I wanted to start us off by sharing a passage about justice.  I felt we needed to just pause and remember why we do what we do.  You know there is easy to get our motives twisted because there are a lot of payoffs for a church in Boulder to be involved – its fun to do it with other churches, it makes Christianity look cool & hip, this issue touches people’s hearts and pocketbooks if you know what I mean, it provides opportunities for people to get involved...  But the real reason we should want to be involved is because its the right thing to do.  It is loving our neighbor in need.  it is a God-thing because He loves justice and mercy.  And there are little kids all over the world who are being abused and need to be rescued & restored.

I hadn’t  decided to which verse to pick on God’s heart for justice.  Just that morning thought of a few and decided that the last two verses of Psalm 10 might be appropriate.  As I got ready to read it,  felt I should just read the whole Psalm for context.  You know its like reading one line of a poem and not getting the full meaning of the author.  I hadn’t read the whole chapter in a while and was amazed at how appropriate it fit the context.

I encourage you to read it with me and think of a little girl – imagine a sweet innocent face – being tricked by a predator perhaps by a promise of a better life.  A little girl – maybe orphaned, certainly vulnerable – being taken captive.  Maybe she’s in mexico.  Maybe she’s in Thailand.  She could be Russian, Chinese or even a little American girl in your own town.  Now she is being used an instrument of vile, gain counted not even as a life by her traffickers.  Her little body being abused over and over again.  She is tramped, helpless.  Innocence is shattered.   Imagine her calling out in despiration for help.  Maybe she doesn’t even know there is a powerful God who hears, who cares – the one who is a helper of the fatherless.  As we read it, let’s join in the call for God to arise and make things right… to see His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Psalm 10

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.  He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. In his pride the wicked does not seek him;  in all his thoughts there is no room for God.  His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him;  he sneers at all his enemies.  He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.”  His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;  trouble and evil are under his tongue.

He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims. He lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.  His victims are crushed, they collapse;  they fall under his strength. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.”

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself,  ”He won’t call me to account”?  But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;  you consider it to take it in hand.  The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out.

The LORD is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives that famous theology-rockin’ passage of separating the sheep and the goats based on how they responded to the least of these my brothers & sisters.  It’s in the feeding the hunger, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, providing shelter to the homeless, ministering to the sick and visiting the prisoner that we meet Jesus and in turn receive the reward of entering into his Kingdom.  Parenthetically when we don’t do these things, we are cast out of his presence.  Paired with other passages found in James and I John will rock your theology!  …Hopefully.

This past week in the South African township of Nellamapius working with Beam Africa Network, our team has encountered Jesus.   Because kids are in school  (its winter here) our mornings are filled with going into the community and visiting people in their homes.   People either live in 1 bedroom cement block homes and tin shacks called Makukus.  The Makukus are often have no electricity or running water and are 1-room homes in that everything – kitchen, sitting area, bedroom are all one room smaller than most bedrooms in America.

The people are always at home because unemployment may be as high as 80% in the townships.  One family I visited had several generations living in the homes and surrounding makukus all trying to survive on just the granny’s pension.  It barely covers the rent, electricity and water bills.  We have come across sick because they can’t afford the clinic (or it has no medicine).  And since they can’t afford the clinic, the are still sick or injured.  And since they are injured or sick, they can’t work.  And since they can’t work, they can’t afford the clinic.  Do you sense the despair?

But the worst….  the most grievous, the most painful, the most unjust situation I have seen I first saw on Thursday.  A widow and her two children were living on the outskirts of Nellmapius on a farm.   Her husband had been a worker for this white farmer.   He died after being gored by a bull.  They live (if I can call it living) in a depapillated farm house with a partial roof.  There is no electricity.  There is no water.  There is no toilet.  They have to walk several kilometers to a river to bath or go to the toilet.  or they go in yard as it reeked of fowl odors.  The widow can’t work because she has arthritis.  She can’t get assistance for medicine.  The officials give her once look over and deem her not sick enough for aid.  She has nothing.  She has no kitchen.  She has no food.

But the worst is this cruel farmer.  His farm is surrounded by similar shacks.   He does not pay his workers.  He cares more for his cows than these people.  It is inhumane.  He is ruthless.  He is oppressing them.  He would force this woman off his land but she has no where to go and who would live in this ‘building’ anyway.

I had so much rage when I saw this condition.  This women is the six-fold least of these.  She has them all.  I had just led our team that morning to look at Jeremiah 22 where God condemns a king who did the same thing.  He compares this cruel king to his father Josiah who did what was right and just, who cares for the poor and the widows.  God himself says: “Is this not what it means to know me!”   But he pronounced judgment on the cruel king that he will die with no one mourning his death and his very body will be drugged outside the city like a dead ass.

Yesterday, we delivered a food parcel to this family.  It is still very small.  They will die unless this condition changes.  The red-tape of government and the racist hate of the landlord stand against her.  Beam Africa will continue to stand on her behalf.  To help her with relief and fight with her until change happens.  I don’t know what it will take perhaps the equivalent of 60 minutes needs to expose this to the nation and shame others into action.

I have resolved that I will not leave this when I return in a few days.  I can’t leave this from my mind.   I will cry out to the Righteous Father on her behalf.  I will be like the persistent widow in Luke 18.  I will not stop until this prisoner has been set free.

Of those 35 million, 23 million live in Sub-Sahara Africa.  Only one (Haiti) of the top 20 countries in the world with HIV/AIDs is not Africa.  Nine of the top ten are from Zambia southward – 1. Swaziland; 2. Botswana; 3. Lesotho; 4. Zimbabwe; 5. South Africa; 6. Namibia; 7. Zambia; 8. Malawi; 9. Central African Republic; 10. Mozambique.   South Africa while 5th in % of people living with HIV/AIDs, is #1 in terms of vast numbers of people people living with HIV/AIDs.

It affects everything.   AIDS & poverty have a symbiotic relationship.  The poor have AIDs are more likely to not be able to afford the anti-viral medicine or proper medical care and AIDs creates poverty, orphans and despair.  Fifteen million children are orphaned in Africa because of AIDs.  It leads to a life of hopelessness.  Why live for the future when the future may never come?

This trip, we will dive headfirst  into this issue.  We will go where those who suffer live.  We will interact with kids who live on their own or whos’ only parent lies at mom sick and dying.  We will serve alongside those who care for those dying of AIDs.  Not sure what we will do.  Maybe it will be preparing & delivering a meal.  maybe it will be helping administer medicine.  Maybe it will be holding a hand comforting them and praying with them.

My prayer is that we will serve and extend love as Jesus.  And I know the promise that we will be doing it to Jesus too. (Matt 25:36-40)

There was a book I read last year called – No Place Left to Bury the Dead: Denial, Despair and Hope in the AIDS Pandemic.  The book frustrated me and yet gave hope.  Yet it put a name and a story to the numbers.  That’s what I want to happen too.  I want to know names and faces who are suffering and yet whom God loves who need to experience his care and hope.

This is not meant to be a political statement but I do think its interesting that only Jane Norton gave anything significant.  Norton averaged giving 10-21% of the income while Buck gave 0.01 to 4 %.  And Buck would come across as a philanthropist compared to the other side of the aisle.  Romanoff rarely reported any charitable giving on his income tax returns in past years and paltry claims when he did.   He says he gave to charity but it didn’t exceed the standard deductions.  (That would make sense if he was single but just means to me that he didn’t give that much.) But Sen. Bennett takes the cake.  One year he made $6.5 million in income and gave $624 in contributions.  The next year, his ‘generosity’ increased as he reported $5.3 million adjusted income and $1,910 in charitable giving.  So he barely based  met the national average of $1620.  But if you made 5.3 million, it seems like you are making way more than the average person.   His average would be like me givign $3 in one year and $15 in the next.  That’s absolutely embarrassing!

What dies this mean?  Of course, we are not required to give.  We live in a free country.  And these stats would have remained private except its news as they are running for public office.  (Or if like those running for Governor of Colorado, they had refused to share them.)

But to me its sad.  What kind of person repeatedly turns their back on those in need or non-profits that help those in need?   Where are we as a nation if our  leaders don’t have generous hearts?  Do we want to be a nation of people who take or give?  A generous heart is a heart of compassion.  A heart that looks on others and not yourself.  It evokes not just petty alms but giving sacrificially.  It’s a heart that bleeds rather than hands that are tight-fisted.  We need leaders to set the example.

I am reminded of Jeremiah 22 where God gives a judgment against evil leaders. One king was greedy building spacious palaces with large windows and cedar paneling.  He was exploiting workers in the process of his home improvement too.  God said:  ”Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?  Did not your father (King Josiah) have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.  He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?”

Its not what you have… money, the ability to make money, position, palaces, title, power – that makes you a real leader.  It’s what you do for those in need.  Its by reaching down to help lift others help that you become a real leader.  Notice that when Josiah did those things, he had all he needed (food and drink) and all went well.  And to top it off, God says that this what it means to know me.  And that’s life and the ultimate even more than having enough and things going well.

I am really intrigued by the potential of these projects that go beyond just feeding the hungry or teaching them skills.  Here there seems to be sustainable development happening.  The  innovation is amazing too.  I had heard of several projects like the school garden project which is very similar to one a friend of mine helped successfully launch in a township in South Africa.  I am amazed by projects like these because we can’t just export our Western ways of farming to Africa.  They need ideas that can be easily launched and maintained that provide both food and incomes for those living with extreme poverty.

When Jesus saw hungry people, he had compassion for them.  When the Savior taught us to pray, He said we are to ask for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.   In heaven, there is no hunger.  I think we can safely say that His ultimate will is that the hungry are fed  (Psalm 107:9, Psalm 146:7, Isaiah 58:6-10, Ezekiel 18:7, and Revelation 7:16 to name a few) and pray to that end as He commands us to do.  His heart is toward those who hunger and He longs to satisfy them.  One day there will no longer be any hunger.

And yet today an estimated 1.02 billion people in the world go to bed each night hungry.  (If they have a bed.) Jesus, in this same prayer, taught us to pray for our daily bread. For me this is a prayer that I rarely need to take literally as I know where I will eat today.  (Maybe I don’t know where or exactly what but I know I will eat.)  I have never gone hungry unless by choice.  In fact, I have the opposite problem. Though for 1 out of every 6 people in the world, they don’t know if they will eat today or if they eat if it will sustain them.  For way too many, they may be provided for today but tomorrow need to ask for daily bread.

One day… one day there will be no longer any hunger.  No longer will children die of malnutrition. One day people will have abundance.  One day the Lord will spread out a feast for all the world and hunger will cease.  One day the planet will be nourished from the Creator of all things!

Until then, may I help bring Good News to the poor of the earth and help feed the hungry in His name knowing that when I help feed (whether by giving food or teaching farming principles) to the least of these, I feed Jesus.

The team is working on two main things.  One is using an exhibit created by iEmpathize to raise awareness on the issue and promote a benefit concert to raise money for Camino a Casa - the safe house for victims of human trafficking.  In fact, the concert is tonight by a popular Mexican artist who recently came to faith.  If the concert sells out, it will bring around $10,000 for the safe house (if my math is correct).

The other cool thing our group and the group from CSR has been working at Camino a Casa, ministering to the girls who live there and helping create a dance studio.  This has been the the thing they have loved – connecting with the girls and hearing their stories of redemption.  And being able to work hard painting, putting in a floor etc to help build this studio in a few short days.

I know this might sound random to build a dance studio but imagine a home (a home seized by the government from a a drug Lord) with 25 girls all living together.  Except for a few whose captors are behind bars, these girls can’t get out.  They can’t go jogging or work out at a gym.  Their rehabilitation at Camino a Casa involves being restored physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.   A Dance Studio helps in all these ways.  It is place for physical and emotional restoration but it symbolizes the restoration of their souls by a just and righteous God.

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!    - Psalm 30:11-12

So yesterday afternoon I withdraw 40 $1 bills from my bank and made four envelopes. (I realize the pic is of 32 bills but humor me.) On each envelope I printed off a picture and wrote the name of the options for June.  This month, we choose 4 options:  helping kids at BEAM Africa, mosquitos nets through Compassion International, Kids against Hunger – Haiti food packs, and helping rescue children from bad guys in Mexico through Camino a Casa.

Before dinner, we saw around the table and I told the boys that Jesus taught us himself that ‘it was better to give than to receive’.   I made sure Drew and Jack knew what receive meant by saying ‘it was better to give than to get’.  Then I passed out 8 $1 bills to each person (Robin and I played too) and told the boys that they get to decide where we give them.  They could put them all in one envelope or 2 in each or however they wanted it.

When we ended, I ask Drew what these all had in common and he said ‘they were all people who were poor’.  I said ‘yes but they also are about helping kids – kids like you, Jack and Luke – who are either hungry, or not safe or don’t have easy access to things like doctors when they get sick’.   We asked if they wanted to talk to God about these kids but they rather wanted to go play.  So Robin and I did.

I am reminded of Matthew 18, where Jesus when asked who was greatest in the Kingdom calls a child forward.  A child – often the least in the world – are the greatest, the model, the standard.  He said whoever welcomes a child in His name, welcomes Him.  Jesus is personified in children.  He also warns that whoever causes harm to these children – ones who in our world today are often exploited, taken advantage of, abused, neglected, harmed, overlooked, marginalized –  whoever dares to harm them or cause them to sin, well, Jesus doesn’t play.  In fact, his description is a rather graphic painful punishment.  He also says “Woe to the world because of these things.”  Woe to the world you and I live in today  for how we have treated children.  The woe is not just to the vile offenders but all of us live under their guilt because we allow it to happen.  Our world has taken what is honored by Christ – the humility of a child, their trusting souls – and have used it for our twisted evil intents.  These kids’ have protective messengers who always see the face of a loving, caring, righteous Father.

… and so do my boys.

[Verse 1]
Do you see me?
The question’s in her eyes
Do you relate to the pain I can’t disguise?
Oh, look beyond what you see
The outside is not all there is

[Refrain]
Won’t You tell me now when did I see
You in need of water?
Oh, and tell me now, when did I see You
Hungry on the street?
God, I hear You calling out to me
In the voices of the least of these
Calling me to reach beyond my world
To the beautiful stranger
Beautiful Stranger

[Verse 2]
He does not look like everyone else
Does not fit in anywhere I know
You ask me to be Your hands
And show him now that he is loved

[Refrain]
Tell me now when did I see
You in need of water?
Oh, and tell me now, when did I see You
Hungry on the street?
God, I hear You calling out to me
In the voices of the least of these
Calling me to reach beyond my world

[Bridge]
There’s beauty that lies deep within
Waiting to be discovered
God help me see what You see
The diamond in the stone

…..You in need of water?
Oh, and tell me now, when did I see You
Hungry on the street?
God, I hear You calling out to me
In the voices of the least of these
Calling me to reach beyond my world
To the beautiful stranger
Beautiful Stranger

Won’t You tell me now when did I see
You in need of water?
Oh, and tell me now, when did I see You
Hungry on the street?
God, I hear You calling out to me
In the voices of the least of these
Calling me to reach beyond my world
To the beautiful stranger
Beautiful Stranger

Kevin is an amazing guy.  He has been the pastor of Cool River, a church he planted 8 years ago.   About 15,000 people live in Superior.  It’s really unique place.  I remember when no one lived there.  It’s all subdivisions of homes that all look alike sprinkled with townhomes and upscale apartments.   The average person has a Master’s degree.   When I asked Kevin, how many churches there in Superior.  He surprised me by saying, ‘two’.  Two among a town of 15,000?  And this is America?   I know the other one as well as its a home church led by another friend of ours.   Lest, we think that perhaps most people just commute somewhere else, Kevin informed me that nine of ten people in Superior don’t attend church at all.  It’s an incredible mission field.  I am sure most people don’t think church or God is relevant to their every day lives.

I don’t know how large Cool River is.  I  didn’t ask and it doesn’t matter.  Kevin sees all of Superior as his church.  More happens outside the church walls (or technically the walls of the school in which they meet) than in.   Last fall, Kevin shared with me of how one of his members introduced Kevin to a city official saying, “This is my pastor.”  And even though she had never met him, she replied, “Oh I know Kevin.  He’s every one’s pastor.”   That made his day.

Kevin and I talked about our partnership together in Mexico City.  We are both humbled of how God has lead us to this point and what already is happening.  Kevin was the first pastor we asked if they wanted to join us in creating a network of working together somewhere globally.  He was the sole one who took up the offer to go down last September to scout out the land.  (The pic is from that trip.) He was the first in our group, as we met throughout the fall, who said, “I want to partner with Rosi Orozco to help her end human trafficking”.   One of the highlights of my past year was rooming with him in Mexico City for a few days. (Memorable too as he snored like an old man.) We had some great discussions. I watched him in his element speaking Spanish and relating to people in a culturally-revelant way.  Really the highlight is getting to know Kevin and other pastors and Kingdom leaders in the area like Kevin.   It’s been a joy to run with them and I look forward to more time together.

Kevin is a great thinker.  He is deep.  He is a learner.  He loves the Lord.  He loves people.  There are no pretensions when you meet Kevin.  He isn’t trying to impress you or list off his credentials.  He is without guile.  He is real.

We ended back up at Starbucks and sat outside and just talked.  We talked about what it means to follow Jesus.  We talked about leaving behind old paradigms that limit us being able to follow Him because we are too caught up in ‘building a church / ministry’.   We talked about how even the body often uses things like ‘reaching the least of these’ as a ploy to get money from ‘the rich of these’.    We talked about how we just wanted to follow Jesus and live the way He did and care for the things He cares about.

It was a good afternoon.

You can see all the updates on iEmpathize’s blog.  (Note the upload may take a while, but worth the wait.) When Brad was at the safe home for the  shoot yesterday, I was mediating on Psalm 68:6.  Seems appropriate:

God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.