Love is the Mission

This is Chalito.   He was born with many disabilities and has lived most of his life in a home for special needs kids.   He is in his twenties in these pictures and can not do anything by himself.   In spite of this hard life he has a love for Jesus that is huge!   Insisting on being carried to church on Sundays because he simply wants to worship.   He smiles ALL the time.   Though he can not communicate like we do, you know the minute you see him he has Joy.   I can learn so much from his life.   I struggle with joy and am healthy, have a home, family, a job that I love, food on my table and everything I need.   Chalito is one of my heroes.   He is no longer on this earth which means he is no longer suffering but is with the God that he loves so deeply.   I can’t wait to see him again one day.

Could you live on $2 a day? You are probably laughing at such a ridiculous question but half the global population do just that.   If you make $35,000 a year you are in the top 4 percent of the worlds wealthiest people.   And we seem to go in debt living on that and more.   How do we impact those that live on $2 a day   and change our lifestyle so that we live on what we make?      We do not buy into our country’s consumerism mind set.                 Choose to buy only what we need.                 Shop smarter.                 Do not use credit cards.                 Create a new mind set.   When I am wanting items I do not need I have begun to think about the child in the village I met on my last trip that did not have shoes, cl...

Today is quiet, unusually quiet.   The last few weeks have been filled with fittings, appointments,   weddings, fundraisers, launches of new ministries and lots of people.   I am an introvert so it’s all been a bit stressful.   To many people cause me to want to shut down.   I should be cherishing a quiet day yet my heart is unsettled.   God has always come through for our family and for Village to Village.   Always.   Yet I can not get away from fear.   Fundraising is hard, speaking is hard, planning is time consuming yet the mission is always the same.   Love.   Why do I fear Love?   Because I am not releasing it to God.   Parts of it I am, parts of it are easy to give to Him but when it comes to financial things at times I think I know what is best.   I want the answer now.   I want the growth now.   But growth does not come immediately.   It’s like a child learning to walk. ...

        Reading is one of the ways to settle my spirit.   I love learning from others.   One of my favorite books is Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner, her view of the burdens we carry is this: It only takes one visit to a third world country to understand how far I’ve gone off course. It takes only one glimpse of the happy sparkle in the eyes of a chocolate woman laughing as she dyes fabric with calloused hands to know I do not understand joy. It takes only one visit to a roomful of sex trafficking survivors singing, dancing as they chop avocados for guacamole to know I do not understand gratitude. It takes only one peek at a child’s singular toy, a helicopter made from a trashed cell phone minutes card and a lollipop stick, to know I do not understand creativity. We are clothed.   We are fed. We are sheltered. We are stressed? We are weary.   We have burdened ourselves with an inordinate amount of possessions, pack...

Do you ever wonder if God really hears your prayers.  I have no doubt He hears, sometime His answers are not what we expect though.  I have learned to pray very specific prayers over very specific dreams, I keep a journal and write them all down.  I never want to forget that He always answers.      We may never understand His answers or His timing but just knowing they are His is enough.    I have circled my marriage, my children, our home, our finances, our jobs and our health for years.  There have been failed businesses , major sicknesses, broken hearts, financial loss, deaths and more even in the midst of the prayers.   But an amazing thing happens when you pray.  God gets you through it and grows you in the process.  I would not take one heartbreak I have had out of my life, because I have become a better person, more understanding, patient, willing to do the hard things, have the hard conversations, because of the...

The first time I experienced a dump in Guatemala, a place where broken things are thrown, rotting food is placed, items that have no use are put, I was angry at the God that I had grown up loving, believing in, trusting. How could He allow human beings, with hearts and souls, people He created to live in such a desperate place. He very quickly reminded me that he had allowed me to be born in a country where I was in the top 4 percent of the wealthiest people in the world. And what was I going to do to change these precious lives? This began a journey I am still on, learning how to live simply so others can simply live.  I have more then I will ever need, so do I need to continue the cycle of more when I can really do with less?  We are looking at everything from insurance companies, can we get this cheaper somewhere else, to car purchases, do we need new or is that a want to Christmas giving, what can we give others that makes a difference in their lives, to see where...

     Countercultural. That is what I am striving to be. Not in a bad way but I want my spending to look di ff erent then the worlds. I want my time to be spent di ff erent. I want my desires to be di ff erent. Isn’t that how Jesus lived?     The things he did were not the norm but were so needed. He loved the unlovable. He spent his days with the least of these. He died for a people that did not understand what he was doing.      It’s easy to do things without even thinking. Buy that new car, we deserve it after all, we work hard. Purchase those tennis shoes that will enhance your work out. Buy lunches every day at work, because it’s to much to fix your own from home (I am the worst about this).      Do you know that what the U.S. and Europe spend on perfume cost more then clean water for all global citizens? I need to pack my own lunch for heaven’s sake.      Could we get to the point we don’t purchase items...