the ONE
In order to tell you the dream I have to
tell you the story.
This all began with a woman that changed my
life. A woman that led me to Christ 12 years ago on my first mission trip to
Jamaica. Through her example and love, I learned about the ONE.
She taught me that each person matters to
God and that God will call you and me to love the ONE. He will even call you to
a country to adopt the ONE. That is what Maggie Jaruzel, the woman that
invested in me did. She went to Jamaica over 13 years ago and met a street kid
named O’ Neil that her heart broke for, and she made a decision then that she
was adopting him. She adopted him into her heart, her pocketbook and now years
later he will be coming to the United States to live. Maggie has provided him with food,
clothes, schooling and shelter but most of all, she gave him Jesus. Now, O’Neil
at 18 years old wants to be like his mom Maggie and tell others about Jesus and
see his country transformed with God’s love. Please pray for a continued miracle for O’Neil to be here in the states.
Maggie told me about the World Race in April
of 2009 and I went in August 2009 with the plan to love the ONE each
month. I also had a vision to
begin telling people’s stories through documentaries, and knew that the World
Race would be just the beginning of that. My background for many years had been
in acting for film and television and performing on stage, and the new desire
to tell people’s stories became a bigger dream. I would pray each month
that God would give me someone to invest in, pray for and love. He always did
and I eagerly shared their stories through my blogs and videos.
I wasn’t satisfied with just doing The World
Race and going back home to Los Angeles to pursue acting, so I boarded a plane
to Spain. I began G42 in October
of 2010 and still had a dream to shoot documentaries. My first month at G42, Seth Barnes came to speak, and we
discussed how the World Race could be improved. We were brainstorming which
brought about the idea of having an entity of the World Race that would be
called “The Ministry of ONE.” It would be an initiative that would support and
enable racers to adopt the ONE they meet while on the field. Young people would live sacrificially even after the race by becoming mothers and fathers of this generation, adopting the orphan. We were greatly encouraged by the example that Maggie modeled with O’Neil. We discussed the possibility of starting it and
didn’t revisit it again. I continued praying and planning for post G42 and got to a point recently where I just laid all my dreams down, and said “God, I want you to have full control, make it yours.” Soon after that prayer, in the middle of February 2011, I
received an email from Maggie asking me if I had a large sum of money to give
to AIM, what department would I give it to? She asked me to pray about it and
get back to her. Immediately the Lord spoke to me, “The Ministry of ONE.”
I waited a week to respond to Maggie and
called to tell her the answer. It was perfect timing when we talked because the Lord had been setting us up. As I began telling her about the “Ministry of
ONE,” I could hear her crying and just saying, “JESUS, JESUS.” “This is
confirmation Birkleigh, this is what God has been speaking to me and he asked
me to contact you because you will know where the money should go to. I also talked with church and shared my vision to start adopting children.” As we talked and shared more, the
Spirit of God was so strong and she got the name of a friend of hers that works
for a company that invests financially in people’s kingdom dreams. “Maybe I
should tell him about what you want to do, that you want to document peoples stories
around the world.” I begin to cry because that’s all I’ve wanted to do
for the past 2 years, and God is truly weaving all the pieces together and He’s
bringing everything full circle. Seth came back to G42 just this past week and I shared with him the most recent news and vision of the ONE. “This is a God thing, Birkleigh and we gotta move forward with this. Just last week I was emailing and sharing my vision to start a t.v. show with stories of racers going back to find the ONE.” Well, we both agreed that this truly wasn’t a coincidence, and that there are so many stories waiting to be told. God is putting together the team, and providing above and beyond to see His dream come to fruition. There are racers that have already adopted children from the field. Some have moved to the countries to raise the children and others are hearing very specifically from God about adopting the ONE.
What is so beautiful about this story is
that it keeps getting better and better. My dear friend Martha here at G42 has
a story of adoption from her World Race. She adopted a young girl named
Beatrice that she rescued and financially supported on her race. Tragic
circumstances came about most recently and Beatrice passed away. So many lives
were effected by this little girl, and it’s Martha’s heart to see God’s
redemption in all of this. It’s such a powerful testimony of how the Father
loves us because He pursues no matter the cost. Martha also met a young boy named Jombi (read his story) in Kenya while on the
World Race and her heart broke for him from the moment she saw him. She knew
she had to do something, but unfortunately didn’t have the means to do so at
that time. Now, a year later, Martha will use her practicum money and time
post-G42 to go to Kenya to find Jombi. I will travel with her to document the
story of finding Jombi, finding the ONE. This is just the beginning of the
kingdom dream, of the God “thing” that this is, and I look forward to telling
more stories of redemption. God took my dream to shoot documentaries, and made it so much better, I just had to let Him write the story. There are so many stories to tell and so many
children waiting to be rescued, and we’re coming for the ONE.
“Who will join us?”
