Category Colombia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Brooke

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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.

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.

This is my 10th trip to Bogota, Colombia in 2 1/2 years and just when you think you have seen some things you are exposed to a whole new side of what is going on here. The CDA (Corporacion de Dios es Amor… Corporation of God is Love) van picked us up this morning at 7:00 a.m. and we took a 2 hour ride to a place in the foothills of Bogota called Altos de Cazuca. It started out as a squatters village for people fleeing the violence in other parts of the country and slowly developed into a town.

Lindsay Christie, a man living in New Zealand, was walking down the streets of Auckland one day in the 1960’s and a man handed him a leaflet about the violence in Colombia and when that leaflet touched his hand, CDA was born in the spirit realm. Mr. Christie was so moved by what he read that in 1966 he loaded up his wife and 4 girls and sailed to Colombia as a missionary. They had an amazing ministry and then he passed away in 1994 but not before passing the reigns on to his 24 year old daughter, Missy. Since then, CDA has grown into one of the most successful and respected organizations in Colombia and is now having an impact in several other Latin American countries. Mr. Christie started a medical aid station in Altos de Cazuca and then a school and that is where we visited this morning. It was mind blowing what they are doing to help the people in this very poor area.

We saw the medical station which was packed with people waiting to get help.

Then we went over to the school and WOW! What an amazing work they are doing there. We saw classes from preschool up to high school and heard many stories of the wonderful impact this place is having on the children of Cazuca.

We saw a presentation by the little ones and then met and spoke with the high school kids and then Shoby, Don, and I were interviewed on their radio station that they operate there at the school. We were so impressed by everything we saw and heard. Every child of whom we asked a question spoke with such confidence and clarity and they all spoke of how CDA had taught them to love God and love others and how much they loved CDA.

Later we went down into the village to visit some of the parents of the children who are taught at the school. It was real to life poverty unlike anything I had ever seen. We visited with two different families at their homes. It put such a burden on our hearts to help in some way some day. We will see what the Lord has for us. Tomorrow we continue with CDA and tomorrow night we fly to Cartegena to see what God is doing there and how we can help. Thank you for your prayers.

It’s hard to believe that it has only been 3 days. It’s almost midnight and the fun begins again at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow so this will be short. God did some amazing things today that will have to remain top secret for now. The team split and went 2 directions today in order to expand some things that we are doing. Jose Vicente, Nelda and our split team met up right at sunset on top of the mountain overlooking Bogota. I was so happy to see Vivianna running up to me. She gave me such big hug and hardly left my side the rest of the night. Jair and his brother, Elber, from the band Viraje, who will be performing at our Share The Hope dinner this year met us on top of the mountain with Shannon and with their guitars and we sang and worshipped and prayed over the city. It was so powerful. We had gathered in a large circle holding hands and suddenly Colombians who were up there visiting started breaking into our circle and holding our hands and praying with us with tears in their eyes. It was so cool. One lady named Marta was going the next day to have her interview to see if she could get a Visa to come to the USA and work. Her boss from Boston was there with her and his wife and they asked us to pray over her. We also had the privilege to lay hands on and pray over Jose Vicente and Nelda. It was a blessed time.

Tomorrow we will spend the day with CDA/Conviventia and see many things that we have never seen before. I am so excited. We also have some very important meetings with the government today and tomorrow night so please be in prayer for us.

Colombia, October, 2011 Day 1

 

This morning we went to Santa Maria where we have been many times. It never gets old seeing those beautiful girls running to greet us with their big smiles and warm hugs.

My Goddaughter, Heidy, ran screaming when she saw me and leaped into my arms. Words can’t describe how good it was to hold her in my arms once again. She looked really good and I was so happy at how good they are taking care of her here. Pastor Lucas and his wife Dorayne are the spiritual leaders at this institution and dear friends of ours. They have taken Heidy under their wing and I could see the positive transformation that has taken place in her heart as a result. It was delightful to spend a few short hours with her. We toured the buildings that when I first came here had resembled an abandoned prison and I was so full of awe and joy to see what Jose Vicente and Un Mundo Nuevo have done here in a year and a half. God is really moving in their foundation and we are blessed to be partnering with them. We saw the amazing art that they have been creating and Heidy presented me with a beautiful piece she made. She said in English, “For your house Daddy.” Rachel was able to deliver two large suitcases full of gift bags that the children at Vista Academy at Celebration Church in the Woodlands had sorted and packed. There was lip gloss, hair bows, socks, a bookmark, and many more things in each bag.

 

We sat down for a while and a cute little girl named Sol (sun) came running up and jumped in my lap and hugged me so tight. She was precious. I had a great time talking to her and teasing her and Heidy because they are both shy about getting their photo taken. Soon it was time to go but not before we gathered in a large circle over a plot of ground where they hope to someday build a chapel where the girls can come for prayer or silent reflection. Pastor Don Waybright prayed a wonderful prayer over the ground and the future blessing it would be to the children and then we sang Here I Am To Worship in English (the girls favorite song because we always sing it to them when we come). It was a beautiful time.

We then headed into town for a meeting at Jose Vicente’s office. We have heard about and discussed several times what the large vision is for Orphan Hope and Mundo Nuevo and at this meeting we wanted Jose Vicente to share his whole heart and vision. It was an awesome time. We talked about his current operations and then he cast for us his larger vision for the city of Bogota and how we can help. It was fantastic. He genuinely has Christ’s heart for these children and for the city of Bogota and Colombia. The master plan includes the orphanages, churches, schools, OHI missionaries and volunteers, and all the facets of our ministry play into it. What a delight to see such a kindred spirit with what God has called us to do. There are huge things in store for this partnership. Tomorrow is another packed day so I am signing off with much love and joy in my heart and immeasurable gratitude that the Father has allowed me to come with Him on this grand adventure.

I am incredibly blessed to once again be in my home away from home, Bogota, Colombia. I had a wonderful but crazy couple of days preceding the flight down, running around collecting Padrino gifts to bring down to the children from a dozen or more families. The flight down yesterday was wonderful. My health is the best it has ever been on one of these trips, praise the Lord and thank you prayer warriors and my dear wife and daughters for keeping me healthy. Don Waybright, missions pastor at Sugarcreek Church in Sugar Land, Shoby John, director Orphan Hope, Chris Poole, Orphan Hope missionary, and I made up our party flying out of Houston. Shoby, Don, and I had seats right next to each other and so we were able to visit all the way down and what a delightful visit it was. What sweets servants of God both of these men are and how I enjoyed our conversation that ranged from missional living, discipleship models, to passion, to suffering, to family, to anointing, to how God has put us on this plane headed to love on orphans. What a blessed time. We kept mentioning how similarly God has been working in our lives over the last 3-4 years and about that time Don asked me, “what are you reading there?” I said, “Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship.” He laughed, reached in the seat back pocket in front of him and pulled out his copy of Bonhoeffer. We all just shook our heads and thanked God for what He is doing in us. It was truly a delightful time and really prepared me for the week ahead. We arrived at the airport and were happy to meet up with another team member that had arrived on a different flight, Rachel Yeates. Rachel has been sending money and items to orphans all over the world for years through her ministry Great Comeback Kids but has never actually been into the fields of the fatherless until this trip. We are very excited to have her along. We walked outside and were happy to meet up with Dave and Gail Beach, Orphan Hope directors who had flown in that morning. We arrived at our hotel at about midnight and I was very glad to get into that bed but not before Dave Beach popped in the door and said, “special delivery” and handed me a beautiful letter from my precious Goddaughter, Heidy, whom I will see tomorrow. My heart leapt when I opened it and read, “Hola mi papito hermoso, te quiero mucho (Hello my beautiful Daddy, I love you). The remainder was just a sweet as the opening line. What a blessing these dear children are to my soul.

We rose at 6 a.m. had a nice breakfast and headed to church where our dear, dear friends Hector and Liliana are the pastors. I could not wait to hug and kiss them and their beautiful children. What a blessing this “adopted” family is to me. The joy and honor of calling them brother and sister and to see and hear their teenage children come running when they saw me this morning saying, “Tio Mateo”, “Tio Mateo” (Uncle Matt, Uncle Matt) and the smiles and hugs and kisses. These are just a few of the “beyond all that we can think or imagine” blessings that our Father has for us as we follow Him where He leads. The service this morning was glorious reunion with the children from Casa De Egreso, the workers, Jose Vicente, President of Fundacion Nuevo Mundo, many of the workers, Nelda, a dear sister in the Lord, Missy Christie, President of CDA Colombia and her mother, Jair and Shannon Montiel of Christ for the City and Pastor Pedro, National Director for Christ for the City Colombia, and many others. What a delight! We worshipped the Lord in song and praise and reading of the scriptures and the presence of the Lord filled that place.

Then Pastor Hector introduced me to preach and I was humbled and blessed when Missy Christie, an international hero in orphan ministry stepped up to translate for me. Wow. We prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to come and speak to us and then I began to share with the church about the Grand Adventure that awaits all those who follow God on His mission to reconcile the world to Himself, through Christ, and with our blessed involvement and restore it to a world of love, joy, and peace. I told them of how the Trinity enjoyed perfect fellowship, love, harmony, and joy and as Daniel Fuller used to say, “God’s complete joy in Himself as a Trinity led Him to want to double that joy by extending it beyond Himself to the human beings He created” and so God has been on mission ever since to share Himself and His joy with the world just like Jesus says to His followers in John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” and then again to His Father in John 17:13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” The ancients captured this when they made the first question and answer of the Westminster catechism, “What is the chief end of man?… to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” When we get in the presence of the blessed (happy) God (1 Tim. 1:11) we get happy (Psalm 16:11 In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever) as Joni Eareckson Tada says so well, “God happily shares His gladness, His joy comes flooding over heaven’s walls filling my heart in a waterfall of delight, which then in turn always streams out to others in a flood of encouragement, and then erupts back to God in an ecstatic fountain of praise. He gets your heart pumping for heaven. He injects His peace, power, and perspective into your spiritual being. He puts a song in your heart. I want to know God like this! Shove me under the waterfall of the Trinity’s joy, which splashes and spills over heaven’s walls. If He’s always in a good mood, I want to catch it.”  And we get holy because no pleasure derived from any sin can compete with the joy of being filled with God’s love and joy as C.S. Lewis said so well, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and   ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” And so the Grand Adventure is following this amazing God wherever He leads. It is, like Peter, James, and John, leaving their nets and boats and everything they had known at the shore of Galilee when Jesus said, “Come” never knowing the incredible adventure that awaited them of seeing the blind healed, the lame made to walk, the dead brought out of the grave, Jesus transfigured before their eyes and speaking with Moses and Elijah. They could have had no idea that answering that call of Jesus to, “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG, would take them all over the then known world preaching the gospel and seeing the world change before their eyes. And all they did was obey a simple command, “Follow Me.” And that is what we must do if we want to experience this all-satisfying God of love and joy. We must join Him in total trusting, obedient, faith. We must listen for His specific call for our lives. We can’t assume that what He asks of someone else He will automatically ask of us. He has created an adventure to enjoy with each of us specific to each of us. He told many to “Follow Me” and yet He told the maniac of Gadara, “Don’t follow Me but go home and tell your friends and family what great things the Lord has done for you.” Each of us must listen to the call of our Master as He has ordained a specific way in which each of us will fulfill His general call to “Go and make disciples of the nations.” Like Pastor Matthew Barnett says, “When you were born, God instilled many things within you. One of them was a great CAUSE that He wants you to embrace. In His unique grandeur, He created a universe in which the cumulative effect of all people faithfully pursuing the cause within them would result in a transformed world – one in which everyone’s needs would be met and every servant’s heart would be filled with the joy of blessing others. Unfortunately, we live in a traumatized world – in part because so many people fail to identify and pursue the cause He has given them. Even though it would provide the happiness and fulfillment they have been seeking, they have failed to build their lives around that cause.” So let’s not miss His call. Let’s get in His presence and learn of Him and listen for His instructions and then step out with Him in faith and walk on the water. Let’s go to work with Daddy and change the world.

After the sermon there were several testimonies and beautiful music and celebration. We finished up and then went across the street for lunch and then met back at the church for some time with Pastor Pedro and Jair and Shannon of Christ for the City as well as Pastors Hector and Liliana and the OHI team. We had a marvelous afternoon of sharing and learning as Pastor Pedro unfolded for us the amazing work that Christ for the City Colombia is doing and ways that we can help. He invited us to Medellin, a city in northern Colombia at our earliest convenience to see what God is doing with their ministry there and pray about how we can be involved and since we discovered that he is an international marathoner we invited him to come to our Orphan Hope marathon February 11, 2012 and he heartily accepted. What a blessing! What a grand adventure. We also heard from another friend of Jair’s about a curriculum they have developed for children that uses the Jesus Film and then follows through with discipleship and how they have implemented it in schools in several Latin American countries and how we may use it in our work. It was a tremendous day in His presence and with His choice saints and we thoroughly enjoyed it. To God be the glory for the great adventures He is pursuing and He has asked us to join Him.

Today we admired…

Jesus the Focused

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

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

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus mission… Incarnation

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

Jesus mission… Proclamation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proclamation will be resisted…

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

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

Adoniram Judson (father of American missions)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus the Protector

Jesus Protected Women

Woman at the well

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

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

Woman at Simon’s house Luke 7:36-50

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

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

Mary Magdalene – Mary stop clinging to me…

Jesus Protected Children

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

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

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

Jesus Protected Minorities and Outcasts

Samaritans Luke 10 & John 4

Gentiles Matthew 21

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

I love that Jesus is a protector…

Job was a protector as well.

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

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

As in the days when God watched over me; 

3 When His lamp shone over my head,

And by His light I walked through darkness; 

4 As I was in the prime of my days,

When the friendship of God was over my tent; 

5 When the Almighty was yet with me,

And my children were around me; 

6 When my steps were bathed in butter,

And the rock poured out for me streams of oil! 

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

When I took my seat in the square, 

8 The young men saw me and hid themselves,

And the old men arose and stood. 

9 “The princes stopped talking

And put their hands on their mouths; 

10 The voice of the nobles was hushed,

And their tongue stuck to their palate. 

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

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

12 Because I delivered the poor who cried for help,

And the orphan who had no helper. 

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

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

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

My justice was like a robe and a turban. 

15 “I was eyes to the blind

And feet to the lame. 

16 “I was a father to the needy,

And I investigated the case which I did not know. 

17 “I broke the jaws of the wicked

And snatched the prey from his teeth. 

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

Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 

17 Or have eaten my morsel alone,

And the orphan has not shared it

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

And from infancy I guided her), 

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

Or that the needy had no covering, 

20 If his loins have not thanked me,

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

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

Because I saw I had support in the gate, 

22 Let my shoulder fall from the socket,

And my arm be broken off at the elbow.

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

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

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

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

Amy Carmichael

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rescues…

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

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

Your presence here is helping us…

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

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

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

My pretty nails

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

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

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

Today in our devotion we looked at…

Jesus the Daring

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

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

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

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

Omar Garcia in his blog Go Beyond says the following…

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

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

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

Gladys Alward

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     “Yes, we had to cross some mountains.”

     Burgess perked up.  “Real mountains?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus the Recruiter

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

I love that Jesus is the great recruiter…

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Brainerd

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

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

Let’s go to work with Daddy today…

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

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

Valleria

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

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

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

 

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

Jesus the Radical

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus ruffled His own family –

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

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

Jesus ruffled His friends and neighbors  –

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

Jesus ruffled the religious leaders of His day –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

William Carey

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

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

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

God gave Carey Unconquerable Persistence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father’s Day Among The Fatherless:

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

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

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

The God Who Pursues To Be Pursued

The God Who Pursues

Adam & Eve

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

The Woman At The Well

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

The Hound of Heaven

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

  I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

                  Up vistaed hopes I sped;

                  And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

                  But with unhurrying chase,

                  And unperturbèd pace,

                Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

                  They beat–and a Voice beat

                  More instant than the Feet–

                “All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

                  I pleaded, outlaw-wise,

By many a window, curtained red,

  Trellised with intertwining charities

(For, though I knew His love Who followed,

                  Yet was I sore adread

Lest having Him, I must have naught beside);

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

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

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

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

The God Who Must Be Pursued

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

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

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

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

Moses

At the burning bush Moses got a taste…

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

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

David

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

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

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

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

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

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

2Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,

To see Your power and Your glory.

3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips will praise You.

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

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

5My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,

And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

6  When I remember You on my bed,

I meditate on You in the night watches,

7For You have been my help,

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

8My soul follows hard after you.

Paul

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you to the prayer warriors back home!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus is my hero…

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

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

Jesus the Missionary

Jesus left His country and came to ours…

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

Jesus came as a servant…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todo gloria a ti Dios! All the glory to you God. This entire trip has vastly exceeded our wildest expectations and today was the crowning glory. I will attempt to share how awesome our God was today but as you know He defies words. Several weeks ago our brother and fellow board member Shoby had lunch with a Colombian man, Jair, who is in ministry in Houston and the Lord really knitted their spirits together. When Jair found out we were coming to Colombia he sent Bill Byrd the name of his former pastor and his wife here in Bogota. We connected with the wife, Lilliana on Facebook and they were very excited to meet us and invited us to their church today. When we called Lilliana yesterday she said, “Oh, I have been praying and praying that you would come!” They started this church 10 months ago and it is thriving. It is called Comunidad Cristiana Fundamentos. Three of the Goddaughters were able to come with us and so we arrived at this church about 10:00 am. Other than Lilliana, Jair’s friend, whom we had spoken to on Facebook, we knew no one there or so we thought. How wonderful for God to surprise us again because as we walked in we saw several of our dear friends from Fundacion Nuevo Mundo! We hugged and then met Lilliana and her husband Pastor Hector and many new friends there at the church. It was beautiful. There were even a couple of our young friends from the safe house that always visit on our mission trips. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked over this beautiful congregation of Colombian believers whose faces were beaming because they were so excited that the Americanos had come to worship with them today. Shortly after we walked in I got another surprise. Pastors Hector and Lilliana asked me if I had come prepared to preach the word today. At first I thought they meant a small testimony about Orphan Hope so I said, “Sure, how much time do you want me to share” To my great surprise and joy they said, “Oh, 30 or 45 minutes would be fine.” I immediately thought, “I wish I had brought some sermon notes.” Then I looked down and saw my laptop bag in my hand and laughed at myself because I have all of my sermons on my computer. Praise God! Be ready in season and out of season… I quickly shot a text to everyone in my family at home and said, “Pray for me, I’m about to preach on the waterfall of grace in a church in Colombia!” Then I turned to my dear brother Luis and said, “Are you ready to preach with me?” And like he always does he said, “I got your back brother!” Whoo hoo! We gathered for worship and the pastors daughter led worship with her guitar and it was so anointed I started weeping and I thought, “Lord, how am I going to preach if I’m crying like this?” It was indescribable worshipping with these believers. The songs we knew but they were in Spanish but they had the words up on the wall so we were able to sing along fairly well. There was reading of scripture, and exhortation and then it was my turn. Luis and I stepped up and began to share about the amazing grace of God. The Holy Spirit helped us greatly and there were amens, and applause, and tears, and raised hands and it was a blessed time as we shared a Cascada de Gracia or Waterfall of Grace. You can click on the title to hear the sermon. I shared my testimony and then told about my 8 trips to Colombia and of our vision for the nations. Luis did a tremendous job translating for me and then also gave his testimony of standing on the stage at our Share the Hope event in December and looking out at 340 Texans who were gathered to help the orphans of his country and how that moved him and touched him. The people were very moved by his story. After a few people gave testimonies about the message. One lady stood weeping and told us that she had been orphaned at 7 years old and that she was so grateful for what we were doing for the orphans in Colombia and she wanted to help. Another lady was crying because she had her son taken away three years ago and now she has given her life to the Lord and been transformed and she is working to get her son back. She said she wants to help. A man stood who is one of our friends from the orphanage and told how wonderful the work we do is and how the children wait out the months until we return again and how happy we make them. Then a lady came forward with a little boy in her arms that suffers from hip displacement and asked Luis and I to pray for his healing. We laid hands on him and prayed. Then the most amazing thing happened. Our friend from Nuevo Mundo stood and she was weeping and she looked straight at me and said, “I want to praise God for Matt’s heart and for the vision that this ministry has for Colombia. 16 years ago when I was a new believer I heard a foreign preacher in a conference say, ‘I believe that God is drawing people form around the world to Colombia because it is going to be His headquarters for reaching the rest of Latin America. I believe there is a great revival coming to Colombia.'” and then she continued, “I have been praying for 16 years for that revival and I believe that you are the answer to my prayers.” I looked over at Dave and Gail Beach because it was almost word for word what we had said to each other before coming on the trip and it was almost word for word with what Ed said to us on the plane on the way down. Dave’s face was bright red and he looked at me and I looked at him knowing that the hair was standing up on the back of his neck like it was on mine. Bill was smiling from ear to ear. I looked over at Luis and he just shook his head and smiled. We then spent some time hugging and kissing everyone in the room (which is Colombian custom) and then getting photos with everyone. It was over the top blessed. We sat down with Pastor Hector and Lilliana and talked about the future. Amazingly enough, he is also a psychologist who works in an orphanage and she is an educator. They offered their help and time and they want to come on the mission trip in June. It is unbelievable how precious these people and their two daughters that we met are. They will be great assets in our ministry. As we broke up our meeting with them we made plans to bring our whole team to their church on June 19, 2011 and invite some other local Christians that we know here in Bogota and bring in lunch and have a wonderful day of it with God’s people here. They were very excited and asked me to preach again when we come. I agreed but we told them that we also want to hear Pastor Hector as well so we agreed to split our time and both bring a message that day! I can hardly wait! Praise God! The next personal blessing was as we were walking out Luis called me over and introduced me to Sophia. She shared that she is a linguist and a translator for the Colombian army. Today was her first time at the church and she called it a miracle that she was even there. She told me that she started weeping when I prayed before my sermon and didn’t stop until the end. She said that when I prayed for the Holy Spirit to anoint my lips and their ears that she felt the presence of God surround her. Then she said something that was very touching for me personally. She said that the part of my sermon about multi-generational discipleship and the fact that one family can change the world really impacted her because she believes that the revival that is coming to Colombia as shared in the prophecy by the other lady must begin in the family and she was glad that I told about my family because God has prepared me to heal the families of Colombia. Wow!! What a service!

What sweeter way to start the day than having a group of orphan girls come bouncing into the hotel just as we were finishing breakfast? We shared hugs and kisses all the way around and then pulled out the gifts that we and others had sent for the girls. It is a joy unspeakable every time we are in the presence of these sweet little forgotten lambs. I was touched beyond words when my sweet Goddaughter Ginary, who just spent 3 weeks with my family in December, squeezed me tight and said, “I love you” in English. No success, money, position, rank, or earthly treasure can compete with the joy these children bring me and the rest of our team each time we are here. They were delighted with their gifts and we shared some catching up stories and then it was time to head out to our first meeting with the girls in tow.

We had received word that there was a safe house (there are only 3 or 4 in all of Bogota) that we hadn’t heard of or visited before and so we headed out to find it and see if we could tour it and find out how they run their home. We pulled up to the nondescript brick building tucked in a row of similar buildings along this street. We rang the bell and to our utter surprise and amazement our sweet friend Lilliana opened the door. She was as shocked to see us as were to see her. What a sweet little providence that in a city of 8,000,000 people, we go to a strange house and our friend answers the door. Lilliana used to work at the girls orphanage in Madrid that we always visit on our mission trips. She was a big help to two of the girls that are or will be adopted soon. Anyhow, unbeknownst to us, Lilliana had began working at this new safe house 4 months ago because it was much closer to her home. She gave us a tour of the home and shared with us many important pieces of information that go together like a giant puzzle with the other things we have been learning this week. We really admired their model and many of their strategies. It was a very profitable meeting. They also have orphanages as well and she begged us to bring our team to their orphanages the next time we come.

We took the girls to lunch and then to the park for a relaxing afternoon of horseplay, and hugs, and jokes, and some testimony. It never ceases to amaze me at the transformation in these children just because we have reached out as the hands of Jesus to love them and share with them our passion for God. My own Goddaughter Ginary has become a secure, content, and hopeful young woman since my family met her and made her a part of our long distance family 2 years ago. Ginary grew up in the dump rummaging for scraps. Consequently, when I met this beautiful girl she was completely illiterate. Because she was excited to have a Godfather and wanted so bad to be able to communicate with me she finally agreed at the age of 15 to start school and learn to read and write. Now she is well on her way and very motivated. She told me today that she can’t be with me tomorrow morning because she has school but she will come after lunch when school lets out and spend the afternoon with me. Wow! Such a change in a short period of time. The love of God demonstrated through His children is a very powerful agent of hope and change. Praise God.

Luis Escobar’s dad lives 1/2 the year in Bogota and the other 1/2 in Florida and he was in town today so Luis invited him to join our merry band for dinner. We had a marvelous time and it was really sweet to watch Luis’ dad enjoy the girls and perhaps catch a little of the vision of what his son is trying to do for the children of Colombia. He ended up buying our dinner and assured us that we would see him again. What a blessing!

It was a wonderful day and we came back to my room for some strategy and prayer and then off to bed. Thank you all who are supporting us in so many ways. We love you all.

Another wonderful day today in the presence of the Lord and some of His choice soldiers. We started out the day with a meeting at the national headquarters of ICBF. We met with the head of adoptions for the nation of Colombia and her assistant for 2 1/2 hours regarding our upcoming Texas Vacation Program. We obtained the answers to many of our questions and learned many new things about the vacation and adoption processes in Colombia. Some amazing statistics came through today that play right into everything Orphan Hope is working on. There are 27,000 adoptable orphans in Colombia between the ages of 8 and 15. The shocking thing is that this represents only about 20% of the total number of children in orphanages in Colombia and that larger number only represents the small portion of orphans who are in orphanages. No one knows the number of orphans living on the streets and in the sewers. Children On The Brink estimated the total to be 577,000 in 2005 but the people we have talked to here say that it is in the millions. This is why we must continue to bring mission trips here and have vacation programs and facilitate adoptions. And here is the reason we must have safe houses once the children age out of the orphanages at 18. Every year in Colombia 5000 children age out, 800 a year in Bogota alone. 15% of these kids will commit suicide within two years and another 60% will end up in prostitution or prison. This is why we are here. We must work and push and pray to help these beautiful children to find Jesus and have a life in His grace. We cannot look the other way and pretend that it is someone else’s problem. God has clearly called and equipped us to turn this country upside down for Him and we must obey.

We had a marvelous meeting and they were very complimentary of our vacation program last December and the adoptions and Padrinos that came out of it. They said that the older girls who couldn’t be adopted came back on fire for education and felt like they were not alone in the world! Then they said something that we kind of knew but it stunned us to hear them say it. They said, “You know, before you guys started coming Colombia’s Padrino program was solely internal in this country. Then you Texans started coming down and becoming Padrinos and then you helped us develop a program so that we had a defined, national Padrino program, and now we are taking that program to other agencies and other countries from what you guys started here.” We were stunned. God took some ordinary guys and gals over the last 4 years who came to Colombia and fell in love with some kids and wanted to have a way to take them out of the orphanage and spend family time with them and were committed to coming again and again and used them to change the program of an entire nation and develop something that will impact hundreds of children in the next few years. Who says ordinary people can’t change the world?

We left there giddy with what God is doing for us at national government levels and went to have lunch with 2 dear brothers from Fundacion Nuevo Mundo that we partner with here and we spent the whole afternoon learning from him about safe houses and orphanages and Jesus and spiritual warfare and facts and figures. It was amazing! We strategized about how we can work together in Bogota to impact more children. It was over the top anointed and we left there with a greater sense of urgency and surety that we were on the right path and working with the right people. We left there giddy with the possibilities and rejoicing at the people and counsel and help and resources that God continues to send us as we take one step of faith at a time. On the way to the restaurant for our dinner meeting we babbled about multiple safe houses and short, mid, and long term missionaries and interns and bringing radical sold out for Jesus college kids down to work in the streets and alliances with Christian ministries and Tres Dias Colombia and how it would be our training for servant leaders and on and on. “I AM the Lord! Is there anything to hard for me?” Dream Center Bogota anyone? 🙂

At our dinner meeting we met with the directors of two orphanages and our in country team and just had a wonderful time of fellowship and fun. We talked about old times and dreamed about the future and God just strengthened these relationships all around. It was a blessed time.

We came back to the hotel beat but blessed beyond words. We all gathered up in Luis and my room for prayer and some more dream building and strategizing and then drifted of to bed. God is doing this, it is huge, and we are tremendously blessed to be a part. Thank you all for your love and prayers.

We all said, “What a miraculous 48 hours this has been and we have 48 more hours to go! Tomorrow we go to visit a new safe house and learn from them and then we are having lunch with the Goddaughters!!! and spending the rest of the day with them. Sunday we have several ministries to meet with and the Goddaughters will be with us all day. Praise God.

I was so tired and weak last night as I was writing my Flight Down segment that I forgot a very big providence that occurred on the plane as well. Not long into our conversation with Jose, he handed us back a magazine with an article about orphans and said, “I just read this today and it sounds so much like what you guys are doing it is uncanny, you have to read it.” So we all read it and were amazed. It was about a fellow in London in 1843 that started a Safe House to take in street kids and disciple them for Christ. He started with one and then another and another and eventually 60,000 children came through his houses and many became doctors and lawyers and politicians, etc. So many things about the article were exactly what we have talked and dreamed about. It was a blow by blow description of what we want to do in Bogota. When we all finished the article and finished our oohing and aahing, I turned the magazine to the cover to see what it was and it was a Decision Magazine from the Billy Graham Association dated October 1995! Think about it! God put us right behind a missionary from Canada headed to Colombia who happened to be reading an old magazine from 1995 which happened to have an article about Safe Houses and he happened to overhear us talking about our ministry and started up a conversation and then handed the article back to us… Wow. Ok, now about today.

Oh fellow soldiers! Today was a vision expanding, dream building, major mission accomplishing day! Praise the Lord. Our team on this trip is, Bill and Sandy Byrd, Dave and Gail Beach, Luis Escobar and me. It has been a delight and honor to be here with these sweet saints. They are big thinkers and a huge encouragement to me. Our first order of business today was a meeting with our in country team. We had a wonderful 6 hour meeting where we finalized plans for our Texas Vacation Program this summer, and plans to open our first Safe House in Bogota. Some of our time was pure vision casting. Thinking and talking way outside the box and into the “miracle gap” as Matthew Barnett calls it. We talked about multiple safe houses, we talked about the prostitutes that stand on the street corners in south Bogota trying to sell their babies and strategies that we might employ some day to impact them. We talked wildly about our BIG God and what could be done in this city of 8,000,000 people for the Kingdom of our Savior. We talked about discipleship, and job training, and education, and staff, and young people coming down as interns, and 6 and 12 months missionaries coming down to minister. It was RADICAL and biblical and super enjoyable. We were able to get clarity on many details and that was very exciting as well. Our team was so like minded and harmonious and we just felt the Holy Spirit guiding the conversation and pushing us forward. Thank you Lord for sweet confirmation at every turn. After the meeting we drove to the headquarters of ICBF, (translated it means the Department of Colombian Family Welfare) and had a meeting with the representative that the Colombian government has assigned to assist us in establishing our first Safe House. He was a wonderful man and we talked about many subjects relating to helping Colombian children. The most encouraging thing though was as I was explaining about how God had drawn us to Colombia, his face brightened and he said, “You are Christians?” and we said, “yes” and he said, “wonderful, welcome to Colombia, we are excited about working with you because you will bring the example and the values that our children need.” He was very excited and animated and it just warmed our hearts that of all the people that could have been chosen to be our government representative, God has chosen this man who was excited about working with Christians. Thank you God. We left that meeting and went looking at properties for a potential Safe House. It was very exciting. One house we looked at was suggested by our in country representatives mother. I have met this mother and she is a radical believer. Well, this mother gets this feeling that she should go check out this one neighborhood in Bogota and so she drives through it and sees this house with a For Sale sign on it and calls her daughter and says, “I have found your Safe House.” 🙂 We don’t know anything about the property yet but it is exciting that people are out there looking for us. As we are driving through the neighborhoods Bill Byrd says, “Do they have any abandoned hospitals for sale?” (You would have to read the new book “The Cause Within You” by Matthew Barnett to get the full impact of the radical nature of that question) We all laughed at Bill as the goosebumps popped out on my arms… “I AM the Lord, is there anything to hard for me?”

We finished up the evening with more dream building talk and rejoiced that our little team had operated today so harmoniously, and with such shared faith and urgency, and that we had enjoyed the very real presence of God all day. To Him be the glory.