What happens when "it" and "they" get into you

Directly after my trip to Africa in 2007 I heard of Brooke Fraser.  And she experienced a similar thing that I did on our trips to Africa.  Once you see, once you experience you are then compelled to do something about it.  And that something will be whatever God shows each of us to do. 


In the spirit of being the hands and feet - not to mention voice and ears - of Jesus I wanted to feature an interview that Brooke did a few years back. It is worth watching and hearing what she has to say about living out the model of Jesus! 
Brooke Fraser Interview Part 1 - 5:21
Brooke Fraser Interview Part 2 - 6:21

Some of you might remember that the summer of '07 I posted this video to this blog.  But I have to post it again for viewing especially after listening to Brooke speak so personally and intimately about it. 
Albertine by Brooke Fraser

Here's a shot of Brooke and Angelique, the girl mentioned in the first verse of the song. 

"Someday"

With every passing day I am feeling more and more wrecked for the mission of God. What does it mean to extend a cup of water in Jesus' name? What does it look like to feed a hungry person? How do I invite a stranger in and clothe them? How can I look after the sick and the troubled? (see Matthew 25:31-46 for the basis of these questions) Of course there are all very practical answers for each of those. But then there are the "outside of the box" answers. The answers that go beyond applying money to the problem. Lanny and I don't have the money so we have to think outside the box. Sometimes, I admit, I sigh and wish for a bunch of money but then I remember a lesson that I have learned as I watch my Kenyan friends deal with the poverty they face each day in their own country. Oh I know our poverty doesn't touch theirs but poverty is poverty. God said that there would always be poor in the land (Deuteronomy 15) and while our poor here may be considered differently in other countries of the world it doesn't matter. "Here" there are the poor and "here" is where I live. God has slowly been growing an awareness in me of the poor that I "see" everyday. The poor that live here in my town, on the streets that I drive, sleeping in the parks that I take my children to. The poor that go to the same Starbucks I do but for very different reasons. The poor that I serve at the homeless shelter and then meet on the street one day as I'm walking with a friend. We inhabit the same city, we both have value in the sight of God and right now, in this season I have a hand available to help them. So what does that look like and what does that mean? My Kenyan friends have shown me that money isn't always nor should it be the complete answer. The answer really lies in expressing value to that person as a person!

The past winter was really cold in my town. We were in the single digits during the day and dipping into the negatives at night. The cold was so bitter that it took your breath away; it stung as it entered your lungs, your pant legs would "freeze", your mind could not comprehend the depth of chill you immediately felt as you stepped outside. I had the option to be inside where I had an electric blanket waiting for me, where I had a furnace that ran and kept my shelter comfortable, where I had a stove top to heat water and an oven to cook a hot meal. But a growing number of people in my town didn't have those luxuries. Seemingly overnight large camps popped up, making the nightly news because of their numbers and the reasons why they found themselves living in tents in the middle of our city during deep freezes. Now there were some who purposely made a choice to become homeless for political reasons and I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the ones who had run out of options.

These camps became the talk of the town and became a problem that our city council was struggling to address. The first time I spotted one of the camps I cried. I had heard that many children were living in these camps. It's bad enough for adults but my heart stopped when I thought about the kids trying to keep warm in our negative temps. My heart was broken.

My guess is there were 3 main responses to these camps and the residents of them. One group was probably purposely driving by the camps to keep the need and the people in front of them so God could speak. Another group, I imagine, drove past the camps but had trained their eyes and brains to not really see. Because to really see means they might have to then do something. And I'm sure there was a third group who began to choose different routes so they wouldn't have to drive by the camps at all. They were too busy to be bothered by any sort of conviction. OUCH. Yeah. I just went there. Ever been too busy to be bothered with the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

Understandably the camps made the city uncomfortable. And it's funny to see how people respond to feeling uncomfortable. Some use it to push them into action, others use it to complain, and still others will use it to deny reality. I admit, it's uncomfortable to look at people camped out, not by choice, and trying to figure out a way to provide a more stable shelter for themselves, for their families. Here's the reality...any one of us are ONE paycheck away from camping out because of necessity. And seeing people living out our deepest fears will make us behave in funny ways.

Eventually our city council removed the camps, they said it was illegal. So someone stepped up, offered an old KOA campground and said they could all move there. And just as quickly as those camps formed they were gone.

I was driving through the area the other day and missed seeing the camps. Oh, don't get me wrong. I hope, I pray those people have found assistance and ways to get back on solid ground but what I miss is the reminder they were to me to pray, to reach out in ways that God allowed me to, and to remember that God is truly my provider. I should be able to know and remember all that without the visual but as happens so often with me I forget. I need the visual. It occurred to me as well that as a whole we work very hard to remove from our line of sight that which makes us uncomfortable. We don't like to be uncomfortable so we work until we can successfully appease our conscious and our fears. What would, what could happen if we allowed our conscious and fears to motivate us to act? To reach out?

Have you ever heard yourself saying, "Someday I will go serve the homeless" or "Someday I will approach a homeless person with a bag of food", etc. I know I'm guilty of saying, "Someday I'll do _________ for the least of these" and it hit me (like a ton of bricks I might add) that I somehow have convinced myself, unknowingly, that by saying "Someday..." I ease my conscious and I prove to myself, and others, that I have good intentions...someday I will follow through on them. Problem is someday never comes, we - oh I mean I - keep saying it and never actually allow "someday" to become today!

It's my redheads that have taught me to quit saying "someday" and let it become "today". On a recent trip we were walking through an outdoor mall area. We walked by a homeless man sitting at a corner. The girls looked at me woefully and I smiled at them. I knew what they were thinking because it was the same thing I was thinking! As we passed by him a second time they pulled me aside, one speaking in my right ear and the other speaking in my left ear. "Mom," says the oldest, "can I give him my cookie?" We had just bought big, fresh gourmet cookies for later in the day. I said the only answer to say, "Yes, of course" while listening to the youngest ask me for any money I might have to give him. I sent them over to him with a cookie and some money. If I could have snapped a picture of my two redheads extending value to this man through a cookie and a few measly dollars I would have. But my heart was the only "camera" that captured the moment that day.

I don't share that example for any reason but to challenge you to turn "someday" into "today"! My girls have provided me with the greatest challenges to do that. They aren't old enough, or dare I say cynical enough, to allow the excuses and the perceived limitations to inhibit their extension of God to others. I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of them, and how challenged I was to never let "someday" be an excuse. I think sometimes we say "someday" because we think it needs to be a big enough gesture to be really impactful but it doesn't. Most of the time it is the smallest things that make the most impact. A $1 cup of coffee for a cold man. Will it change his life? Probably not BUT it could, you just never know.

"One of the hardest things to realize is that our someday is right now." (Unknown)

Any given moment can change your life, you just have to be there!

DISCLAIMER: If this trip down memory lane ends up sounding like a plug for a ministry then I’m willing to take that chance! And if you feel a tug in your heart after reading this particular story then all I ask is that you obey the tug. After all, that’s how I ended up getting the honor and privilege to enter into the life of Dorcas. I simply obeyed the tug…

“Any given moment can change your life; you just have to be there.” (Unknown)

You’ll notice that my trip to Kenya in 2007 was the catalyst for a lot of how I choose to live my life now. I think it is safe to say that is was, and continues to be, a life changing trip. And the amazing thing about that is it hasn’t just changed my life but I think, oh I pray, it has changed the lives of others for good. And by good I mean good as in permanent and good as in GOOD!
It is June 2007 and we are spending the day with a Compassion project in Nairobi where some of our team members will get to meet and spend time with the children they sponsor. One boy, Nicholas, whose sponsors’ are friends of mine, is my buddy for the day at the sponsors’ request. We had a GREAT time. I got to hang out with Nicholas, who eventually warmed to this strange WHITE woman (haha!), and meet his Dad, Nelson. I returned to Colorado knowing two things. 1) I was going back to Kenya someday and 2) I wanted to sponsor a child in Kenya that I could build a relationship with and extend the provision of God to. And since I was returning to Kenya someday I might as well see if I could sponsor a child in the area I travel to! I wasn’t the only team member who returned from that 2007 trip with the same tug. Several of us came back and signed up. And fortunately for us our church is part of a program through Compassion that focuses on one project and tries to get as many members from that church body to sponsor children from the same project. And so my family and I began a relationship with Dorcas Moraa Anyangu who was born November 1, 1997. Actually my oldest daughter picked her because she was around the same age and we wanted an older child because it is harder to find people to sponsor them.
We wrote letters; she asked me to come so we could have chapati together and sing songs to Jesus together. And even when I knew I was returning to Kenya I didn’t breathe a word because I didn’t want disappointment to have a chance. I dreamed that Dorcas and I would get to meet one day but there was always that hesitation to speak it out loud, to actually hope it could come true. And then it did. In February 2009 I contacted Compassion on behalf of our team and those who sponsored children in Kenya and was told it would be no problem for us to spend a day together and to visit their homes! I cried I was so excited. I wasn’t sure if I could wait until June! I even found out that my buddy from 2007, Nicholas, could come and join us that day. I was looking forward to this day with great excitement, with an awe that I would actually get to be face to face with Dorcas and be part of her day and her world for a brief time.
Friday, June 19 (2009) found my team and I riding in the van toward the project and I was mentally trying to pull myself together, it hadn’t been the greatest morning for me. But that’s a different story for a different day! By the time we reached the project I had recovered from the start of the day and was looking forward to what awaited us. As we pulled into the yard my stomach took flight with a million butterflies. I was going to meet Dorcas in mere minutes! As we were entering the meeting room Nicholas walked right up to me and hugged me! He remembered me and greeted me as an old friend. I was beyond happy, this day was great and we had just started! After some group introductions and a briefing on Compassion we were introduced to one another. To my delight I not only got to meet Dorcas and her mother, Jane, but I also got to meet her siblings. Jane apologized to me that Mark, her husband and Dorcas’ father, could not join us but he must work. I agreed. If Mark had taken the day off the family would have had no income at all coming in that day. In their situation that can’t happen. Dorcas was very shy around me but her siblings warmed right up! And her mother liked me very much; we had a lot of conversation. Eventually we loaded up the vans with gifts and people and head toward Kiambiu, the slum where these children live. In Kenya there are 3 large slums and many smaller ones. Kiambiu could be considered the “upper class” slum of the 3. Mathare Valley, where we work and partner with Pastor Karau, is considered the “poverty” slum. It is the poorest of the 3. And there is a “middle class” one called Kibera. This is very evident as we enter the slum. It is so obvious to me, in fact, that I believe my eyes might have popped out of my head and my jaw dropped. The differences were immediately noticeable to me! To understand you would have to walk through both slums as I did. Even now as I recall it I am amazed at how different the two slums are.
We traveled in groups from home to home, visiting each sponsored child’s family and their home and praying for them before departing. Each sponsor gifted the family that day with food, the staples of a Kenyan diet. Beans, Chapati flour, Rice, Tea, Sugar, Ugali Flour, Cooking Lard, Green Grams. They were so grateful. It was extremely humbling and fulfilling to participate in. Entering into the home of Dorcas and her family I felt so grateful to God for this moment, for this experience, for this honor. She and her siblings opened gifts from me and then I handed to Jane her gift of the food staples. And then I was asked to pray for them and it was a sweet moment I will never forget. I cried while praying for them, I was so blessed by what I was witnessing and being allowed to experience. Dorcas lives in a home where both her Father and Mother are present and seem to be in a committed marriage as evidenced by the four children they have had together. Their home is well taken care of and I see that having Dorcas involved with Compassion has had an extremely positive and beneficial effect on the whole family. Jane spoke to me, Mom to Mom, about her concerns regarding the schooling Dorcas was receiving and as Mom’s we were able to share together our hopes for Dorcas and her future. I was able to see the church where they attend weekly services and see the community where they live and work. To be able to put faces and voices with names meant more to me than I can find words to express. After visiting their homes we traveled back to the project for a shared lunch together. It was a perfect day. Saying goodbye was difficult. Will I ever see Dorcas and her family again? There are no promises and no guarantees and so I cannot even say, “maybe” for even that introduces too much hope to both myself and Dorcas. It is a rare occurrence anyway for sponsors to be able to meet the children they are sponsoring. I am blessed that I was able to meet her even once.
Have you ever wondered if organizations like Compassion just take a bunch of children, dress them up in different outfits, take pictures of them and then try to pass them off as lots of different children? To some it seems unbelievable that there could be that many children in that many countries needing assistance. We’ve been desensitized to the faces of poverty. We have equated the poverty here in America with that of the third world poverty. We look at their faces and it doesn’t register that they are real. They are trying to scrape out an existence somewhere in the world and we have the means to help them. Some of us are guilty of sipping a $4 coffee while complaining about the poverty in this world and not acknowledging, or perhaps understanding, the fact that $4 can provide 1-2 weeks’ worth of meals, our American dollar (even in its weakened state) goes a LONG LONG way in other countries! We sip the $4 coffee and rage at God, “Why don’t you provide for them? If you love them why do you allow them to live in that situation? What’s your plan, God, for helping these people?” And all the while God is trying to tell us that WE ARE THE PLAN. Do you get it? WE are God’s plan! I’m willing to bet that God has provided for you in at least one unique way in your life. Were you grateful, humbled, and awed by his choice of provision? It’s the same thing. God wants to provide for these children and their families and their communities and guess what? He wants to use YOU to do it! And you have the means to do it; you’re sipping a $4 cup of coffee! Can’t give up your coffee? Then go to Mickey D’s, buy a cup for a buck and put the $3 you spent toward helping change someone’s world! (Btw, Mickey D’s coffee? It’s actually…GOOD! Who knew?!?) Coffee isn’t your splurge? How many times a month, or week, do you go out to eat – fast food or sit down? Choosing to not go out once or twice less than you do now will help you sponsor a child for a whole month. Maybe food or coffee isn’t your thing BUT you have something, we all do. Ask the Lord if he would have you continue to indulge on that thing or if he would have you begin to sacrifice for those we call “the least of these”.
There’s another trap we fall into when we consider “the least of these” and when the conviction comes but we are scared to acknowledge it. The rationale is that certainly there are services that offer assistance in those countries and those people are just refusing help. We see it here in America all the time don’t we? And we justify in our minds that if that is what happens here then surely that is the case “there”. Well guess what? That’s just your mind lying to you. The FACT is they don’t have any services in those countries. There aren’t soup kitchens and shelters and government aid, there is NOTHING. They are left to fend for themselves. The aid comes in the form of organizations coming in from wealthier countries (America, Australia, and United Kingdom to name a few) and offering relief. And those organizations are supported by us, people who have the means to do something, who have the means to put feet to our faith. People who have decided to forgo the $4 cup of coffee, quit raging and start acting.
I have come face to face with poverty that has no relief in sight and I have come face to face with a girl who has a chance in life because poverty is no longer holding her back from schooling, medical care, clean water, and three meals a day. And all it takes is $38 a month. That’s nothing in God’s economy! God takes that $38 a month and multiplies it and uses it to not just change one life but to change several. I believe that it’s possible that the life that is changed the most is mine. Say what? Yes, mine. Is Dorcas’ life changed? You bet! Poverty isn’t holding her or her family back any longer. But they know something that I’m still trying to learn. They know that God is Jehovah Jireh, their PROVIDER. They know that God will provide for their needs and used Compassion International and the Peninger family to do it. I haven’t quite got the message yet. Isn’t that sad? I still fret and fuss and stress about our finances BUT I’m changing because I never once consider the $38 that Dorcas and her family get each month from me. I’m learning and watching how God provides for me and my family each month, sometimes in really unconventional ways! So perhaps God’s plan doesn’t just involve us but is also meant for us.
If you haven’t had a lot of experience or exposure to Compassion International let me tell you they are fantastic. They have heart and their number one priority is the children and the communities these children live in. I am continually impressed by their integrity, their involvement, and their commitment to the children of God. Each time I interact with them I walk away more impressed and further convinced that this organization is doing exactly what they say they are doing. Releasing children from poverty in Jesus name. And I would add that not only are they releasing children from poverty but they are releasing families and communities! It’s absolutely incredible. People want to know how much of each dollar does the child actually get? Compassion International receives consistent high marks for the most of every dollar reaching the child. Very little goes toward administrative costs when compared against similar organizations. Still not convinced? Then check out this article from July 2010 (click here).
Let me answer the final question right now: No, I am not working for Compassion International! HAHA! But I believe so strongly and so deeply in the work they are doing that I can’t help but be a vocal advocate for them.
Have you felt a tug? If so then please obey the tug. Taking action is quick and easy, simply go to http://www.compassion.com/ and change YOUR life today but investing in the life of another! This post might be your moment, are you here? Are you present? This is the moment that can change your life, you don't have to go halfway across the world for it to happen! I know people who do go halfway across the world and still miss the moment that God wants to use to change their lives because they chose not to be present spiritually or emotionally. Be present in this moment and allow it to change your life!

Check out these pictures of children, families, and by extension communities whose lives have been changed for the better because of someone’s sacrifice of $38 a month and a willingness to write letters of encouragement and God’s love to a child who may still be learning that there is a God and he takes care of his children.


At Dorcas' home with her family: Mom Jane, Sister Diana, Brother Samuel, Sister Mary Tania, Dorcas, me

Dorcas and I

This is taken right after we met each other for the first time.

The black container near the top right hand corner of the picture is a community clean water source provided by Compassion International.


Melissa with her sponsored child Amelia (on the left) and her sister, Judy (right).

Sara sponsors two children (two different families), Elizabeth and Peterson.

This is sweet Hope. Her sponsors are good friends of ours and we got to hang out with her for the day as well!

Christy with her sponsored child, Catherine.

Rebecca with her sponsored child, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's mom in their home.

Julie with her child, Mercy. Mercy actually lives near Lake Victoria and she was able to travel to Nairobi with a chaperone to meet Julie!

Our group for the day. We had a great time with the Compassion staff and all the sponsored children and their families!

Heartbroken

In 2007 I was driving past the Kenyan Presidential Compound in Nairobi when I was struck with heartbreak. About ¼ of a mile from the lush and secure grounds of the President’s compound was a large trash heap. It covered a good part of the hillside and there were people digging through it. I’m sure most were looking for food; some may have been looking for a needed item. ¼ mile separated wealth and poverty. ¼ mile separated a man who claims to be for his people and the actual people. The double standard hung heavy in the air. Perhaps the smells of Kenya that were unpleasant weren’t so much about the actual trash, human filth, and air pollution but more about the hypocrisy, hardness of human heart, and greed.

Fast forward 3 years to a muggy night in Washington D.C. We are driving toward the White House. My 12 year old is looking out one side of the car and I am looking out the opposite. I hear a noise from within our car. I turn and see my 12 year old sobbing, trying to keep it secret and hidden. What in the world? I ask her quietly what happened? Is she hurt? What could have possibly happened to her from the safety of our car? In a halting voice, with tears running down her face, sobs interrupting her words she explains. She was looking out the window and saw a family, with a toddler who was about 2 or 3 years old, searching through a dumpster that was located next to a restaurant. And it broke her heart. The safety of our car couldn’t protect her from the realities of poverty, just like the safety of the van in Kenya 3 years ago couldn’t keep me from seeing and feeling the same thing. She cried for the next half hour, she was inconsolable. The car was quiet as we all processed the breaking of a 12 year olds heart from a reality that penetrates every country on this Earth. Perhaps the heavy air that night in our Nation’s Capitol wasn’t so much about humidity in the air but more about the hypocrisy, hardness of human heart, and greed.

After I had returned from my first Kenya trip I had watched a documentary on a ministry located in Mozambique. One of the Pastors interviewed said something that has resonated in my heart ever since. I believe that the idea was always in me and this man just helped me to find the right words to convey it. It was simple. “Lord, break my heart with the things that break Yours.” And isn’t that what we are called to do? We are called to be like Jesus and part of that means that we have a heart like his. It took me 33 years to get that, it only took my daughter 12.

The irony of the heartbreak struck me. Hers happened in much the same way mine did. We were less than a mile away from the White House, just like the President’s compound in Kenya, when she saw the same scene I did in Kenya. Sure a trash heap is way different than a dumpster but the reason behind why those people are digging through either is the same. They have a need that isn’t being fulfilled. And the truth is we have the resources to fill those needs. And the truth is we are commanded to fill those needs. God has told us there will ALWAYS be poverty stricken people. Why? Why would a loving God do that to those he says he loves? While I can’t say I know for sure I think that there may be a bigger lesson for us in those we come across who are poverty stricken. Can we be open handed? Can we sacrifice our Starbucks habit for one week and donate the savings to (fill in the blank)? Can we open our eyes and see the need all around us? Can we lay aside our fears that arise when poverty is staring us in the face and take action? Can we allow our hearts to be broken for that which breaks the heart of God? WILL WE?

By the way, I haven’t “arrived”. I’m not there yet. I’m working on it. Sometimes I forget that I’m supposed to be allowing my heart to be broken and moved for the least of these. And God is gracious to give me a reminder. Sometimes he reminds me through the breaking of my daughter’s heart.

“If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs….Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 10-11