The name HEED came from God’s original instructions. In late 2005, after my first visit to Uganda,  I began to understand God’s heart cry for the millions of orphaned children who were just waiting to be scooped up and loved into the kingdom of God. I felt God’s heart that He was broken  as I was for the overwhelming needs of the children for love, care and provision, but I felt an urgency  and almost an expectancy in the heart of God for the thousands of children who could come to know Him if the church would respond in obedience to the call to help the widows and orphans in their distress. I sensed anticipation of a great harvest that would come through that love, but was completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need, and still had no idea that God was going to ask me to be a part of His plan. I was just broken for the hopeless children I met, and God was showing me that He had a redemptive plan. He told me that it was like I was looking at the back of a tapestry where the threads look like a chaotic mess. He told me to turn it over, that He had a plan. When you look at the front side of a tapestry, the pattern emerges.  The next day, I woke up with four words running through my head:  help, evangelize, disciple, equip…. help, evangelize, disciple, equip…. I still remember where I was standing when God revealed, “That’s my plan. You help them with the physical needs, you give them the gospel, train them up in it, and then equip them for the future… In that order. And you are way back at the beginning with help! Just follow my plan.”

So, help, evangelize, disciple and equip became the game plan for the 17 children God had placed into our path, and He began to miraculously provide for them. Then, more than a year later when we needed a name for what was growing into a ministry, Heidi Davis in the US and Tomusange Silas in Uganda, who had never spoken, both contacted me to suggest rearranging the letters into  the name HEED on the same day. Heidi recalls that she was sitting at a red light on 196th & 76th in Lynnwood when God, said “HEED” to her. She quickly called Julie and left her a voicemail telling her the name God put onto her heart. Tom had sent a text message with the same name suggestion that arrived almost simultaneously.

Then I looked up the definition of HEED. It was: to stop and pay attention to, to take into account when acting. I cried.

So, God gave us both the game plan and the name in a way that confirmed the calling to follow Him in obedience to help, evangelize, disciple and equip  his orphaned and hurting children into the kingdom of God.