On Being Impatient

The Christmas season brings a lot of waiting…waiting for the Christmas cookies to be done baking, waiting to open all the Christmas presents under the tree, waiting for the first big snowfall, waiting for Christmas vacation to start, waiting for the party guests to arrive, waiting for the big football game to start (and/or waiting for it to end), waiting to eat all the delicious food and the leftovers.

When I was a kid the anticipation of Christmas morning was often more than I could handle.  I remember one Christmas morning when the waiting was especially agonizing.  I remember waking up early and then having to wait and wait for my parents to wake up, go down stairs, and make sure everything was all set before my sister and I could go down and see what Santa had brought us.  My sister and I sat at the top of the stairs calling downstairs to my mom and dad to see if we could come down.  Time went by SO slowly.  Didn’t they understand that I wanted to open those presents?!?  Didn’t they know I had been waiting for weeks to see what Santa brought?!?  How could they make me wait one more minute to enjoy playing with all my new toys???

Then finally my parents called my sister and I, and we rushed down the stairs and went right to the Christmas tree. “Santa” left us a generous pile of toys to unwrap and play with.  And we began examining and opening all the presents.  There was no disappointment.  In fact, I received far more than I had asked for, I unwrapped much more than I expected.  Once all the presents were unwrapped I spent hours playing with those toys.  And the joy didn’t end that day.

It has been many years since I had such excitement for Christmas morning (in fact my parents are so much more eager than I am to open presents this morning), but my Christmas seasons still require a lot of waiting.  We do a lot of things to celebrate Christmas and a lot of those things require waiting, but the Christmas season, Advent, is really all about waiting and preparing for Jesus’ birth.  Advent also reminds me about that better world that we are waiting for, the world of justice and peace that will be when the Reign of God is present on earth.

Lately I’ve become very impatient and frustrated with waiting, specifically I’ve become frustrated with waiting for Jesus to return and establish a world of justice.   I mean, seriously, what is God waiting for?  God can do anything God wants to.  Why do we have to be stuck in this far less than perfect world for so long???

I’m tired of waiting for a world where 18,000 children don’t die everyday from hunger.  I’m tired of waiting for a world where one in four children in the US won’t live in poverty.  I’m tired of waiting for a world where everyone has access to the basics: food, water, sanitation, health care, education, and shelter.  I’m tired of waiting for a world where peace is the norm and war is a concept we only vaguely remember.  I’m tired of waiting for a world where people don’t destroy and overuse the natural resources.  I tired of seeing people and organizations working so hard to make a difference and bring about a better world while change comes so slowly if at all.

But there is so much that I don’t understand, so much that I cannot comprehend.

It’s kind of like that Christmas morning many years ago.  I didn’t understand why I had to wait; I couldn’t comprehend why something so seemingly simple could require so much time to get ready (did Santa leave a mess or WHAT?).  I still don’t know what my parents were doing down stairs to prepare for my sister and I to come down and open presents.  But my parents knew what they were doing.  And when the waiting was finally over, there was only joy and celebration.  Likewise, my human brain cannot understand why God doesn’t just establish the Reign of God on earth right now, but someday in the future there will be joy and celebration many times greater than any Christmas morning.

But that doesn’t make the waiting any easier to bear.

Here’s where Christmas can help.  The martyred archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero, had this to say on Christmas day in 1977:

“With Christ, God has injected himself into history. With the birth of Christ, God’s reign is now inaugurated in human time. On this night, as every year for twenty centuries, we recall that God’s reign is now in this world and that Christ has inaugurated the fullness of time. His birth attests that God is now marching with us in history, that we do not go alone.

Humans long for peace, for justice, for a reign of divine law, for something holy, for what is far from earth’s realities. We can have such a hope, not because we ourselves are able to construct the realm of happiness that God’s holy words proclaim, but because the builder of a reign of justice, of love, and of peace is already in the midst of us.”

The Reign of God isn’t here yet, but it is.  The yearly celebration of Jesus’ birth reminds us that God once lived among us in human form and God continues to be present in each and every person.  God is waiting along with us, God understands the agony of our waiting, and so I must trust that God has a plan much greater than any plan I could ever understand.

And so I wait and watch and work.

Organized Chaos (i.e. my job)

I've been working at lot lately at Feed My Starving Children.  I've been able to pick up a lot of extra hours over the past couple of months which has been a blessing in a number of ways.  After working there for a little more than three months, I feel really good and comfortable with doing everything that is part of my position.  In my extra hours I have learned to do some extra things and I've learned more about the internal workings of FMSC.

Since I first started working at FMSC, it has been much more than just a job.  It has been a welcome source of income, but more than that it has been a way for me to live out my calling while helping to feed thousands of starving children around the world and helping thousands of volunteers make a significant difference in the world.  I have grown in a number of ways by working at FMSC, but perhaps the greatest way I have grown is in my ability to deal with organized chaos.  There are a number of factors that contribute to the organized chaos at my job- there's always something that threatens disorganize the organized chaos: extra large groups, young groups, old groups, volunteers with different abilities, loud volunteers, issues with the ingredients, overflowing toilets, a shortage of staff, and a variety of other situations.  But I love it.  I love not knowing what to expect.  I love being surprised.  I love trying to figure out how to keep things under control and running smoothly all while packing food to keep children alive around the world.    

Sure my job has presented some challenges- times and situations that have tested my patience and my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength.  

But through it all and perhaps because of these challenges I love my job…

...even at 7:00 am

...even at 10:00 pm

...even after working for 12 hours

...even when mopping, vacuuming, sweeping, doing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, taking out the garbage, and doing laundry

...even when there are too many or not enough volunteers

...even when there's 50 million things to do (and this is pretty much all the time)

...even when I’m sweaty, hot, and half covered in chicken flavored powder

...even when the toilet overflows…twice in one night

Along with those challenges are the many joys- the little and big things that keep me going and inspire me. 

I love my job...
...especially when kids say things with wisdom far beyond their years
...especially when a volunteer says a moving prayer over the food they have packed
...especially when volunteers make generous donations
...especially when there are really cute little kids volunteering
...especially when I see volunteers who are so excited to come volunteer
...especially when we get to pray over a shipment of food before it leaves our warehouse
...especially when working with all my amazing, adept, and passionate co-workers
...especially when volunteers bring humor, fun, and enthusiasm with them
...especially when I have underestimated what is possible and God proves me wrong (yet again)
...especially after a volunteer session when we pack a lot of boxes of food
...especially when a volunteer takes the time to thank me or tells me that they had a great experience
...especially when I see that volunteers understand the injustice of hunger and are motivated to do something about it
...especially when I clearly see God’s hand working through the volunteers and staff
...especially when I see volunteers come in day after day to give of their time, energy, and resources to feed starving children

You are Beautiful

There was another piece of art in the Nature Unframed exhibit at the Morton Arboretum that really struck me.

Most of the pieces of art were in a centrally located area, so I walked around to see all of them.  This piece of art was, I think, the biggest.  You probably could have seen it from an airplane.

This is a wonderful message.  There are so many people out there who need to hear this message.  But I wasn’t terribly impressed by this piece of art.  It was just some really big letters- although still a good message.

I moved on to look at other art pieces.  And then later I rode my bike past this piece of art from a different route than I had walked past it.  At first I thought it might be a different piece of art because it was so different and striking.

From the other direction the letters were yellow- a beautiful bright, brilliant yellow. The first time I looked at this piece of art, I hadn’t given it enough of a chance- I dismissed the white letters as “nothing special” and hadn’t taken the time to look at it more deeply, to look at it from another perspective.

Sometimes we need to look at something from a different angle (figuratively or literally).  Sometimes we don’t see the beauty in something because we are looking at it the wrong way.  Or sometimes we don’t look at it long enough.  Or maybe we don’t look at it deeply enough.  Sometimes we dismiss people outright because we don’t take the time to look for the good in them or we just let any small fault override any potential good.  Sometimes a situation frustrates us because it seems all bad when we don’t take the time to look for the good.  Perhaps this is about thinking about the glass as being half full rather than half empty.  But in the end I think we all have to give everyone and everything in our lives a chance before we judge, a chance to see the good, a chance to see the beautiful.

Christmas List

Every kid loves making a Christmas list.  Kids love looking through catalogs and store flyers and picking out all the coolest toys.  Maybe they send the list to Santa or maybe they just put the list in their parents' trusted hands.  A Christmas list allows a child to dream, to dream about what he or she might receive and all the fun that will be had with those toys.  But perhaps the most exciting part about the whole Christmas list making extravaganza is waiting for Christmas morning to find out what wishes have been fulfilled.

I'm no longer a kid, but I still make a Christmas list.  The past few years I have struggled to write a Christmas list like I did when I was a child.  I have been blessed with everything I need and most of what I want.  I don't need more "stuff" to clutter my bedroom or my life.  And so I have started writing what we might call an alternative Christmas list.  My Christmas wish list consists of things I want for other people and for the world.

Here's my Christmas List:

1.  A world without hunger, a world where not a single child dies because he or she didn't have anything to eat
2.  Sustainable sources of income and access to credit for people living in poverty
3.  A world where all children have access to education and all people are literate
4.  Clean water for the more than 1 billion people who don't have access to clean water
5.  Meaningful work and dignity for people who are considered "unemployable" by many
6.  A world where people don't die from preventable and treatable diseases like malaria

Yes, I know my list is a little ambitious.  I'm not even sure Santa could pull off a list like this.  I know none of these things will be delivered under my Christmas tree this year, and I'm pretty sure that none of you reading have the resources to make my Christmas wishes come true.  But here's a more concrete list, which includes some possibilities on how to make my list a reality.

1.  A world without hunger: Donate to Feed My Starving Children or to Heifer International (Ducks, bees, or chicks would be nice)
2.  Income and access to credit: Purchase an animal through Heifer International (I really really want a llama) or purchase a gift card through Kiva that will allow me to give a loan to an entrepreneur in need of a microloan
3.  Education and literacy: Support the work Lutheran World Relief is doing to provide education or buy me a gift certificate for Better World Books
4.  Clean water: A gift card for Living Water International 
5.  Meaningful work and dignity: Purchase me a gift card for Goodwill
6.  An end of malaria deaths: Donate to the Lutheran Malaria Initiative.  This initiative is working to educate people about malaria while treating and preventing malaria in Africa.

So, that's my Christmas list.

I encourage you all to make your own alternative Christmas list.  It's a fun and meaningful experience- it will give you a chance to dream about what a wonderful place the world could be and you will have the opportunity to do some research and see if you can figure out some ways to start making your alternative Christmas list a reality.  If you do make an alternative Christmas list, let me know... I'll probably get you something off your list.

Applesauce

A month ago I got together with my grandma and we made and canned a whole bunch of applesauce.  My little cousin helped a little when he got home from school.

This was a 6-hour-applesauce-making extravaganza. 

Ingredients to make applesauce: apples, a little bit of sugar, and lots of work.

We had 2 bushels of apples.  

This is a HALF bushel

The apples all had to be washed.  Then we quartered the apples, cut out the core/stem area/seeds, cut the apple into smaller slices.  

All the "reject" pieces

These slices went into a pot with a little bit of water and then onto the stove where they cooked until they were mushy.  

Then the apples had to go through a food mill.  This is where the applesauce gets its pinkish color- the red peels of the apples don’t go through the food mill but the red gets ground out enough to give the applesauce a hint of pink.  

Then we added a little bit of sugar (about ¾ of a cup to 1 cup).  Then the hot applesauce went into the jars.  And then the jars went into the canner to be processed.  Then the jars came out to cool.  This whole process was repeated countless times and often multiple parts of this process were going on at once.

I think we ended up with 63 pints of applesauce. Here's just SOME of what we made.

Vision

A friend of mine posted a quote from Russell Simmons on Facebook some time ago.  It really struck me and so I put it into a document of the many things I come across that I want to remember or refer back to later.

Here’s what Russell Simmons said:

 “Now, that you have frozen your vision and are clear about it, tell the world what you are going to do. Once you share your vision with the world, you are stuck with it. Have the courage to let people expect you to make it happen. This is a good thing. Focus on that one vision and go to work to make it a reality. Then set the right goal for you. In the end, the overriding factor is whether or not you realize your dreams FOR you. Not the world. You.”

I agree with about 90 percent of what Russell Simmons says here.  Everyone should take the time to think about and formulate what vision each of us has for ourselves and the world.  And then we should tell the world about that vision.  That’s why I shared my dreams with all of you (and the whole world-wide-web), because I wanted to be “stuck” with my vision and my dreams, because I wanted to have the courage to make you all expect that I am going to make my dreams a reality (or at least some of my dreams).   I and all of us need to have that vision out in front of us and we need to focus on that and work to make it a reality.  In all this I concur with Russell Simmons.

Here’s where I disagree with Russell Simmons:

Yes, my vision and my dreams are for me.  My dreams are ways that I can fulfill my purpose here on earth.  I will find purpose, fulfillment, and happiness through striving for and reaching my goals and dreams.  BUT, in the end, the overriding factor is whether I realize my dreams for the world (not simply for myself).

Ashes

I went to the Morton Arboretum a couple of months ago.  I had a very lovely day.  I rode my bike around, went for a little hike to Big Rock (yes, that's quite the creative name but it is indeed pretty big), and enjoyed the beauty of all the trees.

"Big Rock"

The Morton Arboretum has an art exhibit, Nature Unframed, that “promises to be unlike any other exhibition you’ve seen before.”  And it’s true.  There are 11 pieces of contemporary art around the arboretum created on and around the trees.  Sometimes I enjoy a little contemporary art- I like trying to figure out what the artist was thinking when he or she created the piece.  I like the challenge of thinking about the deeper meaning of the art.  I’d say it’s worth going to see.  The exhibit runs through November 27^th in case you are interested in going to see it. 

There was this tree with its trunk and some branches covered with crocheted “lichen” patches to remind us of the interdependent relationships and the ties that bind us all together.

A tree wrapped in yellow cloth- the yellow draws our attention to this tree that recently died, reminding us not to take trees for granted.

And then there was this piece:

Charred dead trees in a place that is supposed to be preserving and protecting trees.  My immediate response was “Well, that’s ugly, really morbid, and completely un-optimistic.”  I was just about ready to stomp off in protest, but then I read the little sign about the piece of art.

And then I almost immediately liked the piece of art.  Yes, this charred wood does make us think about death, but it also reminds us of the cycle of life and death.  There are so many times when life has and will come from death.  Many times life is not possible without death. 

It made me think about Harry Potter and the phoenix, the phoenix that is reborn from ashes. 

And it made me think of a song that is one of my favorite songs right now.  The song is Rise by Shawn McDonald.  You can listen to it here:

Ashes signify something that has been destroyed, the end of something that no longer exists, the memory of what was.  Ashes remind us of our mortality (ashes to ashes, dust to dust…) and are often associated with mourning and grief. 

And yet ashes are signs of hope.  We must get rid of the old before the new can come. 

I think we all have experienced times when we might have felt a little like Job who sat in a pile of ashes after Satan took away Job’s wealth, children, and health in order to tempt Job to curse God.  Job suffered extreme grief and physical, emotion, and spiritual pain.  But, Job does rise from the ashes and he goes on to live a long and blessed life thanks to God’s blessing.  He didn’t get his children back, but he was blessed with 10 more children and plenty of grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He didn’t get his original wealth back but he was blessed with even more wealth.  The time of suffering Job endured was not erased, but he enjoyed many years of joy after he rose from the ashes.   

And likewise, each and every one of us can rise from any “ashes” in our own lives.  We won’t be able to get back whatever it was those ashes were before they were ashes, but we can live with confidence “cause he who is in me, is greater than I will ever be, and I will rise.”  We will rise as individuals, and perhaps more importantly, our world will rise out of the ashes.  Our world finds itself in some great trouble, but one day, we will rise out of these ashes.  One day there will be no more trouble, no more pain and suffering, no more injustice.   

100 Posts!

This is my 100th post on this blog!

My blog has existed for about a year and a half and I consider it a pretty good accomplishment to have 100 posts now.  That comes out to about one post every 5.5 days.  The topic, length, and quality of the posts have varied and so have my readers.  Thanks to Blogger statistics I can tell you my blog has been viewed more than 3,200 times.  My blog has been viewed across the US and all over the world: El Salvador, Canada, Germany, Russia, India, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Denmark, Singapore, Russia, Kuwait, and Guatemala.  Makes me feel pretty special and important that people that I don't even know are finding and reading my blog.  But mostly I like knowing that people I do know are reading my blog.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers.  Without you, there wouldn't be much point for my blog to exist.  I love writing, but I love writing even more when I have readers.  Knowing I have readers motivates me to write and helps me write better than I would if I were just writing for myself.  And I love having readers who engage with what I write and then tell me how my words and thoughts have affected them.

I'd especially like to thank my most loyal readers: those of you who immediately "like" links to my blog on Facebook, those who have sent me responses to my blog posts, those who have forwarded or shared my posts, and those who have eagerly (and sometimes impatiently) awaited my blog posts.  You know who you are and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And now... prepare yourselves for the next 100 posts.

Same Kind of Different As Me

I just read this excellent book- Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  There aren’t sufficient words to tell you just how wonderful this book is.  This is an inspiring story about the difference one person can make in the life of another person.  It’s a story of “regular” people who are brought together, and what results is a story that only God could have written.

I don’t want to spoil the book, so I’m not going to tell you much about it.  But I will tell you this: This book is the true story of the meeting and friendship of a former sharecropper who was homeless and an upscale art dealer.  One of the best parts about this book is we hear the story from both the homeless man and the art deal.  These two men were brought together by the art dealer’s wife, an incredible woman.  This is the story of the lives of the two men, how they became friends, and how they became family.

Reading this book will:

• Change the way you look at and think about seemingly scary homeless people
• Teach you about compassion and show you what it means to love deeply
• Make you wonder how our society can continue to treat some people with such a lack of dignity
• Let you enjoy some incredible story telling
• Make you cry. There are some parts of this book that you should definitely not read in public because you might make a fool of yourself crying hysterically.  You will need to have a box of tissues handy (and perhaps something to comfort you- like a bottle of wine or a carton of ice cream). 
• Restore your hope in humanity
• Make you believe that even the greatest tragedy and grief can be overcome
• Challenge your faith
• Strengthen your faith
• Show you what it means to live as a Christian
• Help you to stop judging people who don’t express their faith in the same way you do
• Make you wonder how you could possibly ever be a part of a story as great as this one
• Inspire you to want to start living today in a way that you could be a part of a story as great as this one   

Really, you just need to get this book and read it as soon as you can.  
  

Trying for a Better Future

I’d like to tell you a little about Claudia, a friend of mine from El Salvador.  (I’ve changed her name to protect her and her family’s privacy).  Claudia is 24 years old, and she is one of the brightest, kindest, most loving, most intelligent people I’ve ever met.  Her three younger brothers are also some very wonderful young men.  I want to tell you about Claudia because she is an incredible young lady- her story is inspiring and I know she will go on to do wonderful things for the world.  I also want to tell you about her story and her family’s story because there are thousands of other families with stories similar to this one.  I hope that sharing this story will help you understand the difficulties faced by so many families around the world.

Claudia was born a little more than four years before the end of the Salvadoran civil war.  The area her family lived in was one of the areas where there was a lot of fighting.  Her family fled the area to escape the fighting and spent some time living in a refugee camp.  They were able to return and resume as normal of a life as possible, but in the years following the war her family struggled to survive and find a way to earn a decent income.  In 1994, Claudia’s dad went to the U.S. for about a year and a half.  He returned without having been able to save any money for the family.  When he returned, the economic situation of her family improved some.  Her dad decided to work some land along with her two brothers.  Claudia’s mom cooked for the staff of a church.  When Claudia was 14 years old she began to work at a little cafeteria at a school in the mornings and in the afternoon she would return the 6 kilometers home, get ready for school, go to school, and then take corn to the mill to be ground.

Every evening Claudia and her mom would make a bunch of tortillas so that her brothers and dad could eat them the next day.  She worked and studied for two years until she completed the Salvadoran equivalent of middle school.  Claudia wanted to go on to high school, but her parents weren’t able to help her with the costs of going on in school.  (Even today, many Salvadorans aren’t able to go to high school because they can’t afford the costs and they can’t afford not to work.)  Claudia was thinking about continuing to work and just study on the weekends.  However, her school gave out two scholarships and she was awarded one of those scholarships.  But the scholarship wasn’t enough.  A lot of times she would skip meals and she would walk the 6 kilometers to get to her house rather than spend money on bus fare.  She did this so that she could save up money to buy her books for school.  With many sacrifices she finished high school.

Claudia wanted to continue studying, to go on to college, but things would be much more difficult to go to college than going to high school.  She would have to move to the capital city, San Salvador, where the university was because she lived too far away to live at home and commute to school.  The costs of going to university would include paying for a place to live, tuition, transportation, food, books and other school supplies- and most university degrees take 5 or 6 years to complete.  Claudia’s mom told her that she would like for Claudia to continue studying but would not be able to help her financially.  Even though Claudia knew this, it didn’t stop her.  She took the admission test to get into the university, and she passed.

When Claudia’s mom saw just how determined Claudia was to continue studying, she made the decision to travel illegally to the U.S. to try to earn some money to send back to her family.  Two months later, her dad did the same.  This left Claudia alone in charge of her three younger brothers who were 16, 14, and 6 years old at that point.

Three months passed with the four kids living together in the house.  When Claudia left to start school in San Salvador, her littlest brother went to live with their grandma and the two older brothers stayed in the house alone and continued their schooling.  The kids would only see each other on the weekends.

It’s been about five years since Claudia’s parents went to the U.S.  They still live in the U.S.  Her mom currently works at a Laundromat and her dad has been without work for about a year.  Now Claudia’s two older brothers are also living in San Salvador and going to college.  The littlest brother still lives with their grandma.  Claudia is close to being done with all the requirements needed to graduate.  However, the job prospects don’t look good for her.  There aren’t many jobs in El Salvador, even for really smart and skilled university graduates like Claudia.

I asked Claudia what dreams she has for her future and for the future of her family.  She said that she wants to graduate from university, find a good job, and help her brothers so that they too can graduate from university.  She also wants to be able to help her parents so they can return to El Salvador and be with Claudia and her brothers.  That certainly doesn’t seem like too much to ask for, yet I know much time will pass and many struggles will be endured before her dreams are realized.

When Claudia’s parents migrated to the U.S. they did so because they wanted their children to have an opportunity to go to college and have a better life.  I think we can all relate to wanting a better life either for our family.  But many people would object to the way Claudia’s parents migrated illegally to the U.S. and continue to live and work in the U.S. without proper documentation.  Claudia’s parents didn’t try to obtain travel documents to get to the U.S. because it is very difficult and expensive to get a visa to go to the U.S. from El Salvador.  I asked Claudia about this, and she said it would be much better if Salvadorans could travel to and work in the U.S. legally.  The journey migrants have to make through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. is very difficult and dangerous.  Salvadorans like Claudia’s parents decide to go illegally to the U.S. because they can’t get visas.  They don’t go illegally because they want to but rather because there is no other option.  Claudia’s parents had no other option except to make a dangerous trip to the U.S., live thousands of miles away from their children, and live everyday in the shadows with the fear of being caught.

Claudia is just one year younger than I am, but our lives up to this point have been so different.

There was absolutely no question about if I would go to high school.  I worked hard in high school, but I made very few sacrifices.  I didn’t have to work a part-time job in order to pay for high school much less middle school.  When I was getting ready to graduate from high school, it was simply expected that I would go on to college- the only question was where I would go to school.  I did consider the economic aspect of attending college, and my parents have worked very hard to pay for my sister’s and my college educations.  I have also had the support of some excellent grandparents.  But I certainly never went without food so I could buy books (I’ve never even gone without good food), and I never had to walk 6 kilometers up a mountain because I couldn’t afford a 20-cent bus fare.  My family has always lived together (with the exception of when my sister and I have been at college, but we were only a few hours away.)  I haven’t had to act as the primary caretaker of my home and younger sibling.  I don’t have to help pay for my sister’s college education.  My parents have never had to do anything illegal (at least not to my knowledge) to ensure that my sister and I had the best life possible.

My life and Claudia’s life have been so different, and yet through God’s infinite wisdom and power, our lives have intersected.  This connection has been meaningful for me.

I have read and heard many stories about people affected by migration, but Claudia’s story has touched my heart in ways that no other immigration story has.  Perhaps it is because Claudia and I are practically the same age.  Or perhaps it is because I have spent a considerable amount of time with Claudia and she has become a friend.  We have shared meals, I slept in her home, we chatted about girl stuff, and we shared laughter and tears. 

Since I’ve gotten to know Claudia and her story I have wondered why it is that Claudia has had to live such a difficult life while my life has been relatively easy and comfortable.  What kind of a world is this that Claudia’s parents had no other option except to make a dangerous trip to the U.S., live thousands of miles away from their children, and live in the shadows with the fear of being caught?  Some people might say that this is just the way the world is.  Life is not fair and there is nothing we can do about it.

But I do not believe that this is the way the world has to be.  I do not believe that this is the way God intended the world to be. 

Claudia’s story helped me understand the complexities of the situations that push people to migrate, and her story and her friendship strengthen my resolve to fight for immigration reform.

We all need to meet someone like Claudia, a person who will help us better understand migration and become better advocates for immigration reform.

For those of us who already believe we need immigration reform, a “Claudia” will help us continue on to fight for change even when it seems like change might never come.  The fight has become personal for me. I want the best for Claudia and her family, and I know a legal option for Claudia’s parents to work in the U.S. is one thing that would greatly improve this family’s situation. For those people who are not yet convinced that comprehensive immigration reform is needed, a “Claudia” can help you grow in your understanding of the need for immigration reform.

Personal stories and interpersonal connections help us get past the numbers and see the children of God behind those numbers. We need to be intentional about meeting those people who are impacted by migration, and we need to be compassionate when learning their stories.  Most importantly, once we know the stories, we must take the responsibility to do something.

There is so much we must do to change the things that have made life unjust for Claudia and her family (not to mention the millions of other families who face similar injustice).  There is so much to change that I and you might be tempted to just give up, to walk away and just worry about the problems we have in our own lives.  But I can’t do that- the personal connection is too strong.

I do have hope for Claudia.  I have hope because Claudia is such a hard working, dedicated, intelligent, young woman.  I have hope because I see things slowly changing for the better in El Salvador’s government.  I have hope because there are wonderful organizations working in El Salvador and in many other developing countries to bring about sustainable change.  I have hope because so many people in the U.S. are working hard to improve our foreign policy and to reform our immigration system.  And I have hope because I know that with God everything is possible. 

Moving Up in the Blogging World

I got to blog on a blog that is bigger and better than my own blog!

It's a blog post about a friend of mine in El Salvador.  It's a story about struggle, immigration, a family searching for a better life, a brilliant young woman, and the need for comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S.

Check it out here: We All Need a 'Claudia'

Tomorrow I'm going to post a longer more detailed version of my friend's story here on my own blog (the nice thing for me about my own blog is I can write as much as I want without having to edit things down).

But for now check out my post on the UnDocumented.tv blog and while you're there you should really check out some of the other posts on this blog- there are some really informative and provocative posts.

The Wisdom of a 10-year-old

It happened again.  I was blown away by another child volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.  This time it was a young girl, maybe about 10 years old.

At the end of each packing session, all the volunteers are invited out to the warehouse to pray over the food that they packed.   I was in charge of the prayer for this particular session.  I started by explaining what we pray for.  We pray that God would watch over the food on it’s long journey- it has to travel thousands of miles on trucks and ships through some chaotic places, so we pray for God’s protection for the food.  As I was explaining this, a girl right in front of me raised her hand.  No one has ever had a question before when I was explaining what to pray for, but I finished the sentence I was on and then asked her what her question was.  She asked where this food was going.  As we are packing up the food during the volunteer sessions, it’s sometimes hard to know what pallets of food are going to go where.  So, I explained that I wasn’t sure where this food was going but that they could all look on the upcoming shipment board once they got back into the other room to see where the shipments were going over the next week. 

I went on to explain that we also pray for the kids that will be receiving the food.  We pray that the kids who need the food the most would get it and that the food would nourish the bodies of all who eat it.  Finally, we pray to give thanks for all the volunteers.

I then invited a volunteer to pray aloud for us.  The girl who had asked me the question about where the food was going raised her hand.  I chose her.  We bowed our heads and then she prayed perhaps the most beautiful prayer I have heard in years.

I’m sorry I can’t share with you her exact prayer, but I’m going to try to get as close as I can.  Please imagine this in a little girl’s voice, soft yet strong, confident, and clear.

“Dear God, we thank you for all this food here.  We don’t know where this food is going.  We don’t know what country it is going to.  We don’t know the children that will eat this food.  We don’t know what this food will have to go through to get to the kids.  We don’t know what kind of condition the children will be in.  God… Lord… we don’t know anything. 

(At this point her seemingly rambling prayer was making me a little nervous.  I was wondering where she was heading with all this and if she was going to get to the other prayer points.  But she knew exactly where she was going with this prayer.)

But God, you know everything.  You know exactly what country this food is going to.  You know exactly what storms and waves will blow up on the seas.  Keep watch over the food and the boat drivers.  You know the truck drivers and any problems they may face.  Keep them safe.  You know exactly who is going to eat this food.  You know each and every one of those children and you know everything about them.

We ask that you watch over these children that you know and love.  Bring this food safely to them and make sure that this food makes them healthy.  Amen.”

This little girl prayed with such passion and spirit.  I think all the other volunteers gathered around the food praying were touched by the prayer- it was filled with such wisdom and truth.  How true it is that we humans know so little compared to what God knows.  When we ship off a shipping container of food we know what country it’s going to, but we don’t know a whole lot more than that.  But God does indeed know where exactly every single bag of food is going and God knows each and every person that will eat some of the food.  Feed My Starving Children and our partner organizations can do a lot to try to get food safely to its destination but at a certain point we have to rely on God and God’s knowledge, power, and protection.  

At the age of 10, this little girl understood all this.  May we all have the understanding and wisdom of this 10-year-old.