A Sweet Opportunity to Share Some Love

Nov 15, 2010 | In the Name of Love

Hiya lads and lassies! There is an awesome opportunity for you to jump all over between now and November 29th. (The Monday after Thanksgiving.) This could be a sweet project for you and your kids to enjoy together on the Thanksgiving holiday, or a little moment for you to enjoy during your coffee break at work.

Or something else entirely, which I haven’t thought of. Do tell.

Dayspring and Compassion International are partnering to allow you (and me!) to bless a kid in poverty with a message of hope and love, wishing them a Merry Christmas. Right now, you can design a Christmas card at Dayspring’s website (for $1.99 to $2.99) Dayspring will print, Compassion will translate, and a team of volunteers will be personally delivering the cards to the chosen Compassion International project in Ecuador.

It means more than words can express to let a kid in poverty know that they matter, that someone cares, that their life is more important than their present circumstances might lead them to believe.

You can find out more about this delightful project where it is well explained over at (in)courage, or you can head straight over to the DaySpring Studio and get started! (I highly recommend visiting the (in)courage link just to get a picture of how much these letters mean to the children who receive them.)

Here’s a little preview of what you’ll find when you arrive at Dayspring’s website…

And you’ll click that pretty green CREATE A CARD button to get started. It didn’t take me long at all and is a simple process, but you can comment here or email me if you get stuck. 🙂

I can’t promise it’ll look this good:

but you can try. 😉

{The Bear doesn’t actually look totally happy in that one, huh? Well, we hardly have any family photos to choose from because one of us is always behind the camera!}

I hope you’ll take a moment to send a little love to a kid in need. It might just brighten your day, but odds are your card will be something they’ll carefully treasure for years and years to come. Skip a pumpkin spice latte a send a message that’ll mean the world!

And let me know when you do, so I can give you a virtual High Five! If you can take a screen shot preview of your card, I would love to create a collage of the cards and share it here!

xCC

P.S. We leave for the USA on Friday! Just thought I’d share the excitement. 🙂 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Every Person Has a Story

Apr 24, 2010 | In the Name of Love

It’s an old saying I mentioned yesterday. It has more and more meaning to me all the time.

Every Person Has a Story.

Here’s a bit of one.

I had the privilege of washing this guy’s feet the other day.

He shared with me a little bit about his home life. His Dad gets angry with him sometimes. I have a feeling he was playing it down when he talked about it.

As I prayed for him, I was in tears. You don’t know a person’s story until you ask, and I was really glad I did.

I prayed that the plans God has for his life would come to pass. That he would be able to endure the challenges of this season of his life, that the Lord would be his refuge.

How incredibly fortunate and privileged I have been my entire life — in moments like these I see it most clearly. And yet, I forget thankfulness again and again.

O, to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.

So many stories are taking place all around us.

Seize the opportunity to take a moment and hear someone’s story today. You have no idea how much it might mean to them.

Or to you.

xCC

Can you spell Kyrgyzstan?

Feb 24, 2009 | In the Name of Love

I complain way more than I should about living in Scotland. I’m working on it. The weather leaves much to be desired, and sometimes so does the customer service. And things are pretty darn expensive. Except for groceries at Tesco. But I was reminded today of how much I have to be thankful for. Besides my tortilla chips for 18 pence a bag.

{source}

A friend of mine is a missionary in Kyrgyzstan, and some new laws have been passed there that, if they were passed in Scotland,  would make church planting a much more difficult task than it already is.

 

The new law stipulates that …

1. Two hundred adult citizens permanently living in Kyrgyzstan will now be required to register their membership before a religious community can apply for state registration, compared to 10 in the current Law. It says 10 registered religious organisations will be needed to form a ‘religious association’. (So groups of less than 200 won’t be granted permission to assemble).

2.The Minister of Justice can only register a religious organisation/church after local authorities, and then regional authorities, have approved the membership list, and local authorities have the power to decide if a particular religious organisation is needed in their area.

3. [This is the kicker for me.] There is now a ban on children being involved in religious organisations, which puts an end to children’s ministries such as summer camps and Sunday Schools, and even means parents cannot take their children to church with them.

Fortunately, an investigation commission visited my friend’s Christian Children’s Home, and they received high reviews. Pray that the favour will continue.

I cannot IMAGINE not being able to bring Asher to church. Or trying to minister to anyone who has a kid — how do you convince someone to join you for church on a Sunday morning? What do they do with their kids?

The Sermon in a Nutshell: Even if popsicle stick crafts and stained glass painting aren’t your idea of a good time – be thankful that those special childhood memories were made possible by your delightful local VBS!

xCC