How Will I Live?

Our training time in Fort Wayne has challenged us to consider our pictures of God, ourselves, others and nature. Something that has stuck with me is the importance of hope and dignity and how we show those to others. 

In one of our sessions, we were asked how we would define poverty. Many of us said something like: when you don't have enough resources to meet your basic needs. Then we read a small excerpt from the book, "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkart. In this excerpt, the WorldBank did a study where they asked the question "what is poverty" to more than sixty thousand poor people from sixty low income countries. They did this as an effort to better understand the nature of poverty and how to combat it in a way that is beneficial to those who are poor. These are a few of the quotes that were recorded: 

"For a poor person everything is terrible--illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." -Moldova 

"When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior. She has no food, so there is famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family." -Uganda 

"If you are hungry, you will always be hungry; if you are poor, you will always be poor." -Vietnam 

After reading these and other quotes, my eyes were open to the extensiveness of poverty and how people feel who are impoverished. Once I started to understand more about the nature of poverty, I started to understand how hope and dignity play a huge role in all this. 

We are driven by our hope. If you want to run a marathon, it's the hope of winning that makes you train for it. Hope is what keeps us going, even when everything around us seems to be falling apart. Without hope, life can be depressing and well, hopeless. 

Dignity. When we treat someone with dignity, we are communicting to them that they have value; that they are worth our time and energy. When we show people dignity, it takes interacting with them in a personal, relational way. 

So instead of asking "What will I do?" now I'm asking "How will I live?" 

Here we go!

Well, I'm off! After two years of dreaming and six months of planning and preparations, I am finally on my. I am writing this in the air as I fly to Chicago to transfer to Fort Wayne, Indiana. I will be picked up from the Fort Wayne airport and taken to the Experience Mission centre. 

As you can imagine, people have been asking me if I am excited for my trip. Truthfully, before last night I was not very excited. I was nervous and a little stressed and dare I say it, scared. For some reason this trip has been harder to leave for than my other trips, going to Costa Rica for Bible school or Thetis Island for Bible school. It got to the point that when I thought of leaving, my eyes started welling up with tears. It was a mixture of sadness and I think fear, but I didn't want to acknowledge to fear. Because why should I be afraid? I've traveled by myself before, I've been to Costa Rica before and I am familiar with the culture and food. And I love the language and staying with host families. So where was the fear coming from? Well, with the help of my Auntie Kim, Uncle Darrel and my mom, we came to the conclusion that it was the enemy. He was trying to mess this up for me, and what better way then to make me fearful. So that evening, they all came around me and prayed for me and spoke truth and life back into my head and my heart. After that prayer time, I felt so much better. Gone was the anxiety and uneasiness about going on this trip. They reminded me who my Father is and who I am. Christ is victorious and I can walk in that victory. I know that I am a child; a daughter of my Heavenly Father. I am not an orphan. I am loved, accepted and valued. I have a place; I belong. He provides for me and is my safety and security; He is my refuge. 

As people have been praying for me and speaking words and pictures over me there have been similar themes. Such as, this trip is not going to be what I expect; God will be surprising me. I also know that this will be a very spiritually important trip for me and Jesus. So, I guess I don't necessarily know what to expect, but I am eagerly anticipating whatever God has planned for me! 

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and your prayers! I would greatly appreciate both as the next three months go on. The best way to get a hold of me is by Facebook messaging me or emailing me jayda.hooge@gmail.com

Thank you!!!