Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for December 2012

Letter to a stranger: How you can encourage a hero

Next month, a team from The Exodus Road will travel to Southeast Asia as part of their work rescuing children from sex trafficking. During that visit, they also plan to deliver letters of encouragement to the investigators who do the front-line work of rescue: posing as customers, collecting video evidence, and all the while putting themselves in danger for someone else’s freedom. Here’s an open letter of thanks and encouragement to an investigator. If you’d like to write your own, the address and instructions are at the bottom of this post. Deadline is January 5.

Dear investigator,

I don’t know you. We’ll probably never meet. But your work, it inspires me.

In a world full of darkness, you are a light.

In a world quickly losing hope in humanity, you are living, breathing hope. ER-flower

You are courageous and committed, going into places few of us will ever see or would ever want to. You go willingly where others have gone unwillingly.

You stifle your own fears to get the job done. You offer life and rescue to those who have given up on both.

You choose to go in with no guarantees of your safety or success in your mission. And still you go.

You will never be publicly recognized as a hero because you work undercover. And still you go.

And half a world away, I am grateful.

Words from another letter, written centuries ago, seem appropriate for this letter as well: “Do not become weary in doing good.” The good you do changes lives.

I humbly send these words to encourage you, wishing I could do more to strengthen your resolve. You do not carry this burden alone.

Keep fighting for rescue where you are. I will do my part where I am.

And together, we will shine a light on the darkest parts of the world.

With great thanks,

Lisa

Want to write your own?

Handwritten letters can be mailed by January 5 to:

The Exodus Road PO Box 7591 Woodland Park, Colorado 80863

OR submit one online. The crew at The Exodus Road will translate your letters, if necessary, and hand-deliver them in January.

The Exodus Road blogging crew has more than 60 members. If each blogger and four readers write a letter, the team will send more than 300 letters to investigators in the field. Will you be one of the four?

Here are The Exodus Road founders Matt and Laura talking about why this is important.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/YziCPbx_6c8]

 

It's OK to eavesdrop on this conversation: a review of Red-Letter Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo

Before I’d heard of Shane Claiborne or Red-Letter Christianity or even knew who Tony Campolo was, my faith was undergoing a crisis. Four years ago, my husband entered seminary and our Christian world was turned upside down by questions scholars couldn’t answer and didn’t think were all that important, by friends who believed differently than we did, by a culture that puts feet to its faith and exudes peace and simplicity.

red letter revolutionRed-Letter Revolution is a series of conversations between Claiborne, a 30-something who lives in one of the worst neighborhoods of Philadelphia in order to minister, and Campolo, an older educator, author and speaker, on a variety of topics (some of them hot-button) that Christians and the world at large wrestle with.

Topics like Islam, economics, being pro-life, homosexuality, immigration, environmentalism, politics, the Middle East and missions. Claiborne and Campolo challenge the evangelical “talking points” by encouraging Christians to look at what Jesus said and did. The following statement and question guides the discussion:

“The litmus test of whether or not something is Christian is the question, Does it look more and more like Jesus?”

The authors keep an open mind on these tough subjects, but they don’t just speak from study. Their experiences of living out a Gospel of love give life to the discussions. I was moved and inspired by their stories.

To read this book is to be open to challenges to what you believe, and to take it for what it is: eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who are deeply and passionately committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and who want to encourage others to live with depth and passion as well. You might not like everything they have to say, but if you’re willing, you’ll find ways to broaden your beliefs without abandoning your faith.

My faith and beliefs are not what they once were, and frankly, I’m okay with that. Reading Red-Letter Revolution confirmed what’s been slowly happening to my beliefs. I no longer feel like a non-Christian or a lesser Christian. I feel like part of a movement to change the world, one act of love and obedience at a time.

I hope you’ll give this book a chance.

For more on the Red-Letter movement, visit www.redletterchristians.org.

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In exchange for my review, I received a free digital copy of Red-Letter Revolution from Thomas Nelson as part of the Booksneeze program.