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Kristen

The Best Gift When Time Is Running Out

September 18, 2023 by Kristen

It’s the clock I noticed first. It was the only thing hanging on the bare wall of the home I was visiting. It wasn’t ticking. The hands stood still as if it silently screamed for me to take notice… to see that time was running out.

It was my third home visit of the afternoon. My belly was full of chai tea, halal pizza and a spicy noodle dish I couldn’t name (the world wants to feed you) and if I’m honest, I’d lost all track of time.  I’d stepped over a littered yard, dodged mud holes, climbed stairs, and knocked on the doors of my refugee friends from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Nepal–all relocated to different pockets of my city of Houston.

I sat and sipped and savored the moments in each home with women who have lived such unspeakable horrors that the United Nations deemed them fit for refugee status. It’s not a badge any of us would want to wear, but don’t doubt for a second that it isn’t one of honor. In their countries, these families owned homes, drove cars, had careers and every bit of their lives changed over night when genocide knocked at their front doors.

They have lost everything.

Possessions have been burned, homes looted, husbands captured and killed. And now they are my neighbors and they are starting life over in a different country with a new language, different customs, and untold challenges. Simply put, it is overwhelming.

As I stared at the silent clock, it was a very present reminder that time is running out. As we prepare to run around and scoop up last minute Christmas gifts, hunting for unique finds that will feel just right, for many in the world, the clock is ticking and nothing is right. Women around the globe can count their remaining dollars on one hand, they can feed their children for a couple more nights, they are running out of food, clothes and money for rent. They are running out of time.

When I started Mercy House Global nearly a decade ago, I just wanted to help pregnant teens in Kenya. But I quickly learned that when you take a girl out of trafficking, you’ve also taken away her job, so creating dignified work moved up to the top of our list. We create dignified jobs for those teen moms and their families in Kenya and we do so for thousands of other women in more than 30 countries through our monthly subscription clubs at Fair Trade Friday because business is the best way to end poverty.

With just a click of your mouse, you can join a club and send a gift subscription this Christmas at the very last minute –it will not only provide a lovely, trendy, unique gift; it will provide a dignified job just in time.

I handed over a bag of supplies to my refugee friend and she bowed in deep thanks. We both knew that bag would provide needed money just in time. I glanced again at the clock on the wall and remembered it wasn’t working. Today, would you find the time to help us provide work?

Click to give the gift that gives all year long

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50 Comments Filed Under: My Life

Bless Our (Parenting) Souls

July 18, 2023 by Kristen

It was all I could do to drive home after a brutal day where anything that could go wrong, actually did. I work in the nonprofit, faith -based world… so you know, a Tuesday. My husband wouldn’t be home until late from work and so I called my teenager and asked her to get a jumpstart on dinner since I was going to be getting home close to 7 PM. She was less than thrilled with my request and I didn’t have the energy to argue. I walked through the door — after locating and turning off the ... Read More

45 Comments Filed Under: My Life

We Must Do More Than Watch a Movie

July 14, 2023 by Kristen

There is a new film out, and whether or not you agree with it, it’s makers or agenda, the terrifying truth is that human trafficking really exists around the world and in our own backyards and it is holding countless innocent people captive. ⁠ ⁠ While the outcry on social media for awareness and the demand for action by Christians is welcome and past due, we must do more than watch a movie. ⁠ ⁠ We must do something tangible, sacrificial, innovative and immediate with our outrage for the sake ... Read More

27 Comments Filed Under: My Life

Listen. Can You Hear It?

May 15, 2023 by Kristen

There is a new word introduced in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah that we might have missed in this familiar pillar of salt Bible Story. We often retell it highlighting God’s wrath and destruction due to evilness. While that is true, the new introduced word “ze’aqah” roughly translates to the “unique cry of the unjustly oppressed.” Later in Ezekiel, the prophet identifies the oppressed as the neglected poor and needy in the city. God didn’t just destroy the city because of his anger against ... Read More

28 Comments Filed Under: Faith

Remember This: Do Not Forget

March 29, 2023 by Kristen

Less than two months ago, I became the CEO of Mercy House Global. On the same day, my husband started his new job that took him to a war zone. His first day in Ukraine coincided with the one year anniversary of Russia's invasion and on the last day of his trip, more than 1000 people died. The war isn't over, but we have mostly moved on to other news. The year before it was Afghanistan in the headlines and the year before that, Syria. Sudan. Congo. It's hard to remember. We are a ... Read More

24 Comments Filed Under: My Life

I Don’t Know What God is Doing, But I Know What He Has Done

February 5, 2023 by Kristen

I walked into a coffee shop for an all-day meeting two weeks ago and I was barely holding it together. The last couple of months have felt like a furnace of spiritual warfare. It has been a lot of small trials and a couple of big ones. Heat like that can either consume us or force us to look for God in the fire. "Suffering isn't an interruption to what God is doing. Suffering is what God is doing," Ruth Schwenk said. I walked towards the counter to order coffee and nearly ran into an ... Read More

40 Comments Filed Under: My Life

Today, I Turn 50 (and Begin a New Job)

December 19, 2022 by Kristen

“Intelligence, goodness, humanity, excitement, serenity. Over time, these are the things that change the musculature of your face, as do laughter and animation and especially whatever peace you can broker with the person inside. It's furrow, pinch and judgment that make us look older — our mothers were right. They said that if you made certain faces, they would stick and they do. But our mothers forgot that faces of kindness and integrity stick as well.”— Anne Lamott I’m either halfway ... Read More

22 Comments Filed Under: My Life

Unlock the Door to the Happiest Holiday Season Today

November 29, 2022 by Kristen

You haven’t really lived until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on. It’s happened to me more than once. This time last year, I stood in the doorway of an apartment in Houston with bags of groceries. I was there on a chilly November day with my family on behalf of Mercy House Global to welcome a family who had just escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan and were being relocated to my city. Due to a hiccup in the resettlement system, hundreds of families were in limbo and it ... Read More

24 Comments Filed Under: Faith

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  • The Best Gift When Time Is Running Out
  • Bless Our (Parenting) Souls
  • We Must Do More Than Watch a Movie
  • Listen. Can You Hear It?

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