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Talita

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

            My sponsor child has been dropped from the mission project that she was in.  Talita hadn’t shown up for the program at her church’s child center for two months.  A project representative has visited her family, but I haven’t heard back with any details yet.

            It’s breaking my heart, because she’s such a sweet girl.  Her letters were always so affectionate, and she seemed to really be thriving in the program.  I’m sure she would never choose to be absent, so what could have kept her away for so long?

            Talita is nine years old and lives with her grandmother in Brazil.  Most adults in her community are unemployed, others work as day laborers.

            In February I received a letter from Talita’s pastor.  I learned from him that children in the project live in very small, crowded houses.  There is a lack of basic sanitation in the area, and so the children suffer with skin diseases, breathing problems and other illnesses.  The pastor wrote that the children also have “a great spiritual need”, that they are “daily exposed to drugs (especially marijuana and cocaine)”.  Christians are in the minority in Talita’s community.

            There is such suffering in the world.  Sometimes I feel so helpless to do anything about it.  But I know that God can help!  So I’m lifting Talita, and all of the suffering children of her community, up to Him in prayer, trusting in His power to save.

            “I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.” (Psalm 140:12)

Would you join me in prayer for these children this week?

Posted in Missions, Prayer, Suffering, Uncategorized | 2 Responses »
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Broken In Love

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

             One of my favorite books is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo.  Have you read it?  If you’ve got kids, maybe you have.

            Edward is a china rabbit, belonging to a girl named Maggie.  The girl loves the unique and exquisite toy, complete with his own impeccable wardrobe.  She really loves him.  But Edward doesn’t know anything about love, beyond his habit of admiring himself, until a series of events and people change him.  Again and again Edward is lost and then found, opening his heart to broken people only to have his heart broken.  Ultimately, his new capacity to love leaves Edward physically and spiritually broken, until the one who first loved him finds him again.

            Not everyone agrees that the Christian symbolism found throughout the book was intentional.  Whatever the author’s intentions, I found the essence of Jesus Christ hidden in the pages.

            Jesus, who existed to touch the lives of the lonely and the lost, the poor and the sick – the broken.  Jesus, who opened His heart to them, and in doing so was Himself broken.  Jesus, who “poured out his life unto death” for them (Isaiah 53:12) – and for us!  Jesus, whose sacrificial life and death define love, and make it known to all the world.

            Jesus, who calls us to open our hearts too.

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Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

            “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2)

            Life is about choices. Like that button on the thermostat that goes up or down. I don’t know about you, but this year with the economy the way it’s been, mine is turned way down!  The family is going to have to make do with extra clothing and hot meals. 

            It’s getting cold! What temperature is your thermostat reading?

            More and more each year I dread the cold weather. Sometimes I wonder why God lets the earth suffer with cold. Think of the homeless, of people living in drafty places without heat, of people who work out in the cold and don’t have a hat or a winter coat!

            Maybe the cold exists, in a way, to move me to do something about it. If I didn’t have to wake up to a chilly winter morning, I guess I wouldn’t be thinking about all of those cold people around the world who don’t have a warm bed to get out of, or a fleece sweatshirt to pull on, or a hot cup of coffee to make. Bending my mind around the cold softens my heart. It moves me to look for that jacket my daughter has outgrown and bring it in to the collection at church. It moves me to buy a pair of gloves for our Plainfield mission project and a can of soup for the Foodbank. It moves me to praise God for our SHLC quilters sending warmth to so many in need, and to pray for all of the cold people in the world.

            I could turn the button on the thermostat up and let the warmth insulate me from the cold and all of the suffering it brings with it. But then I think my heart would grow cold. So I think I’ll leave it right where it is.

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