Category Colombia

I usually don’t start my blog of each trip until the first full day but the plane ride down was so eventful and providential that I had to say something. Bill had arranged for all of us to sit together on the plane and so we were enjoying dream building and vision casting for the future of Orphan Hope, sharing things we were reading, and generally discussing what God was doing through us and around us. Suddenly the man in front of Dave, Gail, and I turned around and introduced himself as Jose. He was born in Mexico but went to Christ For The Nations college in Canada and stayed. He was on his way to Bogota with a team called New Beginnings International Christian Society that does camps for up to 500 kids all over Colombia. We had a wonderful visit with the whole team and exchanged contact information and ideas about how we might work together in the future to bring Christ to the children of Bogota. It was very exciting to meet with people who are, like us, just people whom God has touched with a radical passion and vision and have just launched out in faith and seen God partner with them in miraculous ways. It was refreshing and confirming for both ministries to hear how similar our stories were. Ed, the leader of the group said something that all of us here at Orphan Hope have felt and said and it made us look at each other when he said it. Ed said, “I believe that God is drawing people and ideas and resources to Colombia because it is going to be His headquarters for reaching the rest of Latin America.” Wow! We have all felt that very definitely and very strongly. I believe with all of my heart and I have felt the Spirit impressing upon me very strongly that we are only looking through the keyhole right now of what God wants to do for us and through us in Colombia and all of Latin America. I have also felt that we cannot ask anything too big from God for this ministry because His passion, vision, and urgency for this ministry is way ahead of ours. Like a patient Father, He is allowing us to see a little at a time until we catch up to Him in full faith and vision. It is mind blowing exciting and we all agreed on the plane tonight that we are very grateful and humbled to be on His team. Praise God!

Today is our last day in Bogota, Colombia for this trip. Like I keep telling the children here, “Mi corazon vive en Colombia pero mi cuerpo vive en Estados Unidos.” (My heart lives in Colombia but my body lives in the United States). It has been nice to reunite them for awhile :-).

As I started this morning’s devotion I assured our awesome team that I was aware that they were probably tiring of hearing a new P every day so today I was going to share with them TWO P’s from the ministry and life of Jesus. 🙂 Provision and Protection. Jesus didn’t only come and share His Presence, His Passion for People, His Power, His Pleasure, His Purpose, but He also spent much time involved in temporal Provision and Protection.

Provision

He fed people who were hungry again the next day. He healed people who later died. He even raised people from the dead who eventually grew old and died again. He wasn’t only concerned with Eternity but with the welfare of His lambs today.

Part of the ministry of Orphan Hope International is meeting the physical needs of orphans as we find them. On this trip we have distributed supplies, food, socks, and underwear, Bibles, Spanish/English Dictionaries, clothes, Christian DVD’s, and more. This falls under our Mercy Missions pillar.

Protection

Another pillar of OHI is Haven Homes where we hope in the next year to establish a safehouse for children who age out of the orphanage system at age 18. Here are some statistics relating to this.

Approximately 250,000 children are adopted worldwide annually, but…

Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age eighteen.

Each day 38,493 orphans age out

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home

Studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit suicide before they reach age eighteen

These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals

Interpol estimates there are 35,000 women and girls trafficked out of Colombia every year for the sex trade, with estimated profits of $500 million, making Colombia second only to the Dominican Republic in the West. It is beyond comprehension the horror that these women and girls face as they service on average 40 clients per day. (Interpol)

The Example of Job:

Job 29-31. Job was a godly man. Just listen to God’s description of him in chapter 1 verse 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.” Wow! What an amazing accolade from the Almighty!

In Job 29:2-11 He tells us some things about His relationship with God that ought to make us sit up and take notice. He says…

God watched over me… His lamp shone over my head… by His light I walked through darkness… the friendship of God was over my tent… the Almighty was yet with me…

Then Job goes on in verses 12-17 to tell us why he was so blessed…

Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case which I did not know. I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the prey from his teeth.

Job’s wonderful relationship with God resulted from his faithfulness to God’s own passion for diligently ministering to the poor, needy, widow, orphan, lame, and blind. He defended those who were being mistreated and punished the predators. Job lived God’s and our vision for orphan ministry.

We get another glimpse of Job’s passion for the orphan in Job 31:16-22 where he says very passionately… “If I have kept the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my food alone, and the orphan has not shared it (yet from his youth the orphan grew up with me as with a father, and from infancy I guided her), If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering, if his stomach has not thanked me, and if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep, if I have lifted up my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had support in the community, let my shoulder fall from the socket, and my arm be broken off at the elbow.”

Old and New Testaments teach us to give provision and protection to the needy.

Matt. 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘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.’

Mark 9:37 “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

After her second trip to Bogota in June, 2010 my daughter Brooke wrote this poem to express her feelings about Jesus’ words in Matthew 25.

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

Our last day was the best yet. We headed first to an emergency center where children come in off the street or are brought in by the police. We have been there before but today was a great blessing. The staff, including the pastor for the foundation, had a presentation prepared for us. The children sang praise and worship songs in Spanish and then Pastor John gave us a message from Acts 8:26-40. It was awesome. Then the girls and I got to sing Jesus Messiah for them in Spanish. They gave each of us a gift of a Colombian handbag. Then we went across the street to their safe house called Casa De Egreso and had a barbecue on the roof. It was wonderful. We saw many of our old friends at the safe house and had some awesome fellowship with the staff and some government officials that came to meet us. After the barbecue we went to the “Baby” orphanage where they have children 0 – 6 years old. They were so cute and we had a fun time playing with them. I held a little 3 year old boy named Bryan. He didn’t respond to me at all until I put him on my knee and did ride a horsee and then he smiled once. Later we passed out little bags of chips and he sat on my lap and ate a whole snack sized bag of Doritos. When I asked him, “Le gusta?” He nodded and kept eating. He was so cute. My dear sister in the Lord, Sandy Byrd, and I agreed that we had never seen a child enjoy a bag of chips so much. We hadn’t realized it until we got to the Baby House but it is right across the street from Amparo De Ninas where many of our Goddaughters live.

As we left the Baby House to head for the airport we saw that we had about 7 hours before our flight. We all mentioned to our in country representative, Sandra, that we sure would love to go say one last goodbye to our girls. She said, “impossible. Airport” We sighed and reluctantly agreed and the bus began to pull away. I was sitting next to Sandra and I sighed out loud, “Ginary and Heidy” she looked at me and then she told the bus driver to stop. I know it was for everybody but I’ll accept it as a personal gift from the Lord 🙂 She called the orphanage and my brother and the excellent director of this mission trip Bill Byrd said, “Matt, why don’t you lead the bus in a prayer that they will say yes.” and so we did and so they did and we pulled into Amparo with a promise to only stay 1 hour. The girls, of course, had no idea that we were coming. I will never forget the screams of joy and the girls pouring out of the dormitories when they saw us coming up the walk in the dusk. My sweet girls jumped into my arms and then clobbered each of my daughters with hugs and kisses. I was surrounded by sweet girls hugging me and thanking us for coming back before the airport when Marianna found me and nearly hugged me in two. She clung to me the whole hour as I moved around from group to group standing under the streetlight in the courtyard. It was a beautiful, happy, joyous scene and I could feel the Father’s smile as He enjoyed what He is doing in this place through His people. The hour passed too quickly and we said our last tearful goodbyes. Marianna wet the front of my shirt with her tears as I told her to never forget that Jesus loves her and so do I. I finally pulled away and walked into the darkness, past the guard, and through the iron gate to the awaiting bus. I have shed many tears on this dirty little alley leading away from this compound where a large portion of my heart lives and tonight was no exception. But I was also filled with joy to know that every trip I take down here, every meeting with high ranking government officials, every new pastor, pastor’s wife, and family that comes with us, and every new connection that we make brings us closer to helping all of these “other sheep” (John 10:16) that the Shepherd of Souls desires to bring into His fold.

We have not had internet since Thursday night so I am catching up today. Friday morning’s devotion covered another P from the life and ministry of Jesus, Purpose. Christ’s coming had many purposes. John Piper has written a book entitled 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die. But the two that we focused on this morning were preaching and adoption.

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.”

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

Jesus came to preach and He sent each of us to preach the message of the good news of salvation as well. This is one of the main focuses of the Mercy Missions pillar of Orphan Hope International and we have enjoyed seeing God bring many souls to Himself this week in groups and one on one.

The most amazing purpose for Christ’s coming though is the adoption of a bunch of rebels into the family of God.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name… AMAZING!

Eph. 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will… AMAZING!

Jesus’ primary purpose in coming was an adoption… yours and mine!

That is another pillar of Orphan Hope International, Adoption Awareness. John Piper calls the adoption of orphans by Christians in our world today, “the living gospel” and I think he is right.

Adoption is a scary word for many Christians and frankly it should be… it is literally laying down your life for another…

I had so many wonderful conversations with so many girls and workers. God is moving mightily here. Praise His name! As I walked to the park with a cute little girl named Marcela, I asked her what her dream for the future was. She said she wanted to be a defender when she grows up so she could help lots of children. A defender is the legal representative from the government that oversees the care of each child under protection by Colombian child welfare. I told Marcela that I was very proud of her and that I believed she could, with God’s help, do that very thing. As we walked farther I explained to her about faith and about the narrow way and the broad way and about how Jesus would hold her hand and walk with her as she put her full faith in Him.

Another blessing for me this day were the prayers of the righteous availing much, my brother in the Lord… Goliath… I mean Chris Dinkler, and my other brother in the Lord, Shoby the masseuse. The schedule of the last several months and the lack of rest on this trip pushed my Lupus over the edge today and by the time we got back from the park I was very ill. All of my joints were so inflamed they were nearly completely immovable and I was in excruciating pain. As I sat in a chair in the shade praying for help our Venezuelan Evangelistic Dynamic Duo, Nep and Dona Reyes walked by and I called them over and asked them to pray over me. They are familiar with my predicament and have prayed for me before. They immediately came over and laid hands on me and prayed a beautiful prayer in Spanish for God to give me strength and take away the pain. Within a few minutes I was feeling much better and was up moving around and then went on to enjoy the rest of the day with the girls. Later that night Chris, who is 6′ 4″ came over and picked me up, all 250 pounds of me, like a doll and cracked my back really good, then Shoby came by with a little massage tool and worked my back over good with it. None of them knew what I was suffering or what the others had done for me but God sent them one by one to bless me and keep me going. I know many of you were praying for me all week as well and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My treasured Goddaughter, Ginary, surprised me with something beautiful today. She came up and gave me a big squeeze around the waist and said, “Guess what?” “I am starting school next week.” I hugged her up and said excitedly, “I am sooo proud of you Ginary.” She giggled and hid her face in my chest and said, “I’m a good Goddaughter” she said. I said, “You are the best Goddaughter in the whole world.” She giggled again. You see Ginary is 16 years old and completely illiterate. She grew up in the city dump scavenging for scraps. At age 10 she got a job as a maid. The lady beat her severely and at 12 she ran away and ended up in the orphanage. I have been after her ever since becoming her Godfather over a year ago to go to school and learn how to read and write but she was always too embarrassed to be a 16 year old first grader but after coming to America and spending 3 weeks with us and meeting many of our friends and family she was so encouraged that she wants to get educated and make something of herself now. Praise God. Ginary walked by not long after where I was sitting with one of our team members, Patti Hammond. Patti looked at her and said, “that girl looks like a classic model” “she has the posture and the beauty.” I agreed and then shuddered to think what would have become of her in two years when she was turned out on the street but for the grace of God, our family, and Orphan Hope International.

I was able to love on and listen to Marianna’s heart more today. She is a precious, precious girl. I would take her home with me right now if I could. She cried and cried and hugged and kissed me and told me she wishes I was her Papito.

There are so many here like her. I wish I could adopt them all. I have enough love for them all that’s for sure… actually I’m just the conduit… it’s His love for them flowing through me that I feel… and it is beautiful… and it makes me love Him more.

Before our devotion this morning I shared an amazing little providence that happened to me this morning. First, I need to lay a little groundwork. 7 years ago I went to a Tres Dias men’s retreat weekend a discouraged Christian and God radically transformed my life. I have been walking in that grace every day since. The prayer warrior assigned to me that weekend was Coy Reese. He has since become a dear friend and mentor. Coy has sent me a scripture verse every single day since that weekend 7 years ago. He has never repeated a verse in 7 years. I told you in my last post that God laid the verse Proverbs 14:12 on my heart very strongly yesterday during the gospel presentation at Amparo De Ninos and that I was compelled to speak up about it. Well, I wasn’t able to check my email yesterday to see which verse Coy sent for the day but when I checked my email this morning, the verse he sent me yesterday was Proverbs 14:12. Thank you Lord for confirming your word to me in the chapel yesterday. Amazing.

Our P from the ministry of Jesus this morning was Pleasure. We not only need Christ’s Presence, Passion, and Power. We need His Pleasure. We need His joy or our works will not bring the glory to God that He deserves and we will become weary and tire of the work if we are not bathing in the joy that Jesus has and wishes to share with us. Hebrews tells us that, “For the JOY that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God.” He also tells us that His goal is to share that joy with us on this earth and forever in heaven.

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.

John 16:24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

John 17:13 “these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

Matt. 25:23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

Remember the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism? “What is the chief end of man?” and the answer, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” I used to wonder, “What does enjoying Him have to do with bringing Him glory? Then I saw these verses and realized that genuine praise (glorifying God) always erupts from joy in Him.

Psa. 9:2 I will be glad and delight in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

Psa. 33:1 Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.

Psa. 43:4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

Psa. 98:4 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

1Chr. 16:10 Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad.

Psa. 149:5 Let the godly ones delight in glory; Let them sing for joy on their beds.

Joni Eareckson Tada says it 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”

Today we went to our home orphanage Amparo De Ninas in Bogota. I have written many blogs in the past about this place and the impact it has had on my life and my family. My precious Goddaughters Ginary and Heidy live here and though they were with us for three weeks last month I still couldn’t wait for them to jump into my arms and kiss my cheeks and call me Papi and I was not disappointed. We had a beautfiful day here. We ate and sang and played for hours. Another thing happened to me that I totally did not expect. A darling 14 year old named Marianna insisted on reading me a little book in Spanish. The cutest thing was after every paragraph she would stop and explain the story to me in “little kid” Spanish so I could understand what was going on. She has a smile that could melt cobalt. I asked her how long she had been at the orphanage and she said two months. I asked her where she was before that and she looked away and said quietly, “A place with lots of bad things.” I told her that the past is past and the future is what matters. We talked alot about Jesus. Another neat thing today was the fact that Ginary and Heidy have become so confident in my love that it doesn’t bother them any more when I spend time and share with other girls. They know that Papi is about his business of ministering and helping other girls like them. They just stop by once in awhile and kiss me on the cheek and give me a squeeze and an I love you and a knowing look and then they are off playing with the rest of the girls. The rest of the day I was in business meetings with different elements of the child welfare in Bogota. We are aggressively exploring different options and opportunities to help the children of Latin America. Toda gloria a Dios.

After breakfast this morning, before the devotion, we opened the floor for sharing about what God was doing in the hearts of the team. Several spoke up and their were tears and some wonderful stories of “Sacred Moments of Grace” as we have spent two days now in the fields of the fatherless.

The P from the ministry of Jesus that we looked at this morning was Power. Sometimes we think that we cannot imitate the ministry of Jesus because He was God in human flesh and to a degree of course this is true. He was the messiah. We are not. However we err if we think that we have to do ministry without the power that Jesus had because His power was from the Holy Spirit and He promised to give us the same Holy Spirit and the same power.

Remember when Jesus came back to His home town of Nazareth and they asked Him to read the scripture in the synagogue? The passage that He opened to was Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;” Jesus power on earth came from an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:38 says, “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

But was that power only for Jesus? Or can we, in asking Jesus to come and live His life through us, expect to have His power as well. Jesus told us in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” and again in Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Indeed, we need not only Jesus presence and passion but we need His power also. As we minister today in the orphanages and we see the seemingly endless needs and feel the weight of actually making a lasting diffference in the lives of these children let us cry out to God in our spirits to give us that anointing afresh. To work through us and to anoint our lips and also the ears of the hearers. Shine through our smiles, our hugs, our kisses, our words with supernatural power. Bring life where there is death. Bring light where there is darkness. 1Cor. 2:4 “and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1Cor. 4:19 “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” 1Th. 1:5 “for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.”

Then I assured the team that though we are tired, we don’t speak the language very well if at all, some of us are sick, and we all generally feel a helplessness and weakness to really do anything lasting here, that weakness is exactly what qualifies us to have His power. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Opposite of how the world thinks, God’s power is perfected in weakness. 2Cor. 12:9 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” 2Cor. 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;”

We prayed and headed out to Amparo De Ninos in Madrid for a day of love and ministry to 100 boys ages 7 to 20.

A personal blessing to me today was sitting on the bus with my dear brother Shoby John and hearing stories about his family in India. Many brought tears to my eyes and put a longing in my heart to do more for the Lord. Great preparation for a day with God’s little lambs.

Amparo De Ninos is housed in a beautiful old monastery out in the country. The bridge was out so we had to park the bus and walk to the orphanage. As the little boys started pouring out of the gates to meet us I had a moment of Dejavu. The first little boy to come out and greet me today was Diego. He is the first little boy who greeted my daughter Beverly and me at this same institution on the first day of our first visit to Colombia almost two years ago. He was so glad to see us. They led us into the cafeteria and we gathered in a big circle around the room and each team member and then each boy introduced themselves and then it was time for lunch. After lunch we went out to the beautiful green fields surrounding the orphanage and played soccer, American football, frisbee, and many other games. Our team gathered and brought all of the sports equipment and games and we left them with the boys. My girls and I really enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and making many new ones. It was a delight to see the director of the orphanage, Magnolia, again. We met in her office for an hour or so and she told me that everyone of the 100 boys there are ready for Padrinos (Godparents) and/or adoptable. She pleaded with me to keep coming back and to tell everyone about Amparo and try to bring as many people as we can to adopt her boys. Then she grabbed my arm and said, “Matt, when is Orphan Hope going to have a vacation program for MY boys?” I promised her that we would look into it and try to help her and the boys as much as we could. It broke my heart to see how desperate she was for us to help them.

As the afternoon waned we gathered the boys together. Half of them (14-20 years of age) gathered in the chapel with Nep and us men and the little boys met upstairs with Dona and the ladies. The ladies shared the gospel with the little boys and gave each of them a Bible. Nep had a serious man to man talk with the older boys. It was awesome. He challenged them to follow Christ and to be good men. To find their identity as a good man who respects other men, women, authority, stays away from drugs and violence, and is kind to the younger boys in the institution. He dealt with all of the temptations and struggles that young men face without pulling any punches and God was stirring many hearts. As I listened from the back and watched the boys I began to feel a stirring in my soul that I should share my testimony and specifically the verse of scripture that God used to convict my heart and bring me to Himself, Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death.” I resisted for awhile feeling that I shouldn’t inject myself into the message but the feeling got stronger and stronger. Finally there was a long pause like Nep was waiting for the Lord to give him the next thing to say. I knew this was for me and I spoke up and asked Nep if I could share and would he translate and he eagerly said yes. I told the boys how 28 years ago I was a 16 year old young man sitting in a chapel very similar to this one and listening to a message very similar to this one and I was not at all interested until I heard that verse and that verse went straight to my heart like an arrow. I realized in that moment that I could be wrong and that the man giving the message could be right. My way could be the way of death and God’s way could be the way of life. I shared with them how I decided that night to follow God’s way and that 28 years later I am still walking with Him and His way truly is the way of LIFE! Nep then invited the young men to bow their heads and close their eyes and he asked me to lead those who were serious and wanted to choose God’s way in a prayer and he would translate. We prayed then and asked God to come and convict, cleanse, change, and walk with these young men for the rest of their lives. One of the men who came forward and prayed was a university professor who was there helping the boys with their education. After the prayer we gave each of them a Bible and a Spanish/English dictionary. They were elated. Later as I was snapping photos of the crownd, one of the older boys jumped in front of my camera with a big smile and placed his new Bible over his heart waiting for me to take his picture. It moved me to tears. We quickly hugged our many friends goodbye and headed to the bus. Some of the little boys followed us all the way to the bridge before turning back with a last wave. Another miraculous day in the fields of the fatherless.

I am always amazed at the way God orchestrates every little detail of these trips. He brings the team, each and every one. He causes all of the events to work together to show Himself mighty on behalf of us and the children. At breakfast this morning I visited with a man who decided to go the day before we left and now his life is changed. His sweet spirit has blessed me several times already and then to find out that he got in just under the wire. Amazing.

I gave our devotion this morning and the second P was Passion. Jesus ministry was characterized by passion and compassion. Jesus passion was people. His antagonists, the pharisees, were concerned with popularity, position, prosperity, power, and protocol. Jesus on the other hand is seen over and over again in the Gospels seeing and meeting needs, feeling compassion, speaking kind words, touching and being touched, and speaking truth in love. We determined that we would imitate this in our ministry to the children today with His help and grace.

We had a imaravilloso! day today. We were back at Santa Maria for the second day. We enjoyed hours of games and crafts. Part of the day I had a sweet group of girls gathered around me asking question after question about my life and my family and helping me with my spanish. The cutest thing was when I would use the wrong Spanish word or mispronounce it and they would burst out laughing and then for fun make me say it again wrong and then right so I wouldn’t forget. It was very fun. It was wonderful to see the team enjoying their time with the children. Some of the ladies had brought puppets and they had a cd of children’s Christian songs and they had the puppets sing the songs. It was really cute and the kids loved it. Due to a gift from one of the ladies mother, Shoby was able to take the director of the foundation that oversees Santa Maria shopping and purchased many items needed by the orphanage. It is very exciting what God is doing here. Once again as the day began to draw to a close we gathered all 200 of us together and my girls sang some worship songs, one in English and on in Spanish. It was beautiful and many of the girls said that they sounded like angels. Then Nep and Dona came and did a really neat skit. The first half of the skit was how not to have a relationship with a boy. It was really cute and yet very instructive. The girls saw acted out before them how girls and boys who have no respect for God or themselves behave and the consequences of broken relationships and sin. The second half of the skit was how a Christian husband and wife treat each other and how they have time together in God’s word. As they talked together over God’s word they got closer and closer together and their words were sweeter and more tender until finally they were cheek to cheek and all the girls let out a sigh and a clap as they confessed their eternal love for Jesus Christ and each other. It was fantastic. Then they shared the gospel and invited the girls who wanted to confess Christ to stand. There were many. They came forward and the team prayed with them. Suddenly, Nep said, “Adults too can come and trust Christ. Are there any workers here who want to confess their faith in Jesus Christ.” A young kitchen worker in her uniform and hairnet bolted to the front with tears streaming down her face. Dona motioned for me to join her to pray with this young woman. It was a joyous moment as she wept out her needs before the Lord. As we were praying everyone else was done and so the team began handing out Spanish Bibles to all of the children and the Beach Family had brough Spanish/English dictionaries for them as well. When we finished praying there were no Bibles left and the young worker asked me, “can I have a Bible too… for me?” I went off to see if I could “steal” a Bible somewhere but with no success. Suddenly she came running up to me with a Bible she had gotten from someone and had me sign it. It was wonderful. We said our tearful goodbyes and headed to dinner.

Another amazing providence showed itself as we were attempting to order dinner for 30 people with 1 translator. Some college kids at a nearby table came over and started translating for us. They spoke excellent English. Chris, our Vice President, started up a conversation with one of the young men thanking him for helping us. Chris told him what we were doing in Bogota and it turns out the young man and his friends attend a Christian college nearby and have translated for mission groups before. He said they would love to help us on the next trip and that he and his friends and even their professors at the college are always looking for service opportunities like this. Amazing. We exchanged contact info with them and will be in touch.

My precious daughters and I are in Bogota with 30 Orphan Hope International team members! Our largest and most ambitious trip to date. God has given us a great group and I am already enjoying the way they are coming together to love and serve the orphans of Colombia.

We met for breakfast this morning at 7:30 a.m. and as we were wrapping up I gave our morning devotion. This week I wanted to focus on the theme of doing ministry as Jesus did. Asking Him to come and live His life through us. Minister to these children through us. I will address 6 P’s of Jesus ministry this week and this morning we started with Presence. 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 asked Him to use us to give these lonely, love starved children the gift of His presence in us. James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…” Another blessing today is that we will also get to receive the gift of His presence in them. Jesus said in Matthew 25 that when we serve them we are serving Him. Mother Teresa called these children Jesus in disguise and so they are.

Today we visited Santa Maria Orphanage in Madrid just outside of Bogota. It is home to 135 girls ages 8 to 18. We had a wonderful day seeing old friends and meeting many new ones. There were presentations by the girls, songs, drama productions, and such. We enjoyed visiting and sharing lunch with them. We toured their “house” and they assured us that it was our house as well and that they wanted us to be at home. As the afternoon was drawing to a close our dear sister and advisory board member, Dona Reyes, in Spanish with her husband Nep translating in English, gave her testimony of her life in Venezuela as a girl and the hurt and pain that she had suffered and the bitterness and revenge that had hardened her heart and then how meeting Jesus Christ and receiving His grace and love had healed her wounds and changed her heart. There were tears and sighs from many of the orphan girls. When Dona invited them to trust in Christ and to recieve by faith His love and grace many, many girls responded and prayed with Dona and Nep calling on the Lord to change their hearts and heal their hurts. Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke, Jana and I sang, Here I Am To Worship in English and then Jesus Messiah in Spanish for the girls and then it was time to go. We will return there tomorrow and share more of Jesus love for these precious children.

This morning we had breakfast with the board of Fundacion Tayakai, our partners in Colombia. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, dream building, organizing, and good old fashioned communication. We have many miracle projects that have come out of our meetings this week that we have to get started on. I will use my last post to tell you all about them and how you all can help. But for now back to this day. After our breakfast we took a tour of some beautiful old buildings near where we were having breakfast and when we came back to the breakfast room the Goddaughters were waiting there for us. Such a joyous reunion ensued that it is hard to put into words. I can still feel the arms tight around my neck and feel the kisses on my cheek. We spent the rest of the day touring old town Bogota with the girls and generally having a marvelous time. We stopped in a restaurant and had a late lunch and enjoyed wonderful fellowship. Our two translators, Alexandra and Nep, were absolutely wonderful. Finally it was time for the girls to return to the orphanage and we said our sweet goodnights. The board sat up very late strategizing and talking about the new developments God has sent our way through this trip. This entire trip for me has been a miracle. I know I keep using that word but I literally saw the hand of God everywhere building a team between Orphan Hope International, Fundacion Tayakai, and ICBF. At the same moment the spiritual warfare with the forces of darkness was intense and at the same time the fingerprints of our Father were on everything. It was amazing. I hesitate to use a very personal instance to show what I mean but I think it will illustrate very well what this whole trip was like. At one point in the trip, we were in a meeting that could literally make or break our future ministry in Colombia from man’s perspective. I was suffering horribly with my Systemic Lupus and had been the entire trip. My kidneys were aching fiercely and I had been passing blood all day. I am sitting in this meeting and each of us is sharing and I am praying like crazy that I can make it to the end of the meeting and I get a text from my wife alerting me to a turn for the worse in a situation where we are helping an abused girl and my daughters are out on the streets looking for her. About five minutes later I get a message on my phone from my bank alerting me that my direct deposit paycheck didn’t go through and automatic payments are being cancelled and my account is in the red. It was pure grace alone but I literally chuckled, looked heavenward and smiled, and went on with the meeting and God gave us some amazing things in that meeting. I know a few stories from some of the rest of the board that happened that night that are as astounding as well but I will leave those for them to tell someday. My point is that God is mightily at work in Colombia and Satan is not happy about it but he is ultimately powerless to stop it so his only recourse is harassment and as long as we remember where it is coming from and that greater is HE that is in me than he that is in the world, we can smile and go on. Praise Jesus!

One of our strategies for this trip was to scout out a new orphanage to visit on the mission trip in January. The previous day when talking with ICBF they told us about an orphanage in the mountains outside of Bogota and so we went left out of the hotel on this morning headed for this new orphanage. As we wound our way up into the mountains the scenery became wilder and more beautiful. We came to a police checkpoint and after several minutes of sitting there with the police talking back and forth with our driver, Sandra went to go see what was going on. Apparently our van did not have an updated inspection and since we were traveling through a secluded area the police were afraid that the van might break down and there would be a whole van of Americans stranded in the mountains of Colombia. Not a good idea. Sandra told them of our mission and that we had an appointment with this orphanage and we really needed to get through. She is very persuasive. So the police decided that they would let us through and that one of the officers would escort our van to the orphanage in a prisoner transport van that they had nearby. So we set out again for the orphanage with our police escort with flashing lights leading the way. We hadn’t gone two miles when sure enough the van broke down on the side of the mountain. We all piled out laughing and shooting pictures like total tourists while Sandra went and negotiated with the officer and some of the men tried to see what was wrong with the van. It had thrown a serpentine belt and was not going anywhere. Finally, the police officer agreed and we piled into the prisoner transport van and headed for the orphanage once more. I can only imagine what the children thought when we pulled up to the orphanage, lights flashing, and the new people who were coming to tell them about Jesus piled out of a police van. It was hilarious.

We spent some wonderful time with the children and officials in this beautiful, breathtaking little town called La Calera. The views were stunning and the needs were great. We too soon had to leave because we had a big dinner planned with the officials from several orphanages in Bogota for that night. As we drove away from one of the locations some cute little boys were peaking through the fence, waving and asking, “Are you coming back tomorrow?” Of course we couldn’t but we will visit them again in January.

That night we hosted a very nice dinner with the officials of two orphanages in Bogota and shared our presentation and answered many questions. There was much support and excitement from all in attendance and even a few tears as we talked about the children and about Jesus and about many things. It was a fantastic evening and I believe all felt the presence of the Lord and all sensed that we were on the cusp of something huge for the children and the people of Colombia. We went to bed exhausted but praising God that we were so blessed to be a part of this work.

First, let me say that this trip was dedicated solely to meeting with different parts of the Colombian government to establish official relationships with them and Orphan Hope International and our Colombian partners Fundacion Tayakai.

Much preliminary work went into making this trip possible. I want to give a personal thanks to our entire team who worked very hard and sacrificed greatly to make this trip a reality.

We arrived Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 9:00 pm and were greeted by Sandra, Antonio, and Chris Dinkler who was already in country on business. We arrived at the hotel, spent some time in prayer where we asked God to be our vanguard and to go before us and prepare the way. Then we bedded down, ready for a big day the next day at ICBF, the department for family welfare for Colombia.

The next day, Thursday, September 16, 2010 we arrived at the national headquarters of ICBF around 8:00 am all decked out in our suits and ties and the ladies in business attire. I know that we were all praying hard as we walked into the building. Our party included Orphan Hope board of directors David Richardson, Chris Dinkler, Bill Byrd and his wife Sandy, Shoby John and myself. Also included were Antonio and Sandra of Fundacion Tayakai, Alexandra Vanegas, Orphan Hope Assistant Secretary and Translator, and Nep Reyes, Orphan Hope Advisory Council Member and Translator. Our first meeting was with the adoption leg of ICBF and the Assistant Director of Adoptions led the meeting. She and her team introduced us to the inner workings of ICBF. This presentation lasted about 2 hours and was very informative and helpful. We had prepared a 30 minute powerpoint presentation of our ministry and had also brought bound printed copies of the presentation because we were not sure if we would be allowed to present and we wanted to have a leave behind for them. As God began to open doors and open the hearts of the officials we were meeting with the opportunity arose to give our full presentation and we did so. We shared about our vision for mission trips, padrino plan, adoption awareness and someday adoption agency, safe houses, and English program. We also were able to share that it was the love of Jesus Christ that filled us and overflowed out of us for the children, people, and nation of Colombia. At the end of the presentation the Assistant Director of Adoptions for the whole nation of Colombia said, “Well, I want to say that I love it. I am very impressed and I think your vision is the same as our vision. We welcome your ministry.” We couldn’t have been more excited and relieved to hear that. We broke for lunch praising God for His help and blessing.

When we returned from lunch another segment of ICBF began to present their inner workings. Suddenly an official stepped into the room and said that the General Director, the highest ranking person in ICBF wanted to meet with us. Word had already reached her about who we were and what we were doing. We all trooped upstairs to the executive conference room and there we met the Director of Protection who oversees all of the orphanages in Colombia and then in walked the General Director and we all sat down. Just as the meeting was getting started in walks Marley one of the Goddaughters who we have been on many trips with and soon to be adopted by our dear friends and Orphan Hope Advisory Council members Curt and Tonya Currie. As it turns out Marley and the General Director are friends. So the General Director turns to Marley and says tell me about these people and Marley starts to cry and says, “They have the love of God and when they come to the orphanages they bring this love and they have changed my life.” Wow! What a way to start the meeting. Then for the next several minutes we each get to tell our story and how we became involved and we were briefly able to present our ministry. When it came around to Bill and Sandy Byrd, they began to cry as they told about what God did and is doing in their hearts and nearly everyone in the room had tears in their eyes. It was a wonderful meeting. The General Director asked us if we were a Christian ministry and we said yes and then she further asked us if we were an Evangelical Christian ministry and we said yes. When we were all done answering her questions and presenting the ministry she smiled and said, “We are very excited about all that you are doing and want to do in Colombia.” “I have three points that I want done in reference to this ministry.” “1. I want you to work with my office at the national level on all of your programs. 2. I want to send a delegation from ICBF to Texas to meet with all of you and see your community and find out about you. 3. I want us to draw up a legal 3-way agreement between Orphan Hope, Fundacion Tayakai, and ICBF to clarify how we are going to work together to make your vision a reality.” She also told us that she would communicate with her counterpart in the U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to let her know that we would be working together on these issues.

Needless to say we walked out of the meeting without touching the ground. God has opened for us a very large door to be able to minister to the children, the people, and the government of Colombia and this was just the first day!

Today we headed out to visit a transition home for young people ages 18-21 who have aged out of the orphanage. We were very excited because we were going to see some of our dear friends who once lived at Ciudadella orphanage in Madrid but have since moved to this new place. We were also going to surprise them by taking them out to lunch and to the mall to buy each one an outfit of clothes. It was wonderful to see each of them. So many precious friends. Names like Yuli, JLo, Susan, Natalia, and on and on. Sweet girls and some boys as well that we have built a relationship with this year. We were very interested to see this transition home because we hope to have our own like it next year. After touring the house and hearing some of the young people share about their lives there we loaded everyone up and went to a pizza place that one of the girls worked at. We had a wonderful feast as 18″ pizza after 18″ pizza kept coming until we were all stuffed and we had 3 whole pizzas left. The young people from the transition home were overjoyed when we boxed up the extra pizza and told them they could take it home to eat later. They rarely get such a treat. We rolled… ahem I mean walked out of the pizza shop and gathered on the street corner taking group photos and visiting while we waited for our bus to pull around. About that time a little street family consisting of a little hunched over mom and a little hunched over dad with big scars on his legs from some sort of injury, and a dirty but cute little boy about 7 I would guess very politely came over and asked if we could help them out with any money so that they could feed their boy. As some were reaching in their pockets for pesos, one of the orphan girls from the transition home walked over with a smile and handed the family the box full of left over pizza and said, “God bless you.” My heart stopped for a minute and I saw the same amazed expression on the faces of the rest of the team as it soaked in what we had just witnessed. The orphan giving her food to the poor family. There is something very poetic, ironic, and tragic in that exchange and also something very spiritual that changed something deep inside my heart right there on that street corner. We have so much here in America that we don’t even know how to give out of sacrifice. It was humbling to say the least. Back at the transition home we said our tearful goodbyes and headed for the airport. Another successful trip into the fields of the fatherless transforming the lives of orphans and team members alike. To God be the glory.

Once again, I am writing three months after the fact from memory.

This was to be our last day at Amparo De Ninas and our last day to be with our girls. Lisa was up most of the night sick from the stress of having to leave the girls today and was so sick this morning that she couldn’t get out of bed. Sandra, who is a doctor, gave her some medicine and she finally fell asleep and slept all day. We left her and went to the orphanage. There was plenty of games and crafts and then the girls called us all together and some of the girls did a synchronized cheer/dance for us in their matching sweat suits. It was really cute. Then they called us into the room where they did the presentation for us on the first day. Many of the girls were wearing traditional Colombian costumes and they demonstrated many traditional dances for us. It was wonderful. Our Goddaughter Ginary was one of the dancers and she did very well. As the meeting broke up, we were all pulled into a huge congo line and danced around the large room several times. It was so fun. Then they called us all to the front and presented each of us with a bag of Colombian coffee and a manilla (woven Colombian bracelet). Ginary and Heidy presented me my manilla. They had woven one each for Lisa and I. I now have six manillas on my arm that I have received from different trips and made by different girls. I was given the very first one by a girl named Yecena. She looked at me very seriously and said, “Never take this off” and I haven’t. Now I have 6 of them that I never take off. Many times God has used these Manillas to cause people to ask me what they mean and then I have been able to share about the orphans of Colombia and the love of Jesus for orphans that He has poured into my heart and consequently pours out to these children.

Finally it came time to leave. I kissed and hugged my girls goodbye 5 or 6 times and then walked to the big steel gate and out into the dirty little potted alley that leads out into the street. This was the hate part of my love/hate relationship with this little alley for I was leaving my girls for several weeks or maybe months. I felt the hot tears rolling down my face and dripping off of my beard as I walked to the bus. Antonio was standing at the door of the bus and he reached out and gave me a big hug. I climbed into the bus, sat down and wept out my complaint to God that I could not take my girls with me. He heard me and brought to my mind many scriptures of comfort and hope. I know that He is working on behalf of me and my girls and He has a plan much bigger than I can imagine.

The night I originally sat down to write about this day my blog software crashed and I never got to write about day 5 and 6 so here goes from memory 3 months after the fact.

Our morning devotion centered around Power Through Weakness. I encouraged the group that when they “see” and “feel” like Jesus and then inevitably feel absolutely powerless to “do” anything about the great need around us that we must remember that God delights to do great things through weak people. He loves for His treasures to be carried in jars of clay. He is the one ultimately doing the work. We are to simply be obedient and His power will flow through us to the world.

We went on a wonderful walk to a large park in Bogota with the girls from Amparo De Ninas today. It was really fun walking through Bogota, a city of 10 million people with 80 orphan girls, our team of 30 and some nuns and staff. The most memorable part of the walk was when we came to a large intersection in the city with no crosswalk or lights and Sister Hilma stepped out in her long flowing white robes and raised her hand in the air towards 4 or 5 lanes of speeding traffic and they all came to an immediate stop and then all 120 of us crossed behind her. It was like Moses at the Red Sea. Unfortunately on the way home Sister Hilma road in the bus and so when we got to that same intersection I tried doing what she had done… I nearly got ran down… everyone finally got across but I was cursed at in Spanish by more than one driver and nearly hit more than once. It was hilarious. I guess if I was wearing the habit of a nun or priest it would have worked better. Ha ha.

I so enjoyed the walk and visiting with the girls and seeing Lisa, Heidy and Brooke walking hand in hand and sometimes with Heidy’s head on Brooke’s shoulder. It was so sweet.

When we arrived at the park our little friends from Pro Nacer Boys Orphanage were there and we had a wonderful time playing games and sitting on the grass visiting. Sister Hilma came over and sat by me and we talked for a long time about the children and about my Goddaughters. She was very sweet. My ninja friend Oscar was there and we had a few more go arounds too. As I write this I miss him. He is such a cute boy. When it came time for lunch we had catered box fried chicken lunches for everyone and the children loved it! We had a wonderful lunch and then some more fun and games.

On the way back a very pretty 17 year old whose name escapes me at the moment took my hand and asked if she could walk with me. I said, “Sure” and we walked the entire 4 to 5 miles or so back to the orphanage hand in hand. Between her English and my Spanish we were able to communicate very well and we talked about everything under the sun. She shared with me her story and how that she had never had a father or any other men in her life. She had lived alone with her aunt from birth until she came to the orphanage. I began to see why she wanted to walk with me. She had seen me with my daughter Brooke and my Goddaughters, Heidy and Ginary, and she longed to have a father. I shared with her many things about life, about good men and bad men, about values and morals. She was very open and had such a sweet heart. We laughed and joked about many things as well. After building some rapport I asked her, “what do you think of Jesus Christ?” Her answer brought tears to my eyes. She replied, “He is my Father, and He is the best Father in the whole world.” We talked much about Him after that and she promised me that she would never lose faith and that she would always trust her Father and follow His path and not the path that the world offers. I know that I will never see her again on this earth because she was scheduled to be moved out of the institution shortly after we left but I was so grateful that the Lord let me stand in His stead and hold her hand for that 4 miles and for a brief moment in time let her feel what it was like to have a daddy. I believe that I represented Him well and I hope she will never forget because I know that I never will. To know that there are 577,000 children in Colombia just like her is what makes me keep going back again and again. Though I will never be able to hold the hand of or share Jesus with each of those 1/2 million orphans, I’m reminded of the old man walking on the beach where thousands of starfish have washed ashore and as he stoops to pick one up a little boy says, “Hey Mister, you can’t save all of these starfish” and the old man smiles as he tosses the starfish back into the sea, “saved that one!”

Another sweet memory comes from our arrival back at the orphanage. We were so hot and tired and so we broke out some frozen yogurt pops. I was teasing Heidy and Brooke and they were laughing and teasing back. Suddenly Brooke reached out with her yogurt pop and wiped it on my glasses as if she was poking me in the eye. I jumped back and laughed and the shocked look on Heidy’s face was priceless. She could not believe Brooke would do that to me or that I wasn’t mad. She laughed and laughed as I stood there with yogurt dripping off my glasses and then she got the most pitiful face and said teasingly, “Papi pobre, Brooke usted es una hija mala al papi.” (Poor Daddy…, Brooke!, you are a bad daughter to Daddy) Then she took my glasses and ran off to the office and when she returned they were all washed and clean. It was too sweet.

Sometimes I dream that I am not able to rescue my sweet Heidy and she ends up on the street and I am searching and searching for her and when I finally find her she is gaunt and diseased and then I wake up weeping and begging God to help me to help her and all of them. I’m reminded of a quote from Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, “God, let my heart be broken by the things that break Your heart.”

The butterflies were swarming in my stomach this morning when I awoke because I knew I would see my sweet Colombian daughters today. We had our usual breakfast and then I shared in our team devotion a fourth aspect of Jesus ministry, His touch. We explored several of the places in scripture where Jesus touches men, women, children and heals them, comforts them, and blesses them. He also allows others to touch Him. When we go to Amparo De Ninas today, one of the ways that we will be able to imitate Jesus is with the hugs and kisses that these girls so desperately want and need and which we can gladly provide. We may not heal leprosy or raise the dead with our touch but we can heal hearts and bring hope to lonely souls.

The reunion with our daughters was beyond words. Their little arms around my neck and their kisses on my cheek and their “I love you Papi” were more healing for me than I can express. For me today, they were the hands and feet of Jesus. It was wonderful to see our other little friends at Amparo today and to make many new ones.

The girls had planned a really nice presentation for us and they presented each of us with a bouquet of silk flowers.

Sitting there in the presentation with little Heidy between Lisa and me, holding her little brown hand as she leaned on Lisa’s chest, I was once again amazed at how God has brought this whole Colombia connection into our lives in the last twelve months and the supernatural bond that we feel with these people. God is so good. After the presentation it was time for lunch and we enjoyed sitting around the tables as one big family.

Next it was out to the court to play some games and make bracelets and visit. It wasn’t long before we were all sitting in the shade just getting to know each other and enjoying each others company. Then it was off for a tour of the grounds and facility. We saw where they make clothes and bake and many other things. When we went into the dormitories and saw where our girls sleep it was so sweet to see their pictures of us prominently displayed.

Later there was lots of dancing and fun.

And then it was goodbye for today. But tomorrow we are going to spend the whole day together in the big beautiful city park and have a cookout so goodbyes this time were not too sad 🙂

We enjoyed a very nice dinner on top of the mountain and after a few hours of sleep, we will be ready to go again.

Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name. What a wonderful day we had today! We started out the morning with our team devotion. This time we explored some of the many places in scripture where it reveals that Jesus not only “saw” and “felt” but He also “acted.” We determined in our hearts to imitate Him in this as well today. Our visit today was at ProNacer, a Christian orphanage in Bogota proper with fifty two boys in a very small three-story house in a rough part of town. The staff and leadership of this orphanage are devout Christians who teach the Bible and Christian values to the children diligently. The Spirit of Christ was evident everywhere there and He really made our day bright and beautiful. This was my third visit to ProNacer this year and it was so exciting to see the recognition and excitement in the faces of all my little friends as we walked in. We spent most of the day at the public basket ball court across the street from the orphanage playing every kind of game imaginable. The Kamas brothers have done a wonderful job of managing the games on this trip.

I had to stay on guard all day for sneak attacks from two little ninjas who insisted on testing my martial arts skills left over from my youth 🙂

The ministry provided each boy with two pairs of tennis shoes and we are going to provide a bus to take the boys to the park on Thursday where we and the girls from Amparo De Ninas, where we will be the next three days, will meet up with them for a cookout.

When most of the boys had tired from the ball games they sat down on the grass at the edge of the court and began to make bracelets with the brightly colored string our team had brought them. The intricate patterns were stunning. Many members of the team received bracelets from their little friends before they left.

Once again many hearts were touched and much love was exchanged on both sides. One sad note today was some information that we learned in talking with the staff. They have fifty two boys here of which forty five are eligible for adoption and yet they have only had three boys adopted from here in the last three years. I know the whole team would agree with me in saying that these were some of the sweetest, most respectful, well behaved boys we have ever met and we committed to spreading the news about ProNacer and helping these little boys to achieve their fondest dream… a family of their own.

The personal highlight of my day happened as I was standing in the street next to my Colombian friend Sandra and her cell phone rang. Somehow my Goddaughter, Ginary, had heard that the ministry team was in town and she called Sandra to ask, “Where is my daddy?” Teasing her, Sandra said, “I’m sorry Ginary but your family wasn’t able to make this trip.” Ginary replies, “I understand, it will be ok.” Without another word Sandra hands me the phone and I say, “Hello daughter! I’m coming to see you tomorrow!” Needless to say, there was much excitement on the other end of the phone line and many “I love you’s” and she just kept saying over and over, “bonito, bonito, lindo, lindo” (beautiful, beautiful). I then handed the phone to Lisa and she and Ginary got to exchange “I love you’s.” We will be spending the next three days with them and I can hardly wait to get there in the morning. Lord, give us your eyes, give us your heart, and give us your grace to help these dear children.

Today my sweet daughter Beverly turns nineteen years old. Last year on this date, on her eighteenth birthday, she was here in Bogota with me and we had a party for her at Sandra’s house with a big cake. As we sat at dinner all of the team who was there last year reminisced about Bevy’s B-Day party and asked me to tell her Feliz Cumpleanos! Happy birthday Beverly. Missing you today.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, my sweet daughter Brooke wrote a poem entitled, Kissing the face of Jesus. I wanted to share it with you.

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 amigos y amigas

I am kissing the face of Jesus

Brooke Danielle Bullen

In our team devotion this morning before leaving for the orphanage we talked about the fact that Jesus not only “saw” but He felt deeply. In over twenty instances the gospel writers give us a peak into the heart of Jesus and how He felt in different circumstances and so I encouraged the team to remember when they feel the pain, loneliness, sadness, joy, and love of the orphans around them that it is the heart of Jesus that they are feeling and to let down the walls and embrace the emotions as Jesus did.

We returned to Ciudad De La Nina today and were greeted by old friends and new friends that we met yesterday. The sun was out so there were many outdoor games and activities going on throughout the day. It was such a joy to see the team members who were on their first trip here surrounded by children laughing and playing and talking away. Love is a universal language for sure. We had so much fun sitting around visiting and listening to each girls story. Some were quite heartbreaking and it was wonderful to comfort them and encourage them to trust in God for their future.

Lunch time came and we brought out four hundred hamburgers with french fries to give the kids a treat. It was so fun seeing them dig into their food. The happy chatter around the tables was more than thanks enough.

After lunch, Kylie Novak and the other teens on our team broke out the craft making supplies and the girls crowded around to make beaded and string bracelets. One sweet girl named Jenny brought me a bracelet she had made and as she tied it on my wrist she firmly told me never to take it off 🙂 I now have six bracelets that a Colombian orphan girl has placed on my arm with the same firm instruction. Two of them I haven’t removed in almost a year. Every time I come back they come up to me and pull up my sleeve to see if I still have the bracelet on my arm. They are a constant reminder that Jesus has other lambs that are not of this fold and He must bring them also so that they will be one fold with one Shepherd and He has told me that if I love Him I will feed His lambs.

Oh! It was so good to be back today with all of our little friends at Ciudad De La Nina (City of the Girl) Orphanage in Madrid. So many hugs, so many smiles, and a few tears as we were reunited once again. This is my fifth trip to Bogota in the last twelve months and I rejoice and praise the Lord that He has chosen me and my family to participate in His work with the orphans of Colombia. We have a wonderful team that God has once again hand picked for this particular trip. It is a special joy for me to have my sweet wife of twenty five years, Lisa, and my sixteen year old daughter, Brooke, with me as well. Our day started with breakfast and delicious Colombian coffee. Before we boarded the bus for the orphanage I was blessed to be able to give a devotion for the team. This whole week I will be exploring with the team in these devotions some different aspects of Jesus approach to ministry and serving people. Today we explored the fact that Jesus “saw” and then felt compassion. As I have shared in my last four posts on Compassion, over twenty times in the New Testament it says that Jesus “saw” someone and then felt and acted. So today I shared with the team that Jesus wants to relive His life in each of us and so when we go to the orphanage we need to give Him our eyes and let Him “see” through us the needs of these dear children and then we will feel His heart and know His will for us and why we are here.

First thing after we arrived, one hundred and sixty girls gave a presentation for us with some dances and some songs and then I was privileged to share the gospel with them. I told them how that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had in eternity past enjoyed the supreme love and supreme happiness of their perfect relationship in perfect holiness and how that they wanted to share that wonderful love and happiness and holiness with someone else and so they created man and woman to walk together with in the garden in the cool of the day. But man and woman wanted more than just a childlike relationship with God. Their pride and lust lead them to try life on their own without God and this painful, sinful, corrupt world is the result. But God was not satisfied to let man and woman and their offspring go their own way and so the Father sent the Son to become one of them and to live their life and to feel their pain and to give His life to undo the damage that their pride and lust had done and purchase them back to Himself so that once again they could join in that beautiful familial relationship of love and happiness between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And now by faith when we believe and confess with our mouth this wonderful gift we are restored to that childlike relationship with our loving Heavenly Father and we are left here for now to share His love with those around us and one day in Heaven we will spend the rest of eternity enjoying that supreme love and supreme happiness and supreme holiness as one big beautiful blood bought family. I then invited them to pray with me and ask the Father to restore them through the death of Jesus back to the family of God.

We spent the rest of the day visiting and taking photos and having a wonderful time. It was rainy today so we spent most of our time inside. At one point Shoby John, one of my dear friends on our team came up and said, “Hey, let’s sing” so several of us gathered around and sang praise and worship songs until our voices gave out. The Colombian girls loved it! It was so cute to see them stand there soaking up the multipart harmonies and the passion of our worship as we lifted our voices to the Lord. After every song they would say, “Mas, mas” (more, more) It was a day to be remembered forever. We will go back there tomorrow for a big cook out and more fun and games. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Our last day here was filled with several blessings. First, to the explain the blessing at lunch on this day I need to rewind back to my second trip in September 2009 for a second. It was on this trip that I met and developed a relationship with Antonio, Sandra’s husband. He and I became close partly because of our love for the orphans and mostly because we are the two men who Heidy looks up to as Dad. She owns a big piece of Antonio’s heart as well as mine. God has used this little girl and her sweet spirit and her innocent, tender love to draw both of us into this ministry. Also, after the September trip Antonio was so moved by his time with us and the girls that he became Godfather to a precious girl named Lorena. He also fell in love with my other Goddaughter Ginary and stood with her in my place at her baptism in the fall of 2009. So God was tying more and more heart strings between he and I. As we were standing in the airport to go back to Houston from the September ’09 Padrino trip, Antonio mentioned to me that Sandra and he were thinking about starting a foundation to build a safe house and help the girls who were aging out of the orphanage. I told him that we would support and back anything they wanted to do. Sandra says that the decision to go ahead with Fundacion Tayakai was made in that conversation. Ok, fast forward to April 2010 Padrino trip again. We are all sitting at lunch talking about the newly formed Fundacion Tayakai and how we could help. Significantly, most of the current members of the board of directors and the advisory council for what is now Orphan Hope International were sitting at this lunch. As we talked a plan formed to develop a U.S. ministry to support Fundacion Tayakai (Tayakai is a native Colombian word meaning “me”) and so was born what is now Orphan Hope International. We all had witnessed the hand of God mighty upon each of us in drawing us together on that day, at that table, for those sweet children. It was a truly momentous lunch for all of us. Second, that night we all gathered in one cabin and had our closing devotion for the trip. I shared what I had been studying from the life of Jesus about how He loved and cared for the needy. We were all moved by His example. After my devotion we were each given the opportunity to share a testimony of what God was doing in our hearts on this trip. Each Padrino (Godparent) and each Ahijada (Goddaughter) shared and there was not a dry eye in the place. One of the testimonies that touched me the most was from Lida, David’s Goddaughter. She told us that she had been watching us and learning from us on the last four mission and Padrino trips that she had been on. She had seen us be the hands and feet of Jesus and she had decided that when she was grown that she wanted to give her life to orphan ministry too. Words can’t describe how smitten each of us were with her words. It was beautiful and we determined to press on. We thought that was enough supernatural working of the Holy Spirit for one day but He was not done yet. We were all getting ready to bed down when Alexandra came to the door and said that Heidy and Ginary needed their “parents.” We went to investigate and discovered that they were in a sisterly squabble and needed some parental guidance 🙂 Over the next two hours with Alex’s help we had the most precious, honest, meaningful conversation, first with Ginary alone and then with Heidy and Ginary together. It was Mom and Dad pouring their hearts out to their two daughters and their two daughters pouring their hearts out to them and to each other. It was absolutely precious and God tightened the cords of our hearts even more that night for these girls and all of the children of Colombia.

I was so engrossed with enjoying my time with my wife and Goddaughters on this trip that I didn’t write in my journal every day like I did on other trips but I will recap here. Every day except one we stayed at the club and swam, ate, talked, bowled, and generally had a marvelous time. One day we went to the mall and took the girls shopping. Lisa had a great time helping them pick out all manner of clothing articles from shoes to coats. It was so wonderful being a family. It never ceases to amaze me how universally needed and craved love is. In the next post I will share our last night together on this trip.

When I awoke this morning and realized that my wife and I were staying at a nice country club in beautiful Colombia with our two sweet Goddaughters and that we were going to be here for 5 days just hanging out, eating, swimming, and many other activities, I had to pinch myself twice. God is good. We went to breakfast and I wish I could show you the sweet photos of the girls hugging and holding on to Lisa but alas it is illegal to post on the internet pictures of Colombian orphans. In all of my visits here and all of my time with my Goddaughters I have never been able to sit down with them with a translator and just talk. I speak some Spanish but we have to limit our conversations to easy stuff that I can understand. This morning however I was able to sit down with Heidy and our sweet translator Alexandra and have a real Father/Daughter talk about some personal hurts and struggles that Heidy was going through and I was so blessed to listen to her heart and to share my heart and we cried together. She was just sure that when I knew her a little of her story that I would not want her anymore for a daughter. I was able to assure her that I loved her not for what had or hadn’t happened to her or not or what she had or hadn’t done but because I chose to place my love upon her and to commit myself and everything I have and everything I am to being her Papi. And then I was able to tell her again about her Heavenly Father Who taught me how to love like this and about His extravagant love for us. It was the sweetest time. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and enjoying being a family. I will never get over hearing their little cute voices calling to Lisa and saying, “Mami, benga” or “Mami, mida” (Mom, come here or Mom, look). It was a treasure of Grace that I could never have imagined in a thousand years. God had to think up such a precious gift and dump it on me. Thank you Lord.

So in February and March of 2010, between the third and fourth trip to Colombia, the Bullen family is in the midst of an all out war. At the same time we are working hard on the mountains of adoption paperwork, I am pastoring, Luke and my girls are leading worship, Lisa and I are counseling dozens of people, I am working 115 miles from home on a new project, I am speaking at two Tres Dias weekends, our family is ministering to these two sweet but troubled girls God has sent us, and my dear brother Chris Dinkler calls me and says, “hey we are planning a Padrino trip to Colombia in April, you and Lisa gotta come.” My heart sinks because I know that there is no way Lisa and I can go. Other than the busy schedule and huge financial struggles that we are going through, Lisa has never been to Colombia or out of the country for that matter and she has emphatically stated on multiple occasions that her entire role in this orphan ministry is to stay home and pray! Well one day a plane ticket shows up in the mail with her name on it. I thought she would be so mad but instead she strutted through the house waiving it in the air telling everyone that she was going to Colombia to see her girls! It was awesome. Now I just had to pray for my way there. We prayed and prayed and just in time the money came in for us to go with some left over to spend on the Goddaughters while we were there. I was so excited that Lisa was going to be able to meet our two sweet girls that she had heard so much about. I had now been in Colombia twice with my daughters Rebekah and Beverly and once with my daughter Brooke and now I was going to get to take my bride. What a blessing! We were delighted that our friends and fellow soldiers Curt and Tonya Currie, David Richardson and his sister, Charlotte, Chris and Julie Dinkler, Luis Escobar and Alexandra Vanegas were also attending. Lisa and I arrived at the airport about 2 hours early and we sat in the terminal and enjoyed a nice lunch. I was giddy like a little child on Christmas morning waiting for the ok to go check under the tree. On a Padrino (Godparent) trip Padrinos are able to take their children out of the orphanage and have them with them for the week. We were going to be staying at the Country Club in Madrid. We met up with our friends and flew to Bogota. After we collected our luggage we walked outside and there were Sandra and all the Goddaughters waiting for us. They jumped into our arms and there were many hugs and kisses. Heidy and Ginary presented Lisa with a beautiful colombian corsage and a sweet letter that they had written for her. Once again I discovered that there were new depths of my heart still to be touched by these wonderful children. The first time I heard Heidy call Lisa, Mami (Mommy), in her sweet little sing song voice and saw the radiant look on her face I felt as if my life and all the struggles were more than worth it. I looked up to heaven in that chilly Colombian night sky and said, “Lord, I can go to heaven now. Hearing Heidy call Lisa, Mami, is reward enough. I don’t need anything more.” I can’t explain how deeply this touched me but once again I knew that I was in the right place, doing the right thing, and that nothing short of death was going to stop me.

Monday was our last day in Bogota. Two things have really blessed me as a Godfather on this trip. First, Ginary has taken close to fifteen hundred pictures with my camera this week and all but about ten were worth keeping! She really has an eye. In the orphanage she designs and makes clothes and the social workers say that she has a gift for it. She is totally illiterate and yet very intelligent, sweet, and always joyful. My wife and I look forward to helping her overcome the academic challenges. Second, Heidy brought us a large folder this morning stuffed with gifts that she had made for us. She is, by the way, an incredible sketch artist and she gave us four, four foot by four foot sketches that she has done and they were stunning. I can’t imagine the hours that she put into them. There were also some little notes and letters to the girls and such that were just precious. We took the girls up to Mansarrate which is a beautiful church on a mountaintop overlooking Bogota. We enjoyed riding the cable car up there and doing some souvenir shopping. Then we went over to Amparo De Ninas for lunch. The girls were once again very excited to see us and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them for several hours. I was able to meet with the officials there and get a very encouraging update on the process for my two girls. I, for the first time in this whole ordeal with them, am beginning to feel that I can allow myself to hope that we will bring them home someday soon. We gathered the children together and distributed their gifts. Each girl received her red bag with a pair of sunglasses, tennis shoes, Spanish New Testament, and a doll. They were so excited. One little girl was weeping profusely and when David asked her what was wrong she told him that she was from a very poor family and that she had not been at the orphanage very long and that this was the first gift she had ever received in her life. We finally came to the hardest part and that was leaving for the last time this trip. It goes without saying that it ripped my heart out to hug and kiss my girls goodbye and then drive out of those iron gates knowing that I won’t see their beautiful smiles or hear their sing-song laughter or hold their little brown hands again for several months. We were all crying when we left and like me, I heard many a team member promise themselves that they would be coming back here soon to visit “their” girls. None of us can explain what happens in our hearts when we are with these dear children but I think Chris Dinkler said it the best that I have ever heard when he said, “The next time someone tells me they want to see Jesus I’m going to tell them, ‘I can give you the street address where He lives…’” We have truly been among the “least of these” the last eight days and like the old song says, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Today was our “free” day. We had planned to stay at the hotel today and rest but Antonio mentioned that he had a friend that was a member of a big country club and that we could go swimming there and the Goddaughters jumped up and down and begged to go so… we had to stop at the store and get swim suits for some of us and Chuck and I found out that XL in Colombia is not the same as XL in the states. We had a wonderful time playing in the water and then had a really nice lunch. After lunch we walked over to the little coffee shop at the club and it soon became obvious that another providence was in the making. The friend of Sandra and Antonio that is a member of the club is in the oil and gas business here in Bogota. Allen, Antonio, David, and I were standing around talking with him and Antonio told us that he was excited about helping with the orphan ministry and especially a half-way house for the girls that have aged out of the orphanage. David, who has been desperately praying about what to do when his Goddaughter Lida ages out March 1st and has no place to go, asked about getting a job for Lida and the man, Julian, said, “No problem, I can put her to work in one of my gas stations.” David had to turn away as the tears began to flow. The rest of us knew right then that this was why we came to the club today. What a blessing that God is raising up powerful and influential people daily to help in this work! We came back to the hotel and gathered for a small Sunday service in the breakfast area. I shared from 2 Corinthians 5:14 “For Christ’s love compels us…” and talked about the fact that the motivation for this trip and for everything that we do is to be found in the truth that Christ first loved us and because of that wonderful love we can now love others. Love is the motivation. I then opened it up to testimonies and nearly every person in the room from the Goddaughters to team members shared how that love shown to the children and received from the children had impacted them this week. There were a lot of tears and we all teased about the dust and smoke in Bogota that makes us all cry all of the time. It was a precious time. Each of the Goddaughters shared their hearts with us and it was absolutely precious. After dinner we were able to video chat with Chuck’s family and my family and it was so sweet for Heidy and Ginary and Lida to get to talk to our families. Heidy and Ginary were very excited to talk to their Madrina (Godmother), there other sisters who couldn’t come, and they were very happy to meet Chuck’s family as well. We talked and laughed and joked and loved on each other. I don’t know how it could have been sweeter. Tomorrow we spend our last day at Amparo De Ninos. It is bitter/sweet as I look forward to one more day with my friends there and also one more day with my girls. Bitter because when we leave tomorrow night, I will have to leave my beautiful girls there. I have a love/hate relationship with the dirty, potholed alley that leads to the orphanage where my girls live. I love it when I arrive and I hate it when I leave. When we turn onto it upon arrival my heart rate quickens pace and I feel a surge of love and energy shoot through my chest. When we turn onto it out of the orphanage gate to leave I feel that my chest is caving in and I inwardly cry out to God in anguish that He will help me to help these children. I and my daughters have shed many tears on that road. I am praying for the day when they can come home with us forever or we can come home to them in Bogota, whichever God desires. Please continue to pray for us and thank you so much.

Fine, I will quit talking about superlatives all together. Today was absolutely heavenly. We went to Amparo De Ninas in Bogota. This is the home orphanage of the ministry. It is where everything started and where some of the board members have adopted children. It is also the home of three of the Goddaughters including mine. When we turned onto the dirt road that leads to the orphanage a flood of emotions washed over me as I remembered that I would be leaving two of my daughters here in two days. I pray for the day that I can take all of them home with me. As usual, when we arrived, the girls all came out to greet us and we stood on the sidewalk and talked for several minutes and then moved to the playground and had a very fun time of basketball, volleyball, crafts, and lots of sitting around visiting. We had invited the little boys from the Pro Nacer orphanage that we visited on Monday to join us today at Amparo De Ninas and at two o’clock they arrived and joined the fun. This continued for several hours and then the rain clouds came and we all moved to the cafeteria. Someone suggested that we sing to the kids and so David, Chris, Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke and I sang several praise and worship songs for the children and they really loved it. Then to our delight, my Goddaughter Heidy got up and sang a beautiful song for the crowd. She has a stunning voice. Then it got even better when she called some of her friends up there with her and they led all the children in several praise and worship songs in Spanish. It was truly heavenly. I was able to share with them about the love of God and to thank them for teaching us more about that love today. Then we had a hotdog dinner and ice cream and some Colombian dances. An amazing providence was revealed today that was bitter/sweet. There is a pair of beautiful twin girls about thirteen years old that live at Amparo that we have become friends with. Unbeknownst to any of us, they have twin little brothers that live at Pro Nacer. They hadn’t seen their brothers in three years and when the Pro Nacer boys arrived today they were unexpectedly reunited. It was incredibly touching to see the delight in their eyes. The bitter part was that they cried and cried when the boys had to leave tonight and go back to their orphanage. My girls and I held the twin girls while they sobbed and sobbed. It was a stark reminder of the awful plight of these sweet children. I seriously doubt that there are four cuter or sweeter children in all the world than these two set of twins and yet they can’t be together in a loving family. One of the highlights of the day for me was that I got a chance to sit down with my Goddaughters with Luis translating and really have a heart to heart talk about a lot of things. It was so sweet to be able to share with each other things that we have been thinking about and wondering about but the language barrier had kept us from discussing at length. There were tears of joy as we finished our conversation. Sweet Ginary spoke for both girls and told me that they love and adore me and my family and they are so grateful that God saw fit to bring us into their lives and that they never in their wildest dreams thought that something good like this would ever happen in their life. We had the unexplainable privilege to love on our savior all day today through these precious children and I know that our whole team would back me in saying that we are forever changed. Thank you for your prayers.

OK, so if I had a hard time with enough superlatives to explain how amazing yesterday was it will be hopeless to try to accurately describe today. All I can say to try and illustrate it was that we were under the Niagara Falls of grace all day today! We started out our day by once again meeting in the courtyard and praying these verses aloud to the Lord,

Lord, you have given me many precious and very great promises, 2 Peter 1:4(ESV) which are all Yes and Amen in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:20(ESV) Now be it to your servant according to the word that you have spoken. 2 Samuel 7:25(ESV)

Give me to draw water with joy from these wells of salvation, Isaiah 12:3(ESV) to nurse and be satisfied from Jerusalem’s consoling breast; Isaiah 66:11(ESV) and now, O LORD God, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant be established forever, and do as you have spoken. 1 Chronicles 17:23(ESV)

Deal with me according to the tenor of the everlasting covenant, which is well-ordered in all things and secure, and which is all my help and all my desire. 2 Samuel 23:5(ESV)

Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name; Psalm 119:132(ESV) do more for me than I am able to ask or think, Ephesians 3:20(ESV) and supply all my needs according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19(ESV)

Then I reminded the team that when we are ministering to these children today we are really ministering to Jesus through them and as we learn to love them, we learn to love Him more. We returned to Ciudad De La Nina today and had a big cook out with our friends there and the boys from Amparo De Ninos. We served somewhere around five hundred hotdogs with potato chips, soda, cookies, and twenty five gallons of ice cream with all of the toppings. Kamala and Teresa set up a beauty shop and gave the girls manicures and painted nails. Chuck and I had a little adventure that was quite unexpected as well. We heard some girls screaming about a cow behind the kitchen and went to investigate. There was a steer that was trying to get scraps out of a plastic trash can and his horn had poked through the side and the trash barrel was stuck fast to his head. He was thrashing about on the ground trying to get it off. I started to turn away thinking surely it would eventually get it off himself when little Heidy looked up at me with the most pitiful little girl look and said, “Please Padrino (Godfather), help him.” Chuck and I tried several times to get it off and nearly got thrown ourselves a few times. Finally I found an old broom handle and we cornered the steer and I pried the barrel off and we let the steer loose. Well unbeknownst to us a large crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle and when we finished a loud cheer went up with several high fives. My favorite part of course was when my Goddaughter Heidy jumped into my arms and said, “My Super Padrino!” The most wonderful part of the day was the many hours that we spent visiting with and playing with and teasing and loving on these two hundred and forty beautiful children. Every member of the team had three, four, five, or more children following them everywhere, holding their hand, talking a mile a minute and just generally enjoying being together. I’ve experienced this before but it never ceases to amaze me how we come here to show the love of Jesus to these children and teach them about Him and they end up teaching us more about Him than we knew. I love the line from Steven Curtis Chapman’s song What Now which says, “I saw the face of Jesus in a little orphan girl, she was standing in the corner on the other side of the world.” It is so true that He is to be found in places like we were today. At last it was time to leave and we made our way to the vans with a throng of children hanging on us and begging us not to go. There were many tears and hugs and promises to return soon. As we were slowly driving out of the compound, a little girl who had spent every minute of two days with Chuck ran in front of the van and around to the front passengers door where Chuck was sitting with the window rolled down and his arm on the sill. She jumped up and grabbed his arm and hung on it as the van rolled to a stop saying “You’re not leaving are you?” You’re not leaving are you?” Chuck picked her up and gave her one last kiss on the cheek and one last goodbye and then we were gone. There wasn’t a dry eye in either van. Even our hired driver broke down and cried. I don’t know all that God has planned for this ministry and my family in particular but I have seen more miracles in the last six months since first coming here than in the rest of my Christian life of twenty seven years. The number of amazing providences that we have all witnessed this week alone so far is astounding. To God be the glory!

I honestly cannot think of a superlative strong enough to express how wonderful today was. We met in the courtyard of the hotel this morning as a team and prayed these verses to the Lord.

O that the favor of the LORD my God may be upon me; prosper the work of my hands upon me; yes, establish the work of my hands. Psalm 90:17(ESV) Save me, I pray, O LORD! O Lord, I pray, give me success! Psalm 118:25(ESV)

May my sons in their youth be as plants full grown, and my daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. May my granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; and may there be no breaking in or going out, no cry of distress in the streets of your people. Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD! Psalm 144:12-15(ESV)

Let me be blessed in the city and blessed in the field; Deuteronomy 28:3(ESV) let my basket and my kneading bowl be blessed; let me be blessed when I come in and when I go out. Deuteronomy 28:5-6(ESV)

Let your good providence so order all events concerning me that they may be made to work for good for me, as you have promised they shall for all who love you and are called according to your purpose. Romans 8:28(ESV)

Give me to trust in the LORD and do good, and then I shall dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness; Psalm 37:3(ESV) and be pleased to bring forth my righteousness as the light, and my justice as the noonday. Psalm 37:6(ESV)

Let me be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and not fear destruction when it comes; Job 5:21(ESV) let me be in league with the stones of the field, and let the beasts of the field be at peace with me; let me know that my tent is at peace, and let me inspect my fold and miss nothing. Job 5:23-24(ESV)

And if God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go during my pilgrimage in this world, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I may come to my heavenly Father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. Genesis 28:20-21(ESV)

Then we were ready to go! We rode out to Ciudad De La Nina, a Christian orphanage in Madrid which is about an hour from our hotel. Beverly, Brooke, David, and I sang praise and worship songs all the way there. I don’t know what the rest of the van thought but we had a blast anyway. Ha Ha. We arrived and immediately realized that the girls from the half-way house on Tuesday were also there because they knew we were coming! It was a joyous reunion to start out the day and then we began to meet and visit with the one hundred sixty girls who reside there. This orphanage is in the countryside and it is beautiful. They have a large courtyard with grass and big trees. We played football, frisbee, stickball, and a Colombian version of dodgeball that was really fun. When we tired of the games we sat around in the shade and each of us would instantly have a group of six or eight girls around us asking questions and trying diligently to help us improve our spanish and help them improve their english. There were so many cute, sweet little girls that we just couldn’t stop commenting to each other on how wonderful they were. My sweet Goddaughter, Ginary, has been keeping up with my cameral all week and she has taken several hundred really good pictures. She got some really wonderful shots today. We literally sat around and visited for several hours. I was able to see many of my little friends from last June. Sadly though, one that I was looking forward to seeing, Brenda, was quarantined with fourteen other girls with mumps. We stood outside of their dorm and talked to them through the windows. We had a wonderful traditional Colombian lunch on the ground and late in the afternoon we assembled in the large dining hall. The girls had a very nice traditional dance that they performed for us and then I was blessed to share the gospel with them. I explained to them the power of and necessity of the love of God. It was God’s great love that motivated Him to share the greatest gift ever given, His son, Jesus Christ and when we receive that gift by faith then He fills us with that powerful love and we can then love others and that was why we were there today to pour out on them that love that God has put in our hearts for that is the real Christian life, God first loved us so that we can love Him and then love others. I thanked them that they had already shown us how much they understand this truth by the way they poured out their love for us today. After the message, Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke, David, and I sang Here I Am To Worship, Come Now Is The Time To Worship, and Agnus Dei for them. They shouted and clapped and begged for more. It was really fun. My Goddaughter, Heidy, who sings beautifully was so thrilled to be able to hear us sing that when we finished she jumped into my arms and said, “I love you, I love you, I love you” in english. We then gave the girls their big red gift bags with pajamas, a spanish New Testament, etc. They were very grateful. We got to go back out into the park or square and visit a little longer before we had to go. The girls flocked around us so thick saying goodbye that it was hard to get into the vans. But it was a happy goodbye because they know that we are returning tomorrow for a big cook-out at their place and we will be joined by the boys from Amparo De Ninos that we visited yesterday. It will be a fantastic day. Suffice it to say that the multitude of sweet conversations, prayers, hugs, smiles, laughter, kisses, and the many little providences of God today would take many more paragraphs and authors to capture but we had an awesome day and are very grateful for all of the prayers. I can’t help but share something with you that my little Goddaughter, Heidy, said to me tonight after we got back to the hotel. She said, “How can my Godfather, a man so big in every sense of the word, love someone so small and simple as me?” I didn’t know that there were depths of my heart that this little girl had not reached yet but she continues to surprise me by penetrating into uncharted territory and claiming it for herself. I think I learned some new lessons today about that powerful love of God. Thank you Lord!

Today was a wonderful kingdom warfare day. We went to see our friends at Amparo De Ninos in Madrid. It houses eighty-five boys eight to eighteen in an old monastery in the country. This boys orphanage is so much different than the Pro Nacer orphanage that we visited on Monday. This is a government institution and most of the boys are from the street so it has a little harder edge to it. The boys are less open to relationships. Nevertheless, I knew my daughter Beverly was highly anticipating going back to this orphanage because of the boys she had made friends with there in June. We were so happy to see some of our old friends and to make many new ones. After visiting for awhile, the boys were assembled and Chuck spoke to the boys. He shared with them about trust and encouraged them to put that trust in Jesus as their only hope for this life and the life to come. There were also many opportunities to share about Christ in one on one conversations. Right after the assembly, a cute little boy about eight years old named Samuel came up and took my hand and said, “Benga con migo a lonche” (come with me to lunch). We went through the line and had a customary Colombian lunch of meat, rice, salad, soup, and juice. I really enjoyed chatting with several boys while Samuel climbed all over me and pelted me with tons of questions. He was very, very cute. After lunch, we handed out the gifts. Each boy received a stocking cap, tennis shoes, pajamas, a Hot-Wheels car, and a letter of love from somebody in Texas. The letters meant so much to the boys. At one point I looked around to see that all of my girls were ok and accounted for and my heart swelled with joy to see Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke, Ginary, and Heidy helping, and taking pictures, and visiting with the boys. I am such a blessed man. Thank you God for allowing us to all be here together sharing your love with these young men and boys. As always there were lots of hugs, smiles, and a few tears. God had given us such an awesome team. It was a joy to see each of them giving of themselves recklessly to show the love of Jesus to these hurting boys. Luis, one of our translators, had an idea about showing the boys how to make newspaper hats and decorate them. They were really neat. I remember at one point looking around and seeing Kamala making a hat for a boy and they both had the biggest smile you could imagine. After our visit, part of the team went shopping for the items that we will need on Friday and Saturday for a big cook out with these boys and one hundred and sixty girls at Ciudad De La Nina nearby. The rest of the team enjoyed the shops near the hotel, shooting each other with silly string, and a fun dinner. Being here with my daughters and Goddaughters has been one of the sweetest things ever in my life. We have laughed, and teased, and loved on each other and the rest of the team. My heart is full and I am looking forward to seeing my little friends at Ciudad De La Nina tomorrow. Please keep praying for this team and our families. We are deep in enemy (spiritually) territory and we can feel it but we know Who sent us here and are excited about the work that He is doing in us and through us. We all have many stories of Divine appointments and relationship connections being made. Praise His name!

Our hearts were stretched again today as we visited two half-way houses for older orphans who have aged out of the system when they turn eighteen. We started with the girls house. There are twenty girls living there. They are very studious and work very hard. Many have jobs and go to school at night. Their house was very clean. Because they knew we were coming, most of the girls had gone over to the boys half-way house to cook lunch for us there so we went over to the boys house. Several of the girls we have met on previous trips and keep up with on Facebook. Some we have met on Facebook through the other girls. It was really wonderful to see them and visit with them. They were so sweet and so happy to see us. It was great to meet the young men and learn about all that they are studying and their work. We spent several hours with the boys and girls. Two of our ladies on the team, Kamala and Teresa, set up shop and began to give haircuts and styles to all of the girls. It was awesome to see their excitement. At the same time the boys were baking and they enlisted our help to mix the butter, sugar, eggs, banana extract, flour, and raisins in a big pot with our hands. There were many one or two on one conversations and many opportunities to speak about Christ to the young people. Later we went back to the girls house and handed out the big red bags to each girl filled with pajamas, lotion, foot care, scrunchies, and a pretty scarf. They were so grateful. Then we had to go. It was very hard to leave them. There were many hugs and “Dios los bendiga” (God bless you). We were so thankful to find forty boys and girls who have a chance to not become one of the statistics that exist for children that age out at eighteen. For the rest of them, some sixty percent will end up in human trafficking and another fifteen percent will commit suicide within two years. We were blessed to know that these young people have a better chance. We have been talking for about six months about how to have more of these half-way houses in Colombia and we will continue to pray and work toward expanding this vision for the children that are too old to adopt but can’t stay at the orphanage any longer. Tomorrow we will be going to Amparo De Ninos (Protection of Boys) in Madrid. This is the first orphanage that we visited last June and we have many little friends there that we are looking forward to seeing again. The Goddaughters have been as good as gold. They are such blessings. Our hearts are full and this trip has only just begun. Thank you for your prayers.

Glory! We had a wonderful first day! After the long day of travel yesterday it was nice to start out a little slow this morning. We had breakfast together in the hotel and then sat around and visited with the Goddaughters and the team until lunch time. We had lunch and then went to Pro Nacer Orphanage. It is a small city orphanage that I wrote about in September that has 50 boys in what amounts to a 3-story house. We were first given a tour of this immaculately clean and very organized house. The boys were then led into a single room for an assembly. I was privileged to share the gospel with them from John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” The team had been working on a theme for the trip and one of the verses that came up was this one. I was excited because I had already been thinking that I would use this verse to speak to the children this week. I explained to them that because of Jesus coming into the world and because of His sacrifice on the cross that we can now, by faith, become the children of God. In this life we may lose parents, we may long to have a father who loves us and protects us but by faith in Jesus we can have a Heavenly Father who will never leave us, who will always love and protect us. I shared with them that this life is but a vapor. It appears for a little while and then vanishes away. But eternity is forever. This life with its trials and tragedies and failures and disappointments is only a testing ground for the next life. It is a school where we learn about ourselves and our sinfulness, where we learn about a savior who takes away our sin and gives us the right to become the children of God, where we have the opportunity to put our faith in this savior and by doing so we pass the test. We finish the school of this life and we go to live with our Father forever. I challenged them to check their hearts and know if the Holy Spirit was confirming this word in them. Then I encouraged them to cry out to the savior so that they could become His children and live forever with Him. One of our translators, Alexandra, later told me that the director of the orphanage excitedly told her that my message was exactly what they have been teaching the boys about this life and about the love of God and that it was a confirmation from God for them to hear it again and this time from a stranger. The director said that as the boys were listening to the message, they would look at her as if to say, “Hey that‘s what you have been telling us, it must be true.” Praise God that He orchestrates these things for His glory. We enjoyed many other amazing providences today as well. The gifts were then passed out to each boy by name. These were red bags that the ladies had stayed up late into the night last night packing for each boy by name and clothing size from a list we had received from the orphanage previously. In the big red bag was a New Testament in spanish, a set of pajamas, a pair of tennis shoes, a matchbox car and some other toys. The boys were so excited to open their gifts and there were many “thank you’s” and the customary Colombian kiss on the cheek. Some of the team went to buy some items for the boys where they had identified a need and also a new washing machine for the orphanage while the rest of the team went outside to play… and play we did. I think all of us over 30 folks may have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning! There was basketball, soccer, frisbee, wrestling, and I think some um… er…. Kung Fu fighting or something. It was a wonderful time. We finally said our goodbyes but not for long for they will be joining us later in the week with another orphanage for hotdogs and ice cream. We had a wonderful dinner, laughed so much we nearly got thrown out of the restaurant, and came back to the hotel where all the daughters got to talk to my family back home on the video chat. Well, I had better get to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow at the half-way houses for the orphans who have aged out of the orphanage and are trying to find jobs and or going to school. Please continue your prayers for us.

Two months after Orphan Sunday, we took another group to Bogota. Once again, there were many amazing providences that led up to this trip. One that especially sticks out in my mind was a prayer meeting that David Richardson, Allen Pate and myself had in my study. We had all been feeling the pressure and the spiritual warfare leading up to this trip and we agreed to meet at my place and get on our faces before God and seek His help and power. Before we began to pray, David mentioned some men that the Lord had laid on his heart regarding orphan ministry. We wrote down three names and prayed for them and for God’s leading. One of the men’s names was Chris Dinkler, a brother that we had met at Tres Dias. It was a powerful prayer meeting and afterward we dried our eyes and hugged each other goodbye. About twenty minutes later, my phone rang and it was David and his voice was shaking and he told me that just after he and Allen left my house, his phone rang and it was Chris Dinkler calling to say that for “some reason” he and his wife couldn’t quit thinking about Colombia and the orphans and that he wanted to get more information about going with us. Chris did go with us on the January trip and now he is Vice President of Orphan Hope International. Once again, God was bringing the people together to help us defend the fatherless and He was clearly showing us that we were on the right track in pursuing this vision. Hallelujah!

We made the trip in January 2010. It was a marvelous time of blessing for the orphans and for us. The following are my daily journal entries from that trip.

God’s grace was so evident today as we traversed two international airports with 17 team members and 30 checked bags of luggage most of which were filled with gifts for the children we will be ministering to this week. I praise the Lord for a very smooth arrival. The greatest excitement of the night was that the Goddaughters surprised us at the airport! We thought we were going to pick them up tomorrow but our “in country representative” Sandra had arranged for them to meet us at the airport. As we were going through the last security checkpoint my heart stopped as I looked through the plate glass and saw my precious little Heidy jumping up and down with the biggest smile you can imagine. Then I saw the rest of the girls. We burst through the doors and the hugs were on! They look so good and it was so wonderful to have 5 of my girls in one place! It was a joyous reunion to be sure. We have a very packed week and a half ahead of us and it is such a joy to know that the four Goddaughters will be with us. Tomorrow we visit an orphanage of 50 little boys called Pro Nacer. Thank you for your help in getting us here. Please keep us in your prayers.