Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
I did not realize until recently that I have major trust issues. I didn’t think I was so much of a control freak, but there is some evidence that indicates otherwise. That’s not a description that I particularly like, but accepting the truth can be the first step in changing things that are undesirable. And this characteristic definitely falls into the “undesirable” column.
These trust issues affect my relationships with the people around me. I grew up believing that “if you want something done right, you’d better do it yourself.” Wow! Arrogance exudes from that statement!
During the past year I have become aware of how uncomfortable I am when I’m forced to trust other people. Hope and Help had a banquet and we asked our Board and Advisory Council to invite the guests. Totally out of my control. We hired a caterer, making our food quality totally out of my control. We hired a video production company to make a promotional DVD which was finalized the DAY OF THE BANQUET!!!! That was totally out of my control.
But, guess what? It all turned out great. I learned that we can have a banquet without me being in charge of everything. The seats were filled, the food was good and the DVD rocked. So things can turn out OK if I don’t do them myself? What? But I thought that I…
My trust issues also affect my relationship with God. I trust Him with my eternal destiny. I trust Him to overlook the greatness of my sin and see only the blood of His son whom He sacrificed to pay the price to ransom my soul from eternal destruction. But I can’t seem to trust Him with the little everyday things. Hmmm. This makes no sense. He can save “a wretch like me” but when it comes to overcoming difficulties and challenges that I face daily, He can’t be trusted with the outcome. Really? OK, that sounds even sillier typed out than it does in my mind!
In 2010, I want to learn to trust more. Not blind trust, but trust that people who love the Lord and love HHI are just as capable as I am (perhaps more than I am) of getting the job done. Mostly I want to trust God more. He sees the big picture and knows what my family needs, what Hope and Help needs, and He is able to orchestrate the circumstances so the result is beautiful harmony. I need to learn that if I want something done right, I need to let God do it!
It is hard to believe that we are already into December. It seems that the older I get the more time flies. This year has really seemed to pass so quickly but in reflection it has been a very rewarding year. Let me share just a few of things that have made it so encouraging. My family started 2009 extremely worried about our youngest grandson Micah Class. Micah was admitted to T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital on November 28, 2008. He was eventually diagnosed with Slick Gut Syndrome. Micah was in the hospital for about 5 weeks and had months of recovery ahead of him. We Praise the Lord for his recovery. Today he is very active and into everything.
January saw a team of eight ministering to over 500 pastors and their wives through the Hope Bible Conference. This past year we have been privilege to see God provide teachers and funding for four Timothy Leadership Institutes in four different areas of India. Our ministry held its first Children’s Camp where they ministered to over 800 children coming from slum villages.
During 2009 Hope and Help International held its first Banquet to acquaint the people of Chattanooga with the variousministries we are involved in. God blessed with a good attendance and positive results. In fact one of the pastors who attended is participating in the 2010 Hope Bible Conference.
As we contemplate on this season of the year, remember Christmas is a time for pausing to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to praise God for all He has given us. Hope and Help prays that you remember the true meaning of this Holiday season. May your Christmas be a True Celebration of the Savior.
Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
Yesterday, I was sitting in the lobby of a business. I had seen the receptionist and she left her desk to find the person I needed to see. In the meantime, another lady came in and she approached the receptionist’s desk. I was immediately struck by the angry, sour look she had on her face. She had been waiting 2-3 minutes when her breaths turned to impatient huffs and puffs, which I could hear across the room. Her body language screamed frustration as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She rang the bell three times.
My first thought about this lady was not “wow, she must be having a bad day.” It was not “this poor women must be overworked.” My first thought: “I bet she’s here from a Christian organization.” Sure enough, when the receptionist came the customer identified herself as being from a church. As she was handed the items she came for, without even looking, the customer hatefully said, “That’s the wrong thing.” Very kindly the receptionist said, “Are you sure? It has your name on it.” As the angry woman was in the process of saying, “Yes, of course I’m sure…” the receptionist opened the folder, and the items inside were in fact for the lady.
She didn’t apologize for her huffy attitude and she didn’t thank the receptionist. She curtly said, “I’ll have to take this with me,” and walked out the door, sporting the same miserable look she arrived with.
Now, in the Bible we are told that people will know we are Christians by the love we have for one another. (John 13:35) I wish that it always worked out that way. I suspected that the woman who came into that business was a Christian by her sour, condescending manner. Why? Because that characterizes so many Christians I’ve come in contact with.
I’m a Christian and I’m not going to abandon the faith because of this woman. However, she didn’t know that. As far as she knew, I could have been a lost person on the verge of becoming a Christian. As believers, we need to remember that people are watching! They are waiting to see how we react to things and how we treat others. We do not need to give people excuses to turn from Christianity. Let’s be characterized by love and kindness so that people have no doubt that the love of Christ is in our hearts! If we were on trial for being a Christian, what kind of evidence would be used against us?
While in India during the end of July this year, we were made painfully aware of the condition being faced on a daily basis by the poor. Much of India is dependent on the agricultural sector of the country. With very little or no rain and soaring temperatures, the economic plight of India seems to be getting worse by the day. During the two short weeks I was there, 24 local farmers committed suicide because they could see no way to repay money they had borrowed to buy seed and fertilizer to plant their crops or to provide for their families.
This drought has also caused prices on just about everything to escalate. During a break from classes in the Timothy Leadership Institute, I asked Jessie if he would give me a brief comparison of some of the basic commodities that the average Indian family uses. Here are just a few items so you might have an idea of how hard these price rises have been.
These prices will give you some idea of what most Indians are facing. On the surface this may not seem like much of a jump especially thinking of what has been happening here with our own economy. But when you remember that a day laborer only makes about $200 per year, that's only about $17 per month. This gives us a very different vantage point.
Hope and Help has tried to supplement the food budget for the pastors that we are helping. We used to be able to provide 5 kilos of rice for $3, but now we pay $9 for the same five kilos.
Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
As a parent, it's a bittersweet thing to watch your kids grow up. Bitter in the sense that they grow to need you a little less every day. Of course, that's the way God designed it. They need to be ready for life on their own by the time they leave home. Still for parents, it's the hardest thing to let them go.
But watching kids grow up and mature can also be a sweet experience and God let me have a taste of that sweetness on my last trip to India. My 13-year-old daughter, Stephanie, went with me on that trip. Throughout the week that we were there, doing a vacation Bible school program with 800 kids from the slum villages, I could see her heart becoming softer and softer to the needs and the conditions she saw around her. I saw her shed tears as she thought about the lives the kids went back to when they left the VBS. I saw her get too attached to one little kid that we initially thought was a boy, but turned out to be a girl. Kavya is the youngest of four kids in the family and the only girl, so everyday she wore the same tattered shorts and teal and white plaid button-up shirt, no doubt hand-me-downs from her older brothers. She was cute as a boy and cute as a girl, so we didn't care! If Stephanie could have brought her home with us, she would have. And little Kavya would have come too! On our last day in India, we arranged a visit to Kavya's house, and when we were getting into the car to leave, Kavya tried to get in the car with us! It tore our hearts out to tell her no! We all wanted her to come, but we knew she couldn't.
On that trip, I watched Stephanie care for her fellow team members. I saw her give her heart to a dirty little boy-turned-girl with a smile that's unforgettable. I saw her turn from worrying about clothes and food and accommodations, to trying to figure out how she, being too young to have a job, could earn enough money to sponsor Kavya. She grew up that week right before my eyes.
