A Call to Willingness.

Often in our lives we find things we are willing to do. But then we come across an area that we are not willing to do--whether we admit that to God or keep it in "secret" thoughts.

Those things may be an unwillingness to preaching, handing someone a tract, quitting your job for another one, withholding a job opportunity for an unknown future, to be single, to be a missionary, to go to Africa.

But, let us not always focus on being willing to go. We can get into the mindset of "surrender" and say to God "I surrender to you should you call me to go to [third world country]." But are we willing to stay?

That's what God has spoken to me about tonight. I'm very enthusiastic about returning to Ethiopia. It is a recurring thought each day. I fantasize about staying there for more than 4 months; I think about what I could do differently over there than how I did things on my first trip. It's easy for me to surrender to going to Ethiopia. If God called me to go to Ethiopia tomorrow morning--all expenses provided for--I would run to the airport if it could take me there faster than a car.

...But am I willing to stay?

What if God wants me to stay? What if He wants me to remain in America for the rest of my life doing Bible clubs and helping at church? Is that something I am surrendered to?

I honestly do not know. I haven't searched my heart enough to give myself an honest answer to myself and God. And that is not the point of this journal entry. It's not to triumphantly declare to you I am surrendered to go and willing to stay. It's a call to willingness for myself and for you.

I'm not going to wait until I can say "I am willing to stay" before I post this entry. It profits no one--myself especially--if I only cast myself in a righteous light.

I don't know if I'm willing to stay in America while Ethiopia tugs at my heart. I don't know if I could be submissive to the idea of my never returning to Ethiopia.

And it is not about words. It's not to tell God "I am willing to stay." It's about believing it--actually being willing.

And that's where I am right now. I've come to God already before and said I'm willing to do whatever He wants. If He wants me to stay, then so be it. But I feel it was more of a motion action--something to be done so I can say I did it. Not to others, but to myself and to God. "God. I already surrendered to staying. I want to go to Ethiopia so much, so it must be of you."

I want to be able to get to the point where I'm not comfortable with going to Ethiopia just because I want to go. I want to be able to go to Ethiopia because God wants me to. If I want to, then great. But God's desires are more important. Whether I accept that or not, it's true.

The ball is in my court. It's always been. It's not whether God provides or not. It's not whether He calls or not. It's about whether I can be willing to follow wherever He leads. Not wherever I want Him to lead, or wherever I feel comfortable about following.

So God, help me be willing to stay.

Sponsorship Highlight: Yegele Getachew

 He stood there, swinging the toy paddle back and forth with great strokes, unable to harmonize himself with the rhythm of hitting the rubber ball attached to the elastic string. For one reason, perhaps the only reason, the string was too long. He would swing his arm forward, miss the ball, recoil in his own timing, but be unable to recover from the awkward delay of the ball and its string.

The missionaries looked at his efforts, thinking to themselves that perhaps the toy was cheap and defective. So they took the toy from him and attempted to fix the problem. They pulled the string back through the hole and tied it off with a bigger knot, making it shorter. Once finished, they returned the toy and watched the boy attempt to paddle the ball back and forth. It took only a few jerks of the paddle for the string's knot to push through the hole, reverting back to its defective state.

The child, realizing what was going on, then took the ball at the end of the string and began to wrap it around the paddle, criss-crossing it to secure it firmly against his attempts at playing with the toy. The string, however, quickly unraveled when the test was brought forth.

Considering he had received another toy with this paddle, one would perhaps think of giving up, accepting the fate that this was what he had to deal with: a broken, uncooperative defective toy.

After going outside where there would be more room to play with his paddle, he took only a few minutes to turn the ill situation around on its heels. He grabbed the string, broke it free from the paddle, and then removed any trace of it from it and the ball. Now, to the onlookers it perhaps seemed like he had given up, broken the toy in frustration. Perhaps to the optimist he broke the toy in half to have two different toys: a ball to bounce around and a paddle to do whatever with; but neither were the case.

Instead of dealing with what misfortune had handed him (and even still not giving up on the ideal of playing with the toy) he transformed the ordeal into his own controlled situation.

Once the ball and paddle were free of the string, he threw the ball into the air softly and hit it with the paddle against the hard wall of his mud house. As it rebounded, he swung again only for it to tip against the wall at an awkward angle and bounce back out of his reach. He turned, scavenged for the ball, threw it up in the air, and hit it against the wall again. After he did this for a few more minutes, he grabbed my hand, pulled me outside, and began to play a crude game of tennis with me—his racket was his paddle, and my racket was my hand.

This boy, Yegele, was determined not to let a misfortune handed to him be something he has to deal with without option, or something to be fled, avoided, and hated. This is an attitude we all must have, but the people of his nation, especially.

Yegele lives in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia with his widowed mother. As with most people in the nation, they live in poverty. They don't earn $30,000 a year. They don't have healthcare or insurance. They don't have government help. One of the few means of help, if there is any other, comes from Blessing the Children International. Through this program, children are clothed, educated, and fed.

Yegele is presently supported at $30/month. He has medical expenses because lately he has been having stomach problems as well as skin discoloration—expenses helped with by BCI through his sponsorship.

Yegele also attends the BCI Academy where he is in the 3^rd grade.

That's it—those are the three main areas of physical aid from BCI for each child sponsored: Food, medical expenses, and education. The spiritual and emotional aid is far more varied and numbered: They receive a hope for the future; a renewed faith in God; and a strengthened determination to follow Christ; as well as an opportunity to learn more about God from church, activity days, and prayer meetings.

As stated, Yegele is sponsored at $30/month. That is only 1/3 of full sponsorship. He still needs $60 more to be fully sponsored. Would you consider sponsoring the other 2/3, or even a part of it?

I don't want you to feel like this is just an opportunity to hand out money. It's more than that. It's seeing a need and meeting it; it's becoming an individual that is known in a child's life for caring, loving, and seeking to help. Think about it for yourself. If you were in this situation, wouldn't you want to have the knowledge that somewhere 7,000 miles away there is a person thinking about you, caring for you, wanting your best, wanting you to be healthy, wanting you to succeed?

Sponsoring Yegele will enable him to experience not only the physical aid offered through the BCI Program, but also the spiritual and emotional aid. Yegele will be able to know that he's not alone in the world, he'll be able to know that a complete stranger saw his need and decided to help him, and he'll be able to further experience the love of our Father.

So, please pray and please pass his story along. Pray, if you will, for two days, seeking God's guidance and will in this matter. Don't worry about finances. If God wants you to sponsor, He will provide. After all, “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

Maybe it isn't God's will for you to sponsor Yegele. That's okay, but He wants you to pray, regardless. Pray that God will provide Yegele his sponsors. Pray that God will work in others' lives to sponsor him, and that God will work in Yegele's life through this ministry.

Since it may not be God's will for you to sponsor, please pass this child highlight on to your friends and family, but don't pass it on and sit silently. Just because you don't think it is God's will for you to sponsor doesn't mean it isn't. So, please, pass it along and then pray. If, at the end of two days, you find that it isn't God's will for you, then pass Yegele's story along again to your friends and family. Even if you can't help by sponsoring him, you can still help by bringing his God-ordained sponsor to light of Yegele's situation and needs. Perhaps it is through you that Yegele will be sponsored, even if you aren't the one sponsoring him.

Pass his story along. Pray for God's guidance. Pass his story along again.

1 John 3:17-18

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

For further information, email me at kevin2ethiopia@yahoo.com or go to BCI's website here!  :)

-Kevin

Eloquence or the Power of the Cross?

Sometimes I don't know what to say. Sometimes I don't know what to think. Sometimes I want to do something, but have no idea how to go about doing it. I want perfection so I don't get things done until they are.

But that moment I typed that is when it stuck out to me. Eloquence doesn't reach the world--Jesus does; through the power of the Cross souls are touched.

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. -- 1 Cor. 1:17

So here it is, in the next entry I will post an essay of sorts seeking one or more sponsors for a child I met in Ethiopia. His name is Yegele Getachew. I typed it up a month ago, sent it to two of my friends to proof, then I sent it to two other people at different times. The first got busy and didn't proof it, and the second was just recent and I've been "waiting" on them both until now when I realized it's edited enough. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect, just decent enough not to have glaring errors and understandable enough. So, I will end the pursuit of eloquence and trust in the power of Christ to deliver unto Yegele the one(s) who God has appointed to sponsor him.

Please read the following entry and share it to your friends and family. And above all: Pray.

-Kevin