FranciscanEvery once in a while, I find a prayer that simply rings true.  From the first word to the last, I know that it is mine.  One if the Prayer of St. Francis of Assissi.  The second is this Franciscan Blessing.

My husband and I often joke.  Are we redneck liberals?  Liberal rednecks?  The reality is that we don’t entirely fit in anywhere.

When politicians talk black and white and easy answers, I squirm.  Sending children and teens back to the horrid situations they risked life and limb to flee?  No, that doesn’t work for me.  That said, I don’t believe that wide open borders are a solution either.

As a family, we support a variety of programs that work to help people where they live, to better their lives, to better their situations and to better their societies.  We’re just crazy enough to think that in doing this we can change a life and, through one life, the world.

The programs that we suport include but are not limited to:

TEAM Food Ministries and St. Louis Area Food Bank.  These are two organizations that work in our area to feed large numbers of working poor.

Presbyterian Disaster Relief.  This is the branch of the Presbyterian Church that goes in and helps with shelter, food and medicine whenever there is a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or other disaster.

Heifer International.  This is a family favorite.  Heifer is one of the best organizations for “teaching a man to fish.”  Not only do they provide people with stock (goats, cattle, chicks, ducks, bees, trees, wool producing animals, etc), they also educate.  Each family that is helped in turn helps another family and so one. Communities are rebuilt.

Yes, the headlines are awful but there are many people working quietly out of the spot light.  They are working to feed and shelter and educate.  Me?  I’ve always considered myself just a touch crazy — crazy enough to think it will work.  But according to the Franciscans, I’m not so much crazy.  I’m blessed.

In turn, I can take His Blessing and pass it on to others.

–SueBE