I just wanted to give a really quick update on how our #EnoughStuff project is going! Over the Christmas Boom, we made it to around £2500 on our JustGiving page, thanks to numerous different people around the country selflessly offering their gifts, that people would give to make a home for children half a world away! Then for my birthday, in January, I held a 'Birthday Ball' for my 21st in the church hall at my church in Cambridge, asking guests and family and friends to donate instead of of give me anything. We managed to add around £550 to the JustGiving page and the total from all donations (including JustGiving, cheques and cash given on and around the day) was £975.91 (+ a few anonymous amount donations!). This is just incredible! All of you who donated are wonderful, generous, special people, and I am so grateful to all of you! So THANK YOU. I am incredibly grateful to all of you, and know that your money will make a massive difference. Our #EnoughStuff JustGiving page has now reached a total of £3530! That is GREAT! And also only one of the modes people are raising money for this project all the time. But that is still a long way off our £20,000 target on JustGiving. If you or someone you are close to have an upcoming birthday, or anniversary, or anything at all (any excuse for a party, right? ;-D) - consider mentioning this project and that really, we probably do have #EnoughStuff!
And please, whatever you can give or can't give; please keep this project in your prayers. That the current house would not be sold until we have an alternative ready and that all the logistics like finding and buying land, building materials and so on will all force into place in a timely manner. AMEN.
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This is Sister Mercedes, and today her and Claire have been scouring different pieces of land in the Dominican Republic looking for the one to build the new Nazareth House on. Since getting the Green light from both Mission Direct and our partner charity in-country, the Samaritan Foundation, it's been all systems go getting funding, land, plans and materials to a point where we can start building this summer! It's VERY exciting! And also quite scary; but where God leads, God also provides - so in his strength we trust to bring all of this together, rather than even our own best attempts!
In light of my own being back in the family home, I am reminded that for some, "home" is a place of question and uncertainty. For many people around the world, and many families in our own country, affording the rent on a house may be difficult; heating the house or buying enough food may be the difficult choice parents are making each day; and presents, well, as I was always reminded as a young child, "they don't grow on trees"! But through little pockets of people across this country doing fundraising, the hard work of Claire alongside Sister Mercedes, and those volunteering to go on a Mission Direct team to the Dominican Republic next summer, one big family will hopefully soon have a house fit for their needs, without the fear of being evicted and with a few more funds to spend on all the other basic needs for their lives. Through generosity and sharing resources we can make a difference to those struggling to get by this Christmas. Who could you help? Who could you give a real gift of meaning to at this time of festive cheer? If you could possibly help support this building project, perhaps consider donating the value of just one Christmas present this year to our #EnoughStuff Just Giving page. As we get further into the final 10 day countdown to Christmas, let's remember the real reason we all give presents - God has given us so much more than we could ever give or receive on earth, but he calls us to give what we can to be his hands and feet and heart here on earth.
"There were so many strange coincidences leading up to us even booking ourselves onto the trip; I was already starting to wonder just what God DID have in store for us all! Before travelling to the DR my faith was really slipping. I rarely attended church and I spent most of my life being too busy, too exhausted and too afraid to give God any of my very precious time. I had turned my back on Him but he had patiently waited for me. He took me from my busy, materialistic life to a quiet third world island with nothing. He sent me out with a team of strangers from all over the country, who turned out to be just the right people at just the right time and while He had my full and undivided attention... He shouted at me with a mega phone for two whole weeks!!! I’m a bit slow on the uptake but I was starting to realise that God had taken me out there for a reason. But how was he going to change my life? I waited patiently wondering each day what it would be and then one day we sang ‘Touch the Sky’ by Hillsong. The lyrics brought me to my knees. The line ‘I found my life when I laid it down’ was my answer. He wasn’t going to change my life, I already had a perfectly amazing life. He wanted me to lay mine down so I could change the lives of others. I absolutely loved every day we spent volunteering. I felt so at home helping these wonderful people, but our two weeks were drawing to an end and I hadn’t had that lightning bolt moment that I was sort of expecting God to hit me with. But then the day came that we visited Nazareth House. Nazareth House is home to Sister Mercedes and the fifteen disabled children she cares for her as own. She has laid down her life for these children; many had been abandoned on the side of the road, and some left on her doorstep. With no NHS, children with disabilities are just too expensive to care for. And then it happened… Just one look at her face, before she had even spoken a word and I felt the Lord speak straight to my heart and He said ‘THIS IS IT’. Sister Mercedes gave her extraordinary testimony (which I cried all the way through). She hadn't wanted to do this. She really wanted to stay in the convent with the other nuns but God kept leading her and telling her to care for these children and so she faithfully did. The home they currently rent isn’t purpose built. Bathroom doorways are too narrow for the children’s wheel chairs, and there are nowhere near enough bedrooms. Worse still the house has been put up for sale. She is clearly worried about the situation but her faith is unrelenting. As we leave and get back on the bus I can’t hold it together any longer. Lots of tears are flowing and my daughter just looks at me and says, ‘You want to do something about this, don’t you Mum?’ I have a talk with Claire (the missionary looking after our group) who has during the two weeks become an amazing friend (funny that, just the right person, at just the right time). She tells me that she also dreams of building Sister Mercedes and the children a new home. Their own home. No rent to pay, no worries of being evicted. With specialist equipment, bathrooms that the children can get their wheel chairs into and space for the children to learn and play. She thinks we’ll need £150,000 to make that dream a reality and she asks me to keep praying that the house will not sell anytime soon. I’m desperate to help, frantic almost, but she’s quite calm and says ‘if it’s a God thing it will happen.’ So we’ve been home for nearly three months now. Claire and I are in touch regularly and I’m delighted to say that two major charities - Mission Direct and The Samaritan foundation - have both adopted the project. £19,000 has been raised already and volunteering teams just like ours will start work on the new home next summer. It clearly IS a God thing and when God is with you anything is possible. So we are all fundraising like crazy and could do with all the help and support anyone can offer. So please remember this project in your prayers. Ordinary people, just like our little family, just like you, can do anything with God by your side. Don’t be afraid to listen and to act. Don’t let fear put you off, God is with you, even when you don’t realise. He never gives up on us."
This is going to be quite a short post (I know, not my usual style!), but I just wanted to let everyone know that we've now been given the green light for the building project for the new Nazareth House!
I hadn't really discussed much of the technical side to our dream before, but basically, we had to wait for a board meeting of the Samartian Foundation (the charity we've been working with to build houses in the Dominican Republic) for them to discuss whether this was a project they could partner with Mission Direct to complete. After that meeting decided that it could, Mission Direct has now also agreed and have set this as the 2016 project for Dominican Republic trips! Which is GREAT NEWS! Now we just need to raise the money! ;-D
Ok, so my dream probably isn't quite as big as the one Martin Luther King Jr. had, but it is a dream all the same!
I've been wanting to write this post for a while now (and alluded to it in the comments of my introductory post about Sister Mercedes, 'Completely Given to God'!), and finally feel as if it's all now collated enough to do so! So you'll remember that I've been writing a lot about Sister Mercedes and Nazareth House while I've been away, and this place has really come to be on my heart. One thing I don't think I've mentioned yet is that Sister Mercedes' home - where she lives with all her children - has been put up for sale by the owner. Thankfully, as of yet, no one has put in an offer, but they are living with the constant threat that if someone does, they will be out on the street with nowhere to go. This is joined by the fact that the price put on the house is way more than it is really worth and it was never purpose-built anyway. So our dream: To build Sister Mercedes a NEW house!
Fundraising for this project is something I'm going to be doing as much of as I possibly can this year. And I hope that you might all be able to join with me in this; in a small way or in a big way - for nothing is either too small or too big for God to use. If we can get enough money together to buy land and start the building process, next summer could see the first bricks being laid. Which would just be SO exciting!!!
One of my most recent fundraising ideas has stemmed out of the fact that for my birthday (my 21st < CAN'T BELIEVE I'M THAT OLD ALREADY!!!) in January, I am going to ask people to donate the money they would've spent on a gift to this cause. I was then talking to a friend who came out on one of the summer teams, and she is planning to do the same thing this year for Christmas. This started our brains turning and we've decided to kickstart a Christmas campaign called, "#EnoughStuff"! Basically, we've set up a JustGiving page (https://www.justgiving.com/enoughstuff/) for people to send their donations to - which can then claim GiftAid and goes straight to this project via Mission Direct. We are encouraging as many people as possible in as many different places as possible to take up this banner and say they have #EnoughStuff. Because really, for many of us, we DO have enough stuff. We don't need more things to clutter up the house this Christmas. So if you could help in this way - DO IT! Instead of asking your friends for gifts, ask them to GIVE; then give them the link to the JustGiving page and it REALLY is that easy! We're hoping also to put up some printable Christmas cards which people could then give to say they've donated in place of your present (because we know it is still nice to be able to physically give something at Christmas). Let's get back to the whole point of giving; and by doing this, perhaps we can not only make a real difference to this family and this need, but also show our friends and families that being a Christian is about loving those in need. And though society might be able to commercialise Christmas, it can never take that away from us. |
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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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