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