Remember me!
I feel like I’ve let you down, I haven’t updated my blog since Tuesday night / please forgive me. It’s as if I’ve been riding the rapids this week – early mornings / long days / tired evenings. It’s been a good week / no complaints / just a lotttt of week! (I bet you know what I’m talking about.)
There have been a lot of good things happen this week. One of the highlights would have to have been Sonja and me working in the nursery Wednesday night. This is one of the most important and significant things we PEPpers do (taking care of children is real high on Jesus’ list!) and it is always a little nervy trying to fill the positions with dedicated volunteers. So I asked the pastoral team to get on board to show that this truly is a value and also to just get a blessing / and blessing it was! (See pictures)
But the absolute top billing in Kempville for highlight of the week would have to be the joyful news that Lee and Jennifer are going to have a baby GIRL (due in October). Of course I would have been happy with another boy, but I’ve sort of had my fingers crossed hoping for a little girl. So I am very thankful to make this announcement. I congratulate Lee and Jennifer also / I sometimes forget having grandchildren means that my children have become parents! 🙂
I have been thinking about the world my granddaughter will be born into. Compared to her male counterpart, a girl growing up in the developing world (which is the majority of the world) is more likely to die before her fifth birthday and less likely to go to school, since girls are often forced to work rather than attend school. (Two-thirds of the world’s eight hundred million illiterate are women.)
Compared to her male counterpart, a little girl born in the developing world is also less apt to receive adequate food, health care, and economic opportunities, but more apt to be forced to marry before age sixteen and to be the victim of sexual and domestic abuse. Some two million children, mostly girls as young as five years old, are part of the growing commercial sex trade around the world.
Five hundred thousand women die every year from complications in childbirth; that’s one woman every minute. Girl babies are even killed in countries where males are considered more valuable. Those who survive are denied property rights and inheritance in many countries. In fact, women own less than 1 percent of the world’s property. They also work two-thirds of all the world’s labor hours, but earn just 10 percent of the world’s wages. (These facts come from the book, “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision.)
So, Lord willing, in a few months when I have the privilege of holding my third grandchild (my second is already in Heaven) and look into her little eyes I am going to be so grateful that she is born into such a wonderful and privileged state. But I am also going to do all I can to help her to grow up with a sense of mission and purpose that understands that with her privilege entry into this world comes a responsibility to all those who were not so blessed / especially her sisters around the world.
On this Mother’s day eve, perhaps we should all think about this as we remember and honor our mothers and sisters around the world.
My God grant it,
dlkemp
QUOTATION OF THE DAY:
- “Without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption. Jesus wanted to help by sharing our life, our loneliness, our agony, our death. Only by being one with us has he redeemed us. We are allowed to do the same; all the desolation of the poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed, and we must share it, for only being one with them can we redeem, that is, by bringing God into their lives and bring them to God.” _ Malcom Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, The Classic Account of Mother Teresa’s Journey into Compassion, p. 68
The ONE THING 