monkinabus: blog of derek dominguez

Lameck Mutinda World Orphans Africa Director Thanks SC Churches

The 3000 and 143 million: Part 2

(Part 1 Here.)

So as I think about it, it's more about the condition of our hearts as we come into contact with those in need and hear about the issues in the world. Is God forming our hearts where we can be attentive to how He longs for us to respond to the drunk middle aged guy at the end of River St. panhandling, who most ignore and may think, "Why can't that guy just get a job?" Is God transforming our inward being where we are in anguish over the fact that In the past hour…

• 1,625 children were forced to live on the streets by the death or abuse of an adult
• 1,667 children under the age of five died from malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases 
• 115 children became prostitutes 
• 66 children under 15 were infected with HIV 
• 257 children were orphaned because of HIV/AID.......

.....and most without knowing Christ.

God is asking us to extend his compassion and embody His love to a world in need, in both word and deed. He's asking us to respond to the "3,000" living all around you and to the "143 million" you don't yet know. They both are in need of compassion and His love.

Do you know an orphan? Up until 2001, the answer for me to that question was no. In the US it takes intentionality to put ourselves in a space where we come into contact with those living in extreme poverty. It's not easy for anyone and for many it takes substantial money to travel. But, do you know the name of one homeless person in your neighborhood, a child in need, a street kid sleeping on a sidewalk tonight, the single mom parked in the dark recesses of the parking lot behind Target? I bet you can find one and hear their story. I bet your life will be changed by it.

The 3000 and 143 million

Two numbers often occupy my thoughts and motivate how I live my life on a daily basis. The numbers fluctuate, but at times there have been reported 3,000 homeless people living in Santa Cruz at any one time. Many of them are single mothers and children. Some of them I've been blessed to personally meet through spending time at the Homeless Service Center here in Santa Cruz or through serving at other organizations in town. There are 143 million orphans around the world. Daily I ask God and ponder how he personally desires me to respond.

As an apprentice to Jesus and walking in the "Way" we can't ignore those in need closest to us, nor can we choose to not acknowledge the plight of how the majority of the world lives. Whether it is a homeless person down the street in need or an orphan on the other side of the world, God desires compassion to manifest itself in and through our lives to both. For if our internal being is truly being shaped into the likeness of Christ himself, I don't know how we can ignore either for they both are need of God's tangible love.

New blog post at www.journeyintotheway.com

Less Than A Week

Tonight at our weekly CompassionSC team dinner and meeting Tate quietly walked up to my left side as I was talking. She whispered in my ear, "Daddy I'm going to miss you when you are in Africa." We planned on sharing with the girls later in the week about my departure. Tate is quick and as I shared earlier in the meeting about some details the team needed to cover while I was away she picked up on my planned absence.

I was caught off guard how raw my emotional response was as I picked her up and held her in the chair. "I will miss you too. I love you dearly Tate," I said. She then asked, "Daddy why are your eyes watering." I was overcome with tears as I looked into the future and thought about saying good bye as I head out to Kenya and Ethiopia in less than a week. I'm told leaving family never gets easier from those who have traveled and done this work for years now. As nice as it is for it to get easier every time, I hope it does not. It will remind me each time I leave how cherished my family is in the deepest recesses of my soul. It will make each time I come home a vibrant celebration of our love.

It's less than a week away. I'm excited. I know without a doubt this is what I'm gifted to be doing, what I was created to be have the opportunity to be living. It's also been harder to prepare my own heart than I imagined. Yet, the pain and momentary suffering does not compare to the eternal opportunity we have to impact the lives of abandoned and orphaned children, to see His kingdom come and His will being done among them. The temporary absence of leaving my family is real, but we know it is a small cost to pay for the opportunity to follow Jesus into His Way for the sake of the fatherless.

It all started in India...

...well not really, but a particular trajectory of our lives did. God definitely used a trip Meagin and I helped lead in 2001 to India to awaken to us how we would be moved recently to spending our lives for the sake of the marginalized, oppressed, abandoned and orphaned. A number of stories or images from our trip to India have recently occupied my recent thoughts.

I'll never forget Gracie, an abandoned little girl who turned our hearts upside down and who had been rescued from the gutters. Then there is a picture taken by one of our team members while we were in India. I looked at it every day when I had a permanent office to work from. It was taken off a billboard and asked the question, "Have you begun your incredible journey?" I always loved this question, especially as it pertains to our following after Jesus as his apprentices. In one sense, we all are on some type of Journey. As a follower of Jesus we are journeying after Him and yet Jesus is continually asking us to begin once again, into being invited to Journey into The Way. We are on "The Journey," but also continually being invited to go further, to "Journey" deeper.

Up to this point we have been on this incredible "Journey" with Jesus, but recently He is asking us to accept the invitation to begin anew in following and we are now entering into a new season. For the first time in years, as I look at this picture I have peace to be able to say "Yes, it's begun."

In the weeks to come, I'll be blogging about some exciting and significant changes in ministry and a new role I have had the privilege of accepting with World Orphans as the Director of Spiritual Formation. It's exciting times for the Dominguez Clan. I'm still leading and directing Compassion Santa Cruz, but this new role with World Orphans and their mobilization initiative called Journey117, only complements the ministry we are already called to here in Santa Cruz in mobilizing the church for the sake of those in need, the marginalized, oppressed and abandoned. We now have the opportunity to live out this calling, both locally and globally. I'm excited to share with you more in the near future as we say "yes" to being on this incredible Journey with Jesus. More to come....

Hearing The Cries

The other night we let Maya cry for an hour straight. She was not happy. She screamed. It was not easy to listen to how upset she was. For the last week she was sick and Meagin was getting up and bringing her into bed with us to comfort her. We also did not want her to wake Tate up. Needless to say, as she started feeling better we were hoping she would sleep through the night on her own like normal.

As I listened to her cry and scream for an hour in her crib, images of children in metal cribs flooded my mind. Children who had no mother or father to hear the anguish of their hearts. Children without mothers or fathers to care for them. This isn't the first time God has brought these type of "visions" to mind. They seem to be connected to Maya in some way.

About a year after going to the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church last November, I was rocking Maya in a chair and had an image of holding a little girl from Africa in my arms. There would also be times when Maya was a baby and I'd be comforting her and I'd have these images of me comforting one of the 143 million orphaned children around the world. The next morning while I was running these words came to mind this Advent season as we reflect on the coming of baby Jesus.

            I hear her cry.
            I hear his whimpering.
            I hear their anguish.

            Banging, legs thrashing against the cold steel.
            Kicking, frenzied movement longing for release,
                    from the void they shouldn't know exists.

            I see them in their mangers.
            Trapped as "Herod's" minions seek their destruction.
            Where is their Mary and Joseph to hold them tight?

I'm not really sure what it all means. I do know I'm supposed to be attentive to it and the movement of what God is doing in my own life, where He is leading and drawing me to.

Next Things

Tomorrow morning we leave for Colorado for five days. We're excited to see family of course, but we're primarily going to hook up with the gang who run World Orphans. When I was in Dallas doing graduate school I had the privilege of being on staff with Paul Myhill as we served alongside of one another at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in the Missions department. He is now the president of World Orphans.

This last November we as a family trekked down to the 2007 Global Summit on AIDS and The Church. God had already been tugging at my heart surrounding many of the issues discussed at the summit, but he gave birth to a new work within my soul as to the plight of orphans around the world which I briefly shared when we returned. Over the last few years I've been heading up some ministries here in Santa Cruz to serve the homeless children and mobilizing young people to serve them, but the summit made it personal and prompted me to get involved on a global scale. Since the fall God has continually invited both Meagin and I into a place of asking, "What are you personally asking us to do? How do we go about living out this new calling to live out an 'undefiled religion' by caring for the needs of orphans and widows?"

God has also reaffirmed in my heart the desire and passion to participate in a movement to mobilize and equip the next generation of young leaders or "new friars" to serve the orphaned and abandoned around the world. Scott Bessenecker in his new book The New Friars states,

AIDS in Africa and increasingly in Asia is leaving a generation of households headed by kids. The extended family structure is not able to accommodate the number of children left motherless and fatherless by the pandemic. Some parents with AIDS pray actively that their HIV-positive children will die first so that they will not have to face the hardship of providing for their brothers and sisters. Who will care for these orphans whose extended family structure has come unraveled?

Who will care for these orphans? It is a haunting question, yet the local church with the right support and vision is capable. It has beautiful resources as the body of Christ to extend God's compassion to these children. World Orphans is strategically coming along the local church in the most troubled regions of the world and living out a vision to care for the abandoned and orphaned.

God has revealed to me a refined vision as I step out of a traditional pastor's role to college students. He is still calling me to serve the church, but it is to mobilize the body in an apostolic/prophetic manner to live out the Missio Dei among the marginalized, orphaned, and abandoned. He has put in my heart a passion to still work with young people, but it is to specifically inspire, mobilize, and equip them to serve the "least of these."

There is a moving of the Spirit as well here in Santa Cruz to be able to live this calling out as well. The weeks ahead will be filled with decisions. They will not be easy, since it won't be having to choose between good options or bad options, but discerning what is the best among the opportunities God may be providing. So, we go to Colorado with excitement, hopeful expectation, and looking to discern what God may have for us in weaving these desires to serve and mobilize the church.

I Didn't Have A Clue:Reflections from the 2007 Global Summit On AIDS and the Church

      It has been a week since we returned from Southern California and my attendance at the 2007 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church. The event was life changing for me personally for a number of reasons. I soon realized after arriving and hearing the first plenary sessions that I didn't have a clue about the issues at hand and how significant the church's role is. I would soon be steamrolled by a wealth of information, from a variety of ways, and from multiple directions. I underwent my own "shock and awe" campaign by the Spirit using the conference to transform my heart.

I had no clue......
..."AIDS/HIV is the biggest public health problem the world has ever faced and has surpassed all other plagues.
...more than 30 million people have AIDS in the world.
...it has spread to every country in the world.
...9 out of 10 children living with the virus are African.
...there are 15 million orphans alone in Africa due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
...there are more than 143 million orphans in the world.
...8,500 people die a die from the virus, many of which leave children behind.
...there existed stigmas in my own heart about those who have AIDS/HIV.
...more than one million Americans have AIDS or HIV.
...that in the next hour alone ate least 257 children will be orphaned due to the virus.

I had no clue a week later I would daily and continually be thinking about the reality of the situation and how children in particular are effected. I had no clue God would wedge the cause of the widow and orphan into my heart, turn my life upside down, and give me a bit of his own heart and what he cares about. I had no clue God would convict me that saying I care about the "voiceless" and "least of these" is empty unless I'm willing to do something about it. I had no clue a week ago. Do you?