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Photo Credit: John Clare. Flickr. Lemur Leaf Frog. No changes were made.

The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger, not jump out and will be ultimately cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for our inability or unwillingness to react to threats or harmful conditions that occur gradually over time.

Like the frog, so many of my friends are in water that is slowly being heated. They are struggling with problems… family problems, problems getting along with co-workers, problems with health… and many of those people are Christians! I understand the problems…I don’t understand the extended struggle. Jesus said that “in this world, you will have difficulties.” Being a Christian does not give us a free pass away from difficulties, but what we DO have is a better way to deal with them…

We are to pray, then we are to focus on what we can and should do…and then do it…then we are to turn the rest of it over to God.

That’s it…every problem…every situation…same remedy.

So why don’t we do that?

1. I think many of us love God…but deep down…we don’t trust that He will work in our favor…or in our timeframe.
2. I think there is a certain sense of pride that comes with having to “deal” with stuff…laboring brings a certain sense of self-worth.
3. I think we know what we need to do to get out of our problems…but we imagine it to be far scarier or more painful than our current condition…so we stay put.

What we fail to realize is…

1. God can be trusted. Think back on your life…has God ever told you to do something and you are worse off because of it?
2. We miss out on “peace.” I think having a peaceful heart is one of the most underrated conditions we have as humans. Peace reminds us that everything is just as it should be. Peace tells us…someone else can… and will take care of me. Peace reminds us we are not God, …nor should we try to be.
3. Sometimes we are a “stiff-necked people.” We know what to do…but we just don’t do it because what we “imagine” we will have to experience. We think about the future and in our mind…it is scary, painful, and uncomfortable and that “picture” has less than a 10% chance of really happening anyway. Yet…it is enough to stop us from moving forward, growing closer to God and being happy…we CHOOSE not to move.

What this reminds me of is…God is extremely patient with us.

1. He will love us enough to allow us to wallow in our own “stuff” for an extended period of time.
2. He will listen to us say how much we love Him but understands that we don’t really trust Him.
3. He will be there for us when we finally DO turn to Him and He will welcome us with open arms.

But in the meantime…many of us will just continue to struggle, kick and complain…

Go figure…

I want to be like the moon!

The moon has no light of its own. The only way we can see it is when it reflects the light of the sun.

The moon has its greatest power when it is full. When it is in perfect alignment with both the earth and the sun. When this happens, its beauty is fully appreciated by those on earth and its influence can be seen by the pull of the tides of the ocean and some people believe their own emotions are affected by the full moon.

Without the sun, the moon is nothing more to us than a lifeless cold rock that drifts alone in space 241,821 miles away. But by reflecting the sun, it becomes something of beauty and something that can sometimes take our breath away.

Yep…I want to be like the moon…but if and only if…I can reflect the light of the sun.

It was 1977 in Charleston, SC. I was a freshman…a “knob” attending The Military College of South Carolina…or better known as The Citadel. I had been recruited to play quarterback and had moved up in the depth chart from 11th string quarterback to 2nd string quarterback just one week before our first game. Being part of the football team relieved me from much of the physical hazing that the rest of my classmates were enduring while I was at practice. However, from my vantage point, I was getting all I could handle in practice.

It happened to be my 18th birthday in early September of 1977. We had our last scrimmage before our first game. As I took the snap and executed an option play, the moment that I flicked the ball to my running back, my left palm was caught between two helmets that simultaneously sandwiched my palm and crushed the bones in my throwing hand…as well as my dreams.

Leaving the infirmary with a fresh cast on my left hand, I stopped by the post office on campus to pick up a birthday “care package” from my Mom. I knew it had to be something good and I rushed into the barracks and began the process of getting to my room.

The process for a “knob” to get to their room was no easy feat. We were required to double time around the perimeter of the barracks running only in two tile widths of the area to one of four corners of the square barracks that marked our company staircase. Once at the bottom of the staircase, we were required to give ourselves a “shirt-tuck” which meant tightening our shirt both front and back. Then, if any upperclassmen were on the stairs, we had to request permission of that upperclassman to use the stairs. Silly…but required.

The problem was that the rooms for the knobs were on the fourth floor of the barracks and getting to your room required having to run through a gauntlet of upperclassmen…and upperclassmen with nothing to do…were very dangerous.

Well, here I come with a broken hand, broken dreams, and a box of goodies from my Mom and all I’m thinking about is getting to my room. Then it happens…the upperclassmen see the box….and they know by instinct that boxes carried by knobs most likely mean…food.

I am confronted by a group of upperclassmen and am forced to open the box from my Mom. It contains a birthday card and a box of homemade chocolate chip cookies….contraband for knobs…a dream come true for hungry upperclassmen!

One of the upperclassmen that confront me is Mr. Kipphut. He is one of many, but he takes my box of cookies and reminds me of the fact that knobs are not supposed to have “contraband” in the barracks and he and his friends are going to help me out. So they all take my cookies and leave one for me. However, the one they leave me is crushed into crumbs and placed on the ground of the tiled walkway. It is there that they demand that I do push-ups for violating the contraband policy. Since I have a broken hand, I am forced to do one-armed push-ups which they have no sympathy for. Each time I go down for a push-up…I am allowed to eat a bite of the cookie crumbs that are on the ground and then I return back to the up position and sound off “one sir.” This goes one on 15 more times and then I am allowed to go to my room.

Happy 18th birthday to me…

Fast forward 38 years….and I attend a Citadel alumni function in Plano, TX. I walk in and one of the first people I see is my “old friend Mr. Kipphut.” By now his name is Mark. We exchange greetings and begin a warm and friendly exchange as we both begin to unpack the years that have gone by for each of us.

We both attended a recent alumni event and I shared with “Mark” the events of that fateful day in 1977 and the impact that it had on me. Mark was moved…however, I didn’t realize how much until today…

Today, I had lunch with Mark. We had agreed that we would get together and have lunch and today was the day. We both arrived at the restaurant at the same time and as I waited for Mark to get to the door, I noticed a box in his hand… He met me and said, here…these are for you… It was a box of chocolate chip cookies.

I cannot begin to explain how much this simple gesture meant to me. I was pretty much stunned when he gave them to me and it wasn’t until after our lunch and I was driving away that the story of our past became so vivid…again.

What a guy…to take the initiative to “right” a “wrong” that happened so long ago. What a guy… that would feel like this was an important thing to do…

Well, it was….and as I sat in front of my TV tonight…I opened that box of cookies….and they were the best tasting things I think I’ve ever enjoyed.

38-year-old cookies are the best…not because of the cookie…but because the man behind the cookie… is now… my friend.

It’s hard to believe that in 60 days I’ll be sitting in the airport with a one-way ticket to Guatemala!

Why am I going? Good question…

I think God has been moving me. When I step back and look at my life, I can see a significant shift that has taken place in me over the past decade. I’ve become a Christian, I got baptized, I began working mission trips into my regular life schedule, I started seminary, I left my 30 construction career and lucrative salary to become 100% dependant on God and the generous donations of my supporters…and now I’m moving to Guatemala.

When I think about it…it all makes sense. I think God has been preparing me to do the “real work.” It all made sense when I heard pastor Andy Stanley say recently,

“Holy hands are dirty hands.”

Years ago, when I thought of the word “Holy”, the thought would be accompanied by a sense of things that were clean, bright, and neat and often separated from other things. Just as one thinks of God in the Old Testament residing in the Holy of Holies, and the actions of the Pharisee and Sadducees in the Bible worrying about being exposed to someone who was “unclean.” They went to extreme measures to remain “clean and holy.”

When I thought about it, I had evidently carried this belief forward and was practicing it in my life and ministry to some extent. I was working in ministry…but from afar…my hands were clean.

My new perspective is quite different. I now realize that my version of “holy” was not missional…nor biblical. Missional work requires one to “get their hands dirty.” One must get out into the community and alongside those that they are trying to reach and help. It’s not easy and it cannot be accomplished from afar. One must engage.

That is what God did…He sent His Son to live with us...He engaged.

But why go to Guatemala?

I believe our God is a sending God and we are to go and be a part of those communities we intend to reach. It is in this engagement and through acts of service and love that we become holy and then become useful tools to God. I don’t exactly know why God has called me to Guatemala …but I just know He has…and that’s good enough for me.

So here we go! I am excited to begin this next chapter of my life as I put all my belongings into storage and move to Guatemala to place myself in God’s service. I have no idea what to expect…but one thing is for certain…I’m going to get my hands really dirty!

I never thought that I would end up walking away from a lucrative 30-year construction career to devote my life to mission work…but I did. Since then, I’ve never been:

1. More uncertain about where my next dollar was going to come from and…
2. I’ve never been happier.

Mission work may not be for everyone, but everyone has a part to play in God’s ultimate plan. Here is a little story about how I found “my part.”

https://youtu.be/8Clbty3huTk

I will be taking a small team down to Guatemala in April…stay tuned for updates!

Thank you!!

2 Corinthians 5:8 – to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.

Most people are afraid of death. They spend their entire lives protecting themselves from it and spend an incredible amount of money trying to delay it…but in the end…death is inevitable for all of us.

Earlier this month, I experienced the death of a new friend Steve McGregor. The night he passed away, I had a peculiar dream. I dreamed of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

The process amazes me how God completely takes one species and creates another. It also amazes me that this transformation is accomplished within a physical form called a chrysalis. Caterpillar goes in…butterfly comes out.

Like the butterfly, I believe we also go through a similar transformation. But the difference is how we attach meaning to each phase.

Those who don’t know Christ, view the chrysalis as their body and their life. Even when the butterfly emerges, their friends overlook the butterfly and mourn the loss of the chrysalis.

However, those that do know Christ, view the chrysalis for what it is. It is the place where God does the work of transformation from sinner to saint. So when the time is ready, God calls the saint to emerge from the chrysalis and what emerges is larger and more beautiful than what went in.

What Christians celebrate is not the death of the chrysalis…but the birth of the butterfly! A whole new creation that has been liberated from its earthly beginnings!

I believe God is in the business of creating butterflies!

I know we will all miss the beautiful and familiar chrysalis that we all knew as Steve McGregor. But I also know that he is much larger, much more beautiful, and happier now to be free of his chrysalis and to be the creation that God designed him to be.

And that is truly worth celebrating.

I remember…

I remember when life was simpler and richer.

I remember when football teams had two uniforms…Home and Away.

I remember when you asked someone what was on the back of a quarter…they knew it was an eagle.

I remember when I went to “the doctor” and not to a specialist.

I remember when I had a “best friend” and not followers.

I remember when I would watch one of three TV channels.

I could go on and on…but you get the point…

When did we start to believe that more was better?

photo credit: NextTwentyEight:https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenext28days/9298936641

Today I finished my fast.

For the past 10 years, I have fasted for the first 40 days of the year. I love it. It gives me a way to reset my body, lose a couple of pounds, and begin each year with positive momentum.

It’s never too late to start…but you do have to start! Momentum is everything!

Monday’s should be the best business day of the week.

Think…Big Monday = Big Week = Big Quarter = Big Year!

What do you want to do that when you look back in 5 years you’ll be glad you did? Write that item down and then take daily action in that direction! Do it! Get going! Make a move!

I went to college to study Civil Engineering. One of my favorite classes was surveying. I loved being outdoors shooting grades, working with bearings, and establishing benchmarks. I was the guy that got to operate the transit (the thing you look through).

What I learned as a transit operator was a way of projecting a straight line forward. All one had to do was to take a backsight on a marker that was behind me, lock down the controls and just flip the scope over 180 degrees and then whatever I sighted on would be in an exact straight line from where I came from.

So as I apply this principle to my life and look back on 2014…here is what I see…

I have just finished my first year in ministry. It was wonderful, to say the least! We were able to take part in some significant life changes in Guatemala and growth in our ministry. For the first time in my life…I know I’m on the path that God created me to walk.

So as I lock down those controls and flip the scope…

Here is what I see looking forward to 2015…

In order for me to continue to grow and be effective in a multi-cultural ministry, I must be able to speak the language. As it stands right now, I have been relying on two years of High School Spanish to communicate with the people we serve in Guatemala. I’m horrible at it and they deserve better than that. The only reason I have not learned the language is that it’s difficult. I always find “other things” that I need to be doing when I am at home. This must change…

So, I have made the decision to move to Guatemala in June for a minimum of six months in order to learn the language. I’m going total immersion…No English! My plan is to spend the first month going to a language school in Antigua to get the basics. Then after the first month, I’ll stay with Oscar and Amy Garcia, our Ministry Leaders in Guatemala. I’ll work with them doing just about anything and everything… but only speaking Spanish.

I’ll be blogging on a weekly basis and sharing everything that I am doing, learning, and goofing up… The big question for me is…can I do it? Can I really learn the language in six months? What happens after that?

All these answers we’ll soon find out…so I hope you’ll follow me and see what happens. I guarantee it will be interesting!

Wow. What a year this has been. I am in the process of putting together our second annual report which has required me to look back on all that we have been able to accomplish this year thanks to many generous financial teammates. So if it’s ok, I would like to share the impact that we as a team have been able to make…you’re going to love it…

Light of Hope School – Guatemala

Schools

• We have 5 Christian schools still operating in Africa providing education to over 500 children and employing 34 teachers. 90% of our children come from Muslim families. Go figure!
• We have a pre-k school in Guatemala that currently has about 60 children and 3 teachers.
• A Guatemalan music teacher is using the incentive to play in the band as a way to reach children and keep them interested in school and making good grades. The band dreams of someday marching in the Macy’s Rose Bowl parade, and they had all the instruments they needed with one exception…they didn’t have a Tuba. We got them a Tuba.

Community Development

• We purchased and shipped six school buses to Africa filled with school supplies. The buses are now being used to take people throughout the region.
• We provided a Fire Truck that was donated from the City of Tyler, TX to the Guatemalan city of San Jose Pinula. This has also opened the hearts of several firefighters that want to adopt the Guatemalan station as a “sister station.” We actually brought two firefighters from Tyler with us to Guatemala this month.
• We shipped a container full of medical supplies to Guinea, West Africa in response to the Ebola epidemic. The container was filled with protective suits, medical gloves, and unfortunately…body bags.
• We held five medical clinics in Guatemala and treated approximately 1587 people.

Training

• We held a Pastor’s conference in West Africa in March and trained over 50 pastors.
• We held a Pastor’s conference in Guatemala in December and taught over 100 pastors.
• We provided 20 sewing machines to a group of women in Guatemala to begin making items to sell in the marketplace. Many of the women had never sewn before, and the learning curve is very steep. However, while they learn they are also engaging in Bible study!

Home Improvement

• I experimented with a solar light bulb for people in Guatemala to use. It’s a liter plastic bottle that sits halfway in and halfway out of the roof. Light comes in through the top and is emitted from the bottom. It produces the light of a 60W bulb and will last about eight years. We have installed several so far. They love them. The only problem is getting on the roofs to install them…many of the roofs are not stable enough to hold the weight of a person.
• We provided over 26 smokeless stoves for families that had been cooking over an open flame with no exhaust in their homes. This $250 addition to the home has been life-changing to families. It is one of the best things we do!
• We came upon a young girl in Guatemala that lost her parents and, is raising her five siblings in addition to her two children. All of them (9 people) have all been living in one room that a neighbor is letting them use. I’ve seen the room…it’s horrible. We are building them a new home now. It’s under construction, nothing fancy… but hopefully it will be ready by Christmas.

Technology & Social Media

• We have a Facebook page that has grown to over 167,000 followers! That is more than many of the fortune 500 companies! We engage an audience of over 20,000 people every day from countries all over the world. We have even had 20 decisions for Christ this year!
• We started a similar Facebook page all in Spanish as well. It mirrors much of the content we have on our main page, but we just wanted to engage our Spanish-speaking friends in Central America directly.
• Chuck’s son, Adam developed a training platform called Conscientia. We have been meeting with churches and hospital groups so they can put their training content on the platform. It’s a great tool, and we just have to figure out how to market it better. So far, we have one church using it and one hospital group (UT Southwestern Global Health Program). They have put about 15 courses on it and are loving it.

Creating Partnerships and Relationships

• By investing all of our time and resources in one common area in Guatemala, we have developed a very strong relationship with the Mayor of San Jose Pinula in Guatemala. He is also the Mayor of over 26 additional cities and settlements in a much larger geographic area. This is fascinating to me because it is rare for a governmental agency to be such a fan of a faith-based non-profit organization…especially from the U.S.
• We have developed the same type of relationship with the government of Conakry in Guinea, West Africa. We met with them in March, and they will be working with us to get land to build a community medical and training facility on. Again, how does an African Muslim country partner with a U.S. Christian non-profit?

Evangelism

• I bought a computer, a projector, church presentation software and had it delivered to our Pastor friend Karim Koroma in Guinea. Having these simple tools is unheard of in that area and it allows Pastor Karim to do Christian outreach throughout the region. Within days of receiving the equipment, he had an outreach event in a city called Kindia. About 75 people attended to watch the Jesus Film, worship, and learn about Christ. The following day 11 people were baptized.
• We have also passed out over 15,000 gospel stories called “The Gift.” It is written in both English and Spanish. One interesting observation after giving them away…I’ve NEVER seen one of them ever discarded on the ground.

Personal Transformation through Mission Trips

• We took a group of six men to Israel this year and hiked what is called the Jesus Trail. It’s a route from Nazareth to Capernaum, and we calculated we hiked over 100K. We did it over four days, and the trip was deeply personal for each participant. Walking the route that Jesus walked has completely changed the way I read the Bible. I highly recommend putting this trip on your bucket list.
• We have taken 57 people to Guatemala this year! These trips are amazing in so many aspects. Each one is different, and my favorite part is watching the Lord move in the hearts of each person uniquely. Mission trips are special in so many ways. I don’t know who blesses gets blessed the most…the people we serve or the people we take!

Summary

So, not bad for 12 months of Ministry huh!

I have never been more uncertain about what the future holds. But I’ve also never enjoyed the level of pure joy and peace that this year has brought. I’m working extremely hard. I’m working on something related to the ministry just about six days a week and about 13 hours a day. But I love it.

Added to the workload is the fact that I’ve gone back to school in order to gain the necessary knowledge and expertise that will allow me to teach better and lead in a multi-cultural environment. I’m enrolled at Fuller Theological Seminary and I’m working towards a MAGL degree (Master’s of Global Leadership). That’s what I want to do…train leaders in underdeveloped countries. School is tough, but I love all the work that is involved because I can apply what I learn immediately to the ministry. So far, I’m straight A’s!

I’m hoping this update has brought you a little insight into what 2014 has meant to me and I hope it has demonstrated how God is using Hope Ignited in a unique and significant way to help bring the light of hope to some very dark places on our planet.

I cannot begin to tell you how much doing this type of work has meant to me. We’ve got a lot of work left to do and 2015 is already shaping up to be a very busy year. I can’t wait to see what God has in store!

Thank you so very much and I hope you enjoyed this report.

Blessings,

Bob