Loving the Least of These

Roughly 4 years ago, I went with some friends to love on the homeless community in downtown Houston. A few months later, I went again. Soon after that, I found my self going pretty much every month to love on these people. As the years have passed, God has wrecked me in a good way. My heart hurts for the homeless, the unwanted, the outcasts, the small. Last December, the couple that had started the ministry, Kylie's Prayer, that I had been serving with each month for years, had to move out of state, and I was honored that they asked me to take over this ministry.

At the end of each month, we head out, armed with whatever donations we've collected that month, alongside many dear friends who've done the same. Our goal is simple. Be the hands and feet of Jesus to offer these people hope. We aren't out to rescue them from the streets or to fix them. We are there solely to love on them.

And each month, I am amazed and in awe.

Month after month, through the heat of summer, cold winter, and even sometimes rain, some amazing people show up to serve alongside my kids and me. And each month my heart is broken and remolded by the stories I hear and amazed at the connections that are made and mind-blown by the grace God shows us and just the beauty of watching people love on each beyond social norms and boundaries. 

Last month I met a veteran who goes by the name Hope. This sweet man (probably around his mid-60s) actually has a home at the moment in a veteran housing facility near one of our stops. He was homeless for a while prior to getting a spot there a couple months ago. Still, he came by and chatted with us and graciously accepted a couple slices of pizza, some water and a handful of toiletries. I was a little taken back when I initially met him because right after thanking me for few toiletries I found him (bless him - he was so excited about a couple travel size shampoo and conditioner bottles) he looked at me, introduced himself and said, "There's something special about you. I can see it in your eyes. You just have a good heart." While so many of the folks we meet out here on the street are gracious and thankful, not many say things like this. I was caught off guard for a second, but quickly recovered and thanked him for his kind words. He then shared with me that he was a veteran and he lived in the housing unit. He said he really appreciated the few items he took because by the end of the month, the little bit he gets from the government is running out. He went on to tell me that he once was a successful business owner, but a few years ago, his wife died. He then couldn't keep up his business and lost it, and soon after lost his home and found himself on the streets. But he kept going on about how happy he was to be in the housing he was in now. He was thankful for what he had in the moment he was in.

So many times, we get caught up in our lives and our busyness and our stuff and we grumble about it and complain that we want more. I am oh so guilty here. We lose sight of what matters so easily. But yet, here stood this older man, who had plenty at one time and had lost it all, who was abundantly thankful for the little he had and the little we gave him. And he just had the genuine joy about him.

Later as we were about to pull out of the parking lot, Hope came running back over toward my car to catch us. I rolled down the window to see what he needed, and he said again that he felt like there was just something special about me.  It took him a moment to gather his words, then he asked, "Do you happen to know anyone around my age that's looking for a husband? I'm just so lonely and would really like to find a wife." Initially, I was thinking "WEIRD!!! What the..." but then God whispered to me, "Don't pass judgment here." (Funny, since that is something I pray over our group every month - that we would refrain from making judgments.) This man, Hope, looked at me and my kids with tears in his eyes, being completely vulnerable, asking if we could help with the one thing he felt he really needed. Sadly, I told him no because I really don't know of any special lady for him, but we prayed for him. We prayed that God would continue to provide for him and that if a wife was God's will, that he meet this special lady.

It's been a few weeks now, and Hope pops in my mind often. When he does, I pray he doing well. And while his request did seem strange, I am honored he felt safe enough to share this desire with me. Think about it - for him to come and say all that, he definitely had to set aside his own pride. As for him noting something special about me - I can't pinpoint that exactly other than Jesus just using me as His hands and feet to do His work. It's not me - it's Him.

Moments like these are such great reminders to me of why I fell in love with this ministry in the first place. God has gifted me with a heart for the homeless, the broken and the small. He's called me to love on the least of these. It is a joy and privilege to do His work.

"The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" -Matthew 24:40

For more information on how you can help with our ministry, please email me at lorimotal@gmail.com

For the Love: A Beautiful Journey

So it's been a while since I have posted. Life has been busy and I just keep soaking it all in. In case you didn't know, about six months ago, after seeing a post on Facebook, I applied and was chosen, along with 499 others, to be a part of a launch team for Jen Hatmaker's new book, For the Love. Over these months, we were given a copy of the book and a Facebook group was created with us and Jen to communicate about the book. Sounds simple enough, right?

But God had a bigger plan. Through this little launch team, so much more has happened than just the successful launch of a book. This group turned into a place where love and grace and acceptance, beyond what we could have ever imagined, has been found. This online community became a place where many have shared some of their deepest fears and others have encouraged and cheered each other on, and all have lifted each other in prayer. It is a safe place - something that seems so difficult to find in our world today.

This whole experience culminated in a Launch Party at Jen's home in Buda, TX just south of Austin. While we were all super excited to be there, the true beauty came in a more unexpected way. Rather than it being all about meeting Jen, all of these amazing women who have been a part of this online community showed that this community was real. While of course we were all thrilled to meet Jen (seriously, that was awesome!), we were equally thrilled to meet in person so many of the sweet friends we have grown to know via cyberspace. I've been processing this whole experience for weeks now, and still have a difficult time finding words to describe the whole experience.

Not only did I get to experience all that happened with this party, but I spent a long weekend with some amazing women from Houston. Did I mention that I had only met a few of them on one occasion for a couple hours and had never met the rest? Sounds pretty crazy.... I know my husband was questioning my sanity when I explained I was going to spend a weekend in Austin with a group of women I had met online. While in the back of my mind, I was so worried this would not go well, God had His hands all over the entire experience. This group of ladies come from all sorts of backgrounds and denominations and ages. We spent hours visiting about each others lives and struggles, and the safe place from our online group became a real, tangible thing as we prayed and lifted each other up with encouragement.

One of the highlights of the weekend came near the end of our trip. Earlier in the weekend, we were doing some shopping on South Congress. After finding out that there was a Toms store (I absolutely LOVE Toms!) we had missed earlier, this sweet group of women happily let me drag them on a walk way out of our way in the 100 degree heat so I could go look for some cute shoes. While shopping, we were chatting with this precious gal working at the Toms store. A couple of the ladies with me invited her to come hang out with us that evening and to come to church with us at ANC (Jen's church) Sunday morning. While she didn't make it to hang out that evening, we all ended up meeting her for breakfast before church Sunday morning. As we had done all weekend, all of us were real and vulnerable and shared stories of trials we have faced and pieces of our journeys. She joined us for church and later posted this sweet post to Facebook about the experience, and her words sum up the entire weekend so well:

As I've reflected on all this, I've questioned how it all worked so well. The only conclusions I've come to is this - God stepped in and took advantage of this moment. In this moment, we didn't know what to expect, so we had no preconceived expectations for what it would all look like. We hadn't made judgments beforehand, because we hadn't done this before and had nothing to judge it against. We all just loved with Christ-like love.

Which leads me to wonder, "What if?" What if we laid down our judgments and preconceived notions about others or about what we think things should be? What if we just encouraged each other and lifted one another up? What if we just loved the way Jesus loved?

This group of women have been such a gift to me. Although the book is launched and the party has happened, our group continues. And just a few days ago, Jen gifted us with news of Launch 2.0 - for her next book that is already in the works. I'm not sure how or why I got so blessed to be a part of this, but I am so thankful to God for the opportunity. I have so many wonderful new friends who I know will be there for life.

If you haven't gotten your copy of For the Love yet,  get it now here! I pray Jen's words bless you as they have so many of us.



The Houston Crew at Austin New Church

Ready for Our Road Trip 

Dinner Time

Some of our crew at the Launch Party

 

Me & Jen

Made New

I love springtime. The trees spouting fresh new green leaves, flowers blooming, and the outside things looking bright and new just makes my heart smile. The thing about spring, particularly April, is that this is the busy time of the year. Too busy it seems in my household. All I want to do is enjoy the nice weather and the flowers and all the things spring, but it feels like all I actually do is go, and do, and chauffeur, and go and do some more.

As a teacher, it is the time of year when the kids are full of spring fever. They are ready for summer to hurry up and arrive. Like, yesterday! I am right there with these precious ones, trying to push us all through the last of the bits we need to fit in, all the while dreaming of the days I can sleep in a bit and relax a little.

April is that time as a mom when I look at all the homework and projects my 12 year old daughter has to do, and I want to run and hide. Who are these teachers giving these projects at this point in the year? I just can't even. My 4 year old son sees the beautiful weather and is ALL BOY, and just wants us all to go play at the park or outside anywhere. And we are all torn because we all want to go with what the 4 year old says, but we all know we need to teach some responsibility and help keep the 12 year old on track with all the things she has to do. It's the time of year when it seems our weekends are jam packed full of banquets, birthday parties, karate tournaments, swim lessons, weddings and baby showers and the list goes on. We've worked so hard the entire school year and we are almost there to the finish. This is the time that feels the hardest. Every. Single. Year.

So this rainy Monday morning, I found myself not wanting to get up. The weekend was busy. There was too much even after letting some things go. I woke up to the alarm screaming at me and my mind was screaming back at it, "NOOOOOOOO!" It's not often I long for a day of silence and time alone, but today I am feeling that longing. You see, when life gets so busy, I find myself slacking on taking care of me. I need time alone with God to hear His voice and to think on His words. He is where I can find rest, yet, when things get to be too busy, why do I find that I let the time with my creator, the time I need most, go by the wayside?

Today, I am acknowledging that even in the midst of the busy, I need to carve out time to enjoy what it is I love most about spring. He makes all things new. Those fresh blooms, the sun breaking through the clouds, even that grass the needs to be mowed are all sweet reminders from God that we are a new creation in Him. And I am so thankful He blesses us with a fresh start each day and a ridiculous amount of grace and mercy.

So even in the trenches of stressful schedules and all the busy, take a moment to soak up God's blessings and be thankful. Be made new today.

I'll leave you with this song that was the soundtrack playing in my mind as I wrote this post:

Road to a Healthier Me

It dawned on that I have not blogged in a very long time, since October people! My oh my, life has been happening and time just keeps seeming to fly by faster and faster. So, here I sit today, at home trying to kick this bronchitis crud so I can get back to normal life again by tomorrow because y'all know I ain't got time for this mess!

Since it's been a while since my last update, let me catch you up to speed. As some of you know, last fall, my health was not great. I was in the midst of feeling like I lived at the doctor, getting test after test, trying all sorts of medications and other than getting some temporary relief to some symptoms from medications that made me sleepy and feeling like I was in a constant brain fog, I got no real answers. You can imagine the financial toll all this was taking as well. The neurologist left off last calling the burning/tingling/pins and needles/firecrackers going off in my body/burning headaches - "idiopathic neuropathy" which basically means "you've got neuropathy and we don't know why or what is causing it." Lucky me.

During this time, I was also scheduled for a partial hysterectomy to take care of some abnormal cells that needed to go before they became cancer, amongst other things. So, I decided to hold off on second opinions and more tests for the neuropathy symptoms until after getting through this surgery. On November 13, out came everything but one ovary. Recovery went well, and the toughest part was not getting to pick up my 4 year old for so many weeks and of course missing my Joy School family and students. I was again reminded how truly blessed I am to have so many fabulous people in my life who helped with things around my house, kept my classroom running, and fed my family for weeks post surgery. Thank you Jesus!

The holidays were upon us just a couple weeks after my surgery and with the neuropathy symptoms still flaring from time to time, I started considering my options. Back in October, my cousin and her husband shared with me their success with a product called Plexus Slim. Her husband who had suffered for years with severe back pain was now off the high dosage of meds and no longer needed cortisone shots in his spine after just a couple of months using this product. Another bonus was the 20 pounds he lost as well. At the time, I just said I needed to see what the doctors figured out and didn't think much else about it. But my husband decided a week or so later to give it a try. Now, I love my husband, but consistency with things like this is just not his strong-suit, so after a week or so, the bag of Plexus slim was stashed in the pantry forgotten.

That is until I came across a few days before Thanksgiving and after feeling bloated and like I gained a few pounds from all the laying around recovering from surgery I had been doing, I thought, "What the heck, I'll try it. If nothing else, maybe it will keep me from gaining weight over the holidays." So I did - I started taking Slim that day and just a little over a week later, on December 2, after talking it over more with my cousin, I decided to sign up as a Plexus Ambassador for the discount because I wanted to try a few other products. I ordered more Plexus Slim, along with the ProBio5, BioCleanse, and Xfactor multivitamin. And my how things have changed since that day!

I've now been on those same products for over 3 months. The extreme fatigue was the first of my symptoms to go. After just a few weeks, I was sleeping better than I ever had and my energy level improved drastically. I started looking up more info and learning more about how they work. Many of the products help heal leaky gut and kill off the Candida fungus that gets overgrown in our systems. You see, it was normal for me to take 5 or more doses of antibiotics each year for the last 10 or more years for the chronic sinus infections I had. As you may know, when you take an antibiotic, it kills off ALL the bacteria, good and bad, in your gut. Candida feeds off of this dead matter floating around in your gut - and boy did mine have plenty there to feed on with all those times I was taking antibiotics! Guess what else I have learned Candida feeds off of - SUGAR people! And last time I checked, eating candy for lunch on a regular basis pretty much certifies me as a sugar addict! As I was learning all of this, and taking these products, I noticed I wasn't craving sugar constantly anymore. I wasn't craving diet coke either. Instead I started noticing that instead I was craving WATER, and fruit and veggies! This was huge for this sugar addicted, 5-6 diet cokes a day gal!

As the weeks have gone by, my energy level has stayed up. I continue to sleep wonderfully. My skin has never been clearer and my seasonal allergies that are usually at their worst this time of year are drastically improved. The IBS symptoms I have battled for as long as I can remember - GONE! Those weird tingling/pins and needles/firecracker episodes of neuropathy are improving every day. They are less frequent and don't stop me in my tracks like before. What I have learned about leaky gut and Candida overgrowth is that those things are likely the cause of all the weird symptoms I was having, and likely contributed to my sinus troubles, and even the cause of the cystic acne I had experience over the years. I now take Plexus Slim, Probio5 (in my opinion the BEST probiotic on the market), BioCleanse, Xfactor and Accelerator+. I have also added the Fast Relief capsules to my daily regimen (after learning that the ibuprofen I had also taken almost daily for sinus pain and headaches was also causing leaky gut). These are all helping to heal and balance all the damage I had done to my insides over the years.

Today, I can say that I am now off NINE - yes, NINE, prescriptions. I have one left that I only take 1/3 of the original dose. I also stopped taking a whole mountain of different supplements that have been replaced with 1 multivitamin - Xfactor - that actually works!  My clothes fit better. I feel better. I have been blessed by Plexus.

So to wrap this up, I can say that I truly feel I am on the road to being healthier than I have ever been. I almost made it through the winter without getting a bout of bronchitis crud, and although I did still get it, it's not nearly as severe as I have had it in years past, and hopefully, it will be short lived. I am enjoying my life rather than feeling like I am dragging myself through it. I truly believe sometimes prayers are answered in unexpected ways and my prayers to get well have definitely been answered. Thank you Jesus!

I do have to say that these are the results I have found to be true for me. This is my story. Our bodies are all different and everyone may not have the same results I have had with Plexus. On that note, Plexus does have a 60 day money back guarantee on all the products, so if you are looking for something to help you find healthy again, click here for more info.