Thankful Wednesdays

Starting this Wednesday, I would like us to start participating in "Walk With Him Wednesdays" per writer and blogger Ann Voscamp. She wrote the best selling book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. It is a beautiful, inspirational book that I highly recommend. She also writes the blog A Holy Experience. In the blog she asks everyone to name 3 things that they are thankful for everyday or at least once a week. She suggests this is always best to do in the morning to start your day off. She posted in her blog, "When your heart's grateful to God at the start of the day, you can trust God in the hurtful of the day."Being grateful fills our hearts up like teacups so that they are not dry for the hard parts of the day which is bound to happen to all of us.

I thought the naming of the 3 things for which you are thankful, which she calls "Joy Dare", would be a nice exercise to share with the readers of this blog. People who have participated in this said it has been life changing. I have been posting how our Nigerian friends hold onto their hope and joy amidst difficulties. They are grateful for the small things. I think this is the key. I am so thankful for the simple, relaxing Memorial Day weekend I enjoyed with my family. On Memorial Day evening, we hung out together on our backyard patio, enjoying the summer weather and our favorite summer food of Maryland steamed crabs. We laughed together, the kids swinging on the tree rope, the dog playing with fallen tree branches and I just sat back taking in the moment. As I get older, I realize it's the small moments that mean so much and go by so quickly.

Each Wednesday, I will post Ann Voscamp's prompt for what we should say we are thankful for. Then you will respond by posting in comments. I hope everyone will join us in our thankful journey. I am asking our Nigerian friends to please participate with us. We would love to hear your voices because I believe we can learn so much from you.

This Wednesday's prompt is what 3 gifts of bluelare you thankful for? #1000gifts #JoyDare

Blue is my favorite color. Blue is peaceful and serene. In nature it is the color of so many glorious things. Here are mine: 1.) I am thankful for both of my children's amazing, beautiful blue eyes. Our son was adopted at six months old. As soon as we first saw him, we could not help but notice his eyes. They were round saucers and so inquisitive. He has deep blue eyes that we called ocean eyes. Our daughter, who we adopted at eleven months old, has pale, crystal blue eyes that were just as mesmerizing as soon as we looked upon her. Oh yes, my children's blue eyes...2.) I am thankful for the blues of summer vacation. The gorgeous blues of the ocean water are in my mind. The ocean is my favorite place to go and I am grateful to have a vacation with my family. I love and am thankful for everything about it even if these things aren't blue - the feel of the sun, the sand, the smell of the ocean, shells, beach houses, saltwater taffy, roaring waves, beach breezes, boardwalks... 3.) And finally, the blue that I am thankful for, one that I am enjoying this summer, one that has always been there, but sometimes I have taken for granted, is the wondrous blue endless sky, that God has given us.

Now it is your turn. You do not have to go into detail like me. Just list 3 things in the comments and use the hashtags above that are given after the question with your answer. Please share and give thanks to God.


Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth.
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever.

Ps. 73:25-26

Eyes of Your Hearts

"May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones..." Eph 1:18

 I love this line of scripture in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Paul speaks to the Ephesians about unifying belief and behavior when they are torn apart in this broken world of sin. He says to have faith we must look through the "eyes of our hearts." To accept what seems unacceptable and in time to forgive what is unforgivable we must pray for enlightenment that can only come from Him.

 Paul's words in the Message are this: "I ask - ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory - to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him - endless energy, boundless strength!" Wow! How beautiful. That pretty much sums it up. If we as Christians could "grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life" and basically just trust him what a difference it would make.

 I witnessed this faith lived out in the people at the Faith Alive and Anawim communities in Nigeria. As I departed on my first mission trip to Faith Alive, I planned to bring the Nigerian people a strong hope for the future. What actually happened was the Nigerian people instilled me with much hope from observing how they lived their lives.  I watched them rise very early in the morning every day happy to greet that day. They knew their purpose. They set about doing the work that they felt was God's work. At Faith Alive it was all about serving God and serving others. This was true at the Anawim Home too. There were people there to serve us - any missionaries that were there. One of the first things that was done everyday was to retrieve the clean water from the well. They had to take a truck down to the only working well and fill up big plastic garbage cans for each room of the guesthouse to have where most of us stayed. This has since been improved thanks to the Nativity Nigeria Advent Water Project. Three large hot meals were served to us everyday. They worked hard for the meals to be something that we would find appealing as Americans. I will never forget the cook whose name was Babba. He was an elderly man who had served as Faith Alive's cook since it started and also had been a cook since he was a young man. He was a sweet man always smiling asking if everything was okay. Most people there have malaria. One day he was sick with malaria symptoms. He did not stop working. He said having malaria is normal here. You just keep going. In between cooking and serving the meals for a few days he would lie down on the sofa. He did not make a fuss. Something about this touched me. I often make a fuss when I am sick. I can be quite noisy! When I am nauseous you know it! They made sure we were comfortable giving us all the bottled water we needed and offering us rides to the American style drug store for any medicines or snacks we needed. We were taken to church on Sundays by Goddy our faithful driver. They also offered to wash our clothes and towels. We declined this offer. They would have had to do this by hand. Electricity service was sporadic. They kept asking us if WE were all right! We were so humbled! They did all this while working at the hospital and taking care of so many sick patients. The important thing is that they did it joyously! Their belief and behavior were unified! They grasped the "glorious"life and they obviously had "boundless strength!"

There in this far off place from my home in the world, with no clean water and hardly any electricity (some living in mud huts) - extreme poverty that I could go on and on about here -  how can I explain to you how I felt so close to God? I did not see this place as God forsaken as some did. As I stated in my previous post, I did feel like my eyes had seen something holy. I saw so much more than can be explained in a few posts. I do not have any answers for why some people suffer more than others. But I do feel changed somehow for what I saw. It did feel like I was seeing things through the "eyes of my heart." Although my Nigerian friends lives were hard, most of them were very poor, sick and even HIV patients, they were able to grasp the "glorious" in their lives. It is amazing how even during times of great struggling and suffering, people of faith continue to survive, grow and even thrive. What I was able to witness were people living out their faith and defying darkness, being a beacon of light and source of hope not only for the visiting missionaries - but what I want to share here -  for all the world.


Top photo: Babba, the cook at Faith Alive guesthouse
Bottom photo: the sitting room at Faith Alive guesthouse

My Eyes Have Seen Holy

One part of our everyday schedule at Faith Alive was called "projects". This was the time you could serve in the area in which you were interested. As mentioned in the previous post, Dr. Chris had helped me realize I could be useful in the pastoral area of prayer and listening to patients' stories. I used to like spending this part of the day walking around trying to comfort people. There is a counseling unit that is part of Faith Alive's social services. The counselors inform patients how to prevent spreading diseases and how to cope with having a disease.

One day I met a counselor who touched my heart. She was a pretty woman wearing a beautiful African dress. She was sitting at the desk in her office and waved to me to come in. After noticing an article on her desk by Rick Warren, who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, I knew she was someone I wanted to speak with. "I am new" she told me. "You are new?" I asked. "Yes, I am new at this," she said. I emphasized "I am new new too! I have never been to Africa or any mission trip before." She told me she was nervous. I reassured her. I told her about our church and how most of us had read The Purpose Driven Life together. She said "I know my life has a purpose now." She then told me her story.

Her husband had contracted AIDS. She took care of him and her three children. It was very hard for her to watch her husband get sicker and sicker and eventually die. Somehow despite her best efforts, her youngest child caught the disease and died. She cried to God how can this be! She felt guilty and ashamed. She felt like she didn't want to live anymore. She told of how the Faith Alive Family helped her regain hope and how they showed her God's love.

She said she had always had religion in her life. Her family took her to church as a child. But something was different now. She now knew Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. All she wanted to do now was to share her faith and to help other people who are suffering like she had been herself. She said He did not mean for us to be alone. We have to go out, share our faith and try to help people.

I was amazed by her story. As I walked back to the guesthouse that afternoon, I thought of how the AIDS disease leaves women and children alone. There is still a very strong stigma in that country concerning AIDS. So most of the men who get the disease do not seek medical help. Then sometimes the wives get it and also the children who have weaker immune systems then also get the disease. They have nowhere to go. There are no shelters or clinics run by government agencies or non-profit organizations. There are no nearby wealthy neighborhoods for donations or handouts. There is only Faith Alive - an oasis in the desert - and Faith Alive depends on the mercy of other countries' donations. I wondered how would it feel to have to depend on the charity of another country for survival instead of it coming from a surrounding neighborhood, community, city or state.

As you walk down the street you see storefronts and houses that are little more than shacks. The Nigerian people wave to you, children run up to you. Everyone is saying, "You're welcome!" and "Thank you so much!" They are so grateful for the help they receive from America. I would have to just stop sometimes and catch my breath to keep from crying. They do not want pity. They need support and encouragement. They look up to our country. I think I was so blessed just to be born in the United States.

After a few days you know the path very well from Faith Alive to the guesthouse. As I looked down the street before entering the guesthouse, I saw some children playing in the street. I remembered when Fr.Emmanuel (born in Nigeria) celebrated the mass at our church and gave the Nativity Nigeria team a blessing a few days before we left on the mission. During his homily he asked, "When you see a dirty little boy playing in the street, will you be able to see Jesus Christ in that child, or will you only see a dirty little boy?"

Well, I saw Jesus Christ in the poor, Nigerian children playing in the streets. I saw Jesus Christ in the soulful eyes of poor and hungry children, in the patients with their bowed heads as we prayed together, in smiling and welcoming faces of the Nigerian people, in the caring, dedicated service of the staff and in the sacrifices that Dr. Chris makes for Faith Alive. I had such a strong feeling that my eyes were seeing Holy.

I played this song over and over on my CD player while I was there: My Eyes Have Seen Holy by Bebo Norman. Here are some of the lyrics and video:

...Mercy, weep over me.
Let your tears wash me clean.
Majesty, be merciful with me,
For my eyes have seen Holy.

Top photo: Some of the Faith Alive Social Services Staff
Bottom photo: The entrance to the Faith Alive Social Services Unit with the welcome banner for visiting missiionary teams.

A Mother's Day Prayer

It is Mother's Day on Sunday and this mother's heart is breaking for hurting children. I do not want candies and flowers this weekend. I want my Mom's Day prayer to be answered. I want all children's hearts to be healed. There are hungry, abandoned and stolen children in this world. There are spiritually wounded children right in our own community. Then there are the mothers hurting for their children. I have a special place in my heart for the broken-hearted, for the left out and lonely ones. I have been like this since I was a small child. I do not know why. I have found that it is part of my purpose here on earth. It is why I am drawn to missions ministry.

All of this rain we are having here in Baltimore this past week is reminding me of my trips to Nigeria. I went in August, which is the rainy season there. It would rain almost every afternoon. Dark clouds would roll in and the rain would come pouring down, making huge drumming sounds on the tin roofs of the buildings. It would be so loud that it was too hard to talk to each other. So everything was quiet except for the pounding, drumming of the rain.

On my first trip to Nigeria at Faith Alive Hospital, I did not know what I would be able to do to help out. I had felt called to serve and was very excited about going. I was so surprised that I was not scared to go and leave my family. However, when I arrived there I got nervous. The first night my team and I were sitting around together at the guest house having conversation and dinner with Dr. Chris, the Medical Director at Faith Alive. Everyone was discussing what they were going to do to serve at Faith Alive. My team consisted of a nurse, a lab technician, a few medical students and then there was me - a stay at home mom with no medical experience. There was also another missionary team at the guest house having dinner. Someone made an unkind remark about me that had something to do with "older" women not being much help. I thought: really, did anyone tell that to Mother Teresa? And when had I suddenly gotten so old? I laugh at this now, but it wasn't funny then because, after all, I was nervous and in Nigeria away from my family. Would you believe for the first time? Of course I chose Africa for my first time away from them! Anyway, the person continued to tell me what I couldn't do, to help explain their remark. I got upset. I let the negative remarks affect my focus. I thought what WAS I doing there? What could I offer at this hospital? When Dr. Chris was sitting by himself, I had a chance to speak with him alone. I told him I did not know how I could help. I do not remember the exact conversation, but he said something about everyone having a purpose for God's work and that everybody that comes to Faith Alive can use that purpose to serve. He asked me a few questions. Somehow he found out that I like to pray and that I believed in the power of prayer. That's great!" he said. I said, "It is?" Foolish me. He said, "It is one of the most important things. We need someone to pray for us confidently. You will pray for us. That is your purpose. Thank you for bringing Jesus Christ here." He got up after that. I remember just sitting there letting this sink in. Thank you for bringing Jesus Christ here. A simple sentence that said so much. Could I believe that? Can we believe that? Isn't that supposed to be what we do as missionaries - as disciples of Jesus Christ? Aren't we supposed to be the light? If we have accepted Jesus Christ into our lives and turn our lives to Him, then He will be manifested in us and we take Him wherever we go. How does it feel when you think about taking Jesus with you? That He is right there in you? Not just watching you from afar, but inside you. Instead of a detached, distant God, He is a close caring God, that we can become one with. Dr. Chris gave words of encouragement and love that day. You can choose your words to be a loving ,blessing balm to someone or a judging, condemning curse.

So now I had a purpose and was able to find my niche. I prayed for the patients at Faith Alive and I felt so humbled by it. The patients wanted prayers and they would hold my hands tight when I prayed. I will never forget it. I especially loved praying and spending time with the mothers and children that were in the sewing class at the Social services unit of Faith Alive. I was blessed by this experience. It might have never happened if someone had not encouraged me. Encouragement is God coming through you. It's His inspiration, beauty and love that will lift someone up.

Negative comments, of course, are not of God and produce negative feelings in others. I think we just all talk too much. I know people don't always mean to say hurtful things. But sometimes they do. Maybe it would be good if we could have the rain come down hard and have tin roofs like in Nigeria so it will be so loud we will be forced to have silence every afternoon. We should use that time to stop and pray.

Last August I went to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit where I heard a powerful, moving presentation given by Mamma Maggie Groban who started the Ministry for Stephen's Children in Egypt. This woman is a "mother" to many poor, forgotten children in her city much like our Sister Oresoa at the Anawim Home in Nigeria. This tiny, soft-spoken woman projected so much love and wisdom with her words. We were all amazed when she finished speaking. This is what she left us with:

I believe silence is the secret.
First, silence your body to listen to your words
Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts.
Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart....beating.
Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit.
In silence, you leave many, to be with the One.

Let's make time for some silence and prayer for mothers and children in Nigeria and here at home this Mother's Day. If you know a mother or a child who is hurting, please reach out to them. The least we can do is encourage, inspire, love and lift one another up.