We suffered a difficult blow to our family yesterday as my wife’s mother suffered a broken hip during a fall. She is a great lady in her late 70′s and a strong witness to the power of faith. We all know that as we begin to age, our earthly bodies begin to fail and thus the strength of our faith and family kick in to support us during these difficult times. We began to get the word out to family/friends/ministry and the response in prayer and support has been such a blessing.

People that lack faith have a difficult time understanding the power of prayer and faith. I also believe that those of faith have a tendency to not even fully grasp the strength of God when you place all in His hands. The world has suffered many tragedies recently, and we see people gravitating to their faith to provide a foundation to help them get through the difficult time. The same can be said for our daily journey to live. God is here, listening to our hearts, and His response may not actually be what we expect, but we know for sure, He is here. Trust Him.

It is one of the more difficult aspects of life….we don’t control it. Yes, we do have the ability and intelligence to help determine our course, but in the end, we will all come to the same result in our earthly life. Its a very humbling realization that God planned for us to have a birth and an expiration and how we choose to live this life is up to us to determine. Thank God for Family, Friends, and our Faith! God has given us a support system to help us to chart the challenges of life. It’s an amazing gift if you think about it!

Thank you all for your support, prayers, and love that have been shared with our family during this time. Jill’s Mom has surgery today to begin the healing process. We know that journey will be long and difficult, but we are buoyed by our faith and the support of our friends and ministry family.

I love waking up each day and learning what the world is going to present us. God did such a masterful job with nature and we are so blessed with the intelligence He has given us to live within this world. If you think about it, God was the Master Artist painting a beautiful painting and we are brushes being used for His masterpiece. What story will your painting reveal?

I love artists. The creative mind is one of God's greatest gifts to humankind. We have been given an opportunity to use this creative thinking to make an impact on others. God has chosen to provide this gift, but it is our job to paint the picture. What is the basis for your painting? I like to think of it as a collage of our journey. It's a story of our journey, but its not really about us. There will be good times and tough times, but the total work will provide the story of the impact we each have made on others.

Many of you reading this have very special skills. They could be skills of a teacher, carpenter, nurse, doctor, but they also could be the skills of a great listener that has the ability to provide love during a time of great struggle or strife. You have the knowledge of your skills, how can you use them to enhance your journey?

Ministry work provides an opportunity to help you determine how you can utilize these skills and optimize their impact. We are here to help, but the first step is yours. The work of the ministry is a canvas that God has provided for you to help develop your own painting. Every single person can make a huge difference in the lives of others and you will also find that the work is the most rewarding you will ever experience.

What is your painting going to reveal? The canvas awaits your brush, let us know if we can help!

This past week our team was energized by the students from Mississippi College that joined with our MMI Amazon to serve the children and people of the Amazonas Region. We are honored to have over 70 Universities from around the world join with us each year and these Medical, Nursing, and Dental Students provide such an enthusiasm to our staff that it helps to motivate us all to serve.

You may think that all who serve at MMI are somehow able to set aside the peaks and valleys of life to keep serving. Yes, they are special people, but they too have the peaks and valleys of daily challenges. These Project Teams are an essential component to re-energizing our staff and as a result amazing things continue to happen in 22 countries around the world. This discussion leads me to the subject of your journey.

Do feel like you are being called into engaging with our ministry? This engagement can be in many different ways…volunteering, supporting, praying, joining our staff, or helping to tell others about what is needed to serve the poor. Every role is crucial to our effort to optimize the ministries impact on the less fortunate. It's important that you take time to ask God about how He might be calling you to serve. He has given you special skills. These skills are a unique setup that once engaged can do amazing things in partnership with others. We have Teachers, Plumbers, Construction Workers, Doctors, Nurses, Dentists, and Engineers that are a part of our teams. The amazing thing is a 16 year old kid can make a huge impact on a team, and at the same time become aware of the world outside their own comfort zone.

It doesn't matter what road you are currently following, God has a plan for you if you choose to take Him up on the offer. Yes, many cannot give months and years into service, but a week here and there or maybe even a few days at a convention to help the ministry can play a huge part in the ministry's success. Take some time to meditate on your calling. The journey you choose to follow is unique to you, but when combined with others can be a very powerful way to share your blessings with others.

My Father finished his mission on earth many years ago and there is not a day that goes by that I don't miss him or wish he was here to talk to. Through my sorrow, I am still comforted knowing that while on this earth, my Dad served God to the best of his ability and finished his journey of service. As we celebrate Father's Day this weekend, we must never lose focus on our Heavenly Father and thank Him for the gifts that He has provided so that we too can use these gifts during our gift of life on this earth.

My Dad was a good man. Yes, he had flaws and used to say “We are all rotten and no good, but through the grace of Jesus Christ we are forgiven”. Dad was a believer and in his journey of life suffered many challenges to his faith, but even during the final months on earth he never let his faith in God waver. Dad was diagnosed with tumors in his brain at the age of 60. The cause of these tumors were not readily known at diagnosis but we later learned it was lung cancer….though he never smoked a day in his life. It turns out that my Grandmother's chain cigarette smoking around my father all those years did affect his health and eventually lead to his demise. Dad never smoked or drank his entire life….ironic huh?

I reveal this story to set the stage of how my Father continued his journey to serve God, even during the last challenges of life. Dad was a man of passion. He spent many days journeying to the prisons of Texas to minister to the inmates. He didn't go to the low security prisons, he chose to go to some of the toughest ones in the state. I once asked him why, and his answer pretty much summed him up, “because if we don't, no one will”.

Now that I think about it, Dad was planting a seed for me that has now come to bear fruit. My life is dedicated to serving the less fortunate throughout the world. I am motivated through my faith in God to use the unique gifts He has provided to be in service for Him. It's an “Aha” moment, when you realize that God has blessed you with skills and resources and expects you to use them while on this earth. I'm a big sports fan, and I liken this to God giving us a “tryout” while on this earth. It is through our actions and service here on this earth that we will be judged on our performance. In my Dad's case, he was not perfect by any means, but I am comforted with the thought that he has been welcomed with “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Faith is a powerful gift. If used to serve others, it can yield results that are only possible through God.

This weekend as each of you has the opportunity to celebrate Father's Day, I would ask that you take a moment and give thanks to our Father in heaven for giving us this opportunity to live and serve. We are all on our own journey with the blessings He has provided. During this journey, many of us have been given a role model in our Father. None of them are perfect, nor are any of us. However, many of them have blessed us with an example of how you can be imperfect and yet make such an impact on others. I loved my Dad, in fact he was my best friend. I miss him every single day, and yet, I am honored to continue his passion for service to those that can be served. Thank you God for my Father, and thank you for allowing me the chance to learn from Dad and be in service for you!

It's interesting when meeting with various groups that the subject of need comes up in every conversation. Needs are many, all over the world, but the subject hits very close to home in a few key areas. We have needs within the ministry, and those we serve have many needs. Today I would like to look at a few examples in both areas.

A ministry does not function well if it does not have a team that is capable and has the skills necessary to execute its services. One of the many challenges in ministry is to find people that have the passion, but also the skill. Yes, many people want to help people, but wanting to help, and actually being able to be on the ministry team are two very different things. Just wanting to help is great, but if you are in the wrong position, you can actually cause the ministry to not be efficient. It's not like any other organization, you need accountants that know how to keep the books, you need marketing people that understand marketing, and you need logistics people to deal with all the issues that happen on a regular basis. The Needs of a ministry are great, and we all need your prayer and if you have a skill that can benefit the ministry, we need you too!

The Needs of the poor are very different. They need love. Some have never even experienced the feeling of love. In fact, they don't even know what love is. Their life is about survival and very early in the process they lose their ability to understand the meaning of love because they are too busy trying to stay healthy, eat, and take care of themselves. There are a variety of ways that these needs can be met. MMI is focused on building medical capacity. Yes, we do provide relief of medical conditions, but we want to interrupt thee cycle and address what is causing the issue to begin with. Our goal is to eventually cause our services to not be needed.

We all have needs, and yes they need to be met, but imagine what it is like to be alone, with no support structure. Life is a daily struggle to survive, we can help these people, and let them know people care. You can help make that happen! Fill a Need!

In the last 48 hours, we have been blessed to work with multiple organizations that seek to join with MMI in our efforts to serve the poor. We are thrilled, yet humbled that God continues to work with the Ministry to open doors. What does God have in mind for these relationships and where is He leading us? We may never know the full story, but there are signs…..

Yesterday, I discussed the pursuit of happiness as we are constantly dealing with Volunteers and other Ministries where people have good intentions, but lack the passion or skills to accomplish their tasks. This leads me to the subject of partnerships. It is a known fact that more can be accomplished by a group of like mind, than by an individual. That being said, the “like mind” part is the biggest issue. Many organizations have a focus that may not be synergistic with your ministry. We find others though that may be complementary and can help expand the footprint of our efforts to increase the number that can be served. That is the type of groups we are so excited to be working with now.

We do not believe it is by chance that these relationships are starting to present themselves as MMI has been working hard to develop our processes and accountability systems so that we can execute who we say we are. Come to find out, that is the biggest attraction for these partners seeking to join together. Many individuals and ministries have really good intentions, but there concept of just going and doing good work without a strategy and a program to build upon is dysfunctional. Our Health Centers, Training Programs, and Project Teams are all a part of a system to do just this, optimize the gifts God has provided and impact lives. Excellence attracts others that seek to be the same. We are not perfect, we make mistakes, but we will never stop trying to raise the bar and maximize the impact for the long term.

Historically, there are many examples of people that want to help and they join a ministry and soon realize that it is more than they can handle. They soon have two choices, go do something else, or find partners that can help address their challenges and provide processes to aid in the development of their ministry. In some cases, MMI has been asked to come alongside medical operations and bring our processes and accountability systems into service. A good example of this happened in January of this year. Clinca Leticia in Letica, Colombia (Amazonas) had been in existence for a number of years. They had done some nice work in the area, but when the founder of the clinic became aware of MMI and witnessed our teams first hand, they sought our partnership. MMI took over daily operations in January and Clinica Leticia now provides over 70% of the total healthcare to the region and the future offers even more opportunities to grow its impact.

Not every person or ministry is a good fit or a good partner. We must continue to strive to stay focused on our tasks at hand, but when God presents a potential partner that can expand His impact….WOW! We serve an awesome God!

What makes you happy? Everyone seeks to be happy. We all have different things that make us feel this way. Some may get joy from a walk in the park, where others thrive on helping serve others. The key to happiness lies in each of us determining what it is that puts a smile on our face.

Throughout my daily interaction with ministry members, I constantly come across people that have a heart for service, but they struggle with the challenges of ministry. You can have a passion for serving, but find working in the ministry is very difficult and not for you. People that work in church leadership see this everyday. You know the good, but you also know the bad about the members of the congregation and it takes a special person to be able to deal with the challenge this presents.

It’s very different than working in the secular world as you have an additional component in ministry and that is the faith issue. It would be natural to assume that because you have joined the ministry that you are a good person, only to find that on the ministry team are real people, flawed like every other person in the world. No one is perfect, but those that excel in ministry have an ability to deal with the unique challenges and impact lives.

I have seen some of the most difficult people working in ministry. Its eye-opening to see this before your eyes. It is important that we hold each other accountable and realize that every single resource is a gift from God and that we are to be good stewards of these gifts. That means that we must make tough choices and difficult decisions that some may consider “un-Christian” but in reality, it is the Christian thing to do. We cannot let being a good person keep us from being good stewards. Its not an easy issue, but one that successful ministries must execute.

Happiness is a mindset and one that can be achieved, but only when you can be real with yourself and understand who you seek to be. Excellence is a goal and if you expect to achieve excellence in your chosen profession, happiness will be the result.

Over the years I have the privilege of working with some interesting people. Many of them were real characters that were very unique. I love that about people, it is what sets each of us apart. That being said, I am disappointed when I hear some say, “I'm just being me and if they don't like it, oh well!” How selfish!

We are all blessed that God has given us very unique talents and personalities. These personalities are our “calling card”. It sets us apart from each other. That being said, we are also meant to function within a society, or team so to speak. That is where the hard part comes in. Diversity is a good thing, but it also makes it hard to work together.

There is an old saying that a team is only as good as its weakest link. It's an analogy that is accurate in many ways. We are different, that is exactly the way God planned it. He also expects us to use our uniqueness in a way that makes the world a better place for you having been there. “Love Thy Neighbor” is not just talking about the ecentric guy across the street. It means we have to work together and love one another and be willing to adjust to others to make the team function better. I know it seems easy, but it's not. Why? Ego

We all have egos and opinions and that is not a bad thing. What is bad is when we are so busy being us that we don't take into account the feelings of others. You may very well be the smartest person in the room, but if you are impossible to be around, where does that get you? Don't change who you are, but be sure to take into account the team and those around you. Your skills are special, your personality unique, but your relations will determine how good your life can really be.

Over the past few years while working in ministry I have run across a few people that have been in positions of authority that say one thing, but then do another behind the scenes. It is one of the toughest things about ministry as the more you get involved the more you realize that your first impressions of the people were not what the seemed.

I am not really sure why this happens, but its happened since biblical times as the example of Saul, David, and Absalom began what is unfortunately a trend that does happen at times in ministry. The real issue is to ensure that the reasons for serving in the ministry are about those you serve, not about you. These people have lost sight of this goal even though they may have had great intentions early on, but over time the ministry became more about them and not about those they were supposed to serve.

Anyone that is considering joining a ministry or non-profit seeking to help the less fortunate needs to be prepared to see the good and bad side of ministry. I have to say when I first got involved, I was shocked by what I ran into as there were actually members of ministry that treated others worse than I ever saw in the secular world. It's an eye opening experience and not one that I want to use to discourage you. Ministry work is very rewarding, but remember that any organization with people involved is subject to having a few bad examples of what you would expect from those of faith that are supposed to be helping others.

It really comes down to who YOU are and what you are seeking to accomplish. If you want to use the skills that God has provided and are willing to be flexible, the rewards are awesome. It is the number one focus we have when we develop a ministry team, why do you want to work for the ministry and what are your expectations? If they are to be used by God to serve others, we can use you. If you are trying to make yourself look good or be someone that you are not, please don't bother, there are enough of those examples already taking away from ministries.

If your true self is about selfless service and being the hands and feet of God in action for others, we look forward to having you on the team!

I had an interesting conversation with a group of guys this weekend related to their desire to find jobs that were rewarding. The discussion started when one gentleman stated his desire to leave his current high paying role to find a job that he felt was more than just a job. It was another reminder of why I love what I do.

During our conversation, I encouraged the men to find their passion. Once they find that passion, they need go all in and let it drive their future. I speak from personal experience when I say this. My career began in the apparel industry where I soon became engaged in developing brands and training people on how to sell them. It was more than just developing the brand, marketing strategy, etc. and it was fun. A few years ago, I came to realize that the skills that I had developed over the years were actually God preparing me for a bigger mission.

It may seem strange to some, but I firmly believe that God had a plan for my life from day one and all the peaks and valleys of my life were events God used to prepare me for service. Many ministries are poorly run, they lack business acumen, and have existed more from the passion of its volunteers than the direction of its founders. In fact, many ministries today are being held back from reaching their potential due to the egos of their leaders. I was being prepared to address these issues, and am in awe to be in His service.

Passion is a powerful thing, and it is crucial to anyone that gets involved in ministry work. Every single member of the ministry team makes great sacrifice in income, time, and lifestyle so that they can give of themselves to serve others. It's not for everyone, but those that choose this path receive a reward greater than anyone will ever receive in the secular world. There is nothing more powerful than having your work impact lives in a positive way. The feeling of seeing a child see her mother for the first time is priceless.

If you are one that is unsatisfied in your current employment, then take a step back and find your passion. Once you find it, go all in and let your passion guide your path.