2014 – Page 4 – Georgia Drurys

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Cheryl — 2 Comments

Is it beautiful?

Today around lunchtime I had a thought I’m pretty sure I’ve never thought before: “I want to make something beautiful.”

It had been a perfectly nice day but this week has been a little short on creativity. My off-track thoroughbred (OTTB) Finn had given me a terrific lesson this morning, but there’s been more than the normal crush of laundry this week, plus getting back in the groove of home life after even a short time away.

But I don’t think I’d ever thought THAT. The desire to make beauty. Well.

Honestly, I think I know what I was thinking about. I’m making pillows for the family room that are a mix of hot and cool Anna Maria Horner prints. The combination is just delicious to me. I am dying to finish them and can’t seem to get them done! I went to my sewing room and started putting pieces together. I thought that this indeed is beautiful. I really love these prints.

But then my sewing machine refused to cooperate! It started eating my patches, arghhhh. So I couldn’t make these beautiful things.

I took my camera with me when the girls went to ride, and captured this photo of my grand-pony Bailey. (Best. Pony. Ever.) Beautiful? I don’t know.

And then, I headed to school to watch Matthew in the JV game (they won!). Beautiful? Probably not.

I have a friend being deployed “someplace cold” in three weeks, so I just cast on a hat for him to wear under his helmet. While it’s a delicious wool-alpaca blend, I’m not sure it qualifies as beautiful.

So I feel like I’ve paid attention today, but I didn’t really get to make anything beautiful today. What an odd thought–and I wonder if I’ll get to make anything beautiful tomorrow.

How do you notice beauty in your daily life? Made anything beautiful today?

***YAY! Apparently I can upload photos. Please return tomorrow when I’ll publish a whole bunch of pictures from our Dominican Republic trip.***

Posted on October 15, 2014October 18, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Every loan has a story.

Oh, friends, I am having such stupid blogging troubles. I have so many pictures that I want to share, but WordPress is not feeling cooperative. So I’m stuck between telling a story with words only, or no post at all. I’m choosing to tell the story…

Imagine that you are one of the billion or so people in the world who live on less than $1.25 a day. Every day is a balancing act–things that middle-class Americans take for granted simply don’t exist.

If you have an idea that requires some capital, your only choice is to save. Your savings is in cash, so it’s easy to steal. If it’s paper, it can be destroyed by flood or flame or animals. You probably live in a culture that demands you support your family–whatever you have is theirs, and if they have a need and you have the means, well, you simply must share. The only kind of loan you can get is from a loan shark–you’re too small to deal with a bank, much less a credit card.

So without access to banking services, your options for working, having a business, or even improving your home are very limited at best. This is the gap that HOPE and Esperanza* seek to fill in the Dominican Republic.

Today I want to share the WHO and WHAT of HOPE. Tomorrow we can talk about the HOW–but I just really want to share some stories. Hopefully I can share pictures tomorrow!

During meetings in the villages of Mato Palacios and Casa Colorado we met about 25 women and men who were attending their bi-weekly meetings. All of them wanted to tell their stories–here are a few.

A lady who makes and sells underwear. Her first loan was for a sewing machine. She has used her more recent loans to improve her home from wood to concrete block.
A lady who became literate through Esperanza* programs. She has a food stand.
A 13-year client who sells clothing house-to-house. She has bought a small farm outside the village, and now raises goats and crops as well as maintaining her business.
A shopkeeper who expanded her inventory through Esperanza loans.
A lady who had a road-side fry stand, and began farming. Her loan helped her to rent a tractor for plowing her farm.
A couple who make cheese and candy. They buy the milk from a cooperative. Loans paid for the equipment they need for making their products.
A lady whose clothing sales just bombed. (There is a lot of competition in this kind of business.) So she regrouped, bought a freezer, and now sells ice cream and ice. She sells about $1000 of ice cream per month, clearing $600.
A pig farmer.
A furniture maker who has used a series of loans to buy power tools. He now has enough orders to look for employees. He told us that when he started with Esperanza, his two prayers were to raise his children to follow the Lord, and to have a business that would succeed. He said that through Esperanza God had answered those prayers.
A corner shop order who had most recently added an ice cream freezer. In two years her business had gone from a loan of $125 (paid back) to her current loan amount of $1250. Her business has grown more than enough to support a larger loan and payment!
A lady who had started as a juice stand and now owns a corner store with large inventory.
A lady who sells cell-phone minutes. Through loans she has been able to improve her home to include a strong roof and concrete block construction.

When you read these stories, keep in mind that the vast majority of these loans are in the $125-$300 range. I can’t express how amazing it is to sit in a room with these people and listen as they describe their successes.

The president of Esperanza was also with us, and she told us what might have been the most important thing we heard that day. She said that the associates wanted us to know that “It’s not about the money. We have dental, literacy, medical, business training…spiritual guidance…The focus is always on God’s will. We always read the Bible.”

We heard “Thanks to God…” and “With God’s help…” so many times this weekend. We saw the transformed lives that come from work. Really, it’s a transformation from powerlessness and vulnerability to self-determination and creativity.

We met two other super-stars, but I’m dying to share pictures with you, so I’m going to wait until tomorrow for their stories.

*HOPE International and Esperanza work in tandem in Dominican Republic to provide Christian-based microfinance services. Our trip was with HOPE but the services are all provided directly by Esperanza.

**UPDATE: I’ve added pictures!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Some of the associates at their bi-weekly meeting in Mato Palacios.

Posted on October 14, 2014October 18, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Sunshine turns Eleven

***I’m having technical difficulties getting my pictures up. Ugh. I’m posting this in the knowledge that I’ll be editing it tomorrow, I hope, to add pictures.***

Ever since she was born, we’ve thought of Darcy as our sunshine. Something about that wide-eyed, open smile. Plus she can be hilarious so we are always laughing.

Our baby girl turned 11 today. What a precious gift. We had dinner with all the grands tonight. Nothing fancy but a fun time around the table. And we laughed. A lot. I’m still trying to remember what Matthew said that started us just rolling at the dinner table. Isn’t it funny? The memories of the laughter last a lot longer than the joke itself.

Updated:

Here are the pictures I wanted to post the other night…

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Re-entry

We left town for four days, but I swear the kids are two years older. How does that happen?

I wanted to take a little break from telling about my trip. I still have so many thoughts just swimming around and I want to do a good job of telling the stories we heard. Not much processing went on today, though, because the kids had the day off and we needed to get caught up!

So today was back-and-forth to football practice, a visit to the orthodontist, a shopping trip to buy homecoming dance clothes, and time for a ride. In other words, right back into real life, where nothing that was on your list gets done but all of it is good.

We ended our day with Chinese food and a lot of conversation. It’s homecoming week this week and somehow we will need to pack ten days of crazy into a four-day week. Plus a super-sweet certain someone is celebrating her 11th birthday this week and cakes need to be made.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more about my trip. For tonight I’ll add a picture from the spectacular evening we had–unexpectedly! we thought it would rain–and marvel at how normal it all is. Re-entry, normal life…God is so good to us.

Posted on October 12, 2014October 15, 2014 by Cheryl — 2 Comments

One HOPEful weekend

Prayer in a wheelbarrow workshop. This kind of sums up our weekend!

Bill and I just returned from a crash course in microfinance in the Dominican Republic. Somehow we were invited on the HOPE International President’s Trip, somehow we decided to go, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are amazed at the people we met, from the HOPE and Esperanza employees, to the associates, to the fellow President’s Trip attendees. We are just grateful for the opportunity.

In a nutshell, Esperanza provides Christian-based microfinance services in the Dominican Republic. When HOPE decided to work in DR, they discovered that the better mission would be to support Esperanza’s efforts that were already in place. It seems to be a terrific partnership. (And as a donor, you have to love an organization that doesn’t feel the need to recreate the wheel!)

Honestly, we just got back this afternoon and we are still kind of reeling from so many great things that we saw this weekend. But let me leave you with three thoughts for tonight:

About the HOPE and Esperanza employees: total commitment to loving Jesus and loving the associates (loan recipients), and wanting to deliver the best possible loan products even as they come alongside the associates to teach about Jesus, health care and business practices. This is how they serve the whole person, not merely the business that the associate owns.

About the associates (loan recipients): dignity and pride as they shared their individual stories with us, and beautiful communities that we were able to glimpse.

About our fellow attendees: what amazing enthusiasm to see the Kingdom of God advanced not merely through a hand-out, but through entrepreneurship and a commitment to work and achievement.

If I had to think of one verse that encompassed the whole weekend, it’s actually pretty easy:

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.–Colossians 3:17 (NIV)

I’m looking forward to sharing some specific stories as the week goes by!

Posted on October 11, 2014October 15, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Still in Dominican Republic!

Yesterday, we met a lady who took a microfinance loan from HOPE and Esperanza to start a clothing business. It did not go well. In fact, it failed.
She regrouped, prayed, thought, and used the remaining money to buy a freezer.
She now sells her complete ice cream inventory of $50 (US) every TWO DAYS.
She is improving her home and has a savings account. And she is so proud of what she has built.
Ten thousand stories like that. I can’t wait to tell one or two more. God is so good.

Internet is extraordinarily limited here, so this will be my only post direct from DR. Sorry for no pictures…but I’ll have so much to share when we get home.

Posted on October 10, 2014October 15, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Sharing Hope

With any luck, I’m actually in the Dominican Republic right now, visiting people who have benefited from the miracle of microfinance with HOPE International and Esperanza. I’d like to share a couple of videos:

We are looking forward to sharing more this weekend!

Posted on October 9, 2014October 8, 2014 by Cheryl — Leave a comment

Another benefit of blogging

Clarity! Actually, it’s any writing that helps.

Stacks of journals…solid evidence that I used to write. A LOT. And then I drifted away.

I’ve found in the past couple of days that this mulling, on the page or screen, helps a good bit with clarity. I was getting ready to have a difficult conversation and was feeling muddled. So I started listing out all the points I needed to make. When I started my list the points felt disconnected, random.

But a picture emerged as I wrote. Much like the really complicated dot-to-dots that you might have done in the fourth grade, not the easy-peasy kindergarten ones.

I went into that conversation confident and, even better, clear. Clear where we needed to go, clear on what the situation truly was.

Here’s to more writing, and more clarity! Have you noticed anything like this in your writing life? And what should I do with all those notebooks?!

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Cheryl — 2 Comments

When you just keep writing…

…because you said you’d do it 31 days in a row. That’s where I am.

About 3 weeks ago, I got something in my eye. Dust, maybe. Later that day I noticed that the side of my face was swelling, in particular the lymph node right by my ear. So I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day. She saw some debris, rinsed and prescribed an antibiotic to be extra careful. By Sunday I was in terrible pain and skipped church to go to urgent care where I was diagnosed with cellulitis. More drugs and more eye drops.

The next day the swelling still wasn’t down, so I called the eye doctor and went in. Pink eye! Of course. How strange. No one else had gotten it, and it hadn’t spread to my other eye. But, okay. Stronger antibiotic and steroid.

Tuesday, I woke up around 4 am with terrible stabbing pain in my eye. It would water just from the pain. The effort to see sent me into more spasms of pain. I waited until 8 to text my eye doc (he’s a great guy) and he texted me right back–Shingles. I’m calling in more medicine for you. Call me and let me know how you are doing.

Whew. Shingles. But there was no rash! None at all. I got the drugs…but by Wednesday the entire side of my face and throat were swelling. Back to my primary, where he absolutely agreed. “Wow, shingles. No rash. This is bad.”

Right away he sent me to an ENT across town because, in addition to screwing up your eyesight, shingles in your ear/lymph area messes with hearing and balance. By the time I drove back home that night I could barely see due to the pain, and was terribly dizzy. One-eyed + dizzy = stupid driving. I quit driving for five days.

So that was the first week. Two weeks and many, many more doctor visits later I’ve regained about 80% of my eyesight in that eye (at one point I couldn’t even see the top letter on the eye chart!) and the dizziness has receded a lot as well. I have to say I have gotten great care from my three doctors. But I’m just so tired and headache-y.

And frustrated. Yesterday I rode my sweet horse Finn for the first time in three weeks. That is a looooong time off for this old girl, and for that young hot-shot thoroughbred, too. He was a rock star, so sweet and attentive. Apparently he missed me. So I was feeling pretty great today as I decided to fit in a Pilates class.

I almost passed out. Before this shingles episode I rode four days a week, walked three miles a day (most days) and did Pilates two days a week. Active. I couldn’t make it through the whole hour today, and I was completely worthless the rest of the day. Cold sweat, light-headed…It took me 90 minutes to recover enough to eat lunch! And then I needed a nap and had no focus this afternoon.

So I’m sitting here wanting to write about lovely things and instead I sound like a whiny old lady going on about her ailments. I know I just have to be patient. But there is a joke in our house. I never, ever pray for patience, because the Lord doesn’t just give it to you. He teaches you. And that is one lesson I just am not interested in learning.

Prayers and good thoughts sent my way would be greatly welcome! I’m so ready to be free of this stupid virus. Back to more fun things tomorrow!

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Cheryl — 6 Comments

Scenes from our life

Blogging makes me notice and record. I love that! Some scenes and a couple of memories from today…

Two heads are better than one, especially with algebra.

One

Matthew (Tenth Grade) has an assignment requiring him to identify a deity, a tragedy, and a bad leader from a civilization. He drew…Native Americans. Which is totally cool for the deity–tons!–and a tragedy–the Trail of Tears, HELLO, we live in Georgia. But when it came to the bad leader, he couldn’t find one! There are a ton of lists of great Native American leaders, but not one whisper of criticism of a possibly less-than-stellar Native American leader. Apparently they were all fabulous! His teacher said he should just pick the least good-sounding one. An assignment falls prey to political correctness. Ha.

Two

The college letters have started to pick up for Matthew. Every day brings one or two. Today there were four. Paige (Seventh Grade) eyed the stack of mail on the counter, sighed, and said, “I really just think Matthew should ignore all of that and live at home after he graduates.” Heart, melted.

We got some great news today for my husband’s company. We will be celebrating–can’t really describe it any more than to say it feels like a huge weight has been lifted. We are so grateful.

Thanks for visiting! If you blog, what do you notice when you are posting more? What do you miss when you don’t post?