I've been away from writing for a long time now. At least on the blog. I have been journaling quite a bit, but I wouldn't share that with a soul, thank you very much! Everyone should have some place to pour out just absolutely anything they want to say without worrying about the consequences. This is perhaps why I have been more tied up there, less engaged here. But as the season of Lent approaches, I am ready to crawl out of hibernation and begin to turn my focus outward instead of inward where it has been the past two months. As it says in Ecclesiastes "there is a time for every purpose under heaven".
I have been busy with a project since my return from Africa. Having struck up a friendship with the church in Kenya (whom we worked with while in Uganda), I have been moved by the plight of the widows and orphans (numbering around 160) this church supports out of their meager resources. I wrote about this on the blog earlier in an entry entitled "A God Appointed Conversation" July 2010. This has resulted in my taking some action to raise some funds for them initially as an emergency contingency (the drought was making things extremely difficult from the standpoint of inflation) and then later with an idea that came to me about ways in which we could help lift the women and children out of poverty. I had read some on the topic of micro loans and decided that this might be a way to help. After conferring with Pastor Walter- my new Kenyan brother in Christ- I decided to approach the missions committee at my church to begin a new mission project- supplying seed money to begin a revolving micro loans program to Zion People of God Chruch, Kenya. After hearing my passionate pitch for Zion, the missions committee approved the idea. It helps that the missions chair is my good friend, I suppose. Love you, David! :-)
So while such things move slowly, we now have applicants lined up and money approved and I expect the money to be released very soon and sent to Zion to be lent to women such as Millicent Ngesa, mother of 8, who seeks a loan to be able to sell paraffin oil at a nearby market. Or Helida Oyucho, mother of 5, who wishes to borrow money in order to purchase and sell second hand clothes in the local market. The list of applicants in my email inbox is growing....
The thing is, I am just a person with no real knowledge of how to do anything along these lines. I haven't got a clue how to promote this, or fund raise for it, or anything else. Which in God's eyes, makes me the perfect candidate in many ways. This is all I really know. I believe with all my heart, that God has heard the cries of his people in need in Kenya at this little church. He brought me half way around the world to sit in a field around a campfire until 1:30 am, so exhausted I could hardly keep my eyes open, and made me listen to this story about Zion. His purpose in all of this was to call me to do something about it. That much I knew immediately. God never ignores the cries of His people. And He calls other people as His servants to act. Think of Exodus. God heard the cries of the Israelites and called Moses into service. Now I am certainly no Moses. Except that we share this qualification: the fact that neither of us was/is in any way qualified or up to the task at hand! The great thing about being so utterly clueless is that anything that happens as a result of my efforts will be clearly attributable to me in no way whatsoever, but rather to the Glory of God. 'Cause there ain't nothing gonna happen if this thing rests solely on me, I can assure you!
But this I have, and this I offer. I have a heart for these people - for Pastor Walter, for Zion and the widows and orphans they support. I have a voice that I am willing to use on their behalf. I have family and friends who love me and are willing to be supportive of my quirky ideas and passions. And I have faith that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- my God as well- will work something powerful from what I can offer and am willing to supply. I see signs of it already.
Monday night at a meeting I was approached by a wonderful friend who said to me "Your friends in Kenya have been on my heart. I want to help". As I began to speak excitedly about the micro loans and all the applicants I have and how I don't have enough funds for all of them she said "I can help with that". As I was talking with her, another friend approached me and said "You need money for people in Kenya? Why haven't you asked?". Good question. I haven't asked because I can't overcome my fear of asking. But what God said to me after this meeting was this "If you are going to be of any use to Me you have to overcome your fear of asking people to help you". That's a hard one. I hate asking people for anything. I'd rather just do it myself. But I can't do this one on my own. Maybe for me part of this journey is to teach me how to reach out to others for help. I am certainly comfortable with helping others- much less so about letting them help me.
So- anyone out there who reads this- think about helping my people. For this is how I think of them. In truth they are God's people, but I think of them as my family. My family in Christ half a world away. For a small amount of money you can change a life. There are several ways you can help me. One, of course, is money. For between $150- 200 USD you can lift a woman out of poverty and give her a chance. Get together with your circle of friends and pool your resources. Make a contribution. Second- pray for these women and children. Nothing ever happens without prayer! Third- invite me to speak at your book club, your circle meeting, your bunco group, your Sunday School Class- I don't care what it is- I will come and talk if I am given a platform to speak about these wonderful people. Help me to help them. I can't do it on my own. I need all of you. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Shalom.
Contributions for Zion can be made in the following way:
Check made out to NRUMC-Missions. Memo line: Micro loans for Kenya
Mail to:
NRUMC
8501 Honeycutt Road
Raleigh, NC 27615
No comments:
Post a Comment