42 Equals 13

42 Equals 13

Now my first-grade son would say, “Mommy, that is not right.”  But for my life, it is.

I will turn 42 years old this month, but I find myself not focusing on new wrinkles and body aches, but on freedom.  Freedom from the bondage of depression.  Freedom from the temptation to slip back into my pit.  Freedom from thoughts of suicide as my only way out.  Freedom granted to me by God’s healing and grace 13 years ago.  For me, 42 equals 13.

Leave it to God to choose to use us, his fallen, imperfect children, to do His work.  At times, I am so surprised how He has called me to serve Him.  This hit me first when I was pregnant with our son and then our daughter.  That God would take me, a woman who once felt worthless and useless, to be the vessel for new life…truly amazing!  At times don't you find yourself laughing at how He operates?  So contrary to our expectations at times.

Today, I found myself thinking about my current callings and again found myself in awe of how God sees in us what we cannot or will not see.  In me, He saw the person to lead Hope for Our Sisters (hopeforoursisters.org) and Gathering for Hope (gatheringforhope.org), even though I spent years lost in my pit with no way out or even a desire to climb out.  He saw past that and knew I was destined for more, if only I would take His hand and walk with Him.

Is it ironic or fitting that I now speak for women and girls without hope, women and girls who have been told they are worthless and useless – women and girls with fistula?  Does it make any sense that I now encourage other women to find their calling and help restore the lives of others on God’s behalf – when I once saw no need for my own life?

As you look at your year ahead, I hope you will find your equation, find how God has come into your life and made a change for the better.  May we not get lost in ourselves and our limitations, but may we get lost in the adventure God has planned for us. 

No matter your equation or story, God will use you if you let Him.  For me, 42 equals 13 equals freedom and for that I am thankful!

© 2013 by Brooke F Sulahian

SO MUCH...WITHOUT

As I awoke from the anesthesia, I found myself weeping.  The nurse asked if I was Ok and I said, “We have SO MUCH and so many live WITHOUT.”

Last week I went to the hospital for SURGERY on my foot to heal a problem that caused pain and limited my movement.  A foot problem that I CHOSE to have addressed after much PLANNING for my children’s care and help for my husband to run our home on his own for an entire month post surgery.

As painful as my foot ailment was, it did not result in my being OSTRACIZED or cut off from my community like FISTULA does.  It did not leave me HOPELESS like FISTULA can.  I also only drove 15 MINUTES to the hospital…many women, men and children around the world must WALK FOR DAYS to reach care and that is only if they KNOW care and healing exist.

I was cared for in a CLEAN hospital with TRAINED and CONCERNED staff.  From what I have read, this is not always the case in the developing world.  Many hospitals LACK any semblance of CLEANLINESS, many women who go for care are treated with DISDAIN and RUDENESS, and many people who provide care are NOT TRAINED as well as they should be.

I am not pronouncing judgment on those who GIVE ALL THEY CAN to provide care to women, men and children around the world.  Many use ALL THEY HAVE at their disposal to give the BEST CARE possible.  However, I am trying to open the eyes of those who have SO MUCH.  I want to help all of us SEE all we have around us and then DO SOMETHING to make a LASTING CHANGE for those WITHOUT.

GOD OPENED MY EYES almost three years ago to the PLIGHT of so many around the world. Yet, HE CONTINUES to open my eyes.  Like He did in the recovery room of the hospital where I was again treated with GREAT CARE and given new crutches to HELP me walk.  What CARE and HELP are people in the developing world GIVEN?  What CHANCE do they have to TRULY HEAL?

May our EYES be OPENED again and again.

May we all be open and receptive to OUR CALLING. 

May we all say YES. 

May we USE our SO MUCH to HELP those WITHOUT.

© 2013 by Brooke F Sulahian

Christmas for One

CHRISTMAS FOR ONE

So this is Christmas

We think of gifts, music, parties, family, lights and decorations.

We think of joy, peace, and hope.

We think of Jesus…

the One God sent to us.

What about all of the people without joy, peace and hope?

Those trapped in foreign brothels, those duped into domestic sexual exploitation or prostitution, those who believe they have no choice but to pay for the chance to dance at strip clubs.

Those denied education, those weighed down by fistula, those working in slave-like conditions with little or no pay, those who dread the return of their abusive husbands each day.

You think, “I cannot help them all…it’s too much to even consider.”

What about helping just one this Christmas?

What about making this Christmas about one?

One who needs freedom, options, education, choice, healing, fair pay, or safety.

One who needs peace, joy or hope.

One who needs YOU,

this Christmas,

now.

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian

Today

TODAY

Today, a young girl has been given no food so her brothers can eat…where is the hope?

Today, a young girl has been married off to an older man she does not know

Today, a young girl has become pregnant…too young and too small to deliver naturally

Today, a young girl, grieving the loss of her stillborn child, has just woken up in her bed soiled with urine and feces…bewildered and ashamed

Today, a young girl has been left by her husband, kicked out of the house by her family, and forced to fend for herself due to her odor

Today, a young woman realized it is her 10^th year of lying in a wet bed…hope continuing to vanish

Today, an older woman struggles through her 40^th year with fistula, sitting alone in her hut unaware that a cure exists

Today, a woman cleans herself in the hope that a neighbor in her village may say “Hi” today…hope is not lost yet

Today, a woman is traveling alone on her way to a hospital, leaking with every step but not turning back, holding onto hope of a cure, a new life

Today, a young girl is carried on her father’s back to reach a hospital to be cured of fistula…feeling loved along the way

Today a woman recovers in a hospital bed, cured of fistula…hope returning

Today, a young girl returns home in new clothing after a successful fistula surgery

Today, a woman makes a home in a new community, free of fistula and its horrors

Today, a woman is welcomed back to her former community as a whole person…hope restored

Today, a young girl is given food to eat alongside her bothers

Today, a young girl is given the chance to study and learn

Today, a young girl is cherished as a gift from God and protected from the dangers in this world…hope that is real and strong

Today…

© 2012 by Brooke F Sulahian