Sunday, February 22, 2009

To the Least of These

Hello everyone!


My name is Becca, and I will be on the team going to Moldova in less than 2 weeks!! I am so incredibly joyful about this opportunity, and I ask that you continue to pray for us as we prepare our hearts and minds for this journey.


I am so overwhelmed by God’s grace and love. It was just over a month ago that I even found out about this trip, and now here I am preparing to go! God provided me with all the funds necessary, and He alone is praised for that. Thank you to all of those who have stood beside me and have given to this mission. :) You mean so much to me!


Proverbs 8:30-31 says, “Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”


This is how we should be with God! We should rejoice in his presence and rejoice in this beautiful world that He has created for us! Part of that is giving to those in need. Doing for those who cannot do! God has commissioned us, His children, to go out into the world and tell others of the Good News (Matthew 28: 19-20). If we are able to go to those in need and SHOW them as well as TELL them about God’s love, how great is that?! A bed is the perfect reminder that they will get- everyday- that there is someone up above who loves them more than they could ever imagine! I want these children to know that they are loved and cared for. I want them to know that their life matters because God says so! Don’t you?


I absolutely love this song by Matt Papa- it is called “To the Least of These.” (check out Matthew 25:40) Some of the lyrics say this:


“I will worship You by giving to the poor

By bringing hope to hopeless places

I will love You by feeding those in need

By touching their disease and their souls with Your love


You said what you do to the least of these

You do it unto to me

You know what you do to the least of these

You do it unto to me

How can I say I love You

When I do not love the things that You love

When my heart is hard but Your’s is broken for this broken world

So Jesus I will be Your hands and feet, don’t just want to sing anymore.”


I pray that that is our hearts cry. Whether it is GOING on a mission trip, or GIVING to one.


God is calling you to action.


I pray that you listen to him and do as He says. 1 Corinthians 9:19 says, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” To me, this is the ultimate way to show God’s love- by being a servant! Serve those around you, and show them God’s love by doing so. Jesus was the ultimate servant, and if the Bible calls us to be like Jesus, then that’s what I want to be!


I am so excited about the next couple of weeks- I cannot wait to meet these beautiful children and to build them some beds so that they may sleep sweetly!


To God alone be the glory,

Becca


PS- Please participate in this special opportunity to double your gift! (check out below) No matter what the amount that you can give, you will be pleasing God by sacrificing what you can. Trust me, He takes great joy in that. :)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Exciting opportunity to DOUBLE your gift!!


Sweet Sleep has just received a matching gift from one of our fantastic donors! If we raise $5,000 for beds for Orhei and Ivancea by Saturday, March 7th they'll match every dollar you give! That's 2 beds for the price of 1!

About This Project

As part of Sweet Sleep's 1,000 Beds Project, 120 handicapped boys in Orhei, Moldova and 100 boys and girls with joint problems and arthritis in Ivancea, Moldova desperately need new beds and are scheduled to get them soon! God has assembled his team and they are preparing their hearts for their ministry to these boys and girls. All that is missing is money for their beds.

If you can help provide a bed, a room full of beds or beds for an entire orphanage, we need you!

We still need $37,500 for beds for the children in these two orphanages and our team leaves March 7th. Can you help us help these children sleep sweetly?

Here's how it works:

Your gift of... $20 now provides provides TWO pillows and TWO vinyl covers
$50 now provides TWO sets of sheets and TWO blankets
$80 now provides TWO mattress and TWO vinyl covers
$100 provides TWO new bed frames
$250 provides TWO complete Sweet Sleep beds!
$3,000 fills TWO entire rooms in a Third World orphanage with new beds!

You can give right now at www.sweetsleep.org/donate or through our Facebook Cause page. Want to save us the credit card processing fees? Send your check to Sweet Sleep, PO Box 157, Brentwood, TN 37024. Please write "match" in the memo line.

Thank you for partnering with us to double the difference you make to help us provide "a bed for every head."

See you in the next blog!

Jen

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Ahhh, Martin...and friends.

Today we have a Belmont student who is beginning an internship in our office. One of her main projects will be centered around some of our Africa homework. I'm very excited about this, as we have SO much to communicate with you all about our recent scouting trip to Kenya and Uganda. Krista (or as I seem to continue to call her, Katie) is going to have her hands full, for sure!

I'm grateful for her help because it is allowing me to continue to move forward with our future work in Uganda this summer while I now turn my attention to what is immediately before me: special needs and handicapped children in Moldova who are in desperate need of a bed.

So many of you have heard me talk about beds in Moldova and the children who need them. I'd like to tell you a little bit about these particular kids, so----even if you've heard my stories before----this will be good.
I'd like to introduce you to my boy Martin. He is a rock star and I can't tell you how much I enjoy him. He's brought new meaning to our ministry and great joy to my life. Friends, meet Martin. Martin, meet my friends:

I first met Martin in November 2007 when I was scouting orphanages looking for places we would bring teams to provide beds. I met him in the art room of his orphanage and he showed me all of his work. Then told me he was a singer. Not just any singer, oh no. Martin told me he was famous! I asked him to sing a song for me....and he did. It was one of the longer songs I've heard in Moldova and he enjoyed singing every part of it!

Martin shared with me that he was left by his mother in an apartment in Moldova when he was just a baby. Neighbors found him and took him to an orphanage. Years later Martin required medical attention and a doctor, tragically, damaged his spine---leaving him handicapped for the rest of his life. One thing was certain, God had given Martin extra helpings of joy and love and this was obvious to everyone who came into contact with him. I shared with Martin why I was there and that I would be bringing friends back with me to build beds for him and all his friends. He was SO excited. I asked if he would sing for all my friends and he promised to do so.

Last March I kept my word and Sweet Sleep returned with beds. There are 327 boys at this special needs home for severely handicapped boys and, because of the small size of our team, we only planned to provide half of the beds at that time. We were greeted right away by a very, very excited Martin. He asked what had taken so long. Turns out, Martin had been waiting at the orphanage gate for us to show up, daily, with the beds I had promised. He was that excited.

When our teams arrive in an orphanage we generally begin our bed placement according to the orphanage director's wishes. Usually everyone is getting a bed, so it's just a matter of who is getting them first. Last March Sweet Sleep only had beds for half of the boys. The director requested us to place beds in the rooms of the smaller children. Martin did not get a bed. It was a bittersweet week. We promised to return and gave him a memento to hold in the interim. He was happy. And, he sang for us.

Other boys were even happier, like this one below who couldn't have been more pleased and gave me a big "thumbs up" to express his delight.


And this little boy, who is clearly absolutely estatic in his new bed.

More than 100 of these boys are bedridden. They spend their entire lives in a space that's smaller than a twin size bed. And those beds have been rusted metal with broken metal springs. Some mattresses were just an inch thin and heavily soiled while others were more traditional with badly broken springs or heavily damaged foam. It's no wonder how excited these boys were when you think of what they had been spending their lives sleeping on.



In just 24 days our next team will be traveling from Texas, Georgia and Tennessee to minister to the children in two orphanages: the boys in the photos above and also to boys and girls in the 4th to 9th grade who are nearby in an orphanage for children who have arthritis and circulatory and other joint problems. Can you imagine what it must be like for children who are suffering from arthritis and joint problems to be sleeping on old metal hammocks? Gosh, I cannot.

I tell you all of this to get to two things: Sweet Sleep is in great need of your prayers for this team and the teachers and children (you can sign up for our prayer newsletter for more on this). Sweet Sleep is also in great need of your financial support to be able to provide the beds for these children and I am hoping you can help. Just the mere fact that you are reading this is important. If you are reading this, I'm asking you to think of ways you might be able to generate money for their beds because you might be one of the few to read this post (I never really know who is reading this).

There are countless ways to help provide the support we need so that our team can make the beds these children so desperately need. I don't know where you are......perhaps an office? Can your department have a jean's day to raise support? Perhaps another kind of challenge to raise funds? Several of the same ideas would work for a school....talk to your advisor about a jean's day or challenge all your friends to sacrifice their money for lunch money for one day. Are you on Facebook? So is Sweet Sleep! Join our Cause, invite your friends and start a contest among the people you are friends with. Or, maybe you just write an email which shares about all the things you have read and send it out to your people. I'm happy to brainstorm with you when it benefits the children.

Whatever you do, I encourage you to not just let this be something you read. Decide to do something because 200 boys and girls are depending on you. One person really does make a difference.

Thanks friends. I can't wait for Martin to get his bed and to show you the pictures!

See you in the next blog,

Jen
ps. you can give online at http://www.sweetsleep.org/ and then by clicking on "donate now". be sure to put 'special' in the memo line.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Third Day Back....But Who's Counting?




Hello friends. I've missed sharing things with you. Let me get right to it.

It's impossible to share everything with you that we saw or experienced or learned about. I plan to continue my blogs here for a long while, so if you stick in here you'll learn more each week.

Since we're talking about counting...let me share some numbers with you that Stuart and I came up with in the O'Hare airport Tuesday night. Now, don't hold me to these numbers --since the jetlag was already startingto set in and we were just trying to stay awake to not miss the boarding of our last flight home.

In the last 16 days your beloved Sweet Sleepers have:
  • traveled more than 22,500 miles

  • flown on 13 airplanes
  • been in a winter climate, a summer climate and then back to winter --with a blizzard!

  • riden on 1 camel

  • taken 3 ferry/boat rides

  • danced with more than 748 mosquitos

  • run from 43 wild tree monkeys

  • had 7 different drivers and 1 breakdown

  • taken more than 1,800 pictures

  • loved on more than 3,000 orphans

  • visited 41 orphanages

  • given 5,962 handshakes
  • prayed 2,985 prayers

  • walked through 3 slums (the largest with more than 1 Million residents)
I've returned home incredibly stirred up for the work we have ahead of us. I'm grateful to be your ambassador to the orphaned and abandoned children of the world who are in need of a place to sleep each night. Thank you for the opportunity to seek out ways for you to help minister to the hurting and forgotten children of the world. I really look foward to tackling this need with you.
Blessings to you all.
See you in the next blog,
Jen