Click here or below to participate and help build safety and build lives as part of our #GivingTuesday campaign. Click here if you would prefer to give through or share our #GivingTuesday facebook campaign.
We are making a BOLD ask for your best gift this #GivingTuesday.
When you participate and inspire others to participate in our 2018 Giving Tuesday Campaign, you are restoring a long (223 ft) section of our perimeter security wall. The original corrugated metal and wood fence (see pictures below) was damaged from time and typhoons. We realized over the summer that we had no choice but to restore and fortify it in order to ensure the safety of our girls and staff on campus.
We know safety means freedom to dream and grow for our girls. It is a freedom they have not experienced before coming to My Refuge House. Will you please join other Restorers and give your best gift to support our bold ask for $30,000 to pay for our security wall? Will you please join other Restorers and give your best gift to support the freedom to dream and grow.
Between November 7th and today, we have gratefully shared a story from Jim Hammond (an MRH Restorer who lives in North Carolina) in short chapters each day on social media. Click here if you missed the first 7 chapters, and click here if you missed chapters 8-14! We hope that you know after reading Jim’s story that you are just like Jim. Even if you never meet our girls face to face, they all know that Restorers from all around our beloved planet are rooting for them, praying for them, and seeing them as they are meant to be.
For this campaign, you are also encouraged to change your facebook profile picture (search for MyRefugeHouse at www.facebook.com/profilepicframes) and/or download and post your picture with one of our campaign posters (http://bit.ly/MRHRestorerPic).
Be inspired. Be unhindered. You are a #Restorer.
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Chapter 15. Wednesday, 11/21: Shortly thereafter, I flew back to the U.S. confident that the thing that I was “supposed to do” was create the video for MRH. It soon became evident that the video wasn’t “it” though I did not entirely understand why. I pushed “the feeling” to the back of my mind and resigned myself to the idea that I might never know the “why” as to my visits.
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Chapter 16. In February of 2018, my wife and I were going to a movie one night. I dropped her at Starbucks so she get could a bit of caffeine to sustain her for the evening while I searched for a parking spot. When she found me, I had tears welling in my eyes.
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“What’s wrong?” she asked with the concern that only someone as wonderful as Elizabeth can engender.
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Nothing was wrong, I told her. I had read an email while I was waiting for her to come back. It was from MRH. I explained to her that someone named Heather Bland was inviting me to return to Cebu for the 10th Anniversary Celebration of MRH. I was humbled by the invitation as I have always considered my role with MRH to be miniscule at best. To make things even better, my wife was invited to join me and see for herself this place that meant so much to me. We found a way to make it happen, and let Heather know that we were “in”.
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Chapter 17. After months of planning and another flight halfway around the world, we were greeted in Cebu by Heather and were immediately brought into her magnetic orbit. We spent the week immersing ourselves in all things MRH and my appreciation for the place grew.
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As Heather and I got to know one another, I shared with her my previous experiences and “the feeling” that had never quite gone away. She did her best to explain the ways that I had impacted MRH’s growth, and while it meant a great deal to receive that validation, it didn’t solve anything. I was still dissatisfied.
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Chapter 18. On the day of the 10th Anniversary Celebration, a few of the older girls came back to be a part of the festivities. I had heard that Hope might be there, but I wasn’t getting my heart set on it. I was trying to save myself the disappointment just in case it wasn’t meant to be.
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As the songs, speeches and dances ended, I saw her. She was holding her new baby on the other side of the pavilion that I had first seen in the Visioneering drawings years ago. My heart jumped, and I pointed her out to my wife.
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“That’s her!” I said. “That’s the girl from the beach.”
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As soon as the celebration program ended, I made a beeline for Hope. I wasn’t sure if she would recognize me, and I was already preparing for that possibility in my mind. When I got to her, she looked up and her eyes flashed in recognition. She knew.
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Chapter 19. “You came back,” Hope said.
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Through tears I answered her, “I’m sorry it took me so long.”
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“Are you crying?” she asked.
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“Of course I’m crying” I said.
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“Great,” she said. “Now I’m gonna cry!”
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Hope, Elizabeth, and I found a quiet place away from all of the crowds where we could catch up. We talked about that night on the beach. She told me about her life since leaving MRH. She told me all about her baby and her new life and we shared stories and pictures of our teenage son, Will.
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And then, she rolled up her shirt sleeve and showed us her arm.
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Chapter 20. On Hope’s wrist was a tattoo. It was a line like those that you find on a heart monitor in the hospital. Sitting atop the line was a strong, healthy tree. Blended within the branches was a cross. Flying away from the tree were birds. At the bottom, was a word…
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“Do you remember this?” she asked. “Your bracelet? Like in the wall? I got this tattoo because that is me now. I am unhindered. I am free. No one can stop me.”
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It was one of the most significant moments of my life, and I feel confident that it always will be.
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Chapter 21. In that moment, “the feeling” vanished. The question of what I was “supposed to do” had been answered years before without my even knowing it. This was it.
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I was to be the hands and feet of God to the least and the lost of a fallen world. I was to share His love for those who felt far from it. I was to follow the calling of God even without the promise of knowing where it would lead more or why.
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And, in that knowledge, as I sat with my wife and one of the strongest people I have ever had the honor to meet, I too had been unhindered.
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Click here or below to participate and help build safety and build lives as part of our #GivingTuesday campaign. Click here if you would prefer to give through or share our #GivingTuesday facebook campaign.
