And this is where you come in. I am starting to transition to doing more photography (now that I have adequate gear), and I’d like to use those talents to help us reach the goal. I am inviting 10 families, over the course of the next four months, to book a one-hour photo session for $100. You will get to keep all of the digital images, and I will also advise on some printing options if you would like help with that.

Half of the money raised from these sessions ($500) will go toward our goal, and the other half ($500) will go directly toward the work that God is doing through Asia’s Hopeis in Cambodia, Thailand, and soon-to-be India. If interested, message me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or using the contact form here on my site. I guess you could also leave a comment below – wow.

Let your friends know that they also have the chance to Get Shot and Stop Traffick!

It feels crazy to be back to blogging after such a long time off! What I’d like to do today is list 10 things I really enjoy about Livi. Thanks for stopping by!

1. God has given her an inquisitive mind. She is always wanting to be learning / isn’t scared to try new things. Like trying big rollercoasters years ahead of when her Dad was brave enough!
2. She enjoys technology and art. Drawing, coloring, iPods, cameras, etc. Not a shocker that this makes me smile!
3. If she’s done something wrong, she’s normally not too proud of it. She might try to make us understand why she did it (make it seem less terrible), but she is genuinely kind and can tame her wild side fairly quickly.
4. Livi doesn’t boast about things, and sometimes forgets to even make us aware of what’s happened. Like winning a spelling bee two weeks ago. Maybe she thought I’d be jealous, since I’ve never done that?
5. Like her Dad, she won’t stop talking about something if it has her interest. If it is on her mind that something will happen, it normally will. That will take you places girl, but stay content! God wants to equip you to change the world using your abilities.
6. She’s such a tall girl, and can run down a soccer ball in fewer paces than most of her opponents. Or score 4 goals in a game, something I’m also not sure I’ve done!
7. Her laugh and little voice bring a smile to our house VERY often! She sure can be a funny one.
8. Livi understands that Jesus was our model of serving others first, and likes to share things when she can.
9. The girl can eat. And eat. And somehow not gain weight.
10. We know she loves us, and loves Jesus. There’s nothing more important to me!

Daddy loves you Livi. I’m glad I got to come home and bring you Mr. Wok for lunch today! These next 10 years sure are going to be fun with you.

There’s so much attention to detail and patience required!
And to think that she is just as capable of that (at the age of 9) as most adults. Sometimes I don’t practice putting that much attention to what I am doing. It’s exciting to know that she (and now our middle daughter) are content with creating crafts, that’s for sure. It takes effort for us parents to gauge our children, and encourage them / help them through learning new things. Sometimes (like this) it takes off without much assistance required. Or wanted! Kids always enjoy growing and maturing, don’t they!

I guess that’s a better position to be in than not caring what your kids are up to, and ending up realizing they’ve spent countless hours doing mindless things. What’s something you did as a child that you can look back and be proud of?

I know she doesn’t want the attention, but Satan needs a hard slap in the face. He’s been trying to tell this woman (my mother – Janelle Taviano) that she should be “doing ministry work” full-time or that her speaking schedule here in the states isn’t full enough. Nothing short of a lie, especially when we’re dumb enough to think that going to seminary is all that’s needed. Or that speaking at large conferences or being a New York Times bestseller is true success. She returned a few weeks ago from her second trip to Kenya. Spending 3 WEEKS out where the lost can be found. In order to get there, she had to dodge staying at the comfortable hotels or eating the food that might settle well. 20 hours on rough roads from the southeast shores of Mombosa to the northwest hills of Matisse. And here are a few of God’s “victory stories” through it all. After reading these, I urge you (and me) to really consider what ministries we are following or think have it “going on”. It sure narrows the list down for me, I can promise you that! And what hits home with me is that it really does take true sacrifice to reach the lost, not just “being in ministry work”.

• Simiyu family travels 20 hours (from Matisse to Mombosa) to pick her up! Their baby was born two days later, and was named after my father.
• Consecutive days of crusades where 30, 15, 86, 116, 72, 40, 15, 65, 75, 79, 79, 122, and 100 individuals first believed in Jesus Christ! That’s a total of 894! And to think that some “successful ministries” can sleep at night after reaching 5-10 per year.
• One of these individuals (Ben) woke up and walked that day, with a dedication to commit suicide that evening, and Jesus stepped in his path. Was healed, continued traveling with Mom and the Simiyu family – and led others to the Lord himself!
• Another individual (Edward) was married to a devil worshiper, walked in with a body branded in satan worship, heard the Word of God, marks left body, and accepted Christ that night at the crusade. The left side of his body was no longer paralyzed.
• Friends from Ohio partnered with her in purchasing 2 1/2 acres of land (2 1/2 still available) to expand the school led by the Simiyu family.

Praise God! No specific number of salvations = success. But I believe we are numb to the work God is just waiting to accomplish (here and overseas). I’m praying about approaching you and my other online friends to raise the $5,000 to purchase the final 2 1/2 acres of land. After you are finished reading this, please jump over here and watch a video from the trip. Let me know your thoughts on this post, that sure would help!

My wife, Marla Taviano (www.marlataviano.com), is a gift. It continues to amaze me how God brings people into my life at the right moment, to help with things I am struggling with, working on, etc. Those people are great additions to life, but God’s given me one person to go through it all with. And He knew what I’d be going through, knowing that Marla would sure be up for going through it with me. I really appreciate how it doesn’t take a lot to make her day. Today she was thrilled to return to a zoo, while we’re visiting her pregnant sister here in South Carolina, and feed another giraffe (after that being a common task while visiting 52 Zoos in 52 Weeks). I’m just thankful I can be a part of making as many of her days as possible.

I was talking to her yesterday, and told her that I enjoy the fact that she is as ambitious as they come. No task is too small for her to take on. She’s a mother of three daughters, but that (the full-time “job” that really is) doesn’t stop her from: taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, speaking at multiple venues on multiple women’s topics in consecutive days, finalizing a proposal for her fifth published book, playing games with the girls, talking to me as I take on new things, praying and caring for friends and family both offline (in person) and online (through email / blogs), and so on.

Many ask her (and others of course) how she accomplishes what she does. It’s because she loves today, and lives for tomorrow. And God’s given her a purpose for each new day. Obviously I’m not asking for your thoughts on this one, but I do hope that you know that I respect my wife quite a bit and love her more tonight than ever. Thanks Marla – you are loved!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re not familiar with the show, they basically take wives from two families, swap them to the other family’s house for two weeks, and hopefully give them an inside look at a family that’s not like theirs. So the husband and children are stuck with another woman in their house. I’ve never seen the show, but after watching the videos on their site, it doesn’t look like much good comes out of it all. Reading stories like this one from a couple that was on the show (with good intentions), made that clear enough.

They do their best to find a family that is polar opposite of yours, in hopes that you go crazy. To help they edit any of the normal material out so that the viewing audience gets the best entertainment possible. Was an offer of $20,000 worth it for Marla to accept? That was up to God, and He made it pretty clear…..and did so fairly quickly.

A few individuals have jumped in, hinting to us that God might want us to accept the invite and give it a whirl. Hinting that we could be a light to the world through being on the show, or possibly gaining a large audience for our lives or our projects. There’s no guarantee that they’ll appreciate our faith (I’m guessing they’d put that to the test too), and you couldn’t pay us any amount of money to entertain or lure that kind of an audience.

We’re not looking for an audience, even online. We don’t blog for an audience, although two-way communication and community is nice. I think the price tag on marriage these days has been a discount compared to how God views it. Our marriage doesn’t need the test of swapping houses. It also doesn’t need $20,000 enough to put it to the test. A healthy marriage is priceless, and our culture should learn more from that than the stupid show.

Why would we want to take something that God has given us that is good, and hand it to the world, letting them turn up the heat? If we have Christ, and He has made our marriage what it is, imagine what some broken or hurting marriages would pay just to have what we have. The problem with many marriages (Christian or not) today is that they don’t look solely at what God is doing. They flip open the tabloids or the reality shows and pretend that having God is not enough. When they hit bottom, they realize He sure was! Satan can have his $20,000. Does God really speak so differently to us all at times, or are our ears full of enough wax that we can’t understand Him?

PRAYING that the staff and producers of this show might see Christ through those that reject the offer. PRAISING God for being the third side to our marriage triangle.

After the story hit the Associated Press our lives were too chaotic for the past few days. We’ve been hurt, encouraged, thrilled, blessed, and so many other things in the short time since it all started. Our pastor, Mike Smith, probably put this whole thing into words better than I can in his blog post this week! A few months back we made the decision not to fly to California since the money wasn’t there. It hurt me most, knowing that the girls were so looking forward to that as a reward for how much they’ve went through to accomplish the task God had before us. Not being able to make that happen ended up adding quite a bit to the whole experience, allowing us to replace a few mediocre zoos in the midwest with ones the kids might enjoy better by us driving beyond Nebraska, through Colorado and Utah on our way to California.

But God had a plan none of us were aware of. One that we wouldn’t have bothered even dreaming up. The plan that starts tomorrow morning when we board a plane that He found a way to provide for us. In return, all we can do is look to Him. The media and feedback we receive from others online might be positive, but it could be negative (we’ve seen both already). All I know is that this truly is a private story, shared between the five of us, our families, friends, the zoos who welcomed us, and all of those who selflessly housed us or somehow joined us while we were getting through this. Those new to the story can decide to either come in close and try to understand it from our perspective (as we long to more closely follow our God) or toss bombs in our direction from thousands of feet away in an attempt to thwart the victory (with the help of the devil).

We are choosing to live our lives truly not being afraid of being a bit uncertain about tomorrow. Seeking God’s provision when things don’t turn out, but rejoicing with Him when He makes His way clear. He’s placed us into this world to live in community, and to be a positive light in a society that is too often full of darkness. Tomorrow morning is a blessing that’s brought me to tears of joy for my family. Not because of the hype, but because I’ve seen that God is pouring His love on those I love most through others that want to join Him in that. I’ll definitely be offline until Sunday evening, but will do my best to post updates via my Twitter account to share our journey with those that have joined it with us.

PRAYING that our girls see for themselves more and more how much they are loved by their eternal Father. PRAISING Him for being the source of all that we need, and the rock we can stand on when others long to take that away.