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Many people have described me as a bottom line person. As the Executive Director, one of the hardest parts of my job is defining the success of the ministry. Is it babies saved? Is it decisions to follow Jesus Christ? Is it number of residents ministered to? Is it the number of residents who remain until the end of their pregnancy? Of course, all of these are great indicators of success but stories like the following about just one resident throws a wrench in my “bottom-line-ness.”
Sidney* had already experienced too many struggles in her first 19 years of life. Her mother had sent Sidney back and forth between relatives here in the states and in Africa most of her life. At 17, Sidney was kicked out by her mother and moved in with a friend, Sally*, and her family. When Sally’s mother found out Sidney was pregnant, she gave her a proposition: leave the house or have an abortion. For Sidney, although this is not how she wanted her life to be, being pregnant was a blessing because she was told that she would never have any children due to a botched female circumcision that had occurred during her time in Africa.
Sidney thought on this for almost two months before returning to Sally’s mother with the decision to give her baby life. Sally’s mother found LifeHouse on the internet and brought Sidney for her interview. Sidney with her bubbly personality was a natural leader around LifeHouse. She had grown up eating fast food and using paper plates, so she did not know how to cook, wash dishes, or even how to use a dishwasher. By the time she left, she had a notebook full of recipes she enjoyed cooking. It had become fun to her! Her confidence began to grow.
Another area where Sidney grew in her confidence was in completing goals. She came to us feeling as if she had never finished a single thing that she had started. She had failed her senior year by just two credits so we enrolled her at Tegeler Career Center and learned she could complete her high school degree in just a couple of months. Sidney set high goals for herself and worked hard and completed her classes in under two months. She was excited to receive her high school diploma and see that she can finish things that she starts.
Lastly, but most importantly, Sidney accepted Christ while here at LifeHouse. During devotions at night, Sidney listened intently to every word the houseparents said and asked many questions later. One night, she decided to follow Christ and was baptized after church by one of her housedads.
Although Sidney left the LifeHouse before the end of her pregnancy, she was a completely different woman than when she stepped through those doors. She left on good terms and with dreams that she never thought could be possible before.
I may not be able to quantify in a neat little formula the “success” of Sidney but I do know that Sidney is just one of many lives that have been significantly impacted by LifeHouse. What a joy to be a part of a ministry were we are able to have not only eternal influence on women’s lives but we are affecting their day to day lives. May we all continue to find this type of “success.”
*Name changed for confidentiality.
July 28th, 2009 Filed under Ministry Comments Off
During the aftermath of a major storm in Houston, the Lord really spoke to me from James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
These trials are all a part of my sanctification process. They come my way not to show God my level of faith but to show me how much I trust Him. He was so faithful to me but I still whined and complained to Him because things did not happen the way I wanted them to happen. Talk about being immature. Talk about not persevering. God, through the difficulties of life following the storm, showed me that I was lacking something and I needed to be willing to persevere to gain those things and be complete.
How about you? How does your “structure” hold during the storms of life? The storms will always show our weaknesses – whether that is in our families, homes or churches. Those little cracks that we thought were fixed are just painted over and as the tension mounts the paint crackles and the weakness is exposed.
But the good news is that if we are willing to do the work, the once weak spot can be repaired even stronger than before. The question is are we willing to do the work? We can keep the blue tarps on our roofs for a long time and just go up and add more nails or more tarp during each storm. Or we can be willing to have the entire roof exposed for a short season so that a deep repair can be made and the leaks will stop.
Many of our residents come covered in blue tarps with a desire to be healed but just like you and just like me – they must do the work. We can lead, guide and direct – even plead – but they are the ones who have to make it happen. Sometimes the residents will do just that and it is wonderful to see. Other times residents choose painful and unwise paths. When this happens we have to let them go and not enable them in that process. Knowing where that fine line is takes much discernment, wisdom and prayer.
May we continue to be faithful when trials come our way so that when trials come to others we can be there with the wisdom necessary to walk alongside them and teach them to count it all joy!
July 10th, 2009 Filed under Ministry Comments Off
Many of you may recognize the name, Eric Liddell, from Chariots of Fire. Liddell, in the 1924 Olympics, was a 22-year-old Scottish athlete who said no to self and yes to God. He dropped out of his best event—the 100 yard dash—because the qualifying heats were held on a Sunday. He entered the 400 yard dash. Even though he hadn’t trained for it, he won the gold medal. When asked about his running, in his heavy Scottish brogue, he says, “When I run I feel the Lord’s pleasure.”
Upon reflecting back over the last three years, this line continually comes to mind. As I watched almost 100 volunteers from First Presbyterian Church re-sod our yard, I felt the Lord’s pleasure. As I watched the Board discern the future of the ministry – to add services or not add services, I felt the Lord’s pleasure. As I take phone call after phone call from young women needing assistance, I feel the Lord’s pleasure.
Did I have to say no to self and say yes to God through this time? Absolutely. Was I fearful at times? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Weary? For sure. But whenever I stopped long enough to look to the hills to see from where my Help comes from (Psalm 121:1-3), the anxiousness dissipated, my strength was renewed and I was able to do it afraid.
God desires for all to feel His pleasure – for all to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” The “little” things for our residents are their babies. For our staff it is the five or six residents under their care and instruction. For me it is the operations of the ministry. What is the “little” thing in your life that brings the Lord pleasure and will cause you to one day hear “Well done”?
July 2nd, 2009 Filed under Ministry Comments Off
Not too long ago, Anthony, LifeHouse’s operations director asked me about the possibility of getting a piano for the ministry. His wife, Jessica, is a trained and extremely gifted pianist and ministry would be greatly impacted as we experienced “live” worship. I thought this was a wonderful idea but did not see it happening anytime soon. A few weeks passed and I thought I would just call William Taylor, Mission Pastor at Houston’s First Baptist Church and see if he knew of anyone who might want to donate a piano. “Actually, Becky, I just received an email 10 seconds ago from our Deaf Church that they have a piano they would like to donate.”
Well, that sounded a little bit like God might be in on this. Anthony contacted Pastor Arthur Craig of the Deaf Church and as he explained a little bit about the piano, Anthony asked, “How big is it?” “It is a baby grand!” So after lots of lifting by the staff and some wonderful volunteers, the piano arrived at the LifeHouse campus! The favor of the Lord is still upon us!!!
However, that is not the heart of what I want to share. Not too much later after the piano’s arrival, I went to Galveston for a few days to seek the Lord about the future and vision that He has for LifeHouse. As I prayed the Lord so gently spoke to me about the future and that I needed to believe Him for BIG things. He said, “I don’t just want to give you a nice upright piano. I want to give you a baby grand!” Oh how often have I settled for less when God has so much more for me.
As C.S. Lewis says, “…it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
My friends, may we not settle for mud pies but be obedient to Him, ask Him for HUGE things and believe Him to fulfill it in due time. What HUGE things are you believing God for?
June 9th, 2009 Filed under Ministry Comments Off
One of the most amazing statistics from the LifeHouse ministry is the number of unbelieving residents who accept Christ. Over half of our residents who do not know Christ accept Him while living at LifeHouse!!
What is interesting is that evangelism is not a major “push” of the ministry. There is no plan to share Christ after so many days or the third Thursday of each month is revival Thursday. We simply try to do what Christ would do and the residents usually come to a staff member and ask how to be saved. Recently, a resident, Michelle, turned to a staff member during the church service and asked if he would walk down front with her to receive salvation. Later he said, “I felt like I was walking her down the wedding aisle.” In many ways, he was—at that moment, Michelle became a part of the bride of Christ and will be eternally changed.
The quote by St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words” aptly describes the LifeHouse ministry. The Gospel is preached through a hot meal, a listening ear, a clean bed, a ride to the doctor’s office and even discipline as the resident realizes that there are consequences to choices made. May I live a life that both demonstrates the Gospel and at times speaks the Gospel. Have you had a chance, recently, to preach the Gospel and not use words?
As the Executive Director of LifeHouse, I have an amazing job and have been blessed with a wonderful staff, supporting board and a fantastic group of givers – financially as well as with their time. One of the coolest parts of my job is that I am involved in almost everything that goes on – some more directly than others. This past month has been filled with some amazing adventures!
The first three adventures came about as a result of the April “showers” in Houston. Our house mom left to go to the grocery store with a couple of residents one Saturday and the streets were dry. While shopping (which takes a couple of hours as we use that time to teach the residents how to shop frugally) a good old fashion gully washer came up and the streets began to flood. This is not the first time for sure and usually it never floods too bad directly in front of the homes…until that weekend.
Directly in Front of Driveways
As our house mom turned onto our street to go the last 100 yards, it looked like they were going to make it home safe and sound. Well, the groceries and all the passengers arrived safe but the van was not quite as blessed!
The wonderful thing is that we are being fully reimbursed for the van (it was totaled) and are actually receiving more for it than the ministry originally invested. Only a God like ours could make that happen!
The next weekend brought more rain and an unwelcomed guest to the front door….
The "guest" crawling up the wall of the house.
Here’s a picture of the snake that greeted Anthony, our house dad, as he looked out the door after dinner one night. When he opened the door the snake was leaning up against it and almost came in the house! When, according to Anthony, he SCREAMED it slithered away and started climbing up the side of the house!! The rising water had driven him up to our front porch.
Lastly because of the heavy rains, we had a flood in our administrative offices. Here I am pushing the cart of wet, moody ceiling tiles out the door.
Thankfully, all equipment (except our little refrigerator) was saved and the rugs will be back from the cleaners in a few weeks!
Between the snake and the flood in the office we did have GREAT weather for our 2nd Annual Golf Tournament. Over 100 folks played, volunteered and supported the ministry of LifeHouse on April 21st. It was a fantastic time!
Golfers lining up with their caddies for the shotgun start!
Finally, just last Friday night I had an opportunity to speak t0 75 or so 6th – 8th graders about LifeHouse. They were having a lock in and had collected canned food for our homes.
I was a bit nervous walking into the gym at Lutheran South Academy! What do I say to a group of 12-14 year olds about a home for pregnant teens? I don’t even want them to think about that kind of stuff but the reality is they are faced with it all the time. It is just a part of our culture today.
I had 5-7 minutes to speak and after giving just the basic facts of LifeHouse, I asked a donor’s daughter if she had any questions. There was an awkward pause and then she asked her question. Her courage to ask led others to start raising their hands to ask their own questions. After 20+ minutes, the assistant principal had to stop me but there were still lots of hands in the air. It was a magical time as the girls had the freedom to ask tough questions (i.e. has anyone ever left LH to go have an abortion?) and I had the freedom to give them sometimes tough answers (i.e. yes – not a resident but an interviewee.)
I have the greatest job in the world! Challenging. Adventuresome. Life-saving. And life-changing for all (including me) involved! What kind of job do you have?
Since it is the National Day of Prayer, I have stopped to consider my own prayer life. Unfortunately, I find myself lacking in my intercessory prayer – for my family, my friends, my church and my nation. Two reasons I know that this happens in my life is because I am lazy and because of the sin of unbelief. I decided to check emails rather than pray. I watch another episode of CSI instead of bowing the knee for those I love. And because of unbelief I just won’t pray because in my heart of hearts I doubt if God can do anything about that situation.
Each year my pastor selects a devotional for our church to do as a body and this year he selected Walk with God by Chris Tiegreen (www.WalkThru.org). A recent devotion was wonderful and really spurs me on to both prayer and obedience. Below is an excerpt of that and I found the last part especially profound.
“Have you struggled with unanswered prayer? There are numerous possible reasons that God may withhold His answers, but consider this one: Have you submitted to His authority? It only makes sense that if we are going to appeal to His authority that we would be expected to live under it. When we rebel against His will and then ask Him to accomplish His will, we are contradicting ourselves. But when we submit to His will, we are lining ourselves up with the flowing current of creation. We are ready to experience the power of prayer.” [emphasis added]
Wow! I want to be lined up with the flowing current of creation, how about you? May we experience the power of prayer not just on the 2nd Thursday in May but each day as we choose to obey and believe.
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