by Tina | Mar 10, 2017 | Devotional
This week I want to tell you about something I have recently committed to. I took the “Fair Pledge Challenge” from a non-profit group that Dan and I love called “Stories Foundation”.
Here’s why I love this so much, here is the pledge I took.
I pledge to think before I buy. To consider what the cost of an item is for the people who made it. I pledge to not add to the demand of labor trafficking with my choices. I acknowledge that I will not be perfect. But I pledge to do better.
Why do you think I took this pledge? Here is a fact for you: Human Trafficking is a $32 billion industry. I always thought “fair trade” was a hippy thing. Sorry, I am not an activist sort of gal. I was ignorant that millions of people are enslaved all around our world today. Kidnapping and slavery are real and our choices can and do make a difference.
So what started this journey? I attended the Global Leadership Summit in 2012 when Sheryl Wudunn spoke. She and her husband, Nicholas D. Kristof wrote the book, “Half the Sky.” This broke but also spoke to my heart. I started getting informed. I could no longer say I didn’t know.
Although slavery is commonly thought to be a thing of the past, human traffickers generate hundreds of billions of dollars in profits by trapping millions of people in horrific situations around the world, including in the U.S. Traffickers use violence, threats, deception, debt bondage, and other manipulative tactics to force people to engage in commercial sex or to provide labor or services against their will. While more research is needed on the scope of human trafficking, here are a few key statistics that we do know:
The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally.
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- 68% of them are trapped in forced labor.
- 26% of them are children.
- 55% are women and girls.
- The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide.
- The U.S. Department of Labor has identified 139 goods from 75 countries made by forced and child labor.
My friends at Stories Foundation and Love2Hope are raising awareness of this tragic fact, helping people understand this industry, empowering people to bring awareness to their communities and giving people opportunities to mobilize to make a difference. I also have friends working directly with women being brought out of slavery, counselling, teaching skills and rehabilitation.
This is evil and HARD, but I want to be informed about how I live my life. I will make shopping choices that value fair wages and working conditions for all people PERIOD.
My point for this week is this: Do you sometimes feel helpless with all of the evil in the world? This is something YOU can do and something you can also teach your children about.
by Tina | Mar 3, 2017 | Devotional
The year was 1996, we were moving from Rural Minnesota to “City Life”. I was a bit scared, excited, and nervous. I was moving into a whole lot of change. As I have said before, I don’t do change well. I would be homeschooling and staying at home. My years teaching AWANA and Sunday School, as well as Kids for Missions at the church I grew up in was over. The first Sunday at our new church, Edinbrook Church, I met Phyllis Hedberg at the door, she was the Christian Education Director. I said to Phyllis, “What do I need to do to volunteer here at church?” She smiled and said, “I have been praying for someone like you to come along.”
I started volunteering 2 months before we even moved into our new house and Phyllis was my mentor and very special friend. She taught me about the difference in teaching and caring for children in a rural setting to a more urban setting. She introduced me to resources, people, and training. But the biggest thing she did was be my friend. We met every week for 17 years, there were of course, times that we missed because of vacations, work, appointments. But our first appointment on our calendars was Coffee on Thursday mornings. It didn’t matter where we met, or what time it was as long as both of us were there. We had our rituals at different places and we would each review our past week, things that were coming up the coming week, and our prayer requests. We also did many other things together, but this was our MUST. Phyllis was a big part of our children’s lives even if they didn’t realize it. She prayed for them every day, I prayed for Phyllis’ children and grandchildren, her and Roger as well every day.
Roger, her husband was also a very special friend and I absolutely loved to just sit and talk and after a while I think Roger came to think of me as another “daughter”. When he passed away eight years ago it was after prolonged challenges and Phyllis was just plain tired and at a loss for a while. She loved her library team at church, her children, grandchildren, and being creative, her life was full, but she no longer had “Rog” to care for.
When Phyllis had a mastectomy, and had to stay home for quite a while we decided we were going to do a “project”. Being a pastor’s wife most of her life, she was a frugal women. In the 60’s when their children were young, they had their pictures on slides. Her children had no pictures from their Christmas’s growing up and that bothered Phyllis. She went through her slides and pulled out the slides I could make into pictures on my computer and print them. As soon as she felt ready to start working on it after her surgery we started. One or two days a week we would work on her Christmas presents to her children. We had so much fun! She told me all about so many things in her life as a young pastors wife, working at the Baptist General Conference, Girls Guild. Each stage of her kids lives, and how grateful she was for the family God gave her. She hand-wrote the details (she was a very detailed woman) and because we made them together and her children could have Christmas memories now she was so excited to give them to her children that Christmas. I was thankful for the extra time and we loved being creative together.
We were very special friends of the heart. She and I talked at least 2 hours a week and after we moved to Nigeria we emailed our prayer requests and how God was working in both of our lives, I still have her last email to me saved and will not be able to delete it ever I think. Her last words of love and encouragement to me are treasured. I don’t know if she got to read my last email to her or not as she had a new computer and was trying to learn how to use it. We did not get to have much of a visit last year when we were in the States and so were planning on one this year for a special time together.
Phyllis and I talked about dying a few times. She did not want to be in pain or a bad testimony and also did not want to lose her mental capacity. I am thankful that is not the case. She had a stroke, hit her head on the bathroom floor triggering a brain injury and we are saying our goodbyes to a woman of God who taught me so much in the 20 short years we have known each other.
I know she has looked forward to meeting her Jesus, and I know the words he will say to her, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. I wonder if she will ask all the Bible Characters the questions she wondered about all of these years? I will have to wait to find out.
Thank you Phyllis for showing me how to live out loud – love, grace, and joy in ALL circumstances. I love you.
Until we meet again.
P.S. Phyllis met Jesus face to face the early morning of March 4, 2017
by Tina | Feb 23, 2017 | Devotional
Think of these words, if we truly understand the impact of these words it is life-changing and life-giving.
You’re a good good father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am
Let me tell you about a little girl with chubby, rosy cheeks and a shy smile for anyone she did not know well, her name was Tina. She loved her parents and her sister who was 15 months younger then she was. When she was four years old her parents divorced and a couple of years later her mother married another man who raised this little girl and her sister as his own. He was a hard-working, sometimes selfish, sometimes mean man that she knew loved their family. I, of course, was this little girl and never sure because things were very conditional with his love. He did the best with what he had and how he had been raised, I know that.
Well this little girl last saw her biological father when she was 7 for a fairly short visit before the family moved to Minnesota from California. (The picture is my biological father when he was 5 years old) That was the last time I ever saw or talked to my biological father. Growing up I wondered why there was no contact from him and why he was raising another woman’s two daughters and didn’t even know me and my sister, Jeanette. I would make up stories about him in my head and knew some day he would come and be in my life and be proud of me.
When I had young boys I wrote a couple of letters and tracked down a fairly recent address, I also sent pictures of the boys as I thought Robert looked a lot like him and wanted him to know his grandchildren. No response.
In 2001 the father that raised me the majority of my life died. I was there holding his hand praying and talking with him when he died. I thought I was going to die as well. The hole in my life was large. We had developed a friendship based on honesty and forgiveness and as time marched on it became a little easier to move on with life.
On September 8, 2014 as Dan and I were packing to leave for Nigeria in a few weeks, my mom was searching obituaries again and found my biological fathers’ obituary. I found the daughters he raised and sent them a Face Book message that day. He passed away on August 26 and had his son-in-law trying to find Jeanette and I. I now have more members to my family and look forward to visiting them some year while we are on furlough.
I know I have really had it pretty good compared to many others when it comes to “daddy issues”. We all do the best we can with the tools we have. Addictions and dysfunction make it that much harder.
Let the words of this song sink into you as they express how I relate to my father now.
You’re a good good father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am
I truly understand and have a relationship with God. I AM LOVED, I AM LOVABLE. It doesn’t matter what I do or who I please or dis-please. These are the facts. I am loved by Him. THAT’S WHO I AM!
My point for today is this:
If you’re a child of God out there in this world with daddy issues. Turn to the only one we can truly count on. Turn to God.
by Tina | Dec 21, 2016 | Devotional
I am thinking this month about Christmas. In our part of very rural Nigeria there are not really any reminders here that scream out, “Christmas is coming, you must hurry!”. In fact I doubt if most of the people I know will receive any gifts, but will spend time with the family that they are able to be with and eat rice, maybe foofoo, and cake if they are very fortunate. Dan and I will be together in our house enjoying a day where things will be a little slower. No tree, no presents, no Christmas cookies (I will make no-bake with oatmeal and cocoa) as Dan loves those and we have the supplies here to make them. No Ho Ho Mint Mocha or Fa lalala Latte this year. It is good, we are blessed. It is different this year and I want to share it with you. We feel like we have run a marathon for the last two years and our bodies and minds are saying, “Stop!”. With Dan being on crutches the last three weeks that has not helped our feeling of, “I need a vacation!”. The thing that blesses and encourages us is that We ARE doing what God has called us to do and we will plan a little better for some relaxation during our furlough time as we do not get any down time in Nigeria. We love being here, but we miss family, tradition, and friends. I don’t want any condolences please. We have chosen this, it is our choice and we have been and are blessed to be able to watch God work in the ways that we get to. But it is messy!
That brings me to Christmas, the day we celebrate when Jesus was born. I love art, I love old masters, Spanish, all kinds of art and architecture. I chose this picture because it is not as “clean” as a lot of nativity pictures. Jesus is next to the lamb, and everything has a cast of dirt on it to me. Now friends, if we really could see a picture of what things looked like after Jesus was born and “laid in the manger”. This is how I picture it after living in a developing country in the twenty-first century, now remember, we are speaking of the first century. This is what I envision, animals and the things that come with animals, urine, poop, smell, dirt floor or rock floor, hay (If you are not a farm person, hay is not soft, believe me!) no running water, no supplies, sweat, blood, pain, rats, mice, cockroaches, flies those are the givens, who knows what else?
Jesus came into this world that was a mess and it was all around Him! He came that we might have life and have it abundantly! The first visitors were the Shepherds who were watching their flocks at night. The sign that they found the right baby would be that he would be wrapped in “swaddling clothes”, I truly believe that it was baby clothes that Mary was given on their journey to Bethlehem. In that era and here in Nigeria currently most babies didn’t wear diapers or clothes. They were naked until they were potty trained. The richer people would have baby clothes, but not everyone. Of course the other sign would be that he was lying in a manger. A food trough full of hay, dried grass, maybe other animal food as well.
Jesus came into this world of sin and sorrow so that we may have hope and life. Is your world messy? I tell Dan all the time that life is messy and ministry is even messier. Some days I am amazed at how Satan can deceive and torture people and the lives that are hurt, damaged, and lost in the process. I am not a theologian by any stretch, I adhere to pre-school theology as this is the age of people I have ministered to most of my life. Pre-schoolers live in a world that is simple. Bad choices get bad consequences. Jesus can help you, He is your best friend if you ask Him to be. It is that simple! Life will still be messy, sometimes days will totally suck the life out of you, but you still have Jesus. He is THE answer. Consequences won’t go away, bad stuff will still happen, you may get discouraged occasionally, but He is there and He is helping you navigate through the mess, through the pain, through the hurt and to His loving arms of hope and healing. He is a Restorer!
Merry Christmas! My point for today is this: If you do not know Jesus, this Jesus of Christmas, this Jesus born in a mess to help people living in messes. This Jesus of Hope. Find a evangelical church this weekend and find out more or you can also send me a message. He loves you and so do I!
by Tina | Nov 26, 2016 | Devotional
These lilies are just beautiful and we have quite a few plants by the house here in Gembu. Because our dogs Lady and Tramp think that flowers are better than bones to chew on, we have to put the fences up to keep the dogs out. For some reason these lilies are always poking out of the fences and because of that they get fairly mauled by the dastardly duo.
As I see these lilies frequently around the house this time of year, I have started to think about how much I have been like these beautiful, silly flowers. I have been thinking about it a lot this week. When you have 34 hours in the car with things packed all around you and reading or playing solitaire make you nautious, you think.
When I was a child, I was a pleaser. My designated role in the household was caretaker, and I embraced that role. Being the oldest child, I believed that everything I did had to be perfect and there was no alternative. If anything was less than perfect, I was mad at myself. I was mad at myself ALOT! I also believed that as long as everyone thought I was perfect and I could be sneaky about my non-perfect ways, it was permissible.
Well, as I grew into a young woman, wife, and mother I tried my best to be the perfect homemaker, mother, apartment manager, daycare provider, president of the womens group, etc. but I also thought that if I walk that line as close as I could to the edge between what I wanted and what God wanted of me and for me I would be okay. You see I was judgmental of those “less perfect” beings out there in the world. Moping around without a plan, the poor slobs just couldn’t help themselves! Of course, I thought they needed my “perfect, inexperienced, judgmental” advice! Guess how that worked? I think you know!
It has taken me so long to realize that the biggest change in my life has happened when I realized in my heart, not just my head, that I was not going to be perfect. Perfect is a lie! I was going to have to accept the fact that this lie that I have been deceived into believing was just that. A lie! I did not need a huge house, the perfect car, preppy looking children with adorable manners. I needed Jesus. Only Jesus.
The more I get to know Jesus and the God of the Bible, the more I realize that I want to be as far away from that fence as possible. Why would I want to be so close to things that tempt me or cause me to stumble, or people that bring out the gossip, hate-monger in me? I don’t. Not anymore.
You may be thinking, “that’s easy for you to say, Tina, you live in the middle of nowhere and are not in this real, dog-eat-dog world”. That is true, but here in Nigeria many times a day it seems there are so many things here that I have to look at through my father’s eyes, because to me it is just bizarre, evil, and weird!
This relationship with Jesus started 41 years ago and it is a day by day, minute by minute thing. Each morning and through the day I need to pray that I can see what He wants me to see and do what He wants me to do. No more, no less. I do have my own agenda of things I would like to get done, but I now hold that a lot looser than I used to. I am choosing to fully embrace and live in His strength and not my own. I can not do that anymore, living on my own strength has gotten me hurt, disappointment, and pain. I have found that living in His strength has given me such freedom and joy that it is really hard to describe. At this point of my life I am just trying to keep up with what He is doing through the ministry and the wonderful people He has placed in our lives and take it one day, one minute at a time.
Sorry for the rambling (remember long car ride). I do have a point for this week: My point is this. When you walk that tight rope between the world and God’s plan for your life there is a danger. The danger is that it is easier to fall into the world and you spend valuable time and energy trying to stay on that line. Stay away from the line. Get as far away as you can and embrace what He has for you this minute, this day, spend your energy and time on these things.
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