Author Archives: BoB

Wednesday February 29th – the next global fast

Posted on by
Reply
For those that are interested, tomorrow is the next global fast.  I received a lot of positive feedback about our family’s approach to the fast last month.  If any of you try the same thing (or come up with a better idea) please leave a reply on this post and tell us about it.  If you participate in tomorrow’s fast please consider donating the money saved from the meal to Live58.org.
Here is the letter I received reminding me of tomorrow’s fast:
Good afternoon!
I just wanted to shoot you a quick email reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday Feb. 29th (leap day), is this month’s 58: Global Fast, when we abstain from food for the day in solidarity with the global poor. We have an amazing opportunity to practically align ourselves with God’s heart for the poor and live the true fast of Isaiah 58.In preparation for the fast I’d encourage you to read Isaiah 58 and meditate on the truths it contains as well as on the amazing blessings that come from obedience to God’s word.

I am grateful to be working with you in service of this great cause. I believe passionately that extreme poverty can be eliminated in our lifetime. God is awakening His people, not only to the hurt and suffering that He sees, but also to the progress that is being made. The church has everything we need to eradicate this atrocity.

This month, we are partnering with World Relief, an exceptional organization delivering emergency food relief to Kenya’s Turkana district, a region in the northwestern corner of the country. Please pray for the staff and leadership of this organization as they work tirelessly to serve our brothers and sisters in Kenya who are desperately in need of assistance due to drought and famine.

If you haven’t already, please visit the tour page and make a generous donation to this project to support the life-saving work they are doing.

Thank you again for your fervent commitment to ending extreme poverty. I look forward seeing what God does through His people this year.

Blessings,
Jonathan Bell
58: Director of Engagement

YouVersion – Why its worth writing about

Posted on by
2

I am an extremely busy father of 5 and taking the time to write a post on a Bible app is not something I ever thought I would find myself doing…yet here I am, excited to write this post.  Why? I have been a Christian for many years now but up until recently I had never read the entire Bible “cover to cover.”  I tried many times throughout the last 20+ years but never made it more than a few chapters before I got distracted with something else and lost sight of my goal.

A little over a year ago I decided to try one more time and searched for a Bible app to help me accomplish my goal.  I settled on the “bible” app freely available from YouVersion.com  A signed up for a 1 year reading plan and less than a year later I finished!  The YouVersion app made all of the difference.  I know there is no excuse for a Christian to not get around to reading the Bible so in some ways this post exposes how pathetic I am. Regardless, I thought I would share my experience in the hopes that it might help others.

So why is the YouVersion Bible app so great? Mostly because every time I think, “I wish this app did “insert cool feature here”"….it DOES!  Not only that, I tried reading the bible in many various ways over the years including on my laptop, palm pilot, Windows Mobile, iPhone, using a pocket bible, etc…all without success..until I tried YouVersion’s Bible App!

What motivated me to finally go ahead and share my experience is an email I received from YouVersion yesterday asking me to tell my friends about the app:

1 in 17 iOS and Android devices have already installed the Bible App™. Know what that means? 16 in 17 haven’t.

You can read about their goal to get the Bible App into the hands of the other 16 HERE

If you’ve made it this far you can just skip the rest of this post and check it out for yourself at http://youversion.com/mobile
or you can keep reading below to see some of the cool features (screenshots straight from my iPhone):

Continue reading →

Make your fast count…

Posted on by
1

Hope everyone survived the fast yesterday!  Now that you have saved some money by not eating for one day, please consider donating the money you saved to help end extreme global poverty!

You can join the OurSearchforTruth.com team and help us raise money to purchase mosquito nets for children in Thailand at this link:

http://my.live58.org/momentum/team/653

(You will have to click the “Join” button in the top right corner if you are not already a member of Live58.org…don’t worry, only takes 10 seconds and it’s free)

 

Live58 Global Fast: Our Family’s Fast

Posted on by
3

Join the movement to end extreme poverty Well, we just fasted dinner and everyone is still alive ;-)

Below are some pictures from our “meal”. We called the kids up for “dinner” tonight and sitting on the table were dishes filled with money representing the money we usually spend on dinner.

Instead of eating we read and discussed Isaiah 58 and then we discussed Live58′s mission.  We explained what extreme poverty is, we talked about malaria and mosquitoes, and we asked who would like to participate in the Live58 Global fast (Discussed in yesterday’s post).  We explained to the kids that they could eat food if they wanted to but if they would like to participate in the fast by skipping dinner then they would be helping to provide kids in Thailand with mosquito nets and medicine to protect them from Malaria.

I thought this approach went over really well and felt like the dinner made an impression on all of our hearts…not just the kids. We were able to make our first donation to Live58 from the money saved!  Here is what dinner looked like tonight:

58: Global Fast – Tomorrow! (January 25, 2012)

Posted on by
1

Join the movement to end extreme poverty
Friends,
Please consider joining me and others around the world in the Live58 Global Fast on January 25th.  This is a monthly event to help raise money to support organizations that may be able to eliminate extreme global poverty in our life time…if enough of us take action!  You can read about it and sign up if you are interested by clicking on the “I’m In” button at this link:

http://my.live58.org/tour

If it’s way past January 25th when you read this..no worries, just try the link above and sign up for the next month’s fast!  Hope you will join the global church in this effort! Blessings, BoB

PS – Right now they are focusing on mosquito nets for Thailand but you may be reading this months after I write this so click on the link above and see how you can help now.

Ending Extreme Global Poverty

Posted on by
Reply

I received an email a couple months ago from Compassion International giving me a heads up about a new movement to completely eradicate extreme poverty globally.  That email included this YouTube video:

The premise of the movement is that global poverty CAN be eliminated in our lifetime and that God has called us to do it in Isaiah 58.

You can learn all about the movement at http://www.live58.org/

I strongly encourage you to check out the site and get involved.  They have just kicked off their Global Impact Tour:

How Can You Get Involved?You can live 58: by taking action to Fast, Shout, Unite, Give and Celebrate or sign up to join 58:.

 

Halloween – Why Our Family Doesn’t Participate…

Posted on by
6
Sick of Halloween?

Sick of Halloween?

I enjoyed reading the post by Kyle and I enjoyed Drew’s response as well – both found here.  However, I have a different perspective that I feel compelled to explain. (I originally wrote this post October 13, 2009….I just reread it today, October 3, 2011, and my opinion has not changed.  I have updated some of the statistical data to bring it current but, so far, no one has presented an argument that has swayed my opinion on this subject.)

My perspective has little to do with religion or my Christian faith….although I do have a different perspective than Kyle and Drew for religious reasons, as well, which I will include in “part 2″ of this post. Continue reading →

Better than a Hallelujah

Posted on by
Reply

Today was one of those rough days for me.  Not because anything tragic happened but just because it was a Monday morning, I had to get up at 4AM, I was on an airplane heading away from home, my allergies were acting up so my eyes were itchy and my sinuses were so bad I had trouble hearing most of the day, and my weekend was so wonderful that the contrast of a 14 hour day of work seemed unbearable.   By the time I got in the rental car I felt purposeless, lonely, like a hamster on a wheel, and just generally down-trodden.

At that moment my phone buzzed and I fully expected the buzz to be a reminder of some high-priority work-related task I’d forgotten about but, to my surprise, it was Continue reading →

God’s Global Purposes – A message for “good” Christians

Posted on by
2

I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s message at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA but more importantly, I realized that the intended audience was people like me….people that have been so focused on God’s personal and moral law that we have been distracted from understanding and participating in God’s global purposes.  The message is a call to “good Christians”….great, you are living right….but what about the Ninevites? Continue reading →