12.19.11 UPDATE

I just got an update from the east asia team. They had a 13 hr flight then a 12 hr train ride to the city they are working in. Their train had sleeping cars where they shared rooms with random people--which made for a true international experience.

They are spending their time in a university teaching english to asian students. Over the next 2 weeks they will spend their time with many of these same students making relationships, teaching them english, and shareing J with them. Today they taught 2 classes and went through the first part of book of Lk sharing the meaning of how and why J came to earth--all in front of an entire class of students. This is typically illegal where they are, and probably still is to a point, but they are using the B as a literature book, a history book about the american culture of xmas. They have asked for two requests for pr@yer. 1. for them to be bold and led by the HS in sharing about J and knowing how to take the conversations. Also pr@y they would love their new friends well. 2. pr@y the students they are sharing with will be moved by the HS to have open hearts.

Why would 7 students spend their xmas break doing what they are doing? If J is truly the hope of the world, and we know he is, then we can't keep this hope to ourselves, we tell the world.

3 days...

The east asia team of 7 leaves in 3 days! Updates will be posted here...so friends and family, check back during their trip to see what's going on.

May the name of J be known among the people. Let the adventure begin!

At it again...

Charleston BCM will be taking a team of 7 to spend Christmas in East Aisa!!! Dates are December 17th-January 1st. We got a call from the mission board about a decrease in teams in East Asia over Christmas break. Within 1 hour we had a team leader, within 24 hours we had a team assembled. This is not normal :) My faith is small because I wondered if anyone was willing to leave their families for Christmas for the sake of the good news to asian college students. Sure enough, God desires His Name to be praised among all peoples.

More details to come...

Four of our college students are just getting back to the states after several weeks of caring for orphans in Haiti. Haiti has around 9 million people, 1 million of those being orphans. Most of those 1 million children are not in orphanages. They live on the streets, live with random people, and a large majority are being sold into labor slavery and sex slavery. The children that make it into safe orphanages are the fortunate ones. Kids in an orphanage are the fortunate ones? Yes, this is a new perspective for me. After talking today with Ben Tillman, Citadel sophomore, he says the children in the Christian orphanages actually have it the best. Kids on the street have nothing. They have worst than nothing--they are bought, sold, and mistreated. Kids in an orphanage have a pair of clothes, 2 meals a day, a roof over their head, and at least one or two Christian ladies to love them. Clearly the very best thing, the thing we are praying for every orphan, is to have a mom, dad, and a home--to be adopted. But until that happens, being in a Haitian Christian orphanage is a blessing from God. The thought that I would ever say it's good for kids to be in orphanages speaks of the help Haitians need. But let's not be satisfied until every child has a home.

Two of our students, Hanna and Samantha, worked in Haiti with 25 year old, Megan Boudreaux. Megan, who is single, left her home in Louisiana last year to move permanently to Haiti and started Respire Haiti, a Christian organization that cares for and teaches orphans and other children. More info can be found at http://www.respirehaiti.org/.

Our two other students in Haiti, Ben and Katherine, spent over a week loving on the kids in various orphanages but mainly at Alex's House, a Christian Orphanage. Moving video about Alex's House, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEMFFJQCtE. Ben shared with me about their experience. Incredible.  He shared with me about a young Haitian lady, a new hero of mine. She is in her mid 20s caring and feeding 16 orphans on $50 a month. She said she'll probably never get married because no man will want to walk into that kind of responsibility. This lady loves Jesus and is choosing 16 children over marriage. This is love.

You probably don't know Megan Boudreaux or this young Haitian lady. You may not know Ben, Katherine, Hanna, or Samantha. But heaven knows them. They are heros in heaven for taking the name of Jesus Christ to the forgotten children, for being the presence of Jesus and sharing His love with them.

Ben Tillman and friends