“okay scene starts now…”

It is 11:35pm and I can’t sleep I am bothered…I am hot and bothered…today was 90degrees that is hot! It was my birthday and it was a very awesome day. I got so many greetings on facebook from all my friends around the world. I did my local ministry for three hours this afternoon and then I got good news about the direction of the project in Zim that we are going to apply to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and I will most likely be able to work with my passion of maternal health and breastfeeding as a priority. I went for ribs for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse and I watched crime dramas for two hours tonight it was a great day…

…I can’t sleep…I am bothered in fact I almost feel sick to my stomach..there is an urgency, a burning in my heart, my face is tight, my stomach aches…

I started to read a book tonight called “Red Letters” by Tom Davis…it has bothered me…deep breath…in…out…okay I am feeling better…

 I am not exaggerating this is how bothered I am feeling. Tom writes about the crisis of HIV in this world I will quote him several times now…

”An Apology…The Christian church owes an apology to the almost fifty million individuals in our world currently affected with HIV/AIDS.

Those of us who claim to follow Christ’s teachings should be ashamed for what little we’ve done to help the countless millions of women, children and orphans who have died or are dying. Entire nations are going up in flames while we watch them burn.” pg 13

“Why don’t we act? Why don’t we choose to make a difference? One reason is because we are afraid. We spend most of our time trying to protect what we have, fearing what would happen if that went away. When we do this we become shackled to our possessions. In essence we limit our range of motions. We can’t reach far enough to offer compassion because our arms are too busy holding all that we own. If, on the other hand we recognize that what we have is a gift , then we can extend our reach. We discover that we can use a portion of our gift to improve someone else’s life, maybe even save someone else’s life.” Pg 39

I am sorry if this feels harsh or feels dramatic but when you have been there it changes you.

 I feel a piece of my heart is in Africa.

 I will not be whole again… like the rest of you all are…some of you get it…it burns in my gut…we cannot be complacence, we cannot sit back and think we are doing enough…for goodness sake how much have you spent on Starbucks and “1.2 billion people are estimated to live on less than one dollar per day, and almost 3 billion on less than two dollars per day. Do the math: That’s 3.9 biilion on less than two dollars per day.”pg 38

My hands are trembling as I write this, warm sweet tears are touching the edge of my lips… but I will not just cry about it!!! I will do something about it…will you join me???

I remember a day in South Africa I was desperate for internet. I had a deadline for a Visa application and I could not find an internet café anywhere. I walked to a bookstore hoping they had wireless and a man offered to let me use his remote air card. I used it for an hour and offered to pay; he just blessed me with the time.

I laid in bed tonight thinking who could I bless like this and I realized there are not many people here in Arizona or America who I know personally who need my help in this way. Then I remembered the socks…

…in the local ministry I am doing I am working with a project called www.lightfeetproject.org together with a woman from the church I have committed to help pack and ship shoes to Africa for 6 hours a week. We sort and bag and then we put socks and laces with them…but we have ran out of socks and I know the man who started this project in his garage is currently paying for the socks…

…I laid restless and said “God, what do I do?”…

…I am meant to go to Walmart, go to the manager and ask what kind of a deal I can get on $100 worth of socks…will you join me???

Will you match my donation to this project…we have many more shoes to send, thousands!  This week alone we have packed over 750 pairs of shoes to send to Africa. I have been there, I have walked down a dirt road eroded by rain so it made it impossible for a truck to drive and then uneasy to walk and I have handed out shoes to people who literally do not have them…let alone socks.

We need money for boxes and shipping and laces and plastic bags and …socks…will you send some socks to Africa with me???

PLEASE be bothered with me…

from my heart,

J

To donate go to http://www.lightfeetproject.org/donate.html if you can somewhere in your donation in the subject line or in your name spot write the word “bothered”

Bless you,J