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.
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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. Today my church has it's first night for the 2015-16 Cambridge Churches Homelessness Project. This is a project that runs through the winter, with a different church volunteering it's space and volunteers each night of the week to offer a hot meal, some friendly faces and a sheltered space to sleep for some of Cambridge's homeless people, referred to the project by Jimmy's Night Shelter and other organisations within the city. My church - Castle Street Methodist Church - has Wednesday as its night and last year I really enjoyed being part of this; meeting new people and hearing about the experiences they'd had over dinner, singing songs and playing on the piano with one of the guys who had a guitar he often used for busking, and, of course, staying up half the night (generally finishing off some work or something!) followed by "4 hours" sleep laid out on some of the chairs! I really love this project because it sees the person behind the need. It gives me the opportunity to interact with and relate to these people whom I probably just otherwise wouldn't. I don't like talking to people I don't really know who are in the same class as me; nevermind those I occasionally walk past in the street. And I find it really difficult to know how I can actually help homeless people. We've all be told not to give money out on the street - I recall our first year talk when the policeman came in when I first started at Magdalene... But there's a fine line between being sensible and just being the Priest or the Levite who walks on by disregarding the robbed and half-dead man lying on the street beside them. And as Christians, are we not called to be compassionate to exactly these people? Those who are most in need and most vulnerable? But short of very occasionally buying food for someone, I don't feel I help, or care, or see them at all. This project enables me to care; to talk to these people, share food and time with them, and learn from them. This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Advent and in our church I think we'll be looking a bit at the prophets. The prophets, throughout the Bible, challenged the ways people lived and the assumptions societies made. Perhaps this advent, I need to challenge the way I live, and the assumptions I condone. There are so many false ideas about homelessness in the UK, and without breaking those down we can't begin to actually see homeless people as fellow human beings who need help, care, dignity, community and respect.
"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 |
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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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