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.

The Wisdom of an 11-year-old

Yesterday afternoon at Feed My Starving Children I had the most wonderful privilege of meeting a boy who taught me so much more than I have learned in quite a long time.

I was talking with a boy who was helping to scoop ingredients into bins.  This was his 6th time volunteering at Feed My Starving Children.  He said that now he had done just about every different task volunteers can do except running the machine that seals the bags of food.  (Volunteers need to be at least 18 years old to use the sealing machines because it is a piece of electrical equipment and has a heating element.)  I asked the boy how old he was, sensing that he was really eager to do the sealing and I hoped I would be able to tell him he just had to wait a few years.  He had recently had his 11th birthday.  We both did the math in our heads to figure out that he had 7 more years to wait- quite a while.  I said a few words to console him and made sure he knew that even though he couldn't seal the bags he was still doing a lot to help and I was grateful that he continued to come and volunteer.    

And do you know what he said next?  It caught me completely off guard- I underestimated the wisdom and hope of an 11-year-old.

"Hopefully by the time I'm 18 we won't need Feed My Starving Children."

He said this with such confidence and hope and trust that it was clear to me that this wasn't just something he was saying in passing or joking about.  He was serious.  He fully and completely believed that it was possible that Feed My Starving Children and other similar organizations might become obsolete.  He believed it was possible to end world hunger in the next 7 years.

My adult mind immediately jumped to thinking about the reality of the world, the reality of the millions and millions of people around the world who are starving, the reality of the enormous amount of resources needed to end world hunger, and the reality of all the other injustices in the world that are just as huge and seemingly impossible to fix.  I didn't want to destroy this boy’s hope, so all I could say to this wise and hope-filled boy was, "I sure hope you are right."

I learned so much from that little boy.  

I learned that you have to continually look forward and imagine what the world could be.  We all need to seek and hold on to a vision of what a just world will look like.  And we need to dream big.  The boy didn't just think we could end hunger some day down the road.  He believed we could end hunger in 7 years- I haven’t met or heard of anyone who has such audacity as to believe such a huge goal is possible.  It is this vision of creating a world without hunger in 7 years that motivates this boy to volunteer (and probably donate some of his allowance) to do what he can to end hunger.  

I learned that we all need to do what we can and not worry about what we cannot do.  The boy was indeed disappointed that he couldn't seal the bags, but he certainly didn't let that stop him from doing everything he could do.  He worked hard (doing as much work as some full grown men) and worked with a smile on his face- excited and happy to do what he could do to help.  He knew that he by himself could not do everything needed to end world hunger, but he knew that he could do something and he set out to do that very well.  I don’t know for sure, but judging by his enthusiasm I’m guessing that he has talked with friends and family and encouraged other people to come join him in volunteering.   

I learned about hope.  Even with such a huge problem, this boy had hope that something seemingly impossible is possible.  In the six times he had been to Feed My Starving Children he had seen so many other people working along with him to provide food for starving children.  He knew that when people join together to do something, wonderful things happen.  

I learned that I really need to stop underestimating kids.  I work with a lot of kids who come to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children (roughly half of the volunteers are kids).  In reality, the kids are the ones that are often the most excited and passionate about volunteering.  It’s often the kids who drag their parents along to FMSC and I’ve overheard more than one kid ask their parents how much they are going to donate.  Adults might be able to write a check or hand us a credit card to swipe, but kids often bring in baggies of change to donate which was probably much more of a sacrifice than what the adults donate.  Kids choose to have their birthday parties at FMSC and ask people to donate rather than give birthday presents.  And kids have asked some of the most insightful questions and said some deep and thoughtful things.

I do hope that Feed My Starving Children will become obsolete in 7 years.  I will hope and pray for an end to hunger over the next 7 years.  But I know that this won’t happen without a lot of work from a lot of dedicated people.  Over the next 7 years I will continue to do what I can to end world hunger and to inspire and enable others to also do something about world hunger.

And if 7 years pass and Feed My Starving Children still exists because there are still starving children in the world, I hope I can be there to see that boy use the sealing machine for the first time.  I hope and pray that the world will not wear him down, that he will continue to have the wisdom and hope he has today, that he will continue to do what he can to work toward a more just world.

May we all have the hope of an 11-year-old, believe that a better world is possible, and have the courage to do what we can today to bring about that better world.

Left hanging

Over the past few months I have only used a clothes dryer on a few occasions.  I first thought I might want to try doing without a clothes dryer for a while in early April.  We had a few of those days where the weather was warm and sunny and I got really excited about hanging clothes up to dry outside, but then it quickly returned to the cold and it rained for weeks.  Meanwhile, the dirty clothes piled up in my closet while I waited for a sunny and warmish day that was suitable for hanging clothes up to dry outside.  Finally, the weather turned nice and I had time to do laundry.  I found a rope in the garage and strung it up on our deck out in the backyard.  It took me a few days to get all my laundry done and dried.  The really sad thing is that I have so much clothes that I could have piled up so much dirty laundry.  Since then I think I’ve only used the dryer on a few occasions.  While I was in El Salvador using a dryer wasn’t even an option.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do when winter finally sets in.  I might hang up some stuff to dry inside, but I might go back to using the dryer.  We’ll see.  

Laundry from today

Yes, hanging clothes up to dry outside takes longer and it’s more work than just throwing stuff in the dryer.  You have to deal with or avoid the elements of the outside world- wind, and rain mostly.  My mom graciously chased down clothes that tried to escape on a really windy day.  I can’t just do laundry whenever I want- I have to make sure there is time and appropriate weather for the clothes to dry. 

There are benefits though:

• The real reason I wanted to limit my use of the clothes dryer is because it uses a LOT of electricity.  The clothes dryer is responsible for 5-8 percent of the average household’s electricity use.  By hanging my clothes up to dry, I’m helping the earth and I’m reducing the electricity bill.
• It’s nice watching the laundry gently blowing in the wind.  One day I had T-shirts hanging of almost every color of the rainbow. 
• There is something romantic and nostalgic about doing something people used to do back in the good old days.
• Drying my clothes outside has made me dependent on the weather.  In a way it has made me more dependent on God- I have to wait for God to provide good weather for drying my clothes. 

I still feel a little bit weird hanging my clothes on the line outside, because that’s not how the neighbors do things here in the suburbs.  But I do it anyway and hope that my neighbors will join me in harnessing the power of the sun and the wind to dry clothes.  

Fortune Cookie

A couple of months ago I got an interesting fortune in a fortune cookie.  Usually my reaction to fortunes in fortune cookies falls into two categories: “Oh, that’s cool” or “That’s a dumb fortune.”  However, this particular fortune really made me think and think much deeper than any fortune cookie should.

The fortune was: “Trust him, but still keep your eyes open.”

First of all, this really isn’t a fortune.  They just don’t make fortunes cookies like they used to.  So many “fortune” cookies nowadays don’t include a fortune, but rather some vague statement that could be true about just about anyone or the cookie provides a piece of advice- like this one.

I can’t say for sure, but my best guess is that the “him” in this fortune refers to a boyfriend or husband (but this wouldn’t work if someone who got this fortune had a girlfriend or wife…).  I thought that fortune writer might be telling the fortune receiver to trust her significant other but keep her eyes open for any behavior that might suggest the boyfriend/husband wasn’t being faithful. 

Since I don’t have a boyfriend or husband, I started thinking about who the “him” in this fortune could refer to for me.  Eventually I decided that the “him” in my life that I need to trust more is not a “him” but rather a “Him.”  God is the one I need to trust.  I don’t often worry about little things in life, but I do worry about the big things like getting a job, being financially stable, trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life, making the world a better place, etc.   

But what about keeping my eyes open?  What should I be keeping my eyes open for?  And why do I have to keep my eyes open if I’m just supposed to put all my trust in God?  I’m not really sure.  But I do think that even though God is going to provide everything I need in life, but all that I need isn’t going to simply be dropped in my lap.  I need to keep my eyes open and look for the ways that God is working in and through my life.  And then once I discern (or think I have discerned) how God is working in my life, I need to actively work with God. 

Clearly I did WAY too much thinking about a simple fortune from a fortune cookie, but that’s just the way I role.