An Announcement

Seven years ago I hopped onto a plane and landed in Chicago to interview for the job of a lifetime. My career path was clear, my goals were set, and I was well on my way to attaining everything that I had ever wanted in life. During the course of a dinner, God began to whisper in my ear a series of questions that ultimately led me to a crossroad. In the end, He simply asked me what it was that I truly desired for my life and my family. I vividly remember leaving the dinner table that night with an awareness that the rules of life that I had lived by had just been shifted by the God of the Universe. That night started an incredible journey. I resigned from a great job in my family’s business without knowing what it was that God was asking of me. I abandoned plans to start my own company in order to follow God’s leading in accepting a staff position at Pinelake. Once I settled in at Pinelake, I thought I had finally discovered what God had in store for my life. Then, a couple of years later and completely out of the blue, another whisper knocked the air out of my lungs.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” I was sitting on a deer stand one cold December morning when those words of Jesus sent a chill that cut straight through my clothing and caused me to shiver in response. As I began to sit and quietly assess my life, I began to realize that my life did not reflect these greater things Jesus talked about. Shortly thereafter God captured my heart for the fatherless, and for the second time in five years I resigned from my job without any clear direction as to what God was calling us to next.

Thirty days after I announced what I sensed to be God’s leading to the senior staff at Pinelake, I found myself kneeling and crying in the red clay dirt of South Africa as God’s next call on my life became clear. A simple whisper from Him on a windy afternoon in the community of Sweetwaters started a 10-month journey that has been nothing short of agonizing. God has been incredibly gracious to us. We have not gone without anything and His voice in our lives has been evident. At the same time though, it has been gut-wrenching as we have seen Him reveal to us the truth about ourselves, tear down walls that separated us from Him, and separate us from relationships that were not what we thought they were. There have been sleepless nights, endless days, and countless obstacles. We have fallen down so many times that I can honestly say there is no way we should still be standing. In the midst of it all, we have done the only thing we know to do, and that is to keep walking towards the last thing that God asked of us. For us, that is the community of Sweetwaters.

This past week, God did some amazing things to lead us to a place where we understood it was time for us to take another leap of faith. We have purchased plane tickets and will be leaving on June 17th with our three children and will be staying in South Africa for 3 months. I wish I could outline for you the ten things we will accomplish during this stay, but I can’t even tell you where we will be living at this point. We are once again stepping out with God and doing something that feels really dumb; but we do so putting our faith in the God of the Heavens. That sounds simple, but let me tell you it is not. I have never before looked in the eyes of my wife and kids and felt the pressure of being their spiritual leader like I do right now. I fear so many things right now, but one thing God has clearly taught me is that faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is stepping forward and walking out in defiance of the fear that torments us.

As painful as this feels to me, I had a reminder this week of why God is going through such great lengths to bring support to the ministries fighting for Sweetwaters. Tabitha Ministry recently received a new child. This is little Aphiwe:





When Tabitha found Aphiwe, she was living in a household headed by a 14-year-old girl. Aphiwe was born prematurely along with a twin who died shortly after birth. After Aphiwe’s mother died, this little one was released to the care of her 14-year- old relative. Aphiwe had an open trach and a feeding tube. The 14-year-old had several other children in her care and while she did her best, Aphiwe was massively under cared for. Gail’s team at Tabitha did an amazing job once they received Aphiwe. She recovered to the point that the doctors swore there was no way this was the same child. They were very optimistic about her recovery when I last saw her and were making decisions on when to close the trach and remove the feeding tube. You can imagine my shock when Gail emailed me earlier this week to tell me that little Aphiwe passed away Sunday night.

This saddens me greatly. It also motivates me. It helps me put my life, my stress and my struggles into perspective. No matter the pain I feel at the moment, it pales in comparison to the pain these kids and workers face on a daily basis. I am taken back to the words of my 7-year-old son, “Daddy, if you think we can help them, then we should go.” So that is what we are doing.

I ask that You continue to pray for us and follow our journey. Please pray that we will have the patience to wait on God and the faith necessary to trust His leadership. I ask that you pray in particular for my wife and kids. We can lose a lot and still minister, but if we lose our family we will fall down. Satan understands this and will not miss a chance. I also ask that you pray for God to bless the ministries of Tabitha and iThemba as we partner with them in projects that will impact the community. We need the favor of God to rain down. Lastly, I ask that You prayerfully consider how you can get involved in the work of Restoration Hope. Visit our site at www.restorationhope.org