Advocate

How can we help the poor and the least of these while living in the United States?  Advocacy.

There are many passages in the Bible where either God is asking us to defend the cause of the poor, the widow, the foreigner, and the orphan or describing Himself as someone who does those things.  An advocate is someone who speaks up for those who have no voice, who raises money and awareness, who brings hidden issues to the attention of people who have the power to affect change.  All of us can be advocates.  You may be sitting there wondering, "What can I do?  Would anything I could possibly do actually make a difference?"  I asked my friend, Jenn to write up her story.  I pray you are inspired.  Advocacy is for all of us.  Who knows how much kingdom good you could accomplish in just one year simply by using your passion, creativity, and voice to be a part of God's kingdom work.

{{Guest post by Jenn Bacak}}

Jenn blogs here.
She and her husband, Rusty, recently returned from a trip to Ghana
where they are adopting an eight-year-old girl.

All photos in this post by the Norvell family.

About four years ago, my wonderful parents decided that we would support Compassion's Child Survival Program as a family. As we have evolved into a non-gift giving family at Christmas, my parents were thinking outside of the box. They gave each of their five grown children (shared with our spouses and boat-loads of children) $50 seed money. They asked us to come up with a creative way to make more money with our seed money for the Child Survival Program.

My family did a measley hot chocolate stand at the mall the day after Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work, kind of embarrassing, we froze our tails off, and made about $100 profit. We walked away having completed our "assignment" but not fully satisfied with the result. But after all, my brothers were the fundraisers, not me. I have three amazing brothers. They all three travel the world and work on the behalf of organizations like Compassion and Living Water. They were the ones doing great things. I was a Mom at home, just listening to their stories and seeing their pictures. I wanted to make a difference, I just didn't know how to from my little home base.

Over the next year, God was moving in our hearts. My brother and his wife were adopting from Ethiopia, and my husband and I read a book they asked us to read. It was called "There is no me without you" by Melissa Faye Green. God used this secular book to break our hearts for people living in poverty. He didn't just break us. He shattered us. We felt like we needed a support group to read this book. We were reading, weeping, lying awake at night, just ruined. It's an amazing book, but it was not the power of the print. It was truly God moving in us. Until we were moved, we would not MOVE.

After this point, we saw our assignment differently. We were hungry to do SOMETHING. We had to. We couldn't be the same people. We couldn't see life, our resources, our talents, our abilities the same way. We were desperate for God to use us to advocate for the poor, the orphan, the fatherless, the destitute.

That's where the idea of Run For Compassion came in. We got our $50 seed money again and asked the Lord, what would you have us do? We wanted to think bigger this year. I was running with a sweet college girl who is dear to me, Jeanna, and we thought, what about a race? We were runners. We could put on a race to raise money.

We had NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into. Turns out, putting on a 5K is totally different from running one. It's a lot of work! We learned a lot, and learned the hard way that first year. Run For Compassion 2009 was our first baby, and we were like clueless first time parents. But our goal was $4,000. I thought that was crazy, but that was the number we were asking the Lord for, and we made almost exactly that. $4,000 is a lot of money! We were able to send it all to the Child Survival Program, and it was so exciting! Who was I? A stay-at-home Mom, just crazy enough to homeschool four kids. I was not a professional Christian, a missionary, a world traveller. But I got a taste of being apart of this Kingdom work, and we wanted more.

 

Run For Compassion had to continue! We went for round 2. We had a small clue what we were getting into, and wanted to go bigger. We decided to double our goal. We wanted to support two Child Survival Program projects. The first year we benefited a project in Ethiopia, and in 2010 we added Haiti. Like many of you, we were so broken for what was happening to the people of Haiti and wanted to act. We asked the Lord for $8,000. I was afraid to even tell people our goal. I thought it was just too much. But I wanted to send $4,000 to each project. So we gave it all we had, and Run For Compassion 2010 was awesome! We ran right past our goal and made $11,000!!!! This blew us away!

 

My involvement with Compassion increased, and I became apart of the Advocate Network. I started learning more about the plight of children living in poverty. This changed the way I saw life. I learned about malaria, the #1 killer of children in Africa. I decided to share what I was learning with the people in my sphere of influence, my homeschool co-ops. I started a fundraising campaign in the fall of 2010 for Bite Back, Compassion's anti-malaria program, and spent the semester reading everything I could about malaria, and then educating the boys, girls, Moms and Dads in my co-ops. Some of them got excited about it too! We raised $8,000, mostly online, for malaria nets for children living in poverty. Who knew you could raise $8,000 with really just a handful of families jumping on board? I didn't!

 

This past Spring was Run For Compassion 3. We went bigger, and raised our goal. I was afraid to say the numbers out loud...but we decided to ask the Lord for $15,000. Seriously!? Were we crazy? This is not our full-time job, folks. My husband is a doctor, an elder at our church, and I am a homeschool Mom with a house full of crazy kids. How did we reach this point? But God was so faithful! He blessed our meager efforts and turned them into more. We made about $20,000 this year. I am so humbled by this, because we are not amazing race directors. He just asked us to BE MOVED, to DO SOMETHING. And He did the rest.

This journey has changed us. We see our money, our resources, our children, our lives differently. As I've learned about child slave labor, I can't buy the same chocolate and coffee I used to. I've learned about using my spending power for those in need. We had a "fair trade Christmas" last year, and it was never so exciting for me to buy Christmas gifts! I'm so thankful that God is continually opening our eyes to the needs of His people. After breaking us for those in need, He just whispered in our ears, "Do something."

_______________________________

Who is inspired?  Jenn's post is so exciting because I know...I know so many of you will read something like this, be moved...and get moving.  Pick a cause (with care).  Then get creative.  Involve your family.  Maybe this is the year that God wants to start writing a completely different story for you and the people living in your home.  Maybe He's inviting you to be a part of something big, something life-altering for yourself, your children, and those for which you are advocating.  I have to always remember...God is a much better author...a much better storyteller, a much better character developer, than this world and the "norm" will ever be.

If you are a grandparent...wow.  Seed money for Christmas.  What a beautiful legacy to leave behind.  Imagine the rich, gospel fruit that will grow from that one, tiny Christmas seed.

Other posts in this series on "Caring for the Poor While Living in the US":

Caring for the Poor While Living in the Good ol' U-S of A?

Who Are the Poor?

Looking for the Poor 

Hi, My Name is Heather and I'm a Modern Day Slave Owner

Helpful Links

Barn Burning 

First, The Purging 

The Better World Shopping Guide 

More Really Great Shopping Resources 

Running Hard After Redemption 

Seeko Sandals 

Batik Boutique 

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