kind of a big deal.

There is a ministry called Casa Viva that began working in Costa Rica in 2005.  Their goal was to change the way the country cared for orphans.  At that time, Costa Rica functioned similarly to the way Mexico currently works in regards to abandoned children.  Children whose parents are unable to care for them usually end up on the street or in an orphanage.  Casa Viva went to Costa Rica with the goal of placing children in families, rather than in institutions.  They do this by using the social network of Christian churches to identify and train families to bring abandoned children into their families.  In 8 short years, Casa Viva has closed almost all of the orphanages in Costa Rica.  Their model doesn’t rely on ongoing American funding and is nationally based-- making it a sustainable success.

Let me repeat that.  In 8 years, Casa Viva has closed almost all of the orphanages in Costa Rica. 

That is incredible.  Back2Back is hoping to learn from their model, and implement some of the same systems in Mexico.  As a ministry we have been meeting and talking with Casa Viva to learn how we can do this. 

The first step has been to educate and engage the local church in Mexico.  For the next two days Back2Back is hosting a Summit of the Orphan in Monterrey for church leaders from all over Mexico.  Our goal is to educate local Mexican churches on the orphan crisis occurring in their country, and to invite them to be part of the solution.  Currently we have over 350 people expected to come, and keynote speakers include Jedd Medefind, the president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, Steve Biondo, Vice President for Family Christian Bookstores, Marlene LeFever, author of the Children at Risk curriculum, Rob Mitchell, author of Castaway Kid, and Philip Aspegren, Executive Director of Casa Viva Costa Rica.  As a staff, we have been crying out to God in prayer to use this event by placing a burden on the hearts of Christians to get involved in the orphan crisis. 

Another barrier we have come up against is that currently Mexico does not have a foster care system in place.  The only option for abandoned children is an institution.  Back2Back has been meeting with national officials to try and change this.  Just last month, the Back2Back campus homes became the first official houses in Mexico to legally take in children as a form of foster care.  Incredible!

God is faithful to keep His promises.  Sometimes it is difficult for us to understand God’s faithfulness because we tend to be so unfaithful by nature.  Scripture even says “if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is” (2 Timothy 2:13). 

Today I am claiming God’s promise to place the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6).  It’s an exciting week for Back2Back and the entire country of Mexico.  Not everyone hopes to work themselves out of a job, but that is exactly what we are working to do.  

my God can set fire to water.

I don’t know about your experiences with God answering prayer, but when God answers my prayer, He usually doesn’t do it the way I think He should.  I say that in the most reverant way possible.  His answer is always better than whatever I think the answer should be, but usually that’s how He teaches me a thing or two. 

Lately I’ve gotten really good at knowing that God is a lot smarter than me, and His way is always best.  So whatever I ask for, I somewhat expect that He won’t give exactly what I am asking for, but I know He will give me something different that will end up being better.

Sometimes, but not always.

I mailed a package of letters from sponsors for kids to a Back2Back employee in Michigan back in January.  I can’t mail the letters to Mazatlan because of the unreliable postal service in Mexico, so this seemed like the best option to get them to the children.  Except when the postal service in the United States is unreliable too. 

The letters never arrived.  Let me rephrase that-- the letters disappeared without a trace.  I called the post office, tried tracking them down, and got no where.  I was so upset about losing them that I could barely talk about it.  For weeks I just accepted the fact that the children would never receive the letters their sponsors had written.  It broke my heart.  I knew the letters would mean so much to the children in Mazatlan—it was their first set of letters from sponsors since starting the Child Sponsorship Program there.  I’ve met these children, and I know how desperately they could use the encouragement.

Last week I had a chance to send another set of letters to the children in Mazatlan.  I decided the God of the universe knew where the lost package of letters were, and it was worth asking Him to get them back to me so I could send them down.  I began praying that they would show up.  At first, I quietly asked God to bring them back.  But then I felt prompted to tell the women in my office what I was asking of God.  It was almost laughable since it had been almost 2 months since I had seen them.  

There’s a story in the Bible about a prophet named Elijah who had a show down once with 450 prophets of Baal.  Essentially he told the prophets to call on their god to send down fire, and he would call on his God to send down fire, and they would see who’s God showed up.   The prophets of Baal danced around and shouted all day for Baal to send down fire, but no fire came.  Pressure was on, and Elijah NEEDED God to show up.  So do you know what he did?  Built an altar and POURED WATER ON IT.  He wanted to make sure there was no question that God Himself sent the fire.  Then he prayed.  

“Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).  Yep.

The God that set fire to wet wood and burned up water was the God that I was telling everyone in the office was going to bring the letters back to me by Friday, March 16 so that I could get them to Mazatlan in the next delivery.  

“Lord, you have until Friday!” I proclaimed aloud to the women around me.  We laughed a little, but I was serious.  “Lord, there is no reason why you shouldn’t answer this request,” I reasoned.

Friday morning came.  My coworker went to the post office, and came back holding the missing package.  They might as well have been signed and sealed by God Himself.

I will resist the temptation to explain how God doesn’t always answer prayers exactly how we want, and how we need to trust Him when He doesn’t.  Sometimes He DOES.  Sometimes He does exactly what we ask of Him.  Sometimes He waits until the very last moment to show up, just so we know that He is the one orchestrating things.  Sometimes He just likes to show off.  I like it when He does that.

a humble God.

My Bible study discussed the Trinity this past week, and worked hard to understand God being three, while still being one.  It’s frustrating to want to know God so much, but still be unable to grasp such a seemingly simple part of who He is.  One of the hardest parts for me to understand is how all three are equal when God the Father is sitting on the throne in Heaven, and seems to be at the top of the hierarchy.  How can one part of God be higher than the other two?  

As we were discussing, the Holy Spirit reminded me that God’s hierarchy is not like ours.  To God, the greatest is the least.  The Holy Spirit is always giving glory to Jesus, and Jesus always gave glory to the Father.  Each is too humble to even glorify himself (even though each is deserving in their own right).  By our standard, that would make the Holy Spirit the lowest, but by God’s standard, that makes the Holy Spirit the greatest.  Whoa.

Can you believe our God is a servant??  Do you understand how much humility that must require?  There’s something about this revelation that makes me want to be a humble servant like Him.  If the Creator of the universe can do it, surely I should be able to.  What have I created from nothing recently?

As I’ve pondered this the last few days, God has graciously shown me so many of His faithful servants practicing humility.  Most of them have been children Back2Back serves.  That's the kind of God He is-- He uses the foolish things of this earth to shame the wise (1 Cor. 1:27).  It just doesn't make sense without understanding who God is. 

I’ve seen statistics range anywhere from 5-9% for Mexicans who have a college degree or higher.   With Back2Back’s Hope Education Program, the children we serve have the opportunity to attend college and earn a degree.  We’ve had several students graduate with degrees in business, education, and social work.  As part of the top 10% of Mexicans in terms of education, these are young adults who have the world at their fingertips.  But do you know what many of them choose to do?  Serve.  Several have returned to be on staff with Back2Back.  Many work to improve children’s homes similar to the ones they grew up in.  And I can tell you, they’re not doing it for the money or the status.  They have answered God’s call to serve, knowing that whatever God is doing is far better than anything man is doing. 

And just this past week, the children at Casa Hogar Douglas held a car wash fundraiser for orphans in Haiti.  In a world screaming, “look out for yourself”, God tells us to serve others.  No human alive could convince children living in an orphanage to raise money for orphans in another country.  Only God could do that.  

Isn’t He wonderful?

"The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves." Luke 22:25-26