I’m back home now and beginning to sort through the things that happend on my recent trip to indonesia. Today I will post some pictures and in a few days I will post a full summary of my trip and our plan for future work. For now… some photos.
Photo #1) We baptized 4 national believers while in Bali. No need for a baptistery, the ocean works fine. Photo #2) Icky, a five year old who lives at the orphanage poses with the pick up truck we purchased for them during our trip. The truck will be used to deliver the 20+ kids to school each morning. Before having the truck a moped was there only mode of transport. Photo #3) Is the group of orphans posing with their partially completed house. Construction started on Monday morning and this photo was taken on Friday afternoon. Currently the walls are completed and all windows and doors are installed. Construction should be finished by early next week. Photo #4) Jonathan Davis tours the Bali Coffee factory where Coffee with a Cause will get coffee. Jonathan samples the local coffee beans.
Sorry for the lack of posting… We have been busy here. To make a very long story short we have been working with a group of orphans here. There was very Godly Indonesian man (Pac Runi) who began to take orphan kids into his home… he had the vision of sharing the gospel with them and sending them out when they grew up to spread the message around the city. In November of last year he was hit by a truck while driving his motorcycle and killed. Since Pac Runi was the only provider for the 25 children he the orphans were now in serious trouble. When I visited last December I heard the story and met the children. We determined to help all we could so we decided to go home and try to raise some funds to help these kids.
One of our translators on our last trip (gusti) was also moved with compassion for the orphans. Worked hard and saved enough money to purchase a piece of property to build a home for the children. He gathered them..taught them to make bricks and built a temporary shelter for them (the size of a lawn shed with no walls) another local christian cared for them, gave them food and provided shelter for them.
When we got here on Sunday our team decided to focus the money we raised on taking care of the needs of the children. We spent $1500 dollars and Monday morning began construction on a 1000sf house for them on the property that Gusti built. The children (most of whom are teenage boys) are doing the labor, and for $100 we hired a contractor to oversee the project.
It is now Wednesday and the foundation is nearing completion. Within 2 weeks these children should have a place to call home. Today we loaded all of the children in the back of a pickup truck and drove them to the beach in order to baptize three of the orphans. When we finished with the baptism we sat down on the beach next to a Hindu man who witnessed us all standing in the water singing and praying. We shared the gospel with him and there on the beach he repented of his sins, agreed to forsake his religion and to be discipled by one of the local believers. We stood up from the palm tree log we were sitting on and waked straight into the Indian ocean and baptized our new brother. Awesome.
I miss my family terriably and cant wait for my children to meet my new friends at the Pillar House of Compassion for Children. Please continue to pray fror us as we work.
After 24 hours of travel our team of 4 arrived safely in Indonesia. We are in Indo for the 3rd time in the past twelve months. Some scoff at our decision to work on here but let me assure you that this island is spiritually dark and surprisingly poor. Today our team of 4 woke at 5:30, traveled to a small gathering of Christians on the western part of the island. I had the fortune of being able to preach to a congregation of about 60 converts who live with daily persecution. Their pastor is a smart and fearless man towering just over 5 feet tall he is a giant of our faith, sharing the message of Jesus in the face of great danger, living in a small brick building that doubles as a the house and a house of worship. This pastor has recently welcomed in an additional 20 children from his community to live with he and his wife.
Today we decided to spend some of the money we raised for the trip to build a shelter for the children to live in. This 1200sf house will cost less than 2k to build and likely be finished by the end of the week. Most of the labor will be done by the 15 boys who live in the church. We start building tomorrow morning.
Today we went with him to share the gospel with contacts he has made over the past several months among the people group that God has called us to serve. We also spoke with 2 of the five known Christians who are from this people group. The work is going well, the food is bad, the motel has rats… but Jesus is awesome.
I miss my family and they miss me… please pray for us. I will try to write a short post each evening about our progress.
I have created a tab above where I will display videos we have made for our ministry here in Virginia as well as projects in Indonesia and Iceland. Hope you enjoy. The tab above is marked, “Films”.
Ok… a ton of stuff has happened since we last spoke. Let me give you a quick run down of what has happened (since I was too lazy to post it all as it happend).
5/15 – Jen and I went on a long overdue date and we had a great time. I have noticed with our last several dates we tend to do things that we do all the time, just without kids – I think we are turning into old people.
5/17 – Visited the Warren Tribe – Wow… this amazing family, the Warrens. They have been coming to Pillar Church for the past few weeks… these guys are amazing. They have adopted 5 kids from Ethiopia and have three biological. – She home schools all of them, the are polite, and smart… we spent three hours at their house with 11 kids and zero drama! The warrens make Jon & Kate look like beginners.
5/18-19 – Went to the innovate conference in Lynchburg. I went with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Francis Chan hit it out of the park.. WATCH IT
5/22-23 – Went camping with some great friends along the banks of the Rappahannock this is the 4th year in a row we have done this trip – Good times.
5/24 – Pillage Softball Game – Well, we have been planning this for a while but we challenged Image Church to a game of softball after church – They showed up in their matching jerseys with $300 bat’s and a month of practice under their belt… – We didn’t have any of that stuff… we just prayed that the Lord would deliver us from our enemies. We won 13-12. SEE SOME PICS
5/26 – Learned that my friend Mark Stratton was killed by a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan. Mark left behind three kids and wife. Mark was an outstanding Christian, a loving father and husband and a patriot. I had the honor of writing a song for his funeral. Read the words HERE
5/31 – Took my boys camping with some friends from Church..
6/6 – Got to officiate a wedding for some great friends Phillip & Elisabeth. They are going to manage Coffee With A Cause when it opens in October… These guys love Jesus and have committed their lives to His service. I cant wait to see what God does with them.
Ok.. now I’m up to date… Next week I head back to Indonesia.. to continue our work there.
Many of you have asked about Coffee With A Cause… I promise more info is coming soon, Stay tuned.
Well our last round of logos got shot down… nothing compelling enough to hold on to. So… Here are a few new concepts. Obviously the hope is that the shop would facilitate the spreading of the gospel and that ultimately people from throughout the world would enter the Kingdom of God through the ministry. Here, Jesus kind of sums up what our desire for the shop is.
And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. -Luke 13:29
This year at Pillar we have allowed the kids to choose Bible stories and dramatize them for the congregation. This week they are putting on a ten minute deal called, “David’s Giant Faith” by the time they put on the production the kids have memorized and entire chapter of the Bible. This is a little video of the kids after dress rehearsal on Friday.
I was named after dirty Harry, yet I am nothing like the famed tough man. I am dirty in a depraved, spiritual sort of way and hairy in the more obvious since of the word but I am not the gun slinging hero that my mother thought of when she named me. I am a follower of Jesus a husband and a dad. I have talented passionate wife who I have known for approximately the same amount of time that I have been able to tie my shoes. I also have three kids; Noah who is loyal, Ruthe who is joyful and Isaiah who is hilarious. I am the pastor Pillar Church in the suburbs of Washington DC.
