Economic Empowerment in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is a city under constant construction. From my first trip in 2011 to my trip last month the city continues to expand and grow. A new rail system allows for mass transit within the city and stretches to the outlying areas. New luxury hotels and a new headquarters for the African Union dot the skyline. New roads are being built all over and the airport is being expanded and updated. It is filled with the signs of progress, but it also is stricken with poverty and abandoned children.  You can find a $40,000 a night hotel suite, but it is also home to thousands of people living on less than $2 a day.  It has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, but as more and more people come to the city from the rural areas Urban poverty has been exacerbated and the city contains more people that the economy can support.

World Orphans has 9 church partners in Addis and the surrounding communities. These churches serve approximately 160 families through our home based care (HBC) program. The families are supported by the church receiving a monthly distribution of a staple foods, cooking oil, and hygiene products. This support enables mothers and grandmothers to keep their families together and makes it possible for them survive the bumps in the road society’s most vulnerable are constantly enduring.

All of the mother’s in our program are widows – either by death or abandonment they have been left to care for their children on their own. 75% of the women served were not members of the church when they entered the program.   Not all the families are Christians, some of them believe in nothing, others are Muslim.  Many of them were hopeless and alone- contemplating suicide or even attempting to take their own life sometimes precedes entering the program.  They have no one working for them and sometimes they even have people actively working against them.   Some of the stories just take your breath away. On my most recent trip I sat with a family going through an incredibly heartbreaking situation dealing with the death of a caregiver and an attempted land grab at the same time – it was all I could do to not break into tears as I looked into the faces of those children.   This all changes when they enter the HBC program and this article could easily be about the impact that simply being a part of the HBC program has on these women and their families.

How their lives are transformed by the care of the local church…
How the members of the church care for them and love them…
How the members of the groups care for one another in both the ups and downs of life…
How profoundly the tangible assistance provided to them monthly relieves the immense day to day burden of survival they carry…

But that is not what this story is about because of churches and staff in Ethiopia wasn’t satisfied with just helping them survive. They wanted more than that for these women and their children and an economic empowerment program was born in 2015. Each group received business and personal finance training and formed a savings group where they come together to encourage each other to save as much as they can for emergencies or for the long term needs of their families.  After the savings groups were formed micro loans began in 2016.

We’ve developed a 4 cycle micro loan program. The caregivers will receive approximately $30, $60, $125 and $250 loans.  They use to loan to start or improve a business they use to care for their families.   To be eligible for the next loan they must pay back the previous one completely. The goal is that at the end of this 4 year cycle the families will be self-sufficient and not need our assistance anymore. These small loans have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. As I type this we are approaching the end of our 2nd cycle of loans. 20 caregivers have now received two loans, 25 women have received one loan and in May we will make a 3rd set of loans – the first 20 caregivers will receive a 3rd loan, the next 25 will receive their 2nd loan and a new group of 40 women will receive their 1st loan. Several women have been so successful with the loans that they have already voluntarily given up their spot in the HBC program because they no longer need any assistance. Our repayment rates are unbelievable – about 97% of the loans have been repaid fully and the only defaults were due to an advance case of leprosy, death or leaving the program completely.

However, Economic Empowerment isn’t just about numbers and ledgers. It’s about people. It’s about relief. It’s about hope. It’s about opportunity. It’s about dignity. It’s about dreaming. I’m so thankful to have been able to sit with these women twice in the last year and hear their stories. When you look in the faces of these women you can see the harsh realities of life for the poorest of the poor in the developing world, but look closer and you can see joy and you see courage, resilience and determination. The world doesn’t care about these people, but someone does. These women are loved by their creator and his heart breaks over the way his creation has been twisted to create systems where people live in opulence and luxury while others struggle just to survive. We are trying to create new systems – systems where those who have more than enough share just a little to help those who don’t have enough. The dedicated members of our World Orphans Ethiopia staff, the church pastors and the home based care coordinators are training, equipping, and caring for these women and it’s working. They’ve created a community together and within this community these women are being empowered with very small micro loans and the results have been phenomenal. Over the next few weeks I’m going to share some of the individual stories of these women and their experiences with these loans. The results are simply amazing.

These women have turned small loans into life change. They’ve gained hope and confidence and changed the environment in their homes. They are leaving behind brutally demanding jobs as day laborers and striking out of their own. They are sending their kids to school, they are providing more nutritious food to eat, they are purchasing life saving medicines, they are overcoming disasters and surviving lost income due to political unrest. They are caring for each other and dreaming about the future. They are learning lessons from failures and capitalizing on their successes. We are just two cycles into the program and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the families.

Do you want to be part of this? Consider making a donation to help fund economic empowerment at World Orphans. $30 funds a new loan for a caregiver in Ethiopia. $460 will fund the entire 4 year cycle of loans for a caregiver. $1200 will fund new loans for all 40 women entering the program this year.

Click here to fund micro loans!

***Please scroll down to Select Economic Empowerment Campaign and type Ethiopia Economic Empowerment in Notes on next page****

Want to read a success story from last year?  Click here to read Zeritu’s Story

Want to read an overview of World Orphans Economic Empowerment program?  Click here.

A billion little cups

Poverty can seem like an enormous bucket that is impossible to fill.  The stories and the pictures make us cringe and look away.  We look at the size and scale of the bucket and we feel powerless because we know we don’t have the ability to fill that bucket.  And it’s true – none of us as individuals have the time or the resources to fill that whole bucket by ourselves.  So we look at the problem of poverty and it makes us sad, but we chalk it up as something that we can’t do anything about and we walk away sad, but unmoved.

But what if our perspective shifted.  What if we looked at the problem of poverty not as a gigantic bucket we can never fill, but as billions of little cups of varying sizes and shapes.  Poverty is a complex web of things not a monolithic thing.  Poverty is a kaleidoscope, a tangled weave, made up of billions of individual people suffering the impact of centuries of evil, systemic injustice and greed.

Poverty is a farmer one drought or flood from hunger. 

Poverty is a child watching himself become an orphan as a preventable disease takes away his mother.

Poverty is a child being forced to leave school and get a menial job to support the family after the father leaves.

Poverty is parents watching their daughter die because they can’t afford the medicine she needs.

Poverty is a mother watching someone steal her land after her husband dies.

Poverty is a mother forced to leaver her children at an orphanage rather than watch them suffer from malnutrition and a lack of education.

Poverty is all these things and more.  Billions of people suffering, but they are not a single problem to be solved.  They are unique individuals made in the image of God and deeply loved by God suffering from a variety of problems – we can’t solve them all at once, but we are not powerless to do anything.

You can’t fill the entire bucket. I can’t fill the entire bucket.  However, I can fill a couple of teacups and so can you.   It cost me something and it may cost you something.  If we choose wisely some of the teacups we fill might overflow filling some of the surrounding cups.  Those cups could in turn fill some more cups.  What you may have thought of as an insignificant contribution will multiply and impact exponentially more people than we ever imagined it might impact.

Moving from the theoretical to reality.  The amount of money required to be life changing is so small that we all have the opportunity to fill a cup and change lives.

Stop Malaria with a $10 mosquito net or provide a lifesaving dose of medication for another $10

Malnutrition can be prevented in a child for less than $30 a month

Vaccinating a child in the developing world from 12 diseases costs $45

Prevent an elderly couple from being evicted with $50

Send a kid to school for less than $100 a year.

This is a fact…. Empowering women is  the best investment we can make in the developing world.  The key to eradicating poverty is to empower as many women and girls as possible.  In too many places women and girls are an afterthought – they are not considered of equal value and the impact they could have on their communities is ignored.

Savings groups and microloans made to women have a chance to do more than just fill a single cup.

When we empower a female entrepreneur in the developing world to fill her cup they will fill the cups of their children and their children will have a chance to be educated giving them an opportunity to fill their cup on their own.

When their cup fills they will have a chance to fill the cups of others in their community by hiring people to help as their business expands.

When people see that they have filled their cup and they are filling the cup of others, people will become more interested in participating in a savings group to fill their own cup.

They don’t lack the desire – they lack the opportunity and the resources.  When we empower them we spark a transformation.  Instead of perpetuating a cycle of poverty a cycle of improvement and empowerment can begin in their community.

As a Christian I believe this is both an incredible opportunity and obligation.  Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves and Isaiah 1:17 succinctly lays out this obligation:

Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

But the opportunity is equally clear – by all measures 21st century American Christians are the richest people to ever live – our opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of the poor and vulnerable is immense.  With a focused and sacrificial effort we could improve the lives of billions of people across the globe.

 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.   In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. – I Timothy 6:17-19

This is why I’m so excited about the work that I will be doing with World Orphans in the area of economic empowerment. Because poverty is one of the leading causes of family disruption I will be actively seeking ways to serve and empower our caregivers to break the cycle of poverty.  The majority of our participants will be women and all the studies show that when women are empowered economically their lives and the lives of their children, their families, their communities and their countries are improved.

Will you help me fill some cups?

Click here to join

 

 

I could no longer plead ignorance

“Sir, the nature and all the circumstances of this trade are now laid open to us; we can no longer plead ignorance, we can not evade it; it is now an object placed before us, we can not pass it; we may spurn it, we may kick it out of our way, but we can not turn aside so as to avoid seeing it; for it is brought now so directly before our eyes that this House must decide, and must justify to all the world, and to their own consciences, the rectitude of the grounds and principles of their decision.”

William Wilberforce

In December of 2011 everything changed.    Statistics transformed from mere numbers to real people with real names.  Extreme poverty, preventable disease and the orphan crisis went from abstract concepts to a reality that I could never forget.  I signed up for a trip to check a box and with no expectation of what would happen next.   I got on a plane to Ethiopia with World Orphans and had my world view shattered.  Everything was different.  I was different.  When the way you see the world changes, nothing will ever be the same.

There is one moment on the trip burned into my memory.  I was supposed to be enjoying a nice dinner in a nice restaurant, but I was looking out the window on the 9th floor of the Zebra grill in downtown Addis Ababa trying to process what I had seen and heard.   Children just like mine were living alone on the streets.  Children just like mine were living in cramped orphanages waiting for a family.  Children just like mine were dying of malnutrition and preventable diseases every day.  153 million orphans.  Billions living on less than $1.25 a day.  My two week trip became a calling when I realized that what was overwhelming my mind and breaking my heart on a small scale was happening over and over all over the world and I could no longer get on a plane, forget what I seen and go back to chasing my version of the American Dream with a little Jesus sprinkled on it.

Another moment that stood out to me was when we were able to help a church we visited help an elderly family in their congregation.  We skipped lunch each day so we were under budget and we left $50 dollars with the church to use to help pay the rent of this couple who was facing eviction because the husband had gone blind and lost his job.  I didn’t realize at the time that $50 would pay the rent for two years – it literally changed their lives.  On the trip home I sat an thought of all the ways I could blow $50 and yet in this context $50 made an incredible impact.  It was easy to be overwhelmed to think that the problems were too big for me to do anything about, but I saw how little it took to make a difference in 1 life.  Maybe I can’t change the world, but I do have one life and I can do for one what I wish I could do for all.   I sat on the plane thinking that if $50 dollars could make this much difference – I had no excuse to go home and not find ways to make a difference.

A lot has happened in the nearly five years since then, but If you have been following this blog or my social media pages you know I recently rejoined the staff at World Orphans as the director of economic empowerment.  World Orphans believes that all children deserve to be in a loving home with a family capable of caring for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.  There are over 153 million orphaned and vulnerable children worldwide and poverty is one of the leading causes of family disruption; so we are creating new initiatives aimed at combating poverty in the communities we serve.

My role will be to lead our efforts to break the orphan cycle by determining best practices in serving and empowering impoverished families. We will be battling generational poverty and systematic injustice but we are determined to help our families move from surviving to thriving.  I’ll begin by working with our partners on the ground in Ethiopia, Guatemala and Haiti to figure out how we can use tools like education, job training, savings groups, microloans and other microfinance tools to equip our families.  We will use what we learn there to help our other families use their available resources and talents in the most effective way in their unique context. Our long term goal is equip them for independence and self-sustainability instead of needing to rely on our local partners.

I’ll also be communicating with churches, businesses and other organizations here in the United States to raise the funds we need to develop and implement these job training and development programs. I am actively seeking ministry partners to engage with us in these efforts. I’m looking for those who want to partner with us as we move forward on our economic empowerment initiatives. I am looking for people who believe that all children belong in families and that all families deserve an opportunity to thrive regardless of where they are born or the circumstances they find themselves in.

Giving $5 or $500 is always a sacrifice – there is always something tangible you can buy with those funds, but a donation to World Orphans is an investment in Kingdom building.  I’ve had a number of people lately tell me they are not big on giving handouts.  I always respond by telling them that a gift to World Orphans is an investment, not a handout.

Your donation allows World Orphans to work with and empower local Churches in the developing world to bring hope and opportunity to children suffering from death, disease, abandonment and a lack of education and opportunity.  The  lives of the children and families in our programs are changed.

Your investment allows Churches to minister to more people by meeting their urgent physical needs along with addressing their urgent spiritual needs by sharing the Gospel of Jesus with them.  The churches we work with are growing and are making a bigger and bigger impact in their communities.

Your gift to World Orphans allows us to engage churches here in the US so that they can turn some of their time, talents and resources towards the urgent needs of the developing world.    Lives are changed both in the developing world and here in the United States because of what happens on our partnership trips.

So there is return on your investment – you may not see it on this side of Heaven (unless you come on a trip with us), but the investments of people like you are the reason that World Orphans was able to empower local churches to meet the urgent spiritual and physical needs of over 10,000 people last year.

I’d like to tell you about my $5 friends initiative.  I understand that times are tight.  You have your monthly expenses, plus the causes you already support, plus vacation expenses, plus back to school expenses and we are always hit with those unexpected expenses that seem to be popping up.  The idea behind $5 friends is simple.  We all have $5 of disposable income – we can spend it at McDonalds or Starbucks or we can invest it.  That’s what I am asking of you – make a small investment in the life of a child by committing to invest $5 a month or more and tell 5 of your friends about the opportunity to partner with us as well.

There are 3 levels you can join at:

Level 1:  $5 a month – This donation is .16 cents a day or $60 annually.

Level 2:  $5 a week – This donation is .71 cents a day or $20 monthly or $240 annually.

Level 3:  $5 a day – This donation is $150 monthly or $1,800 annually.

If you join at any level and tell 5 friends about this opportunity- I’d love to send you a World Orphans t-shirt as well.  Just let me know your t-shirt size and I’ll a shirt to you ASAP.

Ready to join? – go to www.worldorphans.org/livesay

Have questions?  Give me a call or shoot me a message below and I’d love to tell you more.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

 

Reposted from the World Orphans Blog: FROM IRAQ: EDUCATING HER FOR TOMORROW

It’s back to school time here in the United States… Check out this terrific blog from Dawn Ray, wife of the World Orphans Middle East Director, about her efforts to educate the girls as they serve the refugees in Iraq.

Click the link below to read the blog.

 

“When I leave the camp each week, my heart breaks thinking of how different my life and my kids lives would be if we never owned a book.”

Every time I read a dispatch from one of our projects I am so thankful for the opportunities that my daughter has because she won the lottery of being born into a two parent educated family in the United States and I am also even more motivated to find every way I can to serve the millions of Elizabeth’s all over the word who aren’t as fortunate.

Click the links below to read my latest posts:

I’m a Basketball Coach & an English teacher – You didn’t expect me to be good at math too, did you?

Bro, he’s a (expletive deleted) uber!

What is Home Based and Wholistic Care?

World Orphans – A Unique Kind of Orphan Care

Why Orphans?

Click here to join my team

Want to know more – Complete this form:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

I’m a Basketball Coach & an English teacher – You didn’t expect me to be good at math too, did you?

On one of my first trips to Haiti my friend Ron took the team and I to a waterfall. After being led up the windy path of slippery rocks you reached the waterfall and the view was amazing.  At that point it was decision time – were you going to be content with seeing the waterfall or are going to experience it by stepping out and letting the water crash down all over you? After a few minutes and some gently prodding I decided I wanted more than a view and I stepped into it….

IT. WAS. COLD! It literally took all my breath away for a moment.  But it was amazing and I experienced that moment in a much deeper way that I would have from just looking at it.

That’s where I am right now, again.  My last paycheck came today and I am about the experience the cold rushing water of the adventure that God has called me back to.  I get to live the words of a song I’ve loved since the first time I heard it, but I’m not sure I quite understood what it actually looked like to make this request of God.

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start now

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

That’s where I am.  Walking where my feet might fail and where fear surrounds me.  Any way you slice it the math doesn’t work.  Any way you spin it the numbers don’t add up.  I am literally stepping into a moment knowing that there is no way that I can make this work on my own.  If God doesn’t show up, if he doesn’t move in the hearts of people to support the work that I’m doing I will sink quickly. I’m walking away (a 2^nd time) from a safe steady job.  I’m giving up my guaranteed retirement plan, my state sponsored insurance and taking a significant pay cut. I’m working extra jobs, but the numbers at the end of the month still project to be in red.  My security, my safety, my comfort, my margin for error are all gone.  Just reading this paragraph in its totality should scare me to death.  The only logical response to reading this paragraph is to crawl back to my boss and beg to get my job back.

However, that’s not what I’m feeling.  In my career as a basketball coach I have been trained that the key to success is to control everything you can possibly control.  A coaching mentor once sent me a letter that I posted in my office as a 25-year-old head coach and looked at every day.  The letter simply said “IT. ALL. MATTERS.”  The implication was clear – leave no stone unturned, leave nothing to chance.  Everything in your program impacts your program.   That advice served me well in my career even if did cause some occasional frequent personal conflicts.  So I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some anxiety or even fear about the lack of control I have over what is going to happen next.  But that’s not where I want to focus my attention.

What I’m feeling right now is hopeful.  Confident even.  I 100% believe that God is going to provide what we need when we need it even if I have no idea how it is going to happen. An encouraging number of friends and supporters from the past have begun this journey with us again, but  the response has been very different this time to my support raising efforts. Initially this was discouraging – no one likes to be rejected or ignored by their friends, but God has reminded me lately that he is the provider of what I need, not anyone else.  So I remain fiercely confident in my future provision even when there is no tangible evidence to support that confidence. I don’t know when it is going to happen.  I don’t know what it is going to look like.  I don’t know if I will like it.  But this I know – when it does happen it will be because of God.  It will not be because of me.  It will not be because of my friends or family.  It will be because the God of the universe has provided it for me.

In my new role as director of economic empowerment with World Orphans I’ll be leading our efforts to break the cycle of generational poverty and to help the families in our projects move from finding ways to survive to finding ways to thrive.  I’ll be working with our leaders and partners on the ground in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti and beyond to figure out how we can use tools like education, job training, savings groups and micro-finance tools to equip our families to use their available resources and talents in the most effective way in their unique context.  I’ll be communicating with churches, businesses and other organizations here in the United States to raise the funds we need to develop and implement these job training and development programs. If we do our jobs well and are successful in providing them with effective tools they will no longer need us to make sure that they can provide food, education and medical care for their families.  Our long term goal is to give them a hand up to independence and self-sustainability instead of needing to rely from assistance from our local partners.

Just typing that paragraph gets me fired up.  That is what inspires me to take this leap.

If I have to drive an Uber a couple nights a week so that I can help single mothers join a savings group or get trained on how to grow their businesses and provide for their families so be it.

If I have to downsize or skip  a vacation so that a mother can provide an education for her children, let’s make that trade.

If I have to “retire” a few years later so that a child in one of our projects isn’t one of the nearly 19,000 that die daily of preventable disease, then I’m okay with that.

If my kids get one less trip to Disney so that one of our families can break the cycle of poverty and despair they were born into, then I can live with that.

This is why we do this – there are 153 million reasons why.  153 million orphaned children that have names and faces and who are as precious in the sight of their heavenly father as Elizabeth, Tyler and Troy are to me.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Do you want to be part of this adventure too?

Do you want to be part of our mission to serve children, families, churches and communities in the name of Jesus?

Will you be part our efforts to break the orphan cycle by helping these families use break the cycle of generational poverty?

Will you help us take on the effects of unjust systems and challenge the strongholds created by systematic injustice?

Will you join me?

Join my support team during August and become of my $5 friends – commit to a monthly gift of 5 dollars (.16 cents a day, $60 annually) and ask 5 other people to do the same and I’ll send you one of these awesome World Orphans t-shirts.

 “Living the gospel means desiring for your neighbor and your neighbor’s family that which you desire for yourself and your family. Living the gospel means bettering the quality of other people’s lives spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally as you better your own. Living the gospel means sharing in the suffering and pain of others.”

John Perkins

Learn more about World Orphans by clicking here

Join my support team by clicking here

Read more Blogs

Why Orphans?

World Orphans – A Unique Kind of Orphan Care

What is Home Based and Wholistic Care?

 

World Orphans – A Unique Kind of Orphan Care

On yesterday’s blog we talked about why World Orphans cares for orphans.  Today, I am presenting the mission and vision of World Orphans along with a video explaining how caring for orphans, families and communities is an expression of the Gospel.

VISION

To empower the church to care for orphans–until they all have homes.

MISSION

We equip, inspire, and mobilize the church to care for orphans and vulnerable children. Churches engaged. Children restored. Communities transformed by the Gospel of Christ.

 

 

Visit the World Orphans web site by clicking here: www.worldorphans.org

Learn how you can be a part of this ministry by joining my support team by clicking here

Yesterday’s Blog:  Why Orphans?

Why Orphans?

“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”
— Saint Augustine

In a world inundated with hypocrisy, people are constantly looking for something pure and faultless. James 1:27 gives us hope by reminding us that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

The most recent estimate shows there are approximately 150 million orphans in the world (UNICEF 2014). For this number, an orphan is defined as a child who has lost one or both parents.

The number of children under the age of 18 who have been coerced or induced to take up arms as child soldiers is generally thought to be in the range of 30,000. Over 50 countries currently recruit children under age 18 into their armed forces.

More than 17 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
Of those children that have lost a parent/parents to AIDS, 15 million live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Worldwide, an estimated 300 million children are subjected to violence, exploitation and abuse.Practices include the worst forms of child labor in communities, schools and institutions; armed conflict; and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage.

To read more on World Orphans website click here

To be a part of the solution click here

 

 

 

We Just Don’t Get It – God, Help Me To Get It

“Living the gospel means desiring for your neighbor and your neighbor’s family that which you desire for yourself and your family.” — John Perkins

I’m not sure we get it.  My life in many ways reflects that I don’t get it.  To be fair I think it is very difficult to get it in the world we live in today.  Corporations spend millions of dollars selling us lies and they are very persuasive and skilled at convincing us that their version of reality is truth. What should be valued is mocked.  What isn’t worth a passing glance is celebrated.  The pinnacle of virtue is to be tolerant of anything – except those who believe that there is an absolute truth.   Turn on a television, a radio, or a computer and you can see all the ways that things are not operating as God intends them to.  Our culture is broken. 

The unfortunate reality is that even our Christian subculture is broken.   Too often church is just a place we go once a week to see our friends, be filled up, comforted, and served before we get back to the reality of the rest of the week. Too often church is used to shape Jesus in the image of what we value – a Jesus who looks like us, thinks like us, worships like us, votes like us, and loves like us – we use it as little more than an attempt to sprinkle a little Jesus on our pursuit of the American Dream.  Too often Christianity is turned into just organized religion, a luxury liner or a country club or just another corporation seeking to improve the bottom line.  I sometimes wonder what tables Jesus would flip over if he walked into our million dollar temples filled  with celebrity pastors and singers in skinny jeans, pretty carpet, comfortable chairs, shiny signs, lasers, smoke machines, and high def cameras and other evidences of our desire to worship Him in comfort while enjoying a finely tuned show with all the latest  bells and whistles in the name of attracting the masses.

Mark 12:30-31

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

We just don’t get it.

We think that it is okay to care more about the Super Bowl or the Final Four than we do about the 3 billion people who live on less than $2.00 a day.

We think it is okay to be more invested in the success and failure of our college sports team than we are in the care for 153 million orphaned children worldwide.

We think it is okay to be more concerned about a new couch and chairs than we are about the 27 million people being exploited as  part of the modern day slave trade.

We think its okay to invest thousands of dollars educating, protecting, and providing excess for our children while showing little concern and making no real effort to help those children receiving substandard education or in need of protection or who don’t even have the essentials provided.

We think it is okay that our wallet reflects the belief  we deserve another vacation more than the poor and hurting in our community need food, shelter, and accessible and affordable medical care.

We think that it is okay to use the wealth that God has entrusted to us  to consume what we want, “need”, “deserve” and desire instead of investing it in bringing about His Kingdom and reaching the billions of people that don’t know Jesus.

Look at this quote from John Wesley

“It [wealth] is an excellent gift of God answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked: It gives to the traveler and the stranger where to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless. We maybe a defense for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death! It is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent; that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree.”

Wesley practiced what he preached.  He didn’t make more just so he could consume more.  Every time his income rose so did his standard of giving.  At the height of his fame he earned  the modern equivalent of more than $300,000 and disciplined himself to live on just 2% of that amount and gave away the other 98%.

Matthew 13:44-46

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.  When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!”

Our mindset is all wrong.  This is not okay.  We just don’t get it.  We have bought the lie that our culture is selling us.   But it is a lie. It’s not all about us.  It’s not about us at all.  This is not the Christianity that Jesus calls us to when he tells us to follow him.  

Jesus doesn’t call us to lives of safety, security, comfort and convenience being distracted from our purpose by ambition, sports, luxury, and all that we “deserve”.

He calls us to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven.  

He calls us to live our lives completely for his kingdom.

He calls us to give up everything for His sake.  

Jesus calls us to die to ourselves and to sacrifice and relinquish control of all that we have in order that we can have that which is infinitely more valuable than all we sacrifice… HIM.

Matthew 16:24-25

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

God, help me to get it.  God help me to value you over safety and security and comfort and convenience.  God help me to choose you over vain ambition and selfish desires.  God help me to love my neighbor and my neighbor’s family the same way I love my own.  God help me to have the courage and strength to lay down everything I value today so that I can have the one thing of ultimate value – You!

What a Journey 117 trip looks like…

You have heard me talk about what my World Orphans Journey 117 trips are like several times.  Instead of writing a blog about this trip – I have decided to link you to the blogs written by Alexandra Satkowiak, a member of my December J117 Ethiopia team.  Due to some staffing changes at World Orphans the future of Journey 117 is in flux, but after this trip I am even more convinced that Journey 117 has an important role to play in the global orphan crisis by motivating ordinary people to reject passivity and choose to be lifelong orphan advocates by being obedient to God’s command to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of the orphan and fight for the rights of widows instead of just walking away sad and continuing to live like life is all about us.

Check out the links below to hear about Allie’s J117 experience in Ethiopia.

Blog 1

Blog 2

Blog 3

Blog 4

Blog 5

Blog 6

To find out more about Journey 117 click here:

30 partners in 30 days – Version 2013

World Orphans facilitates 50 active projects in 14 countries and our programs served 8,342 orphaned, abandoned, and vulnerable children last year. Since May of 2013 I have been a part of this ministry working as a Director of Advocacy recruiting churches and individuals to partner with our ministry making it possible for our work to continue to expand. (Want to know more about my journey to World Orphans?  Click here, here, or here.)

During the summer of 2012 I spent most of my time telling people about my transition and inviting them to partner with me by making a donation to World Orphans that would cover the cost of my salary. So many people responded that I was able to complete the support raising process for the remainder of 2012-13 in just four months! 37 families have become monthly partners providing ongoing support and many more made one time gifts allowing me to start receiving a paycheck in September when I had been warned that the support raising process would likely take all of 2012!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of so many, but as I look toward 2014 I see that we are are in need of new partners in ministry in order to fund my 2014 salary. One time gifts in 2012 and 2013 allowed me to have a surplus in my support account, but each month that surplus diminishes and at the current rate it will be gone in early 2014 which would result in a dramatic salary reduction at that point. In order to stretch our surplus I reduced our salary by $200 monthly beginning this month.

Friends, I am asking you to consider partnering with us. Over the next 30 days I am praying for 30 people to join my World Orphans support team.  If you are already a part of our support team will you join in this prayer with us?   If you have already made a donation for 2012 or 2013 would you consider becoming a monthly supporter or making another gift for 2014? If you have never partnered with us would you consider making a donation for our 2014 needs?

People often ask how much should I give?   Would you consider donating at least $1.00-$2.00 a day ($30-60 monthly)?  Whatever God leads you to give is the right amount.  All donations to the ministry of World Orphans are tax deductible and allow us to continue to minister to orphaned and vulnerable children all over the world. Regardless of the amount we appreciate your generosity, your support, and your prayers.

You can donate online or by check. If you want to donate online click here or go to this link www.worldorphans.org/staff/livesay

If you would like to donate by check – make the check to World Orphans and write SUPPORT-LIVESAY in the memo line and mail it to: World Orphans P.O. Box 1840 Castle Rock, 80104

Have questions? Check out the World Orphans website here or contact me at nate@worldorphans.org.