Darren LeBlanc

If you have seen my twitter updates on the right hand column of this page, or in your twitter feed…you know I’m off traveling for work. Every once in a while, this traveling turns out to let me connect with people I might not otherwise be able to.

Well, tonight I had dinner with one of my heros and her family. Michele Roberts was a huge encouragement to me and Misty as we walked through the rough times of last year. Michele was always sending encouragement, stories of healing and of course some scripture. She became a huge catalyst in building our own faith. Anyway, since I’m in the Dallas TX area I got to take her family out to dinner. This was a huge honor for me and turned out to be a wonderful time.  We grabbed dinner at Mexi-Go, headed off to wednesday evening service at their church…and finished with ice cream!

 
Michele with her boys: Bradley, Braylon and Brenton

You may have seen the website she has for her son Brenton if you have been hanging around here much…but in case you haven’t, it’s below.  He has had cancer and they are believing for a healing….and his scans have been perfect. So I’m pretty excited. Anyway, take some time to visit the website and pray for her and her family.  The mean a lot to me. I’m praying for continued strength for her. She is a pillar of faith and encouragement to so many.

You can visit:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brentonroberts

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I am a pack rat by nature. I recently found a track uniform from my freshman year in High School…been through 4 moves and somehow is still with me. I have no use for it…it doesn’t fit, yet I still find myself naturally unwilling to part with much of anything.

Well, my wife cured me of much of that sickness early in our marraige. I simply wasn’t allowed to keep plaid pants that I wore in the days when Ska was cool. Or shirts that had excessive pit stains (I had some serious contenders in that arena), even though I had once loved them, they had to go. So I’m ok with it now. I do ok with parting with my stuff.

Today my family crashed my house to clean my basement in preparation for construction starting next week. We are building a studio down there so I can do the bulk of the recording for the Anthem of Hope worship album (our second major product release, scheduled for late next year). I was so appreciative of the help…and despite my natural tendencies towards pack-rat-dom, I did a good job of purging the unneccesary items from my life. Unfortunately, that purge is probably going to cost me a pretty penny in dumpster fees :)

On a serious note though, I found a few books in the shuffle. One of which was a devotional book of Misty’s. I found some scripture highlighted and I wanted to share it. This was one that she had blocked out in yellow with a highlighter.

Peter 3:3-4a
³ Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. ⁴ You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within…

 The cool part is that she lived that, everyday.

For those of you who are somewhat aesthetically inclined and marginally computer savy, yet not in posession of the ridiculous amount of cash that Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator will cost you…Here is a pretty cool online site that lets you work right there with some pretty powerful software tools.

http://aviary.com

Note: This is an infinitely better alternative to illegal software use. And yes, I buy my programs…as painful as it is. I kinda feel the same way about burning CDs, but that’s another days post :)

Exactly 3 years ago, today, this picture was taken. It’s one of my favorites.

This is me and Steve Moss, coming out of a katrina-destroyed house that we were gutting. (No, I don’t have long sleeves on…that was the stuff that was on the walls.) I had the privilege of leading a group of students and young adults to New Orleans to tackle the $10,000+ task for a lovely family who needed some help. Politically, it was a tough time there as it had been a year since Katrina hit, but many (MANY) home owners didn’t have the finances to rebuild. The government was telling people they needed to begin rebuilding or the homes would be torn down. We met up with an organization that plugged us in with this family, and we basically tore the place down to the studs to same them the cost of having that done.

You can ready our daily account of the trip written by me and other members of the team: 
http://b14parents.blogspot.com/
(NOTE: the link that says pictures, will NOT take you to pictures of the new orleans trip. I’m in process of fixing that now. Also, start at the bottom post if you want to read chronilogically:)

I have a fond memory that didn’t seem to make it into the daily updates. This is what I remember. First, you need to remember that this house had not been touched in over a year since the storm hit and drove everyone out. Subsequently, there was 8-10ft of water flooding for weeks following…so things weren’t in good shape. Well, as we were tearing out the kitchen, we obviously found the fridge. It had food in it that had been air tight for the whole time…you get the idea. Well, as I began to pull it out from the wall, the door cracked a little. Whew…there is no word to describe the smell that came out of there. The entire house cleared from the smell that came from this thing in the literally 2-3 seconds that it was cracked open. It was unreal.

As we were moving the fridge out to the trash, the door slipped open again and some black sludge oozed out the bottom onto the leg of my pants. This is where it gets funny. Well, as I was walking through a group of students, one of the girls got a whiff of my new found odor and without missing a beat, she turned, bent at the waist and threw up on the grass. I smelled so bad that I was making people around me puke. I covered my leg so the kids could get in the van with me for the ride home. I’m pretty sure I bagged those clothes for the garbage that night. Ah, good memories.

New Orleans marked the last event that I led in the Boat14 Youth Ministry. And  last saturday 45 people from that era showed up at my house to remember those days in which we grew, served, loved, laughed and lived life together. Some of the students wanted to get together for a bit of a reunion party…and I was totally on board. One thing I firmly believe in is making memories and visiting them often. Relationships are built on memories, and outside our relationship with God, as a Christian I believe my relationship with others is paramount. I work really hard on my relationships with others.  Anyway, click the image below (of my backyard during the party) to see the gallery. And thanks to everyone who came…you all made me feel loved and valued. And as a point of reference, for those of you following me on twitter or facebook, you may have noticed my comment about experiencing such amazing joys, but also such devastating lows. This was one of the recent highs that played into that.

Boat14 Reunion Pics: HERE

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We made a few papers this month. A handful of NJ papers did a story on Misty and Anthem of Hope. You can read one of them here: http://atlanticville.gmnews.com/news/2009/0716/front_page/018.html

I have to comment though….and I’m not upset, just clarifying. Generally, everyone who talks/writes about Anthem of Hope says something like the author of this article: “A city man has launched a charity in honor of his deceased wife”.

Now there is nothing really offensive about that at all. It’s a lovely idea that someone launches an organization to honor someone who has passed away. But honestly, AoH isn’t about honoring Misty at all. Believe me, no one on this planet respects Misty like I do…she was truly extraordinary, but AoH isn’t about her at all.

I have a friend who is 28 and she has stage III brain cancer. She is in the middle of the battle right now. I have a friend whose daughter is 5 years old and shouldn’t have to worry about losing her hair…but she does because she has leukemia. I have a friend who grew up being sexually abused by her father and isn’t quite sure what a good God was thinking when he let that happen. I have a friend whose young son has been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer…but he (and family) are learning to trust God. I have a friend my age who had a grapefruit size tumor removed just last year and is told it’s likely to come back. I have a friend my age who lost his wife to cancer…and he has a preschool age boy. Another friend who lost her husband to in a very sudden manner. She has two kids.

Anthem of Hope isn’t about Misty. She is gone. It’s about those who are suffering right now. If I spent my life investing in honor for someone who is not with us, I don’t think I’d be content. But instead, Misty’s story can inspire us to hope. Her story can impart to us the truth that God will be with us even in the most hell-like times this world can impose on us. Her story can be a springboard for someone to work their own faith from.  She is at the core of the story, but she is not the goal.

Thats all. It’s not about my lovely wife….it’s about you and your family and your neighbors and whomever needs a little hope.

For many years Zimbabwe was considered the “Breadbasket of Africa”. The breadbasket moniker is generally attributed to a region with the richest soil and best climate. Zimbabwe has been a major food contributor to the rest of Africa for decades. It’s soil, the envy of neighboring countries. Additionally, Zimbabwe boasts the spectacular Victoria Falls, which rightfully holds it’s place as one of the seven wonders of the world.  The country had a lot going for it…that is, up until 2000.

The Republic of Zimbabwe

In 2000, President Robert Mugabe began his bogus Land Reform initiative. The story was that he was taking land from the wealthy commercial farmers and redistributing it to the less wealthy. Unfortunately, his fellow wealthy elite became the beneficiaries of the seized land.  It has been much more about race than about economic status. He has worked at removing many of the white landowners in the country and verbally said he plans to remove them all. Unfortunately, the white commercial farmers are the very people that produced all the food that fed the country…and much of Africa. The recipients of this land have no desire to farm, so the premiere land in the continent yields no crops.

A few fixed elections later and Mugabe is still in control (allegedly using intimidation, violence and even assassination to keep himself there). Even last month when I was there white farmers were still being kicked off their land. The country is now importing much of its food and gets literally 70% of its income from foreign aid. Since the farms have been shut down the currency has suffered from hyperinflation. Millions of percent inflation from 2000 through this year. The store owners would set prices 3 times a day….and the increases would be so significant that a pay check on Friday would be worthless come Saturday. Four times the government decided to lop off a huge number of zeroes and start with a new dollar bill; a 50,000,000,000 would now be $5. Finally, earlier this year, the country canceled the Zimbabwean dollar and officially began to use South African Rand most prominently.

Last year though, as the food supply was low and money was in flux, the shelves of the stores were often bare. People had to drive out of the country to buy food…or buy it off the black market. It’s almost inconceivable for we westerners, that this is happening in 2009. People would be arrested for taking pictures or video of these things though…anything that could make the government look bad was quickly squashed.  But that was last year…this year is getting better. The money is stabilizing, but there are still over 30% of the country that would literally starve were it not for major food aid initiatives. There are hundreds in the jails who starve every month because the government doesn’t have money to feed them, and hundreds of thousands who struggle to even pay the $20/yr it might cost to go to school.

Yes, the money is stabilizing…now all we need is for Mugabe to die.

PS – some of you are asking why did we go, and what did we get done? That will have to wait till part two :)
PSS – Yes, I remember that I’m missing Part 3 of the “Lakeland Revival”. It’s coming soon!

Today is a day for mourning.

Joel passed away just a few minutes ago. Thanks for those of you who have prayed for him over the last couple years. Please pray for Ryan and Lyss and they deal with the final step in losing their father (he has been in the hospital for quite some time). I’m broken for them.

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UPDATE: Service details

All services will be held at:
First Assembly of God Church
220 Sycamore Ave, Shrewsbury NJ 07702
732-741-0048

Directions:
http://www.shrewsburyag.com/directions.html

Viewing
Monday, June 29
2pm – 4pm & 7pm – 9pm

Funeral
Tuesday, June 30
11am (interment to follow)

I am back in the city for a few hours….and tucked away at Paul’s Pest Control again. I don’t have long to write but I have to mention Neatness. She is 14 years old, and we spent three days getting to know her and filming her life. I can’t wait to tell you all about this brave young girl who cares for her family in the midst of the devastating effects of AIDS. Waking up and spending time in her village at 4:45am when she wakes and makes a fire…and feeds her siblings…and takes them to school….well, it was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve had.

We are heading off today so I’m not around for long. Hopefully, we will be “tweeting” from Ryan’s phone.    check it outL  http://twitter.com/forgottenvoices

hey – i only have about a minute here. I’m tucked away in an office at Paul’s Pest Control, in downtown Bulawayo. Thanks to the owner for letting me use his internet for a couple minutes.

Things are going really well. Today we are meeting with some young people that Forgotten Voices has supported for years. I’m really excited to speak with them and get to know them. Hoping that we get some great footage as well…so we can help tell the world the great stuff that Ryan’s organization is doing here. Ok, see the link below for ryans twitter – his phone is the only one that works here so we will keep updating that.

God bless…I’ll check in again soon.

When we launched anthemofhope.com, I installed some really cool analytical tools on both this site and that one. That was just about 2 months ago (can’t believe how the time flies).

Anyway, I was looking at the stats and thought it was interesting that leblanclife.com has had readers from 46 countries this month. I wanted to give a shout to our friends from Canada who are a very strong second place to the US readers.

1. United States   
2. Canada     
3. Germany 
4. Australia  
5. Isle of Man  
6. Ecuador   
7. South Korea   
8. United Kingdom 
9. New Zealand   
10. Argentina 

Then down at number 46, bringing up the rear…was Oman, with one visitor hanging out for about 78 seconds :)

To further the enjoyment of this inexplicably riveting post (yes, I’m joking), I decided to sort by cities. Here are the top viewing cities/towns:

1. New York 
2. Eatontown 
3. Shrewsbury   
4. Red Bank  
5. Middletown  
6. Jackson 
7. Lincroft 
8. Corpus Christi 
9. Harrison  
10. Terre Haute 
11. Howell 
12. Philadelphia 
13. Brick  
14. Neptune 
15. Asbury Park 
16. Edmonton 
17. Dallas  
18. Newark
19. Harrisburg 
20. Avon by the Sea 

Each of those had hundreds of visits a month, so props to those towns/cities for hanging out here. Anyway, I do hope something great is happening today in your life, because as you can see I am obviously procrastinating from doing anything productive!