a faith observed: Her story is my story.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Her story is my story.

My mom is my hero. She modeled independence, generosity, service, optimism, hard work, and faith. So much of who I am, I am because of her.

I love how my mom - at 75 - joins me as a volunteer with Beyond Borders. Together we have committed ourselves to bringing love, education and healing to those displaced by war and persecution.

My mom and me!

What if HER story was MY story? What if it was YOURS?

Women like Hanifa, Rabia, Ester, Faheema, Enat, Jen, and Antoinette have left everything they know out of their love for their children. Their journeys have taken them on boats across oceans and to refugee camps and urban slums. They have sacrificed so much out of hope that their children will have a safe future and a good education. I have come to love, respect and admire my refugee sisters.

This Mother's Day my dear friends, Katy and Noelle, and I are organizing a Mother's Day fundraiser to honor mothers we know and mothers around the world who are displaced. Here is how you can be involved!

Make a suggested donation and purchase a special gift for your mom or a mom you love.

Artist, Katy Shimp, has graciously donated prints from her special Mother's Day Collection. We can mail directly to you or to the person you are purchasing this for and send it with a handmade card. We are asking for a suggested donation of $25 or more for our 5x7 prints and $35 or more for our 8x10 prints. This includes shipping.

Choose from jewelry, a pouch or a leather bag handmade by women in Ethiopia & Uganda.

Clutch wrap $60

Wrap clutch by Harvest Ethiopia $60

Leather credit card holder by Harvest Ethiopia $15

Lidia Leather Backpack $150

Leather briefcase $150

Pouch Purse $100, Lidia Backpack $150

Ugandan pouch $20

To check out our jewelry, please visit my Facebook page.

You can make your donation here and then send me a message with your order details and I will make sure to get it to you or the mom of your choice.

Sign up to come alongside a refugee mother in Uganda and help her provide for her child's monthly education through becoming a sponsor at $35/ month.

My mom and I both have come alongside children in Uganda and are sponsoring their education. It is such a wonderful way to come alongside a refugee mother and help her support her child. We currently are seeking 24 more sponsors. You can sponsor a child here and we will send the mother you are honoring with this gift a lovely mother's day card to honor her on your behalf. Just shoot me a message and let me know who to send the card to!

3) Make a one time donation that will support refugee and displaced mothers and children in Uganda, East Africa, Niger, and in Greece who are in our programs. We provide education for children and for women desiring to learn English.

Thank you for considering making her story your story and supporting our work with your Mother's Day Gift this year!

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This is me, a faith observed.

C.S. Lewis writes about the pain of losing his beloved wife, Joy, in his book, "A Grief Observed". In some ways this is my attempt to share my journey through grief and back into life, as the past nine months have been characterized by an immeasurable longing for my beloved father, who died suddenly this past January.

After months of hibernation from the internet, I unexpectedly find myself able to re-begin this blog and connect with my larger community of family and friends. This blog will likely reflect less of the intensity and depth of my pain and more of the simplicity and ordinary joy that keeps my life full - namely days running after our little boy, Simon Pierre. But it is because of the incredible love and presence that defined my relationship with my father, that I feel I can will myself to not just survive each day but to pour that same kind of love and attention onto Simon.

My father was an endless source of strength to me, a pillar of faith. His last words, spoken to my mother as he passed into that which is unseen, "God is good - good all the time", have remained with me through this dark cloud of grief. And when God seems hidden, when justice seems to be losing out, when life is unfair, and when death swallows up the one I most love, I remember my father's words and breathe in this promise, that the God of love is in the process of restoring that which has been destroyed.

And as my father told me in dream I've had since his death, "Look to Jesus. As a father, to point you towards Him is the best gift I can give to you." So here I am, this is me, a faith to be observed.

I hold onto that which is not always seen- the promise of God's goodness, the hope that one day in the promised new heavens and earth- on a grassy hill or a sand covered beach- the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side and I, too, will lie down side by side, next to my father, and we will laugh and laugh until there are no more tears left to cry.