Christmas Tears

Why not make this blog a little more personal, a place to let you see what God is doing here? I am thinking of last Christmas.

We appreciate so much the responses from those of you who are praying for Ishmael from Darfur. I believe that God is answering positively the specific request that I made, that he will be more interested in the Kingdom of God than in making money.

But to give you the full picture, I need to tell you more about the other man who was with us for a while, Milton from Ecuador. The 4 of us, Sharon and I and Ishmael and Milton, were eating Christmas dinner together. Milton had been telling us about his difficulties from the time he was a baby. One day his father, working out in the fields heard 3 shots from the direction of the house. Running back, he found his wife (in her 20’s) dead from gunshots, with signs of a struggle. Baby Milton had been rolled into some blankets so his crying wouldn’t be heard. His older brother, about 10 years old, had disappeared and was never found. Apparently bandits had come downriver on a boat and stolen what they could, and took off.

Growing up with a series of stepmothers, Milton determined that if he had children, they would always have a mother. Then he told us how his wife preceded him to Spain because of a job offer. He came later, leaving the children with relatives. When he arrived, he discovered that the 3000 Euros that he had borrowed to pay for paperwork for a job offer had gone to an illegal outfit, and that he had no job. He also discovered that his wife had left him for someone else and even though she was working, she wasn’t sending money to the children. At this point he just put his head down and sobbed, forgetting about the Christmas meal. Because now his children are without father or mother. When we hear him talking to them on the phone we can tell how desperately he is trying to fulfill both roles from a distance. I think he cries for them every day. (This story has been corroborated by Christian friends of ours from Ecuador who know Milton’s family)

Milton (interesting that a man who is illiterate should have a poet’s name) has shared with us his dream. He would like to scrape together enough money to pay his way back to Ecuador and have enough left over to put a corrugated tin roof on his house, and also take some tools back in his suitcase. He is no longer with us because he was offered what looked like a good summer job.

I think that God has big plans, huge plans. Working on memorizing Psalm 16, I noticed that David starts out asking for refuge. He takes refuge in God. That makes him a refugee. Turns out he has made a good choice because later he says, Psalms 16:5-6, The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

If we are here representing the Lord and these people are asking for refuge, we can expect him to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). That gives us much reason to be grateful for you who are asking and thinking along with us.

After I requested your prayers for Ishmael, that he would not be carried away by materialism, I got to thinking. He’s 21 years old and has practically had no money except what he begged during 4 years on the streets of Morocco, trying to save enough to pay the boat people to bring him to Europe. No allowance as a kid, no Christmas gifts. Just the food that his widowed mother was able to scrape together and the pittance he occasionally earned as a child, laboring in the fields around the refugee camps of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world. So it’s only right to pay him for his work. I will explain how we hope to do this.

The project that we are working on is supposed to eventually provide income for national workers who will join us in our outreach ministry. We are preparing land and, in the future, buildings, for a miniature model farm where children can be sent by their schools in the city to experience country life. You can see in the picture above some children outside the henhouse with their collection of eggs, making notes in English, in a little pilot project we did last June, where an English Academy asked for the use of the place for a week. This farm is operated under a non-profit organization that we have formed among a little group of Christians in different parts of Spain. The finances and the work of setting it up have been coming in gradually as people have picked up on the idea.

We are not asking for people to simply donate. For their time and money they will receive credit toward a "time-share". This will make them part owners of the property with a right to a one-week vacation every year at the place. Those who don't want to come can pass their privilege on to someone else, who will pay them, and they will begin to recover what they put in. In this way, you don't have to live in Spain in order to participate. As the participation increases we will be able to pay people like Ishmael and Milton and others. We recently heard of a young man from another African country who would like to prepare for Christian ministry and needs a place like this. This is what we are here for. Get in touch with us if you would like to participate.