Loving Shepherd Ministries Blog

“At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.’” – Mother Teresa

A co-worker shared that quote with me this morning. To be honest, my immediate reaction was “Oh that’s a great one to share. It’ll really make people think.” Enter beam in my eye. Thankfully, God’s been really good over the years at helping me see my own flaws when I’d automatically pass blame on the rest of the American culture instead of looking at my own heart. Truth is, everything in our culture (and many other cultures) tells us that we need to make a name for ourselves, be well educated and live lives of luxury. It’s expected of us, and if we somehow fail to do these things, there’s obviously something we didn’t do right. I buy into it as easily as the next person.

But what about the life of a believer? If we really want to follow Christ, then I believe that should look radically different. It should mean pouring out the resources that we’ve been given and feeding the hungry, giving clothes (maybe even off our own back), and taking in the homeless or the orphan or the down and out. It means using our resources because they aren’t ours to begin with. It means making ourselves less so that Christ can be more.

And maybe, at the end of our lives, even if we can’t say that we were great by American standards, maybe we can say we did our best for God’s standards. I think I agree with Rich Stearns thoughts on this:

“God can do so much with just one person who is willing to be used by Him. Whether that results in the liberation of nations or racial groups, or whether it means that one child [has a family], saying ‘yes’ to God changes the world.” – Rich Stearns, World Vision President

Take Action:

Consider sponsoring a family in Haiti or Ethiopia through our Hand of the Shepherd Program.

We’ve got some events coming up in the next few months. If you’re around these areas, check them out for some great opportunities and ways to get involved in caring for orphans!

Empowered to Connect Conferences

February 17-18, Dallas, Texas and April 20-21, Denver, Colorado

(Check out the intro video HERE. And learn more about Empowered to Connect.)

The Cancer Redemption Project

In an effort to ‘redeem his cancer’, see what a young man is doing to raise money for 6 Homes of Hope with LSM in Haiti. Check out www.cancerredemption.com to see more of how you can get involved in caring for orphans through the Cancer Redemption Project.

LSM Indiana Annual Benefit Auction

If you’re near our home office in Bluffton, IN, we’d love to see you at our annual benefit auction to raise support for the ministry and come together for an evening of giving for the orphan.

Summit VIII (with Christian Alliance for Orphans) May 3-4

One of the leading annual conferences for adoption and orphan care, Summit has become a national hub for the “burgeoning Christian orphan care movement.” We’d love to see you in Southern California this spring for the event!

Keep Tuned for more on these events through the year:

LSM’s 10^th Anniversary this summer

Together for Adoption Conference, September 14-15, Atlanta, GA

Orphan Sunday, November 11, 2012

“This is Jesus. Not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. And so I continue to enter.” –Katie Davis

Katie Davis said that in response to her work in Uganda among some of the poorest and most desperate people she’s known, but long before I heard this quote, I had my own encounter with Jesus in the hard stuff…

I closed my eyes tightly for a brief moment to hold back the tears that threatened to surface. It was dark, and the glow of faint lights along the streets casting eerie shadows in the dark corners of the alleys. The van was quiet as we drove through what had been a bustling market just hours earlier. Now… it was ‘prostitute alley,’ an area in the city that transformed after dark to sell not fruits and vegetables, but humans. Woman after woman stood along the crumbling walls, stone faced, waiting. They say roughly 40,000 women work in a 3-4 mile radius here.

These women were desperate. Desperate enough that they would do anything for mere pennies to support themselves and their children. And even though I knew what to expect, nothing had prepared me to see face after face of young women with faces of stone, like they’d died long ago.

In the hour we drove around the red light district of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that night, I don’t think I’ve ever been more aware of the sinfulness of humans, or of the strongholds that Satan has on this world. But even in the long, heartbreaking ride that night – and in the days and months and years that have followed – I have hope. Hope because of Jesus. He’s aware. And Jesus travels not only with us in those trenches of sin and desperation, but beckons us toward them to help. That night, I saw a fierce need for justice. I saw desperate women needing someone to stand up and be a voice for them…

So this is Jesus. Not that he apologizes for the hard and the hurt in this world that our sinful nature has brought, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. He shows us WHO HE IS in these places and asks us to be his hands and feet in bringing hope and life and death to evil. And so we continue to enter.

Take Action:

To see more of what we’re doing to Combat Exploitation in Ethiopia, check out this page on our site.

To give to our work in Combating Exploitation, click here.

“This journey has taught me that God expects EVERYTHING, because HE gave EVERYTHING! If we make His Kingdom our first priority, listen carefully and obey, even if we have to place our closest and dearest on the altar, He will bless us and lead us to new and exciting pastures.” – Etienne Piek, 24-7 Prayer

These are the facts:

This is the call:

And Jesus came and spoke to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

God asks EVERYTHING of us. If we make His kingdom our first priority, listen carefully, and obey… He will bless us and lead us to new and exciting pastures. We can be assured of that.

This is the third post in a series from the book “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. With each of these posts, the goal is to look at poverty through different lenses and gain better understanding as walk forward, both as an organization and as individuals. To see the first and second posts, click on these links.

Participation is not just the means to an end but rather a legitimate end in its own right.

Why? It all goes back to the definition of poverty alleviation… The goal is to restore people to experiencing humanness in the way that God intended. The crucial thing is to help people understand their identity as image bearers, to love their neighbors as themselves, to be stewards over God’s creation, and to bring glory to God in all things.

It is impossible to accomplish such reconciliation of relationships in a blueprint approach in which the outsiders are the ones deciding what to do, how to do it, and how well it worked. Such an approach undermines the action – reflection cycle for poor people, denying them the opportunity to be what God created them to be: image bearers, who, through trial and error, unpack and unfold the wonders of God’s creation.

I am encouraged as I see Haitian couples raising up out of the local church to care for 12 children for a lifetime. I love hearing of the pastors who have taken detailed training and now advocate in their congregations for the end of the restavek (child slavery) system in Haiti. I see so much hope for families as men are given jobs at the Ranch project in Fondfrede. And I’m overjoyed to see the global body of Christ rising up together to change poverty around in many, many ways.

Take Action:

Check out Our Approach online, and see how we’re striving to enable people to lift themselves out of poverty.

These are some fun little guys to hang out with.

For these brothers, this life hanging out and giggling together with abandon is a miracle. You see, these guys are all HIV+. They’ve been ostracized by their communities because people are scared of contracting the virus themselves.

None of these little boys had anticipated living a normal life. Not only do they get sick pretty easily because of the virus, but they need to have anti-retroviral medications constantly, balanced meals,  tender  care, and lots of rest. Those things just aren’t possible when you grow up in the middle of abject poverty. In fact, you can expect to live a pretty short life. They have watched their parents die from AIDS and knew the horrors of what to expect. Life didn’t hold hope.

This is the meaning of family – the meaning of love. These little boys will likely not live through adulthood. But they know what love is. They know who Jesus is today because there were believers in Haiti and the United States who came together as a body and said these little boys were worth it. These smiles are possible because we have worked together.

I invite you to join us as we make families like this possible and work together with the Haitian church to help one more child. Together, let’s foster hope.

Katie Davis, a young girl working in Uganda, described working amidst the poor to be like trying to drain the ocean with an eye-dropper. Looking at statistics of orphans, extreme poverty and human trafficking it can seem like these issues are insurmountable, like anything you’d do would be so minimal that it’d never be noticed.

Twenty years ago, a couple quietly began opening their home to vulnerable and neglected children through the foster care system. There was nothing glorious about their journey – in fact, it was hard. But they persisted, and in the wake of that process, their hearts were stirred for the orphan. Ten years later, this same couple felt their passions stirring to do more for the orphan. Again, it didn’t seem like a lot. A small organization was formed to assist families in the adoption process. But child by child, things began to change… to grow.

Today, LSM is touching countless people around the world. Over 136 children are currently in Home of Hope families in Haiti and Ethiopia. Over 100 women have been through our program in Ethiopia and are living dignified lives outside of prostitution – offering themselves and their children the chance to dream about a better future.  Pastors have been trained and empowered to make a difference. American Christians have been mobilized to make a difference where they’re at. Over 4,000 families have been through our adoption process, empowered with the right tools and support to bring an orphaned child into their home.

Still an eye-dropper in an ocean? Maybe. But I know at least 136 precious children who have dramatically changed lives who’d say differently, and at least 100 women in Ethiopia who are confident that their lives will never be the same. This is the power of one. One, one-thousand, one hundred-thousand… precious lives that touch other lives.

By the grace of God, His people are banding together to start draining that impossible ocean.

Take Action:

Here’s an eye-dropper.  Check out some steps HERE and join us.

“The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel, so that within that family the world might witness a representation of God taking in and genuinely loving the helpless, the hopeless, and the despised.” – Dan Cruver “Reclaiming Adoption”

“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” – Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (KJV)

Take Action:

Learn more about the adoption process and how LSM is here to help you find your way through it.

Give to adoptive families. 

Every day, stories like Miguel’s are a reality all around the world. Many of the children in our Homes of Hope in Haiti have been ‘restaveks’ or child slaves. They have suffered incredible pain in their young lives. And every day, I believe we are quietly and simply asked to do something about it.

Take Action:

• Pray today, on Human Trafficking Awareness Day about how you can get involved in the fight for freedom.
• Sponsor a family in Haiti and see the impact your support is having in the lives of 12 formerly-orphaned and exploited children.

We’ve entered into a New Year, and if you’re finding it anything like around here, you’ve probably hit the ground running. We’ve got a lot planned for 2012 at LSM, and we’re so excited that you’re following and participating with us in this journey.

Here’s just a bit of what we’re anticipating:

1. We hope to have seven new Homes of Hope open in Haiti this year. That’s another 84 orphans that will have a family! You can help make this a reality by sponsoring a family here.
2. We’re moving locations in Ethiopia to a beautiful compound for our Counseling and Resource Center and adding a clinic for the women and their children. You can find out more about our work in Ethiopia here. 
3. The Cancer Redemption Project with Zach Bertsch will be completed with a total of six homes, a church and a school. While we continue to pray for Zach’s healing, we are thankful for his vision to care for orphans through his cancer. You can help spread Zach’s vision by sharing his story.
4. We hope to employ more Haitians at our Ranch as we grow this project and sustain our Homes of Hope in Haiti, as well as the beginning of vocational opportunities for our children. To check out more about the Ranch project, find the details here.
5. We’re growing on the US side too with staff and better networking and communications with you. This means conferences, blogging, social media tools like Facebook and regular updates to keep you informed and a part of our family. You can help us with this by sharing with your friends about LSM here.

This is far from all we have hopes to do in the next year, and we look forward to what God brings our way in 2012. Will you join us in praying for God’s direction and vision as we go? We want to be constantly committed to following His leading as an organization (which we constantly find exceeds our wildest dreams!) God’s moving, and we see every day the power of God’s people moving together to care for the orphan.

So here’s to a busy New Year! Let’s move forward with God’s leading, and let Him find us working hard to follow His calling to care for the ‘least of these’.