Naomi and I have been compassion sponsors since our first year of marriage. Over time our sponsor family has grown, and today it did again.

We had a very special opportunity to actually meet one of our sponsor children, Alexis (He likes to be called Alex) We were able to meet his father Antero, and his little brother Christian. We just actually sponsored Alex within the last couple weeks so havent even been able to send a letter yet. I was actually nervous to meet this punk, and he was nervous to meet us as well.

I just feel like a proud dad, so am not going to say much else, except:

• If you have ever thought of sponsoring a child #sponsorachildtoday
• If you ever have questions about Compassion. Ask them, or ask me. I’ll talk your ear off about how impressed I am with what they do.
• If you have never thought about sponsoring a child, #sponsorachildtoday

I’m done blabbing, here are some pictures of the new addition to our sponsor family. What a super kid!

First 5 minutes of us meeting each other…cautious looks

We weren’t so scary afterall

Iphone, the universal language…had to add a Mac plug

Freaky Jaguar eyeing us…

They asked if my hair grows like this…

Trying to get him to stick his tongue out. I think he thought it was rude…probably is

His little, super cute, brother Christian

Miss them already..

They couldn’t get a babysitter, so it was our blessing that Christian was able to come along. #unexpectedblessing!

Little guy got all tuckered out…

I’m a big leadership nut. I love reading about it, hearing about it, studying Scripture on it and learning from everyone and anyone about it. Today our Compassion Canada exposure team had the privilege to tour the head office of Compassion in Peru. What Compassion is doing in Peru is phenomenal to say the least, but more on that in a future post.

What struck me this mroning was the testimony I heard over and over about how much pepople appreciated their supervisor and country directory, Christina.  So, when I had the opportunity to meet her, I asked her.

“Chrisina, your team loves you, the Holy Spirit is blessing you, what can you teach me about how you lead so well?

Here are three leadership learning’s from Peru:

• Teamwork – Work with people smarter than yourself and learn from them. “You cannot do enough things together”
• Love Scripture – “Ensure your team reads, studies and memorizes Scripture.
• Serve - “My role is to serve the pastors in our country and my team who serve the children”
• Yes I know I said three. I added this one for her. Live humbly and with much thankfulness
• Christina epitomizes a humble and thankful life. She is so grateful to others and her Lord Jesus Christ.

So thankful for the consistent, sanctifying, work of the Holy Spirit in my life. He never stops convicting, teaching and extending me grace.

Loving life!

When I think of Peru, I think of sunshine and hot…

No one told me that in Winter the sun never really shines in Peru…AND…that I should be wearing a jacket. It was warmer in Edmonton today than it was in Peru. Still doesn’t really make sense to me. However, the people are as warm and friendly as I have ever met.

I decided to write a daily blog entry as a way to help me journal what I am praying is an encouraging, life changing experience for Naomi and myself. I’ve even turned off my work email. Wow! Seriously, don’t think I have ever done that before.  I want to introduce you to some of my pondering’s, experiences and people we meet at various Compassion projects. I trust their faces and my poorly worded thoughts would encourage and challenge at the same time.

Day Number One

Where:

• Today we visited a project in Northern Lima, Peru. This Church of the Nazarene has been partnering with Compassion for 22 years and have helped over 2300+children. You can see some of their beautiful faces below.

Judah and I had the opportunity to spend an evening together recently and all we did was talk about Star Wars, play Star Wars and watch Star Wars. The only time we didn’t do something related to Star Wars was when I wanted to watch my hockey team play out the remaining 10 minutes of the third period. (they lost)

Judah decided this was boring and declared, “I’m going to go make some fun.”

Here he is “making some fun”

I love watching my son play with his Star Wars toys. Everything is so real for him. He literally does create a preferred reality to his current one. (He didn’t like watching the Oilers lose) Like most children, he goes and “makes some fun” when there is none for him. He creates this world where he gets to live out being a hero and save the princess. Simply put he decides to choose change and then acts on it.

Why does our willingness to create a better narrative, create a better story for our lives seem so much more difficult as we get older? I know we can, I know I can, but the willingness to do so….Are you willing to go and make the change you are thinking about?

“A powerful truth is…if you know you’re not living a good story, do what a writer would do. Grab a blank piece of paper and start writing. Amazingly God has given us blank pages, our lives are blank pages that we get to write our story on. Start writing a better story.”

~Donald Miller~

There’s no better time than right now to “go make some fun”.  I love how God uses our kids to remind and teach us each and everyday.

I love being a Dad!

So no, this is not about super heroes, but it would be cool to be one. You ever meet people and just somehow know that God is a very real part of their life? Not in the “there goes another weird Christian or bizarre mystic, but in the “I’m not sure how, but I just know that God is with that person”. For those that don’t believe in God, you just have this sense of a mystical presence around a person. I know I have. So yes, I believe people can see the supernatural in people.

So, am reading Genesis 39 today. Verse 3 and 23.

v3. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

v23. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him.

First Potiphar is keenly aware that there is something different about Joseph and that the LORD is with him. Then, the keeper of the prison see’s the same thing. Sure, the success part is nice from an earthly perspective. However, even greater is my desire for people to visibly see the supernatural in my life and be able to verbalize that it’s God in me that makes the difference…regardless of circumstance…

Do you want people to see the divine through you?  I know I do. Incredibly, it’s actually pretty simple.

• Choose to have a relationship with God. (john 3:16 – yup, as simple as that, seemingly, over used passage says.)
• Make sure your relationship is in a good place. (If it’s about you, it’s not ~ It was never about “self” for Joseph)
• Expect to experience the supernatural (john 16:15 ~ God says He will reveal Himself to us)

So, have you seen the supernatural in people?  I have, and I want to live in such a way that people would recognize God in my life as well.

Pic by Thomas Tan

So was reading Genesis 40-41 today. The context is when Joseph is thrown into jail and then interprets the cup-bearer and bakers dream. He then goes on to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. However, the part that stuck out was just after the cup-bearer and baker had had a dream.

v7-8. When Joseph came to them in the morning he saw they were troubled. “Why are your faces downcast today?” They said, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God?”

I love that their first response to a dream was that they were frustrated they could not interpret it, but assumed there was a message for them.

So, today I wonder: (and I don’t remember many dreams)

• Why don’t I question the meaning of my dreams, do you ever wonder?
• If I ever do wonder and remember them, why don’t I ask God and pray about it, do you?
• I rarely tell a friend, do you?
• I’m definitely not troubled by having a dream, I don’t think twice about it. Considering I have, or at least remember very few, perhaps I should.

So, what do you think? All I know it is God who grants the interpretation. I’m going to start writing down my dreams, at the very least I will be able to look back, reflect, and bring them before God…and who knows, maybe I will get to experience the miraculous. What about you? Any cool experiences to share?

Blessings!

Pic by Phoebe

There are moments in life that grab us, shock us, move us to tears because of the awe and wonder or the pure horror. Times that cause us to ask more questions and times that leave us speechless. This picture evoked one of those moments for me. What will come of this moment I’m not sure, most likely very little if anything at all and that reality leaves me speechless again…

Picture from “The Big Picture”

I love this picture. The Hi-Res one is here. Actually, I really like most pictures by Stephen Poff. You should check him out. The picture reminded me of how much I am loving Scripture this past year. Specifically, it reminded me of the verse in Acts 14:11.

“As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.”

Made me wonder. Do I have that same feeling, that emotional desire and drive for more? More scriptural insight, more teaching, more quiet listening, simple more of Jesus. Thankfully i don’t have to beg, but I should want to, right?

Interesting, when Paul came back to teach the Jews the next Sabbath, they didn’t hear what they were hoping for, and kicked him out. Again, I wonder…

A quick thought on what stuck out while reading Ephesians 4 today. Specifically verse 26.

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

I think that many people are familiar with the “don’t let the sun go down on your anger” part of that verse. For me, it was the beginning that stuck out. “Be angry, and do not sin.” It’s not like it was a new revelation that its ok to be angry, but it sure is hard to not sin while being angry.  When people are involved it so easy to make it personal right away and fend your position and attack the other. When the issue is private and I’m angry at myself, it’s just as easy to start believing lies about oneself and not hold on to the Truth that God is passionate about us and accepts us, broken and flawed as we are.

So, like I said, it just stuck out to me today. Perhaps this will be a good reminder for me today, perhaps not and perhaps a good reminder for you.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

So, Judah and I  had some time yesterday. I thought we hadn’t had an intentional Family Fun event in awhile, so….why not grab some pop, some mint candies and create a reaction of some kind.  Here’s our adventure.

Judah was excited for the candy

Not sure what to expect.

so I kinda freaked out a little - I hate getting dirty.

Impressive, huh?

Even Judah was a little unsure

1st round over. Diet Coke shoots pretty high.

hmmm, Judah you think Diet Dr pepper would shoot higher? Let's try.

Judah starting to get into this pop experiment stuff.

pretty high too.

funky shot

All done. Judah loved it and Diet Coke worked best in case you wondered.