John

Look at that face. I am in love with this child.

My friend Laura returned from Haiti a couple of days ago. She went with Sweet Sleep back to the same orphanage I visited in February. I asked her if she would take John a picture of the two of us. I had written some sentiments on the back. I wanted him to know that I hadn't forgotten him and that I am still praying for him.

The words say "Jesi renmen ou!" Which means "Jesus loves you!" in Creole. I said, "I am praying for you, John. I miss you! Love, Leigh Ann."

This is Rogelin interpreting for him what I had written.
My heart is overflowing with love. Only Jesus is the author of things like this. How else could I have such a strong connection to a child in Haiti that I spent five days with and who doesn't understand a spoken word that I say? But he understands that I love him. I pray he understands that God loves him.

If you wonder why I've become such a strong orphan advocate this year, look back up at that face. Tell him he deserves to sleep on the floor.

I can't.

Please consider supporting Sweet Sleep with a monthly contribution. It's only $30 a month to be a bedhead, around a dollar a day. But what a huge difference $30 can make to precious children like these!

Please email me if you have any questions. If you don't have my email address, comment with yours and I'll answer ASAP.

Praying for you!

I think Jesus is making me a liberal.

Go ahead and wipe the coffee off of your computer screen. I'll wait.

The thought of me becoming a liberal is pretty crazy, isn't it? No, I'm not becoming pro-choice. Pretty sure the Scriptures are clear about that one. No, I'm not becoming an advocate for gay rights. Again, Scripture.

But there are other issues out there that I'm becoming a lot more fuzzy on; primarily, the disparity between the rich and the poor.

I am not a fan of what our current administration is doing to solve this. I do not believe it is up to the government to redistribute wealth. I do not think it is wise for the government to take over the free market. I think we are heading down a dangerous, slippery slope right now and I pray earnestly that our November election will put a dramatic halt to many of the things that have been happening over the past year.

But the problem is not the government. The problem is Christians.

When did we stray so far from the Scriptures that tell us over and over again to take care of the poor and needy, the widows and the orphans? When did we decide that the American dream of more and more stuff is a perfectly acceptable way for followers of Jesus to live? We have been so willingly enticed down the path of possessions that most of us don't even pause to question whether this is the road Christ would have us on.

Putting it globally, the population of the world is about 22 times that of the US. We make up about 4.5 percent of all the people living today. The average income in America is $38,611 per person, or $105 per day. That's average. Seems low, though, doesn't it?

Compare that to the fact that over a billion people worldwide live on less than $1 a day. That's 15 percent of the population. Add that to those making less than $2 a day and you go up to 40%, or 2.6 billion people. The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for only 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for 3/4 of the world's income.

Or how about this. If you make $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than approximately 90% of the world's population. If you raise that to $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99% of the people on this planet. $50,000 a year.

I know this is a ton of facts and statistics, but I've just been blown away by the information I've been gathering lately. If your interest is sparked by this, and I pray that it is, please read Richard Stearn's book, "The Hole in our Gospel." Prepare to be convicted by what you read. We can not allow ourselves to sit by any longer and ignore the vast, far-reaching poverty of the rest of the world. It's not at all what Jesus intended.

So you might ask, "What's wrong with making a good income? Are you saying that is a sin?"

Not at all. I'm saying the problem is when we choose to take all of that income to make ourselves richer. To hoard more and more stuff. To sell our house to build something bigger than we need just because we can. To always want more.

Jesus says it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. He's talking about us. He knows that when we are continually investing in ourselves and gathering more resources for personal gain, we are missing the point of the gospel.

Jesus preached social justice. He preached equality. If you simply start reading through the New Testament, you will see the writers over and over again exhorting believers to give of their resources for the poor and needy. You will be hard-pressed to find justification for hoarding personal wealth. It's just not there.

So do I suggest quitting your job and finding something that doesn't pay enough to support your family? No, unless you hear God calling you to quit your job. It happens. What I'm suggesting is that we all examine what we are doing with our resources. For years I have been throwing scraps at the poor and feeling pretty good about my giving. That's because it was done from a place of me being in charge instead of allowing God to show me where and how much to give.

But when we make Jesus the Lord over our lives, that means over our finances too. That means we ask before we purchase that big screen TV whether that's what he wants, or if he wants us to use that money for someone else.

This is not a popular concept. If you read Jesus' words carefully, most of what he said wasn't. He was radical in his preaching. It wasn't well accepted by many. In fact, it ultimately got him killed.

My purpose in this post is not to condemn. I've just been walking down a new road of thinking for the past several months and needed to share. My prayer is that you will be inspired to begin rethinking possessions and ownership and begin finding ways to spend your lives for the sake of the poor. It is an investment that is guaranteed to reap huge dividends.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

Country Music Half-Marathon

Jeff ran his second half-marathon this morning. He came in at 1:47:43, which is six minutes and seven seconds faster than last year. We are so proud of him!

Brandon rode in with me this morning so I wouldn't have to find my way through the crowds with three kids by myself. Darlene and the girls are in Alabama doing a yard sale to raise money for her trip to Uganda this weekend, but they were with us in spirit!
The kids are so proud of their daddy!

So thankful that the weather held off for him to finish. On the way home, the bottom fell out, but hopefully it was still dry downtown. I'd hate to have been running in that!

I'm so proud of Jeff. He had a shorter training season this time because it was such a long, cold winter. To not only finish, but finish faster than last year is awesome. Way to go, old man! :)

Last Saturday night, I had the extreme privilege of representing Sweet Sleep at First Baptist Church, Tracy City, TN. They were hosting a VBS training for their workers, and I was invited to come because they have chosen Sweet Sleep to be the recipient of their missions offering this year. In fact, they plan to collect this offering all summer long, not just during the week of VBS!

It was sheer joy to be with these gracious folks. The food was amazing! I'm really hoping to get an invitation back to family night in June if there's any chance of more of this...
Although now that everyone knows what they missed, I might have to fight for my spot!

Food aside, though, it was truly a wonderful evening. Having the opportunity to talk with folks who are looking for ways to get their church and their kids excited about raising money for orphans was such a treat. Their plan is to bring in a bed and cover it with a mosquito net to leave on display to help raise awareness throughout the summer. I am going to get them information about the brand new Nickels for Nets program that will be a really fun way for the kids to keep their offering coming in. Please let Jon know at jon@sweetsleep.org if this is something your church would be interested in as well.

I also had the opportunity to share with them about our Bedhead program. Do you know that it only takes $30 a month to become an official Sweet Sleep Bedhead? Imagine what God can do with what it costs you to have dinner out one night a month.

He can take kids that are sleeping like this...

...and allow them to feel His embrace in their own bed with their own covers while reading His word in their own language. It's breath-taking.

You can make this kind of a difference in children's lives. And the folks in Tracy City are well on their way.

There is something so Christ-like in the imagery of kids helping kids. They really get what it means to love your neighbor. How else do children in Port Au Prince become neighbors with children in Tracy City but through the love of Christ? That love is an amazing and powerful thing. Let's live it.

Brad's Short Story

James Bonder and the Temple of Doom

“Come on!” yelled James Bonder to Sally Bonder. “We’re almost to the gate of the Temple of Doom.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sally. “I’m just really tired from the long hike up the Mountain of Terror!”

James opened the door and there was a spiral staircase. James looked down into the deep, dark blackness.

“Ladies first?” he said.

“Hmmpf!” said Sally, as she walked down the staircase.

Suddenly, the stairs gave way and Sally fell down, down, down, screaming all the way.

“I’m coming, Sally!” said James. He ran down the staircase, avoiding the holes Sally had made. When he reached the bottom, there was one hallway. At the end, there was a door. James took one step forward and the floor beneath him sank.

Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound. Gigantic spinning saws began coming out of the walls, as the ceiling came closer.

“I’m coming, Sally!” said James, as he dodged and weaved his way through the rapidly rotating saws.

Finally, there was one thing standing between him and the door. It was a 15,000 feet deep pit. You can expect that James would use his whip here, yet the pit was only three inches wide. So he stepped over and opened the door.

There he found Sally, sitting on a pile of gold worth $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Then he saw a lever. He pulled the lever and the floor started to rise. Faster and faster it went, until James and Sally could not keep their eyes open. They squeezed their eyes closed.

The next thing they knew there was a bright flash of light. They opened their eyes and they were right next to their truck, along with all that gold. So they drove back to Nashville, where they gave the gold to Cash for Gold and got one dollar.

They said, “We thought this would be worth more than that.”

The Cash for Gold guy said, “Haven’t you heard? The economy’s horrible. Where have you been all these years, the Temple of Doom?”

I was just catching up on blog reading and clicked on the Sweet Sleep link. This is currently the picture at the top of the blog. I've never seen it before. I love it.

God just reminded me that this is exactly what He's called me to do. He really doesn't want me to forget.

Want to help orphans around the world sleep knowing they are wrapped in God's love? You can. Click here. I promise you won't regret it. :)

And the Winner Is...

Brad participated in his first Science Fair on Tuesday night. His experiment was to determine whether peanuts contain enough energy for heating water. He chose this because the procedure involved lighting things on fire. What kid wouldn't love that? We actually had a lot of fun doing the experiment part. It was all of the documentation that got a little tedious. But we both felt really good about the end result.

From 6 to 6:45, the judges walked around and deliberated over the exhibits. Brad only had to compete against the other 5th and 6th graders. Shortly after we arrived, six purple "Best in Show" ribbons were handed out to the top third of the project. Chase and Brad both got one and they were so excited. It was even better that they got to share a presentation table.

For the next hour, Brad stood by his experiment explaining to onlookers what all he had done. During that time, he also had his interview by the three-judge panel. I actually got some of this on video. I was so nervous for him, but he was awesome. At one point they asked him a question that he couldn't think of an answer for. He said, "Hmmm. I'm trying to think of how to put this." After a few seconds they prompted him with another question and he was off the hook. Tell me that's not a life skill.
Meanwhile, Bailey found the only exhibit that involved live animals.
She borrowed my camera, and I now have 27 variations of this picture.

Since Brad had placed in the top third, we moved into the main room with the Lower and Upper Division students for the awards ceremony. This is his buddy Grant who is a senior and has been an incredible friend to Brad and Chase this year. What a great kid. I really pray that Brad makes as positive an impact on the 5th grade boys when he is a senior as Grant has on him.

When it came time to announce the winners, Chase won 3rd place for his awesome paper airplane experiment. Another student won 2nd place for his crystal radio. I was sitting there in disbelief until the moment they said, "First place goes to Brad Swords for Peanut Energy." We were stunned! What a fun moment. His face after he came back to his seat says it all.
Throughout the time we worked on this experiment Brad would periodically ask what he should do if he won the $50. If I told him once, I told him 50 times, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, son."

As soon as he sat down he leaned up and whispered in my ear, "Mom, the chickens have HATCHED!"

Indeed they have. And I couldn't be more proud. :)

Happy Easter!

My sweet friend Solomon sent some presents to me from India back in January, and this dress was one of them. Bailey has been dying to wear it ever since. We loved it so much!
For the first time ever, we wised up and had our Easter dinner and pics at Mom and Dad's on Saturday night so we could come home from church on Sunday and crash. It was awesome! Definitely a tradition in the making. Plus, since Brad didn't want to dress up this much on Sunday we had the best of both worlds. Of course Bryant fell down and got grass stain on his pants shortly after the pics were made, so I did have to go home and wash, but it was totally worth it.

I hope you all had a very blessed Easter. He is risen indeed!

Picture your bed.

What does it mean to you? At the end of a long day, whether it's been amazing or perfectly disastrous, what does it mean to be able to crawl under the covers and snuggle up to your pillow, close your eyes and rest? When you've been traveling, what is the one "thing" at home you usually miss first? For me, it's my bed. When I get home from a long trip I usually throw myself across my bed and actually tell it how much I've missed it. I bet I'm not the only one.

Now picture your child's bed (or your own bed as a child.) Does it look something like this?

Or this?

Or possibly even this?

You know how you feel when you haven't had a good night's sleep? Perhaps you were tossing and turning because you had a lot on your mind. Maybe you drank too much caffeine late in the day and your mind refused to slow down long enough to let you rest. Maybe your kids came in three or four times due to one random thing or another. Whatever the circumstance, you know that a night with no sleep makes you feel terrible the next day. You might walk through the day in a fog, easily irritated with those unfortunate enough to have to deal with you. If you are a student, you find yourself having a hard time concentrating and possibly even falling asleep in class. Go for a few nights without sleep and it can make you physically ill.

Now imagine that your childhood bed looks like this.

Or this.

Or possibly even this.

Imagine that every night you lay down on a cold hard floor, completely exposed to insects and mice. Or imagine you have to sleep on a mattress that is decades old, crawling with bed mites and reeking with the stench of countless bed wettings from the untold number of children who have slept there before you.

This is reality for millions of orphans around the world. And you can do something about it.

Since my time in Haiti, I've had the opportunity to spend several hours with Jen Gash, the president and founder of a faith-based, non-profit organization called Sweet Sleep. I've heard her story of how she visited the country of Moldova in 2003 and her world was completely rocked by the conditions of the orphans there. Her heart kept coming back to the pile of filthy mattresses in the corner and she knew that God was calling her to do something about it.

Since that time, she quit her job as executive assistant to the mayor of Nashville and has worked tirelessly to come up with a way to provide beds for orphans. This year, Sweet Sleep will be working with orphans in Eastern Europe, Africa and Haiti. They've promised 4,000 beds in Haiti alone. This is a huge increase over the amount of beds they installed last year, and they need our help to accomplish this massive task.

When I was in Haiti, I knew that God was calling me to do something about what He was showing me. Being with the orphans there and seeing their sweet faces has created a sense of urgency in me that wasn't there before. There are over 5,000 new children being orphaned every day. AIDS is leaving an ocean of orphaned children behind in Africa. Haiti had thousands of orphans before the quake, but today the number is staggering.

Why do these children deserve to sleep on the floor? Why shouldn't they have a bed to call their own with a pillow and sheets and a blanket? Does God love my kids more than these? Does he love your kids more than these? Of course not. Here is an opportunity for each of us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. As if it were your child sleeping in filth and decay. As if it were you.

Please pray about becoming a monthly sponsor of Sweet Sleep. You can click here to become a bedhead, which means that you pledge a minimum contribution of $30 per month. That is about the cost of dinner out one night. If you would be willing to sacrifice that convenience one time each month, you can make a difference in the lives of orphans all around the world.

My family has committed to filling an orphanage in Haiti with beds this year. I'm looking for 25 people that would be willing to support Sweet Sleep with a monthly donation. Because they are keeping track of how many folks I'm able to bring in, if you do sign up online, please put "bedhead-lswords" in the comment section after it asks how you heard about Sweet Sleep.

Even if you aren't able to make a monthly pledge at this time, there is another way you can help. If you host a small group, playgroup, Bible study or even just a supper club, anything like that, would you be willing to let me come speak for 10 or 15 minutes to tell your friends about what Sweet Sleep does? I would so appreciate that opportunity. I believe in this cause and I know that the more people who are aware of Sweet Sleep, the more children around the planet that will get to trade in this...

for this.

I can't wait. :)

When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet. (Proverbs 3:24)