Giving
Today is this year’s Giving Tuesday. As I started to write my thoughts on Giving I realized there is a lot that I wanted to say… so I’ll be doing a short series on Giving. Here is a little teaser to get started.
One of the things that I love about Outpour Movement is how quickly each person is willing to give. It’s as if each person holds their hands open wide to receive, yet their fingers are spread wide so that a portion of what they receive can fall to those around them. They give to the poor and the not so poor. They don’t wait for big planned events in order to give, because each day is filled with opportunities to give. Their eyes are constantly open to see the needs around them, and then trying to come up with the best ways to meet those needs. Their giving comes from their hearts. Giving isn’t something that they do, it’s who they are.
There are thousands of places that you could send your hard earned money to this Giving Tuesday. I ask that you would consider giving to Outpour Movement. (And of course you can give towards getting me back to Thailand – Support Casey.)
Baby boy
After I made the decision to come back to the States to help my family I had about a week in Thailand to do ministry and wrap up a few things before leaving. I was able to spend time down at the border and even go with my whole team to visit our villages across the border, filling my heart up before having to leave.
While arranging things for my team to cross the border for a day trip, I asked our contact to stop by one of the villages to check on a mom and baby boy we were providing formula to (she wasn’t producing enough milk to provide all her baby needed). I got a call back that mom and baby were doing great, but that they were now having to share the formula since a there was an orphaned one-week old baby in the village. What?! I didn’t even know that a woman in the village was pregnant! Thankfully we have a supporter that has committed to paying for the formula for the first baby boy, and another ministry in town was able to donate formula that day so we could get more to them right away.
When we visited the village a few days later I brought some photos that I had developed from previous trips to give to the people in the pictures. They were flipping through the photos, handing them out, when they got to one picture I heard several people softly gasp… everyone gathered around and said, “it’s her”. Unbeknownst to me, I had taken a picture of the mother who passed away and brought it with me.
My heart broke. I knew the momma. I didn’t know her name, but I knew her smile and her face. I knew her three year old daughter was just getting to the point where she was no longer afraid of us. This was a sweet young mom who had a beautiful smile and you could see her love for her daughter. And now she was gone.
We asked lots of questions trying to get the story of what happened to leave a two week old baby boy without a family. Apparently the mom had her baby at a hospital in another town, but three days after giving birth she died of a heart attack. The father lives and works somewhere else and has the daughter. I’m not exactly sure if it’s a sister or just a really close friend who’s family has taken in the newborn, but we got to sit in her house and hold this precious baby boy.
With the reality of children and babies being sold for sex, slavery and even body parts I get nervous when children are unwanted or parents are to poor to provide for them (I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to the kids I visit). I was so relieved to realize that the ‘adoptive mom’ is a woman that I know from the village! She is an amazing mother of two young boys who has lovingly opened her home to this baby boy. The woman’s husband even came and sat down with us for a bit, he made a bottle and helped hold the baby after a freshly changed ‘diaper’ (not something we normally see men do). The man made sure to let us know that this baby will be loved and cared for by his family.
Leaving was a little harder this time around as the realities of the people here are no longer rumors and stories, but they are now undeniably real and affecting the people I call friends and family. The more we become a part of people’s lives here the more we are going to be faced with stories like this, and have a desire to help meet the needs of these people who just can’t do it for themselves. When I got the call there wasn’t a question of ‘if’ we would help provide for these babies, because the obvious answer was yes. The hard part comes when realizing that right now, these types of calls aren’t in the budget because our ministry budget is coming out of our personal budgets for the most part. Many of the events we do are covered by supporters or teams, but the daily and emergency things aren’t necessarily covered by anyone specific. When you wonder why I / missionaries keep asking for money remember stories like this…. of a newborn baby boy who doesn’t even have a name yet, who lost his mom and who’s father isn’t in the picture, of a young family who is struggling to feed their two boys who aren’t old enough for school yet have lovingly decided to raise a baby who is not theirs, and of a mother who’s willing to share what little she has to help keep this precious life alive… the funds that you give go towards me / missionaries provide not only for personal expenses but also giving an entire village a reminder that they are not forgotten and helps restore the hope that this baby boy will be able to live a long and happy life.
Give – Casey Wells or to Outpour Movement (general fund)
Going Somewhere New
I just got back from going into a completely new place. We’ve known about this place for a really long time, but never had the opportunity to go (or it was just bad timing when we finally were invited). It’s one of those places that when you hear stories or just see a glimpse of, it breaks your heart. Today was no different.
I can’t post pictures… because I can’t take any while I’m there. Many people would consider it a very dangerous and dark place. And in reality it is. But I had no fear while I was there. The people are broken, abused and desperate. They have no hope and no future, they are only looking at the very short term. Yet we were told that the people all recognize us, and if we keep going back we will be welcomed like locals.
Today we got some basic first aid stuff to clean up a cut that a preteen boy had on his foot from stepping on a piece of glass. We brought coloring pages and crayons to give to the kids and told them how good their art was each time they brought it over for you to look at with the biggest smile on their face as they showed off their art work. We met a woman who wanted prayer for her health. We also prayed for another young boy who had tumors on his neck and had a slight fever (the tumors were not there a month ago, the last time I saw him). Some of the little boys are getting used to seeing us on the street and getting more comfortable around us, which makes me so happy.
Please pray for this place. Pray for my small team (this isn’t somewhere we can take visiting teams, so there will only be a few of us who can to go into this area). We want to spend more time there on a consistent basis. Pray for wisdom and discernment for us. Pray in agreement with us, that as we pray for people that people really will be healed, that the Lord will hear and answer the prayers of His people.
My least favorite part
If you are reading this blog, I’m assuming that we’ve met at some point. Maybe we’ve known each other for what seems like forever, or maybe we only had a brief moment of getting to know one another. But I want to be ‘real’ for this blog. This was probably one of the more difficult blogs for me to write, it’s actually had me in tears several times as I’ve worked on writing and editing it. Not only is this my least favorite part of being a missionary who relies on the financial support of others, but it’s also the most difficult part.
Most of the time I feel like a broken record. But the reality is that if I want to be able to serve God in the place that I feel He has called me, I need the financial support of others. I wish I didn’t have to ask for money. Yes, I currently have two ‘home’ churches that support me financially. Unfortunately up until recently what they give only covers my monthly rent, leaving me to find supporters for all of my other living and ministry expenses (having roommates now decreases rent, yay!).
This time of year (Christmas & the end of the year) is typically the time of year that most non-profits receive the majority of their donations. A lot of the missionaries that I know also receive extra donations for their birthdays. What if I told you that I actually see less donations this time of year? I’ve been repeatedly told not to ask for support this time of year by individuals who might have otherwise given (and have refused to give towards my ministry because I was ‘rude’ enough to ask at Christmas time). Extra donations or giving doesn’t happen for my Birthday either (often due to the fact that it’s near Christmas). I have the opposite response in terms of financial support as many people and organizations that I know. Yet as much as I dislike asking for people to financially support me, and having to face the negativity that comes with it, I can’t do my ‘job’ as a missionary without it.
So I want to ask for financial support in a little bit of a different way this time. Rather than ask you to give up a cup of Starbucks, a meal out, or something else, I want to ask that you would give out of the blessings that you receive. Would you consider giving all or part of the ‘refunds’ that you receive over the next couple months? A while ago I had someone do this for me, the number of unexpected refunds that this person received was incredible (one was for a few hundred dollars!). I would love it if God would bless you in abundance, and that you were then able to bless others because of the abundance that you received this holiday season.
You can make one-time and monthly donations online – here. Or you can mail a check made out to Kingdom Inc to Po Box 98438, Atlanta, GA 30359 please make sure you write ‘Casey Wells’ on the memo line.
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