I remember when God told me to leave the past behind and live with the poor in Mozambique. I called Rolland, who was working on his PhD thesis, and asked him if he was sitting down. He said yes. Then he asked me why. I told him that I heard God tell me to give everything away and go sit with the poor in Mozambique.

We thought it might be wise to first sell our building in Hong Kong and then use that money to build an orphanage in Mozambique.

But God had a better plan! God said to give it away.

Seventeen years earlier, we had started our ministry with a one-way ticket to Indonesia and thirty dollars. Seventeen years later I came to Mozambique, again with nothing, to sit on a street corner with no place to stay, no money, and almost no contacts. I definitely was not thinking, "Here I am to save Mozambique!" We had one old truck that we aptly named Lazarus-since we often had to raise it from the dead.

I asked God to help me understand the poor. He told me to go sit with the children. I reminded God that I had a PhD in systematic theology, and I said, "I don't do children." He told me, "You do children now."