ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER

Have you downloaded it yet?

All It Takes Is ONE

All it takes is one. All it took was one strand of E.coli to be processed into one hamburger patty, to make it to one burger king, to one mom, whose one son, took one bite and the one life he had would then be over. All it took was a series of one events to lead to one of the biggest recalls on beef. Because of one situation America has never been the same.

In 2001, one man, Vernon Burger (my brother), who had, one passion, that being Jesus, took one trip, to Southern Sudan and connected with one bishop, who was trying to love and spread the gospel to many who were orphaned by the civil war. Since that one trip in 2001, HIS VOICE GLOBAL has been in an ongoing relationship with the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church), 10 years and three orphanages later they seek to continue the movement to open a fourth.

You might ask the question what makes this place so special? Sudan was in war for over 20 years before signing a peace agreement in 2006. Until the peace agreement this was the longest civil war to date in human history, leaving over 2 million dead and many children without parents. So what makes this place unique!?!? Many things but one is there are many who have teamed up, like HIS VOICE GLOBAL and The Village Church, to be a gospel centered presence through proclamation and practice. While The Village Church has sent many teams to train pastors, equip leaders and love the children in these orphanages in Yei, HIS VOICE GLOBAL was the door that God used to bring a gospel centered presence from the west into this area of the world. Now there is an opportunity for you to be a part of this continued movement of Christ in this region for as little as a dollar.

This past September a group of 13 from all walks of life from Reach Records, The Village Church, Red Revolution, Collision Records and HIS VOICE GLOBAL partnered under The Village banner to go and minister to those in Southern Sudan. They ministered through teaching, medical, music, and loving children who were victims of the Civil War that now live in one of the three Orphanages sponsored by HIS VOICE GLOBAL. Moved by the fruit there and continued need, Tedashii, Lecrae (Reach Records artist), Swoope (Collision Records artist) and Jai teamed up to do a single to raise awareness and funds for a fourth orphanage in Southern Sudan. The single, which is slated to be released November 16th under new label Collision Records is called Actions Speak Louder. This single and symbol seen above calls believers to move beyond awareness and put their prayers in motion, to quote the song. The symbol inspired by the scriptures that say a strand of three cords are not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12), the exclamation points showing the immediate nature of the call to apply the gospel (Luke 4:18-19), the highlight of one exclamation point showing the power of one to change and lead others and the patch like design showing the reality that there is strength in numbers, calling believers to action, an action beyond themselves.

So leading up to this date will you be the one to blog, the one to tweet, the one to put a twibbon on your twitter account, the one to Facebook, the one to lead and allow you actions to speak as loud as your words. The average number of songs downloaded per day are close to 10,000,000 yes that is correct 10 million. Come November 16th HIS VOICE GLOBAL only needs over 250,000 one’s to download this amazing song (which is not even 10% of the daily average) to complete and have a fourth self sustaining orphanage. We are not asking you to change your lifestyle just point your efforts toward something that will last. The amazing thing about this whole campaign is that 100 percent of the profits from the song will go toward this fourth orphanage. All it takes is one!!!

Orphan Sunday--November 8

Well, I haven't written in a LONG TIME, but this is just the reason to get back to it!

Did you know that this Sunday, November 8, is Orphan Sunday?

Did you know that it is Orphan Sunday ALL OVER THE WORLD... not just in our little American corner?

Did you know that my brother and sister-in-law started an amazing ministry called His Voice for Sudan several years ago to do what they can to help care for orphans in Southern Sudan? Since they started their ministry there, they have partnered with the Sudanese people to open two orphanages housing over 190 kids, employing 84 local workers, and providing education for 220 other community children. The Lord has been so faithful to raise up godly men and women among the Sudanese to help care for and teach the children. But they need help.

Did you know that you can participate in the ministry to the people of Southern Sudan? You can pray for the leadership of His Voice for Sudan. You can pray for the children and leaders of Sudan. You can receive e-mail updates and you can follow the His Voice blog. You can financially support their ministry. You can spread the word by telling others or by having my brother come and speak at your church or other organization.

Here is a short video showing some of the beautiful faces of the kids in Sudan....

His Voice for Sudan from Amber Burger on Vimeo.

And here's another really great Orphan Sunday video...

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Please take a minute to think about all that we have been given and determine if there is anything you can share. Maybe it's giving your time to pray. Maybe it's giving of your financial resources. Maybe it's giving your life to welcome an orphan into your family. I can pretty much guarantee that the blessings will far outweigh the costs.

Well, Look at You!

Gabe has been hilarious lately! This morning I had on an old t-shirt that my dad got me YEARS ago to wear as pajamas. It's basically an extra-large t-shirt with dolphins on it. When I got up from feeding Claire, I helped Gabe go to the bathroom. He was standing on the toilet while I washed my hands. He suddenly looked over at me and said in his very expressive voice, "Well, look at you! You got whales all over your shirt!" If you know Gabe's voice, you'll know how funny this was... and if you don't know his voice, I wish I had a recording for you.

When he doesn't like something that someone else says--like when you tell him to eat the chip in his mouth before he gets another one--he puts on his best stern face, points quickly to the stairs, and says in his best stern voice, "Go to yo' bed!" Today I told him that he wasn't going to be able to watch Tom and Jerry, and he promptly told me to go to my bed. If only I could have obeyed him! I needed a nap!

Other updates....

I took Claire to her one-month appointment last Friday, and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 21.5 inches long. Still lighter than both the boys at birth with an extra half inch compared to their birth measurements. She's a skinny little peanut. She's growing just fine though, and the doctor didn't even mention her size as an issue at all. She had a lot of catching up to do after she lost nearly a pound in the hospital.

She's starting to lose the hair on the top of her head. We'll see if she loses the rest. She's gripping things pretty well and held her first toy today and waved it around all by herself for quite a few minutes. I can tell she's about ready to start smiling here in the next week or two. She's got these huge bright eyes when she gets excited, and today she was starting to move her mouth in the direction of a big fat grin... but it's not there quite yet.

Ladan is doing really well with school. Handwriting is not his favorite or best thing at all, but many of his lessons require quite a bit of writing practice. He's getting loads better, but we were both tired of spending so much time on this every day. So he does all the writing associated with his math every day. However, I decided to only do parts of the assignments in his phonics curriculum so that we could skip ahead to the parts where he's reading. Since he's already a reader, I felt like he wasn't being challenged in this way, was getting bored, and was getting a bit discouraged as well. According to my projections, it was going to take us through the end of October to get to read a book that he's already read on his own, which seemed crazy to me. So I'm going to rearrange the order of quite a few assignments in order to spread out the handwriting stuff and pull the reading stuff forward. It's working MUCH BETTER so far. I guess that's the cool thing about homeschooling... I can totally rearrange things to keep pressing ahead in areas where he's very strong and give him more time to work on the things where he needs more work.

I'd say that homeschooling is going very well so far. But there is not yet a pattern to our days. I'm so thankful that I didn't expect any kind of routine at this stage of Claire's life. I look forward to the day when things are just a little bit more predictable... and for now, I'm just fine with the fact that I may not get a whole lot done other than school, feeding my infant, playing with the kids, communicating with my husband, keeping the clothes and cloth diapers clean, washing dishes, buying groceries, preparing meals, paying bills, spending time with Redeemer folks, and reading the Word... oh, and sleeping occasionally.

Chet's been working like a mad man getting all manner of things prepared for when Redeemer starts having services every Sunday. We will finish up core team development by the end of October and begin weekly services on November 1. There is much to be done between now and then, but we have an excellent team, and things seem to be trucking along. While there's some work left to be done on our website, it is live now. Check it out at http://www.redeemerchurchcu.com when you get a second.

Exciting things are also happening with His Voice for Sudan, the ministry that my brother and Amber started several years ago!!!! Their blog is in transition, so they have two right now: http://www.sudanskids.blogspot.com and http://www.hisvoiceforsudan.blogspot.com.

Well, my bed is screaming my name, so I'm going to try to get there before my infant is screaming my name again.

Rescue In the Jungle

Many of you have heard or read about the 15 hostages in Colombia that have been recovered and freed. If not, you can read about it here. Twelve of them were Colombian, and three of them were Americans. They have been in captivity in the jungle of Colombia in something like a concentration camp environment operated by the guerrilla army in Colombia. These guerrilla armies have basically held the country under their control for 40 years. In addition to the 15 hostages recovered today, it is thought that they still have 700+ other hostages (according to CBS World News).

When Bill Clinton was in office, he executed a program to help the Colombian government, law enforcement, and armies to regain control of their country. President Bush fully supported this effort when he took over. Throughout the last 10 years or so, the American government has spent something like five to six billion dollars to help strengthen and train Colombian intelligence and military efforts.

Today's rescue was an entirely Colombian effort executed by Colombian intelligence and military forces. Apparently, the rescue went off without a hitch. Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, was one of the individuals rescued. Of all the hostages held in Colombia right now (including the other possible 700+), she was the highest profile. She was the person the rebel guerrillas used as leverage to get what they wanted from the government. The guerrillas have lost an important "weapon" as a result of this rescue.

When I was watching the news report, I had tears in my eyes. I was excited that these people were rescued and that they can be reunited with their families. However, there was more behind my tears. It was the fact that this was an entirely Colombian operation. The US has been supporting them with funding and training for about a decade, and now they're at a point where they have very effectively won a battle against the guerrillas. Sure, the war is still going, but this seems to be a HUGE victory on so many levels. They are becoming more self-sufficient and successful at carrying these operations out on their own.

You know that my brother (Vernon) and his wife (Amber) as well as Chet's sister (Megan) and her husband (Mike) are involved in ministry in Southern Sudan. My brother and Amber have started an organization called His Voice for Sudan, and Megan and Mike work with a church in Midland, Texas that became involved with the ministry in Sudan when my brother was on staff there.

From the beginning, my brother's heart was to help the Sudanese people to become self-sufficient. He did not want to create a situation where the Sudanese in that area become permanently dependent on American churches. Instead, his goal has been to help develop and train the people in the communities to be able to take over for themselves... to produce their own food, educate their children, sell their goods, improve their health, and most importantly, to grow to love the Lord and train their children according to His Word. They work with the Southern Sudanese church leaders to achieve their goals. Whenever they start a new ministry or community development project, they hire all indigenous people and train them. These people will then turn around and train future generations. The goal is that, eventually, these communities will be strong enough to invest their own earnings into the development of the regions around them.

When I heard the story about the rescue in Colombia tonight, I was so encouraged! I just couldn't help but think about the ministry in Sudan (and other ministries to countries in similar situations) and get excited! These "small" victories are worth it all! All the money, investment of time, danger, hardship, heartache.... Christians all over America and Europe are involved with efforts to help the people of Southern Sudan rise up from under the oppression they've suffered for so long. The HARD work is worth it! These people are worth it! Ultimately, even if their circumstances on this planet never change, it is worth it to encourage them with the Truth of the Word. Their eternity is at stake. May the Word go into all Sudan and bear fruit. May there be a turning point in Sudan that brings peace and unity between the North and the South. May the Lord use the Christians of Southern Sudan to impact and change the rest of Southern Sudan, Northern Sudan, and the world! May the people of Southern Sudan execute a great rescue operation in their own country!

If you are interested in learning more about His Voice for Sudan, please visit their website. When you visit their homepage, you'll see that you can sign up to receive e-mail updates from the ministry. These e-mail messages are very helpful and encouraging, so I highly recommend that you take advantage of this option. For an overview of the history and current state of Sudan, you may want to check out the CIA World Factbook entry on Sudan.

As a side note, my brother has been doing a series on depression on his blog. There has been some very interesting dialogue in the comment section, so check it out if you get a chance.