A Husband's Perspective

Okay, so I have successfully hacked Kim's blog and am taking the first "official" post of the trip.  (Just kidding.  I told her I was going to post some and she gave me the okay.)  I wanted to take a minute to address some of the questions that I know are swirling around in many people's heads right now.  Namely they why's and how's.  (Disclaimer:  I am speaking for myself, but I can say with a 98.9 degree of certainty that Kim's responses would be nearly word for word the same as mine.)

Let's start with the why's:
1.  "Why the sudden interest and passion in caring for orphans?"  That's an easy one.  James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their time of distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  Why is looking after an orphan in their time of distress considered pure and faultless?  Simply put, because it's an absolutely beautiful picture of the Gospel.  Think about it.  An orphan is fatherless.  An orphan is helpless, defenseless, and has no representation in the world.  An orphan, without some sort of help will die (literally thousands do, everyday).  Now, before I was a follower of Christ, you could fill in my name where "orphan" is in the few sentences above and it would've been a perfect description of my life.  Before we knew Jesus, we were fatherless, defenseless, starving, helpless, and as good as dead.  Because of what Christ did, I am now an adopted son of God (Ephesians 1:5).  Adoption is a perfect illustration of what Christ accomplished on the cross.  And just in case that's not enough (it is, but just for argument's sake), IT MATTERS TO THE FATHER, SO IT HAD BETTER MATTER TO ME. 

2.  "Why Sonrise/Jinja, Uganda?"  Again, an easy one.  Because this home and this country is where God has undeniably called our family to minister to (another very long post and I won't get into how we know this).  Now, why did He call us to focus our attention there?  You'd have to ask God.  But He did.  Kim and I both know this, and that's really all we need!  Next question.

Now a couple of the how's:
1.  "How are you guys doing this?"  Completely and 100% by faith.  We've been talking a lot in our Sunday school class about living our lives engulfed in situations that if God didn't show up, we'd fail miserably.  That has been what this is.  When the opportunity to go on this Uganda trip and the other one in November came up, along with me going on two trips to Haiti, my first response was "No way."  Financially, on paper, there is no way this could be pulled off.  I am in the mortgage business.  If any of you know anything about what's going on in the mortgage business right now.......well, let's just say the word "lucrative" isn't used in conjunction with my profession much anymore.  Kim told me repeatedly "God can do it."  She was absolutely correct.  We gave it fully to Him.  And He has been more than faithful.  We can no longer use "lack of funds" as an excuse not to do missions.  Again, it would be another separate post, but His provision  has absolutely blown us away!  There is no way this trip could've been pulled off without God's Hands all in it!  To God Be the Glory!

2.  And lastly, (in light of yesterday's tragic bombings in Kampala) "How can you let your wife still go over there with all that mess going on?"  I will answer that with a question of my own.......how can I not?  Just because terrorists bombed some restaurants, does that mean those children all of a sudden don't need to experience the love of Christ anymore?  Does that mean that since it's now "dangerous", that it's not as important that the non-believing Ugandans they WILL come in contact with hear the Gospel perhaps for the first time?  First of all, I couldn't stopped her with a platoon of Navy SEALs.  Secondly, the thought didn't even occur to me to try.  God has called Kim and the rest of this group on this trip.  That has been made clear.  I don't for one second want to attempt to remove her from the will of God, to protect our comfortable, safe life here in Gardendale, Alabama.  He has a plan and a mission for this team.  Regardless of what happens, He will get the glory for it!

So, hopefully that clears up a few things you may have been wondering about.  I'm sure Kim will be along in a day or two to reprimand me for posting first!  All joking aside, please continue to pray for this team.  As much as Satan has tried to derail this trip, that tells us that God has got something huge planned for them while they are there!  Stay tuned for more posts from Kim!!!

Getting there....

I thank God that he holds me up with both hands!  Without Him none of this would even be close to being possible.  Tired is not even the words I have for the state I'm in today.  I believe a bit of my sanity is gone but that's OK.....all for the glory of his name!  Demanding kids do not help the situation at all, but I do love every single one of them a little more for making me work harder at JUST packing supplies.  It does sound simple, but with two mamma's on little sleep and crazy ideas running through their heads, not to mention 4 kids running around, nothing is simple.  But how it blesses my heart at so many willing people to give so much!  The stacks of medicine, shoes, diapers, books, vitamins and formula we just didn't know where to start.  But I promise you we filled as much as those red duffel bags could be filled without busting a seam along with a few suitcases.  God is so good and he uses amazing people to do his work, and I thank all of YOU amazing people out there that have helped and sent in supplies.   

 In all the packing of supplies, the beautiful Sonrise T-shirt has arrived!  It's the best shirt ever and if you haven't gotten yours, well then you should be ashamed of yourself.  Email me and I can get you one!  Or click below and we can get you one shipped. (after the trip of course)

http://sonriseministriesinc.com/babyhomedonation.html

Getting closer!!!!

This is a picture of some of the babies and nannies at Sonrise. I will be traveling to Jinja, Uganda on July 12th with my new found friends Mandi, her husband Jeremy, Charli and Amy Washington the Co-Director of  Sonrise Baby Home.  Damali Wattier the Founder & and Co-Director of the home is in the center (2nd row) holding Steven. Sonrise is currently home to 19 children, with ages ranging from newborn twin boys James & John and some of the oldest being 4-6 years old. Sonrise has just expanded to have a separate home for the older children who are now attending preschool.

If I could you could hear me right now, you would hear me SCREAMING...... AHHHHHHH! I can't wait to step foot on the ground in Africa. (can't think about the flying....whole other story) I have been thinking about the people there for about a year now and now I get to finally go. I am soooo excited that God has chosen me to go and do this amazing thing.  At times I don't even know what "it" is that I am suppose to go and do and other times I know that I am just to go and do.....do His work. I once heard it told by someone that had me in tears, "You never know what God will do if you just take one obedient step at a time". I just know that my heart has been called to these children, this home, these ladies. So, here it goes, my obedient steps and may I offer my heart completely to the One who gave it all for me! 

It's gonna be long.....

    Josh and I have been on a wild journey lately that sometimes shocks me!  Though, as time goes by God keeps making things clearer to us as to how we should live our lives.  I guess it's the "why" we never got this before now that shocks me.  You see, I'm going to throw out a lot of numbers to you via Jen Hatmaker from the the book Interrupted (by the way it's an AWESOME book).  While sometimes hearing these numbers goes in one ear and out the other, I believe this is what breaks the heart of Jesus and what has been breaking ours.

• Of the 6 billion people on the planet Earth, about 1.2 billion live on $.23 a day.
• Half the world lives on less than $2 a day.
• The wealthiest 1 billion people average $70 a day (This places you and me in the upper,upper,upper percentages of the global population.)
• If you make $35,000 annually, you are in the top 4%
• If you make $50,000 annually, the top 1%
• Someone dies of hunger every 16 seconds
• Last year 22 million people died of preventable diseases; 10 million were children.
• 27 million children and adults are trapped in slavery (sex slaves, labor slaves, child soldiers, and child slaves) because of economic crisis.  More slaves exist today than ever before in human history.
• More than 143 million children in the world have been orphaned or abandoned (equivalent to more than half the population of the US)
• In the last hour:
• 1,625 children were forced to the streets by the death of abuse of an adult.
• 115 children became prostitutes
• 66 children under the age of fifteen were infected with HIV
• Roughly 1 billion people in the world do not have suitable housing, and 100 million are entirely homeless

As Jen says clearly, these things are problems of the poor.  While guilt doesn't need to set in, we do start to feel a deep compassion for these people .  And if those things didn't get you then these will as we look at the rest of the world.

• 40 percent of the world lacks basic water sanitation, resulting in disease, death, waste water for drinking, and loss of immunity.
• Americans consume 26 billion liters of bottled water a day.
• We spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world spends on all goods combined.
• 4 out of 5 children worldwide work every day instead of go to school.
• 4 out of 5 Americans are high school graduates.
• 8 percent of the rest of the world owns a car.
• one-third of all American families own 3 cars.
• Roughly 40 million people (equivalent of about 7 Jewish holocausts) die annually from starvation, disease, and malnutrition.
• 65 percent of U.S. adults and 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.
• The United States makes up 5 percent of the global population, but we consume 25 percent of the world's oil.
• We consume 20 million barrels of oil a day; next is China at just 6.9 a day.
• 20 percent of our imported oil comes from the Persian Gulf. We put military bases on 2 of their 3 Islamic holy sites, and when criticized, one U.S. official replied, "Well, the United States must have free access to the region's resources."

I'm not trying to give you all this information to put down our country. I don't know about you, but from the looks of things if you haven't turned on the news lately not only is our country going down but the world is too!!  It really makes me sad that we have wasted so much of our time and money on useless things when we could have been helping our neighbor out!  And isn't this what Jesus was about anyway helping the least of these, the orphaned, widows, the poor? Showing the love of Jesus at the same time sharing the Gospel.  Because let me tell the numbers on those of us who call ourselves Christians vs. those who are on a road to hell are not good! I guess I am trying to give you a true understanding of why we are living and doing the things we are.  And while this is just the beginning of our little crazy life as I call it, we know that it isn't going to be easy, but He promises to give us strength to meet our needs.  I know that if there were no rough roads to walk, or no battles to fight, we would not grow.  He does not and will not leave us alone.  I know he will stand beside us to teach us and strengthen us to face them through this journey .  And as my girls have said, as long as we simply love God and love others, I think we'll be OK.  My prayer is that we will have an honest image of Jesus' life.

Stirring Hearts

I know I have been horrible at keeping up with the blog, but so many things have been going on.  With Ella and Avery finishing up their first year of school, I might can get a few things done.  Did you know that they had homework everyday and a spelling test weekly?!  Wow...school sure has changed a lot since I was there.  That's not the only thing that's changed lately.  God has been stirring the hearts of the Moody family for some time now.  He has made it clear that being a true follower of Christ doesn't just happen on Sundays.  It should encompass every aspect of our lives, from how we talk to how we spend our time to  how we spend our money and everything in between.  Over the last year or so God has laid a huge burden on my heart and Josh's to reach out and show the love of Christ to the "least of these", as Jesus calls them in Matthew 25, the orphaned, the widowed, the needy, and those no one wants.  God has put a special place in my heart for orphans all over the world.  It really started when I became involved in the newly formed orphan ministry at our church.  On Nov. 8th I had no idea what God was about to do!  There were all kinds of people there representing adoption, foster care, & international orphan sponsorships.  There was one that really stuck out to Josh and me.  That's where we met Amy Washington, stateside co-director of Sonrise Baby Home www.sonrisebabyhome.org.  There was photos of all the precious babies, and Josh, the girls, and I immediately fell in love.  That day we sponsored a precious little boy named Steven.  That day changed our lives!  Our girls went home and wrote a note, "God, we love Steven".  Sonrise Baby Home has been in my mind ever since.  God has somehow had those babies cross my mind everyday since Nov. 8th. 

Orphan Sunday was a big day for me because I also met Mandi Johnson there.  She was helping Sonrise that day.  Long story short God just knew that our paths were supposed to cross.  Her heart beats for the same thing mine does.  She has a passion for orphans and wants to adopt.  Over the next few months, we have all become friends and have arranged a wonderful trip to Jinja, Uganda to see all those beautiful babies!  There are so many things that I had to trust God on but He never fails if we're living in His will.  He is so good!!!  There are so many things that we want to be able to do on this trip like water purification system, bunk beds, formula, diapers, etc.   Not only take supplies but show them the love of Jesus and give the women there encouragement. This trip is allowing me to learn more about the home as well and get to know the babies and staff to be able to come home and help with stateside fund raising for the home and find these babies sponsors. 

God has been in this in more ways than I can count.  Not only has this trip been in the works but another trip in Nov with our church to work with some missionaries there also and spend a couple of days at Sonrise.  This trip will be focusing more on going into the village and sharing with them about Jesus.  I have been given the opportunity to work in an area of ministry that I am passionate about.  God has opened doors in ways that I could never have imagine, two trips to Uganda within a few months of each other.  I feel so blessed already to get to go and love on and share with these precious people of Uganda.  I have so much more to tell but feel I will leave you with this until I post again.  I would ask you to please pray as God takes our family on this new journey He has for us.