Hillsborough Matching Grant
Dear Ministry Friends,
Sometimes it’s hard for us to recognize the activity of God in our world today. A few may go out on a limb and speak of uncanny happenings that could only be explained by a supernatural intervention, but most receive it with uncertainty or disbelief. But what if miracles, the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God, were happening every day and we were given eyes to see it?
CS Lewis, in his essay on miracles, argues that “the miracles [of Jesus] are a retelling in small letters of the very same story written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Watching Jesus multiply bread for hungry listeners at lunchtime or breathing life back into a dead daughter, were “small enough” to be witnessed and marveled at by at least the handful of people that were nearby. In his very personal love, Jesus did fill actual hungry bellies on a mountainside and he did restore that devastated family, but the greater truth is that he was acting out in “small letters” the incredible, too-big-to-digest and on-going Story of God with those miracles. They were indeed Signs of what he and his Father had been doing in all of Creation since the beginning of time; creating and sustaining life.
Those same sort of everyday miracles that point to the larger story of God are happening at Missio Link International’s Deborah House in Romania, a first of its kind residence for girls who have experienced severe trauma and abuse in their short lives. At Deborah House, distressed and hurting girls are welcomed into a loving family with house-parents and other “sisters”, offered specialized counseling, academic support, training in practical life skills and the opportunity to be loved wholly as they are.
I invite you to look deeply into the eyes of these 3 girls from Deborah House. I hope you can see the evidence of Christ’s healing love in their individual lives, and that you recognize it is a Sign of his healing love for all the girls at DH and indeed for all of us in His creation. Please join us during the month of August when Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland is offering a matching grant up to $10,000 for all donations made to MLI’s Children at Risk ministries. Your gift of any amount through the month of August will be doubled and your joy will be multiplied, too, knowing that you are a part of God’s giant and miraculous Story.
With gratitude and wonder,
Lauren Clevenger
Missio International, Knoxville