It’s a cool morning in NW Arkansas, which is good for this Austinite. I always love visiting my friends here. They love Jesus, committed to the gospel and love the poor, including the orphan. Therefore, its encouraging to be here.

And I love the project we’re working on. It’s going to be amazing, details soon!

However, this morning I woke-up completely stressed. I was thinking of all the projects I need to work on, leaving here tomorrow to travel to Atlanta to speak, then I was thinking about next weeks trip to Haiti. Do I have all the details in place for that trip? Oh, let’s not forget about that California fundraisers going on next week too.

My mind was racing…stress…anxiety, fear, worry…it’s griping!

This is my new normal, this is the reality of a start-up non-profit. I love it, I hate it. But, if I’m going to lead an effective non-profit, that help eradicate the orphan crisis, this is reality.

Leadership is required, for moments like this…

I say a short prayer, get up and work, and do my best to be faithful, and relax in the reality that if I fight through the fear, if I allow the struggle to be real, if I don’t give up, HELP will be involved in a beautiful story of redemption, as we serve the orphan.

FYI: This blog was written on my iPad, please forgive any grammar chaos!

Next week, school starts. I’m ready for that. Ready for kids to get back in rhythm, cooler weather to return, (unless you live in Austin) and more opportunities to serve orphans! However, that also means I’ll be in full-swing travel mode for the fall.

Getting ready to head out for a 10 day road trip. I wanted to make sure the Wordpress app for iPad worked. So, consider this a test

Photo Credit: Scott Wade

I feel like HELP is in ‘the push” right now. Here’s what I mean. For a longtime, we hoped, prayed, planned and dreamed, that God would use this organization to serve the global orphan. We had zero seed money to start, very little support and a team of people that were extremely busy and scattered, though very talented and passionate.

There were moments when I though we would never make it, and no one would notice our story. There was so much white noise in the world, and so many amazing non-profits doing tremendous work. I wondered if we would get lost in the chaos.

We had to push..

So we did, time and time again. We had to push through our mistakes, we had to push through our fears, we had to push through the naysayers. Eventually, we saw the light, folks got excited, investors started to give and work was getting done.

Yet, we’re still pushing. It’s not easy, we have yet to arrive, (do we ever?) and at times I feel like giving up.

But then I think of 100 orphans in Zimbabwe, and 30 orphans in Haiti…

And I get the energy to push more.

Sometimes the best leadership decision you make make is to push…and when you do, you hit a point that you see the return on the investment. For me, I send a check to a local leader who can help send kids to school, bring water to a community, purchase food, and much more.

So today, let me encourage you to push.

Fear…stress…worry…anxiety…all hit me at once this morning at 4:30AM. I woke up scared…worried that HELP is going to fail, that WHNF is going to flop, that my kids are going to hate me because I sold our home to live in a two bedroom apartment, so we can continue running HELP.

Yesterday, I kept hearing this voice in my soul, and I did not know why!

Chris…I want you to give up more…your still holding on to the American Dream, your security is still connected to works and not faith. You’re not letting go!

Over, and over, I kept hearing that, it was bothering me. See, I want to be secure…Jesus wants me to live on faith…I want to be stable…Jesus is calling me to the globe…I want to be safe…Jesus is calling to risk my life for “the least of these.”

My response: But Jesus, I’m already broke, scared and overwhelmed with my current workload…enough is enough…right?

I guess not…There’s more I need to give up, let go, and trust God. I’m convinced Jesus is on a relentless pursuit to shape and mold His people to live a “normal” Christian life…and by normal, I really mean insane, scary, faith-driven life that we all want and crave, but we’re to scared to let go of the very thing we hate – The American Dream. Yet, it’s the very thing that Jesus’ desires us to do!

A quote from a young Haitian leader friend in Port au Prince:

Never take someone you care about for granted, hold every person close to your heart because you might wake up one day and realize that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones

I really enjoyed speaking at Crossroads Friends Church in Wichita, KS yesterday. Of course I shared about Gospel Justice. We had a great response. My prayer is quite simple, that God will move His church to be people who pursue justice, not as a cause based issue, but a gospel based movement.

Also, I think its vital for the church to understand that orphan care is not another cause to pursue, or a check to write…First and foremost, it’s a spiritual warfare issue.

I really enjoyed hanging out with David & Krista Norman, fun times for sure. Later today we head to Arkansas to connect with a ton of great folks.

Last, but not least, our kids watched Wizard of Oz last night for the first time, in Kansas. Pretty cool.

Currently driving on I35 heading to Wichita, KS to speak @ Crossroads Friends Church where my friend David Norman is the pastor. They just held a Garage Sale 4 Orphan today, and tomorrow we will do a Help One Sunday, which means I will speak on Gospel Justice, and we will promote our child sponsorship opportunity!

Monday, we hope to connect with local leaders in Wichita. Then we will head to Arkansas to meet with some friends and share our Haiti: We Have Not Forgotten initiative, and also do a House Show.

The good news, my friend from Arkansas is letting us stay at his Lake Home, which includes a boat. That should be fun!

This Thursday, we head to Springfield, MO to do another House Show, then we book it back to Austin to share our Haiti vision with Soma Austin Community Church. We are so grateful for them, they are such a generous church and have been a huge blessing to us.

Please pray for us, that God will bless this trip, that we will proclaim the Gospel, and advocate for the orphan. We want to be a blessing to the local church, as we partner to love and serve the global poor!

PS: This post was written on a mobile device, please forgive any grammar/spelling issues!

Roughly two months ago, we took a trip to Haiti. Why? We knew we had to do something to help andwe wanted to make a difference. We wanted the people of Haiti to know that they are not alone as they try to recover and rebuild their nation.

After spending time with key leaders, hearing their stories of heartbreak, seeing their resolve, and praying, we decided to launch the We Have Not Forgotten Campaign. Our goal is to raise a minimum of $100,000 to help build an orphanage for 30 orphans, to build single family homes for the displaced, and to repair critically damaged water wells throughout the country.

Were also very excited that the first $20,000 will be matched by Soma Austin Community Church.

We’re launching this campaign on thesix month anniversary of the earthquake.It’s asimple way of letting the people of Haiti know that We Have Not Forgotten… nor will we forget!

Check out the social media page. We have web banners, iphone backgrounds and also some information on sponsorship for this campaign. We need your help to reach our goal so that we can help our friends in Haiti.

Its official, we’re moving AGAIN!

Some quick backstory!

1. We bought our home in the same neighborhood where I pastored. The goal was to connect to the community, etc! Now, I run a full time non-profit, and we no longer need to be in this community.

2. It’s a longstory, but this past January, we received a letter informing us that our mortgage and taxes were being raised by $1000 per month. So, we had to move back to Austin, from Raleigh, and ask our renters to move out. Lucky for us, they did.

3. We’ve always struggled living in this home, and in this community. Necole and I would love to live in downtown Austin, or on the Eastside.

So, all that to say, I’ve been praying and asking God to deliver us from the weight of home ownership. When we moved to Raleigh, our dream was to downsize, live simple and be able to focus on HELP; and we did just that, and LOVED it.

So, this past week, Necole’s parent’s asked us if we would want them to buy our home. We were stunned and happy! So, they are moving in next week.

What does that mean for the Marlow’s?

• We gain flexibility.
• We will do a lot of travel this summer.
• We will have more funds to pour back into HELP.
• Next year, we probably will spend 4-6 months in Cape Town, S. Africa. We’ve always had a dream to go global, travel, learn and try to understand the global church and issues of poverty.
• Necole will cut hair less, and work for HELP more.
• The girls will stay in the same school this year.

We’re very excited, and we feel relieved. It’s hard to put a price-tag on flexibility. And, we have no desire to pursue the so-called American dream!

Anyhow, I wanted to update everyone. Pray for us as we move forward. We need to find a new place to live!