A NAME
One night in Boone, North Carolina I laid wrapped in my comforter listening to the wind throw ice at my window. I tried to close my eyes and fill my mind with warmer dreams, but for some reason only images of children would appear. Not just any children, but young boys and girls fleeing for their lives from rebel soldiers in Africa. I had heard about these “street children” earlier that day. My night had turned into a horrific video reel of children shaking in fear, crying for help, hiding in the African bush—Why God? Why do I get to sleep in a warm bed tonight with no worries, while children all over the world are sleeping in the dirt, afraid for their lives? God, where is justice? Who am I to deserve this?—I am blessed to be born in a country that protects me and a family that can provide for me, but these children, they have nothing; they have no one.
That’s where it all started—a young man asking—Why?
The name Why The Woods is abstract, but for me it was a natural choice. When I think about going into the woods literally, I think of any place I venture outside of my home. Outside of those safe walls things are uncertain, wild, dirty, and often dangerous. We can all think of places in this world that to us are the wild woods. I love the uncertainty around every twist of the Appalachian Trail. I love the dangerous wild of the African bush. I love the quiet campfire in the woods near my home in the country. The woods, to me, are a physical place where I can retreat from all the “stuff” of this world. I go there often to search my soul; and there in the woods I find rugged, natural beauty.
Sadly the woods are also a place where some must go to escape the pains and dangers of an evil world. Children in Africa flee to the bush to hide from rebels. The homeless in the United States search the woods to find a safe place to sleep at night, which may come in the form of an underpass or a city street. The woods, or the wilderness, are where Jesus retreated for forty days of fasting and praying before He started His ministry. They are where Moses wandered for years in search of the “Promised Land.”
Metaphorically the woods are, in my mind, places of spiritual darkness, emotional suffering, and human injustice. They are moments in time of struggling, searching, and surviving. They are the hard places in life. Often, they are lonely places.
That night in Boone, I wanted to reach out to the uttermost parts of our world and Love those suffering people. I wanted to go meet them…in the woods. A few weeks later I was given the chance to go help rebuild churches in Southern Sudan. For two months I tasted a life of danger and poverty. I lived in one of the dirtiest, most rugged places in the world. People asked before I left for Sudan, “Why?” Why did I go from the safe world of America to the dangerous world of Sudan? Why did I go from my warm comfortable bed in Boone, to a balmy dirty bed in Wadupe? Why did I leave the certain for the uncertain?
The answer became very clear when I met Love first hand. In that rough, oppressed, struggling place I found beauty in the people. I found a Love that overcame human condition. The Sudanese left me asking, not why would I go, but why would I not go. So naturally I came back asking, or rather challenging others to go into the places where people are struggling. Be it another world or your neighbor’s house, go and Love, Serve, and have Faith.
Why The Woods? Because Love is there…
WHY?
Our purpose is people. I am asked all the time, “What does Why The Woods do?” Why The Woods exists because people need each other. Some people are blessed financially and materially, and some are in need of basic necessities. Some people are blessed with the ability to Love others, and some need to know what Love is all about. Why The Woods wants to connect the two. Building schools, digging wells, or whatever jobs we find ourselves doing along the way are only tools used to meet our purpose.
Our purpose is to love and serve the great and the small, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor. We want to help people in Wadupe, Sudan get clean water and better schools. We want to help people at home find joy, Love, and life abundant. If you truly want to be a part of Why The Woods live a life devoted to Loving God, and Loving others. Don’t be afraid to go into the darkness and shine. Make your purpose God and His children. LOVE—SERVE—HAVE FAITH…
MISSION STATEMENT
WhyTheWoods is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization passionate about showing the Love spoken and lived by Jesus Christ. Our mission is to enable others to pull themselves out of poverty and/or hopelessness by empowering them with Love, Hope, and Knowledge. We go into the woods, the wilderness, the jungles, the deserts, the mountains, the city streets, and beyond to show others His love and His peace.
