Genesis Is The Beginning Of Something Good

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“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” - James 2:15-16


I’m am oftentimes unsure why God has given me the blessings I have. Completely unsure...
and humbled.

The World would tell me it’s because I’ve worked hard and am ambitious, have talent, a little bit of luck and deserve what I have. And if I wanted to go with the Worldly description, that would be a suitable answer.

But I don’t.

I truly believe that God has placed me right where I am to do work for Him, whether it be in my marriage, for my children, for a perfect stranger, in my projects and most importantly on myself. I am the one that needs the most work and I see it at least twice a day. At least.

I would like to say, it’s by no coincidence that I met Jill Campbell. Jill is one of those women whom, after 5 minutes with, you feel completely inspired by. She’s a doer. And when Jill asked me to be part of a planning committee for an event happening June 22nd here in Southern California, I said yes, enthusiastically, without really even knowing what she was asking me to do. Walking away from that agreement, however, I was thinking “oh, my husband is going to kill me...one more thing.” But The Genesis House is not really just one more thing.

I now have a clear picture of what it is God has placed me in the middle of and I’m in. He knows me and He knows my heart. He has given me such a desire to help where there is a need, and here, there is a need.

 Next to the commandment to love God with all your heart, soul and mind is the commandment to love others as yourself..to love your neighbor. Yes..others come first. God, others...then you.

I know from experience, when I put my needs above the needs of those around me, all will fail. Now, this doesn't mean you don't put your oxygen mask on first, that’s a no brainer. But I will tell you right now, I have all the oxygen I need...so, on to helping others.

Hope Of The Valley Rescue Mission is a shelter/service center here in SoCal that was actually co-founded by Jill Campbell. Jill was also the one to start the shower mission...she’s got a couple of horse trailers set up as showers that are towed around the valley to scheduled church parking lots where the homeless can come shower..they are given clean socks, underwear and towels.

There are 7000 homeless people in the Valley alone. Yes, the valley I live in. 41% of these people are families. Nearly half. And of those 41%, the majority of them are single mothers and their children. Mothers and children.

Genesis House Under Construction

1 in 50 children in the United States is homeless. Yes, that would be a child without a home.

HOTV has also started a new project, which is the one I’m involved in, called The Genesis House.

 Genesis House, living up to it’s name, will be a new beginning. It is a 12 bedroom, 6 bathroom house that will allow 10 homeless single women and their children (approximately 20) to have a bedroom, a bathroom, a communal kitchen, a computer room, a play area....a home.

The program will be a 4 month program to help these women live in safety and peace while learning essential life skills to help them make the transition from homelessness to a life of hope. The goal is to help these families find permanent housing and leave Genesis House with the skills to keep moving forward. The women apply to be in this program and based on their current needs, will get chosen. This really will be a new beginning for 10 women at a time.

I am truly, truly honored to be helping with this project. As a mother myself, I cannot even wrap my mind around what some of the mothers out there are going through right now. The women coming in to this program, hopefully set to start in July, are currently living in their cars with their kids or are going from shelter to shelter at night.

A kitchen getting ready to serve 30 people

My blessings are bountiful. The love for Christ is a powerful blessing. The power He has to change situations like this... unmatched. And part of my responsibility with knowing that, is to share it. It would be a shame to keep it all to myself. Through Christ I work, as long as He’ll have me.

If you would like to help, there are several ways.

First of all, you can get a ticket and join us on June 22nd at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood.

Secondly, you can make on online donation directly to Genesis House at www.HopeOfTheValley.org

Also, you can bring donations of clothes, shoes, toys, small furniture, books, etc. this Saturday at Romancing The Bean in Burbank from 2-5. These women and children will need gently used clothes, shoes and toys. They will have little to nothing with them coming in. The kids will be ages birth to 12 years old.

I hope that if you’re in the SoCal area, you would join us Saturday, June 22nd!

Here is a dear friend of mine, V Reyes...she's a faith based singer/songwriter who is quite amazing. I recommend "Broken" at 3:46 in this video.

Christianity Today's Article On Child Sponsorship....Leads To Compassion

 Last week, I grabbed the mail off the front porch and waited a day to look through it due to the nature of our busy life. When I finally did, I was excited to see the newest issue of Christianity Today had arrived.

The cover story was about child sponsorship...and if it really does work.

My stomach dropped. The cover read: “The Surprising News About The Photo Hanging On Your Refrigerator. Does Child Sponsorship Work? A Top Economist answers.”

Well, apparently, I’m not the only one who wonders what good our $38 a month really does to our child in El Salvador.

We sponsor a child through Compassion International. What I truly love about Compassion is that they put it out there, even in their slogan, that it’s all done “In Jesus’ Name.”

But, this cover, even before opening the plastic surrounding it, had me worried.

That night, the second I got the kids to bed, I grabbed my magazine and sat down to read the article I had been thinking about all day.

Top economist, Bruce Wydick, says that he would use the same answer when asked “what could someone like me do to help the poor.” His reply was always, “Perhaps, sponsor a child?” But, he began to wonder if that really was the answer.

He found that despite “9 million children worldwide and more than $5 billion per year channeled into sponsorship,” no one had ever investigated the topic.

So, he, and a small team, decided to go there.

Compassion International was the only major organization willing to let their “program be scrutinized.” This gave me relief immediately...although the data of the study I had yet to read.

The first part of this research was done by two doctoral students of his from The University of Washington. They spent the summer of 2008 in Uganda obtaining data on 809 individuals, including 188 who had been sponsored as children.

The students brought back the data from their summer study and Mr. Wydick says “it was incapable of showing anything other than extremely large and statistically significant impacts on educational outcomes for sponsored children.”

They approached Compassion again to see how they felt about “trusting a bunch of San Francisco academics with the public credibility of his organization.”

The other child sponsorship organizations were not interested in having a study done.
I’ll be honest when I tell you, reading this gave me great comfort in Compassion.

The study continued in Uganda, Guatemala, The Philippines, India, Kenya and Bolivia. Money was sought after for the research project, and obviously they got it.

The results of this study are absolutely amazing.

“Sponsorship makes children 27 to 40 percent more likely to complete secondary school and 50-80 percent more likely to complete a university education. ....To put it simply, the educational impacts of sponsorship are large -roughly equal to the substantial effects of the Rosenwald Schools program that from 1913-31 educated blacks in the Jim Crow South.”

You MUST read this article. It gets better.

“We found that child sponsorship means that when the child grows up, his is 14-18 percent more likely to obtain a salaried job, and 35 percent more likely to obtain a white-collar job.”

The author of this article had the opportunity to present this information to Compassion’s team in Colorado. He gladly accepted. When he met Wes Stafford, then president of Compassion, he said “your program works.” 
Mr. Stafford replied, “I know.”

This is the amazing part...really, quite amazing.

When Mr. Wydick said to Mr. Stafford, “We’re not just finding positive correlations, but substantial casual effects from the program, in every country, especially Africa. I’m wondering what is happening here,’ Mr. Stafford said, “Try hope.”

“Hope?”

In part of his reply, Mr. Stafford says “...You see, poverty causes children to have very low self-esteem, low aspirations. The big difference that sponsorship makes is that it expands children’s views about their own possibilities. Many children don’t think they are capable of much. We help them realize that they are each given special gifts from God to benefit their communities, and we try to help them develop aspirations for their future.”

This is where the Hope Hypothesis started. More studies were done to test the “hope” that Mr. Stafford spoke of. They did more studies with the children using drawings and how they see themselves. Again, the results are amazing.

Letters from our Bryan in El Salvador

“..the patient nurturing of self-worth, self-expectations, dreams and aspirations may be a critical part of helping children escape poverty. It is a holistic approach that secular antipoverty initiative shave largely downplayed, but an approach that Christian development groups have championed for decades.”

Hope. It gives children Hope, and that’s all it takes.

“The child development approach advocated by Compassion appears to get under the hood of human beings to instill aspirations, character formation and spiritual direction. In short, it trains people to be givers instead of receivers.”

I’m going to state my opinion here that Compassion is doing exactly what Christ teaches, and I am proud to have my family part of this larger picture.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.......