Going to Africa!!!!

I'm leaving for Africa on March 8th!!!!  Surprised?!  Me too :)  Our International Ministries Director thought Africa would be the best fit and timing for my next trip, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to go and minister alongside our missionaries while gathering material for stories and communications work!  I'll be going for two and a half weeks and spending time in Burundi, Mozambique and South Africa!


I've been rushing to get in touch with the missionaries there and make it to Burundi while a missionary named Michelle is still there.  She is an OMS missionary loaned to a ministry called Sister Connection, which connects widows in Burundi with sponsors in the U.S... pretty cool, huh?  Sounds like it's straight out of James and I can't wait to learn more about it!  I can't believe things are coming together so last minute, but all the field leaders have said it's a go... apparently, I'm the only one who thinks going on such short notice is a little crazy :)


All that being said, I'm longing for your PRAYERS right now!  It has been confusing for me to try and keep in touch and correlate with people in these three different countries, and we have yet to apply for my visas.  I have felt so out of my element in trying to figure out the procedure for planning a trip and coordinating the schedule when I'm going alone.  I'm so thankful for help from Bill at MFM in planning and booking my tickets!  Please be praying over the planning, communication and just that the Holy Spirit would give me peace and direction as I'm preparing and trying to pull things together.


It means so much to have you as a teammate in this ministry!!!  Thank you for making this ministry possible!

How's that for lunch on Super Bowl Sunday?

Did you know that more than 1 billion people are suffering from hunger daily?  And perhaps even more staggering—a child dies every 7 seconds because of hunger-related causes?

I walked into my apartment building Sunday afternoon and it smelled awesome—Amanda must have been cooking something good!  She and her husband have told me I always have an invitation to join them, but I shut the garage door and told myself, you have plenty of food upstairs for lunch.  It was then that I had to remind myself I’d already had lunch.

A bowl of corn/soy powder mixed with water. This was our lunch on Sunday.

A few weeks ago, Kate and Storly (who are leading our Sunday school class on "The Hole in our Gospel") told us we'd be having a lunch after class one day when our pastor could come, so that the class could ask him questions about how our church is responding to poverty and missions.

What they didn't tell us until the moment before we went into the next room is that this lunch would be the same corn/soy blend powder that World Vision sends to people groups suffering from hunger.

I’m so glad we had the opportunity to do this.  It’s hard to think that this is the relief we are sending, and obviously, we all had a much easier experience eating it than those who normally receive it.

For example, even just the fact that it was made with clean water, that we didn’t have to go fetch that water and that we had dishes to put it in, are all things that aren’t a given in the countries that receive this food aid.  Not to mention the fact that we all knew when our next meal was coming, and probably many of us even spent the evening eating more Super Bowl snacks than anyone needs.

Kate, who used to work for World Vision, got a hold of some of the powder and mixed it with water earlier that day.  It made for a grainy consistency, almost similar to that of grits, but this certainly tasted less substantial.  There were a few chunks in it.  Not chunks of food, just chunks of powder that had not been dissolved all the way.

If this doesn't sound very appetizing to you, consider this...at least there wasn't mud mixed in with ours.  In "The Hole in our Gospel," Stearns quotes an article from The New York Times:

     "In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically consumed only by the destitute. 'It's salty and it has butter and you don't know you're eating dirt,' said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often in recent months. 'It makes you're stomach quiet down.'"

Can you believe that?  Storly, who is Haitian, reassured us that this is true.  Kate, who has also lived in Haiti, said that this corn/soy powder mixture is made into cakes with mud and then sold in Port au Prince.

Speaking of Haiti, click here to read an amazing story!  The story is about Junior, one of the seminar students I spent time with in Port au Prince, and it is an awesome example of God's power.

This and That

Lots of updates around here as December and January have been exciting months in ministry! 

In December, I had the opportunity to share with the Black Culture Club at Bloomington High School South.  One of my college roommates is a teacher there and the club’s sponsor!  She proposed that the club focus on raising money for OMS Homes for Haiti in the new year, so I attended their Kwanzaa celebration and shared with them about my trip to Haiti and how their efforts will be making a difference in Haitian families’ lives!  I loved this opportunity to go meet these students, and I’m so excited to have them working on this project!

Miss Simon gave the students the chance to make a toast with the unity cup.  I loved when a student stood up and said..."Raise your glass if Miss Simon is the best teacher of all time!!!!"  It was so fun to see Steph in her element and watch her interact with her students.  She is using her strengths to make such an impact!!

I’m so excited to share with you that Jessica and I have our first articles in this issue of Outreach!!!  It’s also the first issue we’ve had the opportunity to help proof. Yay!  This is something I’ve been looking forward to contributing to since I started looking into this role two years ago!  Praise God that He has provided this opportunity and the funds needed to get this far!  I’m so thankful!

If you’d like to read the PDF version of the issue go to http://www.onemissionsociety.org/images/stories/pdf/outreach-jan.-apr.2011.pdf


If you’d like a print copy and to receive future issues, please email me!

We have a big answer to prayer in that we have hired a contracted web programmer!  Thank you for praying for this!  Our “web guy,” as we affectionately call him, isn’t in our office or an OMS missionary, but it is great to have him working on projects for our website!  Susan and I still manage content on our site, but it has been such a relief for us to be able to pass our more advanced projects on to Ron!

Also web-related, my editor decided to use two stories from this blog on the OMS website!  I had been hoping for the opportunity to share Miss Italienne’s story with more people, so I was excited to hear that she wanted to publish the two posts I wrote about Italienne on our website!

Check out the five new web stories posted this week at www.onemissionsociety.org!

Remember, Pray, Give

One year ago today, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti.  Its epicenter hitting the town of Leogane (16 miles west of Port-au-Prince), the quake took more than 230,000 lives and more than 1.5 million people are still living in tents a year later.  Some say Haiti has not even begun to recover, and the year since has been filled with other turmoil, including a devastating outbreak of cholera, which took more than 3,000 lives and infected 130,000 others.  In addition, the country has had to weather hurricane Tomas and chaos during the November 2010 election.

Please be praying with me for Haiti!  God is doing exciting things and providing, but there is still so much need.  If you’re interested in giving to Haiti, I’ve highlighted a few projects I’m familiar with.  Obviously, there are many other ways to give, but these are projects I have seen firsthand.  Whether it’s through praying, giving or just learning more, please take some action and remember Haiti and the suffering the people are going through. There are links under each project if you’d like to learn more!

Radio 4VEH- “The Evangelistic Voice of Haiti” started 60 years ago and has been a lifeline for many since the earthquake.  Not only does this station broadcast the gospel and Bible reading programs, but also vital information for survival and medical information in the midst of the Cholera outbreak.  While in Haiti, we distributed these solar-powered, pre-tuned radios in remote villages.  People everywhere had heard of 4VEH and shared with us about the Hope and help it provides.  Click here to learn more or give!

Starfish Kids- This is OMS’ child sponsorship program in Haiti.  For $25/month, you can sponsor a child’s education.  Your sponsorship covers the child’s tuition, uniform, books and breakfast.  Starfish Kids is impacting kids lives in many different schools.  It is my joy to help with this program from the US, and while visiting Haiti, I visited a few different Starfish Kids schools and spoke with parents and staff first hand about the difference it is making.  If you’re interested in giving a one-time gift, your contribution will help provide school supplies or teachers’ training.  Click here to learn more or give!

Haiti Relief Fund- New donations to this general relief fund for Haiti will contribute to the rebuilding of a church in Port-au-Prince.  Some of the fund will also go to Homes for Haiti.  The remainder of the money will go towards Cholera, future disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, etc.  To give to this general Haiti Relief Fund, click here!

Homes for Haiti- In a second wave of relief efforts, OMS’ Homes for Haiti is providing permanent housing for Haitian earthquake survivors.  If you’d like to read about the first recipient, go to my Nov. 29 and Dec. 11 blogposts.  Click here to learn more about the project or give!

Thank you for praying with me and remembering our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Beka

*The above photos of these ministries are pictures from our October 2010 trip to Haiti.

Messiness

I’ve been challenged a lot recently by others’ radical living.  A few weeks ago, I saw the video below, and it has stuck with me since.  I’ve been asking: how can I live like this, love like this, where I am?  The thing I love about this story is Sara and her roommate’s reckless abandonment of people’s normal concerns for their safety, stability and status, in order to just love on those in need.

Sara's Story from Trinity Grace Church on Vimeo.

The story’s not special because of where she is, it’s special because she made herself available to the need she saw and is applying the Gospel in her life regardless of what the world would view as her self-interest.

Another thing that’s been influencing this thought-process is reading Richard Stearns’ The Hole in our Gospel. The book is about Stearns’ experience and journey, leaving his position as CEO of Lenox (the fine china company) and accepting the position of President for World Vision.

Since returning from Haiti, I’ve started attending the church that the rest of the mission trip team was from.  They have each been such a blessing to me, and all except two of our Haiti teammates are participating in a Sunday school class on this book, The Hole in our Gospel.  There are several other people in class, too, and while I don’t know all of them well, one of the things I appreciate about them is none of them seem satisfied with staying where they are.  Everyone in the class expresses an interest to grow- to learn more of what God expects of us.

So far, this book has been in large part about how we respond to poverty and those in need.  In the first chapter, Stearns describes his reaction after returning from one of his first trips to Africa:

“The media overflowed with celebrity dramas, stock market updates, and Bill Clinton’s impending impeachment hearings.  But where were the headlines and magazine covers   about Africa?  Twelve million orphans, and no one noticed? But what sickened me most was this question: where was the Church? …How could the great tragedy of these orphans get drowned out by choruses praise music in hundreds of thousands of churches across our country?”

Isn’t it true that it’s much easier to stay in our own little bubble as Christians ministering to each other and turning a blind eye to those who are hurting around us?  This saddens me, and I’m guilty of it, too.

The truth is it’s easy to say we want to help, but it’s messy when you befriend someone trapped in a sin addiction; it’s messy when you embrace someone who is in the middle of so much brokenness, he can’t see which way is out; and it’s messy to move to the middle of a neighborhood where screaming and/or violence is a part of everyday life.

So why—when I’m in a place in my life where things are going pretty well, where I’m happy and feel like I’m at rest from striving and wrestling—would something like this video seem exciting to me?   Why would I be motivated by a 22-year-old girl saying she moved from a high-paying job to a neighborhood where “drugs, crime, gangs and prostitution are rampant and violence is a normal part of survival?”  Why am I drawn to stories that involve all this messiness?

As I thought about this on Christmas Eve, I realized it makes perfect sense why all of this would appeal to me… It is because my heart knows I need someone to do the same for me.  These true stories are a picture of what I think we all really long for. Someone to meet us in our mess, show us Light in the midst of our brokenness and give us Hope for something better.  I want my life to be a picture of this, too.

I’m drawn to Sara’s story because I think deep down it reminds me of Someone who had every right to stay in a perfect place free of brokenness and pain, was willing to enter the mess…and not only forgive my mess but run to meet me in the middle of it and enter our world of brokenness, knowing He would be stabbed in the back, but still deciding we were worth it.  That Someone is Jesus, who chose to be “God with us.”