Another Year Older (and Wiser)
“I have given Him my faith, and sworn my allegiance to Him; how, then, can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor?” Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
The other day I was talking to a friend who works at Reformed Theological Seminary here in Atlanta. I asked him how they prepare students for ministry. He wasn’t sure what I was getting at so he asked me what I meant. To be blunt, I said, how do you prepare your students for war?
Two years ago we embarked on what has become the most audacious and awe-inspiring journey of our lives – a journey to reach imprisoned children in Africa for Christ. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the mission field is also a battlefield.
Although we expected attacks, we weren’t fully prepared for them. There is a profound difference between reading about persecution and tests, and actually enduring them. Not to mention they came from some unlikely sources.
While the first year of SixtyFeet was marked by tremendous joy, hope, and a few tears, the second year has been marked by significantly more trials and testing. Like never before we’ve felt the resistance to the spread of the gospel. We’ve seen discouragement, competition among the people of God, and the havoc that rumors and gossip create. There have been attacks from nearly all sides.
As many of you know, we’re just regular moms and dads passionately pursuing Jesus. We go to work each day, tend to our families, and generally live life together. Nothing super special.
Yet for some reason many people have questioned our motives and intentions. Sadly, the most painful attacks have come from within the body of Christ.
If we’re honest, some days we have felt like throwing in the towel. It can feel like too much of a sacrifice for our families, our time, our wallets, our friendships, our jobs, and our health. Could we just go back to life the way it was before the ministry started? Would we even want to?
No and a million times no! A year ago we wrote this: “’No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62. Our hands are firmly set on the plow. We know our lives will never be the same. Frankly, we pray they never will be.”
That was true then and it’s true now. Our lives haven’t been the same… and we don’t want them to be. This light momentary affliction is nothing compared to the eternal glory that awaits us. This is especially true when we consider what God has done this past year. It’s all too easy for us to get turned in on ourselves and sometimes miss the miraculous work that God is doing in the midst of a little pain:
* Over 100 hundred children have come to faith in Christ
* Dozens upon dozens of children reunited with families and removed from the penal system
* Over a thousand children received consistent medical attention
* Participation in a thriving church plant that has seen Muslims and witch doctors come to faith in Christ
* The beginnings of a justice initiative to provide children with a voice in court
* Almost 100 children sponsored and receiving an education
Who in their right mind would turn back from this work? The Kingdom is advancing. The gospel is proclaimed. Salvation has come. Jesus is exalted.
It’s been a great year! Thank you for helping to make it possible.
Promise of Hope – Amazing Grace
Mama Catherine is a legend in our circle and to those who have met her. She, along with her husband, Pastor Ernest as well as Boaz and Faith have been serving with Sixty Feet for over a year now, but have been serving God faithfully for decades. We are honored to count them as our family.
While putting this together, I was privileged to be able to watch the following clip several times. Every time I watch it, it gives me chills and I have been eager to share it with you. I hope that it blesses you as much as it has us.
This Amazing Grace that Catherine reminds us of is what the Promise of Hope is ultimately all about. Were it not for the Grace of God, we would be hopeless.
Promise of Hope – Pastor Ernest
Ever since we met Ernest in 2010, we have hoped for as many people as possible to meet both him and his wife, Mama Catherine. Two more godly and faithful people you will likely not meet this side of heaven. They have tirelessly served God over the decades – planting churches, caring for unwanted children, and serving their community.
In this brief clip with Ernest, he lays out some very weighty topics – baptism of former witch doctors, continuing in God’s work despite difficult circumstances, and our meeting, one day, with individuals in heaven whom we have impacted for God without knowing it.. Enjoy this clip and look forward to meeting him in person some day.
Promise of Hope – Kelsey and Kirby
Kelsey and Kirby have been more than interns during the past 7 months. Among many other things, they have served tirelessly along with our staff and have become very close with many of the children we have the pleasure to work with.
We thought you would enjoy hearing directly from them about their experiences with the children and about what an enormous impact each of you have had on their lives.
If you haven’t already, consider donating to Sixty Feet. You can send your donation securely online Here. Or you can choose to help by Sponsoring one of the children. Thank you.
Promise of Hope – Patrick
Over the next few weeks we plan to release a series of new short clips highlighting some of what’s been happening in Uganda these past few months. We’re calling this short series “Promise of Hope” and pray that it encourages and inspires you.
One of the things we enjoy most is meeting people who share our desire to help the children, give them a sense of purpose and provide them with hope. Patrick is a young man we were introduced to over a year ago and who we love dearly. He has been working along side our team in Uganda, and if you’ve traveled to Uganda with us you’ve probably met him.
Patrick also has a ministry of his own. All this while still in school. Patrick is an incredibly talented artist and art student who sells his works and uses part of the proceeds to provide mosquito nets to those in need.
In January, we caught a brief glimpse of Patrick’s story and wanted to share it with you.
Cupcakes And Comfort Zones
Our dear friend, Stephanie, graciously offered a testimony at the {Beloved} film event in Atlanta two weeks ago. It was so inspiring we had to share. As a follow up to what you’re about to read, it looks like Stephanie and her daughter are headed to Uganda!
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Isaiah 58, a dangerous prayer, and cupcakes – 3 ingredients, mixed together by the sovereign hand of God, that have me standing here in front of all of you, way too many of you, tonight. Let me explain.
It’s May 2010. I’m listening to a John Piper sermon and minding my own business until the words he’s reading from Isaiah 58 stop me up. They pierce me strong. They make me weep. And for several days I meditated over the words of this chapter. And the Lord WOKE ME UP. It was a rude awakening.
It was a rude awakening from my complacent-North-American-I’m-OK-so-everything’s-OK slumber.
It was a rude awakening from my oblivion to the reality of life for 80% of the world; and to the reality that the number of orphans in the world equals the population of four Canada’s.
For a full year I wrestled with the Lord about this scripture, this awakening. I wasn’t fighting it, I wanted to DO something. Now. Right NOW. Before I fell back to sleep. For a year I searched, watched, prayed, learned about world missions, waited and waited some more. I KNEW what I was to be doing was connected to orphans, but I just couldn’t find it. Nothing fit.
It’s now April 2011. Enter a dangerous prayer. Challenged by another sermon, I prayed with all my heart these words: “Lord, here I am. Use me. Take me out of my comfort zone, make me uncomfortable, put me in over my head. Then I will know it is YOU doing this thing and not me.”
I speak from experience when I say that the Lord does not waste time answering a prayer like that.
Blog hopping a few days later I found a post which was encouraging all who read, who wanted to DO something but didn’t know what to do, to go here. I qualified, so I linked up and landed on the website of www.SixtyFeet.org
The Lord captivated my heart almost immediately. I read through the website and the blog. I watched the videos. I cried because what I saw, it broke my heart. Then I waited a few days and prayed. While I was praying the Lord took me back to the scripture he had used to wake me up one year earlier.
Is 58:6-11:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
As I read these verses, I realized that the work of Sixty Feet was fulfilling all of these commands in this passage. And better still, they were doing it in the name of Jesus. Bringing the gospel of hope to abandoned children – hungry, oppressed and left with no hope. I knew this was it.
Enter The Cupcake Kids.
One of the main ways people were helping these children was by raising money through cupcake sales.
Simple enough. Easy to manage. Safe. You know, comfortable. Something I can handle. So my daughter and I decided to have one roadside cupcake sale to raise money for Sixty Feet.
But God.
Oh, But God. He said, “ah, No. I don’t think so! Remember your prayer? I’m about to answer it.” And He plucked me out of my comfort zone, from my home-made box – nice and neat, small and warm and cozy. And safe. And He placed me in a different box – big, cold, open, vulnerable, uncomfortable. Actually it wasn’t a box at all. It didn’t have any sides.
But He didn’t leave me. He held my hand and said “Watch this.”
And He did immeasurably more than I could have ever imagined over the next 3 months. As He did, He stretched me, stretched my faith, changed my life, and changed the lives of some around me.
- “Take it to the kids” was His whisper. He had me write and teach a Sunday school missions lesson about Sixty Feet to two small churches. In it the kids set a fundraising goal for the summer. (Can you say “impossible”?! That’s what I said.)
- “Take it to the church” was His request. He had me take Sixty Feet to the congregation of these churches. (Somewhere along the line I said I would never do public speaking). In these presentations to the churches, I challenged them to make small sacrifices (give up a coffee, latte, restaurant meal, etc.) each week and bring that money to the Sixty Feet donation jar I placed out. And they came on board in support of the fundraising effort for the summer which resulted in:
- 5 cupcake sales
- 1 coin drive
- 1 cupcake parade float
- Many small sacrifices
- Lives changed
- The funds raised (goal reached!)- pocket change to some I’m sure. But to these small churches in a small and dying town, a big deal. To children languishing in a prison of a dusty land, these funds, multiplied by God’s gracious hand, give life. Hope.
And now tonight. The Lord has not finished answering that dangerous prayer because I am SO not comfortable right now. My comfort zone is somewhere back in the icy cold north of the Canadian border. I am so far in over my head right now I can’t see the light of day and except for the Lord keeping me standing, I should have passed out or run off in fear at the first sentence.
The Lord is amazing. I don’t need to tell you this. You’re here because you’ve seen His mighty hand at work in your own church or life as you have served the beautiful but abandoned children of Uganda. His hand is all over the work of this ministry – the lives changed for eternity, hope given in Jesus name, and now homes about to be built. I’m most humbled, yet thrilled to be a small part of this work of our great and awesome God. May we continue to spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed and do it in the mighty name of Jesus. For His glory alone.
A Living Faith
Last year, Garry and I went to Uganda to do some SixtyFeet work and visit some of the other remand homes we had heard about. The week was intense as we crisscrossed the country visiting 6 of the 7 facilities we knew of.
On Friday night, towards the end of the trip, we were out trying to decompress after a long week when I got a phone call from Pastor Boaz. We were planning to worship that Sunday at Pastor Ernest’s church and Boaz was calling to ask if I would be willing to “preach.” It was intimidating but I agreed to share the word. There’s no way I was going to turn down that invitation.
But I had no idea what to say. To be honest, I was looking forward to learning more about faith and prayer and worship from them. This was one of those moments you just trust God will give you the words. Thankfully He led me to a passage of Scripture and I put together a short message.
The night before the heavens had opened up. It rained like you couldn’t believe. And at the time, the church didn’t have a roof or a floor. It had a small tarp to cover it but it blew off during the storm so there was thick mud everywhere. I only say that because it didn’t matter. The crowds showed up and we worshiped God every bit as powerfully as if we were seated in the most glorious cathedral on earth.
That Sunday, Pastor Ernest also had a visitor from the Congo. He was a man Pastor Ernest had known for a long time. He didn’t speak much English and we didn’t get to meet until after the service. Before church began the pastor from the Congo taught Sunday school to the adults while Garry and I visited 3 separate Sunday school classes – all of which were being held outside under a tree.
You got to love that! As caught up as we get in our children’s programs in the U.S. they had Sunday school outside… under a tree. There weren’t professional caregivers, or elaborate presentations, or entertainment. They had a bench and the word of God. Everything they needed, plus a bench.
So church starts and I deliver the message. After I finish Pastor Ernest comes up and says the “Spirit has testified.” He went on to say that the Pastor from the Congo and I had never met or even spoken to each other. Yet the two of us came together that day (from different countries, different backgrounds, different languages) and taught from the exact same passage of Scripture. James 1:22-27:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
Of all the passages of Scripture we could have spoken on, we both picked the same one. God had a message for the church in Bwerenga that day, and He has the same message for us here in North America. Faith calls for action. A living faith is an active faith. There’s no way around it – genuine faith is accompanied by works.
You may not have any idea whether you can do something God has called you to, or how in the world you’re going to accomplish it. But rest assured you are adequately equipped for the task and He won’t leave you to fend for yourself. You may not see the fruit or know the ripple effect – but your faithfulness will not be in vain.
So the next time you’re asked to preach in Africa, don’t bat an eye. You never know what God may have in store.
Live The Talk
A few weeks ago the SixtyFeet team went to the Georgia Dome to attend the Passion Conference with about 45,000 college students. In addition to feeling incredibly old, we were incredibly encouraged and inspired. Hearing the likes of Louie Giglio, Francis Chan and John Piper will do nothing if not encourage and inspire you (with a heavy dose of conviction thrown in!).
One of the performers was LeCrae (who by the way is part of an awesome Church plant here in Atlanta) and one of the songs he did was “Go Hard.” It resonated so much with us that it’s become one of our mottos.
When SixtyFeet began, we were so hungry. We just wanted God – nothing more nothing less. We were exhausted of the ho-hum, run-of-the-mill American version of Christianity. Been there done that. It was time to live the talk. We were ready to experience the power of Christ in tangible and miraculous ways.
And He answered our prayers – abundantly. After nearly 2 years, SixtyFeet continues to work in ever-increasing ways, reaching imprisoned children in Uganda and proclaiming the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ. In our own little corner of the world, we have been privileged to watch God do the impossible. We have been honored to walk closer with Him than ever before. And He continues to stretch us beyond what we think we are capable of.
And so we want to continue to go hard. He’s worthy of our best. He’s worthy of so much more.
Jesus didn’t say that others would recognize us by our words. He said that all people would know we are His disciples by our love. John 13:35. That involves more than just talk. A living faith is an active faith. We are to be doers of the Word. James 1:22, 25. Not because we have to or out of obligation, but because we love Him. John. 14:31.
There’s a lot of talk out there. But as they say, talk is cheap. What does your life look like? Like the world or like Christ? As LeCrae says:
If you didn’t know Him would your life look the same? Can they tell you value Jesus by the way you rep His name?
Beloved
On September 23, 2010, SixtyFeet released our “Bereaved” film for the first time. In some regards, the
film was a bit of a risk – it dealt with difficult and challenging subject matter on a topic that we weren’t
sure would even resonate with the mainline church in America: Imprisoned Children in Africa.
And yet we had traveled to Uganda. We had been to M1 and seen it with our own eyes. We had walked
the halls, held the children and touched the confining, metal bars. We had an obligation to speak up on
behalf of the children we had met and to tell their stories – even if no one would listen.
But to our delight, people did listen. At that first film showing, over 200 people attended. And since
that time, Bereaved has been shown to thousands of people from coast to coast. The film is an original
work, designed to provide a unique view into the world of M1 – the first of the remand homes
that SixtyFeet started working with.
And now, by God’s grace, we’ve had the opportunity to produce a second film – entitled “Beloved.”
This film also provides an insider’s view – into the hearts of the children we work with. Our second film,
directed and produced by Daniel Bashta of Go Motion Worldwide, focuses less on the facilities we work with and more on the individual stories of the children who live there — the “Beloved” children of God. We are sure it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Beloved will premiere in Atlanta on Saturday, February 11th at 7:30pm. This event is open to any and
all friends of the SixtyFeet ministry. Tickets are free but seating is limited. So please make your plans to attend now and reserve tickets here.
We look forward to seeing you on February 11th!
End Of Year Giving Update
Although we’re still receiving some checks in the mail, we wanted to share the incredible news about what God did in the last two months of 2011. He seems to have aroused a sleeping army! You may want to sit down for this.
Through you, God raised roughly $150,000. Yes, you read that right. Our jaws are still on the floor. Including the match, that is about $210,000! We’ll provide a full update once everything is in and we can regain our composure.
In the meantime, we just want to say thank you! From the bottom of our hearts, we are profoundly grateful that you chose to entrust your resources to us for the sake of Christ and the gospel. We don’t take that lightly!
We’d also like to ask if you would just join us in praising and worshiping Him for His abundant mercy and kindness. This has God written all over it. All we can do is humbly praise Him knowing that we can accomplish n-o-t-h-i-n-g apart from Him. Our prayer is that these resources are used to manifest His love to these children and that a revival would spread through their lives and through Uganda to the glory of Christ. And may it continue to spread through ours!
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