Haiti Bound

Just a quick update and to complete the loop on my last post….we leave for Haiti tomorrow to go visit Naomi.  For “we”, insert Sarah, Claire, and me.  Isabella is staying behind…however, “we” are regretting that we didn’t plan for her to come along on this trip as well.

We still don’t know the “right” answer for sure.  What we “know” is that we “feel” like we should be there for Naomi’s birthday (turning 3 on Saturday), loving her as only we can.

What we “feel” challenged to do is live out our faith in His calling to adopt in a very real, public testimony way….by going.  To put our hearts, our safety, our comfort…on the alter just as Abraham did with Isaac.  To learn by the testing of  our faith that God is good.  For “our”, insert Sarah, Claire, Isabella, and me.

Not by sitting back, safely inside, quietly pursuing His calling, not getting to attached, praying that things will “work out”, and if they don’t, oh well, wasn’t God’s will, we must not have understood His call, it’s a good thing we didn’t put ourselves out there because we would have been disappointed, gotten hurt, lost so much.

So….98 degree heat, no AC, no electricity, no hot water, malaria carrying mosquitoes, and all things 3rd world uncomfort……stand aside because we are coming to throw a P.A.R.T.Y!

Adoption Reality

I asked Sarah if I could share a recent email dialog she had with one of our adoption advocates in Haiti.  Our adoption isn’t easy.  Walking by faith is a daily battle of wills; ours versus His.  Here is a small glimpse into our adoption reality…..

- from Sarah -

“I need some counsel this morning.  As if you don’t have enough to do already.  I just knew that you would understand and maybe could help me.  Please do not take any of this the wrong way.

I am really struggling with coming to see Naomi.  Our adoption at the moment, as you well know, is not moving too much.  Well not at all really.  And I just can’t figure out or seem to have a peace about our visiting Naomi with there being so much uncertainty about when the adoption will begin to be in process.  Please know, I am not doubting this adoption.  I have complete faith that this is going to be an amazing miracle of God.  I just want to do what is best for her.  And I guess I am just trying to figure out if visiting her and leaving her so often when the adoption has not even begun, is right.  Is any of this making sense?  I literally have been physically ill to my stomach worrying about this.  I love her so much and just want to do the right thing.

Can you please just be very honest with me?  You know Naomi so well, being with her everyday.  I only want to do what is best for her.

Thank you for “listening”.  You have no idea how much we appreciate what you do. Please give Naomi huge hug from me! Tell her we love her!”

- from adoption advocate -

“My heart just aches for you – and your family.   Please know how very much I love your ‘mother’s heart’!

It is interesting that you should email now.  I have been watching Naomi quite a bit recently, thinking what a GOOD thing it is that you are coming.  She has been struggling a bit.  A bit moodier, a little less inclined to obey, and I have thought how grateful I am that you will soon be here.

In my opinion, she needs that intense one-on-one “I love you MORE than anyone else in this world!” time that she gets from you.  She needs that settled feeling of knowing that she is valued.  As I have watched her behavior after your earlier visits, I have seen how it has truly impacted her in positive ways.  She is happier, more joyful, more energetic, and so content.

I really struggle with knowing what is right here – she will come to my house by herself or with (other orphan) two to three times each week.  It’s kind of like coming to grandma’s house – they get different snacks, and have a bit more freedom in terms of play time – sometimes they get to watch a video.  But when she has to go back to the girl’s house she is so sad.  She and (my child) are just six weeks apart in age, and so I think she has trouble understanding why (my child) gets to stay and she has to go.  What I’m trying to say is this – she knows that I love her, but she also knows that it is different with (my child).

When you are here – it’s all about Naomi – and she knows it.  That has been powerful in her life.   If you’re in this for the long haul (which you’ve never given me any reason to believe that you are not) I would try to budget in trips to see her every 3 to 4 months.

Just want you to know that I understand what you’re asking – I really appreciate your sensitivity to Naomi and the entire situation – and I want to do what I can to help your family to survive these upcoming months and years well!  If, after prayer and quiet reflection with our Lord, you decide that it is not best to come at this time – I will completely support that decision – and will welcome any ideas that you may have for keeping your connection with Naomi during this time of waiting.”

- from Jason -

If you have walked this road before and have received wise counsel on how to handle this….please share. Public or Private.  If you are a counselor, pastor, child psychologist, or social/adoption worker with insight….please share.  Public or Private.  This is shaky ground for us, we don’t have it figured out, we don’t have the “right” answers, we need help.  If you haven’t walked this road, we would love to have your encouragement/prayer.  Public or Private.  But, respectfully, keep your “opinions” regarding whether you think  we should or shouldn’t be visiting our daughter at this stage to yourself….love ya, mean it.

Square Between the Eyes

That is where this hit me today….pulled from C.S.Lewis – Mere Christianity:

“One more point and I am done.  In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason “in order that he may have something to give to those in need.”  Charity-giving to the poor-is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns.  Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to  give to.  They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society.  But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality.  I do not believe one can  settle how much we ought to give.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable  expenditure excludes them.  I am speaking now of “charities” in the common way.  Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbors or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of  your own position.  For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear – fear of insecurity.  This must often be recognized as a temptation.  Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help.”

AH-sah-lah MAH-lay Koom

Translation: I come in peace!

You can now stop with the evil looks and snide remarks.  I have a good excuse for not updating our blog since my return from Africa….I do, seriously.  Well, sort of.  Ok, not really.  But if I did, would it really matter?

How do you sum up a trip to Africa in a quick blog?  That’s the problem.  I seriously don’t have the energy to process all my thoughts and release them into the blogosphere.  I know it can be done because I read great blogs of depth from people all the time…..I just can’t get it to come out for some reason.

But, I want you to know the trip went GREAT.  Actually, it went better than our team could have hoped for.  Probably because during preparations for the trip, we knew what was possible by our own efforts.  But we failed to consider (or grasp) what would be possible with God working ahead of and through us.

The primary mission of the trip was two fold: Objective A) Put on an “American” style basketball clinic for young men, women, coaches; Objective B) Via a successful clinic, strengthen the relationship of our host IMB missionary with the head coach at Dakar University so that future opportunities to reach young people might be opened.

From a basketball perspective, I think God worked a small miracle.  From the very beginning He reminded us this basketball clinic wasn’t going to be completed by our hands alone.

My friends in Haiti have a saying…TIH (This Is Haiti).  They basically use that term to explain anything that is completely illogical to Americans but perfectly normal to Haitians.  So upon hearing the term TIA (This is Africa), followed by a “you got to be kidding me” laugh coming from our missionary, during our first meeting with the head university coach on the day we arrived….I quietly thought to myself this can’t be good.  It didn’t matter that they were speaking Wolof.  That laugh, shoulder shrug, and sideways smile are universal for “I’m sorry, could you please repeat that…I must have misunderstood you?”

Said coach repeats himself a little slower in Wolof and said missionary looks at us and says, “He just told me that the courts where we had planned to do the basketball clinic have been torn up…..scratch that, torn DOWN.”  TIA, indeed.  At this junction is where I was again reminded of what it means to have true faith in God’s plan; continually modeled to me by my friends in Haiti and now being demonstrated by our missionary friend in Africa.  He just smiled, gave the coach a warm hand shake, and told us to get ready to see what God does next.   No stress, no concern, no curse words, no doubt…just anticipation.

Within a couple of hours, a new court had been identified and use of the court had been negotiated with the area chief.  No small feat.  This isn’t downtown city USA, there are only a handful of courts in ALL of Senegal.  And after visually inspecting the original court and then getting to step foot on the new court….major upgrade.  Not only was God in control but He had something BETTER in store for us.  There were happenings like that all week.

The clinics were done on this outside court everyday.  Boys in the morning and the girls in the afternoon….in 90+ degrees heat with extreme humidity.  Now, I live in armpit americana Louisiana and know all about heat.  In fact, it was technically hotter in LA than Dakar the week we were there.  But we were told that Dakar, Senegal is known for having some of the hottest sun rays in the world.  I googled it and my efforts to substantiate that claim fell short, but my skin that was still peeling off over two weeks later can testify that it was HOT!

Here are some pics of our guys and girls.  Several weren’t there when we took these pictures but we averaged about 15-20 guys and about 20-25 girls.  And just so you know, the “tall” white guy in the back was the head coach on our team and he is 6′10″.  These boys and girls had some serious God given athletic ability and HEIGHT.  Pretty weak on basketball fundamentals/game knowledge but very athletic, hardworking, and appreciative.

The Guys

The Girls

On the last day of the clinics we had a relaxed day of fun with competitions for prizes that were donated to me by the Dallas Mavericks (yes, the NBA team).  The kids were so freakin excited….I’m smiling as I write this thinking about the joy in their faces when we started pulling out Dallas Mavericks shirts and jerseys….it was so awesome.  The shirts they are wearing in the pictures were also donated and screen printed by a local shop here in town.  They were so proud of them…it was really great.

Every day, we took a break during each clinic and did some “Story Telling”.  We would share stories from the bible, painting the picture from Creation to the Cross.  All the stories focused on blameless blood sacrifices that were required for man to be cleansed by God…..all ultimately leading up to the final blood sacrifice of our Savior.

Like I said earlier, objective A was to put on a quality basketball clinic that would be helpful for these kids as well as their coaches.  Objective B was to strengthen the missionaries relationship with the head university coach.  Without a doubt, God worked a miracle in both areas.  After the very last basketball session on the last day, we had a sit down meeting with all the coaches and much to our surprise the head coach for the Senegal National Team (major deal) showed up.  He told us how he had heard great things about our clinics so he had to come see for himself.  And to top it off, the head coach that we were focused on invited us over to his families house for lunch on the last day of our trip.  This is a really significant gesture in the Wolof/Muslim culture.  Here are a few pictures from that event.  This post is getting really long but I have so much to share about my thoughts on the meal we shared with this Muslim family…it really shook me.  In a God tearing down some walls, exposing some sin in me, and rebuilding some love, kind of way……it is probably worthy of a post by itself.  Stay tuned.

The Meal (That plate is the size of a UFO)

The Scene (Perspective for the UFO plate)

The Coach and The Missionary (Objective B = Success)

Amazing trip….Amazing place….Amazing people…..Amazing blessing…..Amazing God!  Thanks for your prayers and donations.

“Hi, I am Coach Jason from the USA…..

…..and I have flown all the way to Senegal, Africa to teach you the game of basketball.  While teaching you some ball skills, hopefully I will earn your respect and get the opportunity to tell you about my friend named Jesus.”

OK, I won’t be that cheesy but for a one liner, it basically sums up what I am doing in a few weeks. I am traveling with a team of 4 others, and working with a local missionary, to put on a basketball camp for college age men/women at the University of Dakar in Senegal, Africa.  One lady on the trip will also be teaching an English as a Second Language class.  We are leaving on July 27th and returning on August 3rd.

Besides your prayers (please), there might be other ways you can help.  We are trying to secure some items to take with us to pass out to the participants/local coaches of the basketball clinic we are putting on.  If you have or have the ability to acquire some of the following items and can get them to me by 7/25 please let me know.

• T-Shirts (plain or with logos, it does not matter.  if you have access to plain shirts we have someone that is willing to screen print them for free)
• Athletic shorts (plain or with logos)
• Basketball jerseys (plain or with logos)
• Basketballs (deflated, without air)
• Hand held air pumps
• Basketball nets (the ones that go on a basketball goal)
• Head/arm sweatbands (plain or with logos)
• Coaching whistles

If you think of something else that seems appropriate, please ask as we can probably use it!  Stuff will be nice, but seriously, your prayers are the most important.

2 Tarps + 8 Bottles of Soap = 4th of July Family Fun!

Between the Beauty & Chaos

If you have known me for a while, then you have probably heard of Aaron Ivey. Actually, there is a good chance I have given you one of his CD’s (formerly of the band Spur58).

Aaron is one of the most talented “artsy” guys I know. The guy is a rock star with adoring fans everywhere. Come to think of it, some friends of mine call him Vibey Ivey…..the dude is flat out cool. But honestly, behind the rock star image, there are few people that have a heart for Jesus like Aaron. A true desire to love the things Christ loved, serve the people Jesus served, and generally give all of himself, his talents, and his family to our Lord.

We have known each other for about 5 years and in that short time, he has had a huge impact on my life and my journey to be more like Christ. Well, to keep this short and because I am getting uncomfortable with all this mushy talk about another guy, this is his latest solo project and it is really really good. And if my recommendation isn’t good enough to convince you to buy his record, it is also the #1 Christian and Gospel album on iTunes……so there, trust the iTunes majority since they will never lead you astray! (insert a wink wink and a comment about how Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas is also #1)

What can you do?

Not looking for your money….just your prayers!

Word is our adoption advocates in Haiti are going to try to submit our dossier into IBESR this week despite the fact that we don’t officially meet the adoption “requirements”.  Just read through our newly updated (your welcome) Adoption Story if you are wondering what the “requirements” are and why we would be trying to adopt when we don’t “officially” meet them…….lots of “quotation” marks being used, huh?

Please pray that IBESR will take them.  And pray for something God sized to happen; not only will they take them but they will fly through the system in record time.  I believe, or at least am trying my best to, do you?  If you do, please pray.  If you don’t, please pray and let’s grow in this faith/trust thing together.

So is this an adoption blog or what?

Yes….or at least that is certainly why it was created. Adoption, more specifically our call to adopt from Haiti and the ensuing journey, along with information about the happenings of our family…the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. Since adoption activities are slow, it certainly seems like I blog more about God’s dealings with me. Interesting and inspirational….questionable. Real and authentic….definitely.

But, without further ado, an adoption update. Drum role please………

SLOW…that’s how things are going. Almost a year after taking this leap of faith, we are still basically waiting to get this adoption off the ground. That is NOT to say that MUCH (if much was ever an understatement it would be now) hasn’t happened over this past year. Our faith journey has lead us straight to Naomi. And what a blessing to our family she is. She has challenged and taught us, bent and broke us.

At this moment we are still waiting to get our dossier (collection of adoption papers) submitted into Haiti’s IBESR (basically Haitian Social Services). It remains one of the longest, most critical, and faith/trust testing steps in the entire Haitian adoption process. They are still operating under the 35/10/0 law (basically Age/Years Married/Number of children) but recent activity has shown that there is once again some leniency on the 10/0 part.

During our May visit to Haiti, I was able to sit with our orphanage director/crew and testify to them about our assurance of God’s calling and commitment to walk this path, no matter what, for as long as He commands us. Their response, “We will walk this path with you and take our direction from you as you take your direction from God!” They even committed to attempt to submit our dossier to IBESR even though we know fully that we don’t meet the current “law”. Their prayer, “Lord, place scales over their (IBESR workers) eyes, allow these papers to fall onto the right desk, and advance this adoption as only you can.”

Rest assured, we are committed to trusting God and testing His faithfulness. Not easy, not even how I would necessarily like it…but definitely required.

With that, please echo the prayers of our adoption advocates in Haiti. Pray specifically for our dossier, that it will be accepted into IBESR. Pray for wisdom and perseverance for our adoption advocates in Haiti and their willingness to continue to fight the system of corruption in the name of releasing orphans to their forever families.

Do something BIG today

Take four minutes and watch this video…..

…now take a few more minutes to click the Compassion International banner to the right of this post and sign up to release a child from the grips of poverty.

Today is your chance to DO SOMETHING BIG; serious KINGDOM work. Old school, straight from Isaiah 58 work; practical advice which liberates from churchianity and allows us to live exciting lives in the daily service of our God. The kind of work that God commanded to His people during the time of Isaiah and ultimately demonstrated for us here and now through the life of Jesus.

“And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10

Then go smoke your pipe and start working on world peace….or at least that’s what I did.