Please forgive the typos, working on a micro keyboard while travelling.
Today I went to see Murph the Protector in Florida. My mom, who knew nothing of Lt. Michael Murphy went with me. For those who are with my mom on this, he was a Navy S.E.A.L. who was killed in Afghanistan. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Redwings.
Go see it. It’s a documentary about his life. It focuses on the man, not the fight that cost him his life. Men like this are so amazing. He was what I call a “Sheepdog” in some of my posts. Sheepdogs are the ones who protect the flock and take down the wolves that surround the sheep.
My mom described it as “inspiring.” I am so proud of men like this. I hope to be like that in my hour of testing. He was a good man, a guardian of the weak since he was a kid.
Take your children over the age of 14 to see it. If they can understand the basic concept of combat and won’t be freaked out it will teach them a lesson about how to live your life in a manner that God would approve. And the story has at least one miracle.
Are you a sheepdog? Do you care for the weak? Will you stand up, literally, in the face of fire for your fellow man?
Thank you to Michael Murphy and all those like him on the ramparts tonight.
My wife and I dont’ believe in coincidences. My friend Tracy Griffin calles them “Godincidences” and I think I’ll just keep on stealing that expression.
I do voice over work for radio and television as well as on-camera work and my roles as Santa Claus. Part of the fun of that job is never knowing when I’ll get paid. I trust my agents at Moore Creative and know they’ll get me top dollar and send it to me when they get paid. So I don’t worry about it beyond knowing what the product is for the spot. (Can’t do certain items because of conflict of interest with my day job, and some spots I wouldn’t do for moral reasons.) As a result, I sometimes am lax in asking what a job pays. I figure we all have a vested interest in treating each other well and when the check comes I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Background now in place on that little tidbit, let me tell you about Yolencia. When we were in Haiti with KTIS and Healing Haiti in February this young girl became my friend in a fast way. She’s delightful and I felt an instant bond. So did my wife, Kip. We talked with Jeff Gacek, the founder of Healing Haiti about arranging to sponsor her until she turned 18 and had to head out into the real world beyond the gates of Grace Village. He let us know that they were working on that and soon we would be able to do it all on their website.
Time went by, the website got overhauled, and yesterday I decided to check and see if it was ready to take sponsorships. I went to the web, found that it was ready, but was surprised that the monthly amount to sponsor a child was different than what Jeff had told me. It was actually less than I’d planned on spending.
And then the dollar amount to sponsor Yolencia for one year hit me like a brick in the face. Earlier that day I’d gotten one of those random checks from my agents at Moore. It was substantial and for kind of an unusual dollar amount. That amount was the exact amount to sponsor her for one year. I sat there stunned and then read her profile again. Now I’m almost ready to cry. This precious child and I share the same date of birth – November 1st.
My wife and I took up sponsoring Yolencia on Tuesday. We’re too old and set in our ways to actually have children in our house. But we can help out from here and as soon as we both looked at it together we went for it. Ideally Yolencia will find a family to adopt her and love her like God meant it to be. In the meantime we’ll make ure she’s taken care of in Grace Village.
I’m trying to work it out so that we can make it happen for another child we met in Haiti as well. But I feel today as though I have a new child. A daughter in Haiti. A girl who will grow to be an exceptional woman unless I’m mistaken. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even know that we’re her sponsors yet. But I couldn’t be more proud if my wife had carried her for 9 months.
God is working in my life. And my wife’s life. And in Yolencia’s life. She may never see the home where I live, but I will surely be back to her home at Grace Village in the coming years.
Are you ready to let God work in your life? Are you up to the challenge of taking on the sponsorship of one of those children at Grace Village? (I’d grab them all up myself if I had the money.) Will you open your heart to Haiti? I have, and I’m a better man today for it all. And I’ve got a new daughter as a bonus.
So, Yolencia- Hi! It’s Papa Noel and I’m proud to say that I’m your sponsor on this journey through life. I’ll be seeing you soon and I can’t wait for the three of us to sit down and have lunch together. In the meantime – we love you.
Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.
This week KTISis doing their spring fund raising push and they are helping out Healing Haiti at the same time. An anonymous donor has come out to support Healing Haiti. During the week when you financially support KTIS that donor will donate (separately) to Healing Haiti to bring water to the slums of Cite Soleil.
It’s a great concept. None of your donation will be used for the water trucks, all of your money goes to keep KTIS on the air and support their ministry. But because the donor is working behind the scenes and out their own pocket, clean water will be delivered to the poorest slum in the western world.
I’m proud to be a part of that effort, manning the phone to talk to donors.
Volunteering at KTIS on the phones. (Headset is not beard-compliant.)
As you can see, the headsets provided are not ZZ Top beard friendly. Rumor has it I’m actually auditioning for Duck Dynasty and will abandon my role as Santa Claus. Don’t worry – while I’d be thrilled to be on the show with the Duckmen as a guest I’ll never drop Santa. Saint Nicholas is too close to my heart.
Please take some time this week to support one of the greatest ministries I know and donate to KTIS. You can do it on their website or call the station at 651-631-5000. When you donate (and some of us do it as a part of our tithes) it gets a positive, family friendly, and Christian message out into the community. It brings people closer to God and this week it helps provide water to the people of Haiti.
God is working a miracle here, please be a part of it.
Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.
I am a firm believer that blessings are real. Today’s post is about a blessing that I received on behalf of Healing Haiti.
While we were in Haiti we travelled around in vehicles known as tap-taps. Inside it gets a little cramped on occasion but there are rails to hang on when the road gets bumpy so that everyone doesn’t get thrown around. It works great for apes like me with long arms. Smaller people have a little harder time. In the newest member of the fleet the rails are a little higher up and it presented a problem for at least one member of our team.
I had the bright idea to get some hanging straps like you see on buses and subways to make things easier. The problem is that most of the companies that sell them only sell them in lots of 2400 or so. Healing Haiti didn’t need but 24. I did find one manufacturer who sold lots of 30 on their website and I sent them a request for a quote on their Igostrap. That company is Faigle.eu. They’re in Austria.
A few days later I got a response to my email. They wanted to donate the straps to us and asked only that we pay the freight. That was still pretty expensive. I responded to their generous offer with a request that they ponder a cheaper shipping method. They found one and I was thrilled. Exactly what we needed for our vehicles. As a matter of fact, state of the art – the plastics they use are anti-microbial and will work to kill the germs that you encounter while working in the slums for years to come. This can only be good news to the missionaries in the group. And it far exceeded anything I had started to look for in my search. This was a true blessing.
Payment was the only sticking point as international funds transfer is a pain. Bank to bank wires are almost as much as the shipping fees. I sent the funds Paypal just two days ago – when the straps arrived.
As you can see they are beautiful and ideal for what we need.
Blessings come in boxes from Austria and the fine people of Faigle.
And the wonderful people at Faigle did it as a gift of love to make our mission in Haiti a little easier to accomplish. I say “we” and “our” because I’m falling in love with the idea of making Haiti a part of my life for the long term. And Healing Haiti will definitely be a part of that equation.
I will post some pictures of the straps once they have been installed. In the meantime, please join me in praying for the people at Faigle in appreciation of their kind and generous gift.
Have you ever responded to a request by turning it into a gift? Will you now view that as a possibility?
**************************** *********************************
Today’s keyword bingo entry is: Schlagobers – in honor of our friends at Faigle. It describes them wonderfully – an unexpected treat full of sweetness.
