someone is happy with less than you have

it's Friday & all across the world kids are going to get out of school today for the weekend. there will be excitement in the air.

in a tiny forgotten corner of Kenya there are a handful of orphans who will get out of school today and run "home"... a couple of miles from school back to their orphanage.

6 or 8 of them will quickly assemble on the tiny "field" (dust, dirt, and big rocks) in front of their orphanage and start a soccer game with bigger rocks for goal posts and a ball that hasn't had air for a very long time.

they will run and laugh and play. life is good. they will be happier than you can imagine.

and they have nothing.

in a posh suburb of Charlotte, NC today a spoiled 10 year old will come home to the nicest amenities imaginable... with more luxuries in his own room than the kids in Kenya will ever be able to fathom.
He will sit and play his Playstation 3 all day and complain to his Mom about what they are having for dinner and that his friend at school has something newer and cooler than he does.

he will spend a large portion of his Friday afternoon pouting and being unhappy.

and he has everything.

why is this?
why does this scenario of ironic polar opposites exist?

because it's not how much you have that brings you happiness; it's how much you appreciate how much or little you have.

and adults are way worse. worse than children. some adults i know are the most ungrateful and unappreciative and therefore most UNHAPPY people on the planet.

Gratitude may be the greatest secret to happiness.

but if that's true then being rich comes with a very serious hidden danger... more money & more "Stuff" is a THREAT to happiness.

be grateful today. be thankful.
you have SO MUCH... no matter how much or little you may think you have.

kony 2012!

everyone knows Invisible Children... let's hype Kony 2012 this year...
check it out if you haven't watched it already.



who's in with me? - let's hook it up that night in April. i'm up for a good all-nighter on the streets of Charlotte posting some Kony 2012 propaganda!
let's make it a party and join up and do it together.

what we should learn from African theology

(I originally wrote and posted this to renown on February 10, 2010.)

Earlier this year I finished reading my 1st book written by the late, great missiologist David J. Bosch. He is the guru, but I've never read an entire book he wrote. But I recently finished Believing in the Future: Toward a Missiology of Western Culture and it was great stuff.

He applied much of his expertise in cross cultural mission to our mission here in the West [as it rightly should be applied the same!].

So, I know there are TONS of things we (in the West) should learn from African theology, but this is just one thought from Bosch on what we would do well to take from them

“African theology was to a significant extent missiological through and through.”

and along those lines...

“Third World theologies are missionary theologies, whereas First World theologies are not.” 

This is so true and points to the root of a lot of our problems here in the West. Many only think of being "on mission" in a foreign context, but not here in the West. 

Bosch wrote this back in the year of his death - 1992. Thankfully over these past 17-18 years the shift he wrote about has been happening here. We've still got a long way to go, but we're getting there, imho.

success! (part 2)

ever read a book and been overwhelmed with the feeling that the author is talking directly to you? i've mentioned before that this is how it is for me with Visioneering by Andy Stanley. i don't know how to explain it other than that it's like he's having a 1 on 1 conversation with me. i don't think he would say anything differently to me if he were a very close personal friend and sitting down at a coffee shop with me giving me advice.

A couple weeks ago the words spoken to me from this book were so powerful and dead on for me that i was totally overwhelmed.

i talked about it a little bit yesterday in my preamble to success & i'm continuing it below.

i'm in this "waiting" stage - but i feel very unsuccessful in this "waiting" stage. yes, i'm praying and planning like crazy... but it feels like i've been rolling that ball up the hill for too long now.

this praying and planning stage is so difficult for me (and everyone probably) because i get confused about what success actually is!
Andy reminds me:
“There is a tendency to confuse success with the rewards of success. If I am where God wants me, fulfilling the responsibilities He has given me, I am successful.”  

*this is HUGE for me right now!

Andy's Definition of Success = “Success is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for me.” (“Success is not the raise, the promotion, recognition, Christian home, or wonderful children. Those are simply enjoyable mile markers along the way.) Success is staying faithful to the process that contributed to those things becoming a reality.”

*So, most successful peeps are successful long before they see the fruits of their success. make sense?

success isn't about "the moment" when the vision hits it big. it's about all the tiny little moments along the way that build to "the moment". it's about all these moments where i just keep plodding along. continuing to pray and plan. rolling the ball forward.

Andy puts it another way = “You are as successful now as you will be the day you see your vision materialize.” 
WOW*** That’s freakin’ sweet! and the timing of me working through this stuff again is impeccable. as if God was behind me being able to hear this somehow...

“Confusing success with the rewards of success is one of the primary reasons people abandon their dreams.” – whoa! This is big to remember! i cannot imagine me abandoning this vision. i wouldn't know what else to do. BUT i'm not naive. i'll work hard from now on to NOT confuse success with the rewards of success.

“Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone in whom God has placed a vision… He is the master strategist.”

this sentence brought me to tears. because that is the name i need to give to God in faith right now. He is the Master Strategist. even though i can't see it He's up to something.

my praying/planning/waiting time is not wasted... He's prepping me and everything else that needs to happen to make this vision go off. He's gonna make it happen.

it's His vision anyway. what am i so worried about?

preamble to success

i've been working hard these past couple months trying to practically map out the vision God has for my life and put flesh on it. harder work than it sounds like.

when you have a RIDONCULOUS sized vision (to spark a Jesus-revolution in Africa) it's easy to feel OVERWHELMED by it. i'm finding out that this is normal. normal for me anyway. it often feels like it's taking forever and that there's not a whole lot i can do right now.
Or that things aren't quite progressing as quickly as i dreamed they would... or hoped they would... or expected they would.

And i guess the biggest tension is that i often start to think that God isn't doing things quite right. i say out loud to Him - "You put this vision in my soul... now what are You doing about it?" [and He likes to say back - "what are you doing about it?"]

so i am doing what i can do right now in this "waiting" stage. being faithful. praying. praying for favor and opportunity. every day.
and planning. planning as if i had all the resources i needed.

Still... many days it feels like "time's a wastin". OR it all just feels too overwhelmingly big... like it's never going to happen. Really, God? are You still gonna do this?

but i constantly have to remind myself that these next words are very true, so DON'T GIVE UP PATRICK, no matter how much it feels like i'm just sitting around waiting:

“I don’t know what God is up to behind the scenes of my life. I don’t know how close I am to a breakthrough. It is no accident I am where I am.”             (Andy Stanley)

in my waiting and praying and planning...behind the scenes...

GOD. IS. UP. TO. SOMETHING.

& that is encouraging to me beyond what anyone else can realize. i don't know what He's up to. it's definitely no accident i am where i am. i embrace that. i believe it.

i'm COUNTING on that.

wandering beyond...

my heart is in some fresh embryo stages of something big.
not really something new, because the gist has been in my heart since i was 18ish. now it's even bigger. if that's possible.

dreaming about the future a lot. what God wants to do with my life. it's revolutionary, scary, world-changing, and confusing all at the same time.

Andy Stanley seems to have the unique gift of putting into perfect words what i'm feeling. so, straight from my heart but his mouth... here's what i'm doing these days:

allowing my heart and mind to wander outside the artificial boundaries imposed by the world as it is.

i'm doing (and seem to continuously do) a lot of what Andy calls "visioneering".

i'm trying to look beyond what is and paint a picture of what could be. 

it's not a picture that i'm even painting like an artist. 
i feel like it's one that is BEING PAINTED on my soul.
everything that's being painted there is big, and crazy, and audacious. revolutionary.

maybe you know what i'm talking about. maybe it's happened to you. or happening...

if you haven't experienced this... something being painted on your soul... a picture beyond what is - what could be...
if you haven't experienced that then you might just think i'm crazy.

maybe i am.

but off i go.

wandering... 

how i learned about radical forgiveness from an orphan

Forgiveness is a hard thing to give - a lot of times for most people.
Jesus was all about radical forgiveness. i want to be about that kind of radical forgiveness too. Forgiveness no matter what. i wonder if i could forgive someone who screwed me over BIG TIME. i got a lesson in radical forgiveness from an unexpected source.

This is Nyaga. he is an orphan we have sponsored through Compassion International since 2007. We've always known he was an orphan because Compassion told us, but we never knew what happened to his parents.

Crystal and I got to meet Nyaga this September and you can read about that HERE. We heard the story about how his mother died when he was about 2-3 years old. His oldest brother tried to take her to a hospital a couple hours away but it was too late. Japhet, his oldest brother became "dad" to all the kids (including Nyaga) when he was only 20.

We found out that his Dad had just got up and left some time before that day. never came back. never communicated with them.
just gone.
dead for all they knew.

so, when Nyaga's mom died he was an orphan. no mom, no dad.

Well, Nyaga's dad heard that Crystal and I were coming to visit and probably heard we were bringing lots of gifts, etc... so he showed up. after 7 years he just waltzed right back into his village... into his family's land. All day he just kept his distance from everyone, didn't say a word to anyone... just watched. he looked like he may have been drunk.

This made Crystal and I SO ANGRY! i seriously wanted to walk up to him, grab him, and shake him + shout (probably through my angry tears) "WHAT KIND OF MAN ARE YOU!?!? How could you ditch your family like that?!" how could a man leave his poor defenseless family?

He knew that his wife had died too. He just left his oldest son Japhet to step up and be the man for all the kids. Japhet had to put his life on hold. he never finished school. he has a wife and kid of his own now... not to mention 4 little brothers and sisters that are like his kids. He works his butt off for this "inherited kids" and they all live on about $7 a month!
$7 a month!? 

"You left all your kids without a parent to live on $7 a month!?!?"

i felt like it was righteous anger that was rising up in me making me want to punch this guy in the face. but then something happened.

i was randomly videoing Nyaga as we gave him a bag of candy. Then he started to share it with everyone around which i thought was pretty cool so i kept videoing.
Then something happened that i totally didn't expect. Just watch for yourself.

(fyi - Nyaga's dad is the man sitting by himself way off to the right by the trees.)

that's powerful.

i was absolutely shocked. i couldn't believe what i just witnessed.
if i were Nyaga there is no way i'm sharing my candy - this prized commodity i just received for once in my life - with the man who pretty much ruined my life.

i mean orphaning your own kids is pretty much the worst thing i can imagine. when you get screwed over like that then it would really take RADICAL forgiveness.

i probably fought back tears when i witnessed that moment. my heart melted. it completely changed my heart and my thoughts about what i could/would/SHOULD do in a similar situation.

later Crystal and i were talking about how angry we were at his dad for having the audacity to even show up. then we talked about how if Nyaga can forgive him then surely we can forgive him too.

then i got to thinking that if Nyaga can forgive his dad then surely i can forgive anyone who ever does anything to me.
but where does that kind of radical forgiveness come from? how can someone even do that?

i'm convinced it's just Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate Radical Forgiver. He started it. He asks us to follow by turning the other cheek. pretty radical.
without Jesus i have no idea where this radical forgiveness could come from? it's hard enough with Him.

thoughts?

my wife has never looked more beautiful

my wife has never looked more beautiful...than when she was serving and loving the poor in Kenya this past month.

i know she wasn't all "fixed up" with makeup or fancy clothes... but to me... seeing her loving orphans... serving the poor... wow.
i don't think she has ever looked more beautiful than that.
i tear up just thinking about it.

just looking at these brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.

of course, my wife doesn't need to do anything to look hot. she does that without trying. but this was a whole new level of beautiful
it's hard to explain. it may not make sense to you, & yeah, maybe some would argue that she looks "prettier" when we go uptown on a date... but to me - she has never looked more beautiful.

i fall in love with her more all the time.

Crystal, thanks for taking the risk & going on the adventure together. thanks for being a trooper through all the crazy stuff. and thanks for letting your heart come out making you look more beautiful than i ever imagined.
i am awestruck

what i miss (& don't miss)

i miss Kenya.
i miss the people. i miss being there. i miss a lot of things.

& if i'm honest there are a few things i don't miss.

things i don't miss:

tucking in the mosquito net around the bed every single night

that crackhead rooster waking me up EVERY morning between 3 & 4am!

taking a "shower" in a bucket

Trying to convince Kenyans that WWE is not real
& watching really really bad Japanese action dramas... (dubbed with Swahili)

my spine crumbling to pieces from driving on the roads & adding up the chiropractor bill in my head

African time

kids trying to braid my hair

always being called Mzungu

rice & beans :)

always having a camera in my pocket or around my neck

turkeys, geese, cows, and chickens...

doing laundry in a bucket

being constantly covered in dirt

things i miss:

falling asleep to the laughter & playing of happy orphans

monkeys

being in the middle of extreme poverty... and knowing Someone who can/does change the world.

speaking Swahili

the amazing beauty of the country all around

any time of day just chillin anywhere in the house and hearing a group of orphans singing worship songs. sometimes English... sometimes Swahili.

being with my wife 24/7

slowly taking in every moment of every day. for some reason that doesn't feel possible here. (but maybe it is)

watching my wife love on

listening to other people tell me about their dreams.

having time to dream

playing "soccer" every single day

greeting the kids at the children's home 1 by 1 as they walked home from school every day

chapati

about 100 specific individuals

dancing in church

not having a mirror or ever seeing myself

telling the girls floor at the orphanage "goodnight" every night & their response

a kid always holding my hand

carrying Kenyan shillings - so cool & colorful

making orphans smile & laugh


 *there's probably a whole lot more, but this is just off the top of my head.

rice & beans, beans & rice

Dave Ramsey always talks about his "diet plan" when you're "living like no one else" = it's "rice and beans, beans and rice."
it's not literal, the idea is just to eat as CHEAPLY as possible to be smart with your money.

well, Crystal and I followed the Dave Ramsey diet LITERALLY for about 2 weeks in Kenya. while living and working at the orphanage we ate ONLY rice & beans... beans & rice for every meal!

the 1st night the carried a live rooster up to the kitchen, slit it's throat, cooked it and fed it to us. that was pretty good... and also the last meat we would eat.
i was thankful though. rice and beans tasted pretty good. i bet we could save a lot of money eating only rice & beans at home too.

speaking of Dave - the budget is a little meager for October after our time in Kenya. Usually i give Crystal 3-4 envelopes with the cash for the month. This month i left THE envelope on her dresser.
she came up to me later and asked "Is all the cash in that 1 envelope?"
"yes."
"Is that a joke?"

haha, we both just laughed. it's all good. hardly a day goes by when we don't talk out loud about how unbelievably God has blessed us.
so thankful.

watch

charity: water promo featuring "Time Bomb" by Beck from charity: water on Vimeo.

the fresh prince & clean water

the 1st time i ever saw Will Smith was in 1 of my favorite shows as a kid = "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"... and that's the only way i knew him for years.
Over the years he has become one of my favorite actors. He's played some amazing roles in some great movies.

now what he's a part of for his birthday is even more important though. check it out:

Will and Jada's Birthday Celebration from charity: water on Vimeo.

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of clean water and how YOU can get involved and make a difference. One of the cool ways to get involved is with Charity Water by donating your birthday... just like Will and Jada.

Who would have ever thought - from "chillin out, maxin, and relaxin all cool and all shootin some bball outside of the school..." to providing clean water for the poor in Africa.

meet joseph (& see why clean water matters)

this is Joseph. he lives at the orphanage we worked at for a couple weeks. he won over our hearts. (all of the orphans did, but Joseph just had an extra hold on both our hearts.)

it sounds like Joseph's mom was murdered by a witch doctor when he was just a little kid. and then his dad died over 5 years ago too. it's heartbreaking to hear Joseph talk about it.
Thankfully, Joseph and his older sister got to move to Havilla and live at the Children's Home.

Joseph is the life of the party at the orphanage. He is the one always cracking jokes and making people laugh. He writes his own jokes a lot too. He loved to make Crystal and I laugh. here is a short video of one of the jokes he loved. i hope you can understand his accent... i don't even notice it anymore.

(sorry the vid was so dark & blurry... i don't know what was up with that one.)

Joseph works really hard in school too. he's got big big dreams. he wants to go to law school one day and eventually become the Attorney General of Kenya so that he can help the people of Kenya. pretty audacious for an orphan. :)

Joseph lives at the children's home where he gets clean water every day and so does his older sister. Joseph's younger brother didn't get to come to the orphanage with them - he has lived with their uncle instead.
His brother is only 11 years old.

was. was only 11 years old.

Joseph's brother died last month. why? because he didn't have clean water. he died of a water related illness.

i fought back the tears as Joseph told me the story and how he got the letter from his uncle just 1 month before. he told me - "Usually I finish 1st or 2nd in my class on all my exams... but that day, the day I got the letter about my brother... I finished 6th on that exam. I just couldn't concentrate."

i can't imagine.
Joseph and his sister, Hannah, got to go to their brother's funeral and grieve while being supported by some of their relatives. and no doubt when they returned to Havilla they were surrounded by love from their 45 other "brothers & sisters". i can't help but think that Joseph's little brother might have been a full of life little jokester as well.
i'm thankful that this never needs to happen to Joseph. At his orphanage he'll always have clean water.

but the problem is that this shouldn't happen to ANYONE.

ever.

period.

and you and me can do something about it. you've got a birthday, right? whenever it is... consider leveraging it for clean water for the poor. just click HERE and join the awesome birthday bash with Charity Water.
And we all celebrate Christmas. click HERE & celebrate a little differently with Advent Conspiracy. and because you leverage Christmas for the poor without clean water you can save lives...

and change the world.

leaving the kids

we love these kids. they're like the greatest in the world.

so, it was hard to leave them. we saw them off to school early one morning (like 6am is when they start walking!) and hugged them & told them "bye" one by one.

it was a great experience to stay with them, play with them, serve them, and love them. we definitely won't ever forget them. and who knows... we may be seeing some sooner than we think?

internet hasn't really been working - that's why i haven't been able to write many updates. hopefully this one will post.
i have a TON to write about when we get back home.

and so we begin like 40 hours of travelling... see you back in the USA.

soweto (my trip to the slum)

on Sunday Elias and i walked into Soweto. it's really only "1-2 blocks" from the orphanage. it's all relative in Kenya though. you just have to walk around the big pond - which is the sewage/waste hole for the area. it's big.

Soweto is the slum in the area where Havilla (Children's Home) is. if you don't know what a slum in Kenya is you can just google it.
Crystal and i were planning to try to visit Kibera - one of the largest slums in Africa, but all the Kenyans said we would need an armed police escort to visit. There are over 1 million people who live in Kibera which is in Nairobi. 3 million in the whole city of Nairobi and Kibera is just a tiny slum (according to the land space) with a million people crammed into it.

Walking around Soweto for a couple hours was absolutely... wow. i don't even have the words for it. i guess i would call it heartbreaking. very humbling. something in my heart started to cry out - a need to do something. anything.

this place - Soweto - is TINY, but around 10,000 people live there! TONS of kids. mostly orphans. the rest living with only a mother or grandmother.

You could constantly hear all the little children's voices chattering "Mzungu! Mzungu!" as i walked through the streets. 1 by 1 they would run up and grab my hand and say the famous English phrase that they all know "How are you?"

Soweto was a whole town. a whole city right there in this very very small land space. stores, shops, homes... the quality of which most of us wouldn't want to even set foot in.

this place is the epitome of poverty. 

it's like what they put on TV. it's the extreme that comes to your mind when you think of people living in absolute poverty.

the smell was almost unbearable - almost knocked me down every few steps... and TRUST ME, i have gotten used to some very bad smells over the past month. cow manure, bodily odors, etc... are nothing and don't even phase me. but this place was bad.
kids barely had clothes. trash and literal crap was all over the streets, like a foot deep in some places.

only the sewage pool separates this slum from Havilla - the orphanage Crystal and i have been living at. we see Soweto every day - can't be more than a 100 yard walk away.

wow. what a difference a short walk makes because the orphans at Havilla are worlds apart. the 3 story orphanage is no Hilton hotel... or even a crappy college dorm, but compared to the slum where these kids would have ended up... it's an amazing blessing.
most of the kids in Soweto probably don't even get to go to school because there's not a chance anyone can afford the school fees... even for public school. Thanks to the support of some generous sponsors (through Bright Point - something similar to Compassion International) ALL the kids at Havilla have their basic needs taken care of AND they get to go to the BEST school in the area!

the kids who live at Havilla are full of dreams. they eat 3 balanced meals every day and drink clean water. they have a bed to sleep in every night. they work hard farming and work hard on their school work. they hear how much God loves them and that He has great plans for them. i am so thankful that these 47 kids are at Havilla.

i also think it's flipping awesome that Joseph (the Children's Home director) made the trek over to the Soweto slum recently with a camera. he walked through and interviewed A LOT of kids and their families/guardians. he took their pics and posted them to the Havilla Foundation site to try and help these kids get sponsored! so that they can go to school and have a future.

maybe one day the gap between Havilla and Soweto won't be quite so big.
maybe one day only the sewage pond will separate the 2.

that's my hope.

never even knew their parents

many of these kids Crystal and i have been living with never even knew their parents. they died when they were so young that they can't even remember them.

they are so excited to show us some of the pictures they have. most of them have been in the Daraja Children's Choir in the past so they've been at Big Stuf, Catalyst, etc... & peeps took pics with them and gave them copies. so they have photo albums and are so proud to show them off.

Francis and his little sister Hannah wanted to show us their photo album. it was mainly pics from Big Stuf and choir pics.

but they had one wrinkled up photo stuck in the front of the album.

it was an African lady holding a baby and then a small boy standing beside her (maybe 3-4 years old.)
Francis had stepped away, so i asked Hannah - "who is that?"

"That was my mother... and that's Francis and the baby is me."

i thought i was prepared for that moment - i mean, we're living at an orphanage and all. all of their parents are dead. it still hit me hard though... looking at that picture that they obviously cherish. probably the 1 family photo they have.

then Crystal asked her, "What happened to your mother?"

"I don't know. I can't remember her."

Then i lost it. i couldn't hold back the tears. my heart hurt for this little girl Hannah who is the sweetest kid in the world. my heart hurts for Francis who is 16 just fighting for the chance to be somebody.

even now i can't hold back the tears.

Their mother died when Hannah was 1. so, Francis was like 4 maybe? sitting on the front steps the next day i asked him, "do you know what happened to your mother?"

"I don't know. No one can tell me."

i can't imagine that. i can't imagine not even knowing. 

it makes me so thankful for my parents. it makes me thankful that God blessed me with amazing parents who love me and who i got to see every day growing up.

it makes me thankful for Joseph and Salome who all these kids call "mom" & "dad"! pretty cool. they started this orphanage and took in Hannah and Francis and 40something others... i'm thankful for that. i think every child in the world should have a father and mother. and with all the millions of orphans in the world, if it has to be a "stand in dad" at an orphanage, then so be it.

most of all it made me thankful for the FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS like i wrote about yesterday HERE. (Psalm 68:4-6)

it makes me thankful that "the Defender of orphans is STRONG and will take up their case." (Proverbs 23:10-11)

it makes me so thankful that God watches over & sustains the orphans! (Psalm 146:9)

it makes me happy for them. i don't feel "sorry" for them. my heart is absolutely broken for their pain and the situation of not even having their parents. but not "sorry" for them, because they automatically have the best Father in the world! God is their HELPER (Psalm 10:14) and i praise Him for that.

i look at these beautiful kids so full of life and joy & my eyes fill with tears and my heart fills with love. they laugh, play, sing, have fears and dreams... 

There are millions more just like them.

they just need us to give them a chance. like someone gave these kids a chance...

and gave them a family

"We are FAM-I-LY"

"my brothers and my sisters and me..."

you're at least singing along in your head by now. i'm not even sure who sings that song - don't really care - but i've been singing in my head since i arrived here at the Havilla Children's Home.

The 1st night we got here we were meeting all the kids and just hanging out. Many of them have been living here together at this orphanage for 5 years. sleeping in the same room. eating meals together. going to school together. hanging out 24/7.

so on that 1st night i was talking to Francis #1 (there are 3) who is 16 + a few of the other kids who were standing around. i said "so, you guys are like family, huh?"

"no, we ARE family."

Francis wanted to make sure i understood that.

within 24 hours of being here that was obviously clear to us. these kids are family. no question about it. they are brothers and sisters just as if they all had the same father and mother. and there is a lot of love to go around.

one night i was in one of the guys' rooms and talking to them about school the next day. i asked if they all hang out at school each day, stick up for each other, etc... they said "Yeah, they call us the Havilla Brothers."
that brought a smile to my face.

these guys and girls are a true family. kids who many would say are just orphans and don't even have a family... i think they probably understand it better than most of us.

how to accidentally start an orphanage

living here at the Havilla Children's Home has been one of the greatest things ever. these kids are absolutely amazing. they're all so loving, so full of joy, so thankful. i can see God all over their lives.

we're just hanging out with them and loving them all the time. we love them so much.

yesterday we worshipped with them at church and that was awesome. Joseph (the director) wanted me to speak, so that was a lot of fun.

Crystal and i were hanging out with Joseph last week just wanting to hear and learn about how the orphanage started. Joseph told us the story about how a great grandmother or great aunt was passing through with 2 recently orphaned kids (Elias & Kevin) about 5 years ago. Joseph & his wife Salome decided to take them in since the elderly family member couldn't provide for them. then they took in another street kid/orphan soon after. then another.

then word started to spread that orphans were welcome with this family...
Joseph told us:

"This ministry started without my knowledge."

wow. i thought that was SO so cool. looks to me like God started this thing... and that's the best way anything can start.

now there are 47 of the most wonderful kids i have ever met living here at this place they call Havilla.

"they don't know what's inside us"

we've been at the Havilla Children's Home (orphanage) since Wednesday. it has been amazing. (just not much time to write blogs - with 47 orphans all vying for your time!)

i love them all so much already. i know there is an extremely special place in God's heart for orphans. He is their father since they don't have one. He is their defender and protector since they don't have a parent to do that.

This is Elias. he's pretty amazing. he is 17 (the oldest) and he's been here the longest (5 years). he & his little bro (Kevin) were the 1st 2 orphans. he's been through some crazy rough times.
at the orphanage we all get together at night and worship, pray, and someone or even a couple peeps shares stuff from the Bible. Here's part of what Elias said last night. i just had to scribble it down really fast:

"All the people say us orphans are just dirty, poor kids. They say 'those orphans have no hope.' They don't know what's inside us. God is very strong. I didn't die yesterday. I'm still alive today. God is good and has a plan for us. We can see God working every day. We have all the reason in the world to say thanks to God." - Elias

awesome.
he's a big time leader. i can see leadership qualities in him all the time & he's already living the role of a leader where he's at. i really believe God is going to do big things with him.
he wants to be a Doctor. he sits for his exam to go to high school in about 5 weeks.

i believe in him. i believe in all of them. because people DO forget WHO is inside of them. and God IS strong.

thanks, God.

my chains are gone

don't think i need to say much. this is what we see, hear, and experience pretty much 24/7.