Scars

Meet Dion. If you can believe it, Dion is every bit as sweet and good-natured as he is handsome (check the picture to the right)! Some very wise people (thanks Mom, for starters) have advised me lately that my best blogs come from just sharing the 'everyday' stories that happen with the kids here at Rumah Bapaku. I agree. Besides, what happened today just had to be shared.

Dion is from Sumba. I've mentioned before that the Sumba kids are tough. Sumba is a tough place - very remote and still quite primitive by western standards. The people there value the warrior spirit, and it shows in the utter fearlessness of our kids from Sumba. For example, I'm the size of 4 or 5 of them put together, but they will throw themselves in front of me when we are playing soccer and they are trying to get the ball with absolutely no regard for what the consequences may be. Some of our smallest kids are from Sumba, but no one has ever told them that they are small!

That 'warrior spirit' also shows in other ways...unfortunately. Every one of the boys from Sumba bears the permanent marks of a warlike culture. There are huge scars in every one of their precious little heads. Places where hair will probably never grow. Reminders of a life where it was kill or be killed...where 7-year-olds were expected to pick up a sword to defend their family...where differences were settled with the edge of a blade. They have all been abused. They have all had to fight. They all carry those memories with them in the form of physical scars. The oldest is 9, most of them are a few years younger. Think about that for a minute and try to digest all of it...I dare you.

Once a month, the barber comes to Rumah Bapaku. Because the boys are going to school in town and are exposed to kids from all walks of life, and because the tropical Bali heat requires us to shower at least three times a day, it is just easier to keep their heads pretty much shaved. It's cleaner, easier and we don't have to worry about things like lice. Of course, with 18 boys, we have all kinds of personalities. Some of them already are under the impression that they are ladykillers and don't want to shave their precious locks, and some don't mind at all. I'm lucky - Camille sort of likes me with a shaved head, so I can get my head shaved with them! It really does make it easier to live in the tropical heat. So, I get in line with them for the barber and I tell the ones who don't want a haircut that the haircut makes them ganteng (handsome). They love the fact that Om Jeremy gets his hair cut to match theirs!

As I was saying before, Dion is a sweetheart. He is probably the 'mellow-est' of the Sumba kids. He's still as tough and rough-and-tumble as the rest of them, but he has a very gentle spirit about him. I could tell today as we waited for our haircuts that Dion was not too stoked about getting his head shaved. He was avoiding the barber every chance he got, letting other boys go in front of him. When his turn finally came, he got up into the chair with a sort of 'aw, shucks' attitude. I could tell he wasn't too happy about the whole thing. As the barber started to cut his hair, without saying a word or even making a sound, he started to cry. I noticed big crocodile tears running down his cheeks and, true to Dion form, he tried to brush them away before anyone made a big deal about it. I kneeled down next to him and looked him in the eye and told him that it was OK, that the haircut made him look extra handsome. As I ran through the events of the previous hour in my head, I suddenly realized why Dion was so opposed to having his hair cut, and my heart shattered.

Replaying things in my mind, I understood what my limited knowledge of the Indonesian language had missed earlier as I watched Dion talking to some of his buddies...Dion is ashamed of the scars on his head. He doesn't want his hair short because he hopes that longer hair will help hide the marks left from when his father used to hit him with pieces of wood. Dion comes from a family where he is the youngest of 6 children. His father is a farmer and they are very poor. Dion had 4 jobs after school every day - he would have to look for wood for the cooking fire, find food for the pigs, feed the goats and then go and get water from the river. His father would beat him even if he got all of his work done. Dion's scars remind him of what it feels like to be a slave...to have no value...to not know the meaning of love. As all of this hit me like a ton of bricks, it was all I could do to not pick him up, hold him and cry with him.

Thank God that there is more to Dion's story. Thank God that He loves Dion enough to bring him to Rumah Bapaku and give him a new life. It tears me up inside to know that each of our kids has a heartbreaking story like Dion's. But I use it as fuel to fire my passion for giving these kids the most loving home and family that any kid could ever hope for. You want to know why I love God so much? It's because He's in the redemption business. It's because He takes the shattered pieces of our broken lives and puts them back together to make a picture more beautiful than anything we could have ever come up with on our own. Life is hard. You don't have to convince any of the Rumah Bapaku kids of that fact. But as I played soccer with Dion later on this afternoon and he was covered from scarred-head to foot in dirt and as happy as any kid who ever lived, I was once again reminded that God is a God of fresh starts. He wants to work everything that happens to us out for our good (Romans 8:28). Dion carries scars, as we all do in one form or another. But just has He has done for me, God has taken a broken, scarred little boy and turned him into someone beautiful...someone who is truly happy. Thank you, Lord...thank you.

O Holy Night

Whew! It's 5:50 AM and I already have a couch full of little boys who are intently watching the screensaver on my laptop in the living room. The screensaver is scrolling through a bunch of surfing pictures I have collected from various surf magazine internet sites. The boys think that the surfer in every picture is me - I wonder how long Om (Uncle) Jeremy will be that cool! I guess I'll savor it while it lasts!

Camille and I have been busy lately to say the least! The Christmas season is in full-swing and, this being the very first Christmas for each of our 36 kids, we're doing it up right. We have a tree in the kids' living room and we let each child hang an ornament on it. There are presents overflowing on 2 levels below it (it's pretty much a miracle that they haven't been tampered-with yet). We had to put the whole thing on a pedestal so that that Chockie and Brownie (our dogs) wouldn't sneak away with the presents. The staff made a big 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year' sign and there are even Santas hanging from the front doors of the kids' house.

The kids have been practicing for their various roles in the Christmas program/variety show that they are putting on for each other and the staff. We have some VERY talented kids. The other night, Camille and I snuck out for a Friday night 'date night' and when we returned, we heard a guitar and a BEAUTIFUL voice singing 'O Holy Night'. We wandered in the direction of the music and found ourselves out back in our covered gym watching Roy, the boy's counsellor, playing guitar for Joly, one of our 9-year-old girls as she practiced for her part in the Christmas celebrations (Joly is the girl on the right in the picture). I only wish that I had had a way to record those ten or so minutes. It was truly one of the most beautiful things that I have ever experienced. To say that Joly can sing is the understatement of the century. Angelic is the only word that even comes close to describing her voice. The staff actually picked Joly to sing a solo because we had noticed her naturally stunning voice when the kids sing. I watched with tears in my eyes as a little girl who, just 7 months ago had never heard of Jesus or Christmas, sang praises to her Saviour with all of her heart...and really meant it. My brain is permanently emblazoned with the scene of a little girl, under the tropical stars, accompanied by only a guitar, voicing praises to God with such innocence and with such a hauntingly beautiful voice that the world seemed to stop and revel in the magnificence of the whole scene. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here - I truly believe that a child's voice lifted in praise is God's very favorite sound.

The whole scene becomes even more special if you understand a little of Joly's background. Joly comes from a very poor village. Her entire family lived in a one-room hut that housed many people. Joly has a younger brother and sister had a lot of responsibility. Her mother has mental problems so it was up to Joly to look after her younger siblings. Every day she would take them down to the river to bathe, feed them, find wood and cook for them. She never had a chance to be a child herself. When she first came to Rumah Bapaku to live with us, she was very happy for about 2 days. Then she became angry and one night, she jumped out the window of her bedroom. Tash, our director, came to her that night and asked her what had been bothering her. Her response was that she felt guilty being here in her new home because she had so much now and her brother and sister did not. Tash explained to Joly that she was a child herself and needed a chance to be just that. Tash told her that we will educate her and one day she will be able to help her family, but for now she needs to learn to play, have friends just be loved. Since then, Joly has made a new friend...Jesus. She is truly happy and loves to play and sing. She has many friends here and tells Tash that she knows that Jesus is her friend forever. So for Joly, 'O Holy Night' is more than just a Christmas carol. She sings to thank her best friend, Jesus, for giving her a new life...a happy life...a life every child deserves.

Yep, Christmas this year will probably be the best one Camille and I have experienced yet. I'm sure that there will be a lot of great stories to share! I actually planned on sharing a little more 'news' in this post but found myself 'sidetracked' by Joly's beautiful story and knew you'd want to hear it. I do have some more great stuff to share, so I will try to start posting daily. I was going to post this yesterday, but the Indonesian government decided that our part of Bali didn't need power ALL DAY, so the post is a little late! Anyway, stay tuned - more news is coming! And Merry Christmas from Bali, Indonesia!

Sorry for the delay!

Hello to everyone who reads this blog! I'm sorry that I haven't updated it lately - I never knew that the days could become so jam-packed! I promise that I am working on a new blog and will get it out tomorrow. We have been away for a few days, but a lot is happening over here in Bali that I want to share, so stay tuned! I promise the updates will become more regular, even if the posts are short sometimes. Check back tomorrow (or tonight, if you live in North America) for a new post! God Bless you all!

-Jeremy

The voice of a child.

Selemat Siang! ('Good late morning/early afternoon in Bahasa Indonesia) The kids are taking their afternoon siesta and we are getting a little bit of the first rain of the season. I never thought that I would be so excited about rain! Just having the clouds to cool things off a bit is nice, and the rain is SO refreshing! We are looking forward to the rainy season for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it will give us a chance to get some grass planted on the soccer field and keep the dust down a bit. The field is all leveled out and has about six truckloads of new dirt, but we have been playing on the dirt and between the dust and the 100% humidity, by the end of playtime we are sweaty, dirty messes! Thank God for colorful clothes that don't stain easily!

I am still in the process of trying to figure out the best way to upload pictures for everyone. So far, facebook seems to be the fastest from over here and I have been posting quite a few new pics on facebook. The upload/download times on the 'high-speed' internet over here leave somewhat to be desired, and trying to post pics to this blog takes FOREVER! I may have to start editing the pictures and making them smaller before uploading them. Facebook does that automatically for you, so for now I have been taking the 'lazy' way out and using facebook. I'll be sure to let everyone know if that changes.

I can't believe we've already been here for 3 weeks! We have to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week to get a 'social visa' for Indonesia that will allow us to stay for six more months without having to leave the country. Kinda weird that you actually have to leave the country to get a visa to stay in the country, but I guess the government is just trying to make it hard for freeloaders to add to the already high unemployment rate in Indonesia. We are praying that everything goes smoothly with the visa process.

We are continually struck by the amount of love that emanates from My Father's Home. It's as if the kids know that they missed out on a lot of love during their first 6 to 9 years and are now trying to make up for lost time. We've been here for 3 weeks, so you think that the 'novelty' factor would be starting to wear off, but we still get mobbed every time we step out of our house and are anywhere where the kids can see us. Personally, it's something that I don't think I will get tired of and I hope that 'Om Jeremy' will always be a celebrity! Last night, after spending the evening watching 'Finding Nemo' with kids piled on our laps hugging and cuddling with us the whole time, Camille announced that if this is what our 'job' description is going to be, she can't think of a good reason to ever leave Bali. I totally agree!

For my fellow Christians, I know that you would probably agree one of the times you feel the closest to God is during worship times at church or with a group of Believers. Every day here at Rumah Bapaku, I am totally awestruck when these kids start to sing during their worship times. Eight months ago, they had no hope whatsoever. They were abused, unloved, used as slaves and many cases their innocence was stolen from them. Now they have hope, love and Jesus Christ. To see the humility and gratitude that they 'bring to the table' when they start to worship is something that has shaken me to the core. They understand God's love and His healing better than I could in a thousand years. I have yet to hear them sing and keep a dry eye. I truly believe with all that is in me that the voices of children lifted in praise is God's very favorite sound in the entire Universe. They start to sing, and He shows up. Period. At 6 years old, some of these kids know more about our Creator's presence than I do at almost 40. And they've only known Him for a few months. I'm getting a crash-course on why Jesus had so much to say about children.

I know that not everything will be 'peaches and cream' for Camille and I here in Bali. So far, though, it seems that no matter how rough the day is going, just one of these little ones can make it all worthwhile when they jump into your arms and bury their head in your chest for no reason other than the fact that they love you...just for being you. We are definitely not special. Heck, we can't even speak much of their language yet. They love us unconditionally just because we're here. For me, they are God's love in the flesh. Funny, because that is just what I came here to be for them. God has a way of turning the tables on us, huh? I guess I have to go back to my basic belief that when you decide to serve God with your whole heart and life, He gives you you cake and lets you eat it too!

Sorry if I'm gettin' a bit 'preachy'. Maybe someday soon I can get a video of the kids singing posted so that everyone else can catch a small glimpse of how beautiful it is. It has truly changed me. That's all I have for today. I'll keep everyone posted and try to update the blog before we leave for Malaysia on Tuesday (Nov. 24th). God Bless, everyone, and thank you for your prayers and support!

I'm Back!

I gave this post the title that I did for a couple of reasons. First off - Camille and I are back from our little mini-vacation to Lombok and south Bali. We had planned to take off for a couple of weeks at first, but after getting to Rumah Bapaku (My Father's Home) and meeting the children, we decided to cut it down to a week. Plus, we have to leave next week for about four days and head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to get our social visas which allow us to stay in Indonesia for the next six months (and then another trip to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore). So, we are back at Rumah Bapaku and our wonderful kids! Second, I titled this post 'I'm Back!' because I have decided that the possibility of me getting any justice from my insurance company is quite slim, so I may as well return to using my real name. So, as Jeremy Youngquist, I am advising you to NEVER purchase disability insurance (or anything else, for that matter) from Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company. In my humble opinion (that oughta satisfy their legal department), I feel that they are crooks...enough said. (Except for Connie - she's been very kind and helpful, but her hands are tied. Thank you, Connie.) Aahhhh...sorta feels good to be Jeremy again.

Camille and I had an awesome time in Lombok. The surf wasn't as big as what we had hoped, but it was fun nonetheless and Lombok is one of the most primitive and beautiful places on earth. The water is crystal clear and the locals are the friendliest people you'll ever meet. It takes a bit of determination to get to a place like Mawi Reef, Lombok, but it is well worth the journey. (That is, unless you are lazy and just want to shell out the 'big bucks' to charter a boat from Bali to cruise over to Lombok and drop you off right in the lineup of surfers like Camille and I who have actually 'paid our dues' to get there. The journey truly is half of the reward - don't get me started on charter-boat weenies.) I've never been anywhere where absolutely everybody smiles and says hello when you pass - and they are genuine. Life isn't easy for most Lombok locals, so I suppose that they have come to realize that true wealth is found in relationships, not stuff.

We also enjoyed a couple of fun days in the Seminyak and Canggu area of south Bali. The surf finally picked up a bit and we got to play in some of Bali's renowned surf! The water here is so warm that even your extra-hard tropical surf wax starts to get gummy and soft while you surf. Being cold is a thing of the past, baby! I once again proved that I can be a wave-hog anywhere...hehehe. This is truly where Camille and I belong!

As we look to the coming months, we are excited to say the least. I am especially excited for Christmas this year. Camille and I have talked for years about spending Thanksgiving or Christmas day just helping the poor somewhere. Now we finally get to! Christmas with these kids is gonna be so fun! I am going to savor the entire season. Bringing the Light of Christ's love to an area of darkness is pretty much what Christmas is all about, and we are going to take full advantage of this opportunity. I spent a couple of hours today just trying to find the best deal on those little balsa-wood glider airplanes that I used to play with as a kid. You remember those, right? I want each of our kids to be able to experience the fun that I had with those gliders as a child. Playing Santa will be a blast this year!

I am still searching for the best way to share pictures with everyone. Pictures seem to take FOREVER to upload to my blog from here in Bali, so I will let everyone know when I decide on the best avenue for sharing pics. For now, I have been posting some of them to facebook - so if you're not my facebook friend, send me a request! I'll hopefully come up with a better way soon.

Thanks for 'tuning in' to the blog. I'll be updating it each day that I have a chance, so check back often. God Bless and if you're the 'praying kind', please keep us and Rumah Bapaku in your prayers. If you want to sponsor a child, go to http://www.myfathershome.net/. If you want to sponsor Camille and I, send an email to youngquistjr@hotmail.com. I'll let you know the details on how to do that. Thanks and check back tomorrow! Selemat Siang!

Lessons about Grace from 7-year-old experts.

Selemat Pagi! It's 4:30AM here in Bali and I got up early so that I could write this post. Camille and I have been here for a few days now, and already it feels like home. As worn-out as we are at the end of the day, by the time the rooster starts to crow (which could be any time of night, actually - our rooster doesn't keep very good time), I lay in bed unable to sleep, filled with the excitement of knowing that I have another day with our wonderful kids ahead of me.

I actually woke up early to write this because Camille and I are going to be taking off for about a week and heading to the island of Lombok. While we were back in Oregon planning our journey, we decided that since things have been so hectic and strange for us this year, we would take the opportunity to 'unwind' and relax a little when we got to Indonesia before settling into our schedule. Lombok has some great surf and isn't as crowded as Bali, so we purchased some tickets to Lombok (an 18-minute flight from Bali). Truth be told, now that we are here with the kids, it is going to be hard to be away from them for a week, but the tickets and hotel, etc. were already a done deal, so we're off this morning for a week. It's funny how your priorities change when you let God sit in the driver's seat of your heart!

We probably won't have internet service on Lombok, so we're not bringing the laptop. If we get a chance to hit an internet cafe or anything, I may try to update the blog, but if not - it will be next week before I have a chance to blog. I wanted to write a few quick thoughts before we leave.

Grace. It's not something most of the world spends a lot of time thinking about...let alone using. As a Christian, grace is central to who I am. Without God's grace, I would be about as valuable as a worm. God is perfect and only by His grace does he allow a dirty, imperfect sinner like me into His presence. I am supposed to turn around and return the favor to my fellow man, but you know how that usually turns out...just think about the guy who cut you off on the freeway this morning and which finger you used (or maybe just wanted to use) to wave a friendly greeting at him. You get the picture - grace is something that I will probably spend all of Eternity trying to understand.

Knowing this about me, God has decided to place 36 Indonesian children in my life to give me a daily illustration of what grace is all about. Our kids have only been here since April and May. If you've seen the website for My Father's Home, you have had just a glimpse of how horrible their lives were before then. They came to us broken, unloved and hurting. Where they were from, it was everyone for themselves. You had to be tough to make it through one day of their young lives. When they showed up, they didn't know a thing about love.

Christ changed all of that. The staff at My Father's Home took them in, loved them unconditionally (many of them had to be taught what a hug and a kiss is) and showed God's love to them. One by one, they started to trust, stopped being afraid...and they started to love. Today, they are absolutely radiating happiness and love.

One thing that they understand better than I ever will is grace. When they came here, they had that 'dog-eat-dog' mentality. Especially the kids from Sumba. Sumba is a tough place where being a warrior is respected and life is often violent and brutal. A couple of our 9-year-olds have actually run into battle with swords...real swords. Did I mention they were 9 years old? There's not a lot of time to worry about showing grace to your fellow man when he's trying to run you through with a sword! All of our kids had to fight to survive and were never shown an ounce of grace. When they opened their hearts to God's love however, grace flooded in and coming from where they had come, it must have been the best feeling in the world.

When they came here, before letting God's grace heal them, they were hard and tough and ready to beat-down the kid next to them if needed to secure their place in the food chain. That was then, this is now. Now Christ is in their hearts and without anyone having to teach them, the 'grace lightbulb' has clicked on in inside of them. I love to play soccer. So do they (and some of them are better than me, the little stinkers). Usually, when you put a dozen or more kids on the field and let them go at it hard, emotions will flare and unintentional fouls or the occasional push can escalate into scuffles or even full-on fights. It humbles and amazes me to play soccer with these kids. They are playing as hard as anyone I've ever played with, yet there is almost never any need for us 'adults' (yes, I consider myself an 'adult'...not an adult) to intervene and stop the skirmishes that you would think would naturally ensue. When one of them gets knocked down, someone will almost always rush to help him up and brush off the dirt before he even has a chance to get angry or point fingers. They're not playing like wusses, either! Like I said, these kids know how to fight and take that warrior spirit into a soccer match. I think that because of grace, and their grasp of it, they just have an unspoken understanding that at the end of the day, we love each other so we'll extend that grace to each other.

With 36 little ones running around, you would think there would be more bickering and fighting than there is. I'm not saying that they are perfect - after all, they're still kids, but there is an unseen but very much felt undercurrent of grace running through My Father's Home. The love and patience they show towards each other is something that will be teaching this 'adult' for a long time to come. It's not a show - when you walk in to a room full of these kids, you can tell that they actually love each other. In just a few days, I've learned more about grace from these precious kids than I have in the 39 years I've been on this planet.

That's just a few days. I'm supposed to be here to teach them...looks like the tables are being turned! Isn't that just like God? What an adventure we have started! It is with very mixed-emotions that we take off today on our little mini-vacation. Lombok will be fun and relaxing, but our kids are here in Singaraja, Bali. Truth be told, if we didn't already have the tickets, we would probably postpone the little vacation. Like I've said before, when God gives you your cake, He lets you eat it, too. Don't be afraid to serve Him - He makes doing His will the only thing you want to do! I'll update this blog in a week the first chance that I get. Until then, I'll try to post some stuff on facebook on my iPhone while we are gone. God Bless!

Smitten...

WE'RE HERE!!! As I write this, I am sitting in my new living room in our house in Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia. I am sweaty, caked with dust and dirt, jet lagged and generally exhausted...and I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. I just spent the day playing, eating, drawing and praising God with 36 of the most beautiful children I've ever seen. Camille and I just became part of a new family. I'm pretty sure that in one day, our hearts have been changed forever.

I actually started a blog yesterday as we sat in the airport in Seoul, Korea. It was a pretty good post, if I may say so myself! Right as I went to publish it, I found out that my computer had dropped the internet wi-fi at the airport and hadn't saved any of my work...one blog entry down the toilet! Luckily, the wi-fi is a lot more reliable here in Bali. Before the literary catastrophe yesterday, I was writing about how one of the things I love the most about being a part of the family of God is the fact that we have instant family everywhere we go. Before yesterday, Camille and I had never even met any of the kids or staff at My Father's Home except for over the internet, yet we loved them already, and we knew that they loved us back. Well, today confirmed all of that, big time!

If you're reading this blog for the first time, you may want to start from the bottom of the page and work your way up. Camille and I have quite a story that has led us to the other side of the globe to love kids whom we had never met. For now, I'll just say that the pictures on the web and the lovely brochures for My Father's Home don't even come close to doing any of it (the kids, the home, the staff, the area, etc.) justice. These kids stole our hearts the moment they jumped off of the school bus and into the arms of a couple of Americans who they hadn't even met, but already knew as uncle and auntie. 36 little ones, who up until this last April hadn't ever been told that they were loved or given any reason to even smile, were instantly crawling all over us and showering us with hugs and kisses. And you should see their smiles now! Camille and I spent the rest of the day being loved so unconditionally, so wholeheartedly...I learned just how little I knew about true Christlike love today.

I already have funny stories to share and touching points to make, but in addition to being dirty, sweaty and worn out from one of the funnest (is that a word?) days in recent memory, I'm completely jet lagged. I'm probably just rambling to begin with, but I know that there are quite a few of you who are waiting for an update so I wanted to at least post something quick this evening. I promise that we will start taking pictures tomorrow (WARNING: Looking at pictures of these kids may cause an uncontrollable urge to get on an airplane and come to Bali), and hopefully I'll get some time to share a little bit more.

For now, I want to thank everyone who is praying for us and supporting us in any way, even if it's just happy thoughts. Our journey to Bali from Oregon was long, but comfortable. All of our bags made it here unscathed, even after the first airline tried to convince us that our surfboards would never make it all of the way. Truly, thank you for your prayers and support. I plan on updating this blog almost daily now that we are settling down in Bali. Thank you for being a part of our new adventure. Bali is truly as beautiful as all of the brochures claim - but what makes it spectacular are the wonderful people. The 36 kids at My Father's Home and the staff who serve them are the 'cream of the crop', and we now have the honor of calling them our family. We sit here tonight smitten. Smitten by the kind of love that only God gives. Smitten by children from unspeakably horrible backgrounds who are finally getting to learn how to just be children. Smitten by the knowledge that we now get to be on the receiving end of the love that they have only recently discovered is inside of them. Yep, we're smitten. Let the adventure begin!

I'm still here...I promise!

Whew! I feel really guilty that I haven't updated my blog lately. It's pretty crazy getting ready to sell or store everything you have and move to the other side of the globe with only a couple of suitcases and some surfboards. I promise that I will start the updates soon!

Right now Camille and I are driving from Seaside, Oregon down to Mexico to help my brother Chad build a house for a needy family in Tijuana. If you wanna find out all of the awesome details about Chad's new Home-for-Home program, I encourage you to visit his blog. The link for it is the 'Home for Home' link on the side of this page. We're getting to help build a home for someone and then visit family along the California coast on the way home. If there happens to be surf along the way, we'll have to suffer and paddle out! Right now we are spending a couple of nights with Camille's best friend Caryn in Atascadero. Her little girl Camryn is SO cute!

Like I said, things have been crazy as we prepare to leave for Bali. We fly out on November 1 and we have a lot of details to worry about before we leave. I promise the updates will become more regular soon. I have a lot of stuff running through my brain that I want to share with everyone. For now, thank you so much for following my blog and I promise that you can look forward to some great stuff very soon! Heck, just driving the length of the west coast and back is giving me plenty of ammo for writing! (For instance, why does everyone speed up when there is a passing lane and then drive like my grandmother when the road goes back to one lane?) Anyway, please stay tuned for more of Jeremy's random thoughts and in just a short while - some great pictures and stories from Bali! God Bless!

God's Hands

If you've ever read any of my blogging in the past, you know that I can be pretty passionate about certain issues. Being a surfer and outdoors buff, protecting our environment and caring for the other creatures who share this planet with us has always been a priority for me. A lot of my friends joke that I should apply to be the helicopter pilot on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship 'Steve Irwin' - you know, the one that harasses the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and is the star of the hit show 'Whale Wars'. Truth be told, I'd actually love to spend a few months with them throwing stink bombs at those illegal, murderous whalers! I'm definitely not a tree-hugger or anything, I just happen to feel that most Christians don't take the Bible's directives to care for our planet and its inhabitants even close to seriously enough.

That being said, I will always agree that there is one thing that trumps the environment - people. Sadly, for every whale that is being hunted, seal that is being clubbed, rain forest that is being logged or exotic animal sitting in a cage in some third-world market, there is probably more than one human being - made in the image of our Creator - being enslaved, abused, neglected, taken advantage-of, trafficked and generally living a life that is unimaginably crappy. The great majority of the human race ekes out an existence that the rest of us would consider a horror story. Some days the sheer weight of humanity's misery almost makes me not want to even get out of bed. I often ask God how He manages to keep His broken heart beating. He actually answered that question in an amazing way one day - but I'll save that for another blog.

Today, I thought I'd give a shout-out to a couple of other people who are actually doing what they can to care for the downtrodden and brokenhearted. This is important stuff, and I want to be sure that if you are reading my blog, you are also reading theirs. The first is Love146. Love146 is an organization devoted to combating the human trafficking and slavery industry - currently the second largest illegal syndicate in the world, close behind the illegal drug trade. An estimated two children are sold every minute. I won't even do them justice if I try to explain the awesomeness that is Love146 in my own words. I've added another video gadget on my blog page devoted to them - do yourself a favor and watch the 'Love146 - The History' video. Make sure you have a box of tissues. Then subscribe to their blog and learn every week how you can get involved in helping to end human trafficking and slavery.

Which brings me to the picture that is at the top of this post. Last week on Love146's blog, they talked about this great book called 'The Better World Shopping Guide'. Basically, the good folks at 'Better World' have compiled over twenty years-worth of data on just about every company you can think of that makes anything you can buy in any store, as well as the actual stores themselves! They give each product, brand name, store, etc. a 'grade' based on five categories: human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement and social justice. Then they publish everything in a pocket-sized booklet that you can take with you when you shop. Even better - for those of you who use iPhones, there is an iPhone app that you can download from iTunes for $1.99 that will truly put social justice in the palm of your hand! Let me tell you, in the short time that I have been using this guide, my shopping habits have changed - big time! It's a great way to voice your support of fair trade practices with your money. I encourage you to check it out.

The other shout-out I have is for someone very close to me. My brother, in fact. Again, I won't get too detailed because you should read his story in his blog, but I'll give you the quick facts. Chad owns a home-building company named Pillar Development. As is the case with most developers right now, Pillar has been having a tough go of things due to the downturn in the housing market. A while back, Chad and I were discussing another company called Tom's Shoes (you may have seen them featured in a Visa commercial recently), a shoe company that gives one pair of shoes to a needy child for every pair that they sell. On a whim, we half-joked about how cool it would be to follow that same one-for-one model on a bigger scale. What if Chad could build a home for a needy family for every home that he sold here?

Well, it turns out that Chad wasn't joking. That is exactly what he is doing. And it is turning his business around! Again, you can read the details on his blog: Home for Home - the link is on the side of this page. Pillar Development is building one home for a needy family in Mexico for every home that they sell here. You know what? In less than a month, with no advertising of the 'Home for Home' deal whatsoever, Chad went from no house sales to four houses and counting! That's four needy families who will soon have a roof over their heads. God's math...it defies the laws of physics. If you wanna get really stoked, read Chad's blog. And while you're at it, read his other blog too: Love - the link for that one is also on the side of this page.

There's a reason that people all over the world, whether they believe he is God or not, revere Jesus Christ for being the greatest humanitarian in history. He...Loved...People...Period. The Bible tells us that, in his own words, He 'came to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10). WE are what was lost. He cares about every injustice, every hurt, every wrong...every child sold into sex slavery, every mother who can't afford to feed her baby, every family with no roof to keep out the rain. He came to make all of it good and right and whole again. Friends, WE are His hands and His feet. He uses US to put all of these wrongs to right. We live in a day and age where information is instant and the world is connected. It is easier now more than ever before to get involved and to become His hands and feet. I encourage you...no, I implore you to take a few minutes of the time that you would normally be browsing Perez Hilton's web site to find out what Jessica Simpson wore to the 'I'm famous' awards show and bookmark a couple of these blog sites and websites that can actually change the world.

Being informed is the first step in changing people's lives for the better. The next step can be as simple as refusing to buy that bag of chips from the company who is involved in child slavery lawsuits. But you never would have known how to vote with your dollar unless you were informed. One thing is for certain - when you start to act, it feels good. Selective shopping can lead to feeding the poor at the local shelter which may lead to flying to Mexico and helping build a house for someone. I'm not saying that that is how it has to work, but the feeling you get from making a positive difference in someones life is a high that not even the best wave on the planet can provide. Take it from a die-hard surf addict - that's a GOOD feeling!

God's Voice...according to Kelly

Man, I wasn't kidding about being sick! I don't think I've ever been knocked flat by anything (besides open-heart surgery) for this long. I've barely left the house for the past week - very unusual. Oh well, maybe it's all for a reason...there's been a 15-foot Great White shark hanging around one of our local surf spots for the last week. It actually swam right up the river the other day and under a friend of mine in his canoe! Regular 'Jaws' action going on in Seaside! I would definitely have been out in the water with that shark (probably sharks - plural) a lot if it wasn't for being so sick. God probably figured that laying me out on my back was the only way to keep me from getting eaten! (OK, I have to stop here and admit that after I started this post this afternoon, I actually took a break and went surfing. I'm back blogging away now, so it's Jeremy: 1, White Shark: 0.)

I sorta have to chuckle every time I hear someone say that, "Everything happens for a reason". I always have to choke down the urge to say, "Well, Duh!". I don't believe in coincidence or karma. I do believe that God has a plan for each of us and although He won't get too pushy, often times things that seem to be just falling into place for a reason really are for a reason - His reason. He's probably not going to show up with a big explosion, crack you on the head with a bolt of lightning, and tell you in a thundering voice that sounds like James Earl Jones to go preach to pygmies in South America while dropping a huge sack of money in your lap so that you can quit your job and buy plane tickets and DVD copies of the 'Jesus movie' translated into pygmy-ese. But there's a good chance that if He really is asking you to do something, stuff will sorta start to 'fall into place'. Some call it coincidence, I call it God's voice.

That's exactly where Camille and I are right now. Ever since we went up to Washington and met with the Boyers (Kim Boyer is the head of the board for My Father's Home) about coming to Bali, WAY too many things have just been 'falling into place' for this new adventure of ours to be anything but God's idea. For starters, the very next morning, my good friend Chris called. Everyone probably knows a 'technology guru' - through the years Chris has been my (and my family's) answer-man for all things computer-related. I've known Chris since I was in high school and he has known that serving orphans in Bali is the sort of thing that I was supposed to end up doing all along. I had 'talked' to him on facebook the night before and told him about our plans. He was literally crying when he called me and told me that he had been waiting for 20 years to see me fulfill my true purpose. Chris is the executive director of a technology industry trade association and has a lot of contacts in the computer world. He told me that he wants to send Camille and I off to Bali with a new laptop so that we can stay in touch with the world. What he didn't know is that we were currently looking for a new laptop because ours is in it's death throes!

That evening, Camille and I decided to stop by the local festivities at the redneck madness that is the Lake Stevens annual Aquafest to see one of my high school buddies. While we were there, we saw my friend Julie from high school (Aquafest is always sort of an impromptu high school reunion/karaoke contest/carnie-fest). We started telling Julie about our plans in Bali and she got really excited. Julie has been in a lot of really cool bands since high school and is currently a talent manager/events coordinator with a big talent company in Portland. She also has a rockin' all-girls AC/DC tribute band! She was so touched by what it is that we will be doing and told us over and over that this kind of thing is closest to her heart. She gave us her business card and insisted that we let her co-ordinate a charity event for My Father's Home, complete with live music and everything! I'll have more details on that soon, hopefully!

Since then, it seems like barely a few days ever go by without another confirmation that Bali is definitely the 'next step' for Camille and I. The other day, the simple act of borrowing a friend's trailer to start cleaning out our storage unit led into me meeting the Seaside High School vice-principal and being able to make some awesome contacts for Camille and I to be able to come into the Jr. High this fall before we leave and learn from the teacher who teaches English as a second language to the local Mexican kids. He said that she will be thrilled to help us in any way and share curriculum with us!

I guess you could say that this stuff is just coincidence. Or that 'everything happens for a reason'. What I know deep down inside is that all of this is evidence that what we are about to do is actually our Creator's idea, not our own. He is 'flattening out the road' in front of us and making it impossible to doubt that we are doing the right thing. That's why I say that it is all God's voice to me. When you are truly following His will, this is how He speaks to you (at least in my experience). No, I have never heard an audible voice tell me to go to Bali and live with 36 orphans. But I know Bali is exactly where He is pointing us. He dropped the opportunity in our laps. He keeps smoothing out all of the details. It's as if the very forces of nature are aligned with one goal: to get Jeremy and Camille to My Father's Home. His voice wouldn't be any clearer if He appeared in a flash of light dressed as Gandalf and smacked us upside the heads with His staff!

I'm writing this stuff down as much for myself as I am to share it with you. I know that there will be days ahead that will be frustrating and hard. It's the details of all of these confirming events that we will always be able to call to mind and know, even in the middle of the hard stuff, that this is truly what we are supposed to be doing.

Hopefully some of you are reading this who have been struggling to figure out how to hear God's voice. This is my honest experience in that area. I've never heard a 'voice'. But I have had longings in my heart or burning desires to follow a certain path. I think God is just waiting for us to act on some of those desires. If they are from Him, He will let you know - just as He is doing for Camille and I. When you hear His voice, let me tell you that you won't mistake it for anything else! Likewise, He has a real knack for shutting the doors that you are not supposed to walk through - if you are sincerely listening! Above all, if you are truly struggling to hear His voice, start by reading His Word - the Bible. He's already given us all of the answers and they are written down in one convenient book!

We are so excited to share our new journey with all of you. Please check in from time to time for updates. Also, if you like to pray, Camille and I would really appreciate your support in that area! Thanks and hopefully I'll blog more this week now that I'm feeling a little better.

Surfing Lessons #1

I'm sick today. Not just the stuffy-nose wussy kind of sick. I'm pretty much the 'lay-on-the-couch-and-wonder-if-you-even-want-to-remain-alive' kind of sick. And wouldn't you know it? There's not a breath of wind on the ocean and the surf is glassy. So what does a guy like me do? He picks himself up off of the couch, wades through all of the used Kleenex, takes some Advil, and paddles out into the Pacific Ocean. That's what he does, yes sir.

Kelly's probably not the brightest light in the chandelier, you're probably thinking. Well, you may be right, but then again - I scored some waves. That's better than NOT scoring some waves, Mr. Smarty-Pants! If you're reading this and you're a little confused - congratulations: you just entered the mind of a surfer. A lot of what surfers do makes little sense to the non-surfing world. That fact is actually a twisted point of pride for surfers. People often ask why Camille and I are willing to brave freezing water, giant sharks, stinging jellyfish, huge waves that can crush us onto rock reefs, pollution, being chased by sea lions, getting held underwater by the raw power of the ocean and all of the other dangers surfers face just to catch a few waves. I guess the ugly, truthful answer to that question is that surfing is more like an addiction than a sport or pastime.

I often compare it to drug addiction. I tell people who are thinking about learning to surf to consider the consequences very carefully before they try surfing. Once you catch your first real wave, it's all over! You have been ruined. All you can think about is catching another. You have just experienced Creation in a way that is not possible anywhere else, and the exhilaration of it leaves you wanting more and more. There is a high that comes with smoothly gliding down the face of a wave, dancing a dangerous jig with the power of the ocean, that simply cannot be duplicated. The only way to feel the high again is to catch another wave. Surfing will limit your options when it comes to places you can live, friends you can keep, even jobs you're willing to work (I know many surfers, myself included, who purposely work the graveyard shift so that they can surf all day). It literally takes over your life.

While this may sound a little...diabolical...there is one thing that makes surfing a healthy addiction. Well, many things, if you consider the simple health benefits of getting all of that good exercise and fresh air. But one thing in particular changes surfing from just another addiction into something wonderful and productive. Simply stated - surfing lets me be closer to God than I ever thought was possible in this mortal body. Outdoor enthusiasts everywhere will talk about how they can feel the Creator's presence more closely when they are 'out in nature'. Whole libraries of books have been written about the 'power of the ocean'. When I surf, I feel a part of something that is SO much bigger than myself, and its power is what propels my (hopefully) graceful interaction with the Source. As a Christian, I understand who that Source is. Our Creator's voice is heard in the crash of each wave, the call of each sea bird, the very pull of the tide. His presence permeates the water and I find myself often in a state of awe and...worship.

It's no coincidence that surfing is often compared to a religion. Surfers' devotion to their pastime often mirrors religious fanaticism. The Bible explains that those who do not know God personally will naturally turn to His Creation and worship it instead the Creator (a deadly mistake, unfortunately). One of the major surfing magazines actually published a headlining article recently that proclaimed that surfing is indeed a religion! The fact is that you simply cannot sit in the ocean and even watch the surf without feeling a presence that you know is altogether bigger than you. Our natural inclination being to worship something, those who have not had the pleasure of getting to know our Creator personally tend to worship the ocean itself. I, on the other hand, get to have the incredible experience of literally sitting in God's lap and hearing Him speak to me. I can't tell you how many times I have found the answer I was seeking by just sitting in the ocean and listening. Or how many times I've heard Him say, "I love you" when I wasn't expecting a thing.

Which brings me back to why in the world a dude who can barely even stand up without being dizzy and whose sinuses feel like they are holding back the Amazon river would put on a wetsuit and paddle out into the Pacific Ocean. I'm an addict. Addicted to waves? Yes, but more than that - I'm addicted to God's presence. I'm addicted to hearing His voice. I'm addicted to feeling His power. I'm addicted to the beauty and peace that resides only with Him. I feel His presence a whole lot more sitting on my surfboard than I do laying on my couch. It's that simple.

So what's the 'lesson'? Well, after our surf session today (as I was laying back down on the couch), a question found its way into my thoughts. Am I as passionate about some other things in my life as I am about surfing? Hopefully, the answer is 'yes'. As I pondered the question, I had to admit that in some areas, I believe that I am and in others, I can stand for a little improvement. I know at least that I have a great topic for God and I to discuss over the next few surf sessions! What areas of my life am I passionate enough about to act upon? What areas should I be? What areas shouldn't I? What does God want me to be so passionate about that even sickness can't restrain my enthusiasm? How about you? Ever asked yourself these kinds of questions?

I don't have all of the answers, but like I said - I have some great fuel for future conversations with my Creator! Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better and I'll get to surf again. Even if I don't feel better, I'll probably be out in the ocean if there are waves to be had. But most of all, I look forward to hearing my Creator's voice, waves or no waves.

Too Preachy?

I just realized that I already broke my promise to not get 'too preachy'! It's just that as we prepare to leave the U.S. for Bali, my worldview seems to be shrinking - or maybe my brain is sub-consciously cleaning itself of the stuff that doesn't really matter. Can I do anything about our country's health care crisis or North Korea's race to blow up the world? Nope. Can I do something to change the life of a child who has no parents or might go to bed hungry? Absolutely. So, I guess you could accuse me of caring very little about American politics these days...or politics in general. It's not apathy, it's just reality. The reality is that each of us can only touch the lives of the people or change the small part of the world that we've been given. If we all were to strive to actually do this - then the words of the Talmud would surely ring true: "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

Well, now that I've preached to you again...

I figured that since the word 'surfing' is part of the name of this blog, I had better not spend ALL of my time on the 'serving' part...although 'serving' makes for much better reading and will always be the focus! Along this vein, I've added a YouTube gadget on the right side of the page so you can check out the beautiful surf that Bali has to offer. It's a feed from YouTube, so I'm hoping that the keywords 'surfing' and 'Bali' won't end up putting anything offensive on my blog page. I'll check regularly to make sure the content is 'G-rated'! I especially like the vid of the sunset session at Padang-Padang and the vid of Made Lapur - that guy rips!

I'm sure that I'll be posting some 'surfing lessons' posts as I often have on my other blog. I tend to have a knack for getting myself into ridiculous situations out in the water, and I usually try to learn something in the process...even if it's simply 'I'll never do that again'!

Thanks for indulging my often times random thought-process. Please realize that when I rant or air my opinions, I'm really not trying to preach at you - I know that you can go to church for that. Once again, the only thing that I'm trying to convince you of is the power of love (didn't Richard Marks or Peter Cetera or someone sing a song with that title in the 80's?). I better quit while I'm ahead...

Politics of Love

It seems that you can't turn on the TV, check your email, or even log on to facebook anymore without having to witness endless arguing and posturing about politics. Our society and indeed our world has become so polarized on so many issues that it's hard to find anything on which anyone can agree. Quite frankly, I'm tired of all of it. Our passion and haste to accomplish our political goals only seems to be revealing one thing - man's inherent selfishness. Most people will gladly listen to your viewpoint...as long they agree with it. People are quick to jump behind a cause or leader...as long as they get something out of it. Leaders are quick to make promises...that will ensure them more power. 'My rights' seems to be a mantra these days...as if the Universe owes any of us anything!

As I count down the days until we leave for Bali, this storm of political opinions and bickering only leaves me dizzy and I find myself going back to the Source to find some solace. How should I respond to all of this? Well, according to Jesus - with love. In the gospel of Mark chapter 12, verses 30-31, He says that there are really only two things to worry about. If we can just do these two things each day, everything else will fall into place: Love God with everything in you, and love others as much as you love yourself. Period.

Now, weigh this against what you see on TV and read in the news. Not a lot of love floatin' around out there, huh? What would happen if our world really started taking those words to heart? For starters, the news networks would probably go broke for lack of drama to report! My brother Chad has a blog devoted exclusively to Love. If you're like me and the endless drone of selfishness in our media is wearing you down, I encourage you to get on over to his blog and start reading. I know that it's time that I started focusing a lot harder on viewing the world though Love's lens. It doesn't matter if you believe in Jesus like I do or you don't - I defy you to have a bad day when you spend it loving others like you love yourself. I dare you to try it. You'll definitely be confronted with and humbled by just how much you actually love yourself! And if you can accomplish loving everyone around you that much, you just had the best day of your life. I guarantee it.

Start by checking out Chad's Love blog - you can click the link to 'Love' on the right sidebar of this blog. Then try to follow Jesus' words, even if you have to start out small. I promise that the weight of all the media garbage and angry viewpoints we live with will start to fall away. I'll leave you with the Master's own words:

"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Mark 12:30-31

Background Part 2

If you follow me on facebook, you probably already know a lot of the background that I am laying in these first few blog posts. Because I am using this blog as a sort of personal diary as well as a way to share our experiences with you, I felt it necessary to 'start at the beginning' and get everything in the correct sequence. So, in that vein, today I am going to re-post a note that I posted to my facebook page. This note should pretty well complete the process of 'summing up' the how's and why's of what Camille and I are up to. If you've already seen my notes on facebook, you probably already know this stuff, but it will help me 'flow' smoothly into future blog entries (I am already gathering my thoughts for tomorrow's). If you haven't yet read the two posts before this one, you may want to go back and start with them. Thanks for reading!

(re-posted from facebook):
OK, I guess the time has come to stop being cryptic and let everyone know what is going on with Camille and I. A lot of our friends and family know that we have been quite restless for some time, knowing that God has been leading us away from good 'ole Seaside, Oregon and on to a new chapter in our lives and our walk with Him. We've had plans to live and do business in parts of the world from Central America to Indonesia to the South Pacific to New Zealand and beyond. We actually almost purchased a restaurant in Tonga. My dad at one point resorted to asking other family members if they knew what our 'flavor of the month' was! Funny thing about God - He's really patient! And He's a gentleman - He'll wait quietly for you to settle down and come to the point where you ask Him what HE wants and then actually listen for His answer. It took us a while, but that's what we finally did. We listened.

Another funny thing about God is that a lot of times, when you learn what His will is you find out that the answer that you were looking for was right in front of you the whole time. For as long as we both can remember, we've felt drawn to Indonesia. I actually spent some time there in college and fell in love with the people and the beautiful landscape. The fact that Indo has the best waves on the planet doesn't hurt its case, either! In the last couple of years, we have been able to renew a wonderful friendship with my good friend John Taylor and his wife Korie. John and I were buddies in college and now he and Korie are missionaries in Java. Spending time with the Taylors only helped Camille and I become more and more stoked about Indonesia. We have had a plan for a couple of years now to come up with a way to spend at least a couple of months a year in Indo with them, helping in any way that we can.

As we wandered all over the map with our plans to leave Seaside, our hearts kept coming back to Indonesia, particularly Bali. One day, as we were planning a trip to Tonga and New Zealand to look at a couple of business opportunities, we woke up in the morning and for no apparent reason started to look back into Bali for the umpteenth time. As we started to get more excited about Bali, the light came on. We had been looking at all of these business opportunities in all of these different places with the intent of making it easier to spend time in Indo. Maybe God just wanted us in Indo, period! We had been putting our needs (money, business) first and His will second. Maybe Bali wasn't a ‘part time’ gig for us. Maybe it was time to start putting God’s will before our needs and trust that if He wanted us in Indonesia, He would figure out a way to let us stay. That morning we made the decision that we would just go and we would let Him work out the details.

Two days later, God held up His part of the deal. My mother called me and told me about a friend of a friend who had just started a beautiful Christian children’s home for orphans in Bali. She thought that this may be the answer we were seeking. I immediately got on their website and knew in my heart that this is where Camille and I were supposed to be. I got off the phone with my mom and called Camille into the office to check out the website. When she walked in she almost freaked out. You see, the whole time I had been talking to my mom, she had no idea what we were talking about and had been in another room on the internet trying to find an orphanage in Bali that could use our help!

Long story short – the people who built the children’s home live up in the Everett, Washington area about ten minutes from my parents. I called them that day and told them we wanted to come to Bali and help, long-term. Kim, the director, completely freaked out because she and her husband Brian had just right then been discussing the great need for an American couple to go live at the home and help the children learn English! Can you see a pattern here? Camille and I went up to Washington last week and met with them in person and started working out the details for us to come and live in Bali!

So – now for the important stuff. The name of the home is My Father’s Home. It is located in Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia. This last April, 36 beautiful little ones, ages 6-9 came to live in this amazing complex. It's not an ‘orphanage’ in the traditional sense because of the simple reason that none of the kids are up for adoption. These children are the poorest of the poor. They’ve been abused, neglected, malnourished and forgotten about. My Father’s Home is now their home. The staff are committed to loving them, educating them, nurturing them, raising them to love Jesus and seeing them through to college, where they will be educated and hopefully return to their villages as doctors, nurses, pastors, teachers, dentists, civil servants, etc. who have the tools and the heart to change their homeland. This concept is not new and has seen great success in other areas of the world. The kids' stories up to this point are heartbreaking. Their future is exciting and bright. Camille and I hope to be a part of it.

The website for My Father’s Home is www.myfathershome.net – please check it out. You’ll be glad that you did (although you may want to grab a box of Kleenex first). Camille and I are planning on leaving this November. At this point we don’t know how long we will stay. We only know that we are supposed to go. That’s the exciting thing about following God – although He knows the big picture, He only lets you know the next step. You have to keep trusting Him to find out the next one. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our next step is to go to My Father’s Home and help love 36 boys and girls. God will show us the step after that when the time comes!

There is a lot that Camille and I will be actually doing there, and I will write about that in more detail later. For those of you who don’t really ‘get’ all of this ‘God stuff’, I especially encourage you to follow our progress. Hopefully I’ll be able convey honestly and accurately the unreal peace that comes with knowing Him and being right where He wants you to be. I won’t get preachy, I promise – I’ll just honestly put my experiences into words and let you come to your own conclusions.

For those of you who pray, Camille and I could sure use your prayers now. So could 36 beautiful kids and the staff who will be their family!

Thanks for joining us on this adventure. Like I've said in an earlier post - we're not selling anything here, except for love. We want you to watch first-hand as we act upon the love that our Creator has placed in our hearts. Hopefully you'll be inspired to act on love's behalf as well.

A Little Background...

I guess the best way to begin this new blog adventure is to start at the beginning. Not the beginning of time, but...never mind. A lot of people have read my other blogs and know a bit of background on Camille and I. I'll give you a brief rundown here so that we can make this whole process orderly (very unlike the office I am sitting in while I type this).

Camille and I were married in September 2006. Without trying to be too cheesy, I'll just say that it really was a match made in Heaven. If we had met on eHarmony, I'm pretty sure that the CEO of the company would have flown out to personally introduce us. We really couldn't be any more compatible. I'd never been a big subscriber to the 'one true love' idea - until I met Camille. God pretty much gave us all of the same interests, personality traits, you name it. I'll just conclude that we are VERY happily married!

For the past fifteen years or so, I have made my living as a commercial helicopter pilot. I'm another person you know who has never used his college degree for even one day. However, an indirect consequence of that college degree was that I have known for the past two decades that God has something bigger for me than just being a glorified taxi-cab driver. My degree is in ministry, specifically missions work and anthropology. At nineteen years old, I had my first taste of sharing Christ with others of another culture when I went on a summer trip to the Soviet Union (yes, it was still the U.S.S.R. back then). The next summer I travelled with my professor to his former 'stomping grounds' in Indonesia. In the jungles of Paupa New Guinea, I realized that I would never be satisfied staying in the good 'ole U. S. of A. and leading a normal, 9-to-5 life. The excitement and satisfaction of helping someone who REALLY needed help and being able to show our Creator's love to them was just too much to walk away from.

After college, I joined the Army to become a helicopter pilot. My mentors had impressed upon me the great need for missionary pilots and I figured that I would let Uncle Sam pay for my training. As I'm sure you are all painfully aware - life happens. I got to see the world as a pilot, for sure...and get shot at while doing it! I had some fun years living in Europe and seeing a lot of the world, some on purpose and some not. As my commitment to the Army became close to becoming fulfilled, I started to become disillusioned with the lack of leadership and general disorganization of our military and decided to throw in the towel. Little did I know how much God's hand was in this - I exited the Army exactly two weeks before September 11, 2001! I'll just say that my prayers go out to all of the families of my friends and fellow pilots and crew members who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since that fateful day. There are so many of them...

I won't go into a lot of personal detail here, but when I left the Army, I ended up back in the Seattle area and eventually went to work in Astoria, Oregon flying for the Columbia River Bar Pilots. It was pretty much the most dangerous helicopter job on the planet...and the most fun! Plus, I love living on the Oregon Coast because the surf is great here and I get to do it almost every day. All this time however, those closest to me were wondering if I remembered that I had business elsewhere on this planet. I spent a few years recovering from some incredible tragedies and bonafide hurts that I won't go into here and generally pleasing myself. Inside, I knew the whole time that God was about to do something big - if I would just listen.

The first big thing that He did was bring me to Camille. The next big thing was to 'pull the rug out' from beneath us! Remembering my promise not to get too 'preachy', let me digress here for one second. I'm a Christian (I hope that much is obvious). One of the big enemies of being a Christian is simply being comfortable. I don't mean that we should all go join an ascetic monestary and spend our days saying 'Hail Mary's' while we walk over broken glass and flog ourselves. It's just that Camille and I have known for a while that living in Seaside, OR was always only supposed to be a temporary gig. The problem was that we were comfortable. We make enough money. We enjoy our jobs (mostly). We live in a nice house. We have plenty of free time for surfing. Life has been...comfortable. That was all about to change.

I'll make this short - a few years back on a routine FAA Flight Physical, I found out that I had a heart murmur. One test led to another and we quickly discovered that I was born with a defective aortic valve in my heart that would eventually need to be replaced. Well - 'eventually' ended up being a lot sooner than we thought. This past April, I underwent open-heart surgery and had a shiny new carbon-fiber valve put in my heart. Through it all, God's hand was guiding the process. Example: One of my closest friends who I had known for years before I knew anything about my heart condition is the leading surgeon at installing these new valves. I got to have my heart fixed by not only the best in the business, but by one of my best friends who loved me through the whole process! I've said it before and I'll say it again - our Creator can be trusted.

In the meantime, I temporarily lost my FAA Medical License to fly. After heart surgery, a pilot is 'grounded' for six months, and after these six months can then re-apply to get their Medical License back. The re-application process can take several months as well, so after surgery, I was looking at being out of work for close to a year. My boss assured me that my job would be there for me when I could return, but didn't exactly follow thought on that little promise. Long story short - I was permanently replaced while I was still in the hospital! I guess I should have been angry when I found out about this - but I immediately felt a peace that I cannot describe. Camille and I looked at each other and right then I think we both knew that this was meant to be. I said, 'Honey, we're pretty comfortable here aren't we?' She agreed and the realization sunk in that God was 'pushing us out of the nest'. We had talked for a couple of years about wanting to spend time in Indonesia and other places helping the less fortunate and spreading His love. We both had to admit that if things had continued as 'comfortably' as they had been, we may never had pursued those dreams.

Which leads me into my next blog entry. For the past few months, Camille and I have struggled to discover just what and where our ‘next step’ will be. Through a series of nothing-short-of-miraculous circumstances, we have found that step and this blog will be the diary of what happens next!

To be continued…

True Religion

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." The Bible, James 1:27 (NIV)


July 30, 2009

Selamat Malam!

That's 'Good Evening' in Indonesian. It's evening here a world away in Oregon, USA. Today I sat in the Pacific Ocean on my surfboard and tried to will time to speed up...just a few months, that's all I was asking for. Tomorrow is the last day of July. That means we have three months left here in the cold waters of Oregon. As my feet slowly turned into blocks of ice inside of my wetsuit booties, I imagined myself in the warm waters of Bali, catching fun waves that break off of beautiful reefs. I thought of surfing in just my boardshorts and I have to admit that as I watched my beautiful wife surf, I daydreamed about how much better she looks in a bikini than in a 6-millimeter thick wetsuit!

But most of all I thought about 36 kids. 36 little ones who, until last April, had never heard someone say 'I Love You'. 36 precious little lives who had to be taught how to hug and kiss because no one had ever shown them affection. 36 children of God who spent the first 6 to 9 years of their lives being abused, neglected and forgotten. 36 kids who now have a home, a family and a future. 36 kids...kids that Camille and I are about to have the privilege of living with and serving.

This November, we are leaving our home in Oregon and moving to Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia to work in My Father's Home orphanage. My Father's home is not an orphanage in the traditional sense - none of the kids are up for adoption. The concept is not new and it is simply beautiful - all 36 kids will be raised in My Father's Home in a stable, Christ-centered environment where they will be loved as one big family, educated and eventually sent to college, hopefully returning to their villages in Bali and Sumba as doctors, nurses, pastors, teachers, engineers...you get the picture...with the skills and the heart to change their communities.

It's been quite a journey that has brought Camille and I to this point of being willing to 'throw it all away', move to the opposite side of the planet and invest in the lives of children we've never even met (except for a video call on Skype - Skype rules). This blog is going to serve as a sort of diary of our adventures in...for lack of a better term: reckless love. After this 'introductory' blog entry, I will attempt in my next entries to start at the beginning and chronicle our saga in order from the start. As the time nears for us to leave, I will be able to share our thoughts and excitement with you. But the real good stuff will start in November when we arrive in Bali and meet the kids face-to-face. I'm thinking that once you join us for this ride, you're not ever going to want to get off!

Anyone who's read any of my blogging in the past will know that I also like to share my daily, often humorous, experiences and relate what I learned through them. That will also be the case with this blog. Hopefully I can make you laugh a little, cry a little and be generally glad that you spent a few minutes of your precious time inside of my brain. Mostly, I hope to share with you how we can all help save the world - one child at a time.

For my friends and family and all of my facebook friends - you already know why I am not blogging under my given name. It's the same 'ole me, though! I still love to do things that scare my mom, I still manage to stumble into the weirdest situations on an almost daily basis, I still laugh when the ocean is doing it's best to drown me, I still cry every time I see the Tom's Shoes Visa commercial where they are giving shoes away to needy kids. I just have a new blogger name, that's all! Just so you know - it's a combination of names from my two favorite athletes of all time: pro surfer and 9-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater and Olympic Champion/World Cup Champion downhill skier Pirmin Zurbriggen.

Thanks so much for taking the time to follow this blog. I'm not trying to sell you anything, except love. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, except love. I'm not trying to promote anything, except love. I'm not 'tooting anyone's horn', except love's. God loved us so much that He died for us. Really. That includes 36 kids in Bali. That includes me. That includes you. We're all in this together. All that is asked of us is that we pass it on (Galatians 5:14). Camille and I are heading out to pass it on, and we invite you to follow along!