If you’re looking for a highly rated (IMDb 8.8) but watchable movie (PG-13) dealing with the problem of orphans in the world today, try Where Love Found Me. 
It’s gut-wrenching tale about a photo journalist, Hudson, 
who tracks behind a policeman in the Philippines. 
Although Hudson starts out intent on making a name for himself, he ends up risking his life to protect a little band of orphans, 
and in the process, exposes the problems of human trafficking. 
Although Where Love Found Me was inspired by true events, it didn’t end with the usual postscript explaining what happened “afterward,” so I contacted David Bolt, the director and producer, who graciously filled in a few of the details. 
The movie is true-to-life based on a compilation of stories, but it’s more historical fiction than a true docudrama. 
David’s parents adopted from China after he was grown, and he was so inspired by their courage and joy that he wanted to start an orphanage in China. However, David was eventually redirected to a camp ministry that has worked really well.
David started Bright Hope (Bring Me Hope.org), a ministry that has worked with hundreds of orphans (mostly in China), and they have been able to help some of the children find safe, adoptive homes in America.
Where Love Found Me came out in 2016, but David told me it was more than seven years in the making! His hope is that people will be inspired by the movie. 
According to Google, there over 150+ million orphans in the world today. If you’ve got the heart and energy to take in a child, consider adopting an orphan! 
If you don’t know where to start, think about watching Where Love Found Me, and if that melts your heart (as it did mine), contact https://bringmehope.org/. 
What a worthwhile investment in sharing God’s love!
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). 
“Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy” (Psalm 82:3).
I’ve read that Oahu’s Diamond Head is the world’s most climbed and photographed extinct volcano. 
This iconic landmark of Hawaiian splendor lures over a million tourists to climb up its verdant crown each year, and although we’ve been to Hawaii many times 
(mostly for conferences, babies and graduations), we never had the leisure to climb Diamond Head until this last trip. 
The forecast was for rain, but our mantra is “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” when it comes to weather. Frankly, I can’t remember any time we’ve been disappointed for forging ahead (particularly since most of the time it’s a do-now-or-forever-miss-your-chance sort of situation), so we went anyway. We were rewarded with a cool morning trek and only misty rain from time to time. 
Although I wouldn’t recommend trying to climb in a thunderstorm, I was pleased to note that there are sturdy guard rails along most of the difficult parts, and the paved path is as artfully rugged as any mountain trail, forcing you to watch your step or sprain your ankle at all times while still providing quite a manageable, fairly skid-proof walking surface. 
I saw a few strollers hiding in the bushes awaiting the return of their owners, and very few small children. Two of our sons carried their kids up on their backs about six years ago, but that’s not a particularly easy way to do it either, since my cell phone recorded our ascent as 36 flights of stairs, 82 of which are steep and narrow. 
Furthermore, there weren’t too many grey-haired folks among the crowds, and those who were, were pretty trim. 
Finally: When you climb up through the last tunnel and see a sign that looks like this, go left! 
Both routes take you to the top, but the trail to the right is extremely steep and narrow, so you slow down anybody coming up behind you who thinks they need to be running. Those steep stairs are much easier to handle on your descent! 
The trail to the left is open and ever upward but lovely, with areas where you can rest and enjoy the panoramic views (or Facetime with you son, as we did with ours!) 
The entire trail is crowded, particularly at the top, but the views make up for the traffic jams! 
To the south and west you overlook the lush crater and dazzle of Honolulu, 
and to the east and north you’re met with soothing vistas of the Pacific Ocean’s turquoise waters and the Diamond Head Lighthouse far below. 
There are several methods for tourists to get to the base of the mountain besides walking: Taxi, rental car, trolley, or bus. For $5.50, you can get a day pass for the entire island’s public bus system, which is an amazing deal! 
There is a bus stop right at the base of Diamond Head Monument, and it’s a bit of a climb up to the toll booth (just $1 per person), but just past this entrance there are restrooms, drinking fountains, and options for refreshments. The wind was so strong that my wide-brimmed hat kept taking flight, so Alan bought me a baseball cap (which I will always cherish!) 
There are no restroom facilities at the top, so take advantage of what they provide at this way station, and think about saving your water for drinking on your descent! 
We also stopped for some passion fruit juice and a rainbow shaved ice upon our return, which revived us until we could make our way to the South Side Grill 
for an amazing (and cheap!) 
lunch of Ono fish’n’chips. (We also took advantage of our day bus pass by ending at the Leonard Street Bakery’s for some of their famous malasadas for dessert.) 
All in all, it was a perfect day with only unexpected sight: A blue stop sign. Truly!
I have never seen a blue stop sign in my entire life…not even in Disney World. 
Have you? However, after the surprise of seeing a bright blue stop sign, it occurred to me that it really doesn’t matter what color a sign is. It was the normal size and shape, and bore the same message: STOP. I had to think twice about whether or not it was real, but it was at a juncture where it would be totally appropriate to stop. 
Moral of my meditation? We can be taken off guard by a warning that doesn’t fit our normal expectations, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Red or blue, “Stop” means “Stop!” If I (or you) have come face to face with a surprising warning, let’s not disregard it just because there’s something different about it (maybe an unusual source or given by someone whom we don’t automatically believe). If we should stop, let’s stop. On Diamond Head or our own back yard!
(This is the beginning of the “Global Map”of visitors to Summer Setting; the complete list of nations is at the end of this post.)
Today marks the eighth anniversary of Summer Setting, and I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy photo journalism. Actually, I love it with a passion. It’s “work” so satisfying that I look forward to it. It’s therapeutic; it energizes me; it makes me feel happy! Reminds me of my son Michael, who got totally splattered with fresh concrete once while helping build a house down in Mexico. Instead of expressing dismay (which was my reaction), he just grinned: “I never knew this mission trip was going to be so much fun!” What can I say? When you feel really passionate about what you’re doing, what’s a little mud on your face?
Are you a leader or follower by nature? Do you think one is better than the other? American culture puts a high premium on being a leader, but this isn’t what Jesus taught, as Joe Stowell reminds us in his book, Following Christ. God calls us first and foremost to be Christ-followers, not leaders! In truth, I don’t think any of us make good leaders until we’ve learned to become good followers.
We’ve each been given one life to live. . .one challenging but glorious adventure. For those who do not believe in God, or have chosen to take a position of being agnostic, they must default either to being their own leader or following some earthly leader, but I would rather be a follower of Christ. Because, as Joe Stowell points out, having “the real, risen, transcendent, ever-present resident Christ to relate to me in the very depths of my being apart from the inherent trappings of visibility is an advantage with which no earthly relationship can compare.”
We celebrated spring and Cindi’s birthday yesterday, which was so much fun that I wanted to share right away in case any of you living in the GR area
might be interested in going to the Sugarbush Festival at Blandford Nature Center tomorrow (March 24, 2018) where they’ll be making maple syrup, etc!
Also, this coming week would be an ideal time to take your kids
because they have all sorts of babies being birthed, 
and if you show up at feeding time, 
they may even let you give the baby goats a bottle of warm milk! 
(This may depend on how many children come.) 
Of course, being our Birthday Club, we stopped at Sandy’s Donut House 
for some of their famous donuts, 
and we took a lunch break at El Aztecas Mexican Restaurant, 
where they spontaneously blessed us with some festive fried ice cream and sang “Happy Birthday” when they found out we were celebrating Cindi’s birthday. 
If you go to the Sugarbush Festival tomorrow, 
dress warmly, because it’s only supposed to be a high of 39°F, 
but there are lots of things to see outside and some lovely nature walks. 
Also, think about stopping at Sandy’s for a donut on your way, or maybe serving pancakes and syrup at home first, because there isn’t a pancake breakfast there. 
However, they did let us taste the syrup,
If you decide to go the Critter House, 
I’d recommend going in the next few weeks while the mothers are birthing, 
and call ahead to see what time the next feeding will be. 
Be sure to wear clothes you don’t mind getting a little warm milk on,
I’d never in all my years fed a baby goat before, and it was so much fun!
One of the things I love best about our Birthday Club (and about life), is that we’re never too old to try new things, experience new joys and find new beauties. 
Are you trying new adventures? Keep exploring! The world is full of good things!
During the first Christmas my oldest was able to toddle around, he kept asking for permission to “see” then “touch” then “hold” the Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, he was too young to hold an ornament for very long before it would fall, and if I wasn’t right there to catch the bulb, it would break.
So, in our home, the line went, “See it? Hold it? Touch it? Break it!”
I think we all have a fascination with holding things that fill us with awe—whether it’s a shiny Christmas ornament or an exotic living creature. 
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about what can be touched and what to avoid! 
In Tunisia, the zookeeper seemed fearless and knew just how to hold a scorpion 
while the scorpion held on tight to a pack of cigarettes, but none of us dared try! 
He also knew how to handle a deadly sidewinder… 
but nobody wanted to try that one, either! 
Of course, some critters seem more cuddly,
In fact, when it comes to camels, I like to ride them too! 
A well trained camel can take you for a pleasant ride down the streets in India. 
A well-trained elephant will let you pet him in the jungles of Nepal, 
or let you go for a ride (only with his mahout aboard, however!) 
Baby elephants are something else, though! 
They’re 250-pound characters who love to push you around if they can!!
I only dared touch this little playmate while he was distracted by someone else! 
Many creatures look almost irresistibly cuddly, like these monkeys, 
but monkeys are pickpockets with nasty bites, so I’ve been trained to keep my distance lest I lose my camera…or worse! 
Over the years, I’ve been able to see and hold many different creatures, 
but on our trip through the Panama Canal,
Snappy has been handled by this park ranger since his birth,
Alligators have a brain about as big as a pea, so most of what they do is instinctive. Nevertheless, we were back in America, so I figured they wouldn’t let us hold him unless it was relatively safe, and when they asked who would like to hold Snappy, I volunteered. 
Yes, being in America, they made it quite safe! Although the ranger hadn’t forewarned us, he put a big strap around Snappy’s mouth to keep him quiet. He was totally docile and let me hold him by his soft underbelly. 
Holding living creatures touches something deep inside me…a trust given to me to hold without hurting…not to break…and hopefully not to get hurt either. 
As we go through life, I hope we continue learning what is safe and what is not…
and just how close we can get to others without asking for trouble! 
But I hope we keep exploring and trying to connect, not only with critters, 
but with people! There’s a huge world out there full of people who’ve never heard the good news that Jesus came to set us free from sin and give us eternal life! 
Can we hold them so gently that we don’t hurt them?
Monday, I wrote about canoeing where dangers lurked by air, land, and sea, 
(which hadn’t occurred to me beforehand but seemed to be the case 
(I will say that tourists can do much more dangerous things abroad than would ever be allowed in America, so never assume a tour is really safe just because you can choose to do it…such as hanging out at the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa.)
At any rate, it wasn’t until we finished our exploration through the mazes of mangrove tunnels and came out to Lake Cartagena that I began to relax, 
and when we were reunited with our English-speaking tour guide, he assured us that he’d not seen a single crocodile in the lake for forty years. Okay… 
However, there is good fishing in the lake (as attested to by this cormorant), 
so at least some birds and one man spend their days fishing on the lake. 
Our guide poled us over so we could watch the lone fisherman in action. 
Apparently he and the cormorant were willing to take the risks, although after hearing about alligators migrating north to Georgia in the U.S. and seeing crocodiles on the shoreline of the Panama Canal not far away, I wasn’t totally convinced it was completely safe. 
However, the fisherman was working hard, and he was catching fish and crabs!
I felt inspired by his hard work and courage! Jesus calls us to be brave and follow him, promising to make us fishers of men (and crabs?).
It’s pretty easy to say, “Ya, but it’s dangerous! I might get killed. (Many do in the 68 countries where Christians are persecuted.) So, should we leave our boats and give up? 
Or, shall we follow Christ and cast our nets?
“He [Jesus] saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
