GO. BE. LOVE.

It was a few months back and Amanda, my boss, sent me this image of a team member in Uganda holding a child on a bench. She said "this needs to be on our website home page" and I proceeded to think of what the headline might read. And then it came to me. Go. Be. Love. I believe that came from the Lord. And that's exactly what we do on these trips. We GO outside our cities and beyond our comfort zones and when you leave your day to day busy, crazy schedules back home behind and you just BE in the moment and love on kids and you forget about all the things on your to do list and you just LOVE with all that you have and you see Jesus in those little faces and you get to be Jesus' hands and feet to little ones halfway across the globe. It's there that you see Jesus the most. You see Jesus all around you when you go and you break free from your everyday grind at home. You don't miss what God has for you or how God can use you to meet someone else's need. It's powerful. And quite honestly, you can't return home unchanged. Or at least you shouldn't be able to.

This weekend was spent with almost 80 people from around the US who are or who want to be Visiting Orphans team leaders. 80 people with a heart for the Lord and a passion to GO BE LOVE to the fatherless in this world and teach them about their father in heaven. They're willing to sacrifice time, money, and even leave their families for the 1 or 2 week trip to go. They're willing to lead conference calls and prayer meetings and organize activities and facilitate the schedule on the ground. They're the reason we can do what we do with over 50 trips a year! There's no way we could send that many teams without them. We only have 10 staff so there's literally no way we can go on all the teams. These leader volunteers go. They lead the charge. And we are so grateful! And I was so overwhelmed to see an entire room filled with 80 of them this weekend. The first night at the cookout meet n greet at the park - I was so taken aback that I literally started crying. To just have so many like-minded hearts all together with a common purpose - to live out James 1:27 - is completely amazing and inspiring! It was a lot of work getting ready for the event but the event itself didn't feel like work it all  - it recharged me so much to share and encourage and hear from these amazing people who are willing to get out of their comfort zones and go! It was the perfect weekend to charge me up even more to head to India. I leave Wed and I can't wait to see what God has for this small but mighty team!!! I'm thankful that I get to GO BE LOVE and that 80 others are joining with me in that and will lead the charge for teams in the coming year to love on the "least of these" around the world. If you want to join the charge - sign up for a trip - we have a ton on the calendar for 2012 and 2013 dates are already in the works. Get out of YOUR comfort zone and GO BE LOVE!!!!

www.visitingorphans.org


Check out or online store too - we now have GO. BE. LOVE. t-shirts:)