Cheerful giving comes from love

 

There are many ways to give, though we usually only hear about money. Of course, money is needed to pay for expenses. But consider:

• Those who are there to be willingly used for their time, talent, and enthusiasm are also givers. 
• Those who donate blood or platelets are givers. 
• Those who make food or repair teddy bears for refugee children are givers.
• Those who take people to medical appointments and stay to hold their hand are givers. 
• Those who clean out their closets and donate "fat clothes" or "skinny clothes" are givers.
• Those who are kind and uplifting are givers. 
• Those who enable others to give are themselves participants in giving.
• Those who make chicken soup for a sick friend are givers.
• Those who volunteer their professional or organizational skills are givers. 
• And yes, money counts. But it's not love. Doing and Being are Love.

They are CHEERFUL givers — no  one is pressuring them, because it's the state of their hearts.

Governor Katie Hobbs,
Christy K Robinson

Recently, I was helping at a Thanksgiving meal cooked and served to indigent seniors. People had donated money toward groceries, and some had brought whole roasted turkeys or hams, and huge pans of mashed potatoes or dressing or vegetables. One man brought large pies from the Costco bakery where he works. All brought their gifts of hospitality and service to others. And into our midst walked the Arizona's governor, Katie Hobbs, without a press team or video cameras or even letting our team know she'd be coming to help. She was dressed in a black shirt and khaki slacks, with her hair up in a ponytail, there to help serve the food, and to talk with the people who came to enjoy a delicious feast. Gov. Hobbs has a Master of Social Work degree and worked in that field for years before she served in the state legislature, as Secretary of State, and then Governor. She's a cheerful giver! 

Why does God love a cheerful giver? Because God is Love, he is compassionate and merciful, and gives and forgives (Exodus 34:6). When we do similar acts (the Golden Rule), we show that we are his children and we look like our Abba. Yes, God loves all people, when they're naughty and when they're nice. But I believe that we can give him joy, and we can expand his heart when we make him proud. 

It's a circle. God loves us, and we make others feel loved, which turns our faces back to the source of love. But it's not a closed circle. Givers are all about inviting you to share your presence and your love in the circle.

******* 

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title):  

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Mi hermana

Faces are blurred for privacy and security.

© 2019 Christy K Robinson 

 I don’t speak much Spanish. Never did, even in the two years of high school Spanish class (back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth). I could read news articles fairly well, and at one time had at least some vocabulary squirreled away in my brain, but conversation was never my forte. (Wait. “Forte” is Italian. I know lots of Italian terms, some of which are cognate to Spanish, because I use them daily in music.)

Living in Arizona and southern California all my life, I have a few phrases to get me by in a pinch, most of which begin with “No comprende, pero…” or “Mi español es malo.” I also know quite a few words connected with food, since that’s what I need when volunteering with an interfaith ministry that helps refugees fleeing from the horrors of Central American drug cartels and gangs.  For instance, I can ask if they want red or white rice on their plate: “Quieres arroz rojo o blanco?” I even Googled how to say Rice Krispy Treats so I could distribute dessert: “Tratas de arroz y marvavisco.”

One of our Spanish-speaking volunteers told me that some of our guests don't use Spanish that they can understand, but may be speaking an indigenous dialect.

The menu includes beans, white or red (Mexican-style) rice, rotisserie chicken, tortillas, chips, bananas and oranges, and cookies or Rice Krispy Treats, plus lemonade, milk, apple juice, and bottled water. On the tables in the background, volunteers assemble ziploc bags of apples, juice boxes, chips, cracker/cheese sandwiches, jerky, and cookies for the next stage of the refugees' journey to family or sponsor homes while they wait for their immigration court dates.

We served nearly 100 young men and women, most with children and babies. Two of the mothers sat on a bench in the shade and nursed their babies without shame (for there is no shame in feeding one’s child). One of the babies had a fever and cough, and with the help of a Spanish speaker, I asked if the baby was sick. The mother said when she was detained by immigration after 15 days of walking through Mexico without chance of a shower, and with little food or water, she and her baby were put in what the detainees call the hielera or “cold room,” where it’s refrigerated for some reason that the US agencies will not reveal. This is a regular practice of Customs and Border Patrol that takes place in Texas and California, as well as here in Arizona. Instead of two to three hours, she was left there for five days with only a foil blanket and the concrete floor before she could enter the system of cots and food in the for-profit detention center.

I've obscured faces for privacy and security.

The conditions inside of hieleras [what detainees call "the icebox"] are notoriously bad.
According to a February 2018 report from the Human Rights Watch, the conditions in the detention run by CBP centers are abysmal. In addition to the frigid temperatures, migrants are reportedly subjected to intense overcrowding, forced to sleep on concrete floors, and denied showers, soap, and toothpaste. The first photos of a hielera were only publicly released in 2016; they show over a dozen people sharing a tiny, concrete room in a Tucson facility, huddled under foil blankets. “They took us to a room that was cold and gave us aluminum blankets,” a Guatemalan woman who had been held in an Arizona detention center in 2017 told Human Rights Watch. “There were no mats. We slept on the bare floor. It was cold, really cold.” The Iceboxes at the Border in The Cut

This worried mother had seen a doctor before coming to the host church, without any medication administered to her baby, and she expected to be reunited with her husband in California tomorrow. As she talked, she touched the back of her hand to her baby’s forehead and petted his damp hair. My heart broke for her.

Today, after we volunteers had served every morsel of the food and drink we’d prepared at home and brought to the host location, we were standing around in the 90-degree shade, cleaning up and socializing. I looked up to see our guests silently gathering around us in a semi-circle in the hot sun.

One of the women in the group spoke in Spanish, which did not contain words like rice or beans or cookies. It was not a slow speech that I could translate at my comprehension speed. But I did hear words for God’s hands and feet, heart, blessing, thanks, smiles, and God. I also heard words that might have meant that they’d been mistreated on their journey, and they’d feared the gringos (Americans), but with our food and our hospitality they had been surprised.

I leaned over to Mike, who speaks fluent Spanish, and whispered, “I’m going to need a transcript later.” He answered, “I think your heart understands.”

The woman gave her impassioned speech and then fervently prayed for her fellow refugees and gave thanks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the volunteers. The group of men, young children, and women with toddlers or babies on their hips filed past us and hugged us or shook our hands, saying “Gracias. Dios los bendiga.” (Thank you. God bless you.)

You know what? God has blessed me beyond measure, and continues to surprise me with new adventures in loving and being loved. When a penniless, homeless refugee has the corazon to bless me and love me in a foreign language, I’ll take it as God’s voice.

I don’t know her name, this kind woman, but she’s my sister, mi hermana. Godspeed her to safety, security, and a peaceful, happy life.

The video below was posted about one of the host church locations were I've volunteered. I love what they have to say about why we do what we do.

 

https://youtu.be/gFsJEsdgKoc

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books:

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.) 

Real Christians, real Jews, real Muslims, real God-followers

© 2019 Christy K Robinson 

Have you read comments on social media? They're pretty embarrassing for those of us who call ourselves God-followers or "spiritual" people. Some of that verbal abuse is deserved. I don't have to repeat it, because you've seen it and heard it.

There are people who claim to be Christian, but support the separation of children and parents in concentration camps, or call legal asylum seekers "illegal aliens" and demand that they be deported. But there are also people who, from the abundance of divine love in their souls, are doing the work of God.

The friend of a friend posted this graphic, criticizing people of faith (faith he doesn't have) for being hypocrites. 

 

Our mutual friend chimed in, saying "I know groups in Arizona that are there to help asylum seekers who arrive. The good ones are definitely there helping."

She messaged me, saying "Totally mentioned you without saying your name."

Since her friend had a public setting on his Facebook post, I wrote an answer, which he immediately deleted, probably because it didn't fit his agenda that Christians ought to be "doing something" to back up their "pro-life" rhetoric.

Volunteers form a line of human shields along the police
caution tape, as they welcome refugees and asylum seekers
coming off the Homeland Security buses. How's that for meeting
the caravans with food, water, clothing, etc?

I work with an interfaith group that does what the meme said, and much more. The volunteer coordinator brought her fellow members of a synagogue or two; there are mosque members who serve the refugees on Passover/Easter and even during their own Ramadan fast, numerous Protestants (Methodist, Baptist, nondenominational, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc.) and Catholics (Catholic Charities welcome volunteers of many faiths); and yes, people of no religion who are compassionate, kind, and merciful.

The network of volunteers are not often seen or known to the public because of racist and militia vigilante types who picket, scream at, and threaten violence to our refugee guests and us. The Department of Homeland Security buses bring the refugees to host churches around the Phoenix-metro area, hundreds (perhaps thousands) per week, and drop them with court papers and ankle monitors. Out of our own pockets, and what we solicit from our home church choirs or Bible study groups, we provide showers and cots, hot food, bottled water and milk/coffee/lemonade at the meals, bags of snacks and fruit for travel to their sponsor homes across the country, diapers, clothing, shoes, a doctor if needed, etc.

Volunteer climbs over storage boxes to
reach bags of rice.

It's wide-scale, we have a charitable designation, and we're working with DHS. I'm told that there are similar groups in California, Texas, New Mexico, etc. But we have to do it quietly for security's sake. Some of us have had to be human shields to protect our guests (young parents with babies and toddlers) from screaming racists and vigilantes.

Beyond groups like ours, there are non-religious organizations that make water and food drops in the desert trackways to save the lives of migrants. Some are serving prison time for helping. I read a comment recently that bragged about "shooting holes in the water jugs to save the cactus and trees" rather than save the lives of human beings.

You want to know whose faith is real? 
That is where the real Christians are, and not only Christians, but real Jews, real Muslims, real secular humanists: doing it generously, quietly, and secretly with open arms, open homes, open bank accounts, unlike Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr., spewing hatred for the refugees within our borders, and raking in donations by the tens of millions every year.

"To be sure, some evangelical leaders, such as Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, voiced criticism of the Trump administration’s policy of separating asylum-seeking children from their parents at the border. Yet evangelical leaders have shown no signs of ceasing to give Trump their full support, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, both right-wing Protestants, defended his immigration policies as “biblical.” Indeed, in criticizing the “zero tolerance” policy, Graham deflected the blame from Trump and attempted to place it on former President Barack Obama."   White evangelicals have turned on refugees, Foreign Policy  

Volunteers from several religions bring food and drink
and other life necessities to a Baptist church where
Homeland Security drops 100 young parents and babies
several times every week.

 

"Graham’s willingness to abandon Christian principles when it’s politically expedient has cost the church dearly. It’s hard to think of a single prominent American Christian who better illustrates the collapsing Evangelical public witness than Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son. His commitment to the Christian character of American public officials seems to depend largely on their partisan political identity." Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness, National Review

“Woe to you ... hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides. ... For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."    Matthew 23:23, 24, 27, 28 ESV  

The "evangelical" Christian participation in politics is not furthering Christianity or the good news of God's boundless grace. It is a testimony to greed, isolationism, fear, arrogance, racism and nationalism, and discrimination. You, personally, may not notice it, but countless people around the world see it and are disgusted. Evangelical used to mean that we told the good news of God's love and salvation. Now, many of us avoid the negatively loaded word and call ourselves Christ-followers or God-followers.

What is the remedy? It's very simple.

You want to find a REAL godly person? 

Roll up your sleeves, get involved in an other-centric project, and you'll see that godly people are all around you. No one will preach at another, ever, because we believe that God's Spirit is there in our midst.

When we die, there isn't some final exam on pre-millennialism, imputed or imparted righteousness, prophetic timelines, or a host of theology-speak terms. There are only a few requirements, and they don't involve the Ten Commandments or any other list. Through the ages, people of many cultures want to know how to be right with God, and what he requires of us. It's very basic, so everyone can understand. "Love one another."

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 ESV

And the people who God brings into his kingdom? The ones who fed and watered the hungry and thirsty, welcomed the foreigner, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner.  Matthew 25:40 

In other words, those who love and give up their own comforts sometimes, to help others.

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books:

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Reaching out in person

© 2019 Christy K Robinson

Please consider this. All over the United States, there are churches, shelters, charities, clinics, food banks, and many other outlets for you to help with. It's more than politics, more than writing a check or swiping a credit card, it's about being personally involved in helping human beings.

They are not sub-human. They are not gang members. They are NOT, repeat NOT, drug runners. They aren't "murderers and rapists" -- they're actually trying to escape that violence. They aren't stealing your job or "using up" medical care and other resources in a country that's "full."

Trump has been outspoken about how dangerous he believes undocumented immigrants are, once referring to some of them as “animals.” His claims come despite the lack of evidence that the presence of undocumented immigrants leads to an uptick in crime. --HuffPost, April 2019

They're not coming here, like Trump says in his condescending voice, to go to Disneyland (single-day tickets at both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure cost $97 on value days, $110 on regular days, and $124 on peak days). These are people who don't have shoelaces, much less mad money.



The refugees and asylum seekers are young parents with little children. They are members of the Central American caravans who are fleeing gang and drug cartel violence, rape, and massacre. They risked death at the borders, at bridges and river crossings, by riding on dangerously overcrowded vehicles, and from exposure to harsh weather when they were exhausted from walking 20 miles or more for a day, carrying a baby or a toddler. But all of the risks they incur are worth it, to escape the horrors of their home countries.

Her home in a rural area of El Salvador’s La Paz region became a death trap when a relative testified against a local gang member, Alvarado said. Uncles, nephews, classmates and others have been kidnapped or murdered in retaliation, she added. At the news conference, she held up a photo of a young girl, a neighbor, left for dead on a dirt road close to her home. --Houston Chronicle, 2019.

HUIXTLA, Mexico — As thousands of Central American migrants renewed their trek Wednesday through Mexico toward the hoped-for, but still far-distant U.S. border, the physical toll was beginning to show in sickness and exhaustion, especially among the children toddling along, being pushed in strollers or carried in the arms of adults.
And for their parents, it was their hope for their children’s futures, and fears of what could happen to them back home in gang-dominated Honduras, that were the main motivation for deciding to leave in the first place.
“They can’t be alone. … There’s always danger,” said Ludin Giron, a Honduran street vendor making the difficult journey with her three young children. “When (gang members) see a pretty girl, they want her for themselves. If they see a boy, they want to get him into drugs."
And it is well known that refusing either can be deadly. Honduras has a homicide rate of about 43 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world for any country not in open war.” --Albuquerque Journal, October 24, 2018 

Central American mother and two daughters, part of a caravan of asylum seekers.
Photo: The Columbian, Google Images

A Honduran boy and his father were tear-gassed, attempting to cross
from Honduras into Mexico.
Photo: Encarne Pindado, BBC.

One of the Central American mothers who made it out
of her dangerous country, through Mexico,
and into the United States seeking asylum. She and her
daughter stayed for three weeks in a detention camp
before being dumped in Phoenix by the Department of
Homeland Security, with no money, no clothes or shoes but
what they were wearing, and no food for the journey to her
sponsor where she would stay until her immigration court date.
Volunteers provided for her immediate needs.
Photo: Christy K Robinson

In the culture of our spiritual ancestors, hospitality was a great virtue. "Strangers" (travelers, aliens) were treated even better than family members!  

‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.' Leviticus 25:35 NIV 

I urge you to not just be outraged at the evil that has been unleashed by racism and bigotry, but to do something about your outrage. Don't sit at home and tap out frownie faces in social media. Find a way to act. Find a way to do something that engages you personally with those who are "the least of these." It will change another human being's life. And yours.  
 

Want to be an influential person, a person of substance and character, who is admired and respected by others? Here's how: http://christykrobinson.blogspot.com/2010/02/influential-people.html


For other articles on refugees seeking asylum, click this link: https://christykrobinson.blogspot.com/search?q=asylum

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books:

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Toy rehab for refugee children

I've made 2019 the year of helping/assisting/loving/donating/volunteering on my Discovering Love inspirational site. Most of the articles will be mine, but I’ve asked friends for guest articles on how they’re working in their circles of influence. Stay tuned!  

A Central American boy chose a hot-pink teddy bear from the large bag of soft toys.

I blurred the faces for security's sake. The smiles under the blurs
showed their excitement at having their own soft toys to love.

© 2019 Christy K Robinson

One of the least important, useless services we can provide for refugees who lack the basics of food and shelter and clothing is providing toys for kids, right? If parents really loved their children, they wouldn't have brought them on such a hazardous journey, right?

NO!

The moms who set out on the 2,000-mile journey with a toddler and another child are women who are fleeing gang and drug cartel violence, and grinding poverty. Their husbands and boyfriends (or maybe rapists) were either recruited, voluntarily or involuntarily, to the gangs or they may be dead because of the cartels that drive through the ramshackle neighborhoods and shoot them up with automatic weapons, or kidnap older children for their drug gangs.

The young mothers we see appear to be 18-30 years old. There are a few men with older children, but they are vastly outnumbered by the women. I haven't seen any middle-aged or older refugees. This may be because the busloads of refugees that Department of Homeland Security (ICE) drops at the host churches are from family detention centers and not from the centers where adults without children are housed.

See my article on an interfaith group who host and feed refugees

These Central American families come from horrific societal conditions we could hardly imagine, if not for the efforts of journalists -- journalists whose passports and travels have been flagged by Homeland Security because the narratives they publish vary from the agenda of the Trump administration that insists that the United States is being invaded by "illegals:" liars and thieves who want to steal American jobs and American benefits but who have been advised to claim asylum so they'll have a better chance at successful immigration. 

Whereas in the past, most immigrants were adults who came for low-paying agricultural jobs, now the majority of immigrants are coming with their children. The Trump administration blatantly said in 2017 that their policy of family separation was meant as a deterrent to immigration. Public outcry at children kept in cages and fences and federal courts eventually resulted in many families being kept together. But not all. Thousands of unaccompanied minors remain in concentration camps and residential detention centers.

BBC story and photo: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44531187

When the families are released from Border Patrol and bused to a host church or the Greyhound bus station with ankle monitors, but no shoelaces, no money, no food, no tickets to host families, who could think of a luxury like a toy for a toddler? 

With all the needs that refugee families have, why is it important for children to have fluffy bunnies and colorful teddy bears?

For joy. For love. For comfort.

Look at this child's joy, as a volunteer gives him a soft toy of his own.

Many of the ositos (little bears) have tags for FAO Schwartz, Build a Bear, and Gund.

Monkeys and bunnies about to be re-homed to a refugee child.

Meet Sherry, the stuffed animal veterinarian

No, Sherry isn't stuffed! Nor is she a veterinarian. She's a retired CRNA, certified registered nurse anesthetist by profession, and by avocation, the fixer, healer, redeemer, and nurse of stuffed animals. Her husband and helper declines to be named, but loves the work they've embarked upon.

How did you see a need and proceed to fill it? 
Sherry: "At the first place we went to volunteer, the refugees were coming off the Homeland Security bus with just the clothes they were wearing. The children had no toys. We wanted to give them some safety and security and something to hold onto, that could be theirs. The little faces just really light up when they get them. Their lives have been turned upside down. Getting the bears is comforting."

Why do children need stuffed toys?

She loves her pink, fluffy bear. So does the
little girl in the background.

Sherry: "I can remember when I was a student in nursing school, the nursing department of this large hospital had toys donated for abused or burned children coming in. We tried to give them plush toys to hold onto for comfort."

Where do you get the stuffed toys? What is your rehab process?
Sherry: "I go to Goodwills and all the thrift stores, and I pick teddy bears, dogs, cats, animals in good condition for maybe $1.50. Sometimes I come home with one, or three or four or 10. We don't buy big toys like a shark or elephant. We buy small toys because we give them to small children. I take the clothes off, because some come in fancy clothes and some have no clothes. I don't want some children to have fancy bears and others not. Some church members have been giving new toys, but it's not about buying new toys, it's about giving new life to toys that are donated. There was a bear that we decided not to give away because it looked like it was frowning. We give happy bears.
We buy only the ones in good condition. No battery-operated pieces, unless it's a good buy, and then I cut it out. We make sure there's nothing sharp on it. I've had to do some mending where the seams have torn.
We put plenty of Downy in the wash, because I like them to smell good, and they do. We have two sofas full of toys ready to go. " 

An array of rehabbed animals on Sherry's sofa.

Do you have helpers? Are you one of several people who do this? 
Sherry: "It's our project. My husband says it's a full-time job. You have to be retired! He helps clean bears and cuts tags."

How many stuffed animals do you distribute each week?  
Sherry: "It depends on how many I get. Last week, we had about 40 animals to give out, but we needed more for the number of children who were there. One week we passed out everything we had, and 15 children didn't have any, so I ran home, washed and dried some more, and brought enough then for the rest of the children. We had about 75 last week."

Even a hard heart would melt for this lineup!

How does this volunteer work bless you? 
Sherry: "This is our mission. Children are what interest us, and just being around these people who have gone to such lengths to keep their children safe. The trip they've taken, the protection they give them. [Doing this] warms my heart tremendously. It's God's work, that's what we're doing. Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." I hope it's meaningful and comforting to them."

Everybody into the hot tub!

  

How you can help

• Look at your child's or grandchild's toy collection, and note the soft, fluffy stuffed toys they don't use now. Talk to them about sharing with children who need a toy to love.
• You might have Easter bunnies or Valentine bears you've decorated with over the years or received as gifts. Remember that the families you're donating to have been very poor and giving something ostentatious or excessive would be too great a contrast between "rich Americans" and indigent refugees. Allow the parents the dignity of providing for their children.
• Collect stuffed toys from your friends and church members. Visit thrift shops. Remember that the toys should be 15 inches or smaller because the children will be carrying them, and the parent may need to stuff it in a pack while the child sleeps or while traveling.
• Spot-clean and vacuum the toys to remove dust or pet fur. Wash them very gently, and fluff the fur when they're dry. Make sure there are no small parts that could choke a child. Mend any burst seams that could leak stuffing.
• Take the toys to a host church or hospital for distribution. Wherever you live, be it Phoenix-metro where we are, or Denver, Atlanta, Modesto, or Minneapolis, there are hospitals or refugee centers, homeless shelters, and preschools in an economically disadvantaged area that would welcome your help. 

These bears have already been chosen by children who are being fitted for new shoes. The bears will be loved. 

Sherry Barlow Cooper didn't want her photo to be used
with this article, but I just learned that she'd passed away
in 2022. This is Sherry, serving food to indigent people
in Phoenix. 

Nice bombs
If God calls you to minister to others, it probably won't be in a way that you would hate or be embarrassed to do. If you have a horror of "witnessing" or preaching, please do not inflict that fear on others! Instead, Ask God to open your eyes to the needs of the people right there near you. You might drive a cancer patient to and from a chemo or physical therapy appointment. If you're good at woodworking or carpentry, someone needs your help repairing furniture. If you're a good cook, invite a single person or the friend of your kid over to dinner (especially on a holiday). If you have a green thumb, plant tomato seedlings in paper cups to give away, or grow fruit and vegetables in your garden to donate to others. If someone is moving house, pack some boxes or carry them out to the truck.

You don't even need to mention that you belong to XYZ Church and you're doing this as evangelism or charity work. Really. Do not do that! Just live your life dropping what I call "nice bombs." Give a compliment. Take a few hours to help where needed. Go through closets and storage and donate your stuff to a thrift shop or charity. 

This is not why volunteers do what they do: to get something out of it, to enlarge their congregation, or to feel good about themselves. But ask any volunteer if they feel blessed or privileged to do the work for others, and they will all agree. It warms the heart. It's the feeling that you belong to something bigger than yourself. In an increasingly hostile, divisive, and insular world, kindness and compassion bring us back together. Don't let the Karma Bus squash you flat, but instead, let it pick you up and take you to a happy place.

For other articles on refugees seeking asylum, click this link: https://christykrobinson.blogspot.com/search?q=asylum 

**********************

Christy K Robinson is author of these books:

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)