God, David Copperifield, Corvettes and Orphans

Does anyone remember David Copperfield? He was an illusionist who used to do some crazy stuff, like make airplanes and the Statue of Liberty disappear. I remember watching him on TV as a kid and being mesmerized by his stunts. Of course, it's TV so you figured it was all done with mirrors and camera tricks, but it still sucked you in. He had these crazy eyes that made you wonder if maybe he had some kind of supernatural powers. Of course, he didn't. He was just a dude wearing funny clothes, hamming it up for the cameras. Impressive nonetheless.

Copperfield did some amazing things. However, not even his greatest stunts matched something I saw God do recently. Who else but God could take a beautiful, fire engine red, 1975 Corvette and turn it into an acre of land in Africa? Now that is amazing!

Not long ago a gentleman approached me to tell me that he wanted to donate his beautiful red corvette to the church to be used for one of our "crazy love projects". A crazy love project is something that we do to be a blessing to someone in need. Whether it is repairing someone's home here in the U.S. or building a home for someone in Guatemala, this is our way of letting people know that Jesus loves them, with no strings attached.

So we all prayed that God would use the finances from the sale of the car to do something crazy to show His love to someone in need.

It wasn't long after that when we connected with Jeff and Lucy Osborne, missionaries to Kenya. They shared with us about a young pastor (Samson Kiriinya) who was feeding some needy children in an impoverished area called Taveta. Some of the children are orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS, while others are just victims of poverty. Samson and his small congregation took it upon themselves to try to help these children.

A few months ago I had the privilege of going to Africa with some other men to visit Jeff, Lucy and pastor Samson, and to see the work first hand. It's hard to explain abject poverty. It is one thing to hear about poverty and see pictures, but when you actually meet the people who are living like this, it changes everything. It is then that you realize that poverty has a name, a face and a smile. It is then that your heart breaks and you realize that God's heart breaks as well.

After some inquiry we found out that we could buy a piece of property to build a feeding/educational/activity center for these children for about the same amount of money that we could get from selling the Corvette that was donated. So that's what we decided to do.

When we returned to the States, we shared this story with the people at Journey. At the end of the service a gentlemen approached me to let me know that God had put it on his heart to donate the finances to help build the facility for these children. I was almost speechless.

Only God can turn a shiny red Corvette into a piece of property that will one day house a facility that will change the lives of countless children for generations to come.

This is one amazing journey!