Archive for March 18, 2008

Leaping Day 10 & 11 – Picturing Little Things Make a Big Difference

18 Mar, 2008 

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year.  (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.)  After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed.

Day 10:  

Get a picture of your homes foundation in your mind.  Got it?  Ok.  Imagine your school is on the downhill side of a small hill and the foundation is mostly mud brick and straw and/or scrap wood.  Imagine that because your building is not up on a foundation, you need to constantly step over the 12 – 18” mud barriers in the doorways you made to keep, or at least slow down, the daily torrential rains of the rainy season out of your building and off of your dirt floors.

Imagining any potential problems with that? 

When you partner with people who are doing the best they have with what they have got, tearing down buildings they have fought so hard to build and rebuilding them is not always the best way to build relationships.  They are sweet people and fast as lightning at math.  It is a special math though.  They can quickly calculate about how many meals they could buy if they had the money you were spending.  

So, at this point, I could certainly imagine building a brand new school and kitchen at a better location to make any American permit inspector weep with joy, with some help, we could actually put French drains around the buildings we already have at the Hope and save them.  This is actually a great alternative for several reasons: prolongs the life of the structures, provide work for the locals, and train the villagers by showing them how they could improve their own homes with the same techniques, because they will probably never be able to afford to start over from scratch. 
Picture your foundation again.  How much did you spend on your foundation?  What would you spend to save it?  To save your neighbor’s foundation?  A complete stranger’s?  

Picturing the little things, making a huge impact,
Lia

Day 11:  Leaping Lizards! Or at least Leaping fingers. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has given me feedback!  Here were some great ideas I wanted to share that can all be done from where you are now… in front of your computer.

Networkers:  If you have a myspace page, put Show Mercy as one of your myspace friends.  The more visibility they have the better.  Send a message to all of your myspace friends to check it out.  (I am learning about this stuff, so you will be able to see me and Show Mercy on my page soon. :>)

Surfers:  Go to www.goodsearch.com (Yahoo-powered search engine) and be sure to enter Show Mercy International as the charity you want to support. You use it just as you would any other search engine. You get quality search results from Yahoo, and as you do, children who are orphaned or abandoned and abused get assistance, about $.01 per search! The more you search, the more is donated to Show Mercy.

Shoppers:  GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which will donate up to 37% of each purchase to Show Mercy International. There are hundreds of great stores including Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble. They have all teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting Hope Children’s Home.

Video Watchers: www.youtube.com/ShowMercyIntl.  You can see some amazing footage of the children, the locals, and Prossy, the beautiful Ugandan who was working hard to protect, educate and care for the children of her village before Show Mercy was founded to partner with her to do more. The children’s stories of rescue are amazing.
I am sure I am missing something or someone.  Email me and let me know of other ways we can spend our 1% that may improve another’s life by much more than 1%.

A very grateful and encouraged,
Lia
 






Leaping Day 8 & 9 – Actions Speak Louder than Words

18 Mar, 2008 

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year.  (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.)  After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed. 

This is a little long because we are making up for lost time.  It still may not take you 14.4 minutes if you read fast.  :>)

Day 8:
Teenagers are horrible.  Everyone knows it.  I remember it!  Attitude, angst, venomous, sullenness and sarcasm. Did I leave anything out?  They aren’t cute and cuddly and they are more expensive than the younger sweeter versions we actually like.  And once they get past 10 or so, you can’t change them, or control them anyway.
I sound Horrible don’t I?  We would never say such things.  At least not out loud.  But as a society we think this way.  Don’t believe me?  My friend works for Children’s Services here in Oregon.  She told me that a Foster child that goes up for adoption (the parental rights of the biological parent have been terminated), but remains in the system past 10 years old, only has a 10% of ever being adopted.  We have told 90% they are too much trouble to keep. We tell them by our actions.  That is almost 100 children in Washington County alone that have felt the weight of this cultural ideology.  Yikes!

But wait… Christian’s email yesterday… He is 13.  Maybe they aren’t sooo bad.  And even on the days they are all those things listed in the first paragraph, so was I, and you all love me now.  Right?  :>)  


One of my dear friends has a teaching style I like.  Then again, I have a sick sense of humor. 

Handsome (vain) 14 year old stepson is having fun getting into trouble.  Like “the school keeps calling” type of trouble.  Wise Stepmother shares with stepson how much he has, and is completely ungrateful for, compared to the children of third world countries.  (According to the State she must provide food, shelter, education, and clothing.  So in her explanations/corrections/trainings, she wisely knows her boundary lines, even though she is human and possibly has considered leaving him on a street corner in a box with “free” written on the side.  This is pure conjecture of course.) 
She explains that the beautiful wavy hair he enjoys is a luxury, that due to lice, the children of Hope cannot enjoy.  He gets a buzz cut.  Behavior continues south.  The children of Uganda do not have the wardrobe he enjoys, so he will now experience “poverty immersion” by getting the use of only one of his outfits for the week.  And not the cute name-brand one either.  She has now gained his attention.  He is then listening when told of the long walks to school, the flat bed truck that is sometimes used as a school bus, the cost for schooling/that no child attends for free, and therefore many do not attend.  She now has a stepson in a state of tearful understanding and gratitude for what he has and they do not.  However, the sentence isn’t over.  He still has to follow through with the one outfit only and wash it himself if smelling good is important to him, because that is what Ugandan teens would have to do.

What does all of this specifically have to do with Uganda’s Hope Children’s Home?  Education and Sponsorship.  Teenagers are often on their own in Uganda.  The Teens at Hope know EXACTLY what they have to be grateful for and show it.  However, they aren’t cute and cuddly and they are always a struggle to find sponsors for.  The typical reaction is to sponsor the youngest ones first.  There is nothing wrong with that, we just need balance.  We need those who see what is ther, and those who see what could be there.  To sponsor a little one costs $35 a month. * Because Hope is not able to provide staff and space for a secondary education on site, they must send the children to the nearest secondary school and that costs more money.  Children who attend secondary school require a sponsorship of $50 a month.  Some teens may not have completed primary school yet, due to life circumstances, so it is possible that a teen will still be attending primary.  However, they still eat more/cost more to clothe, etc… than the little ones, just like your kids at your house, and they will be attending secondary school shortly.

Would you consider sharing one of these teen’s stories with your teens?  Would you consider sponsoring a teen at Hope? Be careful if you do… you may start describing teenagers as: hardworking, grateful, eager learners, sweet, sincere, a pure joy…

Believing the unbelievable,

Lia
*The $35/month school sponsorships will include a meal, basic school supplies, uniforms and it helps to cover the local teaching cost/school fees for toddler through pre-teen.

 

Day 9:

So what happens if we LEAP all the way to $29,000?  
Fencing the perimeter is the first priority. 
Hope Children’s Home is a place of safety, love, and provision.  However, it needs some real improvements.  The children are safe inside the house.  Uganda is beautiful and the kids love to play outside, which is great!…  Only not so safe. 
Hope Children’s Home is on a “corner lot” which means it has roads along two of its perimeters.  So there are four “momma’s” and several teachers watching the 100 children who live at the home and the additional 100 kids that attend the school on the Hope property with no fence.  Kids are playing, there is laundry to be done by hand, and cooking to be done over open fire, with all of that commotion someone could wander off, become part of an accident with the many motorcycles that pass by, or… God forbid… be taken.  Unfortunately it is a possibility. 
The kids do a great job of watching out for each other, but a fence would greatly improve the safety for any of the potential dangers.  Imagine letting your two year old play alone in the front yard while you work in the back yard?  Of course they do their utmost to diligently watch all of the children, but we all have a story of when, in a split second, a toddler got away from us and nearly gave us a heart attack.
The children bathe in buckets behind the Home, but if someone wanted to, they could watch/enter the property from the road.  Privacy would help these little ones, who don’t know that they need to be protected, stay safe from certain watchers.  The bigger, more modest kids just do a "washrag bath" in their room sometimes.  Though few strangers come through unnoticed… it would be prudent to have more control over who can get near the children without going through a specific gate. 

 There are fun reasons for the fence too!  They have lost many a soccer ball, a prized rare possession, to the neighbors.  The neighbors aren’t in a hurry to return them either.  So the lessons of “these are our things, this is where we use our things, and this is where we keep our things when they are not in use” would be easier taught with visual boundaries. Have you ever had your two year old lean over the property line, a nice row of flowers, to yank the neighbor’s tulips out of the ground, to your horror? How many of you tell your young ones, “Not past the sidewalk.”? We let them go a little at a time by using visual cues and physical boundaries, until they have the maturity for more freedom. 

Have you ever gone camping?  I mean “Boonie” Camping.  Waaaay Out.  Do you remember how dark it gets at night?  It gets dark around seven in Uganda most nights.  I mean pitch black.  So for safety reasons, all of the kids get corralled into the Home at dark.  A tight fit, to be sure.  To buy a little more time for 100 children to have a little rumpus room… that is a blessing that every parent, daycare, or Sunday school teacher is nodding to right now.  Yes, I can see you nodding, smiling and saying “Ummhmmm”.  :>)  

 Do strong boundaries, the ideas of privacy, ownership, security, and responsibility show love? Do they teach it?  I think so.  And if you have a fence around any part of your property… you probably do too.  Show Mercy can start the fence, but they can’t finish without our help.  How much did your fence cost?  Would you consider raising or donating 1% or more of that cost to build a brick fence at Hope Children’s Home for their kids?

Securely in His hands,
Lia

Leaping Day 7 – Hugs for 29 minutes raises $29

18 Mar, 2008 

 

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year.  (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.)  After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed.  

From my friend’s almost 13 year old, Christian —

So, we stood with our friends by a local beanery. I can’t tell you the name.  And we walked up to people and asked if we could give them “HUGS”.  Most people smiled and laughed.  BUT, they did not say no. So we told them hugs were HELP UNDERSTAND GIVING SOMEWHERE.  We told them that there were kids like us in other places in the world without cool clothes or cell phones or IPODS or, more importantly, clean water, food or changes of clothes.  Instead of getting a mega coffee, they could choose to give hugs and offer a few cents that would add to others’ hugs and we would send lots of hugs to these kids so that their lives would be better.  This local coffee shop (a well-known chain) ended up giving us all their tips for the day but asked us not to mention their name.  I will just say that the first letter and last letter of their name is the same.  Did we feel silly?  Maybe a little.  But five of us decided that it was only 29 minutes out of our lives.  Worse case…people would say no.  How many people said no to our HUGS? 

 

Z  E  R O
How much money did five 7th graders raise in 29 minutes?

 $29.78

 Notice it was $29  J

God has His hand in everyone’s work!

 
Much love and many grateful tears, Lia 

Leaping Day 6 – Meaning of Show Mercy

18 Mar, 2008 

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year.  (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.)  After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed.  If you do not wish to receive these emails, simply reply with "remove" in the subject line.  For more information on Show Mercy, please go to www.showmercy.org.

Flexibiltiy is the KEY to Leaping in 2008

I looked up how to train for any of the jumping/leaping sports on the internet.  They stressed flexibility and balance ABOVE speed and technique.  You can’t improve your technique if you are injured. 
 
So the flexibility I am working on right now is how to keep momentum and communication with all of you while everyone, including my laptop, is struggling with viruses.  Thank God for friends with laptop knowledge, internet connecitions, and laptops to lend! 
 
So we should be way past Day 6, but that is where we are, and that’s OK. 

I typed “definition of ‘show mercy’” into a search engine, and my favorite responses were as follows:  The phrase is a verb, a statement of action.  The related synonyms for "show mercy" were: melt, disarm, forgive, soften, yield, relent, touch, let up, sympathize, feel for, ease, give way, subside

synonyms:  

ache, agree, appreciate, be compassionate, be understanding, bleed for, comfort, commiserate, compassionate, comprehend, condole, empathize, grieve with, have compassion, identify with, love, offer consolation, pity, show kindliness, show tenderness, side with, tune in

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the videos on the Show Mercy website, (www.showmercy.org) please consider spending your 1% on pressing these words into your spirit while you watch them.  If you have seen them, perhaps you might look up "ebola virus", "malaria", "bonebreak fever" or the other daily conditions the Ugandan’s live with. 

Research, Connect, and Identify are verbs too.  This is the hardest for me to do, to withhold what I consider "productive action" for a time, to deepen the understanding of and share the greif of a people.  I know this is asking alot.  Show Mercy’s stated goal is not just to "reach out", but to "Reach out IN LOVE…" and that always takes more.

The related antonyms for "show mercy" were:  worsen, disapprove, disregard, ignore

Which will we choose?  Which will we choose to teach the next generation?

Learning to show the mercy I have been shown, 

much love, 
Lia 

Leaping Day 5 – Darlene Leaps to Raise Money

18 Mar, 2008 

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year. (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.) After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed. 

Message from another LEAPER! – Darlene

I thought I would let someone else talk for a change. :>) This is from Darlene.

How about story books with beautiful pictures for the children? How often do we donate books children have outgrown instead of sending them to children who might love to look at the pictures and enjoy them? I have seen them sit untouched at Goodwill and get kicked around only to be damaged and destroyed as they are dumped from bin to bin…..why not collect these books??????

My son and daughter (11 and 9) collected pop bottles in the neighborhood for an hour today….raised $25…EASY!!! Lia tell me where to send this!!! What about a loose change jar? Where do you dump your change at the end of the day? My parents put it in a jar. They are willing to just keep dumping that change in a jar and then, cash it in and donate the money to the team. 

Also…why not go to the Christian schools and have classroom competitions… similar to pennies for patients… “Money for Mercy” and have kids bring change and fill buckets for a week or two…winning class gets ice cream sandwiches (cheap at Freddy’s)….you can easily get several hundred per school!!! JUST IDEAS!!!!!

Thank you so much Darlene! These are great ideas! All collected monies can be sent to Show Mercy International, PO Box 607, Albany, Oregon 97321. 

Everyone else needs to know something about Darlene. She doesn’t have any free time, just like you, but she chose to participate anyway. She has 3 kids, a job outside of the home, and a recently diagnosed and rapidly deteriorating mother-in-law she is trying to aide, and those are only the things I know about! Darlene is such an encouragement to me and many others even when she is in a position to truly need encouragement for herself. So don’t be “guilted” that she did what many times we do not, be encouraged that someone believed they could do something for others and did!
 
I heard a speaker this weekend say, "We don’t stop wanting to win in life. We stop believing we can."  Also, I commend Darlene on her parenting genius. Most of you know I adore the idea of multi-tasking even if my execution is flawed. :>) She got an hour to do something while two of her kids were out learning and teaching about charity, sacrifice, community involvement, and third world conditions. She got pre-teens to LEAP (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty) for an hour. Brilliant. 

Can you spend your 1% (14.4 minutes) today on any of these ideas? I would love your feedback! 

Happy LEAPing!

Love, Lia

For more information please visit www.showmercy.org

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