Change: It's Your Turn

For the last five days, I've told you about some causes that are near and dear to my hear. But, honestly, that's n not what change is all about. Yes, it's fun to talk about other people doing cool things to change the world. But, that is not it. That's not where it ends. It's your turn now.

Yesterday in Sunday School, I was teaching the kids about the story of Baby Moses. About how this big, evil king decided to kill all the little boy Israelite babies. And how this made one mommy and one sister very sad. So, Moses's Mom and Miriam took the baby boy and placed him in a basket. They trusted God to take care of things, and they thought big. When the Pharaoh's Daughter came across this cute baby boy floating in the reeds, Miriam came out of hiding and God did great big things that day. The bottom line for our lesson yesterday was to use your imagination to think big. We talked about different problems in the world. After we got through the recession and the president being problems (hey-I live in Alabama), we got onto what I really meant. Things like clean water. Things like the famine in Somalia and starving kids. Things like little girls being sold into marriage to old men. And you know what? They got it.

Even though I was talking to fourth and fifth graders, they got it. They understood the problems with these problems and wanted to do something to fix it. So, I put them in groups and had them use their imagination to think big about finding a solution to a problem. One group came up with the idea of doing a cookie sale to raise money to build churches in Africa so that people could learn about Jesus. Another group came up with the idea to tell people about Free Rice and to collect canned food and send it to Africa. Another group also talked about collecting food at our church's Fall Festival. So, I had them all get together and come up with a master plan. Now, they are excited about making posters in two weeks to hang up and tell people about our collection. While we aren't going to mail the food to Africa, we are going to collect food for our church's food pantry to give to the community.

Here's the thing. As I said yesterday, you are never too small, too young, or too insignificant to make a difference. Find a cause and support it. Advocate for it. Pray for it. If you can't find something for what you're looking for, start your own. Change the way you look at missions and make it personal.

Change: Amazima Ministries

Katie is one of my heroes. 

Here's the thing. Katie is 22 years old. 

Read that sentence again. Katie is 22 years old and lives in Uganda.

Okay, one more time. Katie is 22 years old and lives in Uganda with her 13 daughters.

During the summer of 2007 (right after she graduated High School), she went over to Uganda to teach at a Kindergarten for a year at an orphanage. She thought that she would go for a year, and then return home to Tennessee to go to college and live a "normal life". Not so. While she was there, she learned about the many needs that Uganda has. She saw many school-aged children sitting by the road when they should have been in school. God laid it on her heart to start a Child Sponsorship Program for some of the children. So, she started up Amazima Ministries International. As their website says, "The organization seeks to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people of Uganda who need it most. In the Lugandan language, Amazima means 'truth.' "She also started up a food program to feed some of the Karimojong people. From Monday through Friday of each week, they feed 1,600 children and provide them with medical care, bible study, and and an education. She began working with some of the women in the village and taught them how to make necklaces that the ministry sells to empower these women to sustain their families. Katie says on her website, "People tell me I am brave. People tell me I am strong. People tell me good job. Well here is the truth of it. I am really not that brave, I am not really that strong, and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am just doing what God called me to do as a follower of Him. Feed His sheep, do unto the least of His people." 

I like to use Katie's story to tell people about how we are never too young, never to small, never to insignificant to make a difference. Katie's story started when she was 18 when she took a leap of faith and went to Africa. When she was 19, she began to foster her first three girls. Her ministry has grown because she has allowed God to use her and mold her. She now has thirteen beautiful daughters. Katie has spent the last year writing a book about her experience. I haven't read it myself yet, but if her blog (and other reviews I've read) are any indication, I'm sure that it is amazing. 

Change: IJM

IJM (International Justice Mission) is a cause that has recently broken my heart.Today, there are one million children that are sitting in detention centers waiting to go to trial, most for minor offences. Nearly two million children are being exploited in the commercial sex industry. Twenty-seven million people are trapped in modern day slavery. Over 50 percent of these slaves are children. And yet- here I am. Sitting in my dorm room. Comfortable. And yet--there is something more. There are women and children living outside these walls that are being forced to do horrible things. While I'd like to imagine it only is happening in third-world countries- it's happening here in the US, too. It's just not as accepted here. When people get caught, they go to jail.

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But in other places around the world, the governments are far more corrupt than Washington. Even when cases are filed and the law enforcement try and send someone to jail- there aren't enough prosecutors to cover the cases. According to one source, it would take 350 years for Mumbai, India to catch up on the court backlog in their books. We need to work on helping these governments fix the corruption problem and help strengthen legal protections for the poorer people of the world. IJM investigators, lawyers and social workers intervene in individual cases of abuse in partnership with state and local authorities to ensure proper support for the victim and appropriate action against the perpetrator.  IJM says, "We can no longer stand by as billions in this world are daily ravaged by lawlessness. Without functioning public justice systems we will never make human rights meaningful and international development sustainable."

IJM's mission is to follow the tradition of leaders like William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr.They stand against violent oppression in response to the Bible's call to justice and to seek to find justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Their website says that:

IJM seeks to restore to victims of oppression the things that God intends for them: their lives, their liberty, their dignity, the fruits of their labor. By defending and protecting individual human rights, IJM seeks to engender hope and transformation for those it serves and restore a witness of courage in places of oppressive violence. IJM helps victims of oppression regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or gender.

Change: Blood:Water Mission

The motto of Blood :Water is empowering communities to work together against the the HIV/AIDS and Water crisis in Africa.

Blood :Water seeks to empower communities to fight the HIV/AIDS problem and the water crisis by empowering communities to fight these problems themselves. Their website states, 

We seek to transform communities from the inside out, enabling them to be the agents of change within their own context. While safe water access, hygiene, and sanitation are core objectives within our water programs, the process of enabling these skills and technologies in a community ultimately leads them on a journey of self-discovery, giving communities a platform for understanding their own capabilities, assets, and most importantly self-worth. It's not until communities are able to understand and embrace their potential, that they are fully able to utilize and sustain the projects they have worked so hard to achieve.

Empowering communities to enact change on their own is the best way that we have to eradicate poverty. It is the only way that our efforts can have a lasting impact.  It doesn't matter how many people we send over, what matters is changing the hearts and lives of the people that live there.

Project: 
2 Weeks of Sacrifice: Why don't you give up what you would normally drink (ie. Diet Coke and Capri Suns) and drink only tap water. Save the money that you would normally spend on these beverages and donate the money to Blood: Water and help bring clean water to Africa!


Blood:Water Mission Process Video (How We Work) from Blood:Water Mission on Vimeo.

Change: As Our Own

Okay, Day 6 has hit and we are on to our next section! Since this is a series on change, I thought it would be cute and fun to change gears every few days. So that we don't get stuck in a rut or anything. So, today kicks off the Great Mission Project. How we interact with the world around us has a huge impact on our lives. There is so much brokenness in the world around us. There are so many places we can enact change. But, sometimes we take the easy way out. We give money to this organization (or that one) but we fail to make an emotional attachment. We don't give sacrificially. What if money isn't going to solve the problem? Yes, these non-profits that work with needy people need funds to keep running, don't get me wrong here. But, I want you to do some research and find a cause that pulls at your heartstrings. One that you can become emotionally invested in. I'm going to give you a little help for the next few days by highlighting some causes that are close to me. Then, we'll talk about finding your cause and what that means. But, for right now, I want you to recognize that prayer and education and standing up for the broken is what will change our world. It's not about sending in $20 check and checking the box. $20 won't end poverty. $20 won't end the sex trade. It's about advocating. It's about praying for these people. I want you to get educated. This Great Mission Project isn't about raising bunch of money, it's about getting educated so we can tell others and ask them to join us in prayer. It's about uniting together to cause change to happen. So, at the end each day, I'm going to feature a project for each organization that might interest you.

Today, we're going to talk about an organization called As Our Own. According to their website,

There are 44 million vulnerable children living in India. Some live on the streets. Others are enslaved in brothels. Most are poor, hungry, and exploited. Hope is hard to come by.Yes—the magnitude is overwhelming, but that’s why we cannot sit still and why we cannot remain silent: Helping vulnerable children in their plight is our great calling.

As Our Own :: Overview from As Our Own on Vimeo.


Many of the girls that enter the sex trade don't do it because they want to. They do it unwillingly and are forced into it. 95% of girls born in the red light district become enslaved. And, because of the nature of the sex trade, the cycle of slavery continually repeats itself. These girls are raised in extreme poverty. They do not have a way out. Mothers are approached about their daughters from very young ages. While most of the mothers do not want their child to have to go what they are going through, they are trapped. There is not a way out.

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"Life in the red-light districts of India is not typical. It’s a dangerous place to be—let alone work or live. Simply entering and exiting the area is a difficult and often risky endeavor. That’s why As Our Own is grateful to have a presence in the heart of this darkness. Miraculously, God has opened a door, connecting us to the mothers enslaved there. Our staff is actively present, rescuing the children from second- generation enslavement." As Our Own rescues girls from this extreme poverty. Mothers contact them about their child, and they become part of the family. These mothers do an extremely selfless thing to save their precious daughters.

The heartbreaking reality is that 95% of the girls born in the red-light districts of India will become enslaved there for life. They will live there and die there after a lifetime of neglect, abuse, exploitation, and enslavement. That is, unless someone rescues that little girl before she is sold.

For the first five years of Avishi’s life, it looked like she would follow this tragic pattern. She was born in the red-light district because her mom is enslaved there. They made their home in the basement of a seven-story brothel. It was dark and dreary and lifeless. This is no place for a child to grow up.

At 5 years old, Avishi was already approaching the age of sale into the trade. Children as young as 6 and 7 years old are being sought because of the myth that sex with child-virgins are a cure for AIDS. Avishi needed to get out of this treacherous situation before it was too late.
As Our Own staff connected with Avishi’s mom and shared how Avishi could grow up in a secure and safe environment. Recently, As Our Own staff orchestrated the rescue and brought Avishi out of the horrors in the red-light district. Since becoming part of the As Our Own family, her aptitude for learning has been nurtured and encouraged; she loves school and has become a top student earning high honors. She dreams of becoming a doctor—a dream that would have never been possible had she not been rescued from that brothel basement.

These girls are raised by As Our Own as if they were their own daughters. They are raised as part of a family, in a house safe from the sex trade. I think that this is something beautiful.

Project:
I Will Run: 10 Girls. 10 Stories. 10 Cities. (You have no idea how much I wish I was a runner so that I could do this.) They have chosen 10 half marathons in the next year and have a girl to represent each. This gives a reason to getting all hot and sweaty and gross! Choose a half marathon, join the team, and then raise awareness and funds. They ask each person to try and raise $750 for "their girl". Will you run for her?

Change: Your Faith Journey

Now, before I get started here, let me clarify for a minute. By "changing your faith journey", I do not mean that you need to do a 180 and become an atheist. So not my goal here. We want to make our relationship with God better, not worse. By changing our faith journey, I mean, maybe it's a time to take a step back and look at our relationship with our Creator. Where is it going? Where do we want it to go? Let's take a minute and, as I like to say, DTR (that means define the relationship, Mom and Dad).

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Wrong things bring us farther away from the place we want to be. C.S Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that “if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer…progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.” If we continue down the wrong path, then we just get farther and farther away from our intended destination. Trying to pretend we are going the right direction and refusing to turn around will not get you to your intended destination. If you are trying to drive from Michigan to Alabama driving on an Interstate going north, you are not going to get there. You must go south. No matter how much you think you can go that way- you can't. Another biblical scholar I admire, Andy Stanley, says “Your direction, not your intention determines your destination”. Turning around and going back towards the end goal is the quickest way to get there. The sooner we turn back, the sooner we will reach the place we want to get. If our faith journey is headed away from God, we need to do a u-turn.

Reflections:

• What parts of your journey do you need to do a u-turn on? 
• Where do you need to stop before you go any further and make sure you are headed in the right direction?
• Where do you wish you were at this point in your journey and how can you get there? Make a plan and write it out. Then, stick it somewhere (like your journal) so that you will see it. Set deadlines for reaching certain goals. Accountability is also a great idea. Find a trusted friend, show them your list, and ask them to how you accountable for it!

Change: Your Fears

For as long as I can remember, fear has been a part of my life. While some people called me a cautious child, I think it would have been better to go with “fearful”. I didn’t like being away from my parents. This meant I was not a fan of slumber parties and that overnight Girl Scout camp was an absolute disaster. There are even silly things that I was scared of. For example, I didn’t like getting my feet dirty. While I still don’t enjoy walking around barefoot, now it’s more a sanitary issue because I live in a dorm. My parents like to tell a story of when I was a preschooler. I was walking around outside, but every time I would take a step; I would stop to wipe the dirt and sand off of my feet. This obviously should tell you that I didn’t have any half-dressed baby pictures where I was playing in the mud! As I grew older, my fears grew more serious. I was scared of failure. I always wanted to succeed and be well liked. The most important thing to me in school was that my teacher like me and that I got good grades. That was the measure of a successful year for me. Sadly, this was not always achieved.

It’s strange. I have very few happy memories from my childhood. I remember a preschool program where I refused to go on stage, but even at that age I was scared of disappointing my parents. I remember being terrified the night my baby brother was born. (Hey, you would too if it was the middle of the night and you woke up in a car!) I remember in third grade arguing with two girls that I “thought” were my best friends over a photograph of the three of us. There were only two copies of the picture, and I thought that by securing that picture I was securing my place in that friendship. I remember my sixth grade teacher yelling at me. I remember “friends” that ran away laughing at me. You would think I had a horrible childhood if you just looked at these stories. But, I didn’t. I have two amazing parents that love me and have been married for twenty-five years. I didn’t come from a broken home. I have two younger brothers that show me their love and affection by annoying me. I graduated from high school third in my class. I have had the opportunity to go to college. I live a blessed life. I have a life that many people dream of, yet, this “perfect child” still struggles.

Fears of inadequacy.

Fears of failure.

Fears of what might happen.

Fears of what might not happen.

These fears have been a part of my everyday life. For twenty years, I accepted my fears as reality and lived a life of fear. But, as I entered my twenty-first year of life, I realized that a life of fear is not what God intended for my life. I want to live a life that is happy and that doesn’t fear the coming days, but rather embraces the present and runs with it.

I guess what makes all of these fears lies is the fact that God is bigger than any fear that I could ever conjure up. Satan preys on my fears and manipulates them to make me think that I am unworthy of the gospel. But, this is so not true. Here’s the thing. We can never be “good enough”. In Romans, it says that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Salvation comes from faith alone. It isn’t about me being “good enough”. It’s about his wonderful, magnificent love for is. In the Message translation of Psalm 36: 5-7 it says that

God’s love is meteoric. His loyalty astronomic, his purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness, nothing gets lost; not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. How exquisite your love, O God!

This passage stirs up so many emotions within me. Sometimes I think that I am so small in the grand scheme of things. I mean, think about the size of the universe. It’s huge. Would the God that created the Milky Way ever notice if I was having a crisis? The psalmist answers that question with a resounding YES! I am not too small for God to notice. He created me, so he loves me! He loves me, even though I am unworthy. My fears of inadequacy are useless. In the light of sin, we are all unworthy. Yet, God still sent his son to die for us. Wow. That’s huge. Why should I fear that I’m useless, unworthy, or a failure? Jesus died for me. He thinks I’m everything. Wasting our lives by worrying doesn’t make anything any better. I don’t know about you, but worrying just stresses me out. Rather than worry, we should place our trust in the Creator. We can trust that he will never leave us. He will never abandon us. He stands with his arms wide open saying, “Come child. Come here and let me hold you. Let me wrap my arms around you. Relax. Don’t be afraid, because I have a marvelous plan for your life. Trust me on this one.” I take comfort in this thought. The thought that a God, so big and mighty that he can create the stars, would take time out of his day to comfort me. Wow. That is amazing!

Maybe you don’t know where I’m coming from in all of this. Maybe you live one of those “perfect lives” that I dream of. I don’t know. But, I do know that pursuing perfection is not as easy as it sounds. It is probably the hardest act to pull off. Even when things look great on the outside, sometimes the stuff that’s on the inside, isn’t as pretty. We try so hard to make others think that we have it all together because we think that this will make us seem like we are better Christians. We get it inside of our heads that God will love us more if we live perfect little lives. We hide inside ourselves thinking that if we don’t show everyone the pain that we hold inside that it will all go away. But, this is not how it works. What happens is that we find that we can’t keep up the act. The façade falls down. The masked are unmasked. Before we know it, everything we’ve hidden away comes to light and everyone knows our dirty little secrets. I think it’s time to rebel against perfection. I think it’s time to let others see what’s going on. I think it’s time to let our lives become open books so that we can encourage others. 

So, let's rebel together. Let's conquer those fears. Let's face the facts. Let's encourage each other to keep the faith and finish the race.