I am oh so excited to share with you our good friend Mitch’s story with you.  He was on our FIRST EVER man up trip the summer of 2011.  Since then, God has done some pretty amazing things in their story.  I can’t wait for you to read about it.  People always ask, “how did you get involved with missions/adoption” and this is a GREAT answer to that question.  I wanted to share with you a MAN’S story this week as Stephen & I are getting our team set to MAN UP in June to Ethiopia + Uganda, and Mitch is prepping for his team to go to Uganda late May.  You can learn more about these trips on the man up blog here.  ps- we’ve had the privilege to stay with Mitch & Shannon at their home and spend time with their children, and they are a beautiful reminder of Gods faithfulness.

I’m a father, husband, son, friend, coach, athletic trainer,
orphan advocate, and disciple of Jesus Christ.   I’m the father of 3 beautiful children (Landri – 6,
Kyson – 4, Zion – 19 months).  I’m
also married to a wonderful woman for the past 10 years who constantly supports
and tolerates my crazy life.

My story began almost 6 years ago when we adopted our
daughter, Landri from South Korea.
At the time, we adopted really out of necessity, because we were
struggling with infertility.  But,
it wasn’t until after we adopted that we began to understand that God was going
to use us to promote the amazing blessing of adoption and also bring awareness
to the worldwide orphan crisis.

Adopting from South Korea was a great experience
overall.  It was a relatively easy
process and our little princess quickly became the center of our lives.  We suddenly knew how people get
addicted to adoption.

A short year later, our son Kyson fell into our lives as a
true blessing from God.  We were
connected to his birth mother by chance through a long connection of friends
and acquaintances here in southwest Missouri.  Just 6 weeks after first meeting his birth mother, he was
born and came home with us from the hospital.  We suddenly were the parents of 2 kids.  It was scary, but exciting!

It was about this time that I began feeling a tugging and
pulling to do more good.  My
initial feeling was that God was asking us to help other people adopt.  We had been blessed so much by
adoption, that we wanted to empower others to experience the same thing we
did.  God had provided us with the
financial resources, a supportive family, and the drive to jump through all of
the hoops that are associated with adoption.  Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.

I began talking with my dear friend Rob Neal about my desire
to give back more.  He shared with
me that he had a similar feeling (he is the father of 5, including 2 adopted
children) and we began to talk more about all of the possibilities.  Time passed and my calling became
stronger and stronger.  I began to
look for mission work opportunities that fit my skill set and passion, but
struggled to find a good fit.

At the same time, we had begun researching options for our 3^rd
adoption.  We quickly found
ourselves immersed in our local Ethiopian adoption community.

It was at that point that Rob came to me (actually at an
Ethiopian adoption group gathering) excited about this “Man Up” mission trip
that he was going on and he wanted me to get on board.  Suddenly I had found what I had been
looking for. 

I can remember asking
my wife what she thought, but knowing I was going regardless of what she
thought, because I knew in my heart that this is what God had been planning for
me.

A few months later we departed on this amazing 2-week
adventure with 41 other incredible people that were all interested in Manning
Up for Orphans.  The group was exceptionally
diverse and included the Man Up visionary, Roger Gibson, soon-to-be dear friends
Stephen and Wynne Elder, and my childhood friend Jason Clement.

 I honestly don’t know where to begin to explain how my world
became flipped upside down in those 16 days.  I do know that suddenly things that I thought were clear in
life became blurry, and things that were blurry, were now clear.  I didn’t know if I was supposed to go
home and live life as if nothing had ever happened, or if I was supposed to move
my family to Africa to live out the rest of my days.  

When I returned home, I struggled to get back to the tasks
of daily life.  We had seen
children eat food from the dump in Korah, explained to widows that I couldn’t take
their children home with me, and spent time with a pastor who had been shot and
left for dead, simply for loving Jesus.  I didn’t know how to function in my comfortable life at home.

With time came clarity.  I joined forces with Jason, Rob, and Roger to help push the
Man Up movement forward.  Over the
next year, my wife and I began fundraising to build a school for the Karamonjong
tribe in JinJa, Uganda. I led a Man Up team back to Uganda and Ethiopia with a
mission to continue to serve God through orphan and widow care.  And, finally after 2 ½ years of hard
work, prayer, trials, and tribulations, we recently brought home our son from
Ethiopia.  Life has never been
better, and will never be the same.

Through all of this, God has made me a better man.  He has changed the way I love my
family.  He has changed the way
that I interact with the college athletes that I train every day.  He has changed my circle of friends.  He has changed the way I read the
bible.  He has changed my daily
schedule.  I can’t think of one
area of my life that hasn’t been affected by His grace and calling to
serve.

As you can see, serving Him and His most vulnerable has been
one of the greatest choices that I have ever made.  I’m beyond excited to be leading another trip to Uganda this
summer.  I’m also excited to
continue to grow the school in Jinja that we have worked so hard to
establish.  I know that God has
wonderful things ahead of me.

Learn more about Man Up at www.manupandgoblog.com.  You can also learn more about our
school project at anotherpiecetohispuzzle.blogspot.com.