David Z Nowell

I’ve spent a significant amount of time lately thinking about fences. Far too much, actually. Susan and I have a few acres outside of town, and it’s just about time to put fall calves on the pasture. So most weekends—and many evenings—for the last month or two have been spent setting posts and stretching wire. Barbed wire and I are not good friends. No matter how I prepare, how good my gloves are, or how careful I am, the end of a fence-building day means a session with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a tube of ointment. That’s just …

Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit 2015

Posted In Aging Out, Orphans, Residential Care, The Church

On April 13, 2015

According to Christianity Today, the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) Summit has become the national hub for “the burgeoning Christian orphan care movement.” Last year’s conference drew 2,600 foster and adoptive parents, orphan advocates, pastors and leaders from 35 countries. On several occasions it has been my good fortune to attend, to lead topic-specific workshops, and to participate in panel discussions. And I’m looking forward to this year! CAFO Summit 2015 will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on April 30-May 1. While I realize the date is almost upon us, it’s not too late to make your plans to attend! And …

This IS Family

Posted In Residential Care

On April 6, 2015

2 Comments

Yes, family is the ultimate answer. But family—as we understand it—is not always a possibility. Stefani did not fit the profile of the kids who usually come to Hope. She came from a middle class family, with two parents. She was not a typical child of the streets, but in her 15 years, she has experienced a lifetime of hurt, abandonment, and abuse. In her voice: My parents started to drink, and then to fight. My mother was being bi-polar, and the alcohol drove her over the edge. And then my father left. As mom’s drinking got worse, she introduced …

Privilege, Peripheral People, Rising Lights, and Two Emails

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On March 30, 2015

2 Comments

As I write this, I am sitting in my comfortable East Tennessee home. My reality is safe, secure, well-fed. But then an email comes from Brazil, telling the story of a family of children brought to our campus, chilling in its matter-of-fact recital of the children’s condition. This group of seven siblings, ages 3 to 17, were discovered in a shack near the City of Youth living in conditions of wretched poverty and malnutrition. The youngest sibling, now a 3-year-old, was a baby who the family ‘adopted’ after he was abandoned by his mother and left to fend on his …

God of the Shadows (Part 2)

Posted In Bible Study

On March 23, 2015

He restores my soul. (Psalm 23:3) I want God to look like me. Not physically, of course, but to share my values, to reaffirm the way I see myself, to make me comfortable with who I am. As I said last week, “To restore my soul.” I want my soul to be restored—especially the way I define it. Restored. It means that our hearts are not heavy, that we feel good about the world and ourselves. You know… generally upbeat and positive, blessed. It means we and our God live in a place of light and brightness Or does it? …

God of the Shadows

Posted In Bible Study

On March 16, 2015

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) I did not expect to meet God there. At least not my God. My God is the God of light. Of purity. Of beauty. Of Sunday mornings in contemporary cathedrals. My God is the God of 1 John 1:5—and I encounter Him in places of light. In the words of the Psalmist, He restores my soul—and He does it in places that feed my soul. And none of those descriptors fit that …

Five Contexts where Residential Care Works

Posted In Orphans, Residential Care

On March 2, 2015

3 Comments

A lot of folks are not going to like this post—but these things have to be said. Residential care works. Not for every child, not in every situation, and certainly not when it is no more than the warehousing of children. But, done right, it works. For kids who have been on the streets, for kids who have been trafficked, for kids whose years of being abused, abandoned, or exploited have destroyed their ability to accept love and build relationships, it works. But there is a cottage industry built around blasting residential care. Like the quote in last week’s post …

Mortal-risk children and residential care

Posted In Orphans, Residential Care

On February 23, 2015

1 Comment

Eventually, eventually, the story gets okay, but it has a lot of twists and turns to get there—and along the way an important lesson about thoughtful care for mortal-risk children. I’ll also introduce you to a debate that impacts the lives of millions of children. Jaime was a child of the streets. Abandoned by a prostitute mother, he spent his days in begging and thievery—and his nights under an overpass, a piece of cardboard his street mattress. Eventually sent to a shelter, he was adopted for the first time at age seven. By eight, he was back at the shelter, …

But God. . . (Part 2)

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On February 16, 2015

A little theological digression here before we get back to Graziella’s story… How often in the follower’s life does the story turn on those words? But God. . . The case can be made that the thought embedded there is central to our identity. It is an affirmation that He is the creator, that He is sovereign, and—perhaps most important—that He is actively engaged in the lives of those He calls His own. This whole thing is God’s game, not ours, and He can suspend the rules and change the outcome as He chooses. David said it this way: ”Though …

But God. . . (Part 1)

Posted In Orphans

On February 9, 2015

Difficult story here, and I apologize for its graphic nature, but there is no other way to tell it. This orphan stuff is hard, and easy answers almost always elude. But, but, this isn’t our work; it’s God’s, and He is in the business of hard answers. Susan and I first visited Brazil in the fall of 2007. Our first night there, we joined Philip and a group of girls and their houseparents for a pizza party at a local rodizio. The girls were used to American visitors, and all went out of their way to make us feel welcome, …

Valentine Cards SPEAK LOVE, Transform Lives

Posted In Residential Care

On February 2, 2015

Many of the girls at Hope have been sexually abused and exploited. Thanks to the grace of God and staff members who SPEAK LOVE, that appalling truth is forever in the past as soon as they reach our campus. Unfortunately, it’s a more difficult and much slower process to change their self-perception. These children have been taught since birth that they have value only as a sexual object. But Hope Unlimited is about transformation. Our story is of a tragic beginning absolutely overwhelmed by a triumphant end. Each February, churches and individuals across the U.S. add a little something to …

Life Wish of a Street Child

Posted In Orphans

On January 26, 2015

As I’ve mentioned here before, my wife, Susan, blogs at My Place to Yours. She’s my partner on this journey of dirty faith, and this week you get to read her thoughts about a recent story about a street child in Brazil… Whoever Steals Has to Die That was the headline last week in the Brazilian newspaper. The article (translated below) tells the conversation between a reporter and a 12-year-old boy arrested and awaiting a hearing about his participation in the attempted murder of a thief in the city of Cariacica. Tribune: Did you participate in the beating? Twelve-year-old: …

Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gleice

Posted In Bible Study

On January 19, 2015

1 Comment

A Saturday night service at the City of Youth. One hundred fifty or so children who call this place home fill the chapel. Throw-away kids, abandoned, exploited. They all have scars of abuse on the inside; some wear them on the outside. Prayer time. Gleice walks forward from the back row, takes the microphone from Pastor Derli, bows her head. “God, thank you that I am perfect in Your eyes.” Yeah. God, make her perfect in my eyes, too. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. That verse again. The one that demands activity—and it is …

GETTING EVEN (or perhaps) Why I am Comfortable as a Pharisee

Posted In Bible Study

On January 12, 2015

89 Comments

I’m not altogether sold on this idea of grace. I mean, seriously, love with no strings attached? On the surface, at least, I have always been the kind of guy God should want on his team. Some mischief as a teenager, but nothing serious. Always hard-working, loved the Lord my God, and pretty much honored my parents. I’d have made an excellent Rich Young Ruler. I want Jesus to pat me on the back and say, “Good job.” And I really, really want him to recognize what a good deal he got when he got me. Instead… I find that …

We are the Pharisees

Posted In Bible Study, The Church

On January 5, 2015

3 Comments

Didn’t expect to meet God there . . . Over the past decade, I have had the chance to experience grace in some very unexpected places. In a remote village in Mexico, while holding the baby of a teenage prostitute in Brazil, on death row at Angola prison in Louisiana. These are places of darkness, but as I read the New Testament, it becomes more and more apparent that these are the places where Jesus walked. These are the people he loved. This is where we encounter grace. We are lovers of structure, of hierarchy, of people who understand their …

Santa: From dirty streets to a clean sleigh

Posted In Orphans, Residential Care

On December 29, 2014

Stories. The best ones catch us by surprise, bring a smile, and perhaps refocus our priorities. This one—this week—from (missionary/Hope Unlimited for Children CEO) Philip Smith in Brazil: Christmas 2014 in Brazil. Think hot. Sometimes Santa is not who we expect him to be. Sweltering in the Hope Santa suit this year was a former street kid. Luciano graduated from Hope in 1996, got a good job, married, and became a worship leader at his church. A few months ago, he reached out to me saying he felt called to return to Hope as a houseparent. Then in July, he …

Christmas Blessings

Posted In Bible Study

On December 22, 2014

May the Truth of Christmas permeate your thoughts in these last days of Advent waiting. May the peace of God fill your heart as you learn to trust. May you experience God’s richest blessings as you celebrate our Savior’s birth. Merry Christmas to each of you! Thank you for stopping by here during this busy season. I look forward to continuing our journey of dirty faith in the year ahead.

God’s gift to the world: Himself

Posted In Bible Study

On December 15, 2014

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 Wasn’t it just like God to become man? The name of the college text is long forgotten, as is the name of the author, but the words still ring true. Because, yes, it was just like God to become man. This is the lasting reality of Advent, that God himself took on the form of a man, and encountered us in our humanity, our brokenness, our need. But… the incarnational …

Life Lesson from Orphans #4: Bless as you have been blessed

Posted In Orphans, Residential Care

On December 8, 2014

It’s a really wonderful part of the worship tradition at the City of Youth. At some point in each chapel service, our kids have the chance to give back. Not financially, of course, but of what they have. They do this through their prayer requests. During what we might call an offertory, the kids walk forward and place written prayers and prayer requests in a large bowl at the front of the auditorium. Many of the prayers are simple, a line or two composed at the last minute, but nonetheless heartfelt. Lord, thank you for giving me this place to live. …

Life Lesson from Orphans #3: Dependence gives birth to faith

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On December 1, 2014

Easy lesson here, but it is one we tend to forget. God can handle this, whatever “this” is. Every time I travel to Brazil, I am absolutely overwhelmed by the experiential faith of our kids and graduates. Experiential because it is faith based on a reality that has already been made manifest. They get this faith thing because they have seen the hand of God in their own lives. I have told you before about the impact our graduate church is having on the neighboring community. Our graduates see the drug addict sleeping in the weeds who believes he has …