Archives 2012

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

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

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

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

Well I can’t believe it has been almost three weeks since my last update. It has been a little crazy at my office because Dustin is now working as the director of the Lords gym here on campus and Dave was on vacation for a week. So I had very little down time and on my down time I have been totally absorbed in this book my dad gave me called Reckless Abandon by David Sitton. Wow what a great book! David Sitton tells the story of his life as a missionary to the unreached tribes in Papua New Guinea. The part of the story that touched me the most is how no matter what danger or suffering he faced in the end he was sure of one thing JESUS IS WORTH IT! I want that passion and assurance. To know Jesus is enough for me. To want Jesus more then anything else. Well I have two experiences that I have to tell you about from the last three weeks. The first was on this Wednesday we teamed up with a ministry called Feed The Children to give out forty pounds of food per families to twelve hundred families. I could not believe the amount of food we had! The week before the event my Adopt a Block team and I had given out flier and invited people in all of the neighborhoods around the Dream Center and at many of the schools as well. We canvassed at all of our Adopt a Block sites too. The event was at two Wednesday afternoon and when I went out at nine that morning the line of people already had about two hundred people in it. We had six buses go out to pick up our families at our Adopt a Block sites. I had thirty of my families come from Nickerson Gardens. By Two o’clock we had more then twelve hundred families in line. We more then enough food to give out! The second God story is on Friday I was working with my team to bag up some fruit to give out at Adopt a Block when two ladies came up to me and asked in Spanish if I could give them any food. A lady helping us bag translated for me as one of the ladies told me that they could not make it to the food give away yesterday and hope we had some leftover food because she had no food in the house at all and she has four kids. I went with the ladies to our main office and asked them to call the food bank to ask if they could give them any food. As we waited for the food bank I tried to talk with one of the ladies with the limited Spanish I know. When to food came I was able to give them some toys and dippers for their kids as well. They hugged me and thanked me like hundred time I was almost in tears by the time their left. It is amazing to know that you get to be Jesus to someone.

Wow what a great two weeks! I was so blessed to have my dad visit me all last week. I had so much fun taking him out on all of the different outreach here at the Dream Center. We went out with the food truck on Tuesday to Nickerson Gardens my Adopt A Block site. The Food truck takes out food everyday to different projects and neighborhoods around L.A. I had a great time introducing my dad to all for my friends and families at Nickerson. On Wednesday we went out with Under The Bridge to give out a hot meal to the homeless on Skid Row. We gave out about two hundred hot plates. What amazes me the most is that Under The Bridge go out everyday and gives out that many if not more food. It is easy as you work in your own ministry to miss the impact that Dream Center is making. I am so glad I had this opportunity to see almost all of the ways the Dream Center is making a change in this city. On Thursday afternoon we went out with Project Prevention. Project Prevention was started by Carolina Barnet to help families from losing their kids because they lack basic necessities like food or diapers. Last year Project Prevention help keep two hundred families from losing their kids. It was awesome to hear some of the stories from the mothers that only were able to keep their kids because of the passion and love of the Dream Center. It really inspired me to know that all those mothers we are able to help because one woman followed God’s call on her life. On Friday we went out with my track on are usual retirement home. It cool to see how many of the residents are starting to expect us to come back and see them. I love hanging out with one lady named Dorothy. I usual color her a picture for her book.

On Saturday I had so much fun introducing my dad to all my families at Nickerson Gardens. Jenny daughter was having her birthday party. So we spent most of the day just hanging out and when we had to leave Jenny gave us all a huge plate of food and wanted to give us a plate of cake as well but we told her that the food was more then we could eat. Sunday after church Dad and I had a great time just hanging out and enjoying time with each other. Monday as I was dropping of my dad at the airport I was sad but I am also exited about the future. Tuesday we went out with our Adopt A Block track to pickup trash in the neighborhoods around the Dream Center. Travis one of our track members brought his guitar with him and as we were walking we ran into a homeless man who asked if he could play Travis’ guitar. I was shocked with how well he could play and sing. He told us he use to be in a band but was kicked out.
We bought him a McDonalds burger and invited him to come to the Dream Center sometime. On Wednesday we were able to take a TV to a lady that Diana one of my good friends knew from her old Adopt A Block sites. It was cool to see how even though Diana had not see this lady in for sometime because of the relationship Diana built with her, they were still like old friends. Friday we went to the park with our track. We played on the playset and laid in the grass to tan. For our after school program we had a killer water balloon fight with the kids. It started with just balloon but ended up with everyone getting a bucket of water dumped over their heads.  Saturdays Adopt A Block was awesome I was able to visit all my families and talk with most of my kids. After Adopt A Block I went hiking with some of my friends to Monrovia Falls. The hike was not very long but was one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on. The waterfall was so beautiful! We are planning on going back next Sunday.

As I was reading the scriptures this morning this came to me and I had to share with you all.

The Cost of Adoption

Once upon a time there was a young Jewish man from the town of Nazareth for whom God had a mission. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:20-21)

Basically what the Lord told him was, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to adopt a little boy named Jesus.” God’s main mission in life for Joseph was the adoption of a very special child.

I’m sure, just like any young man, Joseph had dreams and ideas about his future. He was engaged to Mary and he probably already had some children’s names picked out in his mind. He probably had visions of expanding the family carpentry shop and working along side of his sons and living a quiet and peaceful life in Nazareth. But God’s mission changed everything… adoption changed everything… there was no way that Joseph could have known the cost of obeying the Lord in this seemingly harmless adoption of a baby but here are some of the ways that I thought of this morning that his life was dramatically changed.

First, Joseph has to endure the disdain of his town and probably his family for agreeing to marry a pregnant girl this is why he intended to release her from the engagement privately before the angel appeared to him. You see the angel appeared to Mary and to Joseph but not to the rest of the town…

Second, God orchestrates the Roman government to take a census in which Joseph and Mary will have to uproot and travel to Bethlehem because Jesus needs to be born there to fulfill prophecy. Everything Joseph has worked to build up in Nazareth is gone. So they start all over in Bethlehem.

Third, Joseph is faced with the stress of his young bride having a baby in a stable because there is no room in the inn. None of this would have been his plan A for his life.

Fourth, After 2 years in Bethlehem suddenly a king, of all things, is after his son and God tells him, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” (Mt. 2:13) The little family has to flee in the middle of the night and once again start all over in Egypt. Imagine a Nazareth small town boy now in a place he knows nothing about. This adoption has now completely altered Joseph’s life in ways that he never could have imagined.

Fifth, After a few years in Egypt he is once again told by the Lord to pick up and move. “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” (Mt. 2:20) He heads for Bethlehem but then hears that Archelaus  is reigning and fearing for his young son goes back to Nazareth where he and Mary are undoubtedly notorious.

Sixth, The next time we see Joseph he and Mary travel to Jerusalem for passover and lose track of Jesus and spend several days backtracking and losing time looking for him. Once again we see how this adoption impacted and disrupted Joseph’s life.

Seventh, Though Joseph was not around to see it, this boy, Jesus, ends up being tried as a criminal and being executed. But not only that, he involves his brothers, Joseph’s blood children that he no doubt prayed for, loved, and was proud of. This Jesus involves them in His mission and they are all eventually executed as well.

I’m sure when Joseph accepted the mission to be an adoptive dad, he couldn’t have foreseen the cost and the trouble that it would bring to his life… but neither could he have seen the immeasurable blessing and eternal impact that this one act of obedience allowed him to be a part.

When Mary says in Luke 2 that all future generations will call her blessed, she is right because God chose her to be the mother of God. But think about how blessed Joseph is in heaven right now because he got to be the adopted dad of God. Wow!

Adoption has been called the living gospel because it depicts what God has done for each of us (John 1:12; Rom. 8:15&23; Gal. 4:5; & Eph. 1:5) but it also depicts in an earthly sense the amazing mission that God gave to Joseph of Nazareth and it should encourage us to follow his example and obey and endure because we don’t know what God may have planned for our adopted child.

Russell D. Moore in his book Adopted For Life says, “Joseph serves as a model to follow as we see what’s at stake in the issue of adoption. Joseph, after all, is an adoptive father. In some ways, his situation is, of course, far different from ours. In other ways, though, Joseph’s mission belongs to all of us. As Joseph images the Father of the fatherless, he shows us how adoption is more than charity. It’s spiritual warfare.”

Saturday was another thrilling day. We met in the Dream Center gym for the weekly Adopt-A-Block rally before heading out to the streets to minister to the blocks. I was amazed at how many people were there and how excited and blessed they were to be allowed to go and love on the people of L.A. What a testament to the presence of the Holy Spirit in this ministry. Jonathan, Rebekah’s boss, led the rally. It started out with 30 min. of corporate prayer. They turn down the lights in the gym and people are encouraged to pray however they feel led. Some paced, others faced the wall with their hands raised, others knelt, and others formed circles holding hands and praying in succession. Jonathan told us that the prayer time is us going to God on behalf of the people we are about to serve and then Adopt-A-Block is us going to the people on behalf of God.

After standing and praying for awhile, Rebekah came and got me and asked me to circle up and pray with her team which was going to Nickerson Gardens. I was so charged up. I acknowledged first in my prayer that transformation only comes from the Holy Spirit. We plant and water but He gives the increase. I asked God boldly to transform through us today. Transform the hearts of children and moms and dads and grandparents as we talk with them touch them and smile at them. Transform families, blocks, neighborhoods, cities, nations and the world! Let these young people praying with me be catalysts to ignite a spiritual awakening in this nations. Make our clay jars safe receptacles for Your glory so that we can carry it to the world.

We split up, Jonathan had some announcements and then we went to load up the donations and food and head out to the blocks. Rebekah’s bus had about 60 people on it headed for Nickerson Gardens (one of 15 sites being visited today), the largest projects west of the Mississippi. It was awesome! We arrived, unloaded the food, spit into groups of 3 to 4 and began to mingle with the people. We stopped at one house where a little boy who regularly comes to church with Bekah wanted us to hear him play a drum solo on buckets and pie plates. It was awesome. He has some rhythm for sure.

Next we went to a house where they were having a birthday party. They were so excited that we came. They have been inviting Rebekah for weeks and they were so “honored” that she brought her dad from Houston! Their hospitality was amazing. They served us Puerto Rican chicken and Mexican beans and pupusas. They tried to feed us cake and coke and jello too but we couldn’t eat another thing. We had fun playing with all of the neighborhood kids who just magically appeared when the candy came out. Jenny, the grandmother, asked me to pray for her daughter who is involved in the occult and drugs. The daughter asked me, “why do you people come here to the projects every week? I wouldn’t use my Saturday for that.” I told her that Jesus has put so much love in our hearts that we have to share it. She just looked at me for a long time.

Others in our team had similar experiences with other families. With us today was one group of boys from Calgary, Canada. They are a skateboard club that were on their way home from a mission trip building houses in Mexico and stopped off to participate in Adopt-A-Block here in L.A. before continuing their journey back home to Canada. They ended up spring cleaning one ladies whole house. What a blessing. On the way back to the Dream Center I “just happened” to sit by Josh, the leading chaperone of the skaters. He and his wife have 5 children 7 years old and under and they are trying to raise them up to serve the Lord. I smiled and told him that my wife and I have 5 kids 7 and under once upon a time who, by the grace of God, have grown up to make me very proud and that is why I am here at the Dream Center is to visit one of my daughters. I pointed her out and he said, “Oh, she’s the leader of this site, right?” “You must be very happy to see your daughter serving in a ministry like this.” I assured him I was and that if he and his wife just stayed faithful to pursuing Christ and discipling their children in the things of God that I could assure him that there was a marvelous God-adventure ahead for them. He was so encouraged and thanked me for sharing with him and thanked God for sitting me next to him on the bus. It was sweet.

After we got back Rebekah walked me all over Hollywood and we enjoyed a fun evening. Following her up and down the hills of this town on foot all week has sure put me back into shape. I hope I keep it up when I get back home.

Today, Friday, was a little slower pace and I enjoyed the time that Rebekah and I had to just catch up. In the morning we separated all of the things that have been donated this week for Adopt-A-Block tomorrow. It was raining most of the day so when we had a chance we quickly got the work done.

Before lunch we went to a presentation by The Movement students in the chapel. The Movement is a Bible college on steroids here at the Dream Center. The presentation was very moving. It was a smattering of drama, testimony, and a powerful message at the end from Caroline Barnett, Pastor Matthew’s wife. It reminded me of Life Action Ministries from when I was a kid. Everything about this place reminds me of the dreams and goals I had as a young Christian. My kids at Teens Unlimited, my youth ministry when I was a 22 year old youth pastor, and I used to talk about having  a big building where we could house homeless teens, gang members, and runaways. At the time they were living at my house, on my couch, and sleeping on my porch. Matthew Barnett has stayed young and not allowed the world to douse those childlike dreams of what God can do and it has refreshed and restored my soul. In the message at the end Pastor Caroline challenged us with the idea that there are more than enough Christians in the world to solve the world’s problems if we were just willing. God is not limited. Wow! So true. After the presentation I was able to speak with the director of Project Hope here at the Dream Center. Project Hope is the human trafficking outreach here. They literally rescue women and girls out of the sex trade and hide them, counsel them, and take care of them until it is safe to help them back into society. Since Colombia is the second leading sex trafficking country in the western hemisphere behind the Dominican Republic, I wanted to know all about what they are doing here. In a short period of time Project Hope has become the largest rescue operation in America.

After lunch we went with Rebekah’s Adopt-A-Block tract to a nearby retirement home and spent some time with the lovely residents there. I sat next to a sweet lady named Dora and a sweet lady named Alicia. Alicia was from Sau Paulo, Brazil and spoke only spanish so I enjoyed being able to talk to her and learn about her life. We colored with crayons but Dora insisted on watercolors so the nurse gave her some watercolors and she painted beautifully. I commented to the nurse how awesome Dora’s painting was and she handed me a notebook full of beautiful paintings that Dora had done. Dora told me that she used to sew and embroidery a lot as well but now she can only paint. It was obvious that these dear people look forward to the Dream Center kids coming every other Friday. It was so funny when one of the old gentlemen pointed to me and said, “I thought this was the Dream Center group, why is that old guy with them?” When they explained that I was Rebekah’s dad he said, “Ok, I was wondering because usually the Dream Center people are young.” Too funny.

We were supposed to go to skid row tonight but we were rained out. Rebekah also sometimes goes and witnesses to the prostitutes on sunset strip until 3 a.m. on Fridays but that was rained out as well so we sat in the Dream Center coffee shop and talked and dreamed and planned until bed time. What a lovely day.

Today, Thursday, was another life changing day for me. We started out at Rebekah’s office where she spent the morning answering calls and doing paperwork for Adopt-a-Block. After lunch we went out with an outreach called Project Prevention which works with family services here in L.A. to help families who are about to lose their children to foster care. Many families in L.A. lose their kids simply because they can’t afford to meet the legal requirements of the state such as owning a refrigerator, or having a real bed for their child to sleep in or owning a crib for their baby. If they don’t have these things or enough food their children are taken away and put into foster care and sometimes they never see them again.

Two years ago Pastor Matthew Barnett’s wife Caroline discovered what was going on and started Project Prevention. Social services will call the Dream Center when there is a family that is in danger of losing their children because of poverty. Project Prevention will then go visit the family and begin to help them with the things they need to keep their kids. Sometimes the family is homeless and so the Dream Center has built out an entire floor of their main building to house these families until they can get back on their feet so that they don’t lose their kids. Often Project Prevention with cooperate with Adopt-a-block as well if those families are in a 5 mile radius of one of their blocks. Rebekah usually delivers furniture and things to these families one day a week.

Rebekah and I had the privilege to tag along with this outreach today and we took food to four families and it was an amazing blessing. Two of the families had already had their children taken away before Project Prevention got involved and so the Dream Center people went to court with the family and helped them get their kids back and then worked with them to keep them. They help them to get jobs and whatever they need to begin living a productive life. And, of course, the spiritual renewal that takes place as these families interact with the Dream Center and Angelus Temple is dramatic. Many of them end up being lasting members of the church. One of the ladies that we visited has 7 children living in a one bedroom apartment and her husband recently left her for another woman. Without the Dream Center her children would have been scattered to the wind. Another lady gave us her amazing testimony. She has four daughters. One of her girls was being molested and the mom and girls had no where else to go so they ended up on skid row with two blankets. Project Prevention got them off the street and into an old house. The mom and daughters started cleaning up around the house and painted it inside and out. The landlord was so happy that he came in and fixed several things that weren’t working. A family at the church bought them a new stove and a refrigerator. The lady wept as she told us the story and praised God. She has family worship every day with her girls and reminds them of what God has done. The City of Los Angeles recently sent Project Prevention a letter thanking them for the amazing work that they are doing and shared that the city had estimated that Project Prevention is saving the taxpayers of Los Angeles $500,000.00 a year in court costs, foster care payments, etc. By the way, the Dream Center receives no support of any kind from public funds. It is solely supported by the private donations of God’s people.

Angelus Temple

After we returned from Project Prevention it was time to ride the bus out to Rebekah’s site at Nickerson Gardens in Watts and pick up her families for Thursday night church at Angelus Temple (the Dream Center church). I was so excited to visit this amazing church and I was not disappointed. The place was packed. We sat in the first balcony with Rebekah’s families. The worship was over the top awesome. My heart leaped as I looked across the crowd and saw dozens of men in black T-shirts (the men who are in recovery) and in another section dozens of women in black T-shirts (the women who are in recovery) all praising God.  I gazed around the cavernous auditorium and saw people from dozens of nations and ethnic backgrounds praising God. I stood with tears streaming down my face and my hands raised enraptured by the blessing of joining in the praise that was surging up from that place.

Then came the message. Lisa Bevere, wife of John Bevere spoke and I have rarely been so deeply touched by a message. It was so anointed and so uplifting and so encouraging and so Christ honoring. The tears that had started during worship never stopped flowing. When Pastor Matthew invited people to come to the stage and ask God for more, I jumped to the aisle and made my way down with the hundreds and hundreds of others. He paced back and forth across the stage praying and begging God to meet our needs. It was electrifying. I left with a new vision and passion to believe God for big things. To say the least my dream was radically expanded. That’s why they call it the Dream Center.

I have been so blessed as well to see the amazing change in my daughter after six months of serving here. She has a boldness and a confidence mixed with awe and humility that is awesome. I’m so thankful that God brought her to the Dream Center.

Some amazing DC stats: 600 housed daily, 3,700 clothed monthly, 36,000 hot meals served each month, 40,000 receive groceries each month, 1 million pounds of food distributed each month. 7000 volunteers provide staffing support annually. Monthly budget of $600,000.00.

The most refreshing thing so far though about the Dream Center is that they do all of these things as support to the preaching of the gospel and never in place of it. Every activity is designed to share Christ. The fruit is amazing as well. Nearly every leader of each of the over 200 outreaches here was originally won to Christ through the ministry. The testimonies I’ve already heard in two days just blow my mind. God is mightily at work here.

After I wrote my blog last night Rebekah and I went to a youth service in the beautiful old chapel in the main building (formerly City of Angels Hospital). The worship was outstanding! All the kids come up around the stage and lift their hands to the Lord and sing with all of their hearts. It was beautiful. The lead singer, Chloe, was unbelievable. After the service she came up and told Rebekah that she has her signed up to sing with her starting next week. Rebekah was terrified but excited. The youth pastor gave a wonderful message and many came forward for prayer. I had to laugh to myself as I looked around the ornate old chapel realizing God knew, as it was being built, that someday a throng of teens would be shouting His praise in this place. Amazing.

Under The Bridge

We went out this morning with a ministry called Under The Bridge which takes hot meals to the homeless on skid row and living under freeway overpasses. We spent the morning on skid row praying for, witnessing to, and inviting people to lunch later in the day. It was heartbreaking to see so many people living under tarps and in boxes and things. Many were there because of addiction especially along “heroin alley.” But many others were just there because things had gone wrong in their life and they had no where else to go. We were blessed to pray with, hug, and share Jesus with people who afterward thanked us with tears in their eyes and said things like, “God bless you and your family.” Under the Bridge comes here everyday and tries to get people to come to the Dream Center and get off the street. Many do but most are not ready to give up their addictions. Some came with us today and I pray that they stay and get discipled like so many from these mean streets that I’ve met here who are now radiant followers of Jesus.

We came back at 1:30 p.m. with the hot lunches. Some of us donned hairnets, aprons, and gloves in order to hand out food and the rest sang, prayed, and witnessed to the folks that came. We prepared and handed out about 200 plates. God continued His habit of surprising me with providential encounters. As we were serving food and praying for people the lady next to me who I knew was here from Sweden began to pray for a Mexican man in perfect Spanish. I was surprised. After she prayed she told the man that she used to be a missionary in Bogota, Colombia. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously, she and I spent several minutes talking about Bogota and she thanked me and thanked me for what we are doing there. She said that her heart still lives there even though God has her back in Sweden. Oh, how I know that feeling. I’ve posted some photos here.

Tonight Rebekah and I are attending an intern’s prayer meeting called focus. It is an hour of devotions and an hour of prayer. It is Rebekah’s favorite event each week. Cain’t wait.

Last year our family read the book, The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett, founder and pastor of the Dream Center in Los Angeles, California. We were so taken with the book and with the work that they are doing that our oldest daughter Rebekah decided to intern for a year at this amazing ministry. This week I have the awesome privilege to be her shadow and follow her around the Dream Center and see all of the amazing ministries that are taking place here. We will take part in a different ministry each day and I will share about it here.

First, a little bit about the Dream Center. Pastor Matthew started this work in inner-city L.A. at the ripe old age of 19 nearly 19 years ago. The ministry now has over 250 outreaches striving to be the hands and feet of Christ. It has grown from one young man and his dream to a monster for God ministering to an average of 40,000 people per month. From gang members, drug addicts, unwed mothers and children without parents, motorcycle groups, taggers, AIDS victims, and various subculture, ethnic and nationality groups, drug rehabilitation to prostitute ministry to homeless to vulnerable children to you name it they apply the gospel to it here and lives are consistently and dramatically changed. It feeds the homeless and others in need and runs a halfway house for released prisoners. Close to 600 people are housed at the center and receive rehabilitation. Their Motto is: “Find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it.”

In the first four years of the Dream Center’s establishment, prostitution and gang violence dropped 73%, the homicide rate dropped 28% and rape dropped 53%. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the City Council publicly acknowledged the dramatic impact of the Dream Center and praised its efforts. In 2000, President Bush, then Governor of Texas, visited the Dream Center and deemed it “a model for faith-based organizations.”

Today Rebekah and I went out with the “Food Truck” ministry to two different sites. They deliver an astounding one million pounds of food per month to needy families. The first site was Nickerson Gardens in Watts where Rebekah is the Dream Center’s site leader. She goes there about 4 times per week ministering to the 1100 families there. Nickerson is the largest “projects” west of the Mississippi. We arrived with the food and unloaded crate after crate of produce donated to the Dream Center by local grocery retailers. We then packaged the food evenly in grocery sacks for distribution. Then came the time to hand it to the crowd of waiting people and hear them say, “thank you, God bless you and your families.” It was very sweet. Many stopped so that we could pray for them. Some asked for specific prayer for things they are going through. It was amazing. See my photos here.

Rebekah and I are headed to a youth worship service tonight and then tomorrow we go out with the “Under the Bridge” ministry to literally go under freeway bridges and minister to the homeless who live there. Can’t wait!

About a year ago my friend Stephanie told me about a girl who was sold out to Jesus and missions and who might want to come on our June 2011 mission trip. Not long after my family and I had dinner with Stephanie, the girl Magan and her mom. We had a blessed time together and Magan signed up for the trip.

On the trip Magan surprised me with how quickly she jumped in and began to build relationships with the children. She was a natural with the obvious anointing of God upon her heart and vision. I could tell that God was doing a mighty work in Magan.

Last fall she went off to college but with plans to attend our January 2012 mission trip to Bogota. When it became clear to her that she was not going to be able to attend the January trip, I felt so bad for her when she sent me this message,

“Hi there! First off, how are you and your family? I miss serving with you and the rest of the team and I hope all is going well with everyone! I saw recently that the dates for the January trip were posted, and when I realized that my university goes back to school January 9th, my heart just sank. I know that God wants me here at UMHB, but my love and longing to be with my kiddos over there is still so strong. I kinda pushed it out of the way, just crushed since I felt like there was no other option or possibility. But when I began praying about it, I felt so dumb for letting something as silly as school stop God from working through me to reach those orphans. I’m continuing to pray about it and I’m still not sure what exactly God wants me to do. All I know is that He definitely doesn’t want me to give up on it. So my question to you is if you have any thoughts on this. Like, is there a way for me to go by myself or with a couple friends at the very beginning of January or December. I really have no clue as to how all of this gets worked out or if thats even feasible or anything really. At this point, I’m just trying to keep running towards God searching for the open door. I would appreciate so much your prayer and advice on this.”

I sensed the hand of God at work in this as I prayed with Magan and her approach to the whole thing was so Spirit like that I knew I had to help. We tried to work something out for her to go in December but it never materialized. Finally we were able to make a trip for her happen over spring break last month. Magan is back from her trip and we talked on Sunday and here is the rest of the story… so far… of what God is doing for her and through her.

First, she was able to stay with my dear friend, Nelda.  Magan told me about how every night Chris and Oscar and Javier would come over and they would have dinner and devotions and end with a prayer meeting. She said it was awesome.

She spent two days with our little friends at an orphanage in Madrid and was able to share her testimony of salvation and life with Jesus with three different groups of girls. She opened it up to questions from the girls and was amazed by the questions that the girls asked after each testimony. She said the questions were deep and sincere, like “How do know that God is with you all the time?” She was able to pour deeply into these precious orphan girls.

She was saddened by the amount of turnover in the orphanage. She didn’t see any of the girls that she had built relationships with the previous summer. She also took 100 hair bows and 50 Bibles. All the Bibles went to another orphanage that she visited later in the week.  She was able to spend time at a baby/toddler orphanage and at a safe house for aged out young people. All in all she said the trip was vastly beyond her wildest dreams.

Some people commented to her, “I can’t believe that you are spending your Spring break in an orphanage.” Magan simply replied, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

At the end of our conversation I asked Magan a question and was delighted and blessed by her answer.

Matt: Did the Lord reveal anything new to you while you were there?

Magan: It is mind boggling what God is doing and how He is moving in Bogota and I am even more excited now to be involved. My friend Brittany wants to go there for six weeks in the summer and we had talked about it before I went so I was praying about trying to go as well. While there I prayed about it so hard and I came home convinced that God wants me there for the summer. The night I arrived home my mom was filling out the paperwork for me to go to summer school and she needed a yes or no answer from me about whether I was going to summer school. I really wanted to pray more about it before answering her but I felt the Lord saying, “I have this all worked out.” One of my scholarships required summer school but recently they changed the requirement so my mom said, “You don’t need to take summer school.” I knew in my heart that my parents have already been reluctant about me going on these trips and I knew that if they said no about this summer that that was it. I would honor their wishes. I told them of my hearts desire and they said they would think about it. The next morning my parents texted me that they were 100% behind me going to Colombia this summer. I had to sit down when I read the text message. I felt God saying with a big smile, “I told you I had this worked out.” One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that anywhere God has called me to I have always been apprehensive about it at the start, so many factors, so much to figure out, but once I let go and decide that God is calling me this way then the doors start to open and they open beyond anything I could ask for. Shortly after my parents said yes, a lady from my church contacted me to say that she wants to buy my plane ticket for the summer. God is amazing.

It is one of the great joys of my life to walk beside, uplift, and encourage, young warriors for Christ like Magan. I can’t wait to see where God takes her. She knows that the Bullen family is behind her 100%.

My dear friend, Grove Norwood with Heart of Texas Foundation, is one of my heroes in the faith. His story of love and grace has been portrayed in a movie and that lead him to become involved in prison ministry. We met through Tres Dias and over the years have cheered each other on in our respective ministries. He has been after me for a year to come with him to visit Louisiana State Penitentiary otherwise known as Angola and see the amazing things God is doing there.

I knew that Grove had been going to Angola to learn what they did and duplicate it here in Texas starting with a seminary in Darrington Prison. This is an incredible undertaking with the potential to change the Texas prison system, the state, and the world. I am so excited to be an onlooker.

So I finally was able to go with Grove last week and it is truly an amazing God story… Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the U.S. It’s land area is larger than Manhattan Island, NYC. There are 5300 inmates. All are serving life sentences. Every other man is a murderer. Once notorious as the bloodiest prison in America with 40 murders in one year, 17 years ago Warden Burl Cain started a Bible College inside the prison and today there is no violence. It’s a prison full of preachers… They send out “missionaries” to other prisons in Louisiana. When they sent the first missionaries out, the new prison’s violence dropped by 1/2 in 6 months. Wednesday – Friday I was able to tour the prison with Warden Cain, Grove Norwood, and others from The Heart of Texas. What a faith builder! The gospel truly is “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16)

Warden Cain and the Heart of Texas team.

An amazing and totally unexpected thing happened that made me think that God may have had me on this trip for more than one reason. There are over 400 inmate led worship services here in Angola every month. In one of them on Thursday I met Miguel “the chin” Velez (aka Cumbamba), Medellin Drug Cartel founder Pablo Escobar’s Colombian hit man who spent 23 years in solitary confinement here at Angola. He is now a passionate follower of Jesus and he was thrilled to hear about our ministry in Bogota and gave me some contacts there of old associates who were at Angola and are now serving God back in Colombia. Miguel and Gary, the chaplain, asked me to look them up when I’m back in Colombia. I told Miguel I would and let him know how they are doing. Amazing.

You never know where God will take you when you sell out to Him. I just want to be with you on mission Lord. Take me with You.

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Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” This verse has been my pray the last two week. Every minute of every day I want to hid in His shelter because there is the only place I find peace and the strength to live every day. I love how the verse starts out stating what God is and then as if the writer could not hold back his praise the last part of the verse is the writer tells what God is to him. It is incredible how much peace and joy comes with knowing what Jesus is to you, not what others say He is but you know in yourself what you found Him to be in your life. Well this week we had a beautiful Purity night for the young ladies at our Adopt a Block sites but for you to get the full picture of what this night meant to the girls and the leaders I need to explain the whole story. Kaycie is our site leader for Ramona Gardens and she has built a remarkable relationship with the girls at her site. They literally spend almost as much time at the Dream Center as they do at home. Kaycie has a heart for girls to understand their worth and what real love looks like. As a way for the girls to understand that real love only comes through the love of Jesus, Kaycie started planning purity night. The girls went through a six week class in preparation for the purity night. For the last class we went to the beach with all our girls. We had so much fun playing volleyball and jumping waves in the ocean. When the sun went down we roasted hotdogs over a fire. Saturday after Adopt a Block we brought the girls back to the Dream Center and dressed them up. They had already picked out a dress they wanted to wear, so we did our nails and hair. After we were all dressed up we went and got our pictures taken. Then the girls were escorted to dinner in the chapel. During dinner we had a drama and one of the young men from the teen discipleship program rapped for the girls. After dinner we had a worship time and then Kaycie gave her testimony along with four other people the girls know well. Pastor Carolina gave a message about relationships and then we gave all the girls a bible and their purity rings. On the way home one of my girls told me that was one of the best night she has ever had and it was like being on a date with Jesus. I am so thankful God given me this time with my girls.

I have discovered over the years that I can only give away what I possess. This is never more true than in the spiritual realm. Ministry must happen from the overflow of my relationship with and pleasure in God. Therefore, I must prioritize time with Him and I must constantly be seeking those things that feed my soul and add to my love for Him, my understanding of Him, and my motivation to serve Him. Consequently, I read many blogs, journals, articles, and sermons on a daily and weekly basis and I always have two or three books going at the same time mostly out of self preservation. I can only give from the overflow of what I have and I long to give. I long to be used up for the expansion of His kingdom in this world. Recently my wife has taught me a new method of reading (or should I say digesting) a book. She reads it straight through (sometimes first in audio version), then reads it again with a  highlighter, then reads it again, outlining and taking notes as she goes. It doesn’t allow me to gobble up as many books as quickly as I once did but I must say that I really know and understand and comprehend the contents when I am done. Below are the books I’ve enjoyed and benefitted from in this first quarter of 2012. Click on the cover to read more about each book.

Saturday was  a great day of fun, fellowship, and missions awareness. It was my family’s first opportunity to participate in Relationships For Christ’s annual March For Missions. It is a 10K run/walk to raise funds and awareness for different mission projects around the world. This year was to raise funds for Project Samuel, a project in Zambia, Africa for vulnerable children. Our friends, the Vowell family, head up this ministry.

I had signed up to form and lead a team of runners/walkers for this event. I was blessed to win an award for having the largest team.

The largest part of my team consisted of my friends from Team 2:10 (Do good works Eph. 2:10) who are a part of Masterpiece Fitness our partner in the Orphan Hope Marathon. John Hurtado, one of the Team 2:10 members was the first to finish the race and he won a trophy.

This group inspires and encourages me with their big hearts for orphans and missions. I hope to work with them on many projects to come.

My dear friend, Mike Ford, was also on my team and won 3rd place. What an inspiration he is. When I met him just a few years ago he weighed in excess of 400 pounds and now he is a fitness trainer and competition runner.

We had a wonderful time. Lisa, Beverly, Brooke, and I set out together but Brooke quickly joined the runners, Lisa took off with a fast walking friend, and sweet Beverly stayed back to hold my arm and plod along with slow dad. We had a wonderful time to talk and enjoy the beautiful Woodlands day. Because of my battle with Lupus and the pain and inflammation that always is ravaging my body, I didn’t think I would be able to walk even 1/2 of the specified distance but Beverly and I just kept walking and walking and our conversation helped me to ignore the pain and the next thing you know we were at the finish line! It was fun and Relationships For Christ raised $8,000.00 for Project Samuel. Praise God.

One of the great joys of following Jesus these past 30 years has been investing in younger men and women and seeing them become leaders in the kingdom of God. Again and again over the years God has put young people in my life, sometimes for a very short period of time, and has allowed me to pour into them from the overflow of my relationship with Him. Since my junior year in high school I have had a passion to build young leaders. It probably arose from the fact that the young evangelist who led me to Christ was only 22 years old and he had such a profound impact on my life that I wanted to pass that on. Later as I read the Bible and church history I realized that this is a repeating pattern in God’s strategy for building His kingdom.

Lisa and I have had the great joy of having dozens of young people live with us and hundreds sit at our dinner table over the years as we encouraged them in the Lord. We have been so blessed to see many of them go on to be pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, and church planters serving all over the U.S. and on 3 continents. We regularly have the joy of hearing from many of them and this week was no different.

What a joy to spend time on the phone this week with Chris, our young friend in Colombia, and hear what God is doing for and through him. What a blessing to spend a couple of hours on the phone this week with Brian, a young church planter in San Angelo, Texas, that we have had the privilege of mentoring for several years now and hear all that God is doing in their family and young congregation to reach the nations.

This morning I was blessed to receive this message from another young man who worked for me and my sons one summer when he was home from Bible college and he and his new wife at the time spent time at our dinner table.

“Hey Matt not sure if you remember me, but i would like to say thank you your influence and kindness to me and my wife. I think back to working with you and your sons often. God has worked in our family alot since that time we now have 3 kids with one on the way. And God has called us to be apart of a church plant in the Southern Houston area “Advance Church” http://www.advancehouston.com/ We are reaching out to change the World and doing so by starting a multi-lingual Church and sending the reached back to there home country to spread the Good News of Jesus. Did not think God would ever call me back to Houston and now he has and I am trusting God to do something, Amazing! I would love it if you and your family prayed for us during this time. Thank you so much.”

Randy Rutledge
Advance Church – Advancing Christ to a Changing World – Coming to Houston in 2012
www.advancehouston.com

Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a little part of what you are doing in the world. I can’t wait for heaven when all the stories that we don’t even know about now will be told.

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This week I thought it would be cool to give a lay out of what my week usually looks like. So I will go day by day and tell you what my schedule looks like week to week.
Sunday, I ride the bus to pick up my kid from Nickerson to take them to church. I am responsible for the kids until they get back on the bus to go home, so if there is a problem at kids church I am called in to get my kids. I also make sure everyone gets back on the bus after church is over. We don’t ride back on the bus with the kids but we are trying to change that right now because the kids fight a lot on the way home. Sunday afternoon I have a life group at the church I go hiking with. We have so much fun and I get some great picture as well.
Monday, Every other week I count the offering at the church with my about a block team. Monday is our day off so when it is not our week to count the offering we have the whole day off. I spend most of the day checking up on sleep and reading.  Monday night I go to a Bible Study with a friend. I really enjoy having time to get away and just focus on worshiping my Savoir.
Tuesday, I work in the office with the church treasurer Dan Scot. I mostly work on filing paper work and just odd jobs he gives me to do. At three we have a after school program for the kids in the youth discipleship program and the kid that go to the dream center academy. We have a dream class, guitar class, arts class and a volleyball class. I work with the volleyball class right now but I jump for class to class. The churches youth group meets on Tuesday night in one of the chapels here at the Dream Center. I usually go to the youth group because I love the worship and because my girls come sometimes.
Wednesday, I work in the Adopt a Block office in the morning mostly printing out the files we will need for the next week and printing out the bible study we do for the kids on Saturday. In the afternoon we have our Movement track to help us, so we do different things like deliver furniture to a needy family,  we will pick up trash from around the neighborhood, or we will canvas for different events the Dream Center is having. We have the after school program again as well. Wednesday night I go to a inter prayer group. I love have a full hour to just pray and knowing I will not be interrupted. I think this is my favorite time of the week.
Thursday, I spend all day in the office working on finishing putting the packets for our different Adopt a Block sites together. I also check the messages on our answering machine and I return the calls that I can for Jonathan. At four I jump on the bus again to go and get my kids for our Thursday night church service. Because of the traffic the bus leaves the Dream Center at four and we don’t get to the church until right before seven.  It is hard to keep the kids calm when they are in the bus that long.
Friday, in the morning we go over to Gik our ministry that works with all the donations that are given to the Dream Center and we bag up all the hygiene items for Adopt a Block on Saturday. Then we put all the bag in our shed, so that on Saturday morning I can give all the site leaders their bag of hygiene items to give out. Friday afternoon we go with our track to visit a retirement home. It is so much fun coloring and playing games with the residents. We spend about an hour at the retirement home and then we come back to the Dream Center for our after school program. Friday night we go out to Skid Row with snacks to give out. Our goal is to use the snacks as a way to start a conversation with people. We have anywhere from fifteen to a hundred people go out with us every week.
Saturday, Is our big Adopt a Block day. I start with getting the food ready to go out and then we have an hour of prayer before our rally starts. The rally is for tell every one what AAB is and what we do. After the rally we all go and get all of our food and bags of hygiene items. We then jump on the bus and go to our sites.  We give out all of the food and hygiene items to all the families that line up every week and then we walk around asking if anyone would like prayer or if we can serve in any way. After Adopt a Block I have the rest of the day to relax and read.
So that is my whole week 🙂

June 16-23, 2012 is our next mission trip to Bogota, Colombia. If you feel even the slightest tug in your spirit to come on this trip, act on it! 🙂 You will never be the same.

http://www.orphanhopeintl.org/summer-2012-mission-trip/

Giving the gift of presence to the lonely and forgotten…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey matt,

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

Jenn

Matt and Jenn Burton on Saturday

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

L to R Mel, Ken, Jenn, Dawn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Computer Bag

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

Tires

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

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

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

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

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

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

Since we didn’t have internet the final 4 days I am catching up on my daily blogs from our trip last week. I hope you enjoy.My devotion today was Mission Motivation. There are two main motivations for me as I follow Jesus on His mission. I’m sure there are others but these stand out in my heart and life.

I.The pain…

I am motivated by the pain in my heart for those who don’t know Jesus, don’t have His peace, don’t have His joy. My heart breaks for the 2 million child sex slaves in the world, for the 800 teens a year that age out of the orphanage in Bogota alone and have nowhere to go and no one to help, for the lonely and sad children in institutions all over the world who need someone to tell them that they love them and that Jesus loves them. I find myself motivated by the pain…

“God break my heart with the things that break your heart.” – Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and Samaritans purse.

Job 30:25 “Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

“If you are a Christ follower, then you have been drafted into an army of compassion that knows no enemy but those things that break the heart of God. And it’s not okay to not do something about them.” – Mark Batterson

I feel the heart of the Father as He loves the world so much that He sacrifices His only Son. I feel the heart of the Shepherd as He searches for the one lost sheep. I feel the heart of Jesus as He weeps over Jerusalem and I am motivated to do more.

II.The Joy…

I am motivated by the inexpressible joy of being on mission with Jesus. I am driven to be near Him and to feel His heart as He loves these children. For some reason when I am near them I feel Him and His presence and His heart more strongly that when I am at home and so I am motivated to follow Him into the fields of the fatherless.

“One of the reasons that we are often not as happy as we should be and could be is that our vision of what our life is about is too small. We try to find happiness in our work, our family, and our friends. He wants the whole world to be embraced by His saving glory in Jesus Christ and He wants you and me to be involved in this. Our hearts can expand with joy in God as we watch Him triumph in the world. One of the reasons that missions is so advancing to our happiness is because you are engaged in something that not only is God very excited about but that cannot fail…  we are linking our lives to something global, something absolutely indomitable, and something absolutely eternal and when you are linked to big things, strong things, sure things like that your joy is deeper, stronger, and bigger.” – John Piper

“We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss.” – Theodore Williams

Mother Teresa  who stared out with 3 pennies and a dream at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries

She summed it up as it relates to the joy of following Jesus on mission, “We all long for Heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in Heaven with him right now to be happy with him at this very moment. But being happy with him now means:

loving as he loves

helping as he helps;

giving as he gives

serving as he serves

rescuing as he rescues

being with him 24 hours a day

touching him in his distressing disguise, the poor and suffering.”

Will you pursue His presence, including the pain and the immense joy?

Today we invited 40 girls from Santa Maria orphanage who are all available for adoption and/or Padrino to come and spend the day with us at the club where we are staying. There was swimming, games, crafts, and lots of food. We had a wonderful day and grew even closer to many of these beautiful children. I spent part of the afternoon loving on and talking to a girl named Laura. I’ve known her for 3 years but we have never really had a chance to talk. She sat down with me and said, “Let’s talk” I said, “What do you want to talk about?” She said, “God” and so we walked and talked about God for a long time and she shared her heart with me about many things. It was a sweet time.

We were also blessed with a visit from Paul and Melanie and their daughter. Paul found my blog online some time ago and we have been enjoying Skype with them and also they have been spending time with our friends here at Fundacion Mundo Nuevo but today was the first time for Lisa, Brooke, and I to meet them in person. We had a wonderful visit and are looking forward to more work together in the future.

The most amazing part of the day was when we all met together for a time of sharing and testimony. Several of the girls got up and shared what the day had meant to them and how they had seen the love of God in the team. Two girls in particular shared about some terrible things in their past and about how God had brought them through and how blessed they were to have us and our friendship. Our hearts were deeply moved. Bill Byrd came up to me and said, “Let’s have a forgiveness ceremony and give the girls a chance to cast their burdens on the Lord.” So I shared a brief messaged about the hope of forgiveness and love that is in Christ and how that we are not made to carry our own sin, our own burdens, our own pain. I Peter 5:7 says that we are supposed to “cast those burdens on Him” and Isaiah 53 says that He has already carried them for us and by faith we can enter into His rest. So I invited the girls and the team to kneel before the Lord and cast our lives, hurts, and sins upon Him completely. There were many tears and many prayers. It was a very special time.

After, many of the girls said that it was the most special night of their life. Praise be to God. We then went out to a big bonfire and ate s’mores and sang worship songs in Spanish and English late into the night. We said our tearful goodbyes and the girls got on the bus and went home. Thank you Jesus for the pain and the immense pleasure of loving your little lost lambs.

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

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

Our devotion this morning was Mission Imagination. I started out with a few of my favorite quotes on “thinking big for God”

“If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small.” – Brother Andrew

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” – George Mueller

“God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” – William Booth

We serve a big God!!!  He cannot be exaggerated!

Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

“Dreaming is a form of praying and praying is a form of dreaming.” – Elizabeth Elliot

Faith is like imagination

Heb. 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

“Oh you of little faith!” Four times in Matthew Jesus rebuked His disciples for not believing big enough about some pretty scary things. What in our life is He saying, “Oh you of little faith” about?

Matt. 6:30 Food and clothes
Matt. 8:26 Storm!
Matt. 14:31 Walking on water!
Matt. 16:8 No Bread!

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Can you imagine?

Immeasurably more than we can imagine…

I then told about Brother Yun from the book Heavenly Man and about his dream to send 100,000 chinese missionaries west through the 10/40 window all the way to Jerusalem.

Can you imagine? How big is your God? Can He be exaggerated?

Today was another beautiful day in the fields of the fatherless. We returned to Santa Maria orphanage today and spent more time loving on and witnessing to the precious 185 girls there. Because of many of the relationships we built yesterday it was easy to pick up where we left off and go beyond to spend more time sharing about Christ. Bill brought 12 EvangeCubes with him on the trip and these were a big hit today. Once we showed the girls how it worked and told the story of salvation many of them took the cube to other girls and retold the story with the cube. It was amazing. Many opportunities for sharing Christ arose today and one of our team members, Patricia, who is originally from Ecuador and speaks fluent Spanish was able to lead one of the workers to Christ.

Another blessing today was that my friend Raul Velez who runs an adoption ministry out of Florida was here today with 4 pastors that he brought from Florida. I was blessed to introduce Raul to Jose Vicente last year and they are working on some exciting projects together. We had a nice time of fellowship.

As I was standing talking to Raul my phone beeped that I had a text. I quickly looked down because I knew my daughter in law, Jana, was at the hospital with my daughter Beverly and other daughter in law Misti and that Jana was about to deliver her and my second son, Levi’s, first baby. Sure enough! When I read the text from Beverly it said, “The Baby is here!!!” I turned to my wife and said, “You’re a grandma again!” What a day! Now I’m a double grandfather or doble abuelo as they say here. Thank you God for all of your blessings. Jana is living with us while my son serves on a destroyer in the Mediterranean with the U.S. Navy so I will get to hold that precious little bundle when I get home on Sunday.

At noon Jose Vicente, Bill, Dave, and I had to leave to go to a very important meeting with the Colombian government. It was a blessed meeting. The rest of the team stayed and played with the girls. At 3:30 p.m. as planned Javier played some Spanish worship songs and then Luis Acosta, Pastora Liliana’s brother, preached an amazing message (from all accounts) and there were many decisions for Christ. Then the team headed for the bus and there were many tears as they said farewell to these beautiful girls for the last time on this trip.

We met up at a nearby restaurant for a wonderful time of fellowship and food. Thank you for all of the prayers. We love you all.

As is our custom every morning on our mission trips, I lead a devotion that relates to why we are here.  My devotion this morning focused on Mission Origination where I talked about the doctrine of Missio Dei and the fact that God is on a mission to redeem the world and He is the originator of the mission and He has invited us to join Him. I like how one person said it recently,

“Our mission is not to reach the world… that is too small a vision. Our mission is to be with God as He is on mission to reach the world.”

Jesus was the first missionary. He left His country and came to ours to preach good news to the poor and lift up the brokenhearted and release the captives. David Livingstone said it this way,

“God had only one Son and he made that Son a missionary.” – David Livingston

33 times in the book of John alone Jesus says, …the Father “sent Me.” We are also sent,

John 17:18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

I finished by sharing that when we agree to join God on His mission in this world there is no telling what He might do with that surrender. In 1947 Bob Pierce, a young Youth for Christ worker, set out for China with only enough money to make it to Honolulu. On the way he led a young girl to Christ named White Jade. When White Jade went home and told her parents that she had become a follower of Christ they through her out of the house. She came crying back to the people that Bob Pierce was staying with and they asked Bob, “What are you going to do now?” Bob reached in his pocket and retrieved $5.00, all the money he had, and gave it to the lady saying, “Take care of White Jade and each month I will send more.” And he did. In 1950 he founded World Vision who now helps people to sponsor children like White Jade in over 90 countries today. Bob also founded in 1970 a ministry called Samaritan’s Purse and took under his wing a young man named Franklin Graham. Bob died in 1978 but his legacy lives on all over the world. When we decide to obey and join God on mission, there is no telling what He will do.

Today we visited Santa Maria orphanage in Madrid. There are 185 girls residing there. It was a beautiful sunny day and we played frisbee, soccer, American football, tag, cards, made manillas (bracelets) and much more. The new and veteran members of the team were quickly surrounded and enveloped by beautiful lonely girls. There are too many stories to tell but suffice it to say that like Bob Pierce used to say our hearts were “broken with what breaks yours, Lord.” There were many smiles, hugs, kisses, singing, and a general good time all day. We handed out Spanish Gospel tracts and evangecubes and Christian coloring books and stickers and silly bands and lots of candy. But most importantly we showed them and told them of the love of Jesus.

One of the highlights of the day was that we were able to see the new computer lab that we purchased through funds raised in our silent auction in November as well as the funds raised by Michael Ford, his friends, and their teacher, Mrs. Lisa Stoyak, at Northpointe Intermediate School next door to my apartment complex. Santa Maria previously had only 3 old computers to share among 185 girls and they were constantly breaking down. With these funds we were able to provide them with 12 new laptops. They will use these computers to learn skills that will help them survive once they leave the orphanage. They were very excited.

We hope to connect the girls with Mrs. Stoyak’s class at Northpointe Intermediate via Skype very soon so that they can give her class a virtual “MUCHAS GRACIAS!”

We arrived safely at the airport last night and were greeted by many of our Colombian friends from churches, institutions, and our beloved Goddaughters. As I always joke, my heart, which lives in Colombia, was re-united with my body, which lives in Texas! It felt good. It was Lisa’s first time back in Colombia in a year and a half. It’s so good to have her here. Brooke hadn’t been here in a year and neither of them had seen Heidy in a year so it was triple good.

This morning we met for worship with all of our friends from two churches and Fundacion Mundo Nuevo, our partner here in Colombia. Pastors Lucas & Dorayne and Pastors Hector & Liliana were wonderful hosts at Iglesia Libertad. One of the blessings for me personally on this trip is that recently I met the brother of Pastora Liliana who lives in Houston and we immediately felt in our spirits that God had arranged this meeting. His name is Luis and he is a youth pastor at a Spanish church on 290 and the beltway. Pastora Liliana and her family have been dear friends and a help to our ministry in Colombia so I asked Luis to travel to Colombia with us as a translator and to preach in the orphanages for us this week and this way he could also see his sister (whom I didn’t know at the time he hadn’t seen in 3 years). It was a wonderful reunion for them and their father is coming down from northern Colombia later in the week to be with them all. How wonderful God works. So anyway, Luis translated for me as I preached this morning and it was the most anointed time of ministry I have enjoyed since I started coming here. I preached from Matthew 9:36-38

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

I titled the sermon A Prescription For Revival.  There are 4 things from this passage that if we would imitate and obey God would surely send us a great harvest.

I.Visualize (he saw)

20 times in the N.T. it says that Jesus saw… Luke 4:35 “Lift up your eyes and look…”

II.Internalize (had compassion)

Take responsibility for the condition of the world…

III.Agonize (pray earnestly)

Hungry for souls…

IV.Evangelize (Go you)

When we have agonized we will have the Holy Spirit fire to evangelize…

At the end of the message God blessed with many coming to commit to Visualize, Internalize, Agonize, and Evangelize Bogota – Colombia – South America – Western Hemisphere – The World.

We spent the afternoon with the beautiful children of the Shamuel orphanage many of whom had only been there for days or even hours and many were crying and missing their parents. It was my blessing to talk with many of them about Christ and especially to sit for a long time with one girl named Carolina. Her father is dead and something happened to her mother and she was crying and missing her mom. I sat and rubbed her back and listened for a long time telling her that I understood and that I was sorry and then eventually the conversation turned to Jesus and I was able to share about the hope that is in a vital relationship with Him. She slowly cheered up and stopped crying and we had a lively discussion. I encouraged her to place her faith and trust and hope in Him and she assured me that she will. She was called away to dinner and I had a nice conversation with three young men and shared my testimony of coming to Christ as a 16 year old boy. They listened intently and asked many questions. I thank God that my Spanish has gotten to the point where I can really speak for Him! What a blessing. Just as we were about to leave Carolina came running up from the dining hall and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek with a big smile and said, “Gracias Mateo!” and then she was gone. God you are so beautiful…

We fell into bed exhausted but very blessed.

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