Archive for the ‘Uganda’ Category
“Finding Beauty” teaching at NewSong
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Here’s the video of last weekend’s “Finding Beauty” teaching at NewSong Irvine.
love.serve.give.
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We've got some great opportunities to love.serve.give between now and Christmas at The Orchard. Check them out:
I’m calling it SHOCKTOBER.
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Ok, so there are around 2.4 billion things that I'm excited about right now. And I seriously feel like I need to pinch myself just to make sure this is all real. Here's a taste.
STORY – It happens next week! Can't wait. Around 1,700 pastors, communicators, church leaders, writers, speakers, etc will converge for two days to learn and be inspired by an amazing line up of storytellers – people like Dave Gibbons, Ed Young, Donald Miller, Nancy Beach, Mike Foster, Stacy Spencer, Chris Seay, and others. The first day happens on Wednesday, October 28th at the beautiful Paramount Theater in downtown Aurora. The next day will be workshops (sold out!) happening at The Orchard. Honored to host and be a part of STORY!
CULTIVATE – Seriously, Chicagoland is the place to be in October. Cultivate is a highly interactive, conversational, collaborative un-conference that's all about church communication. It's happening the day before STORY. And the lineup of facilitators is just sick. Wow.
DAVE GIBBONS – We are honored to have Dave speak at The Orchard's gatherings the weekend following STORY. Not only is Dave a good friend, but he's someone God has used to impact my life in some pretty significant ways. I'm thrilled that our church community gets to hear and learn from him!
THE NEW & IMPROVED….ORCHARD – The Orchard has had an extreme makeover! Through the amazing "pro bono" generosity of fellow Orchard tribal members, Dawn & Keith Baldwin (Aspire One), we have a new logo and amazzzing new website that will go live later THIS WEEK. I'll talk more about this in a later post… STAY TUNED!
LOVE.SERVE.GIVE. – It's The Orchard's GLOCAL outreach opportunities this winter. More about this later as well… But just know that we are going to have some amazing opportunities to bring beauty and hope to people locally in our city and globally in places like Uganda, Thailand, and El Salvador.
ORCHARD ART INITIATIVE – Too much to type, but The Orchard is turning into an art gallery starting this month. Our campus will be filled with art from local artists. Huge dream come true, but only the beginning…
Ok, there's more, but I my fingers hurt and I need to study. OUT.
Sometimes….Beauty Finds Us
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Beauty. Sometimes it's obvious, isn't it?
Other times…it's not.
This photo was taken a few months ago while on a visit to Uganda. It's the home of a man named Moses. He's the father of a young boy sponsored through Compassion.
Even looking back now, as I type this, it's hard to put into words what we saw and experienced that day as we walked through this urban neighborhood of Kampala. Poverty, disease, suffering, unclean water….you name it. I've spent time in other poverty stricken areas around the world, but on this day in particular, I realized that I had forgotten just how bad it really is.
Which is why I think my mind struggled to make sense of what happened next.
As we were standing in the middle of this "mess" saying our goodbyes, my focus was immediately interrupted by the sound of a little girl giggling, laughing, and trying really hard to get our attention. And as I turned around to see who the culprit was, I was completely taken back by the presence of this beautiful little girl.
It's hard to explain what I felt at that moment, but it was as though my mind immediately went TILT. Not just because she looked like she had just walked out of a suburban mall somewhere in middle America. No, it was everything! Her smile. Her laughter. Her silliness. Her life!
It was almost like looking at a puzzle piece that had been placed on the wrong puzzle. This piece didn't fit!
It was beauty…in the midst of utter brokenness.
For the rest of the trip, I referred to this little girl as "Julia" in my conversations with people. I called her that because she reminded me so much of my five year old daughter by the same name. The way she made me smile and laugh was just like my little "Juju" makes me smile and laugh at home.
I was reminded of something in regards to beauty that day. Something that I think is important as we become people who not only recognize obvious beauty, but who also learn to seek out beauty in this broken world.
Sometimes we find beauty. And other times…..beauty finds us. But either way, our eyes have to be open.
Open our eyes Lord. May we be more aware of Your beauty – even in the midst of brokenness. Amen.
What’s with those smiles?
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I’ve been home from Uganda for about a week now. The jet lag has finally subsided and my stomach is [almost] back to normal. But my dreams… Man, my dreams continue to take me back to those faces. The faces of children who have absolutely nothing…..but who don’t even seem to know it.
What’s the deal with those smiles?
Seriously.
See, I lose mine so easily sometimes. Like when I’m out driving around in my car with the moonroof open, feeling the heat of the sun as it beats down on the graphite leather of my new sedan…..and suddenly someone cuts me off and I have to hit my breaks a little harder than usual.
Boom! Smile gone.
What the hell?
The Internet is slow today. My coffee isn’t hot. Someone criticized me.
Smile gone.
Jesus help me. Because I saw more of you in these children….who had nothing….than I sometimes see in myself….who has everything.
“I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus in Matthew 18
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