You can tell it has been awhile by how big Kai has gotten!

I am fighting the urge to use this post to go on a diatribe attesting to all of the many things that we have been up to so as to prevent you from thinking that we have been idly lounging around.

Instead I will just tell you that, adjusting to a life in which you are neither here, nor there, but here and preparing for there, is busy, and filled with uncertainties, challenges, and many, many opportunities for exercising patience.

We are very thankful for this time that God has given us to prepare to go. For the wonderful home He provided for us, and for the support that we have. But we still have a mountain to climb. So we progress, daily, to seek strength and patience while we wait on Him to provide the next step to take in faith. We are getting closer as we finish up the paperwork process with our organization, Back2Back Ministries. The biggest challenge has been the fact that we are creating a budget and fundraising goals for a place in which we have not lived and the organization has not yet operated.

So we are creating and making best guesses based on our research while in Haiti in February and March as well as Back2Back’s previous site start up experience in other countries. It has been slow but is progressing.

So now that we have our “in flux” working budget and fundraising goals, we are just about ready to begin fundraising to achieve the Kingdom-sized goals for the vision that God has placed on our hearts as well as Back2Back’s for the orphan child in Haiti.

While we  have been working with Back2Back on paperwork, we have also been busy with other things, including getting plugged back in at our home church, Faith Community Church working with the youth, worships team, and starting in May, helping out in the office during the week.

We also decided it would be best to file for Citizenship papers for Anna, so two weeks ago we mailed those off and started the 6 month process to get that taken care of.

We are also very close to launching our new website home, www.agconrad.com !!!

Have a great Holy Week!

If you were to ask me what we did for the last five weeks, I would launch into an all-inclusive account of the major goals that we set out to accomplish; such as the week with Jesus in Haiti, assessing Haiti as a start up site for Back2Back, the multiple meetings we had with B2B directors, the ministry opportunities that we had and the research we were able to do in preparation for moving here.

But as I sit on the front porch of the orphanage here in Port au Prince, looking out underneath the shade of this beautiful Mango tree, I hear the laughter and screams of the girls downstairs playing. I scan through the mental pictures and memories in my mind that we have experienced the past five weeks. And what really stands out, are the kids. The lives of the beautiful children who have touched our hearts in our time here and solidified God’s call and vision for us here in Haiti.

While the goals of the trip were important and our meetings, research and other activities were necessary as we lay the groundwork for the vision that God has given us, these things were only the busywork of our trip. The real reason we were here, was the kids, the people. This is the ministry. This is the Kingdom work. The rest is just the necessities that allow the Kingdom work to take place. Let me tell you about a few of these precious children who we got to know a little better over the past few weeks.

If you happened to follow our blog from our trip to Haiti 10 months ago in the aftermath of the Earthquake, then you met Rose (short for Roselanda).

She has gone from a 9 month old baby with a spiking fever that could barely move and eat, to a rambunctious and smiley, beautiful little girl!

The difference between Rose then and now is because of Jared & Jalayne’s consistent care and support of her, her Mom and her sisters. This is the kind of real impact we can have on the precious children that need help here in Haiti. Speaking of sisters…you all remember this little butterball right?

She was about a year and a half old in May of last year. She was just learning how to walk and still could not do it on her own. She was underweight, underdeveloped and needed a lot of help doing everything.

She is now full of life! She still struggles a bit with her balance but is a spirited and active bundle of joy!

These are just a few examples of the kids whom God has used to meld our hearts into His vision for what Back2Back can do here in Haiti.

Finally, we had a bit of a party here the other night. With Ciara, Jared and Jalayne’s oldest girl, on spring break, she wanted to have a sleep over! So Wednesday, the girls came over and we played outside in the afternoon.

Then we ordered in pizza from the U.N. (They have one of the better restaurants in Port Au Prince, believe it or not ) and set the girls all up with mattresses covering the floor in front of the T.V in Jared & Jalayne’s room. We turned on Tinkerbell and watched them have a blast all night long while completely ignoring the movie.

There was jumping, throwing, tickling, screaming, and it was all tied together with hours of giggly laughter and fun. It was so neat to see these girls be that, just girls, having fun. In a place where most children don’t get to experience a childhood, the Lord is providing an opportunity through Jared and Jalayne to bless these girls with just that!

On the subject of girls, Jared and Jalayne also had another princess come to live at the orphanage yesterday! Meet Dalindia! (Hint: She is sitting on Jalayne’s lap. Genese is on Jared’s.)

She is 18 months old and lived in a tent city with her Mom. When her Grandfather found out that Dalindea’s mom was leaving her at the tent all by herself, as a baby, for days, He stepped in and took her in. However, he already had several children of his own living in his small home with his wife and they could not afford to take care of her. So through connections with Jared and Jalayne’s staff, they began working with the Grandfather a few weeks ago and after all of the tests had been done and papers signed, Samuel brought her home today where she will start her new life! She will fit in great! After only a couple of hours, she was playing and smiling, and laughing with the other girls!

It has been a pleasure for us to see Jared & Jalayne doing their ministry first hand, and now we can’t wait to see how God uses us in the future to do the same for the orphan child here in Haiti.

It seems like we just landed here in Haiti and to think that we only have one week left is hard to comprehend. Our time here has been wonderful. Challenging, but wonderful. To be able to spend time with our dear friends, Jared and Jalayne, and to get to know their girls here at the orphanage has been such a blessing!

Our brother-in-law Antonio calls these blessings, “Kingdom Currency.” He explained it as things that you cannot buy with money and blessings that God provides that were not expected. Our time here in Haiti fellowshipping with friends while meeting with Back2Back and doing research on a ministry here has been one of those “Kingdom Currency” blessings, and we are so thankful for it!

Growth as a person is something that we often long for. I am not speaking of getting an education, or getting a new job, or attaining that promotion, or finding that perfect someone to marry. While we see these things as things to strive for, they are no more than goals that we accomplish. What I am talking about is much deeper than accomplishments, it is growth as a human being, the maturation of the soul.

We can read books and watch documentaries and discuss situations and world issues 24/7 and grow in knowledge, grow in our ability to argue issues effectively, but this does not grow us spiritually. Without spiritual growth as a person, we starve the very core of who we were created to be. But the reason we often lack spiritual growth is because we know the cost and choose not to pay it.

“The things we try to avoid and fight against – tribulation, suffering, and persecution – are the very things that produce abundant joy in us.” We “don’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it.”
- Oswald Chambers

The cost of growing spiritually, of growing closer to the savior that we worship for an hour on Sunday’s, is high. Very high. Trial, tribulation, hardship, despair, persecution. These are not things that we hunger for naturally. These are things that we pray we will not experience. These are torturous examples of things that we have buffered ourselves from and avoid at all costs. And, yet, these painful experiences are what draw us to lean on the only one we can depend on. They are what teach us that through all of life’s valleys and disasters, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

So we know that it is through persecution and suffering that He has called us to grow in Him. We also know that even as we go through these things, we are able to persevere “because He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). So then why do we continue to value our own comfort above growing?

Is it crazy to desire suffering? Is it Christlike to desire a safe, comfortable, happy life? Is it Biblical? Are we called to live happily and comfortably, avoiding hardship as best we can while throwing in our once a week worship service to the One we claim to live for?

I struggle with these things just like everyone else. Asking questions that make us think about these issues is easy. But taking a look at our own lives and changing things is much more difficult. Most likely, these words are read and you think “hmmmm good questions…” and then you go to the next email in your inbox or the next website or article you wanted to look at and your day continues. That is what I used to do, and still do to this day sometimes. We are all called to different things in this life. My sufferings and hardships will not be the same as yours, nor should they. Our trials are what prepare us specifically for that which we are called to do in the Kingdom of God. So let me simply ask you what God asked me:

What obstacles are in your life that are hindering Me from molding you into who I designed you to be? What luxuries and comforts are you trading for a true relationship with Me? What sacrifices are you not willing to make because you value those things over growing with Me?

Ask yourself these questions and pray about them. Prepare to be convicted if you do though, because He will show you things and you will change. And when you do change, you will grow. And when you look back and see the pain, and the growth that you just came through, and see where He has brought you, you will long for more, you will begin to know that desire for suffering.

What I have observed here in Haiti over the last few weeks is the joy and happiness of people who suffer daily. When forced through circumstances, human beings can mature in certain ways very rapidly. To live in Haiti, to grow up here, is something that I will never be able to comprehend because my life experience was nothing like this. But the joy that the Christian’s in Haiti possess is unmistakably, the joy of the Lord. The worship that takes place here is genuine and pure. It is the adoration of those who have been through more trials and hardships in the last 18 months than most will experience their entire lives. And they are better people for it. Their reliance on Jesus is total. Their spiritual growth curve is always upward.

I try not to look at my own spiritual growth curve because I fear that if it were my stock funds growth curve I would have sold out long ago and traded up to a better fund. What does your spiritual growth curve look like? Would you invest in it?

We are leaving Haiti a week from tomorrow on the 15th and have experienced much in our time here. We have been meeting weekly with Todd Guckenberger, director of Back2Back Ministries via Skype and are happy to announce that we are officially joining Back2Back as full time staff members this week!

As we look forward, we are working on where and when we will be doing our training as well as where God is leading us to serve. Back2Back, along with us, are still in the preliminary stages of planning and looking at Haiti as a new site. This is looking very good but has several issues that will need to be worked out in the next 12 months. The timing is the tricky part for us as we would like to be on the ground trai
ning and serving late this summer. It will likely take a bit longer to get Haiti off the ground and the other couple that is looking to go will need more time to prepare as well.

So, tentatively we are looking at the possibility of doing some training at the Monterrey facility for a couple of months and/or doing 12-18 months serving at the Cancun site as a transition time for our family as well as mentoring with the site directors of Cancun, Matt & Julie Cooper, who we really connected with during our trip in January. During this time it is possible that we would be getting the ball rolling with Haiti, traveling there to lead Back2Back short term groups that will allow us to hit the ground running when the Haiti site takes off.

So our next steps when we return home are to attend our Fundraising Boot Camp seminar in Indianapolis March 16-19, and get right to work doing fund raising full time. The sooner we are able to get fully funded, the sooner we will be able to begin our training and ministry. We are praying that the Lord will bless this and we will be able to move to Mexico no later than August of this year.

So that is where we are at, and where we see the Lord leading right now. I feel compelled to make a disclaimer statement that the Lord will open and shut doors according to His will and not ours, so all plans are subject to His leading and not our guessing. Please pray that He continues to go before us and that we continue to follow Him in all things.

Ummm….I accidentally deleted my notes from the week. I did have several more pictures to share and a few stories, but I will move on as the Lord is working on us anew this week and I feel it is more important to share this with you. Perhaps in the future I will come back to the rest of my time at JiHM, but if you want the director of JiHM’s take on how the week went, check out his blog post on it here:

http://blog.jesusinhaiti.org/2011/02/doing-number-3.html

On to our current week.

As I sit here on the second floor balcony of the girls orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti, my view is of a giant mango tree, I am shaded by it from the morning sun while listening to the hustle and bustle of honking horns and semis as they make their way through the streets.

It is often when we are quietest that it seems God chooses to speak. Perhaps this is because it is the only time that we can hear Him, due to the fact that most of the time we are creating noise that drowns out His “still small voice.” I am no expert on hearing the Lord speak, I see myself more as the stubborn one who needs 100 different glowing neon signs directly from God pointing where to go. But is this a lack of faith on my part? Should I be more willing to do what I think He is calling me to do, or should I rely on my own feelings of what I want to do or where I want to go and call that His will for my life because he gave me those desires?

This week is one of seeking. Seeking His will in many things. Seeking Him for guidance as we do fundraising to finance the ministry that He is calling us to. Seeking Him for a clear direction as to what country He wants us to serve in with Back2Back. Seeking Him for a better understanding of His grace and forgiveness. Seeking him simply to seek Him.

This week, as Anna and I have spent much of our time reading, praying, fasting and talking, we are seeing that through this time of seeking for specific direction, we are, more importantly, drawing nearer to our savior. There is something about running to Him that shifts the way you view what you thought you were running to Him about. It is hard to explain, so I will not try to do so further, but let me just encourage you to give it a try. Give something up for awhile, whether that is food, video games, TV, Facebook…just give it up and seek after Him. Let me be the first to assure you that what you will discover will be profound.

So as Anna and I continue to seek God for a vision of where He wants us to serve, we are praying that you will join us. We need all of the prayer and support we can get as we decipher His will. Please pray that He will show us clearly if He wants us here, in Haiti. Or if He wants us in Cancun, MX. Or if He wants us in Belize City.

These are the three possible location that Back2Back is either, currently serving the orphan child, or will soon be.

We need to make a decision before we come home from Haiti on March 15th, but the sooner the better obviously for planning purposes. It sounds silly to put God on a timeline, ridiculous even. But we believe that He put us here in this place and at this time for a purpose and we believe that He will show us where He wants us within His timeline.

Please join with us in prayer for these next days and weeks.

Thank you.

Andrew & Anna

At first, it is debilitating. You feel as though you are disconnected and unable to keep up with all of the things you have come so accustomed to knowing.

Then, you begin to realize that all those things that you were constantly checking and information you were constantly downloading into your mind, was not as necessary as you thought it was. Life goes on even if you dont know what is happening. And then you realize how much more time you have on your hands when you are not constantly checking email, Twitter, iGoogle, CNBC Stocks, Facebook, and the other 25 apps that get daily use for the typical person.

It was frustrating knowing that I would not be able to blog, but I took alot of notes and journaled some, so that I would be sure to remember all of the things that I wanted to share with you all. Hence the reason I am numbering these posts.

For the first post I want to share with you about the Tree of Life orphanage.

As one of the five points of light of the Jesus in Haiti Ministry, this orphanage is home to approximately 25 beautiful little boys and girls from the age of 6 months old to about 10 years old.

This orphanage has a very unique story. Shortly after the earthquake, a successful Haitian woman who had a very good job and made a pretty good living began to have a heart for the orphans of the earthquake. She chose to act on that conviction and leading and found a vacant home that was not finished and began renting it from the family that owned it in Florida. After she secured the home, she hired 6 Haitian women to work at the orphanage full time and began taking in orphaned children off the streets.

Because she provides the funding for this orphanage solely from her own paychecks, there was no furniture, very little clothing, and no toys whatsoever for these children. All that she could afford was the rent for the home, the salaries for the workers, and one meal a day for the children.

And as is with most things on a short term missions trip, the people that you think you are traveling to a different country to minister to, and share Jesus with, to bless, are the ones that are blessing you, that are sharing Jesus with you through their smiles. It is so easy to see the face of Jesus in these smiles. These smiles that persevere in the midst of more difficult and horrifying circumstances than we as blessed Americans will ever begin to comprehend or understand.

Our time in Cancun was wonderful. We learned so much and were able to spend a lot of time with the Back2Back staff there learning from them and fellowshipping with them. There were several discussions about the future of their operation as well as Back2Back’s overall plans. We were also able to meet with the founders and directors of Back2Back, Todd and Beth Guckenberger. We spent two hours with them just discussing staff responsibilities as well as possible future locations for the new Back2Back start up in the caribbean.

After returning home, we were able to relax for a couple of days and spend some time with family before starting to get ready for our next little adventure. On Tuesday evening we flew from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale, FL. We had an overnight layover and caught a flight to Port au Prince first thing yesterday morning. It was certainly a long trip. But since arriving here, we have been thoroughly enjoying catching up with our dear friends Jared & Jalayne and the three precious girls here in their orphanage, Ciara, Genese, and Kiara!

Tomorrow evening I will be heading to Jesus in Haiti along with some other Back2Back staff to spend a week getting to know them and their organization better and to help assess whether now is a good time or not for Back2Back to put full time people on the ground here in Haiti alongside their current partnership with Jesus in Haiti. I will be spending the week with them and will return to the orphanage after Anna joins me for meetings on Thursday.

After this upcoming week, we are praying that the Lord will begin giving very clear direction on the path that He wants us on. Wherever it may be and whatever it may be doing, we are willing. But just because we are ready to know His plan does not mean that He is ready to show us. We still have much to do to prepare, but we will wait on Him in all things because we know that His timing is perfect and our shallow view of our own lives is a burden that we have to get past.

Please pray that God will show us His plans for Back2Back here in Haiti and for His plans for us.

Pray that the Lord will open our eyes and our hearts to the specific needs that He has prepared us to meet.

My sister goes to visit them every Tuesday. Sometimes she goes and talks to them to get to know them better, sometimes she goes together with Julie Cooper to help them baby sit their babies while they take their classes and therapy. I went with my sister to get to know the girls and to ask if it was ok for me to speak the next Tuesday. My sister Lizy wasn’t sure if they were going to let me speak since they have all their classes ready in advance but when my sister asked the director of the program she got really exited and said that they had been waiting for someone to come and talk about early childhood development and she booked the next two Tuesdays for me to speak.

I am not allowed to talk about God since it is a government program, so I based everything on Christian values. I was a little nervous because the Tuesday that I went for the first time they were not paying attention to their psychologist, so I thought they were going to have the same attitude toward me. I asked a lot of people to pray for me. This was the first time that I spoke in front of more than 10 people, none of whom were Christian, they also have had a pretty hard life and I didn’t know what to expect since they didn’t know me and I look just as young as they are. I needed to gain their respect and attention.

Three days before I was supposed to speak, I got sick with a really bad cold and I didn’t have time to go through my research. i was thinking about asking my sister if she could do it for  me since I was feeling really bad. The day before I stayed in bed the whole day. My body was hurting, I felt weak and the medicine was making me feel worse. Andrew prayed for me and I went to sleep hoping that I would feel better the next day. Tuesday came along and I had no strength but nothing was going to stop me from having this experience so I left with my sister.

When we got there, there were 20 or so girls. Most of this girls have being sexually abused and their babies are the result of that abuse. It amazes me to see them around their babies because you wouldn’t think that the girls went through an experience like that. They love their babies, and they go to this program because they want the best for their children. They have to go through pain, anger, and deception every day but these babies are their reason to live, and now that I am a mom even though I didn’t go through the same experience I know what it feels like when you love someone so much that that little person makes every day worth it.

The director of the program introduced me and I started talking. I felt like that’s what I was made for, for that moment, I finally found my purpose in life. I even forgot that I was sick. Kai was my little helper, he did such a good job. All the girls were so interested in what I was saying. I had a really good time. The director of the program told me thank you and she was very excited for what I had talked about.

It is easy to confuse one with the other.

To say, “Oh look at me God, look at what I am doing for you! Look at what I have given to your church, and done for the homeless! Look at how much I gave last year! Look at all these orphans I played with and look at this church I helped build in Africa!

But these are acts of service. They, in and of themselves, are not the devotion to our Savior that is necessary to carry the name of Christian.

How easy it is to arrogantly fall into the trap of measuring our acts of service and calling ourselves “good christians.”

I struggle with this often.

Do you?

Is this just another discussion about faith vs. works? I dont think so. I think they may be related to this issue, but they are not the same. To me the faith vs. works discussion has always left out the most important part of being a Christian, GRACE! That very thing that we as Christians are so bad at giving is the very thing that we typically place a distant third to faith and works.

So how do we overcome this paradigm? Prayer and fasting. But not the nice idea of dropping those three little words and talking lightly about it. I am talking about the headache inducing, 14 hours of sleep a day, gut wrenching prayer and fasting. This is something that God has given us that along with His Holy Spirit, can crush enemy strongholds and create a true paradigm shift in our way of thinking.

Have you ever fasted?

If not, why?

It is an integral part of the Christian walk, and if you have never done it, I encourage you to do so.

So, this past week here in Cancun has been truly amazing. So much has taken place, so much has been done and while we know that great things are being done and the Lord’s Kingdom is advancing. At the same time we know that God has amazing blessings in store for the future of the ministry taking place here in Cancun.

The people in charge of the Back2Back Cancun site are Matt and Julie Cooper, I highly recommend you check out their blog here:

http://www.whereyougoigo.com

Matt is wonderfully honest about the future of the ministry here and the fact that it is totally and completely going to be led by the Holy Spirit. This really is an amazing step of faith, to know that you have hundreds of investors waiting for updates and the American need for a plan and a vision and a framework to take place, and to hold that all at bay and say “No, this ministry will not be led with human ideas and will not be molded by human hands, but by the breath of God and the gentle prodding fingers of the Holy Spirit.” That is a strong faith in action.

And even while a plan and a framework and a vision have yet to be revealed by God, every day brings a new opportunity to share His love, and be His hands and feet.

We continued our work at the DIF center creating separate offices., we have one room almost completely finished and the others are in the process of getting mud and tape on the drywall and new commercial fans installed! Sorry no pics right now, I will get some when we are closer to being done so you can see the finished product.

We also took a few trips to the DIF Children’s Center. Within the DIF Children’s Center there is a closed off section that is guarded 24/7 by police where they keep the children who have been removed from violent  or life threatening situations. We went and talked about heroes and did a craft with them one day. Yesterday, Matt, Mau and I were able to just go and play games with them and hang out. Here are some of the children of CAT. It is truly amazing to think about where these children have come from, and how the joy of the Lord is miraculously shining through their darkest nights.

Oh well, there are so many things happening here and I just wanted to bring you up to speed on what we are doing.

One of Back2Back’s main connections for ministry here is with the government. Specifically, the DIF, we call it the (deef). This is the institution for Family Development. It would be similar to the States if the Department of Family Services, WIC, Child Protective Services, and much of the welfare system were combined into one program. Needless to say, the need far outweighs whatever budget they are given.

Hoever through some miraculous connections, B2B has made contact with the majority of the leadership of the DIF offices here in Cancun and many of them are Christians and had been praying for help! They were thrilled when B2B offered to begin helping out. What we spent a lot of our time working on this past week was fixing up an older facility that is used to take reports from teenage girls who have been raped. In the past, there were four rooms, each with one desk and three counselors to take the account of these horrific stories from the girls. They would be telling their stories with 6-10 other people in the room right next to them. Many of these girls are victims of the sex trafficking trade.

So we were working on finishing up a construction project that began before we came as you will see from the picture. We have been building walls within each of the four rooms to separate offices so that each girl will have privacy with a counselor to begin the healing process.

As you can see in the picture, the people who were working on the project before, wrote prayers and blessings on the inside of the drywall, and the handprints are where they laid hands on the walls and prayed. No one coming in or leaving this government facility will ever know, but the spirit of the Lord will dwell there and the enemy will have no grasp on anyone who passes by these walls! What an amazing idea!

Along with working on this facility, Mauricio and I also spent half a day assisting a local church do some demolition in their new facility that they are renting and moving into on February 1st. In speaking with Pastor Alfonso, I learned that they are taking an amazing step of faith by going ahead with this move for more space. They are moving to a new place that will give them 3 times more space and will cost half the amount of rent they are paying now, however they have no moving expenses and are six months behind on rent for their old location. Yet the Lord opened up this opportunity and in faith they are leaping and trusting that the Lord will supply the $140,000 MXP that they need to make it happen! Its inspiring really after seeing so many churches in the States being run simply like a business. It also reminded me much of our Indiana home church’s recent move to a much larger facility in order to grow and not knowing how the Lord would provide, only that He would. He has blessed the church greatly and will continue to do so, just as He always does when we trust in Him and His promises.

Lastly, Anna has set up a time to do her class on early childhood development for the soon to be teen mothers at DIF. She will be doing the class next Tuesday, January 18th. Please be in prayer for her and for the girls that she will be talking to. Pray that she will be able to share her testimony and how God’s love can help sustain them through the very tough days they have ahead of them.

So that was week one in a very brief recap. We also did get to the beach and got Kai into the ocean!

More to come soon!

grant me the serenity to accept the things that I can not change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference

Is there a better way to summarize our daily life as Christians? Sure there are a lot of specifics within this, but in generalities, most of our days are filled with micro decisions which all stem back to this quote. We all must determine, in everything we do, whether we are attempting to accept something, or determining to change something.

Currently we find ourselves in Mexico. This is just one of many steps in our journey since we began taking action when the Lord showed us something that we needed to change. To us, this trip brings a sense of action and accomplishment to the four months of preparation that we have been through. At the same time, it is one step among many on this path that the Lord has us on, and it also is a reminder that our work has yet to even begin.

As we see, first hand the pain of this world in the tired eyes and broken hearts of the “least of these” we gain but a glimpse into the tyranny that life can bring when humanity is not afforded the benefits of certain societies. We begin to catch the vision for which God has prepared us. We begin to realize just what saying “yes” really means.

Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

This quote really sums up my journey, as well as many others, I am sure., including that of the author of this quote, Samuel Clemens, or as you might better know him, Mark Twain. I can only speak from my own experience but I do tend to think that most people can also find some truth in this statement in their own lives. The truth of this statement becomes more and more evident as you come to understand what causes the things that we perceive to be unjust, or wrong according to our cultural norms.

But the real truth of this statement, to me, shows itself in that it is true in every sense when looking at the problems and issues of this world, yet loses all value when applied to Scripture and Jesus. The more I study humanity and what causes certain societal ills, the more uncertain I become about my initial assumptions. (i.e. “well if they would just work harder” or “they should have studied harder in school” or “well they should not have had sex”) But the more I study God’s word and the life and teachings of Jesus, the more certain I am, the more trust I have in Him, the more sure I become in the life that He has called us all to. A life of sacrifice for “the least of these”.

Even Confucius understood the principle to which we are called as human beings, although he missed the fact that it is because that is how we were created by God.

To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.

We know what is right, we have heard it a hundred times sitting in the pews of our churches and from the very words of the Bible that we claim to place our entire existence upon. I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that it is very difficult to be called to send as opposed to go. I wrestled with this for four years, while we were simply called to send while we waited on God’s timing to go. The battle between our own selfish desires and what we know we should be spending our money on (The Kingdom), is one that is so difficult to face on a daily basis, especially living in the States.

So when God opened the door to our long awaited request to go, we were ecstatic and all to willing to jump our current ship and sing up for this new adventure. Oh, how little we knew or understood the sacrifices that came along with that. I cannot even say that we know them yet, but simply beginning to see the reality of them taking shape is enough to know that with each passing day, we must learn to rely more and more on our Savior, or we will soon be underwater.

So as we continue to walk this path of Faith, whether that be here in Cancun, right now, Haiti in the near future, and who knows where down the road, our prayer is this:

“Holy Spirit, grant us the serenity to accept the things that we can not change, the courage to change the things that we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And in all that we do, may you be glorified above all.”

May this be your prayer also.

We will be posting more next week about what we are doing here in Cancun ans more specifically what Back2Back is doing.