When God first grabbed ahold of me on this issue I would find myself automatically linking bible verses or messages to how it related to human trafficking.  I would see bible verses I had read before, but suddenly I was looking at them with a different perspective.

I still find this happening now.  This past Sunday's message at church was no exception. 

As I listened to what it means to be so overtaken by Christ’s love that you’re compelled to take spiritual risks to reach others, I began to think of our outreach efforts to those who are or have been sexually exploited.  This message really captures the heartbeat of our ministry and what we do, how we see others and our mission of compassion towards them.

Is it risky?  Yes.  Do we sometimes fail?  Yes.  But we are a group of people who are overwhelmed by love, by grace and are inspired by faith to not sit on the sidelines.  We feel compelled to take a risk.

Reconciled People, Reconcile People
This is the heartbeat of our ministry.  We want these women to know there is a God who loves them.  For them to be drawn closer to Him and his plan for their life.  To be reconciled to a God who loves and cherishes them.  We want them to begin to see themselves through his eyes - a daughter of the Most High King. 

We Are Instinctively Curious
We ask more questions, we desire to dig deeper.  We want to learn their story and see how we can help. Our hearts long to connect the puzzle pieces and connect them to the resources that can best help them.

We Are Spirit Filled Story Hackers
We meet the girl right where she is, in her place of brokenness.  Our desire is to turn her story from one of fear and despair into one of hope and encouragement.  We long to shine the light of Christ into her dark world.  We want her to recognize there is a way out and to provide hope in a situation that may very well seem hopeless to her.

We Are Kingdom Ambassadors
Our mission is to represent everything that Jesus was for.

To watch the message go Here

Imagine A World Where Every Little Girl Owns A New Dress

I mentioned in one of my first posts that when I first heard about trafficking I didn't know where or how to get involved.  One of the things that God layed on my heart to get involved in was sewing dresses into pillowcases for Dress A Girl Around The World.   At the time, I didn't know how this would work, how I would get the materials or even how I would get the volunteers.  But God knew.

Each summer, our church has a summer camp for kids up to 5th grade.  Last summer they wanted the kids in summer camp to have a serving project built into a portion of their day at camp.  They heard about what I was wanting to do with the sewing project and asked if we could partner together.  From that partnership God provided enough pillowcases and trim materials to make over 175 dresses!  We are still using the kits those little hands put together for us last summer.  Along with God providing the dresses he also provided an opportunity for over 175 kids to hear about little girls in Africa who don't own even 1 dress.

We have been doing the sewing circle monthly.  Everyone brings their sewing machine and supplies and we have a time of fellowship, devotion and sewing.  There's a soft hum of machines if you walk by our room on a Tuesday night.  My passion for this ministry is still strong, but the number of people attending each month has slowly been dwindling.  I was starting to get discouraged and began to wonder if  maybe this was not where the Lord wanted me to be serving.  After our sewing group last month I prayed once again for God to use me how he wanted. 

God continues to show himself in amazing ways!  This week I received an email that our pastor was going to be mentioning our ministry at one of the weekend services.  Another person, not knowing this, inquired about me dropping off some of the dresses that have already been made to have on display during our Celebration of Hope. 

This is such an encouragement to me and a renewed sense of faith.  God is opening doors for more people to hear about our ministry.   I pray that more volunteers will be inspired to join our sewing circle and that more dresses can be sent to those sweet little girls in Africa. 

What if every little girl in the world owned at least one dress? 

What if that dress was sewn by you?

Prayer Pail: God is Faithful

I found this idea on Pinterest last year and absolutely loved it.  You use craft sticks and write the names of people you want to pray for.  These can be friends, family, teachers, neighbors, military, countries, leaders.  The list goes on.  Who couldn't benefit from prayer?  We did this as our lent activity last year.  We had our pail sitting on our dinner table and each night we would all pick a stick (or two) and pray for the person we chose. 

This was a great family bonding and teaching tool all at the same time.  We were able to guide our kids in praying for others and praying out loud.  It was rewarding to see them grow in those areas.

While doing it this year I was struck by how those prayers were answered and how faithful God is.
At this time last year my husband and one of our neighbors were out of work so their names were in the pail.  My husband got a job shortly after and it was one he is able to work from home.  I can't tell you how much of a blessing that has been.
God is faithful.

Our neighbor who was out of work has also gotten employment.  God's timing was a little longer in this situation, but his faithfulness is apparent.  This neighbor had been working on and off with contract work to fill the gap in his unemployment.  With contract work you are not an actual employee of the company you are working for and you receive no benefits. Some of these were in the city and were a long commute making for a very long work day.  He now has full time employment very close to home.  God is faithful.

Also at this time last year, my son was having trouble with another boy at school who was bullying him.  It had even gotten to the point of being physical.  So that boys name went into the pail.  The bullying stopped and the remainder of the school year went smoothly.  God is faithful.

There are many stories of prayer and how God has shown his faithfulness.  I would love to hear yours.


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Press on Toward the Goal

Genesis 25:19-34  is the story of Esau and Jacob.  Twin brothers born to Isaac and Rebekah.   Twin brothers who were quite opposites.  Esau grew up to become a skillfull hunter who loved the outdoors.  Jacob was a quiet man who preferred to stay home.   Esau was oder and as the firstborn son he was entitled to the birthright.  The birthright came with many blessings including a double portion of his fathers inheritance and the blessings promised to Abra­ham and his seed.  It was something to be valued.

"You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸ The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Gen 17:1-8)

The bible tells us that one day when Jacob was cooking some stew Esau came in from the open field and was famished.  He asks Jacob for a bowl of the stew. Jacob agrees to give him some, but only if Esau sells him the birthright.  Esau's response was  “Look, I am about to die.  What good is the birthright to me?”  Talk about being dramatic!  Esau is surely not about to die.  Most likely he had been out hunting and I imagine he came back with some wild game.  But it would need to be prepared and cooked.  It would take time.  Jacob's food was ready NOW and Esau was hungry.

Esau was focused on the short term goal of feeding his hunger.  He took his eyes off the eternal.  Instant gratification.  I want what I want and I want it NOW.  He placed more value on his immediate need of hunger than on his God-given blessing.  Esau did not value the things of God and sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.

Can you relate?  I can.  One way I can relate to Esau is in my struggle to lose weight.  When I am hungry I am focused on what I want right that moment and not what I want my end result to be.  I choose the chips or that brownie.  I want to feed my hunger NOW and my goal of a healthier version of me gets pushed to the back burner.


We live in a world that seeks instant gratification and pleasure.  We pace as the microwave cooks our meal, we fast forward through the commercials, we want the fastest internet speed, the shortest line at the grocery store.  If we are not careful, we can lose sight of what's important (the eternal) and get lost on what we want right now (the earthly.)  We can begin to seek that which brings immediate (temporary) pleasure rather than what brings everlasting pleasure and the blessings of God. 

The bible later calls Esau Godless (Heb 12:16).  I don't want to be like Esau.  My prayer is that I be focused on the things of God. To not lose sight of what is important.

And in the words of the apostle Paul in Phil 3:14 I pray that we press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.


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My Hairbrush Story

I read Beth Moore's hairbrush story years ago.  It's the story of Beth's prompting to brush the long, matted hair of an old man in a wheelchair at the airport when she was waiting for a flight.   It's a powerful story and I think of it often when I brush my daughters hair and have to start from the bottom to get all the tangles out. 

Just a few days ago, I had my own “hairbrush story.”  I had just finished working and had to pick up a few things at the grocery store.  I was trying to hurry because my mother in law was visiting and I wanted to get home so she wasn't home alone too long while the kids were in school and my husband was working.  I'm rushing my way through the store when I notice a man in pushing himself in his wheel chair with one hand and pushing around the grocery cart in the other.  I felt a gentle tugging at my heart, and thought "I should help that man shop."  I had already passed the aisle he was in so I told myself that I would go back around and if he was still there I would ask him if he needed help.

I had never done anything like this before.  I have always wanted to "hear God's voice", but if I ever had a prompting from God before, I either did not notice or pushed it aside and ignored it.   So with my heart beginning to beat a bit faster I went back towards the aisle I had seen him.  To be honest, I was actually kind of hoping he wasn't still there.  Well, not only was he still there, but he was directly in front of the coffee.  This was significant to me because I don't drink coffee.  Whenever my in-laws come to visit I have to make it a point to buy coffee to have for them.  I had completely forgotten to put it on my list for my mother in laws visit and seeing this man directly in front of the coffee felt like this has to be God telling me to do this.

So I put my coffee in the cart and mustered up the courage to ask him if he needed help.  He seemed shocked to hear someone offering to help him as his response was "Well, if you want to."  I told him I would be glad to.  I left my own half empty cart there in the aisle and took over pushing his cart.  He only needed two more items.  The first one was simple enough.  It was just a few aisles over.  The second one, however, was on the completer opposite side of this super size store.  "Really, God?
You know I'm kind of in a hurry, right?"  I could almost hear him say "Patience, my dear child."  And as I am making my way across the store pushing a strangers cart I realize how hard this would have been for him to do this on his own.  I feel selfish for my inner grumbling of having to go to the other side of the store.  I help him get the last item and take his things up to the register.  I'm reminded of the Beth Moore story and wonder if I am supposed to ask him if he knows Jesus.  I consider just telling him that Jesus loves him, but instead I just opt for telling him to have a great day.  He offered to pay me, but I of course wouldn’t accept any money.  That's not why I offered to help him. 

I don't write this to boast about my good deed.  It just made me wonder how many times have I heard God tell me to do something, but I didn't obey?  Perhaps I need to be more aware of God speaking to me and have a willing heart to obey.  To be willing to step out of my own hurried little world and be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Imagine how many people would be blessed if each of us did just that. 

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Striving to be More Like Abraham

I mentioned in my very first post that my reason for creating this blog was to raise awareness around the issue of human trafficking.  I have had several promptings to sew dresses out of pillowcases.  And while I have followed the promptings, I must admit that I have been slow in responding to them.  Sadly, I have been more like Moses than Abraham.  Look at his response when God appeared to him in the burning bush and calls Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt:

• Moses gives God excuses why he isn't the one for the job. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?"   (Ex 3:11)
• He questions in fear "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?"  (Ex 4:1)
• Moses doubts his abilities and pleads with God  "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent..."   (Ex 4:10)

I too questioned my abilities. I struggled with wondering if another cause might be more beneficial.  Something that would be more direct in helping the girls.  But the reality is that if even one girl avoids being sold then my effort will be worth it.  If it comforts just one girl that has already been victimized then my effort will be worth it. 

So I told my husband that I was just going to set a date for the first event because if I didn't then it might never happen.  I would be letting fear hold me back from serving God. I am trying to follow Abrahams lead and step out in faith.  When God called Abraham in Gen 12:1, he asked Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father's household.  His only instructions for where Abraham was to go were "to the land I will show you."  Abrahams response in Gen 12:4 was to follow God's call wholeheartedly. No questions asked.  Scripture tells us that Abraham packed up ALL his possessions.  He was fully committed to following God and had no intentions of returning.  I am striving to be more like Abraham. 

So the date for the first event is set.  January 12th.  I am trusting God to bring the people, provide enough sewing machines and to make the event a success which will ultimately be for His glory.  I am nervous.  As I mentioned in my first post, I do not sew.  But I am trusting God and am clinging to this verse:

Romans 10:11  "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

When is enough enough?

It's happened.  Once again.  Same as it happens this time every year.  I love Christmas.  It's my favorite holiday.  But working in retail really puts it in a different perspective for me.  I work as a vendor for one of the major card companies and every year about this time it hits me and I get a little depressed.  It's because of all the "stuff."  I remember the first year I worked for them and the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I actually thought I may have to quit my job because it was bothering me so much.  I understand the theory behind what they do, but it bothers me never the less.  I know that the more places you have your Christmas items placed throughout the store the better your sales are going to be, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit excessive.  I remember setting 24' of Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving and then having to set up more in the seasonal aisle. Then still more in the "Christmas Shoppe."   More, More, More.   When is enough enough?  Christmas has evolved into such a consumer driven materialistic holiday.  Turn on the TV and you are bombarded with ads aimed at gaining your purchases this year.  We shop for things we don't really need.  More "stuff."  Much of which often get returned anyway. 

The amount of money America spends on Christmas is astounding. 
What America Spends on Christmas

America spends an average of $450 billion a year every Christmas. 10 percent of that is spent on lights and electricity.  We decorate our trees with lights and the outside of our houses with lights when nearly 1/4 of the worlds population doesn't even have access to electricity. It's hard for me to wrap my head around that.  How am I so blessed to have born in a country that is blessed beyond measure when so many in the world have so little? 

I see people with shopping carts loaded to the brim and I am left trying to reconcile the worlds view of Christmas driven by consumerism with the true meaning of Christmas where God became man in the form of tiny baby.  To reconcile the racing, shopping and busyness of Christmas today with the Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable. 

Picture the manger scene for a moment.  Every rendition of the manger scene paints us a picture of peace, tranquility and humbleness.  The lyrics to many Christmas songs also reflect this view...

Silent Night:
Silent Night, Holy Night
All is Calm
All is Bright

It came upon a Midnight Clear:
Peace on earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

O little town of Bethlehem:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;

Hark the heraId angels sing:
Hark the heraId angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled

Reflect on your shopping list, card list, baking list or your party list for a moment.  Picture yourself at the mall looking for parking or in the midst of a busy store shopping for one of those presents..  How do you feel? What words come to mind?  Perhaps these are some of the words you thought of:  Hectic, Rushed, Chaotic, Noisy, Busy, Stressed.

Now reflect on the words from the songs mentioned above: 
Peace, Gracious, Solemn Stillness, Angels singing, Still, Silent, Glory, Peace, Mercy, Reconciled. 

Two very different feelings.  Are you experiencing more of the first or the second?

Look with me at another Christmas song.
What Child is This
So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come, peasant, king, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone him.

At the heart of Christmas is LOVE.  God sent his only son because he loved us.

1 John 4:9-10  "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

We exchange gifts with one another as a token of our love.  It is a relection of the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.  These gifts were given in adoration and worship of the newborn King.

Incense - burnt in worship of God
Gold - symbol a king
Myrrh - a sign of being mortal - used for annointing the dead

On a side note: Did you know that the bible does not say there were 3 wise men? This is something assumed from the fact that 3 gifts were presented to the baby Jesus. (see Matthew 2:11)

 

3 Gifts.  Not carts full of gifts. 

 

In closing, let me bring you back to another Christmas song.  It's one of my favorites.

 

Joy to the World:

Joy to the world

The Lord is come

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart

Prepare Him room.

And heaven and nature sing.

 

This Christmas, in the midst of planning, shopping and baking I pray that you are taking time to prepare your heart.  Preparing room for Jesus.  To consider the wonder of the true meaning of Christmas.   The wonder of that Holy, Sacred, Glorious birth some 2000 years ago in a lowly stable.  I pray you experience more peace and stillness and less noise and stress.


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A Wise Woman Builds Her Home,  Mercy Inc and Deep Roots at Home

 

 

What God wants for Christmas

It's definitely Christmas season.  Parking is getting harder to find at the stores.  The weekly ads are thicker and longer.  We've got our shopping lists of who we need to buy for and what we want to get them.  I'd be willing to bet that Jesus is not on our shopping lists.  What gift we can give TO Jesus?   I love doing "What God wants for Christmas" with my kids. We have done this every year since they were young and they still enjoy it now that they are older. Our pop-up nativity has to be propped up because the tabs have long since lost their sturdyness, but the message is still the same.

What God wants for Christmas is a boxed kit that comes with a pop-up manger, an illustrated story book and 7 little Christmas boxes. Inside boxes 1-6 are different figurines for the nativity scene. Box #7 reveals what God want from you. After reading the part of the story that corresponds with each box, the child opens that box and places it in the nativity scene. You can do one present a day for 7 days or all in one sitting as a one time event. The story for each character reminds you along the way that in box #7 is a surprise and it's what God Wants for Christmas.
The boxes:

1) Angel

2) Mary

3) Joseph

4) Baby Jesus

5) Shepherd

6) Wise Man

7) Mirror (You)

What God wants for Christmas is YOU!   He wants your heart. He wants you to love Him just as He loves you and to extend that love to others. 

"My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways." Proverbs 23:26

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"What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
Give Him my heart."

by Christina Rossetti

 

For more ideas on remembering the reason for the season read my previous post

Keeping Our Focus On Him


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Keeping Our Focus on Him

Thanksgiving is behind us and most of us are now focused on Christmas.  This coming Sunday marks the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Ad·vent (noun)   The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important. 

Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts for the coming of something extremely important.  The coming of our savior.  The coming of our king.

This is one of my favorite Christmas pictures.  We have it as an ornament on our tree.  The Kneeling Santa.  This time of year everyone is focused on Santa.    But who is Santa focused on?  Baby Jesus. 

We spend so much time preparing, shopping and choosing the perfect gift for those we love.  We need to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift of all.  The presents we buy will be useful for a time and bring a moment of joy.  Those gifts will eventually be lost, broken, worn out or forgotten.  But the gift of Jesus is forever and His joy is eternal.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 

It's easy to get caught up with the busyness of Christmas.  We get busy with buying presents, wrapping presents, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies and attending parties.  This list goes on.  But without Christ there is no CHRISTmas. Let's keep our focus on Him.

Here are some suggestions for keeping our focus on Him:

• Do an advent study or family advent activities.  There are many books you can purchase that outline your activities or you can find one on-line.  Good Morning Girls has a free e-book you can download with some fun family activities to do.

•  Do an Advent Wreath.  If the thought of doing a study or activity every night seems too much to handle during this season of your life simply do the wreath.  We eat by dim lights and candle light each night and say a simple prayer relating to which week of Advent we are in.  The kids look forward to this every year now and have fun racing around to dim all the lights when it's time for dinner.

• Relect Him in your decorating.  Display a nativity scene.  If your kids are smaller check out the Little People Nativity.  It's great for kids to play with and act out the story without the worry of them breaking something.  Find a special ornament for the tree that reflects the reason for the season (like the one I mentioned above).  I also like to collect gold cross ornaments for the tree.

• Say Merry Christmas.  It saddens me now that so many people and stores are saying "Happy Holidays."  Be sure to wish them a "Merry Christmas."

• American Family Association produces a Naughty or Nice list of retailers each year. You might want to check the list and see which stores are "Christmas-friendly" in their advertising and which ones are censoring "Christmas."

• Make a birthday cake for Jesus and sing happy birthday to him on Christmas morning.

• Read The Christmas Story as a family before opening presents.  If not reading from the Bible, I like the Little Golden Book version the best.

• Say a prayer before opening presents.  We use this one as our guide before all the excitement of opening the gifts begins:  

Heavenly Father,

We gather surrounded by a wealth of signs, symbols and reminders.

Our home is decorated with signs of joy at the presence of Jesus among us.

Spread at our feet are gifts; symbols of the love we share.

We pray in gratitude for these gifts, and even more for the person giving the gift.

In each gift we see a sign of love.

Love that begins with you and finds it fullest expression in your own greatest gift to us:  your Son, Jesus.  Through him we pray in joy and thanksgiving on this Christmas Day.

• Read Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright and then bless a random family with a Christmas Jar. The Christmas Jar tradition was started in 2005 by the author and his family. He went on to publish his family's idea in this book which became a New York Times Best Seller and a new Christmas Classic.  This could be a great tradition to start with your family.

• Visit a living nativity scene if you have one in your area or watch The Nativity movie as a family

• Serve as a family.  Ring bells for the salvation army, Select a person from the Angel Tree, participate in a Coat Drive or Mitten Drive

• See a Christmas Play.  Every year our church does a children's production of a Christmas play.  If your church doesn't do this, check other area churches.  I'm sure one in your area will be doing one.

• Consider 3 gifts in relection of the 3 gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus.  There are many different variations of this.  If you do Santa, you can do 3 from Santa and 3 from family.  Or you can simply do 3 total gifts. 

• Reflect it in your shopping by supporting charity organizations.  There are many different organizations that support different causes.  Choose a cause that stirs something in your heart.  Here's what stirs mine.  Or as a family select a gift to bless someone in need. Here's what we're doing this year. 

However you choose to celebrate this year, keep your focus on Him and have a Merry CHRISTmas!


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