No one is a self-made person. Thank you so much for praying, believing, and investing in me.

Thank you.

No person is an island to themselves. There is no such-thing as a self-made person. Someone invested in you and that’s certainly the case with me. Many people invested in me and I hope that I can be a source of encouragement to many as well.

I’ve been blessed by your support, prayers, and encouragements.

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your prayers for many things but for this post, to thank you for your prayers and support for One Day’s Wages, the organization that my wife and I started almost 3 years ago. Before the organization officially started, I felt like we hit bottom – starting the org was more difficult than I thought, we needed to move out of our home and was couch-surfing for couple months, I had ruptured my Achilles (the other one) and couldn’t afford surgery, and felt my leadership at Quest Church was in disarray.

But God remained faithful. Our friends remained by our side. Strangers – literally – came to our aid.

I just wanted to share a few updates that might encourage you as well – that your prayers and support have not been for naught.

Staff grows by 100%

OK. I’m just playing with numbers and it’s not as impressive as it sounds. 🙂

After having only 1 full-time staff for ODW for the first 2.5 years, we finally hired our 2nd full-time employee recently. Grateful for them and grateful for all our interns and volunteer staff.

New Office Space with a Little More Space

We’ve been meeting in a 250 square feet office since the beginning of our organization. You can imagine how tight the space must have been – especially for our monthly all staff meetings. After putting up a note on our social media channels, we were presented with several opportunities and eventually moved to a new office space.

Umm…slightly different:

• Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle.
• We went from 250 sq. ft. to about 25,000 square ft. Even if only have a corner of the space, it’s amazing to be in this wide-open space with a cafeteria, game room, and a table tennis room where I’ve crushed and discouraged all our staff and interns.
• And oh…it’s free.

Iraq. Heart Surgeries. Training. Empowerment.

Yesterday, ODW launched our newest partnership. I believe it’s our 38th. This time, it’s a $10,000 matching grant with Preemptive Love to provide heart surgeries for 20 Iraqi children and 5000 hours of training for Iraqi medical professionals so that they can perform these surgeries in the future.

While I know folks will be critical about why ODW is getting involved with work and people in Iraq. My answer is very simple:

People matter to God

Turning 42. My Birthday Campaign.

Lastly, I’m turning 42 years old this Saturday. Yes, I said 42. Yes, my oldest just entered high school. Yes, I’ve ruptured both of my Achilles. Yes, there’s a a million strands of white hair growing on my face and head. Yes, my basketball playing, ankle breaking days are over.

But I’m grateful for life and for the gift of celebrating another birthday with my wife, children, parents, church, and larger community.

Thank you, anyone and everyone, who’s ever prayed for me, encouraged me, and believed in what God has been doing in my life.

If I’ve encouraged you in some way as well, I want to invite you to consider making a small contribution to my ODW Birthday Campaign. Because ODW donates 100% of all contributions to projects and partners, we raise funds separately for our operations. Thus far, we’ve raised over $1.3 million dollars and any gift you make will help us keep supporting our operations and growing our movement. Because my life philosophy is to never ask people to do something I’m not willing to do, I’m donating a week’s wages this year to the campaign.

Thanks for considering this.

But above all…

thanks for your friendship,prayers, and encouragement.