.We Need You: Love Mercy Project.

There is something powerful about collaboration, community, a village - it's people joined together for one purpose. When God laid it on our hearts to move our family to serve in Ethiopia, we knew that we could not do it alone. Through the processes of bringing our boys home, we learned very quickly that God uses the vulnerability and transparency of our needs in order to build up the body of Christ. We were hesitant to always share our needs,  but every single time that we did, God blessed us in huge ways. We constantly got feedback from people that they felt like they were really part of something eternal when they were given the opportunity and invitation to give. That stuck with me. I still do not quite understand it, and I still squirm about openly sharing our needs. It can be humiliating to lay it all out there, but God continually nudges us to do just that. He asks us to simply share, and then watch Him bring in fellow Kingdom builders to partner with us.

For the past three days we have been fasting and praying about our needs as Mercy Branch Inc. - specifically the financial hurdles we have to jump in order to make the big move in June happen. I went in to this reluctantly, heavy-hearted over the thought of baring our needs again. I wished to be on the giving end instead of the receiving end. But I began to realize how selfish and prideful I was being - wanting to do this on my own - when God has much bigger plans. I don't desire for Mercy Branch to be about my family and what we can do, but that is exactly what would happen if we were not transparent in inviting people in to partner with us. I wrestled with the fact that our need is great, and that we are just small, ordinary, plain people. We aren't flashy. We aren't polished. There are way better writers out there who could move people with eloquent words, better speakers who could garner instant donations, fancier websites which could attract thousands of people, professional promoters, bigger ministries with lots of leaders, more beautiful families, louder voices, etc. Our inadequacies and our normalness is pervasive, but it doesn't diminish the call, or let us off the hook. And I realize we are in good company when I notice the weak people that God used in the Bible. Perhaps it is because of our smallness that God chose us. God's bigness will be greatly magnified in our weakness. When He accomplishes this, nobody will think that we did it on our own - because they all know that we are just not capable of that. And I guess that is exactly where God wants us - groveling at His feet, realizing we cannot do this alone, reaching out to our brothers and sisters and asking for the help that we need. It is there in community that we find Jesus.

While I have often wished for an anonymous large donation to land in our mailbox so that we can neatly be on our way, I realize that this is not how God typically works in our life. God is so good at wisely nudging ordinary, simple people with a few dollars a month to share in our journey. He does this little by little, small step by small step - nothing typically grandiose with us - keeping us on our knees at His feet through the process. It seems as if that is how He desires to accomplish meeting our needs this time as well. I trust Him. I don't always like the posture He requests of me, but I trust Him in this.

So I am asking you for something big. I am asking you to partner with our family - some of you for the second or third time - as you have already partnered in the journey with our boys. It's a big ask, and it humbles me to know that people will sacrifice for my family. But I am asking, and I am praying that you see my heart in this ask. Will you hop on over to our website and learn about what our plans are in Ethiopia? Pray about whether or not this is something that you can get behind. We need your prayers and your relationship and yes, we need your dollars - even just a few dollars a month when put together with others few dollars a month, will help meet our needs {donations are tax-deductable}. This month we are launching our Love Mercy Project, and we have set some God-sized goals for February. Our board has been praying through this project and goals and so have we. We are anticipating God doing something amazing this month! When the goals are met, we will be over 50% of the way funded to move to Ethiopia! People can partner with us for any monthly dollar amount they desire, but for this month when someone chooses to become a new monthly sponsor at $30/month (or more) we will thank them with a free Mercy Branch tee-shirt! (and when you wear your tee shirt, you are sharing in our story) We also were blessed with a generous matching gift donor, so for this month when someone donates any dollar amount into our one-time need, the donation will automatically get matched - up to $5k!

We really need you. We need the people that God is writing into this story - His story. We need your voice, your prayers, your encouragement, your money, your love - we need you. Because the truth is that this will only work in community - that has always been God's desire when building the Kingdom. Some He has chosen to go and some to send, but neither is more important than the other. Both are needed, both are beautifully linked side-by-side, as we all press toward the same goal with our eyes always fixed on our King. He never asked us to do it on our own - it's impossible. We cannot go without you. There is something beautiful that happens when God's people join together to bring the mercy of Jesus to a broken world - it changes US.

Come join our Love Mercy project today, and be part of something bigger than all of us put together. The pages of this story are just waiting to be inked with your life. There is space for you.

.The Least of These.

[repost from after my first trip to Ethiopia, Africa in 2011.]


I did not know my eyes could see that way. They burned and throbbed in the seeing for real. I blinked hard at the pain of having the scales fall away and the view that was before me. My mind swirled with the statistics. Statistics that I have been clinging to for nine months, statistics propelling me forward inching me closer and closer to Ethiopia. Flesh and blood and hallow eyes, and empty hands reaching through the van windows desperate for food. They both destroyed and gave life to all of the numbers bouncing in my head.

When did we in America - when did I replace living, breathing children, and people with numbers? Or did we never replace them, were they always figures to us? Is that how we manage to wash our dishes, kiss our children's foreheads, drive to the grocery store without a thought for the least of these? It must be what I did.

It took ten days of having my heart trampled and bruised from witnessing things that keep me up at night and unable to know when and how to tell others what I saw with my new eyes. It took ten days of finally understanding the least of these, and knowing that they are the most valuable in the eyes of the One who gave His life for them. It took ten days of agony as my eyes were pried open to the horror and the beauty mingled in human form not arbitrary numbers.

And now, now I am wondering how to be here. How do I tidy and pretty my home when I now know that I saw children living in trash heaps, surviving on sidewalks parallel dirty, busy roads? How do I tuck my children into bed at night remembering the beautiful faces of the children in the orphanages who sleep two to a bed, bunked in a tiny, cold room - locked in until morning. There is no Dad , no Mom to tuck them in, not even an adult in the room to calm a nightmare. They were just numbers to me before I met them, and now I lay down at night on my pillow and I hear their cries of terror, their pleas for love and something so simple as family. I remember their hurts.

What am I doing here? What am I doing for the least of these?

I remember the little boy in the denim jacket. The way he looked at me as I handed him some treats from my bag. His smile warming me as he clutched the treasures. Those eyes locked mine, and through the language barrier, I knew what they begged.

Are you the one I have been waiting for? Are you the one to end this nightmare and make me a son once again?

And now I live with the knowing that I am not the one - at least not for him. I was chosen for other boys. But the images of he and his friends are sewn into my heart, my mind. I won't forget what I saw, what I know. I promised them that I would tell others, that I would advocate for them. I don't know how though. I fall short. I cannot let these little souls be lost in the overwhelming numbers, and yet I am not the One who opens the eyes and softens the heart.

Perhaps that is one of the hardest lessons I have yet to learn - figuring out what to do with the knowing.

Because one day I will stand before Jesus....

I doubt He will ask me how many times I dusted my home, or if my children were dressed in GAP, or even did I homeschool?

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:33-40


No, I can't save the world, but I can clothe, feed, and give a home to some and tell them of the One who came to save the world. Because when I looked statistics in the eye, all of my excuses escaped.