Our Own Justice League

When was the last time you had this much fun? :)

Brad's First Quarter Project

Something Close To My Heart

Hello Friends,

Please read and prayerfully consider what I am posting below. Sweet Sleep is an organization I have been working closely with now for the past eight months and I can assure you it is the REAL DEAL. Any money that you contribute will go directly to helping orphans around the world, and in this case specifically, those in the Gulu region of northern Uganda. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I pray that God will speak to your heart, even as you prepare to read of this great need, and that He will give you the desire to give generously to help these precious and often forgotten children get back to some semblance of home. You are loved.

Leigh Ann

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I've shared with you before about Sweet Sleep, a nonprofit ministry based in Nashville which provides beds, bedding and Bibles to orphaned and abandoned children around the world. Thanks to you, Sweet Sleep has done amazing work in northern Uganda. And, with your support RIGHT NOW, we can do it again.

Here's the situation:

Sweet Sleep and their partner, American Refugee Committee (ARC), is working with hundreds of thousands of children living in child-headed households in the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps in northern Uganda. Twenty years ago, the government of Uganda placed every person in every tribe into these camps to protect them from rebels which were attacking the North over two decades. A few years ago, this area finally began to experience peace. However, today, more than a million people are still living in these camps. An estimated 750,000 of these people are children who are orphans with no place to go. ARC is working to trace each child by their family name back to their home tribe. They then work with village leaders to determine what land their family owned and reclaim it for them. As art of the process, each resettled child receives a new hut from ARC.

Being resettled gives a child hope and a chance for a new life. There's just one problem: the children have been afraid to leave. Until now.

Even though the Ugandan government has closed these camps, it is very difficult to get all of the children to leave. The children in these child-headed households were born in these camps - it's simply all they've ever known.

In January of this year, as Sweet Sleep's partnerships began in northern Uganda, ARC hoped to resettle 600 children. This was more than the number of children they resettled in 2009, but they were hoping the children would have a good response to the opportunity of being provided with a bed, net and Bible.

By the end of this June, Sweet Sleep had already provided ARC with the full amount of beds, nets and Bibles they'd requested for the entire year! Much to the amazement of ARC leadership, the children are now lining up to leave the camps to be resettled into their home villages. The children are sharing with ARC and Sweet Sleep that they never imagined they could have such a thing as a bed, mosquito net or a Bible of their own. Many other organizations in northern Uganda have come to ARC to ask how they've been able to get so many children to resettle. Who would have known something as simple as a bed, mosquito net and Bible could be so completely profound on a child's life? Amazing, simply amazing!

So, my friends, here's where you come in. ARC recently asked Sweet Sleep to provide 700 more beds to the additional children they'll be able to resettle this November -- in just 25 days! But we can't resettle these children without you. A resettlement kit with a straw mat, new mattress, blanket, mosquito net and Bible is just $50!

$50 to help a child find hope, peace and comfort in their new home. And thanks to some wonderful friends of Sweet Sleep's, any gifts given to help resettle these children in October will be matched 100%! We need just 350 friends to give $50 or 175 people to give $100 - we can do this, right? So take a moment and think - how many beds can I provide? I know you'll sleep sweeter knowing a child has come home and will sleep sweetly because of your gift. Just click here to donate any amount and be sure to write "Gulu" in the comment box.

One more thing... Read this letter from a child Sweet Sleep resettled in June. Let's work together to help more sweet orphans like David finally come home.

Dear Sweet Sleep,

My name is David. I am 14 years old and am in primary four. I would like to thank you, Sweet Sleep, for giving me the mattresses and mostly the Bible.

Now days I know more about God than I did before because I read my Bible and after I go for a sleep on my soft mattress. Am very happy this days because I start sleep right when I got on to my bed till morning without feeling any pain.

So I again thank God for that special gift which I was not even expecting in my life and not forgetting to pray for you and also the organization called Sweet Sleep.

Thank you so much from David.

God bless you.

Touring Sita's School

Last week we had the incredible privilege of meeting Sita. Not only did we share a birthday breakfast for her brother Sanjay in her home, but then we had the chance to tour the school that they run for kids from 3 years old all the way through high school.

Jeff and I were so impressed with this brother-sister team and all of the amazing work they are doing. Sita started this school with six children meeting under a tree. There are hundreds of kids filling every square foot of the school building, and she has plans and permits underway to expand.

Not only that, but Sita has started at least two churches. She told me that she has a tradition of spending each birthday with a group of lepers that live nearby. I know I don't remember all of the details exactly, but the gist of it is that one of the lepers ended up donating property that she was able to use to build either this school or one of her churches.

The longer we talked, the more I was blown away by the impact she has had and continues to have on the world around her. She is such an inspiration to me and I will definitely be keeping up with her. I love having a glimpse into the work God is doing here!

Our Visit to St. Andrews School

Anoint Me, Lord

Victory

Greater Things 2010

This speaks for itself.

So clearly I am a failure at actually blogging anymore. Curse you, Facebook! You make me so lazy.

Since I am so far behind, I'll just give an update on yesterday and today. Yesterday was the scheduled youth concert, to be held at the Park Hotel. Since there were so many preparations to be made, we ended up spending the majority of the day there. At one point we were outside and I had to snap this shot. So many cell phones in India and Jeff's not about to be left out!

This is a sculpture from outside the ballroom that I'm still trying to figure out...
While I was waiting to get dressed I got to hang out with this little guy. Could you not just eat him up?
The youth concert is a very big deal for several reasons. There are many politicians in the city and state who are Christians, but because they lead such busy lives and for security reasons, many of them are unable to attend church on a regular basis. By inviting them to a formal evening like this one, it gives them a chance to worship with other believers in a non-traditional setting while also making them aware of the good things going on at Baptist Church Hyderabad.

September 30 turned out to be a very volatile day in India. There has been a case going on for the last 20 years or so involving a mosque on the land where one of the Hindu gods was supposed to have been born. It turned violent at some point and there was a long legal battle over who should have the rights to that land and what can be done with it. The verdict had been postponed twice and was set to come down at 3:30 yesterday afternoon, just a few hours before this concert was to begin. Everyone was very worried because the city was shutting down out of fear of rioting, depending which way the verdict went. A curfew was in place from the early afternoon, and things were looking pretty grim.

The verdict came down and the land was to be divided between the Hindus and Muslims. It was immediately appealed by both sides, so really it was a lot of hype for nothing. Seemed to be a very media-driven crisis, as so many things are. As we prayed, we remembered that nothing is impossible for God and He was not surprised by the fact that this verdict happened yesterday. The people of Baptist Church Hyderabad were set to publicly declare His name, and He wasn't about to let a silly little riot stop that.

It turned out that absolutely nothing happened. The streets were completely bare, which made the way for 650 people to show up at the concert when they otherwise would have been fighting thick traffic to get there. God was glorified in an amazing way, even more so because of the miracle He made in order for it to even happen. I was in complete awe.

Pastor G. Samuel, my friend Sarah's dad and the leader of this church for the past 41 years. In that time it has gone from a house church with a handful of members to a church that holds services each Sunday in four different languages in a sanctuary that seats several thousand. There are over 120 daughter churches and more on the way. This is a God story.

These are some of the girls that sang. Such sweet voices and beautiful faces!

After the concert we were served an Indian feast. Jeff and I were laughing at the fact that we were eating such a big dinner at 10:30 when we're normally sleeping like logs at that time. We are definitely on a much later schedule here! As we drove back to our hotel, we marveled at the calmness of the streets. I'd never seen anything like it in India. It was almost disconcerting how quiet it was, but so peaceful.
Today was a big day at BCH as everyone was getting ready for the youth festival tomorrow. A huge pavilion was set up in the courtyard of the church to hold overflow. Decorations were going up and lots of rehearsing going on. Jeff was busy helping make name tags.
And I was helping paint the signs that would go up telling people which way to go. This is most definitely not my spiritual gift, but it was fun anyway. Bailey would have been completely jealous!
Tonight I'm back at the hotel, eagerly anticipating what tomorrow will bring. I'm equally dreading knowing that it is our last day here in India. I am so in love with these people and this place, that if it were not for my children and Jeff's job, I'm not sure that I wouldn't cancel my flight and just hang out for a while. I trust God that He will bring me back in His time, but I'm still not ready to go.

Sorry for the lack of blogging earlier in the week. I'll try to catch up somewhere along the 36-hour journey home!