Archives February 2012

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

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

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

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

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

Hey matt,

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

Jenn

Matt and Jenn Burton on Saturday

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

L to R Mel, Ken, Jenn, Dawn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Computer Bag

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

Tires

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

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

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

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