Archives 2011

In Paul’s greeting in Philemon 2 & 3 he says, “to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I am blessed to know some fellow soldiers. One of them is a girl named Hannah that I pastored for several years and is like a daughter to me. She comes from a family of fellow soldiers. I remember Hannah and her brothers and their shining smiles sitting under my preaching as I would thunder out the call to “Go to the nations.” God was eating my own heart up about missions and it spilled over into many of my sermons. Sermons like “Lift up your eyes” and “Other Sheep”. I remember how I would pray that God would send some of the young people in my church to the nations.

Hannah was the quiet one who served faithfully but never out in front. She always had a baby in her arms, one of her many siblings or another baby in the church, and a smile on her face. She and her mother held a little Bible study once a week called Young Women of Purpose. My daughters loved to go. They benefitted greatly from the books studied and the God saturated conversations.

Later when Hannah was in Bible College we communicated often and it was such a joy to hear her heart and to say a “you can do it” or “God is faithful, He will take care of you.”

Today Hannah lives in an orphanage in Uganda, being the hands and feet of Jesus. She is loving and serving the children of Uganda.

I am so humbled and blessed and thrilled to call her Our Fellow Soldier.

One of the P’s from the ministry of Jesus that I shared with our team on our recent trip to Bogota, Colombia was Power. At the end of the devotion I shared that the path to power is weakness. Here are some more thoughts on this subject.

Wonderful words from the book Spirit Empowered Preaching by Arturo Azurdia about power through weakness. Applicable to preacher and Christian alike.

“In a vestry in Aberdeen these words were used to confront the preacher ere he mounted the pulpit stairs: ‘No man can glorify Christ and himself at the same time.’ If the Holy Spirit is to speak through the preacher and the preaching he must have clear passage – not through a void, but through a mind and personality laid open in all its delicate and intrinsic parts to the operation of the Spirit, to the end that his total powers may be willingly and intelligently bent to the present purpose of God.” – William Still

“What is the requisite of such dedication? A man must recognize the significance of his inabilities. All that has been thus far set forth in terms of prayer and exegetical diligence grows out of one all-encompassing recognition: any attempt to proclaim the word of God will prove futile if the only strength in which to do so is less than divine. A major step toward experiencing the power of God necessitates a thorough-going recognition of our lack of it. Herein, then, is the third responsibility given to the man of God: the preacher must recognize, and even revel in, his own human inabilities.”

“Of the many paradoxes that appear in Paul’s Corinthian correspondences, one of the most significant is his recurring theme of power through weakness. Certainly this emphasis is taken because of the triumphalistic spirit so prevelant in Corinth. Such self-confidence invalidates the need for divine power and thus compromises the success of the gospel. Hence, Paul sets forth this apparent paradox on at least three occasions. The reader should take note of three similar phrases, or purpose clauses, translated ‘that’ which magnify the power-through-weakness motif. Consider the first:

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (1 Cor. 2:3-5).

Stated simply, Paul’s conscious weakness gave way for the faith of the Corinthians to come into existence by the means of God’s power. A second, and similar, phrase appears in 2 Corinthians 4: ‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels’ (2 Cor. 4:7a). The message of the gospel, given to Paul and his associates, existed in frail, limited, and weak physical bodies. Paul elaborates:

we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus…(2 Cor. 4:8-10).

What purpose did this serve? ‘…that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves’ (2 Cor. 4:7b). Paul’s evident weakness served to magnify the greatness of God’s power. Finally, Paul raises this paradox again in 2 Corinthians 12:

And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me – to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distress, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:710).

If human weakness is the channel through which God most readily communicates His power, Paul was prepared not only to affirm his weakness, but to revel in it. Hence his steady theme is undeniably evident: God’s power is expressed through human weakness.”

“It may be asked, is this theme unique to Paul? One may answer ‘yes’ if the perspective from which this is being asked concerns the specific explanation of this power-through-weakness concept. However, without hesitation one must answer ‘no’ if the perspective from which this is being asked concerns the record of God’s dealings with His spokesmen. That is to say, the Bible records the similar experiences of men like Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, Jeremiah and Hosea. The fact is, it is highly unlikely that any man will ever know of the Spirit’s power until he is willing to confess before God, ‘If You must hurt me to make me a suitable channel of Your power, then do so.’ Sometimes this pain may be visible to the naked eye. On other occasions it may be hidden from public view. But this is God’s most frequently employed means of equipping His servants.

Hudson Taylor once stated: ‘All God’s giants have been weak men.’ Why is this the case? Because a weak man possesses no confidence in his own strength. When desperate for power he searches outside of himself. Taylor went on to say, “God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.”

Christian preachers are notorious for touting the successes of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the ‘Prince of Preachers’, and rightly so. Unfortunately, few are aware of the weaknesses that providence inflicted upon him. Spurgeon was a man who experienced deep bouts of depression for extended periods. In 1858, at age twenty-four, depression struck him for the first time, and consequently afflicted him for the rest of his life. He confessed of occasions when he ‘could weep by the hour’. When his wife Susannah was thirty-three years old she became a virtual invalid and rarely heard Spurgeon preach for the last twenty-seven years of his ministry. Spurgeon suffered from gout, rheumatism, and Bright’s disease (inflammation of the kidneys). In fact, ‘one third of the last twenty-two years of his ministry was spent out of the pulpit, either suffering, convalescing, or taking precautions against the return of these illnesses’. In addition, Spurgeon endured a lifetime of public ridicule and slander. Occasionally, it was directed at him from unbelievers. Often, the source of the attack came from other preachers. How, it must be asked, did Spurgeon himself interpret these manifold experiences of suffering and affliction:

‘Instruments shall be used, but their intrinsic weakness shall be clearly manifested; there shall be no division of the glory, no diminishing of the honor due the Great Worker. The man shall be emptied of self, and then filled with the Holy Ghost… My witness is, that those who are honored of their Lord in public, have usually to endure a secret chastening, or to carry a peculiar cross, lest by any means they exalt themselves, and fall into the snare of the devil…. Such humbling but salutary messages our depressions whisper in our ears; they tell us in a manner not to be mistaken that we are but men, frail, feeble, apt to faint.’

God will have no competitors. For this reason He manifests His power through weakness.”

Now for some of my own thoughts on this. It is endemic to our human nature to loathe weakness and love strength. Every little boy wants to be Superman, Hercules, and the Incredible Hulk all rolled into one. But “God’s ways are not our ways” and “He has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.” Our Father wants us to rely completely on Him. He wants to be strong for us and receive our praise in return. He says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He knows how bent we are on idolatry. He knows that if we had strength we would rely on it and not on Him. He wants us to be as little children totally dependent on our Father. When things are really rough and I am in a lot of pain and I have to preach or counsel someone, I don’t have to discipline myself to pray. It is automatic. All I can do sometimes is cry out “Father, Father, Father.” That is when the power comes. When I’m in Colombia and I see the great need and feel my utter weakness to accomplish it I hear myself in my spirit saying “Jesus YOU are sufficient for this” or “God overcome, God overcome.” Many times I just cry out from Psalm 63:1 “Oh God.” Sometimes all we can do is lean towards our Father in our spirit. We don’t even have the words, but like a little child we turn to our Father with a pleading look and “the Spirit helps our infirmities” when we don’t even know what to pray, He prays for us with “groanings which cannot be uttered.” I believe that we would see the hand of God in our lives much more than we do if we would quit trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be tough and muscle through and instead do our work diligently but always with a sense of dependence and leaning on Him.

Spurgeon had all those difficulties but he continued to preach to over 10,000 people for 40 years. It is said that there were 15 steps leading up to his pulpit and as he ascended the pulpit, every time his foot would land on one of those 15 steps he would quietly say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” He knew that he didn’t have to be strong, just obedient. Hallelujah!

Remember Gideon in Judges 6 & 7? He had 32,000 men to go up against a much greater force of Midianites but then, “The LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’” (Judg. 7:2) so in the end, Gideon has 300 men. Total weakness. Why? So that it would be obvious to everyone that God had done it. He will not share His glory with anyone.

Even Jesus Christ, the God-Man accomplished His greatest work of all time and eternity through weakness, “since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.” 2 Cor. 13:3 and Jesus gave all of the glory to His Father and His Father in turn glorified Him, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“YOU ARE MY SON,

TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”;

just as He says also in another passage,

“YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER

ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 5:5-10

We constantly see Jesus in the gospels being “childlike” “I only do what my Father tells me to do…” and so on. He is our example. We must rest in our own inability and depend in faith on His ability and then we will see God pour out His grace and glory.

Why does God command us to do so many things that we are totally incapable of doing? So that we will come to the end of ourselves and realize that we cannot do it unless He does it through us.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

Read Part II HERE

Every year for the last 12 years I have written a New Year’s letter to friends and family and every year I have started the letter with “this year was our busiest, most exciting, or most stretching year yet.” Well 2010 so exceeded any previous year in every category that I will not even try to compare it to any other year to date. It was a year of miracles, battles, loss, great advances, and most of all, it was a year of drawing ever closer to our sweet Savior and drinking deeply of His sufficiency in everything. The year started off with a bang in January as we reached out to a devastated young woman named Jana who was in a courtship with our son Levi who was in Chicago in the Navy. We took Jana in on January 15 and the next day Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke, and I left for Bogota, Colombia for a week. We had a marvelous time of blessings and ministry in Colombia but all during that week the story of what Jana had been through was unfolding and by the time we returned home we were in an all out battle with her adopted parents, the church I was pastoring, and the hordes of hell.

Over the next three months we learned what it means to fast and pray and sing and speak His name as we wrestled many days and nights with principalities and powers. In February I was laid off for the 3rd time in 2 years, had a car accident, had some major Lupus flare ups, was in court several times battling evil, and spoke at both the men’s and women’s Tres Dias weekends. God was so near to me and His power was so evident that I felt like I was in a dream. Rebekah was able to attend the women’s Tres Dias and God used that weekend to take her up about 3 notches on the radical for Jesus scale. I was so blessed to be there and to speak on the waterfall of Grace. One young woman who was there named Tanya really related with my messages on our Heavenly Father’s delight in us through Christ and how earthly fathers are supposed to reflect that with their children. She later asked me if I could be her “stand in” Daddy because she had never experienced that kind of love before :-). She is now a part of the family and like a big sister to the girls, especially Rebekah.

Through all of this Beverly was leading the charge to complete the adoption paperwork to bring our beloved Colombian girls home. In April Lisa and I traveled to Bogota to spend 5 lovely days with our girls there. It was Lisa’s first time in the country and first time to meet the girls. We had a dream week together. It was beautiful. We came home very excited and completed the last leg of the adoption paperwork. Unfortunately there were more battles to fight. The pressure of the prospect of having two Colombian girls to share us with proved to be too great for our 15 year old African daughter, Mercy. In the week after we returned home from Bogota she ran away 3 times and eventually CPS kept her and determined that we were not qualified to give her the psychological help that she needed and eventually terminated our parental rights. We were broken hearted to lose Mercy and equally devastated to learn that this incident had also disqualified us from adopting our Colombian girls as well. Once again though, God was nearer and more real than ever before.

In May, due to me standing up against serious sin in the church and holding the people involved accountable, defending Jana against her abusers, and our troubles with Mercy, our little church that I was pastoring dwindled to nothing and we closed our doors saddened but constantly assured in multiple and sometimes miraculous ways that we were on the right path and that God was preparing us for a greater vision. Even in all of this, Lisa and I still were able to counsel and encourage 2 to 4 couples a week throughout the spring.

Also during the spring a wonderful blessing from God was taking shape. Jana, who is a gifted musician and songwriter, began to write song after amazing song and Rebekah, Beverly, and Brooke began to help her to develop different harmonies Some of us got inspired by Jana’s writing and wrote a few songs ourselves to which Jana composed and added the music. Before long the girls had several songs with absolutely beautiful harmonies that they were singing around our piano every day. The anointing was so heavy that over the summer God brought scores of people through our home to hear them sing and there was never a dry eye in the house. It was like a kiss on the head from our Heavenly Father. The girls began to call themselves Purchased and started blogging about their songwriting at http://1cor619-20purchased.blogspot.com/. They are in the process now of recording their first CD.

In June we took 27 people to Bogota, Colombia to minster to about 400 orphans. God opened many doors and blessed in many ways. When we returned home, we determined that God was leading us to form a non-profit ministry to work on behalf of orphans everywhere. We named the ministry Orphan Hope International. It was a very exciting time. We began immediately to lay out a mission and vision for the ministry. Our mission statement reads “Transforming the lives of orphans and those ministering to them through Christ centered Mercy Missions, Padrino Programs, Adoption Awareness, and Haven Homes.” Our initial focus is on Colombia, then Latin America, and then the world. The ministry has literally exploded and we are running full blast just to try and keep up with all of the opportunities God is bringing us. God has put together a wonderful team of people who are like family to me. I am so honored to stand shield to shield with them and defend the fatherless. Our web address is www.OrphanHopeIntl.org. I have also blogged about the journey at www.mattbullen.blogspot.com

August was another miracle laden month for the Bullen family. God is so good! On Sunday, August 1st the parents of our precious daughter in law, Misti, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, on Monday, August 2nd our beautiful daughter Brooke turned 17, on Tuesday, August 3rd Lisa and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, on Wednesday, August 4 Luke and Misti gave birth to our first grandchild, a beautiful little girl named Joy, on Thursday, August 5th our son Levi came home from the Navy to join in the week of celebrations!

The rest of the summer was packed with orphan ministry endeavors. In September our board of directors made a trip to Bogota to meet with the Colombian government and establish official relations regarding our work there. The trip was successful beyond our wildest dreams and when we returned we began planning for a Christmas vacation program where we could bring our Goddaughters home to the U.S. for Christmas and our first annual fundraising dinner entitled Share The Hope.

October and November were grueling as we worked through mountains of paperwork and planning to be able to pull off these two events and spoke at two Tres Dias weekends. God walked right with us though and held our hand through every part of it. It was exhilarating to see Him knock down road block after road block to make this all come together. God sent another little miracle to us in November when Jana brought home a mentally ill homeless girl named Jessica that she found hungry and freezing outside of the Walmart where Jana worked. I’ll never forget the way the text started that Jana sent me to ask if it was ok, “Papi, please don’t say no right away…” Jana went on to remind me that this girl was Jesus in Matthew 25 and that she needed to be clothed and fed and so could she please stay with us. Of course I was overjoyed that God was raising up my girls to have this kind of heart and compassion and I assured her that she could indeed bring Jessica home with her. She stayed with us for a month and reminded us that people like Jessica are truly Jesus in a distressing disguise.

God blessed mightily, our work paid off, and on December 10 eight precious orphan girls stepped off of the plane to spend 3 wonderful weeks with us. It was a joyous and magical time and we were able to share all of the Christmas season with them. The Share The Hope fundraiser was wildly successful with over 300 people attending. My girls sang and I and other board members spoke. The orphan girls shared beautifully and tearfully about their hopes and dreams and asked for our help. It was an anointed evening to say the least. Levi and Jana were engaged in November and began planning a wedding for April of this year but the Navy changed their plans on them and so when we found out that Levi was going to be able to come home for Christmas we quickly scrambled and got the paperwork together and they were married on December 18. They still hope to have a reception with all of their Texas friends sometime this coming spring. God brought our whole family together and a few more for Christmas. I still shake my head and chuckle at my Heavenly Daddy when I think that 3 continents were represented at my dinner table on Christmas day. I have blogged in more detail about all of these events so I hope that you will check them out at www.mattbullen.blogspot.com.

Finally, this month we took 30 people to Colombia for a week and God rained down on us with blessings and opened doors. All of my girls went with me and sang and ministered in the orphanages. The ministry is poised to help tens of thousands of children in the years to come and I am so humbled and honored to be a part. We gave up our house this week and moved into an apartment as we try to prepare ourselves to be ready to minister in whatever part of the world that God needs us in that particular month. (We have many pleas for help from around the world). I can’t even imagine anymore not living daily in His hand, depending totally on Him for everything. I believe I can speak for my family when I say that we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. He is all we need. He is sufficient! We can lay back completely in His arms knowing that He will carry us through.

Our little family has grown up. Luke, Misti, and little Joy live in Willis, TX. They are planning on going with me to Bogota in June to minister to the orphans. Levi finishes his training command in Virginia this spring and he and Jana will find out then where they will be stationed long term. Rebekah will start classes at the All Nations School Of Missions in Houston this spring. She plans to be a missionary somewhere in Latin America. Beverly will attend Beauty College this spring. She plans to get her degree and then possibly teach cosmetology to the girls in the orphanages since there is a great demand for that trade in Colombia. Brooke plans to finish high school this spring and then move to Colombia to teach English in the orphanages there. All of our children love God and love others extravagantly and they are a continual blessing and inspiration to Lisa and me. Two other girls who have become like daughters to me are also headed to work with orphans. Rachel Humphrey who played the violin for the Bullen girls band Purchased is leaving this week to go to Mexico for a year and Hannah Loomis whom I pastored for years and whom I love dearly is leaving this week for a year in Uganda, living in the orphanage there and ministering to the children. I stand in awe of what God has done and how He has blessed me to be around some of His choice saints this year. All I can say is He is sufficient. He is all I need. We love you all and pray for the nearness of Christ to you and your families in 2011.

The Bullen Family

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.

Christmas Day 2010 was a day of miracles for the Bullen family. First of all, everyone of the original 7 Bullens were there (an increasing miracle as the years go by). Luke with his precious wife Misti and their beautiful baby Joy, Levi home from the Navy, Rebekah, Beverly, Brooke and of course Lisa and I. However, added to the mix were some very special people. Jana, Levi’s fiancee and a precious addition to our family, Tanya, a blessing that we have claimed as our own, Heidy and Ginary, our delightful Goddaughters from an orphanage in Colombia, Adrianna, an official of the Colombian government staying with us for the month of December, and Anoop, an Indian man with whom I have the privilege of working! 15 total! What a day it was. 3 continents were represented at our humble Christmas dinner. Amazing! Thank you Lord for making our home place where you dwell and where you draw your “other sheep” to yourself. Each one had a Christmas stocking with their name on it (thanks Brooke) filled with goodies and gifts. I would say it was magical but I think supernatural would be more appropriate. To God be the glory.

On December 10, 2010 one of the biggest miracles of my life transpired. I was standing in the international arrivals terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport with my wife and four girls when out walked my two Goddaughters from Colombia who had come to visit us for 3 weeks over Christmas. The story of how this moment came to be is strewn throughout this blog and some of it is hidden deep in my heart never to be shared this side of heaven. It would be impossible to list the number of prayers, tears, hours, phone calls, emails, meetings, pieces of paper, plane flights and heart-stopping setbacks that preceded this moment but suffice it to say it was significant. There were many times that we were told it was not going to happen and yet we continued to believe that “the setting for a miracle is difficulty and the setting for a great miracle is impossibility.” As I am writing now the girls are back in the orphanage in Bogota and our vacation with them is over but the list of little Christmas miracles that we have experienced over the last 3 weeks are still shining in our minds and in our hearts. Here are a few of them… Hearing Heidy in the morning say from the top of the stairs in English, “Good morning Daddy, I love you.” then she would run down the stairs and jump into my arms… Taking the girls shopping and Ginary walking up with two blouses and asking me which one I like the best and then smiling and putting the one I chose in the basket… Seeing them enjoy horseback riding, ice skating in the Galleria, making cookies and peanut brittle and fudge, picking out a Christmas tree, wrapping gifts, singing Christmas carols, shopping in Old Town Spring especially the old fashioned candy store and toy store, riding the rides at the Family Fun Center, playing video games with the girls and laughing their heads off, watching Spanish cartoons on Mom’s computer all night long (oops) and many many more. Christmas day was amazing. Seeing them enjoy our new grand baby Joy on her first Christmas. Watching them open their gifts was incredible. My favorite part however was Christmas Eve as we gathered around the fire with our hot chocolate and egg nog and listened as Heidy read to us the Christmas story out loud from the Spanish New Testament and then read Max Lucado’s John 3:16 gospel tract out loud in Spanish as we remembered why Jesus came. What a miracle moment it was.

December 2010 will live in my memory as the month of Christmas miracles. God showed Himself mighty in so many ways this month. It started with two officials of the Colombian government flying into Houston on December 3rd to meet and learn more about Orphan Hope International. We enjoyed 3 days of meetings and learned much about each other and how we can cooperate together to help the children of Colombia. The Holy Spirit was strongly felt in all of the meetings but it was the third day that will stand out in stark relief in my mind. We had been discussing many processes, programs and plans for our future work with orphans in Colombia when both of these officials with tears in their eyes looked at us and said, “The greatest thing that Colombia needs from Orphan Hope is the spiritual element. Luis (our Director of Operations) has been telling us how his life was changed through Tres Dias and we want you to bring that to all of our institutions in Colombia (about 30,000 children).” I felt the blood drain from my head and the hair stand up on my neck as I looked at the other board members in the room to make sure I had just hear what I had heard. Their wide tear filled eyes assured me that I had indeed heard correctly. We went on to talk about how Orphan Hope brings something that other organizations don’t bring and that is spiritual transformation through Jesus Christ. We talked about how reaching the children of Colombia with this message could ultimately impact the future of a nation and the world. It was a miracle moment and the beginning of a string of Christmas miracles that we were to enjoy as 2010 came to a close. To God be the glory!