What God Has Done in 18 Years

I do love to write still, but can't seem to get to this space for my usual fix. This week, however, I wrote out a personal testimony of submission to God for my middle schoolers in Trek class. We were finishing up an entire 7-week unit on submission.

Some of you have read a bit of my story before, but this is everything God has done in my life in the last 18 years, as written to the middle schoolers. It's long, but then, 18 years is a lot of lessons.

7 Weeks on Submission

Reviewing Concepts

1. The path to greatness is through serving.

2. We should aim not to be first, but to be last.

3. Christians need to tell factual stories of what God has done in the Bible, and about what he has done in our personal lives. Another word for these factual stories is testimonies.

4. It is not easy or always safe to be God’s servant.

5. Satan knows how to tempt us. He knows our desires, and he will tempt us all through life, especially when we are vulnerable (feeling weak). We can follow Jesus’ lead and defeat Satan just like Jesus did during his 40 days of temptation.

6. God’s servants will be rejected by the world.

A Personal Testimony about Submitting to God

I grew up in a non-Christian home and it wasn’t until age 31 that I came to know Christ as my personal Savior. I was single all that time, teaching first grade in the high desert of California, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles. After my ninth year of teaching--two years after I became a Christian--I married a Christian man, continuing classroom teaching for two more years after, during which I suffered a miscarriage in my fifth month of pregnancy. I waited a long time for a husband and family, and I wanted my baby more than anything. All my dreams were shattered when they told me during an ultrasound that my baby boy had no heartbeat—and this after I saw him doing flips on ultrasound a month earlier, seemingly healthy.

The miscarriage occurred only 17 months after my wedding day, and even though I was happily married, for several weeks I wanted Jesus to take me home. The baby seemed like everything to me and I just didn’t have hope anymore. People told me that such things occur to women all the time, and that I best just accept it and get over it—that I wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to suffer a miscarriage.

The facts are, about 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriages, and most of them before 12 weeks gestation.

My heart was broken and the callous remarks left me feeling emptier and more alone. Like Elizabeth in the Bible, I felt shame because my body didn’t perform as it was supposed to. I began noticing dozens of largely pregnant, happy women. Yes, it didn’t make sense, but I felt unworthy of being a woman. I trusted God and loved Him just as much even through the worst of the grief, but I had lost my innocence about happiness. Previously I thought that happiness was attainable—that everyone was going to experience happiness in some way. I felt entitled to happiness before that miscarriage.

I was desperate to be pregnant again. Really desperate, but it didn’t happen for five long months. In fact, it didn’t happen until I completely submitted to God in regard to my future as a mother. He might make me a mother, or He might not, but it was his story to write.  I might be happy for a time, or not, but it was His story to write. I was finally like Mary, saying to God…”Let it be to me as you say.”

I grew as a servant of God. I grew to understand that God promises His presence, His love, and His provision. He doesn’t promise that we’ll have everything we want, or even most of the things we want—including a spouse and family.  His purposes and His plan are higher than ours, and as his servants, we have to submit to that plan, no matter what it costs us.

I did get pregnant again, and finding out was the best day of my life!  I wept, while worshipping the God who gives and takes away, but would never forsake me.

The bliss didn’t last the whole pregnancy, for at the 20-week ultrasound they told me my baby had hydrocephalus (brain swelling) and a swollen kidney. Those first few days, I forgot all about my plan to submit to God, and I lamented…”How could this be happening, God! Why would you allow tragedy twice in a row?”

While I trusted God, I began to believe even further that as Christians we cannot anticipate happiness in earthly things. Children get sick. They die. Spouses die. Nothing is for sure. Only God is unchanging, ever-present, always loving, and always working for our good. He deserves all of our allegiance, even while our hearts are breaking.

Joy in Christ is always ours for the taking. But happiness is circumstantial—it depends on what’s happening in our lives. Happiness comes and goes.

Two days after our bad ultrasound news, a specialist could only confirm that my baby had swollen kidneys; there was no sign of brain swelling. We rejoiced, once more believing we might be parents yet. I dared to hope that everything would come out okay, and even though there were some pre-term labor problems, everything did come out okay. My baby was born at 37 weeks gestation. After birth, he had no kidney or brain problems.

Twenty-two months later I had another son, Paul. We were overjoyed.

After my first son was born, I had quit teaching full-time and started working part-time as a homeschooling facilitator in California, where our home was. My husband did not make enough for me to stay home, but God in his graciousness allowed me to work mostly from home. I had prayed desperately for months for the ability to stay home; to be a mother to the miracle in my arms was all I wanted. I now saw children as a gift, not as a right for every adult woman. Babies were placed in my arms by my loving Heavenly Father, and everything I did as a mother was an act of gratitude. 

God managed to give me a position that only required a babysitter for several hours a week, which was a miracle, for quitting work entirely wasn’t possible. My income was needed to avoid bankruptcy and defaulting on our obligations.

Though the situation was ideal, it wasn’t what I wanted for my children. It was just second best. There was a great deal of stress in trying to work as a mother of a baby and a toddler.

Little did I know, that God was at work still, planning to give me the desire of my heart.

I got pregnant again (third child) and since I was already having trouble keeping up with my professional work, I knew something had to change. I couldn’t be both a good mom and a good employee. My heart was at home and leaving my children for even a couple hours left me feeling extremely anxious. Some women can do both well (balance work and home), but God didn’t create me like that.

We put our 3-bedroom, modest California home up for sale in 2005. We had only owned a home for three years, but if it sold in that high-market period, we would have enough equity to pay off $26,000 in student loans, plus paying off two cars and other bills, and leaving enough to move and get a mortgage on another modest house in a cheaper state. We decided to go without a job to the new state, on faith that one would be obtained.

The house sold in two weeks, and I began speaking with an aunt in Ohio about housing prices. We had no family left anywhere in California, and having at least one aunt around—who happened to be my only Christian relative--seemed like a dream.

Unfortunately, as soon as we sold our house, I suffered another miscarriage at 10 weeks gestation. It was devastating, but we moved anyway since we had sold the house. It seemed as though God had orchestrated the whole thing.

After the move I began staying home in Ohio with my two boys full-time.  In what still seems like a miracle, God gave me the desire of my heart. Peter was 3 and a half, and Paul only 22 months. I babysat for extra money, and my husband worked very hard for us in a modest, relatively low-paying job.

I was 39 when we moved to Ohio, and to my amazement, two surprise babies were born to us when I was 40 and 42 years old, and they are fabulous blessings—two girls, now 6 and 8. God was so faithful to the desires of my heart, but he didn’t have to be. He blessed me beyond my wildest dreams, and even though my children have some troublesome health problems, I feel incredibly grateful and blessed. Things are not perfect or easy, but God is faithful and loving, always.

Our lives took a sharp turn in 2009 when my husband lost his job, and we experienced real, first-world poverty. Although 14% of America is hungry, which is unacceptable, it is still true that no one usually starves in America. So our first-world poverty was vastly different than third-world poverty, which consists of cooking outside of a leaky-roof shack without running water, without toilets, and sometimes without electricity. We still lived like kings and queens, from a third-world perspective.

We were like outcasts in our own land, however. We felt left out of everything, and I began learning in earnest about poverty around the world. My eyes were miraculously opened to how arrogantly Americans live, in light of the way the rest of the world lives. I learned that as Christians, we had been missing something BIG about what God wanted from our lives. I felt we had been Christian in name only, along with many other American Christians.

But God is gracious to meet us where we’re at. We all start out with a lot of sin and blindness, and God moves us along with love and patience. This period of learning about world poverty began a major restructuring in my mind of what it meant to be a Christian.

We were scared and devastated about the job loss, already barely making ends meet, but we had great faith and believed God would provide, so I didn’t go to work.

In fact, I had taken on something significant at home, in the year prior to the job loss. We had read that 82% of public-schooled Christian children left their faith after high school, while only 7% of homeschooled Christian children did. Despite this statistic, I am not advocating here that homeschooling is right for every Christian. It was just right for us.

It became clear to both of us before we even finished reading the article. We pulled our first-born son out of kindergarten in the fourth week of school, welcoming homeschooling as a way of life. It allows us large amounts of time to diciple our children.

A major submission in my life came through our ongoing, relative poverty. While God provided, it was nonetheless seriously challenging to be the have-nots in a materialistic society. Not long after the job loss, my husband—who was 50 when he lost his job--began working 54 hours a week for a low wage. Even though he worked harder than most, we represented the working poor—working high hours for a low wage. My husband’s age didn’t make it easy to find a decent job, nor did his Bachelor’s degree in theology, which brought spiritual benefits but not always material ones. 

Whether you have a college degree or not, know that your daily bread comes from God. There are no magic formulas for an easy-living lifestyle.

We learned quickly that we no longer fit in anywhere—not even at church. Everyone talked about the places they went and the things they did, or the remodeling they did on their house. We listened politely, but we avoided talking about ourselves, knowing ridicule was likely regarding our choices. I avoided women’s ministry because I couldn’t join in any of the conversations. I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, or ridicule me for not working, when my family obviously needed more money.

To choose to be poor for the sake of the children wasn’t something people could relate to. Our society thinks children need things and experiences, and thus my children were at a disadvantage in their eyes—they were to be pitied, in other words. They were pitied by people who knew our situation, even though they had toys (Goodwill has good toys), and clothes and food, and a warm, loving place to live. They also had a yard, which is far more than most children in the world have in terms of space.

There were no vacations, or any lengthy road trips because of the cost of gas. We never went out to dinner or to movies or to events that cost money, unless someone gifted us with tickets. All our garments come from careful, meticulous thrift-store shopping—finding the best there is so everyone looked respectable. No one guesses, most of the time, what our lifestyle is like because we don’t wear it on our sleeves, so to speak.

We also didn’t fit in with relatives, who thought we were ignorant. Because we could rarely go anywhere or do anything, we visited libraries and parks. We did a lot of living through wonderful books. We grew to love God’s earth and see Creation as a love song to us. There is much that is free, given to man as a gift from God, to amaze us and amuse us and remind us of Him.

Even with faith, a low-income lifestyle is stressful. A car repair could mean not enough food, and too much food could mean not enough gas. Everything’s a struggle, but alongside us there has always been God’s grace and the joy of raising children.

The greatest challenge to my joy, year after year, was Christmas. I dreaded it. We couldn’t buy anything for our children, unless a relative or friend sent Christmas money, though twice over the years near-strangers blessed my children with a ready-wrapped Christmas.

We couldn’t buy anything for others, either. Scraping up money for holiday baking, a holiday turkey, or Operation Christmas Child, were all faith walks. While others were spending hundreds or thousands, and going out to eat with every shopping trip, and going to productions like the Nutcracker, I was hoping Christmas would be over soon. I began to desperately look for meaning in Christmas, knowing that when we view things eternally, we always find the deepest and most satisfying meaning.

Finally, after studying and contemplating, I grew to believe that Christmas was a commercial enterprise, not a biblical enterprise. The first Christmas is not celebrated in the Bible, outside of the shepherds coming to worship Jesus after His birth, and the wise men coming to worship the toddler Christ child—who by then was no longer a baby. Even though the virgin birth of Christ was one of the most significant events in all history, there wasn’t a biblical feast or holiday declared.

Christmas and I came to an understanding, however. It could be used to annually acknowledge the miracle of the virgin birth and Emmanuel, God with us, even though, as Christians we’re supposed to be reveling in that miracle every day.  For me now, Christmas is a time to perform random acts of kindness toward our unsaved neighbors, and for the less fortunate. That’s the best use of it, my heart and mind finally decided, though we still bake cookies and cook turkey and put on living room Nativity plays. We invite the lonely to celebrate with us.

I don’t hate Christmas anymore because I have learned true gratitude. I have learned to count eternal blessings more than earthly ones. I concentrate on what God wants, and not on what I feel. What I feel is unimportant. God gives me His spirit and changes my selfish feelings to match his sacrificial ones, the more I submit to Him and practice gratitude as a way of life.

How did my children fare in all of this? My children to this day do not know what the inside of a movie theatre is like, or the inside of a restaurant besides Pizza Hut. They have lived a very different life than their peers, and right now as my boys acclimate to youth group for the first time, they feel all the feelings I have felt over the years. They don’t fit in, in terms of lifestyle, and everyone is talking about things they have never seen or done or had. “You don’t know what a Game boy is? Are you serious? You don’t play video games? Are you serious? You’re weird.”

These are real comments made to one or both of my boys, and though no harm or disrespect was intended, it still stung and made them feel marginal—on the outside of life, looking in.

They are staying strong, though. They have already learned to distinguish between wants and needs, and they understand what a distraction consumerism is. It is excruciatingly hard sometimes, but they understand they are blessed to have a unique perspective, even when Satan is there, telling them they deserve this or that like the others have.

They, too, are learning gratitude.

For a long time I thought God was trying to teach us important eternal lessons, and when we had learned those lessons, we would be less poor. But that hasn’t happened. Nothing has changed materially in these six years following the job loss. I have come to peace with, and submitted to this lifestyle, and I see the blessings inherent in having to depend on God for everything. I feel more blessed than ever before, even though I’m still a marginal character to those around me.

Wealth is only a blessing if you share it. If you don’t it will likely be your spiritual downfall. It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to get to heaven. Rich people don’t need God—though their souls do, of course. Rich countries don’t need God. Thus, America is more godless than ever. China and Africa are gaining comparatively more Christians than we are. We’re losing Christians.

I want you to imagine a simple, tiny wood house without running water or commercial furniture, without closets or different rooms--just a shelter over your head and cooking done camping-style, outside. I’ve seen many videos of this and I’ve read about it. Christians who live like this feel a very real and amazing presence of God all the time. They have a deep soul joy and a faith we richer Christians don’t often experience, in all our comfort and self-reliance.

Every single thing you add to that simple existence distracts you more and more from God. The electronics, the convenience tools, all the things that make life easier and pleasurable, such as luxuries and vacations…they all change us. They take up all of our time and attention. They crowd God out and as we crowd him out, we no longer feel the abundant spiritual life he wants for us. We look for more and more things and experiences to fill the void in our lives, never understanding that we successfully crowded God out, without even realizing it. Whoever loses his life for Me will find it. We don’t find our life in things or comforts. We find it in God alone. God is what our souls are hungry for, though as you learned in this unit, Satan will always be there telling you this is a lie.

As I learned more and more about world poverty, I fell in love with an outstanding Christian organization called Compassion International (www.compassion.com), which is a child-sponsorship ministry that serves millions of children the world over, all in Jesus’ name. They help children and their families come to know Jesus, as they relieve their suffering and provide hope for their futures—all for $38 dollars a month per sponsored child. Personal letter writing by sponsors is a huge part of Compassion’s ministry. The letters are like gold to these children, some of whom have never been told they are loved by anyone. Their parents, just trying to survive daily, don’t often know how to nurture their children, though they do love them.

As part of another faith walk, knowing that all monies come from God, not from us, we sponsored a young lady from Uganda, and a young man from El Salvador, for a total of $76 a month (plus family gifts to them at our tax refund time, to ensure they have roofs that don’t leak and a mattress to sleep on, and clothes and shoes). God always provides the money to do this, even though on paper it doesn’t work out for our budget. 

When God wants something from us, he provides the means, often through weird occurrences like unexpected refund money from the dentist or insurance company. Once, 3 or 4 years ago, our 1998 van was on its last month of life and we had no idea how we would cart our four kids around, since my husband drove a 25-year-old sedan.

I got hit by a car coming back from the grocery store. It was a miracle, especially since no one was hurt and I was alone in the van. The insurance company gave us $4000 more than we expected for the value of our Toyota Sienna van. We bought a used van, a 2003, for $3000, and the rest went to other obligations and to our Compassion children.

Our Compassion family has grown over the years. We also write to four other children whose sponsors do not write to them--from Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, India, and the Dominican Republic. Besides my own children and husband, these children are the joy of my life. Their four to six letters each per year fill us with joy. Checking the mail has become a treat. I love impacting them for Jesus, and I love how they impact us with the joy of simple belief…simple, child-like faith…simple living. Our monthly letters to them remind them that God has not forgotten them. Poverty tells them they are worthless. They need to be told a different message, in Jesus’ name. I tell them I love them and that God loves them and that He has plans to prosper them and not harm them, to give them a hope and a future. Not a material prosperity necessarily, but a spiritual one.

If you want to get involved with Compassion International and don’t have the $38 a month, you can call them and ask to be a correspondent sponsor for children whose sponsors do not write to them. This experience will change your life, and the life of the child you write to. You can become a sponsor online at www.compassion.com, but to be a correspondent you need to call them directly at 800-336-7676.

A man from Kenya recently came to American for the first time, to meet with a ministry partner here in the States. His American ministry partner took him along as they stopped at a couple mega-churches to pick up promised ministry donations. The Kenyan man, having grown up in abject poverty—looking in trash cans for food as a youngster--looked at the huge, fancy churches with their cafes, and bookstores, and their huge playgrounds and he said, puzzled…”Do they worship the same Jesus?”

I have learned that worshiping Jesus means giving up a respectable life. It means giving up the notion of ever fitting in. My heart must bleed for what Jesus’ heart bled for…for the oppressed, the orphans, the widows, the poor and the lame…and about souls most of all.

I have learned that the American Church has it all wrong. This church, however, has it more right than most, since we have several ministries that serve the poor and oppressed. Be proud that your church stands out in this way--different from the usual American pact of churches. And work personally to do more as you grow up in this church.

We aren’t supposed to pursue the American dream of a house, nice yard, bigger and better things, and nice vacations. We’re supposed to be pursuing something greater than that…something greater than ourselves. We are supposed to be getting in last place, so someone else can go ahead of us in line, for the glory of God. It’s not that we have to make ourselves poor with our giving, just that we should give until it truly hurts and truly makes us depend on God. In all this we identify with Christ in his suffering, and feel the abundant life he desires for us.

Our faith then stands out as a miracle, and points to God’s glory, goodness, and provision.

I believe God put enough of everything on this earth. There is enough food, enough land, enough water, and enough trees for shelter. Yet some people can’t sleep for the rain that leaks through their makeshift tin roofs. Some people walk around hungry all the time, and walk hours to get water for cooking. Kids work in fields and never go to school, because eating is more pressing than an education.

But this doesn’t have to be. This doesn’t occur because God is heartless. It occurs because we are heartless. We have loved ourselves, instead of our fellow man. God expected us to distribute our extra and we failed. We were supposed to be his hands and his feet to all those who have not enough, or who have nothing, and we failed. The gap between rich and poor is growing even in our own country as we read this.

You young people are the future of our country. I want you—God wants you--to see through materialism. Compassion International has an excellent blog about child poverty and helping in Jesus’ name. Find it and read it often, with your parents’ permission, at www.compassion.com/blog. Read about the 80% of the world living on less than $2.50 a day. It’s an inconvenient truth nobody wants to know about, but open your eyes and really understand this reality and your Christian responsibility. 

Adjust your gaze so that it is on God, and not on yourself. Look at your life dreams and be willing to set them aside as Mary and Joseph did, when they accommodated an embarrassing and recriminating pregnancy. Think about that pregnancy and what it looked like in their culture. It placed them in a position of shame and ridicule and extreme loneliness. They became outcasts.

In your lives, aim to lead the American church to redemption…to true worship and true knowledge of what it means to follow Christ and to love Christ.

The path to greatness is through what?

Through serving others.

Weekly Homeschool Wrap-Up: The One With Cocoa and Bread

This week we took a "spring break" from most regular subjects to learn about the cocoa industry and develop a family mission statement regarding the cocoa industry and our chocolate consumption. 

We also committed this week to learning to bake bread, after the arrival of our bread machine in the mail last week. Read more on that saga below, after the cocoa information.

CNN did a series of reports about the cocoa supply chain in 2012, and followed up on those reports in March 2014. While there are numerous Internet sources of information, we have thus far focused on infographics with accompanying narratives (this linked one is older info. from 2008), and the more recently produced CNN specials, some of which are detailed below.

Here is the word on Nestle:

(From CNN, 2012) An independent investigation into Nestlé's cocoa supply chain has found numerous child labor violations and kickstarted an ambitious plan to eventually eradicate forced labor and child labor in its production cycle.

The study was carried out by the Fair Labor Association with Nestlé's support.

"Our investigation of Nestlé's cocoa supply chain represents the first time a multinational chocolate producer has allowed its procurement system to be completely traced and assessed. For too long child labor in cocoa production has been everybody's problem and therefore nobody's responsibility," said FLA President Auret van Heerden.

It means Nestlé is the first chocolate-maker to comprehensively map its cocoa supply chain – and can work on identifying problems areas, training and educating workers and taking action against child labor violations. Read the rest here.

The story about another major player in the chocolate industry (Ferrero):

(From 2012) Chocolate maker Ferrero has pledged to eradicate slavery from farms where it sources its cocoa by 2020, as part of a growing movement by the multi-billion dollar industry to clean up its supply chains.

The Italian company, which produces Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella spread and Kinder eggs, follows Nestle and Hershey as the third major chocolate manufacturer to announce new anti-slavery moves since September. Read the rest here.

Here is the word on Hershey

The Hershey company, one of the United States' leading chocolate producers, says it's pledged $10 million over the next five years to educate West African cocoa farmers on improving their trade and combating child labor.

The region is home to about 70% percent of the world's cocoa but has also been the source of recent scrutiny over its alleged use of child labor. (More about the issue)

Hershey's announcement Monday heartened activists, who say the company is finally focusing efforts on improving the root cause of the issue.

"It's a start," said Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum. "We see this as a welcome first step toward accountability." Read the rest here.

As I mentioned, CNN followed up on these 2012 segments in March 2014, with this 25-minute documentary.

Here is my take, gathered so far, based upon the research we've done (we're not done researching). Poverty is always a multi-faceted issue. The more you learn about abject poverty, the more you understand there are no simple solutions. I've come to believe that the way Compassion International responds to abject poverty is the best the world has to offer. You have to fight poverty in Jesus' name, one child at a time, through relationship. Otherwise, you can find yourself losing as much as you gain in this fight. Jesus is the answer to real change, both on the physical poverty level, and the spiritual poverty level. While the first world doesn't suffer from abject physical poverty, we definitely suffer from spiritual poverty, which is why we like to spend and keep our money for ourselves, always trying to improve our already-stellar living conditions.

The bottom line in the current cocoa climate is this: The big chocolate companies are now getting involved in improving the cacao farming industry not so much because they care about poverty or children, but because the industry is in trouble. Production is not sustainable under current conditions. Many of the West African trees are diseased and the small family farmers have no capital to put into improvements. Moreover, the price they receive for their intensive labor in growing and readying the beans has gone down markedly from the 1980's. They're barely making it. Many are leaving their farms for the cities, and others are switching to rubber or palm oil farms, which are more lucrative.

Most of the children working on the farms are the children of the farmers, but many are also trafficked from neighboring African countries, like children from families in desperate poverty in Burkina Faso. We have a Compassion correspondent child in Burkino Faso, who before his sponsorship through Compassion, was likely vulnerable to being trafficked to the Ivory Coast. The children are promised good wages and good living conditions, and even school, but instead, they are treated like slaves and often go back to Burkina Faso with barely enough bus money. They use dangerous tools like machetes and handle dangerous pesticides without protective gear, working long hours with little food.

Research and decide how you will change your chocolate consumption and spending habits. That is step one. Another way to do your part is to prevent the desperate situations these trafficked children are in by sponsoring children through Compassion. Above and beyond your $38 a month sponsorship money, try to send your child monetary gifts as often as you can (even $50 goes a long way), to help the family start a small business and/or purchase mattresses and non-leaking roof supplies, and food. All of your family or child gift money goes directly to the child's family. Compassion works with the family to assess their needs, and takes them shopping to spend all of your gift funds. Then, a picture is taken of what was purchased, with the child in the picture, and sent to you in a letter from the child. You will also receive at least three other letters per year from your child, guaranteed, and you are encouraged to write at least monthly.

Just being able to sleep better helps these children perform better in school. Before they receive help from Compassion and from you, most sleep on the ground, sometimes with a leaking tin roof over their heads. Compassion pays their school fees and trains their families in best health practices, provides health care and fosters emotional, physical, and spiritual growth. Most importantly of course, through Compassion's child development centers, sponsored children are taught about Jesus Christ and guided in developing a saving relationship with Him. They are not required to become Christians to be served, however.

The child development centers are run out of partnerships with local churches, using their buildings, with Compassion employees heading the programs. Often the children also attend the partnering church, but some attend other churches, or don't attend church at all. There are no religious requirements--just sound Biblical teaching. The Lord does the work in these children's hearts. Of the Compassion children we write to, I am certain that four of them have growing relationships with Christ.

Parents and high schoolers are also taught vocational skills at the Compassion child development centers, and good students can go to college as part of Compassion's  Leadership Development Program.

Back to the cocoa industry now. We will be continuing to find current information through the weekend, and will hopefully develop a family cocoa mission statement by next week. The problem is not just in the cocoa industry. Child labor is also used in cotton fields and other farming industries, and you probably already know about other evil child trafficking. To prevent exploitation we have to sponsor children so they don't continue in desperate, vulnerable situations. Buying fair trade makes a positive impact, but it needs to be combined with child sponsorship. Otherwise, desperate third-world families will fall prey to some other evil scheme.

Here is more current information about the cocoa situation in West African, from a site called Food Is Power. This site recommends chocolates that are sourced without child labor. It notes that even some fair trade chocolate is not immune to the problem of child labor. It also lists companies that are working on the problem in some way, and those that won't disclose any information. Trader Joe's is one company who would not disclose their cocoa sourcing.

Bread Making at Home...the Beginner's Saga

I mentioned in last week's wrap-up that we bought a bread making machine, as part of "clean" eating. If you've looked at the label on even the healthiest store-bought bread, you're probably convinced that homemade is better, if you've got the time and inclination. We had the inclination and were determined to make the time.

The most important point about eating clean foods is not that they'll possibly prolong your life and make you more comfortable while you're here. That may seem like the point at first, but as I thought about the time involved and as we lived it, something else occurred to me.

How busy does God really want us to be? If we're too busy to prepare real foods, then something is off balance. Cooking and eating together is precious. So much growth and bonding and blessing occurs as we do these things as one unit. Working with our hands and hearts to bless our families is worth our time! And it's worth our family's time to help us in the kitchen, so that many hands make light work.

Now, if you're nursing a new baby or about to have one, enlist all the help you can get but don't worry about revamping your family's food preparation. Love on that baby and pray for an army of help. There are definitely seasons when getting anything on the table feels monumental. I once had four children 7 and under so I know how it goes.

Have I ever mentioned that I am a very determined person? Every good trait has a flip side, and of course I'm also stubborn. Once I have it on my mind that something is important, I brace myself and persevere through trials. Nursing each of my four children was challenging. There were complications ranging from post-partum preeclampsia and babies who took weeks to learn to latch, most likely due to an oversupply of milk and the fact that they were all born a couple weeks early. There were tears and prayers and desperate nights and weeks. It was the most intense time of my life, but each child eventually learned and nursed a long time, ranging from 13 months to 4.5 years (the latter because this child has an autoimmune disease and needed the breastmilk antibodies longer).

As I tried to make yeast bread this week, I thought about my nursing trials. Yes, yeast is that complicated. There are a number of tips out there for novice bakers whose bread won't rise. For half the week I felt like a failure, carrying a scarlet-letter sign: "Certified Yeast Idiot".

Online baking sights, however, were very encouraging, indicating that everyone fumbles at first. I picked myself up and decided that my kitchen would become an everyday bread factory and the only significant thing required was patience...okay, and a little science.

If you want to get it right, you have to become a scientist, altering one thing at a time and recording what you've done, until you get it right. And then, next season, as temperatures and humidity change, so might your ingredients proportions.

I discovered that the bread machine kneads better than a human, but it doesn't bake better. For the best results, use it on the dough cycle and let it do all the hard work for you, and then merely take out the dough, knock it down and shape it, putting it into the pan and letting it rise in a warm oven for another hour or so, and then bake for 30 minutes. 

I've learned that your measuring tools and even your pans have to be precise--we're really talking science here, but don't let that scare you. It becomes second nature soon enough, which hasn't happened for me yet!

Your family, with the delicious bread in their hands, honey dripping, will feel like royalty. Homemade bread is a privilege to make for your loved ones. It's a delicious blessing that goes beyond the taste and lovely texture. It's an act of love. (Made considerably more sustainable with the advent of bread machines)

We got the bread maker last Friday, and it was Wednesday before we had a rise like this, which still wasn't exactly right. I used too much yeast twice, but as I got that right, the machine let the dough rise too long, and it fell as soon as baking commenced. Finally, I decided to let it rise the last time in my oven, allowing me more control over the outcome.

In the summer when I don't want to heat up the house, we'll use the bake function on the bread machine.

Also, at first I was using regular active dry yeast, which stated on the jar that it could be used in bread machines. Turns out, there is an instant yeast that is not necessarily the same as the quick-rising yeast, and it's this instant yeast that is best for bread machines. I bought it tonight and will hopefully get a more even and complete rise tomorrow.

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The bread below was our best so far (with just the active dry yeast), which includes 100% whole white wheat (an albino wheat that tastes less grainy, but is still 100% whole wheat) mixed with a quarter cup of flax seed.

It's still delicious, but you can see that the rise wasn't even. Whole wheat flour makes a denser bread and is harder to work with, requiring more practice time and determination. However, the fiber in our diets is important so it's worth it to learn to work with whole wheat flour. Most of us don't regularly get enough fruits and veggies to meet the 25 to 30 grams a day of recommended fiber (average American eats 15 grams daily). Foods high in fiber include whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Flax seed hides well in foods, not having much taste on its own. It adds healthy fat (Omega-3) to our diets as well as fiber and vitamins & minerals. You can also try it in pancake batter along with whole wheat flour. The pancakes are delicious.

Flax seed nutritional facts: This food is very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Thiamine and Manganese.

Read More http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3163/2#ixzz3VYfbyx7W

So, our bread saga continues. I'll keep you posted. 

How was your week, friends? Thank you for reading here and have a great weekend!

I Dare You to Share Him

It was a long drive to the Cleveland airport--at least for antsy kids--but my husband's flight made it safely to Florida yesterday. The closest "real" city to our township is Akron, but their airport isn't very impressive so we opted for the longer drive to Cleveland.

He's in Florida to check on his 92-year-old father, who refuses to move here or go to an assisted care facility. And he's already called us three times. He misses us on these trips, that is clear. Absence makes a man's heart fonder?

Maybe, or just more grateful.

His flight was delayed so he spent some time talking with an Albanian college student who wanted to know more about Florida, where he was going to visit family. Husband asked him about his life in Albania, and then attempted to witness to him about the Hope and Life found in Jesus Christ. Husband started that arm of the conversation by mentioning that he once knew some missionaries in Albania.

"Missionaries?" questioned the Albanian. "Are those the people who walk around with the Bibles?"

Hesitantly, husband said yes, hoping the Albanian wasn't referring to Jehovah's Witnesses or Latter-day Saints.

"I always stopped to talk with them to work on my English", explained the Albanian.

Husband and I shared a laugh about that, sure, but it reminded me of something.

We never know who is ready for the Gospel, which is why we should try to bring it up as a rule, whenever we have the opportunity. If someone appears not to be a seeker, or is not the least bit interested, we can stop, so as not to annoy or harass, but some percentage of the time we will come upon someone ready to receive the Hope and Life Jesus freely offers to all who believe.

Now, perhaps if my husband had an incredible testimony of wretchedness-to-glory, he could bring more people to Christ. We just don't know. He was saved at age 7 and has never looked back, so there's no drama, just steadfastness.

Those of us who have a more dramatic testimony? We should look upon it as a special opportunity to share the reason for our transformation...the reason for our hope.

And the rest of us can be ready to tell a story of God's faithfulness in our lives, or try to always bring a missionary book of incredible stories (Missionary Stories With the Millers is a great one, and each story is short), or something else we can share that will make a person marvel and ask questions, so we can at least open them to the possibility that Christ is Life.

We make our lives about so many things; we complicate daily life in so many ways, but really, life to a Christian should be Christ, period. To live is Christ, to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

I'm not much of speaker, being the shy sort. But I love to write and random people come to this blog all the time, even though I'm not successful as a writer or blogger. I've been at this since 2007 (two years on a different blog, in which real names were used) and there's been no growth to speak of. Readers come and go.

I haven't the time to do the things necessary to grow a blog, and I'm not a business woman at all. Social media of any kind, other than this blog, would just cause me to neglect my family. This is the forum God allows for me, knowing that the stress of having special needs children would draw me into escape mode with social media, wasting my mothering time. If there is ongoing stress or insecurities in our lives, social media can be more of a detriment than a help. God will let you know how many "medias" you can handle for His glory.

Incredibly, God uses this small blog. I wrote a post on self-pity as a sin years ago which brings a lot of hits, and a few on marriage that bring people. And because I write a good number of spiritual posts, I get random hits on all sorts of spiritual topics. Also, I have my testimony as a page on my blog, although not everyone finishes what they start reading, I dare say, depending on whether they're a seeker or not.

If you, like me, aren't much of a speaker and you don't travel frequently, and you don't minister in inner-cities or other places allowing you to share the Gospel, I encourage you to start a blog. It's free and it doesn't matter how many people read it, really, because God can bring the right people at the right time to your heartfelt words--people who may be either profoundly changed or prepped for the Hope in Jesus.

It doesn't matter if you're never aware of the spiritual success of your blog; comments don't matter, though they're nice when you need personal encouragement. Think of it as an obedience, if nothing else. We all have little testimonies of the work God is doing in our hearts and lives. These are stories meant to be told and in the information age we no longer need to get on a plane, train, bus, or vehicle to share the Gospel.

Maybe that is ideal because it's more personal, but with a little courage we can be personal with our words, even though we can't reach out and hug or share the joy in our eyes, with the recipients.

Just pray for the random hits, pray for your readers, and pray for the transparency needed to be up close and personal about God's work in your life.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And if you share with other moms and other Christians, if your house is a mess, don't pretend that is isn't. If your house is modest and the veneer is chipping off your dining table, don't try to hide it. If you're a spiritual mess because you didn't read your Bible for a week or a month, don't try to hide that either. Talk about the glory of going back to the Word, and back to your Peace, because the Lord guarantees your success as a Christian. 

He never leaves you nor forsakes you, and that means also that he produces spiritual fruit in your life, guaranteed, even if it means making you miserable when you forget or fail to make time to read your Bible and pray.

Talk about all of it, while protecting your children with some amount of anonymity, if you deem it necessary. But don't try to be someone or something you're not. Be who God created you to be, in all your messiness, because it isn't about you at all. We're merely passing through here, with our eyes on Eternity, while we take advantage of the down payment on our inheritance--the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

If you hate writing but love creating, then make quilts, dolls, stuffed animals or whatever, and attach a Gospel message or spiritual story and donate your items to hospitals, perhaps, for patients who may be looking for Hope? Whatever work God has given you to do, do it for Him, boldly, and let go of the outcome. 

Because the outcome is His.

Scriptures about victory in Christ:

2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Luke 1:47-49 And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

What work has God given you, allowing you to share the Gospel?

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A Love Letter, From God

I am so excited! I wrote Compassion to ask for two more correspondent children to whom we can write. I didn't specify any country or age or gender, leaving it all to God. Compassion answered the next business day and gave me a boy from Colombia, age 10, and a girl from Nicaragua, age 8. They were both just sponsored so it must have been by a large company who doesn't want to write letters. In these cases the children are assigned a correspondent family who will faithfully write to them.

We are correspondents to two other children and sponsor two others, so we've been writing to four and it has been such a joy! Writing to these children makes all my sorrows and worries float away. I just feel so wonderfully blessed by the interaction and by being a messenger of Christ's love.

Last week I read heartbreaking stories of children whose sponsors do not write. It is heartbreaking for these children who already feel insignificant. If you would love to encourage a child but do not have the money to sponsor a child right now, please email here: ciinfo@us.ci.org
If you make this commitment, please write at least monthly.

Below is a sample letter that can be used as an introductory letter. I wrote it to both of our new children, just changing the names. If you write online you can write longer letters and easily upload photos. This letter used all the space available (I couldn't use paragraph breaks, however), allowing me to upload one larger photo and two small ones. Compassion's online letter writing program tells you what percentage of space you have left. It also gives you the option of duplicating the letter to another child. You just change the names and some details to fit that child's life and family and prayer requests.

Here are our new precious ones!

Abdi, age 8, Nicaragua

Miguel, age 10, Columbia

Dearest Abdi,

Oh, Abdi! We are so happy to meet you. We praise God for you. Jesus loves you and we will love you too, Abdi. We asked God for a child to write to and to share our lives with and He gave us you! Your picture is very pretty and I shared it with all of my family. My name is Christine. I am 48 years old. I live in the state of Ohio in the United States. I am married and we have four children named Peter, Paul, Mary and Beth. Peter is the oldest. He is 13. Paul is 11. Mary is 8. Beth is 6. Do you have any brothers or sisters? What are their names and ages?

Peter loves to garden and he loves animals and science. He wants to be a farmer and missionary when he grows up. Timothy loves math and games and basketball and football. He wants to be a teacher or an engineer or a writer when he grows up. Emily loves animals and science and she wants to work with animals when she grows up. Anna loves books and drawing. She wants to be a writer or a singer when she grows up.

What are your dreams, Abdi? What do you want to be when you grow up? God will make it possible. With God all things are possible. My husband is a custodian. I stay home and homeschool my four children. Before I had children I used to be a first grade teacher at a public school. When I had children they needed me so I began to stay home with them. I love homeschooling. We learn about Jesus, the Bible, and we pray together everyday. We read books, we write, and we learn about history, math, grammar, spelling and science.

Do you like school? What is your favorite subject? My favorite things are reading and writing. My favorite colors are purple and pink. My favorite foods are taco soup, strawberries, and chocolate.

Jesus loves you, Abdi! You are precious to him and to me and my family. God has big plans for you. You are wonderfully made by your loving Father. We will be praying for you and your family each day: that you will be blessed by God and do well in school, that you will have good food to eat, that you will be safe, and that you will learn more about Jesus and the Bible.

God wants us to spend time with Him by praying, by reading the Bible, and by singing songs to Him. When you pray to God just talk with him. Tell him you love him, thank him for everything, and ask him for what you and others need. Prayer is just talking to God like he is our best friend.

I want you to remember that you are very special, you are very loved, and you have a Big God who is going to work all things for your good. Romans 8:28 says: For God works all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

God is calling you, Abdi. He wants to be your Lord and Savior. He is going to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 says: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Abdi, God wants to love you and help you every day and be your Lord, your King, your loving Father. Please tell him you want all these things from Him. He wants you to say "Yes, Lord. I want you to be my Lord and Savior."

Abdi, we love you. We always will.

Love,
Christine

Some writing tips:

With each letter, I will build upon these concepts and truths, always using the child's name often and saying I love you. I will talk about keeping a blessing list, about gratitude, about forgiveness, about holiness, about making the right choices and obeying parents, about trying hard in school, about the importance of having dreams, about my joys and sorrows, and I will ask for prayer whenever we need it. I will ask questions and talk about our weather and our holidays and our daily practices. I will talk about a personal relationship with God, I will speak life, truth, love, comfort, wisdom, and prayer into the lives of these children, who are a gift.

Here again is the address to ask for a correspondent child:

ciinfo@us.ci.org

You don't have to send any money, ever, but if you do, it will bless these families and could give them more warmth, a roof that doesn't leak, clothes that fit, nutritious food, etc. A little money goes a long way.

You will be sent a packet in the mail with a photo and information about your child and about the Compassion Child Development Center he or she attends, as well as local cultural information and pictures. You will learn a little bit about the child's daily activities and about his or her grade and performance in school, and whether the parents are married and both living in the home.

If you already have a Compassion account, all this information will show up online as soon as they assign you the child, and you can begin writing immediately, before your packet even arrives.

You will enjoy this endeavor of the heart! I promise!

With the Overflow of Your Heart

I am sharing an excerpt from a letter a formerly-sponsored child wrote to his Compassion International sponsor. The author of the letter, now an adult, has been the host for Compassion Bloggers this week in the Dominican Republic. His sponsor dramatically changed his life with her love, her prayers, her comfort, expressed through letters through the years. He refers to her as Grandma. Holley Gerth shared this excerpt on her blog. Read the full letter here.

image courtesy of Compassion International

What am I here for?

That was the question I asked myself many times when I was lonely, sad and empty, without purpose. And it was at that very moment that God used Compassion International to help me understand that, yes, I have a purpose and a reason to exist. This is what 80% percent of the children living in third world countries think–that they are nothing and that they have no future.

I wanted to start this letter that way because I wanted you to know that my life has really changed.

A very famous atheist said one day: “God does not exist because if God existed there would not be so many hungry children on this earth, nor so many diseases and catastrophes in the world.” My answer to that atheist is this: ”Millions of children, including me, have been released from material and mental poverty that undermined their lives through wonderful ministries like Compassion International.”

You are the protagonist in this love story–you are responsible for this change.

God has made man in His image and likeness and has given man the tremendous power to create; create Love, Faith, Hope, Dreams, Desire, Families, Communities, Cities, Nations, Opportunities and Compassion.

I will never be able to be grateful enough with words for your love for someone you never met before, someone who is not your family, your son or your nephew, or your grandson but someone that you loved without knowing him.

This is the answer to all those who claim that God doesn’t exist. You’re the answer.

And God is pleased with your work, God is happy because you have given more than what you had just like that widow who gave all she had. “In truth she has given more than all of you,” said Jesus.

You are the hands of God! And that’s why I no longer pray as I used to do before. I heard a pastor say: ”Do not ask God to feed the hungry if YOU have enough food in your pantry.” The truth is that many times we ask wrongly, because we ask God to do things when in our ignorance we forget that we are God’s response to the misfortunes of others.

This is why Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’’ John 13:34

Thanks again for writing. I treasure every one of your letters not only in a chest but also in my heart. I take time to read them over and over again because they are like oil of joy in times of distress.

I will never forget your prayers for me and for the coming generations–you left personal things to leave a legacy to the world.

With much love,

Jonathan Almonte

If you aren't already a sponsor, may I ask...what's holding you back? His Word is clear about what we are to do for children and the poor, and his faithfulness in our lives is proof we can do it without fear or doubt. If you aren't already committed beyond your means to other ministries, please consider Compassion, who seeks, through your love, devotion, letters and funds, to change a heart for Christ--a heart that goes on to bless multitudes of others, for Compassion children always give back to their communities. 

Become a part of a beautiful testimony of God's grace and love. Sponsor a child. For the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. We don't own our bank accounts or our paychecks or our possessions. We don't own the future and we can't secure it, either. We can only love the Lord with all of our heart, all of our mind, all our strength, and our fellow man too, trusting God for everything else.

The more possessions we fill our life with, the further we get from God and His blessing of provision. He knows what we need for abundant life. We are sorrowfully mistaken that it has anything to do with the material, for all the material things we need will be given to us as we put first the Kingdom of God. And that doesn't just mean going to church on Sunday. We have to live our lives for the Lord to be seeking first His Kingdom. We all fall short in this...we all want more than we need. In first-world countries, we all have more than we need. As we cling to God and his Word, he opens our eyes to what it means to be blessed, and what it means to be a blessing. 

Please, sponsor a child today. We need to be rescued from our abundance, as much as Compassion children need to be rescued from the hopelessness of poverty.

If you already have a sponsor child, write to him or her today and at least monthly. On behalf of Jonathan Almonte and other graduated Compassion children like him, thank you for your love, your time, for your desire to be obedient and share the overflow of your heart.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Other posts from this Dominican Republic week:

Bonnie at Faith Barista: Why Compassion Isn't a Project But an Intimate Whisper of Love

Ruth Soukup at Living Well Spending Less: Just One

Bonnie at Faith Barista: Why Love is Not a Consolation But a Light