Cherry On Top

Lately it seems my daughter Emily is growing up at an exponential rate. Seems just not too long ago we were having tea parties in her room. No, I didn’t have to dress up. But poor Teddy-teddy and the others did. I remember playing a Winnie-the-Pooh game similar to musical chairs.

Emily and her friend Lexi @ Keith Urban concert.
It was Emily's 16th birthday.

I can’t mention here all of the ways she makes me proud. It’s a thousand ways every day. My son Ethan too…but that’s a different subject for a different day.

Nowadays she’s all about studying, friends, and lately, dances.Dances. Yeah. High school homecoming in particular.

I am oblivious to the weeks of preparation, ordering, shopping, etc required until a some crisis comes along. Take women’s shoes for example. Now, I’m not real proud of this but I seem to have had the knack for finding the right women’s shoe for this occasion.

At home, I sort of sit by like a piece of furniture trying to stay out of the way while she and Linda are searching on-line for the perfect dress. I watch as stress-levels max out when it hasn’t arrived the day of the dance - discover it’s lost in shipping. They rush out to buy a replacement and arrive home to find the original in the mailbox while they were out. The Crisis shifts from “What am I going to wear?” to Which ONE am I going to wear?”

Homecoming 2012 - the gratuitous
photo with dad

But the joy I get out of this is waiting in my chair in the living room when she emerges from her bedroom. It really leaves me breathless is that my little girl is so stunningly beautiful. God is changing her before our very eyes.

The other joy I had was picking her up afterward. Don’t get me wrong, it was full of similar stresses as preparing for the dance such as “Post-dance parental pick-up traffic” and “finding each other in the parking lot by cell phone”.

We didn’t say much. But I relished the 10-minutes just riding in the car with her all decked out in her new dress, hair, make-up, shoes and all.

So, I’ve been thinking. Recently I started reading the One-Year Bible. I’m just getting started so you can as you can guess I’m reading a lot of the Book of Genesis. In reading the creation story I came to the part about God creating Eve.

As I read I got the idea that God’s creation is sort of like an ice cream sundae. You take an empty bowl (a void) and you fill it up with all kinds of good stuff! Scoops of different flavors of ice cream, top it with chocolate, butterscotch, caramel, fruit and nuts (Ok, you can skip the nuts if you like) then whipped cream, and on the pinnacle of the sumptuous heap of ice cream….a …bright…shining…cherry.

Like an epic symphony building, building, BUILDING until the crash of the final….wait scratch that...the final “TING”…of the triangle. The perfect endnote.

So this is what Eve is like; the cherry on top; the final “ting” at the end of the symphony.

This is what I hope us guys remember; us men, boys, boyfriends, dads, husbands, brothers, sons. Let’s all remember that they; women, girls, girlfriends, moms, wives, and sisters are the final note in the masterpiece, the crescendo of all that is good..

I hope I can remember always that the women in my life represent the pinnacle of creation and that I can treat them as such.

The cherry on top.

YouthReach International 

ORPHAN OUTREACH OPPORTUNITY

UKRAINE - JUNE 2012

TeamSim is currently seeking volunteers (high school juniors +) to join it’s Nashville area Orphan Outreach Team for it's June2012 trip. 

The team will travel to Simferopol, Ukraine leading a short-term outreach ministry for institutionalized orphans and at-risk children. 

The team will  host a 10-12 day Bible camp and outreach for children  in two orphanages, ranging in age of the children range from 5-17. 

YouthReach International volunteer team-leader Joel Butts has been leading local Nashville area teams to Ukraine since 2006.

The team will be comprised of 4-6 US members and the same or greater number of local English-speaking Ukrainian Christians called “12-3-1 Mentors.” YouthReach Int’l uses Jesus’ biblical model of discipling: he led 12, drew close to 3, and loved 1. 

Team and mentors use this model to teach and disciple children. Mentors continue the ministry to long after US team members return home by regularly visiting the children. In this way, life-changing relationships are cultivated and grown. US team members in turn communicate with mentors to provide encouragement, prayer support, and edification throughout the year .

Proposed trip dates: June 5-19 or June 12-26

YouthReach will select the best option as fundraising is completed and plans are more firm.

Registration (due January 27): Online - $250 deposit and completed forms required

Funding: Each team member must raise $3350

- 50% of funds are due by March 1* 

- 100% of funds are due by April 15*

*missed deadlines could mean removal from team. Donations are non-refundable.

Mentors funding support: The US team is responsible for raising support for it’s mentors ($450/mentor). The individual funding amount above includes funding for one mentor per US team member. Typically a 1.5 or 2-to-1 mentor-to-US member is preferred. Additional fundraising for extra mentors will be determined as mentor prospects are identified.

Team Meetings will begin first week of February.

Contact Joel for requirements and more information:

615-429-3320 / prophet1961@bellsouth.net

http://facebook.com/joel.butts.1961

For more information, visit: www.Youthreach.org

"Praise God" for all of man's ingenuity and technology.

Me and Alexey

What an awesome morning!

I coudn't sleep after 630 or so. So, I got up. As usual I first went to the computer and started my daily routine of signing in to all the various social networks email accounts, blogs, etc.

I had recently signed up on a social network called "vkontakte.ru" (vK.ru). It's sort of a eastern European Facebook. Many of our orphan outreach team's Ukrainian members are there. I can easily communicate with them in English (as they speak the language or several languages fluently).

Usually, if I communicate with kids it is through our team mentors (90% of the time). My Russian is "ochen ploho!"... very bad. I am so thankful for our mentors and the way they serve these children by helping us to teach and communicate. Mostly, i'm thankful for their patience with my poor language skills. Without complaining they take the time to translate and correct my English into Russian.

However, on vK.ru, I also found several of the kids that we spend time with each summer and December.

So this morning I added a few of the recent "graduates" - these are 16-17 year-olds that are typically in a trade school.

I found my friend Alexey and added him to my friend list. Within just a few moments I hear a "clack". I got a message from him!

Now, my browser of choice is Google Chrome and I have Google Translate (GT) functioning in the background. In an instant I see the Russian become English! I quickly opened a new tab and clicked my link to GT. I tapped a message and copy/pasted it to reply to Alexey.

Then I asked, "Do you see my response in Russian or English?"

He responds..."Russian, of course. ???" Like, "Well duh!"

Like me, Alexey is
a goalkeeper also.

All I'm saying is "Praise God" for all of man's ingenuity and technology. He has made it possible for me to stay in contact with kids that I know and love 5,000 miles away! God is good. Always. All the time.












P.S. he wants to know when we are coming back. ;)

Dec. 2011 Camp Video

Slide/video compilation from our latest trip to minister the orphans at the Gorodskoi Children's Home in Simferopol, Crimea/Ukraine.

5 WAYS YOU CAN BECOME AN EVERYDAY HERO

(reposted from Michael Hyatt Leadership/http://michaelhyatt.com/)

It’s easy to underestimate the power of one person’s influence. We think, What can I do? I am only one person. Even when I was the CEO of a company I often felt this way.

The truth is that each of us wields far more power than we could possibly imagine. However, most of us have never discovered this—or we have forgotten it.

A few years ago, my wife Gail and I saw a powerful movie called Freedom Writers, starring Hillary Swank. It is based on the true story of Erin Gruwell, a rookie school teacher assigned to a tough, newly-integrated school in Long Beach. The students are mostly Black, Latino, and Asian gangbangers who hate her even more than they hate each other.

Everyone had given up on these kids—even the school. The teacher who hired her exhorts her to forget about educating these hoodlums. The most she can hope for is to teach them something about obedience and not get too involved.

Even her Dad, who had been a liberal activist, pleads with her to find a new job. Fortunately for her students, Erin doesn’t have enough experience to listen to “reason” or be so cynical.

Instead, she begins to listen to the students in a way that no one has ever listened to them before. She takes on a second job—and eventually, a third—so that she can buy them books, take them on field trips, and introduce them to Holocaust survivors. She doesn’t let a lack of resources keep her from doing the right thing.

She also teaches them about the power of writing. She introduces them to The Diary of Anne Frank and requires them to journal about their experiences. Through this simple exercise, their lives are radically changed.

This experience was another reminder that each of us has the power to change our world. We may think we are powerless, but we are not.

Power is simply the courage to confront evil, take a stand for what is right, and then act to make things different.

This is all that Erin did and look at the ripple effect—the lives of her students, the example to other teachers, a book, a movie, and the list goes on.

The movie really impacted both of us. I want to be more like Erin. I have more power than I sometimes give myself credit for.

So do you.

Here are five ways you can exercise it:

1. Stop ignoring the evil you encounter. The older I get, the easier it is to close my eyes to poverty, pain, injustice, and evil. I can order my life, so that I am never put in a position of seeing anything unpleasant. I can look without seeing. I’m continue to pray daily that “God gives me eyes to see and ears to hear.” You can’t be a change agent if you don’t perceive the needs around you.

2. Stop over-thinking your response to it. I have an author friend who has a policy about giving to homeless people. He told me, “Every time I used to encounter a homeless person, I would go through all kinds of mental gyrations. If I give money to this person, will they just use it to buy alcohol or drugs? Why don’t they just get a job? Maybe it would be better if I offered them some work rather than just give them money?”
Then he read the words of Matthew 5:42, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” He then decided to make a deal with God.

Now, whenever he encounters a homeless person or a beggar, he gives them all the cash in his pocket. Sometimes that’s two dollars. Sometimes it’s a hundred. Regardless, he decided to stop over-thinking it and start living the Gospel. The money he gives is his gift to God.

Frankly, I like his approach. I can come up with a thousand-and-one excuses why I shouldn’t get involved. I can way over-think my response. While I may not be able to do everything, I can do something. And something is usually better than nothing.

3. Stop complaining about your lack of resources. Erin couldn’t get the school to give books to her students. So, she got a second job and bought the books herself. The students wanted to bring Miep Gies, the Dutch woman whose family hid Anne Frank and her family, to the school to lecture. The school didn’t have the budget, so the students held a series of fund-raisers to come up with the money.
What’s my excuse? No matter what my station in life is, it’s easy to think I don’t have enough resources. My guess is that even Bill Gates feels inadequate in the face of the needs he encounters. Resources are never—and I mean never—the problem. The biggest challenge is simply my will to act.

4. Start asking, “What is the right thing to do?” Let’s face it. The world needs heroes. It needs people who will be courageous and act on principle. But where can we find such people? Maybe the answer is closer than we think. The truth is it can start—and must start—with us.
God has providentially put each of us exactly where we are. We need to ask, “Why am I here?” “What does God want me to do in this situation?” “What is the right thing to do?”

We need to be like Esther in the Bible who was in a very difficult situation. She had a very prominent social platform. She had everything to lose, including her life, if things didn’t go well. But her uncle reminded her saying, “you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

5. Be in the moment and act. I can’t afford to wait for my circumstances to be perfect. I will never have enough experience. I will never have the resources I need. I need to stop whining and just do it! Someone else is waiting for a hero. I may be the best opportunity they have. I may be their answer to prayer.
So, you may not be able to help everyone. But you can help someone. You have more power than you can imagine.

If you haven’t seen Freedom Writers, I encourage you to do so. It will inspire you about the impact one person can have on the world.

Some of my favorite December trip photos from

Linda and Vika

Me and Yana

Arthur and Sasha in Saul's armor

King Arthur

Queen Sveta

Vika 

Akmed

Team Sim 12/2011

With Anya and Vika at the Central Internacht

Three old ladies

Nastya and Nastya

sasha and Kolya

Angelika and Sveta

Linda and I with Aida

My favorite "1"

Aida wanted a message written on her arm. (She's peeking)

Kolya, me, Akmed, and Sasha hangin.

Me and "Azhmed"

Violetta

Linda, Arthur and their group

I laughed so hard. Joseph's brothers roughing him him up.

Linda and her baby

Me and Violetta

Me and some of the group

Linda and Angelika

Nastya and some little ones

Me and Adile

Little ones

Akmed

zhora

Nastya's

Christy and Linda

Sasha and Sasha

Dear TeamSim friends:

The December 2011 team just returned from Simferopol a few days ago. What a blessing the trip was. My wife, Linda, joined me for the first time in this ministry. Along with Donelson Chuirch of Christ member Christy Blazer. Our 3-man team joined with some of our Ukrainian team members Anastasia (Nastya) Skovorodnykova, Sasha Lifentseva, Masha Yermochenkova, Violetta Alimova, and our dear friend and lead mentor Arthur Kazaryan. 

TeamSim - December 2011 (L-R: Nastya S., Joel, Linda, Sasha,
Christy, Masha, and Arthur Kazaryan.

Together we hosted as many as 42 orphaned children at the Simferopol City Children's Home (Gorodskoi Detskyi Dom) directed Mrs. Yelena Nabiyevna. We met each afternoon for a little over 2 hours. We taught lessons about the transforming power of God’s grace and love through Romans 12:2. We also played games and worked on crafts together.

Violetta with her kids

Stuck on the elevator

One of my "1's"

Nastya with some little ones.

We were blessed to see many of the same children that we have come to know and love at the children’s home. Hugs were being given everywhere as the unconditional love of Christ overflowed onto the children and staff from our team and mentors.

Linda and Arthur with their group

In addition we spent several hours visiting some of our past team members, Anya Goliakova and Viktoria Vdovychencko, who are now on staff at the Simferopol Central Internacht for Girls. The government-run boarding school is for orphaned, abandoned and at-risk girls ages 5-17. We were able to meet with the director and secure an invitation to work with the children in that facility. Please keep Anya and Vika in your prayers. Weekly suicide attempt is a common event there. Anya and Vika have a monumental task in showing these girls their value in Christ. It was a blessing to pray over them as a team.

L-R: Linda, Joel, Anya G, Christy, Arthur, Vika

One highlight for me personally was hearing from my old friend Igor. He was 14 when we first met at Camp Satera in Alushta. He was incorrigible. Over the next few years, we worked at the Gvardiskoi Village orphanage where he lived. I saw a growing and maturing in Igor. He is now living and attending trade school in Kherson. He regularly talks with Nastya by phone. Ironically he often encourages her when she is struggling by telling her God will handle it. I was so blessed to talk with him by phone. Fatyma Alimova showed me a recent photo on her cell phone. He looks so grown up at 18. God has his hands on him.

Return trip planned: In June 2012 I’ll be leading a team to return to Simferopol to continue and expand the ministry there. The tentative plan is to depart in early June for a trip lasting 15 days. The team will plan to minister to children in two facilities: The Gorodskoi Children’s Home (Detskyi Dom) and the Central Internacht. The team recruiting goal is 6 team members with 6-8 mentors.

Basics:
Team recruiting goal: 6 members (US); 6-8 Mentors (UKR)
Tentative dates: June 5-19
Approx. Funding needed: $3200 (per person)
Funding deadlines:

- Initial deposit ($250) Jan 15

- 50% - March 15

- 100% - April 15

Please begin prayerfully considering joining the team. The deadline for joining is January 15. Team training begins Janauary 15.

Please contact me for more detailed information. We’ll hold an informational meeting in late December or early January of which I’ll communicate the exact date soon. In teh meantime. feel free to contact me anytime by phone, text, or email.

You CAN make a difference in the life of an abandoned or at-risk child, today. Join us. Change the way you see and think.

In Him.
Joel
Joel Butts
Orphan outreach ministry volunteer
and partner with Donelson Church of Christ
and YouthReach International

prophet1961@bellsouth.net
615-429-3320

Websites:
http://www.donelsonchurch.org
http://www.youthreach.org