Just You...Right?

I have been thinking of a comment a colleague made, a few years back. She said, " I hear you talk a lot about CHLOE, but it is really 'just you' right?" I've wondered over time just how many people share that opinion. There are actually quite a few people who have made integral investments in leadership, service and expertise to get us to this apex. I did a tally in my head and thought of 40 in a quick count. Some have been on board from the start. Some signed on for a single project or service. One group joined us specifically to learn from us, then launched their own project. Some have tested the waters then jumped ship without warning; leaving me in a quandary. Every non-profit program director I've met with shares the anguish of the wax and wane of volunteer rosters. I am learning that i simply can't take it personally when people abandon the cause...but it is difficult.

We are starting the New Year with a great group of committed volunteers! During 2010 I expect to see a multi-fold increase in people who join forces to help break the cycle of poverty for young single moms and their children. Our friends at Hope House of Colorado keep 250 volunteers busy... another great example of their excellent leadership!

So how many people do we need to make our GED pilot project successful? We need 5- motivated students, 2-facilitators, 5-mentors, child care providers, transporters, and lunch preparers/servers. Potentially we will offer 36 class sessions for 5 young women (including child care, transportation, and lunch). While this pilot project is our current focus we continue to need volunteers to help with other aspects of business, promotion, and technology.

At this point in our journey we are not adequately funded to pay even our professional staff, but that day will come! I am exceedingly grateful for those who are willing to get on board at this juncture.

Merry Christmas!

My all time favorite Christmas song...

Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

Oh, Mary did you know....
Mark Lowery

Sometimes

Sometimes I get really perplexed...

• When circumstances disappoint.
• With red tape, complex laws, and legal codes
• When I read that there are 8x more animal shelters in our community than for human victims of abuse.
• When my heart knows for sure...but words fail me
• That good work must have substantial funds to operate

Sometimes I am simply overjoyed...

• When I meet someone whose heart is bent and priorities set toward justice and service
  
• When my young teen granddaughter expresses interest in Chloe's Place.
• When we receive thoughtful notes or gifts toward the work.
• When someone joins in our work.
• When I envision Chloe's Place... fully operational
  

Sometimes I get really sad...

• When people do not value our work
• When I allow impatience to raise doubt
• When I focus on how quickly time passes, how much work is yet ahead, and aging.

Sometimes I get really angry...

• When seeing another demeaned or threatened
• At dishonesty... abuse... and hypocrisy
  
• When reading an account of yet another woman whose report of abuse was ignored.
• In competing for limited grant funds; knowing how the funds are actually used by some 'esteemed' organizations.

Sometimes I get really hopeful...

• When I learn of new technology that will help to communicate our needs and services.
• When I ponder inspired writings
• When I learn of other services for vulnerable, fragile moms and children
• When I recall those who have promised to pray for Chloe's Place everyday.
• When I remember that Chloe's Place is not mine alone
  

Thanksgiving

Thank You, Thank You, Generous God!
Thank You, thank You, thank You, generous God!
You have injected life with joy, thus we know laughter.
You have dabbed creation with color, thus we enjoy beauty.
You have whistled a divine tune into the rhythm of life, thus we hear music.
You have filled our minds with questions, thus we appreciate mystery.
You have entered our hearts with compassion, thus we experience faith.
Thank You, God, Thank You. Thank You! -
C. Welton Gaddy

Just Do It!

There are two predominant encouragements clinging to the nooks and crannies of my mind these days. The first, a reflection from leaders of Hope House of Colorado; their recent newsletter stated, "Our guiding question this year has been, What are you doing with what God has already given you". The second was spoken regarding the ministry of Chloe's Place. "Just do it", was the message I received from a ministry leader I admire.

I have spent the past 16 months pouring my heart and resources into establishing a ministry that will serve young single moms and their children; equipping fragile families with what they need to grow strong and independent. The time invested has allowed the development of an abundance of documents including forms, program components, and training materials. We have also broadened our support base. While great progress has been made, it seemed like little could be done until we had secured our house...then these two encouragements came...as unexpected gifts.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU?
We have been given:
Passion for facilitating health and wholeness in young moms
Years of experience in a variety of leadership and caring roles
Equipment adequate to set up a small office and classroom
A modest bank account for ministry
Curriculum for some life skill courses
Ever growing number of friends of the ministry

JUST DO IT!...This is what we can do now:
The foundation is laid, strong and ready... keep building
The search is underway for just the right house...keep searching
Plans are underway to set up our Learning Center at a local church or community
building. (it can be moved into the house or to a nearby place in the future)

It seems within the realm of possibility to launch a pilot of our GED Learning Lab in early 2010. The initial idea is to invite 8-10 young single moms (as referred by community organizations) to enroll in our program. We are researching what we need in order to provide leadership, mentors, materials, transportation, lunch, and child care.

EXPECTED BENEFITS:
We will be able to collect experience and hone expertise in specific program
areas.
We may bolster confidence in those who are waiting in the wings to support our
work.
We will be able to gather needed 'measurable outcomes' necessary for grant
applications.
We will equip a number of young single moms toward a better future, some who
may not qualify for our future residential program.

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.

Autumn

There is a nip in the air; seems like autumn is here for sure. It is my favorite season, with one reservation... it ushers in winter! The reminder of seasons and inevitable change directs my thoughts to transformation in my own life... and how raising up Chloe's Place in this particular season of my life makes sense. I have enjoyed lots of seasons. A few of my favorites include: "Baby, Baby, Baby" (the parenting years), "Borders Expanded" (geography & faith), "Onerous Obligations" (engrossed in the lives of the poor & needy) and "They Call Me Gram" (self-explanatory). The seasons vary in time, intensity and comfort, but these (and others) have brought me to the season I currently enjoy. I think I will label it, "Not Because I Must;But Because I May".

If I had to divide my life's seasons differently, to coincide with the familiar lunar calendar, I think I would consider myself in the autumn of my life. Just think about it... long periods of growing and maturing, complete with pruning... and fertilizer! It is time now for me to bring to harvest what has been invested and what I have learned through the years. It is the time to glean from the rich experiences and sow in the lives of others.

I fully recognize there are not enough seasons of life to make all dreams come true or to bring healing to enough wounds. I am however, determined to give my best effort to breaking the cycle of poverty, abuse, and disparity for young single moms and their children.
My days are filled with dreams, projects and schedules all intentionally set to meet the goal of establishing Chloe's Place. Recent progress includes:
...Compiling a contact list of 300 family units
.. Finalizing plans for a monthly E-note
...Reviewing hundreds of real estate offerings (Knowing full well our Development
Director has the search in her capable hands)
...Receiving our first "Impact Partner" donation (one time donation of more than
$1,000.00)
...Meeting outstanding ministry leaders throughout our area and learning from them