What a crazy week!  This Sunday we received terrible news of a Somali Islamic militant group (al-Shabab) bombing two sites in Uganda's capital city, Kampala, during the World Cup finals.  76 individuals were killed (including 1 American) by the al-Qaida linked group and it is safe to say there have been many questions raised about my trip and our groups safety.  To clarify - we are going to Ghana, not Uganda.  Never-the-less, we all know that even through this disaster God is going to bring glory to His name in Uganda and across the nations!  I am not worried in the least bit, for the record, about the safety of our group.  I have 100% faith that what God has called to action, no man can destroy.  If anything, this disaster has pulled me closer to the Lord this week and demanded that I look to Him for comfort and strength.  One neat thing I did find through all of this is an organization called Sozo Children International, an orphanage in the capital city of Uganda which was started by two locals from Asbury United Methodist Church: Allen Nunnally (of Auburn!) and Jay Clark.  You should visit their webiste: www.sozochildren.org.  It is so beautiful what these two guys are doing in the name of the Lord, and it totally pulls at the heart strings of where I believe the Holy Spirit is leading me in my life right now.  These two men, along with several others from their church here in B'ham, were at the restaurant when the bombs exploded, but were not injured.   Praise God!  I can not wait to see how God blesses Sozo Children and the efforts of these two selfless individuals.  (PS - Photos today are from the Sozo Children website)

"Your real, new self will not come as long as you are looking for it.  It will come when you are looking for Him." - C.S. Lewis

(Worship @ The Generation - love it.)

Ok, I’ve started this Blog about 20 times, and ended up deleting the entire thing and starting over. Let me just admit – its way too hard to try to catch this darn blog up to my life these days because it’s just crazy! Unfortunately, every day I go without “blogging” I miss being able to post something awesome that God is doing in my life. Therefore, here you go; I’m just picking up in the middle of everything and hoping you can catch up! As I blog I’ll try my best to catch up with where I am in my life right now and the unbelievable things God has been revealing to me.


I wanted to start this blog for several reasons, one being to give my family/friends who are supporting me (both in prayer and financially) an opportunity to be a part of my journey to Ghana this summer, and the events leading up to that experience. The truth is, this journey is much bigger than just Ghana (this is God, the creator of the universe we are talking about here)! I am on a larger mission to de-“American Dream” my life as it is now… to abandon my life for Christ (whom apart from, we really have nothing anyway). As the world would have it, I’m really just barely scratching the surface of the American Dream – really just getting started (that’s the scary part). There is certainly a bigger house, a nicer car, more expensive clothing, etc. out there to be had, but luckily the Lord is unveiling all of this mess to me before I get in any deeper. It’s already completely overwhelming to think about having to unravel this monster, a false reality of which I have spent the better part of my 28 years constructing. The good news is: God is so much bigger than the American Dream! It is by His grace and goodness alone that I will be able to stop this snowball from growing, have new eyes by which to see the world. It is my prayer that God will continually break my heart of my own personal desires and wants and replace it instead with the desires and wants of His heart. “Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause,” are the lyrics of one of my favorite songs – Hosanna. (Check it out if you don’t know it – it’s great!)

Over the past month I have really been convicted in the area of my finances. Ugh. This is the area in my life that seems to be my continual Alcatraz if you will, my own personal prison in which I have been living. I’ve really never been good with my money, and I’ve been praying for guidance (and healing) in this area. It’s huge for me. I’ve had a mortgage since I was 22 years old, currently drive a car that is just ridiculously more expensive that I should be, and have what I consider to be SERIOUS credit card debt. The immediate urgency of getting out from under all of this has recent hit me like a ton of bricks. Literally. I have found myself being much more meticulous about my spending over the past few weeks and am excited that I have FINALLY given God control of this part of my life. It’s huge. I am certainly not too proud to beg for your prayers in this area of my life. I enjoy having nice things, I admit, but I am more concerned with spending my hard earned finances in a way that will have a Kingdom impact – something that will last. Psalm 39:5 "Each man's life is but a breath."

I distinctly remember Lawrence, my friend from Kibera (yes, he lives in the slum pictured above) roaming through my iPhone (as if that isn’t humbling enough) and finding a photo of my 2008 BMW. Just thinking about that moment literally makes my throat sting – and if I think it through fully will make me sit here and cry like a baby. He was amazed. His dream car… I owned it. Me. It was like him finding that on my phone validated that having a car like that would be amazing. I felt about as small as you can feel in that moment, and even smaller when my brother and I got into that car a few days later and drove back home after our trip. I can’t really even explain it – I wanted to lie and say it wasn’t mine, the truth is – I’m ashamed that it is. I feared that dumb car would put more distance between Lawrence and I, as if the obvious differences weren’t enough. Lawrence is an amazing man of God – he really did for me what I was hoping to do to others on my trip to Kenya, it was unreal. Seeing the BMW on my iPhone really didn’t faze him, like it could have, and for that I am so thankful! I think it opened my eyes to where I have wrongfully put so much of what I have. Can you imagine what a difference my car payment could make in Kibera if I had the ability to give it (and believe me, before my journey is over I will)! If the words on the poster below are true, and the average African lives to be 54.1 years old (per Wikipedia), my monthly car payment could provide 11.6 Africans with an entire lifetime of clean water. This car payment times 12 months for 3 years (length of my lease) could have paid for 419 Africans with a LIFETIME of clean water. Wow.


Luke 12:34 basically sums it all up saying: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”