While at the Catalyst Conference two weeks ago, I was certainly moved by two organizations that are making a difference in our world - Hope International and Compassion International. Let me tell you a little about each.
Hope International is “a Christian faith-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused 
on alleviating physical and spiritual poverty through microenterprise development.” In other words, they collect donations and then LOAN that money out to entrepreneurs in impoverished situations. The small loans enable these men and women to grow their businesses and support their families. The loans, of course, are paid back. The money is then recycled into another loan to help another family. Wow. Great idea. At Catalyst, Hope International gave away over $120,ooo to the Catalyst attendees (approximately 13,000 of us). Each person received $10 and then was challenged to turn their $10 into $100 and send it back to Hope to become a loan for a needy family. That $120,000 has the potential to become 1.2 million if all of us successfully multiply our gift. To learn more about the microlending program, visit their site at www.neverendinghope.org.
Compassion International is an organization most of us have already heard of. Compassion offers the opportunity to sponsor children in poverty at the cost of $38 per month. Each sponsorships helps provide opportunitiy for education, health living, and connection with a church family that will help the child understand the love and grace of God through His Son Jesus. At Catalyst, I had the opportunity to witness the live testimony of a young Kenyan man named Jimmy who was sponsored through Compassion and who’s life was changed. There at Catalyst, as Jimmy shared his story, he also got to meet his sponsor there on stage in an incredible emotional exchange of tears and gratitude. To see this powereful moment, click here.
Just two weeks ago, we collected a special offering at church. Over $450 was donated to send $100 to Hope International and to sponsor a child through Compassion. Our childs name is Frank January Manyanda. He is pictured above. He i s 7 years old and lives in Tanzania. When we receive our sponsorship packet, I will let you know how you can contribute and support Frank through our church.
Thank you all for giving!
Last post I talked about “the pulse” – our Connection Cards. But what gives the pulse life? The heartbeat. And the heartbeat of the Bridge is the Connection Group. Connection Groups are otherwise known as small groups or Bible studies. These groups come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – men’s, women’s, co-ed, youth, on Sundays, or midweek, with childcare, without childcare, etc. Some of our Groups are ongoing, and some are close-ended. But why are they the heartbeat?
we often say, “this is the pulse of our church.” The Connection Card is the little tear off sheet attached to the bulletin where you can fill-in your name, address, SS #, CC #, etc. Just Kidding. We do ask everyone to fill out the card which does include info like name, address, kids, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. It’s tedious work. Some of you may wonder, “Why do I have to fill out this dad-blame(sp?) card every week?” But there are a number of reason we do this. 
We remind ourselves of this b/c it is so easy to forget. It is so easy for us turn inward, and think only of our own problems, and forget that people all around us are hurting, needing hope and healing. All of us are pretty good at putting on our masks. We clean up pretty good on the outside, but on the inside there is often a lot of doubt, fear, self-loathing, guilt, etc, etc, etc. I think it is our natural tendency to just blind ourselves from the reality that people we are around us are in need. If we didn’t wear our mask or tried to see past everyone elses, it would really become overwhelming. But it is so important that we don’t become so inwardly focused to the neglect of everyone around us. It is to overwhelming to know about and want to help those who are hurting, needing hope and healing. But we aren’t the savior. It is not our job to ‘fix’ everybody. Our hope is in God. And God is the hope we can share with those in need.
This means we focus on honoring God and not doing church for us, but for God and for others. All too often, a church, which starts with a focus on God and letting others know about God’s love for them, begins to turn inward and focus on itself. The vision has begun to leak. We begin to create programs and opportunities that benefit the members, attenders and insiders, and lose sight of the fact that the church is “God’s Plan A’” for reaching the world (see 
deo with Dave. He does a really great job engaging his audience and breaking down the walls we might have to listening to his advice on improving our financial lives. A couple of things Dave said in the video have stuck with me. 
through the card reader as I cruise through the self-checkout lane. It’s easy. And, it’s FREE. Courtney and I pay off our credit cards every month. We are disciplined. We don’t want to be enslaved to credit card debt. And, for 8 blessed years of marriage, we’ve paid off our credit cards each month and the credit card company makes Jack Diddily Squat off of us. Until now.
can’t wait to be a part. I know that I could be a much better “steward” of my finances. I could totally save more, spend less, and have a ton more opportunity to be generous if I had more control over where my dollars went. The course is 13 weeks long – so it’s a commitment. And it does cost $93. (That’s a reduced rate!) And, I know I am going to “buck” at many of the principles because I might not like to make the sacrifices required to improve my bottomline. But, the reality is, if I (and my lovely bride) decide to get serious about honoring God with our income, we WILL BENEFIT long term and be able to do so much more. It’s win/win. I hope some of the 15,000 families near our church will come and get a grip on their finances as well.
Much of the berating does not seem to stem from simply his failure, but the fact that he is percieved as some type of Christian holy roller because he credits Christ with helping him in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. I’ve been a little shocked at how hard people have been on him and how little grace they have for him, particular because of his faith association. It seems if he had never mentioned “God” in his recovery, nobody would care so much that he had a misstep in his recovery. But, b/c he has credited God with his recovery, it seems the world leaves him no room for grace and has no regard for his faith unless he lives a perfect life after his conversion. Does the world really expect us to live perfect lives? Are we hypocrites b/c we fail our own high standard, or are we simply human? I find it hard to believe that ANYONE keeps their own standards perfectly, regardless of how low a standard they set. I don’t think we need to view everyone as hypocrites, but merely as human. Just b/c we believe in a certain standard (high or low), does not always mean we will be able to maintain that standard. We all fail. Let’s have a little grace. God knows we need it.
I finally got around to planting some things. I planted some tomatoes, cucumbers and a watermelon. So far, so good. The cucumbers reached “maturity” today, so I harvested. I think I had nine total, but I left one on the vine hoping that it continues to grow. The tomatoes still have at least 3 weeks left, and probably five more for the watermelon. My little man (Jackson) and I have enjoyed going out to check our garden each day and view the progress.
The one pic is representative of my lack of photography skills. The other snap is inspired by my favorite food blogger, Abbie K! You can check out her great photograhpy and recipes 