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

------------------

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!

Day 1

I started writing this, this morning and had to stop. I'm going to go ahead and finish telling about our first day and get it posted before I start on today. Get ready for a ton of pictures!

Yesterday began with our constant companions, Chuckoo and Joseph, picking us up and taking us for an Indian breakfast. I'd never eaten that before, and it was really good. Definitely a new experience in India. It was kind of a toss between sandwich bread and pancakes, with gravy instead of syrup. Actually quite tasty.

After that we headed over to the church for the baptism service. We got there too late to hear this girl's testimony, but we were there in time for her actual baptism. I did get to hear a little of her story, and it's just another example of God's ability to meet people where they are and completely transform lives.

We also had the opportunity to spend some time with Pastor G. Samuel and bring him some gifts from home. The bond between he and his grandson Jonathan is so sweet. But this child is terrified of me. He took one look at me on Monday night and burst into tears. He couldn't wait to get as far from me as possible! I even bribed him with a sucker, but at this point I've not broken through. As he ate the sucker he kept both eyes on me and I knew I better not make any sudden moves. My mission is to win this little guy over before Sunday!
After that we loaded up in the church van to head out and visit some of BCH's daughter churches. There are currently 120 churches around the state of Andhra Pradesh in various stages that have been birthed by Baptist Church Hyderabad. 90 of them have their own buildings, while some of those are simply walls, ceiling and floor at this point. Others that have been there longer have had time to paint Scriptures around the walls and add decorations. We learned that usually the congregation will pool their resources and save up to buy the tinsel and things that make the ceiling look brighter. I love walking around and trying to guess what the Scripture references are by their numbers. I'm pretty terrible at it, sad to say!
Jeff and Chuckoo...
This church had recently built a baptistry. It is enormous. If I walked down in it, the concrete would be over the top of my head. Seemed a little intimidating to me, but they are very proud of this addition to their property. I am praying they will have to use it every week!
At each church we would pray for the pastor and his congregation...
The pastor's wife and her sisters were so sweet. One of them said I looked like a man since I was wearing pants. Not exactly the look I was going for, but you have to love the honesty!
Do you know what Scripture reference ends in 25:6? Me neither.
This is the van that miraculously gets us from place to place. I'm quite sure it is filled with the Holy Spirit. That can be the only explanation for why we're not dead yet. :)
The second church we visited was one I had been to before. Last time there was no furniture...

And this is today!

Praying God's blessings over this church...

I am going to pass this on to our church's interior design team. I think this could really jazz up Station Hill!

Our final destination was also a church I had been to before, and this one was incredibly profound for me. If you were with me for my first trip, you'll remember that on one day we drove way out into the wilderness and visited a gypsy village where the congregation met under a tree. This is a picture from that day.

The people that live here are as low in Indian society as you can possibly get. They are gypsieswho have very little to do with the outside world. Their water source is a containment unit that fills up during rainy season. Once it runs out, that's it until it rains again. Most of them are sick and diseased from the filth they live in.

But God put a burden on a pastor's heart for the people of this land. He moved into the village and began to share the Gospel with them. Many have been resistant to him, but God has blessed him with some who have believed. The Word of God never returns void. When a group of people hear the Message, at least someone will believe. Otherwise, how can their be a representative from every tribe and every nation in Heaven for all time?

This pastor is reaching his community by meeting the physical needs of the people, a formula that has worked for centuries. While we were visiting, the pastor was not present. We found out he had gone to buy grain because the village had run out of food. They have learned to trust him and look to him when they are struggling. As they look to him, he can point them to the Truth. Instead of regular grain, they are receiving the Bread of Life. It doesn't get more real than that.

Today the people of this village no longer have to meet under a tree, and the King of Kings is receiving the glory He is due way out in the furthest reaches of Indian wilderness. Impossible not to say Hallelujia!
I mentioned to some of you that I had been asked to speak at the youth meeting last night. It turned out that we took a little longer to return from Indian wilderness than we had planned for, so we didn't make it back in time. Pictures can never adequately show what traffic in India is like, but perhaps this had something to do with our tardiness...
We did get back before the youth meeting was over, so we had a little time to hang out before heading to dinner. By the time we made it back to our room we were more than ready to crash., which is why it took until now for you to get this update.

Today was a full and amazing day too, but my eyes seem to be closing against their will (and I haven't even taken my Ambien yet!

More to come tomorrow. Bye for now.

Too tired to blog tonight, but I'll try to first thing in the morning. But for now, if I had to choose one picture that would adequately represent today, it would have to be this. Please don't miss the bumper. There is NOTHING like driving in India!

We Made It

As my GPS loves to say, we have reached our final destination! And it is so good to be here.

Our time in the Delhi airport will certainly not be our fondest memory of the trip, but it could have been worse. The breakfast that was supposed to be out at 4:30 a.m. in the lounge finally arrived close to 5:30, so we scarfed down a few bites before heading to our gate where we were supposed to board at 5:55. As we came down the escalator, we were really surprised to not see what we think of as traditional gates, more like several different sections of winding waiting lines. When we arrived at "Gate" 10, the sign said that it was already boarding. We presented our passes at the front of the line and were ushered out the door to a shuttle bus that was going to take us to the plane, presumably out on the runway.

This might not strike you as funny as it did us after traveling for 30+ hours, but this is the picture Jeff took when we arrived at the plane, literally 20 yards away from where we got on the bus. We were cracking up. I can see the logic in not wanting all these people crossing a pretty busy little area, but it would have been far less busy without all the shuttle busses. It made us think of the Andy Griffith episode where Barney escorts Jim Lindsey via siren and police car two doors down from where they started. We could not stop laughing for a while.

Shortly after we boarded the flight attendants began shutting the overhead compartments and we were really surprised because the plane was less than a third full. It turned out to be right though and we were able to spread out a little bit. It was a nice way to end the journey. This is the view taking off from Delhi.When we arrived, our friends Chuckoo, Joseph and Ramesh were waiting for us. They took one look at us and suggested that we go straight to the hotel to get some rest. We couldn't have agreed more with that one, although I hated to let them go so soon after reuniting. But it gave us some time to get unpacked, grab some breakfast and showers. Jeff and I both crashed for a little over three hours, which I'm hoping will not turn out to have been a mistake. Mistake or not, it couldn't be helped.

The time passed quickly and we were back in the van headed to church. Things have changed a little at Baptist Church Hyderabad in the form of a fresh paint job. As Chuckoo says, it's now easy to see from the road!

The first picture I posted shows a better shot of the banner Chuckoo put together to advertise the youth conference. The graphics are amazing and I am so impressed with all of the details I've seen so far that have gone into putting this together. I am eager to see the final result.

Speaking of banners, here's one Jeff and I made it on to. We're special guests. :) (And it goes to show that pictures you put on Facebook may not stay on Facebook!)

We were so happy to be able to participate in the English service tonight. It always amazes me to realize that 2 1/2 hours have passed by the time we are finished. Great worship, prayer and time in the Word. Our friend Moses preached the sermon tonight and did a fantastic job. I was really impressed with him.

Here's the youth choir singing one of the numbers they've been rehearsing for Saturday. They have been practicing so hard. In fact, they have an all-day rehearsal tomorrow that I'm hoping to get to sit in for part of. If you know me, you know it's hard for me to sit and listen to a choir doing praise and worship without jumping up there with them, but I practiced restraint. We'll see how long that lasts though. ;)
Jeff and I couldn't help but think about the 9:30 service happening at Station Hill right around the time that we were wrapping up evening worship. The choir was making its debut as a regular Sunday worship choir, and I can't wait to hear how that went. We were with you in spirit!

After church we were treated to a lovely dinner by the youth leaders who have been on the committee for the conference this year. Four beautiful girls whose names I badly butchered verbally and won't even attempt to reproduce in written form. They were so gracious, though, and we had a great meal before returning to our hotel.

All right, my Ambien is starting to kick in so I better move over to the bed. Here's to a full night's sleep in prone position. That sounds like heaven.

Love from India...

Almost There

We have made it to New Delhi. We actually arrived around 8:30 p.m. India time, but the next few hours were pretty long and tedious. Getting through Customs was a breeze, but getting our luggage took a lot longer. Then we had to go through the process of figuring out we needed to board a shuttle bus that would take us to an entirely different airport for our connecting flight to Hyderabad. Bizarre, but that's what happened.

We arrived at this airport a little before 10. Since we didn't have a boarding pass, we couldn't come in the main airport but had to go to a ticketing room. She said she couldn't give us a boarding pass, but she printed up an itinerary so security would let us in to the main section. When we presented that to him, he said we couldn't come in until 12, because that's when the ticket counter would open. So we went back to the room where you buy tickets and hung out for two hours. This is not a place designed for lengthy waiting. This is us.

Since sleep wasn't really happening, we gave it up and played a game of Scrabble on the iPad. At 12:01 we got up and came back to the main section where the guy finally let us in, but it turns out Jet Airways ticket counter still wasn't open. More sitting in uncomfortable black chairs. Finally we started seeing activity around 12:30 and we were able to get in line for our boarding passes. The best part about this was getting rid of our three checked bags so we could stop hauling all this stuff around.

This airport has a lounge that you can pay to get into, so that's where we've ended up parking. We had to get some Wi-Fi because time for kickoff in the Alabama/Arkansas game was quickly approaching. This is Jeff now... much happier!

All in all, our flight from Chicago was pretty unadventurous. Jeff and I both slept for a few hours, so it made it seem a little quicker. I think our flight time ended up only being 13 1/2 hours, so that's way better than the original 16 we thought we were in for.

I opened my window a couple of hours outside of New Delhi as sunset was approaching. We were flying right over Kabul, Afghanistan at the time, which is a little disconcerting in and of itself. But the view of the mountains was breathtaking. This picture is horrible, but I hope you can at least get a glimpse of what we were looking at.

At this point, I just kept breathing Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it; the world and all who live in it." Truly a glory moment for God the Creator.

As the sun began to set, the image was majestic. Again, forgive the quality of a cell picture, but I found it amazing that you can almost see the curvature of the earth as the sun disappears from sight. It was so beautiful.

So now it is 1:30 a.m. Delhi time and we have five hours until our next flight. I'm going to try and get some sleep if I can get Jeff to keep quiet while watching the game. Yeah. :)

If all goes well, next post will be from Hyderabad. Keep praying!