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.

"Normal" again????

Hey everybody. This is Josh. I wanted to create a post myself and personally tell you all thank you for all of your help and prayers throughout this whole thing! The outpouring of support for me and my family has been absolutely amazing. From the financial support, to the dinners for my family, to the cards and emails, and most of all the prayers, each and every one of you was just as big a part of this whole thing as any of the 19 men that went.

I've now had a few days to try and process some of the events that happened last week, and honestly I'm still having a tough time. My heart breaks each and every time I think about one of those precious little ones having to sleep on the ground and live in those conditions day in and day out. I know how tough it was on us and we were only there for 5 full days. They have no other choice. That's life for them. But the more I dwell on it, the more God has me asking myself, are they really the ones we should feel sorry for? Or are they the lucky ones?

What do I mean by that? Let me explain. While we were down there, I experienced worship like I have never seen before in my life. I saw people truly dancing, shouting, waiving their hands for the glory of God! They worshipped unashamed. They didn't care what the person next to them might think. They celebrated GOD!!!! They praised the Almighty like there would be no tomorrow, because they know there might not be. They did not need a mega church to do it. They did just fine in the middle of the dirt street. They did not need some famous speaker to motivate them. God's Holy Word did that. It was about God. It was about praising the Creator. It was about exalting the Savior. I read where Jeremy (Sanders) wrote to his wife that "their circumstances did not dictate their praise". That hits the nail on the head. I suspect I saw a glimpse of what worship around the throne of God will look like one day. With EVERYBODY praising God with everything they've got.

The Christians down there know what it's like to rely on God for their daily bread. They know what it's like to rely completely on Him to be their Jehovah Jireh, provider. 99.9% of Americans do not know that feeling. Myself included. The Haitian Christians don't have a "back up plan" in case God doesn't come through. There is no back up plan. He is all they've got. But you know what is the best part about that? HE IS ALL THEY NEED! And they know it. He is all we need. When are we going to realize that? When are we going to stop putting our faith in our bank accounts, and the stock market, and our employers, and our spouses, and our "stuff"? See, they fully understand that those things WILL fail (80% of Port Au Prince stands ruined because earthly things fail). But what stands firm is our God. The Christians there have a much better grasp of that. So who should we really feel sorry for?

Now all of that being said, this country still needs major prayer. Above I was addressing the Christians. Much of Haiti is still entrenched in voodoo and numerous other demonic practices, their goverment and infrastructure is as corrupt as anything I have ever or will ever see, and they seem set on keeping the people oppressed. There is no amount of U.S. Aid that can change this. Sadly, we think we can correct the problem by throwing a ton of money at it, and thinking we've "done our good deed". In all actuality, we saw first hand that this really creates dependence, destroys any feeling of self worth, and does more harm than good. There is no way that human means can rescue this country. It is going to take the Hand of God. It's going to take Christ's church rising up to become the salt and light of Haiti. It's going to come from strong spiritual leadership. At first glance this country looks hopeless, and beyond repair or redemption. But Psalm 33:6 tells us that "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." My God breathed the stars into existence! Nothing is too big for Him!

It would be easy for me to say that life is returning to normal after being home for a few days, but I pray to God that it does not. Our idea of "normal" is beginning to make me nauseous. I pray for Christians in our country to catch a passion like those in Haiti. I pray that I will be disgusted by materialism and idolatry (call it what we want that's what it is). I pray that my heart will be broken for what breaks His. I pray that I nor my family will ever want to be "normal".

To Every Tribe

Check this site out. One of the guys that went on the trip (Scott) that is from To every tribe wrote about the trip on their blog.

http://www.toeverytribe.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=79223&articleId=11338