Adventure of Faith!

My friend Kevin Connally are now driving across America, in a car that we were just given yesterday. We are speaking at colleges, clubs and churches across the country for 10 weeks. Its an opportunity to share about Loving Orphans Global (www.lovingorphansglobal.com) and share stories of God's great faithfulness. Keep us in prayer as we cruise around, for safety on the road and health.

You can follow us on Twitter @LOGtour
The LOG stands for Loving Orphans Global.

Blessings!
Richard

Kids camping

How many of you went to 6th grade camp? It was fun, but being so young I don't think I appreciated it as much as I would have, had it been a few years later. This is why I was so happy when I heard that some of the kids were going on a hiking and camping trip with their school! A class of our 13-14 year old kids went with their school to climb up a volcano and camp on the top rim. That is rad! We have mountains, they have volcanoes. Awesome! Some of the girls came to me and asked... 'do you have a sleeping bag? Flashlight? Jacket? Yes! You can take all of it! They were stoked, and  we had sleeping mats for them. They were all set, ready and off for a fun adventure with their peers.

I know inside all of us God has wired a heart of adventure, to some of us it is an adventure of driving to a nice hotel, while others its camping in the wilderness without toilet paper... haha. Whatever adventure you crave, I know that you know the feeling of anticipation of embarking out to the known, yet unknown. I write this as a way to relate to how our kids felt before they left. You know that same excited feeling, and I hope that as you read this, you remember those times of journey in your own lives and simply smile.

Have a blessed day, and cheers to your next adventure :)

Richard

A little girl named Donut...

Its funny how God works...

He puts me in places to minister to people and play with kids. He brought me right to a small church in Koh Phangan, Thailand where I instantly became family.

After chatting with some of the local missionaries, the Thai pastor and his wife and some other locals, they invited me to share dinner with them. This was a blessing, it was the first thing I ate all day. God provided :)

We sat down and ate some home made Pad Thai in the open church building, with a roof and no walls. There was one child there, a sweet little girl named 'Donut'. I instantly fell in love with her, not only because of her name, but because she came right over to me, nestled her little head under my arm and gave about as big of a hug that a 4 year old girl can give. She had never seen me before but loved me like family. I found out that Donut was actually born in a prison, which is where her mother still is. She has been and is being raised by her Jesus lovin' grandma and is constantly surrounded by this small yet awesome family in the Lord. Tonight at church, when she saw me, she smiled so huge and then ran over to me and jumped, knowing I would catch her and pick her up. So, I caught her... haha! She wanted to hang out with me the whole time, whether it was sitting on my shoulders, lap or being held in my arms. It was a tremendous pleasure to simply laugh and smile with her, and try to share more of God's great love through quality time.

Another blessing is for the past three nights I have been invited back to the church for dinner and fellowship, as well as prayer and coffee in the morning. Its all part of God's faithful provision, and its such a blessing to be a part of this family in Christ for this short time.

There is no greater love than Jesus,
Richard

Visa Run

Being in Indonesia for more than two months, I need to leave to apply for a Social Visa so I can stay the next 4 months without any problems. So, now I am in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While in this part of the world I have decided to take two weeks to tour South East Asia, to try and connect with churches and different orphanages in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, all the while sharing God's love and faithfulness wherever I go. Its a journey by faith, not sure how it will all work but it has already started out in a good way.

I am already missing the kids in Bali, but was very grateful to get a full nights sleep for the first time in two months.

Some exciting news about the kids: A few of them are starting to become more forward focused, meaning, they are thinking about their futures and what the want to do, and not do. One of our boys, Marcus, has a great head on his shoulders. He is excellent at saving money and making money in creative ways. He bought his very poor family a little pig, which has now grown into a big pig and the family will be able to sell it and make some good money. This same boy is also getting asked by his piers why he does not have a girlfriend yet, and his wise response went something like this...  "why do I need a girlfriend right now, they will take all of my money and besides, its not like I want to get married right now anyway." So, he is happily single and is really working on making a great future for himself, his sister and his family. Since his dad is out of the picture, being around older guys that love the Lord has really had a great impact on his life.

Regarding Loving Orphans Global: Our East Bali home project is almost complete. Now we are working on teaching English in the village with the kids from poor families. Its exciting to be making a difference in these cool kid's lives. We also used some of the money to buy the kids at our home some new shoes. They were all in need of a new pair, really in need. The next thing we are doing is sponsoring a child from the slums. Her name is Siti, she is a beautiful joyful little girl, even though she collects trash and plastics all day long. She is 10 years old with no education, so Loving Orphans Global is going to sponsor her and pay her school fees each year. We would also like to find a home for her, so please pray for wisdom on that.

Thank you all for your support in keeping me out here to serve, and thank you to those who have supported Loving Orphans Global. We are making a difference! Praise God!

Blessings. Isaiah 1:17.

September season.

You all know I get to work with kids, this is why I set up this blog. There are so many things that happen throughout the day with these kids, lessons that God shows me through the silliness of children. I wish I had someone I could share them with during the moment that would write them down... basically, have my own personal recorder of special moments. Haha, this sounds a bit ridiculous, but I imagine as you read this you might be reflecting on some of those past moments in your life when you wish you had record of them. 


Since I brought the skateboards out in July, the kids have absolutely been loving learning to skate. I tell you the truth, then start riding them when they wake up and all throughout the day they remind me that 'we' are going to the skate park at 5pm... its funny! I came home from being out at dinner the other night and the older boys were at the gas station down the street practicing tricks off of a big curb, and one of the boys borrowed a camera to get some cool pictures. Then I went with them to the skate park again, where they practiced their grinds and manuals. (For a definition of these tricks, please ask your local skater... haha) 


I walked to the beach the other morning with four of the younger boys, we went to an area where there weren't to many people so they could run around and be  crazy. They are really good at doing just that! It was low tide and there were little pools for the kids to lay in, and fast little crabs for them to chase around. They are learning so many life lessons, like, what sand feels like in their eyes and how to get it out with water instead of rubbing their eyes with sand fingers to alleviate the pain. 


I just had two good friends arrive, and I went to pick them up at the Surf House from our church yesterday. When I was leaving our orphanage, the girls asked if my friends were 'boys or girls' and as soon as I said boys, they wanted to come. hahah!! SO, I brought them with me and they had an opportunity to swim in the pool at the surf house. They had no bathing suits so they went in all their clothes. They were talking and laughing, having a great time giggling as people walked by. Teenage girls are like Martians to me, how the heck does anyone understand them?? 


Also, please check out this video clip, it gives a great example of life with the kids... running around with them and stuff. It is from Send Ministries, they had a team of 6 that came out for three weeks and I got to take them to some great places. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llB32Tb5GEA


Blessings and love,
Richard


P.s. Thank you all for your prayers and support, I cannot tell you how much of a blessing you all have been with words. Perhaps the smile on my face in the pictures and video will paint a picture of the joy I am afforded of, being here with the kids. 


P.p.s. The journey the Lord took me on today :)

"I will be very glad to spend whatever I have, I'll even give myself for you. Do you love me less because I love you so much?" 2 Corinthians 12:15


When Paul talks about being 'spent' for Jesus, he is referring to giving all he has, even his entire life to see the kingdom of God grow. Jesus says in the 'Great Commission'  to 'go and make disciples of all nations...' (Matthew 28:19), so, if Jesus says this, I should do it.  But, Jesus also says in Luke 14:33 'unless you forsake all you have you cannot be my disciple...'. If then, He says I should go and make disciples of all nations, shouldn't I be one myself? Then, what does it mean for me to make and be a disciple- well, I think it means to let go of all I have, to live fully surrendered and gladly be 'spent' that His glorious kingdom may spread. I will be stoked if the actions of my life are a picture of being happily spent for Jesus. 

Kids Surf Competition

Hey Guys,

Last weekend and this weekend the kids had surf contests. Last weekend only one of them made it to the quarter finals, but I am happy to say that today 3 of the kids made it to the semi-finals! So awesome! Also, one of our groms, Matius might get a Coca-Cola sponsorship which would be radical. Some of the kids today were riding some of the boards that were donated by Jimmy Patterson and Tim Crozier of Black Bird Surfboards. They loved the boards, and I think they surf better on them.

Also, I wanted to give a special thanks to Sector 9 skateboards for donating a handful of skateboards for the kids. The little dudes are wanting to skate everyday now, we go to the skate down the street and we went around town on the boards a few nights ago... just having fun with the young dudes and laughing a bunch.

We have a team here from Send Ministries, yesterday we went around and brought rice to poor families and had opportunities to pray with all the people we gave rice to. It was cool walking into the slums and bringing food, they were stoked! During this journey I twisted my ankle stepping off a curb and could not walk anymore, but don't worry, the Send Missions team quickly responded with prayer and now today I am still walking around, and was even able to surf for a short bit. There is a lot of swelling, but at least I can walk around normally, which is not normal... haha.  Tomorrow I am going with the Send team up to North Bali for a week to help at another orphanage, then off to Ubud to play worship on the streets and simply share God's sweet sweet love, then over to East Bali to stay with a missionary couple and serve some really poor communities. Then I will head back to my orphanage while the team debriefs in Jimbaran, Bali. It should be a cool experience helping out in more places, I am looking forward to it.

Ibu Tina, at the home I help at, has already begun building a new place on the property in East Bali, this is going to be a home for farming, ministry and will also be able to house children. I just saw the progress of this place a few days ago and I was amazed, it looks great! So, since, Loving Orphans Global is a partner with her, I would like to reimburse some of the money that she has borrowed since this home will be housing kids in the future. Its cool to already have a project in place, one where some of the money we have raised will go to great use and we will soon see the fruits of the labor, praise the Lord!

Prayer requests: There has been some tremendous spiritual warfare with one of the boys in the home, if I began to explain it on here it would not even sound real. But, the name of Jesus is powerful and He will never fail.
I have this swollen right ankle and then an infected wound on my left foot.
One of our boys at the home, is having asthma issues and cannot do much right now since he cannot breath well.
Some of our girls are interested in boys now, and some of the boys they are 'talking' with are not to good, so please pray protection over them.
Tomorrow starts the 40 days of fasting for Muslims, and we have been praying for many Muslim families before hand. I have never lived in a Muslim country during a 40 day Muslim holiday, so I could definitely use wisdom :)

Bless the Lord O' my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalms 103:1

I hope your day is filled with joy,

Richard

Bali Chapter Two

Warm greetings,

Indeed, as it is summertime the warmth is felt both here and there. Thank you all for being a part of this journey with me. 3.5 weeks ago I was extremely blessed when a dear brother in the Lord bought me a round trip ticket back to Bali. So, I am here again, enjoying the shelter of my room during the beautiful thunder storm outside, hearing the shouts and laughs of the kids as they splash through the puddles outside while completely and utterly content with what God is doing in life. 

I got back on Wednesday the 20th, and hit the ground running. The kids were super excited to see me walking down the driveway and I was greeted with some of the most amazing hugs on this side of the equator. Each day has been pretty full between taking the kids skateboarding, to their surf competitions to catch some 10-12ft swell, church, short English lessons and evening discipleship with the boys. It is no longer just me as the only man here, but now I am one of three which makes things a lot more manageable. The two other guys are Jason, who has been working with the kids for a while and just got back from his long honeymoon, and Dustin, who was referred to me by a mutual friend. He ended up coming out here to help and now he will be staying probably until next year. What a blessing! They are both great guys to be serving the kids with.

Many of the kids are in new schools now, having stepped up a grade. Its fun to see them grow up, to see them mature (slowly) as my parents probably felt the same way about me. haha. All of the kids are in good health. The infants are now walking, the toddlers are now talking and there is a tremendous amount of joy here. Tina, the house mother has started a project on East Bali, so she often times gets away to go oversee the work over there. Our new non-profit organization, Loving Orphans Global, would like to help Tina pay back the building loans she took out for this East Bali project. Once we get this one squared away we will probably head over to Papua to get that project going. This is so exciting! Oh, and this reminds me, there is an orphanage in East Timor that is going under due to lack of support, so we are going to be taking in about five of the children, and another home here in Bali will be taking about 20-25 new kids. Please pray for this process as we desire the transition to be as seamless as possible for the kids. We do not know how old the kids are that we will be getting, but we know God already has it all sorted out. He is faithful and good, always. 

This fall, in November, one of our boys here at our home in Bali is going to get ear surgery to help remove massive amounts of scar tissue, and then hopefully he will be able to hear! That is something to keep in prayer as well. The money for this surgery was donated specifically for this cause through the Asian Pacific Children's Fund. How amazing!

I will touch back with you all in about two weeks as I get settled in and back into the routine of being around a lot of kids... all the time. :)

Blessings and love,

Richard