Update 9/30/11

Me and my old high school
friends Amy, Bob, and Twila.

September has been sort of milestone month for me. Namely, the 27th marked my 50th birthday. I remember as a kid trying to imagine being 50 and trying to calculate what year it would be when turned fifty. I remember watching the old 1970 Charleton Heston classic movie, “Planet of the Apes.” I wondered about the idea of me turning fifty. It was so far in the future that surely the scenario in the movie would come true before I turned half a century!

Happily the planet was not overrun by apes in the early 21^st century. Instead, Linda conspired with several of my life-long best friends to surprise me for the weekend prior. We showed up at my folk’s house to drop the kids and the dogs. She had me believing we were going to a B&B for a weekend together (she’s so sneaky). Apparently my folks house in Hartsville WAS the B&B. We had a great weekend. She totally had the drop on me.

Viloetta, Arthur, and Masha
at the orphanage

The team continues to prepare for the December mission. We meet every Monday night to discuss plans for lessons, kick around ideas for crafts and gifts and spend some time in prayer over the work to be done. Tom Zvirgzds has been teaching us the Russian language for which we are eternally grateful. Linda and Christy are slowly getting it. I am finally beginning to understand verb forms and personal pronouns. And refresh my memory on vocabulary.

Funding for the December trip is a little slow, but getting there. The team is working diligently to raise awareness of the need for support. Plans for lessons are coming together week by week. Linda nd Christy are coming up with great ideas.

Arthur Kazaryan (YouthReach International) traveled to Simferopol on the 28th. He arrived the next day to provide a September birthday program at the children’s home. Many of our mentors joined him including, Nastya Skovorodnykova, Violetta Alimova, Masha Yermachnkova, Sasha Lifintseva, Anya Goliakova and Vika Vdovichenko. It was great to have nearly all our mentors back in one place. They brought several new friends with them. Arthur took plenty of photos (See photo album SeptemberBirthday Program - 2011).

Anya and Aida

Anya and Vika have returned to Simferopol after a one year internship program at Disney in the U.S. Anya has a new job teaching English at the Central Orphanage in Simferopol. Vika is volunteering with a local Christian student outreach organization and seeking funding. See the link to her blog, “Jesus Inside”, at the right.

Fatyma Ametova was visiting with friends from Kentucky.

One of our mentors, Nastya Dudenichenko, is now in Germany working as an au pair. Please add her to your prayers as she adjusts to life in that country and a new job.

Kids from Feodosia

Masha Yermachenkova sent a photo from the orphanage in Feodosia.

Please continue to pray that our needs are met, that plans will continue to come together, soil will be prepared, and lives will be changed. As always please keep our mentors: Nastya S, Nastya D, Masha, Violetta, Fatyma, Anya, Vika, Sasha in your prayers

To donate to the December mission team, visit our team funding website:

http://www.youthreach.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=993793&lis=1&kntae993793=6A212B4006364A1AA3161C608D14FB62&supId=0&team=4826230&cj=Y

Peace and grace.

Joel

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Originally posted on August 3, 2009 as  "Like a Misty Dawn"

"Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you,..." Colossians 3:13 

So what can be said about forgiveness? It is such a gray subject. It is often difficult to see how some actions can be forgiven. Accidents, mistakes, blunders, and sometimes bad choices, even stupidity is at the top of my list of easy things to forgive. 

Betrayal, cruelty, deception, and coercion (among other things) … Those are the things that are at the top of my other list… the list of things more difficult to forgive.

All in all, I find it pretty easy to forgive. Although, I admit that I have a grudge or two that I continue to work on. Sometimes forgiving is as easy as forgetting…sometimes.

We all have histories that need forgiving; skeletons that need forgetting. We’ve all been blind-sided by events that left us staggering back on our heels nearly tumbling over in disbelief.

On those days, truth comes at us like a misty dawn and reveals what was covered by darkness and grayness of the night before, retreating in the growing light of a new day. It is a painful day; sometimes a cruel day. Hurt like none we can ever imagine. We bleed like we’ve never bled or thought that we ever could. 

With the day comes a "gut-punch" leaving us dizzy and wretching. Sometimes the day brings so much anger we see stars appear and burst like bubbles before our eyes leaving our heads pounding, our stomachs turned upside-down, and our ears deafened by the roaring of our blood boiling.

So what can be said about forgiveness? Is it given flippantly without care or concern? Sometimes it is. Sometimes we hide behind forgiveness because it’s more difficult to confront those who left us burning in a heap after the crash.

Forgiveness, though it can be offered freely, still has a cost. In order to receive it, it requires one thing. It requires that we change.

Forgiveness leads to restoration. But for restoration to complete itself there must be accountability. There is a blessing in the asking... both for those asking and those being asked.

To be truly forgiven and to live in a restored relationship we must ask. It requires us to turnaround. It requires us change the very way we think, see, and treat others.

One more time… It requires changing the very way we think, see, and treat others.

After all, what good is forgiveness if there isn’t change? I can do the same thing over and over again without consequence. And yes, I can forgive the same person again and again, and again. I’ll continue forgiving “Seventy times seven” times. That’s four hundred and ninety times, in fact.

We can forgive. We can be forgiven. That’s easy. What’s hard is paying the price. When we are treated badly by others, we don’t like it. Here’s a newsflash…God doesn’t like it either! But he forgives us anyway. The only thing required of us is change.

Like a day that begins with a misty dawn that changes into a new day, undefined by the grayness of the night before. It can be something new all of its own; separate from it’s relationship to the night...full of light and life.

143 Million orphans worldwide …you can help.

TEAMSIM

Mission to Simferopol, Ukraine

Team update

Dear family & friends,

According to UNICEF, it is estimated that there are over 143 million orphans worldwide. An orphan, by definition, is a child who has lost one or both parents. Add to that number the millions of social orphans and abandoned children.

Seems over-whelming doesn't it? Almost immobilizes you, right? The numbers are too big to imagine. Seems like a problem that's so big it can't be fixed.

You might even ask yourself, "What can I do? How can I make a difference?" Well, just keep reading….

During the last six years I’ve been partnering with YouthReach International and  traveling to Ukraine to minster to orphans and abandoned children. I've witnessed ONE CRITICAL MISSING ELEMENT in their lives — RELATIONSHIP!

For them, relationship means the difference between life and death; between hope and hopelessness.

In Ukraine, at the young age of 16-17, children "age out" of the orphanage system. Every year during the spring following their 16^th or 17^th birthday, teenagers are ceremoniously turned out on the street with “great pomp”.

Some of these kids won't survive to see the next summer because they will choose to end their own lives out of despair. Many will be homeless, jobless, helpless, hopeless, unskilled and unprepared for life with no one to turn to. Most will be addicted, prostituted, turn to crime, go to jail, or become a statistic in the human-trafficking industry. Many will die from exposure, disease, violence, or suicide before age 21.

As you may already know, I'll be leading a mission team this December and we'll be returning to Simferopol, Crimea in Ukraine. My wife Linda and I, along with Christy Blazer, are currently preparing to depart on December 1, 2011.

Imagine a child who has no family with which to celebrate the holidays. Imagine no gifts or Christmas treats. Imagine there is no one to share the story of Christ' miraculous birth on a cold winter's night. Our mission is to teach and provide life-giving relationship to 50 or so children in a day camp setting living in a local children's home.

Our goal is to continue the work we began 4 years ago in developing and maintaining relationships with institutionalized orphaned and abandoned children in Simferopol, Crimea. We will partner with local Ukrainian Christians we call 12-3-1 Mentors. We work together to share the story of our hope in Jesus Christ and connect them with a local young adult mentor who speaks their language. Our team mentors will continue teaching and discipling our kids throughout the year.

Help us share the story of salvation and bring hope to the hopeless. Help us bring relationship into the lives of children who desperately need your help.

We currently have travel costs of $2700 and mentor costs of $900 totaling $3600. We will host a holiday party and provide each child with an age-appropriate Bible of their own and a gift bag (see “Support a Child at camp” below).

Funding Deadlines:

$1800 (50%) due Sept 30

$1800 (100%) due Oct 31

To donate securely on-line: visit our funding website hosted by Blackbaud. Click the link or copy/paste the URL into your browser.

http://www.youthreach.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=993793&lis=0&kntae993793=179E92BE63D54C4EB948E4BB29A09B80&supId=0&team=4826230&cj=Y

Find the list of names on the right and click the name of the team member you wish to support. You may also click “General Team Donation.”

To support a child at camp (Check Only): Make a check payable to Donelson Church of Christ. Attach a note stating Ukraine Winter Camp Child Sponsorship. Individuals, families, classes or study groups can support each of our 50 children at winter camp for just$20/child. Your donation will cover art/craft supplies as well as a Christmas gift bag for each child. Mail checks to: Joel & Linda Butts, 2221 June Drive, Nashville, TN  37214.

Thanks for prayerfully considering supporting our effort.

Peace and Grace,

Joel

A Message from Linda

with YouthReach International

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.

James 1:27

After six years of putting Joel on an airplane and sending him overseas to work with orphans, God put it on my heart to join him this December.

I take this leap of faith because of what I don't have control over.  I don't know where all the funding will come from.  I don't know what kind of reception I will get from the children.  I don't know how I will handle all the traveling. I have to leave what I do in God's hand, and I don't know how God will use me.

What I do know is he "adopted" me as his own which means I was a spiritual orphan.  We've been studying on Sunday mornings to "be the church" which is the Body of Christ, so, I am going as his hands and feet to do
his will.

I'm asking for prayers that all will be done for His glory.

I have travel costs of $2700 and mentor costs of $900 totaling $3600. We will be working and sharing the hope of Christ with 50 or so orphans in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine.  We will host a holiday party and provide them with a gift (see “Support a Child at camp” below). 

Funding Deadlines: $1800 (50%) due Sept 30 / remaining $1800 (100%) due Oct 31.

Donate Online (Secure): TeamSim Funding Website
Click:
- Current Teams (on the left)
- Team Funding Pages
- Sponsor a Team Member
- Enter a team member name in the fields

Support a child at camp: Make this check payable to Donelson Church of Christ. Attach a note stating Ukraine Winter Camp Child Sponsorship. Individuals, families, classes or study groups can support each of our 50 children at winter camp for just$20/child. Your donation will cover art/craft supplies as well as a Christmas gift bag for each child. Mail checks to: Linda Butts, 2221 June Drive, Nashville, TN  37214.

Blessings and many thanks.

Linda

For He chose us . . . he predestined us to be adopted as his sons . . . Ephesians 1:4

Help TeamSim impact the lives of orphans in Ukraine this December.

To donate securely online got to:

http://www.youthreach.org/2011Q4missions/teamsim-dec2011

Dear friends and family,

First, I want to say “THANK YOU!” for supporting me and each member of the team through prayer, physical resources, and gifts of support as we reach out and minister to orphans and at-risk children in Ukraine each year.

The team’s performance this past June was outstanding. All of our spiritual, mental, physical and financial preparation is paying off as children respond positively to the good news of the love of Christ.

I will be leading a team to Simferopol, Ukraine this December, 2011 for a Winter Camp at the same children’s home. Our team will be representing Donelson Church of Christ and YouthReach International to many of the same children we’ve been blessed to know and love. 

I’m overjoyed that my wife, Linda, will be going. This will be her first time to visit Ukraine. She has lots of experience in children’s ministry and education. I can’t wait to see her in action and see how these kids touch her heart. I know she’s going to fall in love with these kids the way I have. 

Your contribution will help us bless these children with an experience that can impact them eternally. Alongside our in-country 12-3-1 Mentors, we will care for these orphans, model the love of Jesus, demonstrate the Kingdom of God, and introduce them to their mentors. With each trip we become stronger as a team and gain more experience in reaching children and others for Christ. 

Many of our kids rarely share their personal stories. But this summer, several of them shared their stories with us. One girl acknowledged God’s provision by saying, “I am glad to be here. I thank God for provided a safe place to live by bringing me here. I have food, clothes, shelter, good teachers, and friends. My parents put me in danger because of the way they lived. Now I am safe.” 

Several children shared with us how their lives were impacted through our Bible and life lessons. One child said she learned she should not compromise her values under peer pressure. She said, “I will put up personal guardrails to prevent bad decisions in my life from now on.”

Your support is critical. By doing so you are helping to prepare the soil of the next generation for kingdom expansion. Thank you for partnering with us! Please continue to help us impact and change lives forever!

Our mission will be to:

- Share the story of Jesus Christ to nearly 50 orphaned children at Christmas time.

- Foster and nurture loving, caring, and mentoring relationships between our 12-3-1 Mentors and the children.

- Transform thinking by teaching kids about the Spirit’s life-changing power in Romans 12:2.

- Provide Christmas gift packages of toys, goodies, and personal items. 

How you can help: 

We are investing $275 (min.) in personal funds toward the cost of our trip. 

Each person must raise $3600. Funds cover travel, room/board, and support our 12-3-1 Mentors.

Funding Deadlines: $1800 (50%) due Sept. 30 / remaining $1800 (100%) due by Oct. 31.

 To support us:

Donate Online (Secure):  http://www.youthreach.org/2011Q4missions/teamsim-dec2011

Click > Current Teams (on the left). 

         > Team Funding Pages

         > Sponsor a Team Member

         > Enter a team member name in the fileds

Donate By Check:

> Support a team member - Make a check payable to YouthReach International. Attach a note with the name of the person you wish to support to the check.

>  Support a child at camp: Make this check payable to Donelson Church of Christ. Attach a note stating Ukraine Winter Camp Child Sponsorship. Individuals, families, classes or study groups can support each of our 50 children at winter camp for just $20/child. Your donation will cover art/craft supplies as well as a Christmas gift bag for each child.

Mail it to: 2221 June Drive, Nashville TN, 37214.

Peace and grace.  ~Joel