Here are the pictures of the kids receiving their shoes. For many it is their first pair of shoes. These are great "Croc Like" shoes that can be washed off, are durable, cover their feet and are all the same. We debated on us sending over shoes, but realized the easiest and best way to do this was to purchase them there. While to many it is just a pair of shoes, to these kids it means someone LOVEs them, a sense of BELONGING, and it bring HOPE. They were purchased with the money from the sponsorship program, so a HUGE thanks to all our sponsors. 

MY GOD IS STRONG AND MIGHTY, FOR HE IS ABLE, MY HOPE IS IN THE LORD, AND HE IS FAITHFUL!

Randy Rolfe and Ben Kehl recently went on a Visionary Trip to Hosanna.

Much was accomplished in our next steps in all of the areas we are working in and much progress has taken place in the several months since they have been back.

We are working on getting water-points for easier access for the children in their area. A proposal has been submitted and we are excited! 

We are partnering with FashionABLE in starting sustainable work for our 80 women. These women are literally from the streets and many of our sponsored children are children of these precious women. They are given a chance at life and becoming beautiful women who are able to bring love and change to the community as they themselves receive it from our programing and training them in the true reality of who they are in Jesus.

                                          Check it FashionABLE  www.livefashionable.com 

                   Randy and Ben were able to spend lots of time with the children and the families. 

Please pray for the upcoming plans as we undertake opening a training Center for the women. This will greatly benefit the women, the children and the whole community. We are in the deep of making some big decisions in the direction the Lord wants us to take. 

Also keep in prayer our upcoming October Team trip to Hosanna... and just maybe you are supposed to be with us on that trip! If your interested go to Hosanna's website and look up upcoming trips. The application is there for you as well. Any questions do not hesitate to e-mail me.

We hope to have pictures soon of the children who all just received shoes!!! Yeah this is just so exciting!

Thank you again for all of your love, support and prayers.

Marybeth Rolfe

Mbrolfe@charter.net

The Cost of Compassion!

The Cost of Compassion

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to a place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.” ~ Henry Noweun   

     

Isaiah 58:the BIG IF

Did you know that compassion literally means, ‘to suffer with‘?

Another definition of compassion is ‘sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.’

                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                            

When we sing in church, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord… I want to see You.” Compassion is His answer. You want to see God? Go to the hurting, sit with the broken, help the hungry. You WILL see & feel God all around you. The strongest most beautiful moments with the Lord for me have been when I am with the least of these. Praying with the broken hearted, helping an orphan, speaking truth into the lost, or a gentle touch and a sweet whisper of the Name of Jesus. It was then that Jesus was right before me… as my teacher. This is it!! What we were created for.

I am utterly grateful for a God who SO longs to intimately love & know His people that He allows for nothing besides Him to fill the void, to fill our longing hearts. Do you get that? How crazy He is for you… for those around you?

 I assure you we never feel God’s love more than when we empty ourselves, than when we throw aside temporal things to show His love to the wounded, the lonely, the hurting.

The above Henry Nouwen quote is so true. As wonderful as this journey has been, it has not been an easy one. That’s okay, because God did not call us to a ‘soft’ life. What on earth are we here for if not to love the lost, lean into the forgotten, and lay down our comfy lives for the broken, so that they may ultimately know Him?

For each of us, active compassion will take us down many different roads (not necessarily to Africa!). But all the roads lead to loving more, giving more, and ultimately leading a broken world into the compassionate arms of Jesus.

The cost of compassion…

If it means living a ‘smaller’ life…

If it means having less time for TV & less money for manicures…

If it means giving up vacation time to go love on some orphans half a world a way…

If it means suffering with the forgotten & lonely…

I’ll humbly pay it over & over again, knowing that my Jesus paid the ultimate price.

Let these words encourage you, for what you have done is a great blessing. Continue to let God use you in your everyday. THANK YOU for your commitment and obedience to change lives for the town of Hosanna.

Marybeth Rolfe