The Journey Towards Hope

I guess it’s fitting that my last blog about death be followed by a blog about hope and certainly thanks as this is Thanksgiving.

This morning at 4:44 AM my grandfather closed his eyes and entered the presence of Jesus. What a joy and a blessing that after almost 91 years he is free from the tent that has been holding him back and is finally rejoicing with the angels. My family was so thankful this morning to see the suffering end and the joy begin.

We were also filled with thanks to be in a home that could have burned to the ground like so many around us, but instead it was filled with love and family…and food. We were so thankful that friends and even strangers came together to give us a home-cooked meal on such a different Thanksgiving. What a blessing to feel the love of Jesus in such a tangible way, through physical provision.

As I also blogged about the situation in Zimbabwe last, and they are still in dire straights with many dying, yesterday I was corresponding with our partners from World Vision. Just a couple weeks ago we did a project together where Giving Children Hope sent medicines to their project in Zimbabwe. Jennifer reported to me on Wednesday that not only did all go well in arrival, but that the medicines literally kept the hospitals doors open. So while we can’t fix the whole country, we find hope in the fact that we CAN do something. And I hope that those that received treatment in Zimbabwe felt the love of Jesus through physical provision the same as my family did today through our physical provision.

Yes indeed, we have much to give thanks for this season as we wait in hopeful expectation for the birth of our Savior.

The Journey through Death

It isn’t often one wants to write, or even think about death. But it’s been a little hard for me to escape from these last weeks.

My almost 91 year old grandfather is currently on his death bed. He’s in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s and any day now he will pass from this life to one with Jesus. On one hand, it’s an exciting time. But the process of death is difficult to watch, especially if it is a loved one. Watching his body turn frailer and become less of the man I knew pains me.

I am also plagued to think about death with the conversations I’ve been having regarding Zimbabwe. If you don’t know what has been going on in recent years in Zimbabwe just google it. You can read about the land redistribution, the AIDS epidemic, the hyper-inflation, the ruling of Mugabe and the all-out humanitarian crisis happening with a food shortage and lack of any basic medical supplies and medicines.

God has recently been bringing together partners into our facility to talk about Zimbabwe. The requests we have are heart-breaking. When you know that millions of people are suffering and dying because there isn’t any food available to eat, all you can do is cry You try to get your mind around 200 million percent inflation, but you can’t. And well, you can end up feeling a little paralyzed. What can I do?

So I struggle as a person. I’m obviously consumed with my family feeling the pain of losing the only grand-father I ever knew. Watching him forget how to swallow and now gasp for air is a traumatic experience. But I remind myself that my grandfather lived a long and full life and will now enter eternity with Jesus. And as I mourn this death process, I find myself in solidarity with the millions of people around the world who deal with death on a daily basis, only they didn’t have the opportunity to live such long lives. Mothers who are losing their children because of the lack of medicines to treat their children from simple diseases or the inability to gather food pains me greatly. Those in Zimbabwe who have the lowest life expectancy in the world, it is only in the 30’s. When I remind myself of these realities, I feel so grateful to have had so many wonderful years with my Popi.

Knowing of the pain around the world doesn’t lessen the pain of watching my grandfather’s body fail and fade. But it does remind me that I am not alone in my pain. And it does inspire me to continue my work on behalf of the poor. And it inspires me to trust in God’s mysterious wisdom because sometimes you just don’t understand why things are as they are. And in this season of life, I just don’t understand, but I do trust.

Top 5 Things to Ensure a Successful Partnership

1) Focus on the cause. When it makes sense for the cause to work together, but necessarily for your own organization, you should still partner (within reason). As others see that you are more committed to the cause above yourself and your organization, it makes you more attractive.

2) Communicate, communicate, communicate. Clearly put in writing the details of the partnership that is equitable to all parties. Outline what responsibilities each of you has, how you will message it, and how it supports the community you serve together. Almost every project we do has an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which details our responsibilities to one another. When there are no surprises going in, and the outline is fair to everyone, it cuts down on problems.

3) Be ok with sharing the credit. Look, you are partnering for a reason, because each organization has a particular strong suit you want to play to. That’s great, talk about that because it was important to the project. But when your partner has a strong suit, speak to that too. The project is successful because you each did your part. You should be willing to share the credit.

4) Write grant proposals together. Just think about it. What if you wrote grant proposals with another organization. You each talked about what part you would do and outlined each cost but put forward one large budget with who gets what and why. I bet the project would have a greater chance of success and the foundation officer would be more likely to fund. Just a thought.

5) Get over your differences. Too often I see organizations working on the same cause, maybe on the same college campus, but unwilling to work together. They have some fundamental differences that make them different organizations. But to the outsider, it looks like you are more concerned with your own organization than contributing to bringing attention and action to the cause. My advice, get over it. Find out the things you do agree on and do events together around those things. That doesn’t mean you merge into one organization or throw away those differences you find important, but when you focus on the similarities you’ll just get a lot more done.

Basically, if you go into non-profit and you’re doing a good job it means you’re trying to work yourself out of a job. And if you’re not trying to work yourself out of a job, trying to create an environment where the cause you are advocating is no longer a problem, well then I think you need to check your motives. I’m not saying Giving Children Hope is perfect, we are far from it. But as we continue to partner with numerous organizations to make sure joint-projects are successful we’ve learned something about why some partnership work and some that are more challenging. We just want your partnership to be successful too!

Top 5 Reasons Non-profits don’t partner together

1) Fear of losing donors to the partner organization. The truth is, people donate on average to 7 organizations. When you promote your partner rather than fear them, chances are that you won’t lose a donor but your partner might gain a donor. And vice versa.

2) Control: who gets the final say when you partner. Too often non-profits don’t work together because it comes down to who gets the final say on things. But if you make things equitable for all, this shouldn’t be an issue.

3) Messaging: how do you communicate the partnership to those outside the organization and who’s name goes first. I propose you mix it up a little.

4) Lack of awareness: not all organizations know who is working on the same issue as them. This is no ones fault, but if you are doing work in just has to do with a little bit of research to find out who is doing what in the community you are serving.

5) Credit: who gets the credit for doing the work? The answer should be that you both do. When you get to the point that you don’t care about credit, it might just be that credit ends up coming to you.

At Giving Children Hope we only work on partnerships. That means that every project is in partnership with another organization and in partnership with those who are helping to fund the project. Bottom line, we’re all in it together. Not every organization wants to partner though and we do run into those that only want to fly solo.

The non-profit community is waking up to the fact that we have to partner because people are holding us accountable to partner together. Hopefully we also realize we’re more effective in our work that way. So, here’s to seeing more non-profits realize that everyone wins when you work together…especially those that you are serving.

Fire Update

Giving Children Hope is determining the best way to help our neighbors. On a personal note, I am happy to report that my parent’s home is standing – as is their street thanks in part to police officers and two brave neighbors who put out small fires in back yards while the firemen battled the large flames.

I went into the neighborhood about 3 PM and counted between 20 to 30 of their neighbor’s homes that were completely destroyed. I talked with their neighbors and every recounts the fear of how quickly the flames crossed the hills and all of a sudden 20 foot flames were at their house and everyone was evacuating at the same time. Embers were literally falling upon them as they escaped into their cars to gridlock. One neighbor on our street left his car in the middle of the street fearing his life and fleeing on foot. Most of my parents street left when their yards were on fire – the flames were so high they didn’t dare to battle them but tried to ensure they could get out with their lives…never expecting to come home to a house still standing.

A short time after most people left, one of our neighbors returned, after the large flames were out. He and another neighbor stayed through the night, putting out the small yard fires and protecting the neighborhood from looters. Had it not been for them, likely houses on the street would not have survived.

It’s not often that such a tragedy strikes so close to home. And while you are thankful it didn’t happen to you, or your family, it’s heart-breaking to see it happen to others. Fire has no mercy. Two houses burn to the ground and the next one stands unscathed, with no rhyme or reason.

If you’d like to help families affected by the fires, please visit our website at http://www.gchope.org/.

Thanks for your prayers for Southern California. The fires continue and resources are limited. Your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Wildfires

Normally I write about partnering with others, and it’s a little bit more removed. Today as I write about fires, it strikes a cord close to home….my own family.

This afternoon I helped my family to evacuate from the Southern California wildfires. My grandmother is staying with me and my parents are with others, having helped evacuate my grandfather’s assisted living facility, they are across town and can’t get through with road closures.

It’s pretty scary being on the other end. Flames were feet away from my parents home as they drove away in their cars, with what little they could take, and we pray that their house and others are spared.

Giving Children Hope is mounting our response to see how we can help in the crisis. If you’d like to help, please check our website at http://www.gchope.org/. When we have any information about how we can help and how YOU can help, we’ll post it.

Thanks for your prayers for Southern California!

Could building medical clinics be the rebuilding of the Temple?

Today’s message in the church that I attend was on the temple and the fact that Christ dwells among us IN the temple. Meaning that WE are the temple and Christ is dwelling inside of us and the radicalness of this concept. He talked through the Old Testament where people could not catch simply a glimpse of the Presence of God and yet now Christ dwells inside of us.

As I contemplated this message some things about the Church and the rebuilding of the Temple came to mind. Now, I’m not a theologian or a scholar. But in the time of Jesus He talked about how the Temple would be raised in 3 days and the scholars of the day were very focused on the literal infrastructure and missed that Jesus was talking about Himself. Here they were in the very Presence of Christ and yet they missed the mark altogether because they failed to see how God was moving right in front of them.

I hear of many churches that are focused on end time scenarios and they spend much time studying the Words of the scripture and speculating about the physical rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Many even spend great amounts of money to tour their congregation through the land (which is an amazing experience). They watch the political scene between Israel and Palestine and are awaiting the literal rebuilding of the Temple.

So I had this radical idea that perhaps the Church leaders of our day might be missing it too. If indeed WE are the Temple then perhaps it’s really about God building up His people as the Temple as opposed to the literal structure in Israel. Again, I’m not a scholar, but what I am is a quiet observer of watching how the Holy Spirit moves.

In my job as a Distribution Center of aid, we don’t dictate what projects need to be done next, we ask for people from communities to apply to us and we listen to how God is moving in their community. Because of this I meet with people on a regular basis from all over the world. While God does move different in different cultures, I’m actually amazed by some of the similarities. Many of the missionaries and non-profits come to us with stories from their communities about the poor and the meek. I hear stories of children dying at the age of two because they contracted a parasite and there were no medicines available. I hear stories of ten year old girls tricked into sex slavery and later rescued but not having the means to become healthy physically, spiritually and emotionally. I hear stories of twelve year old boys kidnapped at night and forced to kill in rebel armies. And then I hear the stories of the advocates on the front lines, quietly fighting to make things just a little bit better in the place where they live. So while each story is unique, the lack of access to the needed resources is consistent, and the steadfast people working behind the scenes where God has called them is consistent.

So I wonder, is God already building the Temple right now through these people and communities? Is THIS the Temple? Maybe instead of a physical brick being laid that brick is representative of a new school, shelter, or medical clinic that is erected? Maybe God is building His Temple right now with a bunch of ordinary people and the scholars of today are looking and waiting for that physical manifestation that may never be?

I’m not saying this is what is. But I wonder, if this were true, would we live our lives any different? What if instead of being spectators waiting for the Temple, we had an active part in building it? What if going into hard places and spending time in physical labor was an active part of building the Temple? What if every dollar that we spent providing life-saving medicines or every student that we sponsored to have an education meant that the Temple was a little bit further along? Would we live our lives any different as Christians? Would we see that we have a greater responsibility to rebuild the Temple then one of spectator simply awaiting someone else to do the work? I wonder.

Just so I’m clear, I’m not advocating any kind of works-based theology. But what I do try to do is to challenge Christians to take their Bible seriously. Faith without works is dead. So if you are a Christian, as you listen to God and watch the Holy Spirit move, let me know if you see what I see. Is God doing something unique in our time? What is He doing? And what is the part you play? Are we working together towards building the Temple? Or are we simply waiting for the Temple to be built?

More on Human Trafficking

The last two days I’ve had conversations about the issue of human trafficking. If you are not familiar with this issue you will certainly be hearing more and more about it with the different advocacy efforts taking place.

Today I visited with my friend and non-profit partner David Batstone. I’ve known David for about 13 years now I think. Wow, I’m feeling old. I’ve long admired his commitment to teaching ethics and the passion and energy that David brings to solving global problems. David is the ED for the Not For Sale Campaign that is teaching advocacy efforts on the issue of human slavery. But NFS is also carrying out projects around the world. One such project is in partnership with Giving Children Hope to establish a new medical clinic in Northern Thailand to care for children that have been rescued out of slavery.

Yesterday I met with Peter from the Asia Innovative University that is located in Cambodia. Peter came to me looking for medicines for orphans and he’s now in search of funding for this project. When I asked Peter why there were so many orphans in Cambodia he explained to me that because there is a lack of economic opportunities so many of the adults are being tricked into slavery outside of the country. Others are willfully going to Thailand to be sex workers because they have no other choice. Unfortunately this is leaving a large orphaned community in Cambodia. The children are at their most vulnerable as they are picked up by gangsters and forced to work for no wages. Often times these children have no other choices. So AIU is creating safe houses with medical care for these vulnerable children.

An organization like Giving Children Hope can be a hard sell for people. Distribution of product isn’t a sexy thing to fund. But David said it best to me today as he toured our center “It’s amazing that you guys exist. Organizations on the ground need exactly what you do. You are really helping to address global problems in a practical way.” And as we say here at Giving Children Hope, we are only as strong as those who we partner with. We’re in it together. And together we can fight global issues like those of human slavery.

Freedom

Giving Children Hope remains an apolitical organization focusing on directly working with individuals and organizations on the ground and not advocating for political ideologies. That means that our office is composed of people from all walks of life with very different political beliefs, but in the office we work together for a common goal: serving Jesus by serving the poor.

Today there are some who are happy with the election results and some who are sad. But one of the things we are united on here in the office is that voter turnout was up and we all had the chance to make our voices heard. This wasn’t always the case in our own country, and it isn’t the case around the world. So when Americans show up at the polls to vote they are honoring the deaths of many who gave their lives for our freedom. We are thankful for the freedom.

I was recently forwarded an email from a friend I met several years ago while I was attending a wedding in Jerusalem. I stayed with Candice and Erich Strehl in Jerusalem but Candice traveled to the West Bank everyday to work in Bethlehem. Candice and Erich started an organization called Paidia International Development that is doing wonderful work in the West Bank. However, recently they had members accosted by the military at a prayer meeting. They are currently mentioned in a Times article, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1855914,00.html. It’s a reminder that freedom still does not exist in parts of the world.

So today as a country as we try and unite around a new leader, whether we voted for him or not, we also unite around the fact that being an American implies freedom of expression and freedom in voting. And for that, we are truly proud!

Who are the Poor?

My blog that I promised my friend and web developer Brett (although the title web developer doesn’t do him justice but I don’t know what else to call him) is about partnering in non-profits. All of the organizations we work with come together to serve the poor in one way or another, whatever that means to their specific mission.

This morning in my daily devotionals by a favorite author and dare I even call him a “friend” Henry Nouwen, I was reminded that all of our partners also need care and that many of them are the poor, even if they might be financially rich.

I was particularly reminded of this with our volunteers. We get all kinds of volunteers in our office. They might be the stable individuals who are so filled up they are over-flowing to give back. But people volunteer for a number of reasons and our Volunteer Coordinator can tell you about the people that come through her office.

We have people who volunteer with us because they are developmentally disabled and unable to perform other types of work, so they become a part of our fabric sorting through items into categories. We have the people who are socially awkward and have a hard time making friends. We have the community service workers, many who really do not want to be there, volunteering their time. We have the elderly who used to have thriving careers and now are longing to find ways to spend their time. We have young people who are required by the high schools to come in. In other words, many of the people who come through our doors to give of their time are often in need of receiving; even if all they are receiving is acceptance and belonging to a cause greater than themselves.

One of the things I love about working for Giving Children Hope is that we make space for people from all walks of live to be cared for in our facility and to me this is part of the essence of the Church. And we love it when we can mix it up. You know, have the high school service club serve alongside the developmentally disabled volunteers together. In this way, they are each crossing the other side of the aisle and “serving the poor” that is right next to them while together serving the financially poor.

Read today’s devotional from Henry Nouwen about the poor:

The poor are the center of the Church. But who are the poor? At first we might think of people who are not like us: people who live in slums, people who go to soup kitchens, people who sleep on the streets, people in prisons, mental hospitals, and nursing homes. But the poor can be very close. They can be in our own families, churches or workplaces. Even closer, the poor can be ourselves, who feel unloved, rejected, ignored, or abused.

It is precisely when we see and experience poverty - whether far away, close by, or in our own hearts - that we need to become the Church; that is hold hands as brothers and sisters, confess our own brokenness and need, forgive one another, heal one another's wounds, and gather around the table of Jesus for the breaking of the bread. Thus, as the poor we recognize Jesus, who became poor for us.

So the next time think about volunteering I encourage you to not volunteer with just your large group of friends or Bible Study as a service project, but go rather with one or two and meet some new people. As you work together to serve the financially poor, meet some new people that might be poor in spirit and serve them as well. You might find that as you serve those people that they will in turn serve deep needs within you and you might in turn be richly blessed.