Though my father was a great dad, I very vividly remember him telling me to "stop wearing my heart on my sleeve and toughen up." For this ultra-sensitive young girl who felt things SO deeply and cried at the drop of a hat, he might as well have said, "Go climb Mt. Everest."
I've had friends tell me that I "think way too much." I've grappled, for a long time, with these being "bad" things. I always felt that I needed to have a tougher exterior and to let hurtful comments roll off me like water off a duck's back, but that's not how God created me.
He gave me the gift of vision (all that thinking), and He also gave me these deep feelings so that I could have the compassion to actually feel others' pain - to relate to them in the heat of their struggles.
I don't think I would have had the love and passion to start a school for orphans in a terror-ridden country had I not been that girl who wore her heart on her sleeve and was pretty tender inside. God designed me this way for a reason, and even though it's sometimes hard being me, I am coming to realize that God was "knighting" me for a mission.
In following God in a plan that only God, Himself, could have dreamed up, Redeemer Christian Foundation has grown from a handful of orphaned and impoverished children to be seventy-three strong and growing. Several years ago, I approached Samaritan's Purse (Operation Christmas Child) about getting Christmas shoe boxes to the children we serve so that they would have something to open on Christmas. Sadly, they told me that where we operate is TOO DANGEROUS even for them to go in. There had to be a way....
Unlike other countries, no missionaries or even western humanitarian aid groups are allowed to come into this Middle Eastern country that many ministries deem to be the most hostile to Christians. A clinic that was set up to immunize young children from polio was bombed by an extremist group. Things have only gotten worse. We can't fathom what it's like to live there day in and day out??
At Christmas and in the year ahead, I so desperately want to tell these precious children that they are NOT FORGOTTEN. We have to work with the rare few Christians in this country to bring the love of Jesus and the hope of an education to them. In their country they are spit upon and called "the unclean ones." I want to bring them presents that say YOU ARE GOD'S BELOVED CHILD. Jesus came this Christmas just for YOU!
"Giving Tuesday" (a movement started to combat all the commercialism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday) is November 27th this year. I was wondering if you would join me in telling these precious children that they matter to God, to us, and they are not forgotten?? Let's give to those who have so little.
RCF, Inc. is a 501c3 charity with Gold Seal status with GuideStar - the "go-to" authority to track non-profits. All gifts are tax deductible.
You can visit our website: http://redeemerchristianfoundation.org/donation-detail/
Or mail a check to: RCF, Inc., 103 Silver Lining Lane, Cary, NC 27513. Be sure to include your email address for tax receipt.
Ariel view from the top of the school to surrounding slums
What a contrast of love found inside our school!
Sweet little Rose, one of our youngest students
Monthly Park/Sports Day to get out of the slums and get to be kids :)
Then say to the Lord your God: "I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them." (Deuteronomy 26:13)
Thank you and blessings to you this Thanksgiving...
