this is the start of something good...

today I feel the need to reflect a bit. look back as I look forward. In December of 2006, a movement was started. maybe you have heard of it??? Its called REVO. It now occupies space in the hearts of hundreds, maybe thousands of people across the globe. So I want to take you back to the beginning...at least the beginning, as it was for me.

to the start of something good....

December 11, 2006

a sticker. that is all it takes to start a movement. I saw this sticker

on the back of a car in Hilo, Hawaii and wondered to myself, "what in the world is re,africa,o? seriously...what does it mean? and I asked and found out that it was some sort of benefit show for a small orphanage in Malawi, Africa. Then I sat down with Nina Brav to discuss this event. Nina then informed me that REVO was much bigger than an event. Its an idea, or a movement. Something that inspires people to love for the sake of love. A movement that encourages people to stop waiting on the world to change, and to start changing it themselves! 

a few months prior to my conversation with nina, I had been involved in planning an event for Blood:Water Mission to raise awareness and money to build clean water wells in Africa. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to join forces with REVO to become part of an existing movement so that we could inspire people to act and take part in changing the world. 

here are some excerpts from conversations that nina and I had following my time in Hawaii.

January 3, 2006

Nina, 

here's the thing, this whole "revo" thing has been weighing on my heart lately. Probably more than a lot of other things. The desire to start a revolution, to see Jesus and life and love through people and places and experience, is moving inside of me at a rapid pace. It just won't slow down. And with that, my passion to put on this benefit show is increasing with almost every breath I take. I know, seems a bit over dramatic, but I'm being completely serious. So with that, I would like to start our own little Tennessee Revo. Seeing as though Revo is something that you have coined and inspired within me, I find it not only important to ask you first, but also I count it a blessing to have encountered a person with so much passion and drive to see change happen.

So here is what I was thinking; I would like to call our benefit show, REVO Nashville and work with you so that the revolution will begin here and people will begin to wonder what REVO is all about! Basically, I am asking you if you would like to make Revo a nation-wide (Hawaii/Tenn-wide) thing, work together, promote and love, design and dream, pray and plan together...just in different states? Obviously there is a lot more to talk about, but I was driving tonight and i couldn't stop thinking about Jesus...and Jesus in Revo...and Jesus in Hawaii...and Jesus in Africa...and Jesus in Tennessee. I want to spread that Jesus. The everywhere Jesus. 

January 4, 2007

LESLIE!
i would be honored to have you use our name in tennessee!!! no im serious. though our times were short i feel love for you, great love. feel free to call me, we can talk more. 

lets start a revo of love. a revo for jesus!

love you much
aloha ahui ho

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I will keep updating the blog with more stories of the REVO journey. After this email between Nina and myself, REVO began to pick up great speed. On April 20, 2007 REVO Nashville put on a benefit event for Blood:Water Mission. On April 21, 2007 REVO Hilo put on a benefit event for Grace of God Orphanage. On March 19, 2008 REVO New York put on a benefit event for Mocha Club. Currently, there are several REVO's being planned in Canada (funny story that I will tell later!), Baton Rouge, Philly, Las Vegas, Chapel Hill, and the list goes on and on. 

visit www.startarevo.org

START A REVO!

"here I raise mine ebenezer..."

today, i begin number 11...

since may 24, 2006 you have kept track of my daily living. you keep my deepest thoughts, share my fondest memories, comfort my unhinged moments, guard my most personal glimpses of Jesus, witness my absentmindedness, understand my fears, embrace my failures, and watch as i grow. 

almost two years later and i am still fond of your pages. i think if you could talk, you would tell me about the places you have traveled, the people that you have met, and the movement that you have inspired. you would talk about how you can be trusted, and how you long to be used for good. you would speak of art and poetry and creation. i wonder how much has been created on your pages? were you there for the beginning of great pieces of literature? do you hold the answers to some of history's greatest questions? are you fond of our stories? 

thank you for keeping my life bound between your covers. thank you for becoming the milestones that I have built along the way to remember where I have come from. 

yours truly, 

leslie

who you are

"Restless soul, what do you need?

Wayward heart, how can you feed

on the lies you were told

when you were bought or sold

for the price that's not fit for any man?

bitter child, you fought a war

against the world, they took your soul

along with your fear and all of your tears

that you tried for so long to hide away 

I've seen the stars beyond your trees

And they paint a picture that is hope for your disease

I've peered down deep into your soul to find 

you're still a child

lover's lie, you bore it all

mother's die, from painful wars

of the soul and the mind that are searching to find

just a piece thats left of your innocence

I've seen the stars beyond your trees

And they paint a picture that is hope for your disease

I've peered down deep into your soul to find 

you're still a child

and the victory is won

not from fighting every war

but in losing what you were 

just to find out who you are" 

you follow me....

"if it is my will that he remain until I come, 

what is it to you? You follow me!"

John 21:22

Blessed of The Earth

"....and i think when they pull blessings out of you, blessings really come forth. They are ready for the blessing. They believe in the blessing, and you are not really sure if it was there until they saw it, expected it, and demanded it. These are the blessed of the earth who usually don't need to be taught contemplation. Suffering seems to teach them." - Everything Belongs

"to garca and back again...."

March 10. 2008

Back home, sitting on the couch as if I have never left. We left Garca on Saturday morning. We traveled to Sao Paulo on the bus and then sat in the airport for seven hours. Flew 8 hours through the night to Miami, waited for another five hours and flew home. There were no tears. Not for me at least. Half way through the week I hit a wall. A very large brick wall that wouldn't allow me to stand on anything I had built.

I got knocked down in order to see the foundation that God had laid in that place before there ever was an Alpha and Omega Children's Home. I had to fall to see that. For the first few days, we just loved on the kids. We knew they had stories, everyone has a story. But we didn't know any details. We knew that life, for one reason or another, had happened to these kids which is why they were here. Tuesday night, we went out for icecream. My mind was spinning because I had become very connected to a few of the kids. I couldn't get it out of my head. And we started talking and sharing stories. Each moment proved to be more difficult to bear than the last. 

A child was sold into prostitution at the age of 8. Another child was sexually abused at such a young age that it forced her to run away and sleep with men for money. Another child's mother is a prostitute, which causes this young girl to hate men and have an unhealthy obsession for women. She is 13. Another child is one of 10 kids from the same mother, but different fathers. Another child, 16 years old, has a son with his mother and has been sold as a prostitute to both men and women. Another child finds herself alone every night in a place filled with men, women and children because all she longs for is the presence of her mother. 

These children have wrecked me. In the most incredible way. 

I bought the book "Awareness," by Anthony DeMello before I left. And as I was reading it on the bus back to Sao Paulo, it started to stick. DeMello speaks of justice and judgement and our inability to be anything other than an ass. He says that there are two ways of responding to injustice. The first is 'reaction.' This response invokes emotion...anger, sadness, frustration, rage, etc. And now there are two issues...injustice and emotion. The second way of responding is 'action.' DeMello states, "what then, would we call the kind of passion that motivates or activates energy into doing something about objective evils? Whatever it is, it is not a reaction, it is an action." We can't allow ourselves to be burdened with emotion when we see injustice. We must act, not react. We must respond to that which does not sit well within us. 

so start a revo....