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Name: Kevin Haislip Personal: married to my wife of 34 years, and 15 children (really! 2 born to us, 13 adopted) Mixed Emotions: moved to Texas after living on the Columbia River in Oregon. What would you do? Cars: have owned 5 Jeeps, a bunch of vans, a school bus and an AMC Pacer. |
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l For the past thirty years I've run a successful freelance photography and design business. And, no, that doesn't mean I've just operated a camera. If there is one thing photography and design teaches someone to do is to look at things from all angles, to think outside of the box so to speak. So whether I have a camera in my hand, a computer mouse, or a problem, I walk around it and study it. I look at a lot of angles and possibilities and begin to work out those possibilities. I don't settle. I strive after excellence and integrity in all that I do, always working to deliver more than is expected. But there's been more to my life than a career in photography and design - a lot more. I've adopted thirteen kids. If you think that's a walk in the park, think again. The process has taken me to dismal government offices in Bolivia where uncaring officials have done their best to sabotage my efforts. But it's also taken me to lunch in the home of the President of El Salvador where First Lady Margetta Christiani gave her personal approval to a most difficult adoption. I've had plenty of training in knowing how to win against stubbornness and how to influence the mighty. Knowledge of great things is the essence of self-assurance. I continually study biographies, history and great art. With these examples before me, I am prepared to take risks, and make the decisions that best benefit all concerned. l Alex Strauch was my professor and pastor in college. I learned two valuable lessons from him which I have carried with me my entire life. First was to fully engage passion, and second was to always seek truth in my life. I was to find that neither was particularly easy to take hold of. It is easy to be passionate for a career, or an interest. But Alex defined passion as something you would lay your life down for, something so dear, so desired that you would sell all you had to acquire it. Once he established that in my life, he pointed me to Jesus Christ. In the Bible, God frequently directs His people to love the outcasts, and to care for the widows and the orphans. As my love for Jesus grew, so did my passion for Him. That love and passion created in my wife and I a willingness to follow His direction and love others as He loves them, to consider others as more important than myself. That is how we came to follow His lead and take in orphaned children, give them a name and parents, and a home. To love another and count them even more important than yourself is a foreign concept to us in America today. It is rooted in what Jesus did for all men on the cross, when He willingly laid down His life for the sin of all mankind. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's righteousness, whether we have gossiped, held contempt for another, killed or committed adultery. Yet God, who is rich in mercy and love, sent His Son to bear our sin and punishment and stand in our place. |
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