Long overdue greetings from Thailand!  

Our family just returned from the US and it was a really refreshing time with friends and family.  It was so good to see many of you and catch up on all that has been happening in your lives.  

I’ve had more time than I usually do to reflect on our work in Thailand.  One of the questions I wrestle with on a frequent basis is what does success look like for a nonprofit? 

A business is more straightforward.  If we sell more products, generate more revenue, then the business is successful.  That can be a good and noble thing.  

Businesses produce jobs, useful products and services, and can become cornerstones of the community.  

A Non-profit, by definition, is designed to do something else.  

It is taken for granted that it will not make money.  

But then again, it isn't supposed to.  

Generally, it serves a charitable purpose.  It is designed to serve the needs of vulnerable people.  

At Faithful Heart, we try to support, protect, and provide opportunity to vulnerable or orphaned children and their families.  

But how do we know if we are successful or not in what we are trying to do?  

And how can we tell where we still need to improve! 

That is where metrics can be helpful. 

We need to have ways to measure the effectiveness of what we are doing.  I don't think we need be slaves to those metrics, but they are important servants helping us evaluate the best way to serve the people we are trying to help.  

This is important for several reasons:

Effectiveness - Are we accomplishing the things we set out to do?  

Improvement - Can we improve what we do to better serve those in need?

Accountability - Are we stewarding the resources we have been entrusted with to do what we said we would do? 

 So how do you measure the effectiveness or success of a charity?

Let me suggest a few metrics:

1. Scope---who is reached and how many?

2. Depth---what is the long term impact, of those we have reached?

3. Faithfulness---how faithful have we been to the commission God gave us?

4. Love---how much love did we put into what we did? 

You may notice that the first two are pragmatic and a bit easier to measure, while the second two are more spiritual and difficult to measure.  

But I believe they are all important.  

This has been a challenging, and fun season of life and work in Thailand at Faithful Heart Foundation.  

A few years ago, we made adjustments and started new projects, and have enjoyed seeing how those have grown both in scope and in depth. 

I have blogged about the scope of our work recently and you can look back to previous posts to learn more.  

What I want to talk about today is depth, faithfulness, and love.  

I think those are the things I am most proud of at Faithful Heart. 

Yes, we are helping a lot of children and families. 

Yes, we are reaching more people than we had previously. 

But what I am really proud of is seeing the long-term impact on the individual lives, and the faithfulness and love of our staff.

Let me give one specific example.

Two boys who have been with us since they were 7 years old recently graduated college and started working.  They are both good men.  They are athletic, intelligent, kind, and hard working.  They are both followers of Jesus, and it shows.  

To me, that is depth. 

Our team has invested daily in those boys for almost 15 years. 

It was slow, it wasn't flashy, but it was effective.  

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it."  Proverbs

 It doesn't mean these boys won't make mistakes of poor choices, but their character has been formed, and that doesn't vanish overnight.  

 What about faithfulness?  How do you measure faithfulness?  

I tend to agree with the apostle Paul's words:  

"Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.  But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.  For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me."  1 Corinthians 4:2-4

So in part, I must say honestly I am not sure now to measure.  

But I would say this for our team at Faithful Heart: we consistently pray and ask for God to help us be faithful to the work he has called us to do.  

This may sound strange, especially if you are not a Christian.  

It is rooted in the belief that ultimately, the way to have the greatest positive impact on the most lives is not finding a new technology or some perfect method (important as those may be), but in doing whatever part God gives us to do.  

This is because God is already redeeming the world. 

We are merely joining with him, trying to do our part, whatever it may be, to help bring his kingdom of love and justice comes to earth as it is in heaven.  

Harvesting is not more important than planting to the farmer.  

Both are essential to a harvest.  

But they don't look the same.  

We don’t ask the builder of the house which is more important, the floors or the roof.  Both serve a purpose, and though the laborers don’t always see the connection for the parts they work on, the Master Builder does.  

Sometimes the work we do may not seem very effective to us who do it. 

That's why faithfulness is important. 

What we see matters, and we need to adjust accordingly, but it's not just about what we can see.

We don’t want this to become a reason to do sloppy or poor-quality work, but we also acknowledge that we will never be wise enough to solve the world’s problems.  We often cannot solve our own.

Only God has that wisdom.   

Ok, one more metric: Love.

This is from Mother Theresa who said that it was not the size of our work that mattered, but how much love we put into it.  

This is not easy for me to swallow. 

I like results. 

I like winning. 

Bigger is better!  (Isn't it?) 

Well, maybe not always.  

If you can sum up the vocation of Jesus' followers in one word, it's love. 

It's not just something we do, it is what we were made for. 

It isn't just part of our work, it is the work.  

Let me quote Paul again:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Cor. 13:1-3 

To spend my whole life working hard, trying to help others, but to not have love, would be to waste my life.  

It isn't enough to just serve, I must love.

It isn't enough to just help, I must love.  

 

So how do we measure success?

Success is reaching and helping many people.

Success is have a long term positive impact on the lives of those we serve.

Success is being faithful to the work God has called us to do.

Success is doing everything with great love.   

Thank you for sharing in our success at Faithful Heart Foundation. 

We couldn't do what we do, without you.  

We still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. 

There is still room for more love.

But I am proud of our team and the work they do, and I am proud of the people we serve the progress they are making.  

"So let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6

Thank you for your love and support,

Matt, Audrey, Ezra and Sienna