I bloggy interviewed singer songwriter, Jennafer White and asked simply what inspired her to write the beautiful song, Believe.  Here’s what she had to share:

Brady and I traveled to the Dominican Republic seven months into our marriage.  We were SO excited to head back to the same island that we celebrated our honeymoon on and couldn’t wait to pass out bags of rice to the people we met along the way.  What the Lord did to our hearts during those five short days there is incredibly hard to put into words.  I had seen all the commercials,  read the blogs,  and sponsored the kid from Compassion— all the while knowing that “poverty” was someone else’s job to take care of.  Some other Christian will step up to the plate to fix what is going on in our world.  Little did I know

that the Lord was going to place such a heavy burden on my heart to help these precious and joy-filled people I met on this trip.

What we saw will forever be embedded in my mind.  Their homes were made of aluminum coffee cans.  Their floor was dirt.  NONE of them wore shoes. Their water was brown and there was NO food.  Upon arriving home I filled the picture frames in our home with photos from our trip.  I didn’t want to wake up another morning and take the roof over our head, the food on our plates, the warm sheets and the carpet tickling our toes for granite!

Brady and I were leaving the last village when “Believe” first started to hum in our minds.  It was then that we decided that we needed to do WHATEVER we could to help these amazing and godly people.  We decided to make an album and donate 50% of everything we made to Cross International and other ministries fighting poverty and bringing children to their forever homes.  Five months into our ministry (wrent) we went full time relying on God whole-heartedly that He would provide for us while providing funds that we could send to those stricken with poverty.

For two years we traveled the country, raising money and awareness to what the Bible calls us to do as Christians.  We are asked to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, adopt the orphans, visit the widows and to LOVE the least of these.   It isn’t some other Christian’s job to take care of— IT’S OURS!!!!!  Through adoption YOU are loving on the least of these.  YOU are living out Matthew 6!!!!!!!!!!!

Brady and I have been able to watch the power of adoption first hand as Brady’s sister, Jamie has traveled to Rwanda twice to bring home our niece and nephew. Holding Gabby and Tiki in my arms makes me realize the Love the Father has for us.  He has adopted each of us into His family!  Praise His name!  The fact that He can love me more than I love those two precious kiddos is BEYOND my comprehension!  Gabby and Tiki were my niece and nephew from the very beginning.  It was always His plan to bring them into our family and they fit PERFECTLY!  I often tell people that I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jesus like I do when I look into the heart of my Sister-in-law and what her and their family has gone through to complete their family.

Please feel free to post video on your blogs.

Believe

Chuck Burge with Cross International:

Throw-away babies

It is unthinkable how many thousands of diseased, starving orphans and vulnerable babies in Africa die because there is no one who can care for them. The situations can be horrific:  Many have parents that have died due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, others come from families ground down by poverty and simply unable to afford to feed them.
You will find abandoned babies – often in plastic bags – along the roadside, in garbage areas, or in ditches, discarded by desperate, sometimes dying mothers.

The fortunate ones, however, find themselves at the doorstep of churches or faith-based ministries, like the Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi.

Making a difference in Africa

Annie Chikhwaza, founder of Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi, Africa, shares about one infant recently admitted to the orphanage:

“We named him Wilson,” says Annie. “The little man was not in very good condition when we received him – he must have been fed with dirty bottles or utensils.  His little mouth was full of thrush (an oral infection known as oral candidiasis).”

“His grandmother really tried very hard to care for him,” says Annie, “But the old dear had to give up. Poverty made it impossible for her to care for her grandchild.”  Then Annie smiles and says, “We are so privileged to take care of Wilson.”

However, without a plentiful supply of milk and nutrient-dense food, babies like Wilson will suffer from a wide array of malnutrition-related disorders.  Some are irreversible and can keep a youngster from ever developing into a normal, healthy adult.

How much is enough?

Corners can be cut and funds stretched in some areas, but definitely not in the quantity or quality of the food these growing children need.

How much is enough? The goal is not to feed the children just enough to barely get by, but to give them what they need in order to thrive.

• “Enough” is when a baby falls peacefully asleep after a full bottle of nourishing milk… week after week.
• “Enough” is when an active toddler’s energy lasts all day long.
• “Enough” is when a growing child is able to concentrate and learn, and her happy demeanor is evidence of vibrant health.

Physical and spiritual food

Milk is not the only food necessary for life at Kondanani:  The children also receive spiritual food.  Each one is being taught the Word of God and having the Gospel shared with them each and every day.

Annie aims to provide a genuine home and family life to the children who grow up at Kondanani. It is her prayer that, when they are old enough to graduate from the school, they not only leave as well-educated young adults, but “feeling they have had a wonderful childhood… and knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.”

Can you help Annie and Cross International assure that these children are well fed…physically and spiritually?

Can you give $10 to feed one orphan for a month?

Click here to donate on-line safely and securely.  If 221 people give $10 apiece, that will feed every orphan at Kondanani for one month.

Click here to make a difference by providing food for an African orphan today.

Thank you for serving ‘the least of these’ in Jesus’ name.

Chuck Burge

Cross International.org

P.S.  If your church worship team would like free music & video to present a song about caring for orphans, please go to my blog for details: www.HarmonyBlog.org

I’m so excited to have special guest blogger, Sumer who just came back from a 14 day mission trip with Visiting Orphans in Uganda and Ethiopia.  We only have 1 more spot open for my crazy team of 25.  Please take time today to pray and ask- are you the 1?

Sumer’s Testimony:  When looking over the itinerary for my upcoming Visiting Orphans trip to Uganda and Ethiopia, I knew that it was going to be difficult emotionally.  Although, I was beyond excited to go and to get to be the hands and feet of Jesus, I had read pretty much the complete catalog of Katie Davis blog posts, and I knew that this work was not glamorous in the earthly sense.  But it was pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God – it was glamorous in His eyes.

And of all the places I was to visit on my trip, there was only one that I dreaded…the trash dump.  How do you walk away from a child so destitute and deprived that they live and eat in piles of garbage?  At least at first, I had envisioned them as just little piles of garbage.  I later found out that it is actually mountains of trash as far as the eye can see.  And yet, what could I do for them in my one day?  Their plight seemed hopeless.

The night before we were to visit these children, I had the privilege of hearing Sammy’s story.  Sammy grew up in Korah, a community next to the landfill that began as a leper colony and is now made up of close to 80,000 societal outcasts.  The people of Korah are considered untouchable by most, and thousands of them eat from the trash dump daily.  Sammy spent his childhood collecting food from the landfill.  He acknowledges that it is only by God’s grace that he was able to eventually go to school and get a job.  He spends his free time ministering to the orphan children who still live there.   Sammy reminded me that our God is hope for the hopeless.

The next day was Christmas Day in Ethiopia and standing in that horrendous place that I had dreaded so much, I knew I was right where God wanted me to be.  We served the children a traditional Ethiopian dinner, passed out clothes, and candy, and party hats, and listened to them sing Happy Birthday to Jesus in their beautifully broken English.  Later, another team member said she was glad that she went, but she would never go back.  I thought to myself I will go back everyday until every child that lays their head down to sleep in that landfill has a home and the hope that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can bring.

There are over 100 orphans who live in the city landfill of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  These children have very little hope of a better life.   Amazingly, through my time in Africa, God called my family to spend the summer with these children.  For the next few months we will work on getting all of them sponsored to go to boarding school in the fall, and then we will spend the summer teaching them English and getting them ready to go to school for the first time.

I will be excited to meet all the members of the Visiting Orphans teams coming this summer, and I will be praying for you as God prepares you hearts for the amazing blessing that meeting the children Ethiopia and Uganda will bring!

Thank you Sumer!!

More Links to read:

• http://sumerwithonem.blogspot.com/2010/01/begin-with-end.html
• http://sumerwithonem.blogspot.com/2010/01/helen.html
• http://sumerwithonem.blogspot.com/2010/01/korah.html
• http://sumerwithonem.blogspot.com/2010/01/just-another-day-at-office.html
• www.thejordansdna.blogspot.com

Visiting Orphan Mission Trip- Video

Adoption News:  If you are an India Adoption Family or simply love India- check out the new Simply Love India T shirts for purchase- CLICK HERE! All proceeds help the Needham adoption!

This is my very first Blog Tour and I’m so excited to share with you the book, One Million Arrows.  Roger and I have been fighting over reading it, but he cheated and took it to the office.  He loves the book!  It’s the perfect book for all my crazy readers… have you heard about it?

“Will the world change our children…or will our children change the world? Time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting our families to become part of a bigger story—a vision that will engage hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise our kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ. If we want our kids to discover their purpose, if we want them to live with passion for the Kingdom, if we want our family to go down in His-Story, accept the mission…and leave a mark for eternity.” (Julie Ferwerda, author)

Crazy Introduction:

There is a movement afoot within conservative Christian denominations regarding discipleship of children for kingdom purposes.  Julie Ferwerda has added yet another call to disciplining your children with one caveat–she is taking it global.

A little Summary of One Million Arrows:

The book is divided into three parts: Gather, Sharpen, and Launch.  Recognizing that the time is short, and the need great, Julie exhorts all parents to disciple their children to impact the world instead of the world impacting their children.  In her part on gathering, she lays out a plan for the parents to chart their own course with their families and to hop on board the one million arrows campaign and challenges each family to own the mission of disciplining their children.

Part two guides the parents in gathering the arrows (children) to sharpen them.  She helps the reader to understand how to shape your arrows in your home and beyond.  In so doing, you will ultimately be able to send your arrows off into the world to impact the kingdom of God.

The final part of the book is how to launch your arrows.  This can be a difficult process for all parents while also being perhaps one of the most rewarding times in a parent’s life.

Throughout the book, you get to know Papa–Dr. M.A. Thomas.  He was the inspiration behind the book and the movement, One Million Arrows.  She shares about Papa that God gave him the vision of gathering one million orphaned and abandoned children, sharpening them as “arrows for God,” and launching them to start one million churches in the these communities of India who had never heard the name of Jesus. He has been faithfully working toward the vision since, and today he has launched 16,000 orphan arrows as ambassadors of Christ into India, and planted 21,000 churches.

Review & Recommendation

Julie Ferwerda has accomplished two great goals. First, she has penned a biblical call for discipleship to take place in the home. Second, she has given due honor to a man who influenced her life, ministry, and mission.

I believe she sums up best the heart behind the book. She writes, “I have underestimated what God can do through my kids now” (144). Most parents, myself included, grossly underestimate what their children are capable of at young ages.

With blurbs from Christians like Josh McDowell, Dr. Alvin Reid, and Franklin Graham, Julie has come out firing on all cylinders so to speak. One Million Arrows is an excellent book that deserves the attention of every parent. The book can be used in churches to challenge families to raise their children with the intent of impacting the kingdom in the future. You can learn more about the movement at One Million Arrows.

Links to Amazon & retailers
The book is available through Amazon and other online retailers. Visit the One Million Arrows How to Order page for full details as well as information about church, ministry, and bulk orders.

How can you help?  Add the One Million Arrows button on your blogs and spread the word.  Please leave Julie a special comment here today and encourage her to continue challenging crazy families to make a difference in this world.

God dropped a new project right in my lap.  1 Bin (Rubbermaid) + 1 Orphanage (Haiti Home) + 1 Heart (you) = 1 life saved (orphans) My friend, Steve Ijames (photo) just returned from Haiti and asked me to help bring powdered formula to Pignon Haiti.  This is a mountainous village located about 35 miles from Cap Haitian and 100 miles from Port Au Prince, but the drive takes a crazy 3 1/2 hours.  The orphanage is called Haiti Home of Hope and Bill and Jennifer Campbell currently have 48 children (but every day more come)  What I love about this project, I am working out the details to travel with the small team and hand deliver the bins filled with formula directly to the orphanage- Baby Food Hand Out. (Pray!)  If you would like to donate and help me fill rubbermaid bins (as many as we can stuff!) with powdered formula, please know that the items will be hand delivered in a few weeks to Haiti.  You can donate on my Paypal (just write Haiti Formula in notes) or mail me powdered formula- email me.

- any amount will help!

If you want to peek at the orphanage on Google Earth Picture- here you go: Click the link below to see where Haiti Home of Hope is located. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=19.34436,-72.12175&ll=19.34436,-72.12175&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Photographer, Don Fuhr traveled with the team last week and was able to capture photos of the orphans and their tragedies from the earthquake- physically and emotionally.  Here is his personal testimony from his time in Pignon.

Our trip in a nutshell:

“From Port Au Prince it is about 57 miles to Pignon ”as the crow flies”, but we actually flew into Cap Haitien, which is much closer to Pignon, at about 23 miles as the crow flies and travelled to Pignon from there.  I’m not sure how many actual road miles it is, but Steve is right, it was the worst road I have ever travelled to actually get someplace.  We commented on how much fun (and quicker) it would be on our motorcycles, but sitting in the bed of the truck it was a bit rough.  It was raining when we left Cap Haitien and Steve and I had brought rain ponchos so we volunteered to sit in the bed as there were six of us including Bill, who was driving, and the cab would only hold four.  The trip took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  It is a pretty typical mountain road in that it is very curvy, but is also washed out in a number of places and rocky, pot-holed and extremely rough everywhere else.  I would estimate our average speed at around 10 MPH – often much slower.  Jeep clubs would love it!

There are two river crossings (no bridge) not too far out of Pignon.  When you cross those you know you are getting close (about 20 minutes away).  During the trip we had to alternate between sitting and standing while holding onto the roll bar so we didn’t get pitched out of the truck.  It was too painful to sit for long because of the extremely rough conditions and no padding other than what God saw fit to equip us with.  I realized that in spite of what people have told me, I didn’t have near enough padding!  So, we’d stand until our arms were tired of holding on, then sit until our posteriors were tired of the pounding, then stand, then sit…  I tried to take a photo while we were moving – once.  I abandoned that idea pretty quickly and waited until we had stopped before taking any more.  In one of the photos on the DVD you will see a couple of buses on a dirt road with people all around them.  They are stopped behind a third bus that was broken down.  We were able to go around it by driving up an embankment using 4-wheel drive.  We learned the next day that the bus was still there and had blocked a number of less capable vehicles from proceeding any further.  News in that region travels by cell phone and personal contact.  There is no “Traffic Update” on your local radio station to warn you of such problems, so Bill spent several minutes on the phone calling some local friends to warn them about the road block.

This is Peterson.  He is 10 (they think).  He and his younger brother were the only two earthquake survivors among his family and they wandered the streets for a number of days before they were taken in by a Canadian medical relief team.  At some point, Peterson and his brother became separated in a crowd on the street and the whereabouts of Peterson’s brother is still unknown.  When the Canadian medical team had to leave, they could not find any place in Port au Prince to take him and could not bear leaving Peterson to wander the streets again.  They finally made contact with the Haiti Home of Hope orphanage who took him in. One of our goals when we return is to find his brother for him. This photo and two others I took at the same time are the only two in which he is not smiling. The others shots are of him with the other kids. In spite of the tragedy he endured and survived, he is able to find reasons to smile at the orphanage.  When he slowed down and stood still for this photo, some of what he had endured seemed to come through in his eyes.

This is Mika (Mee-ka).  Age unknown, but probably early teens.  She and her mother, Daline, are the only survivors among her family. Her father and all siblings (number unknown) were all killed in the quake.  Mika’s feet were pinned in rubble for over 8 hours before she could be freed. It was several days before she could get medical attention and her feet were so badly injured, the doctors told her mother that they would have to amputate both feet.  The life of any Haitian is hard, let alone after having both feet amputated, so her mother, Daline, told the doctors to let Mika die rather than suffer the hardships she would have to endure in a life in Haiti with no feet. Fortunately, the doctors in Port au Prince could not do the surgery there and Mika was airlifted to the hospital in Pignon where a group of U.S. doctors were conducting an annual mission trip.  Several orthopedic specialists were among the group and after several surgeries, they were able to save most of Mika’s feet.  The Campbells are providing food and shelter until Mika is well enough to travel back to Port au Prince. The photo shows Mika helping to change the dressings on her feet, which has to be done daily.

There are so many stories that I did not get the chance to learn in my less than two days there.  My goal when I return is to document and photograph more of them and those of the people that are touched by the Campbell family that run the Haiti Home of Hope orphanage.  Their ministry goes far beyond the orphans and extends well into the surrounding community, feeding starving babies and helping families through other of life’s tragedies that seem to be everywhere in Haiti.”

Thank you Don for sharing your gift of photography and allowing us to wrap our hearts around each precious face.  We can all make a difference.  Email me or donate on our personal Paypal account- click button.

I will purchase formula starting next week.  Thank you bloggy friends!

SNEEK PEEK NEW VIDEO- post it on your blogs today!  This song was written & performed by my friend Jennafer White (sooo proud of you!)

Believe from Harmony of Hearts

Fundraising Ideas to Love on Orphans:

You need to raise $3,400 for our Visiting Orphans mission trip.  Is this holding you up from joining our crazy team?  If it is, we want to share some fundraising ideas that really work!  If you have the heart to join us, raising funds will be the easy part!  Take a peek at my past 3 posts on our Uganda/Ethiopia Mission trip for more information.  Sign up today- only 2 spots left.  We need some more men, hubbys & dads to MAN UP… come protect & love the fatherless.  Please pass on info to someone you think should be a part of my crazy mission trip!!

My co-leader Ashlie suggests:

1. Donation Letters- Make it personal!!!! Put your heart into it. Stay in touch with people, talk about the trip whenever you can.

2. Start a Blog- Just do it!!!! www.blogspot.com  My crazy blog sister, Nikki Cochrane will design your new blog header (the top design art) and column sides and help you get your blog going.  She has hundreds of kits available for you to customize your new blog or give it a face lift.  SPECIAL OFFER: if you contact her and tell her My Crazy Adoption sent you, she will give you a $5 discount ($25 to customize your blog) EMAIL NIKKI – Blogs For A Cause.  Just tell her My Crazy Adoption sent you.

• Blogs For A Cause: is the perfect way to get a great looking blog, as well as supporting charities around the world! Designs are $30; $25 of which goes to supporting my humanitarian work, and $5 goes to a Charity of the Month. Send me an email and we will get started; discussing photos for the header, text for the header, and the digital scrapbook kit I will use for your blog (see Go Shopping to the right). I will come up with a design and put it on a Test Blog. You can look it over, and get one set of changes for free.

• Paypal has a very simple “donate here” button that can be added. If you compile all of your friends/family email addresses you can “email blast” everyone to let them know when you have a new post. This is a great way to make people a part of your journey.

1. Applebees- Dining to Donate 10% of sales for 5 hours!!!! All it took was a phone call to the store Manager and I had 3 different dates! Applebees even provides the flyer. All we have to do is print it and pass it out. We are going to stand at the back of the church and personally hand the flyer to each and everyone of our church members. In addition, you can stand outside of Applebees and ask the customers coming in the door to give a flyer to their waiter. We are hoping to raise $1,000 each night. (Warning= no take-outs and customers have to give their flyer to the waiter)

2. Kohls- A-Team Volunteers- All you need to do is request 5 or more volunteers from Kohls for a 2 hour event, such as an Easter Festival, Parents Night Out, Church Landscaping, etc. The volunetters will come and work AND you will get $500.00 for your organzation!!!!! Check out http://www.kohlscorporation.com/communityrelations/Community04.htm

3. African Mission Spaghetti Dinner- We are pre-selling $10.00 tickets for a Spaghetti Dinner at our church. Dinner includes Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Salad, and Dessert. We are also going to have a silent auction. We are designing themed baskets, such as Family Game Night, Day of Beauty, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dinner and Dancing, etc. We are hoping to get most of the items donated.

4. Parents Night Out- We are offering babysitting on a Saturday Night, from 6-10 at our church. We are request donations from parents. This is simple and requires no upfront cost, just marketing.

Here are more ideas from bloggy friend, Big Nanny who just went on a 14 day mission trip with Visiting Orphans.  Here’s what she had to say about fundraising for missions:

Yes, we did lots of fundraising for our trip. We were in a unique position because 3 of us were on staff at our church so we had lots of contacts and were able to do some special fundraisers. Here is what we did & the results:

• We sent out letters. The 3 of us who are on staff sent out a joint letter to all of our contacts explaining when, where, why, etc. The letter was eye catching & not your typical boring m. trip letter:) I can send you a copy if you want.
• We had a t-shirt designed with Africa & had them printed. This wasn’t a huge money maker because we sell a lot of t-shirts at our church for various events. We also put them on FB on & blogs. We probably made about $200 profit. We had our t-shirts made for less than $5 bucks and sold them for $10. We had a t-shirt connection in our church & they gave us a good deal.
• Our church has a fall festival on Halloween each year. They let us do concessions and we made over $1000.
• We had a paypal button on our blogs and we made a few hundred dollars.
• We work in preschool ministry & our wing of the church does not have a coke machine so we started selling Cokes out of the fridge for $1.
• Yard Sale-we had a yard sale on a cold November day and made over $1500. We had some people in our church donate items to us for the sale.

We go to a very missions supportive church so they let us do a lot of things that most churches do not. And because we are on staff, we got to do a few things that most people wouldn’t have the opportunity to do.
Other people that we know have done some of these:

• Pancake breakfast at Applebees. Our local one supplies the pancakes, sausage, and drink. You sell the tickets for $5 and make all the profit.
• Sell items around your house on Craigslist. Some of the high ticket items that were donated to our yard sale (a Barbie jeep, john deere kid jeep, furniture, etc) I posted them on Craigslist the week of the sale and had them sold before Saturday.

Again, the 3 of us fundraised as a team from the beginning and had almost $12,000 to raise if you include our vaccinations. We raised all of it. The only money that we spent was our VO $200 application fees. It was truly a God thing. We even had an extra $1000 to give away when we got there. We were called to this trip and it was all God putting everything together to make it happen.

If you have any other questions for Angela/Big Nanny. You can email her at aspencer@thompsonstationchurch.org
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only crazy one:)

My Crazy Idea:

Mr. IPod Touch Ozark Adventure was my big crazy Haiti mission trip fundraiser.  If you’re new here, and want to see the two weeks of craziness, check this out- My Mission Trip Fundraiser!!

• Buy or get an IPod donated. (talk to local business or friends that can help)
• Create a “Donate” button on Paypal.
• Don’t use the words- raffle or tickets (PP will tag you as a gambler:)  You can say- donate to enter a Giveaway.  Set donation amounts per entries they earn. Explain this on your blog, but do not put any “gambler words” on paypal button set up.
• Create a Mr. IPod or Miss Lulu IPod.  The crazier, the more fun you will have with your readers.
• Make sure you let blog readers know 100% of proceeds goes directly to mission trip or orphans.

Britt Nicole JUST returned from a Visiting Orphans mission trip- 14 days to Uganda & Ethiopia.  Take a peek at her blog and photos and testimony.  Click here- Britt Nicole Music blog

VISITING ORPHANS WEBSITE- MISSON TRIP INFO

Click button everyday 2 Vote- that’s it!  Help make adoption #1 mommy blog!