May God bless you with a restless discomfort

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.


May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Savior,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide,
be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN

It has been two days since I first read the Franciscan Blessing, and I cannot get it out of my head.  Then this morning in our team devotional this scripture was read that to be honest I never recall hearing before. 

Jeremiah 22:16
"He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well.
Is not that what it means to know me?"
Declares the Lord

For months, years, my heart has been crying out for those who are oppressed, for the injustices of the world, for those in poverty and the hate and bitterness that causes us to lash out blindly at anyone weaker than us.   Where we are working these atrocities pour out abundantly, in a personal way that makes it hard to ignore and forget like we might do with the stories on the news or the horror stories that are beginning to be so common in families and communities now days.  But it isn't enough.  What we are doing isn't enough, you must join in this fight.  I don't want to tell sad stories but trust me I have plenty.  It would be pointless if guilt pushed you into doing something in this fight.  I plead with you to fall on your knees and beg God to cover you and fill you with this blessing.  Only with Him will we be able to make a difference. 

Another recent reason that is adding to my burden for the oppressed is a new project that we will hopefully begin implementing in the local children's hospital where I volunteer every week.  The majority of patients are from families in extreme poverty, often needing to choose between buying food or medicines.  I have been discussing with the doctors possible opportunities and projects that we could put into place during the two months were we have short-term volunteers.  Just last week I agreed to write up a project concerning patient empowerment, but not just in relation to their situation as a patient but also in their everyday lives as well.  I have struggled in writing this project as we will be facing many challenges, such as a high turnover in the participants, varied age ranges, some participants with illiteracy, and most who are not from the area.  However, these are the desired results from our project:
- Empowerment leading to more personal responsibility for health situation thus creating less dependence on the doctors and staff leading to a more holistic health care.
- A presence of more positive attitudes and an improvement in staff/patient relationships.
- An understanding how God desires to see empowered people turning away from hopelessness and helplessness.
- A deeper understanding of the role of community in our personal struggles and how we effect our community.

Tomorrow I will present the idea to the head doctors on the wing where I volunteer.  I appreciate your prayers towards the success of this endeavor against the mindset of poverty.    

A mealybugs life...

Some of you may already know this but I love plants. I love mine so much that most have names and they get talked to in two languages. I adopt new ones as often as I can and have to be torn away from plant stores. Once when I was walking to the local pharmacy to cure a current sickness, I passed a man pushing his flower and plant cart. I resisted the temptation on the way but just couldn't help myself on the way back. The new addition was called Orphan Annie. No worries she has a home now. One of my first plants was Rosa (picture) and her sister Maria. There have been times in which my plants have died because of the heat of Guayaquil, and even the emergency treatment of being put into the fridge for the third time didn't help. Poor Meryl. Then there have been the plants that have died in my absence, I like to think that they missed me but I have a feeling that the soil got a little too dry. And there have been others that have succumbed to pests. One of these being, mealybugs. They are nasty little bugs covered in a white cottony substance and seem to multiply overnight. One of my plants, Aqua, was almost furry from the sheer abundance of mealybugs. I was sure that I was about to lose another plant when beholding the wonders of google, I found a solution that didn't involve chemicals. Dish soap and warm water. So I gave my plant a scrubbing like it has never known and now three days later it is relatively free of mealybugs. According to the instructions I will have to repeat the process in a week and then keep an eye out to see if they come back. I tell you this whole story to explain what I was thinking about. Our bad habits are a bit like mealybugs, better liked by some people than others but completely disastrous to all. I don't know about you, but I seem to have a lot of bad habits. Yes it should not surprise you to hear that a missionary has struggles too. Experiencing this situation with my plants made me realize that I tend to fall for the same patterns and listen to the same lies. I work through it with God and then for a while things are good but then I get distracted and busy not allowing God to examine me and wash off the lies. Then I turn into a fuzzy gross messy only realizing when it seem that I have caused damage what has happened. Then here comes the spray bottle and God helps me to clear out the lies again. The funny thing about mealybugs is that if you have a plant infested with these you must separate it from the others, especially the weak plants, because they will transfer and start to grow a colony there. We should be careful who we are around all the time because as much as we don't like to admit it, their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors begin to rub off on us. Now just as my plants do go moving themselves (yes that would be scary if it happened), we also should be careful about judging others, this is when we need to turn to the Gardener and let Him show us. Because how ironic would that be if we start pointing fingers at someone because they have mealybugs when you are covered with scales... Love others, clean your leaves, and listen to the Gardener.