The Eyes of Jesus

We hear so much about being the hands and feet of Jesus, but what happens when we are His eyes?

During Vacation Bible School I noticed a child come in that had on clothes that were too small and shoes that were not what a child would normally wear.  I noticed the child, but I did not see him.  He came back the next day, wearing the same clothes and shoes as the day before.  Again, I noticed him, but I did not see him.  After the last day of Vacation Bible School, my friend, Tifanie, came to me and asked if I had noticed this child.  She went on to say that after SEEING him that first night, she went home and checked for any shoes that her boys were no longer wearing.  Tifanie brought those shoes the next night and gave them to this child.  He left Vacation Bible School wearing his new shoes.  The fact that this child was wearing clothes and shoes that did not fit him broker her heart and she knew that something needed to be done, but she did not want to do something for just this child, Tifanie wanted to help as many kids as she could.  She wanted to help kids start the new school year off with confidence, and sometimes something as small as a new backpack and a haircut can give you that.    Tifanie was so passionate about this that the only thing to say to her was yes, we can make this happen.    

After asking the community for help, we were able to hold our first ever Back to School Bash at Tate Elementary.  The outpouring of support from our community and local churches was overwhelming.  We were able to offer backpacks, school supplies, groceries, hygiene products, hot dogs, and haircuts.  This would not have been possible without the contribution of Centennial Bank, Merge Church, DeSigner Barber & Stylist School, Tifanie Cole, Debbie Peters, Tiffany Snow, Impact Church, Safe Harbor Freewill Baptist Church, Shibley Baptist Church, Tate PTA, Tate teachers and staff, the Van Buren Farmer’s Market, and Oliver Springs Freewill Baptist Church.    

This event happened because Tifanie SAW this child, she did not simply notice him, she saw him as Jesus would have seen him.  That day at Vacation Bible School, Tifanie was the eyes of Jesus, and because of that, she helped so many children have the opportunity to start the new school year off with confidence.  Imagine what the world would be like if we were all the eyes of Jesus and we took the time to actually see what was around us instead of just noticing. 

This Is Van Buren

~Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and he will give a reward to the lender.          Proverbs 19:17 CSB

Van Buren, Arkansas, population 23,367, with 22.9% of the population living in poverty.  There are currently 5,900 students enrolled in the Van Buren School District, of these students, 432 attend Tate Elementary.   These pictures were taken inside the attendance zone for Tate Elementary.  These are the houses that children in Van Buren are growing up in.  These are the conditions we, as a community, are allowing our children to grow up in. 

There are over 65 churches in our area and yet, we have a poverty epidemic.  We have children that come to school with clothes that do not fit, shoes with holes, no coats in the winter.  Children that come to school covered with scabies and reoccurring lice.  It is time that we as a community say “No More.”  We need to become the voice for these children.  We need to let these children know that someone believes in them.  There is someone who wants them to have a fair shot at life.  Someone that believes they are important and can be anything they want to be. 

Transforming the Map is teaming up with Shibley Baptist Church, Impact Church, and North Park Women’s Ministry to help these children be prepared for their first day of school.  August 11th we will be passing out school supplies, canned goods, and hot dogs to the parents and students of Tate Elementary, but we need your help.  We still need donations of school supplies and canned goods.  Any monetary donation made to Transforming the Map between now and August 10th will go to purchase school supplies and canned goods for these children and their families.  If you would like to donate canned goods and school supplies you can email transformingthemap@gmail.com and we can arrange a place and time to pick up your donation. 

These are our children.  These children are our future.  It is time that we take care of them. 

Street Kids Rescue Ministry

Transforming The Map’s Operation Street Kids Rescue Ministry

Transforming The Map’s director in Haiti, Roody Joseph is on the “ministry move.” As many of you are aware, last month through much prayer and your support a pastor that was incarcerated for nine years due to absurd circumstances and the work of the Enemy was released and desires to help Roody and Transforming The Map rescue as many people as possible from unlawful incarceration, abuse, child trafficking, and help young people with prison prevention, and most of all to share the love of Christ to the helpless and seemingly hopeless.

Roody and Pastor Son are beginning a ministry as this letter is being written to help young boys who are homeless and live on the streets of Haiti. As Roody represents Transforming The Map, along with Pastor Son, their desire is to provide one meal per day and daily showers for these young boys. This provision will only be an avenue to reach the street kids with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are going to be reached by someone and probably not Christians. The young boys are being lured into a religion that is very harmful to Haitians and eventually even the United States. They WILL be taught the schemes of trafficking other young people, especially girls and even trafficked themselves for ungodly and devilish purposes.

Roody and Pastor Son want to provide literacy training using Creole Bibles as their textbooks. They also want to raise up mentors that will help hold these boys accountable and protect them from predators, sex traffickers and terror agents.

All the above has one purpose: To bring help to the helpless and hope to the hopeless which is the overall mission of Transforming The Map. This is more than a great opportunity. Any donation that you could give toward this endeavor will further the Christ’s kingdom and YOU can be a part of a work that will bring joy unspeakable. Someone once asked us how many we could rescue. We don’t know, but we do know that with your prayer and faithful giving, one more could be rescued.

What your financial donation will provide:

·      Propane stove with 2 large burners--$150.00

·      50lbs propane tank--$85.00

·      15 spoons, forks, cups, and plates--$45.00

·      Large cooking pots and accessories--$120.00

Schanon

Do Something

There is a popular Christian song where the artist points out all the bad things happening in the World and ask “God, why don’t you do something?”  The song culminates by God “answering” the question: “I did, I created you.”  

Over the last several months I’ve felt convicted by the verses in Matthew 25: 35-40: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me.  I was sick and you visited me.  I was in prison and you came to me.  Then the righteous will answer him, saying ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’”  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”  

In the words of the Matthew West song “Do Something,” if not us then who, if not me and you, right now, it’s time for us to do something.  It is amazing that 700 miles off the Florida coast is a Country where at each turn I can fulfill the verses in Matthew 25 above.  But you do not have to go to a foreign country to fulfill the Lord’s work.  You can make an impact in your local community by volunteering at a food bank, donate to a domestic or international charity, or even pay for the meal of someone at a restaurant.  The Lord will lead you to those opportunities if you just open your heart to the fact that it is up to us to make a difference. 

Kevin

Kevin is pictured here with an Haitian attorney outside the Petite Goave prison, who is working to free those wrongfully imprisoned. 

In the Waiting

     Waiting is hard.  No one likes to wait.  A couple of months ago, I took the kids to go and visit my mom in Bossier City, Louisiana.  While we were there, my mom needed to run to the bank before we went to have dinner.  When we got to the drive thru, we were approximately the sixth car in line.  After about forty-five minutes, we were still waiting in line.  My children, who have lived their entire lives in Van Buren, Arkansas, with a considerably smaller population, began to have a meltdown.  They have never had to wait this long at the bank, and they could not understand why we were sitting still.    They began to whine and complain, they were so hungry, they were so bored, this is taking so long. 

         The kind of waiting my children experienced that day is typical of the type of waiting most of us experience, it is a bit aggravating and inconvenient, but we are not pained in this waiting.  What about the waiting that hurts, the waiting that tries us, the waiting where we begin to loose hope?  Waiting in the uncomfortable, waiting for God to show up and deliver, waiting because you are being persecuted because of your faith, with the consequences involving prison.  Transforming the Map has such a story.  Pastor Son is the son of a very prominent voodoo priest, and he was being groomed to take over his father’s temple.  One day, Pastor Son heard a Christian minister speak and his life changed.  Pastor Son no longer intended to take over his father’s voodoo temple, but began preaching the Gospel of Jesus, and preaching against voodoo.  Due to Pastor Son’s vocal assault on his father’s religion, he was falsely accused of raping the woman he was engaged to marry.  Despite  no evidence of this crime occurring, Pastor Son was sentenced to almost nine years in prison. 

         For nine years, Pastor Son has sat in a prison and waited, but while he has waited, he has taken the opportunity to share Jesus with over one hundred other men who are in the same prison.  Pastor Son has not spent the past nine years complaining that the wait was too long, that he was bored, that he was hungry.  He has taken every day and used it to glorify God.  He has been the light in a place that is filled with so much darkness.  Much like Joseph who was sent to prison with the same false allegations, he has taken what is a terrible situation, and has made the best of it, because like Joseph, Pastor Son know that even in the prison, even in the darkness, God is with him. 

         Pastor Son was scheduled to walk out of the prison in Petit Goave on December 31, 2016.  But a week ago, Roody called to inform us that Pastor Son had fines, court costs and other fees that must be paid before his release – grand total $6,000USD.  Roody was able to use the connections made during Kevin and Schanon’s visits to get the amount reduced. Tonight, Kevin and I sent the money to pay the fines to have Pastor Son released.  Isaiah 1:17 tells us: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, please the widow’s cause.”  We will continue to fight, we will not be silent, we will seek justice for those that have been wrongly imprisoned, we will fight the oppression, and we will care for the orphans.  If you are looking for a way to help, if you are watching the news and see the crisis that is befalling our world and you ask yourself “How can I make a difference?” consider partnering with us.  Be a voice for those who have no voice.  Help us to seek justice.  Help us fight.      

When the Call Comes

     Several years ago, I read a book called Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L. Smith.  This book changed my life.  Before reading it, I had never had a desire to do any type of international mission work.  As far as I was concerned, we had our own issues in our own country.  We had people that had needs here.  We take care of our own first, then we look around and see who needs help next.  As I read Passport Through Darkness, I was transported to South Sudan, where a story of genocide, religious persecution, poverty, and human trafficking unfolded.  In the midst of the chaos and violence are children, orphans, the unadoptable, who have become the target of human trafficking.  As a mother, I knew there was something I had to do.  The thought of these children, who have witnessed so much violence, so much evil, children who are wandering alone, sleeping in trees for fear of the hyenas attacking them in the night with no one to rescue them, was just overwhelming.  I just wanted to rock them to sleep, to tuck them into bed, to kiss them goodnight, and tell them that someone does love them, and would be there to protect them.

         As much as I prayed and tried to work out a way to make it to South Sudan, that was not God’s plan for me.  Then Kevin and I learned of how deplorable the conditions are in Haiti.  I began to think, the Lord is not sending me to Sudan, surly he is sending me to Haiti.  However, every time our church has planned a trip to Haiti, it has not been at a time when I can go.  Kevin and Schanon have made two separate trips, while I stand at the security gate, wave to them, and wonder, when God……  When will it be my turn? 

         After Kevin and Schanon got back from the first trip to Haiti, Kevin begins to tell me his ideas and dreams for Transforming the Map.  As we are talking about his trip, Kevin begins to tell me about this orphanage that is untouched by American influence.  It is essentially one woman who has taken in these children.  He then shows me pictures of these kids and in that moment I realize, the Lord may not have called me to go to Haiti, but he has called me to do everything in my power to make sure these children have the things they need, at the very least, the basic human necessities that we so quickly take for granted. 

         Early on the morning of December 5th, Roody, our Director in Haiti, called and said he had been awaken by a pounding on his compound door.  The children at the orphanage were in a desperate situation, they were completely out of food and water.  Roody told us he needed $500 as soon as possible to be able to buy necessities.  I immediately went into panic mode, the responsibility I felt for these children was overwhelming.  It was in this moment that I realized I did not need to be in Haiti to make a difference. 

         We were able to raise the $500 to send to Roody, my children were fed, we have been able to make provisions so they are all able to go to school.  Maybe one day God’s plan will include me making a trip to Haiti, and then I can rock them to sleep, tuck them in and let them know that they are loved, but until that moment comes, I will fight for them from here.