"Beyond Our Borders" Providence Event in Sacramento - September 30

The second annual "Beyond Our Borders Dinner & Silent Auction" is coming up soon!  In 2011 for the first time in the Sacramento area Providence World Ministries held a fundraising dinner and auction.  The inaugural event was a terrific evening of food, fun and live music - and was a great success, raising over $10,000 to support Providence.  The team is hard at work to create another outstanding evening.  Live music will be provided by Hans Eberbach - he will play his unique and amazing blues-filled style - he is AMAZING!  Included in the ticket price will be a fabulous buffet dinner, iced tea and coffee.  A no-host bar will be open as well.  In addition to the silent auction, we'll hold a live dessert auction again this year...it was the highlight of the evening last year!

 

We hope you will plan to attend! 

 

Beyond Our Borders Dinner & Silent Auction

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sheepherder Bar & Grille

11275 Folsom Boulevard Rancho Cordova, CA 95742

Tickets are $40 per person, Tables for 8 are $300

To purchase tickets visit:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/267642

To make a donation online at www.razoo.com search 'beyond our borders dinner & auction'

Please "like" and share our event on Facebook!  http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/346674908748568/

Great Quote on Justice

In the May/June issue of Relevant magazine, Stephan Baumann, President of World Relief, wrote a great article entitled "Justice 2.0."  Here is an excerpt from that article that provides a very good definition of justice from a Biblical perspective:

Two words are used for justice in the Old Testament.  The first, mishpat, means “rendering judgment” or “giving people what they are due” and is sometimes referred to as “rectifying justice.”  The second word, tsedeqah, means “the right thing” or, especially, “right relationships” and is referred to as “primary justice.” These words are often paired together in Scripture as “justice and righteousness” and, in some rare instances, one means the other.  The Book of Isaiah even uses the word justice to mean “the sum total of what the Lord has deemed right” - or, in essence, the very will of God. . . . Taken together, mishpat and tsedaqah present a relational definition of justice, an important dimension that has been overlooked for too long.  In its fullness, justice is about right relationships - relationships that work.  Injustice is about relationships that don't.  Justice for what some call the “Quartet of the Vulnerable” - the orphan, the widow, the immigrant and the poor - is especially important to God, due to its prevalence in Scripture.  Injustice occurs when these people are left out, oppressed or exploited. . . . The Old Testament vision of justice carries through to the New and converges in the life and message of Jesus.  Jesus not only teaches justice, but he becomes justice.  Through the Cross, the very possibility of justice is made available to all, and the incarnation is both a mandate and an example to us. . . . Justice is best incarnated by the people closest to those who suffer, not only geographically, but culturally too.  When we live out justice in our relationships, we give witness to the person of Jesus and effect change. When we empower others to become the hands and feet of Christ in their own communities, we create heroes who, in turn, bring justice to a suffering world.  For a Cambodian girl sold into slavery and, in her mind, rejected from God, justice comes in the form of two followers of Christ.  For a woman who cannot feed her child, justice comes in the form of a community banker offering a micro loan or an agronomist teaching techniques to increase her crop yield. For a refugee, justice with a hospitable heart and an open home. . . . God to his people, and His people to creation.  These relationships, when stitched together justly, weave a tapestry of hope that fundamentally changes society for the better.

We hope and pray that Providence and many other orphan care providers that are loving orphans with excellence are creating such heroes who are co-laboring with Christ to humbly bring justice and shalom to a hurting, suffering world.

Tough Questions in a Culture of Relativism: Volume 4 - Why Should Anyone Care About the Plight of Orphans?

Imagine that you just returned from a trip to an orphan care community or have recently adopted an orphan.  This won’t be hard to imagine for many reading this blog because you might have actually done one of these things recently.  Well, upon your return or finalization of your adoption, you tell everyone about your experiences and share your passion for orphans with them.  You tell them about the plight of orphans and specific ways they can get involved from home and through mission trips.  You expect them to be captured with a love for orphans as you have been, and for them to want to act to love some of the world’s millions of orphans in some real way. 

Instead, when you’re done pouring out your heart, you can hear a pin drop in the room.  Or, at best, you get a polite response that sounds something like this: “That’s awesome. I love that God put that on your heart.  But that’s just not my thing.”  Or, “I am so happy for you.  That sounds like a great trip.”  Or, “I’d love to help but I have so many other things going on right now.”  Or, “I’d love to help but don’t have any extra money to help out right now.”  Or, . . ., well you get the point.

Some people may hear your stories and see your passion, and still say, “So what?  These are sad stories and these kids definitely need help to make it in society.  But why should I care?  I mean, they’re not my kids.  It’s somebody else’s problem, right?”  

That’s just it . . . it’s not someone else’s problem.  We are all affected by orphans and are all called to love orphans in some real way.

With that in mind, how should you respond to your friends and family members who just don’t get it or who think that it is “someone else’s” job to help orphans?  

Why should we care about orphans and at-risk communities when they aren’t our children, they often aren’t in our local communities, and they don’t affect our lives in any direct ways?  

And beyond caring, why in the world should anyone actually invest any of his or her precious time into figuring out how to love them with excellence and best practices?  

The reality is that if we didn’t look for these children, we would likely never see them - and even if we looked for them and saw them, they would have little, if any, direct impact on our lives.  So why should we care?  Why should anyone adopt or be a foster parent?  Why should anyone advocate for orphans in any manner?

I want to hear your thoughts on how to respond to these all-too-common questions in our society.

Thoughts from Q: Part 3 - The Power of Imagination and Story

During his 18 minute talk at Q, Calvin College Professor James K.A. Smith said something that really made me think about how we communicate with others.  It made me think about how important stories and imaginative thinking are to engaging others and moving people to action.  About how we often are wasting our breath when we try to convince others of our position with intellectual argument.  He made me really consider how we as the church, as Christian organizations, as passionate human beings created for purposeful works need to start thinking more outside the box and being more creative when we share the Gospel and when we work to recruit people to fight against oppression throughout the world. 

So what did he say?  Here it is: 

"Stories train our affect - our perception of the world is deeply and fundamentally shaped by our emotional take on things.  If we want to change action, we need to change perception.  If we want to change perceptions, we need to recruit imaginations - this will call us to a space that makes us want to act toward shalom. The church has overvalued logic and undervalued the aesthetic.  Overvalued thinking and undervalued imagination. If we don't appreciate this, we will be formed by different narratives. Liturgies are tactile stories that captivate our imaginations. There are liturgies all around us and they captivate you by working on your love and longings. If we let the devil have all the best liturgies, and we try to counter it with more intellect, who's going to win?"  

Thoughts?

Thoughts from Q: Part 2 - Preaching Contraception for Singles: Why do we insist on only dealing with symptoms?

It came to my attention at Q that a large and growing number of churches across America are preaching to their unmarried congregants about how to properly use contraceptives.  This surprised me.  Given the trajectory of the American church today, I don't know why it surprised me so much.  But it did.  And my surprise didn't stop there.  The conference staff conducted a very unscientific poll at the conference and over 2/3 of the people responding to the poll agreed with the recent trend of teaching about proper contraception use from the pulpit.  


The main rationale given (that I heard at the conference) for the trend is that everyone is having sex anyway, so we need to face reality and teach contraception use so that we can reduce the amount of unplanned pregnancies and abortions among our singles.  This rationale is a classic example of how we love to deal with symptoms rather than deal with the root, foundational causes of the symptoms.  Dealing with the symptoms is much easier because it is less confrontational and takes much less time.  It is much less messy and doesn't require a lot of investment on our part to get to the heart of the issue in the lives of our brothers and sisters.  However, in only dealing with the symptoms, it is like we are simply putting a band-aid on a deep, gaping head wound.  Sure, it may stop the bleeding in the short-term, but the wound will continue to fester underneath and cause bigger, more serious problems later because the band-aid does not address the real problem with the wound.  


In the same way, preaching about proper contraceptive use to singles does not address the real problem with the wounds in the single's hearts, minds, and souls.  It does not address the deep rooted issues in the lives of the singles that cause them to ignore the clear teachings in Scripture and engage in sex outside of marriage (which, on a side note, causes all kinds of social ills (e.g., marital issues) in addition to unplanned pregnancy and abortions).  It does not address the need for a clear, unabashed Gospel response to the tragic rise and acceptance of premarital sex in our culture.  A response that does not hold up the white flag and surrender to the downfall of our societal values and norms that somehow make it OK to defile the marital bed because "they're already doing it and are going to do it anyway."  We need a response that does not implicitly approve extramarital sex.  We need a response that holds firm to the clear edicts in the Bible and teaches our youth, young adults, adults, and elderly the truths about what the Bible really says about sex outside of marriage and WHY the Bible is so clear about not defiling the marriage bed. 


As I alluded to above, premarital sex causes a lot more issues in our society other than unplanned pregnancies and increase in abortions.  Among many other things that would take a series of blog entries to cover properly, it cheapens the amazing gift from God of the intimate bond of sex between a man and woman in marriage, it contributes to low self-respect, it causes marital issues when spouses "compare" their husband or wife to past partners, and the list goes on [feel free to add to the list through comments]. 


Unfortunately, the church's ever-increasing tendency to only deal with symptoms rather than foundational issues also shows up all throughout the world of orphan care.  One specific area where many in orphan care are "holding up the white flag" is the lack of "good men" to care for the children, which just happens to be directly linked to the rampant extramarital sex going on in the world.  In short (this issue will be covered in detail in a later post), throughout the orphan care community, many people are dealing with the lack of quality men by creating homes where the children are being raised only by one or two women.  In essence, they are dealing with the symptom of no quality men in society by creating "fatherless" homes, which themselves will have long-term negative consequences because the children will not have a daddy.  Scripture is very intentional about speaking of God's love for the "fatherless" because He knows how important a daddy is to the development of every child's life.  


Instead of simply accepting that there are no good men in society and moving on to encourage a "second-best" mentality, we need to address the root, foundational issue and start discipling men in our communities.  To be the husbands they need to be.  To be the daddies they need to be. To be the men they need to be.  To not just accept that they're bad and move on.  But to trust that God can redeem anyone and that He is using us to bring renewal to this world.  To trust that God loves the fatherless more than we ever will and His heart cries out to see each of them have a mommy AND a daddy to love them well.  The response that deals with the foundational issue meets the men where they are, builds deep and authentic relationships with them, and demands more out of them - it demands that they be gospel-driven leaders of  their families and communities.  This response takes a lot time, is messy, and often disappoints.  But it can also lead to incredibly rewarding results - and without it, we will never be able to make a dent in the ever-growing number of fatherless in our world.  

Thoughts from Q: Part 1 - Why do we talk "to" each other?

One of the highlights for me at Q this year was a talk entitled, "Alone Together," by Sherry Turkle, who wrote a book with the same title.  Though I won't be able to do the talk justice in this short blog, I'll do my best.  She shared about the rise of technology and opined that we aren't as strong as technology's pull (e.g., we are ruled by our iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, computers, email, texts, televisions, iPods, etc.).  She told us how "etiquette experts" have somehow determined that it is OK to ignore a cashier at the supermarket checkout counter if they engage you in a conversation while you're texting because "they are doing their job to check you out" - that is, you are not obliged to engage with him or her in conversation because they are simply the "help."  


Turkle went on to say that we are treading very dangerous water because we are allowing ourselves to get closer to machines while distancing ourselves from each other.  We are so jaded today that we seriously think that sending a tweet is just as valuable as engaging in a conversation with someone face-to-face.  Or that texting with someone is the same as an in-person interaction.  How have we forgotten that about 75% of our communication with someone is non-verbal?  How have we forgotten the difference between simple connection and actual conversation, which involves compassion, involvement, understanding, empathy, and challenge?


Fortunately, though, she didn't stop there.  She recognizes the absurdity of the trajectory of our world's technological revolution and is advocating for a world where we slow down our lives and return to the days when we actually sat down in-person and talked with each other.  This is especially important because the flight from interaction with other humans has also resulted in a flight from introspection, which is critical to development of our souls, character, and integrity, and relationship with our God.  If our youth lack this introspection, our world is in big trouble.


She then used the introspection discussion to launch into one of my favorite parts of her talk - the need for Solitude and for sacred places that we set apart solely for conversation.  Here are my notes from that portion of her talk - they are simple because the points are simple:

(i) "Solitude is a good thing. Make room for it." 

(ii) "Create safe spaces at home and reclaim them for conversation. Have sacred spaces that are technology free. We need to take the time to really listen to each other." 

Turkle finished her talk with a couple points that I'll let you ponder as I have been the past couple weeks.  What you do with them is up to you.  Here they are:

(i) "The problem isn't the technology. It is the way we use it." 

(ii) "We have a hunger for narrative and conversation."


So as I've been processing her talk, I've been thinking about something that I alluded to in the title to this blog.  When did we as a culture start saying that we want to "talk to" someone rather than "talk with" someone?  Think about this - what are we actually saying when we write an email and say, "Hey __________, I'd like to talk to you about [fill in the blank]."  


I don't know this, but I bet it started around the time that the answering machine entered our lives.  Remember what we had to do before answering machines?  We actually had to keep calling back until the person was home - then (you ready for this), we actually had to have a conversation with the person.  And for the receiving party, a similar "quandary" existed - there was no ability to screen the call, let the call go to voice mail, or text back a quick response to the person because you didn't want to talk.  You had to actually risk a conversation when you picked up the phone (insert sarcastic tone here).  


Then, with advent of the incredible technological advancement of the answering machine, we were able to limit our conversations dramatically, and the "talking to" generation began.  Fast forward a few decades and now we are in an age that you never actually have to look at or even speak anything to anyone that you are talking to if you don't want to.  You can simply use your fingers and connect with them.  Don't fool yourself, though . . . you're not conversing or talking with them - you're only talking to them.  And that simply doesn't fill our deep need for narrative and conversation. 


So how can we reverse the trend?


Create the sacred spaces in your homes and lives.  Make room for solitude and for conversation.  Talk with people.  Engage in your world.  Don't be afraid to take a risk and dig into conversations that include compassion, involvement, understanding, empathy, and challenge.  


It will take time.  It often will be uncomfortable.  But I am sure of at least one thing: You won't be disappointed.

The Study of Orphan Care Leads to Humility

(Republished from the La Providencia blog (5/4/11))

Plato once said, "The study of Astronomy leads to humility." That is definitely true - just one look at pictures from the Hubble telescope makes this point clear.

Similarly, as I have found in the last few years, the study of how to bring excellence to orphan care also leads to humility. It is easy to get lost in the numbers of the orphan crisis (e.g., over 167,000,000 orphans in the world) and give up. To say that we simply cannot do anything about it. That there is no way we can figure out how to address it as a comprehensive whole. That we simply cannot understand it. That we can't get families for all of these kids. That [fill in the blank with countless other reasons not to engage].

People have said similar things about the heavens over the centuries. That we cannot even begin to understand the universe surrounding us. But other people, like Galileo, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and the inventors of the Hubble telescope, to name a few, said that it is not OK to simply accept defeat in our understanding of the heavens. Even though they accepted the fact that the universe is HUGE and that they likely would never figure it out, they said, "We can work to understand it better." There are answers to our questions. While we personally might not be able to figure all of them out, we can start working to find answers, ask more questions, discover more answers, and so on. They said that they could take baby steps to figuring out the heavens and they saw any additional knowledge, no matter how small, as a victory, all the while knowing that it was extremely unlikely that the answers to all of their questions would be solved in their lifetime. (Part of this is that I believe there simply are certain things that we as humans are not supposed to understand.)

Because these guys that didn't listen to the naysayers, we have slowly progressed over the years as they built on each other's discoveries, and today we can see stars billions of light years away through the Hubble Telescope - we are closer to an understanding of what is going on out there. If people wouldn’t have said that we can begin to figure it out, then the Hubble never would’ve happened

We need to apply that same mindset and ingenuity to the improvement of orphan care! While on the one hand we need to recognize the magnitude of the problem and face the fact that we can't solve it on our own, we also need to work to understand it better and seek God's wisdom and discernment on how to develop solutions.  We need to work together, collaborating together to understand the vastness of the crisis and the best way to develop the kids' lives to give them an opportunity to be leaders in their communities. We need to continue asking hard questions and analyzing best practices with the same commitment as we would if our own children were in an orphanage. We need to think bigger and with more excellence (e.g., family-based orphanages, top-quality schools, great medical care and nutrition, and participation in their local community), which will enable us to begin shifting the paradigm surrounding orphans from one where they are seen as a waste of resources to one where they are treated as investments. Only then will we really be making in-roads to making orphanages and orphan care better.

Or, in the alternative, we can keep wading in the current problematic paradigm seeing the orphans as second-rate humans, as a drain on society, as trash, as a waste of resources, AND we thus will keep viewing the orphan crisis as a universe that is way too big to understand, address, and work within.

So, yes, the study of orphan care leads to humility. But, fortunately for the millions of orphans around the world, it doesn't lead to futility.

Another Great Year at Q

I just returned from the Q Conference in Washington, D.C., where I had the pleasure of engaging with leaders from all over the world on issues spanning all areas of culture.  I look forward to this conference every year because of the personal development and relationships that have occurred every year since I first attended Q three years ago.  And this year was no exception.  As you'll see in some upcoming blogs that dive deeper into some of the topics we explored at the conference, I was challenged once again to think about issues that I haven't explored and to consider how I can worship God in new and exciting ways.  I also was able to have conversations with several leaders about how we can collaborate to love orphans around the world with excellence.  I can't wait to see how those conversations bear themselves out in the future.

A couple (of many) examples of topics covered at the conference that you'll hear more about in future blogs are how technology has caused our relationships to suffer, how we need to slow down and actually cut down the amount of media and technology we use, how churches today are actually teaching on the use of contraceptives to address sex outside of marriage, and Os Guinness on the Future of Freedom.

So stay tuned for some interesting conversations in the next couple weeks.  Also, for those of you in the West, next year's Q is in Los Angeles - if you can make it, I am certain that you won't be disappointed by your experience.

Remember What (and Who) It's About!

In the wake of the launch of the KONY 2012 campaign and the subsequent issues with one of Invisible Children's founders, a very important issue has been brought to the forefront of our minds once again: What and who are ministries, churches, and non-profit organizations about?

If they are Christian, they are (or should be) first and foremost about God and furthering His Kingdom through discipleship, service, mercy, and other acts.  And regardless of whether they are Christian, they are about fulfilling the organization's mission, period.  In any credible organization, one thing they aren't about is the people who run or work in the organizations - with few exceptions, if they become about the people within the organization, their mission is necessarily compromised and damaged in major ways.  If people see the leader or others in the organization as the organization or if the organization will fail if the something happens to the leader, that organization has some serious problems.  And this is a great thing because everyone who has ever led an organization and everyone who will ever lead an organization suffers from the same fatal flaw: he or she is human, and therefore is depraved and severely limited and flawed.

Unfortunately, our society often forgets this fact and places too much faith and importance in organizational leaders and/or spokesmen.  In the case of Invisible Children, I really hope that this doesn't happen.  Though Jason Russell's actions have definitely had a negative impact on the KONY 2012 campaign, I really hope and pray that people can look past his one-time behavior (which has proven to be caused by a condition that caused him to act way out of his character) and focus on the work that IC is doing in Africa to bring justice and shalom in an area that needs it in so many ways.  I pray that people can make their decisions on the work that is being done on the ground by IC, not on the flawed human beings that run the organization.  If we base our decisions on the day-to-day activities of the organizational leaders, we will constantly be disappointed and let down by them, and we will not get behind a lot of great things that God wants us to be involved in.  Trust me on this one - I'm one of those organizational leaders that will disappoint if faith is placed in me rather than in the only One who faith should be placed in.

Now I'm not saying that we can't look to the leaders as a marker of the organization's integrity and credibility.  What I'm saying is that a healthy organization is about much more than its leader, and we should not discredit an organization's impact and mission because of a human being's poor decisions or actions taken in isolation.  After all, we are all merely one bad decision away from being a negative headline - one bad decision that we are all capable of making (despite what we really want to believe about ourselves).

At Providence, we know this first-hand - we exist to inspire and equip others to love orphans, widows, and at-risk communities as God loves them.  Fortunately, God has placed amazing people in our organization that are working to fulfill this mission in many ways.  We are creating families for orphans, educating many children with excellence, providing medical care to all of Honduras, developing community leaders, and loving well in many other areas.  But we are also flawed human beings who make mistakes (some bigger than others), hurt each other, do stupid things, and . . . the list goes on and on.  If you don't believe me, just ask my wife, kids, and staff, and they'll give you a long list of ways I'm not perfect.  I'm just fortunate that my life is not under a microscope and most of my thoughts and actions are not on the 10:00 News.

Again, I'm not condoning Mr. Russell's behavior or saying that a leader's character should not be considered when evaluating an organization.  What I am saying, though, is make sure to look at the big picture, in context.  Make sure that you recognize that every organization has to be run by a flawed human being and that the organization, if it is worthwhile, is about a whole lot more than that person.  Also, and just as important, recognize that the person is about a whole lot more than one publicized act or statement taken in isolation.

Looking for Something to Read?

Some people have recently asked me for book recommendations, and I made this list in response.  In the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd post this list of some great books that I've read recently (a few of them I haven't read but have come highly recommended by people I trust (and are high on my list to read)).  If I'm missing any from your must-read lists, please add them to the list through a comment.  In the meantime, grab a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate and open up one or more of these gems:


Leadership
Spiritual Leadership (Oswald Sanders)
Leadership Jazz (Max De Pree)
Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success (John Wooden and Jay Carty)

Lincoln on Leadership (Donald Phillips)

Servant Leadership (Robert Greenleaf)

Quiet Strength (Tony Dungy)

Axiom (Bill Hybels)

Leading the Revolution (Gary Hamel)

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (Jim Collins)

Visioneering (Andy Stanley)

Leading with a Limp (Dan Allender)

Leadership and Self-Deception (The Arbinger Institute)

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John Maxwell)

Humility (Andrew Murray)

Amazing Faith: The Authorized Biography of Bill Bright (Richardson)

Better (Atul Gawande)


Communication

Made to Stick (Chip and Dan Heath)

The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

Orphan Care
Home Away from Home: The Forgotten History of Orphanages (Richard MacKenzie)
Toddler Adoption (Hopkins-Best)
The Lost Daughters of China (Karin Evans)

Orphanology (Merida and Morton)

The Connected Child (Karyn Purvis)

Fields of the Fatherless (Tom Davis)

Fatherless Generation (John Sowers)

Red Letters (Tom Davis)

Father Fiction (Donald Miller)

Missions and Ministry
When Helping Hurts (Fikkert and Corbett)
Toxic Charity (Robert D. Lupton)

White Man's Burden (William Easterly)

The Next Christendom (Philip Jenkins)

Good News About Injustice (Gary Haugen)

Terrify No More (Gary Haugen)

Just Courage (Gary Haugen)

Not for Sale (David Batstone)
Generous Justice (Tim Keller)

Crazy Love (Francis Chan)

Defending Your Faith (R.C. Sproul)

Renovation of the Church (Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken)

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire)

Family and Marriage
How We Love (Yerkovich)
The Mystery of Marriage (Mike Mason)
What a Difference a Daddy Makes (Kevin Leman)
Sheet Music (Kevin Leman)
When Sinners Say "I Do": Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage (Dave Harvey)
The Silence of Adam (Larry Crabb)
Tender Warrior (Stu Weber)

Literature
Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) 
False Witness (Randy Singer) (mystery fiction)

The Brothers Karamozov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)

Any of the Great Books of the Western World

Gospel-Driven Christian Life
Desiring God (John Piper)
Don't Waste Your Life (John Piper)
The Prodigal God (Tim Keller)
The Reason for God (Tim Keller)
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Mark Noll)
Christless Christianity (Michael Horton)
Bonhoeffer (Eric Metaxas)
The Gospel-Driven Life (Michael Horton)
Fasting (Scot McKnight)

Sabbath (Dan Allender)

The Valley of Vision (Arthur Bennett)

Windows to the Soul (Ken Gire)

Jesus Among Other Gods (Ravi Zacharias)

Unveiled Hope (Scotty Smith)

The Day Metallica Came to Church (John van Sloten)
Book of Common Prayer (Shane Claiborne)

Anything by C.S. Lewis

Soccer
How Soccer Explains the World (Franklin Foer)
Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby)
Bloody Confused! (Chuck Culpepper)
Soccer Against the Enemy (Simon Kuper)
The Beckham Experiment (Grant Wahl)

Education
The Thomas Jefferson Education (Oliver DeMille)
Your Child's Strengths (Jennifer Fox)

Miscellaneous
Freakonomics
Super Freakonomics
Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)

To be continued . . . (since I know that you have some great books, that I'm forgetting some and that there are many more to come in the future)

La Providencia Summit - Day 3

Today we were able to visit a farm in the local community that La Providencia is looking to partner with to bring the community closer to economic self-sufficiency.  This approximately 80 acre farm is incredible - it has coffee, flowers, vegetables, herbs, and its own gravity-driven water supply, which itself saves 20% on electricity since the farm doesn't need a pump to transport the water.  Another thing that sets this farm apart is that the man who started it was in deep economic poverty when he planted the first seeds in the '90s. Instead of thinking business success was impossible because he didn't have money (as many unfortunately think), he sought out some seed capital (pun intended) and got started on what now is not only producing a lot of revenue, but is also generated hundreds of jobs every year for local community members.

After visiting the farm and eating some great ice cream and "Chinese" food, the US team leaders and Douglas (from LP) met together to de-brief and work out some next steps towards making this summer one where short-term teams work together to bring La Providencia closer to self-sufficiency.  Despite the fact that we were all exhausted mentally and physically, the conversation was very rich.  We talked about how the teams could avoid being destructive at La Providencia and exacerbating our respective poverties of being (read "When Helping Hurts" to gain a deeper understanding of this concept).  A few of the highlights coming out of the meeting were the brainstorming sessions about how the teams can practically work together, the specific action plans we worked out to take La Providencia Academy to the next level, and the team's commitment to work hard to focus on things that the local community cannot do itself.  In practice, we ultimately confirmed that the relationship-building is the key to all of this because everyone needs relationships, and all of us can know how we can help each other grow if we really get to know each other.  We also came to the important conclusion that one of the critical aspects of teams is to see the Providence model in person, get to know its details intimately, and share the model with others around the world after their time at La Providencia.

Be praying that we all can continue our conversations over the next few months and that the conversations result in a bunch of summer teams that incorporate the things that we have discussed and discovered during our time together.  Also be praying for our staff at La Providencia and the local community members - that they understand their great skills, talents, and passions, innovate well, and work together to bring LP to economic self-sufficiency.

La Providencia Summit - Day 2

Today was another very interesting day at the Summit!  We were able to visit a high school that is essentially an agricultural charter school.  They are partnering with La Providencia on a project where the high schoolers will mentor our staff and children on gardening.  We are all very excited about both sides of the partnership, as LP will get some great gardening and the high schoolers will continue building their mentorship and leadership skills, and increasing work ethic.

We also met with the community leaders about the possibility of partnering with them to develop the community into one that is economically self-sufficient.  We learned that we have a long way to go until we reach that goal, but I know that today was a very important first step toward hitting the goal.  I look forward to seeing how the community goes from being extremely dependent on outside support to being completely economically self-sufficient and having each project be completely community-initiated and executed.  We all have a huge challenge in front of us, but I have no doubt that we're on the right track.

Looking forward to finishing up the Summit tomorrow with a trip to a local farm and a "de-briefing" meeting where we will set goals and practical next steps with each other.  Again, all prayers are invited and very much appreciated.

La Providencia Summit, Day One

On Wednesday afternoon, nine leaders from Providence partner organizations and churches around the USA arrived in Siguatepeque, Honduras for the 1st Annual La Providencia Summit.  The vision for the Summit is to work with the LP staff, the local community leaders, and each other to start discerning how we all can make summer teams at LP as collaborative, productive, and life-giving as possible.  Guided by our mutual experiences, the books When Helping Hurts and Toxic Charity, and, of course, Biblical principles, we are hoping to work together as "one team" this summer and beyond to move the La Providencia community closer to economic self-sufficiency.

Yesterday, during day one of the Summit, the US leaders were able to meet with the entire LP staff to listen and inquire about how teams have been destructive in the past, how teams have connected and positively impacted the community, how we believe we can build up each other's skills and assets, how we all can build relationships with each other through various projects, how the teams can encourage, sharpen, and train the teachers and other staff members, and vice-versa, and how we can work together to begin developing businesses and other endeavors to generate revenue in the community.  It was an incredible day of transparency and vulnerability that I have never seen from our LP staff.  They opened up about the benefits and pitfalls of teams, they shared some challenges and struggles with the project and with some well-intentioned teams in the past, and ways that team members can mitigate against destructive behavior in the future.

One of our teachers opened up about her story that mirrors so many of our children's stories, and it touched all of us in deep ways.  She grew up in the community surrounding La Providencia in a single parent home, and hopes that she can inspire her students to become a leader in their community as she has by relying on God and developing the incredible skills and talents that God has given each one of them.

We're still processing through a lot of the stuff that we covered yesterday, and likely will be analyzing it for weeks to come.  In the process, we hope to figure out more and more what God wants us to be doing together to continue developing gospel-driven leaders.  Yesterday was a great step forward in this process and we know today will be as well - we're meeting with leaders in the local community to hear about their dreams, goals, and assets, and how the teams can come alongside them to develop the community.

Your prayers for the Summit and all that it will bring are invited, encouraged, and very much appreciated.

ECFA Approved!

Great news!  Providence is now an ECFA member - ECFA (Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability) is the preeminent seal of approval for financial accountability in Christian non-profit work.  Here is the press release announcing this big step in the life of our ministry:

Providence World Ministries Accredited by National Financial Accountability Organization


NASHVILLE, TN – The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) announced today the accreditation of Providence World Ministries of Nashville, TN.


ECFA accreditation is based on the ECFA Seven Standards of Responsible StewardshipTM, including financial accountability, transparency, sound board governance and ethical fundraising.


Providence World Ministries joins a growing number of Christ-centered churches and ministries across America, supported by over 20 million donors that have earned the right to display the ECFA seal. When an organization is accredited by ECFA, it demonstrates its willingness to follow the model of biblical accountability.


“We are pleased to include in our membership a ministry committed to inspire and equip others to love orphans, widows, and at-risk communities as God loves them,” said Dan Busby, president of ECFA.


Founded in 2001, Providence World Ministries (www.providenceworldministries.org) ministers to and advocates for orphaned children and widows. They seek to establish innovative, culturally appropriate communities of care for orphans and widows, while advocating for them among governments, society and the church.


To learn more about Providence World Ministries and their stewardship opportunities, visit ServantMatch®, ECFA’s program that matches God’s servants with the stewardship options of ECFA members based on ministry sectors and categories. It is ECFA’s newest online feature that allows you to quickly and easily find giving opportunities.


ECFA, founded in 1979, provides accreditation to leading Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with the ECFA Standards pertaining to financial accountability, fundraising and board governance. For more information about ECFA, including information about accreditation and a listing of ECFA-accredited members, visit www.ECFA.org or call 1-800- 323-9473.

An Afternoon with Onix

This afternoon I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours and sharing a meal with Onix Flores.  Not only is she the sister of La Providencia's director, Mizael Flores, but she also is the namesake of Centro Onix at La Providencia.  What an amazing couple hours it was.  After meeting her and hearing her testimony first-hand, I am even more excited that her faith and courage will always be a part of La Providencia and will always serve as an encouragement for our children.  I know that I was extremely encouraged after just a short time with her.

For those of you who don't know her story, she has a rare disease and was not supposed to live past the age of 19 or 20.  Her mom and dad thought differently and as she grew up, so did she.  As she said, the doctors didn't know, she knew that God wouldn't take her home until she finished the work he had for her on Earth.  Now, at the age of 52 years old, she has quite a story to tell and God has done quite a bit through her already.  While there isn't enough room in this blog to share it all, I'll give you some snippets and encourage you to spend some time with Onix to get the rest of the story if you're ever in Chicago.  

After beating the odds for many years through a deep faith in God,a difficult childhood and various doctors, Onix ended up in a hospital in the US where she, again, was not supposed to ever make it out of the hospital.  And, she wasn't supposed to be doing a whole lot while in the hospital.  The doctors making that prognosis obviously didn't know Onix or the fact that God had other plans for her.  One day, a nurse came by her room with some painting supplies and told her that she should start painting with all of her free time.  Onix said that she didn't think it would happen because she has no real use of her arms or legs.  But Onix gave it a shot anyway - why not, right?  She started painting with her mouth and, without getting into details, has painted some beautiful paintings, won several awards with her paintings, and now is painting birdhouses that she is selling at festivals all over the region.  The paintings look great without any qualification for the fact that they are painted without the use of hands - they are much better than most paintings by people with full mobility and use of all their limbs.  She truly has a God-given gift.  And not surprisingly, Onix is extremely humble with regard to her gifts and gives all the glory to God.

I could go on and on, but I won't - just want to say that I was so blessed this afternoon and I can say without a doubt that my life is fuller after meeting and spending some quality time with Onix.  Oh yeah, don't want to forget to tell you that Onix not only has lived for over ten years since she entered the hospital where she was supposed to die - she has spent those years sharing the Gospel with every person who has come into her path, led many to the Lord, and is now living at her home with her husband of over 20 years and a caretaker.  How cool is that?

A Few Good Books

Every so often, I like to give some book reviews and recommendations.  A couple of the past must-reads have been When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, and Spiritual Leadership, by Oswald Sanders.  Well, over the past few weeks, I've been able to read a few good books in addition to the Bible (I get to start every day by reading wisdom from that GREAT book).  And I'm ready to share a few more great reads with you . . .

(1) Toxic Charity: How the Church Hurts Those They Help and How to Reverse It, by Robert D. Lupton -- In this book, Lupton, an urban developer in Atlanta, shares the good, bad, and ugly from his experiences working with the poor and oppressed in Atlanta, and projects the principles onto how to be agents of development, rather than simple relief, around the world.  The book dives into how to do micro financing, missions teams, inner-city projects, and many other things well, in a way that is productive rather than destructive.  If you work with the poor in any capacity, you will learn a ton from this book and will definitely not be sorry that you read it.  At Providence, we are using much of this book to prepare our La Providencia community and summer teams for a very productive summer in Honduras.

Here are a few tidbits from Toxic Charity to whet your appetite (there is a whole lot more where these came from):

• "If we want to see substantial change in a troubled neighborhood, we must concentrate energies and resources there over time."
• "In for-profit corporations on the cutting edge of their fields, research and development (R&D) is key.  Yet seldom do nonprofits spend money on R&D, with universities and medical research being notable exceptions. Innovation and risk taking are at least as important to the world of compassion as to the world of business.  Organizations that test new methods and document their trial-and-error findings are likely to be the ones that shape the best practices of the future." (this is why we at Providence focus on R&D to the extent we do)
• "To do for others what they have the capacity to do for themselves is to disempower them."
• "Anyone who has served among the poor for any length of time will recognize the following progression: give once and you elicit appreciation; give twice and you create anticipation; give three times and you create expectation; give four times and it becomes entitlement; give five times and you establish dependency."
• "Don't presume that because an area is poor and run down it is devoid of leadership and resources."
• "Getting to know community leaders first requires us to listen and respect indigenous leadership and learn the dreams of the people.  And be willing to have our own ideas transformed.  Both the community and its leaders may have different goals from those that volunteers might bring."

(2) The Day Metallica Came to Church: Searching for the Everywhere God in Everything, by John van Sloten.  This is a very different book from Toxic Charity, but just as convicting.  It focuses on how God is working in and through everything in the world - often not in the ways that we would think or see at first blush.  From lyrics of Metallica songs, to Van Gogh's paintings, to movies such as Crash, The Dark Knight, and No Country for Old Men, to several other unexpected examples, van Sloten gracefully provides insightful examination of how we can see God in these things, and challenges us to do the same with everything that we come into contact with in this world.  And he ends the book with the verse that tells us why we should believe that God is working through EVERYTHING in society: "For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen."

(3) Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett - Next on the list is a fun one that is for the serious novel reader, as the 960 or so pages requires quite an investment of time.  This is a great novel based in twelfth century England.  I usually do not read historical novels, but this one came highly recommended and gripped me from the start.  It follows Tom the builder and his quest to build a great cathedral, struggles for power in the church and in the kingdom, and has some great interactions between the characters and within the psyches of the characters that provide us with insights into our own lives and raise questions as to how we'd respond in similar situations.  If you like novels with solid character development, intrigue, and suspense, this is a worthwhile investment.

Several other books that are very good and definitely worth your time are: (a) Fatherless Generation, by John Sowers, which delves into the issues of fatherlessness in our world; (b) The Beckham Experiment, by Grant Wahl, which chronicles the highs and lows of the experiment involving David Beckham's move to the MLS in which we are all participating (whether we know it or not); and (c) Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, in which Krakauer tells the story of an ill-fated climb to the summit of Everest and examines different aspects of the human psyche in the process.

You won't be wasting your time if you read any of these books.  To the contrary, they will all likely teach you many things about yourself and our world.

Abolition Begins With Awareness

In anything, we can't do anything to meaningfully fight against an injustice unless we are aware that it exists.  Then, we need to educate ourselves on the tragedy and care about ridding the Earth of it.  Once we care about fighting against it, we are ruined in a beautiful way because we absolutely have to do something to fight against the injustice.  The horrible injustice known as human trafficking is no different.

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and if you aren't already fighting against it in some meaningful way, I hope that you take some time to acquaint yourself to the epidemic that plagues babies, children, and adults around our world today more than it ever has in our Earth's history.  Then, I hope that you are brought to care about eradicating the world of the tragedy on your way to helping the fight against it.  (At the end of this post are few great organizations you can get involved with if you want to fight against trafficking, both on the prevention and intervention sides.)

My story involves simply becoming aware of human trafficking by reading a book discussing the practice, "Good News About Injustice," by Gary Haugen (www.ijm.org) when I was comfortable practicing law in a firm in Sacramento (which just happens to be the #1 human trafficking city (per capita) in the US).  Well, that book got me to care and I was forced to do something about it.

So I started looking into how I could fight against it with my legal skills and IJM seemed to be a natural fit.  That wasn't to be, but in the process I researched into the annals of human trafficking and found that orphans are commonly the victims of the epidemic because they don't have anyone to advocate for them.  That caused me to look into the prevention side of the fight against human trafficking - that is, how to prevent the orphans and other children from being forced or tricked into the terrible industry.

There is a whole lot more to the story, but the short of it is that my quest for a fit for an organization fighting to prevent orphans and at-risk children from the ills of trafficking led me to Providence.  How is Providence fighting human trafficking?  By working to inspire and equip others to raise orphans and at-risk children in families, with incredible educations and nutrition, so that they can become societal leaders rather than being susceptible to traffickers.  We hope that through excellent orphan care, less children will be trafficked and there therefore will be less need for intervention in the future.

So if you care about fighting against trafficking on the prevention side, get involved with orphan and at-risk care with Providence (www.providenceworldministries.org) or another great orphan care organization such as Lifesong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org), The Hands and Feet Project (www.handsandfeetproject.org), Show Hope (www.showhope.org), Arrow Ministries (www.arrow.org), Casa Viva (www.casaviva.org/costarica), or America World Adoption Association (www.awaa.org) (to name a few).  The Christian Alliance for Orphans website is a great place to start if you have never looked into orphan care and want to see the landscape of orphan care (www.christianalliancefororphans.org).

However, the reality is that there is still a HUGE need for intervention today.  There is a huge need for people to uncover the trafficking operations, rescue and provide aftercare for trafficking victims, and prosecute the offenders.  There also is a huge need to fund and pray for such operations.  Every one of you can do at least one of those things.  If you feel led to fight on the intervention side, there are some great organizations on the front lines of the war on trafficking that would love to have you join their army.  Ones that I respect very much are the aforementioned International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org), The Not-for-Sale Campaign (www.notforsalecampaign.org), and Courage House, for those of you in Sacramento (www.couragetobeyou.org).

Amazing Psalm

In a sentence that is easy to overlook, David makes a statement that should absolutely blow us away.  In Psalm 110:1, David says, "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'"  David then goes on with a bunch of prophecy of Jesus, the Messiah.  What is so incredible about this is David discusses Jesus LONG before he ever is born to Mary.  We are so used to hearing prophecies and often read the Bible as just a bunch of old writings that the mind-blowing nature of this is easy to miss.  David calls Jesus "my Lord" before he ever walked the Earth and died for our sins - long before he was even known to humans.  This is simply amazing!