shine your light

"You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

It's the strangest thing, but every Christmas I find myself a year older than the one before.  And at the same time, Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning from when I was young. Christmas was all about the presents until a few years ago.  I knew "Jesus is the reason for the season" was true, but my main focus was on the gifts and getting what I wanted.  Even after I had children of my own I found myself worrying and fretting about what gifts to give each child and making myself crazy!  Presents are still a huge, fun part of our Christmas tradition, but they are honestly the least important.  I've grown to appreciate spending time with family and friends and celebrating the birth of our Savior as what matters most.  But there are still things God wants us to do and to be in the life of others during Christmas and throughout the year.

Looking at Jesus' words in Matthew 5, we are clearly called to be a light to everyone around us. Can you hide a city that is sitting on top of a hill?  Its light can be seen from miles away at night and it's impossible to keep it hidden.  Most of the time we focus our attention and energy on "shining" without considering the times we might be hiding our light.  Simply put, we can hide our light by neglecting to speak up when we should and by ignoring the needs of others.  Ouch! So, what do we do with this call to be a light in respect to orphans and Christmas?

We believe Christmas is hope...  Hope for all mankind because we can have a relationship with God.  Not because we did anything to earn His favor, but because the fullness of God took on flesh and lived on this earth as a man.  "He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him.  He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.  But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:10-12) THIS is what Christmas is all about!  We have hope because of the birth of Christ!  And by speaking up for those who can't speak for themselves and giving to the needy and forgotten in our world, we are shining a light of HOPE to a local church and 36 orphans in Santo Domingo.

This Christmas we are beyond excited that people all across the United States have joined together to use the blessings God has given us to shine the love of Christ to those who might not be blessed with the friends and families we have.  We will no longer feel sorry for those who are less fortunate without doing something about it.  It's time for action!  Over two thousand years ago, Christmas changed the world.  Forever.  If Christians come together and serve the least of these, Christmas can change the world once again by bringing light into darkness.  There are more than 147 million orphans in the world.  If you're anything like me, that number is so large it's hard to comprehend.  For too many years I told myself I couldn't do anything to change the world for 147 million orphans.  The number is too great, but you know what?  While we might not be able to provide love and care for all 147 million, through No Longer we CAN change the world... one orphan at a time.

Thank you for partnering with us to give light and hope to orphans in Santo Domingo.  We look forward to providing construction updates and more details about upcoming trips in the near future.  I pray this Christmas your joy will be found in more than just the presents under the tree.  As you visit with family and friends and celebrate Jesus' birth, pause to thank Him for His many blessings and offer a prayer for the children and needy families around the world who need hope.

the church

One of the most inspiring aspects of working in the Dominican Republic is the partnership we will have with the local church... the people on the ground who are living in the trenches, daily loving and serving 36 orphaned children.  The true heroes who have chosen to sacrifice so much to give what they can to children who are in desperate need.  What a true example of the church "leaving the building" and serving the least of these in their community.

Altagracia de los Santos is the pastor (and leader) of La Inglesia Restauracion Hermosa in Brisas del Este in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  Did you catch all that?  In more simple terms, Altagracia is the pastor of a church known as Restauracion in one of the poorest sections of the city of Santo Domingo.  She and her husband started the church eight years ago and since then have planted seven more churches in the area and have built two schools.  After building the schools, they felt called to do something more for the children in the community beyond education and started construction on the children's homes that are so near completion now.  Thirty six homeless children have been identified by Altagracia, and church members have opened their own homes while they wait on the completion of the orphan's homes.  They are putting James 1:27 into action by "looking after orphans in their distress."  Absolutely inspiring!

During their trip to the DR, Michael and Blake had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time with the pastors and asked a lot of questions over an authentic Dominican meal.  The most important question they asked was about their beliefs concerning the Bible and Jesus.  The one thing we decided No Longer would not and could not compromise on was that our partner church would be a Bible believing and teaching, Jesus-centered church. Altagracia answered their questions by saying, "We believe the Bible is God's Word.  It is 100% true.  We also believe Jesus is God's Son and He is the only way to heaven."

They also had a conversation about the seven churches they have planted.  Blake asked Altagracia how they decided where to plant churches.

"We go to the poorest areas of Santo Domingo because we believe that is where Jesus would be.  We look for areas that do not have a Christian church nearby.  Our hope is to plant a church and then in a few years plant a school.  As long as God keeps providing in miraculous ways like He has been doing, we will continue to plant churches so that people know about the love of Jesus."

Won't you join us in praying for these wonderful people and their community as they "seek justice, encourage the oppressed, and defend the cause of the fatherless" (Isaiah 1:17)?

anticipation

In looking back on the last year I realize we have been waiting in a state of anticipation about what the future holds for No Longer.  Almost like we've been on the edge of our seats and doing everything we can to be patient.  At the beginning of this journey we felt God calling us to do something for the weak, for the vulnerable, for the oppressed, for the least of these in the world.  The only "problem"?  We had no idea who or where our focus would be, but we knew we wanted to be obedient and remain faithful despite the uncertainty and questions.  And, oh, was it worth the wait!  God never disappoints when you earnestly seek Him and wait patiently for Him to guide your steps.  We have some big news to share and it's the answer to the biggest questions we've faced...  WHO and WHERE will we be serving and loving and defending?  Some of you might be tempted to scroll to the bottom to find out the answer, but I think if you read through our story from its beginning you will find the news even more exciting. Okay, okay!  Let's get to it!

A few months into the first meeting and planning of No Longer, God led us to a ministry called Global Orphan Project.  GO Project is based in Kansas City, Missouri, and partners non-profits in America with churches overseas who are already caring for orphans.  Their goal is to partner the two groups together to build orphanages and to provide orphan care above and beyond what the local church is able to provide on their own.  After some initial conversations with GO Project it seemed their greatest need for American partners was in Haiti.  In May, several people from the No Longer group visited Haiti on a vision trip, and we were very optimistic about the possibility of one day partnering with a church in Haiti to care for orphans together.  Through the summer the waiting and anticipation for a partnership continued.

But you know what?  God had different plans for No Longer.  A couple of months ago one of the representatives from GO Project called us and said, "We have a church that is ready to be partnered with a non-profit in the United States.  They have already started raising support, built a school and they are currently providing for orphans in their church.  They are ready to build an orphanage but they need a partner."  Of course we were thrilled!  This is exactly what we had been praying would happen.  We were committed to following God's calling, whenever and wherever He sent us.  The biggest surprise with the phone call wasn't that it came sooner than we were expecting, but that it wasn't a partnership with a church in Haiti at all.  It was a partnership with a thriving church in the Dominican Republic!  GO Project was ready to expand to another country and they were asking No Longer to be the first group partnered with this country.  It wasn't where we had originally expected to be working (Haiti), but who are we to tell God where we wanted to serve Him?  After all, it makes no difference to an orphan living in poverty whether they are in Haiti or the Dominican Republic or anywhere else in the world for that matter. As a group we decided to pray about this partnership and send two of us to visit the church for more details before ultimately saying, "YES!"

Blake and Michael arrived in Santo Domingo on a Saturday morning in early November to meet the co-pastors of La Inglesia Restauracion Hermosa and to visit their church and the orphanage/village site.  We'll save details about the church (let's just call it Restauracion for short), the pastors and what they believe, the schools and the city of Santo Domingo itself for later this week, but we do want to give a few details about the orphanage site today. Restauracion has a passion for homeless children in their community and they have already made progress in constructing housing for orphans.  In the past few months they have put a security wall around the grounds of the village to prevent troublemakers from disrupting the work going on in the village.  As of now they have one dorm for boys and one dorm for girls ready for occupancy.  They are in the process of adding and completing an office for the village manager, an office space for a psychologist who will visit frequently, and a kitchen.  All of that is wonderful, but where are the children who will find a home there and what is their situation now?  The church has identified and gained custody of 36 children who had no home or parents and were basically living on the streets.  Right now they are living with church members but will eventually be moved to the dorms when construction is completed and approved by the government.  The hope is that in the near future they can complete construction of the dorms, kitchen, and possibly add more dorms as they begin construction of a garden and sewing center.  BUT, until someone steps up financially they will be unable to complete construction or have the ability to feed and educate these 36 orphans.

After spending a little more than 24 hours in Santo Domingo, Michael and Blake were sold.  No Longer is ready to step up and support this village and this church.  Here is a church with a congregation committed to ministering to the least of these in the absolute poorest area in all of the Dominican Republic.  They have a plan and they have the people ready to make it happen. The church is currently training women to be the mommas in the village.  How could No Longer say anything but YES to this opportunity?  We are beyond delighted to have found a partner for No Longer.  We hope you will pray about joining us as we raise support to complete their work and even build more orphanages and schools as God provides direction.  We also hope your family will consider joining us on a trip in the near future to meet these amazing and inspiring people! Be looking for more information about how you and your family can be directly involved in changing the lives of these children.