Today was another day of Christmas gift distribution in Honduras.  I can’t wait to share pictures with you all… unfortunately our internet connection is a bit weak so uploading photos is a challenge.

If you are a Cross Point attender, I hope you’ve been partnering with us in our 12 Days of Serving.  Some of the stories that I’m hearing have been amazing!

One of the 12 Days of Serving opportunities that is most dear to my heart is our Honduras Child Sponsorships.  I had the opportunity to meet Emely this week, the little girl that I sponsor.  I was able to give her a Christmas gift, a giant hug and confirm that she is thriving and happy.  That’s the best Christmas gift I’ll get this year!

If you are still looking for a way to be a part of our 12 Days of Serving, I encourage you to consider child sponsorship.  The children we sponsor attend the school that Cross Point supports in San Marcos de Colon, Honduras.  Your sponsorship of $30.00 a month helps pay for two meals a day plus school fees for the most impoverished children in the area.

You can get more info here.  Maybe you could join us on a future trip to meet your sponsor child too!

It’s been almost two years since I was first impacted by the beautiful people of Kolkata, India.  That city left a mark on my heart that is easy to uncover with a simple reminder of the challenges that face many of the women who live there.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of meeting the leaders of Freeset, an organization in Kolkata dedicated to rescuing woman from human trafficking.  It didn’t take much for that little mark on my heart to ache from the stories that I heard.

Let me share one with you…

Sonhita

“My mother’s life was very hard, but she did it for us – my brother and I,” Sonhita says of her mother who worked in the sex trade.  For Sonhita, growing up in a red light area meant her life was constantly affected by the sex trade. “All the time there were customers in our room. When I was young it was hard to study because of this, I had to stay outside and play in the street with friends.  It was really difficult.  When I got older it got even worse – many customers wanted me.  I thought, ‘If only I could just grow up and get married to get away from this’… but my mother didn’t have enough money to give me in marriage.”

It was a relief for her then, when one day she noticed some foreigners spending a lot of time in the area. “I saw Kerry, and asked him if I could work and he said OK, come. Freeset has brought a big change in my life – it solved lots of my problems,” she says.

For one thing, Sonhita was able to get married, “My parents were not financially strong enough to ‘give me away,’ so I got married with my own savings from working at Freeset.”

But life still presents her with tough challenges. Sonhita’s three year old daughter has suffered from serious medical issues since she was very young. “The money I get from Freeset for my daughter’s treatment is a lot higher than the salary that I draw. If I hadn’t received that help from the Freeset family, it would never have been possible for me to pay for my daughter’s treatment” she says.

She is quite certain of Freeset’s place in the community, “People always say that due to this place many women have been able to quit the line. Their uncertain lives have found certainty.”

Freeset is located in Calcutta, India, helping to free women from human trafficking by providing them employment with dignity through sewing bags. Every woman is provided medical insurance, retirement, daycare for their children, classes to learn how to read and write, and three times the wage they would receive “in line.”

It’s no secret to you all that I love to give at Christmas time, but I love to give in ways that not only bless the one I’m giving the gift to, but bless the hands who created the gift.  As you do your Christmas shopping this year, let me encourage you to order a Freeset bag or two.  A beautiful gift that also gives hope and dignity to a woman across the globe.

Join us every day, December 1-12, for 12 Days of Freedom with Freeset and become a part of the freedom story. Watch our video, shop our bags, change lives.

This weekend is one of my favorite events at Cross Point!

Serving Saturday!

A few times a year we put together a massive serving day where all of our campuses participate in serving projects all across the greater Nashville area.

We partner with local ministries, non-profits and public schools to serve our community where resources might otherwise be slim.  From construction projects to landscaping to adopt-a-block clean-ups to a spa day with women from a women’s shelter, hundreds of Cross Point volunteers serve their hearts out.

It’s beautiful!

If you don’t believe me, hear what they have to say…

Serving Saturday // 10.29.2011 from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

It’s not too late to join us.  You can sign up here!

Hope to serve beside you Saturday!

The school where I served this summer in San Marcos, Honduras.

On Sunday, President Porfirio Lobo declared a state of emergency in southern Honduras following torrential rains that have caused severe flooding in several departments, especially Choluteca and Valle which are under red alert status. The departments of Atlántida, Colón, Comayagua, Copán, Cortés, La Paz, Intibucá, Lempira, Ocotepeque, and Santa Bárbara are under a yellow alert, as is the city of Tegucigalpa. A total of 14 people have died thus far as a consequence of the floods and 10,394 have been evacuated from their communities.

from Honduras Weekly

This is all happening in the heart of where Mission Lazarus, the ministry we support in Honduras, is located.  As I see pictures and hear reports from the missionaries we partner with there, my heart aches… I was just there this this summer.

Fortunately or unfortunately I understand the devastation of a flood.  It’s no longer just news, it’s personal and painful.

You can click here to read a more detailed report from Seth & Rebekah, an amazing couple who are missionaries there.  They were trapped in their home which was partially flooded and has sustained significant damage.

Cross Point is sending funds to support the relief efforts of the Mission Lazarus team.  Would you join us by:

1) Praying for the people of Honduras who are displaced.  Many of them already have so little, so this loss is really painful.

2) Praying for the Mission Lazarus team.  They are working all hours to provide relief.  This group of mostly 20-somethings are remarkable leaders.  I’m so proud of them.  They need our prayers and encouragement.  The days are long and exhausting.

3) Giving to the relief efforts.  Your gift will go a long way towards rebuilding.

Mission Lazarus team – much love and prayers are being sent your way.  Stay the course.  You guys are amazing!

Mama Maggie Gobran

Founder and CEO, Stephens Children Ministry
Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

Mama Maggie Gobran led a comfortable life in Cairo. A Coptic Christian from a prominent Egyptian family, she taught computer science and lectured at Cairo University. But following a conviction from God, she started a ministry to serve the poor in her city. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee this year, Mama Maggie has spent 20 years serving the poorest of the poor.

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Session Notes: Tough Callings

Bill Hybels‘ opening thoughts:

We all love rags to riches leadership stories, but if we’re not careful we think that everything we lead should go up and to the right.

But what if God selected a few leaders to lead things that are important but will never reach heightened levels of earthly success?

How subtly addicted as leaders are we to the narcotic of growth and success?

Notes from  Mama Maggie’s talk:

We don’t choose where to be born, but we choose whether to be sinners or saints.  We can choose to be a nobody or a hero.  To be a hero, do what God is calling you to do.

Egypt has sent to heaven the most martyrs in history.

To be elegant comes from inside.  To be elegant is to love, and true love is to give…and to give until it hurts.

Forgiveness is not between you and the other, it’s between you and God.  He is holding the account.

When one has nothing, God becomes everything.

When I touch a poor child, I’m touching Jesus.  When I listen to a poor child, I’m listening to God’s heart beating for all humanity.

Have a pure heart and get to know The Almighty.

The silence is the secret.

To be in silent is to fully be inside your own self and there we discover the taste of eternity.

Silence your body to listen to your words.  Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts.  Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beating.  Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.  Silence your spirit to listen to His spirit.

In silence you leave the many to be with The One.

My thoughts:

I was absolutely captivated by the humility of this amazing woman.  She has so much reverence for God and the calling He has for her.  Words are not enough.

May we all be so confidently humble in God’s calling on our lives…

Hon. Cory A. Booker

Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
Urban Reformer

In 2006, while still in his thirties, Cory Booker was elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey. With degrees from Stanford University and Oxford University (where he attended as a Rhodes Scholar), he moved to Newark during his final year at Yale Law School. In the years that followed, he lived in a troubled housing complex in the city’s Central Ward, advocated for education reform, served on the City Council, and founded the non-profit organization Newark Now. Unconventional in his approach to urban issues, he represents a new generation of pragmatic urban politicians. Since his election, Newark has seen a significant reduction in crime, doubled the amount of affordable housing under construction, slashed the city budget, and attracted over $100 million in private philanthropy.

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Session Notes: Stand Up

You are the result of a grand conspiracy of love.

What will you do?

The world will try to lull you into mediocrity.

Will you show that you are born unique?

Don’t accept your existence as it is.  Rise!

We are here because of people who had extraordinary vision and the courage to stand up and do something about it.

You’re attitude about the world has nothing to do with the world, it speaks to your character.

The only way to make change in this world is to start with oneself.  If it is to be, it’s up to me.

If we live our values we can create radical transformation.

Before you tell me what you preach and teach, show me first how you live and give. 

Who you are speaks so loudly that I can’t hear one thing you say.  It’s about the thoughts you put into action.

“Liberty and justice for all” can not just be a pledge, they must be a call/purpose by which we live.

How will you choose to stand up?

Valentine’s Day – L O V E Day

I am blessed with a wonderful husband, great family, dear friends and my furry Valentine Mick , however the greatest thing on my mind today is our Cross Point team over in Kolkata, India.  They are being love in ways that go far beyond anything Hallmark ever dreamed up.

These guys are love in action.  This Valentine’s Day, they are the ultimate act of love.

An open letter to our Cross Point team in India:

Cross Point team,

I’m so proud of you guys!  I know that this trip is stretching you in ways you never dreamed possible.

Curry… lots of it.  Roaches.  Smells.  Cold showers.  Hot, dry, dusty days.  More curry.

Smiles.  Grateful hearts.  Little hands that want to hold yours.  Little feet that want to follow you.

Take in every moment.  Every painful one.  Every joyful one.  Let your heart feel.  Collide with the tension of extreme poverty and unexplainable hope.

You are walking hope!  Be hope to the precious faces you encounter.  Push past the tiredness, the illness and the emotional toil and love these people for this moment.  You are literally breathing Christ’s love to them.  As you give of everything you have, receive their gratefulness.  As you reflect God’s love to them, see His love reflected in their eyes.

This moment will mark you.  It will change you (if you let it).  Your experiences there will be seared into your memory and you will never be the same.

Thank you for loving, for serving, for giving your time and your resources to love others.  Thank you for being the church.  Thank you for being the ultimate act of love this Valentine’s Day.

I’m so proud of you and I’m praying for you every single day!

With so much love and gratefulness,

Jenni

** You can see more from our India team’s journeys at Pete’s blog

I love, love, love Christmas!

I can remember as a little girl planning for Christmas for literally months.  I loved to give gifts, but in order to do that on my meager allowance or babysitting money I would have to start planning EARLY.  I’m talking like September – seriously!  I loved to give gifts to everyone in the family and so I would plan to buy one gift per week.  I would make a list of everyone I wanted to give a gift to.  Then I would determine what I was giving them and week by week go shopping for them one by one.

These days, I’m lucky if I’ve got my Christmas shopping complete by Christmas Eve, but although the pace of my life has hijacked my planning, my love for giving hasn’t changed one bit.  There’s nothing better than the joy of seeing someone open the perfect gift.

So to kick off this month of giving, my first gift is going to be the gift of clean water to a village in Uganda.

I’ve started a team with Gifts of Water to rally my friends and family to join me.  Would you consider donating $10 and joining my team to give the essential gift of clean water this Christmas?

And just to add a little incentive, I will give an additional $1 for every one of you that joins my team.

Join my team HERE!

Let’s make a difference together and GIVE!

I recently announced the cool opportunity that Cultivate Her gets to be a part of with Leading & Loving It and Mercy Ministries this year at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  I’ve talked about Leading & Loving It before and how much I love what they do, so I thought it would be great to share a story with you about the power of Mercy Ministries.

FINDING HOPE WHEN HOPELESS… FINDING JESUS

Three years ago, a girl—we’ll call her Rachel—walked through Mercy Ministries’ doors for the first time.

Rachel was born to parents who never wanted her—and they told her so constantly.  She grew up believing she was no more than a mistake, wondering what she did to deserve such abuse at the hands of those who should have protected her. These were her PARENTS!

When most girls turn 13, they’re giggling about boys and trying on lip-gloss.  When Rachel turned 13, she was sold into sex trafficking by her own family, for less than $100, abandoned like trash on the side of the road.

Tormented by nightmares and tangled in a web of lies, Rachel never knew she had a way out.  When she escaped this horrific trap and led to Mercy by a friend, Rachel met the God who was watching over her even in her darkest moments.

She began to change her thoughts, learning Jeremiah 29:11 by heart: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

It didn’t happen overnight, but gradually Rachel began to see herself as God saw her—loved, valuable, and chosen by name.

She found Mercy…  She found Jesus…

Sarah was far too young to be a mother when she got pregnant—by her own biological father.  To hide his sin from the rest of the family, Sarah’s father knew he couldn’t bring her to a doctor.  He took matters into his own hands and used a coat hanger to kill the unborn child.  This was her FATHER!

Sarah was locked up in shame and self-hatred when she arrived at Mercy.   How could anyone look beyond her horrible past?

Sarah’s counselor told her to listen to Joyce Meyer’s teachings while here at Mercy, and as Joyce shared how her father abused her as a child as well, Sarah learned to hope again.  After all, if God could rescue Joyce from that pit and use her story as inspiration to thousands of people across the globe, then maybe, just maybe, He could do that for Sarah, too.

When she realized that God had sent His son to redeem her long before she even existed, she slowly began to believe, “This is never what God wanted for my life.  He loves me.  My biological father may have hurt me, but I have a new heavenly Father who promises that nobody will ever take me from His hand again.”

Sarah found Mercy… She found Jesus…

Like many Mercy grads, Rachel and Sarah left the program with their lives transformed and their hearts anew.  Many of Mercy’s grads have wonderful families of their own, loving the Lord, and some on the mission field – these young women are now thriving as productive members of society.

Since Mercy Ministries opened in 1983, girls like Sarah and Rachel have been set free from all forms of abuse:  human sex trafficking, unplanned pregnancies often times due to incest or rape and life-controlling issues that include eating disorders, depression, self-harm and addictions.  This FREE Christian residential counseling program offers help to girls 13-28, again at NO COST! There are homes all around the country in Nashville, TN; St. Louis, MO; Lincoln, CA; and Monroe, LA.

More than 2-thousand other young women have successfully completed the program. They, too, found Mercy…. They found Jesus…

For more information on Mercy Ministries, visit www.mercyministries.com.

Ahhh, it’s Friday!  Doesn’t matter how short the week is, Friday is always fabulous.

I’ve got two big things on my mind this weekend.

1) Guatemala and my friend Lindsey

Lindsey is on the Compassion bloggers trip this week and I’ve been praying for God to do some incredible things in her life and in the lives of the kids she’s interacting with.

I’m a huge fan of Compassion.  I sponsor a precious little girl named Venka who lives in southeast region of India.  I am overwhelmed every time I get a letter from Venka telling me what she is learning and how she is growing.  It’s amazing how much a small sacrifice financially on my part impacts Venka’s world exponentially.

I hope you’ll follow Lindsey’s journey this week and consider sponsoring a child.  You truly could change a life!

2) Empty Promises

No, I’m not counting on making any empty promises… or receiving them either.  I’m exciting about the launch of our new series at Cross Point by that name.  Here’s a taste of what we’ll be talking about:

Culture is full of all kinds of promises isn’t it?

Beauty = Confidence

Success = Happiness

Money = Security

Over the course of our lives we buy into promises around us that can leave us just as empty. We believe the promises of Success, Love, Acceptance, and Money, but when these things materialize . . . or don’t . . . we are left feeling unfulfilled

How do we avoid a life filled with Empty Promises?

I hope you’ll join us!

So what are you excited about, praying about, anticipating or dreaming about this week?