David Z Nowell

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I’ve heard it more than once . . . Okay, I see the numbers. I know there are 153 million orphans out there, and they need to be loved. I hear the need… and I am really glad you’re doing what you are doing, but God hasn’t called me to do this. Well, actually He has. I do get this. I understand your point. You are not ready to sell everything and move to Brazil, Mozambique, Thailand. But you are called. Look at Scripture’s definition of acceptable religion: In the book of James – “Religion that God our Father …

Orphans, the Border Crisis, and the Echo of God’s Love: Part 3 of 3

Posted In Orphans, The Church

On August 11, 2014

3 Comments

If you missed previous posts in this series: Part 1 / Part 2 Ignoring a problem the world has dropped on our doorstep is not a Christian response. We can—and must—do better for these kids who are part of the “border crisis”, because that is what followers do. We become the hands, heart, and mind of Christ to these children. The immediate cost of caring for the children crossing our border is staggering. We spend $259 per day for each child in an immigration detention center. If we move them to foster care, that cost is $2,500 per month. …

Orphans, the Border Crisis, and the Echo of God’s Love: Part 2 of 3

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On August 6, 2014

2 Comments

If you missed the first post in this series: Part 1 The echo of God’s love resonates not just in our hearts but also in our heads. When we see the thousands of children pouring across our southern border, we have no choice; we have to act in Christian love, in charity as Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13. They are children – not adults who have made informed choices to break our laws and enter the U.S. illegally. We must live out biblical compassion. But, but… love is every bit as much a head thing as it …

Orphans, the Border Crisis, and the Echo of God’s Love

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On July 28, 2014

They need more than hugs. When we see children in trouble, orphans, a trafficked girl, a little boy who has walked hundreds of miles in search of safe haven, we act. We have to, because that’s what followers of Christ do. We are compassionate, because our Lord was compassionate. We see these children as our own, because we ourselves have been adopted by the Father of Love. But we are also called to be wise, to show that compassion in a way that is more than just a fleeting hug – a way that transforms for a lifetime, an eternity. …

Church planting, orphans, and Kingdom investment

Posted In The Church

On July 21, 2014

We need to have a conversation. No final answers here, but at least a few questions that might make us pause before endorsing the prevailing orthodoxy. Let’s talk about church planting. Before we go too far, a bit of context that certainly shades my view. I live in a small, southern Appalachian town, population around 8,000. We have about 45 churches. That’s one church for every 177.7 citizens. If, on average, the churches have three staff members, we have one minister for every 60 or so folks in town. And, at the very least, $20 million is invested in our …

Street Children: Living on the Edge (Part 2)

Posted In Orphans

On July 14, 2014

2 Comments

Last week I shared Part 1 of Daniel’s story. If you missed it, you can read it HERE. This will make more sense if you read it first. The Book of Daniel – Part 2 Sometimes the stories of the streets, of the street children rescued from the traffickers, of the boys leaving the drug trade, don’t turn out the way we want. Or perhaps there are some detours on the path – on the way to completion of the story. And sometimes the stories demand that we step far beyond our places of comfort, and encounter evil …

Street Children: Living on the Edge

Posted In Orphans

On July 7, 2014

The Book of Daniel – Part 1 So we start with the obvious: Street children, the victims of human trafficking, kids forced into the drug trades live very different lives than you and I. But I think sometimes we forget just how very close to the edge their lives take them. The edge. The edge from which there is no coming back. The edge that is not just fear, despair, or pain. The edge that is death. They have told us for years that the life expectancy of a child on the streets is only three to five years. We …

Flag Waving, but not Forgetting

Posted In Orphans

On June 30, 2014

The following post was first published in July 2012. Little has changed… We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Fourth of July. Maybe my favorite holiday. Flags, parades, fireworks, a little baseball, and brats on the grill. What’s not to like? I do like it, especially the flag part. I’m a waver. I am proud to be a citizen of this country, proud that we are the most generous country in the …

Noise

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On June 23, 2014

Reading Psalms 46 today. Sometimes this work seems overwhelming – caring for orphans, that is. The world really does not care or there would not be 153 million children left to fend for themselves. Even our churches seem pretty complacent about it. Much more interested in repairing the crack in the stained glass than the holes in the lives of our children. Our children, because they are ours. All 153 million of them. Then there is the constant noise… Societies that hawk sexuality on every television screen, and every magazine – and then profess outrage that little girls and boys …

Do you really want to end human trafficking? Start here.

Posted In Orphans, Trafficking

On June 16, 2014

When a girl over the age of twelve comes into our care, we assume she has been sexually trafficked or exploited – or at least abused. And we are almost always right. Why? Because that is what happens to orphans. These kids are not just at risk. They are at mortal risk. Lives either over or destroyed unless we fix this problem. And there are 153 million of them. Let the number sink in. 153 million children. The United States has a total population of about 300 million; 153 million is everyone west of the Mississippi, and a few back …

Why the World Cup scares me to death…

Posted In Orphans, Trafficking

On June 9, 2014

When a twelve-year-old girl comes to us at Hope, we assume she has been sexually exploited. Because that’s what happens to children of the favelas in Brazil. In a place of hunger, of hopelessness, a place of pain, in a place where children are desperate, that’s what happens. A little girl discovers she can trade the only commodity she possesses – her body – and the men at the neighborhood bar will give her a few Reias if she will do what they ask her to do. All of her friends make their money the same way. There is no …

Three Things That Don’t Happen At A Relevant Church

Posted In Bible Study, The Church

On June 2, 2014

(Stained Glass and Relevance, Part 2) When I see followers of Christ disengage from the church, I start to worry. About them, yes, but more about the church. That is especially true when I hear them say they find the church largely irrelevant to what God is doing in their lives and in the world. Irrelevant. A really, really important word. I have to confess that I have not worked out all it means to be relevant, but I think I know it when I see it. I also know what it is not, and it seems that is where …

Stained Glass and Relevance

Posted In Bible Study, The Church

On May 27, 2014

This is not another post on the topic Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church. I may join that conversation at some point, but not today. Instead, I want to talk about three good friends of mine; all friends for a long time. All men in their fifties. They are serious followers – not just Believers but Followers of Christ. Daily study of Scripture, raising godly families, really living the Christ life. Very concerned about their impact in this world. Compassionate, generous. All very engaged in local churches since childhood. All have stopped attending church. When I read the millennials discussions, …

What is Sex Trafficking?

Posted In Orphans, Trafficking

On May 19, 2014

I am speaking this week at the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin. This is a really important group of folks who do critical responding to one of the great evils of our age: sex trafficking. As I prepare to go, I think this is a good time to revisit a previous post on the subject. Some time ago, I told you Ileana’s story. Prostituted by her mother in a shed in their backyard in a slum in Brazil, stories like hers are told far too often not only in Brazil, but in so many places …

Worship That Unselfishes

Posted In Bible Study

On May 13, 2014

Yes, I know that is not a word. But it ought to be. A verb here, not an adjective. Follow the reasoning. True worship always, always carries our focus beyond ourselvesto the object of worship. True worship, not just that last slow song sung before the sermon on Sunday morning. Psalm 96 kind of worship: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.” Webster actually does a pretty good job of describing it. “Worship is to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission.” William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury one hundred years ago, described …

Pride (The Good Kind)

Posted In Aging Out

On May 5, 2014

1 Comment

This is just flat-out cool, so please indulge me a bit here and read along. Yeah, and I am proud, really proud of this young lady. But before I get to the pride part, a bit of a back-story in abbreviated form. Patricia’s parents met in the brothel where her mother worked. Marriage and several children came in the years to follow. But old habits, especially dark ones, die hard, and her mother returned to the sex trade. A violent argument, father attempts to stab the mother, and mother flees the home. Patricia and her siblings were left with an …

When Life is Cheap, Smiles Disappear

Posted In Children’s Prisons, Orphans, Residential Care

On April 30, 2014

I received this email today. It is reality we see far too often. Tough kids, kids for whom life is cheap, but kids that God loves as deeply and as passionately as He loves you and me, and as He loves our children and grandchildren. Kids that we are called to love. From my friend Corenne: It is rare that I suddenly drop whatever I am doing to write, but feel compelled to do so today. Luis Roberto, 13, is dead. Shot by, well, who really knows. He was a bright, sweet kid, who saw his father shot down by …

Doctrine, Religion, and Living as Christ Lived

Posted In Bible Study, Orphans

On April 28, 2014

A few days ago, I threw out an aphorism on Facebook. Perhaps it was food for thought for some deliberative believers, or perhaps I just wanted to stir the pot. It seems a bit of both happened: Doctrine can become vanity, a self-indulgent exercise to escape the hard work of following. A disclaimer here: My professional training is as a theologian. To no small degree, my livelihood is doing doctrine. But I am also called to live within the context of a world of people that Christ loves, andthat he calls me to love, too. I am called to be …

Five contexts where residential care is the best answer for orphans

Posted In Orphans, Residential Care

On April 22, 2014

Serious, and important, discussion here. I was reading an orphan care blog a few days ago. The blogger wrote about his new and deeper commitment to supporting orphan care, and how he was ready to make some lifestyle changes in order to financially underpin the work of those caring for orphans. And then his throw-away line: “except I will not give anything to help any orphanage, and you shouldn’t either.” Tough words, but words that reflect many, possibly most, of those who are serious about orphan care. The word orphanage has become an epitaph, conjuring images of a Twistian warehouse …

Seeking Understanding

Posted In Orphans

On April 14, 2014

Reading Psalm 90: Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. (Psalm 90:1-2) Okay, God, we understand; all of this is yours. You are in charge; it’s your work, not ours. But You have told us to care for your children, for the least of these. So what is our role? And even more, where are You when our best efforts to touch their lives seem thwarted? I have to admit that I get a bit frustrated with God …