A Challenge To You: The Reader

As you may have heard, there has been talk of a recession recently. I have CNN.com up on my computer throughout my work day so I noticed right away when an article came up saying that the government was thinking of including rebate checks to millions of taxpayers as part of the stimulus package. They were estimating that it could mean up to $1600 per married couple. I got pretty excited about that, as I thought of the many ways that Beth and I could spend that money. We have several large loans to pay back, we have many hundreds of dollars worth of gear to buy before we can actually go on a week long backpacking trip, as well as other gear for the Africa trip, etc, etc. However, this excitement lasted about 15 seconds. I realized right away that God had other plans for this money that we would potentially be receiving. And as I am learning to do lately, I became OK with that notion, and I gave the money up to him before even knowing where it was going to go, how much it would be, and when.

Then the news article came across CNN saying that it was for real, the checks would be up to $600 for single taxpayers and $1,200 per married couple (more for each child), and they would be sent out starting in May (after everyone has filed their taxes). President Bush signed the bill Wednesday the 13th, its official. If you file taxes this year and you make less than $75,000/$150,000 you will qualify for the full amount. Congratulations.

Now here is my challenge. Give this money up right now to God, before you even receive it. I know that you can list off many things that you could use it for also. But I guarantee that he will show you where he can use it most effectively, to help someone, and to glorify him. Don't worry about the recession, our economy will recover from it (isn't it a self-fulfilling prophesy anyway?). Don't worry about yourself, God has blessed you abundantly.

Look at this from Malachi 3.

8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'

"In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

I am not addressing tithes, but it is about offerings. The Lord says "Test me in this" and when we do as he says we will see him "pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it". That is God's truth and it goes beyond financial blessings.

So what can you do? Pray for God to reveal to you the person or place that your rebate check needs to go to. I guarantee that you can bless an entire family who is struggling, who either didn't qualify for the rebate or still needs more. I guarantee that you can pay for that old neighbor's medication for several months. I guarantee that your church or a Christian organization can use that money to literally save the lives of starving or sick children in Africa/Asia/eastern Europe (or on your city streets!). Get creative, God knows lots of ways to help.

I mentioned that when God laid this on my heart, I did not know where we were going to send the money. Well a few days later we were approached by someone with a specific need and we knew that God had provided the opportunity. I was originally going to explain details of this specific giving opportunity, but in church last Sunday, we were reminded about what Matthew 6 says. I think what you decide to do with this money can remain between you and God. If your motive for doing this is at all rooted in the desire to gain attention and admiration, then you won't be glorifying God. Although if you like this idea I would love to hear that you are thinking about it.

This is my challenge to you, where does your passion rest in the Kingdom of God? Send your tax rebate there. You will feel peace. This is how you store up treasures in heaven. If you have yet to experience full surrender of your finances and the abundant blessings that result, I urge you to dive in head first.

Enjoy God's blessings, and enjoy sharing them with others.
Matthew 6:19-21

Latest Correspondance from Emmanuel

So we just got a letter from our sponsored child in Uganda. It was a letter thanking us for the Christmas gift. Gifts through Compassion are interesting because they do not encourage people to send gifts through mail. One reason is that packages larger than an 8 1/2 x 11 flat envelopes are suspicious and subject to search and maybe won't even reach their destination. Stickers and photos and coloring book pages are fine, but if it isn't flat, you should probably not send it. However you can donate through a check or online payment for a Christmas gift. The neat thing that they do for the gifts is pool all the special gift money donated by sponsors for one child development center and distribute it evenly to all of the kids. That way if a child has not received a Christmas gift donation from their sponsor, they will still get something.

We thought that Emmanuel would receive some toy or item that the Compassion staff picked out, however his letter states that he received cash, 23,500 Uganda Shillings, roughly $10-12 USD. With this money he purchased a new shirt, shorts, and pair of shoes (sandals really). We thought this was pretty neat because clothes are hard to come by for families in the Compassion program. The letter also said that attached was a photo of Emmanuel in his new threads (it didn't really say threads). The letter was then signed by "Natambae". Now, we were confused, because Emmanuel's entire first name is Naturinda Emmanuel. He signed his first letter with "Naturinda". We have never seen this new name. We then looked at the attached picture and weren't positive that it was him. We compared it to his old picture, and it really is not clear. He is definitely older now, but we can't tell.

So here are the pictures.


Do you think it is him? Is it possible that they included the wrong picture? The letter has his name at the beginning, it has a tracking sticker with his name and number on it, but it is signed by a new name. Is this like when some child in America decides that you have to call him Spiderman from now on?

I think this is going to be one of the joys of sponsorship. You never know what you are going to get in that next letter.

Disturbing Statistic

This is just sad... The article here explains the story of a couple whose unborn twins were prenatally diagnosed, one with Down Syndrome and one with a cleft palate. The beginning of the article tells this disturbing statistic:

"...in America, more than 80 percent of babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome are aborted."

Ahh! This is sick! It is absolutely unacceptable. You can have your views on whether we can legislate the right, or lack of, for women to choose abortion, but this just solidifies my opinion that the choice should not be in the hands of any woman, or anyone else.

Here is one of the reasons why:

"Bobbie McIlwain, though, refused to go along with the crowd. Today, because of her resolve, she and her husband, Jeff, are the parents of healthy 17-month-old twin girls."

Her doctors had encouraged her to have an abortion. If she would have listened than she would have killed two healthy babies. I am sorry but some doctors should not be allowed to practice. They have reduced an unborn baby (who has the same right to life and love of God as every other person) to a statistic or a threat. Babies are not fully ours, they are God's children and they are a gift.

Cleft palates can usually be fixed or at least improved by surgery. And Down Syndrome and any other disease or syndrome can be fixed with LOVE! When you see a person with a disease or disorder, do you think to yourself "Well it would have been for their own good if they would not have been born." NO! I am not saying it would be easy to raise the child, but I am certain that God would use it for his glory, and we have to remember that this is our purpose in living.

I love her quote: "she said. “I have to remember, ‘Do not tell God how big your storm is, but tell the storm how big your God is.’" God will work it out.

Abortion today is a matter of selfishness. Modern technology shows a chance that a baby could have a defect, and the mother kills it because she doesn't want the trouble of raising a less than perfect baby? Babies are aborted because they were "accidents" or because they are a threat to the health of the mother, or for even worse reasons (see: China). You have to have a sense of God's will and word to fully understand, but your life is not your own, and neither is your child's, born or unborn. There are countless stories of people born under adversity, either physically or through some oppressive government, who rise above and do amazing things. Shouldn't every child have this right? There is no excuse for denying it to them.

Back to Africa

Ok I said this was coming so here it is...

Beth and I are preparing for a trip to Africa this summer. We will be leaving around May 16th, traveling to Zambia, Kenya and Uganda for 6 weeks. The purpose of the trip is to help a man named Duane conduct HIV prevention/education/motivation seminars. A secondary purpose is to go back to Ntungamo, Uganda; which is where we went last May with Purdue Christian Campus House. The final purpose is to get a more accurate taste of the missionary life, in order to determine if God is really telling us to go to Africa for the long-term. I will speak briefly on all of these things.

Origins
Last summer Beth decided before I did to go to Uganda with Campus House. Even though Josh was going too, I felt that it would be a good idea for me to go, spiritually and to protect Beth. Although missions was never in either of our plans individually or after we met, the trip changed everything.

We found out about the National Missionary Convention in Cincinnati and went to it in November. We knew that we wanted to go back to Africa and that God would show us who it was going to be with. We met Duane, who founded an organization called HIVHope, which is an affiliate of New Mission Systems International (NMSI). We also met several folks from NMSI and had a great feeling about them. So we contacted Duane a short time later and said that we would like to join him on his trip to Africa. And here we are.

Details
May 16th. 6 weeks. Zambia, Kenya and Uganda. Details about which cities and how long are still being worked out. However we know that the seminars are 5 days each and we would start on Monday. Leaving the weekends to travel to each new location.

The seminars are intended to facilitate local leaders to create a culturally relevant program for educating people about HIV and preventing the spread. It works so well because Duane does not go in, rattle off a bunch of scary statistics, and then try to implement a plan that would work in America, but fail miserably in the villages of Africa. The leaders and volunteers own their solution, they come up with the real details with Duane's help, and it is their responsibility to see it through. Africans that I know are proud, hard working people, regardless of their status, and I think it is received well.

We will also potentially have a chance to do some work in a few orphanages in Kenya. Uganda is purely for the purpose of visiting all the friends that we made last summer at the Compassion child development center. To see all of those kids again is going to be one of our greatest joys. For however long we end up staying there, we can just volunteer wherever is needed and spend time with the children. We will also hopefully be able to make the short drive to Mbarara, Uganda and visit Emmanuel, which you may remember from a post I had several months ago. Emmanuel is our sponsored child from Uganda.

Most of you have or will soon be receiving our support letters. I am so appreciative of Mr. Doug Sindelar creating a logo for us, which you can see to the right of the page. It was made in black and white for our letters, maybe he can enhance it later. He made that off of my 1 sentence description in less than an hour while he was sitting in an airport. He says it can be better.

Until Then
Until May we will just be working as normal and raising our funds. We will hopefully be able to talk to our home churches in late February and March. We obviously appreciate any support you can give, most importantly your prayers. It means so much to us and the people over their that we have a legion of prayer warriors back in the US. Trust me, you are automatically friends of them if you are our friends and living in the US.

Kenya is having some issues right now, but I am fully confident that it will be worked out by then and we can travel in safety. If not, well then we will just improvise and go somewhere else. Our friend Steve Rust is actually on his way back from 6 months in Kenya. His visa expired but he plans to go back I think. He was right in the middle of the violence but was saved from anything by God's grace. I can't wait to hear his stories.

Duane is leaving for India and Myanmar(Burma) this week. He has done these seminars all over the world. So we are excited to hear how that goes. You could pray for his safety and success if you would like.

Some cities you can look up if you are curious are Kitwe, Zambia; Narok, Kenya; Nakuru, Kenya; Entebbe, Uganda; Ntungamo, Uganda; and Mbarara, Uganda.

Hop on the Huck Truck!

Super Tuesday
Huckabee seems to be doing pretty well so far. It doesn't seem like he has mass appeal, particular for those that don't want their president to be proclaiming Jesus. I'd vote for him. And you know Chuck Norris' vote is the equivalent of 200 delegates.

Super Bowl
There is nothing quite like watching the Super Bowl with a bunch of strangers in a Chili's somewhere outside of Charlotte, NC. That was my setting as I watched the Giant's miraculous win on Sunday as I so enthusiastically traveled to a client location.

Super Calphalon
Awhile ago I mentioned that I burned oil onto our calphalon saute pan. I am very protective of my pans so this was disappointing. I read a lot of websites to determine what the most effective and least potentially damaging solution was to get the oil off. No amount of dish soap and hand scrubbing alone was going to work. I decided to fill the pan with water, baking soda and vinegar and then boil it for a long time. The oil was then able to be rubbed off with a wooden spoon as it boiled. It still has some spots on it but it is use-able again. Success!

Super Support Raising
About 75% of our support letters have been sent out. If you are reading this, then you are likely receiving one. However, if you would like one we would be happy to send it to you. "Support letter for what" you might ask? For our 6 week Africa trip coming up in May/June. I will post shortly about that trip.

I am watching "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel. Crazy stuff. Not for the weak stomach.