The Ice Cream Man Cometh

The secret is out.

We managed to go two years without Chase or Jackson figuring out the truth.

The colorful truck slowly creeping through the neighborhood blasting its siren song is filled with ice cream goodness.

Leave it to Grandma to divulge the secret and to be the one who purchased their snow cone from the greasy man peddling sugar from his truck.

I have a  theory. Remember the tall, lanky guy at the roller rink who rocked the black Def Leppard t-shirt, long hair and ripped jeans and who skated circles (literally) around everyone else? If you were born before 1980 you definitely know who I'm talking about. My theory is all those guys formed an ice cream truck union and are plotting to take over the world one Push-Up Pop at a time.

Billy and Dawn: Rays of Hope in Iraq

In the summer of 2007, leaders of World Orphans visited Northern Iraq to meet with local Iraqi officials about starting a non-governmental organization (NGO) there to serve the Kurdish widows and orphans who were victimized under the regime of Saddam Hussein. World Orphans was welcomed and even an acre of land in the heart of a city was given to us to build a community center out of which we could operate and serve. The World Orphans team left asking, "Who do we know who has setup an NGO in this area of the Middle East so we can learn from them?" The answer was no one. We were the first.

Five years later, God has been deepening our roots in Iraq through Billy and Dawn Ray and their three children. Next week, I am leading the very first World Orphans trip to serve along side the Rays.

Earlier this morning (or evening in Iraq), I sat at a Starbucks in Richmond, Indiana and peppered Billy with several questions over Skype as he sat at his computer in Soran, Iraq. [I love technology!] From our several conversations, I have developed an immense respect for the Ray's and can't wait to meet them face to face in about a week. Hopefully, from our conversation this morning, you will get to know his story a little better too.

(Disclaimer: several large trucks drove by me during our call so I'm taking some liberty in quoting Billy word for word in several places.)

I was born in England to a U.S. military family and we moved back to the States when I was 2 or 3. I grew up surrounded by siblings who were overachievers.

I have always had a love for other cultures and growing up, the Old Testament stories captivated me. I dreamed of living where those champions of the faith lived. Now that I have lived in the Middle East for a decade, I speak Turkish fluently and my Kurdish is coming along. I hope to speak Arabic and Hebrew one day too.

My wife, Dawn, and I met in Istanbul of all places even though we both attended Baylor University and the same church in Waco, Texas! We have been married for eleven years.

Six of those years we lived in Turkey where we started a church. All three of our boys were born during our time in Turkey and are currently ages six, seven and nine. When I turned thirty I was childless but when I turned thirty-three I had three boys!

Honestly, we felt we would live and die in Turkey but God changed that story quickly cause my youngest son almost died of Sepsis at ten days old. He also developed three heart defects and so we left to get immediate help in the U.S.

Back in the States, I attended a missions conference in January 2007. We were all praying and I received a very literal "Macedonian" call. If you remember, God did not allow the apostle Paul to go into what is modern day Turkey and instead redirected him to Macedonia. We had every intention of going back to Turkey but God gave me this vision of orphaned Kurdish children in Iraq. I didn't know what to do with this but my heart was broken for them. I asked God if he was opening the door to Iraq after closing the door in Turkey? Six month later we got the answer. The leaders at World Orphans contacted me and told me about the open door the Iraqi government extended to them and said we have been praying for God to raise someone up to go. The crazy thing is I hadn't told anyone about my new desire to serve there.

Now that we have been in Northern Iraq for four years, my greatest joy is being able to be myself in a Muslim country. When we started churches in Turkey we were under deep suspicion. We had death threats, a fellow church worker was beat up in broad daylight. It was a very hard experience. Our church was repeatedly firebombed with Molotov cocktails through our church windows.

Coming here though we have freedom. Freedom that is unheard of anywhere in the Middle East. I don't have to hide behind any platform or alias or have any ulterior motive. We told the government when arriving the reason we are here is Jesus Christ died on the cross for the world and as followers we are here to serve you. The leader of the government in our area looked me in the eye and said, "We know this message well and we hope your project is successful." Sure we have had some tense moments but nothing like we experienced in Turkey.

The Kurdish people are so well-hearted and gentle and have been very welcome and supportive of our ministry here.

After seeing this brief overview of Billy's life you probably can see why I have gained a huge amount of respect for him and his family (also note his Yankees hat in the picture above so you know he is a genius too).

Be sure to check back in the coming days as I will be blogging live from Iraq.

Thoughts From a Blurry Weekend

In the last four days, I have met with three churches about stepping up their involvement in the care for orphans around the world as well as represented World Orphans at an adoption & orphan care conference in Indianapolis.

As an introvert (and proud of it) you would think I would be exhausted with the steady stream of people. The truth is I wish I had the open doors where I could speak with church leaders every day so I could encourage and help them to strategically rethink their involvement in the global orphan crisis.

During the conversations I have had the last few days I have observed the following:

1. The wave of people who want to speak up for the Orphan continues to grow rapidly.

2. The U.S. church (as a whole) isn't responding fast enough to direct the passion of the people who are ready to take action.

3. Beth Guckenberger is the real deal & she is a new hero of Janie's.

4. The Answer the Call Conference is a must attend event. If you live around Indy you need to get there in 2013.

5. Meeting many awesome people who represent several other adoption/orphan care ministries at the conference was a welcome reminder there are many ways to fight for the orphan and we are all needed.

6. I am exactly where God wants me to be.

Gone Camping

Wednesday morning we started our drive from Orlando to Indiana so I could represent World Orphans at the Answer the Call [orphan care & adoption] Conference on Saturday. Usually I drive through the night on a trip like this but the downside is I am useless the day we arrive. This time we decided to stay over night in Chattanooga. Because we travel with a 100 lbs dog our choices are limited as to where we can stay. Most hotels don't allow pets and the ones that do attach a hefty pet fee.

I think I gave my wife quite a shock when I suggested we camp out. To be honest, it kind of shocked me as the words came out of my mouth. An outdoorsmen...I am not.

I'm not going to lie. There were several times I was tempted to alter course but it was too late. We had already told the boys and it was all they could talk about.

We chose to camp out at Harrison Bay State Park, not to far off I-75. Our camp site was steps away from an amazing view of the bay.

The boys had no interest in helping mom and dad set up the tent. All they wanted to do was get the fire going. They were a big help in that job because they gathered tons of sticks I used for kindling.   

Because I'm such a novice when it comes to things like camping. I get a bit uneasy when things don't work as planned. The tent went up without much hassle but because much of the wood surrounding us was wet the fire took longer than expected to get started. Once the fire started to catch the wood and began to rise Chase exclaimed, "Daddy, you're a genius." After those words he could have asked for anything and I would have given it to him.

Janie grew up camping with her family and knew exactly what to pack. As usual she set us up for a win.

Cooking their own hot dogs pver the fire and carrying around their very own flashlights were the highlights of the trip for Chase and Jackson.

Don't expect many more camping experiences on the blog. I still prefer hotels and resorts over rustic experiences but I do want to give my boys as many adventures as possible.

Jackson's 2nd "Gotcha Day"

Two years ago, my little wild man officially became a Mehaffey.

We started the celebration as usual by watching Jackson's "Welcome Home" video.

We also showed Jackson three video messages from some very special people who helped take care of him during his seven months at The Home of God's Love in Taiwan (from top: Bev "Shr Mama" Skiles, Jess Waechter, and Ted "Shr Baba" Skiles). I am so glad we thought of shooting these little videos for both of our boys. As they get older I am sure they will mean even more.

At this point we were all starving so we celebrated at Cracker Barrel over pancakes and followed that up with a trip to Target so Jack Jack could pick out a toy.

To quote from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "He chose wisely." So wisely in fact poor Chase had a tough time being completely happy for his little brother. Don't fret for Chase cause his "Gotcha Day" is in less than a month. But in the next two photos notice the longing in Chase's eyes as he waits for Jackson to get bored with his new dump truck.

Grapes and watermelon made everything better.

Who ever first defined boys as "Noise with dirt on it." Got it right.

And we wouldn't have it any other way. 

Our make shift car wash was the perfect way to end the day. Happy "Gotcha Day" Jack Jack!

For this post, I chose NOT to edit my photos using Aperture 3 on my iMac. Instead, I edited them on my iPad using the Filterstorm app. I am in no way connected with the makers of this app. I just love the way it turns my iPad into a fairly robust piece of editing software. I actually prefer several of the features over Aperture 3 and Lightroom.