Monday, December 23, 2013

Christmas/Annual Update

My inbox is full! Any of you feeling overwhelmed by the all the last minute Christmas email advertisements? Maybe I just need to get off some email lists!
Shari’s Berries keeps emailing me with appealing pictures of strawberries- I don’t know how Shari got my email address but she knows what I’m craving! Thanks Shari!!
Other emails are giving towards a cause- “the gift that keeps on giving”: livestock, pineapples, and goats, Oh My! (By the way I do believe if they bring development in a Christ centered way then it is a beautiful way to gift!)
If it was not for these emails and the blaring music “Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” at 3 AM outside our hospital compound I would forget we are even 4 days away from Christmas. In Sierra Leone it probably around 80 degrees, the only thing flying through the air is dust, and I drive past the ocean on a daily basis. Santa Clause is unheard of, no one has a Christmas Tree, or the presents that go under them.
I was going to say Christmas here is maybe a bit more like the first Christmas. Not too unlike the Sierra Leoneans, the Israelites were under the power of others, hoping for a Savior, a leader/a King to come and help them out of their deprivation. Sierra Leone is not under the rule of Rome or any other Country but they are in need of hope of restoration, of a Savior, of new leaders. However, in many ways the U.S. is still in great need of Hope of total restoration and a Savior as well. That is why we are awaiting Christ’s second coming, a coming that brings that hope and when all will bow down to the King of Kings.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Working with children with disabilities has always been my passion, after three years of home health nursing with disabled children in the US, I was ready to take my God given passion and gift for working with these kids to a place where there was little hope for these kids. In January I began the work with Enable the Children (ETC), from the start I was amazed at what a unique service I was joining.
 ETC has children referred to us through the only pediatric hospital in the country and through a well-known clinic. From there we can see what needs these children might have and how we can address them. The best part (for me anyway!) is after that we have the unique opportunity to visit these children and their families in their homes on a nearly monthly basis. In their homes! How many NGOs get to do that?! It opens up the opportunity to not only to impact their lives here but to have the eternal impact! We build relationships with our families through encouragement, prayers, being a listening ear, and we keep coming back- they call us, we call them to check up between the monthly visits.
Many of our families are Muslim, regularly attending Mosque, but we are regularly attending their homes- being Christ’s word and action, we are trying to be that living Gospel, different, exciting from what they have known. We have seen many families have a heart change in the last year. A child that was neglected by everyone but the grandmother’s sister, now has huge community support; to a mom who was ready to take her son to an orphanage now feeling empowered to advocate for more rights for her son in the government.; and yet another young girl on her own caring for her severely disabled toddler in a one bedroom house wanting to come to the hospital to encourage others who have children with disabilities. There are so many stories like this, despite their children being called devils, having very little help from government, living in a Country that is not set up for wheelchairs, walkers, ect. These parents have a hope and they give me so
much courage to me to continue this work!
These families have also encouraged me immensely in the past 5 weeks. The amount of respect I have for them has somehow increased! Having Hannah has been so challenging. Carrying a 9 year old around is not easy folks! Having to constantly clean the floor because her Athetoid movements cause ¼ of the food to end up on the ground (and I do not want to be bitten by those horrible ants that the food attracts- they draw blood!) and the testing behaviors that have kept her from really becoming emotionally attached to me.
I thank God though because even when we go through a two hour screaming and biting tantrum I know that God has something planned and I am beginning to glimpse it. I may have sore muscles but they remind me of the sweet little girl that I got to hold and of the dad in our program who cannot afford to take transport but piggy backs his 8 year old the half mile to school every day- We are blessed. Cleaning the floors reminds me that my little girl can eat for herself and more that we have food to eat- we are blessed! The behaviors remind me of the horrible neglect, abuse and pain that my sweet little girl had to endure for 8 years and how I, how God, can now impact the many more years of her life. The good times are so sweet, she is now beginning to give hugs and kisses, she can sit down a hold a small conversation with me, is full of questions I love to answer and has the best little kid laugh ever! Yes it is true- I am blessed!
This time of the year is the Advent Season but the way I see it we are always in a Season of waiting, but I pray it is an active waiting for all of us. Christ said we would do even greater things than He because He had to return to the Father. We can and are bringing the Kingdom to earth through our works of faith. I am thankful that I have had the last year to bring a message of hope to lives here in Sierra Leone, especially the sweet little life of Hannah. Our prayers every night include love, joy, and peace for our friends and family during the Christmas Season and always!
Much love and Merry Christmas!
Jaimie and Hannah