A Mother's Love

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso - After she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family's only meal of the day. First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands. Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else had finished, a bowl for herself. She always eats last.

That is what I just read at the beginning of this article, and it got me thinking...

A mother's love is the same, no matter the culture, the language, the time, the circumstances.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

And these mothers have no choice but to feed their families first. The youngest children are fed, then the older, then her husband, and if there is any left over, she makes a bowl for herself.

Now that's sacrifice.

This is a picture of a little girl who works on her family's vegitable stand, After working hard all day, she is allowed to have an ear of corn.

Where My Heart Is

Discord drives Somalis to Yemen in record numbers

Story Highlights
Agency attributes surging number of refugees in Yemen to unrest in Somalia
More than 15,000 refugees have come to port city of Aden since January
New routes across the Red Sea to Yemen also contributing to increase

It is sad hard to imagine what a famine really feels like for me, someone who has always had food on the table, and plenty in the pantry to last all month. I don't know what it feels like to go hungry. I don't know what it feels like to look my children in the eye and tell them that there won't be anything for dinner today, because we can't afford anything, or there just isn't anything to be had. I don't know how that feels, and I pray that I never do.

It is devastating to read everyday in the news about how more and more people are going hungry in the world we live in today. In all reality, they live in a different world, they live in a completely different world than mine. Mine has a grocery store, fast food joint and nice restaurant on practically every mile corner; theirs is cold dark and empty. There's no food to put on the table they don't have in the home that leaks and has dirt floors and only one room for everyone to sleep. They work hard simply to stay alive. I go home after sitting in my plush office and sit on the couch as dinner is delivered to my door hot and fresh. I don't know what it feels like to work for a living.

It is raining outside today. They don't get rain, at least not enough to grow the crops they so desperately need simply to stay alive. We can have a garden in our back yard to grow tomatoes and potatoes and corn so that we can just go into our backyards and avoid driving to the store one day. They can't; they simply can't grow anything; seeds and tools and land are very hard to come by, if they are even available at all.

My children will wake up in a warm home with clothes on their back and shoes on their feet and food on the table. They will not ever know what it feels like to beg on the streets for a few coins to buy bread so that they can feed their younger siblings because their parents are no longer able to take care of them because of AIDS. Many children across the world have to do that everyday. They have to do their best to hold their family together, and they are only 12. That is too much for a 12 year old to have to go through. I pray that my kids will only have baseball practice and homework to worry about when they are 12.

I am so beyond blessed to live where I live and to have the things that I have, and don't deserve at all. God is taking care of me; God is taking care of those orphaned children in Africa, only in a different way. And I want to do my part, I want to make a contribution to this rock we call home and leave something good behind after I leave. I want to teach my children how important it is to try to make this big round world a smaller place. To keep those suffering on the other side of this world in our thoughts and prayers and plans. To help them as much as we possibly can and to leave a footprint on their lives.

The only way I know how to do that right now, where I find myself in the story God is writing in me and Dale's lives, is through Compassion International. Compassion is an amazing ministry and a wonderful extension of God's hand here and now. Dale and I have 3 children in Ethiopia whom we have added into our family. I love them as much as I am going to love this little baby Best I will soon bring into this world. These kids are in my heart, even though I have never met them, and may not ever get the opportunity to meet them, I know that they love me and will be forever changed because of the simple 35 dollars a month we send them. They are clothed, fed, educated, cared for and loved through the work of Compassion and they have the chance for a few hours a day to escape, to really be kids, until they have to go back home and help their parent's keep their family together and pay the bills and put food on the table. They get a little glimpse of the Kingdom through Compassion International and I pray that they take that and run with it. That they grow up and change the world they find themselves in; I pray that Bilen, Markos, and Hewan truly love people and remember that they are loved so that they too can go and love others.

The Lost Children of Kenya's Political Violence

NAIROBI, Kenya - Among the children laughing and shouting on the swing set at a Nairobi orphanage is a boy who was pulled from his bed by men with machetes and an 11-year-old girl who assumes her mother was burned alive. They play as they wait for aid workers to bring news of their parents, to tell them if they're orphans or not. Waves of attacks since Kenya's disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote have uprooted more than a half million people and left more than 1,000 dead. In the chaos, many arents and children lost track of each other: Kenya's Red Cross says it knows of at least 500 youngsters who were separated from their families, and many more robably went unreported. With violence ending, more than 300 children have been reunited with their parents. But others remain adrift, stuck in orphanages or in camps for those forced from their homes.

I hate not knowing. I hate the waiting game. I am usually a patient person, but with bigger stuff, I just want to know. I don't like waiting for the surprise of life, of the future. But I have nothing on these kids. They don't know whether or not they are orphans. That would be grueling.

These children deserve to live in peace, in a safe place, with people who love them. I pray that they get there, wherever there may be.

Sometimes...

...I get homesick for a place I've never been......but long to go.

a letter from Ethiopia

Our little Ethiopian baby girl wrote us a letter. It was absolutely heart wrentching. Here's what she wrote (and take into consideration that the translation from her language to English is a bit sketchy)...

Dale and Lindsay Best,
How're you? I'm alright. with my family Praise God. We celebrated our millenium warmly last September. I'm work hard at school in this millenium I hope my country will pull through poverty this time too. I like dolls like you do Could you send me one? Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God. Goodbye.

this church stepped up

I just read this article.

This is what it is all about.

This church of 1,900 people found something that was close to their hearts (the victims of Hurricane Katrina), found people in need and helped them out. They sacrificed to help their fellow man. That's what it is all about.

They said that each person gave an average of $833. That's not easy to do, but they did it. There were also a couple of people who gave greater amounts of money, but would rather remain anonymous. That's awesome.

They raised a million dollars to give away, to help people. They set a goal of collecting the money at 2 years, but it only took them a year and a half.



...may the LORD make your love overflow to each other and to everyone else...
(1 Thessalonians 3:12)

Updated AIDS Statistics

I read this post from the (RED) blog this morning on my Google Reader. It is refreshing.

UNAIDS updated its statistics on Worldwide AIDS for 2007, and the numbers are quite encouraging. There has been a 16% decrease in the number of AIDS victims worldwide from last year to this year.

. 68 % of the global total of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa
. 4,383 is the average number of deaths daily due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
. There are an estimated 11.4 million orphans due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
. Adult HIV prevalence rate in Swaziland is 26% vs 33% in 2006.

These numbers are encouraging. Keep it up, make that number larger in next years statistics. It can be done, AIDS victims, every single one of them, can receive the treatment and care they need. The children orphaned by this terrible tragedy can be saved, can be helped. I want to help.

World AIDS Day is December 1st...it's also payday, go spoil yourself and buy soemthing (red) that day. Help out someone who can't really help themselves. Start a conversation with a co-worker, bring up AIDS awareness. Be aware for yourself. Know what people around the world are facing, are living through, are dying of.

My Dreams.

I want to make a difference.

This is a good place to dream toward.

I can make a difference.

I will make a difference.

...what if it was Jesus?

Dale took me to the TobyMac Concert on Friday night…it was awesome by the way…and I heard the coolest thing…Craig West from KXOJ’s morning show is going to spend 2 days (yesterday and today) as a homeless man in downtown Tulsa. He grew a scruffy beard for a few weeks, didn’t eat or bathe all day Sunday, and Monday morning at 9am, Bob dropped him off in downtown with only the clothes on his back, a blanket, and a cell phone (to call in reports to the station to let the listeners know what he was going through). This morning he was awakened by a security guard who kicked him off of the stoop he took as a bed the night before. He went over to a nearby park bench and sat. A few business people were eating their fast-food brecky on a nearby bench. He looked upon their breakfast burritos like they were steak dinners complete with baked potatoes. They threw half of the thing away, in the trash. And he was hungry, sitting nearby.
Makes ya think.
Just like something similar happening at the church I attend, and have attended since I was about 4 years old. This Sunday, we had our annual Congregational Thanksgiving Dinner; it always kicks-off the Holiday season for me in a way -- the Holiday Season that we all associate with a time to give, as if we shouldn’t give throughout the rest of the year or something. Anyways, after the meal was over, my husband stayed to help the kitchen ladies clean up and get everything back to normal for next Sunday’s services. He came and got me and I followed him as he pushed a rolly-trash bin through the crowd of people, through the kitchen and out the back door. He looked like he was going to be sick to his stomach. He explained to me why he was feeling so terrible; he said that he just watched a woman take tin pan after tin pan, each full, or mostly full of food, and throw it into the trash bin and proceed to ask him to throw it into the dumpster. That makes me sad.
What about all of the mouths that could feed, the stomachs that could fill?
What about the poor, those who are in need?
Jesus told us to give to these people, He told us to look after the poor, the widowed, the orphaned. He wants us to put ourselves second and them to be first on our hearts. We all had full bellies that night, and it was like I could hear the tummies growl of the too many children in Oklahoma, alone, who go to bed with empty tummies every night. The Central Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma reported that one in 5 children in Northeastern Oklahoma lives in poverty. And that is in our own backyard. Sometimes I forget that there is poverty and hunger and hurting all around me.
I love my church, don’t get me wrong, and they are great, good, loving, and giving people, I just think that this in a place where there was an opportunity to give, to help the poor, to take care of our brothers and sisters, and they neglected to think of it. They simply forgot. And I think that is the tragedy. I think that if someone would have thought of it, if they would have brought it up, they would have been more than happy to give what we have remaining, or in that case, to make a little extra to plan to give to others. That’s what I want to be; I want to be that voice that they hear to remind them of the empty bellies that can be fed. I want to open their eyes to the opportunity God has given us to give and to help the ones He loves. I was talking this through with a girl at work this morning, and she brought up a good verse…

…For I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.
I was naked and you gave me clothing.
I was sick and you cared for me.
I was in prison and you visited me...
…I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!...
{see Mathew 25:31-46}

…what if it was Jesus we could have fed?

(RED) Thank You from Swaziland

Here's a Thank you card from (RED) shareholders in Africa to (RED) investors in America. A card of thanks for believing in them, for loving them, and giving them a chance.

This is what it's all about.

surely WE can CHANGE

and the problem is this

we were bought with a kiss

but the cheek still turned

even when it wasn't hit

and i don't know

what to do with a love like that

and I don't know

how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world

is right here among us

and hatred too

and so we must choose

what our hands will do

ahere there is pain

let there be grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afraid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

something

and the problem it seems

is with you and me

not the LOVE who came

to repair everything

where there is pain

let us bring grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afreaid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

surely we can change

oh surely we can change

something

oh, the world's about to chance

the whole world's about to change

I listened to this song on the way home from work last night. And on the way to work this morning, I listened to it 3 times on manual repeat (manual, because I had to push the back button...). And it opened my eyes. We have all this love in this world, it's all around us; in addition to all the hatred we find. And surely we can change. The world is about to change. If we just get up and be hope, be grace, be serinity, be brave, be that relief that the world needs.

We CAN change.