"Consider How the Lillies Grow" (Part 2)

While we're on the subject of Christ considering the lilies growing, as I've been thinking a lot about God taking care of my needs, I can not help but move past myself and think about all the needs of those who are "helpless"-- the orphaned, widowed, fatherless...God says in James chapter 1 verse 27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in heir distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Whew!  Read that again.  And again.  And then go read from James 1:22- 27.  Should I quote it all for you?  Probably.  Here we go:

"Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does NOT do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and...goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But the man who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has head, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does.  If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." (through verse 26, reread verse 27 above, it won't hurt to do it again!)

WOW.  I mean, really, if we just studied those verses alone for a month, we STILL wouldn't be getting it all right.  You know?  So today, as I consider Christ considering the lilies growing and considering ME (and YOU, and ALL the world) even more than they, I thought about two people  that are part of my group of heroes.  I'd like to introduce them to you today.  They are part of the group of heroes that are considering orphans and widows and helping to take care of them -- in some fun and unique ways.

Person One (in no particular order=): My mom.  Lois is her name.  A couple of years ago, my mom was in a transition period out of a ministry she'd been highly involved with and was praying for direction as to what God might want her to do next.  After being introduced to the book Not For Sale (by David Batstone, founder of the organization http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/), God lit a little fire in her heart that desired to "do something" to help with this horrible human tragedy of human trafficking.  Mom didn't just want to do anything, though, she wanted it to be personal, for her to be able to see the difference she was making for herself.  Through a series of events that only God could orchestrate, my mom was introduced to a wonderful man of God who is sharing the gospel in an area of the world too dangerous to mention specifically.  He trains men who don't even have Bibles to go back to their villages and teach others about God.  He also had started an orphanage for girls.  Through broken language barriers and with much hesitation, so as not to offend the man, my mom was given the opportunity to ask if the girls in his orphanage would be a part of sex trafficking if it were not for his orphanage. The answer?  A resounding, "YES!"  He and his staff share the love of Christ with these girls and are dedicated to raising them in the absence of their families.  My mom saw all her previous "dots" connected as she saw God guiding her to where her efforts should be directed and, thus was birthed her own small business, "Beads to Bless".  Lois creates hand-crafted jewelry and other items and uses the proceeds from this business to go directly towards the orphanage.  So far, with the proceeds from just this year, the orphanage has been able to build a new facility outside of the busy city that can house the girls more comfortably and allow them space to play like children should.  Mom is currently looking to expand her business through using various medias (Internet being one) and as soon as she does, I will give you all an update and post her website!  Below are some examples of her work using Kazuri and paper beads, both fair trade beads made in Africa. (Warning: these pictures are a bit underexposed -- I just wanted to get them up and not fuss with fixing them!)  If you're interested in finding out more about the story of Beads to Bless or to "shop" for Lois' jewelery, you can contact her at beadstobless@yahoo.com.

Person Two: Heidi Ziebarth.  This is a young lady that lives in my town.  I've never met her, but I've been touched by her life just the same.  I'll let her tell you about herself in her own words taken from her blog.

My name is Heidi Ziebarth, and I am a 11 year old currently going to Harrison Elementary. My mom and I have initiated a recycling project called Africrans by Amerikids. We make the crayons out of old crayons that we collected from the 7 elementary schools in Warsaw, Indiana. (With the added crayons from 2 schools sent to us by the KC Recycling Center)What my mom and I basically do is melt the crayons down, package them, and sell them. We give half of the profits to the Village of Hopeadult's fee to go to college, but have no money left over to pay for food. So while they have a education, they are basically starving.

You can reach us if you would like to donate or buy crayons, or if you would like to help out, go to africrans@yahoo.com

Below is a picture of my (wonderful) children unwrapping crayons to donate to Heidi's business.

I encourage you to GET INVOLVED while you wait, and put feet to your "religion" by helping to take care of the orphans and widows God puts in your life.