We will begin our group book study of Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds, by Tom Davis with a live chat at KnownToMe.net on Sunday, November 1.  We will cover the first two chapters of the book, and will start the chat with some questions or comments that came to the front of our minds, but we will not limit our discussion in any way.  We will then post a summary of the chat to the forum so we can all post additional thoughts throughout the following week.  You can find the Known To Me chat room under the “Member” link at the upper right of the menu bar.  Try that link in advance, you may need to adjust your browser’s security settings to get in.

Since we are studying a Tom Davis book, it is great timing that he will be speaking at First Christian Church on November 6th, 6:30pm.  The evening includes dinner, music, and the presentation by Tom Davis.  This will be special - tickets are $20 per person.  But, we will give two sets of two tickets away in a drawing - just take the plunge and tell your story in the KTM forum letting us know how you found KTM, and if there has been anything in your life that has particularly drawn you to caring for “the least of these”. We are just interested in you! Even a line or two counts here.

Remember, there are a lot of people here from a lot of different social and family settings.  Please jump in to the forum and introduce yourselves, comment on posts… building relationships is at the heart of what we are doing here. 

PS.  Leanne, tell Dave I’m disappointed that I don’t have a comment from him on Pensee #1. 

PPS.  As you get to know me, you’ll find that I like to put people on the spot… including myself sometimes - in a fun and productive way, of course.  The truth is that I hope Dave and Leanne become regular contributors and probably guest bloggers.  Some great insights and writing skills from that duo.  So, you see, if you don’t tell us about yourself, I’ll start choosing what I want to tell about you.  I’m trying to think now of something else I could tell about Dave… maybe about the time I left fragments of my finger for him to clean up in his wood shop.    That was not a good day… amazing how long ago that was now.

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster online…

com·pas·sion
Pronunciation: \kəm-ˈpa-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French, from Late Latin compassion-, compassio, from compati to sympathize, from Latin com- + pati to bear, suffer

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it

Today, the root words forming compassion mean a lot to me:  Com - meaning with, or alongside.  Pati - to suffer.

Don will soon leave his family to travel to Swaziland.  Motivated by compassion.  I remember the tears when my wife left with her dad to go meet our kids in Ethiopia.  I stayed behind with two of our bio kids and believe me, there was some suffering.  The pain of feeling so alone was intense, knowing my wife would be far from home, beyond contact, beyond my ability to provide anything that she might need.  Seeing my son and daughter weep like I had never seen them weep before as I peeled my 7 year-old daughter from her mother’s neck.  In my weakness, I’m not willing to go through that again… not right now anyway.

That’s why I am so humbled and feel such admiration for Don and his family.  I know what they are feeling, and I also know first-hand that the joy that comes from demostrating compassion consistent with God’s plan competely overwhelms the suffering.  Especially when our suffering in a short-term mission is just that: short-term.

The pain we felt was the pain of being alone - without someone we love beyond what we can express.  But Jenny was with her Dad and our 10 year-old son.  I was with her mother and two of our kids.  Not alone at all.  Not compared to the hundreds of millions of children who wake up each morning with no one to hold them.  No one to cry with them, No one to comfort them, No one to tell them they love them.  No one to just quietly put a hand on their shoulder and to say, “I’m in this with you”. 

Today, think about the little, comforting things you would miss if your loved ones were not with you.  Think about kids who long for those comforts with all their being, but will never experience them without you and me.  They exist… they are very real.  I remember how painful it was for me to suffer the absence of those comforts.  Even though I knew Jenny’s absence was short-term, even though I had the benefit of a background of experiencing that kind of support throughout my life.  I weep (I actually am right now as a matter of fact - I have an office at work so I can close my door… thank God for small blessings) to think of kids who experience the grief and pain I experienced - but without hope.

I know Don will leave with some questions, among them: “what can I bring to the situation I will see?”.  Through Don, God will bring someone to cry with those kids, someone to put a hand on their shoulder, someone to tell them that we love them, and that we will not leave them.  He will suffer with them, as will his family who will miss the comfort of his presence - and they will together feel the comfort of God’s joy and peace.  That is my definition of compassion today. 

Blaise Pascal (French pronunciation: [blɛz paskal]), (June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand, France – August 19, 1662, in Paris) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a civil servant. Pascal’s earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.

Pascal was a mathematician of the first order. He helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle’s followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. His results caused many disputes before being accepted.

In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism.[1] His father died in 1651. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his “second conversion”, abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In this year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetic of triangles. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the cycloid and its use in calculating the volume of solids.

Pascal had poor health throughout his life and his death came just two months after his 39th birthday.

Read his full biography at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal.  The depth and breadth of his scientific accomplishments make Pacal arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest classical mathematician and physicist.  If you plan to follow my weekly series of Pensees (that’s French for thoughts), it is informative to know Pascal’s background.  Particularly when pondering pensees such as our first one (below).  Remember that we are dealing with one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the history of the world when you read this:

We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart, and it is in this last way that we know first principles; and reason, which has no part in it, tries in vain to impugn them. The sceptics, who have only this for their object, labour to no purpose. We know that we do not dream, and, however impossible it is for us to prove it by reason, this inability demonstrates only the weakness of our reason, but not, as they affirm, the uncertainty of all our knowledge. For the knowledge of first principles, as space, time, motion, number, is as sure as any of those which we get from reasoning. And reason must trust these intuitions of the heart, and must base them on every argument. (We have intuitive knowledge of the tri-dimensional nature of space and of the infinity of number, and reason then shows that there are no two square numbers one of which is double of the other. Principles are intuited, propositions are inferred, all with certainty, though in different ways.) And it is as useless and absurd for reason to demand from the heart proofs of her first principles, before admitting them, as it would be for the heart to demand from reason an intuition of all demonstrated propositions before accepting them.

This inability ought, then, to serve only to humble reason, which would judge all, but not to impugn our certainty, as if only reason were capable of instructing us. Would to God, on the contrary, that we had never need of it, and that we knew everything by instinct and intuition!

OK, folks… this begs for comments.  I’m looking for good discussion on these.

Welcome to our first prize drawing from the current member list.  Watch the video below for the winning name.  The winner can choose between a book titled “Fields of the Fatherless” or “Red Letter Living: Living a Faith that Bleeds” (our first Known to Me group book study in the on-line chat room; scheduled date coming) or a KnownToMe T-shirt.  The second video below is sub-titled “Take 45” for obvious reasons and a little fun.

Preparation for Swaziland Trip from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Preparation for Swaziland Trip - Take 45 from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

We look forward to sharing more stories, news, pictures and video from the trip as we travel to meet our new community neighbors in Swaziland.

Ok… I lied… I’m not more focused.  But I’m going to keep trying.

First, we’ve become aware that our previous posts have left some lingering confusion regarding our relationship to Children’s Hope Chest.  We are not a part of, nor do we draw our primary support from, Children’s Hope Chest, our church, or any other organization.  The KnownToMe website was self-built, is our own effort, and our community will be what we make it – nothing more and nothing less.  This is an adventure into uncharted waters, but we will be utilizing the established knowledge and expertise at Children’s Hope Chest.  This is an exciting challenge, one in which your participation is critical, and one that we believe we can and must succeed at.  The reality is that the hopes, dreams, and even lives, of a very real and specific group of children will depend on us.  I don’t perceive that as “heavy”, or some kind of burden or guilt trip.  What joy!  To connect with and personally be a part of delivering love and a hopeful future to children who are alone and without hope apart from what God can do for them.  This trip will be the beginning, and all of you are a part of it.

The other topic of my ramblings today is another post copied from the recent trip to Uganda sponsored by Children’s Hope Chest.  Remeber, this is not our trip - these Uganda trip posts are accounts from a trip that will likely be very similar to Don’s upcoming trip to Swaziland.  In comparison to the first post from this trip, what stands out is the stark contrast between the supported community in the first post and the community described in this post, which receives no support.

“Today we went to a village called Ngariam. Ngariam is made up of people who have been traumatized by a nomadic tribe of people called the Karamajong. The Karamajong over the past 50 years have burned their huts and fields, raped their women, abducted some of their children, stolen their cattle and killed anyone who got in their way. To add to that, this area is in the middle of a food crisis. (For those of you who participated in our fund drive for Feed the Forgotten…this is one of the sites where we were able to send food back in June, although there were people who died one day before the food was delivered).

I really can’t put words to what I feel in my heart right now…it’s simply overwhelming – overwhelming that God allowed me to be a part of Mary’s life today…overwhelming that there is such suffering in the world while this would be unthinkable in America. But I’ll save that as well as what I saw with the children in Ngariam for another post. For now, I just want to be in this moment.”

Give me a little Dramamine (ok, more than a little), my favorite neck pillow, my trusty backpack and prayer support, and I am happy to travel.  What a privilege to get to travel with Children’s Hope Chest (CHC) as the representative of the KnownToMe.net Community.  Soon a team of travelers will meet in Atlanta to start our Swaziland Vision Trip. Prior to reading Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds by Tom Davis a few years ago, I do not think I had ever heard much about the small, unique kingdom of Swaziland, and I was definitely unaware of the situation there.  This is what Children’s Hope Chest has said about this trip: “Children’s HopeChest is leading a vision trip for pastors and community leaders to Swaziland, Africa.  Our hope is to create a larger network of churches or businesses here in the US to invest into the lives of people in Swaziland. Never before has there been such a great need for the lives of children and families in Swaziland, Africa.  HIV and AIDS are ravaging an entire generation leaving families devastated and children alone. Approximately 46% of Swaziland’s total population is infected with HIV.”  I could share more overwhelming stats, but this is about more than numbers, it is about communities of individuals.

Trip Details:
We will fly into Johannesburg, South Africa. From Johannesburg, and drive several hours East to Mbane, Swaziland.  This will be our home base as we take one and two day trips out to visit several locations.  More Dramamine is in order here for bumpy road trips, I think.  Our group from the US will be meeting up with a local pastor and others who live and work in Swaziland and with Children’s Hope Chest.  We will see communities (also called care points) who are in need of investment, communities who are just beginning to grow and communities that are beginning to flourish.  One of the communities is more of an inner city type location while the rest are more rural.  One community that has yet to have much investment has a high percentage of child-led households.  A child-led household in these living conditions brings pictures of fear, loneliness, hunger and desperation that is difficult to imagine if these were my children.  In addition to these communities, we will also see a local farm that is established by Swazi people and outside investors to bring more hope and opportunity to the area. 

Christmas is coming early to some communities in Swaziland this year!  With the help of a couple working on the ground with some of the care points in Swaziland, we are going to have one or two Christmas parties for 250+ people!  The group traveling on this vision trip will be carrying requested supplies in our checked luggage that are best purchased here in the US.  In fact, I just received a fee waiver from Delta Airlines that allows me to bring four checked bags at 50 [lb] each to support our mission!  The gifts requested by the people working on the ground in Swaziland are children’s t-shirts for ages 3-10, washcloths, soap and candy.  All of these items have been ordered and are on their way to the carriers in the travel group!  If you are interested in helping to provide this really big Christmas party, please let us know.  Choose an email link to let us know what you would like to do:

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

We purchased in bulk so even $10.00 covers a few t-sirts, plus lots of soap, washcloths and candy.

In the description of this trip by Children’s Hopechest above, the travel team is made up of pastors and community leaders.  While I don’t claim to be a community leader rather a member and representative of an active community, this identifies our role in the Children’s Hopechest trip.  As a representative of KTM’s community, we seek to find our connection with a community in Swaziland.  CHC does not specify this for us, but exposes us to opportunities confident we will see and know where to connect by the leading of our hearts through God’s hand.  KnownToMe is a community of currently 90+ members and readers.  If you have logged in to this site and become a member, you are counted in this number.  All of you/we/us are the members that bring KTM to life.  It is exciting to see where our travels and relationships will transport us as we take action together.  I look forward to finding our connect community in Swaziland, and introducing their stories and images to make them Known To Us.

Hello, all.
We want to tell you how we got here. But, before we do, I want to say that we are really interested in how YOU got here.  What has been stirring in your hearts about these issues? Has it been a journey? Are you just getting used to the idea of “doing more”?  Who has inspired you and how?  If you would like to share, please post to the comments (maybe share a link to your blog if that is easier), submit a blog post for posting or post under Share Your Story in the Known to Me forum.

There was money left on my parent’s dresser where they would find it.  Someone at bible study had left just the amount we needed to purchase school pictures that week which would have been impossible without the gift.  There were grocery deliveries to others by my parents.  Sometimes we could not go along as the area wasn’t safe.  How about the little fund my grandpa set up for each of his grandkids even though he was not rich?  You know I used all few hundred dollars of it to buy my first junky car.  When my husband was 19 years old and in college he had an engineer’s load of school and had to work a lot to pay for school plus the debt he accrued during an emergency surgery.  Some would say ” Get used to real life, young man.”  Instead, a friend living a life of giving, gave him $100.00 a month during the toughest time. So, with these and too many other ‘examples of giving before us and our knowledge of what our Jesus said about giving, we committed to figuring out this life of giving ourselves.

Sometimes we’ve muddled through; sometimes we’ve heard the call.  Still always receiving more than we could ever give.  It was 6 years ago when we received our first Compassion child. As I tore open the package, I was surprised how her picture took my breath away.  There she was in all of her 6yo glory.  Her shoes were only half tied.  Her collar was folded inside her shirt the wrong way.  She reminded me of my own 6yo.  I read in her bio that she had been unable until now to attend school as she had to work with her father to collect sticks which they sold for food.  I guess she was a little different from my child after all.  There before me was her real name, her real eyes and her real situation.  It struck me how my world had been too small without her. 

“Meeting” this little girl in Ethiopia started us on a “Pray, Research, Discuss, Repeat” cycle that eventually propelled us into the far-away land of China Special Needs adoption.  Now our eyes were open to the sea of faces that are the Fatherless.  These Fatherless, our Father says, are known to Him.  For us, through the adoption of our daugthers, we have come to understand more about our own adoption as God’s sons and daughters.  Through our journeys with these children, we have also come to know much more about sacrifice, about loss, about grief,  about neglect, about rejection, about compassion,  about love.  We have found that hard things can be good.  And being in over our heads can be a good place to be.  And we have really only begun.

You have made known to me the path of life.  In your presence is fullness of joy.  Psalm 16:11.

Thanks for reading through a bit of our story.  But we really do want to hear and know more from you.  Would you share your story in the forum?