Check out the article at this link: http://www.bpnews.net/42964/child-refugees-summon-ministry-compassion. Wonderful.

Pastor Shannon Talley of the First Baptist Church in McAllen, Texas has mobilized his church to help meet the needs of thousands upon thousands of children who have crossed the border. From the Baptist Press article referenced above:

“For Talley and his church, ministry has taken precedence regardless of their opinion on the government’s policies on immigration and the border.

‘While politically I think that what has been allowed to happen is incorrect … I’m not a politician. I’m a pastor,’ Talley has said to his church, he told Baptist Press Monday (July 14). ‘And whatever laws are written and whatever the government is allowing is not something I can fix. But there are people that are here, and these children especially need our help.'”

Hat’s off and please join me in thanking God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for Pastor Talley and the hundreds of folks stepping up.

However, notice one further thing found in the article:

“First Baptist Church in McAllen, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), has responded generously in giving and in time, Talley said. While they have no access to the unaccompanied children, teams of church members are in their third week of going to a nearby processing center to assist and minister to parents and their children.”

It’s beautiful they are “allowed” to serve the children accompanied by their parents. It’s wrong they have no access to those children in greatest need. Good, decent citizens are always better than bureaucracies when it comes to the care of those in want.

Praying for the walls and halls of the bureaucracies to fall. Asking you to pray. Praying for the churches of southern Texas. Asking you to pray. Praying for the children. Asking you to pray also

The search continues.

From a statement released by the North American Mission Board:

“At this time, volunteer and faith-based organizations are not permitted to engage or provide care until federal and state authorities agree on a plan.”

Excuse me. Since when did volunteers, faith-based or otherwise, need government permission to help anyone? Does anyone remember this: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” It’s the ninth amendment to the U.S Constitution. James Madison (and others) insisted on its inclusion, because they knew these rights to be unalienable and granted by the Creator. It was not conceivable that there were but nine.

Permission is not needed to offer a cup of water. Please pray with me that the walls and halls of bureaucracy will fall. Please pray with me that we can get past these over-sized stumbling blocks for the sake of children.

Maybe my part or your part is small. Maybe it will be large. Doesn’t matter. The border crossing crisis is now about needy, frightened children. The Savior said, “Suffer the children to come to me.” And to those who would cause them harm he said, “Tie a millstone around the neck and jump into the deep.”

Please pray. We (as in America, but more pertinent to my radar screen, as in Church…with either a small or Capitol C) can do better.

The search continues. Ricki.

http://www.scbaptist.org/dr-unaccomp-minors/

Dear ones, I’m not sure where everyone falls on the debate regarding the “flood” of children crossing our southern borders, but I have a few reflections. It seems to me we have the resources (and I’m not talking about government resources) to offer our hands of love to 50,000 children. We should do so. However, the whole thing has become, yet again, a socio-political quagmire of debate, debasement, and deceit. Caught in the crossfire: the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the ones considered the wretched refuse of another country’s teeming shore, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed.

These are God’s children. And God knows these children do not have the privileges of ours. We the people can do this. We can love them. We can help them. We just need the socio-political bureaucracies to get out of the way. Of course, this would be an undetaking of far greater motivation, creativity, momentum, and sustainability than the actual care of these precious children. I do not pretend that I have an idea for how to produce that kind of change. I don’t. I feel another letter to an elected official is pointless…another letter to the editor the same. The halls and walls of bureaucracy have become entities unto themselves. We the people need another approach.

So, I’ve committed to several things:

1. I will pray fervently. I will pray for the walls and halls of bureaucracies to fall. I will ask God to remove them.

2. I will look fervently. Is there a way that I can, at least, get past those walls and halls? Is there someone in Texas who can help me help one, or two, or three, or more of these brave yet frightened children? I will look and I will call.

3. I will pray again. I will pray for the children. I will pray for their parents. I will pray for the less than kind adults who may be transporting, accompanying, or receiving the children.

4. I will pray for myself. “Oh God, break my heart and keep it broken.”

5. I will pray for the Church. I will pray that true followers of the Savior will fill the breach. I will pray that we stand up.

Yes, I want to help ours. I know there are great needs in our communities. And we are working to meet those needs. However, this should not stop us from helping all the rest. So, I ask you to consider. Will you join me in praying for the walls and halls of bureaucracies to fall?

How much does God love you?

When God says, “I love you to the moon and back,” does he mean all the moons in a bazillion zillion galaxies? No, that can’t be right…not enough moons, not enough distance.

When God says, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways,” does he then complete his poem with a certain number of ways in a prescribed number of lines? No, that can’t be right…not enough ways, not enough lines.

No, when God says I love you the Father sends his Son to the cross, the Holy Spirit grieves at the thought of the cross, and the Son stretches his arms out wide upon the cross and says, “This much. This is how much I love thee. Not to the moon and back, but to the depths of infinity and the breadth of eternity; and not in ways that might be counted, but in ways that measurement cannot surround or contain.”

No, when God says I love you the Spirit of God says of God the Father and God the Son: “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him… (for) as a result of the anguish of His soul, he will see and be satisfied; and by his knowledge the Righteous One, my Servant, will justify many.”

♫Oh how he loves you and me. Oh how he loves you and me. He gave his life. What more could he give? Oh how he loves you. Oh how he loves me. Oh how he loves you and me.♫

Need a little reminder? Listen to Vanessa Williams.