Asia Trip Update

Quick update on the Asia trip. It’s been really cool to watch God work through this process. We raised just over $5,200 of the necessary $6000 to fund the trip. Thanks so much to all of you who donated!

Here’s the coolest thing though. We’ve been reading about George Muller with Lydia. For those of you who are unfamiliar. George Muller ran several orphanages in England in the early 1800s. They cared for thousands of orphans and the upkeep of the homes they ran cost many thousand pounds per year. But George never asked for a donation and never went into debt. Often they went without knowing where the money would come from for their next meal, but money always appeared in the form of unsolicited donations.

Today Lydia was questioning us about our expenses for the trip and we were able to share with her that God had provided the funds for our trip and that even today someone had anonymously donated $200 to help fund it. She immediately said, ‘God provided for you just like He did for George Muller and the orphans. God answered our prayers.”

Anyway, thanks to all of you both known and anonymous who have unknowingly taught our kids about God’s love for the needy and his provision for ministry. It’s a priceless lesson that we could have taught them no other way.

In Steve Jobs We Trust

I’ve been watching the events surrounding Steve Jobs death this week with interest. I didn’t know much about Jobs other than the fact that he was the charismatic leader and CEO of Apple. Starting with his death earlier this week, my Facebook page lit up with pictures of frowning Macintoshes and memorial web sites.

I admit that I was saddened to hear the news that I knew was inevitable when Jobs resigned from Apple earlier this year. But it seemed to me that the public response to Steve Job’s death seemed somewhat over dramatized. I decided to do some research on Jobs, here’s what I found out.

• Jobs was a multi billionaire who donated next to none of his money to charity, at least as far as anyone is aware. He also put an end to all of Apples charitable programs when he retook control of the company. He claimed that he could do more good for the world by making Apple the best company it could be.
• Jobs fathered a child out of wedlock and denied the mother, who was living on welfare at the time, paternity claiming he was sterile, then later admitted the child was his.
• He was known as an erratic and sometimes irrational boss.
• Jobs is the largest shareholder in the Disney Corporation.
• Jobs was a known political lobbyist.
• Jobs was implicated in a stock scam along with the Board of Apple that could have resulted in his indictment.
• Possibly worst of all, Jobs was a vegetarian (fish was the only meat he would eat).

Ok so all that said...my point here really is not to besmirch the name of the deceased. As the proud owner of an iPhone, two ipod touches, and several ipods I certainly have availed myself of the wonderful products that Apple has brought to the market over the years.

My point isn’t really about Jobs at all. I don’t even know if all those things I posted above are true, I read them on Wikipedia. My point is, why are we so grieved at his passing. Is it because we will truly miss this man? He doesn't SEEM like the kind of guy many would miss. Is it possible that we’re saddened because we fear that Apple’s products will somehow now not be as good, and Apple will diminish as one pf the most powerful corporations in America? If that’s your fear you’ll be happy to know that it is being reported this morning that Steve apparently left 4 years worth of ideas for Apple to work on.

I think when you get to the core of it, people overlook all those things about Steve Jobs, and likely never even knew them because of one reason; Steve Jobs was a winner. We love our winners here in America. We’re willing to overlook a lot as long as you produce. A few examples:

• We have a love hate relationship with corporations. We love them as long as they make lots of money and don’t get into trouble.
• Enron was a darling, till the scandal.
• Bernie Maddoff was a god, till we found out he was running a scam.
• Bear Sterns was widely lauded until the Wall street collapse.
• BP was considered a safe investment, till the oil spill. Now they are viewed as a global criminal.

Nothing changed in any of these circumstances. We simply learned the truth. We loved these people, these corporations…till they failed. Steve Jobs had his share of defeats and disappointments, but he went out on top of his game, so we love him.

So now finally, I arrive at my point. Jesus wasn’t a winner. At least not in the way that Steve Jobs was a winner. He was born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough in a backwoods part of Israel. He never really had much of a following, and every time the crowds grew large, he said or did something that would drive most of them away. He wasn’t a mover and a shaker. He wasn’t part of the ruling class. He wasn’t rich. As he said himself, “the son of man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus was a homeless man. In the end, he was beaten, berated and executed as a blasphemer and even the few who were close followers deserted him.

I wonder… if Jesus had come to earth in a flaming golden chariot wielding power and majesty; if he had destroyed the ruling class and set up his own monarchy, would the world feel differently about him today? Of course it would. He would be hailed. He would be loved. He would be worshiped. But he didn’t.

God’s economy is different from ours. We live in a consumption economy. We use things up and then throw them away. We use people up and then throw them away. If you want proof of that, you need look no further than the music industry. God doesn’t work like that. In God’s economy, people are valuable in spite of their failures because their spirits are immortal. Some of us may be winners in earthly terms, however in spiritual terms we are all failures.

Tonight I read on Facebook:

It’s correct that in a world without hope all one can do is put one’s faith in people, corporations, and stuff. But the truth is, they are always going to let you down. Every time…

As my favorite music artist once said…

The hope of the whole world rests on the shoulders of a homeless man. Put your hope in this homeless man. He will never let you down.

Amazing Prayer of Faith

My pastor told us a story in Church last week about a man named Dr Francois Ngoumape who is from the Central African Republic. I had head Dr Ngoumape tell the story in person two years ago in my Sunday school class while he was on a missionary furlough. I thought I would share it with you.

Dr. Ngoumape has served as dean of the Biblical Brethren Seminary and Bible Institute in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2004. In November of 2004 he was at home in Bata preparing for guests who would arrive following the Sunday service. Needing sugar and tea, he boarded his motorcycle for the six-mile trip to the village of Bozoum to get the necessary supplies. But less than a mile outside of Bata, he met bandits coming into the village.

They stopped me him and took what valuables he had, forced him off the bike, and onto the ground. One of the bandits kicked him on the chest. The man began to kick a second time, but Ngoumape remembers the attack was obstructed. “It seemed like an invisible hand blocked him.”

As he lay on the ground, Ngoumape remembers praying, “God, if there is anything left that you want me to do, let your glory be shown.”

Finally, the robbers forced Ngoumape back into the village. As the group approached, people began running away, thinking the bandits were coming to raid the town. Then someone realized that Ngoumape, their beloved pastor, teacher, and friend, was being held hostage, so they did the unexpected—they ran toward the eight captors and their prisoner.

A circle began forming around the group—first 20, then 50, then 100 people.
In Bata, the bandits continued to attack. “They started shooting in the air [with their machine guns] to intimidate the people and scatter them,” Ngoumape remembers. “While the bandits were shooting, the people would lie down. When they stopped shooting, the people would get up and keep coming.”

Unnerved, six of the bandits began to walk away. But two continued to hold Ngoumape at gunpoint. Again, they forced him to the ground. Ngoumape recalls thinking, “This is my last day. I’m going to die.”

One drew a sword from his side and raised it over Ngoumape’s head. As he swung it down, the African pastor realized the bandit’s hand was being pushed aside by an invisible force and the blade struck the motorcycle beside him.

“I heard him hitting the motorcycle with the sword and he hit it the second time and the third time,” says Ngoumape.

Bewildered, the man drew his gun, took five or six steps back, and aimed. “I thought, ‘Okay, he missed me with the sword, now he’s going to kill me with the gun.’” The rounds from the machine gun struck the motorcycle. Again, on three separate attempts, an invisible force moved the weapon away from Ngoumape.

Stunned, the bandit turned to walk away.

The crowd began to wail because they thought Ngoumape had been killed. “I felt I had to stand up to let the people know that I was alive,” the professor remembers. Thinking the bandit was gone, Ngoumape rose to his feet.

“I started to look to my left.” He felt something turning his head to the right. “I see he [the bandit] has a gun pointed toward me. At the same time, I was pushed down, and while I’m falling, he shoots. He shoots a second time, and finally runs away. This is how God intervened in a miraculous way to protect my life,” he concludes. “I’m thankful for it and as I had prayed, He has something for me to do.”

As the man ran into the jungle, the crowd swarmed around Ngoumape, certain he had been injured. “I had to convince them I was not wounded,” he remembers. Then, the group moved into the seminary chapel, where they gave thanks to God for all He had done in protecting Ngoumape during the two-and-one-half hour attack.

Now that’s an amazing story to be sure, but what I can’t get past, what I’ve been thinking about for the last week was this man’s prayer.

Lord, if there’s anything left for me to do, let your glory be shown.

Not, Oh God please protect me

Not, Oh God Strike them down

Not, God if it’s your will save me

This prayer is an amazing prayer of faith. This is not the prayer of a man holding to his life, or his safety. He holds on to God and His will. God, if there’s anything left for me to do… This prayer showed that paramount is God’s will. He’s submitted to it, and not just at this moment, because you don’t pray a prayer like this on the spur of the moment. A payer like this gets prayed at a moment like this because it was prayed MANY times before. In times when there was not trouble and danger. This prayer is the prayer of a man sold out to God. This is a prayer of a man who no longer fears what man can do to the body because his life is already forfeited to God.

Let Your glory be shown

Not, crush my enemies

This is the prayer of a man whose natural inclination immediately moves to those who might be saved by witnessing God moving. This is the prayer of a man more interested in God’s fame than his own.

So…bewildered by this stunning act of faith I am left wondering…would I have prayed that prayer?

Would you?

Letter from Cambodia

I got a letter from Ry Vith today. For those of you who don’t know about Ry please read my last post. In short Ry is the little girl Diane and I sponsor through Asia’s Hope. This seriously about ripped my heart out.





Ughhh!!! I have to get over there. January can not come soon enough!
Update on our trip to mission trip to Cambodia in January 2012…Thank you so much for those of you who have sent donations for our trip, you are very much appreciated. We are still several thousand dollars short of our goal of $6000.00. If you’re willing to contribute and have not received a letter, please contact me at tirakis@hotmail.com and we’ll gladly send you a support letter. If you have received a letter, I’m asking that you would please prayerfully consider supporting our effort to bring hope to these orphans. As you can see from Ry’s letter, it’s very important to them.

Thanks so much
Ed

You’re going where? To do what?

Ok I’m going to come out of left field with something that might surprise some of you. But it’s on my heart today so here it is. I’m very excited to let you know that Diane and I are planning a short term mission trip to Cambodia and Thailand. Why in the world go to Cambodia of all places…

It’s a funny thing the way God works. If you would have asked me three years ago would I want to go to Cambodia on missions I would have said unequivocally, no! That’s where I was the first time I heard about the orphan situation in SE Asia. I sat in the church that morning and couldn’t help but shed a tear as I heard about the desperate situation that many live in as the result of many years of oppression, genocide, and corporate abuse. I learned about how children were bought and sold like cattle to be used in the sex trade. I learned about how many LIVE in the landfills of the cities scraping for enough rotten food to survive.

But I also learned about one organization that was trying to help. Asia’s Hope was started by a couple of guys that lived here in Ohio. Asia’s Hope identifies children at risk for being victims of the sex trade among other atrocities and places them in safe orphan homes where they are cared for, taught English, and about Jesus. Asia’s Hope now has orphan homes all over Cambodia, Thailand, and soon in India.

Diane and I immediately decided to sponsor an Orphan. This is Ry Vith:




Ry Vith is our little girl. I feel like I know her, but we’ve never met. I have sponsored other children in the past through World Vision and the like. This is different. See here’s the thing. Ry knows about Diane and I. Not just that she has a sponsor. She knows about US. She has our picture. She’s waiting for us to come and visit. Cambodian orphans are a bit unique. Because Cambodia does not allow international adoption the vast majority of the kids in these orphan homes will never be adopted. They know this. So they are each other’s family. We are their family. They love it when their American family comes to visit, they are devastated when we leave. I have heard many stories from those who have gone about the gut wrenching departures from these homes. But what I hear more is the amazing love that these children have for us. They know us, they pray for us. When we don’t visit, they long for us.

I have been an outspoken critic of the missions tourism industry that exists here in this country. When I first learned about people going to Cambodia and Thailand to visit the kids I was skeptical. My first question was, what are we going to be doing? It seemed like there needed to be some purpose, some project, something to accomplish to justify our going, our asking others to help sponsor us to go. But it’s been a couple years now and a lot has happened.

The biggest thing that has happened is the birth of Team Hope. Team Hope was a vision that God gave Diane one day while she was running shortly after we learned about these orphans. Diane and I had been focused on and praying about making everything we do, about God. Diane was trying to figure out how her love of running would fit into that. While she was out running God said, why not run for me? So she has. It just didn’t seem like enough to write the check every month to Asia’s Hope and somehow think that was enough. We needed to do more. Team Hope encourages people to participate in races and raise funds to help support the needs of these orphans. To date, Team Hope has raised over $70,000 for our kids. The money has gone to meet several wonderful needs. A big one was the construction of a pavilion where the kids from all the orphan homes in the area could meet together and have church. The pavilion has become a focal point in the town where it was built and now many curious locals have begun to come for church on Sunday morning where they hear the gospel for the first time. We bought a van so the orphan home could get the kids to school and around town safely. Currently we’re funding a construction project to renovate their kitchen. Team Hope also pays the sponsorships for two other boys to live in the home. We want to do a lot more. That’s why we are in the process of incorporating Team Hope as a not for profit organization. If you want to see what we’re up to right now you can learn more here:
http://graceteamhope.org

It’s been very exciting to watch God turn this thing into what He wants it to be and it has been fun coming along for the ride. But once again God has asked us to go deeper. That’s why in January Diane and I plan to go to Cambodia and Thailand. We will be meeting with those who run the orphan homes, getting a feel for what their needs are, learning about the culture of these people, and the conditions that they struggle in. There are a lot of questions. How can I arrange to be gone for so long with my new job? What will we do with the kids, and how will they handle our being gone for so long? Where are we going to come up with the nearly $6,000 to fund the trip? I was worried about all this. I’m not worried any more. God has done so much all ready, he can work out these details with ease.

So, when someone asks me why go, that’s a pretty loaded question and as you can see it’s a pretty long answer. But it doesn’t have to be, because in spite of all of this, there’s really only one reason we’re going; one reason that matters anyway. There’s a little girl named Ry who currently is 8000 miles away from me but her heavenly father desires that she get a hug and he would like me to be the one to give it to her. So I’m going.

You’ll hear more about this in the days and months to come. The plan is to use this blog to chronicle our journey. We would love to have your prayers. If you would be willing to do that, I would love to hear from you. Just send me a quick e-mail and let me know. I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you.