mission Monday - HELO, Inc

At our Girl Scouts meeting last night, one of the girls invited Elisabeth Kennedy to speak to our girls about her mission. The girls have been working on their Global Girls interest project and have been learning about many of the issues that affect women and children around the world. After doing several other activities, the girls created a display about women and children's at our local library. This reminded one of the girls about a speaker that she had heard and so she asked if we would be interested in having her speak to us, thus last night Elisabeth spoke to us about her experiences. After 9/11, Elisabeth began her trips to Haiti. She was so touched and tortured by what she found, she has committed herself to making a change. Through a series of unexpected events and a bit of grace, last year she opened an orphanage in les Cayes, Haiti. Her orphanage currently cares for 13 children, who without her intervention would be left to their own devices and possibly not survive. Her orphanage brings hope and opportunity to these children and hopefully many more to come. She named her program HELO, Inc. HELO stands for Home, Education, Love, and Opportunity. Elisabeth says that she has learned to take small steps but in the course of a year, she has already rented a house for the children, hired caretaker, and begun the kid’s education, but her dreams are larger. She would like to care for my children. She would like to own a campus where a church, school, and home can all be developed for the children. It is important to her that the children have a skill that can carry them on after they leave the care of the Centre Fe Formation Juvenil Bethestda.

We can help in this mission by:
-Becoming more educated about the situation in Haiti and educating others.
-Praying for this mission.
-Donating money (If you are interested in this option, HELO is a non-profit agency. The address for donations is HELO, Inc, 43 Lake Shore Dr., Middlefield, CT 06455. If you would like to specify usage for your money, please choose one of the following categories: Shelter, Food, Education, School Supplies, Clothing, Building Fund, or you can sponsor an individual child for $75 per month. Include your name and address so that a receipt can be returned to you).

The entire meeting left me thinking of the amazing power of One. Elisabeth had felt the calling and she acted. It is quite an amazing story.

PS. I know that it is not Monday, but this infomation couldn't wait.

Moving Under God's Direction

One of the houses that we have been looking at has dropped by 50k. Now you would think that I would be excited about this, instead my heart sunk. Without our house selling, there is no way that we can purchase the house. What does this have to do with faith? DD saw my response and wrote a blog about faith on our joint blog acupofteawithmomandme.blogspot.com about Having faith as it regarded to the home sale. She reminded me of Romans 8:28


"all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

and of Psalm 139. On the other hand, a joke that I once heard came to mind:

There was a man who lived by a river as the rains came. An announcement came over the radio for all residents to move from the area because torrential floods were on there way, but the man said, “I have my Bible and I pray to God. He will protect me. I am going nowhere.”

The rains came and the water rose on his house. He had to move to the second floor to avoid the waters. A boat of rescuers came around, “Come with us, sir. We are evacuating. It is bad now, but the rains are going to continue. Your house may be swept away”
The man responded shaking his Bible out the window, “I have my Bible and I pray to God. He will protect me. I am going nowhere!”

As the rescuers had predicted, the rains continued. The man was forced out on his roof. Fortunately, the rescuers had not forgotten him. They came by in a helicopter. “Sir, you must come now. You have nowhere left to go. More waters are coming. Please come with us.”
“You don’t understand. I have my Bible and I pray to God. He will protect me. I am going nowhere.” He flagged the helicopter away. The rains continued, eventually overtaking his roof. He was washed away and died.

When he reached heaven and standing face to face with God, he asked, “I don’t understand. I believed. I had faith. Why am I dead? I waited for you to save me.”
God replied, “Who do you think made sure that you were warned and sent the rescuers not just once but twice?”

* * * Would you believe while I was writing this a car just drove down my driveway, checked out the house, and drove away. We have a 200 foot driveway and live on a dead end. You don’t drive down our driveway by mistake!

So please join me in a prayer:

Dear God, It seems to me that my family and I are supposed to move. We asked for your guidance and You provided us with a job, when we weren’t sure that there would be one. Not only did you provide us with it, we were truly blessed with it. Thank you for providing. Now we are trying to follow and resettle, but our home has yet to sell. We have taken our steps, but still we are caught between these two places. We know that You have a plan and that we must learn to relax and trust. And so, I ask you to watch over us and help us to continue to have faith. Do not give me what I necessarily wish, but instead what You know is right. Help us to be faithful and understand your bidding. Amen

Worship Thee for Thine Own Sake

I came by a wonderful prayer today as I was reading “Women Pray: Voices through the Ages, from Many Faiths, Culture, and Traditions”





God! If I worship Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell:
And if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise;
But if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine everlasting beauty.
- Rabi’a the Mystic

It is very easy to bend religion to our own ends out of fear or promise, or even desire. But while we may bend religion, we cannot bend God. Early Christianity focused on Hellfire and Brimestone, God’s wrath and anger. Later some became focused on the hereafter. Earthly matters were only of concern as they related to getting to Heaven. The truth, I believe, lies somewhere in between. There are things to fear and truths to be upheld. There is a heaven to work toward. But today, we must focus on the here and now. We must appreciate God’s gifts and also be thankful for our trials.

Recently, an old friend and I were discussing difficulties in our own past. Both of us have come to the conclusion that without these difficulties we would not be who we are and that even for these horrors we must thank God. We must thank him not for putting us through the trials, but for seeing us through the trials. It is not for us to judge why, but to accept our lives both good and bad and grow from it.

Job 1:21 “. . . "Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart. [c]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."

Making Pies for Jesus

The Bible says that we should do things for the LORD with a grateful heart, but I was not of a grateful heart as I was making pies for my church’s baked bean dinner. Six dinners a year. Two pies per dinner. It certainly doesn’t seem like too much to ask for. But my heart was not in it this week. So the questions become, am I not giving fully to the LORD or are pies not the request of my God, but of my church? Unfortunately, this is a simple form of a much larger question that we all face every day.

As we work to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we can easily fall into thinking that we are doing good, but in fact just be doing. Imagine if instead of outright evil, evil was more insidious. Outright evil we would see coming and fortify our defenses. Insidious evil comes in the form of distractions. First of all, the noises that these distractions produce don’t allow us to hear God’s whispers to us. Secondly, these distractions, keep us from our true calling. We get busy making pies, planning bazaars, and attending events. Instead of following our calling and doing our part, we get caught up.

For me the question becomes, how can you tell the difference between what is right and what is just static?