Sunday, December 27, 2009
thanks!
A huge thanks to those who spotted our in-house needs section and helped provide those items. We appreciate it more than you know!
Christmas and Mother Teresa
Christmas at the trailer is a busy time. Since it is the end of the school semester, there are choir performances and band concerts. I was particularly impressed with our kids this month when they all showed up to a rather boring band concert just to support one of their own. The concert was 6th-8th grade, and our performer was among the last group. That meant sitting through a loooong stretch of other songs, including some played by a 6th grade orchestra, which is never an easy sound to listen to. But there they were, with not a single complaint. It is community at its best.
The season includes two kinds of shopping. The first is the obvious mass outing with my roommates to buy gifts for an ever-increasing list of neighbors. When I left the house for Indiana (where I am writing this), the floor was strew with presents which my roomies faithfully wrapped during an especially busy week for me. The other shopping outing includes the kids themselves. It has become tradition to take them out and let each of them fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. It is important to us that they always feel as if they have something to give, something to contribute, rather than having a sense of always being the one in need. It's one of my favorite things that we do with them.
Over the last month, I have particularly enjoyed chances to see the depth of relationship that has been formed with some of our kids. When one kid recently got into my car sporting the smell of alcohol (or, I hoped, cheap cologne), I was able simply to walk up alongside him, put my arm around him, and ask him about it. We talked,I tried to affirm him, and then we just continued our evening of joking around and hanging out with the others. No anger, no offense. That is the kind of relationship I want.
My personal reading these days has included the (no longer) private writings of Mother Teresa. I am challenged every time I pick up that book. Today I was struck by a letter she wrote about her dream of starting the Sisters of Charity. I had always thought the original goal was to stand by the side of the dying among the poor of India. But I found this instead:
"...the Institute will be especially for the unity and happiness of family life...[for] the countless broken homes , here in India, in Calcutta, everywhere. --It is to make these unhappy homes happy--to bring Jesus into their dark homes that Our Lord wants me and the Sisters to give our lives as victims for homes. --By our poverty, labour and zeal we shall enter every home--gather the little children from these unhappy homes."
I do not live in a country where many beggars lie dying in the streets. But the above is a calling to which I can relate. I can speak of the countless broken homes in America, in my city. I can hear the call to bring Jesus into those unhappy places, and as Mother Teresa, to do so especially among the poor. It calls to mind a favorite quote of mine, with which I will close:
"I am a fragment of a mirror whose design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world--into the black places in the hearts of men--and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."
The season includes two kinds of shopping. The first is the obvious mass outing with my roommates to buy gifts for an ever-increasing list of neighbors. When I left the house for Indiana (where I am writing this), the floor was strew with presents which my roomies faithfully wrapped during an especially busy week for me. The other shopping outing includes the kids themselves. It has become tradition to take them out and let each of them fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. It is important to us that they always feel as if they have something to give, something to contribute, rather than having a sense of always being the one in need. It's one of my favorite things that we do with them.
Over the last month, I have particularly enjoyed chances to see the depth of relationship that has been formed with some of our kids. When one kid recently got into my car sporting the smell of alcohol (or, I hoped, cheap cologne), I was able simply to walk up alongside him, put my arm around him, and ask him about it. We talked,I tried to affirm him, and then we just continued our evening of joking around and hanging out with the others. No anger, no offense. That is the kind of relationship I want.
My personal reading these days has included the (no longer) private writings of Mother Teresa. I am challenged every time I pick up that book. Today I was struck by a letter she wrote about her dream of starting the Sisters of Charity. I had always thought the original goal was to stand by the side of the dying among the poor of India. But I found this instead:
"...the Institute will be especially for the unity and happiness of family life...[for] the countless broken homes , here in India, in Calcutta, everywhere. --It is to make these unhappy homes happy--to bring Jesus into their dark homes that Our Lord wants me and the Sisters to give our lives as victims for homes. --By our poverty, labour and zeal we shall enter every home--gather the little children from these unhappy homes."
I do not live in a country where many beggars lie dying in the streets. But the above is a calling to which I can relate. I can speak of the countless broken homes in America, in my city. I can hear the call to bring Jesus into those unhappy places, and as Mother Teresa, to do so especially among the poor. It calls to mind a favorite quote of mine, with which I will close:
"I am a fragment of a mirror whose design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world--into the black places in the hearts of men--and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."
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