Walls

By Monica Brand, 26 April, 2009, 2 Comments

Spring cleaning today. I wiped clean the walls in the family room, now free from a winter’s worth of wood stove dust. The walls, butter yellow, a color I painstakingly selected years ago. In the hallway, a dime-sized hole in that yellow Sheetrock.

Each time I walk past that blip of an imperfection, my spirit growls. Stupid hole, don’t you dare get bigger.

So what do I do with this?

This is Kolkata, India.

Suddenly a little hole in the wall is not such a big deal.

Who lives there? Is there a mom like me, cleaning, wiping away grime from walls that are nothing like mine?

What does she think of her walls made of cloth and sticks?

Lord, help me…

Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Image source

Do something…

Follow Compassion Bloggers in India

By Monica Brand, 23 April, 2009, 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in India?

What about in horrific poverty, in an Indian city famous for it’s slums and suffering?

Bloggers traveling with Compassion International will describe those living conditions when they travel to Kolkata, (formally Calcutta) this week. It’s my job to tell you how you can follow their journey, to learn about the ministry of Compassion International.

1. A snippet of every post, every picture and video will be uploaded to this page: http://www.compassionbloggers.com/india (I’ll also have this link on my sidebar.)

2. A Facebook group has been created not only to generate prayer and encouragement for the bloggers, but also to share links to posts, pictures and videos: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53591862382&ref=ts

3. A few of the team will be attempting to use Twitter while in India. The addresses are:

http://www.twitter.com/theshaungroves
http://www.twitter.com/spencesmith
http://www.twitter.com/flowerdust

The hashtag #CompassionIndia will be used to mark every tweet. Searching for that on Twitter (or Tweetgrid and Tweetdeck) should bring up all of the tweets.

4. This is the link to the trip’s RSS feed. Subscribing to the feed will send a snippet of every post from every blogger to your RSS reader: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/compassionbloggers

5. If you’d prefer to follow the trip by visiting each blog here are their addresses:

Bloggers:
Pete Wilson – http://www.withoutwax.tv
Melissa Fitzpatrick – http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com
Angela Smith – http://www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com
Robin Dance – http://www.pensieve.typepad.com

Photography:
Keely Scott – http://www.keelymariescott.com

Videography:
Anne Jackson – http://www.flowerdust.net

Leaders:
Spence Smith – http://www.spencesmith.com
Patricia Jones – http://jonesbones5.com
Shaun Groves – http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog

Sorry for the lack of hyperlinks. I just can’t do it all! (Shocking, I know.) Copy and paste, baby.

Also – and I wanted to leave this last because it’s the most important – don’t forget to pray for the safety of the travelers and that many children will be sponsored as a result of their journey.

This week

By Monica Brand, 6 April, 2009, 1 Comment

I anticipate being on the quiet side here this week. With the A Woman Inspired conference taking up most of my day, I’m going to focus my attention there. I’ll probably write thoughts about it at the end of the week. Please leave me your own links about the conference in the comments when I publish my post.

What else? My Twitter and Facebook fast has come to an end, now that Lent is over. I have lots to say about that experience too, mostly regarding Twitter. Those thoughts may find themselves here before the end of the week. Next week at the latest.

And lastly, I had the most wonderful time at my first regional conference for Compassion International advocates this past weekend. Must blog about that too.

Lots to write about… many thoughts coming. But first the kids, life in general and all those little tasks away from the computer. I’ll be back…

Don’t blog about Global Food Crisis Day

By Monica Brand, 11 March, 2009, 3 Comments

Don’t read the stats. Don’t look at the images of starving children. Don’t read books like this.

Unless you want to mess with your head and heart and have your nice comfy worldview twisted around, shaken like a spiritual heartquake.

I’m telling you – don’t get involved with Compassion International because these little ones suck you in and you start loving people you’ve never met, caring about what happens to children with distended bellies and haunted eyes.

You chew on verses like “let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth,” and “Lord, when did we see you hungry… and did not help you?”, while you eat your nice London Broil and broccoli. When you scrape uneaten food into the garbage, you see the faces of children that search landfills searching for anything to eat.

Don’t love, don’t care and sure as heck don’t get angry at the apathy around you, because not everyone will be affected like you (lots of hard hearts surfing blogs too.)

Whatever you do – don’t pray for passion or for something to do with your little blog. Don’t ask to see folks like Jesus does.

Don’t give in to that desire to be part of hope. That’s what Global Food Crisis Day is all about, after all. Hope.

—-

Do you have hope? I do. Together we can rescue the hungry from what the UN World Food Programme calls “a silent tsunami.”

Donating to the Global Food Crisis Fund:

- Provides food vouchers to children and families needing immediate relief.
- Provides seeds and agricultural tools so that families can grow their own food as well as earn extra income.
- Provides supplemental nutrition services at Compassion-assisted centers around the world.

If you are reading this in RSS, you can follow the links above to donate or come over to Paper Bridges to use the little widget in the sidebar. It’s a very pretty widget, you may want one for your own blog too.

Let’s not lose hope in what we can do or turn away to ignore those Jesus wants us to serve in love.

So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.

Job 5:16