On Saturday,October 23, 2010, I participated in the Africa Hope Run sponsored by Spring Lake Church.  This 5K-10K Walk/Run was held for the first time in De Pere to support AIDS orphans in Malawi, Africa.  It was important for me to support this event, not only for the orphans, but because Spring Lake Church has been a faithful partner with Freedom House for the past few years.  Every Monday evening, volunteers from the church, donate a wonderful meal.  This is a tremendous blessing to both our families and our staff.  This Fall, a group is leading a Bible study for our families after dinner.  The study is a source of hope and encouragement for our families as they come to understand the love of God, perhaps for the first time.

  For the record, I am not a runner.  I never have been and this fact was confirmed after our staff participated in this year’s Bellin Run.  I completed the Run and ran much more than I expected thanks to the encouragement of our awesome team captain. I will admit that I now find it difficult to walk any distance without running for a few minutes or so and that there are times when I think, “what a great day for a run.”  However, I will not be signing up for a marathon (and please, stop me, if I start making noises in that direction).  I am enthusiastic and I love to encourage people.  I love the energy and excitement of people gathered together for a common cause.  I like to support our community.  I like free stuff.  The many t-shirts I own and rarely wear are evidence of this.  

So, I awaken on Saturday morning to overcast skies and the very real threat of rain.  I “leap” out of bed. I have not had the opportunity to “train” for the run as I would have liked.  But I have to do the 10K because…well, because. Having tasted the agony and exhilaration of the Bellin Run, I must repeat that experience, right? I arrive at De Pere High School and I am pleasantly surprised to see so many others gathered in support of the event.  I see the serious runners warming up; I hear one woman taunting another that she will walk faster than he can run…ah, the sights and sounds of healthy competition.  I sign in, pick up my number, my t-shirt (colorful and long-sleeved!) and goody bag.  I look around for familiar faces, find some and chit-chat for a few minutes before I stretch and prepare myself for the event.  I set up the Nike program on my iPod for the 10K and choose my music.  I AM READY!!!! Read the rest of this entry »

A Guest Post by Jonathan Eck, Volunteer Coordinator at Freedom House

  The word “grace” has been on my mind lately.  Grace is mentioned in the Bible around 170 times, depending on your translation, which means it’s important. Why is this important?  Because without grace,  we have no hope.
It says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The only way to heaven is through the forgiveness of our sins, not our own good works.  God takes us sinners just as we are and saves those who come to trust in Him through Jesus Christ.

Why do I share this with you today?  Because when you strip away the shelter, the food, clothing, the various trainings and classes, etc. that we offer our families every day, we share with them the most important thing of all.  That is an understanding of the love and grace of God.  Perhaps for the first time ever, they experience the love of their Creator and the hope that there is a future for them, not just here on earth, but into eternity.

You can join with us to share the love and hope of Christ with our families.  Visit us at www.freedomhouseministries.org and click on the “How Can I Help?” tab.

Since I am the person who keeps the statistics on the families we serve at Freedom House, I have to concentrate on the numbers of our organization. One thing I know about myself is that I am not a numbers person. I am a feelings person (isn’t God so funny about always pushing us outside of our comfort zone?!). However, this is part of my job and I can see how important it is for our Board of Directors to know how many families we are serving, for the community to know how many children are in shelter, and for the people in charge of the grant monies to know of our increasing need for funds.

So while I see the importance, I don’t ever want to lose sight of the “who” behind those numbers. It’s the same way I feel about the waiting list numbers. “They” are not just numbers,“they” are families and children and stories and situations! As I spent a chunk of time this week looking at the past year’s statistics and finding ways to organize them to make sense, my thoughts drifted back to a speaker from the 2010 Global Leadership Summit. Christine Caine, of the A21 Campaign, preached at the Summit and reminded us that numbers are numbing and desensitizing. Numbers leave people nameless. Don’t get me wrong, I think stats are important, but it’s much more powerful to put a face and a name to that number. This is the beauty of my job; I have the privilege of putting that name and that precious face with the statistics I compile. I hear the situations and grieve in pain with the families, celebrate in happiness with the families and most of all, share the love of Christ with each family I keep track of statistically. As I said earlier, I am a feelings person and when Christine Caine spoke, she hit right at the core of why I am at Freedom House… PASSION. I am so deeply passionate about seeing families end generational poverty, seeing families have victory over strongholds and seeing families accomplish goals they never knew or thought they could. But, most of all, I am deeply passionate about our families experiencing Christ. As Christine Caine reminded me that day, Jesus died for billions of individuals. He died for me, He died for you and He died for each person on our waiting list, on our Aftercare list, on our volunteer list, on our staff list, and on our statistics sheet.

So my challenge to you is COME. Put a face and name to the 11 adults and 29 children we have here at Freedom House right now and shine the light of Christ into a dark world of hopelessness and homelessness. When Christine was serving victims of human trafficking, she was asked the question by a survivor “why didn’t you come sooner?” Let’s not have an excuse for not coming sooner, for not making a difference sooner, for not shining the light of Christ sooner. What are you waiting for? Click on the “How Can I Help” tab at www.freedomhouseministries.org to discover ways that you can make a difference.