How I Spent my Summer

Six months ago I walked out of the office for the last time.  And life changed.  Three months earlier as I turned 21, I wouldn't have thought I would make such a move.  And there I was, feeling free, unsure of where I would go next.  I knew I was going to Staten Island for one week, and later to Haiti for a week, but I didn't know what I would do after that.  I was content to take a break from the workforce for awhile and figure things out.  I had no idea what would all come out of my decision.

I did go to New York for a week, the experiences of which I relate here.  The following week, I applied to return long-term and was soon after accepted.  And I did go to Haiti for a week.  The week after I came home from Haiti, I flew to Calgary to receive some training with International Justice Mission.  A week later, our youth girls had a Set-Apart Girl Simulcast Conference and the following weekend I flew back to New York, where I ended up serving two separate terms with Mennonite Disaster Service.

Three weeks ago I returned home, and again, I didn't know what I would do next.  Although I loved serving away from home and most of my needs had been met, I knew it was time to take on my role as Mobilization Associate with IJM and prepare to re-enter the workforce.  This seems to be no small task, since my lack of education and geographic location alone presents a number of barriers.  But try I must.

What have I learned through all of this?  Much.  You don't come home from months of traveling and serving unchanged.  I've learned a lot about my character, I've learned new skills, and gained a wider perspective for ministry.  I have also learned that God uses every experience for good and for preparation of what He has for me next.  The bookstore prepared me for the office, the office for NY, and they have prepared me for my next role back home, even if that role remains to be seen.  God has a purpose for each experience, even when I can't understand it at the time.

Something I used to wonder about is how young people could leave home and go to another country and serve for so long, only coming back to see family and friends about once a year for a short time.  I don't wonder about that anymore.  When you are where God has called you, you enjoy what you do, you know you're making a difference, and your daily needs are met, it's not hard.  New York became home and the people became a family.  Yes, I was busy, there were challenges and was often very tired.  But I loved living in community with people who were all there for the same purpose.  Coming home and returning to a seemingly self-serving kind of life was actually very frustrating.

I will not forget or regret how I spent this summer.  Nine months ago, I longed to go on a mission trip this year while I was still single.  Little did I know that I would spend months away from home.  I met some amazing people and made some incredible memories.  I was able to touch a few lives in unexpected ways.  I saw a mission field right within North America, where we could minister to those so many have forgotten about.  I have been able to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.  And just to give you a taste, here are a few of the highlights of my travels.

• First trip to NY with my youth group
• The trip up a mountain in Haiti I wasn't sure I'd come back to tell about
• Helping take care of a baby at an orphanage in Haiti
• Going to another province in my country for the first time
• Throwing a spontaneous birthday party for the project director and presenting the best cake ever: a tub of ice cream with candles that relight after you blow them out
• Going grocery shopping for enormous amounts of food at Costco and have people look at us weird
• Laughing with my friends until we cried and growing closer in our friendships
• Worshiping with the local church on Staten Island that we partnered with
• House dedications
• Singing hymns and worship songs on trains, subways and the ferry with an amazing group of people
• Listening to the story of a homeless couple and praying with them in front of Times Square Church
• Meeting up with a friend in Manhattan that I hadn't seen in almost two years
• Visiting a client in the hospital and later taking her home
• Eating New York Pizza, so I could say I had it.  Yes, I even folded it.
• A walk down the boardwalk, enjoying the ocean breeze after a week's work
• Visiting the Brooklyn Tabernacle
• After a long, tiring day, when I finally thought I was finished working, spilling an unseen bowl of grease all over the floor and down the kitchen cabinets.  No, it wasn't fun cleaning it up, but I won't easily forget it.

With all the joys and wonderful memories, it is bittersweet.  For now, this season of traveling and serving is over.  I met some amazing people, many who I may never see again.  There are places I would have loved to visit and didn't have a chance to. 

I embark on a new season, figuring out a new kind of life.  A life of wrestling between desires and meeting necessities.  A life of putting dreams on hold again, wondering if or when they will come to pass.  A life of remembering that my joy must be in the Lord, not in my circumstances, and knowing that my identity is in Him, not where I am or what I'm doing.

Although this year has had its challenges and pain, I will not forget the Summer of 2013.

Lessons Learned from Fundraising

A couple weeks ago, I held a Justice Book Sale to raise money for International Justice Mission.  I have mentioned this event briefly in a few of my posts.  It was an idea I came up with in June after attending an IJM event and after four months or praying, planning and preparation, the event is now over.  We ended up raising over $1,800 to provide aftercare to rescued victims of forced labour and sex trafficking in India.

For any readers I may have that don't know me personally, here is a quick overview of what I did.  I came up with the idea of doing a community used book sale involving multiple local churches.  I contacted churches in the area asking if they would help collect quality used book donations that would be combined for the event, open to the whole community.  About half of the ones I contacted agreed to this and we ended up having well over 2,000 items for sale, along with baked goods provided by family and friends.

This event required a lot of planning and work to get to the day.  There were times of waiting for churches to respond.  Then there was keeping up with communication in the midst of a busy work schedule and getting all the donations collected, sorted and priced!  I was very thankful for some awesome friends who helped me with that task.  The last couple weeks before the sale were kind of crazy.  The day of the sale, we had all the books set out on tables in a school gymnasium, a small bake sale, as well as a speaker giving two presentations on IJM's work.

Having never done anything like this before, I didn't know what to expect.  I knew that I would likely be disappointed to some degree, but with so many people knowing about the event, I had set my expectations quite high.  The event went well and considering the turnout, we raised a fair amount and IJM was pleased. But I did not get the turnout I had hoped for.  I ended up feeling let down by people.  I was also very tired from all the work I had been putting into this over the weeks prior to the event.  Needless to say, the day after, I was physically and emotionally exhausted.

So what did I learn from all this?  I think the most important point was that it was still worth it.  Despite all my tiring efforts, the amount of time and money I invested and being a little let down by the results, it was still worth it.  The men, women, and children in India who have been hurt beyond what we can imagine were worth it.  Being able to do a small part in helping them heal and rebuild their lives was worth it.

Secondly, I learned we have to be faithful even when we aren't guaranteed results.  I put on this event for a number of reasons.  I did it to raise money for IJM, to raise awareness of injustice around the world in the churches involved, to give of myself to make a difference in the world, and because I felt God was guiding me to do so.  I didn't know the outcome.  Just because I was pouring myself into this, didn't mean everyone else would join in with equal enthusiasm, although that would have been nice.  It didn't mean people would come in droves and empty their pockets.  But I had to be faithful, I had to give of myself, even if I wasn't guaranteed a huge success.

Lastly, I learned a lot that can be used in the future.  I learned what seemed to work well. I learned what didn't work well.  Although I may not do an event like this again, if I do another fundraiser in the future, I still have learned some valuable things of what to keep doing and what to approach differently.  I will have done this before and will have some experience to draw from. 

What I really want my readers to get from it is this: Do what you have been called to do, even if you aren't guaranteed results.  Do hard things, do things that are right, use (or sacrifice) your time and talents to be a voice and to make a meaningful impact.  Whether that's raising money for the cause of justice, speaking for unborn children, those in poverty or something else, take a risk and do something.  It won't be easy, you might end up a little disappointed and sometimes people will let you down.  But in the end, I hope you will be able to say that you were faithful and that it was worth it.

Over-Aged Rebelutionary

A few years ago, the Rebelution had a huge influence on my life and still does.  Started by teens, Alex and Brett Harris, it's a movement that encourages teens to do hard things and live above the expectations of our culture.  I made friends and connected with people I otherwise may never have met.

I read the book Do Hard Things several times, and although I loved the principles, I felt I had a difficult time applying them.  Yes, I was doing the small hard things, I was living in a way and making decisions most teens didn't, but it didn't feel that significant.  I wasn't doing any big, hard things, the kinds of things that impact the people around me or cause leaps and bounds of growth in my life.

Late last year, I turned 20.  I wasn't a "teenager" anymore and I felt like I had kind of missed out on the Rebelution in my own life.  But early this year, some significant changes happened in my life that threw me into hard things I didn't feel prepared for.  I felt like I was only starting to do hard things once my teen years were over.

This past summer, I decided to move further out of my comfort zone and take action.  I began planning a fundraiser for International Justice Mission Canada.  (I think it was also through the Rebelution that I initially learned about Zach Hunter and IJM.)  Not just a small fundraiser, but one that involves multiple local churches to form a community event that will be taking place later this fall.  I have never planned a fundraiser before, let alone such a large event like this involving so many people, nor do I know anyone who has.  After speaking to IJM, I found out they have never had anyone plan an event like this either.  I'm really doing something in a way nobody has done it before, I don't know how the results will turn out, but I'm excited that I'm taking action, doing hard things, and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.

I feel like an over-aged Rebelutionary.  At times I wished I had done these sort of hard things in my teens.  But in the past month or so, I have come to view it differently.  I have seen the things in my teen years that prepared me for this, like my previous job, or my decision to leave the public school system when it didn't make any sense.  I have come to see character traits in my life that often come out negatively, but can be channeled in this fundraising project in a positive way to do good.  The skills I have developed, the experience I've had, and even the character qualities that often cause tension in my relationships are assets and qualities that greatly aid me in the work I'm doing.

What I'm ultimately getting at is this: Don't get discouraged that you didn't do more in the past.  Don't just regret what you didn't do.  Rather do something now and look to new opportunities for growth.  I look back at my teen years now, and yes, I regret some things.  But I also see how much they prepared me for the work I am doing now.  I look at how much I have grown in the last eight months after my teen years.  I have faced challenges, been thrown out of my comfort zone, but it has caused me to grow and do things I otherwise wouldn't have thought possible and wouldn't have been possible without that season of preparation.

I don't want to go through life asking why I didn't do more last year.  But I do want to go through life and look back and say I did more, I lived more fully, I did harder things, I grew more this year than last year.  The Rebelution isn't just for teens.  It's for everyone, especially for the Christian and should be applied and lived out throughout our whole life.  It's great if the foundation can be laid in our youth, but growth will happen in later years as well.

My desire is that in the coming years, I will continue to use my single years to grow and do harder things, that it will prepare me for the marriage and family I will one day have.  I also pray that I will continue to look back, not with regret, but with joy and satisfaction, knowing that God has led me, that I took up opportunities, that I did harder things, that I loved more, served more, and have grown stronger in faith and in character with each year.

Is your desire the same?

Feeling Restless?

Have you ever felt restless and discontent as a Christian?  Have you ever felt that God has a greater purpose for your life, but you just don't know what it is?  I've felt that way many times.

I learned why Christians often feel this way while reading a book by IJM's founder Gary A. Haugen.  It's called Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian.  Although I wouldn't say he has the answer for all cases of Christian discontentment, he brings out a truth that is so simple, obvious, and get so profound.  Gary has it right when he says "Earnest, gifted, mature Christians--we feel like we're all dressed up with nowhere to go."

The fact is, we as Christians have not been created and saved for the sole purpose of our own spiritual growth, and to grow in our careers, churches and ministries.  And yet that's all so many of us are doing.

"If we believe, for example, that our own rescue, redemption and sanctification in Christ is itself the ultimate destination, then the answer to the Now what? question is--well, nothing . . . Indeed, the idea that there is nothing beyond our own spiritual development isn't meant to be satisfying--for our rescue is not the ultimate destination; it is the indispensable means by which God works out his plan to rescue the world."

We have been rescued to be rescuers to a hurting world, but because so many of us aren't willing to do that, we continue to be discontent.  It's not that we don't know the commands of Christ, or don't want to do greater things, or help those in need.  The problem is that we are only willing to follow Christ as far as it's safe, as long as we feel in control.  As soon as there's more risk, warning signs, and we're not guaranteed to come home to our comfortable, North American lives unscathed, be back out and decide to stay safe.  We have a yearning to be brave, but we want to be safe.  The truth is, we can't have both.

I appreciated Gary addressing parents specifically in this book on two levels.  For one, he encouraged readers to relate to the problem of human trafficking from the perspective of a parent.  There are so many parents in the world who helplessly have to watch their children suffer, and all they need is just a fighting chance to give them a better life.

Second, he addressed parents who's children want to go out and do significant things with their lives, but they won't let them because they want to protect their children.  But children are disappointed to realize that their parents have poured so much into them only to keep them safe.  Gary says that these children will either perish in their safety or they will go looking for adventure in all the wrong places.  I appreciated this because I have dealt with a lot of frustration in this area and I think parents need to see this.

"Are we raising our children to be safe or to be brave?  Are we raising our children to be smart or to be loving?  Are we raising them to be successful or significant?"

I was inspired by this book.  I was inspired by Gary sharing his own life stories and appreciated him sharing his fears in starting IJM, afraid of it failing and end up looking like a fool.  Since I'm pursuing an IJM endeavour at the moment, this was a great encouragement to me.  I'm often afraid that something won't work out and I'll only end up looking like a fool. I will leave you with his words that helped me to keep going.

"When I am fifty, do I really want to look back and say, Yeah, I sensed God was calling me to lead a movement to bring rescue to people who desperately need an advocate in the world, but I was afraid of getting embarrassed and so I never even tried?"

The Value of One

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by numbers and statistics concerning human trafficking that you wondered how it's even possible to make a difference?

I just finished reading Terrify No More by Gary Haugen, founder of International Justice Mission.  This book centres on one of IJM's rescue operations in Cambodia, with other stories dispersed in between.  In a village called Svay Pak, a hot spot for Western sex tourists, children as young as five are rented out in brothels to be abused and forced to perform sex acts for strangers I won't detail.  IJM's investigators went into Svay Pak on numerous occasions, gathering evidence and video footage, and documented the names, ages, and pictures of children held there, what they were required to do, as well as documented the brothel owners and pimps who ran the industry.  From a human standpoints, rescuing these children would impossible, but they put their faith in God and prepared for their mission. In March 2003, IJM put their carefully laid plans into action and rescued 37 victims and saw 13 perpetrators arrested.

I appreciated that Gary put the painful reality of these abused children into perspective.  "I could write the stories about girls who have cried to us, 'Where were you three years ago when I was brought to this place?  Why didn't you rescue me then when it would have mattered?"  We cannot begin to understand the horrible circumstances children and women are forced into when they are sold into brothels.  They're not just statistics.  They are living, breathing individuals crying out "Where are you?" and each one matters!

I think in our culture, we easily forget the value of one. We can't really grasp problems of such a large nature, and the statistics often don't help, especially with our ideas about what results or success should look like. It might even get to the point that even when someone does do something about it, it seems insignificant.  We may be tempted to say something like "Sure, some good guys raid a brothel and get a few girls out, a pimp or two get sent to jail.  What's the big deal?  There's still millions more."  And we forget or undermine the value of one person, one child who doesn't have to subject her body to such cruel treatment anymore.

In Terrify No More, I was reminded of the importance of one.  "Each of these is worthy.  Each of these is made in the very image of God and to the extent that we have extended such love to even one of the least of these, we have extended such love to the very Maker of the universe.  And we, for a moment, could experience the eternal resonance of why we existed on the earth at all."

This reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep, how the shepherd, who has a hundred sheep and loses one, leaves the ninety-nine on the mountains to find the one that went astray.  Also the Bible tells us that the angels in heaven rejoice when one soul comes to repentance. When I look at the life of Christ, I see a man who ministered to crowd of thousands.  But I also see a man who took the time for the one.  The one woman in the pressing crowd, who having touched his robe, felt His healing power.  The one man oppressed by a demon.  The one person who was blind.  He never overlooked the one in the midst of the crowd.

That's because one matters!  It's not about the numbers.  The little girl rescued from life in the brothel probably initially doesn't care how many millions of slaves are still in the world!  She most likely will later on, but for the moment, she's happy that she's free.  She can enjoy being a child and playing with toys.  The one woman rescued doesn't have to worry anymore which customer may infect her with HIV.  Yes, they have a long healing process ahead of them, but for one, life has changed. 

Remember also that when victims are rescued and perpetrators are convicted and sentenced to prison, other traffickers will know that can't keep doing what they're doing and get away with it.  The sex tourists realize the party's over.  This will have greater impacts and prevent other children from being trafficked.  Eventually it will hurt the industry.

Let us not lose heart when we look at the suffering of this world.  Don't become paralyzed by statistics, but go into battle and seek out the one.  Change the life of one.  And I believe that by doing that, God will bless and multiply your efforts to reach out to many more.

Good News About Injustice

I have spent the past month reading Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World by Gary Haugen, founder of International Justice Mission (IJM).  Haugen started IJM after investigating the Rwandan genocide in 1994 among the nearly one million bodies, mostly of women and children, that were brutally hacked to death.  Good News About Injustice takes a hard look at the injustice that exists in our world, examines the biblical call to justice, explains how a Christian can prepare for the work of justice, explains how injustice works and how IJM works against it.

One of the main things Haugen deals with in his book that I greatly appreciated is the topic of hope.  When we look at the atrocities that happen around the globe, it looks hopeless from a human standpoint.  But it isn't from God's.  Haugen shows readers how we can put our hope in the God of justice, compassion, moral clarity and rescue.  This is something we have to understand if we want to see change in our world.

In the discussion guide in the back of my book, there's a quote by C.S. Lewis: "Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins that provoke it."  The question was to reflect on this and determine whether or not we agreed and why.  I didn't have to ponder this long before I determined it to be true.  Despair indeed is a greater sin than the sins that provoke it.  Why?  Because despair gives power to sin.  Despair says the sin is too great and too difficult to conquer.  Despair gives power to sin and Satan and thus belittles the power of our great God.  But the truth is Christ has power over sin, and because of that, we can have hope!

Hope is important because it recognizes that God is in control and that He will one day have ultimate justice on the earth and make all things new.  Hope is crucial because it recognizes that those suffering can be rescued, and by God's grace, they can experience healing and renewal in their lives.  And the beautiful thing is that God raises up His children to be a part of this, to be His hands and feet, to bring love and compassion to the hurting and give them hope as well.

No, injustice is not a hopeless problem.  There is hope for the little boy slaving in a brick kiln, working to pay off his grandfather's debt.  There is hope for the girl who was promised a good job, but rather finds herself sold into a brothel instead, raped repeatedly every day by lustful men and treated as a commodity, not a person.  There is hope for the man wrongfully accused and imprisoned and the widow forced off her property, having everything taken from her simply because her husband died. 

There is hope!  And as Christians, we are to put our hope in the God of justice, the God who desires to bring about justice on the earth, and then be His instruments to bring hope to a hurting, dying world.  Are you willing to be that hope, to be a part of the good news about injustice?  Then read the book and learn what you can do.

What Can I Do?

Tomorrow I plan to go to an International Justice Mission Volunteer Development Day.  I'm going to go find out what I can do in regards to a problem involving an estimated 27 million people, how I can help put an end to slavery, sexual exploitation, injustice and oppression.  That's big.  That's taken a  lot of courage.

Our world has a lot of problems and injustice abounds.  I'm often saddened to see that there are so few people doing something about it.  But I do have a small understanding of why this happens because I have experienced it myself.

In our comfortable North American lives, we hear about these things.  Not often, and I think we can say that there are people very ignorant of the world's problems, but we do.  It isn't always plastered over the evening news, or over Yahoo news.  But injustice happens and most of us aren't wholly ignorant.

We are however so absorbed in our comfortable lives here that we have a hard time grasping these global issues.  We have a hard time comprehending problems that involve and affect millions or even billions of people.  And since we can't even comprehend it, we can hardly imagine coming up with solutions that would even make a dent in these problems.  It's so big and overwhelming, we don't know what to do.

Some have a real desire for change, have a real desire to do something, but just don't know where to start.  And some think that even if they do do something, it really won't make that big of a difference.  Even if they can help a few, there's still millions suffering.  Some feel they are too busy and don't have adequate time to give.  Let someone else do it.  Yet others wonder if it's actually God's will or calling upon their lives, so they sit and wait for some sort of audible voice to tell them what to do.  In the end, since they feel so helpless, most will just do nothing and try to ignore the problem.

Once we start meddling in the injustice of this world, once we start learning or doing something about slavery, exploitation, poverty, hunger, or disease, we start to experience a measure of discomfort.  Sometimes, we may even experience some pain.  I think all of us would agree that we don't like to experience physical or emotional pain.  But if we want to make a difference in this world, we have to risk pain.  We have to be willing to stare suffering in the face for what it is and feel it.  We have to be willing to let it hurt.  Sadly, most of us are weak and don't have the courage to do that.

The problems we see in this world are not just slavery, poverty, exploitation, hunger, disease and the like.  There is an enemy who is out to steal, kill and destroy and he has billions of lives in his grasp.  And although we in North America may be free of those things, he has us in his grasp too.  Satan twists our minds and turns them upon ourselves.  God commands us in His Word to seek justice and free people from oppression, to care for the orphan and the widow, but we are so focused on our own comforts that we can hardly bring ourselves to do it.  We hoard our time and resources so we can spend them on our own selfish pleasures, and although we have such an abundance, we can't seem to sacrifice more than dollars and cents to help alleviate the suffering in this world. 

When I read the Gospels though, I see that Jesus was very active in alleviating suffering. Very often, He relieved someone first of their physical suffering and they came to believe in Him through that. He fed the crowds, healed the sick, and cast out demons. Some of the apostles did the same thing.  Now we can't all heal the way Jesus did.  We do not all have that gift.  But I believe we can use the resources He has given us to bring healing and restoration to the suffering world around us.  I believe by doing this, we can open the door to share the love of Christ and the Gospel with those who's lives we touch.  He hasn't blessed us so incredibly to spend it all on ourselves.  He has meant for us to give.

Isaiah 1:17
"learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause."

Where do you stand?  What will you do?  Will you continue to make excuses about why you can't help, why now isn't a good time, why you need to save your resources for something else?  Will you continue to protect your comfort zone with bubble wrap, hoping it won't get scathed?  Or are you willing to open up your life, to sacrifice and risk pain for those who know nothing else?

It's time to start asking "What can I do?" then find an answer.