Mac Kelton is pictured with me above. The next picture shows the pastor of the Unity Christian Church that we worked with while in Belize City. His name is Earnest, and his beautiful daughter is Nikki. Earnest is such a complete picture of the love and joy that comes from Christ. When we were on our way to visit Corozal, I was driving slowly (ha) and had a flat. We prayed and a man stopped with the exact tool that we needed to change the flat on our van. He is pictured with me and his daughter and through the daughter's translation, realized that God brought us together! Hisname is Victor an he is a pastor of a church in Orange Walk. This pastor has been praying about meeting an American team that would be interested in working with a church and street kids! I am going to visit him in May of this year and look forward to seeing what God's plans are. Part of our team is pictured above and their beautiful smiles that are captured in this great picture depict their attitudes and joyful hearts while in Belize.

These are pictures from the 08 Belize mission trip. The team is standing on the front steps of the preschool that we worked on for a week. We loved the Belizean construction workers and two goals were accomplished. The team made the goals of : being different and being changed spiritually. At the end of the week, the supervisor told me that our team was different and every team member was forever changed. We grew closer to each other, closer to God, and closer to realizing that we are all equal. God used this trip to break barriers and to tear down walls for all of us personally. God stripped away prejudice and judegemental opinions and made us see all people through the eyes of Jesus. The colorful fruits and vegetables were a small glimpse into the colorful hearts of the people that lived there. The school pictured above with the concrete workers gives a glimpse into the kind of work that we did. We had a couple of youth nights and Matt King and Tripp Weir are pictured above during praise and worship. Belize is a precious and beautiful place and I am thankful for the relationships that are building with the Unity Christian Church and the Belize Project founded by Mac Kelton.

The story of Heal Ministries begins after Abby and Ericka and picks up in the Havanna slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Larry Warren (pictured with me and a Kikuyu lady below posing after the church dedication day) kept stressing to me something that I finally got when seeing this abandoned mom to the left with her two little boys. The only difference between me and her: our birthplace. God gave me a glimpse of my past with my two little boys, making me aware of how blessed I am. She lives in the middle of the slum with the sewage running through her home and she has nobody to help her. In America, we are blessed with family, friends, church community and more. We are called to help those that cannot help themselves. James 1:27 is the first verse that God used to form this ministry. God views this as pure religion: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress. Sometimes we are able to help others that have similar circumstances. This is what God has called me to do with Heal Ministries: to embrace orphans and widows all over the world and to partner with other ministries, organizations and the church bringing about awareness of those we are called to serve. We can offer the hope of Jesus Christ. While the biggest difference between the lady pictured in the slum (with her two little boys) and me is only the place of birth: the biggest similarity between me and her is that we both need Jesus. Larry and Mary Warren are the founders of African Leadership and I am honored to call them friends and thankful for the time invested in me. They have been a huge inspiration and encourager of Heal Ministries. Please look on their website to find out about all the needs in Africa.

These two little girls are Abby and Ericka. They were orphans in El Salvador that our family tried to adopt. A special friend visited these girls and they soon grew in our hearts and we felt that the Lord was calling us to proceed with plans to adopt them. Over the course of a year, the paper work was completed and plans proceeded for us to adopt them and for this to be a case study to change the laws. Several laws were in place to prevent us from adopting them: we had to live in the country for an extended period of time, single moms could not adopt and many more obstacles were in place. When it was time for the birth mother to sign over rights which would allow us to adopt these sisters, the mother cried and said that she could not do it. She later agreed to join a program to change her life and get her girls back. While it was a painful experience, it was God's way of growing a HUGE passion in our hearts for orphans in lands all over the globe. It also softened my heart toward all abandoned women and made me see the pain through the mother's eyes. To my knowledge, Abby and Ericka are with their mother today. I will have the opportunity to visit their past orphanage this March. It has been three years since the journey began with them and visiting the orphanage that was their home for at least 2 years will allow me to have closure with this bitter-sweet story. I am thankful for being a part of their life in a small way and will forever pray for them and their mother.