i hope, i hope!

so i just got off the phone with a staffer from world vision. we are hoping to host the African Experience Exhibit which focuses on a day in the life of a child affected by the AIDS pandemic. i went a few months back to one of these exhibits and i can’t even come close to explaining how huge it was. i was brought into steven’s life. a little boy who was kidnapped from his family to be used as a child soldier in the 20 yr war in Uganda. he was forced to do horriffic things, witness horriffic things at such a young tender age. i can’t even imagine a world like he lives in on a daily basis.

i am not trying to be all doom and gloom on ya, but i do feel there is power in stepping outside of your own daily life to live in someone else’s even if it is just for a minute. even if it is in the comfort of your own city, to hear and see some of what stephen deals with is just so crucial. we can’t forget about children like him. just because he is not on your local news doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. it’s easier to ignore that there is a problem than it is to stand up and do something, but seriously… wwjd?

so that is why i am crossing my fingers we will be able to host this at our church

waiting

Pastor Theo, who my church has partnered with, is joining us from Rwanda. he was supposed to fly in today, but due to some unfortunate flight delays and visa issues he will be flying in tomorrow. his wife, Miriam, was supposed to join us as well, but looks like she won’t be at this point in time. her visa has not come through i am so stinkin’ excited to see Pastor Theo though!!! we get along so well he started calling me his daughter when we were over in rwanda. so as you can imagine, i can’t wait to pick him up at the airport!!!

we started a Trade As One Trading Post at my church. the Trading Post is a place where people from our church and community can use their buying power for good. all of the products we sell are fairly traded, meaning the producers have been paid a living, sustainable wage. plus they are given the chance to compete in the global market which without organizations like Trade As One, they could not have. it’s so cool to see my fellow MCC-ers shopping for Christmas AND helping women rescued from sex trafficking, or genocide orphans in Rwanda. it’s amazing. to think that if we are more conscious of what we buy and where we buy it from, we can be helping someone on the other side of the globe. helping what Jesus calls, the least of these.

today we opened up the Trading Post to the women of CBS (Community Bible Study). they meet every thursday in our church so we extended the offer to shop and they were thrilled! it surprises me though, as not everyone is on board with the Trading Post. for various reasons, it really bothers people. it is a challenge for me though, to see where they might be coming from. i only see this as a way for fellow Christians and non-Christians to be able to lift people out of poverty by giving a hand up, not a hand out. if Jesus was here today, would he want us to be handing money to a corporation who suppresses people or would he want us to be handing money to individuals who are barely making it day to day? would he want me to deepen the pockets of wall street or to help a women stay out of prostitution? i pretty much believe it’s the latter

MelissaOnTheMove- Going Global ’09

My story begins about 3 years ago. Never being someone to think much beyond my own scope of problems, I definitely never even thought twice about injustices on the other side of the globe. But God caught my attention and made an imprint on my heart and soul that leaves me no other choice but to do anything I can to help. Now I am calling upon my family and friends to help support me in this endeavor.

I have the privilege to travel to Africa for a third time. This will be my second journey to Rwanda. Rwanda has a special place in the heart of my church, Manchester Christian Church. A group of 6, myself included, traveled to Rwanda this past summer in hopes of partnering with a church to help one other grow in different aspects of our lives. We were incredibly blessed to have had Pastor Theo of Harvest Church enter our lives. Here is a Rwandan man who has overcome such incredible odds and has dedicated his life to enriching the lives of people in his country- and beyond! He has opened 47 churches- mainly in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also has helped create job opportunities for people with HIV/AIDS. He started a support group for women, men and children where they go to create products to sell to support their family. At the end of our trip, MCC and Harvest Church decided to enter into a global partnership to become better together.

This time 13 MCC members are traveling back to strengthen this partnership with Harvest Church and Rwanda. We will be meeting with a steering committee made up of 7 pastors, who work with other PEACE teams, helping the teams decide which area in Rwanda would be best served by their group. This is an amazing opportunity that I am blessed to have been invited to join. The 13 of us will help navigate through what MCC’s future looks like in Rwanda. Where we will be working, what our main focus will be- there is a lot to be decided and I am honored to help work through this crucial time in our partnership.

Never being very good at asking for help this is a very humbling experience, but knowing the end result will help my plight for Rwanda, I ask you to think and pray on

how you might be able to support me. I am reaching out for donations to help cover the expense of the trip. It will cost me $2300, which I am mostly planning on paying for through my job, but would very much appreciate any donation you are willing to offer. If you decide financial help is an option you are able to contribute to, you can mail a check made out to Manchester Christian Church to 23 Highland Park Avenue Manchester NH 03109. (I ask for you to not note my name or anything that would denote the check going to a specific fund as it creates problems tax wise) By sending a check, the support given can be used as a tax deduction as an added bonus! If financial help is not an option (or even if it is!), I also am asking for your prayers. Pray that God will be there with us on this journey. That His hand will be evident in all we do.

If you want to learn more about PEACE, please check out www.thepeaceplan.com A quick over view is that we want to be ordinary people, empowered by God, making a difference where ever we are. PEACE is different from ordinary missions as we empower local people to become self sustaining so work and progress will continue even if we aren’t there.