3 Points to Ponder
- Governmental programs are not the answer to global ills. Rather, it is seeing your neighbor’s need and offering your unique way of encouragement. When is the last time you offered true encouragement to a neighbor?
- Perfection is the enemy of action. Giving our broken, less-than-perfect offerings to the world is all God requires of you, yet we hold back because we believe we don’t measure up. God makes up the rest and that is a good thing. What are you holding back from the world because it isn’t perfect?
- Stretching out your hand asks a little more of you. It is that little bit extra. How can you give a little extra in a situation presented to you this week?
2 Quotes to Share
“Stretch out your hand and receive the world’s wide gift of joy, appreciation and beauty.” – Corinne Roosevelt Robinson
“God lends a helping hand to the man who tried hard.” -Aeschylus
1 Story of Impact
I recently returned from an encouraging trip with our staff in Haiti. They continue to amaze me, as the country’s circumstances are the hardest they have been in generations, yet they persevere. Repeatedly, they shared the increased asks from community members for basic items like food. Since the cost of many items has gone up 150% in less than six months, this is a legit ask for most. Coupled with no IMPACT teams going into communities with resources to bless people, it is hard for everyone. During our discussion, we landed on trying to raise $12,000 in additional donations specifically for random acts of blessing for our Haitian staff to execute. Given that our yearly theme is “stretch out your hand,” they called this program “Lonje Men Ou,” Creole for stretch out your hand. On Friday, our team of PET cart technicians and chaplain were in the large community of Hinche, about 20 minutes away from our main campus, servicing distributed PET carts for those who have lost lower-body mobility. Christi shot me two pictures that capture the essence of stretching out your hand.
The first picture captures how we all can stretch out our hands to help. There are no excuses for not helping someone, even if you were born without legs, as the picture depicts. Jean Philippe, the man helping fix the PET cart with no legs, has something to offer and he is doing just that. The second picture shows gratitude, as these three received a special gift of food and immediately raised their hands to praise God. Who is someone that God is laying on your heart to stretch out your hand to give a blessing? What excuse are you telling yourself for not doing it today?
