I’ve really been thinking about my legacy lately.

I firmly believe the time to think about my legacy isn’t when I’m 112 and on my deathbed wondering “What did I do?” or “What did I leave?”. Because I believe that’s not my death. The truth is, Jesus called me to die today, yesterday, and tomorrow. My legacy is now. I’m an eternal being and heaven isn’t waiting. It’s here.

So what’s my legacy? What do I have to give? What am I leaving behind?

This morning I sat in a team meeting with a friend and mentor that is truly changing my life. Almost every word that comes out of his mouth speaks to me in a way that I just can’t explain. I laugh a lot, I’m forced to think, I get convicted, and so on.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s no Mother Theresa. His words probably won’t ever be quoted on the typical Christian hipster’s facebook wall or twitter feeds. Probably because he wouldn’t take credit for a single word he spoke…

He hears from the Father and just lets his mouth be the vessel of life.

This morning He reminds me that one day I’ll leave Kenya. He kept saying “They’re going to miss you, but they’re not going to know you’re gone…”

“They are going to miss you.”

“But they’re not going to know you’re gone.”

This is the legacy I want to leave… every single place that I go. Whether it’s an IDP camp in Kenya or Burger King in Gainesville, Ga.

So miss me… sure.

But the only thing that I have that is worth ANYTHING, I leave. It’s yours and it’s Jesus. Take it… and you won’t even know that I’m gone.

So, what’s your legacy?

I’m not called to establish businesses in poverty stricken countries.

I’m not called to provide clean water to the thirsty and malnourished.

I’m not even called to be a missionary.

In fact the more I try to tell myself that this is my calling the more I worry if I can actually fulfill it. The more I desire to change the world physically or even spiritually the more frustrated I get.

 I’m just not called to be a missionary.

 The past two weeks I have spent a lot of alone time with the Father. He’s spent most of it taking away my heart for change and replacing it with a heart that longs to be with Him.

 My true calling.

I’m called to an intimate relationship with the Father. I’m called to worship Him… every day. The actions that I do are an overflow of a heart that desires Him and hears His voice.

 That is where it starts. It’s also where it should end. With Him.

I choose to do this in Kenya. God confirmed it and said “Yes, Matthew. You may worship me there.” (Yes, God calls me Matthew)

 If we lived our lives out of a desire to love Him more, to long to be loved more, everything else falls into place. Whether I choose to be a bathroom attendant or a pastor, an attorney or a missionary, I’m called to be with Him.

My calling, your calling, isn’t a location. It’s not a job title. It’s what’s in you. It’s what’s in front of you.

Have you or anyone you know “rededicated their life” to the Lord? You know, got “saved”… again.

If you’ve ever lived in the south and been to an old revival, a baptist church, or even a Christian conference you know exactly what I’m talking about. You might even know a few people who have worn a trail in the church carpet making their way to the alter every week.

What is their deal?

It’s one of those things I never really understood. I guess I was or am a once saved always saved kinda guy so what’s the point? (I think there’s a Christianese term for that but I’m not sure what it is.)

But lately I’ve felt a little different. I’m realizing my need to daily go before the alter and “rededicate my life” to Him. After all, His mercies are new and His grace is limitless.

I’m broken.

Everyday I come to Him, broken.

And everyday He fixes me. It’s a great freakin’ deal.

This morning I’m giving it all to you. All of me. All for you.

Who and what are you going to live for? It’s a daily decision and it can be heaven or it can be hell.

Eternity starts today.

I choose Heaven. Right here. Right now.

I’m home! This picture is of me and my nephews Elijah and Matt. I was able to successfully surprise my parents by showing up at midnight a few days earlier than they expected. Being home has been great despite spending most of the time sleeping and getting over bronchitis. The only issues I’ve faced is driving halfway to the doctors office on the wrong side of the road… just glad I was on back roads.

My main purpose behind this blog is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope your time with family and friends is blessed and full of joy. I pray for safety as you travel and for those traveling to see you.

I also hope to see most of you during my time at home. I will be speaking to a few different groups as well as meeting many of you for coffee. If you are interested in hearing about what is going on in Kenya please contact me! I’d love to meet up with you. Seriously… I’d love to.

My email is mattpatch(at)gmail.com or find me on facebook.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and following me on this journey! Merry Christmas!

Much love.

As most of you know, we are working on employment. By the time we head home mid December we’ll have successfully started four businesses. Praise God. I hope you just said “Amen”. It’s the Kenyan way.

I wanted to let you in on how those are going…

Lawrence is living his dream now. He is the owner of his own tailoring business named “Vision Tailoring”. He has surprised me with the amount of business he has already brought in, and has already begun training his first employee… his wife. We did have a minor set back. This week Lawrence was in a 15 passenger van called a “matatu” that flipped over several times and crashed into a concrete ditch upside down.

Thankfully, he only broke his collarbone, which will put him out of commission for a month. Please keep him in your prayers. He is certain God is going to heal him because of the big plans God has for his life and family.

Peter bought a rock quarry and hired four men. His first job he cut out about 1500 feet of stone. He was worried about selling it before January. The builders in Kenya will stop purchasing stones in December to save for their families during Christmas. I encouraged Peter to pray and ask God to provide a buyer.

I also provided him with some incentive… If he were to sell the stone before December 10th, I would buy him a tailored suit from Lawrence. Praise God (Amen) I lost the bet. Peter couldn’t be happier that he is going to look like a real businessman now. He made $150 off his first sale- half of his loan.

Jeremiah is already making double every day of what he would make on a good day a month ago. Last week the power went out in all of the city area of Maai Mahiu, except Jeremiah’s building. It definitely blessed Jeremiah as he was now the only person available to cut hair.

I made the mistake of asking “Can you cut a white mans hair” instead of “Have you cut a white mans hair”… it came out a little high around the ears.

Veronica took $15 and opened her own grocer. She managed it so well and from that small amount was able to not only be successful in her first month but make enough money to put her kids in school. She has shown that she can manage and budget well and is also mentoring others along the way.

This week we will be investing more into her shop as she prepares for Christmas.

Theres your update.

I want to leave you with this…

Yesterday, as the rain came pouring down in the camp, a boy named Dennis called me into his tent to get dry. The rain beat against the tent, and came in through the mud floors. I learned that his mother had been gone for 3 days, leaving him and his two younger brothers to take care of themselves. They were about 13, 11, and 7.

The day before, I had seen Dennis carrying a load of firewood (from several kilometers away) and made conversation with him. He hadn’t eaten that day, which I assumed he had been out working, and hadn’t had the time. However, he and his brothers hadn’t eaten since the day his mother had left.

There’s no happy ending to this chapter… it’s a harsh reality. The story isn’t over though. If you feel called to help, to be a part of what we are doing here, email me.

While most of us have shopping lists for expensive toys this time of year, most people in the world just want a meal… or a job.

You could give that gift… and write the end of Dennis’ story.

The Hurler Update:

I normally like waiting to update you on progress here at least a couple weeks if not a month a part, but due to the extra prayers that were thrown up, I wanted to go ahead and let everyone know what was going on in this roller coaster of a week.

Last Saturday, we held a celebration luncheon to raise up four leaders in the camp. We surprised the four by inviting them to our favorite restaurant “Mama Esthers”. She had turned an office into a dining room for us so we could have our special day. The soon to be leadership team had no idea what was coming.

It was a great time to announce that we would be moving forward in their business plans but more importantly gave us the opportunity to call out greatness and challenge them in this new role, as well as pray over them. It was a little emotional, I can’t lie.

After the meeting we moved to a meeting in the camp where we announced the news to everyone. Honestly, it brought mixed emotions and a bit of jealousy. We opened and closed the meeting in worship and reminded them to rejoice with those who rejoice. We also announced a celebratory feast on the upcoming Saturday for the entire camp… okay so we bribed them.

Then the week turned for the worst…

On Monday Matt and I came across a man in the camp smoking bang (weed) around the kids and blowing it in their faces. We then found out he has tried to rape children and chased them from school.  Which led to allegations toward one of the leaders being involved in a gang, doing drugs, and being friends with this guy.

Through a lot of prayer and conversations we have somewhat sorted this thing out. The leader isn’t what people made him out to be. But we face new challenges now in uniting the people, starting with our leadership team and this guy. He knows that we are after him and making sure he never touches or gets near a child again. Please be praying for this situation and safety in the camp, especially for the children. We will be meeting with all of the men challenging them to stand up and protect their families and children.

Let’s move on to some more good stuff, because at the end of the day the Lord is beyond good. He shines through the darkness. The enemy cannot take that away. He always tries to ruin good things, but we will not let him win.

On Monday, I sat down with Peter and we worked through his loan agreement. I’ve been working with him for a month or so now, developing a business plan and creating a network. Papers were signed and his life is now forever changed. With about $250, Peter is able to buy a plot of land in a rock quarry and put 4 men to work cutting out stones. He’ll make enough money to pay back $40/month on top of bringing in a good income. I cannot tell you how much this changed his life.

I asked him on Friday, before he knew we’d be giving him a loan, “If you were to get a job and make good money, what would you do with it?” He responded with something like this “I’d help the children, pay for their school, help our community.” Peter doesn’t have any children in the camp. But in his words “My heart is big, it’s big, big like shamba”. A shamba is a farm.

I reminded him of that promise in our meeting on Saturday.

Thank you everyone for praying for us. We feel it… we really feel it.

Much love.

Good morning America! It’s time for the news…

Coming up we will talk about the local flu outbreak at your child’s school, followed by the shooting at the grocery store that you visit twice a week, be sure not to miss the Islamic terrorist group that is threatening all public transit, malls, and government buildings, then when that’s over we’ll talk about how your spouses job is in danger and the house you recently purchased is worthless but it’s okay, chances are you’ll lose it anyway…

Okay, calm down. Take your child out of their plastic bubble and put away your hand sanitizer for 5 minutes. We have medicine. Before you make jabs or jokes at work about terrorists, sit down and talk to a muslim, no… sit down and listen to a muslim, you might be surprised. Unemployment in America is 9%… Kenya try 40% or Zimbabwe, where 90% of the country is unemployed.

We are so caught up in fear of what could happen or what media portrays that we are totally oblivious to what is happening.

Francis Chan said it well when he gave away the millions of dollars he made off his best seller “Crazy Love” and was asked why he didn’t save any for an emergency… “ You’re saying what’s happening in Haiti is not an emergency? You’re saying what happens in Africa is not an emergency? What’s going on in India is not an emergency? These girls getting raped in Thailand is not an emergency? Oh. An emergency is just if it harms me and my precious little kids. But the rest of the world forget about them….”

I challenge you with this…

Live…

Live…

…Live your life… let go, and live a little. Get to know someone who looks different, smells different, talks different, and is different than you. Tight on cash? Give some away. Go eat at a soup kitchen, not serve, eat there. While you’re there you might be able to do the first thing I mentioned and kill two bird with one stone.

And if you’re feeling crazy and really, I mean really want to live… follow Jesus.

Not in your heart.

Literally follow him… right foot – left foot. One step at a time, start doing what he said to do. If we keep on going through life trying to live and avoid the “issues” we’re gonna miss the boat… Yeah, I’m talking about the boat that Jesus is on, and control of, and calms the storms that everyone else is so afraid of.

So go ahead and die. Give it all up, and find life. True life. It’s on the boat.

Update on me:

I feel like I talk about family a lot… I’m a verbal processor and that is definitely what I love the most about my life. It makes it quite hard sometimes to be halfway across the world to have the thing you love most so far away. I miss birthdays, my nephew’s first day of school, the other nephew’s soccer games, and my beautiful little niece who’s … well, about to start driving.

I could go on and on about the luxuries and conveniences of life in America and how somedays I swear if I eat one more bean or grain of rice I’m going to cry. Where is Taco Bell? But I’ll save you from the boredom of hearing whining, and me the embarrassment of revealing my needy, selfish, stereotypical, American side.

The point I’m making is things are “tough” because they aren’t familiar. And when everything you know, you love, you grew up on is thrown out the window… life appears to be hard, or falling apart.

But this is when God steps in. I was talking to a close friend today about life here, and my future. The fact is my life is going to look a lot different than I ever planned it.

I compared it to having kids. (How does a single guy without kids compare anything to having kids) Okay, just hear me out. My life in a sense is over. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about them, all of them… all of His kids out there. You moms and dads understand. The life that I once had, the one that is all about me, my desires, and selfish dreams is done. Those children come first, His children come first. Do I ever look back or look at my current situation and regret it… no. Heck.No.

Instead, I smile, and know that my life couldn’t get any better than it is right now. (I’m smiling now… man I wish you guys could just see their faces, and see what He’s doing here)

Which brings me to the update on the camp:

Water! It’s here! As of Wednesday water has started being pumped into the camp from a well that is two kilometers away. The water, which is 140 degrees farenheit is pumped from 1,000 feet below by a pump that was supplied by the Polish embassy and cost around $20,000 (thank you Lord for supplying that). It then is pumped into a cooling tank then ran 2 kilometers to Camp Tumaini. Members of the camp dug and laid the pipe themselves using a garden ho. That’s a lot of digging.

Employment! We gave out our first loan to a lady named Veronica. She took the equivalent of $15 and opened a fruit and vegetable stand that not only recovered the loan in a week but made profit! She’s now putting her kids in school, supplying her family with nutritious meals, and saving to expand the business.

We’ve been analyzing over 40 proposals from members of the camp and have developed a strategy through researching different micro lending agencies and international development organizations to start funding bigger businesses. This week we are laying the foundation for leadership development, training, and sustainability of employment. Please be in prayer with us!

I know this was a long post, but for those of you who stuck in there and read it, thank you. If you see any of my family give them a big hug for me and tell them I love them. In the meantime, I got kids to love.

I can’t believe it’s been almost three years since you left. So much has happened.

You know that old trail we used to hike and you would tell me stories and we carved our names in that big tree… well houses have come in and taken it over. It’s a shame that those little boys and their Grandpas won’t have the same memories we did. Guess they were for just us.

After you left I got to thinkin’ about you and all the stories you had told me over the years. They’ve inspired me to make all kinds of changes. I thought about how you used to chase me around the house with your dentures out and your glasses turned sideways. Well, it got me flossing every day now. And just the other day I was watchin’ the mechanic next door take a part an engine and I missed the next 5 minutes of what that man said because I saw he had it all wrong. None of his parts were in order, and sure enough he put pieces back in the wrong place. I guess his Grandpa hadn’t taught him right. I remember old war stories, how your favorite hymn was “His Eye is on the Sparrow” and how you’d sing it on the Navy boat. I’m still not a huge fan of water but I guess you can say I “enlisted” in the service.

About that… See after you left and all the people were crowded around telling stories about you I got to thinkin’ about my life. I wanted it to look more like yours. So I thought about all you had done for the church. I realized more and more it was the time you invested in people even more than the building you had helped establish.

So I decided that’s what I would do. Invest in people. Ever since I’ve been trying to be more like you, which was being more like Him… I’ve met a lot of people you would love, and who would love you. There’s a lot of kids that don’t have a dad like mine, much less a Grandpa. So I just love ‘em, cause that’s what you would’ve done.

I take one of your old hats everywhere I go, and even though it’s not in style it fits just fine and I wear it out in public… occasionally.

You should know we miss you an awful lot around here, but don’t worry about coming back. I know you’re “singing because your happy, singing because your free…” and I’ll see you soon enough. Have the boat ready and the worm on the hook.

Love,

Matthew.

Most of you know of our involvement in Haiti and our desire to adopt two children from an orphanage there.  Over the past year of working with the orphanage we, along with several other organizations and church groups, have seen more and more disturbing things.  It started by realizing that after months of the orphanage receiving food and supplies, the conditions continued to get worse, the kids were still naked and continued to play in filth and excrement, they still ran out of food, and the stuff we donated disappeared.  We began to realize that the family in charge of the orphanage sold the food and clothes we donated so they could make money and the kids would continue to suffer.

We then began to realize that there were much deeper problems.  The kids received very little love and attention.  The only caregivers for the babies were other 12 and 13 year old orphans.  The family that runs it had no interest in loving or caring for the children.  On several occasions we found kids sick to point of being near death, yet they were left alone by themselves in a dark room, often lying on a concrete floor.  When we asked the directors if we could take the kids to get medical attention, they refused saying would do it themselves.  Of course, they never took the kids to get medical attention.  Right now, we are very concerned about a 5 year old girl named Katia.  Last week when we were there, she weighed only 11 pounds and was near death due to infection and malnutrition.  Again, they refused to let us get her care so we informed some officials who went to find her and she was not there.  At this point we don’t know where she is, but fear the worst.   Here is another story:

http://blessedwithaburden.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/from-darkness-to-light-help-us-be-their-voice/

We have also received reports from the children of both physical and sexual abuse and between August, 2010 and March 2011 more than 50 children have gone missing.  When we questioned the directors about the whereabouts of the kids we were told they went back with family in the countryside.  Of course we were concerned  for the children and the thought of child trafficking crossed our minds but we didn’t have any hard evidence and didn’t think we were dealing with anything that bad.  We were wrong.

In July, the director of the orphanage was arrested after being set up in sting where he sold a child to an American.  We figured the orphanage would immediately be closed down at that point and the kids moved to safe locations.  Instead the orphanage remained open under the leadership of his family and we began working to get it closed by talking with police, social services, and the judicial system.   The police and judicial system have authorized it to be closed yet It remains open and kids are getting skinnier.

Last Monday I went down to Haiti for a meeting at Social Services with large organizations like UNICEF, Save The Children, International Rescue Committee, International Organization for Migration, World Vision, and more.  Everyone was on our side and we thought the meeting was going well until we got some major pushback from 2 individuals within Social Services.  We were suspicious of these two before based on previous interactions related to the orphanage but we found it very strange that everyone wanted to help us except them.

That night we returned to the house where we were staying feeling discouraged that we didn’t have more success.  Then before long the directors wife from the orphanage showed up at our house with a couple thugs and began threatening us saying if we ever come back to take the kids we better be fully prepared.  After reporting the threats we got a police escort to a safe location.  The only way they would have known about our meeting to shut down the orphanage was if someone in Social Services called them.

Since then our allies in Haiti have done more investigating and have evidence that the 2 individuals in Social Services that gave us problems have been involved with the orphanage director in a large child and organ trafficking ring.  In fact, they have actually traced children and internal organs that have been trafficked to the United States back to this orphanage.  It is the deepest, darkest evil I can imagine.

We knew Haiti was a corrupt country, but the investigators are saying we “have hit the jackpot of corruption.”  Now the only reason the orphanage is still in existence and the children are still in danger of malnutrition, starvation, infection, and trafficking is because of these 2 people in Social Services.  Unfortunately, the way the Haitian government is structured is that every governmental organization is on the same level and the only person with more authority is the President.

We are now doing anything we can to expose this corruption and get President Martelly to end it.  A petition has been started to have CNN run a story.  The fact that American citizens have been threatened and kids have been trafficked to the US should be enough to get the US media and politicians to do something about it.  Please sign the petition below and share this story with everyone you can.  We need 10,000 signatures and we just passed 2,000.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-freedom-project-expose-human-trafficking-at-son-of-god-orphanage-in-haiti

Thanks guys. You can play a huge role in this by just taking 1 minute to put your named down.

Much love.