Lately my children have been squabbling over the most ridiculous thing. It’s on the verge of driving me insane.

Practically every time we get ready to go somewhere, we end up having a long, drawn-out, sometimes heated discussion about where everyone will sit in the car. We hash out which combination of children will sit in the third row, who is sitting next to the baby, what side of the car everyone will sit on and so forth.

For a while, I tap-danced right along and indulged this silliness. I even instituted some crazy system where everyone rotated seats each time we got in the car – of course this system lasted about one day since I could never remember who previously sat where and whose turn it was to sit next to the baby and what not. And so the squabbling just continued.

Friday was no exception. I told the kids to load up in the car for a little field trip – we were headed north of the city to visit a friend’s farm. I got the baby up from her nap, fixed her milk, walked into the garage and guess what I found… yep, the four big kids arguing about where everyone should sit in the car.

And I decided that this conversation was OVER. Permanently. “Guys, ENOUGH!! Seriously. Who cares? The fate of the republic does NOT hinge on where you sit in the car. Boys in the back, girls in the middle. I don’t want to hear another word about it. Ever.”

And with that, we got in the car and headed up to the farm. I huffed and puffed most of the way there, still irritated with the whole situation. I was irritated at myself even, just for putting up with it for so long. Such silliness, so much time and energy wasted.

But then a thought popped in my head… I wonder how many times I’ve done this exact same thing? How much time and energy and money and effort have I wasted on completely meaningless things? Things with no eternal value whatsoever. How many times has the Lord looked upon me and thought “Shelly, enough! Who cares? You’re missing the point.”

The recent disaster in Japan has me thinking. And no, I’m not about to start spouting end times prophecy or anything… I have no idea when Jesus is coming back. But the tsunami in Japan, and other such tragedies, should serve as a clear reminder of our own mortality. We’re all just a vapor, our time is so fleeting.

Whether Jesus comes back tomorrow or a 1,000 years from tomorrow doesn’t really matter. Because one day we will ALL stand before Him and give account. We will answer for the ways we’ve used or squandered our resources, our time, our talents.

Dan and I get emails from people all the time saying things like… “we love what you guys are doing with your ministry in Africa, your adoptions, your general craziness. One day we could see ourselves doing some of the same stuff.” And I can’t help but think…well, why not today?

I know that everyone’s circumstances are different, and I’m not trying to cast blame or judgement. But if the Lord has pricked your heart for something, I would urge you to act. If you’re waiting for that perfect time when all of your finances are in order, your marriage is like a romance novel and your children are behaving beautifully… I hate to break it to you, but that time is probably not ever going to come. Not on this side of Heaven at least.

Who knows how much time any of us have left? Personally, I want to make every second count.

In April of 2010 my husband, Dan, traveled to the East African country of Uganda. Dan and his friend, Michael, were traveling on the first official mission trip of our newly birthed ministry, SixtyFeet.

Dan and Michael both have extensive mercy ministry and overseas missions experience. Michael is a professional filmmaker. Dan is a former missionary to Africa. Between the two of them, they had basically seen and served in it all. But nothing could have prepared them for what awaited them in Uganda.

The facility they visited, "M" as we call it, is essentially a prison for children. Underfunded by the government and overlooked by society, some children languish in this place for years. The facility was created for teenage boys with a criminal record. But today, M houses both boys and girls -- many of them under the age of 12.

To Dan, two young children stood out.


We learned they had been in this facility for over a year, abandoned by their parents and dropped off by the police on several occasions.

Dan returned home after that trip to Africa, broken and troubled and unable to get the faces of these little ones out of his mind.


As a family, we began to pray feverently for these children. We prayed that they'd have food for each day. We prayed that they'd have clothing, shoes and bedding. But mostly we prayed, prompted by our children, that they would have a real family to love them... a Daddy and a Mommy who would show them Jesus. For months, we prayed that the Lord would call a family to rise to this task -- that He'd send someone for these children.

And one night He spoke to us unmistakably... "I did send someone. I sent you."

We said "no Lord, not us! We can't do it. What will our family and friends think? We have two young children and a 6 month old baby. We're already too busy. We don't have the money for two international adoptions. We don't have enough room in our house. We don't have a big enough car. We don't have enough faith."

And He said. "My grace is enough." And by His grace alone, we finally responded in obedience.

Along with my friend Joy, I flew to Kampala, Uganda for our court date in November 2010. Our case was unique -- no one had ever even attempted to adopt a child from M previously. There were many unknowns and no precedents for our situation.


The judge heard our case and agreed to give his final ruling in mid-December. Joy and I returned home. And Dan, accompanied by his friend Scott (and later by his friend, Judd), traveled to Uganda. Dan spent several long, hard weeks in Africa. He missed Christmas, he missed Baby Charlotte's first birthday -- but he was there in Uganda when the judge said YES! And life changed forever.


On December 30, 2010, Dan, Hannah and Joseph made it... "Home at Last." We pray that one day this happy ending belongs to many more children in "M" and the other remand facilities throughout Africa that SixtyFeet serves.

We hope this story will encourage and inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and follow something that God may be urging you to do. We give full credit to our friend Michael Lines for the film and to Griffin Gibson for the photography. But all glory, always and forever, to our Lord, Jesus Christ. Through Him all things are possible.

"Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn't in our group." -- Mark 9:38

With the benefit of 2,000 years of hindsight, it's easy to judge the Apostle John for his words above. I mean, hello... "Jesus, there was someone doing some really great things in your name but we told him to cut it out because he wasn't part of our little crowd."

John's words might seem foolish or selfish or jealous -- but the reality is that we still see this kind of thing in ministry every day. And it makes me sad.

Honestly, I get really disgusted by churches and ministries who view one another as "competitors." I mean, aren't we all just in this together? Aren't we all after the same goal? I hope so.

Besides -- this kind of competition indicates a real lack of faith, in my opinion. Isn't our God big enough to provide for and sustain all the churches and ministries that He's called into existence? I'm pretty sure He can handle it.

Happily, there's a flip side to all this competition.We at SixtyFeet have been blessed, floored, blown AWAY by the many ministries that have linked arms with us and come alongside us in our work. These other Africa-focused, orphan-serving ministries could have viewed SixtyFeet as their competition. But these are Kingdom-minded people and they're all about God's will and His work, however it gets done.

These other ministries, Wiphan, Amazima, Cornerstone Development, AWAKA and others have supported SixtyFeet. Some have supported us financially. Some have given of their time, their resources and their expertise. They've sent their own supporters to our website to learn about our cause. They don't want to compete -- they just want to get er' done.

Dan and I and the rest of the SixtyFeet team desire to take a cue from these awesome ministries. We want to be like these people because they're like Jesus.

We want to be Kingdom-minded and not SixtyFeet-minded in our approach to ministry. And so we have some people we want you to meet:


This is the Dinsmore family from Arizona. In the blog world, Lara is known as The Farmer's Wife. Jon is an organic farmer and Lara is a stay-at-home-mom. They are in the process of adopting from Uganda and they have one heck of a story.

Starting now, each month, SixtyFeet will support a different family who is in the process of adopting from Uganda. We'll feature this family on our site and encourage y'all to support them too. SixtyFeet is not an adoption agency. At the moment, we don't have any children from our facilities who can even be adopted. But we want to do Kingdom work. And that means it's not about us. It's all about Him.

At what point does one cross the line between craziness for God and just plain irresponsible? Dan and I ask ourselves that question sometimes. We wonder at what point we'll toss up our hands and say "ok, enough. There's crazy and then there's stupid."

If you've been hanging around the Crazy Blog for a while, you know that Dan sold his Audi about this time last year. He sold it and gave away the money and we've been a one car family ever since. Remember this picture? That's Dan's first day on the scooter.



And being a one car family in a city with rotten public transportation is often inconvenient. It is often irritating. But so far, we've been able to make it work.

But then we adopted two more kids and all...



And life got busier.

And we really, really felt like we needed a second car. I mean ENOUGH. This one car situation has been cute and made for some really fun blog posts but seriously. We need two cars. We have five children, we are constantly running in a million different directions and we cannot continue to burden our friends about driving us around town. There's crazy and then there's stupid. This situation was becoming stupid.

Yet, when we prayed about it, we felt God telling us to wait. When we looked at our budget, we knew we'd have to cut back on our giving or some of our commitments if we purchased a second car. We knew He was saying "trust me." And so we did. We continued the stupidness craziness of being a one car family. And we waited. And we trusted that He had a better way.

Today I was leaving a shower for a dear friend. I walked out of the front door of the house and noticed a message on my phone from "Jane." I called Jane back and she said "Shelly, my husband "Jack" recently got word that he is being transferred to Manhattan. We will not need our cars in Manhattan. I thought of you. Do you want a car?"

And I cried. And I praised Jesus. Because always, always He has a better way. After all the miracles I've seen over the last year, how could I have doubted?

Jesus calls us to live intentionally and to give generously for the Kingdom. And He also tells us to trust Him. We give generously and He'll provide all that we need. And that's it. Do you trust Him in this way? You should, because He's good for it. Every time.

Thank you Jesus for reminding me of this today.

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life -- whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?"
-- Matt 6:25-26, NLT

No, this is not a weight loss post -- but isn't that a catchy title? I've got a little story to share and I'll get into the "heavy" stuff in a sec...

So here's a fun fact -- did y'all know that Dan used to live in Botswana (yes, the one in Africa) and worked as a pilot for Flying Mission? Us crazy Owens are full of surprises.

Recently, Dan shared a story with our small group about his time in Africa and I thought this one was just too good not to share here...

So, while he was in Botswana, he and some fellow pilots decided to travel up to Zambia to visit some American missionaries over Christmas break. The area they flew into was REMOTE. As in, Dan and his team had to land their plane on a strip of grass. As in, the place doesn't even show up on Google Maps kind of remote.

As the guys made their way out of their plane and into the little village and what should they happen upon, but a beat up old Ford truck. It probably looked something like this in it's prime...


If you've ever been to Africa you'll know why this is weird. There are no Ford trucks anywhere in Africa. Toyota trucks, yes. Nissan trucks, perhaps. Big old gas guzzlin' Ford trucks, no. But even if you've not been to Africa you'll have to admit it's a bit strange to stumble upon an old American-made truck in the middle of the African jungle.

Dan asked the missionaries about the mysterious automobile and turns out that it was brought to this remote location by former American missionaries to Zambia. These missionaries went to great lengths and much expense to ship their beloved Ford truck in a very large crate all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. And THEN these missionaries went to great lengths and much expense to drive their beloved Ford truck 2,000 miles to the remote little village in Zambia where they'd been called to serve.

Now this all could have made for a nice little story of perseverance and American ingenuity. But alas, there is a sad ending to this tale.

When Dan and his friends happened upon this truck, years after it had arrived in the Zambian village, it was completely useless and decrepit. The tires were literally rotting off the wheels. Trees were growing through the windows. It was the very definition of "hunk of junk." Turns out that the missionaries who had gone to so much trouble to bring their car with them to Zambia, never really got to use the thing. Because, in the entire country of Zambia, there are no Pep Boys or Napa Auto Parts or any place that carries parts for and/or has the ability to service a Ford truck. So after all that trouble, the beloved truck just rotted away.

I love this story. I think there is SUCH a great lesson here.

There is a reason why Jesus commanded his disciples, and us, with these words:

"Take nothing for your journey," he instructed them. "Don't take a walking stick, a traveler's bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes." Luke 9:3, NLT

Notice that Jesus doesn't say "don't plan your journey." He doesn't say "don't think things through carefully." Indeed -- in Matthew 10:16 He calls us to be as shrewd as snakes. But our Lord clearly, explicity states that when we're going out to do His work, we should not bother to bring along a bunch of stuff. In fact, He says we should not bring ANY stuff.

You could offer lots of reasons why Jesus gave this particular commandment to his disciples. Most commonly, I've heard it taught that Jesus wanted His disciples to take nothing on their journies because He wanted them to depend on Him. To have faith in His full provision. And there is definitely truth to this.

But from the bottom of my heart, I think this is the main reason Jesus gave the command: stuff is a BURDEN. Stuff is a snare in ministry. Stuff is a distraction. Our stuff requires our time and attention -- we have to care for it, store it, sort it, clean it and so forth. Our stuff keeps us from taking risks for God -- it prevents us from picking up and leaving and doing something aweseome and crazy for Him. And eventually, when we've grown to love our stuff more than we love our God, we find that our stuff has become our idol.

The Hebrew word for "rich"... as in Abraham in the Old Testament, is "kaved." Translated literally, this word means "heavy." It can also be translated as "burdened" or "extremely weighty." Ouch.

So I ask y'all this... are you too heavy? Do you have too much stuff? And does your stuff keep you from doing great things for Him?

Dan and I often fear that we are too heavy.  We fear that we are too attached to our stuff. We fear that if we were called to pick up and go serve on the other side of the world, our stuff would prevent us from actually doing it. And that is not ok.

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Matt 6:24, NAS