So here is a parting video that brings the beginning of our adoption story to a close.  Yes, I said the beginning… I’ve learned every day is a new beginning and nothing ever comes to a final close.

A couple of the best examples of God’s math are found in the Gospels.  Not once, but twice, Jesus feeds thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and fish.  Amazing as this was, many people still did not get it.

God is still doing amazing math today and we still do not get it.  It does not work out logically so we tend to see the problem as too large.  We often do not want to confront a large problem if it appears impossible.  This is especially true if the problem is not our own.  It’s easier to ignore it than to risk looking like Don Quixote fighting a windmill.

Social justice issues are like this.

World poverty is overwhelming.  In 2005 it was reported that over 3 billion people live off less than $2.50 a day.  1 billion children live in poverty – this is 1 in every 2 kids. (see Global Issues)

The world wide HIV epidemic is overwhelming.  In 2007 33 million people were infected with HIV.  2 million of these were children. (see Avert.org)

The number of orphans in the world is overwhelming.  I have to copy this entire list of statistics here…

Every  15 SECONDS,  another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa

Every  DAY  5,760  more children become orphans

Every  YEAR  2,102,400  more children become orphans (in Africa alone)

143,000,000 Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home

Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…

Every  YEAR  14,050,000  children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT of the system

Every  DAY  38,493  children AGE OUT

Every  2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home

In Ukraine and Russia 10% -15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.

60% of the girls are lured into prostitution.

70% of the boys become hardened criminals.

Many of these children accept job offers that ultimately result in their being sold as slaves.  Millions of girls are sex slaves today, simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans.

(see Home for Good Foundation)

I don’t know about you, but I look at these numbers and I think, “What can I do?”

That’s the wrong question.  The question is, “What can God do?”  Followed by, “God, let me a part of your equation.”

I have a real life example of how God’s math works.

A co-worker of mine found out we were adopting (1 less orphan).  He asked me for information because his son and daughter-in-law could not have any more children and were looking at adoption as an option (2 less orphans).  I sent him information from our agency (All God’s Children) and information on domestic adoptions from another friend of mine at work that has adopted two babies domestically.  My co-worker’s son shared this information with a friend of his.  That friend is now in the process of adopting from Ethiopia (3 less orphans).  Have you heard of this before?  I tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on.

I know the cynics out there are probably not too impressed.  But neither were the disciples as they looked into the basket and saw just five loaves and two small fish.

God will be glorified in the social injustice in this world.  Let him use you as part of the equation.

Last year, a 12-year old orphan from Liberia stayed with us while he was here in the U.S. on a medical visa.  Our church was able to bring him to the U.S. in order to repair his hand which had been damaged since he was a baby.  You can read more about Moses’ story in some of my articles I wrote last year.

Moses changed my perspective on orphans and poverty in general.  He was constantly amazed by things we take for granted like clean running water, washing machines, fast food, you name it.  All of the commercialism in America was completely foreign to him. It was actually refreshing.

However, what broke our hearts was the prayerful sobbing we heard at night as he pleaded with God for a family.  More than our stuff, he got to experience “a family” and he desperately wanted a permanent family of his own.

We prayed hard about adopting Moses but for a variety of reasons God did not open that door.  Today, Liberia is still closed to adoptions.  The good news is that our church is helping a Liberian family in our church adopt Moses as soon as Liberia opens back up.  In fact, because they are Liberian our church was able to work with the government there to get all the paperwork done in Liberia.  Once Liberia opens again for adoptions, the barriers for Moses to have his own family will finally be lifted.

That’s not where the story ends however.  The impact Moses had on our church inspired our church to sponsor the entire orphanage in Liberia.  Now, each child there has a family in Texas that provides for all of their basic and educational needs.  I visited the orphanage last year and those children just wanted someone to know their name.  Now they have a family in the U.S. that not only provides for their material needs but also sends them letters and prays for them by name.

But wait… there is even more to the story.  Moses touched each of our hearts in our family.  We knew that we must do something.  While God has another family planned for Moses, he has a little boy from Ethiopia planned for our family.  We’re in the final stages of our adoption process and look forward to picking up our son in the very near future.  Read more about our adoption story.

Will we love our adopted child as much as we love our biological children?  We already do and our biological children already love their new baby brother as much as any of their other siblings.  Actually, since God broke our heart through Moses, we love all orphans.  We don’t know all that God has in store for us, but we know he is still not done with our orphan story.

Loving orphans is not about our own love.  Our love fails us over and over again.  In fact, the honest question for parents is – do they love any of their children more than themselves?  Most parents will answer “of course” but then make decisions every day that challenge that statement.  Loving orphans, and loving all others including our children, is about God’s love.

God’s love for the orphan is really God’s love for all of us, as we are all orphans.  Orphaned by sin, adopted by grace.

Romans 8:14-17 (ESV)
¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

[For more adoption stories visit Tom Davis' blog]

Our adoption process has had it’s ups and downs.  During the home study and paperwork phase everything went smoothly until it came to getting a background check on my time in the Republic of Panama.

Those types of records are difficult to come by when a country has gone through a couple of government overhauls.  We were continually pointed to different agencies and different government departments, both U.S. and Panamanian.

Finally, we got the letter we needed, right when we also figured out that Panama was one of the countries listed where a background check was not needed (because they don’t keep those types of records).

After the paperwork was submitted, the process picked up quickly.  On March 30, we received the referral for a 9-day old baby boy that had been abandoned.  Our first court date was then set for June 4.  Wow! There was a good chance we would be going to Ethiopia at the end of June to pick up our new baby.

Unfortunately, our first court date was derailed.  In May, Ethiopia put a ban on all abandonment adoption cases.  It seems there was some questions about unusual number of abandoned children.  The government started an investigation and no cases would be seen until the investigation was completed.

We spent the next six weeks cruising web sites to see if we could get any information on the progress of the investigation.  Most of the information we found usually turned out to be just rumors.  There was nothing to do but wait.

Finally, news broke that the investigation was over and cases would again be processed.  We got a new court date for July 10 – yeah!  But wait – the government agency responsible for writing the paperwork needed for the court case decided to close on July 8 for two weeks of training.  Without the MOWA paperwork, our case was once again not heard.

The outlook was beginning to look grim for getting our baby before later in the fall.  The Ethiopian courts close in August and September because of the rainy season.  With our July 8 court date falling through there was a good chance we’d get bumped back all the way until October.

Fortunately, we got the call a few days later and we received our newest court date for July 28.  So here we are again.

We’ve grown a lot through this process.  We know that many people have had to endure many more struggles than us.  We know we are blessed, whenever God finally decides to officially give our little boy over to our care.  In the mean time, God is taking care of him through the wonderful “special mothers” at Hanna’s Hope.

If you’ve bothered to read this post, please pray for the courts to pass our paperwork and pray for our patience over the next 48 hours.

However, my mom read it.  She really liked it and said it was a book that my dad would have enjoyed.  My dad was Baptist preacher who joined the Army during the Vietnam war.  After retiring from the Army he ran a small college for a few years before finishing his career as a Hospice chaplain.  I’m not sure how conservative my dad was when he first became a preacher.  But he would tell me that after spending time in Vietnam, working as a hospital Chaplain, and finally helping people die in peace with Hospice that he probably would not make it in a Baptist church.

In any case, since my mom talked so enthusiastically about the book I figured I should read it.  I needed to figure out for myself if it was a good as the Christian media says or as bad as some conservative Christian leaders warned.

For those that do not know the story here is a quick summary…

Willie (the Author) is telling a story about his friend Mack.  Mack’s youngest daughter is abducted and after a extensive search the police believe she has been killed by a known serial killer.  A Great Sadness comes over Mack and his life lose all joy.

God sends Mack a note in his mailbox asking him to meet Him at the shack where they found his daughters red dress when she was abducted.  Mack can’t imagine anything worse than visiting that shack again but he can’t resist finding out who wrote the note.  Was it someone playing a cruel joke?  Was it the killer luring him there to kill him as well?  Was it really God?

Mack’s wife and kids leave for the weekend so Mack borrows his friend jeep (and gun) and decides to check it out.  It turns out that the note really is from God and the rest of the book is Mack experiences hanging out and getting to know God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

As mentioned above, God the Father manifest himself as an African American woman named Papa.  The reason God gives for this manifestation is that because Mack had such a hurtful relationship with his own father, God knew Mack would never be reached by a father figure.  Later in the book God does show himself as a man when he says that Mack needs a father for the next lesson.  He has silver white hair, pulled back in a ponytail, a mustache and a goatee.

Jesus is a 30-something Jewish carpenter looking man.  His description is probably how you would picture Jesus if he had been born in 1979 rather than 2000 years ago in Palestine.  When I think of Jesus today I think more of a King persona than a average working Joe but it was much easier to take than Papa.

The Holy Spirit is portrayed as an Asian woman named Sarayu.  She is kind of between human looking and spirit looking.  Mack finds it hard to focus on her.

I think right away you can see where many conservative Christians are going to have a problem with this book.  Honestly, it kind of bothered me as I read it.  I understand why God was manifested this way in the story.  The idea was for Mack to get to know the Godhead in a personal and intimate way and these manifestations helped with this part of the story.  However, it seemed to take away much of who God is in the bible.

There is no doubt that Mack was living in a Great Sadness.  I actually skimmed very quickly through the first part of the book because I did not want to spend to much time reading about him losing his little girl.  I don’t even want my mind to go there.

The dialog he has with the different persons of the Trinity does a great job of showing Mack his sadness and convincing him that only God can take it away.  In fact, there are many truths in the story that do a great job portraying God’s love for us.

There were quite a few references and insinuations that I was not comfortable with at all.  It was never stated directly but I got the impression that there was a message of Universalism.  However, the author never took it that far.  There was no mention of spiritual Satan and his demons.  I’ve experienced Great Sadness both personally and with a loved one and I know when you’re down Satan attacks.  The spiritual warfare can’t really just be ignored but it is ignored in the book and I’m not sure why.

The story ends with Mack learning to forgive his daughter’s killer,confessing to his wife that he did not share the note from God with her when he should have, and helping his older daughter heal from her own Great Sadness.

When I first talked to my mom about this book I told her I had heard some criticism about how the Trinity was portrayed.  But I said I did not give too much credence to that because this was just a novel and not meant to be a theological book.  However, after reading The Shack it is quite clear that the author has every intention of telling his theological perspective through this story.  It really is a theological book.

So what’s my final verdict?  I enjoyed the book.  I disagree with where the author was taking some of his views about God.  However, he did do a great job portraying God’s love for us and God’s love within the Trinity.  The biggest benefit for me with reading this book is that it has made me want to get into the bible and into prayer to get to know God more.  I want to know that love he expressed in the book that God has for all of us, especially since I know that love is more than any man inspired book could adequately explain.

On the negative side, there is a real danger for Christians and non-Christians to read this book and use it as their basis for knowing God.  The Shack is just William Young’s theological perspective on God.  You have to find God in the bible, not The Shack.

I’ve read and posted reviews on a couple of books by what many would call “emergent” church leaders.  You can find reviews for The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren and Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell on this blog.  Dan Kimball is also mentioned in Why We’re Not Emergent and an”emergent” leader and I have also reviewed his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church.

Kevin DeYoung is a pastor of a church while Ted Kluck is a writer but a lay person as opposed to a pastor or theologian.  They have split the book literally in two as they alternate writing each chapter.  This could have been confusing if you did not read the Introduction first but with the strategy understood up front it worked out ok.

I enjoyed the book.  It addressed many of the questions I asked myself after reading McLaren’s and Bell’s book.  I enjoyed these latter books as well but as I mention in my reviews, certain aspects did not sit quite right with me.  DeYoung and Kluck point out many of these same questions so at least I know I’m not alone.

That said, what I appreciated about this book is that it addressed this questions and concerns with grace.  I’ve read other critics of the emergent movement whose words lacked love and respect which really made hearing their reasonable concerns difficult and impossible if you felt personally attacked.

Probably the main issue that has bothered me with the books I read from McLaren and Bell is that the gospel is only half-way presented.  I admit that I may not be cool enough to read between the lines in their books so I may just be missing some of it.  However, it appears to me that they want to skirt by issues of sin in order to not offend anyone.  So what you have is a gospel of salvation from the injustices of this world but nothing about needing to be saved from your own sin nature.

Why We’re Not Emergent addresses this same primary topic as well as many other concerns.

In my opinion, the emergent church movement has a valuable message that more conservative evangelical Christians need to remember.  However, I get the impression that eh emergent movement is throwing out the baby with the bath water.  DeYoung and Kluck draw these same conclusions.

I the last chapter, DeYoung does a great job of explaining this problem by looking at the churches addressed by Jesus in the first three chapters of Revelation.

The church of Ephesus can be seen as the loveless, fundamentalist church (Rev 2:1-7).  They are orthodox, moral, and hardworking, but lacked love and compassion.  To them Jesus says “Return to your first love.”

The church of Smyrna can be seen as the persecuted church like we might find today in communist or Islamic countries (Rev 2:8-11). These Christians are persecuted, slandered, and impoverished.  To them Jesus says “be faithful.”

The church in Pergamum can be seen as the underground, youth-movement church (Rev 2:12-17).  They are faithful and passionate witnesses but they have also compromised righteousness for worldly culture.  To them Jesus says “discern.”

The church in Thyatira can be seen as the warmhearted liberal church (Rev 2:18-29).  They are strong in love, faith, and perseverance but they under value doctrinal authority and moral purity.  To them Jesus says “think.”

The church in Sardis can be seen as the flashy and wealthy mega-church or the bible belt church full of nominal Christians (Rev 3:1-6).  They have great reputations but are spiritually dead.  To them Jesus says, “wake up.”

The church in Philadelphia can be seen as the small, storefront, urban ghetto church (Rev 3:7-13).  They can feel weak and unimpressive but in reality they are strong in their struggles.  To them Jesus says, “press on.”

The church in Laodicea can be seen as your ritzy, influential church in the rich part of town (Rev 3:14-22).  They may think they have it all together but they are as spiritually poor as they are materially rich.  To them Jesus say, “be earnest.”

Just like personality testing, I don’t think any particular church falls in just one particular category.  All churches are made up of sinners so all churches will tend to have multiple characteristics, both good and bad, as these seven churches addressed by Jesus in Revelations.  The point is that when we swing too far to one tendency, even a good tendency, the church suffers when we leave behind other attributes we are called to follow.

I recommend Why We’re Not Emergent” but I also recommend that you also make yourself familiar with some of the books of those in the emergent movement.  Weigh it all against the only infallible writings on the subject, the bible.  ESV of course

I remember the excitement of finding out my wife was pregnant with each of our first four babies.  Each time there was excitement with an undercurrent of fear – “are we ready for this?” God was always good to quickly answer – “yes, or I would not have blessed you with this new child.”

As the husband, I admit, I had the easy part.  Mandy on the other hand had to deal with all the blessings of actually carrying our babies – morning sickness, swelling, hot flashes, a tired back, and of course prenatal vitamins.  I’m sure there were many other wonderful gifts of pregnancy that I am leaving off.

Then there was the waiting.  The first seven months seemed to fly by.  However, the last two seemed to take forever.  We’re ready for our new baby and the kids are ready for their new brother or sister.

As we approached the expected delivery date everyday was a new day wondering – is it going to be today?

Finally the day arrives, we rush to the hospital and I watch as my beautiful wife delivers our beautiful new child.  There’s nothing like the experience of waiting nine long months for your new child and then finally holding him or her in your arms.

Once again, about nine months ago God blessed us.  Again, there was excitement with the same undercurrent of fear – “are we ready for this?”  Again God answered – “yes, or I would not have blessed you with this new child.”

Once again, I had the easy part.  Mandy on the other hand had to deal with all the blessing of organizing our dossier – copies of wedding certificates, birth certificates, arranging multiple appointments for multiple fingerprints, and the most fun of all – trying to get a foreign country to send a letter stating that her husband who lived there (three government regimes in the past) was not a criminal.  I’m sure there were many other wonderful gifts of adoption paperwork that that I am leaving off.

Then there is the waiting.  The first seven months flew by.  Before we knew it, we had a referral of the beautiful boy that owns the beautiful eyes in the picture above.  Our first court date was also assigned before we knew it.  What a breeze.  Then everything came to a halt.

Ethiopia halted all processing of abandonment cases.  Nobody expected it to last too long but nobody knew how long.  Everyday was a new day wondering – is this the day we get a new court date?  Finally the courts started processing cases again.  We had our new court date today but – now MOWA has closed for two weeks.

So we wait some more – did we pass court?  Do we have to get a new date when MOWA opens again?  Will we get a court date before they close for the rainy season?  We’re ready for our new baby boy and the kids are ready for their new brother.

The adoption term is every bit as hard to wait through as the pregnancy term – maybe harder.  However, we’ve been here before.  I can picture it in my mind – after nine, ten, or twelve months of waiting – there will be nothing like the experience of finally holding my new baby boy in my arms.

Isaiah 40:31 (ESV)
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Scared is a story of two different people from two different worlds whose lives cross.  God works in both of their lives to lift them from the pit of hopelessness to a new found peace in him.

Both the hero and the heroin are in desperate times.  Adanna is a young girl in Swaziland that lives in a village where many of the adults have died or they are dying of AIDS.  She often goes days without anything to eat.  Life is desperate.

Stuart is a free-lance photographer.  His pictures of the massacre in the Congo earned him honors in his field but the images in his mind have left his personal life and career quickly spiraling downward and out of control.  Life is desperate.

Jesus is eluded to as the illuminated man that comforts Adanna, a voice that tells Stuart to feed his sheep, and a blue-eyed dark skinned man that helps save a child from a flooding river.  However, you won’t find the explicit gospel about sin, death on the cross, resurrection, and salvation.

This is a novel about redemption as a story.  I believe it is intended to wake up in the reader a realization of injustice in the world and a self-reflection on their own desperate life.  The story could come across rather emergent theologically but I have no idea if that is Davis’ intent. If you’re a compassionate Calvinist like myself, enjoy the story and assume that Stuart and Adanna have heard the gospel and the story we are reading is God’s quickening of their hearts to the truth and a regenerated life.

I had a terrible cold while I finished the last half of this book.  This was actually quite beneficial to my manhood.  The story of Adanna and even Stuart’s awakening, brought me to tears at times.  Fortunately, since I had a head cold anyway, I could just grab a Kleenex, blow my nose, and my wife was none the wiser.

Finally, I did notice cynicism from Tom Davis about some Christians and some charitable organizations.  Tom Davis has spent years on the ground in the mission field with orphans and the poor so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt that the stereo-typed characters he displayed are realistic occurrences in Africa.  Shame on those he describes if it is so.

The examples I noticed was a loud mouth lady in the airport blurting out to everyone that she was there to save the heathens from hell.  The second example is a state supported charity organization that brings food just long enough for a photo shoot for some wealthy people to hand out small lunch bags (with tracts).  They then leave without meeting the village’s needs once the photo session is over.

The lady in the airport seemed more like a missionary spoof-type scene and the charity trucks episode seemed too unrealistic.  I got the point but the points seemed contrived.  Of course, it is a novel, which by nature is supposed to be contrived.  Even more likely, I’m probably just too naive.

I highly recommend this book.  But, if it moves you, don’t just put it back on the shelf and forget about it. Do something about it.

Mark 13:37

And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

What’s more amazing is how God has used a part of my life that was way off the Christian path for his good purposes.  There are many past experiences and life choices (good and bad) that make up who I am today.  God has used them all to mold me and grow me and he is still at work.  The job often looks hopeless to me but with God all things are possible (Matt 19:26).

This story however is about how God has used my past not just to mold me, but to dramatically change the life of 57 orphans in Liberia and a suburban Baptist church in Cypress, Texas.

A few years ago, before I was a member, Fairfield Baptist Church began supporting a small orphanage in Liberia.  God brought this orphanage to our church when the daughter of the man that ran the orphanage started attending our church in Cypress.  Her father had made arrangements for her to live in America, and God placed her in Cypress.

She came to our pastor with the needs of her father’s orphanage.  Our pastor, who is blessed with a heart for foreign missions, visited their orphanage.  Since that time our church has been providing modest financial support as well as annual trips by our pastor and others to preach and teach at their mission church in Liberia.

On one of his trips a couple of years ago, a young boy named Moses asked our pastor to pray that God would heal his deformed hand.  You can read more about Moses in an article I wrote about him last year.  Our pastor prayed, and as God often moves, he moved my pastor’s heart with his own prayers.  Our pastor came back to the U.S. determined to find a way to help Moses.

Our children’s pastor’s wife works at the Hand Center in Houston.  She knew about the situation with Moses and was discussing it with the doctors at her work.  The Hand Center offered that if our church could get Moses to Houston, they would operate on his hand at no charge.

Arrangements were made to bring Moses to Houston.  When my wife and I heard about this 12-year old boy coming to Houston, we both felt drawn to offer up our home for him to stay while he was here.  God knew that Moses would move our hearts away from ourselves and open our hearts to the needs of those that literally have nothing.

While Moses was here, we prayed about adopting him.  God answered our prayers but adopting Moses was not what God had in mind.  Moses is now in the process of being adopted by a Liberian couple in our church and my wife and I are in the process of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia.  However, God had more plans in mind than just changing the lives of one young boy in Liberia and one family in Texas.

While Moses was with us, my blog articles started shifting more towards compassion focused topics.  In one article, I wrote about World Vision and challenged readers to get involved and sponsor a child.

One of my fraternity brothers whom I had not talked to in over 20 years commented on my blog post about World Vision.  He had read an article in our fraternity’s national magazine about a fraternity brother from our school, Texas A&M, that had started a program to help sponsor orphanages in Africa.  He thought I would enjoy the article since I seemed to have an interest in this area.

I read the article which described how an ATO from Texas A&M, had founded BrightPoint for Children with another ATO from Georgia.  I checked out the BrightPoint site and stumbled across articles that talked about BrightPoint teaming up with churches to sponsor entire orphanages in Kenya.  God immediately impressed on my heart that this would be a great opportunity for our church in Cypress to sponsor the entire orphanage in Liberia.

I contacted BrightPoint.  They were currently only working in Kenya but were more than willing to talk to us about a possible partnership in Liberia.  From there things just started rolling and now, about one year later, our church’s modest support for a sister church, orphanage, and school in Liberia has grown to all 57 orphans having their basic needs and education covered by families in Cypress Texas.  First God brought us an orphanage, then he brought us a partner to help us provide meaningful care for all those great kids.

I visited this orphanage last fall.  I can tell you that the money is needed.  However, what was extremely important to each child in the orphanage was that someone knew their name.  Now they have families that know their names, that pray for them, that write to them, and love them as best they can from thousands of miles away.

I can also tell you that I have seen a church that in the past has self-diagnosed itself as lacking compassion grow in compassion.  Like myself, our church has a long way to go, but he who began a great work will finish it (Phil 1:6).

I made many mistakes as a foolish young frat-rat.  I promise you, orphans in Liberia or anywhere else never crossed my mind.  I certainly never deserved redemption during those party days and I certainly don’t deserve redemption today as I walk through life with pride, self-centered desires, and an unfounded fear of man.  However, God is good.  His mercy reaches out everyday.  He uses my misguided past to reach the fatherless and the poor, and while he’s at it, he lifts me up as well.

Ephesians 2:4-5 (ESV)
⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—

Each month I receive a variety of solicitations from worthy Christian organizations asking for money.  These organizations are doing great things to help those in need both physically and spiritually.  Right now on my desk I have requests from the following organizations:

ServLife – this organization has a vision to equip 1000 indigenous leaders to share the gospel with their own people, educate and care for 1000 children through sponsorships, and help start 1000 micro-businesses to rescue people out of poverty – all by the year 2013.

World Vision – we currently support a young boy in Ghana through World Vision.  This month they have sent me an urgent request to send money to help their relief efforts in the Sudan where thousands of children are starving in refugee camps.

Samaritan’s Purse – Franklin Graham is asking for money to help their efforts in the Congo.  The Zandes Christians are being persecuted and massacred by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army).  Samaritan’s Purse is providing relief aide in the Congo for those left without homes and families.

The American Bible Society – this organization provides bibles throughout the world in hundreds of languages.

How am I supposed to decide who to support?

How much am I supposed to give away?

The most common barometer I hear is that God calls all of us to give back 10% of whatever he gives us.  If you do a search on “tithing” on the internet, you’ll find all sorts of articles for and against tithing.  Is that the answer?  Set aside 10% and divide it evenly among everyone in need?

Tithing was part of the mosaic law and as Christians we are free from the law.  Besides, the tithe was only part of what God required of the Israelites to give.

The law is now written on our hearts, and as we learn from the sermon on the mount, (Matt 5:1-48), the written law is often easier than what God expects from our heart.

So,when it comes to tithing, because we are weak, that may be a good place to start.  But do we really think keeping 90% for ourselves is the reflection of the heart God desires for us?

Here I am back to my dilemma.  How much do I give?

If I truly search my heart, I know that wherever I draw the line on giving, it is because that next dollar crosses the line on how much I am willing to do without.

To put the question more directly – How much am I willing to do without for those that have nothing?

Where do you draw the line?