Sponsoring Hope.

A couple of years ago, BFF Jami and I found ourselves staring at a table full of faces. We were working summer camp at Crossroads, who had a strong relationship with an organization called New Missions. I had approached Jami to consider sponsorship with me and for a week we prayed about it separately.

Isn't it funny that we had to pray about it? I mean, after all as Francis Chan says, "Did God tell you to watch TV last night?"


ahem.



So the Table. The Table full of little faces. Some smiling, some looking cute, some royally ticked off because they had to get a picture made. Some whose eyes felt like they were boring a hole through my soul.

As we scanned the Table, it became clear to me in a hurry which little one would be ours. It was a little girl with about fifty baby barrettes in her hair, and they were all neon colored. She had dark brown eyes and she was not smiling. In fact, maybe it was my imagination but she looked like she had a little attitude.


Come to mama!



Without saying a word, a moment later Jami picked up the photo of the little girl with the massive amounts of barrettes. She scanned her profile and said, "Her name is SARAH."

Jami knew that I love the name Sarah because it means Princess. I always call my nieces Princess and I had always wanted to name a daughter that, but it's so popular in the US that I didn't want her to be one of forty Sarahs in her school or something. So the fact that this little one's name was Sarah was complete confirmation!

Her full name is Sarah Prosper. She was four years old when we picked up that photo.


I have never once regretted that decision.

We started corresponding with Sarah and sending her pictures and other things. Our lives have never been the same.


About a year after we started sponsoring Sarah, I had the privilege of going to New Missions to see the ministry firsthand and to spend a week with the Haitian people. I was scheduled to meet Sarah and her mom on Thursday, but God had other plans. People had been fasting and praying for me daily on the trip, and the biggest blessing would come on Wednesday of that week.

My journal:

We came back and had an opportunity to purchase good from the local Haitians. This was partly frustrating because we could not give everyone business and some of them were pretty aggressive.
But then, the coolest part of the whole trip came. I walked toward one of the shops and almost ran into someone as I was looking down and walking (not a good plan) around to find Seth a nativity. I looked up at the man with whom I had collided and immediately began to apologize in the most broken form of Creole ever heard.
He looked at me for a minute.
Then he said, "You have child?"

People, I am a slightly rotund individual, but even I had not had that many bowls of beans and rice.

Trying not to become offended, I was thinking in my head, "Was that a Haitian fat joke?"
Finally I shook my head no. He then said,

"No. You have Haitian child. Sarah."

It took me a second for it all to come together.

"Yes!" I said. "How did you know?"


He responded, "Sarah is my sister. There she is, right over there."

Perched on the wall separating New Missions from the Village of Bord Mer was my little princess, wearing a bathing suit and nothing else. Her brother's name was Charles, and he had recognized me from the picture we sent. What are the odds?

But then again, why am I surprised?


I promised to take Sarah to the clinic later that day due to a skin problem she had (NM covers all healthcare procedures) and I kissed her and told her I would see her then.

So I thought!
We went to a church service and Scott (team leader) tapped me on the shoulder. "Is that Sarah?" He asked.

Sure enough, it was. So I got her and took her to sit with me. As we stood and sang Trading My Sorrows, and as Sarah clung to me like a koala and would not let me put her down, tears of joy rained down my face at God's amazing blessings and His extra grace to give me the chance to meet Sarah and spend extra time with her.

****************

Through my experiences with Sarah, I have learned how amazing it is to sponsor a child. So when my friend Nicole decided to go on the World Race for a year, I wanted to contribute to her mission trip. We were discussing how I could do that, and then I remembered Jose.


Nicole has been sponsoring a little boy from Nicaragua named Jose through Compassion International for a few years now. In our apartment, his picture hung and we spent time praying for our sponsored kids (although not nearly enough!). I saw his sweet face daily and I knew that as Nicole was working hard to raise funds so that she could meet the needs of people all over the world who are just like Jose, someone had to be this little boy's sponsor for a year to free up Nicole's finances. Just for this year, i get the honor of meeting Jose's needs.

Now Nicole is heading to Nicaragua tomorrow on a 17-hour bus ride. She will be spending a month there Would you join me in prayer that Nicole will have the same experience as I did? Please pray that somehow, God would work a miracle and she would get to meet Jose!



Also, I would like to ask you to consider getting involved with child sponsorship. For just a few dollars a day, you can have the blessing of reaching a child with the love of Jesus Christ. With a little sarificial giving, you can sponsor HOPE in a child's life. If you have children, it's a great project to help the understand God's love for the nations and to teach them about giving.

One more thing, some Compassion Bloggers are set to hit El Salvador in the next few days. They will be blogging their experiences and I encourage you to take time to read their stories.



For your comment consideration:
How are you reaching out?
If you're not, how are you going to?



What if we?

Updates and News.

Just some stuff--


1. My dear friend Andy is working diligently and putting his graphic design skills to good use as he works on the design for my website and blog. Pray for him as he seeks inspiration--I want women to feel welcome when they find the site! I am hoping that God will provide the finances and make the path straight to have the website up and running by the first of the year!! I covet your prayers toward this end as it is my desire to be able to minister to women all over the US and this will be the best way to connect with those looking for a speaker for their event.

2. I can now officially announce that I will be a part of Crossroads Worldwide's team to Arizona/Colorado in April of 2009! We will be ministering to the Navajo Nation, which is especially exciting as this particular group is a matriarchal society, which hopefully means I will be able to preach and lead in some ways I could not in other cultures. BUT BLOGGEROTSKY, I need your help! I am looking for creative ideas on how to raise the funds. For my Haiti trip I sent out support letters, and if it comes to that I can do it again, but I would really like to minister to women and share my heart for missions and raise money for the trip at the same time! So if you have suggestions, let me know asap....
Tiny "That Girl..." moment: They were having trouble filling the trip so I mentioned to Seth that he might want to pray about going. He kept asking me when, and I emailed him the dates, etc...Well, I didn't really check it over, I just knew I was supposed to go and signed up without really thinking about it. Today, I get an email from my sweet guy, and it says, "Lauren dear, I would love to go except it's over EASTER."
Can you just hear Ted Bessell saying "THAT GIRL"?
Welcome to his poor life...


3. I am not patient. I read on someone's blog today that it means that I think my time is more important than someone else's, which is a sign of pride. Pray that my pride will continue to die as I learn to have more patience.

Haiti Journal Entry #2 (Sunday, June 8)

Today we worshiped with the New Missions church/school established in Mare Chel (sp?). The most beautiful moment during service was communing with the Haitian church. It was a true lesson in the heart of family-not what color you are, but to Whom you belong.

Communion is always a level playing field-

virtually the only table where

everyone's need is the same.

We did some ministry during a walk-through of a village called La Salle. A little boy named Divertilis (sounds like Diverticulitis, I know...) came up to me and grabbed my hand. He had mixed motives, though as my sunglasses were very appealing to him!! He finally just straight up asked me for them! (I couldn't give them away per NM rules) But he did have a sweet spirit...begging is just the only thing he knows. That why New Missions encourages us to ignore the begging. It's better if we use our resources to support NM and help them help the Haitians make a better life, and in the process, perhaps begin to break the strongholds of their begging culture.

Divertilis and me...wearing my Walk #36 T-shirt, which I left in Haiti so that they would know how Great our God is!!

Speaking of a better life, I saw a well today-the fruit of George DeTellis's perseverance. Because he believed God, hundreds and hundreds of Haitians have clean drinking water thanks to an Artesian spring and Unicef. You see, George had some people come down and drill for water. The Mennonites who answered God's call and brought their drills down hit rock bed at about 160 ft. George begged them to keep on drilling, because he BELIEVED that God had told him to buy this land. The family fasted and prayed that God would give them water on the compound. Then suddenly, the water began flowing so fast that it FLOODED the compound and today powers many other villages with clean water, which eradicates approx. 50% of preventable diseases. Talk about Living Water!! And this is the stuff you get in Fiji water bottles, by the way. I believe it's becaus of the DeTellis family's faithfulness to put water in a village before they got one on the coompound. Seeing the children gather around this well (that will NEVER run out, hallelujah...) and dance in the water and put their faces up to it to get sprayed filled my heart with emotion. I wish I had better words than "God is good."

There was a guy that Charlie introduced us to in the village of Mare Chel. He is the son of a NM employee. He has a horrible leg injury and the NM clinic is trying to save his leg. I prayed over him and I believe Godwill use his story to convince Haitians, who are known to be superstitious, just how great our God really is.

Another person I met today was an abnormally young Grandma. In fact, I thought she was the child's mother. Louise translated for me as I discovered that the baby was six months old and he mother had passed away at 19. I began to cry under my sunglasses. I know what that's like. No one could see my tears, but I wept for love of this sweet baby who would never know his own mama. All of the things she would never see him do or accomplish.

You are admittedly awesome, Lord, but I just don't get You sometimes. Or Your ways. But I believe You are the definition of what's good, and that's why I can put my hope in You. Although that baby and myself are both motherless, I believe that you have good plans for us. This explains why I even got the opportunity to meet that baby in the first place. Your good plans included New Missions for both of us. And this little boy will have a good education and food and health care because You are working in the lives of the Haitians. And in mine. The circumstances may not seem like it, but I choose to believe Your Word. For that little baby.

And for me.

Haiti Journal Entry #1 (Saturday June 7)

Driving through Port-Au-Prince today was an experience unlike any other. The poverty is the most substantial I have encountered. The overwhelming stench was the smell of raw sewage in the hot streets, but a sweet English woman named Louise brought me back to "Kingdom Reality" when she commented that the odor was probably more like an aroma to Jesus-this was a convicting moment for me--to remember the love Jesus has for the poor (the poor in spirit, the poor in possessions, the poor in faith, the poor in grace, the poor in love....surely that includes you and me as well....)


I fell asleep for part of the bumpy bus ride, but I know I awakened at the precise moment to be encouraged by the Lord. The Haitian children that live near the compound (a lot of them are New Missions students) smiled at us broadly and waved at us as we drove by. The love that shone in their eyes glinted in the sun and was one of the most beautiful sights these sore eyes ave seen in a good little while.

In all seriousness, sometimes when I see the extreme poverty that challenges my heart, I wonder, "What can I do? How can I even make a small dent in the huge obstacles that keep the sweet Haitian people from their dreams of providing for their families and having full bellies at night. Does it even matter that I spend a week here?" Then I read the story in John 6:1-26 of the little boy who offered the tiny bit of food in his basket.

"...that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." -Phillip (the Msg)

Little is much when God is in it--so that gives me cause to believe that my little basket (if I offer it up) can be used to "feed" (spiritually, emotionally, physically) people here or at home or wherever.

"All ate as much as they wanted..."

We were possilby overwhelmed by the many and varied needs of these precious people, but God is never overwhelmed by people's needs. In fact, it's just the opposite. He desires that we make our needs known to Him even when He already knows them to begin with.

So my need this week is for God to take my little offering and make it much.