God's love for you is based on his character not your conduct. It's based on who he is not what you've done. - Rick Warren The Purpose of Christmas

When God Shows Up from Jaime Bertran on Vimeo.

“If it’s true that the spirit of God dwells in us, and that our bodies are the Holy Spirits temple, than shouldn’t there be a huge difference between the person that has the Holy Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not? This might be a silly illustration, but if I told you that I had an encounter with God and he gave me a supernatural ability to play basketball, wouldn’t you think that there would be an incredible improvement in my jumpshot, my defense, my rebounding, after all this is a gift from God that we are talking about, but if you saw no change in my ability wouldn’t you question the validity of my quote-unquote encounter…
so when those outside the church see no difference in our lives they begin to question our integrity, our sanity or even worse our God, can you blame them?” 

From the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan. 

 

I posted this a few months back on my old blog and I just ran across it in my journal, so I thought this really deserved repeating.

This is Cheru, she is one of the many kids that we got to spend a little time with last year at Discover to Recover, it's an orphanage for children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Try as I might she just wouldn't smile for me, well after about the 10th picture I started to pretend to cry and lo and behold the child finally beamed those pearly whites for me. Priceless.

Hurray, I am on my way... just minutes after posting I already had my first donation. I just placed a meter on the site that shows how close I am getting, but it was done after the first donation so it doesn't reflect the first one, sad. :( But so you all know, I am already $100 dollars closer!

For those that don't know me, or for even those of you that see me all the time, here are a few things that you may not know about me.
My name is Jaime, I work in the Junior High "division" of Saddleback Church (that guy over on the right is my boss, you may or may not have seen him on Oprah, Larry King, etc). I've worked there for three and a half years doing all kinds of stuff, but mostly I create graphics, videos, etc. for the 4 weekly weekend services that I am responsible for. I love it, which is totally a God thing because going into this thing almost 4 years ago, I wasn't sure that I would ever go beyond just liking it. God has a way of breaking you down, if you let him, and rebuilding you into a better version. So here I find myself in version 3.0 which happens to be my favorite version yet. I've grown a lot this year and I have to believe that a good portion of my growth was because of my trip to Kenya last year. I can't wait to get back and grow into version 3.1.

Thanks for being part of the process.
Sincerely,
Jaime

Hey everyone,


I'm going to get straight to the point on this post, I am trying to head back to Africa on a mission trip with my church.


We'll be going to Kitale, Kenya for ten days. We will mostly we'll be working with orphans that live on the streets. Barefoot and malnourished, these kids will typically spend the few cents they earn from odd jobs and charity not on food or water or candy or clothes, but on glue. They do it as it curbs their hunger and helps them forget about their pain, since they will usually inhale it until they passout. They are known as the "glue boys" and if you saw it with your own two eyes, it would break your heart. 


We also visit and help out a wonderful lady named Sister Freda who runs a clinic out in the middle of nowhere for little or no money from those who seek her help. If you ever want to meet a living saint, she's a pretty good first choice.


Going to Kenya again wasn’t the hard decision, because when it came down to it, Jesus gave us some pretty simple instructions... didn’t He? Love God, love others, and love yourself. Again, the deciding to return there part was easy. The paying for it again part however, has been a real challenge.

 It takes a lot of faith to embark on a trip like this and be completely faithful that the money will show up. But we ask all of our students to do the same thing, so this is me putting my faith where my mouth is.


So, instead of selling my blood/plasma about 175 times, I decided to send, post, recite, email and sing this letter to people I don’t usually write (or do) and ask for something I don’t usually ask for, money. I’d would really love & appreciate if you could financially support me on this mission trip. A little, a lot, any amount would be great. And if you want to know more about the trip, please let me know and I will give you a call, email you, or meet your for coffee. I would love to tell you all about what we do there, how lives are changed, how our high school students become leaders and true missionaries while we are there.


The other thing that I would request is for prayer. If you could pray about the trip, that would be great. As much as the Lord loves mission trips, there are a lot of other people that don’t, and I get it, it's not for everyone. The thing is this will be my 9th mission trip (7 to Mexico, 1 to Africa). These trips are something that I love and look forward to, despite the fact that they rock my world everytime I go on one, there is something in me that always says "just go".  There will be a ton of obstacles that will pop up and attempt to snare our ankles as we prepare to go love on the people of Kenya. And knowing that you are praying would mean a lot to me.



Thanks for taking the time to read this rambling letter. I hope you can help out either way and did I mention it's tax deductible and you can pay for it with a check or credit card?

There is a paypal link at the top right on this page or click here!

Above on the left is a picture of Zack and I with pastors from all around Kenya that came to hear us speak at a short conference about leading a purpose driven ministry. And on the right is sweet Dot, whom is now 3 years old and due to malnutrition as a baby is tiny, with a voice to match. This is where I am trying to return to.