be a part of this! (repost)

(This was originally posted to renown on November 11, 2009. Still just as powerful today.)

 It's no secret I'm a HUGE fan of Compassion International! Crystal and I decided long ago that the last thing we would drop from our budget would be supporting children through Compassion! We can do without pretty much everything before we can drop that!

Maybe that made this moment at Catalyst '09 more powerful for us, but I don't think so. I think you'll agree that it is so powerful to watch! I'll let the footage speak for itself...



even watching it again just now I started choking up and fighting back the tears!

It's so powerful because you can SEE the life that was changed by just a few bucks a month. Why don't you click HERE and sponsor your own child today!? Change a life!

Nyaga is TOP of his class!

Nyaga is our child in Kenya that we have sponsored for over 4 years now through Compassion International. He was 5 years old when we sponsored him and he just turned 10 a little over 1 week ago! He is the man. Some of you may know him as Peter (Nyaga Baithumbi) and i've written about him a lot - HERE, Here, HERE, and HERE are a few...

Crystal and i had the awesome privilege of visiting Nyaga last Fall and hanging out at his house and in his village with his family (no parents). We had A LOT of fun together.

We always receive his report card after every year of school. He actually had to repeat 1st grade and then he's always done just OK since then. i can imagine it's extremely hard without even a parent to help you out with anything. He does have an older brother that he lives with, but he has his own wife and is taking care of 5 other children.

In our letters to Nyaga we always encourage him to work hard in school and to simply do his best. Last year he finished the best in his class he ever had -->

Term 1 = 14 out of 21 students

Term 2 = 8 out of 21 students

Term 3 = 10 out of 21 students

Crystal and i were talking to the Compassion staff when we were in Nyaga's village. we have always said that we want to sponsor Nyaga all the way through the University program, so we were asking how a student is selected for it?

Obviously there are several factors like work ethic, etc... but the student MUST be at least in the top 6 or 7 in his class to even be accepted into a University in Kenya!

We talked about Nyaga's grades and the staff lady mentioned that he is working hard and improving so much. that semester that he finished 8th in his class was a great step and puts him really near the cut off.

That day Nyaga and Crystal and i talked about school a lot. We encouraged him over and over to study really hard every day, to go to the tutoring that Compassion provides on Saturdays, and to keep improving in school... because it matters for your future.

i asked Nyaga what he wanted to be when he grew up and he replied - "President of Kenya... because i want to help Kenyans."

wow. lump in my throat. talk about HOPE. and having a dream from the bottom of poverty.

We told him to go for it. to work as hard as he can to walk toward that goal. getting better and better in school was a great way to move toward that goal... or at least the goal of having more influence to help people.

we just received Nyaga's report card from this year of school that just finished... HE IS #1 IN HIS CLASS!

Term 1 = 1st out of 40

Term 2 = 2nd out of 40

Term 3 = 1st out of 40

THAT is what i'm talking about!

we wrote him a letter write away (+ a birthday card and a birthday gift) and told him we know how hard he must have worked and how proud we were of that!

i know he's not my own kid but i can't even tell you how proud this makes me feel. i really can't help but tear up every time i think about it. unbridled joy wells up in my heart.

i definitely am not taking any credit but i can't help but think that the visit and encouragement Crystal and i gave mattered. because that's a big jump - from middle of the class to top of the class.

at the end of his letter we just received, he wrote "When can you come visit my home again?" Soon, i hope... Soon.

i hope 1 day we can go visit and help him move into his University.

and then the last words of his letter are "I will always pray for you."

c'mon Nyaga, can't i make it through 1 letter without crying?

outback or bologna sandwiches? (repost)

(This is a repost from Saturday, May 22, 2008.)

Peter is the young boy that Crystal and I have the awesome privilege to support through Compassion International. Make sure you go read a little more about Peter & Compassion here. That's where I wrote about him on one of my very 1st blogs.

He's our "adopted orphan" - the only kind we can afford for now. We'd love to "really" adopt an orphan in Africa one day, but for now we send support to him each month and Compassion makes sure he has plenty of food, clean water, health care, education, AIDS prevention and help for his brothers & sisters, a place to sleep, and they also make sure he hears the amazing stories about Jesus.

So, I went to the mailbox this past weekend and pulled out a letter from Peter. (He writes to us every 2-3 months.) It's always really exciting when we get a letter from him. I was stoked, but I had to wait on Crystal to get back because we always read them together. As soon as we opened it we could tell that he wrote it himself! This is the 1st letter from him that he actually wrote with his own hands. He is only 5, so a translator had to write it for him up until now! Looks like that $ is paying off as he has already learned to write REALLY well! Really well for a 5 year old anyway as there were a few backwards letters and misspellings, but not too bad. I thought I would share some of the letter with you guys:

How are you. I hope you are fine. I am also doing great because of the Lord. How was your Easter? Mine was great. I went to church and learnt about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much for your continued support and the gift you sent to me. I bought a goat worth 972 kshs and 50 kilos of maize worth 500 kshs.

Please pray for me that may do well in my studies. Is there any special prayer you would like me to pray for you? Bye til next time.

Love, Peter

Oh man, totally jacked me up a little when I read that. Definitely choked up a little. Pumped that he learned the coolest story ever - Jesus dying and coming back to life for us.

And then I read the next part. Crystal and I sent him a little extra $ for a Christmas gift. I think it was only like $50. We figured he could buy like a soccer ball and some toys or something. NOPE, he bought a GOAT! I read that and I just busted out laughing!!! So, I guess we got Peter a goat & some maize for Christmas. Actually I had some goat & maize together for a meal when I was in Africa. It's not bad when you're really hungry. Any of you ever got a goat for Christmas?It's just really funny to me.

Anyway, reading that letter makes it worth it all right there guys. When I think about there being 30,000 children dying every day from poverty, disease, and unclean water - it's crazy. But when I realize that for a little bit of my $ every month, Peter won't have to worry about it... what's a little bit of extra $? What's $40 a month going to do for me? 1 extra night out at a restaurant. But for Peter it guarantees he doesn't become a statistic! It gives him clean water, food, an education, medical care, etc... And it guarantees that he gets to be loved by a community of believers near his village who tell him the greatest stories ever told! His life is absolutely changed because of that money.

So, what do you think is more worth it? The night out at Outback or Peter? Get with it & sponsor a child! Go to compassion.com right now and make Jesus really happy.

As for me, I'm cool with the bologna sandwich for almost free at my house.

welcome to Erick's world (video)

Erick is a boy who lives in a small village in Kenya that the kids in Upstreet at Ridge Church sponsor through Compassion International. It has been an AWESOME thing for them for the past couple years!
When Crystal and i were in Kenya a few months ago we got to actually meet Erick that these kids have been supporting and writing letters back and forth with for years! i wrote about that experience HERE.

now you can check out this video we showed at Ridge on Sunday!


Eric Movie from Ridge Church on Vimeo.

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.

ERICK BASE KIRIA!

on Monday, Crystal and i made the tough journey to the village of Tharaka to meet Erick! Erick is an awesome 8 year old boy that some awesome kids in Charlotte, North Carolina sponsor!

we are just blessed enough to be the representatives of those Upstreet kids to Erick and do our best to convey their love and friendship to him. later will be the difficult task of trying to share this amazing experience with all of them!

We got to spend the whole day with Erick in his village and even at his home.

1st we visited the Compassion project office for that village. They took us through a very detailed and organized file on Erick. it was very very impressive. we learned that his family's total income is about 1000 kshs per month... that's about $14 a month. less than $0.50 a day. wow. so, the $38 per month that the Upstreet kids send to sponsor Erick is HUGE!!!

the visit wasn't exactly what we expected because Erick didn't speak much English or even Swahili so we had to use a translator for most things.
he was pretty shy at first too. that's not surprising at all because Crystal and i were the 1st MZUNGUs he's ever seen! (white peeps) i'm sure he might have even been a little scared at first.

but he definitely opened up way more as the day went on.

we played on the playground at the CDP (child development project). me & Erick rode the merry-go-round together.

we visited and hung out at his home for a long time. they were honored by our visit and made a big deal of it. they served us Ooji (sp?) which was NASTY! i managed to down the whole cup though. i don't even want to describe what it tastes like.

Erick has a new baby brother! & 4 total kids in the family, and his grandmother lives with them. both his parents were very nice and so grateful to all the kids who sponsor Erick. they must have told us "thank you" like 20 times.
the grandmother found out Crystal was a nurse and asked Crystal if she could pull some of her teeth that have gone bad. didn't expect that one.

we got to visit the church Erick goes to = AIC Karou (African Inland Church). Erick's pastor hung out with us most of the day too. he was a really nice guy. he's been the pastor for 3 years at the church in this village. we all had lunch at the church together.
we learned from some of Erick's letters that he likes to play the drums at church. i saw the drums sitting there and asked him to play for us. he laid down some sick beats for us and i got it on video. he was excited to play for us.

he took us to his school and then even brought us into his classroom and introduced us to his classmates. he even showed us his desk. he was SO PROUD and excited.
we met his principal and talked with her. because of our visit Erick got to skip school. i know the Upstreet kids will like that.

most Kenyan "homes" are on a "compound" where a big family probably lives. there are usually at least 2-3 "buildings on the compound + some type of "shamba" (farm). There's usually a "kitchen" as a separate building - just mud walls and a fire in the middle where they cook their food. Erick's home had one of these.

Then Erick's family had an actual house that they slept in - mud walls and 2 tin sheets for a roof.
we hung out in a half-built house. the sticks were up and the tin roof & next the father will build the mud walls. he said he is building this for the boys to sleep in because currently 7 of them sleep in the 1 house which is about 10x10. not a lot of room if you like to move in your sleep.
*We found out that they're able to build this extra home probably because Erick has been sponsored these past few years. That saves the family a lot of money on school fees, clothes, medical care for Erick, etc...

We were able to bless the whole family with a ton of practical gifts! i don't even remember them all but 1 of Crystal's spiritual gifts is definitely GIVING, so she went shopping and HOOKED THE FAMILY UP! = bed sheets, towels, hand towels, knives and spoons, cooking utensils, cooking fat (very popular), tons of rice and maize, biscuits (like cookies that Erick shared with everyone), cooking flour, and tons of other stuff.

the Upstreet kids wrote a LOT of letters to Erick and we gave him the big stack. he was so excited. Then we gave him a big framed picture of the whole Upstreet group (+ 2 smaller copies). He LOVED this!

after the family gifts we showered some gifts on Erick. = a Spiderman backpack for school (or whatever he wants to use it for), a big bag of candy (smarties, pixie sticks, suckers, etc... which he passed around to everyone), a game of Jacks, coloring books, a big box of crayons, lots of stickers that Crystal picked out for him, a whole bottle of bubbles & we blew some together!
+ we hooked him up with a Ridge Church t-shirt and a Camp Upstreet t-shirt.

we prayed for him and his family at their home before we left. we also got to give Erick his 1st every Bible! that's pretty awesome.

i'm sure i'll have a lot more thoughts later. getting a little car sick writing this while riding on these Kenyan roads though...

overwhelmed

the last 2 days have been amazing. we've spent the whole 2 days Erick and Peter in their homes in Tharaka, Kenya.

the last 2 days have also been hard. tough. exhausting. rough. probably the roughest on us physically. i don't think i've ever seen anything like what i've seen the past 2 days. and i've seen a lot. i think Erick and Peter's village makes Karima look like Beverly Hills.

i have so many emotions, but i'm honestly just too overwhelmed to write about these experiences. i know many of you would love to hear about these visits - especially everyone who has had a part in supporting and praying for Erick. and i promise i'll write about them soon. i think i just need some time.

i honestly keep having a thought creep into my head = "am i even making a difference?" with everything that i could ever do - does it even matter with this HUGE task we have ahead of us to help the least of these? is what i can do even a drop in the bucket?
i remind myself of the post i wrote HERE. i hope Crystal and i making a small difference for the renown of Jesus, for His Kingdom, and in some precious lives that we love so much.

but sometimes i feel like Reese Roper when he wrote these words back in the day... it used to be one of my fav songs long ago:

"I put my face down in my hands, water wells inside my eyes,

What do I have to give them? does it matter if I try?

I can't stand to see you suffer; I try to intellectualize

A formula to end your pain; 

it doesn't work. God knows I've tried.

What does it matter any way?

13 cents or all i own?

how can i ever save the world on cup-o-soup and student loans?

and i... wanna try and save the world!

but it never goes that way

God, i don't know what to do..."

ever felt this way?

letters to Erick (from Upstreet kids)

By the time you are reading this we have probably already met Erick and will be hanging out with him all day! we get to see his home, his school, his church, and meet his doctor! i am so excited.

**The kids in Upstreet at Ridge Church wrote a TON of letters to Erick. they are AWESOME! i just picked out a few phrases from a few of the letters. ENJOY!

pretty much EVERYONE wrote about being excited Erick could go to school & they hope he's making good grades, learning a lot, having fun at school, etc...

"Dear Erick, it was awesome to read about how you go to church and how you play the drums. It felt really good to hear that we were going to help you. My family has been praying for you. I've been really happy to hear how you're doing."

"I hope you have everything you need to have a great lifetime. love, an Upstreet kid, Josie."

"I think we have a lot in comen, like we both like soccer. And this is my letter to you. I hope you like it. P.S. - tell Patrick to learn your language."

"I hope your having a great day so far. I just want you to know we will all ways know your there And we care for you. thank patric for sending you all these letters and ask him why he looks so weird.  and if he really does give you the picture of all of us Im proply going to be on the top row and I have bright blond hair. Avery - P.S. - I am a boy and i know my nam souds like a girl. But is not"

"my favorite thing is my stuffed animals named bunny. what is one of your favorite things? my favorite subject in school is science too."

"I also hope that you are learning about God. Recently, I had a birthday party. I raised about $40 for you. I hope you can use the money...

when was  your birthday. whenever you had it, I wish you a happy birthday."

"Dear Erick, I hope that you do not get sic that much. Love Lily"

"Dear Erick, I hapy you hav fun in Keney - Love Aidan."

one girl wrote "I love to play soccer and dodge ball." then included a detailed picture and description of how to play dodge ball on the back! it was awesome.

"Dear Erick, I hope you have fun at school and I think your cool. by Trinity"

"I hope you like the money we gave you. You smiling makes me smile." (with a BIG smiley face)

We are going to meet him in just a few hours (around 3AM monday morning EST). He is an 8 year old who lives in Tharaka, Kenya - an extremely poor village. Erick is a boy who really had no hope about 2 years ago.

But some kids around his age in Upstreet decided that wasn't OK. They decided that it's not OK for him to grow up without a chance to go to school. they decided it wasn't OK for him to die as a child from some preventable disease. They decided it wasn't OK for him to die without knowing about Jesus. 

so, they did something about it. God had blessed them, so they sacrificed some of that money God has blessed them with and send it to Compassion to support Erick. He has a new life now. He has hope. he is BLESSED.

Tomorrow Crystal and i get to meet him and shower gifts and blessings on him and a bundle of letters from the Upstreet kids (which i crack up laughing AND cry while reading!). we get to see and experience and hopefully capture his new life... the POWERFUL change that the small actions of kids have made in his life!

pretty stoked to meet him. will definitely be posting ASAP about this experience!

your small actions = POWERFUL

Crystal and i have stayed with a lady named Maggie this weekend. She picked us up on Friday and we just left her home this afternoon (Sunday).

She is an amazing lady and has turned her home into a "mission house" where she invites any missionaries or people doing "God's work" to come and stay for free. She was an awesome host + her son Robert (who is the same age as us).

She has been a missionary to the United States and to Northern Ireland - both times just following God's call on her life even thought it seemed "crazy" and she was able to see many miracles along the way, since both were humanly impossible. God definitely used her in big ways to see people come to know Him and to spread His fame.

she lives a "missional life" in Kenya even though i bet she has never heard that phrase. she follows Jesus more extravagantly than we do even though she has very little. God has used her to change and bless so many lives!

Maggie is a great example of how God uses our small actions to do powerful things.

Maggie was born in a slum. if you don't know what a slum in Kenya is like just google it... or Wikipedia "Kibera" or look it up on YouTube. Crystal and i wanted to visit one, but not even Kenyans dare go without armed security.

Maggie was born in one of the largest slums in Kenya and grew up there. This means she had NO CHANCE... humanly speaking. 

Her Dad died around the time she was born so she never knew him. Her mother had nothing. in the slum they had nothing. Her life that began in extreme poverty was destined for disease, an early death, prostitution, or at best a life of begging in the slums with living conditions that would make most of us vomit.

Then when she was 8 years old God rescued her. Her life changed dramatically because of a "small" action. One of her father's old friends showed up at the slum. She was telling me the story and said this man came who she had never seen. He said "I heard what happened to your father and I wanted to help?"

This man had enough money to take 1 of the 5 children and "adopt" them and make sure they could go to school. that 1 child was Maggie. she went to school and worked hard and even graduated High School. She even went to University. She even became a nurse. God has used her to bless so many other lives... including ours.

all because 1 man wanted to help. his action was powerful!

Abraham is another example. 

he is in his 20s and works for 410 Bridge. He grew up in Naivasha, Kenya. He told us that when he was 10 years old a lady came to his village from Texas. She was on a trip with Living Water International and they were putting the 1st well in his village!

She gave him a coloring book and taught him to color. She taught him about what the coloring book said and it was about Jesus and how Jesus died for Him and wanted to be His Savior and change His life.

Because of that lady from Texas and that coloring book she talked to Abraham about, he became a follower of Jesus as a 10 year old boy. now he is a missionary with 410 Bridge and God is using him in powerful ways to change the lives of Kenyans AND Americans.

he told us a really awesome story that the men in his village used to tell. i want to share it with you, but i've already written too long. so, i'll save it for another blog on another day. his quote to sum it up was simply:

"You don't have to understand divine things. You just have to obey the call."

That's awesome. Just ACT. follow what God is leading you to do. leave the powerful part to Him. you never know how your small actions will be SO POWERFUL to change someone's life.

*on this note i can't help but think about Erick Base Kiria. We are going to meet him in just a few hours (Monday morning). He is an 8 year old who lives in Tharaka, Kenya - an extremely poor village. Erick is a boy much like Maggie who really had no hope.

But some kids around his age in Upstreet decided that wasn't OK. They decided that it's not OK for him to grow up without a chance to go to school. they decided it wasn't OK for him to die as a child from some preventable disease. They decided it wasn't OK for him to die without knowing about Jesus. 

so, they did something about it. God had blessed them, so they sacrificed some of that money God has blessed them with and send it to Compassion to support Erick. He has a new life now. He has hope. 

Tomorrow Crystal and i get to meet him and shower gifts and blessings on him and a bundle of letters from the Upstreet kids (which i crack up laughing AND cry while reading!). we get to see and experience and hopefully capture his new life... the POWERFUL change that the small actions of kids have made in his life!

pretty stoked to meet him. will definitely be posting ASAP about this experience!

what we're doing in Africa

we're leaving for Kenya in just over 24 hours. here's a little of what we'll be doing while we're there:

September 16-24    Karima
The 1st 10 days we'll be serving in the small village of Karima (near Lake Naivasha) which 410 Bridge has partnered with for the past couple years. This will be with the team from Ridge. We will be serving in local churches on Sunday and possibly throughout the week as well as possibly some final work on the water project that was just completed. The first clean water well Karima was just finished last week! 

We'll be helping to build a school for the children of Karima and teaching in one of the existing schools

*Crystal will also get to work in a local clinic that serves 3 villages! (I may even tag along with her 1 day if they let me.)
I am excited about these projects but our main goal will be to build lasting relationships with the people of Karima and let God use us to bless them.

September 25-26     Nairobi
When the Ridge team leaves for Charlotte we'll stay in Nairobi a couple days at a "mission house" run by a lady named Maggie. She sounds awesome. (And since we’re only taking a few shirts for the month, hopefully we can do some laundry in Nairobi!)

September 27-29     Compassion International in Tharaka (near Meru)
We will be traveling from Nairobi to the small village of Tharaka bright and early (6am) on Monday morning (the 27th). We will be spending 1 day with Peter, the Compassion child we have sponsored for over 3 years! It’s going to be amazing to meet him, visit his home, and have some fun with him. I tear up a little bit just thinking about it.

The next day we’ll be visiting Erick in the same village. Erick is a boy that the Upstreet kids (children’s ministry) at Ridge have sponsored for almost 2 years now... We are going to shower him with fun gifts (pop rocks, Jacks, etc...) and letters and pictures from the kids at Ridge. I’m excited to get some video and pictures to show the kids at Ridge a better glimpse of how their generosity have changed Erick’s life.
Then on our last day with Compassion we will get to visit a “Birthing Center” that is part of the new “Child Survival Program”. This connects at risk pregnant mothers with local churches and medical experts so they can give birth safely and raise healthy children. This is a big deal because there is so much danger with many pregnancies in Kenya. Crystal is all about this, of course.

September 29-October 12     Havilla Children’s Home
*Crystal and I are excited to serve in this orphanage that is only a few years old. A married couple in Kenya began to be burdened for all the orphans who were “street kids” in their town so they began taking them in 1 by 1. Before they knew it this ministry had grown into a Children’s Home that houses 50 children! Crystal and I have the privilege to live with this couple and serve with them and learn from them all we can. Starting orphanages much like this one is part of the vision God has given me for the future and I’m excited to learn a lot about that through this experience.

October 12-14   Mombassa
The amazingly beautiful Kenyan coast. We've never been to the Indian Ocean before. 1st time for everything.

October 15   Home

all that in 1 month. home by Friday night... in time for date night!

***We're going to try to write on this blog each night and update everyone about that day in Kenya! So keep checking renown.

 
If you think about us and want to pray for us you can pray that God keeps us SAFE, that He USES us, and that He CHANGES US!

our plane takes off Thursday morning at 6am! so stoked!

junky car club (repost)

(This is a repost of one of the 1st blogs i ever wrote back on January 4th, 2008. You can read the original in full along with all the comments HERE.)

WHOOOOOO! I’m so excited about this blog today! For the past few years I’ve been on a journey through Scripture discovering what God has to say about helping the poor. In short, I have become passionate about caring for the poor and doing whatever I can to help them. (MUCH more on this in later blogs.) I’m committed to living with less so I can give more to help orphans, giving clean water to communities that don’t have it, the homeless, etc…

While reading Relevant magazine (which I highly recommend you subscribe to by the way) I came across one of the coolest organizations I’ve seen in a long time!!! The JUNKY CAR CLUB
It was founded by Mike Foster, the founder of XXXchurch (which is another pimp organization to be highlighted in another blog. It’s an online accountability plan to keep guys pure from porn – download the software for free at http://x3watch.com/) and co-author of the really fun and helpful book Deadly Vipers: Character Assassins (go buy it and read it today... I'll be writing another post on it in the future.)
I even talked to Rick warren about the junky car club at Catalyst and found out he is a member too. Well, he was speaking from the stage with 11,000 other people in the room and he couldn’t remember the name of the club. I shouted it out to him and we had a quick little “conversation.” So, yeah, I “talked” with him about it. ☺
This thing is the real deal. “The JCC is a community of happy drivers that are politely rebelling against consumerism. We think life is better when you spend your dough on others and not on some pimped out ride. We encourage all members to support social justice organizations and give to those who are in need. Happy Driving.” (from the back of my membership card.)
The JCC partners with one of my fav organizations, Compassion International. So, the idea is that if you don’t have a car payment you can use that money to sponsor a child through Compassion. Compassion is awesome and helps regular peeps sponsor kids in poverty in order to provide food, clean water, healthcare, education, etc… in the name of Jesus and for His sake.

This is SO awesome. I plan to never drive a new car or even make payments on any car, ever. I paid cash (not much) for my 1st car right before I turned 16 – a Honda Civic SI with cool rims, a sun roof, and purple fluorescent lights underneath the car. (I planned to have a picture, but can't find one.) A year later I traded it straight up for an SHO (supercharged Ford)… and then traded it for my current car. I drive a 1989 Cadillac Deville with 187,213 miles, no shocks, and chipping paint. It has affectionately (and maybe not so affectionately) been referred to as the “caddymobile”, “pimpmobile”, “hooptiemobile”, “grannymobile”, and “big ugly caddy”. It is 27 feet long and drives like a tank. I once gave a ride to 12 guys IN my caddy all at one time! Lots of good memories. I’m just praying that it will last another 10 years and 100K miles! That would be cool with me. and if it dies I just wanna find another hooptie for $500 and drive it til it kicks the bucket. If that’s all it takes to make sure a few kids get lunch tomorrow or a village has clean water so they don’t all die from disease… this seems like a no-brainer to me. Think about it… if the choice is between having some nice wheels and an orphan getting to live another month, what’s the logical choice? Do you think there's anyway you could do more for people in need if you didn't have the fat car payment? Please don't think I'm saying that you're a horrible person if you have a car payment... we have 1 ourselves. The bottom line is - what are you doing to help those in need like Jesus told us to? Don't have enough money to help? maybe it's time you sold the Hummer and join the Junky Car Club... Let me know what you guys think of this idea.

So, I’m an elite lemon member… 1 of the original 150 members too. They’ve even got a JCC calendar now. Make sure you check out my blog on Monday because I’m gonna intro you to our buddy Peter who gets to have a fair shot at life because of $40 a month we’re not spending on a dope ride.

outback or bologna sandwiches?

(This article is reposted from July 2, 2008.)

Peter is the young boy that Crystal and I have the awesome privilege to support through Compassion International. Make sure you go read a little more about Peter & Compassion here. That's where I wrote about him on one of my very 1st blogs.

He's our "adopted orphan" - the only kind we can afford for now. We'd love to "really" adopt an orphan in Africa one day, but for now we send support to him each month and Compassion makes sure he has plenty of food, clean water, health care, education, AIDS prevention and help for his brothers & sisters, a place to sleep, and they also make sure he hears the amazing stories about Jesus.

So, I went to the mailbox this past weekend and pulled out a letter from Peter. (He writes to us every 2-3 months.) It's always really exciting when we get a letter from him. I was stoked, but I had to wait on Crystal to get back because we always read them together. As soon as we opened it we could tell that he wrote it himself! This is the 1st letter from him that he actually wrote with his own hands. He is only 5, so a translator had to write it for him up until now! Looks like that $ is paying off as he has already learned to write REALLY well! Really well for a 5 year old anyway as there were a few backwards letters and misspellings, but not too bad. I thought I would share some of the letter with you guys:

How are you. I hope you are fine. I am also doing great because of the Lord. How was your Easter? Mine was great. I went to church and learnt about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much for your continued support and the gift you sent to me. I bought a goat worth 972 kshs and 50 kilos of maize worth 500 kshs.

Please pray for me that may do well in my studies. Is there any special prayer you would like me to pray for you? Bye til next time.

Love, Peter

Oh man, totally jacked me up a little when I read that. Definitely choked up a little. Pumped that he learned the coolest story ever - Jesus dying and coming back to life for us.

And then I read the next part. Crystal and I sent him a little extra $ for a Christmas gift. I think it was only like $50. We figured he could buy like a soccer ball and some toys or something. NOPE, he bought a GOAT! I read that and I just busted out laughing!!! So, I guess we got Peter a goat & some maize for Christmas. Actually I had some goat & maize together for a meal when I was in Africa. It's not bad when you're really hungry. Any of you ever got a goat for Christmas?It's just really funny to me.

Anyway, reading that letter makes it worth it all right there guys. When I think about there being 30,000 children dying every day from poverty, disease, and unclean water - it's crazy. But when I realize that for a little bit of my $ every month, Peter won't have to worry about it... what's a little bit of extra $? What's $40 a month going to do for me? 1 extra night out at a restaurant. But for Peter it guarantees he doesn't become a statistic! It gives him clean water, food, an education, medical care, etc... And it guarantees that he gets to be loved by a community of believers near his village who tell him the greatest stories ever told! His life is absolutely changed because of that money.

So, what do you think is more worth it? The night out at Outback or Peter? Get with it & sponsor a child! Go to compassion.com right now and make Jesus really happy.

As for me, I'm cool with the bologna sandwich for almost free at my house.