Imagine for a moment you find yourselves at a crossroads. You have a decision to make. One that will change everything you’ve ever known and one that will ultimately determine the course of your future. You can stay where you are and continue your life as a slave, or you could risk everything; including your life and set out on an unknown journey in hopes of a better life; a free life.

What would you do?

It was the year 1849 and Harriet Tubman “Moses” fled from a life of slavery on a Maryland plantation and after a long and rigorous trek, reached freedom in Canada. Tubman did something remarkable. She returned to her plantation and led others out and into freedom as well.

The Underground Railroad was a remarkable and complicated system. It took the collaboration of brave abolitionists and the determination of those who knew they deserved a better life to carry out this organization of freeing Americas slaves of the mid-1800’s. And they succeeded. Slavery in the slave states eventually ceased.

Over 150 years after Harriet Tubman tasted freedom and helped countless other do the same, history books refer to her as an American hero. She stands tall with other hero’s of that movement such as Fredrick Douglas, William Stil and Susan B. Anthony.

Fast forward to today and you’ll find 15 cyclists who just finished riding along the Underground Railroad, stretching 1800 miles (see videos of the cyclists). The same miles former United States slaves walked. The cyclists are part of The International Justice Mission Five Weeks of Freedom Campaign. The campaign, which wrapped up end of July, focused its efforts on awareness and advocacy in support of IJM’s work to give a voice to the slaves of our world today and those facing unbelievable injustices.

continue reading

I’ve mentioned in previous posts I spent the summer of 2005 in the tiny Eastern European country of Moldova. I was there on a solo mission partly to earn credit for my masters degree in missions and partly to lead a high school short-term missions trip for the church I was working for at the time. During the 2 weeks the high school students from Boston, MA were with me in Moldova, we spent most of our time living at an orphanage in the middle of the beautiful countryside.  

By the time I was in Moldova, I had been on similar short-term missions trips to Mexico a handful of times and had been to Congo, Kinshasa in Sub-Saharan Africa. Needless to say I had seen poverty before.  However, spending those 6 or 7 days in that remote Moldovan orphanage opened my eyes to a new level of poverty I had not yet experienced. I’ve thought a lot about why there was a noticeable difference between the places I had been and the place I was in Moldova. I’ve come to believe the difference to be that while in Mexico and in Congo, Kinshasa, I was a bystander. I was an onlooker to the poverty. I was a spectator to the mess and not part of it.

But in Moldova, at this orphanage, I lived among them, in their subhuman conditions for that week. Rather than arrive, shake some kids hands, give others hugs, snap a few photos and leave, the Boston high school students and myself stayed.

Moldova has a high number of orphans due to the countries poverty. The simple fact is parents do not make enough money to support their own children. They have no other choice but to send them to an orphanage. The government pours very little resources into these orphanages leaving hundreds of children in the care of 2 of 3 adults who don’t know what its like to have a day off.

This particular orphanage was over crowded with some of the neediest children I’ve ever met. Due to a high rate of alcoholism among Moldovans, deformities and mental disabilities run rapid among the children. The first child I shook hands with when we arrived was missing 2 fingers on his right hand. Others had severe mental handicaps and needs that were unmet.

The warn-out, thin mattress I laid my head on every night was soaked in urine. The facility turned the water tower on for showers once a week. And even then, it was a light trickle of pure cold. The single course for the day was potato soup (simply boiled potatoes in water) on days when the potato farm had enough potatoes.

During my 2 month stay in Moldova, I was hosted by a group of girls who had grown up together in an orphanage. They were all teenagers and had lived together in an orphanage in the city for most of their lives (This orphanage was funded by an American organization and the conditions were much more civilized). These girls remain close friends of mine and we keep in touch often. Five of them are now in the US between North Carolina and Georgia while 2 remain in Moldova.

continue reading

"The mature Christian rarely experiences God. The mature Christian simply knows He's present." I recently attended a 1/2 day spiritual retreat and was struck by that comment the leader made. There have been moments in my life when I feel as if my number one craving is to experience more of God. I have witnessed him act in mighty and tangible ways and I long for those experiences again. Like a child whose daddy is throwing her in the air and catching her back in his arms cries out in delight, "Do it again, daddy, do it again!" I find myself praying those same words often. And when I don't see him act - which I translate into experience - I think he's being silent or not active in my life. 

The comment above has really caused me to stop and think. In 1 Kings 19 the radical Prophet Elijah finds himself in the presence of the living God on the same mountain top Moses stood before him also in the Lord's awesome presence. The elements swirling around him as well as with Moses. But God was not in the elements with Elijah contrary to what I would have expected and I think contrary to what Elijah wanted having just witnessed God in the elements before this. Check out 1 Kings 18 for that story. 

continue reading

The world seemed to stand still for a moment 6 months ago when a powerful earthquake rumbled its way through the tiny country of Haiti and destroying everything in its path. My friend Stuart was there. You can read and see more of Stuart in Haiti during that time here. Newspapers wrote about it and Stuart witnessed that God is very active in Haiti among the Haitian survivors. Below is a recent article Stuart wrote for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, student magazine Contact. (Stuart and I became friends while students at the seminary). How cool it would be if the country known for so long now as the poorest in the western hemisphere, will now and forever be known as God's country!

continue reading

Five years ago at this time, I was in Moldova.  On reflecting on that time, I rememered this blog I wrote a couple years ago. How would you answer the question "What is the Gospel?"

I spent 6 weeks in the country of Moldova during the summer of 2005. Moldova is a former Soviet State that now finds itself struggling to survive in the aftermath of the fall of communism. With 80% of its population living in poverty and 2/3 of the remaining 20% living out of the country simply to find work, Moldova is a country with great need. I spent a lot of time there with young people and almost every youth I talked to, desired to leave Moldova. When asked why they did not want to stay to change the way things were being done, they almost always answered, “It is hopeless to try.” Unfortunately, the state of mass hopelessness does exist in Moldova. I saw it in the lives of those living in the urban city of Chisinau, as well as those families struggling to make a living in the rural farm lands nearby. I have never seen a more hopeless people than when in Moldova.

continue reading

NY Times journalist, Nicholas D. Kristof, wrote an article published in today’s paper he titled Death by Gadget. It’s a timely article in light of the release of the latest iPhone. Would you believe that by purchasing the iPhone and most electronics, for that matter,  you might be funding one of the deadliest wars in history?

Kristof has this to say about the conflict in Congo:

I’ve never reported on a war more barbaric than Congo’s, and it haunts me. In Congo, I’ve seen women who have been mutilated, children who have been forced to eat their parents’ flesh, girls who have been subjected to rapes that destroyed their insides. Warlords finance their predations in part through the sale of mineral ore containing tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold. For example, tantalum from Congo is used to make electrical capacitors that go into phones, computers and gaming devices.

continue reading

Yesterday was World Refugee Day.

Reuters AlertNet, a humanitarian news source, has, over the past couple months, been covering stories of the worlds displaced individuals. According to John Holmes, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 27.1 million people were displaced within their own countries in 2009 and it’s looking as if we see an even high number in 2010. There were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people around the world in 2009 - the highest number since the mid-1990s. All over the world (US included) people are torn from their homes due to natural disasters, war, conflict, human trafficking, loss of income, etc.

The video here is about a tribe in northern Columbia that is right now facing the possibility of being uprooted from their home due to threatening conflict.

 

continue reading

ESPN has a done an impressive job of heightening the concerns of human trafficking centered around the current World Cup games in S. Africa. This series of videos (there are 3) they have released are worthy of view. Please check them out and learn about the after hours when the games end for the day. It's unbelievable what is taking place there.

Check out the videos here.

As the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss.” I can’t help but wonder though, “is it really?”

I used to pride myself on my travels to developing countries. I felt cultured and well rounded; experienced ya know?

I had tea with the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I helped build 6 homes in 4 days in Tecate, Mexico. I spent 6 weeks in the Eastern European country Moldova by myself. In Romanian I hung out with gypsy children and sewer kids. In Malawi I held abandoned infants and walked miles through villages with teenager head of households. In South Africa I watched the sun rise while on Safari.

I’ve gained a lot through those travels. I learned a lot. I grew a lot as a person and as a person who believes in the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for those times spent in foreign lands and among foreign people. I have witnessed both pain and joy within every people group I have been among.

continue reading

In June 2004, I moved to the beautiful North Shore of Massachusetts from the South West coast of California. I knew one person who was living there at the time and I did not know her well. Jamie had been in the area less than a year herself. We had met at a mutual friend’s house only 6 months earlier. As is the case with any move, I was feeling a bit homesick those first few months in my new state.  

I remember whining to Jamie about my feelings of loneliness and about how I didn’t know what to do with so much time on my hands. And I did have a lot of free time. I went from socialite, party hopper in California to loner in a state where the people had quirky accents and who frowned upon SUV’s, which of course I drove. I was feeling like an outsider for the first time in my life.  

continue reading