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PathLight

Blaise Pascal Quote

Came across this quote from Pensées by Blaise Pascal and it struck me how very true it is.

Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.

Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness. Jesus is a God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.

We alternate back and forth between awareness of our own failings and pride, don’t we? I think about the PathLight students growing into maturity (and all youth …

Belize, PathLight,

Fueling Ambition

This afternoon an email arrived from the PathLight Belize Field Director. He said 27 new first year students have been admitted to the Sponsorship+ program, the largest class in PathLight’s history. How cool is that?!?

Did you know you can help for just $35 a month? The Fueling Ambition program is designed to help these students — most of whom do not have sponsors — to get a hot lunch each day in school. We’ve all heard how good nutrition impacts a students ability to learn, so Fueling Ambition was designed to make sure even the kids without sponsors can …

PathLight,

#35ToFreedom

I had a remarkable time with the PathLight staff last week in Belize. Along with a dozen or so guests, we toured villages, met with government leaders, interacted with students, and heard about the amazing impact the interlocking programs of PathLight has had on so many lives.

This week PathLight is launching a new initiative to help students thrive spiritually, economically, and socially.

This beautiful young girl is Joseline. Without an education and the tools needed to succeed in life, Joseline and children like her have little hope of breaking free from the prison of poverty.

Joseline lives in a …

Belize, PathLight,

Lighting Fires

An open letter to all:

William Butler Yeats once said, “an education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” At PathLight we couldn’t agree more.

PathLight helps children in rural Belize receive an education. When you join us as a donor, a volunteer, a prayer partner or all of these, you are lighting the fire of a child’s passion and potential for the rest of their lives. And as people of faith, these PathLight students are taking the fire and changing lives.

Rubi (pictured) is a great example. With PathLight’s help Rubi graduated from …

PathLight, Random Thoughts,

Online Junkyard Shopping

It’s cyber-Monday, which is a made up marketing name if there ever was one. Despite whatever cynicism you might have (and I might share with you), there is a silver lining here.

You can go shopping from Junkyard Wisdom and help some worthy students. For instance, you can follow this Amazon link to their book section (my personal favorite as you can see) and start shopping. Whatever you buy on that visit earns a few cents (or dollars or hundreds of dollars if you are a big spender) for Junkyard Wisdom.

Once you click the link you can navigate …

PathLight,

New Mount Calvary

It was 7 AM on Sunday morning when I walked into New Mount Calvary Mission Baptist Church in South Central Los Angeles. The woman at the door greeted me with a mixture of curiosity and hospitality. An understandable response because, as my friend Carol Houston joked with exaggeration, I might have been the only white person for ten miles.

Overcoming her initial surprise to see me, the greeter handed me a little toolkit on a keychain as my welcome gift. Why the toolkit? “Because we equip you with the tools to change your life!” Clever!

Reverend Sonja Dawson had invited …

Belize, PathLight,

God Sneezed, It Went Viral

My friend Pete Greig is the visionary leader of 24-7 Prayer. He visited this past summer and Mark Parcher and I talked with Pete about the importance of global prayer. The three videos below are (slightly) edited versions of our conversation. It was filmed in our back yard, basically done in one take, and isn’t meant to be a fancy video presentation. It’s just the sharing of stories of how God can sneeze and, beyond our wild expectations, something goes viral. Hope you enjoy them.

As a follow-up, D’Aun and I had dinner with Pete and his wife Sammy …

Belize, PathLight,

PathLight Students Rule!

One of the fun parts of summer is seeing new students added to the PathLight family. I’m excited to hear the Belize staff selected 12 exceptional students for the Sponsorship+ Program. Nine girls and three boys will begin high school in the Fall, and we have very high hopes for them.

This high school class of 2018 have ambitions to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, and business managers. Our job at PathLight is to help them achieve these goals while fully developing their spiritual lives. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, raising up young men and women with great skills but …