Mighty Men Are Going To Zambia!

the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2010-12-19T17:33:00.001-08:00

if you've already seen the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, click here.
if you want to go straight to the page about donating, click here.

the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT from Brett VanderMolen on Vimeo.

Shout out to Austin Walker for filming and editing this video!!! You can check out his site here...walkstop.com/

Next: The Experience

London

2010-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Pictures from...

Victoria Falls

Safari

Camp Life 2008-2010

Victoria Falls

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Pictures from...

London

Safari

Camp Life 2008-2010

Safari

2010-12-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

Next: Pictures from...

London

Victoria Falls

Camp Life 2008-2010

Camp Life

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Pictures from...

London

Victoria Falls

Safari

The Experience

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And here's a little of what we will experience together...

DFW:
Passport. Immunizations. Training. Study. International Flight.

London:

London Underground. Buckingham Palace. Houses of Parliament. London Eye. Trafalger Square. Westminster Abbey. Big Ben. The Royal Parks. London Bridge

Victoria Falls / Safari:

One of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. Fellowship with other mission trip participants. Zambezi River Cruise. Bungee Jumping. The market. Botswana. Safari. Lions. Giraffes. Elephants. Water Buffaloes.

Camp Life 2011:

Pain. Heartache. Joy. Poverty. Despair. Faith. Nightmares. Witchcraft. Evangelism. Spiritual Warfare. Demons. Prayer. Beatings. Rape. Angels. AIDS. Abandonment. Love. Alcoholism. Chains. Freedom. Child Labor. Malnutrition. God's heart for the poor. My apathy. My materialism. Missions. My isolation. My ignorance. God's heart for the nations. My lacking prayer life. My timidity. Zambians. Sin. Flesh. Jesus Christ.

This is what awaits the Mighty Men and I want you to share in the experience. Words simply can't do this trip justice. It's why I keep going back and taking others with me.

This year will be a special joy taking the Mighty Men - Jaquavian (Booda) and Deion (Duke). It'll be like taking two of my friends. They come over and hang out a lot. Ride bikes. Watch sports. Mess around on computers. Make fun of each other. Slingshot walnuts at frisbees (ghetto skeet shooting). Play cornhole. Do a weekly Bible study. And we have been on a week long trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park and two mountain biking trips to Palo Duro Canyon. We're friends. And I care about them. Click next to learn more about them...

Next: Booda & Duke

The Mighty Men

2010-12-11T14:36:00.001-08:00

Jaquavian (Booda), Brett, and Deion (Duke) at the Mercy Street Country Fair

They have tremendous potential. They are leaders. They are respectful. They are considerate. They listen well. They like to learn. They are taking a different, narrower path. They take a stand for what is right. They are a joy to be around. And I want the Lord to use me to develop them into tremendous leaders for the Kingdom.

Jaquavian (Booda)

Jaquavian reflecting at Horseshoe Bend, AZ

Booda is a junior at Townview Magnet School, specializing in business. He loves English and is an amazing poet and lyricist. He lives with his granny and sister in The Hamptons apartments right near Brett's house. His mom lives down in Lancaster. When given the choice of living in West Dallas or Lancaster, Booda chose West Dallas because "I want to be a part of the movement Mercy Street is creating in West Dallas." Booda is an active apprentice to Johnny in the Mercy Street Bike Shop and has been an active participant in Garrett, Carlton, and Brett's Bible studies and Young Life.

Deion standing tall at Horseshoe Bend, AZ

Deion (Duke)

Deion is a freshman at Pinkston High School. Deion surpassed Brett in height this past year and is a budding star on the Pinkston freshman team. He is close with his brother, Antonio, is playing basketball and Otero Junior College. Deion has also been an active apprentice to Johnny in the Mercy Street Bike Shop and an active participant in Garrett, Carlton, and Brett's Bible Studies and Young Life.

Next: Impact

The Impact

2010-12-11T14:35:00.003-08:00

Chanda Day 1 of Camp

Chanda Day 5 of Camp!

Traveling internationally, especially missions, has matured me as a person, matured me in my faith, and opened my eyes to the world - its people, its cultures, its religions - and I come back with a renewed fervor to serve those that God has placed around me.

Not to mention the impact it has overseas.

Numerous AIDS orphans have come to Christ. Numerous AIDS orphans have been rescued from horrific circumstances. Numerous AIDS orphans have been rescued from a kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. Numerous AIDS orhpans are getting a quality education. Numerous AIDS orphans are getting the medical attention they need. Numerous AIDS orphans are being fed 3 meals a day. Numerous AIDS orphans are being discipled. And numerous AIDS orphans are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their friends and families.

Next: Donate

Donate

2010-12-11T14:35:00.001-08:00

As of February 27, 2011

Cost and Progress

Can you put a price on all this? Well, yes, I guess you can. It's $5,175 per person. Take that times 3 then minus $1,000 because I'll be paying for my own trip to Victoria Falls and you'll get about $15,000.

If you would like to donate, please click on this link: https://donate.familylegacy.com/

and put Brett VanderMolen in the participant name as Jaquavian and Deion are under my name and it all goes into one pot.

Here's what your money would go toward. (listed per person)

2 x $25 t-shirts for camp*
2 x $50 London bike tour*
2 x $50 transportation (London Underground tickets) and food in London
2 x $75 food at Victoria Falls
2 x $115 activity at Vic Falls*
2 x $135 passport fees*
2 x $150 vaccines - Hep A and B, typhoid*
2 x $150 supplies for Camp Life
2 x $1,000 Victoria Falls Add-on: includes 5 nights in a hotel, transportation, brunch, river cruise (I pay for my own Victoria Falls trip)*
3 x $3,700 Camp Life 2011: includes airfare to Africa, local transportation for Americans and Zambians, food for Americans and Zambian kids, supplies for Camp

* Please donate to Mercy Street for these expenses. I will pay these expenses out of my pocket, then get reimbursed by Mercy Street for them. Thanks!

Next: Poetry by Booda

My Grandma's Story of Sponsoring Michael (formerly Jeff) Ndala

2010-11-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Jeff Ndala fell to the ground clinching his stomach during the Freedom song. My Zambian partner, Alex, and I rushed to him. I thought it was a stomach ache. Alex knew it was the demons acting up. Jeff was lifeless, so Alex threw him on his shoulder and took him to the deliverance room. I went back to my seat on the floor and for the remainder of the large group time, screaming, wailing and pounding could be heard from the deliverance room. (full story from 2008 2nd to last paragraph)

That was 2008 and unfortunately 2009 was more of the same. During that same Freedom song, tears formed in Jeff's eyes and he seemed distant and tormented. I filled my partner in on what happened last year and we took him to a room to cast the demons out. A long spiritual battle ensued that climaxed for me when (the demons in) Jeff grabbed my backpack, turned it upside down, and threw my suntan lotion and Bible at me. He was delivered and we changed his name to Michael, after the powerful archangel, because Jeff was named after his great-grandfather who was a witchdoctor and when we were calling his name, Jeff, it was stirring up the spirits. By the end of the week, Michael, was preaching powerfully to his father and his neighbors in the compound. (full story from 2009)

Jeff at Camp Life 2009

This year, 2010, during my Blessing Time with Michael, he was still describing ways he was being initiated into witchcraft. The Discipleship Leader (DL) for his compound said he had visited Michael's house over the last year and it wasn't a good situation. He said he would like have Michael move into the CRC and start discipling the family because Michael's father and two uncles drink, are abusive, and witchcraft is prevalent either in the household on among the neighbors.

Washing Michael's Feet at Camp Life 2010

My Grandma's Sponsorship and Faithful Prayers for Michael
When my Grandma heard Jeff's story in 2008, she decided to sponsor Michael (then Jeff) in the Father's Heart program and has been diligently praying for him ever since. She asks about him all the time and is often brought to tears interceding for him. This year, when the prospect of increasing her sponsorship to provide for Michael to be able to live at the CRC with the discipleship leaders, without hesitation she agreed.

I feel it is such a privilege to be able to sponsor a child from Zambia.. It is so special to have a name & face to specifically pray for and to almost call your own. At Christmas it is fun to send a little extra donation knowing that others then will see to it that he has joy at Christmas and that he knows that he has a family here that is praying for him to know and hear the true meaning of Christmas. It is so much more personal to sponsor a child each month that to just send one main gift to Zambia a year for the good of all of the children.

What a wonderful feeling it is when you receive a letter back from him and hearing about some part of his life. This little Zambian boy has been a blessing in my life and I thank God for this opportunity.

Michael and His Discipleship Leader Outside of the Ngombe CRC

We just received word last week that Michael was accepted into the Ngombe CRC! He is now living with Discipleship Leaders and having all of his basic needs met including food, shelter, schooling, clothing. To learn more about the CRCs, click here.

Would You Sponsor One Of My Boys?
Also on that page is a link to search for kids to sponsor by ambassador (me). If you would like to view or sponsor one of the kids that have been in my group at Camp Life type Brett into the First Name field and look around! You will be able to write letters (via email, printed and delivered) back and forth to each other and who knows, maybe you'll get to visit them one day! Who knows what the Lord will do with it?
Now to Him is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. - Ephesians 2:20-21

Michael is All Smiles!

Mom and Dad in Zambia - Dad

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Here are some quotes from my pops...

"There's not a better way to glorify God than through a mission trip together as a family."

"The trip gave me a different, refocused reason for why we're here (on earth). We can't take having a job for granted and the opportunities we have to glorify God by using it to help others in need."

"There's an exuberance over everything that is provided at Camp that we don't see here in America. There is so much more appreciation and gratitude over small things there." (my brother-in-law, Dave, said "When your life is simple, simple things really enrich it)

"The kids got along with each other so well over there and you could tell that they hated if there was any fighting going on."

"The Zambian partners were awesome! Andrew had one of the greatest crescendo prayers. He had a special gift of being able to translate real-time which made for very authentic communication. I wish I could have been able to get to know them better on a personal level."

"I could tell their preaching really came form their heart. Pastor Teddy and Pastor Raphael were real."

It wouldn't be my dad if he didn't throw in a quote like this...

"We need to outlaw professional sports, movie productions, and pets here in America and give all that money to the poor...without having to go through our government. We should go through our churches. We spend so much worshiping athletes and actors and actresses. And I hate pets."

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Mom and Dad in Zambia - Mom

2010-09-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

My parents did the Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park Safari in Botswana add-on trip for 5 days prior to Camp...

"It felt like I was on a movie set that I didn’t think I would get to experience. There were zebras and giraffes and babboons right as we entered the hotel grounds. They reminded me of God's infinite creativity with every zebra's stripes being different. I was reminded of God's incredible power and majesty as we were flying and standing on top of, below, and across from Victoria Falls.

We also took a day trip to a local village. It was early exposure to abject poverty of grass huts on dirt with no electricity or running water. We saw kids carry water by hand from the well in dirty old anti-freeze containers and dumping it into half of an open 50 gallon drum."

Both of my parents said the Victoria Falls add-on trip was a great way to get to know some of the people that were going to be at Camp the next week and a good way to get over jet lag, debrief from what was going on in the US, and prep for Camp.

"My favorite part of Camp was being hugged by the girls as they got off the bus each day with bright, cheerful smiles. I was humbled by their desire to serve by carrying my backpack around Camp. They were so polite and respectful"

Mom, her partner, and their group

"It was sobering to see a girl with tears in her eyes ask for me to pray that her caretaker would stop beating and hating her."

"I was amazed at our God who even works out the smallest of details in matching me with my Zambian partner. He matched me with a young Zambian woman who is an accountant. I could tell it was very special for her to be matched with an American of the same profession."

"My partner knew the Scriptures and was able to articulate the Gospel very well. It made we want to come back and memorize more Scripture."

"After watching the HIV/AIDS video at Camp, I could sense that the problem here is so huge and I began to wonder what difference I could make. But after seeing a little girl named Mercy come to Camp sick and sleeping a lot, we gave her medicine, and by the end of the week she was so orneriest girl, in a good way!" This quote reminded me of one of my favorite short stories, "The Starfish Story"

"During the Freedom Song I could feel the prayers of over 100 Americans and Zambians petitioning God to free the children from illnesses, witchcraft, abuse and sin."

"It was cool to meet people from halfway around the world that worship the same God and have the same beliefs."You can tell God is behind this initiative because everything that needed to happen happens, but not merely by coincidence. You can see God opening the doors and making the miracles happen that need to happen to build schools, and CRCs. You can physically see the change, most poignantly in John Chanda’s life who was a street kid and now is living in the Tree of Life."

"I was impacted when I came back to the US and when I would make a purchase I was reminded, 'Wow, that could have sponsored a kid for 2 months or 6 months or a year' "

Megan (sister) and Dave (bro-in-law) in Zambia - Megan

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Here are some quotes from my sister Megan...

"I went through a full range of emotions - getting to experience a little piece of heaven to sobbing uncontrollably. I was completely humbled by how kind, respectful, and willing to give my girls were and how much they loved learning about God's Word. During the joy party I just closed my eyes and pictured myself in heaven because I knew I'd get to see all these kids there. And when the kids got their shoes on shoe day, they were rock stars. You could tell that they saw their shoes and clothes as gifts from God."

You can see a glimpse into the Joy Party here... http://vimeo.com/14908054

Megan had a girl named Mary in her group who was beaten by her aunty who asked Mary, "Did your dead parents leave you any money for food?" Amidst tears Megan and her Zambian partner asked God to do immeasurably more than they could ask or imagine. The next day God intervened and that aunt was kicked out of her house (she doesn't know why) and another aunt moved in. Mary's countenance was completely different for the rest of camp because of her change in living circumstances and her rejuvenated belief in prayer!

"It was important for me to see that Family Legacy was in the city, in the compounds (refering to the Community Resource Centers "CRC" and Lifeway Christian Academy "LCA" schools). I was able to see the level of care they have for the kids and it wasn't just a summer camp."

You can see a video of some kids "barrel rolling" at the CRC here... http://vimeo.com/14908321

Megan (sister) and Dave (bro-in-law) in Zambia - Dave

2010-09-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

I interviewed my family about their experiences in Zambia after they've had a month to sit on it for a while. Here are some quotes from my brother-in-law Dave...

"I was amazed at the purity and authenticity of the Zambians worshiping. No glitz. No glam. No instruments. Just voices. All voices were strongly contributing and beautiful." To see what this angelic host sounds like, check out this video "A kabwela mwana lesa (?)" - http://vimeo.com/14906874 and you'll even see a guest appearance of Dave himself!

"I also loved hearing them pray. They pray with so much power and we pray with so much passivity. They realize the power that is coming out of their mouth when they pray. In America, we pray fast food prayers. Have you ever heard that? You know, 'I'd like a #5 with a side of fries.' Their prayers are more like home-cooked 7-course meals with good conversation and enjoying one another's company. That should be the norm."

"My favorite part of the day was the beginning 15-30 minutes when we'd talk and pray with our Zambian partners to prepare us for the day. We'd discuss what we learned the night before and what messages the Lord had laid on our hearts. I'm sad that hasn't translated to back here in the States. I can meet with my boss at work 15 minutes early, but I can't meet with God for 15 minutes."

"I loved the joy party! I was partly sad because the week was coming to a close, but it felt so good to be completely unabandoned knowing the kids weren't looking at me in judgment. I was learning to let go and live in the moment and it finally broke toward the end of the week and the Joy Party was the culmination of that."

"It also touched me to hear My Redeemer Lives by Nicole C. Mullen. I knew that these kids had experienced some extreme hardship but that they could stand on the truth of that song and claim it for their own. Especially for the kids that underwent a major transformation and were having a mountaintop experience that they could look back on and remember when they are in a valley."

Dave Playing Hide and Seek

Megan (sister) and Dave (bro-in-law) in Zambia - John Chanda

2010-09-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

"Isolated. Beaten. Victim of witchcraft. Stoic. Feels Unloved. Alone." These were the words I used to describe Chanda in my blog in 2008. After Camp Life 2008, my sister and brother-in-law started sponsoring Chanda at the Father's Heart level - $40/mo to provide discipleship, school fees, school clothes, and emergency food and shelter. They prayed for him often and became "pen pals" by writing letters back and forth.

In 2009, it was "Defiant. Distracted. Violent. Found wandering the Streets." At the end of Camp Life 2009, Chanda was chosen to move into the Tree of Life Children's Village. My parents split the $150/mo sponsorship of Chanda with Megan and Dave at Tree of Life which provides beautiful housing, 3 full meals a day, an exemplary education, discipleship and house parents to watch over the orphans. Megan and Dave continued to pray and write letters.

In 2010, Megan and Dave got to meet the boy they had been diligently praying for and sponsoring! John Chanda ran up to each of them at Camp every day with a beaming smile and gave them a bear hug. When we all visited the Tree of Life he showed us his room, his bed, his desk at school, introduced them to his teacher and showed us how well he could read.

"I was walking down the path holding John Chanda's hand. He told me he prayed to God one day because he was sad that he didn't have a mom. Then he said, "But God told me through a dream that I have a mom and my mom is Aunty Megan." - Megan

"John Chanda is our son now. By coming to Camp Life, God sealed the deal for us and told us he is our responsibility. Right now we get to support him and make sure his basic needs are met. And if anything were to happen to Megan and me, we're changing our wills to ensure that he will be provided for." - Dave

The love between them was sadly evident when it came time for the Americans to board the bus and leave the Tree of Life. John Chanda's face dropped. When Dave bent down to a knee he could see tears streaming down John Chanda's face. Dave said, "You are where you need to be. You're going to be a leader here. We've gotta leave now, but it will be only for a time before we see each other again."

You can see a video of the kids singing their welcome song to the Tree of Life here... http://vimeo.com/14907651 You can best view the Vimeo videos by clicking "Play", clicking "Pause" to let the video fully load, then click "Play" again to watch it uninterrupted.

The 12 Disciples

2010-09-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

There was a special connection between us this year. I could read it through their smiles and their hugs. I could sense that there was a deeper trust between us. It didn’t feel like I was just some fun American leader that was here today and gone tomorrow, but this year I was their friend. I could sense that they were thinking, “Brett really means it when he says he loves us. He came to Zambia again. And he’s going to come every year to see us, Lord willing.” I could sense it and I loved it. That was my goal from the start.

It was another great week with the boys that started off the same way as last year with them tackling me, picking me up, and carrying me around camp! I have a feeling this will become a ritual for them. http://vimeo.com/14160091

The theme this year was “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength” from Nehemiah 8:10. Check out how loud and proud these kids are! http://vimeo.com/14224947 We emphasized that even under hard circumstances we can look to the Lord for our joy. We used the acronym JOY to communicate focusing on Jesus first, Others Second, and You third. Jesus. Others. You. We said that Your source of JOY to serve Others comes from Jesus. http://vimeo.com/14225112

My most vivid memory with my boys started during the daytime at camp the night before. The Americans were visiting a Community Resource Center to see it in action in one of the compounds. My eye (and heart) was immediately drawn to an adorable little 6-year-old boy named Richard. He was a mess (see pic). He had snot crusted to his upper lip, his clothes were tattered, and his feet were cracked and caked with dirt. My sister and I took turns holding him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spicket, so my sister and I began to clean him up. As I was washing his legs and feet, a Zambia walked by and said, “Have you read John 13?” I said, “Well, yeah”. He said, “You are washing feet, like Jesus.”

The next morning my sister woke up with the idea to wash her kids’ feet at Camp. The idea spread among our villa and we all got washcloths, soap, and towels ready. I did a lesson on John 13 with my boys and asked them what they would do if they were the most powerful person in the world. I then told them Jesus knew He was the most powerful person in the world and He used His power to wash feet. John 13:3-5 says

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power…so…He began to wash His disciples' feet.”

It wasn’t like it was some mountain-shaking experience, but there is definitely something spiritual – and humbling – about setting someone above you, kneeling down to the ground with a towel around your waste and washing someone’s dirty, cracked, stinky feet. It’s humbling for both parties and is a ritual that Jesus meant to be passed on, so I told them…

“Now that I, your teacher, have washed you feet, you should also wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you… Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Here’s a video of the foot washing. http://vimeo.com/14166005

The other “big talk” I had with the boys was about the spread of HIV and sex. These things just aren’t talked about between parents/caretakers and their kids. And if no one talks to them, society will. And society in Zambia is sexually active at a younger age than in America. The living quarters are so small, the kids see adults having sex and want to try it with their friends. If the kid has contracted AIDS congenitally through birth the HIV/AIDS virus spreads even through 9, 10 and 11 year olds! Whenever I talk about sex with kids I cover these main points:

God invented sex and He created it to be a good thing, but it is only a good thing within His boundaries of marriage.

Sex is not just a physical act. The word love in the Hebrew language, that includes the act of sex actually means, “the mingling of souls”. Souls intertwine when two people come together and have sex. It is not just two bodies banging together.

In the Bible, marriage is our best representation of our relationship with God. In the same way we don’t mingle our souls with multiple gods, we shouldn’t mingle our souls with multiple girls.

The benefit of being sexually pure is we will be able to see God more clearly. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” The opposite of that is if you’re not pure in heart, you will not be able to see God.

Abstaining from intercourse isn’t the only way we stay pure. 1 Timothy 5:2 says, “Treat younger women (all unmarried women) as sisters, with absolute purity. If you wouldn’t do something with your sister, you shouldn’t do it with an unmarried girl. (This one usually sticks pretty well!)

Of the 12 Disciples, I only got to have 9 of them in my group this year and 5 more new kids were added to make 14. Of the 3 that weren’t in my group, 2 had come to Camp in earlier weeks (1 of those I got to see in his community) and the 3^rd, Chanda, is now living in the Tree of Life Children’s Village so he came to Camp while I was there but was in a group of Tree of Life kids. More on Chanda later in the Sponsorship post.

Why I Came To Mercy Street

2009-12-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

People that know the first 25 years of my story – summarized by a fortunate upbringing by loving parents who have been married for 34 years, attending good schools, and establishing a successful career – often ask, why did you “give that up” to move into the inner city and go work for Mercy Street.

The answer is pretty simple. The Holy Spirit convinced me that I have one chance to live with the heart of Jesus. In May of 2008, I found the heart of Jesus at the heart of Mercy Street.

I found the heart of Jesus in the MISSION of Mercy Street.

The mission of Mercy Street is to raise up a new generation of indigenous leaders through Christ-honoring, mutually-transforming mentoring relationships that will bring about a positive, permanent change to West Dallas. Embedded within this mission is the idea that God will be glorified when different cultures collide. Statistically and historically speaking, the lot given to me through nature and nurture was to make money for myself, make a name for myself, and retire happy and wealthy. The lot given to my mentee, Lorenzo, through nature and nurture was to fail in school, impregnate a girl out of wedlock, commit a violent crime, and spend the rest of his life in and out of prison. Mercy Street creates a confluence of these paths in a mutually-transforming relationship that leads to God being glorified.

As I began to witness and experience this mutual-transformation, I looked around and knew this was happening in over 500 relationships, laser-focused in one neighborhood – West Dallas. Picture 500 Same Kind of Different As Me stories taking place through one organization! I had to get closer to this and be a part of it, so I bought a house in West Dallas.

As I learned the stories of the people in the inner city, I realized the depth and immediacy of the physical and spiritual needs there. Before long, I couldn’t reconcile spending 50 hours a week planning transportation systems for affluent suburbs while a tragedy was happening among my neighbors. 65% of students drop out at Pinkston high school, 20% of the girls are pregnant, and the average SAT score is 750 of those who finish high school. If kids continue to drop out and get pregnant out of wedlock, the generational poverty in West Dallas will continue, all but sealing the path of darkness for many of the kids to continue on.

But 1 Peter 2:9 says God’s people are to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light” and that is what God’s people are doing. Through the mentoring relationships the image of God is being uncovered in the kids, their purpose that God has uniquely gifted them for is being discovered, and resources are being obtained for them fulfill their purpose. Jesus’ mission to reconcile the world unto Himself is being fulfilled through the mission of Mercy Street.

I found the heart of Jesus in the LEADERSHIP of Mercy Street.

About a year ago, I realized my need for a formal mentor and began searching. I initially envisioned an older man with a lot of Biblical wisdom. About 6 months ago, it dawned on me that by working under Trey, the executive director of Mercy Street, I am being mentored, but in a different way that I had envisioned. I have no doubt that Trey has tremendous Biblical wisdom, but the primary way I have been mentored by him is by watching his life. I see his deep and sincere affection for Jesus come alive through his sacrificial love for the Mercy Street kids, the mentors, the community, his family, and the staff. John Maxwell says everything rises and falls on leadership. A major reason the kingdom of heaven is being seen through Mercy Street is that God is mightily working through Trey’s broken vessel.

A perfect example of this was when the mother of a local single-parent family was taken away by Child Protective Service (CPS), leaving 7 children without a caretaker. Because of Mercy Street’s relationship with the family, CPS granted emergency custody of the 7 kids to Mercy Street. On top of Trey and Melissa’s 4 biological kids and 2 adopted kids from the community, they took on two infants and a 10-year-old boy giving them 9 kids in total! Custody of the other 4 kids was given to Mercy Street staff, all living in the same neighborhood; of which, I was blessed to have a 13-year-old boy named Angel live with me. After treatment, their mom was released and she is now taking care of the kids again, but Trey and Melissa were prepared to permanently to care for all 9 kids.

I found the heart of Jesus in the STAFF of Mercy Street.

The first thing I did in coming to Mercy Street was learn the stories of the staff. After doing so, I felt incredibly honored to be a part of God’s tapestry of such beautiful diversity. On our staff of 17 we have a mix of white, black, and Hispanic; people from the wealthiest zip code in Dallas and people from the poorest; people who grew around the corner and people who have lived on other continents; people who grew up in the church and people who recently saw the light of Christ; people with master’s degrees and people who didn’t finish high school; prodigal sons and older brothers; people who have spent time in prison and preacher’s kids; someone who has lived 24 year and someone who has lived 77; former insurance agents, music producers, sports coaches, engineers, drug dealers, secretaries, missionaries, architects, real estate developers, and seminary students; but all have two things in common – a knee bowed to Jesus Christ and a calling to love and serve the people of West Dallas. “From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:16

Why I’m Telling You Why…

The staff of Mercy Street is not the only part of this body doing its work. There are many who resonate with the vision and mission of Mercy Street, but haven’t been called to come on staff or even been led to become a mentor. Numerous, necessary parts of the body are doing their vocation so we can do ours – all equally essential. Henri Nouwen says in The Spirituality of Fund-raising, “Fund-raising is proclaiming what we believe in such a way that we offer other people an opportunity to participate with us in our vision and mission.” Similar to how Young Life and Campus Crusade staff fund-raise to support them in their ministry, I am asking if you will join hands with me in the Mercy Street mission through a financial partnership. Trey has wisely set up Mercy Street so we don’t have to raise individual support allowing us to fully devote our time to fulfill Mercy Street’s mission. However, I don’t want that to inhibit you from having the “privilege of sharing in this service to the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:4).
I am asking that you pray to God and ask Him whether He would have you financially support the ministry of Mercy Street either on my behalf or the ministry as a whole. I don’t want to limit God by suggesting amounts or suggesting whether it’s a one-time donation, recurring donation, both or neither. I just ask that you to pray and obey. If the Lord leads you to give, you can do so by a one-time or recurring payment through your bank, credit card (http://www.mercystreetdallas.org/ “Donations” link), or by sending a check with “One Chance” in the memo line to:

Mercy Street c/o Bill Farrell
3801 Holystone St.
Dallas, TX 75212

Thank you for your time in reading this note.

Brett VanderMolen brett@mercystreetdallas.org (214) 909-8028 (m)

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of this serving by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thank be to God for this indescribable gift! – 2 Corinthians 9:12-13

Lorenzo - 5 months after Zambia - The Product (Part 2 of 2)

2009-11-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Even though I felt like I had nothing to show for it, I had to rest knowing that the Lord had told me a year before to take Lorenzo to Africa, I was obedient to that, I did my best with it, and I had to leave the rest in His hands. As I wrestled with God and sought advice, Trey and I agreed it would be good for me to take a break from hanging out with Lorenzo for a month so that he would appreciate what he was being given and realize it is a privilege to have a mentor, not an entitlement.

This month was a welcome break for me. We didn’t talk too much during the first couple of weeks, but I made sure to call him each week and see how he was doing. I told him that I wished we didn’t have to go through this, but I felt that it was necessary. At the end of our conversations, even when I didn’t feel it and I knew he wouldn’t return it, I continued to tell Lorenzo that I loved him.

About 2 weeks into that month apart, Lorenzo started stopping by Mercy Street to say hi and hang out with me and some of the staff. I could tell it was partially out of boredom, but I could also tell he was missing what we had. 3 weeks into it, he was hanging out in my office and a guest at Mercy Street stopped in and said, “Hey, are you Lorenzo? I heard you got to go over to Africa. Who’d you go there with?” Lorenzo took a post-it and wrote, “I went to Africa with my friend” and stuck it to the guest’s shirt. Lorenzo then took the post-it back off, crossed-out friend and wrote “best friend”. Leaving that day, Lorenzo finally said, “I love you too, Brett”!

Lorenzo started counting down the days until we got to hang out again. He tried negotiating his way to a shorter punishment, but I wanted to stick to my word. On the morning of our long-awaited reunion, he said the sweetest thing he’s ever said…“Brett man, I can’t go another month without you. Not in a gay way or anything, but…you know what I mean. This is the happiest day of my life!” Wow. We had a great time together that day. Soon after he left a message on my phone saying, “Hey Brett, just wanted to let you know that I miss you n’all that. Alright. Bye.” I saved that one on my phone for a while.

A month later, we were driving in my car and Lorenzo said, “Brett, I can’t get my mind off Africa. I wanna go back!” I said, “What do you mean?” He goes, “I been thinking about dem kids a lot and I wanna go back. I won’t get in fights again because now I understand their culture. Even though we have all dis stuff over here, they seem to get along a lot better over there and there’s a lot more peace. I’d rather have that.” He went on to say, “I wanna see what it’s like to be an orphan.” Now this shocked me. I said, “What do you mean by that?” He responded, “I just want to see what it’d be like. I don’t think I could do it. I don’t think I’d last a week without my momma.” “Wow,” I said, “it sounds like you’ve been doin a lot of thinking.”

In another conversation, he asked if I heard about the terrorist that tried to blow up a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. He went on to ask, “Why would somebody wanna do dat?” I responded, “The devil gets inside people and tempts them to do things that are evil and they listen because they haven’t accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.” “Well, we gotta save the world den! We gotta get everyone to believe in Jesus, and have them all go to Watermark! Or at least go to church somewhere!” To top all of this off, Lorenzo started off this school year with his first report card without a failing grade since I’ve been his mentor. To say the least, the last 3 or 4 months of hanging out with Lorenzo have been a real joy. He’s been very respectful and considerate and really seems to be thinking on a deeper level.

But Lorenzo isn’t the only one that has been changed through this. The first lesson the Lord taught me was that in whatever way Lorenzo has been disrespectful to me or others, not appreciated what I or others have done for him, or simply done his own thing; I have done all of these things to the Lord, many times in full knowledge of the truth and its consequences. Realizing this has humbled me and allowed me to approach Lorenzo with more compassion. Next, I realized how hard it must be for God to pursue me in love when I turn my back on Him and don’t show appreciation for everything He’s given me and done for me. I’m very grateful that He gave me the love and wisdom to pursue Lorenzo in love when he was at his worst, continue to remind him of my love for him, and let kindness bring him to repentance. Finally, I looked back at all of the mentors in my life and realized that many of them aren’t getting to see the fruit of their labor. In the same way, I may not get to see some or much of the fruit of my labor wit Lorenzo. But, the Lord has called me to plant seeds in his life and reminded me that it’s His job to determine how and when to He will water them, make them grow, and ultimately carry on the good work He started in Lorenzo to completion.

Thanks for listening!

Lorenzo - 5 Months After Zambia - The Fire (Part 1 of 2)

2009-11-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

To get straight to the point, taking Lorenzo to Zambia didn’t go as I had envisioned. I guess most things don’t. And we’re left to wrestle with God. And in that searching and wrestling God teaches us something beautiful about ourselves and about life and through that He refines us into a being more like Him. So this 2-part story is the story of God’s refining fire (part 1) and His product (part 2).

As Lorenzo and I left for Zambia, I thought God would reward my blood, sweat, and tears leading up to the trip by miraculously changing Lorenzo’s character while we were in Africa from being selfish and doing his own thing to one of gratitude and obedience. In hindsight, I realized this thought is sinful thinking God owes me anything for my obedience and ignorant thinking Lorenzo would miraculously change light years faster than the Lord has changed me.

We definitely had some mountaintop experiences while we were together that I chronicled in my blog, but they were balanced with some of the most trying times in our relationship that I didn’t know what to do with. The first week we were at Camp, Lorenzo was my “co-leader” but was essentially a sub-leader since it was his first time and he was only 13. To kick things off, his 2nd question to our Zambian co-leader, Elijah, was, “So, do you have AIDS or something?” Thankfully, Elijah responded very gracefully and I told Lorenzo that’s not really an appropriate question to ask.

During week 1, Lorenzo made some friends with the Zambian kids, but also made some enemies. I was foolish to think Lorenzo would operate outside of the M.O. of interacting with others that he has learned through the culture of the inner city. For the first 13 years of his life, Lorenzo has learned to save face through glorifying himself, putting down others, having a tough persona, and chasing the cutest girls. Growing up without a father, he has a hard time responding well to authority. His mom working non-standard hours to provide for her sons has given him freedom to do as he pleases (to her credit though, she’s held a job at Home Depot for over 11 years!). On top of that, he definitely has A.D.D. Bringing all of these together meant that he often roamed around camp doing his own thing, not listening to American and Zambian leaders, disrupting other groups, and essentially leading on the Zambian girls.

In one instance, during a crowded exodus of our large group time, one of the Zambian boys accidently touched Lorenzo in a way he didn’t like. Lorenzo got right up in his face and said, “Touch me again and see what happens!” I quickly and firmly pinched his shoulder and led him out of the auditorium and in my anger said, “We are trying to teach these kids about God’s love and you are doing the opposite. You know how to act and you know how to treat others with respect. Now start doing it!” I had to get back to my group to make sure the kids got on the right bus, trusting that Lorenzo would get on his right bus. As my bus was about to pull out of camp, someone rushed onto it and said, “Lorenzo is walking down the road outside of Camp by himself!” As the bus turned onto the road, I saw Greer (Family Legacy leader) picking up Lorenzo in his vehicle, so I knew he was in good hands. When I arrived back to our villa Lorenzo wouldn’t talk to anyone.

Our friends, the Schweinfurth family, encouraged him to write me an apology letter. It was more of a, “I’m sorry, but” letter, but at least if opened up conversation between us so that we could move on. It went from saying “I’m sorry” to “you were probably just born with a mental problem” to “I am not here to talk to girls, but to tell people about God” to calling me “mean Brett” to saying “I love you and I know you love me” to “sometimes I don’t like you” to “I hope you accept my apology”. One of the things I really appreciate about Lorenzo is that he’s not afraid to speak his mind! After laughing a bit to myself, I apologized to him for responding in anger and we moved on.

After many conversations with Family Legacy staff, we agreed to let Lorenzo have his own group (with a strong Zambian co-leader) for the second week of Camp. This decision went against every ounce of my own logic and system of trying to reward good behavior, but we knew we didn’t want to have another week like the first one and had to try something new. To my surprise, Lorenzo stepped up to the challenge very well! He took great ownership and proactively took responsibility for the kids in his group. With the exception of him flooding our villa by leaving the water running while we were at Camp, Week 2 went much better.

On the way home though, things took a turn for the worse again. For our overnight layover in London, I gave Lorenzo the choice of whether he wanted to go out with some friends and me for a late night out. He agreed to go, but losing his bandana that he got for free and being tired ruined his night very quickly. He lagged 100 yards behind the group, moped around, and refused to eat an incredible dinner. For the adults who appreciated our chance to have a night out in London, this was very frustrating.

Side note: Lorenzo almost ended up in a London jail because he packed a slingshot in his carry-on! The airport attendants asked for his passport, called the police, and did a background check on him. They ended up letting him go because he was so young and just confiscated his slingshot which I replaced when we got home. Also, they almost didn’t let us pass through customs because of our unique relationship.

A couple of my friends picked us up from DFW upon our arrival. When they asked Lorenzo how it was, he only talked about the problems we had while we were over there. When they asked what he learned or if anything was good about Africa, he said he had fun on the safari and seeing Victoria Falls. When we dropped Lorenzo off, I let out a huge sigh of relief. After 23 straight days with a middle-schooler, my attitude could be summed up by a semi-serious joke I made to some Americans at Camp Life when they asked how often I see Lorenzo in Dallas and I responded, “Well, Mercy Street has a minimum of 2 personal contacts per month, so I’m good through 2011!”

The next few weekends I had some stuff to catch up on and went to Cleveland to visit my new niece who was born the week we left for Zambia so it gave Lorenzo and me a bit of a break. But the next time Lorenzo was up at Mercy Street he choked one of Trey’s kids and was blatantly disrespectful to Trey, Mercy Street’s executive director, and Tracy, Mercy Street’s building manager. They came and found me and I found Lorenzo storming around. I told him he had to leave and he stormed off saying, “Fine, you can find yourself a new mentee then!” That was a kick square to the teeth.

After all the time and energy I had invested in him in my year of mentoring him and taking him to Africa, I had nothing to show for it. To be honest, I desperately wanted to give up on him. The phrase “lead those who want to be led” was tempting. Not only that, but what do I tell everyone who invested their money and prayers in me bringing him over there? Sorry for wasting your money and my time, but I don’t see any hope?

To be continued…

The Grand Finale

2009-07-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

The final day of camp was the most free, alive, and joy-filled I have ever felt. This year we started out having the Lord’s Supper and taking communion with the kids after Greer reads “The Father’s Love Letter” (http://www.fathersloveletter.com/text.html) – a conglomeration of Scriptures strung together that tell how much our Father loves us. Many kids and adults are brought to tears of joy as we meditate on Christ’s love for us. I wept the first time I heard it. Communion must be prefaced heavily because of the prevalence of witchcraft. As forms of witchcraft, witchdoctors will have kids each human flesh and drink human blood so the evil spirits and demons can have access to the blood stream. (See last year’s Tuesday July 8 entry on witchcraft and blood for more information on this.) So we tell them over and over that the bread is just bread symbolizing Christ’s body and the grape juice is just grape juice symbolizing Christ’s blood shed for us.

After lunch the kids get their gifts of love from God which this year included a bracelet, a John 3:16 postcard, an EvangeCube, a Bible, and a backpack. The kids rejoice over every single gift, even something as small as a bracelet! You can see the transformation of Michael below and check out last year’s celebration over their fleece jackets!

The grand finale for the kids this year was a dance party outside with the Camp Life music playing throughout the dusty field. I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the world than on that dusty field with those kids at that moment. Smiles, laughter, freedom, and joy are on everyone’s faces. You think, “This is what heaven will be like, the most joyful celebration known to man.” But because we’re on earth the party has to stop. I can’t wait for heaven where the party never ends!

The grand finale for the Americans leaving that week is to sit on the ground and be encircled by angels (Zambians and staying Americans) praising God for the week, for each of the Americans that embodied Christ’s love for the Zambia children, and for his love for each one of us. They lay hands on us and pray for our journeys home and our ministry in the US. I’ve been to what I would consider the most beautiful place on earth at Milford Sound in New Zealand, but the love that is felt among the Americans, Zambians, and our Lord and Savior on that dusty field in Zambia is the most beautiful feeling in the world. That love and its impact on everyone there is what keeps me coming back and I pray you will join us next year for Camp Life 2010!

Lorenzo: One man’s prayer is another man’s “Get Out of Jail Free” Card!

2009-07-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

During church for week 2, the pastor gave this definition of faith: Faith is believing God will go what He has already promised.

During week 1, the Zambians noticed Lorenzo was “troubled”, had an attitude, and was defiant. Their response was very much one of compassion and realized their need to pray and take him under their wing. It was amazing how many Zambians told me they were praying for Lorenzo! And when a Zambian says they’re praying – they’re praying! When my Apostle, Emmanuel learned that Lorenzo’s father was in prison and would be until Lorenzo turns 23, he immediately started praying that the Lord would release his dad from jail and that the Lord would use Lorenzo and me to bring him to Christ.

So get this - Monday night of week 2, Lorenzo got a text from his mom saying she just heard from his dad that he was going to be released from prison soon!!! (!!!!!) I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t believe it. Not only do I not have the faith to pray someone out of jail, I didn’t have the faith to believe it when there’s “coincidental” evidence to support it! I still have a “I’ll believe it when I meet him” attitude. Not Emmanuel. We told him the next day and he erupted in a huge celebration shouting, “I knew He would! I knew He would! I knew He would!”

Psalm 146:7

“He upholds the cause of the oppressed, and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free. "

Isaiah 49:8-9

This is what the Lord says: "In the time of my favor I will answer you… I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people… to say to the captives, ‘Come out’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’"

Isaiah 42:6-7

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;…to open eyes that are blind to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 61:1-2

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…

Faith is believing God will do what He has already promised.

Lorenzo: SAVED

2009-07-04T16:57:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend between Camps, I asked Lorenzo when he accepted Christ. He said it was when I told him to repeat after me in a prayer. But that prayer was just a prayer of confession, not one of salvation. At that time, he had told me he had already accepted Christ. I realized he was confused about his salvation and may never have truly asked Christ to be his Lord and Savior.

To press deeper I asked, “If you were to die today, how sure are you that you’d go to heaven?” He said, “Well, I gotta believe in myself, so I’d say 10…well, I’m really not sure.” During Week 1 Greer talked about a time when he thought he had accepted Christ, when it made sense in his head, but hadn’t believed it in his heart. As he was talking, the Lord laid Lorenzo on my heart because while everyone else was worshipping, Lorenzo was expressionless, while everyone was praying, Lorenzo was in his own world and while everyone was enjoying serving others Lorenzo was focused on himself. There wasn’t fruit of the Spirit in his life. I watched other boys his age and saw fruit. I told Lorenzo this and asked him if he wanted to accept Christ in his heart. He said he did and I told him that it wasn’t just a free gift to heaven. That in return Christ is asking him to give Him his life in return for Christ giving His; that he will be a new creation and his old ways of his anger and looking out solely for #1 have got to go. He said he was ready to do that and accepted Christ on Monday morning, June 15! For the rest of Camp he wore a camouflage hat that said “SAVED” in bright pink letters!

I will not leave you as orphans - an update on Chanda

2009-07-04T16:56:00.001-07:00

(see entries from Wednesday July 9 and Thurday July 10, 2008)

Similar to Jeff (now Michael), Chanda had the same countenance when he came to Camp. Distant. Distracted. Defiant. Isolated. He had a big scar over his left eye that he says was from falling but it looked like someone landed a left hook. His mother passed away this past year and he’s staying with an abusive aunt and uncle. He got in a fight with Michael one day at camp, which left Chanda with a ripped shirt. When he came to Camp the next day he said he had to sleep in the bathroom because of his ripped shirt. Family Legacy staff frequently see him wandering the streets, sometimes late at night. He just doesn’t want to be at home.

We had multiple Blessing Times with him throughout the week to dig deeper into his story and continually tell him how much Christ loves him and how much we love him even if he doesn’t feel loved by anyone at home.

God knows Chanda’s story and John 14:18 says He promises not to leave His children as orphans. A glimpse into God’s provision for Chanda came at the end of the week when I was told Chanda is a candidate to live in the Tree of Life Children’s Village! http://www.legacymissions.org/tree-of-life/ This is a child that has had a very hard life, but everyone knew God had a special plan for him.

Last year Chanda climbed up on stage and led the kids in the songs. While Greer normally doesn’t allow this, the Spirit told him, “Let him go, he’s leading his people, that’s what he was created to do.” Even through losing both parents and being abused at home, Chanda still wants to be a pastor. He has a beautiful countenance when the Spirit shines through him. He is now 1 of 50 kids out of the 10,000 that come through Camp that were selected for the Tree of Life Children’s Village where he will be provided a top notch education, changes of clothes, 3 meals a day, spiritual parents, and a group of other kids who love Jesus. Praise God for his provision and his love for this child of God!

“I’m having suntan lotion thrown at me by demons!” – an update on Jeff (now Michael)

2009-07-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff at the beginning of the week

The dark room is where the exorcism happened

Many of you may remember Jeff’s story from last year (see entry from Wednesday July 9, 2008), when he manifested demons during a big group session and had to undergo a long exorcism. This year, during his first large group session he was looking similar, was not active in the songs, and seemed to be bothered (tormented) by something. After the big group he started to cry.

Remembering last year's major exorcism, I knew this time that's what needed to happen. So we (my partner Elijah and I) went upstairs to the 3rd floor in this empty room. As soon as we started approaching the room he starting fighting and doing everything he could to get away. It was like the demons knew there was about to be a big battle to go down. We started commanding the demons out in the name of Jesus and he (the demons inside him) was fighting us with everything he had to get out of that room. After doing this for 10-15 minutes, we decided we needed help. I offered to get find a pastor, but Elijah said no, he'll go find someone, leaving me alone with a demon-possessed kid!

So I said in my head, "Alright, it's only me, you, the angels, and the demons. Let’s get it on!" It was a battle, true warfare. For what seemed like an eternity, I screamed (it was intense), pleaded, and sweat trying to cast out the demons that were inside him. I was commanding the demons and evil spirits to leave his body and go out the window. I knew the angels and demons were fighting and I imagined the angels needing more power.

(The demons inside) Jeff kept fighting me - throwing punches and kicking me, he picked up my backpack and threw it at me and a bunch of things spilled out. He picked up my sunscreen and threw it at my head, he picked up my Bible and threw it at me (ironically!), and he was trying everything he could to get out of that room. He would run over to the window and try to break the glass. As he was doing that one of my villa mates looked up and saw his eyes wide open, him trying to break the glass, and said she heard a loud screaming voice that I don't remember at all. She said his face was literally the scariest thing she's ever seen in a person. I don’t know exactly when the demons left, but it could have been then because I commanded them to leave through the window.

At one point during all of that, I stepped my brain out of the situation and said to myself, "OK, I'm getting sunscreen thrown at my head by demons! What kind of crazy world do we live in?" It was nuts! Then it was back to the battle. I managed to keep Jeff in the room while Elijah was gone and he brought Pastor Mutale and Davison, Jeff's zone leader. It took all 4 of us to hold this 11 or 12-year-old boy down and continued our prayers until we were sure the demons and evil spirits had left his body. At one point, even though Jeff was still acting similarly, they said they could tell the demons were gone, so we let Jeff be and let him calm down.

Without even knowing Jeff's situation, Pastor Mutale explained to me that some kids are named after their great-grandfathers who were witchdoctors or someone of evil spiritual significance and when their name is called it's like reawakening the demons. When Jeff calmed down we asked him who he was named after and he said exactly what Pastor Mutale predicted - that he was named after his great-grandfather who was a witchdoctor, so every time we were saying , "Jeff, we command the demons out of your body in Jesus’ name”, it was awakening them further by saying the name Jeff.

We decided we needed to change Jeff’s name also, so as Greer tells us to do, I prayed asking God to reveal a new name to me. A voice came in my head saying, “His name is Michael.” I couldn’t think of any spiritual significance of the name Michael off the top of my head, so I discounted it doubting that was to be his name and that God could talk to me like that. The voice came back louder saying, “His name is Michael!” Then it hit me. Michael was the most powerful archangel that cast Satan down from heaven:

Revelation 12:7-9

And there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he (the dragon) was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.

So I spoke up and said his name is Michael, the most powerful archangel in heaven. They all liked the name and we went with it. We changed his name necklace and announced to the rest of my group that they are to call him Michael now.

The next day we asked Michael what his dad thought of the name change, knowing that his dad wasn’t a believer. Surprisingly, Michael’s dad said he liked the name and thought it was a good thing. That day we went into the kids’ compound and the kids boldly evangelized their neighbors and friends using the EvangeCube. Michael was especially adamant that he would use the EvangeCube. When he did, he preached with great knowledge and confidence. No wonder Satan and his messengers were after him, he is a mighty tool in the hand of God! That night we let Michael borrow an EvangeCube and told him to share the Gospel with his dad that night and bring the EvangeCube back the next day. The next day Michael came back saying, “He believes! And he wants to know when I can bring the EvangeCube home again, so I can teach him some more!” Later that day, each child received their own EvangeCube and Bible as a gift from God.

Michael at the end of the week

Michael celebrating his EvangeCube, Bible, and backpack

Psalm 22 – Selah’s Story

2009-07-04T16:54:00.002-07:00

Every night. Every night! Every single night! Boys and men come into this 10-year-olds room. Her father approves and takes their money. To them, she is just an object, a form for their pleasure. To her father, she is worth what she can make. If the men complain, her father beats her afterwards for not pleasuring them enough.

As an American counselor told Sillah’s story at dinner, tears filled the eyes of everyone in the room. We all knew each other’s thoughts, “God, WHERE ARE YOU???” “How can people be SO EVIL?” “Why does this happen to her? Why not me? Why was she born into that situation and not me?” “What will this girl’s future be with so deep of scars and wounds?” “What can we do to help?”

Psalm 22:1-5

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? So far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed."

It is almost impossible to reconcile God sitting enthroned at the Holy One as this kind of evil prevails in our world. Immediately, as I was asking “Lord, where are you? How could you let this happen?” He responded, “I AM right here. I AM among you.” Soon I found out what He meant.

We knew we had to rescue her soon, but it is a touchy business taking these vulnerable kids from their protective parents without services like CPS. The law in Zambia is corrupt and bribes will be paid. So we prayed. All 60 of us prayed fervently. We prayed the next Psalm – Psalm 23 – that the Lord will be her Shepherd, that he will protect her, that he will make her lie down in green pastures, that he will lead her beside still waters, that he will restore her soul.

We also suggested that her name be changed from Sillah to Selah. Sillah means shadow in Hebrew, but Selah means something like “Peace. God is with you.”

The next day, her counselor asked how her night was last night and Sillah said no one came into her room and she slept well! Sillah agreed to have her name changed to Selah and a new name necklace was made for her. Her counselor told her that she will have to stay one more night at home and she needs to continue to pray for her own protection and we will all be praying for her too. She prayed, we prayed, and she was protected again. The following night Family Legacy was able to get custody of her.

The first night Sealah’s story was told at dinner, the Lord laid on an American couple’s heart to raise money to build her a home at Family Legacy’s Tree of Life Children’s Village. http://www.legacymissions.org/tree-of-life/ They appealed to the rest of us asking if we would all band together and work to raise money for the house and thought we could all raise the required $72,000 by the end of summer. The Lord had other plans. The money was all pledged in 24 hours and will be called Selah’s house!

The Tree of Life is a group of homes being built for orphans in extreme situations a few miles outside of Lusaka on a large, peaceful and beautiful hill that overlooks the countryside. About 12-16 kids stay in each home. 4 have been built and 5 more are in the process of being built with a goal of building 25 total to house 300 children. A school, a skills training center, a medical center, and the future Camp Life location will all be at the Tree of Life and will be built as the Lord provides the money.

For more on Selah's story, Family Legacy has created a page on their webpage to share her story http://www.legacymissions.org/selah/ and the "Selah's House" group on Facebook.

A Boy’s Plea for Help - Geraad’s Story

2009-07-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

Geraad lives with his mom because his parents are separated. His father is a drunkard who beats his kids. He has burns all on the left side of his body when a candle fell in the night and caught his blanket on fire while he was sleeping. When business is OK, Geraad eats once a day; but when it’s not, he doesn’t eat. Because there isn’t any money in the home, Geraad has to stay home from school because he can’t get his school fees paid. His two prayer requests are for his family’s way of life and for his education. Please consider sponsoring Geraad so he can go to Family Legacy’s Community Resource Centers when he’s not being fed and so his school fees can be paid for.

Side note: A complete 180 from here, kids in Zambia desperately want to go to school. They know it’s their means to a future. It is by far their #1 prayer request. When I ask the kids that are already sponsored, “Who pays for your school fees?” They respond “Uncle Davison” or “Auntie Mercy” (2 of the 90+ Zambian Family Legacy staff). The program works and needs your help to reach more kids!

His Hope is in You (you!) - Jonathan’s Story

2009-07-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

“So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.” Job 5:15

“No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.” Psalm 25:3

Jonathan is 19. He was the oldest boy in my group, but one of the quietest. He missed Camp one day because he overslept. Here in the states, there’s usually a lame excuse that accompanies that; but for Jonathan, it’s a different story. Jonathan has been working 7 days a week overnight since 2007 to support himself because his dad remarried and his step-mother forces Jonathan’s father to prioritize her 3 kids over his 3 kids, won’t allow his father’s kids’ to have their school fees paid for, and is involved in witchcraft.

Jonathan says he is losing hope. He keeps coming to Camp Life believing God will help him so he can go back to school. But he’s even losing hope in that and stopped going to church two months ago.

Jonathan’s Blessing Time was right after Matthews’. Two boys that desperately needed to hear Jeremiah 29:11 from Greer moments earlier and two boys that desperately need you to sponsor them. We told the boys to continue to pray to God; He is faithful. Will you be Jonathan’s answer to his prayers?

Against All Odds (Jeremiah 29:11) - Matthews’ Story

2009-07-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

As the sweat drips off the brow of a 14-year-old boy who crushes stones to support his grandma and himself, this perpetual thought runs through his mind “I’m next. I have no hope. Both of my parents are dead and my only two siblings are dead. AIDS. It’s probably just a matter of time…” This is the story of Matthews, a boy who was in my group.

The order of events the day I did my Blessing Time with Matthews was God-ordained. Being a former engineer, I usually operate in some sort of order. This day I decided to pray about whom I should have next instead of going alphabetical or in the order on my roster. I prayed and Matthews was next.

When we got halfway through his Blessing Time, it was time for lunch and we had to continue later. During lunch Tiny Tim and Friends (http://www.tinytimandfriends.org/) were offering HIV/AIDS tests for kids who had consent forms signed or who are 17 and older and could sign for themselves. Matthews didn’t have a consent form and he’s only 14, but he was the first one off the ground when I called for the guys 17+ to get tested. As he was waiting in line, I asked myself “What’s worse? Facilitating a lie or not letting a kid get tested that seems to really want to?” (At that time I didn’t know about his family’s history). The Spirit told me to just let it go. As he got to the front of the line he boldly responded “17” when they asked his age. The needle went in his finger and he got tested. After lunch Greer’s message was on Jeremiah 29:11.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Back in Blessing Time with Matthews, the pieces came together after I learned of his family situation. Both parents are dead. Both siblings are dead. Chances are Matthews has AIDS and he knows it. No wonder he was the first one in line to get tested. How perfect is the message of Jeremiah 29:11? God loves putting himself in situations where trusting in him is the only option for our future. Probability says Matthews is dead within a few years, “but with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26). My partner and I strongly spoke into his life that Jeremiah 29:11 is true for him. I wrote it on a piece of paper and gave it to him to keep as a reminder.

The most touching part of the story is when I asked him, “If you could be anything in the world when you grow up what would it be?” Matthews responded, “I want to be a fireman. My life is on fire, so I can feel the victims’ pain. I know I would be the first truck there to save them.”

I have faith that the Lord will do this: first, through Tiny Tim & Friends they will provide Matthews with the treatments he needs that will prolong a prosperous life for him. Second, through the Lord laying it on one of your hearths to sponsor him for $36/month through Family Legacy’s Father’s Heart program (http://www.legacymissions.org/fathers-heart/) Matthews will have his school fees paid for and his basic needs met so he doesn’t have to drop out of school to crush stones to support him and his grandma. Please prayerfully consider making it your privilege to be an integral part of God’s prosperous and hopefully plan for Matthews life!

Week 1 Summary

2009-07-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

Faces of Zambia

I don’t have any pictures or videos from Week 1 because while I was in Victoria Falls I dropped my camera and broke its lens. During Week 2, one of my villamates let me borrow her spare camera. While I don’t have pictures of video, I do have some great stories. Two of the boys accepted Christ this year during our Blessing Times (1-on-1) and I have 3 boys that are on my “high priority” list to get sponsored (their stories are later). If you want to sponsor 1 or more please email me at brett.vandermolen@gmail.com!

After week 1, I have run the gamete for the ages of boys. Last year week 1 I had boys ages 6-10; week 2 I had boys ages 11-14; and this year week 1, I had boys that were 14-19. After having them all I really don’t have a preference. I like the youngest boys because they are adorable and easy to share Christ’s love with. The middle boys are good because you can have a big influence and impact on their life before the temptations of the world press hard on them. The oldest boys take the longest to connect with but once their wall is broken and you become vulnerable with them, they become vulnerable and you can empower them during a crucial point of their life.

All but one of the boys had been to Camp 3-5 years in a row. The one boy who hadn’t, Barton, accepted Christ during our Blessing Time with him after we shared the Gospel using the EvangeCube! I was impressed with the other boy’s (Roy) wisdom for his reason why he hadn’t accepted Christ before. He said before the Gospel made sense to him in his head, but he didn’t believe it in his heart. This year he believes it in his heart and was ready to ask Christ to be his Lord and Savior!

There was a story of an American girl counselor who had an 11-year-old Zambian boy radically touch her life. I don’t remember the details of the boy’s story, but I remember it was hard. Orphaned and abused. When the girl said she was going to pray for him, the Zambian boy said “No, I want to pray for you” and he told her he would pray for her every day. The American girl counselor was sexually abused when she was younger by a man in church leadership that has scarred her view of men and church leaders since. Through the purity of this boy’s faith and his early leadership, he has been influential in allowing her to trust Christian men again. Not only that, during the two years she was apart from this boy she suffered through an eating disorder and has recently recovered. When she saw the Zambian boy again he told her that he had been praying for her every night and get this, he said “I fasted for you so you wouldn’t have to. I didn’t eat, so that you could eat.” The kid didn’t even know her struggle!

The kids bumrushed the stage during the Freedom song!

A Glorious Reunion

2009-07-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Seeing my Zambian partners from last year was like reuniting with a childhood best friend that you haven’t seen in over a decade. I have never experienced a relationship where a bond is formed so quickly and so strongly in 5 short days. I can understand Paul much better when he said to the Romans in 1:8-12…

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world (the Zambian faith truly is!). God, whom I serve with my whole heart, in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”

There truly is a longing to see each other that cultivates into an immensely joyous reunion after a year of being apart with no communication. People that were at Camp for the first time were overwhelmed by the excitement of the brothers and sisters being and hopefully it will be just one more reason that brings them back to Zambia next year.

Another reason would be to see their kids again! During my second week of Camp this year I got to see my kids from last year! It was an unbelievable feeling to see them sprint off the bus with ear-to-ear smiles and to give them all big bear hugs. After the hugs, they picked me up and carried me around Camp! All 12 of the kids came back this year! Often times because the kids move back to the village (rural areas), deaths in the family, or even the kid dies, most Americans don’t have all of their kids return. But God was each of their Shepherds last year and brought them all back safely.

Breathtaking Adventures

2009-07-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

Victoria Falls during during high season (our spring and summer)

Victoria Falls during low season (our fall and winter)

The 8 migrations of the falls

A picture from standing on the edge of the falls!

The falls truly are one of God’s greatest works of art. From the power of the water crashing hundreds of feet below, to the beauty of the numerous rainbows created from the mist that rises above, to the sheer size of the falls being 1.2 miles in width. I had one incredible adventure filled day where at 8:00am I took a 15-minute Micro Light flight over the falls; at 10:00am we had breakfast on top of Victoria Falls on Livingstone Island, and from 2:00-6:00 we got to pet and walk lions!

My micro light flight over the falls

You can see the elephants in the river below

The Micro Light was the best possible way to see the falls in their entirety. It is basically a motorized kite with 2 seats! My pilot was a Christian from Germany who married a missionary from Wisconsin and are both living near Victoria Falls. The number of analogies he made between the river, falls, and Christianity were amazing! My favorite was that when the water falls and crashes below is like us dying to ourselves, emptying ourselves, and being buried with Christ in his death. Like the mist that rises and spreads throughout the land we rise with Christ and spread His aroma throughout the land.

The experience would have been amazing in and of itself, but my conversation with the guide really added to it. He also gave me the multi-million year history of the falls. The falls have migrated 8 times since their beginning of time and a new crack to push them further back is starting to form. On the flight back we saw some elephants, hippos and crocodiles from the air. The landing was intense. Imagine a plane landing, but you’re completely in the open air and can see the 3 wheels slam into the ground literally 2 feet below your feet.

Lorenzo and I on top of the falls

A video from standing on the edge of the falls

Next was the trip back to the top of the falls on Livingstone Island. Although it wasn’t new to me this time it was still just as incredible! Lorenzo had to overcome his fear of heights to peer over the edge, but after some prodding the smiles came out.

Lorenzo was a bit nervous...

Hakuna Matata!!!

Eye of the (Lion)

Walking with the lions

The final adventure of the day was walking with the lions. The whole group of about 24 Americans with Family Legacy did the "Lion Encounter". These are lions being raised in a controlled environment and will be released into the wild once they are adults in an effort to preserve the lions from becoming extinct. The guides give you specific instructions when they see the lions reacting in a certain way. Pretty much as long as you are standing up they will be intimidated by you, but when you’re bending over scratching their bellies and they raise their paws up, I would say we are the intimidated ones!

As much fun as all of that sounds, my heart was eagerly awaiting getting to camp to see my brothers and sisters that I hadn’t seen or heard from in a year and of course the kids that I fell in love with last year. As you read on you’ll see why…

Lorenzo’s First Plane Ride

2009-07-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

I knew it would be a distraction in a time-pressured and weighty few hours before I left, but I decided to allow Lorenzo to come over at 7:30am the Sunday morning that we left to expose him to what goes into packing for a long trip. I was right. Can we play basketball? Can we go swimming? Ew! I want some hot wings before we go! Will they have internet over there so I can get on my MySpace? Luckily, there wasn’t anything I flat out forgot to pack. We made it to the airport on time and had not trouble getting to the gate.

Lorenzo was a bit scared before the plane took off, but once he felt the power of the plane thrust him back against the seat the fear turned into grins as he stared intently out the window. Once we got off the ground he took everything in stride and got settled in quickly which foreshadowed the rest of the trip. I was nervous with him sitting behind me that he would mess with me a lot, but he was really well behaved on the planes.

I sat next to a Muslim named Faras on the flight from Dallas to London. We had a very encouraging conversation comparing stories and facts from our Holy Books. He had his Koran out and I had my Bible and we spoke to each other with mutual respect. He was very intrigued by my Bible because I think it was the first one he had seen with both the Old and New Testament together (maybe he had just seen Gideon’s Bibles before). The Koran’s story of creation is similar except that after “The Fall” Adam and Eve were cast out of heaven onto the Earth instead of starting out on earth in the first place. It also had some stories of Jesus’ childhood that aren’t listed in the Bible. In the end he asked me to mail him a full version of our Bible. Anyone know a website that I could send him a physical one through??? I have his email address and physical address.

We spent our 12-hour layover at Windsor Castle, which was a cool place to kill some time. We briefly saw the band and the changing of the guard at 11am and got the tour of the outer part of the castle and the cathedral inside. We were all really tired though from the plane ride, so it really was just a place to kill time.

After about 4 hours combined sleep for the two red eye flights, we finally arrived in Zambia. It was good to be back as things here are just so much simpler. An unexpected and wonderful surprise was that we got picked up in a charter bus to go to Victoria Falls. Last year the 7-hour bus ride (after 2 straight 10-hour red eye flights) was hot, smelled of horrible B.O. and was crowded to where we had to squish 5 people on a 3-seater. This year we each had our own seat, the bus was air conditioned, and whiffs of B.O. were infrequent.

Intro and Praise

2009-07-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

I want to start out this year of blogging about Zambia praising God for His provision to make this mission trip back to Zambia with Lorenzo possible - from everyone who donated to support us, to those that have been praying for us, to the Schweinfurths who have donated the ministry supplies, to the Hill’s who are eating rice and beans for a week to remind them to pray for us, and especially to everyone that has shown me love, invested in me, and empowered me to be in a place where this could be possible.

His provision has continued to be evident on this trip. Two other Watermark families are on this trip that have 13-year old boys that Lorenzo has quickly made friends with. Both families have been very generous to us. They have shared their supplies with us, paid for our excursions at Victoria Falls, and been a huge help in the supervision of Lorenzo so that I could have some time to hang out with some people that are closer to my age.

To see what a typical day is like at Camp see the Wednesday July 16 entry from last year.

To read more on witchcraft see the Tuesday July 8, Tuesday July 15, and Friday July 18 entries from last year.

Seeing God in All / Men Are Without Excuse

2009-05-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

John 1:3-4
Though Him all things were made; without Him nothing has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Romans 1:20-21
For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what He has made, so that men are without excuse.

It struck me afresh as I saw the barrenness of my lawn underneath a tree compared to the grass exposed to broad daylight that God’s attributes and truths can be seen everywhere we look through nature and human beings. Because of this, God says men are without excuse for not knowing Him.

Jesus is light and that light is life. Without light, there is no life. While this is commonly thought of in terms of salvation, what about the impact of not being exposed to the light continuously throughout the day each day? While some growth and some life may be seen, the full glory of God’s creation is not seen because the life-giving light is shielded and darkness is created.

Matthew 5:8 says “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”. The opposite would say, “Cursed are the impure of heart, for they will not see God.” The impurities of our heart shield us from seeing and displaying the full glory of God. This verse and illustration in nature is a simple way to explain to kids or anyone how all sin shields us from seeing and displaying God’s glory.

This is just one of the infinite illustrations through which God has revealed Himself to men through His invisible qualities, eternal power and divine nature. Some others are listed below, but I want to make this interactive by asking you to write out some other ways you have seen God through His creation of people (made in the image of God) and nature by posting them as comments on this blog post. The more comments we have, the more we will be exposed to His light in our daily lives, and the more we will reflect His glory.

People:
If you have seen a hopeless beggar’s desire for mercy, you have seen yourself before God. (Psalm 38)

If you have seen a little girl’s persistent desire for attention and to be called beautiful, you know of God’s. (Psalm 119:97)

If you have seen a little boy’s desire to save the world, you know of Jesus’. (John 3:16-17)

If you have seen people’s (evil) desire to be praised, you have seen God’s (pure) desire for the same. (Psalm 96:8)

If you have seen people’s desires for apologies that don’t gloss over the details, you have seen God’s desire for the same. (Lev. 5:5, Num. 5:6-7, Prov. 28:13)

If you have seen a spouse’s jealousy rage when attention is given elsewhere, you have seen God’s jealousy for His relationship with us. (Exodus 34:14)

If you have seen a mother nurture a child in pain, you know of God’s desire for us in our pain. (2 Cor 1:3-4)

If you have seen a father discipline his child for the child’s good, you know of our Father’s motive for our discipline. (Heb 12:10-11)

If you have seen a woman’s desire to spend quality and intentional time with her husband, you have seen God’s desire for that with us. (Deut 30:20)

If you have seen a woman’s desire to be thought of and considered in small and large decisions, you have seen God’s desire for that with us. (Philippians 4:6 or 1 Thess. 5:17)

If you have seen a woman’s desire to know details and feelings, you have seen God’s desire for that with us. (Psalm 139)

If you have seen a man’s desire for respect, you have seen God’s desire for the same. (Eph. 5:33)

If you have seen a man’s desire to do adventurous activities with his wife, you have seen God’s desire to experience the same with us. (2 Cor 11:21-28)

If you have seen a homeless man cry during “Amazing Grace”, you have seen the heart of God. (Luke 18:35-42)

Nature:
If you have seen mist disappear and been forgotten, you know how short and meaningless this life is in relation to eternity. (James 4:14)

If you have seen a seed go into the ground and come out bearing life, you have seen the risen Christ. (john 12:23-24)

If you know the immensity of the Universe, you know how big God is. (Psalm 8:3)

If you know the size of an ant in relation to the Universe, you know how small we are. (Psalm 8:4)

If you know what you would have to do to relate to an ant, you would know why Jesus had to be become human. (Romans 8:3-4, Hebrews 4:15)

If you know how characteristics (sin) are passed through DNA, you know why Jesus had to be born of a virgin. (Romans 5:12)

If you have seen the stupidity, ignorance, and lack of direction of sheep left by themselves, you know why Jesus called us that. (1 Peter 2:25, John 10)

If you have seen the vastness of the ocean, you know how far your sins have been separated from you. (Psalm 103:12)

If you have seen the purity of freshly fallen snow, you know how God sees you. (Psalm 51:7, Isaiah 1:18)

If you have seen the outcome of a metal’s refinement by the fire, you know why we have to go through the same. (1 Peter 1:7, Zech. 13:9)

If you have seen a rock not move, you know why God calls Himself that. (2 Sam 22:3, Psalm 18:2))

If you have ever seen the destruction of natural disasters, you know why we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. (Isaiah 45:7, Philippians 2:12)

If you have seen the impact of a candle during the daytime, you know where you have been called. (Luke 6:33)

If you have seen the impact of a candle in the darkness, you know where you have been called. (John 12:46)

If you have seen the impact of a weak candle in the darkness, you know what you have not been called to be. (Hebrews 12:11-12)

If you have seen the impact of a bright candle in the darkness, you know what you have been called to be. (Isaiah 9:2)

Training for the Prize … 1 Timothy 4

2009-05-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Lorenzo going to Zambia is like a human going to heaven. Having never been further than an hour from Dallas, he doesn’t have a clue what’s about to hit him. He sees concrete, video games, and discontentment. He’s about to see the world’s largest waterfall (which he asked if he could swim in!), wild animals on a safari, and have the time of his life seeing faith-filled kids enduring extreme poverty with immense joy.

If Lorenzo knew what was coming, it would be reflected in how he spends his time and what he worries about. This became apparent when, the day after I finished raising money for us to go over there, he was distraught that Game Stop didn’t have the video game he wanted and he got mad at me because I wouldn’t drive 10 miles out of the way to go to another one.

I couldn’t help but think that this is how God must feel when He sees us wasting our time and energy on meaningless temporary pleasures when heaven awaits us and when we get angry at Him for not giving us the trinkets we want after He’s given us the ultimate gift and sacrifice of His Son.

In contrast, I know what awaits Lorenzo in Africa and I have faith that seeing the joy and life transformation that will occur in Lorenzo will be worth my time and effort. I have been “training” daily for that prize. 1 Timothy 4:7, 9, and 10 says, “Train yourselves to be Godly…for this we labor and strive, that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”

The degree of faith in which we take God at His Word that heaven is what He says it is, is the same degree that we will labor and strive for that hope. Further, it is the same degree that we will labor and strive to give others that same hope; knowing that our time and effort will be worth seeing their joy in Christ, their transformation into His likeness, and their eternal security. “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them” – 1 Timothy 4:15

The Devil in West Dallas (and “America the Great”) (from Summer ’08)

2009-04-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

The kids in Zambia, for the most part, are angels. They are very courteous, extremely patient, obedient to the “t”, and they play as if it’s their job. You will rarely see an ounce of jealousy. No complaining over who gets what, or who’s the first in line, or acting out if they’re bored. There literally is a night and day difference between American and Zambian children.

It is said here that Satan is just as active in America he’s just more discrete. The fast-paced, consumer, competitive rat race of America is polar opposite to the slow-paced, community focused, help your neighbor life in Zambia and the evidence is seen in the children. In my time with the kids in West Dallas, I have already dealt with stealing on multiple occasions, blatant arrogance, constant complaining over who gets what, and numerous requests to buy the kids stuff or give them money. In Zambia, kids jump at the chance to lend a helping hand and go ecstatic over receiving a pencil! American kids are left in a perpetual state of want because of our consumer society while the Zambian kids are content and grateful.

Through this the Lord impressed upon me to ask myself, “Which is better to live in daily contentment and gratitude or to live in perpetual want? Even if I were to start making $100,000, could I be content to live on $40,000 and give the rest away? Could I be content to have the same wardrobe for the next 5 years? Of everything I spend my money, how much has eternal value?” Just because these questions are rhetorical, doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Perspectives (from Summer ’08)

2009-04-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

I had the week before I left for Zambia all planned out. I had to with the magnitude of everything that was hitting that week. I drafted and signed a contract for the biggest financial decision I’ve ever made – the purchase of my first house. Work was insane, trying to work ahead for the next 3 weeks before I left for Zambia. And then there’s Zambia – trying to plan and pack for the next 3 weeks of being overseas. Any one of these would make for a full week.

I got a call on Wednesday morning of that week from Lorenzo at 6:45am as I was getting ready for work:

“Hey, Lorenzo, what’s up?”
“Brett, I’m having a bad day.” (thinking it’s 6:45am! How can you possibly be having a bad day already?) “OK. What’s wrong?”
“My Auntie. She passed this morning.”
“Oh, wow, I’m sorry Lorenzo. She passed away this morning? How old was she?”
“Yeah, she was 27.”
“Do you know how she died?”
“Murder.”
“Oh. (pause) Where are you at right now?”
“Home”
“Are your momma and brothers home?”
“No, I’m the only one here.”
“Where is your family?”
“They’re at my Granny’s house.”
“Was it her daughter?”
“Yeah, and my momma’s sister.”
“When are they coming back?”
“I dunno.”
“Alright, I’ll come get you and we’ll get some breakfast and hang out this morning.”

When I went to pick up Lorenzo, he had tears in his eyes and I gave him a long hug. We picked up some donuts and coffee (he always wants coffee, but never likes it ???) and went back to my place. On the way, the tears slowly turned to anger and after a long silence Lorenzo said, “When I find out who did dis, I’munna kill’em!” I decided to just let him vent a bit and talk through this when he was calmed back down.

When we got to my place, he said he just felt like taking a nap. While he was asleep I researched and printed out some verses about the Lord comforting us (2 Cor. 1), us not taking revenge (Romans 12:19), praying to the Lord for vengeance (Jer. 11:20), and praying for our enemies (Matt. 5:43-45). I got on the local news websites to see if they had a story on it. There was a double homicide on the south side of I-20 and 408 at 2am that morning, but that was about 10 miles away from West Dallas, so I didn’t think that was it. A couple hours later he woke up:

Lorenzo, “What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“What happened? I feel funny.”
“Do you remember what happened this morning?”
“No.”
“Do you remember you finding out that your Auntie passed this morning?”
“Oh. (pause) Yeah, now I do.”
“Where did she live?”
“Near Duncanville, like I-20 and 408.”
“Oh. I think I found the news story about it, do you want to see it?”
“Yeah.”

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/719492.html

Lorenzo was calmed down, so I decided I’d talk with him through the verses I printed out. On the way out the door to take him over to his Granny’s, Lorenzo said, “I know I’m not supposed to kill the person that killed my Auntie. Maybe I’ll just shoot’em wit a BB gun.” :)

Later that week I learned that the Auntie’s husband is in jail for a long time and they left behind 4 kids, one that is only 14 months old. While the uncle was in jail, the Auntie got into the drug game and gambling to support her children. The 4 kids are essentially now double orphans and are staying with the Granny in a 2-bedroom apartment in the projects. In a conversation with the Granny, she said, “I don’t know what to do anymore, so I just drink. I don’t drink to get drunk, I just drink.” I’m looking into what the most effective way I can help the Granny would be. Cooking all of them a meal? Supporting her financially with my friends? Finding her a grief counselor? Finding her someone to help take care of the kids’ basic needs?

I’m a Dad! (from Summer ’08)

2009-04-08T07:09:00.002-07:00

After talking to his Lorenzo’s mom a couple of days later I found out that Lorenzo’s baseball outburst probably stemmed from some issues at home along with not having anyone there to support him. His mom said that he had skipped some school earlier in the week. When she started to punish him he started spouting at the mouth, so she whooped him. When it got really heated Lorenzo just took off running and went to a lady friend’s house that has some girls in his grade. Lorenzo’s mom didn’t know where he was, so she called the cops and reported a missing child. The police found him at the friend’s house and brought him home.

Later in the weekend, after Lorenzo and I had our first “heart to heart” I dropped him off at home and he asked, “So what are you going to do now?”
“Take a nap.”
“Then what?”
“I’m going to have accountability with a couple friends of mine.”
“What’s that?”
“Two other guys and I get together to talk about what’s going on in our lives with God, dating, work, family…”
“Oh. Yeah. I got a lot going on in my life”
“Like what?”
“Well, my dad’s in jail till I’m 23, my Great Granny just passed, and my old mentor just left me.” “Wow, it sounds like you do have a lot going on in your life. How are you doing with all of that?”
“I’m aight”
“Does Carlos (older brother) have the same daddy you do?”
“No, he’s got a different daddy.”
“What about Quinten and Darius (oldest brothers)?”
“No they have different daddies too. You’re my dad now.”
(not knowing what to say) “Oh. Okay.”
“I love you, dad.”
“I love you too, Lorenzo”
(big ‘ol hug)

I left that evening with tears in my eyes for many reasons. The first was over how quick those kids have to grow up. The second was how desperately positive male role models are needed in West Dallas and how hungry the kids are to have a father figure. The third was how broken of a home Lorenzo is growing up in. Dad’s in jail, mom is working all the time and whoops them to keep them in line, 3 brothers from different daddies, and is in the worst school system in Dallas. The final reason was that I had been through a lot with Lorenzo already. He broke my iPod when he tried to unfreeze it by opening it with his teeth, his brother (likely) stole my friend’s camera from her purse, and I had already made a considerable sacrifice of time and money during one of the busiest seasons in my life. But through all that, I loved the little guy no matter what. It gave me tears of joy knowing that no matter how much grief I give the Lord when I screw things up or try to go about life in my own way, He is always there with His arms open saying, “I love you too, Brett.”

Little League Coach (from Summer ’08)

2009-04-08T07:09:00.001-07:00

Some of my most relaxing times this spring / summer have been heading out to the ball field to watch Lorenzo play Little League. What can be better than watching some 9-12 year olds playing baseball on a nice early summer evening in Texas? The first game I watched, I introduced myself to Lorenzo’s coach and he invited me to hang out with him in the dugout. We both played ball back in high school and both had a heart for inner city kids, so we hit it off pretty quickly. The kids warmed up to me and were calling me Coach Brett by the end of the game J To top it off each time Lorenzo went up to bat he would say, “Watch this Coach Brett, I’m going to make you proud!”

It’s amazing the influence Little League ball has on these kids. It makes them feel like they’re apart of something positive and gives them dreams of playing in the big leagues. But there’s something missing, there’s barely any supporters in the stands. Most families in the area are female-headed single parent homes. The moms are usually either working to provide for their kids, taking care of the other kids at home, or just don’t feel like coming after a long day. Luckily, many of the Mercy Street staff are out there cheering their hearts out. We kind of act like an extended family for the kids. Positive influences are desperately needed out there.

Lorenzo’s tough side came out in the one game I wasn’t able to make it to. He had a rough inning pitching (walked 7 straight batters) and got pulled. He started mouthing off to the coaches, then to the league director, had to be brought home, and was told he couldn’t play for the rest of the season because this wasn’t his first outburst. Luckily Jesus’ command to forgive out brothers “7 times 77 times” applies in the Mercy Street League and they are letting him play in the All-Stars later this summer.

After a differennt game, I took Lorenzo to PFOHH’s “All-Night Prayer” PFOHH is Putting Feet On His Heart, a local service project team my friends and I created to get more Young Adults serving in the local community. Once a month on a Friday we fast then get together to pray and worship from 8pm – 2am. On the way, we stopped to get Lorenzo some food after his game. A man approached my car and asked if we could help him out with some gas money. Knowing Lorenzo was watching intently, the old cliché, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ popped into my head (as if it shouldn’t anyway). I had a funny feeling that this guy was actually legit. After thoroughly investigating his situation, I decided to help him out by putting some gas in his car to get him and his brother to Garland. The man told me that he had told his brother that the Lord had told him that he the guy in the red Jeep (me) would help them out and his brother could bet his faith in Jesus on it. While I was filling up the gas, Lorenzo offered to give the man and his brother each one of his tacos! I was so proud of him! After we saw the guys off Lorenzo said, “I know you wouldn’t have helped those men out if you didn’t have Jesus in your heart.”

Diving in Head First at Purtis Creek State Park (from Summer ’08)

2009-04-08T07:07:00.001-07:00

I felt the Lord leading me to spend the day with the Mercy Street kids out at Purtis Creek State Park for their end-of-school retreat in May. The plan was to only get my feet wet and get a better picture of what it will look like to have Mercy Street be my main area of service - but the Lord had plans for me to dive in head first! Carlton, the main staff guy for the high school aged kids, told me he wanted me to meet a kid named Lorenzo. Lorenzo was a 12-year old boy in the 6th grade that just had his mentor move away. He said he’s a tough kid, but he thought that Lorenzo and I would get along real well. Just as those words came out of Carlton’s mouth, Lorenzo walked up from behind us, looked at me, and said in an excited voice, “Hey, will you be my mentor!?!?”

We hit it off that day! We raced other mentors and mentees in canoe races, ate ribs, wrestled around in the water with other kids, and I taught him some different swimming strokes. Just as I was starting to think, “Carlton is right, I really like this kid,” Lorenzo looked up at me, reached his hand out for me to grab it and said, “Come on BV, let’s swim together, like father like son”. As he stretched out his hand to me I could tell he was just dying for a father figure to love him. The Lord had placed me in his life that day for me to be the physical representation of his true Father.

Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20 "Zi Como - Thank You"

2008-07-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Me and Willard

Chonda Day 1

Chonda Day 5

Proclaiming that The LORD! IS! MY! SHEPHERD!

As I am traveling home I am filled with praise, gratitude, anticipation.

I am filled with praise to God for what He has done, is doing, and will do through Camp Life and Family Legacy Missions. The Lord’s hand is definitely on Greer, his family, and the Family Legacy staff – both American and Zambian. Numerous kids have given their lives to Christ through camp this year (10 in my 2 groups!) and literally thousands are going back to their compounds with their assurance of salvation, belief that the Lord is their Shepherd in the midst of their lives, and the power and anointing to fulfill the purpose the Lord has given each one of them. One American, Robert, was charged at while he was in one of the kids’ compounds by a stranger who seemed very emotional. Robert froze as the stranger got right in his face, but the stranger surprisingly said, “Thank you thank you thank you for what you and Camp Life are doing in Zambia. I have never seen our kids come home with so much joy and excitement for our Lord Jesus. Don’t stop. Don’t give up. Keep doing what you are doing and you will change this country forever.”

I am filled with gratitude to everyone who has supported our trip financially and through prayer. This Camp simply could not exist without its supporters like you. A huge heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported my trip, donated pairs of shoes for the kids, and donated money toward the purchase of the fleece jackets. Thank you for the opportunity to see the kids’ joy first hand in receiving their gifts “from the Lord, their Shepherd and Provider”. I hope your spirit was warmed through seeing the pictures and videos of what you supported. Your true reward will be in heaven. Thank you for your acts of obedience and faithfulness.

Finally, I am filled with anticipation for how the Lord will use each one of us in the years to come through this ministry. With the extremely high percentage of return Americans (of which I will be one of next year) and the number of new Americans inspired to go and be a part of this ministry the Camp will continue to grow. Next year, Family Legacy anticipates adding weeks during the (American) spring and fall as they work toward their God-given vision of having 26 weeks of Camp, reaching over 26,000 orphans! Is the Lord stirring in your heart to join us next year?

Each returning American is charged with getting their kids sponsored through Family Legacy’s “Father’s Heart” program, similar to Compassion International. Soon, you will be able to search for my name on the website and choose which of the kids you want to sponsor from my 26 children. From the Family Legacy website:

“The Father's Heart Program is a very simple and efficient way for Family Legacy Missions to provide care for thousands of orphans year round. For your monthly investment of $36, your sponsored child will receive food and clothing assistance, educational opportunities, health and medical services, and daily spiritual discipleship training by our Zambian FLMI staff. After completing the sponsorship process, you can expect to get a copy of the child's data report and a sponsorship guidebook. As a child sponsor, you will receive periodic field updates from your child's discipleship mentor. You will also be given the opportunity to pray for your sponsored child, build a lasting relationship with your child through letters, and have the blessing of knowing your investment is saving and transforming a child's life.”

After experiencing Family Legacy’s work firsthand, I am 100% on board with their mission and leaders. Please consider joining me in sponsoring these children. If you are interested, please email or call me and I will let you know when the search for my kids is made available.

Before the trip the Lord told me to bring over excess money to buy African goods and bring them back to sell for profit and donate the profit toward a good cause, but he didn’t tell me the cause. The Lord revealed the cause to me while I was in Zambia. I am to use the profit to donate toward bring my mentee, Lorenzo, to Zambia next year! I have been mentoring Lorenzo through Mercy Street for a few months now. He’s a 12-year-old inner city kid living in the 11^th poorest neighborhood in America – West Dallas. He’s never been on an airplane before, so imaging when he gets to take his first trip to Africa! The impacts this trip could have on his life are too many to begin to attempt to describe.

Friday, July 18, 2008 – Week 6 Day 5 “I have exorcized the demons!”

2008-07-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

This morning was the Day of Anointing again. The kids would come up one by one and say,

“My name is (Jeff). The Lord I my Shepherd!”

To which I’d reply, “Based on your confession that the Lord is your Shepherd, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, I anoint your head with Oil (Jeff), child of God” then make a cross with the oil on their foreheads.

Last week and in the weeks prior, this proved to be a major spiritual event in the children’s lives as many of the children manifested demons during the anointing. In week 5, one group had each of their first 4 girls fall limp during the anointing and start manifesting demons. When they decided to bring the whole group into a room with intercessory pray-ers, all 17 of them manifested demons and violently shook and screamed on the floor! The intercessory pray-ers realized the demons had spread among the group, so they focused on one girl at a time and once the demons had been exorcized they removed the girls from the room to remove them from the presence of the demons until all 17 girls were set free.

Greer explained that there is a difference between demonic possession and oppession. He said someone with the Holy Spirit in their heart cannot be possessed by a demon because they are possessed by the Holy Spirit, but they can be oppressed for a time. This explains why even though the girls may have accepted Christ as their Savior, they can still manifest demons.

During my anointing time, we’d ask the boys how they feel afterwards. One boy, Jocious, responded that he was hearing voices in his head. I asked my partner if we need to pray to get these demons out. He replied “Yes” and began to pray. After a few minutes of praying he asked Jocious how he felt. He said, “I still feel them in my head and they’re saying, ‘Come out!’” I have never prayed with so much power or belief in my prayers as I did in that moment. I prayed something like,

“By the anointing of Jocious we claimed that the power of the devil, of any evil spirits, of witchdoctors, or anyone intending to do harm to Jocious has been broken in the name of Jesus. Lord Jesus, break the bonds and chains of witchcraft and evil in this child’s life at this moment. The spirits have said, “Come out!” so Lord Jesus we pray that as Jocious opens his mouth (opening his mouth), we command these evil spirits to come out and never gain access into this child’s life. Lord, you are his Shepherd, you will protect him from any future attacks of the devil and evil schemes of man. You will make him lie down in green pastures, you will lead him beside the still waters, and you will restore his soul. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.”

“How do you feel now?”

“They’re gone.”

Tears welled up in my eyes while I prayed for the next boy, because for the first time in years I truly believed in the power of prayer. I was starting to pray like a Zambian with belief in the power of praying for light to conquer the darkness in the name of Jesus. I saw my prayer answered right before my eyes.

Coming into camp I outsmarted my faith in the power of prayer -

“Why should I pray if I believe that God is Sovereign and His Will will be carried out?”

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind." 1 Samuel 15:29

“Why should I pray for the salvation of others, if I believe that God has his “elect” that God “chooses” us, and our salvation only depends on His mercy?”

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. Romans 9:15-16

In my logical mind, every effect must have a cause. Every question must have an answer. But I am reminded that, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” Prayer is either an act of foolishness or faith. It’s either foolishness to talk to air hoping that there is a God out there who hears the prayers and may have the compassion to act or faith that God does hear our prayers and He is waiting to act until we have the faith to ask.

Prayer is faith. It is being sure of what we hope for (God hearing us) and certain of what we do not see (God acting on behalf of our intercessory prayers). (Hebrews 11:1) Without prayer it is impossible to please God and He is waiting with His reward for those who seek him in prayer. (Hebrews 11:6). This was finally starting to re-sink in for the first time since I had faith like a child.

Thursday, July 17, 2008 – Week 6 Day 4 “Matthew 18:3-4 and Isaiah 9:2”

2008-07-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

The boys telling the witchdoctor about becoming a true Child of God

The witchdoctor accepting Jesus Christ with a Psalm 23 bookmark in hand!

The Psalm 23 poster juxtaposed to the former witchdoctor's sign :)

Matthew 18:2-4

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Isaiah 9:2

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

I got to witness the incredible combination of these two verses as kids went back out into their compounds to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their friends, family, and neighbors and let them know that the Lord could be their Shepherd too. This week I had a much better idea of what going into the compounds would look like and the Lord over the last 2 weeks has magnified my confidence and belief in the power of the Holy Spirit. So at lunch time I spoke with confidence to the kids when I told them that we were going to go into the darkest places of their compounds and shine the light of Jesus into them. I told them we were going to go into the witchdoctor’s houses and taverns and tell these people that the Lord could be their Shepherd too. Uncle Greer shared the same message in the large group and really empowered the children to believe that they could push back the darkness in their compounds and shine light into them.

When we got to their compound, we started talking to people we saw, then stopped by one of the boys houses and went through the Evangecube with his family. Afterwards a light bulb came on in one of the boy’s heads and he shouted, “Witchdoctor, that way!” As we began to approach his sectioned of station, the boys started shouting, “The Lord is My Shepherd! The Lord is My Shepherd!” I went in there with no fear until my new Zambian partner, Winnie (we switch Zambian boys and girls so each group will have one male and female for the safety of the girls) carefully inched around the curtain to go into the witchdoctor’s as if she touched it, it would bring evil spirits upon her. This freaked me out a bit because if the Zambian showed fear, should I? There were two men inside, one about 35 with a suit coat and top hat and another older man with sunglasses.

Winnie started out by saying that the kids in the compound fear the witchdoctors, so she wanted him to explain what they do. The guy in the suit coat and hat responded that his grandfather was the head witchdoctor and he was doing his grandfather’s work. He continued that he was a child of God and that he uses his powers to heal people. There were a couple of the kids, Martin and Solay, who emerged as the fearless leaders who responded by saying, “If you’re a true child of God and you want to help people, why don’t you heal people like the doctors do at the hospitals and clinics who do help people” to which the witchdoctor had no reply. Winnie said, “If you’re a true child of God, speak the Word of God. Say “The Lord is My Shepherd” 5 times with your hand raised in the air. He began to mumble the words softly, but wouldn’t say the whole phrase together. The kids started shouting “Louder!” and counted each time he said it, but he wouldn’t say it clearly. The kids said he wasn’t a true child of God and they asked him if he would take down his signs that advertise his business. When he said the wouldn’t they asked him if he would put up their Psalm 23 poster next to his sign. When he said no to that they offered to pay him to do it until finally he conceded. So with a nail and a rock a Psalm 23 poster went up next to the witchdoctor’s sign. As the kids continued to boldly speak to the man in Nyange and explain the Gospel with the Evangecube, I just started to pray, “Lord, soften this man’s heart”. A few moments later, there was commotion as the kids told the man to take a knee, take off his hat to show respect to God, and raise his hand. The kids had led the witchdoctor to want to accept Christ as his Savior and Shepherd! After Martin led him through the sinner’s prayer, they all laid hands on him and prayed for him as they violently shook his head while he was on a knee. The kids were manhandling one of the most feared men in town in the name of Jesus! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Afterwards, the former witchdoctor rose and said (in Nyange), “I am a child of God, I will no longer do this work.”! He also said he wanted to meet our leader (Greer) to see what was going on at our camp. Afterwards I nosily poked my head back into his area and he was sitting on the bench reading through the 23^rd Psalm on the bookmark we gave him!

The walk back to their school was a huge party! We shouted:

“Everywhere we go! (Everywhere we go!)

People want to know. (People want to know.)

Who we are! (Who we are!)

So we tell them. (So we tell them.)

We are mighty soldiers! (We are mighty soldiers!)

Mighty mighty soldiers! (Mighty mighty soldiers!)

Soon about 20-25 neighbor kids had joined out procession and were singing along with us. We felt like we had just conquered the world and apparently the Lord worked through the other groups of kids as well because it was a huge party and singing, chanting, dancing, and praise back at school.

These kids, like children, took to heart the message that was being preach to them and in faith believed that they had the mighty power of the Holy Spirit living inside them to do God’s work and do it with boldness. Their light shined into a place where darkness was known to spread and overcame it. I always wondered what Jesus meant when in John 14:12-14 he says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Now I know.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – Week 6 Day 3 “Typical Schedule”

2008-07-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Preparation for lunch

Teaching the boys to serve the girls at lunch

After 8 years, Camp Life is truly a well-oiled machine. The week or two weeks the Americans spend in Zambia are jam packed and a significant impact is made in the kids’ lives with ripple effects that last the entire next year are made. Here is what a typical day looks like at Camp:

6:15am – Rise, eat breakfast, have a quiet time, prepare for the day

7:15am – buses leave for camp

7:30am – assemble and organize material for the day, talk and pray with my Zambian partner, worship and pray with all Zambian partners and Americans

8:30am – kids arrive, sing worship songs, dance, play games, eat bananas

9:30am – large group time. Greer hammers home a couple phrases from Psalm 23

10:30am – small group time with the me and my Zambian partner making the message more interactive with the kids

11:30am – blessing times. this is where we meet one on one with the kids and find out where they are spiritually and what their life at home is like

12:30pm – lunch with the kids asking questions about my life at home and personal story of grace

1:30pm – 2^nd large group

2:30pm – 2^nd small group and blessing times

4:00pm – kids load the buses, my Zambian partner discuss the day, pray, then meet up with all Americans and Zambian partners for an incredible time of worship and prayer

5:00pm – buses leave for Mulungushi Village

5:30pm – shower and relax

6:30pm – dinner and share mind blowing stories from the day, drink a coke

8:00pm – prepare crafts and materials for the next day

9:00pm – work on child data forms, make peanut butter and jellies for next day

10:00pm – cabin reflection and prayer time

10:30pm – socialize or sleep

My favorite part of the day is the worship and prayer time with the American and Zambian partners after a day of camp is done. It’s about as close to heaven as I have experienced here on Earth. After a day of serving children, whom Jesus said the kingdom of heaven belongs to, we worship with “every nation” and in “every tongue” with the warm African sun shining down on us and the love and Great Commission of Christ as our unifying bond among the brothers and sisters in Christ. We repeat in song words or phrases over and over for 10-15 minutes straight in Nyange with people singing on the outside and those that want to dance in the middle. By repeating songs translated “God is so good it blows my mind” over and over and getting into it with the dance moves you just start to lose yourself in worship and the sound is beautiful. Afterwards one of the Zambians begins to pray powerfully and everyone follows suit. It’s an incredible experience to hear about 300 passionate believers fervently thanking and praising God for the work He has done that day, giving Him all the glory, and petitioning Him to reveal Himself to these kids the next day. You feel like the Earth is shaking from the power as if we had just experienced Acts 4:31.

Revelation 5:13

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever.”

Revelation 14:6-7

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Side note: James Mumba (12), the kid who asked how to receive Jesus after I shared my testimony yesterday, received the free gift of salvation today during Blessing Time!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 – Week 6 Day 2 “Demons and Sharing My Testimony"

2008-07-26T12:46:00.002-07:00

Teaching the boys to serve the girls as Christ serves the church

Leading by example

Today was a jampacked day with 6 Blessing Times, the normal large group and small group sessions, coloring, and pictures or “snaps”. During the coloring time in the main gym, one Zambian girl started weeping during her blessing time, then fell to the ground and started flailing and screaming out in horrific pain because of demonic possession. This went on for about 45-minutes as the intercessory pray-ers would yell for her to open her mouth and say the name of Jesus as they commanded the spirits out her. While this would cause quite the commotion back in America, you could hear the other kids coloring quietly whisper “demons” as they continued on with their coloring.

The best explanation of this demonic possession put like this: Greer said while we were eating supper and the Dinner Hall, “There are voices in this room, but you cannot hear them. However, if you were to turn a radio on and turn it to the correct frequency, you could hear them clear as day. There are images in this room, but you cannot see them. But, if you were to turn on a TV and put it on the right channel you could see them. There are spirits in this world – human, angelic, and demonic we need only to tune in to the spiritual frequency to experience them.”

During lunch, one kid asked how I received Jesus and what led me to do God’s work in Zambia. Explaining that pretty much wraps up the short version of my testimony, so I just went into it. I explained that there are 2 kinds of decisions you have to make in your faith. The first is the Big D Decision to ask Christ to send his Spirit into your heart to be your Lord and Savior, which secures your salvation. I told the kids I made this decision once I saw that Christians were filled with joy and purpose in life and I wanted that. The second decision is the little d decision to take up your cross and follow Christ daily. For about 8-10 years in high school and college I wasn’t making this decision. I was choosing to live selfishly and chase the things that I thought would bring me joy and purpose, but in the end left me feeling empty. So when I was 22, I made a decision to rededicate my life to Christ and make those little d decisions to take up my cross and follow Christ daily. I explained that as I have been making the little d decision I have been reading my Bible more, praying more, and looking to God for direction in my life. Through that I felt him lead me to Zambia to share my faith, joy and purpose with you kids here in Zambia. Since I made that decision to rededicate my life to Christ when I was 22, I have never been so full of joy and purpose and it is for that reason that I am sitting among you today.” The next question that was asked was by one of the boys was, “How do I receive your Jesus into my heart?” Praise God!

Monday, July 14, 2008 – Week 6 Day 1 “Here We Go Again”

2008-07-26T12:46:00.001-07:00

I was nervous coming into week 6 because I had such a perfect group of an evangelist, apostle, and kids in week 5. But once I met my evangelist and apostle for week 6, I had confidence that we could handle any group. I have 16 11-14 year old boys from Garden Hill school in Zambia. 12 is the ideal group size and 16 is pretty overwhelming. It will be challenging to work in 16 – 45 minute Blessing times with the kids over the next 4 days.

I miss the cuddle-i-ness of the younger boys, but am looking forward to having more in depth conversations with the boys. During lunch I asked them if they had any questions for me. Once one kid broke the ice, they were very inquisitive about my family, my work, where I lived in America and I shared a brief part of my testimony. During Blessing Times 1 of my 3 kids, Benjamin Mafuta (11) accepted Christ once we explained the Gospel to him using the Evangecube; the other two boys accepted Christ previously through their church.

Saturday and Sunday – July 12-13 “Zambia Culture”

2008-07-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Local kids in the compound...so full of joy!

I can still appreciate Oscar when I see him :)

Watermarkers in Zambia!

Boys from the cabin

Who wants to be a Zambian Millionnaire!

Vernon and me

The kids here, for the most part, are angels. They are very courteous, extremely patient, obedient to the “t”, and they play as if it’s their job. You will rarely see an ounce of jealousy. No complaining over who gets what, or who’s the first in line, or acting out if they’re bored. There literally is a night and day difference between American and Zambian children.

It is said here that Satan is just as active in America he’s just more discrete. The fast-paced, consumer, competitive rat race of America is polar opposite to the slow-paced, community focused, help your neighbor life in Zambia and the evidence is seen in the children. In my time with the kids in West Dallas, I have already dealt with stealing on multiple occasions, blatant arrogance, constant complaining over who gets what, and numerous requests to by the kids stuff or give them money. Here in Zambia, kids jump at the chance to lend a helping hand and go ecstatic over receiving a pencil!

One of the first sins mentioned when asked of the kids here in Zambia is insulting. It’s no wonder that no matter how you pair these kids together in their groups they all just get along and play. Over in America, if Billy doesn’t get along with Bobby special considerations have to be made or else all hell will break loose. The roots of selfishness and pride are almost removed when material possessions are removed.

Saturday was a free day (until dinner) for the 2^nd-weekers while the week 5ers were departing and the new week 6ers arriving. I was able to get laundry done after removing 50-75 dead bees from the washer. There was a bee hive that broke out that a few American boys killed hundreds of bees with slingshots and walnuts ( or so I’m told :) ). After that we got lunch at the local shopping center, got on the internet for about 15 minutes, then went to the local markets. Afterwards about 15 Americans and Zambians got together to play football (soccer) in our village we stay in. Breathing at 4,000 feet was challenging, but we had a blast playing together.

Zambians are your best friends from the second you met them. You feel free to be yourself. They are very animate and almost always smiling. You can literally see the joy they have in their spirit. The time spent with them is often spent joking, laughing, and talking about how good God is. One hurdle you have to get over, is that it is common for men to hold hands and show their brotherly love toward one another without any respect for American’s “personal space”. I have had plenty of conversations with another Zambian guy hand-in-hand and within our typical “comfort zone”. The fellowship is worth it and it is actually very refreshing.

On Sunday, I met my next Zambian evangelist, Vernon, and apostle, Gordon, for week 6. Vernon is a double orphan who lost both parents when he was young. He is the 2^nd person I have ever met that the Lord spoke directly to about his need for a personal need for Jesus being his Savior. No one told him about salvation through Jesus, he said he heard a voice in his spirit in 6^th grade that he needed Jesus. He then started going to church and eventually teaching Sunday school. He now is working at Camp Life because he can relate to what the orphans are going through and wants to share his personal testimony that the Lord was his Shepherd, his Provider, and Protector. His dream the Lord has given him is to run an orphanage. Who knows, maybe in the future he will be an integral piece to the Family Legacy mission.

Friday, July 11, 2008 – Week 5 Day 5 “Anointing and Gift Day”

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Jeff after receiving his jacket

me being anointed by Steve

the cutest boy in my group - Emmanuel

Sugzio's big smile :)

Chonda sportin his new coat

Psalm 23:5 says “you (God) anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows”. We got the opportunity to anoint each of our kids foreheads with oil, similar to what they would have used in Biblical times. This was represented a profession of faith that the Lord is their Shepherd and that each one of them individually were selected and chosen by God for a special purpose. We also placed the oil on the kids’ marks of witchcraft binding and closing them so that they will no longer have power.

In the afternoon, we got to overflow their cup with gifts. Uncle Greer started with the smallest gifts, but you wouldn’t have known it by their reaction. It was like 1,000 kids just won the lottery when they were told that they would be receiving a pencil! It kept getting better and better and they were told they’d receive Psalm 23 bookmarks, a cup (they went crazy over a plastic cup!), 2 bags (1 for them, one to give away), and finally the green fleece “The Lord is My Shepherd” jackets. Uncle Greer ordered in our Zambia workers this week because in the two previous weeks he got completely bum rushed by the kids! It was complete pandemonium for quite a while with many Americans having tears in their eyes as they witnessed true gratitude. You can check out the video (and hundreds of other people’s) on YouTube from this unbelievable experience.

Many went from an extreme high to an extreme low as soon after it came time to say goodbye to the kids. Some kids were still euphoric from the kids, but many started to cry as their favorite week of the year was over. Some would say, “Don’t leave me. Don’t make me go back to my home.” The Lord is their Shepherd. He will provide for and protect them. They shall not want. The proof is in the numerous stories and written on their hearts when they return to camp next year.

Thursday, July 10, 2008 – Week 5 Day 4 “Shoe Day and Village Evangelism”

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In the morning the kids got to see how good God is by receiving a brand new pair of shoes donated by thousands of Americans back in the states. I had the privilege of putting the shoes on my kids. Some of my kids had holes in their shoes, some feet were bursting out at the seams, and some rarely wore their shoes at camp. But they all left with brand new shoes. While we were putting them on they had the hugest brightest smiles on their faces. It was hard to keep some of them still because they were dancing :). The kids spirits were picked up for the rest of the day. Thank you to everyone who donated a pair of shoes to this joyous day!

Chonda was a new person today! Instead of sitting on the steps while the other kids sang and danced he wanted to be up by me leading the kids in the hand motions and words. So I let him stand behind me to my side. When I looked back to see how he was doing, this 11-year-old boy had gone up on stage and was leading the entire gym full of people! I let him stay – I was glad to see him happy. Uncle Greer (leader of Camp Life) was on stage and he didn’t know it was Chonda, the kid I had shared the prayer request for last night. Normally he would tell the kid to get off stage, so the other kids wouldn’t want to join him. But the Lord spoke to him and said, “Let this one go. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He’s leading his people. So Uncle Greer let Chonda stay on stage for a couple minutes until other kids decided to try their luck on stage and go shooed off. Praise God for the answered prayers of the camp volunteers who prayed for Chonda last night and today.

I finished my Blessing Times this morning. 6 of my 12 kids accepted Jesus Christ into their heart as their personal Lord, Savior and Shepherd! Emmanuel Banda (8), Abraham Sakala (10), Emmanuel Mvula (10), Willard Phiri (11), and Sugzio Mtomga (10), and Charles Galufu (11) are all now children of God by their acceptance of the free gift of grace through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! The other 6 boys had already accepted Christ at a previous Camp Life or through their family or church.

In the afternoon we loaded the buses and took the kids back to their compounds (villages) to evangelize to their friends and neighbors. These kids show no fear! The kids stuck out because of their new shoes, “The Lord is My Shepherd” t-shirts, and bandanas. They looked so good! They would go up to strangers and tell them they would want to share Jesus with them. They would pull out the Evangecube and take their neighbors through the entire Gospel story at age 10-11. We stopped at some businesses and shared the Gospel with them. Everyone was very receptive and their sincerely appreciated us praying for their business. One group had 9 people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through these kids!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 – Week 1 Day 3 "Stories from Zambia"

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Chonda on Day 1

Praying with Chonda

Week 1 boys with Brandy

There were some unbelievable stories shared last night at dinner. A 15-year-old American named Graham prayed that God would wake him up if a witchdoctor would walk into one of his child’s rooms so that he could pray for them. God gave him specific person to pray for right before he went to bed, a different kid at 1:00am, another at 3:00am, and another at 4:30am. 4 in one night! He also prayed that God would send the demons to him because He knew that God was in his house. He had a vision / dream in the night of black streaks coming straight at his chest and splitting in two right as they were about to enter him. The next day he had each of those 4 kids he woke up and prayed for in his blessing times. He asked each one if anything happened last night and each one said that a witchdoctor came into their room at night but they saw either a white light or an angel that protected them. He said, “I even asked them what time it happened just for kicks – beginning of the night, middle or end – and they all lined up.” With full confidence he said, “I knew it would.” Wow, what incredible faith!

Another girl shared about a Zambian girl named Memory. She is 17 now and her birthmom introduced her to Christ when she was 7, but died the next year. Her dad remarried and she not has 5 step-siblings. Monday morning, the first day of camp, her step-mom told her to go to a far away village to get some chickens. Memory said, “I don’t mean to show you disrespect, but I’m going to Camp Life today.” Her step-mom replied, “you wait till you get home to see what happens to you”. When she got home her dad said she was trouble, her Jesus is trouble for the family and doesn’t want her in the family if she continues to follow Jesus to which Memory responded, “I choose Jesus.” Her step-mom to her step-siblings not to acknowledge her and told Memory to go to her dead mother for money to go to school and proceeded to burn her books and school clothes in front of her face. Memory said she didn’t talk back because she said Jesus wouldn’t do that and she didn’t cry because she knew Jesus was her shepherd. She just said, “I don’t mean to show you disrespect, but I choose Jesus and I am going to camp tomorrow.”

We absolutely drill into the kids’ heads that the Lord is their Shepherd and the power of speaking that when evil is attacking them. When the kids march from one activity to the next we yell “One. Two.” and the kids yell, “The Lord is my Shepherd”. “One. Two.” “The Lord is my Shepherd.” In small group, we do hand motions with, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He restores my soul.” In singing time before our group sessions, we sing the 23rd Psalm that sticks in your head like no other. In group time, we do skits with evil attacking the orphans after their parents die, or after their uncle rapes one of the girls, or their friends tempting them to join them in their sins, and the kid in the skit shouts, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” and the darkness flees in fear. One kid this week, on his way home was walking down a road where two men were jumping someone else and he had to pass through. So what else does the kid do but look straight at them and yell, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” and walk straight through without being touched J

After we heard these incredible stories Greer said, “Either start believing in what the Bible says about spiritual warfare and the power of speaking Scripture or go home! This isn’t America anymore. This is Zambia and there is a reason why Africa is called the Dark Continent.”

There is an incredibly powerful song we sing called “Freedom”. It starts out, “I cry freedom from the chains that bind our children…” and for the first couple minutes we go down the line and pray over each of our children. For some reason, the truth and power of this song provokes intense spiritual warfare. Many kids who are possessed by evil spirits or demons react and either fall limp and lifeless or start shaking on the ground. One of my boys, Jeff, fell down during the music holding his stomach. Alex, the apostle, and I quickly rushed toward him (me, still in my ignorance thinking he is sick with a stomach ache). Alex tried helping Jeff up, but he was lifeless, so Alex through him over his shoulder and rushed him over to a room where they do intercessory prayer. For the entire group session and skit everyone could hear screams and pounding could be heard of the pastors and intercessors praying over Jeff to extract the evil spirits. After the group session Sangu and I took Jeff and had a Blessing Time with him. He looked exhausted and barely had life in him. Sangu asked him how he was doing and Jeff said he was still feeling pain in his leg. Sangu could tell he was still possessed, so he asked Jeff what he was seeing. Jeff said he saw many large men standing in front of him with dogs who were attacking him, cutting him to pieces, and the men were putting these pieces into plastic bags and throwing them into a pit. Sangu prayed with incredible intensity for the power of Christ and the blood of Jesus to wash over Jeff and push back the darkness of the demons possessing him. After about 5 minutes of prayer Sangu asked Jeff if he was still feeling pain. Jeff said it had moved into his stomach. Sangu said, “OK. So we pray again” and proceeds to go nuts again with incredible power, intensity, and authority. After another 5 minutes, the evil spirits were extracted and Sangu said, “OK. We can ask him questions now” just as if it were any other day in the office. Jeff returned back to normal as the say went on, but I will be forever changed.

Finally, a prayer request. I have a boy named Chonda in my group. He is the only one that isn’t a joyful little angel. He isolates himself from the group and rarely has a smile on his face. He has lost both of his parents in the last year. He lives with his uncle who beats him and is never around. He doesn’t have any other siblings, so he is often alone. Other kids pick on him for not having any parents (common here). When I asked Chonda if he thinks Jesus loves him, he said “yes”. When I asked him is he thinks anyone here on earth loves him, he said “no.” I asked him if he thought Sangu and I love him, he said “yes”. I fear that he thinks he will only experience our love for this week and he will go back home without anyone to care for him. His uncle that he stays with told him that his grandfather is a very evil witchdoctor and killed his parents and older brother and Chonda fears that he’s next. Chonda’s grandfather uses Chonda as a pillow (some form of witchcraft). To top it all off, when Chonda was peeing recently a worm traveled up his bloodstream and he is now peeing and pooping blood. Chonda left camp today to go to the clinic and will return tomorrow. This morning as all the other kids were playing, singing, and dancing, Chonda was sitting by himself with a stoic face. Someone the night prior reminded us about Jesus leaving 99 sheep to find the 1 lost, so I went over to have Chonda sat on my lap and I prayed over him and hugged and repeated that I love him “Nikukonda” and Jesus loves him, “Jesu akukonda.” Through all of this, Chonda wants to grow up to be a pastor! Please pray that Chonda feels Christ’s love for Him, that that will be all he needs in this life, that God will raise up a caretaker for Chonda, and that God will raise Chonda up to be a pastor.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 – Week 1 Day 2 Witchcraft

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We have what are called “Blessing Times” or one-on-one times with each of the kids throughout the week. They take about a half hour each and our goal is to find out more about the kids lives at home. We find out who they are living with, their economic condition, their physical / medical needs, educational issues, and finally their spiritual issues and nightmares. Having a category specifically for nightmares struck as odd at first, but once we started asking about them, many of them had them. I will explain in a roundabout way in the following paragraphs, so bear with me.

I came to camp with no exposure to the physical manifestation of spiritual warfare or knowledge of what still goes on around the world. I am learning that most of it is done in the darkness or nighttime by witchdoctors and diviners. The people here believe that witchdoctors actually come from God and help heal them of their ailments or disabilities, but in reality they are tools of the devil.

There is power in a blood covenant. When Jesus gave communion at the last supper, He said, “This is the blood of my covenant…” and in Hebrews 9, it says, “He (Jesus) did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most High Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” Earlier it says the high priest never entered the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle without blood. Throughout the Bible there is significance in the power of blood. The reason I say all of this is because there is another blood covenant with the devil that the witchdoctors use. The witchdoctors cut the skin of their “patients” and insert either herbs or charms into their bloodstream then seal the incision, which scars and is called a “tattoo”. These tattoos combined with the prayers of the witchdoctors are how the evil spirits and demons enter into the bloodstream of the kids.

The witchdoctors come into the kids rooms at night and are able to put the kids into a trance or some sort of hypnosis where they are able to do their deeds of darkness. Another way the witchdoctors get evil spirits into the children is through meat. Meat is another topic in the Bible that doesn’t seem to have much application in America, unless your involved in animal rights or vegetarian. But remember the verses about not eating red meat, or meat with blood in it? Nice meat is a rarity over here, so when a kid is hypnotized while sleeping and smells meat, he or she gets excited and starts eating it. This is another way the witchdoctors get the evil spirits into a child. The final “popular” method of witchcraft is praying demonic prayers while choking the child.

All of this is to explain why nightmares have their own category for our Blessing Times. All of my kids have had nightmares, most of them are people choking them, people trying to feed them meat, and people chasing them and trying to kill them. The majority of my kids have tattoos and one boy has little charms (spiritual rocks) inserted in his temple. When the kids have these tattoos or charms evil spirits enter their bodies. The witchdoctors know when the kids are at Camp Life and in many cases the witchdoctor of the village are the kids’ grandmother or grandfather. While the caretakers may allow the kids to go to Camp Life, the witchdoctors know the power of Camp Life and do their witchcraft to reverse or hinder the kids’ potential faith in Jesus or their growth in their faith. This is why it is a daily occurrence that demons and evil spirits are extracted from the kids. I’ll share about my first-hand experience with this in tomorrow’s entry.

While this is the potential evil that is out there, many of the returning kids to Camp Life say they haven’t had nightmares since they left last year! I asked a kid named Chonda if he has nightmares and he said, “I must pray before I go to bed or else I will have nightmares. When I pray, I don’t have nightmares.”

On a much much lighter side, the kids are incredibly well behaved and cuddly angels! My boys just sit there and listen and smile when we have small group and they sing and dance their little hearts out when it’s time for worship. If there is a lull, they just sit there patiently or joke quietly. They love touch and hugs, especially because they don’t get it at home. They especially love my hairy arms! The Zambians don’t have arm or leg hair genetically because of the heat here, so they are intrigued by it and love to touch it. I have walked up to a line of kids I didn’t know and they all shyly stick their hands out with a smile and just pet me…every one of’em!

Monday, July 7, 2008 – Week 5 Day 1 War, Power and Belief

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Witchcraft, demons, nightmares, rape, abuse, HIV/AIDS, child labor, abandonment, alcoholism, beads, tattoos, witchdoctors, chains.

Peace, love, joy, redemption, restoration, power, the Word, Shepherd, the Cross, freedom,

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 has absolutely come alive over here in Zambia. The words above are in constant battle with one another. Until the people over here
hear
understand
believe
speak
the Word of truth, the first list wins.

Greer said this wouldn’t be VBS, we are going into war in the spiritual realm. I’ve heard that before but have never seen it like this. Witchcraft, evil, and demonic possession is everywhere here. Many kids have already had demons extracted from them by our group of volunteers, the Zambian partners, and local pastors. You can tell these kids have demons when they can say everything in a phrase but the name of Jesus or during certain songs they fall to the ground limp.

Power and believing. The Zambians believe. They believe in God’s supernatural power manifested in them through the Holy Spirit and they believe that the devil actually exists and is out there doing everything he can to seek, kill and destroy. They believe that they are on the front lines of a war and it is up to them. I don’t believe like this.

I have never seen such intensity in prayer. Sangu’s face completely contorts when he prays. He prays with the authority of the divine. He prays as if God is actually listening. He prays as if angels are right there waiting to take action to push back the darkness and evil prevalent in these kids lives. He uses the power of quoting Scripture while he prays throughout its entirety. I mean, he even quoted a verse from Deuteronomy…who does that?!?!

Sunday, July 6, 2008 - Lusaka

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The day started off with a Zambian led church service. The Zambians worship with their whole bodies! We were signing and dancing with their whole bodies. We yelled the loudest “Amen” after Uncle Teddy finished bringing the Word. The message was on Exodus 3, where God tells Moses he is the right man for the job despite his doubts. Uncle Teddy said that of the 300 million Americans God has chosen the 107 of us for this week to do His work in Zambia. Uncle Teddy was an alcoholic 9 years ago and is now leading the discipleship of 10,000 orphans through the Father’s Heart program. He asked us to believe that in 9 years the kids that we are leading this week will be doing the same thing. We only had a short time to have lunch and check out the markets before we headed back to camp.

At camp we met our Zambian partner (called an evangelist) – a co-leader and our apostle – an evangelist in training. My evangelist’s name is Sangu, which is short for something I couldn’t pronounce (Sangulukani Muwowo). My apostle’s name is Alex. They are both around the age of 30, which is older than the average Zambian assistant.

Sangu was also heavy into drinking and smoking pot before a friend told him about the salvation that is available by Jesus Christ. His main area of service is really cool. Many children in Zambia are born with defects. Many of these defects are blamed on witchcraft and the mother unknowingly takes the child to the witchdoctor to have them “fixed”. However, the witchdoctor is a tool of the devil that prays curses on these children. Sangu and his partners intercept these mothers and share the Gospel – the saving and healing power of Christ – for them and their child.

A couple of disturbing stories we heard today – one from Zambia, one from America. A Zambian kid came here in week 4 with stubs for hands. His grandfather was the witchdoctor for their town and the custom is to sacrifice the favorite child to the devil in a pit of fire. This boy hands were burnt off from the fire, but managed to somehow escape. He is now being cared for by Family Legacy and is an inspiration to everyone here as he claps his arms and praises God with the rest of the kids.

We also found out that a 20 and 21-year old boyfriend / girlfriend couple that were supposed to attend camp in Week 6 were in a fatal car accident back home. After a week in the hospital, the girl passed away. Her parents (nonbelievers) asked 2 of her lifelong friends to take their place and are on their way now to Zambia. Please pray for the boyfriend (driver of the car), both of their families, and their friends as they are here in Zambia.

On a more positive note, the songs we sing here at camp are incredible! It has become my favorite form or worship, acting like a kid, singing at the top of my lungs, and dancing freely as if I didn’t have a care in the world. Even cooler, there will be around 1,500 Zambians and Americans doing it all together tomorrow under one roof!

Saturday, July 5, 2008 Vic Falls to Lusaka

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The Zambian “highway” should be termed “avoid the pothole free for all!” Frequently the bus driver will swerve all the way from one side to the other to avoid the 1 lane x 4 foot x 1 foot deep potholes or drive for a good mile on the shoulder. When vehicles are coming at each other it really is a free for all. There isn’t a correct side of the road, the bigger vehicle usually has the right-of-way. There was one point when we were headed directly at a truck on the left shoulder, bus in the middle and truck on the right shoulder! We saw the aftermath of a recent 5 vehicle (2 truck, 2 bus, 1 car – all flipped multiple times and completely destroyed) accident.

After the 7-hour bus ride we stopped at a local shopping center, had lunch, then arrived at the Mulungushi Village. Within 5 minutes the cabin was silent. After our power naps, we unpacked, ate dinner, socialized then went back to bed.

The African Wild – Friday, July 4, 2008 (Happy 4th everyone!)

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Again, words cannot describe our day in Botswana on the Chobe National Park Safari so check out the pics and vids. We saw TONS of elephants, some swimming across the river (who knew?), lion, giraffe, hippos, kulus, impalas, warthogs (Pumba!) It got pretty intense when the massive elephant was 4 feet from our Jeep and shook it big ol’ trunk at us!

We finished off the day with a great buffet dinner, then up at 4:15am to catch the bus back to Lusaka. :( and :)

Sorry Momma, I got too close to the edge! (Victoria Falls)

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Words can’t describe what 12 of us experienced at what is innocently called “High Tea”. It’s innocently called High Tea only because of the time of day we went – in the late afternoon. It is high and we did have “tea” after the main event, but it should be called, “Holy crap, I’m 2 feet away from falling down Victoria Falls with nothing but a guides hand holding me back!”

Thursday, July 3, 2008 Victoria Falls

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I was very conflicted about how I wanted to spend my time and money on our free day. It felt very weird to think about spending a lot of money on myself when the most extreme poverty I will have witnessed to date awaits me the following week. I also knew I needed to continue to spend time with the Lord preparing me for the following 2 weeks, so I decided to hang out by the pool and read for a couple of hours. One of my highlights was when a pool waiter taught me how to say many phrases in the local Zambian language that will come in handy at the orphanage camp:

Hello or How are you? Muli-bwanji
I am good. Neli Bueeno
Goodbye Nayenda
You are beautiful (little girl) Ndiwe wa munsha
You are looking good (boy or girl) Waboneke munsha
God loves you Mulungu akukonda
I pray to God Nepempela Kulimulungu
Heaven Kuwamba
You are going to heaven to be Uyenda kuwamba kulimungu
with God
Peace Mutendele

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 - Victroria Falls

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After sleeping for 14 hours, I watched some people do the Gorge Swing and Zip Line. A few of us got our first glimpse at the magnificent Victoira Falls. Even though it is perfectly sunny outside, you get completely drenched with a rain slicker on. 90 million liters per second fall into a steep slot canyon causing a violent updraft that shoots back up the entire heighth of the canyon, then falls back down on the viewing areas as a literal drenching rain! In the evening we had a sunset cruise on the Zambizi River, where we saw hippos yawning their big mouths in the water and elephants by the shore.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

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Combining my chronic back pain with my inability to sleep on flights, I decided to pull an all-nighter on the red-eye to Lusaka. Meaning by the time I caught a little shut-eye on the 7-hour bus ride to Victoria Falls I had slept 2 hours in the last 65! A cold 42 degrees in shorts and a t-shirt and the adrenaline of stepping foot off the plane for the first time in Africa kept me going. I am still missing one bag of primarily ministry supplies that I am hoping will get to Lusaka by the time I return from Victoria Falls.

The bus ride to Victoria Falls was a good taste of local culture. It was a packed public transport, similar to Greyhound, and we were the only 5 white people on there. The Zambians were very friendly and always return a warm smile. One of the girls slept on the shoulder of a Zambian guy sitting next to her! All of us dozed in and out the whole way, so we didn’t get a good chance to talk to any of the locals.

We were blown away when we arrived at our accommodations. We are staying the next 4 nights at a pretty swank resort in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary with zebras, giraffes, monkeys, and baboons and within walking distance to one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World!

Monday, June 30, 2008 - London

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After a miserable two hours of plane sleep on the red-eye from Dallas to London, someone in our group planned the perfect activity for our group to wake us up during our 12 hour layover in London. We went on a bike tour with “Fat Tire Bike Co.” through Central London on a beautiful sunny summer day. After a 45 minute ride on the London Underground, we met David our knowledgeable, Christian, native Texan tour guide. He took 18 of us by Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Imperial War Rooms, through the Royal Parks, and had a picnic lunch in Trafalger Square. It was quite an adventure riding on the left side of the road, as we went through the “Class V rapids” of the Trafalger Square roundabout. David wouldn’t accept any gratuities and even gave us a discounted rate, saying it was his contribution to our trip to Zambia and we should use the money to buy the Zambian kids some candy. J We ended our free time with a stop at a local English Pub. Stresses rose when we found out the trains back to the airport were “significantly delayed” due to a fire at one of the stations on the way back. The trip to the airport was slow and steady, but we made it with some time to spare.

On the red-eye from London to Lusaka I began reading “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. In the 1st chapter, Tozer says,

“The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart…we know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.”

This statement pretty accurately describes my relationship with the Lord leading up to this trip. The theme of this year’s trip is “peace” based on the 23rd Psalm. In stark contrast, peaceful would be the last word used to describe my life lately. How am I supposed to model the peace described in the first line of Psalm 23, “The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall not be in want”? I repeated quietly to myself probably 50-100 times, “The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall not be in want”? and continued to meditate on the 23rd Psalm. How powerful! Peace. I could feel the presence of the Lord at that moment and it sparked the passion in my heart to see the Zambian children to experience the peace that I have found through a saving and active faith in my Lord Jesus Christ.

Please join with me in praying that the Zambia orphans will experience the transcendent peace offered to them, even through the abominable living conditions and family situations they are currently in.

Prayer Requests for Zambia

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Please pray for the following while I am in Zambia:

maintain my personal time with the Lord – I am powerless without it
the orphans will come to know Jesus as their Lord, Savior, and Shepherd
the orphans will develop a deep unwavering faith that will persevere through their upcoming trials
the orphans will fall so deeply in love with Christ that they can’t help but to proclaim the good news to their friends and family back home

Thanks everyone!

James 5:16b - The prayer of a righteous man IS powerful and effective.

It's Finally Here!!!

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After over a year of dreaming, planning, fundraising and packing...It's Finally Here! I'm less than 24 hours away from leaving Dallas for 3 weeks and I'm not really sure how I feel. Here's a sample from my brain:

Excited - "I'm so jazzed that I finally get to combine my two greatest passions - the poor and kids - overseas!"

Tuckered Out - "I'm completely exhausted. This has been the most stressful week of my life. Catching up on work after traveling for two weeks, getting ahead so I can leave for three, I bought my first house!!!, spending time with my mentee after tragedy struck his family, and finally preparing to leave the country for 3 weeks and being encouraged to use all of my 260 lb luggage allotment!

Grateful - "I'm blown away at the generosity of my family, friends and coworkers who helped make this trip possible for me! I'm also thankful for the flexibility of my employer to allow me to take off 3 weeks."

Anxious - "From what I hear from friends that have returned from the first few weeks, there is a ton of spiritual warfare going on over there from witchcraft to demon possession. I'm scared that the Lord will completely break my heart from the stories of pain and suffering I will hear from the kids. I'm nervous that I'll get along with my group of kids, that God will use me to convince them that GOD IS THEIR SHEPHARD!"

Spiritually Dry - "The busyness of these past few weeks has choked out my time with the Lord. I can't wait to sit on the plane and read and pray and hang out by Victoria Falls for a week relaxing."

Awe - "I'm about to see God's majesty through one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world and His creativity through the animals He created on a Safari."

Honored - "I'm going to be surrounded by an incredibly passionate group of believers / missionaries."

Find Your Own Calcutta

2008-06-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

"Stay where you are - find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, the lonely right where you are - in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and schools." - Mother Theresa

I feel like I have found my Calcutta - in West Dallas. It's been a long time coming. Looking back, I can see how God has used certain times in my life to bring me here.

I have always had a heart for the poor. The farthest back I can remember is being in Washington D.C when I was about 5 years old and seeing an inanimate homeless man curled up sleeping under a stoop. I asked my dad, "Why does he have to sleep outside like that and I get to sleep in my bed?" That question has haunted me for the rest of my life.

In 6th grade we had to give a 10 minute speech on a topic of our choosing. Other kids chose their favorite vacation, their dog, their favorite sport - I chose homelessness. I did a TON of research, created an outline, put the key points on notecards and let'er rip. I got pretty fired up and after 10 minutes of emotional appeal and realing off stats, my classmates stood up to give me a standing O - the only one in the class.

In high school and college, I lost that childhood innocence and passion to change the world for the better and starting living for myself. My goals in life were to have the craziest stories, make lots of money, raise a "successful" family, and retire traveling the world. My passion for the poor didn't die, it was just suppressed. I knew of a homeless shelter I could volunteer at on Thursday nights near Purdue, but I chose to party instead and never went once to check it out. Drink after drink and excuse after excuse, I graduated college knowing that I had wasted most of it on myself.

When I got to Dallas 3 years ago I was ready for a change, a new start, another chance to actually live out my professed faith in Jesus. After 3 months it came. I was introduced to Watermark by my boss at work. I saw a promo for The Porch in the Watermark News and decided to check that out. There I heard about Union Gospel Mission (UGM); a place where a bunch of Young Adults were serving at twice a month.

I showed up to UGM knowing no one. Little did I know, the next person I met would become my best friend.

"Hey man, my name is Jason, is this your first time here?"

"Hey, my name is Brett. Uh, yeah."

"Where ya from?"

"Indiana. I just graduated from Purdue"

"No way! I'm from Indiana too! I went to IU though. We're about to go play some worship music for the guys. Why don't you run the slides?"

I looked out at 150 homeless men of all shapes, sizes, colors, sobriety levels and scents. Some were sleeping, some were singing "Amazing Grace" like they were standing before Jesus Himself. Owning nothing, but possessing everything. The sick, the suffering, the lonely - right where I was.

Jason invited me to be in his community group the following week. We continued serving there for the next 2 years together. Every other week it was my perspective check. When the enticement of temporary worldly pleasures crept in, UGM brought me back to the only two things that last forever - God and souls.

During that time I went on a week-long mission trip to the Amazon River in Brazil. I wasn't a doctor, dentist, or woman so I had to choose between being on the sports and childrens' teams. I liked sports, so I chose sports. But, the first night there, I loved children! The kids there knew how to play. No fussing and fighting over who gets the controller next, who has the cooler toys, or who is better at this sport or that. The kids just played. Throwing a bottlecap up in the air and chasing it, singing songs, dancing, playing soccer. Again owning nothing, but possessing the greatest joy I've ever seen.

When I got back to Watermark, I immediately started teaching Sunday School to 4 and 5 year olds. I could be a kid again and call it service! While these kids weren't the same as the Brazilian children, they still had the innocence and lack of inhibitions that made me feel alive.

Over the next year, my work and church commitments increased and I felt the need to somehow simplify. I also felt the desire to find one passion and give everything to it. But I had two passions - the poor and kids. Enter Mercy Street.