding into the park from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. And then it was time to start. I led the group in prayer, the music started, the horn sounded and then they were off! I felt the tears well up in my eyes as everyone cheered and the runners raced off into the trees.

A tremendous personal blessing for me was that my beautiful African daughter, Mercy, was one of the runners. The former orphan running to raise money for orphans… profound and precious.

A few weeks ago I noticed that she was thinning down some and because she has had so many health problems in her past it worried me a little bit and so I asked, “Hey Baby, are you losing weight? Are you ok?” She smiled at me, “Dad! I’m training for the Orphan Hope Marathon!” I was stunned. I had no idea she was excited about and planning to run. She was a little worried because she had never run more than 4 miles but she was determined to at least run a relay leg of 8 miles. She ended up running the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hours and 30 minutes. A time good enough to win second place in her age group. We were elated!

When you consider that 4 1/2 years ago she was lying in a bed in Monrovia, Liberia dying and weighed only 48 pounds, to see her cross that finish line (see video below) was one of the defining moments of my life. We interviewed her on camera later and she said, “Dad, just when I was ready to quit about 3/4 of the way through I saw one of your signs that you posted along the trail (there were 30 of them with a girls face on each one) and the sign I saw had Heidy’s picture on it and I knew that I had to go on for Heidy.” Wow! God is so good to us to allow us to follow Him on this amazing journey.

 

The Lord has really been working on me the last 2 years about trusting Him for everything. He has shown me in multiple and miraculous ways the path that He wants me to go and I am learning so much. I’ve been reading a wonderful book called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson about prayer and so the subject has been on my mind even more than usual. I’ve been praying more too. No matter how often the Lord answers a specific prayer request, I am always amazed. I am learning that He delights to show Himself even in the little things.

Computer Bag

My computer bag was starting to look pretty ragged but it still had some life in it. However, as I have added cables and such to do presentations about our ministry in Colombia it has increasingly become too small for all of the things I feel I need to have with me at a moments notice. I was in Office Depot the other day and I stopped at the computer bag display. There was a black leather one there that was perfect for what I need but it was $200.00. I set it back on the shelf and walked on and suddenly it hit me, “God wants me to bring everything to Him.” I stopped in the aisle and said, “Lord, I know its a small thing and maybe silly but would you give me that computer bag.” I walked on feeling a little sheepish for bothering the God of the universe with such an insignificant thing and then I forgot all about it. You know, prayers don’t have a shelf life. God never has forgotten one prayer in the history of the universe. Two weeks later a dear brother of mine called me to say he was bringing something by for me. That he just wanted to bless me. You guessed it. He showed up at my door with the exact black leather computer bag I had prayed for. “Wow, Father. You even care about computer bags.”

Tires

I do a lot of running for our ministry and I had 3 tires on my Yukon that were getting very bald. For weeks I have been praying every time I get into my car, “Lord, you know I am running out of tread. I am rapidly approaching a serious point here. Please provide for some tires.” This last Sunday the right front tire started to come apart on the way to church and I had to stop and put air in it. On Friday the Lord had provided some extra money and so Monday night Lisa and I went to Discount Tire in Tomball to buy a new tire for that right front one that was coming apart. The nice young man who helped us told us several times how dangerous it was to not go ahead and replace the back two tires that were very worn as well. We thanked him but explained that we simply couldn’t afford more than one right now. As we waited in the waiting area I reassured my wife that God knows the work we are doing for His children in Colombia and that’s why we can afford tires right now and He will provide. It came time to go get our car and as the gentleman walked us out to our car he said, “You know I told you about those two back tires…” and I cut him off politely and said, “Yes sir, you did but we just can’t afford…” he bent down with a big smile and patted a brand new tire on the back and said, “Well, you have all new tires now.” We were stunned. I couldn’t understand what he was saying to us. He smiled real big and said, “We like to help out when we can. They are a gift.” I couldn’t believe it. I shook his hand and then it was my turn to smile and say, “You don’t know this but we are missionaries to the orphans of Colombia and by helping us today you have helped a bunch of sweet little kids too.” Now it was his turn to be stunned. He shook hands and drove away praising God. “Wow, Father, You are even concerned about tires. Please bless those who bless us with a double portion.”

There are lots of trials and spiritual warfare when you try to go into dark places and help the “least of these” but that’s also where the miracles are.

Tell me about an answer to prayer that has bless you recently…

 

Since we didn’t have internet the final 4 days I am catching up on my daily blogs from our trip last week. I hope you enjoy.My devotion today was Mission Motivation. There are two main motivations for me as I follow Jesus on His mission. I’m sure there are others but these stand out in my heart and life.

I.The pain…

I am motivated by the pain in my heart for those who don’t know Jesus, don’t have His peace, don’t have His joy. My heart breaks for the 2 million child sex slaves in the world, for the 800 teens a year that age out of the orphanage in Bogota alone and have nowhere to go and no one to help, for the lonely and sad children in institutions all over the world who need someone to tell them that they love them and that Jesus loves them. I find myself motivated by the pain…

“God break my heart with the things that break your heart.” – Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and Samaritans purse.

Job 30:25 “Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

“If you are a Christ follower, then you have been drafted into an army of compassion that knows no enemy but those things that break the heart of God. And it’s not okay to not do something about them.” – Mark Batterson

I feel the heart of the Father as He loves the world so much that He sacrifices His only Son. I feel the heart of the Shepherd as He searches for the one lost sheep. I feel the heart of Jesus as He weeps over Jerusalem and I am motivated to do more.

II.The Joy…

I am motivated by the inexpressible joy of being on mission with Jesus. I am driven to be near Him and to feel His heart as He loves these children. For some reason when I am near them I feel Him and His presence and His heart more strongly that when I am at home and so I am motivated to follow Him into the fields of the fatherless.

“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

“We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss.” – Theodore Williams

Mother Teresa  who stared out with 3 pennies and a dream at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries

She summed it up as it relates to the joy of following Jesus on mission, “We all long for Heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in Heaven with him right now to be happy with him at this very moment. But being happy with him now means:

loving as he loves

helping as he helps;

giving as he gives

serving as he serves

rescuing as he rescues

being with him 24 hours a day

touching him in his distressing disguise, the poor and suffering.”

Will you pursue His presence, including the pain and the immense joy?

Today we invited 40 girls from Santa Maria orphanage who are all available for adoption and/or Padrino to come and spend the day with us at the club where we are staying. There was swimming, games, crafts, and lots of food. We had a wonderful day and grew even closer to many of these beautiful children. I spent part of the afternoon loving on and talking to a girl named Laura. I’ve known her for 3 years but we have never really had a chance to talk. She sat down with me and said, “Let’s talk” I said, “What do you want to talk about?” She said, “God” and so we walked and talked about God for a long time and she shared her heart with me about many things. It was a sweet time.

We were also blessed with a visit from Paul and Melanie and their daughter. Paul found my blog online some time ago and we have been enjoying Skype with them and also they have been spending time with our friends here at Fundacion Mundo Nuevo but today was the first time for Lisa, Brooke, and I to meet them in person. We had a wonderful visit and are looking forward to more work together in the future.

The most amazing part of the day was when we all met together for a time of sharing and testimony. Several of the girls got up and shared what the day had meant to them and how they had seen the love of God in the team. Two girls in particular shared about some terrible things in their past and about how God had brought them through and how blessed they were to have us and our friendship. Our hearts were deeply moved. Bill Byrd came up to me and said, “Let’s have a forgiveness ceremony and give the girls a chance to cast their burdens on the Lord.” So I shared a brief messaged about the hope of forgiveness and love that is in Christ and how that we are not made to carry our own sin, our own burdens, our own pain. I Peter 5:7 says that we are supposed to “cast those burdens on Him” and Isaiah 53 says that He has already carried them for us and by faith we can enter into His rest. So I invited the girls and the team to kneel before the Lord and cast our lives, hurts, and sins upon Him completely. There were many tears and many prayers. It was a very special time.

After, many of the girls said that it was the most special night of their life. Praise be to God. We then went out to a big bonfire and ate s’mores and sang worship songs in Spanish and English late into the night. We said our tearful goodbyes and the girls got on the bus and went home. Thank you Jesus for the pain and the immense pleasure of loving your little lost lambs.

 

Our devotion this morning was Mission Imagination. I started out with a few of my favorite quotes on “thinking big for God”

“If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small.” – Brother Andrew

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” – George Mueller

“God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” – William Booth

We serve a big God!!!  He cannot be exaggerated!

Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

“Dreaming is a form of praying and praying is a form of dreaming.” – Elizabeth Elliot

Faith is like imagination

Heb. 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

“Oh you of little faith!” Four times in Matthew Jesus rebuked His disciples for not believing big enough about some pretty scary things. What in our life is He saying, “Oh you of little faith” about?

Matt. 6:30 Food and clothes
Matt. 8:26 Storm!
Matt. 14:31 Walking on water!
Matt. 16:8 No Bread!

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Can you imagine?

Immeasurably more than we can imagine…

I then told about Brother Yun from the book Heavenly Man and about his dream to send 100,000 chinese missionaries west through the 10/40 window all the way to Jerusalem.

Can you imagine? How big is your God? Can He be exaggerated?

Today was another beautiful day in the fields of the fatherless. We returned to Santa Maria orphanage today and spent more time loving on and witnessing to the precious 185 girls there. Because of many of the relationships we built yesterday it was easy to pick up where we left off and go beyond to spend more time sharing about Christ. Bill brought 12 EvangeCubes with him on the trip and these were a big hit today. Once we showed the girls how it worked and told the story of salvation many of them took the cube to other girls and retold the story with the cube. It was amazing. Many opportunities for sharing Christ arose today and one of our team members, Patricia, who is originally from Ecuador and speaks fluent Spanish was able to lead one of the workers to Christ.

Another blessing today was that my friend Raul Velez who runs an adoption ministry out of Florida was here today with 4 pastors that he brought from Florida. I was blessed to introduce Raul to Jose Vicente last year and they are working on some exciting projects together. We had a nice time of fellowship.

As I was standing talking to Raul my phone beeped that I had a text. I quickly looked down because I knew my daughter in law, Jana, was at the hospital with my daughter Beverly and other daughter in law Misti and that Jana was about to deliver her and my second son, Levi’s, first baby. Sure enough! When I read the text from Beverly it said, “The Baby is here!!!” I turned to my wife and said, “You’re a grandma again!” What a day! Now I’m a double grandfather or doble abuelo as they say here. Thank you God for all of your blessings. Jana is living with us while my son serves on a destroyer in the Mediterranean with the U.S. Navy so I will get to hold that precious little bundle when I get home on Sunday.

At noon Jose Vicente, Bill, Dave, and I had to leave to go to a very important meeting with the Colombian government. It was a blessed meeting. The rest of the team stayed and played with the girls. At 3:30 p.m. as planned Javier played some Spanish worship songs and then Luis Acosta, Pastora Liliana’s brother, preached an amazing message (from all accounts) and there were many decisions for Christ. Then the team headed for the bus and there were many tears as they said farewell to these beautiful girls for the last time on this trip.

We met up at a nearby restaurant for a wonderful time of fellowship and food. Thank you for all of the prayers. We love you all.

As is our custom every morning on our mission trips, I lead a devotion that relates to why we are here.  My devotion this morning focused on Mission Origination where I talked about the doctrine of Missio Dei and the fact that God is on a mission to redeem the world and He is the originator of the mission and He has invited us to join Him. I like how one person said it recently,

“Our mission is not to reach the world… that is too small a vision. Our mission is to be with God as He is on mission to reach the world.”

Jesus was the first missionary. He left His country and came to ours to preach good news to the poor and lift up the brokenhearted and release the captives. David Livingstone said it this way,

“God had only one Son and he made that Son a missionary.” – David Livingston

33 times in the book of John alone Jesus says, …the Father “sent Me.” We are also sent,

John 17:18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

I finished by sharing that when we agree to join God on His mission in this world there is no telling what He might do with that surrender. In 1947 Bob Pierce, a young Youth for Christ worker, set out for China with only enough money to make it to Honolulu. On the way he led a young girl to Christ named White Jade. When White Jade went home and told her parents that she had become a follower of Christ they through her out of the house. She came crying back to the people that Bob Pierce was staying with and they asked Bob, “What are you going to do now?” Bob reached in his pocket and retrieved $5.00, all the money he had, and gave it to the lady saying, “Take care of White Jade and each month I will send more.” And he did. In 1950 he founded World Vision who now helps people to sponsor children like White Jade in over 90 countries today. Bob also founded in 1970 a ministry called Samaritan’s Purse and took under his wing a young man named Franklin Graham. Bob died in 1978 but his legacy lives on all over the world. When we decide to obey and join God on mission, there is no telling what He will do.

Today we visited Santa Maria orphanage in Madrid. There are 185 girls residing there. It was a beautiful sunny day and we played frisbee, soccer, American football, tag, cards, made manillas (bracelets) and much more. The new and veteran members of the team were quickly surrounded and enveloped by beautiful lonely girls. There are too many stories to tell but suffice it to say that like Bob Pierce used to say our hearts were “broken with what breaks yours, Lord.” There were many smiles, hugs, kisses, singing, and a general good time all day. We handed out Spanish Gospel tracts and evangecubes and Christian coloring books and stickers and silly bands and lots of candy. But most importantly we showed them and told them of the love of Jesus.

One of the highlights of the day was that we were able to see the new computer lab that we purchased through funds raised in our silent auction in November as well as the funds raised by Michael Ford, his friends, and their teacher, Mrs. Lisa Stoyak, at Northpointe Intermediate School next door to my apartment complex. Santa Maria previously had only 3 old computers to share among 185 girls and they were constantly breaking down. With these funds we were able to provide them with 12 new laptops. They will use these computers to learn skills that will help them survive once they leave the orphanage. They were very excited.

We hope to connect the girls with Mrs. Stoyak’s class at Northpointe Intermediate via Skype very soon so that they can give her class a virtual “MUCHAS GRACIAS!”

We arrived safely at the airport last night and were greeted by many of our Colombian friends from churches, institutions, and our beloved Goddaughters. As I always joke, my heart, which lives in Colombia, was re-united with my body, which lives in Texas! It felt good. It was Lisa’s first time back in Colombia in a year and a half. It’s so good to have her here. Brooke hadn’t been here in a year and neither of them had seen Heidy in a year so it was triple good.

This morning we met for worship with all of our friends from two churches and Fundacion Mundo Nuevo, our partner here in Colombia. Pastors Lucas & Dorayne and Pastors Hector & Liliana were wonderful hosts at Iglesia Libertad. One of the blessings for me personally on this trip is that recently I met the brother of Pastora Liliana who lives in Houston and we immediately felt in our spirits that God had arranged this meeting. His name is Luis and he is a youth pastor at a Spanish church on 290 and the beltway. Pastora Liliana and her family have been dear friends and a help to our ministry in Colombia so I asked Luis to travel to Colombia with us as a translator and to preach in the orphanages for us this week and this way he could also see his sister (whom I didn’t know at the time he hadn’t seen in 3 years). It was a wonderful reunion for them and their father is coming down from northern Colombia later in the week to be with them all. How wonderful God works. So anyway, Luis translated for me as I preached this morning and it was the most anointed time of ministry I have enjoyed since I started coming here. I preached from Matthew 9:36-38

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

I titled the sermon A Prescription For Revival.  There are 4 things from this passage that if we would imitate and obey God would surely send us a great harvest.

I.Visualize (he saw)

20 times in the N.T. it says that Jesus saw… Luke 4:35 “Lift up your eyes and look…”

II.Internalize (had compassion)

Take responsibility for the condition of the world…

III.Agonize (pray earnestly)

Hungry for souls…

IV.Evangelize (Go you)

When we have agonized we will have the Holy Spirit fire to evangelize…

At the end of the message God blessed with many coming to commit to Visualize, Internalize, Agonize, and Evangelize Bogota – Colombia – South America – Western Hemisphere – The World.

We spent the afternoon with the beautiful children of the Shamuel orphanage many of whom had only been there for days or even hours and many were crying and missing their parents. It was my blessing to talk with many of them about Christ and especially to sit for a long time with one girl named Carolina. Her father is dead and something happened to her mother and she was crying and missing her mom. I sat and rubbed her back and listened for a long time telling her that I understood and that I was sorry and then eventually the conversation turned to Jesus and I was able to share about the hope that is in a vital relationship with Him. She slowly cheered up and stopped crying and we had a lively discussion. I encouraged her to place her faith and trust and hope in Him and she assured me that she will. She was called away to dinner and I had a nice conversation with three young men and shared my testimony of coming to Christ as a 16 year old boy. They listened intently and asked many questions. I thank God that my Spanish has gotten to the point where I can really speak for Him! What a blessing. Just as we were about to leave Carolina came running up from the dining hall and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek with a big smile and said, “Gracias Mateo!” and then she was gone. God you are so beautiful…

We fell into bed exhausted but very blessed.

 

 

As long as I can remember I have always been a reader. I call it feeding my soul and I have a voracious appetite. I find great encouragement and strength from walking with giants through their books. I find it sad that many miss out on this great opportunity for one reason or another. I think often of this quote and pray that it does not become true of me,

“One thing I’ve noticed about Evangelicals is that they do not read. They do not read the Bible, they do not read the great Christian thinkers, they have never heard of Aquinas. If they’re Presbyterian, they’ve never read the founders of Presbyterianism. I do not understand that. As a Jew, that’s confusing to me. The commandment of study is so deep in Judaism that we immerse ourselves in study. God gave us a brain, aren’t we to use it in His service? When I walk into a Evangelical Christian’s home and see a total of 30 books, most of them best-sellers, I do not understand. I have bookcases of Christian books, and I am a Jew. Why do I have more Christian books than 98 percent of the Christians in America? That is so bizarre to me.” ~ Dennis Prager, Jewish radio talk show host, in an interview in The Door. Quoted in Disciplines of a Godly Man, Pg. 78.

I love and have imitated Erasmus comment,

“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”

~ Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

Elizabeth Hardwick said and I agree,

“The greatest gift is a passion for reading.”

~ Elizabeth Hardwick

I read many journals, blogs, theological articles, etc. daily to keep my soul feeding on and pursuing Christ and I try to always have a book or two going as well. Here are some favorites (in random order) that I was blessed to read in 2011 and that have greatly benefitted my life. Click on the book cover to order the book for yourself. Many Blessings!

Radical by David Platt

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett

Costly Grace by Jon Walker

Spiritual Warfare And Missions by Jerry Rankin and Ed Stetzer

Out Live Your Life by Max Lucado

In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day by Mark Batterson

Primal by Mark Batterson

Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson

The Dangerous Duty Of Delight by John Piper

Hudson Taylor, The Man Who Believed God by Marshall Broomhall

Experiencing The Spirit by Blackaby

The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer

Currently Reading

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan

Reckless Abandon by David Sitton

I’m compiling my wish list for 2012… Tell me, what was your favorite book from 2011?

Last December I wrote a post entitled No Room At The Inn about how God often sends people (Jesus in disguise as Mother Teresa would say) to our door who have nowhere else to go or who need a family. Last Christmas it was a homeless girl just out of prison and then three Colombians, (two orphans and a government official.) This Christmas is no different.

Our daughter Mercy came home for Christmas yesterday and brought another girl, Angelica, who is without a family or place to go for the holidays. It made my heart swell with joy that once again the Bullen Inn has room for Jesus. Having girls sleeping on bunk beds, the floor, and the couches makes it feel more like Christmas around here. Another blessing this year has been the people coming to our door with groceries and gifts. That’s something new and wonderful for us. Usually we are the ones giving but this year it is the other way around and it has really made it feel like Christmas as well. It warms my heart to think that those dropping by with food, and presents, and those who collected clothes and gift cards and food for our family this year were also giving to Angelica without even knowing and according to Matthew 25:45 they were giving to Jesus.

Michael Wells, a preacher now in heaven, used to say, “When you become a safe person for God to use, you won’t have to go searching for people to minister to, He will send them to you.” I often pray for God to make me that person. I ask Him to send me and to send His children that need help to me. And the most intriguing thing is that no matter how hard you try to give God always gives you more in return. The fun and happiness that has permeated our home over the years as we took in whomever God sent us and the memories that we share and are making every day are treasures that silver and gold cannot buy. The Christ child is all around us if we are ready to receive Him. May there always be room in our inn for Jesus. Merry Christmas.

 

My sweet girl, Rebekah, came home for Christmas yesterday. She has been serving a one-year internship at the Dream Center in Los Angeles, California. We are so happy to have Rebekah home for the next two weeks. She has been so busy there and I have been so busy with Orphan Hope that we haven’t had much time to talk while she has been gone so I made her sit down last night and catch me up on all of the details.

The Dream Center (www.dreamcenter.org) is an inner-city ministry in downtown Los Angeles that ministers to  more than 35,000 people each week in the Center’s 40 services and 273 ministries and outreaches. The Dream Center is an amazing example of how the church should be impacting the world. In the first four years of the Dream Center’s establishment, prostitution and gang violence dropped 73%, the homicide rate dropped 28% and rape dropped 53%. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the City Council have publicly acknowledged the dramatic impact of the Dream Center and praised its efforts. In 2000, President Bush, then Governor of Texas, visited the Dream Center and deemed it “a model for faith-based organizations.”

I was so amazed and blessed to hear about what God is doing for and through our little girl in L.A. I really enjoyed her regaling us with her weekly schedule. On Mondays Rebekah helps count the offering from the church and then does an after school program with elementary, middle, and high school kids from the Echo Park area around the Dream Center. On Tuesdays she and her team deliver furniture and other things to needy families and then she helps in youth church on Tuesday nights. On Wednesdays she does office work for the Adopt A Block program and deliveries to needy families in the afternoon and then her after school program. On Thursdays she works in the office and then takes the bus out to her Adopt A Block site to pick up people for church. On Friday mornings they separate all of the donations that have come in during the week and bag them up for their site visits the next day. She does her after school program again and then on Friday nights they go to Skid Row and minister to the homeless there. She sometimes go with the prostitute ministry on Friday nights after Skid Row and witnesses to and prays for the working girls in South Central.

Saturday is a big day for Rebekah. Her main job at the Dream Center is in the Adopt A Block ministry. As I said above, the Dream Center has over 200 outreach programs and Adopt A Block is their signature program. There are 15 neighborhoods (sites) where they go on Saturdays and minister to the people there. Rebekah is the site leader for Nickerson Gardens in Watts. Nickerson Gardens is a 1,050 unit apartment project and is the largest public housing project west of the Mississippi River. It was the birthplace of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang and one of the sites of the famous Watts riots in the 60’s. I was pretty amazed that my little girl is the leader of the team for this housing project. Every Saturday she and her team of 30 deliver donations to needy families, go door to door and pray with people, meet needs of various kinds and share the love of Christ. They have been known to help children with homework, take out trash, wash dishes, and all kinds of things to build relationships and thereby share Christ.

On Sundays Rebekah and her team take a 60 passenger bus out to Nickerson Gardens and pick up people for church. The church, pastored by Matthew Barnett, founder of the Dream Center, is Angelus Temple and is a few blocks from the 8 story Dream Center building. Rebekah and her 50-60 people that she brings from her “site” join with thousands of others at the church on Sundays to worship the Lord. Sunday afternoons she usually joins up with a group that loves to hike in the nearby mountains around Los Angeles. Monday her schedule starts all over again. She loves every minute of it and is blessed to be there and we are so proud and grateful for this opportunity that God has graciously given her.

So blessed to know this young man and to get to have a part in his story.

I saw firsthand today that one little boy or girl can impact the world. It all started when my friend Mike Ford agreed to go to Colombia with us last June. His heart was touched as are so many as they walk through the fields of the fatherless. Mike came home so excited to tell his family about all that he had seen and felt. His family was very touched, especially his 6th grader Michael. The whole family has put their weight behind Orphan Hope and have worked hard to help in any way they could. Recently Michael’s teacher at school, Ms. Lisa Stoyak, proposed a plan to teach her students about giving and selflessness. She gave each one of them $5.00 of her own money and encouraged them to go out and find ways to multiply that money. She then told them that each of them would have an opportunity to make a presentation about their favorite charity and they would take a vote and all the money that each student raised by multiplying that $5.00 would be given to the charity that was selected. Michael worked and worked with the help of his dad to create a presentation about Orphan Hope International and when the day came he gave a wonderful presentation and his teacher and some of his friends even cried. Michael and his friends in the class worked and worked to raise money. They baked and sold cookies, had car washes, lemonade stands, made and sold jewelry and many other things. Altogether they raised the amazing amount of $6,000.00. The class selected two ministries, Living Water International and Orphan Hope International, to give the money to and today was the day they presented the checks to us. I had no idea of this whole story when I arrived at the school, Tomball Intermediate, today. I only knew that Michael had made a presentation about Orphan Hope and his class had raised some money to present us. I was so touched and impacted in my heart when I heard the story. The library was filled with children and parents and news media as the children each stood and told about how they had raised the money. They had made a giant poster saying “We love Orphan Hope” and another one saying “We love Living Water.” Mike and I shared with them about our personal stories and then about the ministry. Living Water shared as well and then the children presented us with the money. There were lots of photos and interviews. It was really wonderful. I realized today that one teacher with a big heart and a good idea, one class of 6th graders with big hearts and a little work, one little boy, one little girl can change the world for someone, somewhere.

God is so good to give me friends like the Grahams and then to let me share with them in this amazing journey. This is why we do what we do.

One of the beautiful stories resulting from our summer vacation host program.

Evermons on Adoption from Shoby John on Vimeo.

Orphan Hope International – Intro video from Shoby John on Vimeo.

As a young Christian I was constantly thinking about and worrying about “What is the will of God for my life?” It seemed that I constantly wrestled with such questions as “What city does He want me in?” “What ministry does He want me to do?” I wanted to serve Him so desperately. I wanted to be used by Him terribly. I wanted to make a difference in the world. And it seemed to me that knowing the will of God was a mysterious, mirky, uncertain business. Today, I know better and it is a great delight to my life that I have figured out how to consistently discern the will of God for my life. God doesn’t play shell games with us. He doesn’t have a mission for our life and then spend the rest of our life trying to hide that mission from us. He has a mission for our life and He wants us to know what it is and to accomplish it more than we could possibly imagine. As Mark Batterson says, “God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.” Matthew Barnett says, “God wants you to know your cause. He does not play games. Because He loves you more than you can understand, He is not going to make the discovery of your cause a tug-of-war in which He simply messes with your head. He designed that cause specifically for you because He knows it will deliver tremendous joy and fulfillment.”

Of course, sometimes God speaks directly to us in dreams, visions, or other ways but I have generally observed that He more often speaks in that still small voice. So quickly, here are the steps God has taught me for discerning His will in my life. I learned these by experience and then God has confirmed them through others over and over again and I will quote some of them. I specifically want to focus on the last one, Invitations. This is not a formula but the steps that I know God uses in my life to get me where He wants me to go.

1. Pursuing God. God’s will is not something He wants you to run off and do without Him. The first part of God’s will for every Christian is to know Him deeply and love Him deeply and stay in His presence. It’s only when I am pursuing God Himself that I can have any chance of knowing what He wants me to do.

2. Absolute Surrender. God’s will is GOD’S will not my will. The Lord’s prayer is hallowed be THY name not hallowed be MY name, THY kingdom come not MY kingdom come, THY will be done on earth as it is in heaven not MY will be done. If I want to be used of God I must be completely surrendered. I must lay my self on the altar and say, “Lord, use me how you want. You decide how my life can best bring You glory.” If it is suffering, sickness, prison, death, or advancement and prosperity, I submit to You Sovereign Lord. When God knows that I will do whatever He tells me without hesitation then He will clearly show me what He wants me to do. Matthew Barnett says, “So how do you find out what your cause is? From experience – mine and others’ – I’d argue that the first step is to surrender your will to God.”

3. Passion. God begins to lead us into the specific areas of service that He wants us in by desire. This was a wonderful revelation to me. When I realized that God put this unquenchable passion in me to know, love, and serve Him, I remember leaping for joy. I was studying 1 Timothy 3 regarding the qualifications for pastors and it hit me that the first qualification was desire! It says, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a pastor, he desireth a good work.” When I realized that the call of God starts with desire/passion my whole life changed.  Matthew Barnett says it so well, “In my life, God speaks through passion and circumstances. In other words, He instills a sense of desire and urgency within me. I have a passion to accomplish certain dreams. Because those dreams are not the normal human impulses, especially in today’s self-indulgent culture, I believe those are God-inspired passions.” For example, I have seen God take the passion He put in me as a little boy to be a good father when I grew up and to be the leader of a family that would love God and impact the world for generations to come and expand that original passion beyond just my blood descendants to encompass the orphans of the world. Amazing.

4. Invitations/Circumstances. The final way I, and others, have found that God directs us to His mission for our lives is through invitations to become involved in what He is already doing in the world. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life that as I am pursuing God and loving Him and that relationship begins to spill and splash on to others around me that invitations begin to come in from people to “come over and help us” (Acts 16:9) Most of the greatest blessings in my life have come from an invitation that I said yes to. Our involvement in evangelism, youth ministry, church planting, conference speaking, authoring a book, Tres Dias, adopting our precious daughter Mercy, our ministry in Colombia, our wonderful church that we now attend, and many other blessings all started with an invitation that lined up with a passion God had already stirred in our hearts. Matthew Barnett again says it so well, “If you’re serious about knowing God’s chosen cause for you, think carefully before you turn down invitations to help somebody you know engage in some type of service activity, no matter how big or small it might be. That invitation might be the beginning of the adventure that identifies the means to filling the hole in your heart.” Wow! I love that and have proven it in my own life.

So, all that being said, as I begin to think about the year ahead and what God wants for my life in 2012 I realize that God is drawing me to Himself and His presence more powerfully than ever before, I am less afraid to lay it all down on the altar for Him than I have ever been, there is a terrible burning passion in me and in my family to be involved in what God is doing in the nations, and I currently have invitations from people that I love and admire to come and preach/minister with them next year in Colombia, Mexico, Zambia, Liberia, Rwanda, Nepal, & India. I am humbled and amazed at the way God is moving in my life and I can’t wait to see where He leads.

Last Thursday night I had the joy and privilege of being interviewed by the guys at Streettalk Live on 700 AM radio here in Houston. It was wonderful because one of the hosts, Michael Smith, is one of the parents in the process of adopting a girl from this summer’s Texas Vacation Host Program. It was great to share about what God is doing with Orphan Hope International and to hear a little of Mike’s heart as well. Here is the audio from the interview.

Today, Sunday, October 30, 2011 was another wonderful day in the presence of the Lord and His beautiful people. The morning started out at 8:00 a.m. with praise and worship at Pastor Tatis’ church in his living room in central Bogota. We had a sweet time together. Pastor Tatis had a brand new pulpit and he proudly told me that I would be the first one to use it. I was humbled and honored. Pastor Tatis and his sweet family, Dellis, his wife, son, Danny, and daughters Sarah and Ruth are building this church solely from the families of the children that they have ministered to that come into the emergency center. So in the emergency center they are ministering to the children and in their home on Sundays they are ministering to the families of the children. I gave my testimony and preached about the family being the building block of the kingdom of God and of society and as goes the family so goes the world. As soon as we were done and had hugged everyone there, a car was waiting to take us to the next church where I would preach for pastors Lucas and Doraynne at Liberty Church also in central Bogota.

Pastor Lucas and Doraynne are precious to me for many reasons, one of them being the way they have ministered to my sweet Heidy. I was so delighted to get to be in their church and to preach for them as well. I shared with them how going on mission with Jesus is wonderful because we get to go FOR Jesus because He said GO! and He is the boss with all authority. (Mt. 28:18-19) But we don’t go alone an in our own strength. We get to go WITH Jesus because He is on mission in the world and has invited us to go along. (Mt. 28:20) And not only do we go FOR and WITH Jesus but we also go TO Jesus and minister TO Jesus because He has told us that when we feed the poor or clothe the naked or visit the prisoner or care for the “least of these” we are doing it unto Him. So all of our work in this world is not about us it is about Him. We minister FOR Him, WITH Him, and To Him.

 

We enjoyed lunch with the pastors and some friends and then headed over to our dear friend and sister in the Lord, Nelda’s house for coffee. I was so tired and experiencing a bad case of Lupus flare up that I went and laid down on one of her guest beds and slept for about 3 hours. We then went and did some shopping for the Goddaughters and laughed and talked and then she fixed us a wonderful meal. We headed home to the Safe House to sleep and prepare for a full day tomorrow with Fundacio Mundo Nuevo as they have a grand costume fiesta with all 600 children in the organization. I can’t wait.

Today, October 29, 2011 is my 46th birthday and I am so happy to be spending it with these sweet children that I love so much.

My main job today was to help our videographer from Sugarcreek Baptist Church, Dave Grumme, who is here this week shooting video for several upcoming OHI promotional pieces. We had a full schedule of videos planned throughout the day but as often happens here in Colombia things change quickly. First, I was asked to speak at a worship service being conducted at San Miguel Emergency Center across the street from where we are staying. San Miguel is one of the places where the children come for triage when they are first brought in off the street by the police. I was excited to speak there but was worried about the time because I only had Dave Grumme for this one day and we had a lot of work to get done. The thing I didn’t know was that my sweet Goddaughter Heidy had alerted San Miguel that today was my birthday and so they were secretly planning a party for me after the worship service. Anyhow, I spoke (without a translator… it was short 🙂 ) and sang some songs for the kids. They were so sweet and applauded like crazy. Dave and I kept trying to leave so we could get our work done and they kept delaying us and we kept looking at each other like, “what is the deal.” Suddenly the girls burst in with a big banner telling me happy birthday and a cake that Heidy and another girl decorated beautifully for me. They sang to me in English and Spanish and we all had cake and then it was time to go.

Dave and I were both worried because our plans were really getting demolished. But God! The rest of the day went so smooth and so anointed that we kept looking at each other and saying, “Wow, God is giving us favor.” We got so much done and made every appointment on time and got Dave to the airport only 15 minutes late tonight. He shot some wonderful video and some interviews and at one point he was so excited he said to me, “We need to make a movie.” I just love that the story of these precious children will be getting out to the world. We had lunch at a place that specializes in meat from an animal in southern Colombia that is like a large rabbit. It was amazing. Then for the second time in a week I got to go up to the mountain top at Monserate but this time with Dave so he could shoot video and photos and Heidy and some of the girls from Casa De Egreso and Oscar from Fundacion por un Mundo Nuevo. We had a wonderful time and then headed down the mountain to dinner and dropped Dave at the airport. It was a wonderful, wonderful birthday.

Cartagena was an extreme eye opener. I have never seen anything like the poverty we saw today and yet in the same place a gleaming oasis in the midst, the CDA school that we visited today. In the photo above Joner and I are standing in front of his home of 11 years that was destroyed by a flood last week. He lives in a neighborhood of shacks with dirt floors and on this day and many like it because of the rain the floors are mud and we walked through ankle deep sewage in some places to visit the families in their homes. Joner attends the CDA school and recently had the highest score of anyone in the school on a government test. Last week the whole neighborhood was under water waste deep and many lost their homes. Most of these families have been displaced from the homes by violence and have found “refuge” in this neighborhood of squatters. And right in the middle is this wonderful CDA school where they are teaching these children about Christ and about becoming productive members of society. They are also helping the families in the neighborhood to come and get vocational training at the school, helping them with micro loans to start businesses, and teaching them about Christ. So in the midst of abject poverty we saw hope, love, and joy. We were greatly touched to see what CDA is doing in Colombia and have many thoughts about how to help them. We flew back to Bogota and Jose Vicente from Mundo Nuevo had a birthday surprise for me. My sweet Goddaughter, Heidy, gets to spend the weekend with us. God is doing many things here. Praise the Lord!

Day 5 was another huge God day. Dave, Gail, and I spent the entire day meeting with the Colombian government and God gave us great favor. The remainder of the team visited some amazing CDA sites, the living hell that is El Bronx, and Hogar San Mauricio, a new institution that we had not previously visited but where many of the children live who visited us on our Vacation Host Program this summer. We were then supposed to meet at the airport to fly to Cartagena but Dave, Gail, and I wrapped up our meetings too late and just missed our flight.

We caught a little later flight and then we all went to the old city of Cartegena and had dinner inside a huge, ancient stone fort. It was really neat. We had a wonderful dinner and then a carriage ride throughout the old city. It was an amazing night. Today we go to a very bad area where CDA has built a school. I can’t wait! Thank you Lord for allowing me to be a part of the amazing things happening and the amazing people you are using in your kingdom.