Ever since I announced that I’m goin to be running 50 miles on my 50th birthday to set 50 women free from human trafficking, I’ve gotten a lot of strange looks.

Most of them have come from the face in the mirror.

What am I doing?  Have I lost my mind?

(Please keep your answers to those questions to yourself.)

But without a doubt, the one question I’ve been asked the most is simply, “why?”

The answer to that question started in 2011, but wasn’t fully developed until the fall of 2015.

In 2011, I was on my 2nd trip to New Delhi, India, and in a frantic, last-minute “buy anything you can and pray to God the kids like it” shopping trip before getting on the plane to head home, I met her.

Well, she met me. She was about 9 years old – the same age as my daughter back home – and yet something was VERY different about this girl.

My daughter looked and acted like a 9-year-old. This girl looked and acted like a 29-year-old. It. Was. So. Bizarre.

She looked up at me with eyes that mesmerized me and asked if I wanted to by a necklace or 10, and I did. She was captivating, and quite possibly the best salesperson I’ve ever been around.  And yet something was so off about the whole transaction, and when I got on the van to head to the airport, I asked about it.

That night I learned what you have surely realized by now: that girl HAD to sell those necklaces because she was trapped, and she had been taught how to carry herself like a woman instead of a girl because American men will fall for that stuff. And then I learned that if she wasn’t rescued from that situation soon, she’d be selling something far more personal than necklaces.

I arrived home and kept that picture.

I looked at my daughter differently the first night back, maybe even the first couple of nights back. But over time, without even realizing it, the jolt I’d experienced during that shopping sprint faded.

Until I saw her again in 2013. In the same spot. Still (thankfully) only selling necklaces, but still selling for someone else and with no option to stop. My heart broke again.

It wasn’t until the B99 pulled up a trailer for a movie called Nefarious that I even realized that the jolt was gone, but as we watched the images of young girls and women being trafficked and Wendy sat with tears streaming down her face, I felt…nothing.

NOTHING.

Why am I running 50 miles in a day? Because I refuse to DO NOTHING just because I might not FEEL SOMETHING.

I refuse to let APATHY rule me, and so I am running because it reminds me that to be part of a MOVEMENT, we must MOVE.

I’m running because my WIFE’S BURDEN matters to me, and this is one small way that I can honor what God is doing in her.

I’m running because I CAN and I’m praying that it will motivate others to do what THEY CAN.

Speak up.

Stand up.

Donate.

Pray.

I’m hoping that you will be a part of giving a future to 50 women who only know a present from which they cannot escape.

If a lot do a little, it can change the world.

If you don’t believe that, I understand. I used to be you.

But now I’m not, and someday soon, you won’t be, either.

We’ll be the same. People with hearts that are broken because of a girl I met on the streets of New Delhi.

Someday, I pray I meet her again, on those same streets, grown up and…

Free.

[A lot has happened since I wrote about this in 10/12.  To read more about where this day has taken us, be sure to see the update at the end.]

There are key moments in the history of all church plants that make the leaders stop and pause, and we’ve had a number of those moments at The Gathering already.  The first salvation, the first baptisms, the first Sunday with an overcrowded sanctuary. But this past Sunday was such an incredible moment that I have had to literally take a few days to even try and process what we all saw happen.

It was a line in the sand moment.  A DNA-revealing moment.  A moment when who we desire to be as a church became who we are as a church.

It was rare, holy, and inspiring.

How many church plants give away a year’s worth of rent in a one-time offering?  There may be a lot, but I only know of one for sure, and I couldn’t be more proud to lead it.

All of us have heard the expression “put your money where your mouth is” more times than we can probably count, and the reason we’ve heard it so much is because it’s true.  So many times people talk a good game, but when it’s time to put up or shut up, the talk is revealed as words only, and the Bible has some pretty strong things to say about only talking:

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18)

Still, we say a lot, don’t we?  And if we’re honest, the sheer volume of words from churches in America make us wonder if there is any real conviction behind those words.  We read books like Radical by David Platt and hear messages from modern-day prophets like Francis Chan and we applaud – shoot, we even say we agree with – the messages that they espouse, but at the end of the day, we take the material possessions that we have as churches and use them on ourselves first and then give the needy our…

…leftovers.

Let me ask the question again: how can the love of God be in us if we live and operate like that?  According the the Scriptures, it can’t.

Let that sink in a bit.  Ouch.

But what happened on Sunday is exactly what reveals that the love of God is in us, both individually as well as corporately.  When we live for The Other Six days of the week and understand that Sundays are the least important days, we start to give to the need before we give to the greed.  We make sure that our brothers and sisters worldwide have something before we have everything.  And when a church has that kind of DNA, moments like Sunday morning will happen on a regular basis.

Do we need a larger space for our services?  Absolutely.  Do children in India need milk and nourishment more?  Yes.  Will God take care of our space issues when we give a year’s worth of anticipated rent payments to provide over 190,000 cups of milk to those children?  You better believe it!

Thank you to all of you who call The Gathering your home, to all of you who give generously on every occasion and to all of you who allow us as a church to bring glory to the Lord with the gifts you give.  We have the awesome privilege of being part of something bigger than ourselves, and if you know someone who is tired of the typical “us first” religious experience, why not invite them to come and join a movement that lives for more than a 2 hour experience one day a week.

Invite them to walk with us as we follow Jesus on the other six days, too.

UPDATE:  What an honor to know that this wasn’t a “one time shot” for our church.  Now, 16 months removed from this amazing day, we have continued to support not only the persecuted church in India, but many of those in need right here where we live.

One of our Core Values at The Gathering says “we value simpler living and expect a lifestyle of contentment to enable greater and more generous giving.”  Not only have we continued what I wrote about at the end of 2012, but we gave more in 2013, with almost 1 out of every 4 dollars that came in going right back out to help take the gospel to those far from God.  Not bad for a 2-year old, toddler church plant.  Not bad, at all.

Thank you, Gatherers, for truly putting your money where your HEART is.  It’s MY HONOR to pastor you!

Its hard to get up this morning. Well be making our way into a new village where there is no running water and no electricity to do a 6 hour medical clinic. Then well be going to a ragpickers slum for baptisms this afternoon at 4:00 pm.

One of the highlights of the days here is always the Skype call home first thing in the morning. As Im getting up here, my family is getting ready for bed at home, and seeing their faces always gives me a boost. This morning, its not connecting and thats a sad way to start the day. Hopefully, well talk soon.

Update: Skype call connected!! Got to see and hear my family before heading out. God is good!