** THIS IS THE FUNDRAISING LETTER I SENT OUT EARLIER THIS MORNING. WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOUR HELP AS WE FINISH OUT THIS YEAR!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY AND TAKING THE TIME TO SUPPORT US! WE APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH!!
Dearest friends and family,
As the year is winding down it’s time for us to start “closing our books” for the year and looking toward next year for the ministry. As with any non profit, that inevitably means attempting to “catch up” and pray toward a budget for next year - deciding how and sometimes “if” we’ll be able to continue with commitments we have made and really want to keep.
On paper it’s been a hard year. Several “unexpected” expenses have thrown us for a loop. Some friends of ours who borrowed our car for a day had an accident that totaled our truck and we obviously had to replace that as it is the only transportation we have. I have had to had more medical tests run this year and had a minor surgery which cost significant money to an already tight budget. We had an electricity problem in the house which cost us almost a thousand dollars extra in an electric bill. There have just been many unexpected’s on top of an economy that is certainly showing most of us working in the non profit sector that “times are tough.” We aren’t exempt in any way from feeling the weight of what happens with the economy in the States. In fact to a budget without a cushion it sometimes is crippling in some ways or at the very least inhibiting significantly to a ministry.
We continue to believe with all of our hearts that we’re operating out of God’s economy and not what it “looks like” to a world full of people. God certainly continues to provide and we are grateful. He continues to touch people’s hearts and we watch generosity pour in and continue to touch us to our toenails.
The truth is however that as we are looking at our end of the year, we need to raise about $15,000 to be able to continue our commitments as we approach 2012 and we really need your help. It sounds like a tremendous amount of money but when broken down into pieces we can all work with - it’s 15 people at $1000 or 30 people at $500 or 60 people at $250 or 150 at $100. You get the picture. If spread out among a team of people it becomes possible.
With honestly we admit that we have an electric bill we presently can not pay. For the first time in 6 years, last month was the first month we were unable to pay rent at the ministry house. Our tire fell off the truck two days ago and to fix it we have a bill of $800. We have “borrowed” from folks we love to cover for a time but it’s time to pay up. So it is no exaggeration when I tell you that we could use your help in almost “desperate” ways.
As you are making plans for your end of the year tax deductions, if you would consider us we would be so incredibly grateful. If your heart is touched by God to donate toward a ministry that we believe is still bent toward elevating the poor, to fighting for justice, whose heartbeat is still to love with the heart of Christ and make Him visible and tangible in a world that at moments exists without hope - we would be so grateful for your help. We would welcome you to be a part of this team of people who help to make this happen. We thank God for your heart to help us serve and rescue. Truly.
We cannot do this without so many of you and we have never been more aware of that than we are in this present season. We are praying on this side of the globe that we will be able to come up with the deficit in this phase of fundraising season and then will be able to secure more monthly sponsors come January in Phase 2 of our fundraising plan.
It has been a good year in terms of what we have been able to be a part of at Called and Compelled. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to host and facilitate teams and do the follow up for all that goes along with relationships built through those experiences. We are delighted at what God is creating and sustaining through our partnership with Women of Purpose in an effort to bring English speaking missionary women together for refreshment and renewal. We continue to work closely with a homeless ministry we believe chases the heart of Christ into the darkness and lights up places most people avoid. We are excited about the opportunities to build more houses through sponsorships throughout the year and not just in the summer when teams are here. We pray to be able to continue to invest in and even study and build relationships with those families and continue to love and encourage them. The privilege of walking closely alongside Carlos and Saul and pouring into them as they live in our home is precious and we adore them. Although the proximity of the little boys family has changed, they moved back to Comayagua (about 3 hours from us) a few months ago, our heart remains steadfast in our prayers for and our desire to continue to walk alongside their family in whatever way the Lord allows.
So as you can see, our ministry plate remains full to overflowing. Both with tasks and with blessings.
I was reminded just how very blessed we are again last week. We built a house for a sweet momma and her four children, who worked beside us all day pounding nails, or moving wood, or anything else they could help us do. We had finished building and it was time to leave and as usual we prayed over the family - that God would reign in that home, that they would always be blessed there and that they would come to know how very much He loves them. I turned toward the momma, her name is Telma and she grabbed ahold of me in a death-clutch hug and just kept patting my back. I tried to let go at one point and she just held on and I felt these quiet cries coming from her. So we stood that way for a moment and as my good friend Mark reminded me on the way out the door, “this is why we keep doing it Jen, that’s exactly why, cause all we have in life are moments, and they need to matter.” True enough brother.
So here’s to continuing to partner to make the moments matter for a Savior who is present in every single one of them wooing us toward Himself.
If you would be willing to help us -
TO DONATE:
1) www.calledandcompelled.blogspot.com (you can donate with credit card here if you wish)
2) For tax deductible donations - make the check payable to Belpre Church of Christ and send it to Mary Ann Laughery, 685 Timberline Dr. Vincent, OH 45784
If you have any questions or need more info, please feel free to ask.
Please keep track of where we are with our fundraising goal on my blog at www.calledandcompelled.blogspot.com and watch how with each of us playing our part we can continue to make a difference in this country and for these precious people.
If you know of any other churches or individuals that might be interested in becoming involved with the ministry here in Honduras, please pass this along to them as well or give us their contact information. We are seeking to develop a broader base of partners and expand what Called and Compelled Ministries is and does over the coming year.
Thank you so much for your time and sacrifice.
Because we are still compelled by His love,
Jen Wright (on behalf of all of us at Called and Compelled Ministries)
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
The Kingdom Is Alive Tour
Well we are in the final stages of preparing to head to Dallas, TX on Thursday morning. Some amazing friends have agreed to help us raise money for the causes most near and dear our hearts this year and so we are tour bound. It is humbling to have them using their gifts (which are plentiful in each of them) to help us raise money for Called and Compelled. I am excited to travel with them and look forward to what God will do in each of us through this experience. For our first benefit show Called and Compelled is also getting to link arms with the Touch A Life Foundation. Their story is incredible and we eagerly await learning more about their work in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Ghana over the course of the weekend. Find more information on them at http://www.touchalifekids.org/
Please check out the website www.thekingdomisalivetour.com to see more about the crew :)
Please pray for us that Jesus might be elevated, that things might be spoken that would challenge and grow places in each of us that need to be touched and tended to and that because of something that happens more people might be helped in the name of Christ.
We will try to keep you posted as we travel as well.
Friday, March 25, 2011
COMMITMENT...
We were asked at the renewal that we just came from to make some “commitments” (which is hard for some of us who flee from most anything that requires commitment for fear that we will fail, but that’s another post altogether).
We were to ponder and pray and listen for God to speak in regards to what He was seeking to transform within us throughout the week and how what we felt Him shifting would play itself out on the following Monday morning when we were no longer in “renewal” setting. It was obvious that real life was waiting, so how would our time together with one another, and mostly, with the Lord have affected the everyday-ness of our life.
In an attempt to not oversimplify but not write a ridiculously long post – one of my RUDE awakenings throughout the week of being in God’s presence and the presence of some other folks who invited us to engage with them in the process of a “deeper life,” was that I felt clearly convicted that I had traded in my DELIGHT at being a daughter of the King and walking with Him into hard places and feeling privileged to do so – to attempt to lead a ministry. The exchange has been stinky and it’s taken the best parts about doing all of this with it. It has left me tired and frustrated and burnt out and bitter and hurt and lacking in so many places. I was offering the people I was certain God has asked me to serve, a very manufactured offering, because my cup was bone dry – there was nothing there worth anything to offer. I found myself scary dry and scary numb toward some things that should move this girls heart.
One of the largest regrets I have about ministry is that sometimes it hardens things that were so soft and vulnerable and nurturing in some far off distant place in the past. Some of that is “theirs” to own (whoever “they” might be)…for instance my heart remembers soft and vulnerable before it seemed like everyone was watching and knew how you were supposed to do things and were dishonoring in their conversations about how wrong even your best attempt at following Him passionately and serving people is. It was that way before ministries fought and competed for credit instead of working together to help the people who needed it. It was that way before people who loved Jesus didn’t act like Jesus very much at all. AND THEN…if I am honest a whole big lot of it is mine to own…It was that way before I took my eyes off Him and put my eyes on all the needs in front of us and our inadequacy to meet them. It was that way before I was able to walk past a half naked hungry soul and that feel like a “normal” part of my world, without needing to respond. It was that way before the pictures in the newspapers of murdered bodies lying on the ground no longer made me sick to my stomach or burdened in my heart and I was able to flip the page without much feeling about that at all. It was that way until I allowed my guilt over what other people thought a missionary should be to dictate what I did whether I felt God leading in that direction or not. It was that way until I began behaving as though I believed that working for God might be the same thing as pursuing God. It was that way before I thought that being a “missionary” had now become part of my “identity” instead of a really humbling piece of my journey through this life. It was that way until one day I realized that I had gotten so far from the girl I was when I came here to do this that I honestly wasn’t sure whether I really knew myself at this point at all. There’s a whole lot there that takes some “owning” from me as well.
Sure there are places that have grown and changed and shifted. There are places that are better as a result of the journey, but I think sometimes moving forward from where you are requires naming what you hate about where you are. I think this is that.
Somehow naming it and saying it and calling it what it is – liberates. There it is, honest, and out in the open, I am far from who I desperately want to be.
So now what??? Well, I think that’s where the “commitment” of what would change on Monday morning after our renewal time together comes in. At the risk of this sounding like I’m binding myself to some “law” I’ll never be able to keep, and using some tag line that has become an easy way to bury someone with guilt, I was certain that some things were going to have to change in my world. You know what I decided. I deserve an hour in the morning to seek God. I deserve a pretty place to be able to do that. I desire a cup that overflows with Him and things that would honor Him and if that’s true then it’s going to take some devotion on my part to bring that cup to Him for His abundant filling. So I decorated my patio. I bought myself a table and chairs. I was gifted with some gorgeous flowers to plant in my flower boxes. I bought some more pots and some other flowers that I just loved. I created a space to meet with God. It won’t be magic. It won’t create something I couldn’t have created in a corner of my bare room – but I want to be intentional about meeting with God and delighting in that again. I figured He was deserving of my time and energy in creating and decorating a place where we would have a date each day. So I dedicated that corner of the patio to be my “prayer chair.” Many other things will inevitably take place there but at the beginning of my day whether it’s 5 minutes or an hour or longer, I’ll seek Him there. I’ll put myself in position of surrender and listen for His lead. I’ll remember that my identity is in being His daughter…NOTHING else. I’ll be still and I will allow Him to quiet this heart that can hear the criticisms and opinions of others so loud some days I think I might go nuts. I will bring Him my mess and ask Him to start here with me first, change this before I invite or serve or “work” for everyone else who “needs” Jesus, I’ll remember that I’m pretty desperately in need of Him as well.
This prayer was one that was shared at the “renewal” and will become a regular part of my morning time…it speaks of morning, but it also speaks toward new beginnings and I feel like that also is where I am at this point in the journey.
AT THE DAWN
Our first glimpse of reality this day – everyday – is your fidelity.
We are dazzled by the ways you remain constant among us,
in season, out of season,
for better, for worse,
in sickness and in health.
You are there in watchfulness as we fall asleep;
You are there in alertness when we awaken…and we are glad.
Before the day ends, we will have occasion
to flag your absence in indifference…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Before the day ends, we will think more than once
that we need a better deal from you…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Before the day ends, we will look away from you and
relish our own fidelity and our virtue in mercy…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Now, at the dawn, our eyes are fixed on you in gladness.
We ask only that your faithfulness
permeate every troubled place we are able to name,
that your mercy
move against the hurts to make new,
that your steadfastness
hold firmly what is too fragile on its own.
And we begin the day in joy, in hope, and in deep gladness. Amen.
I desperately want to be honest with myself and with my God about who and where I am and how desperately I need Him – and today at this dawn – I think I make the commitment to start there again…knowing that I will no doubt fail…and that He will NO doubt still love me. Amazing!! Absolutely amazing!!
We were to ponder and pray and listen for God to speak in regards to what He was seeking to transform within us throughout the week and how what we felt Him shifting would play itself out on the following Monday morning when we were no longer in “renewal” setting. It was obvious that real life was waiting, so how would our time together with one another, and mostly, with the Lord have affected the everyday-ness of our life.
In an attempt to not oversimplify but not write a ridiculously long post – one of my RUDE awakenings throughout the week of being in God’s presence and the presence of some other folks who invited us to engage with them in the process of a “deeper life,” was that I felt clearly convicted that I had traded in my DELIGHT at being a daughter of the King and walking with Him into hard places and feeling privileged to do so – to attempt to lead a ministry. The exchange has been stinky and it’s taken the best parts about doing all of this with it. It has left me tired and frustrated and burnt out and bitter and hurt and lacking in so many places. I was offering the people I was certain God has asked me to serve, a very manufactured offering, because my cup was bone dry – there was nothing there worth anything to offer. I found myself scary dry and scary numb toward some things that should move this girls heart.
One of the largest regrets I have about ministry is that sometimes it hardens things that were so soft and vulnerable and nurturing in some far off distant place in the past. Some of that is “theirs” to own (whoever “they” might be)…for instance my heart remembers soft and vulnerable before it seemed like everyone was watching and knew how you were supposed to do things and were dishonoring in their conversations about how wrong even your best attempt at following Him passionately and serving people is. It was that way before ministries fought and competed for credit instead of working together to help the people who needed it. It was that way before people who loved Jesus didn’t act like Jesus very much at all. AND THEN…if I am honest a whole big lot of it is mine to own…It was that way before I took my eyes off Him and put my eyes on all the needs in front of us and our inadequacy to meet them. It was that way before I was able to walk past a half naked hungry soul and that feel like a “normal” part of my world, without needing to respond. It was that way before the pictures in the newspapers of murdered bodies lying on the ground no longer made me sick to my stomach or burdened in my heart and I was able to flip the page without much feeling about that at all. It was that way until I allowed my guilt over what other people thought a missionary should be to dictate what I did whether I felt God leading in that direction or not. It was that way until I began behaving as though I believed that working for God might be the same thing as pursuing God. It was that way before I thought that being a “missionary” had now become part of my “identity” instead of a really humbling piece of my journey through this life. It was that way until one day I realized that I had gotten so far from the girl I was when I came here to do this that I honestly wasn’t sure whether I really knew myself at this point at all. There’s a whole lot there that takes some “owning” from me as well.
Sure there are places that have grown and changed and shifted. There are places that are better as a result of the journey, but I think sometimes moving forward from where you are requires naming what you hate about where you are. I think this is that.
Somehow naming it and saying it and calling it what it is – liberates. There it is, honest, and out in the open, I am far from who I desperately want to be.
So now what??? Well, I think that’s where the “commitment” of what would change on Monday morning after our renewal time together comes in. At the risk of this sounding like I’m binding myself to some “law” I’ll never be able to keep, and using some tag line that has become an easy way to bury someone with guilt, I was certain that some things were going to have to change in my world. You know what I decided. I deserve an hour in the morning to seek God. I deserve a pretty place to be able to do that. I desire a cup that overflows with Him and things that would honor Him and if that’s true then it’s going to take some devotion on my part to bring that cup to Him for His abundant filling. So I decorated my patio. I bought myself a table and chairs. I was gifted with some gorgeous flowers to plant in my flower boxes. I bought some more pots and some other flowers that I just loved. I created a space to meet with God. It won’t be magic. It won’t create something I couldn’t have created in a corner of my bare room – but I want to be intentional about meeting with God and delighting in that again. I figured He was deserving of my time and energy in creating and decorating a place where we would have a date each day. So I dedicated that corner of the patio to be my “prayer chair.” Many other things will inevitably take place there but at the beginning of my day whether it’s 5 minutes or an hour or longer, I’ll seek Him there. I’ll put myself in position of surrender and listen for His lead. I’ll remember that my identity is in being His daughter…NOTHING else. I’ll be still and I will allow Him to quiet this heart that can hear the criticisms and opinions of others so loud some days I think I might go nuts. I will bring Him my mess and ask Him to start here with me first, change this before I invite or serve or “work” for everyone else who “needs” Jesus, I’ll remember that I’m pretty desperately in need of Him as well.
This prayer was one that was shared at the “renewal” and will become a regular part of my morning time…it speaks of morning, but it also speaks toward new beginnings and I feel like that also is where I am at this point in the journey.
AT THE DAWN
Our first glimpse of reality this day – everyday – is your fidelity.
We are dazzled by the ways you remain constant among us,
in season, out of season,
for better, for worse,
in sickness and in health.
You are there in watchfulness as we fall asleep;
You are there in alertness when we awaken…and we are glad.
Before the day ends, we will have occasion
to flag your absence in indifference…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Before the day ends, we will think more than once
that we need a better deal from you…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Before the day ends, we will look away from you and
relish our own fidelity and our virtue in mercy…
but not now, not at the dawn.
Now, at the dawn, our eyes are fixed on you in gladness.
We ask only that your faithfulness
permeate every troubled place we are able to name,
that your mercy
move against the hurts to make new,
that your steadfastness
hold firmly what is too fragile on its own.
And we begin the day in joy, in hope, and in deep gladness. Amen.
I desperately want to be honest with myself and with my God about who and where I am and how desperately I need Him – and today at this dawn – I think I make the commitment to start there again…knowing that I will no doubt fail…and that He will NO doubt still love me. Amazing!! Absolutely amazing!!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
ROCKED MY FACE OFF!!!
I have just had a “defining moment” week in my life.
I remember the season that led up to my reinvention of what this heart believed to be true about church and God and an authentic relationship with Him so vividly. It sticks out to me and will forever be a mark of my spiritual journey because it reshaped so much of my own walk with God. I learned in a small group of people in my 20′s what it meant to passionately love God and become a disciple attempting to follow so closely that the dust from His steps might land upon these feet. I wanted to become a follower of Christ, the platitudes and cliches would no longer satisfy all that was stirring in my heart. I wanted Him – a true version of Him – a pursued intentionally version of Him – a manifestation of Him in my life in the ways that I chose to live out every part of life. That season actually began my “relationship with Him.” My belief in Him came much earlier but His permanent home in my heart took up residence during that season. It was a “defining moment.”
So when I use the words “defining moment” they bear weight in my heart. They carry with it the idea that it marked me so deeply that parts of my heart/life/pursuit of God will forever be changed from the experience.
In the same way that worshipping with a small group of folks “reinvented” my ideas about community and God and church and walking with Him, this week has marked me as significantly in my views of ministry. I have been changed forever by both witnessing these women serve and minister and by the empowering of feeling like God was challenging me to go and do likewise in the sphere of ministry that He has placed before me.
I have a feeling this blog will be the spot where I wrestle out some of what’s in my heart about my time here and ALL that has happened as a result of it. Even typing that I have a myriad of words coming to mind for blog topics…hesed, easy love/hard love and all that happens in between, Psalm 103 (which could easily be 150 blogs on it’s own), a whole host of names of women who have touched me deeply and things you should hear and know about each of them, oh heavens, I have soooooooooo much crowding for space and desperately needing a way to flow out that I’m gonna need a way (if for no one else but me) to say some of this … so this is it!!
One of the things I have read over and over and over again since someone was kind enough to share this with me is this prayer. It resonates. It challenges. It screams in some moments and whispers in others. Today this is what I need to share and what I need to log on this space, so that I never forget how much it spoke to me in this season.
An Answering and a Refusing
We confess you to be the God who calls,
Who wills,
Who summons,
Who has concrete intentions,
For your creation,
And addresses human agents
Who do your will.
We imagine ourselves called by you…
Yet a strange lot:
Called but cowarldly,
Obedient but self-indulgent,
Devoted to you, but otherwise preoccupied.
In our strange mix an answering and a refusing,
We give thanks for your call.
We pray this day,
For ourselves, fresh vision;
For our friends, great courage,
For those who search for You in places more dangerous than ours,
Deep freedom.
As we seek to answer your call,
May we be haunted by your large purposes,
We pray in the name of the utterly called Jesus, Amen.
And amen
I remember the season that led up to my reinvention of what this heart believed to be true about church and God and an authentic relationship with Him so vividly. It sticks out to me and will forever be a mark of my spiritual journey because it reshaped so much of my own walk with God. I learned in a small group of people in my 20′s what it meant to passionately love God and become a disciple attempting to follow so closely that the dust from His steps might land upon these feet. I wanted to become a follower of Christ, the platitudes and cliches would no longer satisfy all that was stirring in my heart. I wanted Him – a true version of Him – a pursued intentionally version of Him – a manifestation of Him in my life in the ways that I chose to live out every part of life. That season actually began my “relationship with Him.” My belief in Him came much earlier but His permanent home in my heart took up residence during that season. It was a “defining moment.”
So when I use the words “defining moment” they bear weight in my heart. They carry with it the idea that it marked me so deeply that parts of my heart/life/pursuit of God will forever be changed from the experience.
In the same way that worshipping with a small group of folks “reinvented” my ideas about community and God and church and walking with Him, this week has marked me as significantly in my views of ministry. I have been changed forever by both witnessing these women serve and minister and by the empowering of feeling like God was challenging me to go and do likewise in the sphere of ministry that He has placed before me.
I have a feeling this blog will be the spot where I wrestle out some of what’s in my heart about my time here and ALL that has happened as a result of it. Even typing that I have a myriad of words coming to mind for blog topics…hesed, easy love/hard love and all that happens in between, Psalm 103 (which could easily be 150 blogs on it’s own), a whole host of names of women who have touched me deeply and things you should hear and know about each of them, oh heavens, I have soooooooooo much crowding for space and desperately needing a way to flow out that I’m gonna need a way (if for no one else but me) to say some of this … so this is it!!
One of the things I have read over and over and over again since someone was kind enough to share this with me is this prayer. It resonates. It challenges. It screams in some moments and whispers in others. Today this is what I need to share and what I need to log on this space, so that I never forget how much it spoke to me in this season.
An Answering and a Refusing
We confess you to be the God who calls,
Who wills,
Who summons,
Who has concrete intentions,
For your creation,
And addresses human agents
Who do your will.
We imagine ourselves called by you…
Yet a strange lot:
Called but cowarldly,
Obedient but self-indulgent,
Devoted to you, but otherwise preoccupied.
In our strange mix an answering and a refusing,
We give thanks for your call.
We pray this day,
For ourselves, fresh vision;
For our friends, great courage,
For those who search for You in places more dangerous than ours,
Deep freedom.
As we seek to answer your call,
May we be haunted by your large purposes,
We pray in the name of the utterly called Jesus, Amen.
And amen
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
WEDNESDAY - Gals :)
Wednesday we divided to conquer and the girls plus one very sweet bodyguard (Mark) headed to a new place for this year. We went to the juvenile detention center for teenage girls. It was a sight to behold. We sat and looked into the eyes of BEAUTIFUL girls 12-18 years old who had done what was required to land yourself in prison but they were just too young to go there. Many of them though if their sentences last over the time that they turn 18 will be transferred to the women's prison system. It was one of the most heart wrenching things I have ever seen and I've laid eyes on some pretty gutt wrenching stuff in this country. I sat near a couple of them and talked to them and asked their story and there were 13 year old girls in there for murder. I could not hardly remember to continue to inhale and exhale a few times when they told me some of that stuff. A 17 year old girl in there with a month and a half year old baby who was absolutely gorgeous and sweet as could be when we were talking to her in for at least 5 years for trying to smuggle drugs into her boyfriend who is in the mens prison system. She went for a visit had drugs in her pocket and life has dramatically changed for a very long time.
We teamed up with a ministry that I team up with anytime I can get the chance called Mi Esperanza. Some of my very good friends work with this ministry to empower and educate women to learn a skill to be able to provide a life for their children and themselves. It's a great ministry that is doing fantastic things, but on this particular day they took their beauty school students for a social service day. So the beauty students spent all day with these young girls giving hair do's and pedicures and manicures and just loving on the girls and hearing their stories. It's a new thing that has been implemented into the program not so long ago and the students love it. Old students ask to return for social service days because they believe in it. It's a neat thing to watch some of the women who have come in poor with little self esteem now have something to offer to someone else. Fun to witness and the young girls love having older gals to talk to and look up to. It's pretty special.
We took spaghetti and had lunch with them and popped popcorn and met some very special ladies with Orphan Helpers who are committed to teaching those young girls about Christ. We promised to continue to try to resource for them and find them bibles and spanish curriculum to use with the girls inside the center.
A few of us who live here and are able are going to make this a once a month stop at least. It stole a piece of our hearts and we recognized them as the least of the least in so many ways. Without hope, many of them, and no one up to this point who has loved on them. I really believe that sitting beside them for a couple hours a month might be one of the most worthy expenditures of my time I've found in a while.
Monday, April 12, 2010
TUESDAY Stop 3
Next place on the agenda was the Mother Teresa Home. This is a facility with special needs children, orphaned children, single mothers, basically anyone who needs a place to go is welcomed. There are 2 sisters for 42 children and that was pretty obvious. They are low on resources and time and energy. We had fun doing popcorn with them and just playing for a couple hours in the afternoon. It will be a place that I will visit again and try to help. We were touched and tormented by the way the children were treated pretty harshly. Then we heard their story and realized they were under serious stress with only 2 of them for 42 childrens needs. That is certainly no justification for being unkind to the children but it perhaps gave us a tad more grace as we reached out to love on the children and the people who care for them. Brian Feldmeier must have played airplane with the popcorn for 10 minutes solid clear around the table as more little boys came and wanted to be a part of someone paying enough attention to them to put a piece of popcorn in their mouth. It was fun to see little boys get to play with grown up men and enjoy it so much. They lack male attention for sure and so they crave it and latch onto it when given a chance. Our guys did a terrific job of that.
This was the end of our day and we went back up to the mission house after we were done playing and were whooped...a good whooped, the best kinda whooped I know. It was a great day.
So this was a little lady we saw at the market who had a basket FULL of bananas on her head that she was trying to sell. We decided we'd like to try and make her day and buy her out. She walked away dancing a little jig with a HUGE smile on her face. Fun stuff!!
This is Rosa's little store in the market. I love visiting there and buying from her when I can and knowing that I'm helping her family. It was fun to allow the group to see another moment in the life of one of the people we love here.
Eva and Sarah - it was one of the sweetest spots of the trip for me as well.
When we asked Don Francisco what some of his greatest needs were he said...honestly Jen we really need food. Alrighty then. I shared that with the group and so we loaded up to head to the little market where my friend Rosa has now opened a little store and so we went and bought food for the folks we had just sat beside. We loaded them up on corn for tortillas, beans, rice, eggs, some fruits and veggies, and a few other things that should last at least a week. I'll go back to check on them soon and make sure they're ok and bring more if they need it. It was a sweet experience both to be able to bless Rosa as she is attempting to pay back the microloan she was given to open her little store and know that at the same time we would be able to bless CEDER. I will try to look for a picture of Rosa's store so you can see the type of market we experienced. It was a cool experience for the team to see Rosa as well because she used to be the one serving us every year at the mission house when we brought teams in and now we were able to serve her. They enjoyed getting to see one another. Another cool moment of attempting to intentionally use the money that God asked us to steward in ways that would provide the most ripples.
TUESDAY Stop 2
So after the hospital we were off to the elderly home. Last year was our first trip there but it's becoming a pretty sacred spot for us as well. We were reminded of the precious work that Don Francisco does as he provides a place for the elderly to pass from this life with some shred of dignity and someone beside them as they go. I watched people cry because we asked about people we had connected to last year who were no longer there this year. It was like the reality of the moment hit as Don Francisco talked about them with love in his eyes and a knowing in his heart that he'd done the right thing by giving up a career as a dentist to come and live a life among these precious "least of these." I had the privilege of sitting and trying to translate for Eva while she talked to this sweet little lady named Sarah who has breast cancer and is just waiting for it to take her from this life into the next and she was sitting there no longer able to see quoting scripture to us. Then she would take our hands and kiss them and say now listen you go and continue to be kind to people and try not to hurt anyone ok? Think that's a great motto to live by and sounds a whole lot like the simplicity of the gospel to me.
We had some flowers left over from the hospital so we brought them with us and did some more arrangments to place beside the beds of the folks who reside in CEDER (the elderly home). It was so sweet almost as soon as Brian started to put them together a little lady who resides there came right over to where they were working and started to help place the flowers in the cups. She was so sweet and particular as she arranged them to look just right. Once again a special moment of her being able to serve her friends who have now become family there that she wouldn't have had without resources that were brought by this team. The flowers gave her an opportunity to serve her people. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful! I think God smiled big on that one.
A few more pictures of the hydrocephaly kiddo's and their momma's waiting for a shred of hope that their baby might make it...and Cesar our bus driver being a part of the things we were involved in. That was a really sweet part of this journey too. He jumped right in and wanted to be a part of serving his people. I think I've mentioned it but I will say it again probably several hundred times...I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS...I am learning that a large part of a short term teams experience is to provide experiences for Hondurans to serve Hondurans as much as it is possible. It's beautiful to watch and the effects of that last long after we're gone and that's what we hope for...that when we're gone they will still be helped and served. There were some very neat moments of that this year.
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