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I can’t believe that it has almost been six months since I can to the Dream Center. It feels like yesterday that I was saying good bye to my dad and getting on a airplane. I have learned so much and I know God has so much more to teach me in my next six months. I know Jesus has a great plan for my life and I can’t wait to use all I have learned in the next place He sends me. Last Friday night after we went out to Skid Row I was able to go out on our prostitute outreach. As we were talking with some street racers about the Lord, a man came up and asked us for some cash. He explained how him and his wife had just come over the boarder and were on there way to San Francisco but they had ran out of gas. On the way to the gas station the man told me that they had not eaten anything for three days. We were able to give them twenty dollars worth of gas and some tacos. I know that man will never forget us.
 Last Monday we want on a one night camping retreat for all the site leaders for our Adopt A Block sites in Joshua Tree park. We had a great time doing some team building exercises, hiking and just sitting around the camp fire sharing stores and eating some good food. Joshua Tree is so beautiful! The mountains look like some one piled up a lot of boulders on top of each other. This Friday we were able to go with our track to our retirement home. I love every time we are able to go and just spend some time with the residents there. There are some ladies that are starting to  remember me, I love to see them start smiling when they see me coming. God is so good to me. I can’t wait to see what He is going to do this week.

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Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt make know to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever. This one versus explains the cry of my heart to really know that in Jesus presence is fullness of joy. All this week God has been showing me how I can enjoy my work more. After you been at the Dream Center for sometime the excitement wears off, but I don’t want that to be true of me I want to have so much joy that everyone around me is effected be my joy.

This week was my big barbeque at Nickerson Gardens. So all week I spent getting every thing organized and making sure that the cook had everything she needed. Saturday was definitely the highlight of my time as site leader of Nickerson. God really blessed us. The out come of the barbeque was much better then I could very have dreamed. We prepared for hundred people and we had at lest a hundred. It was like a mad rush to the food line. I had planned on have Jonathan speak, but it think we blessed everyone a lot by just hangout with then and having a great meal. We usually get back to the dream center a two but on Saturday me and Jonathan didn’t leave Nickerson until almost three. I was very exhausted by the end of the day. It really is a gift being able to serve. Nothing give me as much pleasure as being Jesus hands and feet for a day. Sunday I went hiking again with my friends in the Glendale mountains. My room mate Cat was able to come hiking with us too. We had a great time! I can never explain the feeling of being in awe of God at the top of a mountain looking up in to the sky.  My dad is going to visit me in forty one day! I can’t wait.

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Wow what a amazing two weeks! The Lord has really blessed me in the last two week. For Valentines day we had a eighties dance for all the teens at our Adopt a Block sites. It was a blast! We had disco lights and we all dressed up in eighties cloths. I picked up my girls at my site and we all dance and dance and dance. They had so much fun!  Every year all of us at the Dream Center are bussed to Phoenix to attend a pastors conference at Tommy Barnett’s church. Last Monday at three in the morning we all jumped on the busses for the eight hour trip to Phoenix. We had our first session Monday afternoon were we all participated in our yearly parade for ministers. Tuesday all day we went from one class to the next. I really enjoyed the different speakers but my favorite part was the worship before every talk. Wednesday Pastor Matthew gave a talk and at the end we had an offering for the new home we are going to open for the kids coming out of foster care that are being left on the streets. Wednesday afternoon the Movement represented what they stand for by put on a drama skit. The skit was about one of the girls in the Movement whose brother had die in a car accident and how through what she learned coming to the Dream Center she was able to overcome her depression through worshiping Jesus. It was beautiful! Wednesday night for the closing of the conference we had two hours for just worship. I have never felt the presence of Jesus as I did that night. Standing there with about a thousand people all of us with our hands raised singing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord almighty, there is nothing like it. After the worship time was over Pastor Tommy prayed everyone at the conference that God would expanded their ministers. Then he lead all of us to a pray pavilion they have at the back of the church and everyone who wanted to could pray there could but those who wanted could also climb up the prayer mountain at the back of the pavilion. It was so awesome I didn’t want to leave but we had to get on the bus. We left about nine that night and we got back to the Dream Center about three Thursday morning. I can’t wait to see how God uses what I have learned at the conference but also by just working at the Dream Center. I know my next five years are going to be amazing.

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…

 

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All week I have wanted have a  intimacy with Jesus that goes beyond the relationship I already have. I want to extend the same compassion and understanding to people He did. I want to love like He did and feel the pain He feel when He see His precious bride living on Skid Row and sleeping on the floor because they don’t have a bed. I want so desperately to show Jesus love in the dark places of LA but how can I when I don’t understand that love and don’t have that love in my heart. I want to see people the way Jesus does and not as the world does. I want to see a woman on Skid Row as my sister and not as a dirty person no one wants to touch. I have been meditating on a verse in Psalms sixty-three, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  I want that kind of desire for God that you feel like you will die if you can’t get more of Him. I have just one story to tell about from this week. On Wednesday afternoon we had nothing to do with our track, so Mindy asked if we could try to get a bed to give to one of her kids at her site that she found out on Saturday was sleeping on the floor. So we got a bed and some hygiene items to give the family. As we were getting loaded up in the van to drive out to Jordan Down Mindy said that it was also Gabriel’s birthday on the nineteenth. So Jonathan bought a birthday cake to give Gabriel as well. It was the best thing ever to see Gabriel come in from school and have a birthday cake and bed waiting for him. God is so good to me! Please continue to pray for me to have to strength and support to walk out this awesome year head of me.

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Monday Vicky my roommate and I spent all day getting ready for our new roommate Cat. We were given a new bunk bed and new mattress because of the bedbugs, which are gone for good Thank God. Cat moved in on Tuesday afternoon and is a very sweet girl. Tuesday instead of going canvassing with our track I went out with the food truck to Nickerson  my site because Cassie the head of the food truck ministry is having trouble with people from Nickerson becoming violent because they think we are being partial to certain  people. She wanted me to going with her to see if I know anyone form Nickerson that could help in organizing everyone in a line and making sure no one jumped in line. I didn’t know anyone in the line but I think we were able to help reassure the people that we are working at giving everyone as much food as possible. Wednesday and Thursday we spent canvassing and preparing for a live concert and recording of Kevin Lavar’s new CD He performed Friday night at the church. The cool thing is we canvassed on Wednesday at Nickerson and Imperial so I was in Nickerson almost everyday this week with picking up for church and on Friday night for the concert. The Concert was beautiful and my kids loved it! Kevin Lavar has a amazing voice and he gave all of the kids that came on the bussing a gift card. He also paid for all of the busses himself.

Saturday Jonathan at the rally gave out the Adopt a Block yearly awards. It was really cool to see everyone so shocked that they were chosen for the awards. My team and I had so much fun at Adopt a Block. We were able to meet a lot of new people and start to build a great friendship with them. After Adopt a Block I was asked to go out to lunch with a out reach pastor and his staff that come down to see how we do Adopt a Block every week. So we went to lunch and I explained as much as I could all about how Adopt a Block works and everything we do through out the week that makes Saturdays a lot more effective. Sunday after church I went hiking with Courtney up to Griffin park so she could see the observatory and the great view of the city. Monday I had the day off so I went to San Monica and just sat on the beach. I enjoyed having some time all by myself. The beach was so beautiful and I really needed some sun.

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.

 

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Well what a blessed last two weeks! God has really given me a heart for the people here in LA. In the office last week Jonathan told us that he wants each of us to plan one big event this year for the family of our adopt a block site. The event I am planning is a fourth on July party with fireworks, face painting for the kids and a old fashion bucket dunker. I have also been planning a block party at my site for the last Saturday in February. Being a site leader is a lot of work but I love how I can do special thing for my families. Last Saturday at Adopt a Block we were able to give one of our families a bunk bed it was the greatest thing to see the kids go crazy about it. The family has five kids and they only had one bed for the whole family.

Malachi the oldest when we told him we brought him a bed said why I don’t sleep on a bed. I told him he could now. This Saturday we also painted Malachi’s room. It looked so nice with the new paint and a new bunk bed with new sheets. God has really blessed us with the opportunity to reach out to families like Malachi’s and be His hands and feet. I pray everyday that I will never take for granted that He has entrusted me to represent Jesus to my families. What a great and humbling gift. Sunday I hiked with a some friends up a mountain right next to the Hollywood sing. The view  was so beautiful!

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.

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It is impossible to realizes or even think about all of the conveniences you give up when to come to the Dream Center until you  leave for a week or two. All this week I have had to almost relearn how to live at the Dream Center. It’s not all bad because it actually is like a crash course in what it would be like to be a missionary. I believe to really make any difference in someone or somewhere you have to be willing to give up your want for a normal life and some times you have to be willing to give up everything important to you. I always see it as I could never give as much as Jesus did for me but I want to see how close I can get. God has really showed me this week how much I still hold onto that is more important to me then the people He sent me to minister to. I want so much to reach this world for Christ and to show them how life doesn’t need to be lived like they think it have to be but to do that I have give up the life style I have gotten accustomed to. Even having a Bible is a luxury here! I am so ashamed at how much money I have wasted over the years but I trust Jesus’ plan for the rest for my life. On Saturday I was so blessed to spend the day with a great family I have recently met. I am so blessed to be the site leader for Nickerson! One more story I have to tell is every Sunday I have four teenage girls from my site sit with me through the service and every week one girl named Andy asks me if she can look at my Bible. She will sit through the whole service looking at and writing down on a pad different verses. So I really wanted to get her a Bible but I didn’t know how, well I was organizing my room and I found a Bible I thought I left at home. So this Sunday when she asked to see my Bible I gave her one and said you can keep this one I got it for you. She was so exited! The other girl all asked me to get them one to, so I am praying for three Bibles I can give them. God is so good to me! He gave me the perfected job ever! On Sunday after church we went hiking in Glendale mountains again in a park called Eaten park. We had a great time and had a amazing Bible study as well.

 

 

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Wow I can’t believe that it has been so long since I have written my blog! Christmas is such a hectic time of the year and especially so for me because I went home for two week but let me start at the beginning of my craziness. So it all started with the Joy of Christmas musical at the church, it was wonderful. All of the cast member were people from the dream center and after ever show we gave a free toy away to all of the kids that came. My job for the play was to ride the buses to and from our sites to help with watching the kids and to make sure everyone got back on the bus before we went back to the site. We had a total of seven show and form my site alone we had on Saturday night seventy people! It was a mad home of trying to get everyone back on the buses and making sure we didn’t leave anyone. But I was blessed to be able to lead the kids through the line to get their present. I almost cried every time. Well right at the end of the Joy of Christmas which went form Wednesday night to Sunday night, we had our yearly Miracle offering at the church that Sunday morning. So every year in December the church has a time where you give to God a offering you know you can’t give but you give anyway in faith because you know He will bless your faithfulness to Him. It was incredible! Instead of passing a bucket around the pastor lad a white sheet on the stage and had everyone come up to the front and lay their offerings on the alter like it says the Israelites did at the dedication of the temple. We had kids from the Movement giving their coats, purses and expenses shoes. What a great way to start the new year renewing your trust in the Lord and not in your bank account. We also had an offering after every Joy of Christmas show for the new family floor we wanted to open before Christmas because the family floor we already have is full and we still have at lest twelve families on a waiting list. On Monday morning when we counted the offering we received for the Miracle offering and the Joy of Christmas, the cash alone was forty thousand dollars. It took me and my team four hours to count it all and there was six of us counting! We were able to open the family floor three days before Christmas! God is so good! Well right in the middle of all that I found out that the lady who was site leader for my site Nickerson Gardens in the Watts was not going to be able to be site leader anymore so Jonathan wanted me to be site leader. I am exited but all so little nerves because this is a big responsibility, but I believe God has  call me to this for a reason. Well if that was not enough me and my roommate got bedbug the Tuesday right before the Joy of Christmas started. Bedbugs are horrid because to get rid of them you have to spray your room and wash or dry all of you cloths, and when they spray your room it leaves a nasty film on everything so you have to clean you entire room. I also had to dry my bag I was taking home and all the cloths I was taking again to keep any of the bedbug from going home with me because if one bedbug is in my bag it will spread to my entire family. But we finally got rid of them the week before I left. So that is all before I went home! I went home a week before Christmas and boy did my sister Brooke have a lot in store for me! We had made a list of all of the things we wanted to do together when I was home. So we jumped right in it starting with going to itz. I put some funny pictures of us at itz on face book.
 I literally think I had one night at home the whole two week I was there. We went ice stating, rollerblading, and watched the new Sherlock Homes movie. I also went shopping for like three days strait with my mom and my sisters. It was so much fun being at home and having your family fight over who gets to hang out with you next. Saturday was my twenty-three birthday and I spent it with my brother and my niece at the state park walking by the lake and just hanging out. God is so good to me I don’t deserver His grace.

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.

Well we jumped back in the grove of work this week. I have really missed our outreaches. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon we canvassed for the joy of Christmas we are having at the church. The Joy of Christmas is a Broadway style musical and after every show we are giving free toys away to all the kids that come. I am very exited about this show! I watched so of the practices today and they looked very good! Thursday we spent in the office getting ready for Adopt a Block. I had a lot of work to do because for two weeks we weren’t in the office. We had so many messages to listen to and call back! Friday we canvassed again for Joy of Christmas with about ten people from the Movement. We literal walked around for about three hours canvassing one street after the next street. But we gave out about one thousand fliers on Friday. We also canvassed six different school this week. Friday night we finally were able to have our Skid Row outreach. It was awesome! We had about thirty new people go with us and they brought about ten bags of cloths with them to give away. Saturday we jumped right back into Adopt a Block. I was so happy to see my families again. We had a lot of fun playing basketball and tag. Sunday we had a guest speaker John Bevere. He preached a great sermon on never giving up when you have trials or struggles because God designs those trials for your growth and to mature you. Sunday night I went to the mall and the Grove with some friends. We had fun shopping and walking around the mall seeing all the decorations. I can’t wait to go home for Christmas! Twelve days!

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.

I am feeling a little homesick listing to Christmas music but I am praying I will be able to go home for two weeks for Christmas. Wednesday I was asked if I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my great Aunt, Uncle and my Cousins that live here in LA. I was so excited because not only would I be able to hangout with my family I have not see in along time but I also be able to get away from the Dream Center for almost three day. It is really important to get away from the Dream Center sometimes because you see so much need and hurting families that you some times need to remember what it is like to live with a family. My cousin Shannon and his wife Brandy came down to pick me up Wednesday night and let me stay with them until I had to come back Friday afternoon. I had so much fun playing football, Frisbee, and the Wii with the kids. My Aunt Jan made the best home made roll ever! The kids and I were able to help her roll up the croissants. After Thanksgiving dinner all the men, the kids and I went out side and throwing the football around so more. We were having so much fun until Shannon threw the ball over the wall in their back yard on to the freeway but when he and Uncle Butch went down to get the football the kid had a lot more fun watching them I think. Friday we went to the Grove and shopped at farmers marked. I had so much fun watching the kids get exited about this toy or that doll. We ate lunch at In-and-out just so I could say I have had a In-and-out burger. Friday night Jesse and I went on our weekly prostitute outreach. We weren’t able to talk to very many girls because we went out to early but next week I hope we can help more girls. Saturday we canceled adopt a block so I was planning on just staying in my room most of the day but Greco my friend asked me if I wanted to go hiking with him and a lady from our church, so I went and we had some much fun. We hiked in the Glendale mountains again but this time instead of following the trail we hiked up the stream until it got to dark to go any farther. Sunday after church I went hiking with my life group to Paradise falls. We ended up leaving a little to late so by the time we got to the falls it was to dark to take pictures but I hope we will go back some time soon because it was very beautiful. Today is my last day off for Thanksgiving and I am so ready to get back to work!

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.

It has been so cold this week! In Houston it will get cold one day and the next will be warm but not in LA, every day I wake up thinking maybe it will be warmer, only to find it colder then the day before. I am such a wimp when it comes to cold weather. There is actually snow on some of the mountains around us. Tuesday I helped one of my friends with organizing files and other paper work. So much fun! Wednesday Jonathan had received a call from one of the pastors at our church that an old man named Larry who uses to come to church many years ago, needed help cleaning his house. So nine of us went over there Wednesday afternoon. The house was a one bedroom house and looked like it had not been cleaned in ten years. There were literally cobwebs every were, it looked like the cottage on Snow White. It was all I could do not to throw up when I walked in to the kitchen. I am not kidding, there was thrash on the kitchen floor piled up to my knee. You could not even walk through the living room because there was so many boxes stacked up every where. Mindy and I started on cleaning the kitchen and Dustin started on the bathroom. Everyone else took all the boxes out side and stacked them on pallets in the front yard. We cleaned for two hours then we had to go back to the dream center but we promised to come back on Friday. Thursday I spent all day in the office calling people back that had left messages asking for furniture. We now have about four new people to give furniture to. Friday morning we usually separate the need for our adopt a block sites but we had to cancel adopt a block this week because of a conference they had at the church on Saturday. So we went back to Larry’s house and spent all morning cleaning with a team of people that came to work at the dream center for the week. I have to say I was not sure we were even making a difference but when we left for lunch I felt a lot better about our progress. After lunch we took another team of about ten Movement kids with us and I have to say they did a great job. When we left Friday night you could actually cook in the kitchen and the rest of the house looked like a home you could live in. Saturday after the conference Jonathan, Mindy, and I with some Movement kid canvassed around the dream center for the Joy of Christmas musical we are having at the church. It is going to be great! We are giving out free toys after every performance. Sunday was the turkey give a way at the church, so my families from my site were feed lunch and given thanksgiving dinner. Sunday night I went to a game night with my friends. We had so much fun playing uno and mafia. Monday afternoon I went with my friends to Universal City Walk. We took the subway to get there, I had never ridden on the subway before. It was so much fun to stand on the edge of the platform and watch the train come around the corner and fly past you and the wind almost knock you over. After we walked around the City Walk we decided to go to Hollywood. Hollywood was so much fun. We walked up and down to sidewalk looking at the stars and taking pictures of our favorites. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!

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.

We didn’t have any furniture to deliver this week so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we spent in the office doing paper work and making new fliers for the sites, so that the fliers have the name of the streets that we pick up of church on the front of them. Friday we went to a park with our track to just have some fun playing football and eating snacks. It was so much fun just to get away and have a little picnic. Friday night it was not raining so we were able to go to Skid Row. I was really glad we did because it was cool and we gave out about fifty blankets to the homeless there. I also was able to pray with an older woman who really wanted pray to trust in the Lord. I felt really sad for her because she know the truth but still will not do anything to change her circumstances. I had heard about this ministry call Hope for the Homeless that goes out every Friday night from eleven to three to South Central LA to minister to the prostitutes, so after Skid Row my friend Jesse and I went with them to South Central. I could never have imagined how desperate a young lady would have to be to stand out in the freezing rain with nothing on but a very thin t-shirt sweeter thing and try to flag down cars to make money. Most of the girls were not receptive to our pray or food but I was surprised by one girl who after the pastor I was with prayed with one girl asked very desperately for us to pray with her. I just ask you all to keep me in pray as I continual to represent Jesus’ love to these girls. Saturday my site leader was not able to make it to adopt a block so I ended up leading our site. We had to leave earlier then usual because two of the staff members of the Dream Center got married at three on Saturday. But I was able to visit the girl we helped last week. Sunday we had fifty six people on our bus, we never usual have more then forty five! God has blessed our site so much! After church I was just going to hang out in my room and read but Greco my friend asked me if I wanted to go hiking again, so I did. It was so much fun! We hiked almost all the way to the top of the Glendale mountains. Next week we are going to Paradise waterfalls, I can’t wait!