“…as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”
Yesterday on her math page for the date my daughter wrote, “Cyber Monday.” I chuckled and groaned. It’s not a big deal right? (On the other hand I do hate that the marketing tentacles of consumerism impact my children.) Today, however she did not write “Giving Tuesday.” I get it. It’s a made up day, just like Cyber Monday, but it did give me pause. My heart yearns to raise children that would champion a day of giving far more than they would celebrate days of feasting on a diet of consumerism.
I feel like I swing the pendulum for them most days. “What do you want for Christmas?” is constantly asked…especially for the two that have birthdays within a week of Christmas. Their initial circles cover page after page of toy catalogs and the “I wants” grow exponentially with it. I try to encourage them to limit their lists, and make lists of gifts to give other people, but it never feels like a drop in the bucket against the tidal wave of self focus.
So let’s do something. If we can spend $6 BILLION on Black Friday, surely we can all give something today.
Look at your Christmas list. If your’s is like mine, very few, if any, people on your list need a gift. Virtually everyone on my list could buy themselves what I plan to give them and my children are not in need of anything. Now, I’m not advocating no gifts – it is the best feeling to share a gift with someone you care about. The joy of seeing Christmas through child’s eyes is amazing. We are probably more excited to give them their gifts than they are to get them.
But how quickly does that joy fade and the toys break and the clothes are in the donation pile? This Christmas – whether it’s today or another day – let’s invest in something that will last.
Here’s a challenge – give more to a ministry or person in need than you spend on yourself and/or one of your kids. Most of us could even do more than that. Do something measurable for someone who truly has a need.
There are endless opportunities to share your love and gifts with those in need, but here are a few ideas to get you started.
Focus on the Family – This ministry supports families in incredible ways through their daily radio broadcast, marriage support materials and intensives, political awareness, foster care and adoption education and pro-life initiatives. And who doesn’t love Adventures in Odyssey?? Donate today and choose a free gift! Donate here.
Pioneer Bible Translators – A missionary with this organization shared his work at our church on Sunday. The people group they are working with in Papua New Guinea only have the gospel of Mark in their language, which is one of over 800 languages spoken in the country. It blew me away that with all of the technological advances in the last decade, that there are still entire people groups without the Bible in their own language.
Samaritan’s Purse – Many people know this organization through Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse is one of the leading Christian relief organizations currently supporting people in Puerto Rico, Texas, South Sudan, Vietnam and many other place all around the world.
PICU Kids – my dear friend is a PICU nurse right outside Washington DC. They have a registry to donate items to kids in their unit. Sometimes these kids are so sick that parents rush out without grabbing their favorite book, stuffed animal, or a pair of pj’s. These things go directly to the PICU where she works and they use the items from this campaign all year round to make a child/family’s day a little brighter.
Those around YOU – You don’t have to donate to a formal organization to make a difference. Find a needy widow or elderly couple in your neighborhood or through your church and offer to take them to the grocery story or a doctor’s appointment or offer to rake leaves or do another task around the house. Give them a gift card for groceries or take them out to lunch.
Contact your local child protective services office or foster care organization and ask how you can help a foster child or family this Christmas.
These are just a few options! Choose an organization and give today!
This morning my girls and I were reading about John Wycliffe and Johannes Gutenberg. We were asked to remember that even though men like this and their achievements etched out a place in human history, in the moment, they probably did not feel like they were doing anything grand. They woke up each day, ate breakfast, went to work and came home. They put their pants leg on one at a time, if you will. Sure, God used their lives in extraordinary ways, but sometime we get caught up too much in the extraordinary nature of the events.
Superman is fun to watch on a screen, but he doesn’t inspire us to fly because we know it is outside of the realm of possibility for us.
In order for us to learn from those we see as inspirational or even heroes , we must remember that they are ordinary people. They have to be human. We have to see flaws and limitations in order to be able to say, “They did it – I can do it too.” We have to see something in their life that is relatable to our own.
I pray that the people I write about on Missionary Mondays can do that in your life. That they would be relatable and inspiring to us all, not in the realm of superman that we would say, “That’s awesome, but I could never do that.”
I hope to shine a light on normal people that are going through their lives, making a difference for Christ in their little corner. They have no idea the impact their lives will have. Their names may never be written in the history books, but they are forever impacting the people God has placed in their path.
Today is the story of the Odell family who has a passion for children! I met Carrie while we were stationed at West Point. Carrie and her husband Joey have twelve children: eight biological and four adopted from China (and a brand new daughter-in-law!).
I recently talked with Carrie about adoption and big family life! I hope you are inspired by their story! As believers we are ALL called to care for the fatherless (Is. 1:17). Consider how the Lord would have you to respond as you read!
To read more of their story about each of their adoptions, you can read their blog here.
The Odell Family
S: Twelve kids! Did you always want a big family?
Carrie: I was an only child! I always played with at least a half a dozen Cabbage Patch Kids and didn’t like not having siblings- I wanted friends over all the time, and I always wanted to have several children. When Joey and I got married, we said we wanted six, and no one believed us! They all said we’d stop after two or three. Once we got to six, we thought, well, what’s one more..and one more…etc, etc, and now we have double what we set out to have!
S: What led you to adoption?
Carrie: Before we got married, we discussed adoption as something we would do “someday”, and I was totally comfortable with that. Almost ten years later, Joey and I each read three books that brought to life what we already knew to be true from the Bible: Stop Dating the Church, Crazy Love and Radical– followed by me finally reading Adopted for Life. What a much needed jolt to my spirit! God called me to so much more than my comfortable life here and now. I do not want to stand before Him someday ashamed that I lived for me and my own desires. I want to live for Him and His glory and share in His eternal and global perspective. The Lord continue to worked on my heart during a retreat and asked me if I really believed all children were a blessing, or just my own (the ones I could have biologically)? One morning Joey and I actually put into words what we were both knowing we were supposed to do: it was time for us to start the process to adopt. I was still scared, but I knew that saying no to God was not an option anymore.
As soon as I submitted to God and gave up the fight, He filled me with a desire and a passion and now I want to adopt. It truly is amazing how quickly this happened- it was almost instantaneous. I went from saying no way, I can’t do that and I could have told you a million reasons why it was a crazy idea (and I can still do that in my weak moments of doubt and worry!) to having a heart realizing God’s love for precious children around the world who need a family to love them.
S: Why did you choose to adopt internationally?
Carrie: There was never a question about domestic vs. International for us. We had no idea which country, agency, or any of the logistics, we just knew God was calling us to go completely out of our comfort zone and embark into the unknown world of international adoption- we had no choice but to trust and obey in faith. For our family, part of our “Great Commission” calling is to go into ‘all the world’ and bring a child into our family to love and share the love of Christ. This was one aspect of our hearts’ desire to adopt Internationally. We also knew we were supposed to choose a country that was restricted or hostile to the gospel. While there are so many who need homes right here in America, at least these children are in a country with great opportunity and a chance to hear the truth of God’s word. It is just not like that in approximately 54 other countries around the world. Here is a short link to read about China.
S: What can others do for adoptive families?
Carrie: First, just realize that it’s really hard- harder than when someone comes home from the hospital with a new baby. The new child doesn’t sleep like a new baby a lot of the time, jet lag is more brutal than postpartum, and it’s completely exhausting.
Bring meals, have a shower/gifts for the new child, but keep space initially as the family “cocoons” in the home and bonds with the child. The parents need to be the only caregiver initially, so people need to realize that holding/feeding/taking care of a newly adopted child is a big no-no, even relatives and close friends. Only immediate family as the new child has to learn what a family is, and who is in it.
S: What would you say to others that are looking into adoption?
Carrie: Start reading: Adopted for Life, Crazy Love and Radical. Read your Bible. Pray. Seek the counsel of others who have walked this road before.
Then, you need to choose an agency. The placing agency (the one who matches you with a child) does not have to be in your state of residence. We highly recommend Lifeline! Your home study agency DOES have to be in your state. Your placing agency will help you find a home study agency, or they may do the home study themselves if you are located in the same state. Or, if you have a heart for a certain country, start there and find an agency that does that particular country. We did a lot of internet searching in the beginning to find out the requirements in each country, the number of trips required and time in country, etc, etc. Your agency will hold your hand through every step of the process and the agency payments are very manageable as they are spread out over time. Once your home study is complete you can begin the above fundraising as you look forward to travel, when the bulk of the money is due.
To read more of their story about each of their adoptions, you can read their blog here.
I’m so excited to feature my friend Ali as today’s Missionary Monday! We met her and her husband Eric and their kids while we were stationed at West Point. Her story made such an impression on me of the impact at our finger tips through these organizations. I encourage you to pray about how the Lord would have you respond as you read her story!
When I received Stephanie’s invitation to write a post for Missionary Monday, my first thought was “Did she really mean to ask me to write a blog post? She must have gotten me mixed up with a different Ali who is involved with Compassion International.” I almost responded right away with, “Are you sure??” And maybe I did, because one, I don’t consider myself a missionary and two, I’m definitely not a writer.
Aren’t missionaries the people who leave the country for years at a time to go start schools and live in the bush? I’m sorry…I really like my air conditioning and queen-sized, bugless bed. My husband is the aspiring writer in our family by authoring our annual Christmas letter. I only write teacher-notes, grocery and to-do lists — that’s it! So I am completely humbled and honored to write as a guest on her blog.
Have you ever heard of Compassion International? I hadn’t either until I was 22, on my wedding day (story to follow). I was involuntarily signed up to be a child’s sponsor, which just goes to show that this isn’t about me. It’s about God and His plans, how He knows what we need way before we do and way better than we do, and how He orchestrates our lives to achieve His purposes. The following is the story of our involvement with Compassion International.
The first time I heard of Compassion International was from my husband when we got married. I think it was actually on the altar after we had just said our “I do’s” when he snuck it in there…”I do…(now in a whispery voice) Oh, by the way, a female friend and I sponsor a child in the Dominican Republic through Compassion. Since you and I are married now, it’s going to be your job to write her letters and make sure we send our monthly contribution (because that used to be my female friend’s job, and I decided to marry you, not her). That cool with you?” Me: “Uh yea…I guess…isn’t this something you should have told me before we got married?! So I just said ‘I do’ and all of a sudden I now have a child to sponsor in the Dominican Republic?!? I didn’t sign up for this!”
Okay, it didn’t really happen exactly like that, but kind of, and I did start writing to our first sponsored child, Odannay, and sent our monthly support each month until she graduated the program. I actually wasn’t a very “good” sponsor back then. I didn’t write to her as much as I meant to, and at that time I didn’t totally grasp the importance of the sponsor-sponsored child relationship. I just thought if we sent in our money and it helped her and her family that was enough.
We started sponsoring Manuela when she was 12. She lived in La Romana, Dominican Republic, which is about an hour east of Santo Domingo. I tried to write to her more often, but she definitely beat me in the letter-writing department. I sent sporadic letters and our monthly contribution of $38 for a couple of years, until one day when everything changed…
It was 2011. I had just started reading Ann Voskamp’s blog A Holy Experience, and one post in particular was about how she sponsored a Compassion child and was able to go on a group tour to visit her for the first time. Her story about meeting that little girl was so beautiful I wept. My eyes opened to what sponsorship could be about, something that I had actually wanted for years! I realized it was so much more than just the monthly $38; yes, that definitely is an important aspect of it, but what it’s really about is a relationship with another human being, a child living in poverty, in a faraway place who may be just surviving.
That evening I told my husband about Voskamp’s post and that I thought we needed to go meet Manuela in person. And if you know anything about my husband, he’s a DO-er. I have to watch what I say around that guy. The next thing I knew (well, after some background checks and applications and updating passports), we were on a plane to Santo Domingo to spend time with Compassion International Dominican Republic and Manuela.
Compassion DR’s Headquarters, August 2011
That trip to DR did three things for us. First, it gave us a behind-the-scenes look at Compassion International’s headquarters. We saw where all the in and out going letters were translated, the staff opened up their financial books to us, and we learned how the staff supports the various Compassion project sites around the country. The crux of the organization’s success is how they partner with local churches, enabling their ministry to children not leading or forcing it.
Second, we walked through a “project site.” This is the community center and tutoring program that our monthly contribution directly facilitates. It includes academic and Bible instruction, a healthy meal, counseling services, and even vocational training. In a devastating family emergency or natural disaster, the local church uses the infrastructure of the project site to provide for needs of the children and their families. It was so inspiring to meet the half-dozen or so volunteers that nurture hundreds of children flowing through these facilities each day.
Finally, we experienced first-hand the life impact of Compassion. When we walked inside the center I saw Manuela for first time, that little girl from the picture that hung on our refrigerator. She had grown since the last photo I received of her, and her smile was beautiful. Later, Manuela’s family invited us into their home, where they presented us with gifts, humongous avocados from their tree, and warmth and love only strangers who know Jesus can share. To say that Eric and I were humbled by their hospitality, by the sacrifices they made to purchase gifts for us, by them opening up their small, bed-sheet-for-a-wall home to us, is such an understatement.
And then…Manuela left the room and brought back a box. In it was all the letters I had ever written her. All of them.
Manuela and me at her home in 2011
We visited Manuela two more times since then. She graduated the Compassion program this past year and is now working to earn money so she can go to school to be an accountant. Compassion arranged for us to say goodbye to her one last time when we visited in June. Our final goodbye was so bittersweet. We talked about how God used Compassion to grow Manuela into the young woman she now was, we praised Him for allowing us to be a part of each other’s lives for nine years, and we cried and embraced one last time.
We now sponsor a little girl our daughter’s age, named Hidekel, and a little boy, our son’s age, named Leudy, both from the Dominican Republic. We brought our daughter, Glory, with us in June of this year so she could meet Hidekel. They’re actually pen pals. Hidekel always draws pictures of her and Glory playing together or as princesses outside a castle. Watching them communicate despite the language barrier, marvel at aquarium fish, eat ice cream, laugh, be little kids together was a beautiful site, and my heart was full thinking about how God has let us be a small part of these children’s lives and how they are a part of ours.
At Hidekel’s project site in Santo Domingo, 2015
That’s what Compassion International is about. It’s about the love between a sponsor and a child, the local church and Compassion centers being the hands and feet of Jesus, and releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, one letter at a time.
I have so many more stories about how Compassion International has impacted the lives of our sponsored children, their families, and us. I could write about how Compassion is such an efficient and above-board organization; how they invest over 80 cents of every dollar directly to sponsored children and Compassion programs. I could list stats on the percentage of children who finish high school and then pursue higher education because of the Compassion program, the number of babies that survive their first year because of Compassion’s ministry to pregnant and new moms, about their clean water initiatives around the world, etc. But I won’t include all of that here. If you want to know more or learn how to sponsor a child, please go to www.compassion.com or contact me at alikat0630@gmail.com.
From L to R: Hidekel’s sister, our daughter Glory, Leudy, Hidekel, 2017
Welcome to the first installment of Missionary Mondays! I am excited about this series and the opportunity to highlight ministries, organizations and people being the hands and feet of Jesus each day.
I WANT ideas from you! I would love for my inbox to be inundated with ministries and people who I can help shine a light on. Comment below or contact me with your ideas!
When I first told my husband about this series, he said, “Wow, every Monday? Do you know that many missionaries?”
Webster defines a missionary as: a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission. In other words, a person that lives on purpose with their eyes focused on something other than themselves.
This is me with my Ma-maw and Pa-paw in May 2000. I had just graduated from high school and left for college in Ohio a few months later. This man, who had always been one of my favorite people on the planet, died just a year and a half later.
My Pa-paw was one of kind. (Unfortunately, I don’t embody too many of the characteristics that made him so amazing.) He was incredibly kind and the most humble man I’ve ever met. Despite his quiet and calm nature, he was a man of strong convictions, self-driven and hard-working – a member of the famed “Greatest Generation.” He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, served in World War II and went to great lengths to secure a job with Lockheed Martin and provide for his family. His faith and depth of wisdom were firmly rooted in Jesus Christ.
I’m pretty sure James was talking about my Pa-paw when he said, “…let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Pa-paw never did anything quickly. If you called the house, you knew Pa-paw was answering if it took no less than 10 seconds for him to say hello. If you asked him a question, you had better not been in a hurry, because his answer would be slow and deliberate. Two of his favorite pastimes, fishing and gardening, encapsulated the slow, methodical, patient, long-suffering man he was. Maybe it was just because I was a grandkid, but I never saw him angry or even agitated.
So why the eulogy of my Pa-paw on Missionary Monday? It’s to remind us that missionaries don’t all have prayer cards and live across an ocean. They are simply people who live their lives for something bigger than themselves.
For more than 20 years, my Ma-maw and Pa-paw selflessly cared for Ire, my Ma-maw’s mentally disabled cousin. They regularly volunteered at a food bank, helping to provide basic needs to those in their community. They ministered to widows – driving them to the store, church and doctors appointments. Every Christmas Eve as a family, we sang Christmas Carols down the halls of a nursing home and on the door steps of widows and home bound friends. Even after my Pa-paw died, my Ma-maw continued these selfless acts of generosity.
See, you don’t have to stand behind a pulpit or on a stage or fly around the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus. As believers we are all called to care for the fatherless, the widows and the oppressed. You don’t have to start a non-profit – just provide a meal or a ride. Pay for the person’s order behind you in the drive through or share a tract with your waitress. Create whitespace in your schedule to allow time and mental space to see the needs around you. Create flexibility in your budget so that when a need arises, you have the resources to contribute.
As Andy Stanley says:
You may not can change the world, but you can change the world for someone.
