This is Cecilia - or Ceci (pronounced Se-see) for short. This is a photo I took last year, but it is so apt! I spent yesterday morning, with the Mission Direct team at Nazareth House, a home for children with a wide array of varied disabilities. Ceci has down syndrome and yesterday, I spent a good while sitting on the sofa next to Ceci as we all sang some songs together. Ceci was dancing and laughing her head off as we sang, and inbetween every song, she'd nudge me and make a short 'hmm' sort of sound and wait... and I'd repeat it, to complete hilarity of course! And when she could finally stop herself from laughing, she'd go again, and we'd repeat - the laughter never fading - until we sang another song! It was beautiful. I absolutely loved being at Nazareth House again. Seeing all the kids - talking to them - playing with them. Seeing Sister Mercedes - hearing her story - loving her. But it was also difficult. Seeing them still in that house, and no building work started on a new place yet. One of the things that brought this need home to me more than anything else was one of the boys, José. José is one of the older boys there, and he has to be separated from the other children all the time because he tends to be quite violent. So whenever we are there, using the back room, he has to be outside. He always comes and talks to us through the windows, and it's not that he's unhappy being out there at all - but Sister Mercedes would just love to have a padded room with things he can do in it, where he can do what he likes, and live and learn and so on. A new, purpose-built house would just make such a difference. This is life for them still. Still without enough bedrooms; still without big enough doorways; still without the right bathroom facilities. Just making do. The reason we're not already building a new place, as we had hoped to be this summer, is because we couldn't find the right land in time. We now have until December to find and purchase the land, so that we can definitely start building next summer. Amazingly, over the last year, enough money has been raised to buy the land - though we'll still be raising money to build the house this year - and so we literally just need to find some! It needs to be near enough to the school that some of the kids are able to go to, and to the people who currently bring food, to the children's hospital and the homes of the staff, and so on and so on. So PLEASE PRAY. Pray with us that land would be found. Land that meets all the necessary requirements and is affordable. We trust in God's timing and God's plan - it is in him that money has been raised this year, and it is in him that it will be spent! This is a video I made last year telling the story of Nazareth House, and what we hope to be able to do with it: You can see more about our project to build Sister Mercedes
and her children a new home over on the PROJECTS page!
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I've been having a go at some design-work, and I wanted to share the above design.
This design was inspired from a photo taken by somebody working with a different team, but in some of the same communities I was working in last summer in the Dominican Republic (and will be flying out to work with again in just 1 week!!!). The photo depicted the hands of a young boy, maybe about 6, washing the paint off of the hands of an older guy, around 20, in a bucket of painty water. The older guy had been helping the mission team paint one of the buildings in his village, but the young boy hadn't been allowed - but he wanted to help. So, when the others finished painting, he positioned himself next to the bucket of water, and when people came to wash their hands, he stooped down and rubbed the water into their skin to get rid of the paint. If only we could all be like this; willing and eager to help and work together, with whatever skills and abilities we have, with whatever we can do! I then went through my favourite photos from the 3 months I spent working in those communities and drew all the hands from them that I could (and which made sense, minus their bodies!). When I look at it, I see all the relationships that were built there - the child's arm around my neck; the new friend's hand on my shoulder; a boy climbing a palm tree; a girl playing with my hair; and so on. Usually, when we think about hands, we think about doing. But these hands show the people who I got to just do life with. The people I got to meet and know; the relationships that got to bloom and flourish; the reaching out from one life to another demonstrating the love that Jesus showed in reaching out from heaven to live alongside US! I am SOOO EXCITED to be going back! To BE with all these people again! And I pray that I would be quick to reach out my hands in love; quick to share my life with those I meet, so willing to share theirs with me. Having now been home a week, I finally got round to un-packing and sorting all the things as I went. And I re-found (or possibly RE-re-found) a letter I'd written to myself at the Mission Direct de-brief day, a couple of months after my first trip with a missions team to the Dominican Republic: As I get ready to return again, in just under 3 weeks, I'm taking this moment to ask myself - did I forget? And of course, at times I did! At times, I was more worried about writing an essay, than about noticing who around me needed loving; or about whether my hair was still in place and my dress fitted in with everyone else's, than how God might be waiting to use me in that situation. And of course, at different times and in different places there have been different people in front of me - but different people who needed God's love just as much.
Two years on and I think I'm finally beginning to let God take control. Finally edging toward trusting him completely with my future and not needing the entire plan before I can begin. Finally learning to rest in his presence and grow, in his strength, out of that. And every day, God is teaching me how to do that more. And for that, I praise and thank him. May God's love evade my life. May God's hope provoke my dreams. May God's will be done in me. |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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