joy in making an offering to world issues

My daughter and I discuss her assignments for her World Issues class. Her deep heart expresses itself through her choices: modern slavery, child soldiers, invisible victims of war in Northern Uganda, the ignored plight of the southern Sudanese. Two years before my other daughter did projects on the genocide in Rwanda, won acclaim for her film about the needs in Kenya, spent a Christmas in an orphanage in Kenya. This summer both daughters returned to their childhood home in Uganda, on their own, reconnecting with former playmates who today are successful, healthy and happy.

I continue to battle for professional and financial survival back in small town Ontario. Gone are my missionary days, when I was free to work without pay, create and carry through projects, help various poor friends, respond to needs on our doorstep. Even gone are the days of sitting by the bedside of the daughter of a friend dying of AIDS, through no fault of her own, weeping with her friends and family. I shall never forget the day I arrived at the home of another friend in time to see her shrivelled body placed in a rough wooden coffin. In four years she had gone from a bouncy vital laughing woman to a tiny shrunken drug crazed victim of AIDS. I didn't know the reason, but I saw the horror before my eyes.

In those days I felt connected to world issues. I lived among them and made my offering in these various ways. Now I wonder how to do that. Yes, I support other missionaries, yes I helped my daughter adopt her own foster child, yes I am training to help people in the western world with their private agonies. I see misery and pain before my eyes every time I go supply teaching. What is my offering? I have been a Sunday school teacher and now a worship leader. I go to Worship conferences, not conferences on AIDS and world issues.

Now I have a little platform on this blog, and on my own personal blog. I have reflected much on God's gracious work in my own heart, His healing presence in my own life. Yes, it has blessed others. But what does it have to do with these huge world issues? Each time I have attended Christian concerts with my daughters or worship conferences with famous worship leaders I have been so impressed at how they used their platform to address world issues. They themselves have not been able to serve as missionaries for long periods of time. Their calling is to lead worship, to write songs, to give glory to God through their music and words. But they have realized their power, and used it to point their audiences to these needs.

I was reminded again of that power when I found this video from one of my favourite worship bands, Third Day. I share it now with you. As we move into Advent, preparing for Christmas, it is indeed a fitting time to remember what is going on in the wider world, and do what we can, each day, through prayer, or whatever other means, to do our part, as God leads.

Today, on this platform, I make this offering.

joy in the benefits of a flexible schedule

I have often complained to myself and sometimes to others about not having a full time job, but also been glad of the flexibility of supply teaching, studying and planning the other things I am. Today is a day to celebrate this flexibility. It is a school day, but because my younger daughter has a PA day, and my older daughter needs to look at the University of Toronto and go on their tour today, I can take the day to go with them and we can enjoy our day together. I can even fit in a visit with my Spiritual Director, with whom I would usually talk on the phone since I am not a student down there myself these days. So I am off to make us a big breakfast and hit the road...what a blessing there is only a light extra dusting of snow and the driving should be fine...all three of us can drive...we'll keep the coffee business going too.

joy in making use of experience in a creative and helpful way

This week I have been working on a lesson/presentation for my Adult Education training course on Saturday. We are allowed to teach about anything, and have to make it dynamic in 10 to 15 minutes. One of my classmates, knowing of my experience of living in Africa, suggested I do something about the differences between what people think and what actually happens when you visit and live there. That inspiration led to my developing a lesson about a crosscultural communication issue that is actually difficult and annoying to deal with, but common to all foreigners visiting Africa. I have called it The Mzungu Factor. Instead of talking about my own experience, I was able to make use of a search engine to find many instances of the same experience for others in their blogs, as tourists, volunteers, missionaries, whatever. It has been helpful to me as well, because it has focused something I found hard, as my daughters did, an ongoing experience of a kind of racism. There are historical reasons for it rooted in colonialism, and with all of us coming from the rich west it is understandable. However, that still doesn't change how it can feel, and so the benefit of my "teaching" about this is that it can prepare people for such an experience and help them to prepare to deal with it. If any of you want to know more about what I am talking about, just leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an attachment with my Powerpoint presentation. For me, as my title says, the joy is in making use of my experience in a creative and helpful way.

joy in being more aware of world issues

One of my duties these days is helping my younger daughter with her homework in Grade 12 with her courses in World Issues and Canada and World Politics. Although I have quite an awareness and concern about these areas, I have gotten behind on the specifics. Being thrust into them through this role with my daughter is helping me to get caught up. I am grateful and it is coming at a good time. My own goals and concerns for personal, professional and financial survival are getting sorted out and clarified, and beginning to be realized, and so I can feel that I can take time to read the newspaper intelligently, or bother to engage in a discussion at church or supply teaching where I won't get lost in feeling I am not up to speed. I will also be able to more prayerfully engage in these concerns, and maybe one day write about them.

joy in a burst of joy in my heart

I am up in the night, early morning rather, because of the joy in my heart. I received truth about myself last night, from someone who listens to my life in a profound way. I will try to express some of the depth of what I experienced in a post I will write later in the week for the whateverhesays devotional blog. I am switching my day to post to a weekend, likely Saturday, to make it easier for me to process during the busy week. The joy in my heart right now is from being heard and understood, and having the truth spoken back to me in a new way that takes me out of my doldrums. For that I am so deeply grateful. God is so good.

joy in seeing light at the end of the tunnel

The darkness of winter is setting in. I have had a lot of emotional turmoil the last few days, held well in check, but there nonetheless. One way I have coped often is to have a vision for the future. This morning, in the midst of a carefully manicured version of my turmoil, I phoned the life coaching group that I want to train with, and was able to talk about how they do their work in a Christian way. It was exciting to me to realize that it would be a good fit, which is what had happened in our first conversation. This is especially meaningful to me right now because of how I am feeling. If it gives me a greater sense of order in my life to have a vision of where I am going, work wise, as well as in my spiritual life, then it helps me to cope with the daily ups and downs. So I am grateful for this sign of God's blessing today, and even more so because in my conversation the person said they had to go to a meeting and I realized I had caught her at the perfect time for both of us. God has been faithful to me again. I am blessed and trust I can carry that blessing through this day.

joy in a sabbath rest

Maybe not a lot of rest...but some...and time for worship with others...it is good to have a sabbath that we are free to celebrate in the open. Not so for many.