Beth McClellan and Bethany Ann Bender. 

The McClellan family has cared for, loved, and welcomed Catherine and I to our life out here in Texas. They were my Texas family before Catherine and I married. And when Catherine came they welcomed her with a wedding shower to end all showers.  When we needed a car they let us borrow theirs. When we needed friendship they had us over for dinner. When we needed prayer, guidance, love, a place to rest, baby supplies or just a friendly face, the McClellans have always been one of the first in line to help. 

When we were choosing what to name our new baby we wanted a name with meaning. We struggled for months to find a name that idealized the character and love we hoped our child would grow up to exemplify. Then we thought of Beth McClellan. We could think of few people in our lives who have so beautifully shown us this kind of love and so we named her Bethany after Beth McClellan in the hopes that she may one day learn this same kind of love.

Mom and Dad Schivley came down for a week to meet Bethany and help out around the house. Dad ran the vacuum, washed the dishes, and kept us entertained. Mom organized some meals, changed diapers, and took care of Catherine. They were great help.

New baby girl!!! This is Bethany Ann Bender. She was born on June 3 at 8 lbs. 4 oz., 20.25 inches in length with blonde or strawberry blonde hair (not sure yet).

Catherine was up a bit the night before with some contractions but thought they were false labor pains. We had a doctor's appointment the next morning at 9:15 and while checking her out, the doctor said, "Your in labor! Go home, get your bags, and come back here. Your having a baby today."

Labor was a pretty quiet experience right up until the end. About hour before the birth the contractions got significantly more severe but Catherine said the pain was still tolerable (she did the whole thing without medications) but the last twenty minutes of labor the pain got serious. Thankfully, this part of labor only lasted about 15-20 minutes and then Bethany was born. 

24,000 children dead

"More than 24,000 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today and tomorrow and the day after that"
-Richard Stearns in The Hole in our Gospel
President, World Vision

"Fifteen thousand Africans are dying each day of preventable, treatable diseases--AIDS, malaria, TB-- for the lack of drugs that we take for granted.

"We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies--but will we be that generation? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy and indifference murmuring softly in our ears? Fifteen thousand people dying needlessly every day from AIDS, TB, and malaria. Mothers, fathers, teachers, farmers, nurses, mechanics, children. This is Africa's crisis. That it's not on the nightly news, that we do not treat this as an emergency--that's our crisis.

"Future generations flipping through these pages will know whether we answered the key question. The evidence will be the world around them. History will be our judge, but what's written is up to us. We can't say our generation didn't know how to do it. We can't say our generation couldn't afford it. And we can't say our generation didn't have resason to do it. It's up to us."
-Bono in The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Times
Singer for rock band U2

"Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
-Jesus in Matthew 25

"I fear we have taught Christians to care more about building projects and pastoral salaries than about loving our neighbors who are dying because of their poverty."
-Doug Bender

The measure of a disciple maker

"Go and make disciples...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded..."

Many of us are leaders. We lead bible studies, lifegroups, or Sunday school classes. We are leaders in the youth group, leaders in the childrens ministry. We make disciples, right?

The command to make disciples involves teaching our disciples to obey everything Jesus commanded which includes the command to make disciples. So if we have not taught, encouraged, and enabled our disciples to make disciples themselves, then we have failed to obey the Great Commission.

The question we need to ask ourselves is not, "Am I helping people grow spiritually?" it is "Am I helping others to help others grow spiritually?". That is the measure of a disciple maker.

I am Second "Cell" Groups (get it?)

When I first sat down to write these discussion guides last spring, we got an email from an inmate in Wisconson. His plea was simple, "I am in jail. There are no ministies working here. Can I start an I am Second Group in my jail." This email became the impetus of my writing. I decided then that whatever we put together for these I am Second Groups had to be simple enough and transferrable enough that an inmate 1,000 miles away with no access to ministries, pastors, or other Christians, could download these discussion guides and start a healthy biblical spiritual community that we were calling an I am Second Group.

Last month we found a man who was working in the jails in downtown Dallas. The jails downtown are really just holding sells. The peole may be held there for a month or two but then they are typically transfered to longer term facilities for the remainder of their sentences. This man was going into the jails starting I am Second groups. Each inmate takes turns leading and facilitating these I am Second Group discussions.

The man's mission is to train each inmate at this jail to be missionaries to other jails. Remember these are holding cells. The inmates are regularly transferred to other jails. This man trains them here and then the government sends them out. They are fully equipped and trained to be I am Second missionaries within our own jail system!