Little Princes

"Little Princes" by Conor Grennan

An unexpectedly good book.  I love stumbling upon a gem.  Conor is a 20 something man who wants to travel the world.  He leaves his job and spends the first three months of his trip at an orphanage in Nepal.  This three months will change the course of his life.  He finds out that the children aren't really orphans at all but children with families, children who were trafficked, childre whose parents had no idea they were alive.  This became Conor's goal, reunite these families and stop the trafficking of children in Nepal.  This goal became a nonprofit and with it many sacrifices for Conor and many children saved.  "Despite myself, I had become a parent to these kids-not because I was qualified, but because I had showed up."  Often times we just need to be willing, to show up, and God will use that willingness.  "It is my estimate that he has trafficked close to four hundred children."  The families are so poor in Nepal, the drought so severe, the war so long, that parents were giving up their children in hopes that they would have a better life.  They were tricked by men who took all these families had, lied and then sold the children.  "We marveled at the images on TV, at the faces of these peaceful, wonderful, loving people, suddenly crazed with passion, with determination, with revolution, with the spirit that drives men and women to stand on front lines and absorb bullets and batterings to win freedom for those who stand behind them."  "But God used that time of great sadness to reclaim me, to redeem me.  Things that are broken can be made whole."  God is in the business of reclaiming, redeeming and making our broken lives whole again.  "It was always difficult to accept these gifts, knowing how little the parents had and what it must cost them.  But I also knew that this was for them.  They needed me to know how much their children meant to them."  When Conor went to the remote villages to find the children's families he would be given gifts in gratitude.  He knew these gifts were more than the family could afford but he also knew it showed how much they cared for their children.  "The kids spoke little English, but as I had learned long ago, language isn't always necessary when interacting with kids."  Loving and playing with children is speaking their language, no words needed.  This is a great story of being willing and being used.  We can all do great things when we are willing to show up and let God use us.

Kisses from Katie

"Kisses from Katie" by Katie Davis with Beth Clark

Alright, this might be one of the most amazing books I've read.  I was told about this book and told I had to read it.  Well I read it and now I'm telling you to read it.  It's amazing and convicting and sad and beautiful and amazing.  Katie Davis is a 18 year old girl who feels like God has called her to Uganda.  She takes a short trip there and finds herself.  She is now living there and has adopted 14 girls.  She is just 18!  She truly understands what it is to live out her faith.  She certainly puts my faith to shame.  "And even though I realize I cannot always mend or meet, I can enter in.  I can enter into someone's pain and sit with them and know.  This is Jesus.  Not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places.  And so I continue to enter."  Sometimes coming alongside is all that we can do.  "Why do I care so much? The answer is simple: Because the Lord who created you loves you.  Because He created you for a purpose and He wants you to fulfill that purpose.  Because the God who knows every hair on your head desires to lift you out of this dust and into His glory."  We care because He cares, because every single one of us was created in His image.  "Adoption is a redemptive response to tragedy that happens in this broken world.  And every single day, it is worth it, because adoption is God's heart."  Adoption isn't easy but it is worth it because it is God's love displayed just like He adopts us.  "Frederick Beuchner writes, 'The last place God calls us to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.'" I think that is a beautiful picture of doing what God called a person to do.  "I was learning that the powerless, broken, dependent place was actually the place where the Lord was closest to me."  Funny how He finds us in our brokenness, a place where we feel along, He is with us.  "I want to give my life away for Christ.  I want to exemplify Him in my every day.  I want to live an open and expansive life, giving myself freely to all those around me for His glory.  God answers this prayer every day of my life with new opportunities.  I want to live openly and expansively, loving my neighbor as myself, until Jesus comes back."  I think this would be a great prayer for the start of every day.  I say I want this but then I question myself and think, do I really want this?  "The assurance that I must obey and be faithful only to what He has asked of me, even when tangible, earthly results or successes are not seen."  Just doing the next best thing that He asks, no matter the results, just obedience.  "God's love made known is worth it, even if only to one.  I will not save them all.  But I will keep trying.  I will say 'Yes.' I will stop for one."  If we only share His love with one other person at least that is one more soul saved. We must love, one person at a time, one heart, one soul at a time.  "Courage is not about knowing the path.  It is about taking the first step."  And that first step takes a whole lot of courage, but God is there and He will not let me falter, He will pick me up, He will guide me.  "I have learned along my journey that if I really want to follow Jesus, I will go to the hard places.  Being a Christ follower means being acquainted with sorrow.  Joy costs pain, but the pain is worth it.  After all, the murder had to take place before the resurrection."  Those are some deep and hard words.  In this life we try and avoid pain, at all cost but, we will never know true joy without that pain.  When we go to those hard places with others we can share that there is unspeakable joy after the pain.  "Suffering.  Rejoicing.  Squalor.  Beauty.  Love.  Pain.  These are the things that surround me, and all of them are from Him.  This life is beautiful and terrible and simple and difficult, and He is using it for His glory."  All of it.  All of it is for His glory.  I can endure when I know that His glory will be shown.  "They are the least of these, they are His heart, and He is coming for them and for us."   

In Every Heartbeat

"In Every Heartbeat" by Kim Vogel Sawyer

In this book three friends that grew up in an orphanage together go off to college.  They each have their plans of what their futures will look like.  Once so bonded by their circumstances they find themselves with different hopes and opinions.  One of them finds out a shocking truth about the others family and they end up finding what true friendship is all about.  This was another book that took a few chapters to get into.  I often don't have the patience for that but I am usually glad that I persevere and I wasn't disappointed with this book.  "Temptation will plague you, so you must resist temptation.  One slip, just one time of allowing immoral thoughts or actions to seize you and you can fall into a pit of ruin."  It's a slippery slope.  And our sin affects so many others.  "Some dreams are meant to be that-only dreams, dissipating with the morning light.  But you won't know for sure until you've tasted them."  We have to take steps to try out our dreams, willing to risk.  Sometimes we find out they weren't meant to be but sometimes we find out that they were and the adventure that God had planned for you begins.  "No matter what I'm doing-whether it's throwing a baseball or working on my assignments or sitting here talking to you-God's Spirit is with me.  I represent Him.  And I want to represent Him well.  When people look at me, I want them to see God's love played out before their eyes."  What a great statement.  We all represent Him, the question is do we represent Him positively or negatively.  I yearn for God's love to be seen in my life.  "But He's here, right now, loving both of us just like He always has.  Our problem is we've been trying to find Him in the midst of our own selfish wants instead of realizing He's waiting in the middle of where He needs us to be."  Sometimes we look for God and it seems He isn't there but He is always with us.  We often look at the problem that seems so big we can't see the small details of God's hands.  This book teaches the values of friendship and how our early lives affect how we view who we are in this world.  It talks about a loving God who is always with us and pursuing us even when we are running the opposite direction.  Good messages and a good read.

There Is No Me Without You

"There is No Me Without You: One Women's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children" by Melissa Fay Greene

This book was a great read. It is about the millions of orphans in Africa. They have been left orphans due to the AIDS epidemic. It is about how there are so many children without anyone to care for them, many that have AIDS themselves. There is no one to take these forgotten children. One woman in Africa becomes a foster mom to many, willing to take the unwanted. At first she takes in just one child then word spreads and soon she has 35 or more. "Who was going to raise twelve million children? Who will wake in the night in response to eighteen million nightmares?" "In Africa a generation of parents, teachers, principals, physicians, nurses, professors, spiritual leaders, musicians, poets, bureaucrats, coaches, farmers, bankers, and business owners are being erased." AIDS is wiping out a whole nation and it can be stopped. But, "Unfortunately for most of the world's 34 million people infected with HIV [in 2000], pharmaceutical companies impose US prices on the rest of the world." "Adoption is good, but children, naturally, would prefer not to see their parents die." "The adopted children would lose their country, people, faith, language, culture, and history. But the adopted child would gain the one thing on earth arguable worth more than a homeland: family." This book had many interesting facts about Africa, AIDS and the orphans. It was encouraging to see how many of these children have been adopted abroad and given a family and a second chance. It shows that one person who cares can really make a difference.