justice

A staff meeting this week got me really fired up about advocating for the poor.

Roughly one-third of the students at my school are "free or reduced lunch" which means their family qualifies with an income below the American poverty line. These students score disproportionately lower than their peers on both state tests and earning passing grades in core classes. And yet, strategies to support students in poverty are sparing.

"Who will speak for the poor?"

These students sometimes advocate for themselves. "Um, I don't have a pencil" or "the internet was cut this week." They don't often voice the stories behind the stories, "We're living out of the car this week."

How can you write a lab report if you don't know where you're going to sleep tonight?

My reaction was to get angry. I crafted a passionate, impromptu lunchroom speech to my sympathetic 3rd lunch colleagues about our need for training about engaging students in poverty. I envisioned myself a champion of the poor, an advocate for justice.

Later at home that evening, though, I realized that I am part of the problem. My students know to no longer ask for extra pencils because "I spent over $100 on pens and pencils this year and they have all been broken, lost, or thrown away." My students know that the peanut butter sandwiches promised at the beginning of the year for anyone needing a snack have been vetoed for "student allergy reasons."

How can I send support letters to friends and family when I'm not actively giving to the poor in my own school? What does it look like to serve these students? A hand-up, not a hand-out.

Thinking about my desire for justice, my heart was pulled back to the cross. Justice, true justice, means that I earned death. The penalty for sin. Jesus acts justly, but transcends our simplified views of cause and effect. His restoration, transformation, is about more than justice.

Mercy restores relationship. Mercy allows me to rest at Jesus' feet. Mercy makes me right with the Father.

So, walking into another week of school, I hope to re-focus. To serve my students (all of them, poor and otherwise) I want to live with an overflow of mercy.

Lord, give me grace to be merciful. Help me surrender the desire for justice as I see fit and take up your larger view of restoration. Show me how to walk in mercy.


My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm.- Isaiah 51:5

letter

Dear blogfamily,                                                                                                

Here's the support letter I'm sending to people interested in the adventure God is calling me to. It's a recap of his faithfulness and a summary of my next step. Let me know if you'd like more info.

Thank you for your friendship and support. I’m excited to share stories of God’s faithfulness! Some of you may remember my dream in high school to end world hunger. Ten years ago, God placed a calling on my life for the people of Burkina Faso, a small land-locked country in Western Africa. In His great faithfulness, I am finally planning to visit Burkina Faso for the first time this July.

I will be traveling to the capitol city of Ouagadougou with a team from Walk in the Light International (WITLI). WITLI partners with local Burkinabe leaders for holistic community development in the village of Riahlo. In the last three years, WITLI has helped provide clean drinking water, improve sanitation, and built a school for 300 students.

My visit this summer will focus on developing a school lunch program, providing students with nutritious meals from local crops. I will partner with local farmers to adapt traditional agriculture methods in light of the changing climate and challenges of increasingly frequent and severe droughts.

Another focus of my trip will be to establish and develop relationships with the elders, teachers, and pastors of the Riahlo village. If God wills, I hope to return to Riahlo in early September to spend the 2012-13 school year as an educational consultant. WITLI also hopes that I can partner with local farmers to launch an agricultural initiative. To better support farmers in Riahlo, I also plan to attend a series of trainings this August at ECHO, an agricultural mission school in Ft Myers, FL.

So, what is the purpose of this letter? I want to invite you to join the WITLI team. Here are three ways you can get involved:

 1) PRAY:

Please continue to pray for God’s will to be clear in my life. I’ve already been approved for a year leave of absence from my teaching job in Silverdale, WA. Pray for His will to be obvious.

Please pray for God’s Word to continue spreading through the village of Riahlo. The Christian church already established in the village continues to grow!

Pray for rain! The Sahel region (where Burkina Faso is, just south of the Sahara desert) is currently in a severe drought. Pray for agricultural blessing.

2) DONATE:

If you would like to provide financial support, you can mail checks to:

           

Walk in the Light International

            PO Box 563

            Port Orchard, WA

98366

My summer trip is already paid in full, but WITLI is currently raising funds to build homes for the teachers at the school. Each home will be on the school campus to increase security of school resources and bless the hard-working teachers. Each house will also be equipped with a solar panel, providing the first electricity to the school and village. The houses will be built with local supplies by Burkinabe contractors and laborers. Projected cost is $4,000 per house and WITLI hopes to build four houses. 

PARTNER:

When I return from Burkina Faso in August, I would love to share stories of God’s faithfulness with you and your community. Please let me know if you’d like to host an event with your church or small group.

Thank you for your friendship and support in my life.

May God bless you and your family.

Much love,

Laura 

finishing

Tonight I'm at Craig & Nicole's home in Portland.

I came to Portland for two reasons: 1)Because I love them and don't see them much now that they live in Oregon, and 2)I took my National Boards assessment. :)

This weekend has put me in a celebratory and reflective mood. The National Boards process has been a very involved eight month process. I apologize right now for anyone who landed on the short end of my patience. Seriously, sorry. The theme of today has been "finishing".

This morning, I finished my National Boards submission. Clicking "Yes" to the "Are you sure you are done?" question wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. But, the satisfaction of knowing that I wrote each response as worship the King, that was worth it.

Then, after Craig graciously drove me home from the test so I wouldn't have to navigate weird Portland streets, I finished grading for 3rd quarter. It's all done.

After Nicole came home from work, we all went to a bouldering gym. Ohmygoodness, I was like a kid in a candy store!!! I chose some routes that I thought I could finish. I realized that I only choose challenges I think I can complete.

After dinner tonight (and great time talking with Craig & Nicole) I took some time to refocus my studying momentum by conjugating some French verbs. And that's where all of these pieces of ideas crystallized:

In French, finir means "to finish." It's a regular verb in French. It's a regular verb in my life.

Start things you can finish.

There are two ways that this could be spun. Faithful: I am faithful, loyal, and reliable. I get stuff done. Even if it takes awhile, I see projects to completion. I work hard and don't give up. Faithless: I don't take big risks. Last night we played the game Wits & Wagers. I answered almost every question right, but didn't wager much. In the parable of the talents, I'm a digger. I stick to what I know.

So how should I finish tasks? Faithfulness is important. But faith is important, too. I need the strength to trust God to try the things that I can't do on my own.

all will be well

After a terrible all-nighter 2000 years ago, I wonder if the disciples would have been able to sing a song like this. After all, they just watched their leader die for crimes he didn't commit. They were confused, terrified for their lives, and had no idea that Good Friday was only two nights before Resurrection Sunday.

The song in the YouTube clip is called "All will be well." My laptop has this Mary Englebreit cartoon taped beneath the keypad. A constant reminder during National Boards. A welcome monument to God's faithfulness.

On days like today, it's easier to remember that God loves us. Last night's Good Friday gathering is fresh in my mind. The sunshine makes friends and strangers willing to chat for awhile. Even the mountains look happy, wrapped in sparkly, new snow.

Easter makes restoration contagious. This week, friends from different walks of life have independently talked with me about restoration. About trusting God to make broken relationships whole again. About real forgiveness. About trusting Jesus to make all things new.

Restoration as a theme is one thing. Restoration in action is another. Restoration means sharing dinner with friends who weren't so friendly for a season only to rejoice in the love of our Savior. Restoration means sending an e-mail to the guy who broke my heart, asking to join in global ministry. Restoration means, setting up a church in a rival highschool. Restoration means the Gospel is spreading to places that I'd written off.

All will be well.

My visa came in the mail today.

"As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!"- Psalm 40:11
All will be well.

"first world problems"

A lot of my friends who follow Jesus have been having the same conversation: "We're human." Somehow, in light of our heavenly citizenship, we forgot that we were human. We forgot that we still had a sin nature. We forgot that we weren't perfected yet.

In light of that conversation, I've been noticing my sin nature more.

Tuesday night FOX was having a disagreement with DirectTV. That meant, I couldn't watch New Girl. Tonight (a Thursday), the conflict is resolved. My reaction: Why didn't that happen on Tuesday night so I could watch the new episode. What a self-seeking, first world problem?! Another reminder of my humanity.

But the bigger first world problem tonight came while I was microwaving a $2 enchilada from Trader Joe's. I only had a few minutes between meeting with different sets of friends to prepare for my upcoming trip to West Africa. Dinner had to be fast. While I waited the four minutes it took for my enchilada to cook, I opened my laptop to take advantage of the wi-fi throughout my 3-bedroom house. The top story on CNN.com was about newly-released details of the rebel takeover of Mali.

I read about the mounting death toll. I read about the rebel demands. I read the US state department warning about any travel into Mali.

Then the microwave beeped.

Some sins are built into our fallen nature. Some sins are built into my consumer-driven culture.

Praise the God who became man. Praise the God who sacrificed Himself for those sins. Praise the God who defeated death with life.

Whether sins of the first-world or sins of the broken world, give us strength to live in victory, Father.

two memoirs

Since mailing "the box" last Friday night, I've read two memoirs. Not books that I had to read. Books that I wanted to read.

Both books were first-person memoirs of the not-so-distant past. American individuals caught between cultures, advocating for improved living conditions for those who know no other reality. Recognizing the "american-ness" of American culture, but not preaching Western cures. And each book was really funny, too. While neither book was faith-based or Gospel-driven (though each author developed relationships with God in different ways) the intent of each book was similar. Tell Americans what it's like to live somewhere else. Let them know how complex other cultures are. Paint a picture of how complicated issues of poverty can be. And clearly direct funding to solutions.

(Ok, so my "book reviews" don't reveal any details of the plot. Don't worry. I've oversimplified the themes for your benefit as well.) Each memoir was a quick read (roughly 300 pages each). Books like these inspire me to be a person who takes risks for great, lasting change. But not to be the memoir-writing type.

My memoir would have funny cross-cultural stories to be sure. (At least 5 of them involve public urination...) But it might not be as marketable. Sure, I can fantasize that I am the heroine of my memoir, but that just isn't true. The story I wrote for my life didn't happen (and won't happen in the future, either.) Even my junior high teacher tales have a greater theme, though, than using the wrong word at the wrong time. 

At our WITLI board meeting yesterday morning, Tom pitched the vision that we would see "the impossible happen." As we follow Jesus, that becomes the theme of every memoir, the anthem of each life. Tonight, at church, one of our pastor's re-capped the church vision statement:

"People becoming the church, on the mission with Jesus to help heal the world."

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. --Philippians 4:13

(I had to revise this paragraph because it sounded too religious. You know, the false humility stuff that makes everyone else feel guilty about not being perfect...) Seriously, though, the memoir I wish to live won't captivate and entertain the masses. It might not even interest fellow idealists. Moreover, the memoir I hope to write is best plagiarized by the verse that has become my motto:

and find out what pleases the Lord. --Ephesians 5:10