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!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Global Giving's New Definition of Discrimination
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.
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.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Human Potential the Easiest Resource to Waste
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.
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.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Seeing God Provide Our Daily Needs
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Transgender people problem in public bathrooms
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.
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.
Monday, April 18, 2011
How & Why We Celebrate Earth Day
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.
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.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
New Missionaries for Uganda--Yea God!
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.
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.
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