Happy New Year It's 2010!

Well, it's a new year. A new decade. A new start... wait a minute. Why do we always wait until the new year to start with diets and exercise plans... with promises to spend more time in our Bibles or to give up something that isn't good for us? It's one of life's mysteries I guess. Something I'll probably never understand. One thing that, for some reason, really annoyed me this year was TV preachers. Now I'm not against TV evangelists or that the Word of God is being taught (on some of the programs) over the airwaves... it's just that every channel I turned to had someone telling me a new slogan for the year. And all of them had the same theme... new levels of breakthrough, the best year yet, prosperity, victory, heaven on earth! All kinds of really cool stuff that God was supposedly telling them to tell me. Now again, don't get me wrong... I'm not opposed to victory and breakthrough. I'm not opposed to prosperity or having the best year yet. But isn't that the same thing we heard last year and the year before that? And if I'm not mistaking last year was one of the worst years economically that we've seen since the great depression. What about all my Christian friends who are in the housing and construction market right now? I don't think they would tell you that 09' was an awesome year of breakthrough. For some reason I've really gotten frustrated with ministers always preaching and telling me that all I'm going to see is prosperity and breakthrough. That's not in the Bible and that's not true! Sure I will have periods of prosperity in my life but there will probably be times of famine as well. Sure, I'm going to have periods of breakthrough in my life but there are also going to be times of having to press through difficulty. That's where the beauty of having a true relationship with Christ comes in. That's where we can say along with the Apostle Paul that, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and that "I've learned to be content no matter what my circumstance." You see 2010 could be the best year yet and I hope it is. But 2010 might be a difficult year, who knows? But one thing I do know is that even if there is a fight... we win. Even if there is a struggle... we'll come out on top. Even if the gates of hell are unleashed against me and everyone I know... they will not prevail! For greater is He who's in me than he who's in the world. Now having said all of that, let me say this... as I was reading the other day, a scripture jumped out at me. I really felt like the Lord was speaking to me about 2010. It was in Joshua 3:5. It's where Joshua was leading the people of God into the promised land and they were just about to cross over the Jordan river into what God had been promising them forever... remember the story? Anyway, right before they crossed he said this. "sanctify yourselves because tomorrow the Lord is going to do amazing things among you." This is what I feel like God is telling us. He IS going to do great things for us in 2010 but we need to sanctify our self first. We need to totally set our self apart for Him and him alone. We need to get rid of all the unholy things and all of the things that aren't necessarily sinful but the things that are slowing our spiritual progress too. We've got a saying for this year (just like all those TV preacher guys. LOL!) and it's "Lean In 2010 (twenty ten)". Lean In to God... press in to Him and His presence, totally pursue Him and nothing else. So that's what I'm doing this year. My resolution is to go after God like I never have before. Me and my family are going to fervently run after Him and everything He has for us... good or bad, happy or sad, easy or difficult. We're Leaning In to 2010!

Happy New Year,
Jim

PS - I'm also going to lose weight, exercise and manage my time better this year. For the first few weeks anyway. haha

Looking Past Ourselves

Well, it's the holiday season and it's that time of year where we think about family and friends, exchanging presents and eating really good food, right? It's so easy to get caught up in the frenzy of what we encounter each year, with all the parties we're invited to, all the relatives we have to divide our time between so we can keep everyone happy (or maybe that's just my family?), all the cards to send out, all the presents to buy... it's crazy! But then there's the Great Commission. The command to deny our self, pick-up our cross and follow Jesus. And there's that thing about caring for orphans and widows in their distress... the list could go on and on. Bottom line is this... we're told to do these things all the time 24/7, 365 (or 366 on leap year), all the time. We're not suppose to take a break during the holiday's and put ourselves on "spiritual cruise control" until the New Year (when we make all of those awesome resolutions that last the first week or two, LOL!). We're suppose to continue right through the holidays. As a matter of fact, we should probably step it up during the holidays. This is the time of year where depression is at the highest level and the suicide rate is at it's peak. People are hurting and people are searching for the solution to life's problems. And that's why we as true "followers of Christ' need to be on point and out there where the people are. Not just with our families, but out among the lost. So, why not start thinking outside the box? I'm not saying that we should abandon all of our holiday traditions, no! But why not start showing our children that the holidays don't need to about us but it should also be about others. About 12 years ago a friend of mine in Oklahoma told me that he would take his teenage sons to a homeless shelter to feed the homeless every Thanksgiving so that they could see that there were people who were hurting. This friend was very well off and lived extravagantly. He was very blessed financially. But he didn't want his sons growing up disillusioned to the fact that 'not everybody' was as blessed as them. As I listened to him I thought, "what a good concept." So 12 years ago we started doing things during the holidays to reach out to people outside of our family... and we 'always' minister with the kids. We feel it's an important tradition to incorporate into their lives, and they love it. They look forward to it every year.

One thing we started doing at our church, several years back, was a Thanksgiving Outreach. It started out where we would prepare meals and serve dinner at the church to people who didn't have families to enjoy Thanksgiving with. Then we stepped it up and started preparing meals and delivering them to people who were staying in extended stay hotels in our city. I don't know how it is where you live but here in Atlanta there is so much drug activity, prostitution, crime... you name it, and it's happening in these hotels. These people need Jesus! The response the people have given us has been amazing. People are so receptive to us. We give them food, clothing, children's toys, Bibles and we pray with as many people that let us. We've prayed with people to receive Christ, we've prayed with people who've needed healing in their bodies, we've prayed and ministered to people with all kinds of issues. For the last 4 years we've been doing this outreach and what started out small has grown into something bigger than we ever imagined. We had over 250 volunteers show up today (on Thanksgiving morning) and we handed out over 500 meals that our volunteers cooked at home and brought in. And we were still able to do all this AND spend time at home with our families eating, watching football and goofing off. I think that's the thing... we can minister to others AND do stuff with our families. It doesn't have to be either or... it can be both. I know I'm kinda on a rant but I'm just trying to encourage you to not go into a "holiday coma" and just pass by the opportunity to be Jesus' hands and feet this holiday season. He wants to use all of us who follow Him to reach a world that truly needs Him NOW. But the first step is "Looking Past Ourselves."

Love You Guys!

Jim

Never Say Never

We leave Brazil later this afternoon and I'm ready to get back to my family and to church (I'm really missing the Youth... which is so weird to hear myself say since youth wasn't even a passion 3 months ago. It's amazing how God can ignite something in you that you never realized was there, huh?). Anyway, we're going to be leaving to go look at the property again in about an hour. We're going to take a closer look at the structural integrity of the houses and map out places for new buildings. This will help us to plan for future ministry here in Brazil. The one thing this trip has shown me is that God truly is in control and that if we allow Him to, he will give us opportunities to expand His Kingdom if we're willing. And His plans don't always jive with what we're thinking sometimes. It's crazy. When we first came to Brazil a year and a half ago to adopt our children (which MJ and I always said we didn't want anymore kids, now we have 8), I hated Brazil and couldn't wait to get home. Then we returned for a mission trip a year later and I fell in love with this country and it's people. I really feel called to do ministry here whereas a year and a half ago I couldn't stand this place! But God changed my heart. Actually I guess you could say that I listened to His voice and aligned myself with His activity. Let me give you another example of how His plans don't always jive with ours... I've been on staff at our church for almost 8 years now. I had been an Associate Pastor and loved my job. Couldn't see myself doing anything different. I was seeing people's lives impacted, I was comfortable and didn't want to change what I was doing. Then the Lord spoke to my Pastor and told him that MJ and I were to be the new Youth Pastors. When he told me I thought he had lost his mind. I would have never wanted to even volunteer in the Youth much less have that be my position. I would have rather worked full time in the Nursery... well, maybe that's going too far... anyway, I never desired youth ministry. EVER. Actually teenagers always got on my nerves! I'm serious. But I submitted to my Pastor because I trust him and I believe that he heard from God and look what God has done! I have passion and a vision for the youth that can't be explained. It's something that I can see myself doing for a very long time now. And this wasn't even a blip on the radar 3 months ago. The reason I said all of that is this: Never say never. By doing that you are selling yourself short of what God could be planning for you and your family. He wants to take us out of our comfortable places and put us in a position that we have to trust Him to get by or we crash and burn. Because there's no way the Dunn's can do ministry in Brazil without Jesus. And there's no way MJ and I can be effective Youth Pastors without Jesus. We need Him and His ability every day or we can't make it. Sure we could have just stayed doing what we were doing and not reached out to Brazil or we could have refused the youth position (actually pastor would have fired me, just kidding...lol!) but that would have been the easy road. And denying myself and taking up my cross to follow Jesus isn't always easy. But the best way is His way. That's the way where we'll reach the most people for the Kingdom of God. So don't sell yourself short by saying "never." Allow God to direct your ministry and your path.

Love Ya, Jim

OMG! I Can't Believe What I'm Looking At.

Yesterday we went back into Villa Zumbie to make home visits with Pastor Bart. These were visits to people who had either left the church or people that had promised to come to the church and never did. Our first visit was to a lady who had been in the hospital and hadn't returned after she had gotten out. As we entered her front gate the front yard was full of trash (you can see it in the picture). I think she just threw it out the window rather than into a trash can. Then when we entered the house, the smell was overwhelming. It was really unsanitary. The house she lived in was so poorly constructed. The walls were made of 1x4 boards (kind of like the wood that we make pallets out of) and you could see daylight shining through them! It was so sad. As we started speaking with her she began to tell us that her husband had just died and that one of her daughters had just left home to live with a drug dealer. She had 6 daughters total. Then in walked one of her daughters with 2 children. These children were beautiful! It was so weird seeing children so beautiful living in these conditions. Anyway, we ministered and prayed with them and then it was off to the next house. One house we went to was the home of a woman who's son was an alcoholic and he was also demon possessed. He had attended Daniel's Camp (that's the property we are looking at) a few years ago and gave his heart to Christ there! That was pretty cool to hear. Then we visited the home of a woman who had been walking down the street and a motorcycle hit her at full speed. She had been injured so severely that the doctors didn't think she would live. So when they repaired her leg (put it back together) they did it half-heartedly thinking she was going to die anyway. The Lord performed a miracle and she lived. But was still having problems with her leg. When you looked at her you could tell that she had lived a rough life but she actually looked like she took care of herself. She looked in shape, hair fixed, make-up... just a normal looking 30+ year old woman. As we spoke with her she began to tell us about the problems she was having with her leg. Then for some reason she decided to show us her leg. It totally took me by surprise! One minute we're talking about Jesus and the next minute she's pulling her pant leg up to her thigh. Now I'm not known to be squeamish but what I saw next freaked me out. I didn't know if I should throw up (which I did a little... in my mouth, lol!) or run. Her leg was healed but it was all crooked at the bottom because the doctors didn't set it right. Also you could see what looked like 10 or so holes from where the pins were in her leg. But then there it was... this course hair all over her leg (her legs were harrier then mine!). It was so freaky because here was this woman who looked like she cared about her appearance and hidden away under her pant leg was this leg full of hair! You had to be there because it just totally freaked me out. It was so unexpected. It's like this was the leg of somebody else. Totally bizarre. But if you think about it, that's kind of like some our lives. To most people we look like we're pretty normal. Like we are taking good care of ourselves with no issues. But tucked away where nobody sees we have these issues and secret sins that we've hidden and not dealt with. But God sees them. And He's totally grossed out by them. Just like I was with having to look at that lady's leg.

Lord please forgive us for not dealing with the hidden things in our lives.

Well, it's off to the lawyer's office this morning then we're going to try and go back to the property.

Love ya,

Jim

Oh no. This Ain't Happening!

Ok. I'm all for doing whatever God wants my family to do but this ain't happening! That was my first impression as we walked into the first house on the property. It smelled of mold and the floor was caved-in in one of the bedrooms because the roof had leaked. It was scary! But then as we walked into the 2nd and 3rd house, and as we walked into the cabins where kids would stay when they were on the property, and as I stood under the pavilion with a stage that could seat 200 kids... it all started to become clearer. This could definitely work. There are tons of things that would need to be repaired and that would have to be brought-up in standard, but this is definitely a God thing. The property is amazingly beautiful. As far as a camp for kids goes, it's ready right now. As far as a place to bring in orphans, and provide a place for adopting families... it has quite a bit of work to do. But God is a big God and He is use to doing big things for us. So, we're pursuing what His will is for our family and this property. My brother-in-law is ready to move tomorrow, I think. To say the property is awesome would be an understatement. It is nestled in between two mountains and is dense jungle with small waterfalls and streams everywhere. There is lush vegetation everywhere... impatiens are growing in the wild here (for all you non-green thumb folks, it is an annual flower that is used throughout the U.S. and comes in many various colors and is used in the shade... didn't think you were going to get an education in horticulture today did you?). It's beautiful. We're going to meet with a local attorney tomorrow or Friday to try and get some legal clarification on a few things but it is definitely an awesome ministry opportunity we have here.

Today we are going to Villa Zumbie (Village of the Walking Dead, approximately 6,000 people) to do a few home visits with the pastor of the Village. Then tonight I am ministering in the Wednesday Night Service. So, please pray for us. This is part of the reason we are here... to minister to people who desperately need to hear the Gospel. Thank you to everyone who is following this blog and praying for us. I'll post later tonight or tomorrow.

Love Ya,

Jim

What Am I Doing Here? No Way! Really?

This past March, Mary Jane and I went back to Brazil on a mission trip with a friend and his church's youth group (you can go back into the archived blogs to read about the trip). It was amazing. We were really impacted deeply by the things we were able to be involved in while we were there. Wherever we ministered we had interpreters that would translate for us. One of the people who translated for Mary Jane and I was Victor. Victor is a man in his 30's who loves God and loves to serve. One day as we were traveling from one ministry site to the next MJ and I started to share with Victor our adoption story and our heart for orphans. He listened very intently and you could tell that he was inspired by what God had laid on our hearts. Well, the next day when we met Victor for our next ministry event, he said, "that he had something to tell us." He began to tell us about a dream that he had. He said, "he had a dream that this man, named Daniel, who was a pastor in Canada had a camp with 86 acres on it. He told us that it use to be a camp for ministering to the local village children but this pastor moved back to Canada. He then told us that in his dream that Daniel gave the camp to us." I immediately thought this guy was either crazy or maybe he ate pizza the night before and that would explain the dream. But it was a crazy statement either way! We finished with our trip and then headed back home to the States and really didn't think much more about it. Then I get an email from this guy named Daniel who just so happens to be a pastor in Canada. And I start thinking, "is this for real or what?" In his email he gave me his phone number so I called him. He told me to tell him our story and what our vision for orphans was so I did. At the end of the conversation (I'm abbreviating this for the sake of time) he began to tell me about how he had this camp in the mountains of Brazil that had 3 houses on 86 acres. It also had a dining area that would seat around 200 and cabins that would sleep 70 children. He told me about the camps that he would hold for the poor children in the surrounding villages. But then he felt led to move back to Canada and start pastoring a church and that this camp wasn't being used. At this point I could feel it coming but I just listened... and then he said it. He said, "If you will use this property for the Glory of God and to reach the children of Brazil I would like to give it to you." I didn't know whether to poop my pants, start crying, do a Holy Ghost dance or what! I told him that it sounded great and that we would like to pursue it. So over the next several months we started to go over the legal aspects of the transfer of the property and July 1, 2009 the property was signed over to us! We've been paying a caretaker to stay on the property and take care of it (hence the name caretaker, lol!) and to watch over it so that nobody steals stuff. Also, as we began to speak to our family about it they started to tell us that they were feeling like God wanted them to be involved as well. Now we didn't know if this would mean that we would all move to Brazil (about 53 people total), support others to live in Brazil or what... we just knew that God wanted us to do something. Our vision right now is to start an orphanage, along with a feeding program that would reach into the surrounding villages. Also, we would like to have a place where people from all over the world could come and stay while they were adopting from Brazil. You see, the only place that you can adopt in the whole country of Brazil is the state of Parana... and that just so happens to be where this property is. When someone adopts from Brazil they have to stay in the country for 46 days and this can be very expensive (in addition to all the other adoption expenses) and we want to offer a place to stay that could be very inexpensive to adoptive parents. Those are just a few of the things that we're thinking at this point.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are so serious about this that they sold their landscape business that they've had for 15 or so years. It's a huge thing that God is orchestrating in our family. We still don't know exactly what it means for us so we're just walking this thing out.

Sunday afternoon we boarded a plane and have flown to Curitiba, Brazil to look at the property and try and get a sense of what we need to do next. So that is where we are and why we're here. So please pray for us. We want to here from God this week. And we know we will. We're leaving our hotel to go see the property in 30 minutes so I'll post again tonight and tell you what we saw.

Love Ya,

Jim

It's Not a Death Sentence

Mary Jane and I were talking the other day and she said something that I thought was very profound and I really feel like I need to share it with you. We were talking about a person we knew who was struggling with what God had asked them to do. (I'll be vague because I don't want to break this person's confidence because they told us their struggle in private.) This person felt that if they followed through with what God was asking of them, that life as they knew it would be over. It was going to be a big step of faith to make it happen but if it did happen this person's life and lifestyle 'would' radically change. In light of what they were contemplating it was a valid concern. But if God was asking them to do it they were willing. Well anyway, MJ and I were discussing it when we were alone and all of a sudden she said, "why is it that we feel that if God asks us to do something BIG that it's like getting a death sentence?" She then said, "because it's not." "It's actually like getting a LIFE sentence!" When she said it I just stopped and said, "wow." Because that's deep if you really think about it. No seriously... think about it. When has God ever asked anyone to do something that even though it initially looked like it would be tough, that it didn't turn out to be great? Can't think of anyone can you? Now I'm not saying that the person will never encounter difficulty or that the person will never want to give up... but what I'm saying is when has God ever asked someone to do something that the latter was worse than the former? No, it's ALWAYS the other way around. The end will always be better than the beginning. And the awesome part is that it will have Eternal significance attached to it. And that's what it's all about right?... Eternity. God will ALWAYS have us do things that have Eternal significance. He's a God that thinks about the end result of our assignments.
So what I want to ask you is this... "has God asked you to do something that you've said no to because it was something you thought would change your life too much?" Have you been ignoring what the Holy Spirit has been asking you to do because it would make your life too uncomfortable? Have you hardened your heart to something you know that you're suppose to be doing for the Kingdom of God right now because it would mess up the way your life is organized right now? If so, "It's not a death sentence!" God is trying to inject His Life into Your life. He's trying to show you joy that you'll never experience any other way. He's trying to get you positioned so that the things you're doing have Eternal significance and not just temporal significance. So give in to what you know is Him speaking. And experience a true "Life Sentence."
Love Ya, Jim