Compassion Thursday- Thank you!!! Brian is sponsored

Posted August 27, 2009 By Andrea and has no comments yet.

It is time to open your heart to Brian. Brian is from Uganda, a nation that has been torn by war and violence (especially against children and using children) with Joseph Kony’s “The Lord’s Resistance Army.” Your sponsorship of Brian, your prayer and support, can make a huge difference in his life. Please consider allowing Brian to be part of your extended family. He is so young and has so much in front of him. Show him the love of Jesus, you never know what God has in store for this relationship.UG4500038-Fullshot-200w Click on Brian’s picture or name to sponsor or learn more!

Name: Brian Matovu (UG4500038)
Birthday: September 10, 2004    Age: 4
Gender: Male
Region: Africa
Country: Uganda
Program: Kyanamugera Child Development Center

Personal and Family Information:
In his home, Brian helps by carrying water. He lives with his father and his mother. His father is sometimes employed as a farmer and his mother is sometimes employed as a farmer. There are 7 children in the family.

For fun, Brian enjoys soccer and singing. He attends church activities regularly and is in kindergarten where his performance is average.

Because of your sponsorship, Brian will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

This child lives in an AIDS affected area. In Africa, the disease has impacted the entire continent, creating a generation of orphans and vulnerable children. God can use you to help ease the pain of a child in desperate need.

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Remember Who You Work For

Posted August 24, 2009 By Andrea and has 1 comment.

As I get older I realize that life moves ever more quickly. Each passing day is a smaller percentage of our time here on earth. Still, each day counts. Each day gives us new opportunities and chances. In the past and present I have looked at my jobs more or less as means to an end (with the one very large exception of teaching). The truth is there are some positions where it is easier to remember who we are representing in the world. It’s simple, yes. But I hope that as each of our days passes and every time we clock in or out thinking we are being taken advantage of, that we remember who we ultimately belong to, and that any corporation or boss we have to deal with is not bigger than a God who can forgive us and love us and see through our entire being simultaneously. Regardless of our position, power, or job title, we aren’t working for ourselves or just a company, we are working for our Maker. Representing him in a world that often acts out of fear, rejection, or reaction. We can’t let our stories and our work say the same. What does it seem that our Savior has then saved us from? He has saved us (probably from even more than we would be comfortable sharing), and we need that to be evidenced in our lives.

We ARE Jesus to the world, in our workplace, every place where our identity is known it should also be known some of that identity: love, forgiveness, acceptance despite flaws.

My jobs might not be glamorous or even fulfilling in a worldly sense, but I am not there without a purpose.

Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Colossians 3:17, The Message

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Categories: Personal, Spiritual Reflections
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Not Spiritual Enough

Posted August 12, 2009 By Andrea and has 4 comments.

Most days I feel not spiritual enough. I look up from where I am and say, no, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You have not read your Bible in a week, you forgot to pray about that one thing you promised you would, you’re just not spiritual enough. You failed.

But it’s all a distraction. It’s all my head and my humanity taking me away from time I could be spending with my Savior. I really believe that there is no such thing as not spiritual or spiritual enough. There is only where your heart is and where you are allowing your heart to be led.

Are you consumed with the day to day mundane? The betterment of your personal situation? Or are you thinking of others, striving to reach out and love them in some way?

I have my good days and my bad days, as do you I am sure. But then I remember why I am here, why I have a hope, a certain peace, a joy, a sense of forgiveness for the all the wrong that I have done. The grace and love of Jesus.

And if I cannot take that and offer it back to others then it doesn’t matter what I’m praying or how much I’m reading. Somewhere along the way though, I have fallen in love with a Savior and now my life, my everything, is about making sure that others can experience that, that others can know their full worth.

So although there may be days where I am distracted, I am neither here nor there on the “spiritual scale.” And that is okay, because I have a purpose that rests in him, and I cannot imagine that anyone is perfect when it comes to their spirituality.

So, live out your calling in Him, and don’t get distracted by the little voice in your head that tries to point out all your shortcomings.

This is not a post to discount spiritual discipline, prayer, or reading the Word. Those things are important and I do very much enjoy my conversations with God and my times in scripture. But you know what? I have faked it too many times, you have faked it too many times. Let’s be honest about what we are doing, who we are, and why we are doing it instead of quoting a verse just to quote it or praying out of rote memorization. Jesus wants us- our lives, not just our empty words or actions, that yeah, to be honest… might make us appear really spiritual.

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Categories: Personal, Spiritual Reflections

Back to School

Posted August 11, 2009 By Andrea and has no comments yet.

I remember going back to school each year. The nervousness that my first day outfit wouldn’t be cool enough (it never was) or that I wouldn’t have any friends in my classes (sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t). Whatever year it was, it was usually THE biggest thing going on in my life at that moment. That first few days sets the mood and can make or break your spirit. While children can be the kindest and most open of souls they also have the uncanny ability to pick up traits in an instant or learn the “adult way” far too early. The rejection that can penetrate through your entire being when someone acts like a seat is already taken or they choose to talk to the person on their other side and completely ignore you. Is it because of that outfit you chose? Your hairstyle? Smell? Simply because you are not popular?

As I sit here I pray fervently for those kids that feel that this week is the biggest in their lives so far. Those kids that might feel they have already been or are on the verge of being rejected. I pray that as a parent and an elder (in a respect sense, not that I am old and wise- yet), I encourage kids to be open and not be dismissive or sectarian. Last year in the neighboring school system a young boy of eleven, Jaheem Herrera, took his own life because of taunts and bullying at school. As an eleven year old he already felt so hopeless and dejected that he hung himself after getting home from school.

Please remind your kids (or any young one that you may have influence over) to smile at everyone, say hello to the new kid, and be open to the uncool kids that their friends might be ignoring. In the life of a child one person CAN make a difference. ONE person can show the love of Christ and change a day or a lifetime. Our words and our influence is real. Perhaps Jaheem would not have felt so lost.

I may not be a teacher anymore but I’ve seen the faces, and I remember well my own. Many of us as adults still struggle with the fears and rejections we had as children. I was never in the “right” socioeconomic class, so in turn that led to me not having the right things. Thankfully, I was in a place where some kids didn’t care about those things. But what if I wasn’t? Where would I be, or what I be dealing with, today? Let’s be proactive and not reactive in the lives of not only our own children but those around us. Pray, be an influencer. And remember that everyone is whole and loved by a great God.

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Categories: Education, Relationships
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The Cold Hard Truth

Posted August 4, 2009 By Andrea and has 1 comment.

You are just not the same person when you are expecting a child. You may look the same (besides inflation), smell the same and sound the same, but your body has been taken over by ten times the amount of estrogen that you were used to pre-baby expecting. TEN TIMES!

Suddenly I am reduced to six-year old Andrea where everything is suddenly the biggest deal in the world and my eyes suddenly, instantly even, well up with tears anytime something is disappointing or does not go my way. Then there is the fact that there is this other person inside of you, depending on you to be healthy and smart with all your decisions. Not to mention the person lying next to you who helped you make the little one.  And even if you realize you are being unfair to said person, the estrogen ride will not stop and let you off, no matter how hard you kick and scream (and cry ofcourse).

I cannot speak for all women. I know there are some out there who absolutely love being pregnant and cannot wait to be pregnant again once it is all over. I now know that I am not one of these women. I can only hope that there is some balance for this in the actual birthing of a child. What is that prayer? Oh of course, the Prayer of Serenity.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.

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Categories: Personal
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