David Z Nowell

…And now to the other writing project I mentioned in the last post–but first a bit of background. On November 3, churches around the world will observe Orphan Sunday. A few years ago, an African pastor, seeing the overwhelming need of AIDS orphans in his community, challenged his church to become the hands and feet of Christ to these children. The church gave, not out of their abundance, but out of their poverty, to care for the orphans, one woman literally giving the shoes off her feet. Just a few years later, churches all over the world are responding to …

It’s been awhile since I’ve been here, but there has been cause for my absence from the blog world. For the last several months, two writing projects have consumed my time. In March, conversations with Bethany House Publishing led to a book proposal and, eventually, a book contract. Over the next week or two, I will finish the manuscript, and Bethany House will start the process that will lead to the book release next June 14th. The writing process has made for an interesting journey. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what we do at Hope, and, …

There’s not a lot of humor in the Bible. I’m not talking about the fifth-grade boys’ Sunday School kind of humor. (You remember: Who was the shortest man in the Bible? Bildad the Shuhite. Please don’t send me your best example.) No, I’m talking about real humor. I guess people were too busy in the serious business of living, avoiding the marauding hordes, and finding ways not to render unto Caesar to have much time for laughter. But there is one story that gets me. It’s not roll-in-the-floor, slap-your-knee kind of humor, but it does have more than its share …

I’m back. About November, I completely ran out of gas. Perhaps my muse died. I would sit down in front of the keyboard, expecting the words to flow out of fingertips. Ten, fifteen, thirty minutes later I would find myself looking for that right word to get started. The There, I found it. But then another ten minutes would pass as I looked for the second word. And the same for the third, fourth — you get the picture. Multiply it out by the three hundred or so words in a typical post, and you can see why I had …

It’s hard to believe it was over a quarter of a century ago. Probably harder still to believe that the memory is as clear as yesterday. I was a graduate student in theology and my friend was a senior in college. We were on one of those “summer abroad” trips that are now ubiquitous but were just then becoming popular. Making our way back from London’s West End, I literally stepped over a drunk or addict or mentally-ill (take your pick) man lying in the subway passage. My friend stopped, “We’ve got to help.”“No.”“But, we’ve got to.”“No.”“But . . . …

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Psalms 27:14 It’s God’s work, this caring for orphans, but it seems we often forget that. We want to take things on our shoulders, figure out the answers, and get it done. Fix the problem. Save the children. Now. But it’s God’s work, and that means God’s timing. Let me tell you a bit of our story of the last few years. We actually have been fortunate on the income side as God has miraculously provided, time and time again, through the faithfulness of His people. …

It was over a pleasant cup of coffee at a pie shop just down the street from our southern California office. The 40-something entrepreneur and I were talking about his kids—two teenage daughters, another daughter a year or two behind, and now, two adopted sons, ages four and six. He and his wife are successful by any standards: she is an MD, and he owns a chain of franchises in several states. But he was concerned with the legacy he would leave their children. “I want them to understand how they have been blessed, to live with a sense of …

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.   (1 John 2:6) Last week I met Lucia. My first view of her was as she sprinted toward a soccer goal, leaped into the air, caught the crossbar, spun her body above the bar and then let go and balanced on the bar, spread eagle, eight feet off the ground.  Wow. And then I heard her story. Both parents were dead by the time she was seven.  She moved into an aunt’s home; an aunt who worked in a circus.  Lucia was apprenticed to the circus, where she was …

Last Saturday night: worship service at the City of Youth. One hundred and 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. And then 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.

Today we pause to reflect on the value of work and honor those who labor and produce. Here in the United States, we are singularly blessed to have the opportunity to work, to be productive, to provide for those who depend upon us. Many of us were fortunate to learn early in our lives the value of work; from helping parents around or homes, to having after-school paper routes, to summer jobs as teenagers. Productive work is part of our identity. But what about the children who have never known what it is to work, or who have no role …

Jardelio never knew what it meant to have a family. He was abandoned by his mother at a young age and spent much of his life living in shelters and orphanages. When Jardelio came to the City of Youth as a teenager, we could see that he was both a hard worker and a dreamer. Determined to provide him a bright future, the staff of Hope not only watched and prayed for his transformation, but they walked alongside him, supporting him as a caring mother encourages her little boy’s first steps. After he graduated from the City of Youth with …

We often talk about the positive peer culture at Hope. One of the keys to transformation for our kids is that on our campuses they are immersed in a culture that wants the best for them and expects the best of them. Our children are figuratively swept up in a current that guides (propels?) them in a healthy and productive direction. The right culture is at the very heart of all we do. But what happens when the culture is unhealthy, if it is counterproductive in helping youth channel their lives in the right directions? What happens when a culture …

Her picture haunts me every time I think of it. I had gotten to know Caroline as a beautiful, outgoing teenager, full of life and joy. Then one day I made the (perhaps) mistake of asking a staff member for her intake story and picture. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. It is one thing to meet a child in despair and then watch the transformation when she is placed in a loving home, given the kind of support she needs to thrive. It is an altogether different situation when you come to know and love someone and then …

I’d like to share a story — and then a point. Wheldon’s story is his own, but typical of a child of the favela. Unique but not exceptional, we sometimes say. His mother was a prostitute; the man who fathered him could have been any of her clients. By the time Wheldon was three, he and his seven-year-old sister were essentially abandoned to the streets to fend for themselves. He learned early the survival skills of a street child: begging, stealing, manipulating, doing whatever it took to keep himself alive. Wheldon, as street children go, was one of the fortunate, …