Let's Bite Back!

Through working with Compassion, we have learned that malaria is the #1 killer among children in Africa. Almost every 30 seconds, a child dies from malaria, a totally preventable disease. I look at my children, and can't imagine if we happened to live in another part of the world, what devastation we would face. In our family, we have asked ourselves what we can do to make a difference? We can't pretend these children don't exist. We have to do something! And the Gospel of Jesus Christ compels us. So here we are, finding ways for us all to make a difference in the malaria epidimic. You can be apart of this!
It only takes $10 to Bite Back to provide a net for children to sleep under, malaria education, and life saving malaria medications if they do contract malaria.
You can donate to our Bite Back fundraising efforts at www.firstgiving.com/thebacaks
Donating to Bite Back through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support our fundraising efforts. Go to www.biteback.net and learn more about what Compassion is doing!

One Act (Must Watch!)

Help End Malaria - Bite Back

This is a great way to be apart of what Compassion is doing, saving lives and releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.
$10 can save a life, and allow a family to hear the Gospel. Watch this short video and learn something about malaria. I have learned so much! Why not partner with Compassion in their bite back program? It's so easy.
Go to www.compassion.com and click on bite back.

Treston sleeps...

We are enjoying our seventh year at Camp Ozark, and the kids are loving every minute of it! I thought this video summed up well how hard they are playing. Who could sleep through this? Just a typical Ozark dinner, and Treston was unmoved.

My Birthday Wish

Am I really turning 35? That's ridiculous, and can't be true. I don't feel that old, but I guess birthday years don't lie. So as I approach the mid-mark of my thirties, it's obvious to me that I have more than I need. (understatement) I don't need a birthday gift, but what I would like more than anything for my birthday is to raise some money for Compassion. When I consider the poverty that children are living in all over the world I must do something. And thankfully, Compassion is already there. They are doing the amazing work to release children from the darkness of poverty, and bring them the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, releasing them from the greatest darkness there is. How can I NOT be apart of this? I determined a few years ago I would not live oblivious to them anymore. I will not ignore them. Because real faith says that's not what believers do. So I want to take this opportunity, as my birthday approaches, to ask for the best birthday gift ever. Will you check this out and donate even just a few dollars to Compassion for my birthday? There has to be some consolation for being 35 in a college town, right?

Moms, we don't really need anything, am I right?
There are things we would like, we would appreciate, but not nearly as much as these people would appreciate clean water and the hope offered them through the Gospel. So why not ask for this for Mother's Day? Or get this for your own Mom. I think this is the perfect gift!

Living Water

Back to School: Uganda from Living Water International on Vimeo.

Chic-Fil-A tonight for Run For Compassion!

Tonight, Monday March 29, we are having a profit share at the Chic-Fil-A in College Station! If you come in between 5-8pm and give us your receipt, Run For Compassion will get a share of the profit. This helps us send the more money to the Child Survival Program! (Insert Whoop! if you are an Aggie.)

Please register for the run if you haven't already, or register as a donor and or volunteer. If you donate $20 or more, you can get a t-shirt too. (You will be responsible for picking it up. I can't deliver or mail them to everyone.)You can do all of this on our site www.runforcompassion.com

I need volunteers desperately, so if you are available, volunteer on race day! It will be fun!

I have high hopes of reaching our goal of $8,000 to the CSPs in Haiti and Ethiopia. It seems impossible, unlikely, far-fetched, but I am still praying for it. I feel so privileged to be a small partner with the work Compassion is doing through the Child Survival Program. You can be too!

Defeating The Big 6 Baby-Killers

Below is an excerpt from the Child Survival Program website www.rescuebabiesnow.org
Do you know the Big 6 Baby-Killers? Would you have guessed that they are all preventable? The right food, hydration, clean water, some medicine. These are all things our children have, but millions of children around the world do not. Subsequently, 25,000 children die EVERYDAY of the Big 6. Read about it.
This is why we are doing Run For Compassion! You can be apart of the solution! Saving the lives of children and helping to free them from poverty, IN JESUS' NAME! Not only do they receive physical life, they hear the gospel and are ministered to by the local church, partnered with Compassion.
Here is more about the Big 6...

In your household, diarrhea probably isn't a life or death situation. Yet in developing countries, diarrhea is one of the Big 6 Baby Killers, causing the death of 1.5 million babies every year.

All of the Big 6 Baby Killers—diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition—are preventable or treatable.

Compassion, working through local churches and Survival Specialists, provides practical solutions like vaccinations, access to doctors, malaria nets, antibiotics, and education.

Be apart of the solution! Register to run or walk, or donate on our website, www.runforcompassion.com and 100% of your registration fee is donated directly to Compassion's Child Survival Programs in Ethiopia and Haiti.

Delight yourself in the Lord...

Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Has anyone heard this verse quoted? Or quoted it to yourself? I have. And quoted it poorly. I remember when I was younger I felt like this was a jackpot verse. God was going to give me what I wanted! That's what I heard when I read it. The part that stood out to me was NOT "delight yourself in the Lord"...it was "he will give you the desires of your heart."
Wow.
It's amazing what selfish and self-centered beings we are.
It's so obvious in my own heart and mind.
I was born ALL ABOUT ME.
But, because of God's good grace, He has given me a heart that's for Him.
And while I still battle the sinful, selfish flesh, (and some days I am feeling the intensity of that battle) my heart is for Him.
God has been ripping me away from selfishness and pride, and showing me how to make the Gospel the "obsession of my heart", as Milton Vincent puts it in "A Gospel Primer" (BUY THIS LITTLE BOOK!!!)
Today I read "And He has created me with the intention that I might glorify Him by finding my soul's delight in Him and by living in joyful obedience to Him in all of my ways."
Some wonderful verses that went with this section:
Psalm 16:11 "...in your presence is fullness of joy; In your right hand there are pleasures forever."
Psalm 37:4 (I already quoted above)
Romans 11:36 "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever."
I glorify the Lord when I am delighted in Him alone.
And here's the thing...I can be delighted and filled with the "fullness of joy" Psalm 16 is talking about, even when my life feels topsy-turvy.
Even when I don't know what the next day is going to bring.
Even when I feel on the outside, unimportant, unpopular, or uncool.
God and His gospel is my satisfaction and joy. In HIM is all fullness of joy.
I am so pleased with that Word this morning.
Thank you God for coffee and for reading this before I start my day. How I need it!

Register for Run For Compassion!

I'm so excited to say that registration for Run For Compassion is up! You can register or donate today! 100% of registration fees go to the Child Survival Project of Compassion in Ethiopia and Haiti. In fact, when you register or donate, you will be giving us your race info. on our site, but then you will be taken to the Compassion site where you donate the required registration fee directly to them. ($20 for the 5K and $25 for the 10K.) That's the way I wanted registration to work this year. I didn't even want to touch the registration money. I wanted all of our participants to have the joy of knowing exactly where their money is going. Because I feel so passionate about what the CSP is doing in saving lives of babies and children ages five and under, sharing the gospel with their families, teaching Moms and Dads how to take care of and nurture their children, and providing food, medicine, clean water, job training...there's so much! I've seen some amazing videos where people testify as to what God has done to transform their lives physically and spiritually through the CSP and I cry every time. It's overwhelming.

You can pray in faith with me that we find enough corporate sponsors to cover the costs of the race. But I feel so confident that God will provide that and that Run For Compassion will be so much fun for us and for every participant.

Please, help us reach our goal of $8,000 to send to the CSP in Haiti and Ethiopia! Register or donate today! Early registration really helps us, as we purchase things like bibb numbers, t-shirts, etc. And recruit a friend to do it with you. You can know that $20 is being used in an amazing way!

If you are interested in volunteering for the race, there is a place for that on our registration page as well! We'd love to have you!

Haiti Lament (Robbie Seay song)

You have to see this!

Great Article about Haitian Adoption

This is a great, short article about the surge of interest in international adoption since the Haiti earthquake. So worth your time! I'm copying and pasting it below just in case you don't click on this link.
http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?p=5480

I DID NOT WRITE THIS: THIS IS A COPY AND PASTE ARTICLE!

Adoption agencies all over the country have been inundated with people calling in to inquire about adopting Haitian orphans. As I’ve noted before, the complexities of Haiti’s orphan crisis are enormous, especially when we add the question of adoption to the mix. In light of these complexities, I think it’s safe to say that it will be quite some time before Haiti is even able to open its doors to adoption again. Even before Haiti’s earthquake, the adoption process was anywhere from 2-3 years, and a difficult one at that.

Given the current situation in Haiti, here is my question to those who are interested in adopting a child from Haiti: “How long are you willing to wait to give a Haitian orphan a home?” My concern is that our compassion for Haiti’s orphans, our desire to give them a home, won’t have the necessary patience (endurance) to see it through. What Haiti’s orphans need once adoption opens back up is Christians who have gospel-endurance.

When God predestined us to adoption, there was no such thing as a watch or a second hand. As a matter of fact, God hadn’t even created the world yet! Once God did create the world, though, his work of adoption didn’t actually break into human history until after he sent his Son. When it came to adopting us into his family, God was extremely patient.

The day will come when the adoption process will open back up in Haiti; and when it does, what Haiti’s orphans will need is Christians who imitate the patience of their Father in heaven. How many of us who are now interested in adopting a child from Haiti will still be interested when the adoption process finally opens back up? I don’t know.

What I do know, though, is that if our desire to adopt a child from Haiti is fueled by the gospel, there will be more of us who are willing to wait than there would be if it’s not. How do I know this? Because the gospel produces gospel-patience.

So, here’s my encouragement to everyone who is interested in adopting a child from Haiti. First, continue giving to organizations that are providing immediate relief to Haiti’s orphans. Food, water, safety, and protection are still Haiti’s orphans’ most pressing needs.

Second, keep feeding your compassion for Haiti’s orphans with the gospel. If we are to imitate the adoptive-patience of God, it will be because of the gospel.

Child Survival Program

You may or may not know, we are in the process of planning Run For Compassion 2010! Save the date, April 10, 2010. This run means so much to me. It gives me an outlet to pour into something I'm passionate about. Compassion International is doing so much in so many countries around the world, it's hard to sum up. You may be most familiar with their child sponsorship program. I'd like to also introduce to you the Child Survival program.

My brother Brian works for Compassion and is in Uganda right now. He just posted on Facebook that he held today a little one who has had malaria three times in the last year. The Child Survival Program saved that baby. He posted the link to the CSP- www.rescuebabiesnow.org
Here is a brief excerpt from that site.

3-20-2009

I still cannot believe I am going to have a baby. I am 17 years old. I am not ready for this. I’ve never been so scared. I hope it’s a boy. In my community, boys are praised, but girls are looked down on. At least if it is a boy, he could have a better life than me.

I don’t know if my baby will even survive birth. I’ve known many women who bought baby coffins before their baby was born because so many babies die in their first month. What will I name it? In Haiti, we do not even name babies until they are 5. We just call them all Ti Chape (little survivor). It hurts less that way. Will my little Ti Chape make it? I do not know what to do. That is all I can say for tonight.

Tomorrow will come.

For all of us here, having healthy babies, naming them before they're even born, it's hard to imagine this life. How could this not move us to action? You can read the rest of this woman's journey on the site for yourself.
The CSP partners with local churches to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of women and children. It's named quite appropriately. It's about survival. I hope you'll read more about it and get excited about what we can do alongside Compassion!

Help for Haiti

Our hearts are heavy in this house, as in yours, for what is happening in Haiti. My brother Brian sent our family an e-mail today asking for prayer for his co-worker Dan, who was there as a photographer for Compassion. He has a wife and a two and four-year-old at home, still awaiting word about his survival. We spent time in earnest prayer for them as a family tonight, and for all of the people who are experiencing the unimaginable in Haiti right now.
Here are some ways we can help. You can go to Aaron Ivey's blog (a Christian music artist) and buy a t-shirt that goes 100% to the organizations already there on the ground in Haiti doing relief work.
Also, you can go to the Compassion site or the Living Water site and donate directly to these two trustworthy and already present organizations.

More of the Gospel!

I'm recommending another book, that I just started and love!!! I need to give a big thanks and hug to my friend Ashley for recommending this to me.
I know, I know, you shouldn't recommend books you haven't finished yet. In fact, I've seriously JUST started this book. But I already know I love it! It's called A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent.
The last book I recommended on here was Gospel Powered Parenting. The Lord has really shown me that what I need more of, in parenting, and in EVERY area of my life, is the Gospel. I need to know the Gospel, the message of how Christ came to save us, and know it, and preach it to myself everyday. The more I know and love the Gospel, the more my joy and peace increases!
Just so I'm clear on what I mean by the Gospel, here is a passage of scripture where Paul clearly outlines the Gospel, in Ephesians 2. (Jeanna and I are memorizing this right now.) Here Paul is preaching the Gospel again, to believers, as he so often does in the epistles.
Eph 2:1-10
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
NIV

In the introduction of this book, the author says that we have mistaken the Gospel for the message we accept at our conversion, and then move on to "bigger and better" spiritual things. However, what we really need is a deeper knowledge of, affection for, and understanding of the Gospel, day by day! I read recently that if you think you fully grasp the Gospel, you probably don't. The Gospel message is so deep and rich that there is more to dig into everyday.
This book breaks the Gospel message into pieces and gives you scriptures referenced below each section to go over. I am so looking forward to taking in the Gospel message, piece by piece, and knowing it more deeply. This morning I got a LOT out of what I read and the passages that it sent me to read in the scripture. Isn't this what we all need more of?
Yes! I realize when my children sin, they need to hear the Gospel from us. There is redemption, forgiveness, freedom from trying to be good on our own...there is so much there for us to share with them.
When I am in sin, I need- the Gospel.
When I am condemning myself for my sin- I need more of the Gospel.
When I am relying on myself to do something- I need a dose of the Gospel.
When I might fall into legalistic thinking- yep, the Gospel.
When I am prideful, the Gospel.
When I resist forgiving, even for a millisecond, Gospel.
Are you catching me? It makes me excited just writing about it. God is so good, rich in mercy, full of grace, the Gospel message is truly GOOD NEWS.