So, I’ve been learning the importance and healing power of simply having relationships. Both types--those with the same sex and opposite sex. Along with the wonders that take place with just having someone available for support. I have taken for granted and under estimated support systems like family and friends. I became aware of how much I take for granted these support systems when doing an internship with the Mental Health Association of Tulsa (great social service in Tulsa, by the way). I was able to observe their daily program, in what they call their peer to peer program. The specific day this came to my awareness involved the leadership simply taking one of the people with a mental illness on errands for the day. This woman with the mental illness had no other family that I was aware other than her daughter. This woman was attempting to establish a “normal” life by getting a vehicle, entering herself into counseling and up keeping a new home she had. I feel I have been taught by society that people with mental illnesses are you know, “those” people. However, something the MHAT helps their clientele do is build their lives. Not only was it a major help for the woman in leadership with MHAT to drive this woman around but being that there can sometimes be a stigma when having a mental illness the fact that the clientele also just had someone there to talk with I sensed made a huge difference. Another part of the peer to peer program not only involved leadership taking this woman on errands but spending quality time together-- doing things like shopping, playing games, eating dinner together etc.
I share this information to lead into something I have been experiencing myself even more specifically, today. I twisted my ankle a few weeks ago. Foolishly believing time would cause it to heal, it has gotten in worse shape. Walking around a campus that the majority are assumed to believe in healing, I have felt foolish walking with a limp. It has caused me to slow down in walking because of the pain and it has caused much frustration. Simply, because I am a fast walker and also because I did nothing but walk out of the door of my professor’s office (after having a successful time of review) and it just gave out on me. See! Not a thrilling story at all for this little thing to cause so much trouble. On the other hand, a friend I asked to meet me to walk with to class to save myself the embarrassment of walking with crutches, not only walked back from our Chapel service but all the way to the dorms to walk with me, went with me to lunch and waited with me in the waiting room of the doctor’s office as long as she could. Once she left the thought crossed my mind “my little prideful self probably could have done without her all day but it was so nice to face this day, not alone.”
I look forward to just BEING with the girls in St. Louis and I pray not only to be just BE with someone today who needs you but I pray that you find comfort with someone just BEING with you today.

-Savannah Villarreal

Mercy

Mercy.

-(Of a journey or mission) performed or of a desire to relieve suffering; motivated by compassion.
-Intentionally place oneself in someone’s hands in the expectation that they will behave mercifully toward one.
-Compassion and kindness in our treatment of others.

The vision of Mercy Ministries has stirred something within the girls of the spring break trip 2011. We are learning the purpose behind the call and the heart of the ministry. Each one of us has walked through our own afflictions and have come out alive with hope. We are becoming stronger as one unit and are preparing to release a sense of hope upon the girls at mercy ministries. Not only to we hope to touch the lives we are going to serve, but we are also in hopes our own lives will be moved. I am looking forward to this process and what God has for each life apart of this team and the women at Mercy.

-Leah Sostman

Learning to Love Mercy

"What does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and walk humbly with your God." -Micah 6:8

*16 Weeks
*$14,625 Needed

I have been studying and meditating on the sayings of Jesus in the New Testament, and it has been changing my life. Moreover, the conversations with dear friends that are resulting from these practices have altered the way I live in and view the world. This group of friends and I are being challenged by and wrestling with various aspects as we seek to be obedient to the individual convictions of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives; and through this we have incited one another to live into the simplicity of the Gospel’s truths. The vital question that we have been asking one another is, does Jesus want us to take such words literally, “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you” (Matt. 5:42); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? (Matt. 5:44, 46a); “Do not invite your friends… in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Luke 14:12b-13); “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matt. 6:25). Oh how often we rationalize the meaning of these hard words. I am on this journey of trying to listen to Jesus more carefully and obey more faithfully. I really want to love the LORD with all of my heart, soul, strength and mind, and love my neighbor as myself. Yet, if I ignore the difficult sayings of Jesus, I am not loving enough, and I devalue the abundant life that Christ died for me to live. The staff that I serve with and the young women who I lead are striving to give away and serve more during this holiday season, because so many people are in need, including us. This is not a guilt trip, but it is the words of a struggling disciple of Jesus who is trying to serve and love God and people more faithfully and is forever in need of His amazing grace.