My third and final guest post for the Food For The Hungry blog is up.

The only hope many have is the love of Jeus Christ

There was confusion.

Halkeno, Lori, DeeGene and I had traveled from Gorangosa to Kaia, Mozambique, to meet our sponsored children as part of a short-term mission trip with Food for the Hungry in 2011. Our translator, Palmayra, was trying to find DeeGene’s sponsored child. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

We went from the school to a mud-and-thatched roof hut. There was a long discussion between Palmayra and the couple who lived there.

After a bit, we headed down a trail on foot, with our hands brushing the tall grass. We arrived at a cluster of huts. No one was there.

“He’s not here,” Halkeno told us. “The child is an orphan and is living in his uncle’s home. The uncle took the child back to Gorangosa, we fear, because he is not treating the child well and doesn’t want us to see.”

We all prayed for the child asking God to protect him.

I think of that child and wonder what his hope in the world could possibly be? I always come back to the same answer: the only hope that child has is the love of Jesus Christ and the love of His followers.

Inspired by my time in Mozambique, I wrote a short novel call the River Way Home. I’m donating the proceeds from the first 500 sales of the novel to support FH’s efforts in Mozambique.

Below, you can read an excerpt. If you like it, please consider buying it from amazon.com to help support FH’s work to reach children in need.

My second guest blog post at the Food For The Hungry blog went up today: http://blog.fh.org/2013/01/finding-fathers/

As a young college student, my father faced the terrible task of burying his father. His father had a heart attack and all of the sudden, he was gone.

A few years later, my father had married my mother, and they had their first child: me.

In 2011, when I traveled to Mozambique on a short-term mission trip to work with Food for the Hungry, I met a man named Halkeno, one of the leaders of the FH/Mozambique staff. He and I instantly connected. Over time, he told me his amazing life story, which also involved the loss of his father.

Someday, I hope Halkeno will let me write his true story. But until then, inspired by both Halkeno and my own father’s stories, I wrote a short novel that explores the question:

“When we lose our fathers, do we ever find them again?”

Food For The Hungry is allowing me to do a few guest posts on their blog this month. The first one went up today:
http://blog.fh.org/2013/01/novelist-inspired-sunday-school/

Our driver turned the white minibus off the main paved road and down onto a red, rutted dirt path. We bounced and swayed as he navigated the bumpy network of paths, the way that lead somewhere apparent to him, but not to us.

As we slowed to a stop in front of a small house constructed of hand-formed, red clay bricks, the children burst into loud song. There are at least 80 small children next to the house, many of them holding their even smaller siblings on their hips.