Whether you’re ministry is small or large, we’re all in the cross-hairs of the devil. Some ministries get the “rockstar appreciation” because they appear to “have IT going on”. When IT is really only the task of making churched people feel at ease. It’s a gradual slope most ministries are falling down – pretending to be doing the work of the Lord while rarely coming in contact with the lost! If what we’re doing now really is ONLY for eternity, then why doesn’t it bother us that new people aren’t seeing God for the first time? We put time and focus on keeping track of the other statistics (web visitors, giving, attendance, volunteers, etc.) – don’t we?

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!

A quick break from tech / creative blog topics! It’s not Valentine’s Day. I’m not trying to dig myself out of a whole. I don’t have any gift ideas that I am waiting for my wife to buy me, hoping this blog post nudges her to do something I’ve been waiting for. I just wanted to write about something I’ve needed to write for a while (or should have even sooner).

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!

Hope you enjoy walking through my big date with our youngest daughter Nina in the video below. We’ve had quite a few of the times together, but it was nice today to be able to capture some of the highlights. It’s my prayer that fathers-to-be or new fathers learn the same lesson I learned 6 years ago. Date your daughters while they’re young. They’ll sure feel special, loved, and will know what to expect in the years that aren’t too far ahead. What are some memories like this of yours, as a parent or child?

I love when something comes up, God speaks into the scenario, and humans get all confused about it. Sounds like the perfect request for a blog to really open the discussion up! The situation started a few days ago when the producer of the television show, Wife Swap, contacted my wife Marla after hearing about our 52 Zoos in 52 Weeks tour in the media. For some reason she thought Marla was a good candidate for the show, and wanted her to apply.

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.

I thought the zoo review series was over, but I’ll jump on here and blog a few quick thoughts – from the heart. If you haven’t heard, our family is being flown to New York City tomorrow morning and will be on The Early Show on Saturday (CBS – 7-9am EST) about the 52 Zoos in 52 Weeks tour we wrapped up last week.

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.