World Wins International - Improving Access to Water, Food, Shelter, & Education

Making of Krobo Glass Jewlery

The video below shows a some of the workspace and people behind making the Krobo Glass Jewlery that we are selling to support the initial Somanya Well project.  When completed, the well will provide clean daily water to a school of over 200 children in the very same area that these pieces originated, completing the circle that started with the making of this wonderful jewlery.  Take a look, then buy yours at Worldwins.Etsy.com and don't forget to share the story! 

Thank you to our friend Ross Walters for the use of his amazing instrumental "Holy Medley".  This song and his album "After the Rain" are available at RossWalters.com!

God and Country Festival Report

Our first official event for the new Share5 ministry of World Wins was Nampa's God and Country Family Festival this past July 2nd.  With over 10,000 in attendance for the Mark Shultz concert, this was a great event to both to enjoy wonderful uplifting and patriotic music AND to introduce people to Share5!

We set up our new display and han ded out postcard size cards with the 5 challenges on them, as well as took names for the mailing list from interested people as we spoke with them in the booth.  This event gave us the opportunity to prepare and tune our presentation for the upcoming 3 day Spirit West Coast festival in Monterey, CA coming July 31st, where we will have multiple days to interact with the 20,000 or so fans that will be attending.

As an added bonus, both of our kids and Chad's mother Linda (as well as our friend BIllie!) were able to join us, along with a few friends (Thanks Roger, Amy, and Gary) that volunteered to staff the booth.  We had a great time and got a great reception from those we were able to share with.  We look forward to following up and seeing if we can share this new ministry in the churches of those who are now receiving our monthly newsletter as a result of signing up at God and Country.

  For a couple photos of this event, see Amy's facebook!

Prayer Requests for July/August

Our family greatly appreciates your prayers on the following points.  As we step out to take on the vision God has placed in our hearts, we leave these concerns in His hands, and appreciate you remembering both these items and our family in your times of prayer.

1.  Pray for the sale of our house. Sure markets are slow and prices are low, but we don't need five offers.  We just need the RIGHT one.  Ask God to send us the right buyer at the right time.  We have budgeted to carry the house, so we are not in a hurry, but the sooner it is sold, the less we have to concern ourselves with!

2.  Pray for favor with major gift donors.  In the last 2 weeks, we began the process of meeting with specific donors for the purpose of discussing major gifts to cover the operational budgets for 2008 and 2009.  Pray for favor and wisdom as these men and women consider partnering with us to help make this vision a reality. Our goal is to raise $145,000 in major gifts specifically dedicated to operations during this time, with the intent that the minsitry will become self-sustaining as a result.  (If you are interested in partnering in this area, or would like more information, please contact Chad at (208) 585-7370.)

3.  Pray for favor with Share5 Tour Sponsors.  While our donors will provide the working capital, we are asking sponsors to provide many of the services, promotion, and products that we will need for the tour.  Everything from the RV itself to the coffee and tshirts we utilize on the road will be opportunities for other businesses and ministries to partner with us in sharing their resources, audiences, and goods to the benefit of bringing the Share5 Challenge and the model of Christ's character to the nation. 

4. Pray for our family. As we go out on the road, please pray for our family to make this transition smoothly.  Everything from the kids letting go of their rooms to placing Abby (our dog) in a new home to learning to fit everything in a 40' long space is both a challenge and an opportunity. Pray that we are able to continue to maintain the perspective to see it as the latter.

5.  Pray for receptive hearts. Finally, and most importantly, please pray for the people we will be seeing on the road.  From pastors and church members to business men and women, from school administrators and teachers to curious people we will meet on the street, pray that they will have eyes to see and ears to hear the message behind the message of Share5.  To serve one another is noble, but to serve one another as an expression of the love of the One who first loved us and gave His life for us is something eternal.

We look forward to updating you on the progress on all of these items in the upcoming weeks and months!

New Share5 Website coming soon!

World Wins is happy to announce that July means we are only days away from some new content at Share5.org, and a few weeks away from the launch of the new fully featured Share5.org website!  Designed by Missouri based Element74, the new site will compliment and support the release of the Share5 Network, set to begin July 2nd at the God & Country family festival in Boise, ID.  The website rollout is scheduled to proceed as follows:

July 2nd
We will place a single page up at www.share5.org, replacing the current blog look with a look that will be similar to the final design.  This page will have two primary functions.  The first will connect you with our new Bluefin based online giving page.  Using this system, you can easily set up monthly support contributions or make one time gifts to support World Wins and any of the projects we are promoting.  The second feature is a contact form that will make it easy for people to ask questions and get information.

by July 24th
The release of the full website will bring these great additional features online for the Share5 Network:

•  New homepage layout- the homepage is designed to give you a quick glance a t the different aspects of Share5.  The first you will notice is likely the "Sharing Stories" and "Featured Projects". These two areas will highlight these two important parts of the Share5 challenge.  (image at right is a draft mockup.  Sponsors logos are for placeholding only, though we hope to see both these companies join us!)
  • "Sharing Stories" will feature a specific story from someone in the network (send us you stories by email!) about how they have shared 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days, and how it affected both them and the recipient. 
  • "Featured Projects" will give you more information on either one of the recipients of our microfinance loans program, or one of the various ministries or projects that the network is supporting , such as the Revival Harvest Academy in Somanya, Ghana.
• Video Component - We plan to use the center of the homepage to highlight a specific video from either one of our recent trips or projects, a really good user video from someone in the network, or any of a number of features
• And of course, there will be
  
  • In Depth descriptions of each of the 5 Challenges
  • a calendar for upcoming events
  • our travel schedule and route for the Share5 Tour
  • a travel blog of our day to day stories from the road
  • a login for you to update your Share5 Network profile
  • the ability for you to tell us and others what the Share5 Challenges are doing to you!

We can't wait.  Please check the site on July 2nd, and check out the new look, and then be sure to keep your eye on the blog to know when the new full site goes live, or sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don't miss anything!!

Share5-Challenges That Change Lives

Share5 is a new ministry of World Wins International that is intended to provide a way for an individual to evaluate, and if needed, increase their engagement with other individuals, their community, and the world around them. We do this by reflecting on five characteristics, and then suggesting a challenge for each that gives an opportunity to practice that characteristic in an individual’s day to day life.

The five characteristics we focus on are: compassion, sacrifice, passion, teamwork, and leadership. When evaluated in this order, each can be used as a natural building block to the next.

Compassion - An awareness of and sympathy another’s suffering.

Challenge - Share “5 minutes” of your day, at least once a week, with someone you otherwise would not have considered or noticed. Find a way to help them that asks nothing in return. It could be as simple as stopping for conversation with a person who looks like they need encouragement, or helping an elderly or disabled person with their groceries. Look for the one to one connection with another human being.

Sacrifice - The act of losing or surrendering something.

Challenge – Share “5 hours” once a month with your community or those around you, giving of yourself in a way beyond a simple conversation. Consider your unique talents and skills, and then look for a place to put them to use. Look for the opportunity to serve a larger group with the valuable gift of your time.

Passion - A strong or controlling feeling or emotion; fully engaged interest.

Challenge – Share “5 days” at least once a year either discovering your passion, or diving deeper into it. Give yourself the gift of dedicated time where you can fully participate in something you are passionate about. Don’t be restricted by only five days. Look for an opportunity that will stretch you. Consider replacing a typical vacation with a “service holiday” that benefits others while recharging you too!

Teamwork - The coming together of a group to co-operatively work on a project, problem, conflict, or challenge.

Challenge – Share “5 dollars” or more monthly as you join with others in using our collective resources to extend opportunity to the less fortunate. Working together to fund various international projects for the poor, we create an understanding of our ability to impact our “neighbors” in other nations. Look for the satisfaction of taking on a problem bigger than yourself.

Leadership - a process by which a person motivates, grows, and equips others to accomplish an objective or goal.

Challenge – Share your stories with “5 people”, and encourage them to participate as well. Use your own Share5 challenge experiences to motivate and encourage those you are leading. Help grow the network as you offer an opportunity for personal growth and purpose to others.

Help Us Find a Diesel RV!

Jon Maxwell once said in a speech "There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few that catch my heart.  It is those that I consider to pursue.” 

When we returned from Africa in September of 2007 we had been changed.  Something caught our heart.  Today, it is with a sense of renewed vision and purpose that we pursue that something:  the call to make a difference in the lives of others with our own. 

To that end, we will be embarking on a new journey and are asking for your help and support.  It is Memorial Day weekend, 2008, and as of this moment, there is a For Sale sign in front of our house, we have begun the process of selling off the things that we recognize we don't need, and we are planning for a promotional and educational roadtrip of the US to generate support for the new "Share5" program of World Wins.  What we need to find is a Diesel Class A Motorcoach.  (The image below is just an example for visualization purposes in case anyone is having a hard time picturing this!!)

Our plan is to have the coach converted by Golden Fuel Systems of Springfield, MO to run on Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO).  Golden has successfully converted numerous recreational vehicles along these lines, and the conversion will allow us to run essentially free fuel from the filtered grease that we can access at restaurants along the route.  With all the necessary filtration components on board, we will be a mobile, sustainable, eco-friendly traveling ministry!

Stay tuned for more information, but if you do know of anyone who may be interested in discussing the tax advantages of a donation (the tax benefits are higher due to the fact that we will be actually USING the RV as opposed to selling/auctioning it for CASH) then please do contact us.

We will happily answer any questions, as well as provide more detailed schedules and financial plans for the tour and the ministry to interested donors.

Blessings, and thank you for your continued support.

Chad & Amy Houck

"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi

Gifty's Gift - The Value of One

written by Amy Houck

Last September while we were in Somanya, Africa, I had the opportunity to meet a young girl named Gifty that was going through a very difficult time in her life.  She, like many young girls around the world, was facing teen pregnancy. In this small west African community, were poverty is prevalent, it's challenging for young women without job skills to survive, let alone find a job and raise a child, without help from family members.   

Gifty got pregnant by a boyfriend that was now telling her to terminate the pregnancy. Facing judgment by others, by her mother, and by her boyfriend for “getting pregnant”, she had decided to take a pill to try to terminate her pregnancy. The pill failed.  When I met her she was five months pregnant and had was trying to figure out how to get the money to proceed with having an abortion.  Her boyfriend had left and would not have anything to do with her. She was carrying around so much guilt that this seemed like the only choice she had left.

I ran into Gifty on the school property as we were taking measurements to help Pastor Sackey plan his next school building. She was sitting below a large mango tree, crying her eyes out. I knew there was something really wrong, and asked Pastor Sackey’s Associate Pastor, Pastor Van, if we could go talk with her. She told me her story as Pastor Van translated for me, since Gifty did not speak English.  It was an emotional experience for me, as I got to share with her what it was like to have two miscarriages.  I explained how torn up I felt by not being able to see them born. How much more difficult would it be for her, I wondered, knowing the guilt that would follow if she would make that choice on her own.   

The one thing I remember telling her is that God had a plan for her and that the baby growing inside of her was no accident.  It was a “gift”. The fact that the pill didn't work was proof that God wanted her to accept the gift He had given her. When I told her those things she looked at me and I saw hope in her eyes. As we talked over the next two hours, I was able to help her change her mind.   It was challenging and at the same time it felt like time had stopped just for her to be reminded that God loved her no matter what situation she found herself in.

I asked her to come to a meeting we were speaking at that evening and she showed up. I was so excited that she had moved from a position of having no hope or help to allowing herself to be accepted by someone she did not even know. After the day we met she continued coming around Pastor Sackey's church, eventually getting help from the church to go through seamstress schooling.  By completing her training before she would have the baby she would have a way of making a living for herself.

Pastor Sackey reported to us that she recently had the baby and is doing well. Wow! what a gift for me to see that the time I spent with Gifty turned out to not only give life to a child that God planned, but also created a mother that God will continue to strengthen as she raises that child on her own. Thank you, God, for showing me the young girl under the mango tree that needed to hear that you loved her no matter what.  If the whole trip to Ghana solely about being seeing the gift of a child not terminated, it was worth it to me. 

““What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?”  Luke 15:4

What's on Your Staff? (no, not employees!)

Just recently in April, we had the honor of hosting Pastor Emmanuel Sackey from Somayna, Ghana as he toured and spoke here in the US.  With stops in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Boise, Hailey, and Atlanta, Pastor Sackey had another phenomenal six week visit. 

We have been encouraged and strengthened by his visit, and wanted to share a bit of his message that he spoke as he visited our church, The Life Church, in Boise.  His message entitled “What's on your staff” alluded to the tradition of carving a historical reference or “story” into a person’s walking stick or staff. (no we’re not talking employees!) He talked about how it was customary for someone to use a knife to mark or carve on their staff to tell all the stories of important things that had happened to them.

Sackey used the illustration of a dying Jacob in Hebrews 11:21 who “leaned on his staff as he worshipped”.  The miracles, the faithfulness, the times that God had delivered him;  all were there for recollection as he “leaned” on the faithfulness of his God.   As we look at our lives as Christians, what do we have to lean on?  Where do we go when we need to recall all the things God brought us out of, the things He’s delivered us from?  We talk about the value of journaling or keeping a diary, yet few do so.  It is important to have a reference to the faithfulness of God in the past when we are uncertain if He will come through for us again.  The word resounds with God’s faithfulness, and our own experiences should show the same if we will only recall them!

In another illustration, Pastor Sackey spoke of the story of Moses at the burning bush, where God tells Moses to lay down his staff.  God transforms the staff to a snake, and then asks him to pick it up again.  What if, during that transformation, God erased all the bad history on that staff, clearing it for the new history of power, miracles, and provision God was about to write through Moses?  (remember:  the snake was the same symbol that God used at the top of the staff to later heal the Israelites in Numbers 21:8 – a prophesy to Jesus on the cross…) Is it possible that God, through Jesus, has erased our “staff”, and is rewriting our history, replacing it with “His Story”, His faithfulness?  After all, those who are in Christ are called a NEW CREATION.  The old is gone, and the new is come!

What was on your "staff" before you were saved and set free? What things in your life do you still hang on to that should have been laid down and erased from your past so you can fill your staff with the things that God has ordained for you? What stories are you going to leave for your children to read about, and later to lean on for themselves?

On with the show...

Three years ago last month my wife and I submitted the paperwork to form a non-profit organization called World Wins International.  We wanted to create an entity that would help us formalize and give shape to our desire to work with the less fortunate of the world.  When we turned in those documents, we had no idea what the next three years would hold. 

We had no way of knowing that only a few months later a catastrophic hurricane would hit Louisiana and give us a brutal wakeup call to what it means to have a heart to help while being too constrained to do so. 

Over the course of the three years that followed, we learned that regardless of the plans we make, the only certainty is that God knows what is happening daily BEFORE it happens, and we do not UNTIL it happens.  (many are the plans in a mans heart, but it is the Lord that directs his steps)

We learned that God will take you where you never expected to go to teach you things you never knew you needed to learn so He can ask to do things that you'd never imagined yourself capable of. 

We learned that when you stick around long enough, you actually get the blessing of seeing fruit grow.  Too often we are trained in instant gratification.  It is only in 7 years of observance and service to Ghana that we have been allowed to not only see, but to truely taste of the fruit from seed that was sown over 7 years ago. 

And we learned that God will do, during the journey, exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all that we can ask, seek, or imagine.

Three years ago, Amy and I started something.  A few months later, I was asked to do some consulting work for a ministry on a small web project.  We considered the offer, and I accepted.  A month later the position became full time, and four months after that, we were part of founding a new company to expand the project further.  We have prayerfully continued in that role while keeping World Wins operating in the background now for just over two and a half years. 

And now, the time has come to return to the original conversation.  As the company I have been working for transitions to a new phase of its life, we too will be transitioning to a new phase in ours.  Effective mid-June, Amy and I will be committing full time to operating and expanding World Wins International to take on the call and mission that God has set before us:  partnering with communities worldwide to help them make lasting improvements to their quality of life.

My last two years with Unity have been a blessing, and God has given me experiences I could have gained nowhere else.   We are greatly excited for what is ahead for the Unity team and equally excited to return to the pursuit of our personal passion.  Keep your eyes peeled for more information coming soon as to where we go from here, but as they say in the movies...

On with the show!

Learning by Serving

the following is a repost of a response to the Fermi Project's Blog "One Hour of Trash"

It is amazing what we find, what we receive, when we SERVE! My wife and I were driving through a back corner of the Walmart parking lot late one night just before Easter when we noticed that a number of the cars were actually people car camping. We decided that was who we wanted to eat Easter dinner with, so we went back two days later and handed out invitations to a dinner that we held at our church down the road. Only 5 showed at the church, so we took the food, went to the lot, fed three more people, then hung out and talked.

When they started talking about how the “transients” (they considered themselves “permanent” residents) were making a mess of the lot and that they were concerned about getting kicked out of their only “home” because of the trash, I suggested that we pick it up the following weekend…

You should have seen the looks when the following Saturday these folks woke up to my wife, my two year old son, my three year old daughter and I picking up trash and bagging leaves in THEIR parking lot… they joined us and in an hour their “home” was garbage free. We all laughed and called it Spring Cleaning. It was a great time, and we all were able to just be ourselves. No preconceptions. No prejudices. No walls.