Dear friends and journey men,
Although our wonderful Mr Payiz and his Sewing Hope team wanted to share with you today, I feel that I need to share something of where we are, and the possibilities that lie ahead for Springs of Hope Foundation.
We here in the Land between the Two Rivers are in a time of financial scarcity yet thanks be to God our needs somehow are always met. We are restricted, but believing that the broadness will again come.
Neither Dr Saeed, nor myself, need anything more. We do not need expansion. So often, even after ten years, the good Dr wipes his brow and says, "Daughter of Jacob, these people give me a headache." He is correct. Life is one of continual overload, and dealing with many third world issues. However, there is a however.
Allow me to direct your thoughts to Genesis 26:12. "Then Isaac sowed in the land and received one hundredfold in the same year and the Lord blessed him."
I have been thinking, particularly during recent regional travel, that our Forefather Abraham was a counter cultural man, a man of audacity, a man of chutzpah as we would say today. He was audacious in believing that this YHVH God, out of all the gods of the known ancient world, had spoken to him. By leaving his home and all that was familiar, he changed human history. He went from the place of all that was familiar to a world totally unknown and unpredictable for him. An unknown God who spoke. As he left all that was familiar and comfortable, he had no idea of what lay ahead. On this unknown journey, with this unknown God, he produced a child of promise, one who would laugh, maybe in the face of the unknown.
Conventional wisdom in a time of scarcity, of sparseness or in famine, would advise cutting back, tightening one’s belt ( and yes we have ) but there is also a wisdom that is beyond ours and is for us to grab hold of. One which is counterintuitive to facts on the ground. There is a wisdom that belongs to heaven. One which in a time of famine, or daily struggle, is audacious enough to move beyond, "these people give me a headache, we don’t want any more." To move beyond the second notch tightened in the belt. To move beyond cultural limitations, to move beyond the fear of failure, of getting it wrong, the fear of inability in the face of impossibility. The chutzpah of sowing and stepping out in faith during crisis. And pulling down wisdom which carries the unseen provision of water (maybe unknown technology) for harvest and brings the promised hundredfold increase.
Isaac, the son of the pioneer of chutzpah, planted in a time of famine and the Lord blessed him.
For the past month, I have been watching Sami and Khero turn over the soil, it's a laborious task even with the aid of machinery. In the depths of winter, when everything appears cold, hard, even dead, they are looking ahead to the harvest that the summer will bring. They dig for harvest.
We are feeling that it is time to journey, from that which we have here in our village, to that which we do not yet have. It is a time to plant seed in a period of famine, with our eyes on the harvest.
We are sensing that our (hopefully God given) Chutzpah will lead us in the due process of time to opening a healing centre for victims of regional war and may we say, acts of terrorism, in the broader region of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
To that end, God willing, we will be holding a quiet event in one of the Emirates of the UAE as the start of pitching our tent. We will share more, this is to drop this audacious idea into your hearts and spirits. The planting of a small seed.
Interestingly as we are walking this new territory, we have been approached by an Ukrainian NGO asking for help with rehab treatment for their survivors of war, children, adults, widows etc. Whilst pushing ahead in the GCC region, we are also examining this possibility of bringing small groups for limited periods of time to Kurdistan.
I share this, in brevity, with you today because you are our friends and journeymen, and we desire to lay out our thoughts, and possible paths opening up to us.
Over the years I have become good at saying NO. I have become discerning in knowing our parameters and boundaries, in some cases unwilling to go into the next city, to the next camp. We have never sought expansion, but during the past year it appears to be coming to us.
I have actually shed tears at the thought of growth, at the concept of expansion. Really at the sheer audacity of daring to believe such a thing could be possible after ten years of labour here, but then my thoughts turn to Psalm 126, "those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy."
Maybe that is the laughter of Isaac, the Chutzpan.
Can you help?
With your help we are changing lives.
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