Buttons and believers

One of those things you find out about after it happens and can see God's hands all over it.

The girls here at New Hope are learning to sew on Wednesday nights. Kinda cool that they'd acquire such an ancient skill, huh. :) Last week they were learning how to sew on buttons and they wound up doing that on two pieces of cloth that Bunny's going to send to the two girls our family sponsors through Compassion. Sean sponsors Ribka, a little girl in Ethiopia, and Bunny and I sponsor "Mookie", who lives in Rwanda.

So the work of little hands will soon be in... little hands. I love the idea of the hands of little girls here in Valparaiso Florida will be held by other little hands in Africa. Buttons and believers.

When Bunny and Sean were sitting in church Sunday, she told him about it and Sean sewed a button on too. Sponsoring Ribka in Ethiopia is something he did on his own. His mom and dad are very proud of the way he has found his own walk with Jesus. I pray the Holy Spirit delivers more than just fabric, thread and buttons to those two little girls. I pray He helps them find their way with Jesus too.

Everything we're doing at New Hope ought to be aimed at the same goal.

So Many Words

"There was a young poet in Japan
Whose poetry no one could scan.
When told it was so,
He replied, "Yes, I know,
But I try to get as many words in the last line as I can."- Quoted by Ray Steadman

Read a study by George Barna yesterday that said that many people could not think of anything that Christianity had done to help society.

The most frequent response, however, was the inability to think of a single positive contribution made by Christians in recent years. One out of every four respondents (25%) said they could not recall anything of this nature. Skeptics (34%), unchurched adults (33%), and Independent voters (29%) were more likely than other people to fall into this response category.

That's pretty awful, but even more people were upset at what they remembered that Christians had done.

When asked to identify what they thought were the negative contributions of Christians to American society in recent years, the most frequent response was violence or hatred incited in the name of Jesus Christ. One out of five Americans mentioned such vitriolic attitudes. This was most likely to be mentioned by people associated with non-Christian faiths (35%) and by evangelicals (31%).

Three other responses generated similar levels of support. Thirteen percent said the opposition of Christians to gay marriage was the largest negative contribution. People 25 or younger were twice as likely as other Americans to mention this. Blacks (20%) and Skeptics (20%) also registered above-average levels of concern about that position.

So many words, brothers and sisters. So many words and not enough acts of loving kindness.

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matt 22:37-40 (NLT)

40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

Matt 25:40 (NLT)

The only way we are going to reverse the attitudes and beliefs of those who do not see the church as beneficial is to live our theology out in bold witness to the new hearts that the Holy Spirit has given us. The gospel is good news to everyone. Let's work to get opportunities to tell it as we serve God through our love for the people He has placed around us.

From Here, I Can See Them

Toward the end of last year, New Hope's Child 2 Child ministry - a group of little girls led by some amazing women - led us into learning about children who live with HIV. Their parents have passed the virus that causes the disease to them. We learned that 6,000 children become orphans EVERY DAY because they have lost their parents to death.


So these little girls decided they'd make a difference - that they'd "DO SOMETHING" about it. They made items to sell to others at New Hope, and before Christmas we had an Advent Conspiracy store opening and invited families and friends to shop among the items they made as well as some wonderful beads from HIV to Home. 


A few weeks ago, we had a booth at our local "Saturday in the Park" arts and crafts festival and offered the beads from HIV to Home with other items as well.


Well, between the two events, led by the girls actions and inspiration, we raised over $4200 and sent it to From HIV to home.


I'm sitting here tonight trying to imagine what it must be like for the adoptive parents that will receive the help - and for the kids who get a family to love and care for them. 


So I went to their website and looked at Kalkidan's picture. Look at that smile.


Somewhere soon there will be a child with a smile like that who will go home with their new family in part because some little girls, and the church they are a part of  - wanted to be involved in what God wants for that child - for that family.


I can see that from here. And I love it.

As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of lifeshaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.1 Peter 1:15 (MSG)

Well, one thing is certain after last night's meal here at New Hope - Pizza still rules as a kid pleasing menu choice. :) Actually there are two things that are certain. The second one?

Kids also love it when adults spend time doing something together they both love to do.

After the mass quantity of kids finished the mass quantity of pizza, the boys headed to Royal Ambassadors and worked on their RA racers, and the girls went to their Child2Child group and worked on "monsters" they've created to sell at the upcoming Saturday in the park.

It was obvious that some "shaping" was going on with the boys as they sanded and polished their cars in hopes of a victory on Saturday in the area competition. But in that group as well as in the girls gathering, what wasn't so obvious was the "shaping" of boys and girls' characters as caring and dedicated adults gave of themselves for the kids.

In each case, if the kids had been out of the way, the immediate product would have been better. After all. the adults have been sanding and sewing for years. But it's not about the immediate product, is it?

Pray for those like our RA and Child2Child leaders who give the love of Jesus every week to kids at New Hope and elsewhere. One day we'll be able to see just how they shaped the future, one child at a time.

"Do Something!"

Our Child2Child little girls worked hard last year to encourage the adults of New Hope to engage in God's work of taking care of the least of these. We'll never know all the effects of their efforts, but we know that God does amazing things with  what we return to Him for His work. Here's one of the projects they did that's going to provide clean water in Sierra Leone

Well Rehab - Sierra Leone

Project Type: Well Rehab
Well rehabilitation is one of the most cost effective ways to bring clean, safe water to a community.  Sometimes it involves fixing a broken hand pump, other times it means sealing a hand dug well to prevent it from being contaminated.  These repairs, and often time total replacements, coupled with sanitation and hygiene training make a huge impact in communities. 


And this year, New Hope is going to sponsor a whole well!!!!

Risk

Tomorrow night we'll meet and enjoy a time of fellowship and then move to the sanctuary where we'll sing some Christmas carols and then open our Advent Conspiracy store.

It's a Risk.

We're in an economy that doesn't inspire many, and heading into a season where people will come face to face with their financial limitations. The fact is that many of them will ignore those limits and spend money they don't have on stuff that people they give it to don't need.

The Advent Conspiracy aims to change that, and we want to be a part of that change. Our hope is that people at New Hope will worship more fully, spend less, give more, and love all this Christmas season. We could have just taken up an offering, but we want to DO SOMETHING. :)

So our Child 2 Child girls have spent every Wednesday night for the last few weeks preparing items for sale in the store. There's going to be some really cool gifts in there throughout the season. 100% of the proceeds will go to help children in the third world. We're also going to be selling products made by others who have the same goals as we do - to change the world.

We've never ever done it this way before.

I love it.

Way to Go Child2Child!!!

The Water Project

Still reeling from the weekend trip, but I wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of the girls in Child2Child and of the people @ New Hope for passing the $500 mark in support of the Clean Water Project. Last Sunday, the girls were going around putting labels like the one above on everyone. I got 4 stuck on me.

The story behind it?

Each $10 equals clean water for one person for TEN YEARS.

So $500 means 50 people will have the simple blessing of clean water for the next decade.

Guys, I'll say it again. We cannot do everything, but each one of us can DO SOMETHING to follow Jesus in love of our neighbors.