This time, we are really ready to get started. If you’re here at this early stage, you are probably a part of the group we’ve been baiting for some time about our plans. I’ll try to answer the most obvious questions in this post.
What is this all about, anyway?
First and foremost, it is about building communities. That has a dual meaning for us. It means providing financial and emotional support for a community of orphans and child-headed households in Swaziland (read the “general information” page in the “community” link at the top of this page for details). We will see this community transformed and “built” in very tangible ways as we help bring it from a place of desperate poverty to a place where needs are met and education is provided to pave the way to a brighter future. It also means stretching ourselves to build relationships and personally connect to each other. Connections and relationships that result in open sharing of fears, joys, needs, and support (read the “vision” page in the “local” link).
Our goal is nothing less than transformation of two communities in need. One in need of basic sustenance and opportunity, another in need of connecting in an increasingly impersonal and isolated society. Our hope is nothing less than a fundamental change in our way of thinking. I know I need that change – a change in focus from protecting what is “mine” to a desire to love others through providing freely from what I have been blessed with.
Ok, but how are you going to do that?
Our tools for doing this include a blog in which you’ll hear many thoughts and perspectives on life in general and what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves. Hopefully our thoughts will make you laugh, cry, think, and ultimately join us in building our “sister” communities. You are welcome to post comments to our entries and to submit your own entries for publishing.
We will provide an avenue for providing the financial support needed to transform an entire community in Swaziland. That support will be paired with building individual relationships with the orphans we will support through correspondence and visits (we have a goal of members of our community traveling to our Swaziland community twice a year).
We have provided (and will provide more) links to ways to support communities in need through your everyday purchases (see the “purpose shop” link). We will also offer parties parallel to Pampered Chef parties where we will bring inventories of these items for purchase, along with good company and a discussion of our goals and our obligation to help others.
We will have book club discussion on our live chat page – the first will be Red Letters by Tom Davis.
We will develop a forum (not yet in place) for discussion and presenting local needs and opportunities to help.
The first step for you to join us is to create an account that allows you to comment on our blogs, submit blog entries, and participate in chats. Create an account by selecting “New? Register” in the “Login” link above. There is no obligation in registering… please do that, please contact us, comment on our posts, let us know what you’re thinking.
The posts that will follow will answer the questions of who we are and what compelled us to pull this together. We’ll then move into some of the “real” stuff, with posts from a recent trip to Uganda that should parallel the trip to Swaziland we will participate in later this month.
We don’t expect you to agree with everything you read here. These topics are not easy, don’t have simple answers, and we won’t make any pretense of having all the right answers. We crave your input, especially your dissent. Struggling through difficult issues together is how we grow. Please stick with us, grow with us. As I said before… I hope and pray that our journey is anything but safe and comfortable.
