Through Orange Colored Glasses

Barbie and I are headed to Indonesia for the wedding of our oldest son, Patrick. Wow! I knew this day would come. I thought it would come more quickly. But it was worth the wait.

Patrick and his future wife, Grace Go, both teach at a Christian school in Jakarta. Patrick teaches English literature. Grace teaches art. Indonesia is the most Muslim country in the world, but their school is still respected there because it is perhaps the most academic in the country. Pat and Grace get to teach the smartest children whose parents are some of the greatest leaders and most influential people in the country. These children will become the future leaders of this country. And Pat and Grace get to teach them Christianity. What a wonderful school. What a wonderful mission.

Pat met Grace in Singapore at teacher training. He said that it was love at first sight. He knew instantly that he wanted to marry this young woman. And now it is going to happen. I am so proud of them and happy for them. They plan on staying for the near future and continue to teach their wonderful students in Jakarta.

Can you think of a prettier place to have a wedding than Bali? Yes, Bali is a part of Indonesia and where we are headed. Barbie and I hope to get a little vacation while we are there. It is only a 40-hour trip to get there.

Thanks to all of you for being so loving to our family. Pray for Patrick and Grace in this new beginning.

If you are like me, you are thinking like crazy trying to come up with one more gift idea for Christmas shopping. If you are still looking, I have a few suggestions. These are some of my last minute items.

Give a goat. Or you can choose so many other options from the Christian Relief Fund catalog like a mosquito net, a cow, a well, or an eReader. Recently we drilled a well in a remote village in Turkana. We gave them some food and taught them how to irrigate in order to start a farm. But when I went back in a few months, I found that their crops were not ready for harvest and the food I had given them had run out. They had no food, and yet they were alive. I asked them how they stayed alive. They revealed the mystery to me when they walked me out to a corral. It was full of goats people had bought through CRF. The people were only alive because of the milk from these goats. Maybe it was an extra Christmas present to buy for you, but to them it was the source for keeping them alive.

You can order a goat or another gift on the CRF Christmas catalog at www.Christianrelieffund.org/giftcatalog

If you want a give a book (I like to do this), let me recommend a couple for you. A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans moved me and gave me some understanding of myself that has been extremely significant. In this new book, Evans retells the story of Joseph only in a modern day setting. If your life ends up in a good place even though the pathway there was circuitous and rather bumpy, this is the book for you. I never dreamed that I would work for Christian Relief Fund. And I certainly would have never believed that I would have arrived here in the way that it happened. Yet is easy to see God’s hand all over it. Perhaps you are still in the middle of an unexpected journey into the unknown. It may be tough. It may be unpleasant. But there is a God behind your story. Maybe this book can help you realize it.

And if you want the most dramatic story imaginable, read Running For My Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games. It is the true story of Lopez Lomong who was a victim of some of the most violent and brutal abuse that I have ever known. He went from refugee camps in Africa to carrying out the flag for the United States at the Olympics. It is a heartwarming story full of hope. Lopez and I both spoke on the Rejuvenate program in Columbus, Ohio. We have partnered together to save some children in Sudan and Kenya. He is one of the fastest people in the world. He and I are together in the picture for this blog. If there is ever a story of overcoming and a modern day Joseph, it is this one.

Have a great Christmas!!!

Big. That’s what we called him. It was really Don Williams. But we always called him “Big Don” or “Big.” Why did we call him “Big”? It’s because he was big. He was tall. And he was…big. But I liked to think that he did everything bigger than life. Whether it was eating, preaching, sports, laughing or whatever—he did it big.

When I think back upon Big Don, he was one of the two biggest influences in my ministry life. I can honestly say that I always wanted to be like him. He traveled around doing retreats. That’s what I do now—I did twelve last year. He made his sermons full of personal stories. That’s what I try to do now. I can rarely make mine as funny or as sad as Big Don though. When he was funny, no one laughed more than he did. But when he was telling a poignant one, he was the first to have a tear in his eye. He gave himself to the marginalized whether it was because of race, income, or disability. I now give myself to helping the hopeless and helpless with Christian Relief Fund. But most importantly, he had a religion that was focused on Jesus Himself. In a world full of peripheral issues and hot topics, Don got me to go back to the gospels making sure that Jesus was central to my message and lifestyle.

I will never see a box of See’s Candy without thinking of Big. He especially liked the raspberry pieces. He loved little kids. I loved the way he loved mine. I miss our special funny stories. We would tell them over and over again. They never seemed to age, and they got “Bigger” with every telling. Don was kind. He was a servant. He would never let you pick up the check. He wanted to treat you. It never seemed to be about him.

The pulpit of the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock is legendary. Not so much because of the size or the look of it. No, it is famous because there is a little plastic sign on it that you can only see if you are speaking from it. It says, “Sir, we would see Jesus”. It is from the passage in John 12:21 where the Greeks came looking to see the Christ. However, on the pulpit—it means that whoever is standing there should not have the preeminence. If anyone is looking at the pulpit, they should see Jesus not some human personality. It was a reminder to anyone who ever walked behind the pulpit that it wasn’t about him—it was all about Jesus. The sign simply appeared one day as legend goes. No one ever knew where it came from. If people knew, they didn’t tell it.

Big Don died last week. His memorial was today. If it is still a secret, the word should be out now. Big Don put the sign on the pulpit—“Sir, we would see Jesus”. It was not only on the pulpit. It was as if it was figuratively hanging around the neck of Big Don. Big, you wore it well. When I look back, all I can say is– “We saw Jesus.”

Thank you! How could a blessed person not say “Thank You”? We do it all the time. In Luke 17 Jesus tells the story of ten lepers who are all healed by him, but only one returns to give thanks. I certainly don’t want to be that way, do you?

Many of you have been asking me about the “Thank You” note from Laura Bush that was on Facebook. Since I don’t get cards like that every day, I guess it does deserve an explanation. During this last year, I have had the opportunity to partner with Collinson Media and speak at their big events telling about the crisis in the world related to poverty, orphans, and AIDS. In response participants have helped CRF. What has been so interesting to me is that this privilege has put me on the same program with Seth Meyers, Steve Forbes, Steve Harvey, Biz Stone and many other noteworthy speakers. And yes, it put me on the program with Laura Bush.

At first, I was going to follow the First Lady, but they switched the program at the last minute where I would precede her. As I was walking up to speak, I looked at Laura Bush sitting across from Barbie and thought about PEPFAR. I have always wanted to thank the Bush family for their work with perhaps the greatest government program ever done.

If you don’t know, PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. President Bush committed $15 billion over a five-year period to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. This effort helped especially with the provision of antiretroviral treatment to 2 million HIV-affected people (to stop their HIV from developing into AIDS), to prevent 7 million new infections, and to support care for 10 million others infected. Africans received the most help with this. Literally, millions of African lives have been saved because of this legislation.

I don’t know of any legislation in history that has saved more lives. I can’t remember any act that has saved more physical lives. And most people don’t know that the President and Laura did this massive effort to save lives. When I first started going into the Sub-Saharan regions of the AIDS pandemic, I had little hope. It was hard to think that many of these Africans would ever live through the pandemic. But I think we have turned the corner. There is still not a cure, but with the antiretroviral treatment, millions are still alive who wouldn’t be otherwise. And it couldn’t have happened without PEPFAR.

Most people just don’t know about PEPFAR. Matt Damon, who recently spoke about PEPFAR, said it was so good that he was going to kiss George W. Bush on the lips if he ever met him for doing it. It was so good that President Obama has praised it and continued it. Still most people don’t know that it happened.

I always felt like I should thank them for it. But how do you get a message to the President? As I looked at Laura Bush, I realized that it was my opportunity. I told the thousands of people who were there about this great gift of compassion. As I expected, very few of them knew about it. And I thanked the First Lady and the President for saving these lives. It means a lot to me because I not only know about PEPFAR , but I also know the names and faces of so many of those children who have been saved by it.

When I started talking about it, I could tell that she was thankful that I was telling about it. The Bush family has received so much criticism. It is such a shame that they are rarely thanked for perhaps the greatest legislation in history. What a privilege—I got to thank her.

When the First Lady got up to talk, she thanked me and then she thanked Christian Relief Fund telling of our work with HIV/AIDS. I was humbled. I was honored. It’s really good to be thanked.

But I think Mrs. Bush learned the lesson of Luke 17 deeply. When I got home from my trip to Columbus, there was also this thank you note from her and additional gratitude from the President.

Wow! I am honored. I am thankful. It is framed.

‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Luke 24:7

Chad Westerholm, who is a missionary in Mozambique, told the story of baptizing a man with the unusual but biblical name of Lazarus. One week later, Lazarus tragically died of AIDS.

When people die in Lazarus’ village an age-old tradition is upheld. Upon the occasion of the death, a funeral occurs. Funerals are familiar to all of us, but it is what happens after the last rites there that is a bit unusual. After a person passes away, all of the family and the friends of the deceased arrive at the house of the mourning family. The houseguests stay for three days and basically eat all the food of the bereaved family.

After the third day and all the groceries are pretty much gone, the visitors leave. That is the tradition. It never changes. The inconvenience of insensitive company is expected and tolerated. Everyone learns to live with the way it has always been. You lose your love one, and then you lose your resources. And it might totally be that way today except for the death of Lazarus.

When Lazarus died, the Christians in his village decided to undo the past and start a new way of doing things. A funeral took place as in the past, but they changed what happened after the memorial. Three days after the death of Lazarus, the believers went to his grave and placed a cross upon it. After this ritual, they gathered all the food they could muster up and took it to the house of Lazarus’ grieving family and gave the goods to them. But that wasn’t all of the grace shown. The church members also pooled their money together taking a collection to take care of the new widow. A new Christian tradition was born in the village. And people took notice of it.

But more than anyone else, Lazarus’ family noticed the difference in the Christians and everyone else when it came to how death was approached. And on that third day, the wife of Lazarus and all of his family were baptized into Christ. They were simply amazed by the love that was shown by the Christians. Their graciousness had to be explained. And it was Jesus that made the difference in their actions. And as a result, it was Jesus in whom the family believed.

It is all about the third day, isn’t it? In Mozambique the non-Christians left on the third day after they had taken all they could. But on the third day, the Christians showed up with all they could to help. It is all about the third day, isn’t it? It is the day Jesus showed up to tell us that there is hope and life.

It’s still all about the third day. It was for Lazarus. There is no cure for AIDS, but there is one for death. It’s all about the third day.

Hope. I talk so much about it, but I’m afraid that at times I get it confused with postponement. Maybe we all do. It seems like the Jews did in the New Testament. They hoped for the Messiah. They talked about the Messiah coming over and over again. They believed that things would be good when Messiah came. And then Messiah came. But it seemed like it was easier to believe that Messiah was coming than He was here.

I often do that too. I think that someday it will get better. I have hope. Hope is what I will have in the future. But hope isn’t something that should be exclusively projected to the future. I don’t postpone happiness until a certain event happens or things change from the way they are now. Messiah has come. Hope is here. I have now realized the goodness of God and can face my future with Him.

I wear orange because it is the color of hope. I often tell orphans that I wear it because I expect there to be a cure for AIDS in the future. But perhaps I have postponed goodness to the future when in reality Messiah has come. There is hope now whether there is a cure for AIDS or not. No matter what the situation we face, even if it is negative, we have a Messiah. He is here. He provides help now.

But it is still hard to believe that Messiah has come. It is easier to think it will be better in the future rather than to acknowledge that it is good now. When I go to our clinic in Kisumu, Kenya, I often teach a class to a bunch of women who have full blown AIDS. I always end my class with the statement— “There is no cure for AIDS, but there is a cure for death.” Why? Messiah has come. We don’t have to postpone our joy. We don’t have to postpone goodness to the future. The future has already been inaugurated. The coming one is here now. The coming kingdom is present. Salvation is not only a future hope– it is also a present experience.

The women in the class wanted their picture made with me. I thought that they wouldn’t want their picture taken because of their dilemma. And when they had the photograph made, I hardly expected them to smile. But look at their faces! I think they had hope written all across their faces. They believed that they had a future. And they believed that they had someone to help them now with their problems on the way to their future.

Mt. Elgon. When I hear about it, I often get chills. I’ve never heard of a worse war. Maybe there’s been a bigger one, but not one with greater cruelty. It is over now, but the pain still lingers. It was one tribe fighting against itself. So many died, and too many children saw their parents brutally killed.

CRF had some schools on Mt. Elgon. One was taken. Another was closed. We got one of them back, but there has been a lot of damage done. When the school was closed, many children did not get to attend any school at all. Now that they are coming back, they are very old for the grade in which they are enrolled. This presents a problem because it is difficult to get sponsors for older children who are in primary grades. And our CRF leader at the school was also murdered in the horrible violence. As a result, we needed a new leader.

As a group of us with CRF were talking about the situation, we discussed the leadership qualities of James Mangut. We had been told that he would be a good partner for CRF, and he was already helping the children there at the school. But in our conversation, his faith came up. We were not sure about his commitment to Christianity. And there is a “Christian” in Christian Relief Fund. We talked about his belief or lack of it. We tried to conjecture about why he wasn’t a part of the church there. We discussed what all was needed spiritually in being a part of our school. Nearly all of us felt like we needed him but couldn’t use him because of this seemingly big difference in us.

As we kept talking about him, Emmanuel (yes, of Emmanuel’s Farm) said, “I’m going to quit talking about him and go talk to him.” He suggested that maybe no one has ever talked to him about this before. He also said that if James knew how good the gospel was, he would want to be a follower. So when the rest of us talked about James, Emmanuel talked to James. In fact, he talked to him several times.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when Emmanuel sent me an email recently telling me that James and his wife were making a decision to be Christians. And Emmanuel went over to Mt. Elgon and baptized not only James but also his wife, Pamela. But that is not all—a lot of other people upon hearing the good news also thought it was good. Before Emmanuel left, he had baptized 39 people. Isn’t that great?

Now we have a good leader and a man who believes on Mt. Elgon to teach our children. I’m thankful for James’ surrender to God. And I’m thankful for Emmanuel’s witness to him.

I think I learned a lesson through this. You should talk to people rather than about them. How many people do we talk about rather than talk to? Maybe a lot more people would believe if we would talk to them rather than about them.

Pray for James. He has a monumental task on Mt. Elgon. He needs money for the school to keep it continuing. He needs a lot of his kids sponsored. But he has faith.

Wilson. I still can’t get over him. I can only call it a “divine appointment.” It’s one of those people whom God puts in your life, but you just didn’t see it coming.

I was in Lubbock, Texas at Connect (the National Campus Ministry Seminar). Before the seminar started, I met with my good friends Paul Smith and Jim Barnett to play golf at the Rawls golf course on Texas Tech campus. Barbie dropped us off at the course, and we decided to eat breakfast at the little café in the clubhouse.

As we ordered, a very friendly cook named Wilson greeted us. Barbie thought that he looked African. So she started up a conversation. Indeed, he was African.

But to make this story come alive, you have to go back in time a little bit. About a year ago, some students from a campus ministry at Texas Tech led by David Pounds and Marcia Crabtree decided that they wanted to reach out in a mission effort in some poor place where they could make a difference. We talked about places all over the world but finally landed on the second poorest country in the world—Liberia. I told them about a lot of orphans and destitute children in Liberia who had been victimized by the war. Then I also shared with them about a group of outcasts who had virtually nothing and were squatting on some church property in Monrovia. Their problems were increased because they not only were victims of poverty, but they were also deaf. We decided together to take care of them and also ensure that they had a school where they could learn with sign language. The students at Tech made a commitment to visit them, sponsor them, and provide an education for them. They even raised money for them by parking cars at Tech football games.

Wilson told Barbie that he was from Liberia. He also told us about his daughter Puju there. He said that he was trying to get her into school in Monrovia and how he simply couldn’t get it done. Barbie then told him how I had been to Liberia and helped poor children go to schools. Then Wilson thanked Barbie but told her that there was an additional problem. His daughter was deaf.

So I told him about our deaf school. I told him about the college students in the very city where we were golfing who supported deaf students in Monrovia. I told him about Emmanuel Jacobson who runs our school on Smythe Road. Wilson even knew where it was. Hopefully, his daughter will be in school soon.

A coincidence? Hardly. A divine appointment? Certainly.

God puts people in our lives. But here is what I have learned about them. First of all, you need to have open eyes to see them. And be bold enough like Barbie to start a conversation. But secondly, we need to be prepared. We need to be discerning and doing the good works God has set before us before the appointment time. We were ready to talk to Wilson on that day. How sad it would have been to say to Wilson after hearing of his need—“I’m sorry.” But God had been preparing us for quite some time so we would be more than ready to put in a good word for Jesus on the day we met him.

Divine appointments are coming. Get ready.

I met a woman today who is trying to figure out how to take care of around 1500 war orphans on Mt. Elgon. She filled me with stories of a war where one tribe was fighting with itself. There was a leader who reminded me of Joseph Kony only more violent. She told me of thousands of women who were raped. She spoke of children who had watched their parents cut up with machetes. This matron was the head teacher of a school for all of these orphans, but she didn’t have money to feed them or really to even continue to operate the school. What do you say? I didn’t have the money to support them. It seemed too massive. I’m not sure what all would need to be done.

So I took her letter that explained the situation to Emmanuel, our CRF leader at Eruli. He read the letter and told me that he had another farm, and he would try to take care of them. His rationale was very simple—“children shouldn’t suffer.”

I’m not sure what Emmanuel will do, but I guarantee you he will do something. He is already taking care of 600 orphans. I don’t know how he can do any more. But he will try. No, he will do more than try. He will save as many as he possibly can. I often feel like I am walking on holy ground when I am around Emmanuel. Some people seem too good to be true.

I love Emmanuel’s farm. Children come there without food, parents, and hope. And then they find happiness. There is not enough food, but somehow children are surviving. There are hardly any books, but somehow children are learning.

Chris Goldman is over here with me. He said that it is like a revival going on here. But it is a revival to save these children. He told a young boy that when he was older that he would look back on this time and see it as the time when people rose up and through a movement of God saved their country by saving the children. There truly is a movement of God going on here. Emmanuel said that it’s all about James 1:27. It is about the widows and the orphans. It is about the kind of religion that God loves. And it is happening all around us. It’s contagious. It’s important. It is a religious awakening. I think that God is always on the side of the oppressed. It seems to be a biblical theme. It seems God is always on the side of the orphans. It is a very clear statement.

As I was sleeping in Turkana, I heard a huge noise. Being 2:30 in the morning, it startled me out of bed. I ran outside to see what had made the disturbing noise. It sounded like a truck had run into the building. Others were outside trying to figure it out too. When we looked up into the sky, it was obvious. We had heard thunder. And soon we saw lightning. And then the most unusual thing happened. We felt rain. It is unusual because it has been years since some of the people of Turkana have had any rain. And now I was witnessing rain.

Francis Bii had been told by a man from Turkana to bring some rainwater from Eldoret to prove to him that water still falls from the sky. Now it was actually happening. Francis declared, “Your prayers have been answered!”

As we traveled in the morning to open a new well in the desert, we noticed all the puddles from the rain. But we had not traveled too far until they were all gone. Most of Turkana had not received rain. Where we were going, it has not rained in five years. I thought I had been to the worst part of Turkana. I had not. Previously, I had been shocked to see that the dirt looked like sand in the area where we had drilled. I felt like we were on a beach. But where we went today, the ground was a wasteland. It was like fine gravel. You would need a pickaxe to crack the land. And in this scorching desert, we opened a borehole today. Water flowed on my very first pump of the well. Typically, the Turkana people danced and sang. I read Psalm 107 to them and told them that they have a God who brings water into the desert. They clapped and sang again.

To show their appreciation, they gave me a goat. They had asked me if I had eaten. I told them no. And the next thing you know, I am holding a goat. As nice as this present was—the other was much better. They also gave us land. At first, I wasn’t that excited. The land around us looked like concrete. What could we do with that kind of land? It would be too difficult to farm.

But the land wasn’t near this place. We drove miles to get there. Our truck couldn’t reach the land because our land was in a valley. As I walked to the edge of the overlook and looked down on our land, I couldn’t believe it. It was lush. It was an oasis. I felt like I was walking into the Garden of Eden. Obviously, there was water under the ground. None of the plants were food, but if they were cleared away—this was the best place imaginable for farming. Our water well driller told us we could drill a shallow well here, irrigate the land, and begin a farm that could feed the largest town in Turkana. I just couldn’t get over how fertile the land was.

It hadn’t rained here yet. But there was water that they couldn’t see. They hadn’t heard the thunder here. But the news of the thunder had already reached them. They had to conclude that God was still around. In fact, He was a lot closer than they thought.