We met with our friends this weekend to help come up with a plan for their homelessness.
They came to our house, and we told them we had some ideas. We wanted to help, and we just had ideas for them to choose & determine if they were actually helpful.
For Option A, we had a friend and organization with a farm about a kilometer from our house. There was a house on it that needed some repairs, or it could be land to build. Either way, they could live there free of charge if they would serve as security for the farm over nights and weekends. It didn’t have electricity and water was scarce; but it was a good price, good land, they could move their pigs. It also had the potential to become a farming job in the future.
They were interested in the land, as he is a farmer at heart, and we went to look at it. They loved the house and are the type to see the potential rather than the failures. However, it’s not on the safest road and they had some concerns for their girls going to school. There was also a reservoir next to the house, which alothough picturesque, was a danger to their two youngest–a four-year-old son and one-year-old granddaughter. They decided this wasn’t a good option for them.
For Option B, there was a concrete house near us for about $100 per month. It’s two stories and large enough for their large family, but a little expensive. If they felt it was a better option for them, we had ideas for them to earn more money. We had a couple “business” ideas up our sleeve.
So we talked about some options. And I’ll just jump ahead here and say this: we’re {officially planning on} opening up a small community center in our house, and they are going to help manage it being open a few days a week.
It seems rushed, and in some ways it is! Stephen and I are reworking our schedules and determining how to rework our house to make this possible. Doing all this in a few weeks wasn’t in our plan, and that’s a bit overwhelming.
However, this fits us. We tend to dream and discuss options endlessly; we think of these great ideas and talk abut someday starting them. We think through the ins and outs and repercussions. We tweak and edit. But in a current state of keeping our heads above water, we never feel ready to take the jump. Instead, it usually is something like this: a friend is in need, and thankfully we had some tricks up our sleeves.
But it isn’t really us having any tricks at all.
We’ve been talking about a community center in our house for over a year now. Then about a month ago some friends donated three computers to us to use in the community. It started us talking: how do we make these available for learning games, English practice, and Burmese? For years we’ve wanted to provide a sewing machine for moms to make simple repairs to their children’s clothing. We’ve wanted to have an open space to play the Burmese news or show a local sports game. Could all these go hand in hand?
We started talking more often about it all: how we’d set boundaries for our own personal space; layout plans and hours and rules. We talked about who would be a good manager: who we trust enough and respects us, yet is old enough to be respected by the community hierarchy. We’ve asked if we are ready and how to start slow.We prefer to do everything slow.
You might say that we’re ambitious dreamers that just need that final push to jump.
Thida was one of the women who would be great at this role, but she had tea shop business of her own that put her out of the running. But with their forced move, it seemed a good way for her to make some extra money and pull her back near our community.
So we’re planning on opening a community center of sorts soon. We have a manager! We have a God that started orchestrating this months ago and knew we needed time to dream. We have a God that also knew we needed that final push! We have some amazing friends donating to our community fund and making things like this possible.
And really, here’s the best part of the story. We needed a little time to, y’know, to make a community center; they were sleeping under the stars now; and rain is coming soon {or we are certainly praying for that}–there was a crunch. So we gave them one month of rent to help make ends meet and get into a shelter before the rain comes. We told them it was from our church. We asked them not to tell, as we can’t give to everyone, but our church gives us money to help when there are needs.
She replied with this: God blesses. God gives. This is significant for two reasons: she is not a Christian, and yet she is giving God credit for this gift. Further, in Burmese, she used the term for God that literally means the God above all gods. It’s used at church and by Christians, but not always popular to Buddhists, as its claiming the Christian God is higher.
So that’s pretty amazing. Yes, God blesses! God gives! And sometimes, he pushes us to jump into the dreams he’s put before us.