Guess What Happened Next?

It was a normal Sunday afternoon as my husband and I walked through the store.  I had been praying this idea through for months but I didn't know how to broach the subject.  So in my outside-only-voice, cranked to 11, I just blurted it out.  

"One day, I would like to sponsor a child with Mission of Mercy!"

Terry's response?  "I have wanted to do that too!"

Guess what happened next?

We hurried through the store, drove home, popped up our laptop and chose a child at the Mission of Mercy website.  It was that easy.  God had prepared both of our hearts to offer compassion to little Eskarlin, who lives in the Dominican Republic.  

Me & Eskarlin

Guess what happened next? 

God blessed me with an opportunity to go on a mission trip with Mission of Mercy to travel to the DR and and I had the pleasure of meeting Eskarlin.  You will not believe it when I tell you that this chic with the "outside" voice got real silent and overwhelmed with emotion.  With Mission of Mercy mission trips, you get to meet your sponsored.  It's one of the most incredible experiences ever.  

Guess what happened next?

Nhondudozo, me, and Nomphilo

God lead me to sponsor two more little precious girls in Swaziland, Nomphilo and Nhondudozo.  And then God opened the door for me to travel to Swaziland and feed them.  Again I got to meet them both and I got to share lunch with them.  One of the most humbling experiences ever.  God melted our hearts together and I pray for all my girls daily.  

Guess what happened next?  

This loud talker is praying for more opportunities to give the Mission of Mercy kids a voice.  You can make an eternal investment right now with your sponsorship and you can be a voice for a child too.  Your sponsorship speaks so loud into their lives, your support of $34 a month, spans the miles that separate.  But mostly God will increase your heart to make them a part of your loving family. 

Guess what happens next?  

Pray about how you can be involved with sponsorship with Mission of Mercy, and then act on what God has shown you.  I am praying for you and hope you will choose a child of your own!   

It's one way to live compassion.  It is that easy.  One.Child.Matters.

The Blocks That Build

During the mission trip to Honduras, we had floors to pour, walls to build, and bathrooms to finish.  And in Honduras there are no cement mixer trucks or even machines that mix.  They do things the old-fashioned way.  Needless to say there was a lot of sweat equity in each layer of blocks.

The teams mixed bags of concrete, water, rock together to make a kitchen floor, a cinder block shower, some bathroom stalls and walls for some classrooms.  This team of strangers worked together like a well-oiled machine to make the living conditions of families better and improve the Mission of Mercy Child Development Project.  Even though we loaded up with our best tools and muscles, we know that God made things the construction possible.  He worked through each pair of hands as His plan came together.

God made much out of our little.   

They don't have much in the way of building supplies.  We even scraped the extra cement from the layers of mortar that plopped on the ground and recycled it back into the mix.  What's a few blades of grass or a few more dirt crumbles?  Outside of using our hands we used a plastic scoop to collect as much waste as we could.  Every drop of mortar was important.

Before the crew actually started though I took a few minutes to reflect on the foundation of the projects. It was well planned and mapped out with forms and strings to keep the blocks aligned.  There was some rebar to strengthened the corners.  The foreman took some time to make a plan for the best result.  A firm foundation is critical in the strength of the building as a whole.  

He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  Luke 6:48

There is a layer of prayer that bonds foundations too and God reminded me that prayer is the secret strength that makes our faith foundation strong.  He has His best plans laid out for us, held together with His lovely disciplines and great rules for living as lined out in His Word.  All we need to do is live according to His blueprint as he has designed.  His truth keep us aligned.  He even gives us glimpses of His power with miracles that strengthen our walls.  As we look to Him as our Foreman, He makes His wise plans painstakingly beautiful.  

God makes much out of our little.

Even when He has to scrape our leftovers.

That's a firm faith foundation built on trust in the Master Craftsman.

Clear Your Stage

One day last week the team brought VBS for one day's activities.  I love these days.   One of the great things about being flexible is we never know for sure how it's really going to work because we don't know how many kids will actually show up.  I worked the photo booth so it was a popular spot.  There were smiles all around.  

There was one little girl who stood out to me. 

Her eyes barely cleared the table top as she was so small.  There were all kinds of stickers of all shapes and sizes.  She waited patiently as I watched her.  Her sweet innocence quickly stole my heart.  I am a sucker for cute faces and she wore her best today.  She waited and waited for her turn.  Finally we got a translator and asked her if she had her photo taken yet.  She shook her head no.

We took her picture and she waited for picture to print.  She started to decorate the frame that we had crafted out of Popsicle sticks.  She waited some more.  She never said a word, she never complained.  She left and then she came back again.  Waiting still.

Finally her picture was done and we helped her put her picture in the photo frame.  And she was happy and bounced out to show it off.

A few minutes later I looked up and I noticed she had come back again and was looking at the other finished framed photos that we had laid on a little stage near our table.  She touched and straightened each photo.  She was carefully arranging them, lining them up for the pictured to claim.

And then it hit me..

How many times do we leave God waiting?  He peers into our hearts and asks us to trust and obey?  Do you think he looks at us with longing in His heart wishing we would submit to His authority?  Think of Him waiting....waiting....waiting ..to say yes to Him.  Have you ever said no to God and it worked out well? 

How often do we fill our lives, the stages of our hearts, with the things of this world?  We clutter our worlds with clumsy habits that distract us from saying yes to God.  And all He wants is our undying devotion, our yes each and every time.  

He's waiting....

Maybe it's to sponsor a child with Mission of Mercy.
Maybe it's saying yes to a step of faith where God is leading you.  

Maybe it's a career change.

Maybe it's a pay cut.
Maybe it's accepting a closed door in your life, and moving on.
Maybe it's submitting your heart to just follow God in a different direction than you had planned.
Maybe...it's for you to get involved....in church...

Do you ever think about how we clutter our stages?

God comes near to us.  He waits patiently everyday for us to long for His Presence.  He waits for us to drop our luggage of our worries, plans, and selfish dreams and empty our hands, so that we can hear His voice.   Do you know what you need to say yes to?

Don't let your stage be so full of everything of the world.  Make God a priority.  Let Him come in and tenderly rearrange the your heart to perfect His plan and for His glory. Clear your stage...so He can be center. 

He's waiting.

A Lesson From The Book of Honduran Hospitality

This past week I traveled to Honduras on a mission trip.  I didn't expect to meet such hospitality but the Hondurans are very welcoming people.  I was surprised by their open door policy and ironically a lot of homes don't have doors.  


The Honduran community in which we served was very open to our presence all week.  They were the most gracious hosts.  Maybe they were just curious about two bus loads of white Americanos driving down their dirt roads.


Whatever the reason, as we were there to serve them with our open hands, they received our help.  They weren't too proud, offended or insulted in anyway.  Some even opened their homes and set out chairs for us to sit and chat with them.   The kids came in close to play.


We made some community visits while we were there and one father made a decision for Christ.  He graciously invited us in as we asked him a few pointed questions.  In his humble kitchen he invited Jesus to come into his burdened heart.  He invited the Savior in as the gospel flooded his home.


Our supervisor at the Mission of Mercy project was most hospitable and tolerant of our girl-power-cinder-block-laying-abilities.  He didn't say a word about how the blocks might have been a little crooked.  He was very understanding of our lack of construction skills and didn't say a word.  He graciously let us invade his work space for four days of sweaty toils.


The mission team felt at home in the community of Choluteca.  The Hondurans opened their homes, they opened their hearts, they opened their church doors to worship as one.  The team held many kids in their laps and they were open to the kindness of Christ.

"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:13

It was evident that God is at work in their little community, with the Mission of Mercy staff on the ground, and with the work He is doing through the church.  God opened their hearts to welcome strangers in, we welcomed their hospitality and brought the gospel message.

These hospitable Hondurans' challenge me to swing wide and prop open the mission-minded-doors of my heart for God to build faith in me. 

The Eyes of Wonder

Currently a team is in the Dominican Republic, and I can't wait to hear about their experiences touring the projects, learning from the project staff, and loving on their sponsored children in person.

I dreamt about it many times over, and it was still different than I expected. Here are my reflections on meeting Eskarlin for the first time last summer:

Read more here. 

P.S. If you are interested in sponsoring a child with Mission of Mercy please call me at 800-324-8488.  I can give you more information about investing in the life a child by sponsoring a child with MOM.  One Child Matters!

P.S.S. I get to meet my new little daughter in Swaziland!  Meet Nomphilo..

The Face of Love

Last year, I had the opportunity and privilege to get involved with Mission of Mercy with a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. In preparation for the trip, God sowed some seeds of love into my heart and led me to sponsor Eskarlin, a little 11 year old girl, with Mission of Mercy. She was my first "adopted" daughter and she lives in the Dominican. It was an incredible experience to actually meet her last summer. It was also different than I expected. Let's go back to that day...

I sat quietly to wait for Eskarlin’s arrival at the Mission of Mercy Child Care Center. I had so many questions that filled my mind. What did she really look like? What was her home like? What does she like to play? Does she get to play? What was her family really like? What was her favorite color? Will she like the gift I brought her? Will she like me?

My mind was full of questions; but my heart was full of love. We had never met, except through a short bio and small picture from Mission of Mercy. When I saw her on the Mission of Mercy website, I knew she was the one for our family. Yet when I was about to meet her face to face I felt inadequate. I wanted our meeting to be perfect. I had brought some gifts for her that I was secretly hoping that she would like. It was loaded with fun, excitement, entertainment and a small slice of the western world.

She was quiet. She smiled. I wanted to cry but I was already overwhelming her with my loud American self. I launched into my “radio-dj-mode” thinking I only had a little time so I must ask all my questions I could think of in 90 seconds or less. She liked school, she likes math. She lives with her family and one sister. She likes music and playing dolls. She lives far from Mission Valiente Joshua 1:9 Child Development Center but she doesn’t let that stop her from coming. She doesn’t ride the bus there, she prefers to walk. She likes seeing her friends and neighbors along the way. She really enjoys her time at the mission playing with the other kids and learning Jesus.

I wanted to pick her up and twirl her around and tell her how much I love her, but I didn’t want to confuse or overwhelm her. I wondered what her earthly father was like and I wanted to tell her about our Heavenly father who loves her more. I couldn’t speak about that, I didn’t know her language. Her culture is so different than mine. I wanted to learn as much as I could about her, and our time was so short.

In her eyes I found what I was looking for though. I saw wonder. Wonder about me and my world. I felt she loved me too. She may not understand everything about my life or hers but I know she is thankful for my sponsorship. I could see it. She wonders what my world is like, and I want to make hers better. She wonders what my life is like; I pray she gets the education she needs to make a better life for herself. She wonders why I would travel such a long distance to see her, I hope one day when we meet again and she will have a better understanding of why.

For now, through the Mission of Mercy sponsorship, we are connected with love. I love her, and show my love to her through sponsorship. She is growing in her education, her family, her community, and her faith. She loves back too, I can see in her eyes of wonder.

You can be a sponsor too. Here's a precious little girl.

Meet Olga. Olga is a mature and loving girl. She lives with her parents in a cinder block home roofed with sheets of corrugated iron. The abode is blessed with running water and electrical lighting, though cooking is performed over a wood fire. Olga helps her parents by running errands to the local market. Her father struggles to support his family as a subsistence farmer, so they are thankful for the consistent meals and doctor exams provided by the Mission Valiente Joshua 1:9 Child Development Center, Dominican Republic. Olga enjoys Spanish classes and wishes to become a doctor in the future. She studies often, but she also likes to ride her bike with her friends. Olga has accepted Jesus as her Savior and she participates in all Christian activities, including church.

You want to sponsor this face of love? Let me know..janelle@thehousefm.com!