Mother to Millions--My BIG African Family

A woman's right to choose--what?

2012-01-23T19:14:00.003-06:00

On this day when many in my nation mourn the shameful and infamous decision of Roe vs. Wade that legalized a mother's right to end the life of her child at her will, I am always forced to ponder the meaning of the words we use to describe these issues. President Obama reaffirmed again his commitment to "a woman's right to choose." Why do people rarely complete that sentence? The verb "choose" is transitive. It needs a direct object to complete the thought. You can't just "choose". You have to choose something.

Oh, but if we leave the sentence dangling, the last word in our minds sounds so positive. We all like choice. If we completed the thought and the sentence, we'd be faced with the negative reality that the choice the president supports is a woman's choice TO DESTROY THE LIFE OF HER CHILD. We don't want to really think so much about what we are choosing, so we let the sentence dangle on the last positive-sounding word.

It's not positive. There is nothing positive about destroying the life of another human being. If you support a child's right to life, I challenge you to always finish the sentence, and challenge others to finish it, too.

JUDGE FINDS IN FAVOR OF ECM OVER LUBAALE

2011-12-21T09:45:00.003-06:00

OK, I have avoided writing on the internet about the David Lubaale case while it was going on. I am now going to break that silence.

A judge in Uganda commercial court has found in favor of ECM in our case against David Lubaale. David was our former National Director who was fired when we discovered he had embezzled funds. David at that point was confronted by our Ugandan Governance Board. He confessed in writing that he had misused funds and forged bank statements to cover his tracks. He agreed to pay back funds misused and we agreed to keep the issue in house.

When he stopped paying back funds after refunding only a small portion of what he owed, our International Board felt we should seek justice through the courts so that Lubaale could not continue to prey on NGO's. Realizing the seriousness of what he had done, we also decided to go back and look at everything he had done, including the purchase of several properties.

We warned other NGO's whom we knew had contact with David. Most of them listened gratefully, but one believed David's story and had ECM made out as the villain out to get David.

Today we received word that ECM won the civil case. (A criminal case is still pending.) What that really means in terms of actually getting anything back remains to be seen, but at least ECM's name has been cleared. It is been a long and grueling experience.

We can only continue to pray that David will yet come to repentance. The man has immense potential if he can develop the character to go along with it.

I Hope the US Can Help Uganda Get Kony

2011-10-25T19:28:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure why the US suddenly decided we should help Uganda track down and dispose of Joseph Kony. I fear it's motivated by politics, but it could be that President Obama has some information to which we are not privy which gives good reason to get involved at this time.

Well, better late than never. I hope we give our forces a mandate that will not tie their hands as the UN mandate did during the Rwandan genocide. I pray that our combined efforts will meet with success and that wicked man will be brought to justice.

How dare he blaspheme the name of God by using the name "The Lord's Resistance Army" as if he were under the command of the Lord? The Lord he serves is not my Lord Jesus Christ, that's for sure.

How inhuman and indecent can one become, to force young children to survive by turning them into child soldiers and forcing them to kill their own families, thus doing deep, deep damage to their souls? We are Every Child Ministries are working to bring healing to those deep, searing wounds, possible only through the power of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead.

I find no joy in the death of any sinner, but Africa and the world needs to be relieved of this ugly, devastating cancer called Joseph Kony. Go get him!

IT'S HARD TO ARGUE WITH THE LOGIC

2011-10-19T22:49:00.003-05:00

A Must-See Video that means a lot to me. Tell me what you think!

Giving Wisely

2011-08-28T13:48:00.003-05:00

I just finished "Giving Wisely" by Jonathan Martin, a gift from our daughter Sharon & family. His premise is that Americans are very generous, but often do more harm than good with their unwise giving.

Martin makes several valid points in his book, but I think the situation is vastly more complex than he describes. One case in point is child sponsorship. He feels that most child sponsorship programs create inequities in the community by raising one child over another. He thinks the best programs raise the whole community togeether rather than helping children one by one.

Yet even if sponsorship raised the whole community, wouldn't that create an inequity (and an equal danger of jealousy) with surrounding communities? Can anything be done to help anywhere without creating inquities of one sort or another? I think not.

Of course, I admit I am prejudiced on this point, because Every Child Ministries has child sponsorship programs. Or maybe that actually makes me more qualified to speak. Being intimately connected with the policy decisions made regarding those child sponsorship programs, I am familiar with the difficulties and the dividends of sponsorship.

At Every Child Ministries, we take pains to make sure that the very neediest children in the community are selected. Yes, their level will be raised because of the sponsorship, but if they are at the very bottom of the opportunity ladder, then raising them a few notches will not make them privileged and spoiled, but will put them closer to the norm with other children.

Most sponsorship organizations permit only one child per family, but most of our children are orphans of at least one parent if not both, taken in by relatives or others. We did find that when the outside child got sponsorship but not the children by birth, this did create difficult relationships. We were watching this closely, and made a policy change to allow and even encourage sponsorship of one of the children by birth as well.

Other things we have done to discourage jealousy and inequity are 1. to encourage gifts chosen by the project coordinator rather than by the sponsor, 2. to pool holiday gift funds and purchase the same thing, a needed item, for all the children and also to send gift bags of food items or other needed items home to the families, 3. to help with community projects in the sponsorship areas whenever possible (clean water, school library, etc.) 4. to visit the families by rotation and leave a gift for one of the other children on each visit.

When I think of the changes sponsorship has brought to the children in our programs, I know for sure that our sponsor's giving has been wise. Although not without pitfalls and problems, child sponsorship is still, in my opinion, one of the best ways to help children.

Further, sponsors love the personal connection. Giving to a community project just isn't the same. Helping one child is something to which most people can relate. That's why it's so popular.

I am vitally interested in the topic, "Giving Wisely," but on the subject of child sponsorship, I still say that sponsoring a child is a very wise investment. I still say it's very good stewardship.

AN AFRICAN SISTER ENCOURAGED ME

2011-07-21T16:32:00.004-05:00

One of my dear African sisters greatly encouraged me recently. I had a rather difficult and unpleasant time this summer due to problems with a staff member whose every conversation centered on what more he could get. I am not accustomed to servants of God talking or thinking in these terms, and it wore me out both physically and emotionally. When I came home I had a harder than average time readjusting.

Then came an email from Resty, a dear Ugandan sister and one of our faithful workers there. While we were together this summer, we had prayed and brainstormed many times seeking a good solution for a young boy who kept running away from home. Numerous trips were made to the police on his behalf. He had been rejected by his parents, experienced problems wetting himself, had gone to the streets and had become so smelly that taxi drivers and even bodabodas (open motorcycles used like taxis) refused him a ride. Medical tests showed no physical problem. The doctors said he just needed love. Resty has run around and expended so much effort trying to find a place that would take (I'll call him Marvelous). All to no avail. Although we had said we would not start another children's home, Marvelous's case made me think about it again. Yet I knew that even if we did start a home, getting it up and running is a long, expensive, and difficult process. There's no way we could do it in time to help Marvelous. And at other places he was too young, too old, not yet in serious delinquency, not this, not that. It seemed hopeless and we were out of ideas. We tried to show Marvelous all the love we could in our programs, but he needed a home.

Then Resty's email came. In sharing his story for prayer, a family stepped forward to help--a family who has helped other children who were suffering the devastating effects of rejection. They were taking in Marvelous, with the approval of the police and all the other authorities that be. I could only praise God. I was so thankful for this breakthrough.

I realize too how much effort Resty has expended on this child. She truly has shown her love and concern for even the smelliest of these. Truly we made the right decision when we recently promoted her to the position of "Child and Family Advocate." Thank you, Resty, for your faithfulness, your caring heart. Thank you for encouraging me today.

Beggar Children --What a Life!

2011-06-27T01:14:00.004-05:00

While in Uganda I've had an opportunity to visit the Karimojong beggar children and their families living in the slums of Kitwe and Kisenyi, right in the heart of the capital city of Kampala. What a life these kids have! Forced out of their homeland by drought and starvation, they are now forced into tiny makeshift shelters, ten to fifteen families to a room! When it rains, their dirt floors flood and they are forced to stand throughout the night. They are looked down on by the majority Buganda population as well as other ethnic groups in the city. They are not welcome most places they go. I certainly don't condone sending children out on the street to beg, but you have to have some sympathy when you consider the problems they are facing. Even these patched together tents and homes made from pieces of junk picked from the dump are se t up on rented land. One group is about to be expelled because the developer has plans to build there; others have been warned they have only one year left before they will be expelled. This means even more severe overcrowding or simply sleeping on the street "wherever". Even the public toilets, such as they are, require an entry fee! And if the Karimojong return home, they face mass starvation. Conditions are so desperate there that children try to escape by clinging to the underside of trucks!

I am so glad that success does not depend on me and on my good ideas! My ideas are not even a drop in the ocean of need the Karimojong face. We serve a God who is unlimited in ideas and in resources--who designed the universe and keeps it running, who designed the intricacies of the cell and of DNA. We are committed to doing all we can to help these precious people. Please pray that God will show us the way and open up His resources to accomplish the task.

The Karimojong people desperately need a Gospel breakthrough. Please pray for that.
We would like to sponsor more children to school so that they can get jobs and fit into Ugandan society. Please pray for sponsorships.

It must feel to the Karimojong that God does not love them, but I know He does. Please pray for Recho, Merab and our other workers as they seek to demonstrate that love.

Confused People

2011-05-19T08:50:00.002-05:00

Today I start several days of training with Choose to Wait. We want to use the curriculum with many aspects of our ministry. As I look over my introductory packet, I realize that we are going to be asked to journal our personal journey.

My own is quite confused, and when I was growing up, the surrounding culture was not filled with nearly the multitude of confusing and contradictory messages that it is today. I never thought I was lesbian, bisexual or transgender. I was never sexually abused, thank God. Yet my journey was still confused.

Two things stand out. One, my dad tried constantly to teach me to say "No" to boys and all the things he was sure they were going to try to do to me and with me. I have realized since then that it was pretty ridiculous to think I was going to say "No" to boys when I couldn't even say "Hi" to them. I was so vulnerable in those days. It is only the grace of God that protected me.

Second, along the way I have struggled tremendously with my role as a woman in God's world. I've gone to some pretty wild extremes in the past trying to find my place. I think a lot of that goes back to the way my parents related to one another. I deeply resented the way my dad treated my mom, and over the years it has resulted in so much struggle. Gradually I've come to some kind of balance on it, I think, although I don't claim to have resolved all the issues.

Knowing how deeply my experiences have affected me, and realizing how mild they were compared to the confusion proffered in today's world, compounded with the truly terrible, undescribable unthinkable experiences so many kids have had to endure, I feel a real need to get a better handle on these issues.

The training goes beyond just saying no to sex outside of marriage. It goes down to the core of being men and women created AS men and women by God. I'm looking forward to learning more.

The majority of African kids we work with don't even have a father who is active in their lives. Most are with single mothers (and some on their own in child-headed families), children of prostitution and casual sex, children whose fathers deserted them when the going got tough, children whose fathers were killed in cattle raids and in war, children whose both parents died of AIDS. Most have never lived in and many have never seen a normal family with both parents intact. Of course, this is not the majority of African families, but it is because we work with vulnerable children or children in crisis.

I thank God that gender confusion has not yet become popular in Africa as it is in America, but there are groups that are pushing it. Unless God intervenes, it is probably only a matter of time until gender confusion begins to grow there, too. It is scary to me to think what it would be like for such confusion to grow in a soil fertilized by such family breakdown. The results could be scary indeed.

I don't claim to have it all down, but this I do know. God created us male and female, different but equal in value. His plan is always good.

I am praying that the training I'll be receiving will help to clear some of the confusion for those who call me "Mama".

Celebrating 50 years with Jesus

2011-05-18T07:46:00.005-05:00

It's my spiritual anniversary. May 12-15, 1961. A shy 15 year old girl whom I hardly recognize struggled over 4 days with her need of a Savior. Fifty years ago I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I am so very eternally glad I did.

I wish I could say that after that, my record was one of unbroken faithfulness to Him. Sadly, that is not the case. If I lied about that I'm sure my sister, brother, husband or kids could quickly step up to correct the record. Yet one thing is VERY sure. He has never been unfaithful to me.

Over fifty years time I suppose you would expect a person to change, but from where I was to where I am? It's a very, very long journey. Fifty years alone could never have done it. Jesus did.

Those who know me now often find it hard to accept when I tell them that until I was 15 I probably said no more than five words to any human being outside my family. I was so shy, so fearful of being rejected. My dream in life was to be popular--me, who spent the whole eighth grade plotting to say "hi" to a fellow classmate, and never did get up the courage to do so. Me, who went to every dance and always sat on the side by myself, never dancing and never speaking to anyone the whole time.

How did Jesus change all that? First, in Him I found acceptance and security. Those powerful feelings began to take deep root in my heart. Then, I began to focus on Him and not myself. It was a lot better focus, believe me. The combination of those two things enabled me to gradually begin to reach out to other people.

Another aspect I think was that Jesus gave me a purpose for living. I quickly forgot about my dreams of being popular (never made it to that, but that's OK). I began to understand that He had good plans for me, and that my life was important in His big plan. As I began to focus on His big plan, my life gained significance.

My childhood and adolescence was pretty painful, excruciatingly lonely. Yet God has used those experiences to good advantage. Now as I work on behalf of African children, my heart is always drawn to the outcast, to the hurting. I may not have been adducted like some of the children we serve. I have never slept on the street or been forced into prostitution or slavery. But I do understand emotional pain, and I am always deeply touched by it. It has enabled me to serve more effectively, and although in my job I am exposed to more human suffering that I could bear in myself, somehow Jesus uses the pain of my past to help me bring His healing to others. So even my deepest sufferings have been redeemed. I am so thankful.

I have to admit that my Christian life has been up and down. I certainly am no model of a perfect Christian. One thing I do know, though. Jesus has done so much for me I cannot even begin to tell. I have every reason to celebrate 50 years with Him. The good thing is, no matter how long or how short my life on this earth may be, there is plenty more to celebrate!

Global Giving's New Definition of Discrimination

2011-05-11T19:07:00.000-05:00

I had a surprising experience recently when I tried to nominate Every Child Ministries for inclusion on the Global Giving website. I see on their site many projects similar to our own, so I felt we would be a good fit. After completing the standard information, I came to these two questions: 1. Are the same services provided to people of all faiths? And 2. Are people required OR ENCOURAGED (emphasis mine) to learn about your faith? The first question was easy to answer. ECM serves children of all faiths or no faith at all. We know God loves everyone and we want to express that by serving others regardless of their religion. The second question was harder because of the inclusion of the words "Or encouraged". How could someone who has something as good as the Christian faith NOT encourage others to consider it? That would be like having a cure for cancer but not encouraging anybody to look into it. That would be a tremendous crime against humanity. So, I answered "Yes." We don't force anyone to change their faith (as if such a thing were really possible anyway). We encourage and teach our staff not to overly pressure people to become Christians. But we definitely do encourage people to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and His ability to change their lives.

As soon as I clicked "Yes", a box in colored writing popped up saying that they have a non-discrimation policy and we couldn't be approved anyway, so I might as well quit working on the application right there. I went ahead anyway. I know we do not discriminate on the basis of religion, so I couldn't believe we would be turned down just for encouraging people to learn about Christianity and then decide for themselves. No opportunity was given to explain, and as soon as I hit the send button, another box popped up telling me that our application was being rejected because we discriminate. I wanted to respond, "No, I think it is YOU who is discriminating against us." The only recourse was to write an email telling them why I still felt ECM should be considered. I did so, in my most polite English. The email was never even acknowledged, and we never heard from Global Giving again.

Of course, they have the right to set the rules for their own website, but the more I thought about it, the more I was dismayed by their novel use of the word "discriminate." If we had denied help to someone based on their religion, that would be discrimination. But is it now to be considered discrimination to encourage people to learn about the faith that motivates and sustains us in offering help to them? What a strange definition of discrimination!

Well, I never considered it a virtue to discriminate before, but if encouraging people to learn about the One who made them and loves them is discrimination, I guess we are discriminators. Sounds like a better term all the time.

Human Potential the Easiest Resource to Waste

2011-05-07T14:01:00.005-05:00

Those who know me realize I am very conservative in use of resources. I am always going through my house and asking over every item, "What is the highest use to which I could put this?" I'm concerned about stewardship, and I want to use what God entrusts to me well.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the waste of human potential amongst my beloved African children. It started when we printed out a batch of report cards scanned from our Uganda office of Every Child Ministries. They were the long anticipated FIRST report cards representing the first academic efforts of former Karimojong beggar children. Was it really possible to take kids who had never been to school off the street, kids who were just learning their first words of English other than "Give me," have them begin in third grade, and really expect that they could do well? We were not at all sure. Sometimes in similar cases we have seen children struggle for years. Some never can catch up. Yet the first report cards from the beggar kids shows that they must be very brilliant children. Brilliant, yet on the very bottom social level. Brilliant, yet despised and ridiculed by the majority. Brilliant, but just now getting their very first break in life, their very first opportunity.

I know they are loved and valued by God whether they are brilliant or not. We all are. Yet I am also utterly amazed that these kids have within them such immense human potential, potential that no one might have ever discovered. It seems like human potential is the easiest resource of all to waste. How I pray that we will find more people interested in child sponsorship, more people willing to invest in unmined human potential.

Seeing God Provide Our Daily Needs

2011-04-28T19:33:00.003-05:00

Did you ever think much about that phrase in the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread?" For myself, I've been so blessed that I've never had to pray for my next meal. I can remember a few times in Africa when funds were very sparse and I had to plan very carefully to get through. I've never had to pray this way for my own needs, though.

The needs of my Big African family are another thing altogether. It seems we've had to continuously pray that God would provide enough to go around for those needs. Recently we became aware that the budget we could supply for Haven of Hope for one month met their food needs for only about one week. Of course we discussed with them every conservation method we could think of to stretch the food & the budget. We increased their budget the little bit that we could. We instructed our leaders there to make the need known to local churches in Ghana. And we began to pray and ask others to do the same.

We've received some very generous responses from American friends. We've learned of children planning to give their Vacation Bible School offerings this year toward food. We've had several Ghanaians also make generous donations. Today I learned that a local chicken farmer there donated significant quantities of eggs and promised to continue doing so on a regular basis. We are so very thankful to everyone, and especially to our great God who lays it on the hearts of His people to give. Thank you all.

Maybe God lets us experience need so that we will look to Him and depend on Him more fully. If so, it's working! So, Lord, give our Haven of Hope family their daily bread. And don't forget our faithful staff and volunteers and all the other children we are helping in every country. You know their daily needs. Please show Yourself faithful so that we may praise You together. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Transgender people problem in public bathrooms

2011-04-27T09:01:00.002-05:00

This morning I received a notice about a transgender person the article called a "woman" who was pulled from a public restroom at a restaurant & beaten. They wanted me to blame the restaurant employees who stood by.

Hmm. Well, I would never condone the beating of a person. I know that however confused that poor person was, he/she was created in the image of God. Of course, that image did not include gender confusion. The Bible clearly states that "male and female created He them." We do live in a fallen world where our human tendency to choose our own way and to think we are smarter than our Creator has marred us all, myself included as well as that poor person who was confused about what gender he/she was and what bathroom he/she could use. I do not hate that person or wish that person evil. I would not wish to see that person harmed.

But the employees must have been just as confused. What were they to do? Were they to let a person use the women's bathroom whom others obviously recognized as not a woman? If so, how were they to protect the privacy of their other customers who entered that bathroom not expecting to find what they recognized as a man? The other customers did not attack the person in question when that person sought service at the counter. They only attacked that person when that person invaded the privacy of the women's bathroom. They were wrong in attacking her, but I can understand their outrage in finding no privacy in the bathroom of their own gender.

I would not want to say or do anything that would encourage attacking people who conceive of themselves as transgender. Probably I would have cleared my family members out of the bathroom and waited for the offending person to exit. That would have meant giving up our rights to use the bathroom freely, but it would have been preferable to the action that was taken. This incident, however, clearly shows the problems we face as a society when we decide to label ourselves as something other than what God created us to be. We all need the use of public bathrooms, so there is no way we can relabel ourselves without infringing on the rights of others. Yes, I do sympathize with the poor person who was beaten. I also sympathize with the customers who were offended to find what they perceived as a man invading the privacy of the women's bathroom. I also sympathize with the employees who in a split second had to decide whether or not to defend the person who was being beaten. When we leave God's ways behind, we always create confusion, not only for ourselves, but for all those around us.

How & Why We Celebrate Earth Day

2011-04-18T17:08:00.002-05:00

When I first noticed that earth day fell on Good Friday this year, it seemed almost sacreligious to consider it. How could Earth Day possibly compare to the remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus made for me, His death on the cross that we celebrate in a special way on Good Friday? As one of our supporters recently wrote to us, when were we going to declare a “Celebrate Jesus the Lord of Creation” Day?

Our celebration of Earth Day is limited. It’s a time when we can reaffirm our desire to be good stewards of the earth God has made, and which He has entrusted to us. It’s a time when we can remember that we are creatures, and God is our Almighty Creator.

I know many people go far beyond that. I know that in some schools they sing songs of worship to the earth, using the names of ancient Greek goddesses. I know that some people consider the earth almost like their god. I know that to some, people are no more special than striped toads or slugs or centipedes. I know that to some, everything that lives is considered divine. As Christians, we at ECM stop long short of any of that. The earth is not our mother, our divine goddess; it is an object which God created to provide a home and to give a proper environment for sustaining all the various forms of life He created. We do not care for it because we think the soil is as valuable our eternal souls; we care for it because God gave us the responsibility to do so and in doing so we honor Him. We do not care for other forms of life—rare or not, protected or not, vanishing or multiplying—because we think we are a part of them or they are of as much value as we. We care for animal and plant life because it is part of God’s creation for which He gave us responsibility.

I think we care for the earth and all its inhabitants best when we see God as our loving Creator and us as His creatures. God has no beginning and no end, no antecedent and no equal.

The one correlation between Earth Day and Good Friday is that God the Almighty Creator came down to this earth to become our Saviour. On Good Friday, we remember the day the Son of God paid the most awful price for our sins, so that we could go free.

So this Friday I will remember the earth that God gave us, and I will remember that Jesus left His eternal home with the Father to come down here and become our Saviour. Because of sin, the whole creation groans, the Scripture says. When Jesus comes again, He will fully restore creation as God intended it to be and as He originally made it. The effects of our sin will be put in reverse and the earth will once again, even more fully than now, show the glory of the Lord.

New Missionaries for Uganda--Yea God!

2011-03-20T14:44:00.003-05:00

It takes a big team to do a big job, they say. That's why I was so thrilled with the decision of our Board Friday evening to accept Mark and Stacy Luckey and family as missionaries to Uganda. Yea, God! They will be working alongside Russ and Marcia Baugh who are there now getting started with a project called "The Way Home". It's an effort to help orphans find "forever families", preferably through in-country adoption. Encouraging foster parenting and helping grandmothers who are raising orphans will also be a part of their job. The Baughs and the Luckeys hope to help raise awareness in African churches regarding the responsibility of the church toward orphans, hope to arouse in African Christians a desire to help orphans, hope to help guide those efforts.

Uganda's orphans come from the ravages of AIDS and from the devastation left behind by LRA's long guerilla war in the north. Like us, both the Baughs and the Luckey's have adopted African orphans into their own homes, and now God has laid on their hearts the wider need of millions. Thank you, God, for adding missionaries to the team. Send us more long term, career or lifetime missions oriented people, we pray in Jesus' name. And take care of the orphans today, You who called Yourself Father of the Fatherless. In Jesus' name. Amen.

How can a six year old understand rejection?

2010-09-13T21:17:00.003-05:00

How can a six-year old understand rejection? Today I wrote the story of Emmanuel in Congo. I'm hoping that someone reading his story will be moved to sponsor him for $30 a month.

Emmanuel's mother was a prostitute who had little time for him. Especially when she began to get sick. Emmanuel watched her waste away and die before he was four years old.

Still sick with grief, he was taken in by an uncle. But the family did not understand AIDS. They looked for a different cause for the mother's death. When they visited a traditional diviner, he was happy to provide an acceptable reason. It must be that little Emmanuel had "eaten" his mother's soul through witchcraft. He had only been with the uncle a short time when the whole family began to hate him. Blaming him for his mother's death and fearing he may do the same to them, no one could treat him decently, let alone show him love. Soon he was chased away from the home and ended up alone on the streets to fend for himself.

Emmanuel is now eight years old. He's finally had a break in life. He was found by one of the caring associates of Every Child Ministries, who arranged for care with a loving family. They need help, however. They are struggling to support their own family, and if Emmanuel proves to be the burden that breaks the fragile support system for their own, he may again find himself despised and cast out. Lord, please lay Emmanuel on the heart of someone who is able to sponsor him for $30 a month. Give strength to his foster family so that they may love and accept him as their very own. Provide for their needs and those of their whole family.

Your heart breaks for Emmanuel specifically and for all the Emmanuels of this world. Send them help in Jesus' name.

How foolish I was -- The Days of Genesis 1

2010-09-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

It’s so hard to clear our minds of preconceptions!

I admit I’ve been pretty critical of friends who, although they love the Lord, have accepted ideas about early earth history that seem to me to be incompatible with a serious, straight reading of the Biblical text. It’s seemed apparent to me that they think too much of the supposed “facts” of science, assuming the current thinking of the majority of scientists to be “proven fact”. And if an idea is regarded as proven fact, it’s obvious that when it conflicts with our understanding of Scripture, it must be our understanding of Scripture or the Scripture itself that is wrong. That’s been very easy to see—in others.

Recently I found, though, that the same kind of presuppositions had invaded my own thinking, too. I didn’t throw out the plain teaching of Scripture in favor of some other view, but I did have an area I could not understand. It always seemed problematic to me. That point was, since God measured the days of creation as morning and evening from Day 1, and since He did not create the sun, moon and stars until Day 4, how could days be measured as day and evening from Day 1? I didn’t think it in a way to reject or deny Scripture; I was just trying to figure it out. I hoped no one would ever ask me that question because I felt I didn’t have a very good answer.
I know, God made light and darkness on Day 1. I had read someplace that now scientists know that light can exist apart from the sun. But I have to admit, it was pretty hard for me to envision light without the sun, because the light I know is that which is related to the sun in one way or another.

I thought of measuring time on earth in terms of the movement of our solar system. Without the sun, it was hard for me to envision any measurement of time.

Then recently I read an article by a scientist who opened up my mind on this issue in one single statement. He pointed out that what measures days, light and dark, morning and evening, is not the revolution of the earth around the sun, but rather the rotation of the earth on its axis. Like duh! I knew that. Yes, of course, I knew that, yet my thinking about time was so connected to the solar system that I couldn’t see what that meant. Every time I envisioned measurement of time, I pulled up in my imagination my preconceived idea—the earth as a part of the solar system. I knew the difference between the earth’s revolution around the sun (one earth year) and its rotation on its axis (one earth day). But the two were so connected in my mind, that the idea of day and night without the sun still seemed problematic, or at least, difficult to imagine. Days in my mind were connected to months and years and those were connected to the solar system.

The scientist went on to discuss the idea of sidereal time. I wondered at first if he made up some esoteric word, but no, it’s described on Wikipedia in the same way he described it. Sidereal time is the kind of time commonly used in astronomy, used to adjust the clocks that move telescopes to keep certain objects in sight. Unlike solar time, sidereal time ignores the position of the sun. In order to keep heavenly bodies in view in their telescopes, astronomers have to put the sun out of the picture. Amazing! A mind-blowing concept!

I could only laugh at myself. How foolish I had been! While criticizing others, I had made the very same mistake. I had found it hard to understand the Scriptures simply because my own preconceptions had blocked my view.

Well, I don’t pretend to have it all right, even yet. I can only say, “Lord, open my mind. Let me not be blinded by my own preconceived ideas. Open me increasingly to the truth of Your Word.”
This is very important to me, because by my teaching and training I am not only influencing my own family, although that certainly is important enough! God has called me to teach and train leaders for the youth of the vast African continent. I have to get the Scriptures right. It scares me to realize how easily I was influenced by my preconceptions on this point. Lord, help me! Guide me by Your Spirit so that I can overlook my own preconceptions just as astronomers overlook the position of the sun when they set the timing of their telescopes.

I am sick and tired of prosperity teaching

2010-09-11T08:21:00.004-05:00

I have to admit it. I am sick to my stomach and tired beyond description of the so-called Prosperity Teaching that has captured so much of the African church. I know, I know, I gave some lessons on "Prosperity Principles from Proverbs" myself a few years back, but my goal was to try to bring some Biblical balance to the topic, not to center minds and lives around getting rich as their main goal in life.

I have to admit it. Yes, I could be richer than I am. That will sound like heresy to many, I'm sure. They'll say I'm poor because my mindset is poor and I'm proclaiming myself into poverty and I refuse to be rich.

I could be richer than I am, I admit. You see, everyone has to choose what will be the priorities and goals of their life. If I chose to make being rich the goal and priority, the center of my life, then yes, of course, I could be richer than I am.

Would I want to do that? What would be the price?

The goal I have chosen is to be faithful to my Savior and to do all I can to show the love of Jesus in practical ways to as many African children as I can. (Sounds a little like the mission statement of Every Child Ministries. Hmmm.) Now God has entrusted to me, as He has to all of us, a limited measure of His infinite riches. (He knows I could not handle it all, and I'm thankful.) Every time He entrusts me with a dollar, or an hour of life, or with any other resource, He also gives me the choice of how to invest that resource. I could invest it all in myself. Then I'd surely be much richer than I am. Would I be happier? I don't think so.

I choose to invest my resources, after my own and my family's needs are met, in showing the love of Jesus to African children who have never known it.

Yesterday I wrote the story of an eight year old orphan boy in Congo. We'll use the story in his sponsorship packet, to try to get him a sponsor to help with schooling and other needs. Emmanuel was born to a prostitute, watched her die of AIDS before he was four, then was blamed for the death of his mother when his family visited a diviner who consulted the traditional gods and declared that the child had "eaten" his mother's soul through witchcraft. The family began to hate him and he was cast out on the street. Who will show him the love of Jesus? My brother Joseph began by finding emergency shelter for him. Oh, he lost resources in that transaction. Now Joseph will never be as rich as he could have been.

What good would it do me to be rich when I could rather invest my life in helping children like Emmanuel. I'm getting rich. all right. It's just a different kind of riches than the prosperity people talk about. It's the kind that is deeply satisfying, the kind that can never be taken from me.

Lord, would You let your people see that they could invest their lives in something so very much better than riches? Would you raise up a people who would invest their lives in the Emmanuel's of this world?

Two things that bothered me about "The Shack"

2010-06-06T13:40:00.003-05:00

When I was in Ghana last time I read the popular novel, "The Shack". Shortly before I left, my dentist had told me it was about meeting The Holy Trinity. Sounding intriguing. Soon I got caught up in a very compelling and heart-warming story. I had advance warning that God was portrayed as a woman, so that wasn't shocking, and I recognize besides authority qualities that we recognize as male, God also has nurturing qualities that we usually identify as being female. Through most of the book, the thing that bothered me most was the depiction of the Holy Spirit. It wasn't that He was an Asiatic female. It was the half unreal, fairy-like quality that disturbed me.
I also noticed that God was all kindness and love, and His authority and judgment were overlooked.

But the thing that bothered me at the most came at the end of the book. After the author had resolved the issue in such a heart-tugging way, came the shocker that what happened wasn't real--well, not totally real. Well, maybe partly real. Not real in an historical way that it really happened. The author encourages us to believe it was real in some other sort of way that is never really defined. Francis Schaeffer! Hold still in your grave! This bothered me a lot because it amounted, in my opinion, to a redefining of reality. It was as if something could be real and not real at the same time, true and not true equally together. Francis Schaeffer! Your bones are shaking!

This week I listened to other critiques of the book on Janet Parshall's radio show, "In the Market". Many problems were discussed, but to me the problem of reality is still the most troubling of them all. After you've redefined reality, you can redefine anything and everything else without impunity.

Fetal Heart "Tones"

2010-06-04T17:49:00.003-05:00

What do you think of the You-Tube videos where an undercover woman TRIES to talk to a Planned Parenthood doctor before an abortion? She asks him if the fetus has a heartbeat. He squirms around and says there's no heartbeat, but there are heart TONES. Hmm. Always interesting to invent new uses for words, depending on the purpose for doing so. She asks when it becomes a heartBEAT. He says simply, "birth". So let me get this straight. In the womb the heart is pumping blood to oxygenate the body cells, but that's only heart TONES. After birth the heart does the same thing for the same purpose, but that's called heart BEAT. What deceptive use of words! Oh, the wicked deception of the human heart! Does it have no limit?

Trust Women

2010-06-04T17:31:00.004-05:00

I've been seeing pleas for funds from NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) making the abortionist George Tiller into a hero because his motto was "Trust Women." Right off let me stop and say this, lest anybody misunderstand me: I don't condone murder and I don't condone the murder of George Tiller. The one who committed that act did a terrible thing. But--to make an abortionist into a hero is certainly a stretch in my book! His murder may have been a tragedy, but that does not make him a hero.

Now--about trusting women. The same group that is distributing wristbands in "honor" of Abortionist Tiller is the very same group that works against all attempts to make sure women have full information when they are considering their response to an unplanned pregnancy. NARAL does not want women to learn about fetal development, get ultrasounds or see pictures of their unborn children or even models showing development at each stage. They apparently don't trust women to make the "right" choice if they were presented with all the facts.

"Trust women" is just a nice-sounding myth, just pro-abortion rhetoric. If pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood really trusted women, they'd trust them not only with the choice, but with all the information to make the choice. I suggest something better. "Trust God and Trust His Holy Word", where He said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Jer 1:5 (NKJV)" It is God who is forming us in our mother's wombs, and when we suck out or cut up or poison His handiwork, it is a great and sad loss for us and for the world. That's one more reason why I am pro-life.

Children's Pastors' Conference

2010-04-30T11:20:00.000-05:00

Children's Pastors' Conference

Check out my article, "The thunder god falls before the cross!" in the online edition of the newsletter from the International Network of Children's Ministry.

What will help the child trafficking problem at the bottom line?

2010-04-22T17:11:00.009-05:00

One of the things I committed to do was to place on slavery map (http://www.slaverymap.org/) all the examples of human trafficking and modern-day slavery I could find fom Africa or about Africans. It seemed like a big commitment, but it's been very helpful because right away I began to see patterns--both geographically and in ways traffickers do things.

Recently I've been posting a group of cases in which kids from Togo were trafficked to Nigeria. Again I began noticing patterns. Most were recruited by a "waga", a member of the local community who recruits poor kids for trafficking, promising them good jobs far away for whatever purpose she knows rings most loudly in their hearts. Most got to Nigeria by a long, circuitous route, picking up other recruits all along the way. And most escaped at least once--some several times--only to be quickly re-enslaved. Many of them assumed that if they could meet someone who spoke their language they'd be safe. Not always true. Often not true.

I dreamed about it last night and woke up thinking about it this morning. Escaping only to be re-enslaved. The heartlessness of the traffickers and enslavers was wrenching. What will help hearts like that? I have been thinking about why I am so involved in fighting child trafficking. It's not just out of emotional sentiment or pity. It's because I truly believe every human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). From that basis, I see human life as worthy of respect and care. We go from that basis to Jesus' commands to love our neighbors as ourselves. That expression of our faith rests on the foundation of being created in God's image. Such a faith makes human trafficking, slavery and abuse of every kind unthinkable.

Can we fight trafficking and slavery adequately without that base? We can fight it to some degree, to be sure. I've met and read many modern-day abolitionists like myself who are fighting slavery. I can't say they don't care or they aren't trying to make a contribution. They surely are. But I think that the Christian base provides a stronger, more compelling reason for any humanitarian action. If someone truly believes God created human beings special and worthy of respect, he can hardly become a trafficker or a slaver or an abuser. I think about the Togolese children whose stories I am posting now on slaverymap. How different would their stories have been if on escaping, they had found Christians who truly believed they were worthy of respect? Lord, while I fight child trafficking and modern-day slavery, help me to maintain my balance. Help me to remember what really helps the most. Help me to give adequate attention to that.

Reflections on the power of teachers

2010-04-15T07:34:00.004-05:00

When I graduated from Tri-State (now Trine) University in 1978, I was asked to write the poem for the inside cover page of the class yearbook. My poem was about the influence of what we believe on what we do. Unworthy philosophies don't stay philosophies but become the acts that make up history. Before Treblinka (a Nazi death camp), a people believed in the philosophy of national socialism (Naziism).

It came to me again today. In reading through my Google alerts (which I use to try to keep up on areas of vital interest), I read a blurb about Afrikania Mission. This is the group that most strongly opposes the liberation of shrine slaves. Their main argument is that shrine slavery is a part of their culture so no one should mess with it. There was a simple line in this article about Osofo Okomfo Damua, the founder of Afrikania. I knew he was a former Roman Catholic priest who apostasized from his faith and became what in Ghana is commonly called a "fetish priest." In America we are prone to call such a person a witch doctor. He became sold on the idea that the spirits behind the African idols, or the "lesser gods" as they are called in Ghana, were every bit as viable and as worthy of worship as Jesus Christ. He founded the Afrikania Mission and became an outspoken opponent of Christianity.

Today, I can truly say that if it were not for the opposition of the Afrikania Mission, all the shrine slaves in Ghana would have been freed long ago. Ghanaian law, public opinion, and common decency are all on the side of liberation. From my experience I would say that a very high percentage of the priests and shrine owners themselves actually favor liberation. It is only Afrikania's incessant cries of 'Don't mess with our culture!' that keep the shrine slaves in bondage.

I knew all this, and I knew that Damua was influenced toward his relativistic stand by his studies in the U.S. I saw from the article that he obtained a Ph.D. from Howard University. Ah, yes. I've read some of the convoluted thinking of some of their scholars. I'm sure some are fine, too. I read on Wikipedia that one of their faculty discovered blood plasma. I'm sure many do a fine job. But somebody there influenced Damua in a direction that has had extremely tragic consequences. It could have happened in many universities, wherever relativistic thought is extolled.

I love teaching myself, and I loved university, so I couldn't get this out of my mind. I pictured some professor extolling what seemed to him like just a philosophy. There is no ultimate truth, he might have said. Truth for you might not be truth for me--something like that. In fact, the many gods worshiped in Africa--the spirits behind those mounds of clay with little shells stuck in for eyes--they are really just as good as the Christian God. Whatever he said, it made such an impression on Damua that he left his Catholic faith and turned to ancient idols.

It was a tragedy for Damua's own soul, for Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6b). It was a tragedy for a woman I visited with team members a couple of years ago in a Ghanaian village. We sat on benches and chatted while she wove baskets. She was glad for our visits, but she told us pointedly that it was too late for her. She belonged to Afrikania, she said, and she had already given herself to the devil. (Those were her own words.) We pleaded with her that it is never too late as long as she has breath. Jesus loves her and stands ready to forgive her and welcome her when she comes to Him. She refused.

It is a continuing tragedy for thousands of shrine slaves who are still bound (not physically, but spiritually, psychologically and socially) to their masters, forced to bow and chant to idols that many of them tell me they hate. It is a tragedy for future generations because most shrines practice "replacement." When those slaves die, or even if they escape, the shrine will seek another girl from that family. One priest put it this way: "Once a crime is committed, it must be continuously atoned for until the end of time." !!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder who influenced Damua. Was it one professor? Was it literature he read? Was it the flavor of a whole department? I don't know. I may never know. Whoever and whatever it was bears a weight of responsibility that I can't even imagine. Because of that influence, Damua died in his sins without the Savior. Because of that influence, that lovely woman we talked with may also face God without a covering for her sin. Because of that influence, thousands upon thousands remain in slavery and pass that heritage on to their most unfortunate children.

I got to wondering about Howard University. I found out it was started shortly after the end of the American Civil War. The first goal was to train African American clergyman, although the idea quickly expanded to include an entire university. Wow. To think that something started for such a purpose could end up having such an influence.

It gets me thinking. What kind of an influence will my life have?

THIS IS THE REASON I CRY

2010-04-07T18:51:00.003-05:00

I got a tear-jerking email this afternoon. I could barely keep my tears off the keyboard as I read it. Another mission organization working in southern Sudan has 300 kids they have rescued--former child soldiers, and they are overwhelmed. Could we give them a home? They have immediate contact with 1,000 on the streets of Juba. Some have been rescued agressively and others have escaped from the LRA.

At times like this I wish ECM was much bigger than it is. We, too, are so stretched. We're trying to do so much with so little. BUT HOW DO YOU SAY NO? HOW DO YOU TURN AWAY FROM SUCH A REQUEST? HOW DO I GET IT OUT OF MY MIND? OR DOES GOD EVEN WANT ME TO DO SO?

This kind of thing puts my heart in a visegrip. I can hardly think of anything else. Some things I can turn away from and say, "That's awful, but that's a responsibility God has given to someone else." I can't say any such thing in this case. This is the very exact kind of thing to which God has called me--us. It is very evident that my mind and heart are going to wrestle with this until God shows us a solution. Right now, my heart is breaking. Lord, help! What do You want us to do?

God is intimately involved

2010-03-20T14:04:00.004-05:00

This morning I was getting ready to shower, cleaning out the hairs that always accumulate in the filter. I was thinking about how the Bible says that the very hairs of our head are all numbered by our Heavenly Father. (Matthew 10:30). Laughing, I said to myself, "He doesn't just count them once. He has to get a new count every time we shower." Suddenly I began to gain a new appreciation for God's intimate care over His creation. He isn't involved only in the big things--keeping the planets on their courses, etc. He is intimately and personally involved with His creatures, and with each of us.

How different this is from the idea so prevalent in African traditional religion that God is Creator all right, but He's far away, too busy or too disinterested to care much about our affairs. Priests of African traditional religion tell me that God appointed the lesser gods to take care of the affairs of the world and of our lives. Of course, God is very clear that He appointed only One Mediator between us and Him--our Lord Jesus Christ (I Timothy 2:5). I've always known He cares about us. But it struck me in a new way that day. I care about my daughter, but I don't count the hairs on her head. Even the hairs in the drain would keep me busy. God cares about us so much and He knows the details of our lives so intimately, that He keeps track of each hair. I am so glad that I serve a God who is intimately involved. Praise Him forever, and may every group of people in Africa come to know His great care for them.

ECM Gets Involved in Fighting Child Sacrifice, Ritual Abuse

2010-03-20T13:58:00.003-05:00

When Resty, the coordinator of ECM’s Gayaza Sponsorship Project in Uganda visited her sister recently, she told me she had my training on child trafficking fresh on her mind. So when she learned that a village woman had just rescued a three year old child who was discarded in a sack, she was immediately interested. As she learned to do in her training, she began to ask more questions, to look deeper.

When she learned what had happened to the little girl, she knew she had to get involved. The baby had suffered horrific ritual abuse in a traditional shrine, including having her undeveloped canine teeth cut out of her jaw, undoubtedly for ritual purposes. Her head hung to one side and her neck looked rotten, signs that she had probably been tied up around the neck. Then she had nearly suffocated when stuffed alive into a bag and discarded. She was found nearly drowning in her own feces, and seemingly near death.

In God’s mercy, a kindly lady found the little girl and did everything possible to rescue her, cleaning her up and seeking medical treatment at a hospital in spite of that fact that the child seemed not to see, hear or make any sound, and that all her joints had stiffened, including her backbone. The foster mother named the child Hope Tereza, and cared for her valiantly in spite of the fact that she had two other children to care for, one of them also unable to speak, and that her tumbledown hut leaked badly.

As the police began to search for the parents, two men showed up threatening the foster mother. It turned out that these men had kidnapped the child eighteen months previously and had used her as a sacrifice for rituals in a traditional shrine. The police then were able to locate the parents, who had nearly exhausted all their resources, even selling their land in their search for their missing child. The police have advised the family to leave the child in foster care for the time being while the parents settle some family issues. The girl’s original name was Resty, the same as the ECM worker who has been helping her.

ECM is now helping the valiant family who rescued the child as well as to the child Resty herself. We’ll call her Resty Hope to combine the two names. We have given assistance from our Rescue Fund, but we now need additional help. If we pull together, we believe that this family should be the beginning of a new sponsorship program in the Masaka District. We are seeking sponsors not only for Resty Hope, but for the two other children of the foster family. We also need special funds to help meet Resty Hope’s special needs and to get the new Masaka program started. In addition, our staff are working with all stakeholders to develop informative skits for public use that will show parents how they can protect their children against the growing problem of child sacrifice in Uganda. Gifts will also be accepted for this program.

Resty Hope’s joints are becoming less stiff with therapeutic massage, she seems to be seeing and hearing, and she is now able to smile. It is believed that a cerebral palsy chair would help her.

I remember being impressed recently as I watched a video recently of Gianna, a young woman who suffers cerebral palsy induced by the late term saline abortion by which her mother sought to end her life. She was born alive but damaged by the saline, and has become a mighty advocate of life. (You can watch her at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPFhCNOuQ. If you have difficulty, just go to youtube and type abortion survivor in the search box.)
Like Gianna, Resty Hope, may never again be normal (although we acknowledge God’s ability to heal). But even if she is never normal, God must have very special plans for her life. Who else could have sent a woman who had such a heart to help her, just when she was at the point of death?

Let’s all join together in praying for Resty Hope! Those who wish to help can designate their gifts for one of these projects when giving to Every Child Ministries at www.ecmafrica.org.

Counting the Cost

2010-03-15T19:24:00.003-05:00

Our home church missions emphasis month is featuring the theme, Counting the Cost. I was reminded of it again yesterday when I read on another blog about the death of a young woman Peace Corps worker. She taught school in an African country. She got close to the girls and realized that they were being systematically sexually abused. After much consideration, she decided to report the matter to the proper authority--discreetly and anonymously. The day after her report, she was found murdered in her home.

As I read her sad story, I remembered how many times I have faced up to the fact that what I am doing could cost my life. I've thought about it long and hard and many times. I value my life and I enjoy living. I'm not afraid to die. I know that when I die, by God's grace I will be with Him, because I know that Jesus Christ paid my sin debt to God. But still, I've got eternity to enjoy heaven and not so long to enjoy this life, so I'm in no hurry to move on to the next life.

Every time I've thought about it, though, I have come up with the same conclusion. What I am doing is worth living for, and it is worth dying for. I remember one night in Congo when we were trapped in the war there. There was fighting all around us and it was not safe to leave the house where we were staying. One evening we heard that the soldiers were planning to raid our neighborhood that night. There was no way to get out. I really thought we might die that night. We gathered with our Congolese friends who were there and knelt together. We prayed committing our lives to the Lord. The tears flowed down my face, but there was an amazing peace in my heart. The soldiers never did raid the neighborhood. We learned later that the guard reported seeing angels over the gate that night.

But it could have been different. Many missionaries have been killed at their post of service. Am I better than they? No. I don't know why I survived the Congo war and others suffered so much. I only know I have counted the cost, and I am willing to pay whatever it is.

In fact, the very book that God used to confirm His missionary call to me many, many years ago was "Through Gates of Splendor," a book about the martyrdom of five American missionaries in the jungles of Ecuador. My reaction then, as now, was sober but peaceful. I will give my life for the children of Africa. One way or another.

Seven Reasons Jesus is Still Weeping

2010-02-26T20:40:00.003-06:00

1. Jesus wept. It’s the shortest verse in the Bible. But there is reason to believe that Jesus may STILL be weeping, because precious children who are objects of His love are abused and subjected to inhuman cruelties every day all over the world, simply to enrich others.
2. Although the Scripture does not directly say that He is still weeping, if I understand the heart of Jesus and the heart of Scripture, I believe He is still weeping. He is weeping because His children are being deeply damaged by the sins of others. He longs to bring comfort and healing to them.
3. Because His children are put into situations where, because of what they have gone through, it is exceedingly difficult for them to receive His love, experience His salvation, understand His kindness.
4. Because He cares deeply about His hurting children. When you weep, it is because you care so much.
5. Because He is praying for us. The Scripture says that the Spirit prays for us with groaning that cannot be uttered. That’s the best description of heartbroken weeping I have ever read.
6. Because He created us for freedom, but we have made His children into slaves.
7. Because He created us to reign over the earth, but we have treated His children as a cheap thing, having no value except to serve us.
Yes, I believe Jesus still weeps over the children of the world, over my precious children in Africa. He weeps. He cares He feels their pain.

Warrior Princess

2010-01-21T20:01:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading "Warrior Princess," the true story of AIDS activist Princess Kasune Zulu, who is HIV positive herself. It was wonderful to read about another chosen by God to bring help and healing to some of His suffering African children. I strongly identified with Princess because she feels that this is her destiny, what her life is all about. Hey, I know that feeling! That's precisely the way I feel about my work with My BIG African Family, the forgotten children of Africa. Thank you, Princess, for the encouragement and for reminding me that although I may be "intense", as my husband sometimes says, I am not totally crazy. In fact, I love knowing what my life is all about. Sharing Jesus with my precious African Jewels is definitely worth the investment of my life.

Call to Prayer, Prayer Guide Offered

2010-01-14T07:44:00.002-06:00

This month Every Child Ministries is having a special emphasis on prayer, spending some time each day praying for the requests of our partners as well as those of the work. Friends are encouraged to email us their prayer requests. We are also offering a prayer guide I developed called "Prayer for the Dark Places" in Africa. Of course, there are many spiritually dark places, but I have selected four to emphasize. We are hoping people will spend one week praying for each of them, and then continue to remember specific requests as God brings them to mind or lays them on their hearts. We know that it is only God who can bring the spiritual breakthroughs needed for these challenging areas. Lord, help me to be more diligent in prayer for my beloved African family.

Off to Urbana--Recruiting Help for our African Family

2009-12-23T20:18:00.003-06:00

The day after Christmas we will be heading off to the Urbana Student Missions Conference in St. Louis. Out of the 15,000+ who will be attending, we hope to recruit several long term missionaries for our work in Uganda and in Ghana. Please pray with us that we will find just the right people.

Are you called to work with children? Would you consider Africa? Do you love Jesus and take His Word seriously? Then you should consider missionary service with Every Child Ministries. This is the message we will share.

Blessed time in Ghana

2009-12-20T14:50:00.004-06:00

I just returned from a blessed time in Ghana. A good share of my time was spent at Haven of Hope, the children's home sponsored by Every Child Ministries. It was wonderful to see our precious children again. They were 49, but while I was there, the twins Victory and Victoria went home permanently. Their mother is now able to care for them. Halleluya!

We also were able to take eight of the older children to a beautiful Christian wedding. Our treasured staff member Abigail Quarcoo became Mrs. Elijah Mensah. It was a beautiful wedding, and we were hoping to plant a seed in their minds that marriage is desirable and that they might be happily married someday with a family of their own. Not one of them comes from a stable, loving home, and none to my knowledge come from a situation of marriage. Would you pray with us that they will be the beginning of something new--that they will be the first in a long chain of strong, loving Christian marriages and families.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them--in the ABC's, too

2009-11-15T07:10:00.002-06:00

I was incredibly encouraged by my visit to ECM's team of Americans and Ugandan nationals working in the Gulu District. I visited our sponsorship program in the Tegot village (formerly called an IDP camp, but the government now wants to call it a village in keeping with its policy of encouraging people to return to their home areas).

My job, besides seeing how the team was working together, was to visit with the guardians of the children in our sponsorship program. Only a very few have living parents. Most of the parents were killed in the war with the LRA or died of AIDS spread in the war. Many of the kids live with a very old grandmother.

I was supposed to encourage the parent figures in the kids' lives, but they did so much to encourage me! One of them was thrilled that her little grandchildren are coming home and showing her what they learned in school. She herself was never able to attend school at all because the war brought education to a standstill for two generations. Now her grandchildren come with their papers and say "Look, grandma. Today we learned the letter b. See, this is what it looks like. This is what it sounds like: bbbbb. This is how you write it. Look, Grandma."

Pray for the Karimojong

2009-11-11T23:25:00.008-06:00

I am in Uganda training our staff on ways they can recognize and fight child trafficking and modern-day slavery. Today I was talking with ECM's new National Director, Charles Obwoon.

My conversation with Charles started in a very ordinary way. He wanted to know if I would consider other sponsorship projects in other places in Uganda, besides the three we have now in Kamwokya, Gayaza, and Gulu. It was the kind of question people ask me all the time. Eventually, yes. As soon as what we are already doing is strong and stable enough and as soon as there is adequate support. Not immediately, but yes, certainly in the future.

His next question stopped me in my tracks. Would I consider a sponsorship project among st the Karimojong? Immediately he had my attention. In the past few weeks before coming to Uganda, I'd spent a considerable amount of my "spare" time researching the Karimojong. No one knew that--certainly not Charles. I had examined the Karimoja territory in northeastern Uganda on Google earth. I had read the reports of the very, very few missionary efforts there. I had even written a page on the Karimojong for a prayer guide I am compiling called "Prayer for the Dark Places".

An interesting people, the Karimojong. One of their central cultural beliefs is that God gave all the cattle on earth to them. Since they believe they have a divine right to all cattle and neighboring tribes have cattle, I'm sure you can see how this makes for a difficult life--especially since some of those neighboring tribes have similar beliefs.

The Karimojong are one of the groups I was planning to discuss in the staff training on child trafficking. You see, ECM has learned that Karimojong children are sold regularly in cattle markets along the border between Kenya and Uganda. We have learned that every Friday, certain cattle stalls are reserved for selling children!

Some Karimojong parents are selling their children, apparently out of desperation because of their extreme poverty. It is not yet clear whether they sell them to brokers who perhaps make false promises that the children will have a better life elsewhere and even be able to send money home (such false inducements are very common). Whatever the parents think, the children are sold at the markets and bought by slave masters. One common destination is Kampala. The masters beat the children to make them cry, then set them out on the streets to beg. Watching from a distance, the master's helpers quickly swoop up any aid given to the child. Little children commonly sit in the sun without food or even water to drink for long hours. At the end of the day they receive a skimpy meal just designed to barely keep them alive. The masters don't want them to look healthy, because they bring more money in looking sickly.

Yes, I was very much interested in the Karimojong project, and I considered his interest a confirmation of the burdent God had been growing in my heart. If ECM can successfully plant sponsorship programs in the home area of the Karimojong, it could dramatically decrease the number of parents who would try to sell their children, as well as those who would be vulnerable to the deceptive promises of the child traffickers. In addition, very little Gospel work has been done amongst the Karimojong, so such a project could help build the church of Jesus Christ there.

Here are a few ways people can pray with us: 1. The selection of a place. The Karimojong are a semi-nomadic cattle herding people. Sponsorship is nearly impossible where people don't stay in one place. But some of them do! Pray we'll find the right spot. 2. Connections with other Bible-believing Christians and preferably churches in the area. We want what we do to help build the church of Jesus Christ. 3. The selection of children and families. The Karimojong traditionally value knowledge related to their world of cattle herding. School type knowledge is little appreciated, yet this is causing their group to be scorned and left behind in the modern world. Pray we'll find some families who desiere their children to go to school. 4. The timing. Every Child Ministries is making significant strides at recovery following some difficult attacks in Uganda. We don't want to stretch ourselves too thin. Pray that we'll know when it's time to move forward with this project.

New Appreciation for Great Fathers

2009-10-25T21:06:00.004-05:00

I've had new appreciation recently for some of the great fathers God has placed in my life. In August I had the opportunity to attend two weeks of amazing training in how to recognize and document human trafficking and modern-day slavery. While I was there, I realized how prevalent the dangers are. I saw that I could very easily have fallen into the recruiters' traps at certain vulnerable stages of my life. And I couldn't but help but think of our "adopted" African granddaughter. Beautiful, photogenic, outgoing, mature-looking, and innocent. Vulnerable. But I also learned that kids from good families and with good father relationships are not so vulnerable. And I thought of Whitney, leaning up on my husband's arm. She's always had a very close relationship with him, in a very wonderful kind of way. I always appreciated it, but never as much as now.

Then today I visited my oldest daughter Carrie's church. Her husband Bill is being sent to Afghanistan for a year right after Thanksgiving, leaving Carrie with the sole care of their seven children, all still at home. Bill shared with the church what he'd be doing on the Agri-business team with the Indiana National Guard and the elders of the church prayed for him. But before that, their church has a protracted time of singing and worship. There is an area to the side where people can dance to the Lord. There are also flags people can take and wave in praise to God in time to the music. My granddaughters are big fans of this, so as soon as they arrived, they began dancing and waving their flags. At one point I looked over. Bill was standing in the middle, his hands raised to the Lord. The girls were skipping and dancing around him in a circle, waving their flags as if he were a Maypole. It was very touching.

Later I looked over again. Bill was standing there swaying to the music, and his daughter Serena and him were just hugging one another--a long, extended hug that went through at least three songs I think. I was so touched that tears just started streaming down my cheeks. I felt like I could hardly breathe I had so many emotions washing over me. Concern--yes. That hug was a definite, "Goodbye, Daddy. I want all the hugging I can get while you are here." Sorrow--yes. Why do they send men who have seven children? Joy--most definitely. That hug was the kind that said, "Everything is right between me and my Daddy."

And I was so thankful again for both the son-in-laws God has placed in my life. Bill and Steve, our second daughter's husband, are both wonderful, involved, committed fathers who love God and love their children. I don't know why I should be so blessed to have such wonderful men in my life. I know some men have caused their women great pain, but I have to say, I have new appreciation of the great fathers in my life. It's one of the most precious gifts God could have given our granddaughters, and they will be less vulnerable to those who would want to recruit them for evil purposes because they have such fathers in their lives. Thank God.

Would you pray for Bill's safety and for Carrie and her family in the year ahead? I would deeply appreciate that.

African Albino children need love, acceptance

2009-10-18T09:28:00.002-05:00

Following the nationwide television special on the tragedies being faced by albino children in Tanzania, our organization, Every Child Ministries, has received many inquiries about our work with albino children in Africa. Praise God, we have also gained child sponsorships to enable several albino children to go to school!

As I think about the experience of Every Child Ministries in serving albino children, I realize that the first things albino children need are love and acceptance. They need to know that although they may look different than other children around them, they are valuable human beings like everyone else. It is easier for them to understand that God loves them when they know that others love them, too. Our gifts of sunglasses and sunscreen to protec their sensitive eyes and skin are just tokens to show them our love and acceptance by offering them something truly helpful to them.

The first two steps of our program for albino children are well underway. We have developed teaching for the children, their parents, their friends, and their schools, and begun distributing it by email. We've begun making contacts with albino children and their families and distributing the sunglasses and sunscreen. Our next step will be to place some media pieces to help move the public perception of albino children in a more positive direction. We realize that people's perceptions change slowly, so please pray for this effort!

The most outstanding thing about her trip was...

2009-10-18T09:18:00.004-05:00

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and partners at our annual IN Banquet in Crown Point, IN. I was especially struck with the reports of Katie Suitor, last summer's mission team leader to Uganda. She said that the thing that struck her most about her time in Uganda was ECM's sponsorship program. She said she noticed the HUGE difference between children who were sponsored in our program and those who were not. She could even tell from looking at pictures, even if she didn't know who the kids were. The sponsored kids looked healthier, were happier, cleaner, better dressed, and somehow more hopeful. The sponsorship program is labor-intensive for Every Child Ministries, so I was really encouraged to hear what a difference it is making in kids' lives. Thanks for that encouragement, Katie.

We gained five new sponsors during the evening, and we are very thankful for that. Many more are waiting to be sponsored.

By the way, I want to send a heartfelt thank you once again to everyone who worked so hard to make last evening a success. We only came halfway to our offering goal for Uganda, but that is a good start and we are thankful for the progress made. Many, many volunteers worked hard to provide this big event. We really appreciate all of you.

REAL Health Care Respects LIFE

2009-10-16T12:05:00.001-05:00

REAL Health Care Respects LIFE

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Child Sacrifice in Uganda

2009-06-29T08:41:00.003-05:00

The other day I was in a police office in Uganda seeing an official. While I was there, someone called, apparently asking about the current state of various problems in Uganda. The officer replied that violent crime was on the decrease, several other problems were on the decrease, but then he said something that really caught my ear. "There now remains only the problem of ritual sacrifice." Then today I picked up several Ugandan newspapers. On the second page of the first newspaper, the same topic again. An article on child sacrifice. Several hundred Ugandan children had written a letter and signed their names begging the president to do something about the problem of child sacrifice. The children said the current state of affairs made them afraid to go to school.

Lord, we have such a very long way to go. Please show us the way. Show us how Every Child Ministries should be involved. Teach us to value our children--not just our own children, but all of our children, the next generation. In Jesus' name I offer this prayer for the children of Africa.

One Step Forward--How Many Back?

2009-06-27T10:29:00.004-05:00

Here I am in Uganda on this, The Day of the African Child. I am so happy again to reconnect with the branch of my BIG African family that lives and works here. But I am so tired, trying to recover funds embezzled by our former National Director here, David Lubaale. It's taking so much of my time and energy, running back and forth to the police, trying to dig up confirmation for every transaction. It's so disheartening. A man we all loved and trusted, a man for whom we had such high hopes, a man of so much potential. Instead of doing this I want to be working with the staff here to see how we can improve our programs, develop new ones, help more children. Lord, give me strength to persevere so that we can get beyond this. As I work with the staff to try to develop systems that will ensure this never happens again, guide us all. Help us to rebuild trust. Help us to settle this issue so that we can get back to helping African children. Help us to regain the funds so that we can use them to offer hope to children who need it so desperately. In Jesus' name I ask these favors. Amen!

Tell our president--and the media--what you think

2009-01-25T15:15:00.003-06:00

Are you happy that our president has chosen to spend your tax dollars to promote worldwide abortion? Does it please you that he made this "choice" for you via executive order, thus bypassing the will of the people and their elected representatives? How much of that 400 Million Dollars are you willing to take out of your own pocket to promote killing the unborn in other countries?

I invite you to let the president know what you think of his high-handed tactics. You can email him at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ . I know, he can't read all those emails himself, but I am also sure that he has aides keeping track of the sense and the mood of emails that come in. Let's not let him make a tragic mistake like this one and not even hear about it. Please write!

You can also get in touch with many local and national media by email. Go to http://capwiz.com/fof/home/ . It's easy and effective. This is a critical issue that affects lives of women and children all over the world. Of course, it also affects your pocketbook. Please, it only takes a few moments. Let your voice be heard on behalf of the children.

Shooting Street Kids or Killing the Unborn--What's the Difference?

2009-01-24T15:23:00.005-06:00

I can't even begin to express my shock, disappointment and utter disgust at our new president's restoration of funding for worldwide abortion. So much of that taxpaper money will end up in Africa, yet the very last thing Africa needs is free funding for abortion!

How many our president possibly think this is positive change? This is not the kind of change we wanted! In many countries the government simply sends out the police or the military to "clean up" the city by shooting street kids on sight. In other places they load them into huge trucks and then haul them out a distance from the city and dump them someplace where it is impossible for them to survive. How does our president's new order differ from that? Very little! Both deal with children who are unwanted--by someone. Get them out of sight, out of mind. Less strain on social services. A more attractive city for tourists. Mr. President, the human cost of your policy is astronomical.

I am not unfamiliar with the needs and problems of the poor. I have lived with the poor, laughed with them, cried with them, shared their concerns. How does it help them to pay for the killing of their children?

More black children will be eliminated than any other kind. Precious, beautiful black children whose only crime was their mother did not want them, or thought she didn't, in a moment of discouragement. No! No! A thousand times, No! Let the children of Africa live. Amongst them may be another Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please, Mr. President, you have begun your administration on an extremely destructive course, but course corrections are always permitted. No, you need a U turn. They are permitted, too.

Thoughts on the War in Eastern Congo

2008-12-01T19:00:00.005-06:00

The pictures and recent reports of fighting, rape, killing and displaced people are so hard for me to read, me, one who has given her heart to Africa's children, one who lived for nine years in Congo, one who considers the Congolese like brothers and sisters. I ask myself what I should be doing. Surely I should be doing something. I find no answer but to pray. I don't even speak the Swahili language or the other village dialects of the area. If the war were in Bandundu Province where I could communicate fluently...but it isn't. Not yet. So I pray, holding up to the Prince of Peace the war-weary Congolese. Please, Lord, protect them tonight. I know You are a Great Healer, Lord. Bring healing to the little three -year old girl who was raped. Bring healing to her torn body and to her wounded soul. I pray for the women and young girls who have been raped repeatedly. Lord, bring them peace. Lord, put a wall of protection about them. I pray for the soldiers on both sides, crazed with power and orders and witchcraft and drugs. Break through the walls they have built around themselves and let them see and feel and know what they are doing. Bring healing to them, too. Lord, You cried at the death of Your friend Lazarus. I know you cry at the suffering of the Congolese. Lord, bind up their wounds. May their sufferings drive them into Your loving arms, for there they will find peace for this life and for eternity. May the courage and peace of those who know You break through to the soldiers who were do them harm and cause them to also come to You. Lord, why are You allowing this? I cannot see any good in it, but I know Your Word says that all things work together for good to those who love You (Romans 8:28). I trust You, Lord. I believe You in the night, and I ask that You may turn this evil around for good for the Congolese people. In Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen!
PS: Lord, please show me what else I can do for this part of my big African family.

Hungry children, naked children

2008-11-21T18:38:00.003-06:00

I'm getting ready to lead a team to Uganda to put on a late Christmas for children at our adopted IDP camp. (IDP=Internally Displaced Persons) As I prepare, I am motivated by the needs I observed there last summer. Some of them came to our Day Camp completely naked. Clothes were considered a luxury their struggling parents could not afford. I saw children who were filthy and sick. But the saddest thing I saw occurred when one child spilled the plate of beans we had just served him for lunch. He hesitated for a moment, and while he did about five other children swooped in on the beans, scraping them off the ground and stuffing them into their mouths, sand and all. That's when I realized how hungry these children really were.

It was a privilege to have something to share with them for the five days of our Day Camp. As I thought about it afterwards, I realized that both feeding the hungry and clothing the naked were acts that Jesus considered done unto Him. What a privilege He gives us to have enough to be able to share with those in real need!

Our children are wounded healers

2008-11-18T21:36:00.005-06:00

Today we received an email that a child came to our project with her mouth badly burned. When checking on what happened, the mother laughed and admitted she did it because the child was sucking her bottom lip!

I was glad that before that report, I got another one a few days ago. One of our missionaries, Ruth Ann Gowin, was badly burned and scared in an accident when she was young. The children at ECM's Haven of Hope home have been asking her if it was her mother who burned her, or someone else. They refuse to believe her pleas that the scar resulted from an accident. One of the boys came over and patted her arm tenderly, tears flowing down his cheeks in sympathy for her perceived hurt.

If the children can learn to utlilize that empathy that they learned from being so hurt themselves, there is great hope for them. They are deeply wounded, yes. But already they are wounded healers. Thank you, Lord, for letting me be a part of that.

Encouraged by one albino child

2008-11-13T20:12:00.005-06:00

Our mission agency, Every Child Ministries, is in the midst of starting a new project to help albino children in Africa. The project is still in the preparation stages, but I was really encouraged that we have already helped one. A worker with another NGO (non-governmental organization) in Africa saw our ad asking for sunglasses to help the children because their eyes are super-sensitive to light. She had observed an albino child in one of their programs who always went around with his head down, but she didn't have a guess as to why he did this. When she read our ad about albino children, she immediately recognized his problem. Soon, he will have sunglasses to allow him to raise his head, and will come to our party for albino children. It will be his first chance to know that there are other children in the world who look like him.

Since this worker wrote, I've thought often of this child, and the whole scenario has been a special encouragement to me. I'm not sure why this one is so meaningful. ECM has helped hundreds of thousands of children, and I've listened to some of the worst horror stories possible and hugged some pretty undesirable looking kids. I've seen so much abysmal poverty and misery I can't even begin to describe it. Several times in my work I feel I have lifted the lid off of Hell itself and peered in to its awful pit. But I was encouraged by this one child. Maybe it's because he was a "bonus". We hadn't begun the program yet, but already the preparations had helped a child. I thought a lot about what it would be like to have a condition that no one understood--not even aid workers who were trying to help. That child must have felt pretty much alone. I pray that our explanation of his condition and our simple suggestions for helping him will REALLY help him to feel God's love. Thank you, Lord, for these little tokens of Your care for EVERY CHILD.

Learn more about albinism or albino children on our website at www.ecmafrica.org/albino.

Amazing Pro-Life Links

2008-11-09T22:02:00.002-06:00

I just found these amazing pro-life links related to the black community.
www.blackgenocide.org
www.klannedparenthood.com

Along with another of my favorites, www.lifenews.com, I'll pass these along.

A Black Man Will Be President--Why Can't I Smile?

2008-11-09T20:52:00.009-06:00

The first black man in history has been elected president of the United States. With my love for Africa, I should be out dancing in the streets. I have a black daughter and two black granddaughters. I should be shouting for joy. I know the encouragement this is to all my African American friends. Just to think that it could be done, that we've come that far, that such a thing is now possible. I should be dancing all night, like the schoolkids used to do in Congo the day after exams were over, as they did in Ghana when they defeated the American team in football. I went out and celebrated with them. We drove around town and honked and cheered and wrapped our heads in the Ghana football flag. For black people, the election of a black president is a far greater victory. Why can't I celebrate now?

I can't. Yes, it's wonderful just to know that a person of color can achieve such a status. Yes, I'm thrilled about that. But to have this specific black man as president causes me great distress. I'm distressed because he has promised Planned Parenthood that the first bill he will sign will be a Freedom of Choice Act overturning all present restrictions on abortion like parental notification and all of it. Yet what kind of babies are eliminated more frequently than any other kind by abortion? Black babies.

I'm distressed because I've been reading that he plans to immediately restore funding for UNFPA which would use US taxpaper dollars to fund abortions overseas, even funding forced abortion in China. But me, I love Africa. That's the special place in the world that God has laid on my heart, in addition to my own homeland. It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach to think that my tax dollars may be used to fund abortions of precious African babies. Yet it appears that such things are very high on O'Bama's agenda--so important that they may happen right away almost as soon as he is sworn in.

Well, if it happens, I intend to raise my voice. I hope that others will not be so caught up in their own economic problems that they fail to raise their voices as well. The Bush administration might be criticized on many points, but policies that disregard the human lives of the unborn are NOT THE CHANGE WE WERE LOOKING FOR.

I have a suggestion for Mr. O'Bama. All presidents find that it's easier to make promises than it is to keep them. We know you made pro-abortion promises, and the American people were so caught up in their own miseries that they hardly noticed. Please, you don't have to carry through on every promise. Don't carry through on this one. Please. Why destroy your own people? Please.

THE VALUE OF A CHILD, EVEN A GIRL CHILD

2008-11-02T18:28:00.008-06:00

I just found out yesterday that I am going to be a Grandma for the dozenth time. Our oldest daughter Carrie is expecting her seventh. As we drove home from Carrie's I envisioned myself cuddling and loving that new baby we are soon to welcome in our family.

I couldn't help also remembering things I'd read recently about what is done to babies in some parts of the world, especially if they happen to be girls. (I couldn't help but think about that since so far, Carrie has five girls and only one boy.) I read that some mothers feed their newborns rice with the hulls still on, so that the rice will slit the newborn's throat. For economic reasons, mind you. Families can't afford the huge dowries that are required by their custom.

I thought about parents in some parts of Africa where our mission, Every Child Ministries, works, who sell their children into prostitution to gain a few dollars, give them as slaves to idol shrines, sometimes just to obtain a good crop or success on some business venture, sell them to traders to serve as bonded labor, diving into the river to gain a few oysters to sell.

What is the value of a child? As a Christian, I see every person at every age from the moment of conception to the grave, at every shade of ability and non-ability, of every color and language and culture to be made in the image of God, carefully crafted by His hand. That's what it says in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. "So God made man in His own image. In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). If people don't believe this, if they believe human babies are just animals or biochemical machines, then I can understand how it is that they treat life as cheap. For them, they can treat children as economic pawns to be bargained for their own comfort and convenience. For me as a Christian it is not so. As a Christian I value human life because God made us all special and gave to us a unique dignity in His creation.

That's the underlying base that has caused me to become a mother to millions. That's the reason I "adopted" my BIG African family. And it's the reason we will welcome Carrie's baby. And it's the reason we will vote Pro-Life in the upcoming election. The value of a child can never be overestimated.

Harriet Finds Hope

2008-10-30T20:40:00.004-05:00

Today our new 3-minute video about child sponsorship comes out. On it, we tell about Harriet, a 14-year old girl I met two years ago. She came to our morning Bible class for children of the Kamwokya slum community who were not in school. Harriet distinguished herself by helping with the younger children and was selected for sponsorship. I soon learned that for some years Harriet had been acting as the head of her family. After losing both parents and a sister to AIDS, she had to drop out of school and take in washing constantly in order to keep her and her two younger sisters and a brother alive. It was a rough road for Harriet. She gave up her dreams of ever finishing school.

Receiving sponsorship has changed all that. With all the children sponsored, they are all back in school and receiving the basic necessities of life.

I am tired today and discouraged about some issues we are facing. But when I think of Harriet, when I look at her picture and remember how she was just overcome with emotion when she learned she had received a sponsor, well, I find new courage to go on. My BIG African family encourages me because I can see that my work is worth all the struggles. Harriet, if you kept on after losing your parents, if you kept on when handed adult responsibility while still a child, if you kept on through long, tiring days of doing load after load of other people's laundry by hand, surely I can keep on, too. Thank you, Harriet, for encouraging me today.

I'm hoping lots of people will watch our new video and that many more people will sponsor a child so they can receive the kind of encouragement that I have from you. You're a star in the film, Harriet! May it bring sponsorship and hope to many kids like you.

Whose vision for Africa?

2008-10-28T07:21:00.000-05:00

As I have thought and prayed about my BIG African family over the years, a recurring image has frequently come into my mind. I have seen a big map of the continent of Africa, as if shaped like a human heart. Down the left side a huge, horrifying dagger, dripping with blood, is tearing the continent apart.

Since God has given me a love for Africa, I have asked Him repeatedly what this meant. Why should He give me or allow me to have such a horrifying vision for a place and a people that are so much on my heart?

He showed me that this is not His vision for Africa. This is the enemy's vision. (I am a Christian. The enemy I am talking about is not any person or group of people. It is Satan, a spirit being who rebelled against God.) God was showing me what the enemy intended for Africa. It wasn't easy or pleasant, but as a mother of Africa, I needed to know and understand.

As I watched in my mind's eye, the dagger turned to a cross. It too, was dripping with blood, but this blood brought not death, but healing.

God was showing me that my beloved African children were going to suffer greatly. But He saw it. He had not forgotten them. He had already sent His Son to shed His blood to provide their healing.

When I first began to live and work in Africa 27 years ago, I could not have envisioned the sufferings that lay ahead for my African family. The terrible Congolese wars were yet ahead. I met only a warm, welcoming, peace-loving people. The Rwandan holocaust was unforeseen. The long war of northern Sudan against its southern regions was just brewing. The slaughter of Joseph Kony's LRA army in northern Uganda was not even thought of. The AIDS epidemic had not yet decimated countries. Millions of now orphaned children lived peacefully with the families. But God knew the sufferings ahead. He knew how wicked men would use the precious gift He had given them--freedom to choose. His heart ached.

Was it the heart of Africa I saw bleeding, or was it the heart of God Himself?

Amazing Calls

2008-10-27T18:22:00.011-05:00

I'm amazed as I look back on how God called me. It began first with reading a series of books when I was a teenager--books about five missionaries who were speared to death in the jungles of South America. Strange that reading about someone being brutally killed should result in my heart volunteering or being drawn toward the career that brought about their death.

There were five books in the series as I remember. My Sunday school teacher passed them around as others finished reading them. From the first book I felt strangely drawn. Not toward death, but toward missionary service. I quietly counted the cost even if it meant by life, my heart said yes, and peace filled my soul.

Six, seven years later. Poor choices made. Times of questioning God and even of shaking my fist at Him. I was married to a wonderful man, but one who had not come to trust my Jesus for salvation. It was five long, difficult years before that happened.

Even after John came to Christ and, three weeks later, announced that he wanted to start attending church with me, my missionary call seemed lost. I felt that I had "blown it," sinned too much. I knew that God had forgiven my wandering, but I felt I had missed my opportunity to be a missionary. I settled into doing what I could at home--teaching Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Bible clubs, Christian ed. committee, and much more at my church. I read missionary biographies to my children by the dozen. I prayed God would call others in my place.

But the missionary call only grew louder and more insistent. It grew so strong I could hardly stand it.

I never talked about it with my husand. Not once. He was happy farming. He loved his farm. It was his dream come true, and he never wanted to do anything else. He talked farming by day and yelled at his cows in his sleep at night.

The missonary call for me became so strong that I needed to share it. I began praying with a couple who came to minister at the high school where I taught. I prayed that God would take the burden of this calling away from me, or that He would give it to John. I was sure He would take it from me.

On Palm Sunday 1979, we were driving from our farm in Fremont, IN to Jackson, MI where our kids had been staying for a brief visit with my parents. I was chatting about many things, but John was not responding. "What's the matter?" I asked.

He began crying, sobbing. I had never seen him shed a tear before.

"I just think God is calling us to be missionaries!" He choked out the words. "I think he is calling us to go to Africa as missionaries." He said that morning as he was milking his cows, "minding his own business," it was just as if God was standing right beside him, telling him that he wanted to go to Africa as a missionary. He said that he could think of ten perfectly good reasons why he didn't need to do that, but that God would not let him off the hook.

I wanted to jump through the roof and shout "Hallelujah!" but I was too dumbfounded.

I tried not to act too eager, but after a few minutes I shared with him how I had been feeling the same calling and had been praying about it for two years.

It's now 29 years later. We spent some time getting ready, and we've served in Africa for 27 years--23 of them with Every Child Ministries, the mission we now serve.

Many times when I think of the mountains of difficulties we've faced, I've questioned God's call. Sometimes I've even asked myself if I might be crazy to even attempt the things we've set our sights on. Sometimes that call seems distant and unreal. But in those times I have only to remember that my John Rouster gave up his beloved farm to become a missionary, and there was no doubt whatsoever that God called him and not me. When I remember that, it all becomes real again. It's God's private sign to me that I did hear His call. WE did. Thank You, Lord, for the reality of that call.

Actually, John went to Zaire (now called DRC or Democratic Republic of Congo) with the idea of helping teach agriculture. I went with the idea of teaching English. We understood that those skills were needed in Zaire. John was an agriculturalist and I was a high school English teacher.
When we went, we didn't yet know that our calling was for African children. We only wanted to help out wherever we could.

We did a lot of thing that first term. By the end of it, it was clear that God was calling us to work with children. That idea was a seed that has quietly but steadily grown in our hearts.

A couple years ago I was reading a book that challenged me to think through and write down my life purpose, and to ask God to impress on my mind a Bible verse to claim as my life's purpose. I thought through my many roles--missionary, executive, teacher, trainer, writer. All were true, but none fully captured God's calling on my life. Then I thought of "Mama." People in Africa have called me "Mama Lorella" for a long time. That was it. I thought of Judges 5:7, in which Deborah describes the terrible condition of Israel in her day, "until I arose," she says, "Arose a mother in Israel." She too had many callings--wife, prophetess, judge, warrior. She didn't work alone. She went into battle with Barak. But she was aware of her life having made a difference. When she thought of it, she didn't say "I arose a judge" or "I arose a warrior." She said "I arose a mother in Israel."

I became conscious of having been called as a mother to millions of African children. I haven't labored alone. I've had lots of help. I hope my life has made a positive difference. Conditions for African children were very bad. They needed someone who would take their burdens on her heart. God didn't call me as an executive, although that's one of my roles right now. He didn't call me as a writer, although I do a lot of it. He called me first and foremost in the role I know best and love most. He called me as a mother. A mother to my own precious children and grandchildren first, of course--Carrie, Sharon, John Henry, Kristi--Marissa, Caleb, Serena, Alaina, Elizabeth, Tessa, Jordan, Hannah, John Everett, Whitney and Jenna. He called me as a mother to African children too. Not only Kristi and Whitney that we adopted into our family, but to millions of African children. He laid a continent's children on my conscience, and He stretched my heart to be able to hug them all.

It might sound presumptuous to talk in such big terms. Mother to African children. How could God ask such a thing? But I am delighted that I am not alone in this calling and our family is not alone in this calling. I have come to know others who have a similar burden. Some I have known are Phyllis Kilbourne of WEC International's Rainbows of Hope and Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries in Mozambique. There are many of us, I know. Africa needs many mothers.

So what do I give Africa? I've given her years of service, of course. Sweat, yes, lots of sweat. Tear, yes, lots of tears. Work, yes countless hours of labor. Prayers. Well, I don't claim to be the greatest prayer warrior in the world, but yes, I've given lots of prayers. Money, lots. The years of my life. But mostly I have given her my heart. I have loved her children. You see, God called me to be a mother to Africa.

Next time: The terrifying vision God gave me