A Goat, Some Pigs, and a Devotional

How would we feel if the President of the United States needed our help or expertise with something? What if he called on the phone and said, "We really need your help and we'll provide you with everything you need. Consider your resources endless."

No matter our political party, we would be amazed, along with our family and friends.  Beyond excited.
 
The most powerful person in the world needs my help!

We might even consider it the most significant experience of our lives.

Well...guess what? It's already happened to every Christian!
 
Someone even more famous has asked you to work for Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ.

And friends, we should be ecstatic! We get to work for Jesus. Hallelujah! We get to love in His name. We get to.

When He says FOLLOW ME, he means serve with me. Come alongside and learn of me. Do what I do. Feel what I feel. Love like I love. Weep for what I weep for.

Mark 9:35

And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

1 Peter 4:10

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 

Philippians 2:6-7

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 

Let's empty ourselves of us. Let's get excited about the work God has before us. We get to work with the Lord Jesus Christ, the most significant person in all history.

 

And later, we get to reign with Him!

How can we ever be melancholy when we have an eye for eternity? When we remember our lineage, our coming reign? What's there to be frustrated about when we get to wake up each day and work for God? We get to!

If we haven't thought about eternity in the last week, we need a spiritual remake. Our mindset should not be here and now, but there. Not comfort and beautiful things all around us here, but the rewards and treasures waiting for us there.

In the meantime, we get to work for God. How glorious is that?

Prayer Time:

Dear Heavenly Father, You are an awesome God. Your gifts are infinitely more than we could ever ask for, and certainly more than we deserve. You are a gracious, faithful God. You knew us before we were born. You have plans to prosper us and not harm us, to give us a hope and a future. You give us the privilege of working for you...loving through you, showing mercy and grace through you, being your hands and feet to those who have no hope. Thank you for these privileges. Help us to remember how blessed we are, and what a miracle it is that you would even want our help...help you don't even need. You want us by your side, like the father who asks his son to hold the screwdriver, and the mother who asks her children to put in the flour and sugar. You really want our fellowship, our presence. You love us tenderly and what a wondrous gift that is. Help us to be faithful servants, learning of you, Our Master. Helps us to live for you. May we never stop being excited about that privilege. Help us to live with an eternity mindset, remembering that this life and its difficulties are but a vapor. You have prepared glorious rooms for us in Your House. and we will be there soon!Thank you, Father! Helps us to practice thanksliving, knowing you have already conquered all.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen

Giving Thanks Today

 

Thank you, Father, for these blessings and graces:

 

~ That often when my ADHD son has one of those downward-spiral emotional outbreaks, a goldfinch appears at the feeder next to the window, or a cardinal lands on the fence near our sunroom/dining room, or a chipmunk comes out of hiding. The lights go on in our hearts, and my son smiles, or I smile and we look at each other. We know it was a gift, a grace, from the Lord. The Lord saying, "I know of your difficulties and I am present with you. Loving you."

 

~ A pleasant visit with pigs and goats at our friend's parents' house.

 ~ I'm thankful for an object lesson for my kids that I couldn't have put together myself, re money management. For three years we had a sturdy kiddy pool with a small slide but at the end of last summer it began leaking. We considered replacing it to help the kids fight the heat and humidity, but then the water bill came. $147! (Why was our California water bill under $70 even during daily summer watering, and here in Ohio where the rain waters for us, it's always well over $100? I don't get it.)

 

We told the kids water play wouldn't be a regular thing here this summer, and we wouldn't be replacing the kiddy pool. For days they've been grumbling. And then the neighbors, the ones with only a part-time job, no vehicle, and on food stamps and section 8 rent help, couldn't pay their electric bill and their electricity got turned off. (I called my church to seek help from the benevolence fund for them, for the sake of their four kids, and also to possibly get financial counseling from one of our deacons for them).

 

It was hard explaining to my children that if we mismanaged our money, something would get turned off or the mortgage wouldn't get paid. This wasn't the first time a utility was turned off for these neighbors, who have yet to drop their cable TV, their fancy phones, their dogs or their cigarettes. This time their kids were pretty stressed...it's one thing after another over there. 

For a few years I was without a vehicle during the day, but never without one entirely. Maybe they consider the TV part of their sanity? Since I haven't walked in their shoes I'm trying not to judge, but it's hard. They come here about 4 times a week for sugar, milk, or something. Their food help doesn't last long enough because they don't know how to budget grocery money and they don't cook from scratch. Lots of needs and our heart is to help, slowly, as they learn to trust us. Our own humility and lack of judgement is crucial in our being able to help, so please pray for the whole situation? I'm concerned the kids aren't getting enough milk, for one. Thank you.)

As much as my kids are still grumbling about the kiddy pool and water play, they understand better, being exposed to the neighbor's difficulties, that management of money is key to keeping stress at a minimum.

 Don't feel sorry for my kids. I don't, because now, the few times a month I will say yes, they will appreciate the sprinkler play more, and doing without will help them better understand our Compassion children's circumstances. If we can't put ourselves in another's shoes, we can't manage adequate mercy, and without denying ourselves it's hard to see any of this at all.

 

Low-income or modest-income American kids can grow up wanting everything they didn't have as children, and they might spoil their own children to keep them from feeling "poor". I don't want that for my kids. If they do better than us financially I want them to give it away, not clutch it or use it like the culture does. It's a tall order for us to hope for as parents, but with God all things are possible.

 

Incidentally, Compassion children have a history of giving back to their Child Development Centers, to their own families, and to their communities. They often work with the poor, in fact, after graduating. Though many of them experience success after their tenure with Compassion International, there's no me-centered mentality afterwards. There's just gratitude and thanksliving.

 

The more we have the more we feel entitled to, and entitlement is a mindset straight from Satan himself. In the Lord we have enough. When Jesus conquered this world He made us rich!

 

This goat was so sweet, letting me pet him and hug him time and again. I was in heaven! I'm surprised my husband took this picture because he doesn't share mine or Peter's love for farm animals, and I secretly think he dreads Peter's daily prayers for farmland. (I'm not a pet person. I dislike cats and I've rarely met a dog I felt the need to pet, but I'm partial to farm animals for some reason)
 

 

 

 

 How was your weekend, friends? What are you thankful for today?

Who Are You Serving?

I've continued to follow the posts from Compassion International's Nicaragua blogging trip.

Traci at Beneath My Heart, shares:

What’s holding you back from sponsoring a child? If you are like me, you are thinking you can’t afford it.

I need to confess something to you. {big gulp}

When I first signed up to go on this Compassion trip, I was told that if I wanted to sponsor a child from Nicaragua, they could arrange it so I could meet him while I was there.

Our family already sponsors a child from Equador for $38 dollars a month, and I knew we didn’t have the money to sponsor another child.

We have a stack of bills we haven’t paid yet for the surgery I had in March. Jonathan and Luke both need braces for their teeth. Cy has just gone into business for himself, and we are tighter than we have been in a very long time.

We just couldn’t afford to sponsor another child.

But you know what we could afford?

We could afford $20 to take the boys to McDonald’s for lunch. And another $20 to take them to the pool. We were also able to afford about $60 for me to get a manicure and pedicure.

And oh yeah! We were able to afford a $60 meal at our favorite restaurant in town just last week.
We also could afford to get our car washed, enjoy DISH network on tv, and support my caffeine addiction to cokes from McDonald’s EVERY SINGLE DAY!

But I knew we just couldn’t afford to sponsor a child in Nicaragua…who sleeps on cardboard boxes for a bed, or whose parents work at a city dump to earn about a dollar a day, or who eats only one meal a day, or only has one pair of shoes.

I want to talk about this a bit because I think it's on everyone's mind anyway.

How much does God want us to sacrifice? How generous are we supposed to be? Should we never eat out? Should we never replace worn furniture? Should we never have our hair colored or our nails done?

Before we discuss splurges, let's talk about faith.

I remember reading the comment section on a grocery-bill savings post recently, where a women shared that her husband makes $41,000 a year and they struggle significantly to make ends meet, though they always meet their tithe. She was asking for help because she felt that God, in his faithfulness, wouldn't want their lives to be so hard. They must be making mistakes, surely, for it to remain so difficult.

First of all, paying your tithe doesn't mean you won't struggle financially. It's not insurance, it's obedience. God will provide for you if you seek his righteousness, which includes being obedient, but he never promises to provide before a need arises. He provides in a way that brings him the most glory. That's His privilege. He gets to do it His way, not ours.

For example, we drove a very old van with well over 200,000 miles on it. We hadn't a clue how we would purchase a newer used van. We had no significant cash and there was no way we could finance a vehicle (nor did we want any debt).

One night last February, after another mechanical problem arose, I was driving back from a grocery run and a women hit my van and totaled it. We looked up the blue book value and figured we'd be lucky to get even $2000 from the insurance company.

But God! We got an incredible amount for some reason. With the money we bought a newer used van for cash, paid some medical bills, sent Compassion gifts, and bought used school curriculum.

All of those needs seemed daunting to us, but God had a plan.

Of course he did!

Why did we have to struggle and not know? Uncertainty is hard, but it doesn't mean something is wrong. It doesn't mean God is displeased with you. All we need is faith--with faith nothing is really a struggle, unless we make it so by taking our eyes off of Jesus.

I think when the woman in the comment section complained that they're struggling on $41,000, she really meant that God too often provided at the last minute, and she didn't like that. That feels like struggle because we want our way and aren't getting it.

God doesn't struggle...we do, and it's a choice.

What does God want from us?

Follow me. It's so simple isn't it, and yet we make it so complicated?

Mark 8:34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  

Now let's turn to the topic of splurges. What role should they play in our lives, if any?

Let's analyze what splurges are really about, to start.

What is eating out mainly about? It's about being served.

What is having your nails or hair done really about? They're about being served.

What are vacations mainly about? Being served.

What is having the car washed really about? Being served.

What is having the latest fashions really about? Looking good externally.

What is having new furniture really about? Looking good externally.

What is having colored hair mainly about? Looking good externally.

Jesus served. He was all about serving others and denying himself.

What did he care about most, in regards to people? Their hearts...the inner part.

If we spent less time running around chasing the external, and more time on the heart, we wouldn't struggle so much with what's expected of us. We'd just know.

The question is not really how much should we give, or how much should we sacrifice. It's this: What should my life be about?

Service. Not being served, but serving. Not keeping up with the Joneses, but loving your neighbor.

If we spent our time serving others as we should, we wouldn't have all this time on our hands to serve ourselves. How we spend both our time and money is a window unto our hearts.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money

If you have some Joneses in your life, drop them. Whatever friends are influencing you to be consumers (to consume is to serve yourself), rather than servers of Christ, drop them.

Look for authentic followers of Christ. People who serve others; people who, while still neat and clean, are not concerned with the external. These people will not be impressed with your hair, your nails, your splurges. They will not compete with you, nor encourage you to compete with them. They are not addicted to themselves, but to Jesus.

Look for those who would further your spiritual growth, not stunt it. Following Jesus also means following those who are like Him.

How much should you give...how much should you sacrifice?

First, follow Him...then the answer will reveal itself.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God loves a cheerful giver, because a cheerful giver is a Christ follower.

Prayer time: 

Dear Heavenly Father,  We thank you for this blogging trip we've followed. It has sharpened us Lord, and we needed it. First-world values get into our veins and we get off track. May our hearts and heads follow you, Jesus. May our schedules be about time with you, and serving others. May we be your hands and feet to a hurting world. May we take pleasure in you, not in ourselves. Make us cheerful givers who can't stop pouring out your love to the needy and to the lost. Help us to choose our friends wisely and be Jesus models to those around us. Help it to be about our hearts, not our external.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen

Stories of Hope, Day 2 (Compassion International in Nicaragua)

Compassion International photo, shared on Life in Grace on June 20, 2013

This kitchen belongs to Diana, Edie's sponsored child (Edie blogs at Life in Grace).

Diana lives in this house with her mother, father, and two sisters. Edie was especially impressed with Diana's father, who unlike many men, chooses to stay with his family.

Tragically, fathers in abject-poverty families often don't stay; the pressure is too great. They feel hopeless and too defeated to cope long-term.

Edie shares her impression of Diana's exceptional father:

From Edie at Life in Grace  From the moment I met him, I adored him. She is the first child I’ve met with a father in the house. And her father loves her. That does something permanent to a little girl’s heart. He works everyday, collecting and selling recycled trash, doing his best to support his wife and three daughters. He pilfers through junk and waste and brings it back to their home to clean it up and see what can be salvaged. I told him that I was so proud of him— for taking such good care of his family, for loving them enough to go to work for them everyday, for walking his daughters to school, and for saying yes when Compassion offered to enroll his daughters in the program. I thanked him for not giving up and for having the courage to stay.

Compassion International Photo, shared on Life in Grace, June 20, 2013

When a child is registered at a Compassion center they receive food and money for school, even before they're chosen by a sponsor. Just being registered makes things immediately better for these families. Edie just recently sponsored Diana, so things will begin to improve even more for this family.

Edie shares this about Diana:

She lives in a ramshackle lean-to with no indoor plumbing and cardboard for a bed. But she is home. She is surrounded by parents who love her and who are giving all they have, day in, day out, against all odds. Their little shanty isn’t water proof and they hope that someday they will be able to do some repairs so that the girls don’t get wet when it rains. They have hopes and dreams, that it won’t always be like this. They want a better life for their girls but they are a family and we were so blessed by their commitment to each other.

Now that she knows, I'm sure Edie will send a family gift to have the roof repaired. Family gifts and birthday and Christmas gifts are not required from sponsors; they are money sent above and beyond the $38 a month it takes to sponsor a child. Family gifts can amount to no more than about $2000 a year, so as not to create dependency. Birthday and Christmas gifts are also limited, with a much lower cap.

But when sent, monetary gifts (you can't send material goods) change a child's circumstances in amazing ways. One of our correspondent children, Raphael in Burkina Faso, obtained a new roof with a family gift we sent in 2012. It wasn't much, but now there's no water leaking into the home, which is huge, as you might imagine.

A correspondent child, by the way, is a Compassion child you write to, but do not sponsor. Their own sponsor either won't write to them, or can't write, such as when a large company sponsors many children. We have two correspondent children and one sponsor child, but we love them the same, of course. Each has made our lives far richer.

Another of our correspondent children, Divya in India, received a birthday gift from her sponsor, with which they bought a water filter for clean drinking water. How huge is that? I believe such filters are about $50 each.

Compassion is involved in how gift money is spent, with the decisions being made after a home visit and assessesment of the family situation.

Our sponsored child, Nelson from El Salvador, usually buys food with our smaller gifts, but once they bought a large mattress, leading me to believe that perhaps they previously slept on cardboard or wood slates. Unfortunately, unless you visit your sponsored child, you never learn a great deal about their living situation. It isn't something they detail for you in their letters.

But most of the time, their circumstances look like what you see in these pictures, with Kenya and Haiti being perhaps the worst. Compassion children are all in abject-poverty situations.

Once Kristin Welsh of We Are That Family, after receiving an author's book advance from her publisher, sent $250 to all of her sponsored children. In Kenya, one of her sponsored children's family used the money to buy a booth and start a small-scale sundry-market business, leading to them eating more than one meal a day at home for the first time. Other families used the money for a goat or a cow, to provide milk for the family.

If you sponsor a child, God will provide you the money for gifts. Trust me on this. He only asks for your obedience.

Christy at Southern Plate shares her day-2 home visit experience:

We met a wonderful lady who lives with her aunt and three sisters. Together, they are raising 8 children who are incredibly well loved and taken care of. I’ve never seen kids with such manners and kindness. Daisy is a merchant by trade, packaging spices and seasonings into small bags each evening to go sell on the streets in the early hours of the morning. On very good days, she makes the equivalent of about $6.00 and then comes home to care for her children and nieces.

Despite Daisy's hard work, this family only gets one meal a day at home, prepared in the evening. The team also learned that Daisy struggled to pay school fees for 7-year-old Roxanna, who wants to be a doctor. Sometimes Roxanna had to take a month off school so the family could use the school-fee money for food.

Now, Compassion pays Roxanna's school fees.

 Kelly at Faithful Provisions shares this about Daisy and Roxanna:

How terrible would it be to have to make the choice between food on the table and an education for your children? An eduction that would end the cycle of poverty?

Guess what? Daisy no longer has to make that decision. Her prayers have been answered because someone said “yes”. Someone thousands of miles away listened to the call in their heart and said “yes”.

They sponsored Roxanna.

Since a sponsor said “yes” it has changed not only Roxanna’s life, it has changed her families life. She doesn’t just have hope, she has a fighting chance at becoming a doctor someday. Yes, that is what she told me she wants to be.

A doctor.

It’s hard to imagine that such a small sacrifice on my part, doing without fast food once a week, drinking coffee at home every now and then, just $38 a month, money that I may not even notice, can make the dreams of a child and a mother’s heart come true.

Christy at Southern Plate shares:

The pastor at the center we were at today said “Many countries just want to receive the fish. Here, we want to teach them to fish for themselves, that is what we are doing for these children when we educate them”

And that is what Compassion does. They nurture kids in more ways than one, but the goal is to nurture them as completely as we can.

There are four facets of nurturing that every sponsored child receives:

Social/Emotional nurturing – Compassion works to ensure children feel loved and valued by helping in many ways, such as offering therapy to the child if needed, and even helping adults in that child’s family learn to restore relationships.

Education - In many countries, education is very difficult to come by. In Nicaragua alone, 4 out of 5 children never go to school. This is mostly due to parents not being able to afford it. Compassion works to make sure children in the program receive an education. In fact, it is required that they be educated while in the program. They do this by providing money and supplies for school, school uniforms in countries that require them, tutoring, and in some cases even providing the school itself.

Physical - Compassion children receive healthcare, clean drinking water, and even nutritious food and nutrition education. Any one of these things would be considered a blessing beyond measure by one of these families so I can’t even imagine how grateful I’d be if I were a mother in these mother’s shoes and had this provided for my child.

Spiritual – We are all lost. Compassion makes sure every child in the program knows of the love of God for them and has an opportunity to choose to follow where He leads. Children are not required to become Christians to be a part of or remain in the program, but they live each day receiving all of these wonderful things and knowing it is in the name of God.

And that is what Compassion does with your sponsorship money of only $38 a month. The tear down walls separating these children from their dreams.

More stories of hope coming your way tomorrow....time for me to get a good night's sleep. These trips are exhausting from a blogging standpoint, but I wouldn't change a thing. I love Compassion International and I love sharing what happens when the Faithful show up and act like Jesus.

Hope is born, for just $38 a month.

Thank you for showing up. Thank you for reading. Thank you for sponsoring and spreading the word. And please, share stories in the comments about your own sponsor children and how they've blessed you.

Sponsor a child here.

Follow all the blog posts from the week's trip here.

View all the photos from the week here.