Thanksgiving Reflection
In this season of Thanksgiving it seems right to reflect on the faithfulness of God expressed through your compassionate prayers and giving. It is appropriate to report some particulars regarding our stewardship of finances to our loyal ministry family. I hope this short letter will communicate both profound gratitude and an abiding sense of responsibility as trusted stewards of your generosity.
Every ministry/mission that I have ever served has experienced ever-changing seasons of ups, downs, and in-betweens. Sounds like life, doesn’t it?
Over the past few years change has been a constant for our little ministry. Laughing Child has had to adapt to the closure of our Camp due to regional violence, inaccessibility to the families we serve because of a global pandemic, and the creation of a new approach to leadership due to my cancer journey and resulting partial paralysis. Here are a few ways in which these “negative” changes have actually made us a more effective and efficient ministry today:
Camp closure:
The new and refined iteration of our ministry is called Family Bridges. Though created and developed through 5 years of camp-based ministry, it is now a “mobile” outreach. Rather than building and maintaining a mission base, we now operate exclusively through partnerships with churches and caregiving organizations. This allows us to serve many more families, recruit and train needed volunteers, and to utilize existing host facilities.
Pandemic chaos:
A tragic lack of access to the hurting families we serve drove us to our knees and back to the drawing board. Those challenging and uncertain months would prove to yield invaluable reflection and inspiration for the future of our important work. It resulted in the development of our extensive therapeutic program for the siblings and parents of children living with a life-altering medical condition: Family Bridges.
Prolonged illness:
National leadership of mission is the hope of any foreign missionary worth his/her salt. My forced absence from the field gave rise to this vision becoming reality. The blessing of modern technology allows seamless communication with our leadership in Mexico. I am thrilled by how passionately and proficiently our national team serves the calling set before us. It is humbling to witness how able and eager Father is to creatively fulfill His healing intentions for the families we serve. My reluctant view from the “background” has actually allowed me to see new facets of God’s beauty, alive and life-giving, through this vital mission.
This long journey of learning, through adaptation, has led us to a prayerful, hopeful, and helpful place. May you feel encouraged to know of our careful approach to the stewardship of precious, limited resources, dedicated to His mission of love in this dark world. I bless you for praying and giving for the glory of God and for the healing and wholeness of His children through the ministry of Laughing Child.
Warmly,
shane
