Voice Box

keep dreaming

Today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have a Dream Speech.'  Watch the full speech here.  We find ourselves today surrounded still by hatred and war, bigotry and oppression.  There has been progress in certain places and at certain times, but we all must agree that the world is not at rest.  The vision that Christ presents through his words, work, and person - echoing the prophets - is that a time is coming when the communities will be livable again.  Let's continue to work toward this end... in our homes, in our churches and schools and neighborhoods, in our nations and on our continents.  And may our imagination (our dreaming) be filled with the hope of glory in Christ.

US Bank honors HopeChest volunteer

Susan Mogish from Friends of Kameshkovo in Dallas is a recipient of the 2008 U.S. Bank Five Star Volunteer Award.  Children's HopeChest received a $1000 gift in honor of Susan's volunteer work at the Kameshkovo Orphanage and orphanage graduates in Vladimir, Russia.  You can read the press release here: Download us_bank_press_release.pdf.  We are so proud Susan and thousands like her who have turned toward the down-and-out and given of their time and resources, offering practical help and God's hope to orphaned children 7,000 miles away.

praying from a global perspective

I am working on my MA in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.  Last week I took a course on the Gospel of Matthew and we read a fascinating and provocative article by Musa W. Dube Shomanah (she is a lecturer in the department of religious studies at the University of Botswana), called 'Praying the Lord's Prayer in a Global Economic Era.'  We have to be honest with ourselves that if you follow the ancestry of American Protestantism, it leads through Western Europe, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution.  This means, then, that those in the Global South (Asia, Africa, South America) have the same faith but a different heritage.  Their influences are different.  So to read their perspectives is helpful and humbling.

She says that 'the global era is an age characterized by increasingly interconnected economic systems of different countries, nations and continents.  This closely knit economic organ is in fact a relationship of dependence and interdependence, of exploitation and exponential profit, of economic giants and dwarfs, indeed, of masters and servants, as well as of massive monetary losses and gains.'  She proposes that the Christian faith presented in the Lord's Prayer offers an alternative vision for living in the global economic era with its political, economic, social, and religious realities.  She then goes on to say that she reads and interprets the Lord's Prayer 'as an invitation to Christian communities to assume active responsibility against all that hinders the daughters and sons of God around the world from coming to the full realization of abundant life.  For Christian communities, nations, institutions and individuals to pray and ask for deliverance from evil in this global age entails repentance accompanied by action, a willingness to hear the Lord's Prayer and to recapture the implications of praying it.  To say "your kingdom come", to say "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven", is to become responsible partners, guardians of justice, active daughters and sons in the establishment of God's rule in the world.'

Amen.

i heard an unknown voice say...

We had an amazing thunder and lightning display last night from about 4am to 5am.  I laid awake and listened to the sonic booms and watched my bedroom light up.  It does make going to bed at 11:30pm and getting up at 6am a little more challenging... and it is a miracle that our children slept through it... but it was remarkable.

I woke up with language from the Psalms in my head - the book that gives poetry and prayer to the relationships and conflicts that are a part of every life, every story - God and creation, among persons, within oneself, and between people and the rest of God's creation.  Well, God and God's creation scored a point last night, to be sure.

The Lord thundered from heaven.  God answered out of thundercloud.

Just as the Psalmist, when you hear the thunder, you can hear it as God's voice saying, 'Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.  You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you...'  What a sweet sound!

life in the margins

I read the Gospel of Matthew last night for a seminary class I'm taking at Fuller.  I made two columns on a piece of paper and started listing out the 2 main groups of character with Jesus at the center of the story.  Can you picture this?  On the left side was the regional government, the empire, Pharisees and Sadducees, priests and scribes, false prophets, disease, storms, hunger, the tempter, and demons.  The kingdom of heaven is set over and against these characters again and again in Matthew's gospel.  In my right column I listed a poor family, tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, the sick and hungry, the harassed and helpless, and children.  Speaking of the work of a biblical scholar named Warren Carter, David Aune in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study says,

'Beginning with a study of discipleship in Matthew, Warren Carter has proposed to study Matthew's entire Gospel precisely under the rubric of marginality, taking his cue from Matthew's enticing concerns with "marginal" characters such as the women of the genealogy, the Magi, the centurion, the crowds of the sick and disabled, the Canaanite woman, and the lest members of the community.  This vantage point, I believe, will prove to be a creative stimulant to future studies of Matthew, whether from a social-cultural, literary, or theological perspective.'

If you take the time to read a gospel in one sitting, this theme will explode off the pages... Jesus spent time with people on the fringe of society.  And as he does, he brings them into the center of his society - known in the Gospel of Matthew as the kingdom of heaven.  This is good news.  Jesus calls it 'the renewal of all things' in Matthew 19:28.  This time is coming, but the message we need to hear is that this time has already begun.  We need to live renewed lives as we seek to extend ourselves and embrace those on the margins of society.  At Children's HopeChest, this is what we're focused on.  Drawing orphaned, abandoned, and vulnerable children into relationships of hope and help and seeing their lives renewed.

conflict leads to children in need

It's all over the news now.  There are rebels loyal to Moscow in a province of Georgia, a former Soviet state bordering Turkey to the south.  Fighting began.  Then Russia rolled in with artillery and began air raids.  Thousands are dead.  There is so much unrest in our world.  But what I see in addition to political, economic, cultural, and religious turmoil is that children become the most severe victims in these scenarios.  Situations like this one, or like an oppressive Chinese government, rebel militia in Sudan, or street gangs in El Salvador, create widows and orphans and strangers.  And I think one could make a strong biblical and theological argument that God's heart beats for widows, orphans, and strangers.  So as we see cities in rubble thousands of miles away, let's not forget to pray for those who are having their very lives ripped to shreds.  And as Tito Colliander, the 20th century Orthodox mystic, has said, 'prayer is action.'  Let our prayer lead to lives of creative and contagious compassion.

send a pastor to Uganda

I am leading HopeChest’s effort to launch orphan care in Uganda.  There are pastors that are very interested in going with me in October and getting their churches involved.  A great tool for our ministry has been what is called a ‘pastor scholarship.’  For $3,500, you can send a pastor to Uganda to see the needs firsthand and discern how their church can connect in a holistic, long-term, and redemptive way.  We have found that 9 out of 10 pastors that travel overseas with Children’s HopeChest will get their churches involved in a way that $40,000 per year is invested into orphan care for a decade or more.  If you look at that as an investment, it is an incredible return.  In addition to the financial piece of the picture, hundreds of people here in the States are transformed through relationships and mission, hundreds, and even thousands of children are transformed through God’s hope and practical help.

I know that this is a difficult economic season for all of us.  Families, businesses, churches, and ministries are suffering.  But we are committed to caring for the world’s poor.  We are committed to responding to God’s heart for orphaned children.  And we are committed to connecting churches with orphanages and watching hope and help transform lives.  Please consider being a part of this by offering a pastor scholarship.  Email me if you would like to know more about this opportunity.

Steven Curtis Chapman on Larry King

Tonight, Steven Curtis Chapman will be on Larry King.  He will be speaking about the tragic and untimely death of their daughter.  I'm sure it will prove to be an honest and inspirational message from this very creative, compassionate, and courageous voice for our faith and for our cause - caring for orphans .  Tom Davis, President and CEO of HopeChest, first met Steven Curtis when they traveled to China together in 2004.  Find out more about the show here.

Christ is central. Christ is supreme.

Today is our monthly day of fasting and prayer at Children's HopeChest.  The day started with a wonderful couple, Barry and Karen Huggins, leading us in a time of song, devotion, and prayer.  They have deep, deep hearts of prayer and mission and have been a great source of encouragement to me personally, and to our ministry.  They shared that we need to have Christ central and Christ supreme.  Having Christ central gathers us around him and his healing love and grace and his courageous and compassionate leadership.  Having Christ supreme recognizes that he is the King of the Universe, he was present at creation, and he will bring all things together.  When God's people, Christ's brothers and sisters, see him as central and supreme, unity follows.  I was encouraged and nourished by this and will continue to pray and meditate on it today.  I hope you too will have bigger eyes to see Christ central in your life, a wider embrace to experience Christ as supreme in our world, and a longer stride to live in unity with others.