Christmas List: Lesson of a Priceless Life

Sometimes going to the girls home can feel like entering a black hole. If spiritual warfare is particularly high that day or if the enemy of the past -who laboriously visits the girls' minds - is invited to stay, then a cloud of darkness seems to mask itself as the ceiling. Sometimes it feels like entering a fortress of defeated dreams. Sometimes it feels like energy is zapped out of me, as if those I'm ministering to are attempting to suck the life right out of me. Sometimes I forget. I forget the horrors of their past. I forget the doubts and lies that still tug at their worth and torture their dreams to a silent scream. Sometimes I forget that sitting so close to this kind of pain and heartache day after day has a grave effect on me and my own happiness. Sometimes I don't notice that my smile has retreated or even worse my laugh has gone to sleep.

But then in the midst of "sometimes" it just takes ONE time to change it all. The "one" moments are not often profound, dramatic, or even worth telling a story. Usually those moments are simple, tender, and extraordinarily contagious. It's Joy. Joy is so powerful that it takes one moment to undo a lifetime of darkness. True joy. I'm not talking about happiness, for that kind of pleasure is great and we need it, but it lasts only a moment. The joy I'm talking about is the Joy as a Choice. Joy that says, even though there's a cloud above my head, my HEART knows the sun is out there; and so we choose to rejoice in the sunshine, even if we cannot see it.

It's this very lesson I gave the girls last week. For our nightly devotion, I tried teaching them the difference between happiness and joy, and that joy was their choice. It is something that cannot be taken from them. The lesson morphed into an early Christmas wish list. They began to dream and write up a list of things that would make them both happy and give them joy. Reading their lists was remarkable. They understood. They understood more than I did the difference between joy and happiness.  They wrote some material items they wanted, but most lists were filled with wishes to do something - opportunity, experience, service = all things that give us JOY.  A number of them wrote a way to bless me. For example, one of the youngest wrote: "To help you clean your house," and "To stay overnight with you." Another one wrote: "To buy you a car and new house when I'm old. (And you can't say 'no thanks')"  Their lists amazed me so much, that I think we can all learn from them.

Here are some of their wishes:

 Can you tell what their favorite restaurant here is? :)

Amazing, isn't it? Remarkable, aren't they? So, who wants to help bless them with items on their wish list? Due to shipping costs and that fact that it takes at least a month (sometimes 3) to get any items here, it will work best if people could donate money in the name of certain item so that we can purchase it here. However, if there's something small (like a ring or watch) you could send in an envelope (cheaper and faster) you could mail it here.

So, for anyone wanting to send Christmas blessings, please do this:

-Go to www.hoseasheart.org/donate and donate the amount of money you'd like to give for a certain item.
-Please leave a note that says which item it is for. If you don't need to specify a certain item, you can leave a note that says, "Christmas gift for girls" and we will add it something that is not yet purchased. Since some of their wishes are not for items but for outings, general donation amounts will enable us to take them out for a day trip or do something extra fun like go to a swimming pool or something else for Christmas.
-Please contact me personally to let me know what you have donated so I can then send you pictures of the items we are able to buy from your donations.
-You can also feel free to mail a card/letter so that I can give it with your gift.

Please address as follows:
Hosea's Heart
PO Box C2536
Hub-Manzini
Manzini
Swaziland
Africa