Ryan Doherty

“The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God.  It is impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain. John Piper”
― Ryan J. Murphy, All That You Can't Leave Behind: A Rookie Missionary's Life in Africa

“Some Christians genuinely wrestle with the missionary call, but come to understand that God is calling them to stay and serve in their current location. For others, this call to go will not go away. They see it written between the lines as they read their Bibles. The question of the missionary call is on their mind when they watch the news or when they examine their career paths.”
― Michael Sills, The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God's Plan For the World

“Prayer is always hard work, and often an agony. We sometimes have to wrestle even in order to pray. “When those hours of the day come in which we should be having our prayer-sessions with God, it often appears as though everything has entered into a conspiracy to prevent it.” We often wrestle in prayer just to concentrate. “Your thoughts flit back and forth between God and the many pressing duties which await you.”226 While God can and will grant times of peace and tranquility, no Christian outgrows the need to struggle and persevere in prayer.”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

“My involvement, from my very first days in Haiti, caused me to rethink the common practice of American groups coming in and building, or supporting, orphanages without truly understanding the situation in Haiti. Especially since the plague of unemployment is so huge that it is believed 80 percent of all orphans end up in orphanages as a result of poverty. These “poverty orphans” are brought to orphanages mostly because their parents are unable to pay for food and school. Normally, American orphanages, or American-supported orphanages, pay for schooling for the children as well as for food, so to struggling parents these institutions look like the best and only option. However, with as many as 80 percent of orphans having a living parent, the rage to come to Haiti and build orphanages for these children seemed both broken and incongruous. I realized that often what America thinks is the best for children is sometimes just a quick fix, a temporary Band-Aid that may ultimately exacerbate the situation. I knew there had to be a better way.”
― Megan Boudreaux, Miracle on Voodoo Mountain: A Young Woman's Remarkable Story of Pushing Back the Darkness for the Children of Haiti