Check out Travis Silva’s (Forgiven! on Flickr) mission trip images from Gulu, Uganda… Beautiful and poignant images of children living in poverty…

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To see more of Ben’s work, click here to visit his Flickr photostream.  To view or join our group on Flickr, click here.

What are you called to give?

I just completed a fairly substantial redesign of the website for an organization called LifeChange International… They partner with missionaries on 4 continents to serve the needs of people and share the love of Jesus… I’m very pleased to be involved with the organization and happy to help them use social media to raise awareness of the work that they do.

My first project with LifeChange was working with Jack Fairweather at Arise Ministries in Manila, the Philippines.  Arise has opened an orphanage outside of the city proper, where they take in kids off the street and give them a safe and loving home… I first wrote about Jack when we launched our GiveBack feature last summer… You can read those articles and see a video about Arise by following this link.

The funny thing is that I know Jack and his family… his daughter and mine are the same age and went to each others birthday parties before they sold all of their worldly goods and moved to the Philippines to live in a dorm with a dozen or so homeless, street kids.  I had talked to him about that move for six months and it still kinda stunned me when they actually did it.  Now we Skype occasionally and I think of him as “my friend in Manila.”

Jack and his family have given themselves to God in a very literal, measurable way that many of us never will.  Even for me and my wife, as we move back into church staff ministry, the sacrifice isn’t as “real”… We still have a nice home, two cars, other stuff we like…

I wonder how I would respond to the call of God that Jack has on his life…

OR EVEN MORE POIGNANT, a woman in our church named Semsa (say: Shem-sa) Aydin, whose husband was martyred for his faith in Turkey in 2007,  shared her testimony on Sunday in halting ESL that somehow communicated the message of Jesus more eloquently than any preacher I’ve ever heard…

Semsa’s husband knew the men that murdered him for weeks before his death… They had been coming into the church and asking questions about Jesus.  And as a pastor, he had been talking with them, answering their questions and trying to share Jesus’ story to them and his own story of conversion from Islam.

He told his wife that he knew they were false… He used the illustration of Judas’ betrayal… He somehow saw what was coming but felt that the call of God on his life was to keep serving these men and sharing Christ with them…

On April 18, they made another appointment to talk about Jesus…

And they slit his throat.

I also thought about one young lady who was killed in the Columbine shooting, more than a decade ago… The shooters pointed guns at here and told her she would live if she would renounce her faith… she declined… they shot her…

What kind of faith?  What kind of relationship with Jesus makes a person do that?

There might be an answer in the life… or more pointedly in the death of Stephen (Acts 6)…

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. (vs 55-58)

Painter, Moyra Blayney sells her landscape work through a coffeehouse that donates their consignment fees to charities…

Gloria Mendez teaches craft and beadwork classes at her church and works with a local nun to help her become self-supporting…

John Prichard, a student-filmmaker, produced a short film to promote the new work of a foreign missionary…

Mixed-media artist, Kathie Luther, mixes artistic expression with prophetic and end-times images to express provocative ideas about the Christian life…

Stagecraft-trained writer, Tim Jones, uses his gifts to produce dramatic presentations for church outreach…

What kind of service/ministry are you doing with your gifts?  Share thoughts and ideas here…

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CATCH THE VISION…
Visit our “About” page and find out what we’re… um… all about… 

GIVE BACK…
Encouraging artists to assist and support missions at home and around the world… 

THE WARRIOR…
We’re about half-way through Tim Jones’ spiritual warfare novella… Presented in serial format with weekly installments… Catch-up with what’s going on by clicking here.

FEATURED ARTISTS…
Starting in August, we’re going to feature new artists every two weeks… In the meantime, check out Kathie Luther (June) and Gloria Mendez (July)… 

CONTACT US…
Use our contact form to help us find artists to feature, give us feedback or become a contributor… 

…Welcome to WorshipOnPurpose.com…

In the Philippines, it is a very different story. There are unusually high adult mortality rates from opportunistic diseases like tuberculosis, which are virtually unheard of in the US. When you combine this with the trappings of extreme poverty like drug-use and crime, you get a situation that overwhelms the normal government and non-profit systems that exist to handle traditional “orphans”.

This is Joy-Joy, age 7

This is Joy-Joy, she’s 7 and she’s not a traditional “orphan”…

Joy-joy’s mother is a drug-addict who drifts around Manilla, picking pockets to support her habit.  She has 9 brothers and sisters who are scattered all over town. For the first few years of her life, he lived with her father, but now he has been in jail for several years.

So, Joy-Joy drifts too.

There’s not any family or foster-care program for her to go to and the overwhelmed government agency that is tasked with the care of these kids is little more than a kennel… A couple that abuses crystal-meth lets her sleep on their floor…

She has worms and lice and is malnourished… She has never been to school…

Joy-Joy needs a sponsor. For $40/month, you can provide food, clothing, a home with caring parents, school supplies and medical care. 

If you are interested in supporting the ministry of LifeChange Philippines to these kids through prayer or financial means, you can contact Jack Fairweather via email or by phone at (720)384-5820.

Twenty minutes into the interview, I start feeling like we need to change course… We’ve talked a lot about “people living in poverty” and “street kids” but I know that Jack spent four months building relationships with them… He has stories…

All missionaries have stories…

So I ask Jack to tell me about 2 of the street kids that he works with. I give him a numerical limit because I know how missionaries are with their stories… And I haven’t had lunch yet.

Raffy, age 6

He begins without hesitating. I want to tell you about Raffy… He’s the first child that we took in and he’s sort of the “poster child” for us right now… There are tens of thousands of kids in the same predicament as Raffy…

Jack goes on to recount the night he met Raffy. He was out in Manilla with a Filipino friend, riding around in a taxi and trying to identify kids who had no parents. They stopped in a place where there was a group of homeless people standing around and began asking questions. Soon, a woman introduced them to Raffy.

Raffy had been living on the streets alone for months… 6 years old and only 20 lbs. His mother had died of tuberculosis and his father was in jail.

So, Jack identified him to be involved with a missions group that was coming in March.

During the 2 weeks that the team from Colorado ministered alongside Jack, he continued to build a relationship with Raffy. It became more and more difficult to leave the little boy on the street at night.

But because Jack and Tammy knew that they were coming back to the US for several month in May, they planned on NOT taking in any kids until they returned to set up a permanent home there.

Finally, Jack’s heart couldn’t do it anymore. One night, when we were taking him back to sleep on the street, I just knew in my spirit that I couldn’t leave him there… Jack asked one of the ladies standing around about how Raffy got food at night and she told him that most nights, Raffy cried himself to sleep, alone and hungry…

Raffy lives with Jack and Tammy now.

At the doctor’s office, Raffy was diagnosed with malnutrition, worms, lice and tuberculosis. He had a 104 degree fever and perforated eardrums with seeping infections in both ears. Raffy had never been to school and had severely delayed language development.

Jack tells me that today, Raffy is gaining weight, he’s taking medication that will clear up his tuberculosis and he’s enrolled in school. I happen to also know that Jack personally visited with Raffy’s father in prison.

Remind you of anythimg?

“For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me, sick and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
                                                                                        -Jesus, Matthew 25:35-36, The Bible

Raffy has a sponsor. An American family here in Colorado sponsors him at a cost of $40/month. Raffy will get food, clothing, a home with caring parents, school supplies and medical care.

Tomorrow, we’ll feature Jack’s story about Joy-Joy, a little girl with a similar story.

If you are interested in supporting Jack’s ministry to these kids through prayer or financial means, you can contact him via email or by phone at (720)384-5820.

Touch by brionnasweetie2 on Flickr.com

Turns out, one week featuring our “Give Back” philosophy just isn’t enough… This week, we continue to feature the mission work of Jack Fairweather in the Philippines, with “Street Kid Stories” and  some thoughts on “Purpose,” inspired by conversations with Jack…

And in case you missed any of last week’s articles, here’s a quick recap:

Give Like Jesus… by Tim Jones
Jesus did a lot of miracles.  When he encountered a person in need, his first response (with a few exceptions) was to meet the need.  This is certainly an example that he intended us to follow.  But these two miracles were special… he did something a little different… the question is, WHY? (read more)

Missionary Slide Shows… by Tim Jones
We’re artists: photographers, graphic artists, media designers, filmmakers, songwriters, indie bands… The visual and emotional flash that these missionaries need to engage their audiences, hold their attention and get help for Joe and other kids like him… it’s just a “doodle” for us… (read more) 

Initiating Contact… by Tim Jones
There are practical and spiritual reasons that artists should initiate contact with missionaries… (read more) 

Interview with John Prichard and Jack Fairweather… by Tim Jones
I hooked up with student filmmaker, John Prichard, and missionary, Jack Fairweather, to talk about Jack’s work with street kids in the Philippines and the short film that John is making about the mission there… (more)

Arise! Mission Video… by John Prichard
Pre-release of John Prichard’s short film featuring missionary, Jack Fairweather. (watch it now)

Click on the image to advance the player…