Your Story « The Hole In Our Gospel

Share your own story about how you have chosen to reach outside your comfort zone to serve the poor — and how it has changed your life.

Road to Nowhere?

JULY 19, 2010

In my most recent trip to Kenya, it occurred to me that there are many stories of inspiration, hope and courage, that sometimes are not widely published. The following is one such story. I've taken this from my blog, http://habariyasubuhi.blogspot.com/.. Road to Nowhere?
Just returned to Nairobi from Ruai... Now if you've never heard of Ruai, it might be because 'you can't get there from here'. Oh, Ruai has much life to it and plenty of people, ...not like its a deserted small town (although compared to Nairobi, its miniscule). But the roads we were on,-- and road is a very generous term,-- the travel and the smaller towns and communities, were a little reminiscent of an Indiana Jones adventure, and now, ...Cat Stevens' "Road to Nowhere" springs to mind. But this road to nowhere, --first becoming quite narrow, then dissolving into tracks of mud--evaporates completely into about 1600 acres of grassy and very often muddy Kenyan plains that, by June 2011, my fellow travelers say, will begin to take shape as a community of homes, shops, a hospital/medical training center, a postal office, complete with electricity and clean running water (rare in these parts). Now, this place is home to cattle, Nomadic Masai tribes, a few empty brick dwellings dotting the landscape, whose completion was clearly postponed due to lack of funding. Here, there is no tapped electricity, no clean running water, no medical care or other amenities usually associated with sustained healthy community living. But the 11 men I'm traveling with on this bright Kenyan afternoon have a vision, a blue print, the courage and the faith resources to breathe life into this Kenyan plain.

There are many excellent projects on the African continent that are inspiring, courageous, and with abundant vision. Africa is not a place where sadness abounds. Even within areas of desperate poverty, there is contageous hope. All too frequently though, we miss that which uplifts and report that which provokes feelings of sorrow, leaving us with a picture of Africa as an area of civil war, drought, famine and despair. But the balance is, that African citizens have refused, for centuries, to succumb to the images and perceptions of a world determined to undermine its vast sea of inner spirit, confidence and strength for revival. And so, the 12 of us gather on this dusty, muddy and grassy plain to visualize a community where hope lives in abundant supply. Such a community could serve as a model for changing the world's perception of a place that refuses to be forgotten. This community and those giving it birth, could be the impetus for changing a continent.

Jesus said to His 12, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Through following a vision for this City of Hope, are these 12, assembled here this afternoon, living the reality of becoming fishers of men, encouraging the human spirit, attempting to redirect our human destiny? We can do no less than to follow Christ and His vision and desire for a wholistic and healthy society. It appears that these 12 may be realizing that. These 12 may be answering Jesus' call to follow him. Isn't this the call that all of us should answer? Maybe the road doesn't have to lead to nowhere.
NEIL PITTS

Fulfilling callings

JULY 13, 2010

I cannot express in mere words what your book has meant to me. As a Safe Family and a World Vision Donor, I longed to do something for the struggling in my own community, and now I know that God is calling me to do even more. Oasis for Orphans is an organization our church has partnered with. It is an orphanage for those children affected by Aids. I am looking to work with them in a more personal way as well. Thank you for your vision, your courage, hope and most of all, your LOVE.
JENIFER

life-changing

JULY 11, 2010

my husband and i belong to a wonderful church but had never given a thought to how our offerings are used. after acquiring a copy of the church financials we discovered that $300,000 out of a $15 million annual budget is devoted to missions.
thank god for your book. we have reapportioned our giving to better reflect god's heart and are now the proud parents of 15 (for starters!) compassion and world vision children. knowing that we creating platforms for evangelism by helping to save lives is unimaginably rewarding.
JULIE BYERS

Summer Of Change Challenge

JUNE 26, 2010

Reading the Hole in Our Gospel inspired me to write this letter to friends and family.
Summer of Change Challenge: Will You Join?

Summer of Change Challenge: Use Your Change to Make a Change in Someone’s Life

Dear Friends & Family,

I hope you are all having an awesome start to your summer. I wanted to share with all of you an idea that God has placed on my heart and see if you and your family might be up for the challenge as well. I have been reading a really challenging book called The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. It’s the personal journey of a man who goes from being the CEO of a luxury goods company to the Director of World Vision, a Christian organization who meets the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world through a variety of programs. Time and again the book keeps asking me the question “what will you do?” for the hurting, the hungry, the helpless and the hopeless.

So anyways, 2 days ago I started working on a new monthly budget. After losing almost my entire savings this winter to car repairs, medical bills and the IRS, my budget has become much tighter as I try to rebuild my savings. I was bummed as I went to bed that night because beyond regular tithing to my church there just wasn’t a lot of room in the budget for extra giving right now. So several hours into sleeping I woke up with an idea (Thank you God!). I, like most women, have crazy heavy purses trying to store everything under the sun in there and one of the things that weighs down my purse the most is change in my wallet. So periodically I empty out my wallet and put the change in a bag and now have a few bags of change in my bedroom trying to find something to do with it. And that was God’s idea to me, every time I get change back I’ll save it and after a month (or more) when I have enough for a donation I’ll give it away. It was the perfect solution for me. It gave me the chance to give but didn’t take away from my already tight budget.

So fast-forward to last night and again I’m sleeping and again wake up in the night with an idea (maybe next time God we can try ideas in the middle of the day :). This idea is to challenge all of my friends and family (You!) to save your loose change starting today until the end of the summer and then give it away too. While my small donation might not do much imagine the change all of our loose change could do together! Worldwide 26% of people live on less than $1.25 per day. In Sub Saharan Africa it’s up to 50% of people who live on less than $1.25 per day. Approx. 25,00 people die every single day of hunger related causes. We hear these numbers all the time but we must remember these statistics represent the lives of real people just like you with families just like you. So many of these deaths are preventable and our money no matter how small we think it is will go further than we can imagine. Remember the story of Jesus taking one small boy’s lunch and using it to feed 5,000 people? God can do big things with whatever we can offer Him.

So if you and your family are up for the challenge start collecting your loose change today and save it until Monday September 6th (Labor Day). On that day each of us participating will count our change and then donate it to an organization of your choice that you believe will use the money to make a positive change in someone’s life. It’s a great time to start thinking about where you might want to donate. Some great organizations to consider are: http://www.chinaorphans.org/ , http://www.worldvision.org/ , http://www.skip1.org , http://www.compassion.com/ , or http://campfirefly.com/ . And don’t worry if you don’t collect that much, the cool thing will be see how each of our little amounts when added together makes a big change!

So if you’re in comment on here or send me FB/twitter message and let me know so I can make sure on Labor Day to find out how much you and your family saved and what organization you gave your money to. At the end of the challenge I will announce the total amount we raised as a group, the names of all the organizations we donated to as well as the person or family who saved the most change. It will be so neat to see what God does this summer and please forward this message to as many people as possible that might want to participate too.

Thanks and start saving today!

Stacy

Proverbs 14:31b “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God”

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Matthew 25:40
'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Luke 12:48b “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

To Join the Challenge visit: http://www.findingpurposeinthepain.blogspot.com/
STACY WILLIAMS

An Idea to help fill, “A Hole in the Gospel”

JUNE 11, 2010

I have just completed reading your outstanding book “Hole In the Gospel”. About half way through, I started to think seriously on how I could help. I am just an every day guy with, a family, a job, and lots of responsibility. But your book touched me deep down, I and my church do support missions in; Haiti, Central America and even in our own community but as you describe in the book--these are nameless and faceless, make me fell good to give, events.

As I read, the need inside of me continued to grow stronger, the need to some how reach out and help. Then all at once there it was staring me in the face in chapter 22, Fish Hook Church and their partnership with several churches in TN.

The Partnership model; maybe an idea that just might help to start filling in that hole:
• Develop a list of “Seed Churches” in need of help in any of the Countries you serve
• Pull together a campaign, (something I believe you are good at)
o Videos of these “Seed Churches”, defining the need
• Present this campaign to Pastors and Church Leaders asking them to select a Seed Church and begin to exchange information, and define need at its most basic level, (a well for fresh water, medicine, food clothing, shelter, etc, etc )
o Strongly recommend video
o Sponsor Church to respond to needs directly
o “Seed Church” share their Joy and more importantly their Worship using video
 Trust me, the Sponsor Churches will get much more out of this then the Seed Churches
• Over time--as in the Fish Hook Church example--the sending Church will discover many more resources than they believed they have, and the receiving Church will grow beyond basic survival
• World Vision needs to step up in this model and provide the Seed Churches with video equipment and the ability to send monthly updates to their partnership Church.
o This is extremely important, the Churches in need must have a face and a voice
• If the people just express their needs and their hope I believe the Churches in America will give way more then any of us can estimate

In reading your book I was truly convicted of my own sin of Omission, however beyond that I believe I may have found the answer to a question. A Question that I have been searching for and asking Jesus for, many, many, years

“God; what is my purpose”? “What am I here for”?

As I indicated earlier in this letter I am just an every day guy just like millions and millions of men and women that call themselves Christians. Convicting us, of the sin of Omission is easy

Answering the million dollar question that we all are asking!
God what am I hear for???

That is something very special, how many every day Christians, and even non-Christians out there are seeking the answer to this question? My guess is hundreds of thousands maybe even millions

Your issue is how to get this opportunity, this answer, which they are searching for, in front of them. With your background in management, might I suggest that you take it to God’s front line managers, our Pastors and Church Leaders.

I have already been to you web-site and made a contribution (a nameless, faceless, make me feel less guilty, activity), my challenge “make this answer to my million dollar question” a once in a lifetime experience.

Let me know if I can help in any way

Raymond F Banks Jr

Convicted, but not condemned

RAY BANKS

Adopt Orphan Children--Japan

JUNE 04, 2010

I am an 11 year old child. When I become a married grownup I will adopt a 12 year old orphan teenager named Ian and two 11 year old orphan child twin girls named Jade and Taira from Miyazaki, Japan. PRAISE GOD!!!!
HANNAH