Anne Marie Miller

Category: Compassion

  • locked in an airplane lavatory

    in february, i was flying from oklahoma city to chicago on an american airlines flight. after having one too many diet cokes, i walked the green mile to the back of the plane to, well, take care of business.

    much to my surprise (and dismay, and fear), i was locked in. the sliding latch that moves the “unoccupied” to “occupied” was stuck. surely there was no oxygen coming in. i was going to die a lonely death in the bathroom on an airplane. fortunately, my certain death did not come, and five minutes later i was back in my seat drinking more diet coke.

    now, in chicago, i’d meet up with fifteen almost-strangers and together we’d travel to uganda for a week on behalf of compassion international.

    we’d laugh together. we’d play with kids together. we’d run from bats together. and ultimately, we’d fight poverty together. you can read about those adventures – the good, bad, and challenging – here.

    yesterday, another group of blogging strangers departed from around the country to meet at an airport in miami before heading down to the dominican republic. from what i can tell, nobody was locked in an airplane lavatory and they arrived safely.

    today was their first day in the dominican. i imagine they’re probably at a project now, meeting a pastor and learning how compassion is releasing children from poverty. they’re learning about what some of the local children want to do when they grow up. and they’re probably starting to ask a lot of questions.

    i encourage you to follow them on their trip this week. you can read more about it here, or subscribe to their group RSS feed here.

    and while you’re thinking about it, do more than just read along. sponsor a child by clicking here.

  • i wonder when i truly became a christ follower

    it all started with a woman named annette. she’s a single mom who lives in six-by-six room with her five kids (sometimes a sixth stays with them too).

    Annette's House Compassion International

    i had seen poverty before, but from my 32″ TV inside my trendy little house. i read about it online, saw books and magazines dedicated to photodocumenting those who have the least.

    but, i had never touched poverty until i took a seat on that bed in annette’s house.

    i had never smelled poverty until we walked through the slums where she lived.

    i had never tasted poverty until the combined smells of sewage, cooking, and poor hygiene combined and entered my mouth as i inhaled deeply.

    Slum in Uganda

    before my trip to uganda, i cared about the poor, but i didn’t love them.

    if i loved them, i would have done something, plain and simple.

    and i hadn’t.

    in crazy love, francis chan writes

    lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling guilty. they want to do the bare minimum to be “good enough” without it requiring much of them…they ask, “how much do i have to give?” instead of “how much can i give?”

    it took about a month of struggling through my emotions (which i had shut down because denial is easier to handle than the pain of reality) and i finally realized if i am truly a follower of christ, truly a believer, i must change.

    i must act.

    there is no excuse for us not to love – and therefore act – on behalf of those without. without food, water, healthcare, or freedom. the bible does not give us an option. we are told over and over again what we need to do, but we get lost in our burden of wealth and we forget.

    we compartmentalize “poverty” and “injustice” as causes and don’t integrate serving those trapped in them in our minute-by-minute living, as our continual act of worship.

    In the 19th century, Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote,

    I fear there are many hearing me who may know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudgingly at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money.

    today is blog action day and bloggers are posting about poverty. which me writing a blog and you reading it is all fine and dandy, but it’s blog ACTION day.

    there are thousands of kids who need sponsors through compassion international. for what you would spend seeing a movie or buying a new shirt or going out to eat with a friend once a month, you can release a child from poverty. the math is easy. and if you think you’re too poor to do anything, and you’re reading this on your computer or your phone in america, you’re not too poor. and forgive me, but you need to stop thinking that you are.

    if you already are showing the love of christ to someone less fortunate and you’re sacrificing then with all my heart i say thank you.

    if you’re not, you can start today.

  • a whole lot of amazing!!!!!

    NOTE: this is a long post, but HANG IN THERE. VERY COOL STUFF AHEAD!!!!

    first, you guys donated

    $2,332

    to the compassion global crisis food fund. in just a couple of days. HOLY SMOKES, y’all.

    i have to admit…sometimes it’s easy for me to see how big the problem is, and you all gave me so much hope. which isn’t what it was about, but it happened anyway. it was so encouraging to see you care the way you did.

    =====

    second, yesterday at cross point was very cool in quite a few ways. we celebrated our volunteers (read more here and here). i have never enjoyed working next to so many people. everyone worked so hard, from setting up and planning, to last minute video tweaks, to doing dishes, cutting cake, and taking out trash.

    pete announced four very cool initiatives we are focusing on as a church. (you can read more about the specifics here on his blog).

    –we are adding a fourth service. for those of you unfamiliar with the church, we currently lease an auditorium (with pews – it rocks) from a baptist church and space presents challenges, especially with parking.

    –we are beginning a third campus (but we don’t know where…or really when…but we’re so excited we just couldn’t wait for the details to share)

    -we are partnering with habitat for humanity to build three houses this fall. this is going to take several hundred volunteers and i love seeing the people of cross point serve together!

    and…if i can have a favorite, this is mine…

    -currently, cross point gives 10% of it’s income straight to missions. we have committed to increase that by 1%, every year, for the next 10 years. so in 2018, we will be giving 20% of our income straight to missions.

    pete had a great idea to get other churches on board with this kind of sacrificial and incremental missions giving. we want to see 100 other churches get on board and we think in that ten years, these churches will give over $100,000,000 to missions simply by increasing it by 1% every year.

    we realize it’s not all about the money, but where your treasure is, your heart follows. we truly believe this can be a life changing, church changing experience.

    if this sounds like something your church would be interested in doing, please shoot me an email at [email protected].

    so…yes…it has been an amazing weekend!!!!

  • an amazing opportunity

    i’ll admit. sometimes when tony comments, it makes me mad. he likes pushing buttons.

    but i also have learned that deep down inside, he’s a sappy teddy bear. (see, that’s what you get for making sarcastic comments…i publicly call you a sappy teddy bear. that’ll teach you.)

    all kidding aside, tony has offered to match a $300 donation $400 to compassion’s global food crisis fund.

    so, if you donated last night or can donate now, please do so and leave a comment with the amount you donated. if you would prefer to stay anonymous, just put in fake information in the comment name and email field.

    but seriously…here is an opportunity for at least $600 to be given to help feed people who desperately need it…that is feeding over fifteen families!

    let’s do it! you guys have always rocked on stuff like this. i really wanted to eat out with a friend today, but i’m going to put that $25 in the fund right now.

    your turn!

    so let’s all donate something and make this sappy teddy bear match our $300 $400 in donations.

    We are already at over $800 $1000 $1100 $1200 $1600 over $1800, but don’t let that stop you from giving!!!! Let’s get as many kids fed as we can. You guys never cease to amaze me by your generosity!!!

  • i’m not one for begging, but i beg you, read this post

    [edit: i couldn’t take it anymore. i had to post it. yeah it’s earlier than i said. i was just so excited!]

    i really thought about titling this with the word “boobies” because statistics have shown that is the word that gets people to read your blog.

    but anyway.

    thank you for humoring my title and reading this.

    i cannot tell you the number of times that i have heard people say blogging is so narcissistic, but it’s been a lot. i cannot tell you the amount of hate email i get because people think i like to cause fights by asking questions that aren’t always religiously correct, but it’s been a lot. if i’m not careful, i can let the few bad things outweigh the good.

    and good? there is a lot.

    today, i just wanted to share an important stat about YOU. not stats as in how many people subscribe to my RSS feed or give me technorati points or whatever.

    but one important number.

    $80,000.

    in just six months, you guys have donated (through instant payments or gifts or commitments) $80,000.

    one blog. just a few hundred people. six months. $80,000.

    at least 40 children have been released from poverty from just this site (over 500 as a result of our blogging trip, which they tell me would equal about $960,000 based on the average sponsorship length!)

    110 mosquito nets to help prevent malaria have been paid for and sent to third world countries

    120 books have been purchased and sent to pastors in the dominican republic.

    over $850 has been given to various causes like haitian rescue centers, mission trips, and people just barely scraping by.

    $80,000.

    that number blows me away. i am speechless yet cannot thank you guys enough for putting your money where your mouth is, literally. you have shown that faith is not about rules or theological opinions but about loving others.

    so next time someone tells you that blogging is a waste of time, you can share with them otherwise.

    wow. just, wow.

    ==

    ps – if you want to sponsor a child through compassion international, and make that number 41, you can click here to meet some incredible and amazing kids.

  • international dining options

    los angeles is 1700 miles away from nashville.

    this is where people eat.

    Four Seasons Los Angeles

    haiti is 1700 miles from nasvhille.

    this is where people eat.

    Haitian Dining

    i got this email from brian yesterday, updating us on the food crisis in haiti. it is written by one of the compassion international staff serving there.

    The unprecedented rise in the cost of foodstuffs raise concerns in the Haitian community especially those whose daily income is less than $2US. They are all wondering if they will survive at all. Despite the promises made by the Haitian government and the aid programs conducted by the international community, food prices do not stop skyrocketing.

    “There is no hope that things are going to be improved; the situation is worsening. The population is silently starving and no one seems to care?? said angrily a young professional.

    brian also sent a list of staple food costs.

    it.
    blew.
    my.
    mind.

    1 half full-sized bag of rice has gone from $28 US to $35 US.
    1 full-sized bag of beans has gone from $54.6 US to $63.6 US.
    1 full-sized bag of sugar has gone from $25.3 US to $34.8 US.

    i responded to brian and asked if children in compassion international projects were guaranteed food, to which he said every child in every project receives at least one meal a day. some receive two hot meals…and they are working very hard to keep adding projects to the two-meal program.

    Compassion Internationalnaiva is one of many children in haiti who need to be sponsored. she has been waiting for more than six months. it’s just $32 a month, and with that, you can know that one more child is getting the food she needs to survive.

    click here to sponsor naiva.

    if she is already sponsored, you can click here to find another child.

    you can also make a donation to the global food crisis fund here.

    honestly, it is so difficult for me to understand why this happens. it still makes me feel sad, and angry, and guilty, and motivated, and desperate.

    you?

  • the BEST birthday gift EVER!

    it’s the fourth of july. tonight, i’ll be hanging out with friends eating large amounts of food and watching people blow things up. we are celebrating our independence.

    a few months ago, i talked about the trap freedom can also bring, if we’re not using it for things like truth and love.

    Ingrid Compassion Internationalit’s the fourth of july. it’s also ingrid’s birthday. even though nicaragua celebrates their independence in september, ingrid is still very much bound by the chains of poverty.

    she’s probably spending much of today like most six year olds…she likes swimming and playing with dolls. most adults in Bo. Pedro Avenda?o (where ingrid lives) are unemployed but some work as street vendors and earn the equivalent of $62 per month.

    it’s easy to sponsor ingrid. just click here to be taken to her page to learn more about her. if you decide you do want to sponsor her, just click the “sponsor this child” button at the top. (if you decide not to, please don’t click that button as it will remove her page for a while and someone else may miss the opportunity to sponsor her.)

    maybe this fourth of july can start a new tradition for you. not only can you celebrate our freedom, you can celebrate ingrid’s birthday as well. and next fourth of july, and the next, and the next, you can celebrate the freedom she and her family will come to know when they are released from poverty in jesus’ name.

    INGRID HAS BEEN SPONSORED, THANK YOU! sponsor ingrid here.

  • two sites you should check out

    CompassionBloggers.com – WOW. from the first time brian mentioned the trip to me, to now, three months after returning from uganda, i don’t think anybody really knew the impact blogging could make in releasing children from poverty. well, needless to say, it has blown everybody’s stinkin’ minds.

    shaun (in between wearing a dress and a cute little girly hat, and hanging out with cuban assassins) has been working really hard on this site which connects bloggers and children to the world. the next blogging trip is in november, and he is looking for people to go that want to passionately explore this new road of getting children sponsored and having their own lives changed forever. oh, and you can also post about 2873 cool widgets and stuff on your blog.

    VISIT COMPASSIONBLOGGERS.COM NOW! :)

    WeTheChurch.org – i love prayer. i love praying for others, and hearing how god is working in their lives probably more than anything in the world. it is powerful and transforming.

    my friends chad and scott launched an amazing site called WeTheChurch.org. people submit either prayer or praises — keeping their thoughts within 140 characters like twitter — and from all over the world, people can pray and celebrate with them.

    my favorite part of this site is that i can get new prayers/praises in my twitter feed. let me tell you there is nothing like reading,

    “A friend’s father had a massive stroke today, in ICU, doctors said he has 50/50 chance of surviving, if he does, he’ll have permanent damage”

    in between the daily tweets of “at starbucks” and “my cat barfed up a hairball.” it’s divine. truly.

    CHECK OUT WETHECHURCH.ORG and FOLLOW THEM ON TWITTER.

    =====

    in all the craziness, i have had some great posts brewing in my head this week that i haven’t fleshed out. thanks for hanging in there with me.

    what site or blog have you been digging lately?

  • wowzers!!

    $10 to Prevent Malaria

    so, i thought 50 nets in 50 hours would be a challenge for you guys.

    BOY WAS I WRONG!!

    you have already donated 68 nets! in less than 24 hours.

    so…i’m raising the ante!

    let’s make it 100 nets.

    32 to go.

    AND…moviepastor.com will match the next TEN NETS DONATED!

    so, if you buy a net now, leave a comment here and also at his blog. because that just freaking rocks!

    let’s hit 100!!

    ready, set, go!