October Ponderings

My recent choice in reading material has directed my focus to the plight of women and children across the world. The book Three Cups of Tea…offers the account of Greg Mortenson’s passion for the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His astounding humanitarian efforts to educate children, especially girls, is remarkable. My current read, Uwem Akpan’s Say Your’re One Of Them is a collection of five stories that portray the extremes of human depravity inflicted on children living in Africa, wrenches my gut and brings ache to my soul.

So what does that have to do with Chloe’s Place? What does the tragic dilemma of women and children thousands of miles away have to do with our passion to establish a self-sufficiency home for young single moms and their children?

While reading these accounts my mind often flipped back to families I served in Columbus, Ohio working as a community health nurse. I recall having to knock a mass of roaches from a counter, so I could place my baby scale. I remember stepping on slippery, nasty carpet and trying to see how long I could hold my breath… so as not to inhale the stench of animal and human waste embedded in carpet and furniture. I recoil as recall walking into a home ravaged by violence, the mom trembling in fear, the man macho and full of himself...cordial to me. (Later he or another like him murdered that young mom of three). Another sorrowful the memory is of holding a near lifeless infant in my arms… ignorance and neglect having taken him to the brink.

I am in no way trying to diminish the plight of those living in absolute poverty in inhospitable areas of the world . Lord have mercy. Bless the ones bringing light to the dark and destitute places. My crisis of heart is knowing unimaginable hardship and dissoluteness is ordinary in our land; in my community! At least in this region schools, churches, hospitals, clinics, libraries abound. There are, of course, ebbs and flows of funding to meet the need, but over all and comparitively speaking, we are privileged.

Strip away geography, physical features, and cultural traditions, we ‘humans’ are more alike than different. Abraham Maslow’s influential paper writtien in 1943 demonstrates five fundamental human needs and their hierarchical nature.
• Physiological needs are to do with the maintenance of the human body. If our basic physical needs are unmet, then little else matters.
• Safety needs have to do with freedom from hurt, injury, danger, or risk.
• Belonging needs are emotionally based relationships… friends, family, intimacy.
• Esteem needs is the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others.
• Self-actualization needs when met allow us to ‘become what we are capable of becoming', which would be our greatest achievement.

I cannot climb a mountain in Khablu to bring books and classrooms to the children there. If one day I have the privilege to travel to Africa, it will be for a brief mission venture or for pleasure; to accompany my daughter and her husband to welcome their adopted baby from Ethiopia. I can, and do, offer financial gifts, as I am able, to support the work in far away places. I admire those doing the hard work of day to day, engagement, reconciliation, and justice seeking.

Meanwhile on the home front…
Through the work of caring persons supporting and staffing Chloe’s Place we will be able to provide an environment that will:
• Provide for ‘physical needs’ of young moms and their children. Moms will be equipped with knowledge to be effective advocates for healthy families .
• Keep moms and their children ‘safe’. Expecting that most of the moms we serve will have experienced some form of abuse, ( 25% of all girls do…25% of abused girls become pregnant as teens ) we will operate somewhat like a safe-house. Moms will gain knowledge in child development and parenting skills that will promote safety in the lives of their children.
• The families residing at Chloe’s Place will indeed experience ‘belonging’ in a structured, supportive, caring community.
• Critical spirits and judgmental attitudes are not welcome at Chloe’s Place. The moms and kids will experience ‘acceptance’. They will know they are valued and will learn to extend grace to others whose journey has been different.
• ‘Self actualization’ is the icing on the cake. When our moms complete their GED, enroll in college, or become prepared for a positive career, it is then we will celebrate with them as they inch closer to becoming what they are capable of becoming.

The one issue that is not clearly addressed in the Maslow work is that value of faith. Chloe’s Place has at its heart a desire to conduct business, engage in relationships, and serve others as demonstrated by Jesus in scriptural accounts. Our families will be exposed to Christian literature and liturgy. They are not mandated to vow allegiance to any particular tradition of faith, only to explore the mercy, grace and holistic implications of Christian faith.

Do you see the potential in this? It is not just one mom or one child that will benefit… there will be entire families impacted. The cycle of poverty and all of its dastardly implications will be broken in the lives of some; in the lives of generations for others!

So be it.