Henriet's Blog

Jesus Understands Widows

Yesterday, I wrote about Sister Connection and the Burundian widow we're now sponsoring.

One of the blogs I read regularly is Scot McKnight's blog, Jesus Creed. In today's post, Scot reflects on the missional Jesus (27th in the series on Missional Jesus). He points out that Jesus understood and cared for widows. After all, Jesus' own mom was a widow and probably quite poor.

For the full post visit Jesus Creed.

Scot shares this story about Jesus helping a widow who'd lost her son:

Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman's only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, "Don't cry." Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, "Young man, I tell you: Get up." The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.  (Luke 7:11-15, The Message)

Click here to learn more about Sister Connection.

A New Sister In Burundi

Yesterday, Fred and I learned about Sister Connection, an organization dedicated to helping war widows and orphans in Burundi, Africa. At Timberlake, we tell stories of God at work on Sunday mornings. Yesterday, I had the privilege of interviewing Denise Patch, president of Sister Connection.

In Burundi, a little country of about 8 million people, 1 million were killed in the genocide. Thousands of war widows struggle to survive, feed their children and find shelter.

I asked Denise, "What made you passionate about helping these widows?" Her answer: "I grew up in Burundi as a child of missionaries. When they started killing people, they were killing my friends. I had to do something." Wow.

Now Sister Connection provides a link between the privileged of the world with some of the poorest of this world--the widows and orphans in Burundi. This organization provides four methods to assist these poor women and children: sponsorship, home building, funding critical needs, and prayer.

I'm proud to say that we now sponsor Melanie. She's a year younger than I am, has five kids and is a widow. Her husband was killed in the war. It's been difficult for her to find the means to feed her kids, let alone educating them because of the cost of uniforms and supplies. She believes in Jesus and lives a life of prayer.

$30 a month...the cost of 10 Americanos (my coffee drink of choice.) 100% of the $30 goes to the widows--they receive every dollar of the sponsorship.

More on Tom Ingram

Tom Ingram's story of courage and mercy was also reported in the Seattle PI and on KOMO news:

PI article on Tom's mission of mercy.

KOMO story on Tom's trip.

Psalm 91

from The Message by Eugene Peterson

You who sit down in the High God's presence, spend the night in Shaddai's shadow,
   Say this: "God, you're my refuge.
      I trust in you and I'm safe!"
   That's right—he rescues you from hidden traps,
      shields you from deadly hazards.
   His huge outstretched arms protect you—
      under them you're perfectly safe;
      his arms fend off all harm.
   Fear nothing... (1-6)
   

   He ordered his angels
      to guard you wherever you go.
   If you stumble, they'll catch you;
      their job is to keep you from falling. (11-12)
 

  "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God,
      "I'll get you out of any trouble.
   I'll give you the best of care
      if you'll only get to know and trust me.
   Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times;
      I'll rescue you, then throw you a party.
   I'll give you a long life,
      give you a long drink of salvation!" (14-16)

Faith Quotes

To end this week's emphasis on faith, I'd like to share the following quotes:

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."                     St. Augustine

"Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into."                                                      Mahatama Gandhi

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."      Martin Luther King Jr.

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."                                                  Bible

Which of these is your favorite quote? Or, add your own!

Life-giving Faith

What does faith look like when you're facing life-threatening cancer? For Tom Ingram it means going to Moldova to give life-giving touch to orphaned kids and burn victims. Tom is a licensed massage therapist. He and his wife Barbara have been ministering to kids through massage, going to Moldova with Medical Teams International.

An article about him on Medical Teams' web site reports, "As he renews the fight [with cancer], his wish is to return to Moldova for his eighth volunteer trip—to provide training, massage therapy, and to spend time with the people who have become such an important part of his life."

What an amazing approach to battling cancer. He's looking to the God of the universe for a healing touch but even if that does not come, he knows that his eternity is secure. “I’ve been on a journey in many ways,” he says. “I know that whatever happens in my life, in my health, I will be taken care of. My relationship with Jesus Christ is solid.”

Tom believes that everything happens for a reason. “I’ve been told that I have a gift and I know that I need to use that gift for the betterment of my fellow man. I only keep what I have by giving it away.”

That's faith in action. Thanks Diane for pointing me to Tom's story. Tom and Barbara are leaving today, July 26. Let's pray for their trip and for Tom's healing.

Faith, Fairies and Phonies

It seems like faith comes easiest to children. After all, kids put their faith in their parents and teachers all the time. It's easy for kids to put their trust in God too. Believing in God comes as easy as believing in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  The difference? God is real.

Then when kids become teenagers faith becomes more difficult--because they see the hypocrisy involved in faith. If we lump faith in God with faith in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, then when we discover parents fibbed about the latter two we assume that God's a phony too.

How do you keep faith real? Did you believe in God when you were a kid? Did you dump God along with Santa and Ms. Fairy? Or did you hang on to God? If so, how did you distinguish between the two...

Step of Faith

Hi everyone, I'm back--as promised. Thank you Tamara for holding down the fort so eloquently! Thanks to everyone who commented and participated in my absence. As Tamara told you, I love your comments and feedback. So a big thank you to: anni (welcome!), Diane, Judy, Kathleen and Sharon. And to all you "lurkers" out there, jump in sometime. I promise I won't bite... (Lurkers are those who read but not comment as Tamara explained last week.)

Week four of the month means "faith and spirituality" on my blog. Everyone liked the story of Sandy and she certainly demonstrated faith, even if it was as small as a mustard seed.

What is faith? I think it means choosing to trust before you see. Have you seen "The Last Crusade," the third Indiana Jones movie? In this story, Indy is searching for the grail. He comes to a cave, solves this puzzle and manages to go through a passage without being killed. Then he suddenly stops, desperately trying to keep his balance, on the edge of a cavernous ravine. He remembers the clues he discovered earlier in the movie and decides to step out in faith, seemingly in the air. As he steps, a stone bridge appears. Do you remember the scene?

I think that exhibiting true faith looks like taking a step on a bridge we do not yet see. How do you practice your faith? Are you willing to step out as Indy did? What does that mean for us--from day-to-day? I'd love to hear from you!

An Informal Poll: What's Your Favorite Post So Far?

A post by Tamara, a guest author.

Henriët officially launched her blog in February 2007. So let me ask: What have you enjoyed the most so far? For many bloggers, it's not always easy to tell what readers enjoy reading the most and what keeps them coming back for more.

What Do Readers Enjoy?

You would think that you could tell what readers enjoy by how responsive they are with comments. But that's not always a good indicator considering that, statistically, 90% of all blog readers are "lurkers" (which is a term of endearment for those who prefer to just read and not post any comments). The real answers lie with the readers themselves.

An Invitation For You (and Answers for Henriët)

Thinking back over the last 6 months...

• What's your favorite post(s) on this blog so far? The statistics reveal that last week's post about meeting Sandy was a HUGE hit.
• What topics or themes have you enjoyed the most?
• What type of stories do you like - personal or well-known? Or does it matter?
• What types of things would you like to see Henriët write (more) about?
• Do you like her new picture? Sorry, I had to ask. It's definitely one of my favorites.

You don't have to answer all these questions - maybe pick one or two. Or come up with your own. Just let Henriët know your thoughts. She will really appreciate it.

She Returns Tomorrow (and the Crowd Goes Wild!)

At the beginning of the week, I proposed that we surprise Henriët by leaving her lots of comments. Thank you to all of you who contributed. Hopefully, today's questions will invite more of you to join in.

It's now time for me to sign off. It's been great fun being a guest author this week. I hope you have enjoyed it too.

Back to you Henriët. Welcome home!

Have You Been Touched By an Angel?

A post by Tamara, a guest author.

Okay, so I admit it, one of my favorite TV shows used to be Touched by an Angel. Week after week, it delivered a powerful message of hope and reminded us that God loves each one of us so very much.

Of course, it was always fun to watch the angel-in-training, Monica (played by Roma Downey), get some "tough love" coaching from her no-nonsense, all-caring supervisor, Tess (played by Della Reese). We were able to view humanity through Monica's fresh eyes.

Where Did the Show Get Its Inspiration?

Martha Williamson was the executive producer for the show. She initially turned down the opportunity because it didn't reflect her Biblical beliefs about angels. Apparently, those details got worked out.

Martha says that she got a lot of her inspiration for the show from Billy Graham's book called Angels: God's Secret Agents. Here's an excerpt where Graham talks about one of the ways God uses his secret agents in our lives:

The great majority of Christians can recall some incident in which their lives, in times of critical danger, have been miraculously preserved – an almost plane crash, a near car wreck, a fierce temptation. Though they may have seen no angels, their presence could explain why tragedy was averted. We should always be grateful for the goodness of God, who uses these wonderful friends called angels to protect us. Evidence from Scripture as well as personal experience confirms to us that individual guardian, guiding angels attend at least some of our ways and hover protectively over our lives.

Have You Been Touched by an Angel?

We've been talking about opportunities that God has given us to be there for someone else. Let's look at the flipside of that discussion:

• When have you (or someone you know) been on the receiving end of God's protective care?
• When have you (or someone you know) been touched - or as Billy Graham calls it - "miraculously preserved" - by an angel?

Do you have any stories to share?