Children who receive letters from sponsors are greatly changed: spiritually, emotionally and academically.  School grades move up remarkably. However, this past week we were told that a sponsor visit changes everything ….for many people.  God takes our efforts and multiplies them beyond imagination.  Here are a few of God stories:

     ~Four years ago Bruce and I sent enough money through Compassion family gift ($1,000) for Ronilyn and Roniely to have a home of their own.  Their father built a cozy one bedroom home with a veranda—a place out of the elements!  Because of God, we discovered that their home has been moved four times in the last four years.   Unable to secure the money for a permanent lot, they have been at the mercy of landlords.  Bruce’s paternal instincts took over—he would not have his girls and their parents uprooted repeatedly! Soon we were out looking at real estate! Lots were priced out—we pledged the appropriate amount—and our girls will have a permanent piece of land within two months! We spent 2 days with this family. Bruce and Ronnie (the dad) had some great conversations. Ronnie has committed to attending church with his family.  We have committed to college education for Ronilyn and Roniely in their local community.  God allowed us the joy of answering many prayers those days!

     ~MaeAnne has been our daughter for 6 years now.  She is graduating from Grade 6 this week. We added her brother Johndel several months ago, and will add her 2 year old sister, when she turns 3 years old—the minimum age for joining Compassion.  Their father works as a labourer—8 long hours of back breaking work—but not enough to support his large family.  Our time with the children was a riot. We went to a swimming pool with a water slide, packing along a dinner menu that they had never imagined! Bruce and Clint (our sponsor son) played with the 4 younger children for hours.  All of this was new to them: a father who plays…a pool…and all the food they could want!  I visited with Mom and the Compassion Director.  How they longed for the children’s father to come to church and be involved with his children—I told them how Christ had changed Bruce and God was more than able to change Sally’s husband! Sure enough…Sunday morning we were able to greet MaeAnne’s father in church—and a beaming Sally reported that he also had committed to church attendance because of what our visit had demonstrated to him.

     ~Clint is our oldest sponsored son and our first to graduate from college! For reasons we didn’t understand, Clint’s graduation date was moved from March 26 to March 28 and finally to March 31!  Clint was very disappointed that we would not be there to walk with him in the Processional, but I responded that God was up to something!  I listed off all the benefits I could imagine and we promised him we’d do something special—like a party with his friends. What ever he wanted! In my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have dreamed the event he planned. Clint, and the project director, invited those who shared Clint’s bloodline to meet us. Grandma, Aunties, Uncles, birth mom and step-dad, plus a few cousins and friends. None of them Christians—and Clint took the opportunity to share his life story and the impact Christ had made in his life.  It was powerful! There were so many tears—from being abandoned and passed from home to home, “like an unwanted dog” to his journey of wholeness because of God and sponsors who had responded to God’s command to care for the poor, the broken and the abandoned.  Wholeness that comes only through Christ!  Clint had his family all sing “Give Thanks with a Grateful heart” as a special number for Bruce and me! Then we feasted! Clint enjoyed his first ever birthday cake and birthday/ graduation party! Clint’s formal graduation is on March 31. The party costs were substantially reduced…like by 75% because the venue owner said Bruce and I had made such an impact in their community, they wanted to return the favour. Again, these pre-Christians were moved by God to help us with the costs!  God was all over that evening!

     ~Clint’s final grades at college were all over 90%!  We met some of his teachers and his classmates.  We were able to watch him teach and interact with many children. It was such a blessing for us! His testimony is strong and solid.  He will be working with Compassion, at the project as a full-time child development worker.  Yes, we had maxed out every possible avenue to make his education possible, but it was an investment that will be storing treasure in eternity! Released from poverty—to serve our LORD! 

     ~Another God prompting resulted in us providing Clint with transportation for his ministry. Everyone in Asia knows that serious mission work begins with a scooter on a motorbike! I am so excited about what God is going to do with our young man!

     ~Another aspect of a sponsor visit that I had not considered was the hope and encouragement we brought to the pastors and compassion staff.  These people serve God numerous hours.  I asked about days off and vacation time for them…like most ministry people they strive for a day off weekly.  As for vacation time…well that doesn’t happen … ever! For them seeing sponsors love the children of their church, and bring them up out of the grasp of poverty was the fuel they needed to continue in the work of the LORD.  The church we worshipped with on Sunday is a vibrant growing community!  In a few weeks their second baptism of 2011 will be held: 3 elementary children and 11 parents of Compassion children!! That is exciting!  God used Bruce and I to provide some answers to prayers.  Last week I found individually wrapped toothbrushes with little tubes of toothpaste…packages of 50 for about $10, so I bought 100 toothbrushes.   Also last week the director of the project prayed a “whispered prayer” for toothbrushes for the kids at her project!  On Saturday we shared the joy of God’s surprise provision of toothbrushes for everyone! 

I could go on….but that is enough for today! 

While they jabbered in their native tongue, I prayed out loud in our native tongue.  My prayer was simply that we would display the fruit of the Spirit through this part our adventure. God gave me the ability to speak clearly and gently with the officials—and then he provided someone from someplace. This someone really did nothing except spoke in English to us and was totally unfrazzled—unlike the other 8 people!  He told me I had explained it all clearly and effectively, but none the less, we had to leave.  As we jogged to catch ‘our flight’ back to Manila, we were commanded to stop and return to the immigration desk. They would let us stay after all! The big boss was NOT impressed with their confusion, and I think he was basically yelling at them and not at me!  Meanwhile, our friendly gift from God, continued to smile and nod—and by 2 a.m. we were in a taxi heading for Matt and Courtney’s place.

     God often uses the prayers of many people! That one phone call, also put Matt and Courtney into the throne room of our LORD.  Courtney shared with us her prayer. Being familiar with Vietnamese immigration, her prayer was different.  Court prayed from Ephesians….”God, this is a time where we need more than we can ask or imagine….and you are able to do just that.”

Yeah God!

Maneuvering through the sea of scooters is a death defying feat. The competitive blood coursing through my veins found this game slightly stimulating, as I tasted victory each step of the way!  It was hard to resist exploding into all-out celebration on numerous occasions!

We hired two very brave cyclo bikers and shortly our lives were placed into the middle of the chaos!  Seriously!! Our helmet-less lives were now at the mercy of two helmet-less strangers.   Dodging vehicles, scooters, peddle bikes and pedestrians  we arrived safely at the War Remnants Museum, the Independence Palace and to our pre-arranged meeting point!

The War Remnants Museum was extremely disturbing.   I couldn’t fathom the depth of grief God endured as the crown of his creation participated in acts of brutality against each other.   I was in high school during the Vietnam War—the last time the guillotine we saw, including the barbed execution table, was used was 1972.   Horrific stories and photos filled me with intense grief and anger! 

Later in the evening went to the Back Pack District.  This is the area where expats out number locals!  And I witnessed the crown of God’s creation beginning to build hope and life through obedient response to the whispers of God.  One such place is a coffee shop called SOZO.  Established in 2005 to help underprivileged families break the cycle of poverty providing training and opportunity.   The walls of the coffee shop were filled with English Bible verses!   We also saw the location for the whisper Beulah had received from God.

Over the last few days we have visited with Kiwis, Aussies, English, Americans, Canadians!  We watched Matt and Court teach swimming to many classes of Caucasian children…in Vietnam.  We ate lunch in a restaurant today that did not have one Vietnamese patron—and yet it was fairly full!   It has been strange.   The world is really getting small!

Tomorrow we are off to the Philippines.

 I believe one of the greatest gifts of global travel is the numerous hours available with limited distractions.  The gift of time was handed to me, and I gladly accepted it! Hours in the air ---or waiting to be in the air—semi-solitude and silence—allowing intimacy with the Father as I reflected on my journey towards becoming GLOCAL. Repeatedly my mind was drawn to Ephesians 4: 20 and how much more than I’d ever imagined was about to happen!  Our Father’s faithfulness and his ‘pampering’ continues to overwhelm me.  …along with God’s wonderful sense of humour!

The whole idea of me being a globe-trotter is an interesting concept.  I have no  desire to ‘see the world’ unless the ‘world I see’ is in need of Jesus—with the exception of two life-long destination dreams:  Mongolia and Inuvik!  So when God has me off to someplace near the equator I can’t help but see the humour in it!

Bruce, on the other hand, is quite content with this itinerary! And, you guessed it—he likes the idea of seeing the world!  (Just so you know, we are off to Zambia in May! )

So here we are in Asia! Specifically—Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with tickets booked for Philippines.  Twenty years ago God called Courtney, our daughter, to a life of ministry and mission when a high school girl reported on her mission trip to Belize.  Court was about 8 years old and that evening in Moosomin, Saskatchewan our family began our GLOCAL focus.  On Courtney’s 13^th birthday we put her on a plane for her first  eight week mission!  It was a low-risk North American trip with the Young Continental Singers, but it was for 8 weeks!  In a time before SKYPE , face book and email—8 weeks was a long time! 

 Several years later  Court and I were attending Mission Fest alone that year—it was a memorable weekend for me.  During the closing session Brother Andrew shared some of his Bible smuggling stories.  You know the kind that are filled with heart pounding, mail biting….FEAR!!  Full on—all in God stories of faith.  It wasn’t long until the invitation for those who sensed God’s call to global ministry to stand.   I knew my 17 year old daughter was standing.  I knew that our lives, though incredibly close, would never be the same.  God had given me almost 10 years to wrap my heart and mind around that thought, but now it was very close.

Brother Andrew and God weren’t finished with me yet as parents were asked to stand beside their children, but we were to stand only if we were willing to accept the responsibility of not running interference with God’s work.   It was one of the hardest  “stands” I have ever taken.  GLOCAL  was becoming deep and personal.

Since that day, Bruce and I have said good-bye to Courtney repeatedly, sometimes to places of  questionable physical safety, where we have had to trust God for weeks on end, and sometimes to places where spiritual battles keep us on our knees.

Matt and Courtney’s commitment to Vietnam has brought us here.  As a mom, this  calling has been the hardest!  The grieving process surprised me and I felt myself discussing these logistics with God intensely—and God graciously allowed one of my soul mates to journey the same path, at the same time.  Debbie’s son, daughter-in-law and baby packed their bags for long term calling in Romania.   Deb and I shared our tears…GLOCAL can be costly!  

So that is how we ended up in Vietnam!  Our Philippines story is a bit different, adding a GLOCAL touch that is extremely intentional.  In 1993 our family moved to Alberta as the result of a farm foreclosure and the fact that Bruce was able to obtain work.  Living in Alberta is a gift—but it is laced with a red neck consumerism thought.  We began asking God where he wanted us to steward his money.   “Where your treasure is there your heart will also be.”  We wanted our hearts to be encompassing people—so we have invested in people locally and globally—because people matter to God.  Globally God’s money is funneled through us to just under 20 countries…we never run out of things to pray about!   The news is always personal!

GLOCAL choices make it possible to wrap our arms around 5 of our sponsored children in the Philippines.  We will be celebrating Clint’s college graduation, visiting two Compassion projects, and the homes of our kids.  THEN …we will build lifetime memories for all of us by spending a full day together at a nearby resort!  GLOCAL can be so exciting!

GLOCAL is filled to the brim with God designed adventure and opportunity!   Over the last 40 months—air travel has become almost comfortable!  I have had the incredible privilege of spending time in three poverty stricken countries: hugging many children, running and playing in intense heat.  I have looked deep into the eyes of their parents.  I have listened to the hopes and dreams of a Haitian pastor, a Nicaraguan pastor and  Villa Alta Gracia community leaders.  And I have prayed! My heart has been broken and blessed at the same time.

 As for my dream trip to Mongolia,  Bruce and I sponsor 6 junior high boys there!  I also have noticed that the Alliance church is in Mongolia…they way God does things, Mongolia might be in my future!

December 2011 is a perfect example.  At the end of November, only a few months into our existence as a church, we introduced everyone to Mosaic Centre in NE Edmonton.  Incredible God stories came out of that event. 

Wanting to provide ample variety for generosity we offered Three Giving Opportunities:  1. Money,  2. Hampers, Backpack & Gifts and 3. Participation in the Onsite Party.

The money target goal was set at $4,400.00. These funds would be used to cover the operating utilities of Mosaic Centre during the cold winter months.  Crosspointers came through BIG and we were able to present Mosaic with a cheque for $5,600.00!!

Crosspointers donated:

• 20 backpacks stuffed with warmth and love!
• 25 Christmas hampers filled with food, Christmas goodies and love!
• 60 gifts for the Christmas Party planned for December 28.

We all know it’s NOT a party without FOOD:

So Crosspointers brought on the food: Turkeys, hams, perogies, potatoes, frozen corn, pickles, cream, butter, buns, cheese cakes…and perfect beverages to balance it off! 

December 28 Mosaic Christmas Party:

Early in the morning on Bonnie, Karl and their family began transforming the frozen raw food into a masterpiece of mouth-watering delectables! A banquet fit to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus!

And what a party it was! About 20 Crosspointers headed to Mosaic Centre for an evening building relationships around Food! Games! Gifts! Santa! And Caroling—Ray, Brenda and friends kept everyone’s toes tapping until the warming bus arrived!  An evening  filled with memories for everyone! 

Listen to their stories!

Wow, what an experience, the week and 1/2 prior to going to the Mosaic Centre I felt empty of God’s presence.  Let me say I believe I was in the desert or maybe under a spiritual attack.  How can that be? We are in one of the Best Times of the year the birth of Our Lord, and Saviour.  I had Pastor Rob pray for me that Sunday Dec 26, By the end of the sermon I had my answer as to why: I was to be empty to be able to feel the Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control all over again. I was humbled, and felt all the above gifts from the people at the Mosaic centre. I felt it in myself and witnessed it with the other volunteers and staff.  Some of the patrons will be in my heart forever.  God Bless us everyone!  (Brenda Walmsley)

I would have to say that my experience at Mosaic was a one that I will treasure forever.  When I first got there I didn’t know what to expect, but I felt calm and easily started chatting with the patrons and staff there.  I will never forget a young man’s laughter that rang throughout the centre--a person meant to fit in everywhere.  When we began caroling, several of the men were great at joining in and help lead the singing with us.  Everyone who was at Mosaic made us all feel welcome. They were such a great group of people that just need some friendship, and some just a change in their luck.  My wife and I were so touched by the experience that we are considering volunteering at the centre.  God touched a lot of hearts that evening and I would be the first to say I would do it again in a heartbeat. (Ray Walmsley)

This was my third time at the centre and it was great to see familiar faces…especially Jack and Ron. Mosaic is a warm community. The night truly was a party with lots of fun and laughter as we played games, smiled as children sat on Santa’s knee and sang along to Christmas Carols.

My job was to serve the meat- ham, and turkey, dressing and gravy. I felt like a Ukrainian Baba (sorry all you Ukrainians I’m not Ukrainian or a Baba) but I literally heaped people’s plates as high as they could go as people came through the serving line and specified what items they wanted. Many came back for seconds, and even took doggie bags home with them.  It gave me a great sense of joy to do this!

Perhaps, this is a glimpse of the Father’s heart toward us. I think that He enjoys it when he can throw a party for us, lavish us with good things and love on us.  (Jan VanVleit)

For me (Linda), this local project solidified my heart the role GLOCAL ministry has at Crosspoint.  It was phenomenal from start to finish!  For me, the Christmas season was extremely unique.  I will share it with you next advent season.  I am confident Jesus was pleased with his birthday celebrations!  (Isaiah 58)

Now it is time to think GLOBAL!  ….oh yes! Great dreams are being dreamt!

Here are some of the pictures from Mosaic: