dream big

This picture has been sitting in a frame in my living room for a little over a year and half now.  I've seen her beaming face as she stands with the artisan group she and her husband started.  I've heard her sweet voice time and time again on the video that I show at each Noonday trunk show.  I've told her story so many times.  I've worn her artisan group's necklaces and bracelets almost daily for a while now, given them as Christmas and birthday gifts, and sold them to my friends and their friends.  And finally, a few weeks ago in Austin I got to meet her in person and hug her so tight.

 

Jalia is in red, standing on the back, the fourth from the left

 

 

She is such an amazing woman with a truly powerful story.  It was both an honor and so humbling to hear her share her story and to know that in some small way I get to be included in it.  I'm pretty sure I had tears rolling down my face for the majority of the time that Jalia stood in front of our group and shared with us at the Noonday Ambassador conference.  Later that night, I found myself sitting beside her around the campfire and getting to talk to her a little more in depth about her life.  She shared a little of what it was like to grow up in Uganda with a polygamist father who had several other wives and many children.  She talked about some of the challenges she faces as a follower of Jesus in a family of mostly Muslims.  She openly shared about how she had once tried to leave her husband and give up on their marriage, because the deep poverty they were in made it feel like that was her only option.  Just three short years ago Jalia and her husband, Daniel, were homeless.  They literally did not have money to provide food for their children.  They were desperate and they were hopeless.  She shared verses with us that she clung to in those times and how she would cry out to God to save her.  One thing that she said shook me to the core..."My dream used to be to not die, so that my children would not become orphans."

 

 

Her dream was to not die.  Her dream was simply to stay alive.  To survive.  To make it another day.

 

 

My heart just broke.  That should not be a dream.  That should not be the greatest thing someone aspires to.  That should be a given.  No one should die because they are poor, and no mother should have to fear losing her children to poverty!

 

 

One thing that I'm learning as I try to wrap my head and my heart around a culture of poverty is this...people who are poor do not have dreams.  They don't have aspirations.  Now, I'm greatly convinced that somewhere deep in their heart they have hopes and dreams, but they've long been tucked deep inside and forgotten about.  God creates all of us in His image to be dreamers.  To have hopes and aspirations and to live lives that are bigger than ourselves.  But then life gets in the way.  And for those who live under the huge weight of poverty that life gets way more complicated.  I do not claim to know what this is like by any means.  For many of us living here in a land of opportunity and luxury we may never experience this kind of burden.  I do, however, think it's important that we try to understand it so that we may engage broken and hurting people and broken and hurting systems.  I don't claim to have lived it, but I have seen it.  I've seen it deep in the remote jungles of the Amazon.  I've seen it high in the tiny villages of the Andes Mountains. I've seen it in the Roma neighborhoods in Bulgaria, and I've seen it as I look into the eyes of patients living under the weight of it in Trinidad and Belize.  Don't be mistaken though.  This is not just an epidemic elsewhere, in other countries.  Dream-robbing, hope-wrecking poverty exists right here in our cities.  I've seen it in the lives of some of my patients over the years who come to the clinic.  I'm learning more about it as I read a young man's firsthand experience with it in the book, The Other Wes Moore.  I'm learning more about it as I weekly spend time with teenage girls in my own city who face the reality of it every minute of every day, and I'm seeing more of it with my own eyes as I spend time in their neighborhoods. 

 

 

This theme keeps coming up again and again...it's almost impossible to dream and plan for a future that you're never even sure you'll actually see.  It's hard to focus on your aspirations for years down the road when you just need to make sure you survive today.  How can you dream about what you want your life to be about on a grand scale when you don't even know if you are going to have enough money for your next meal?  You can't really allow yourself the freedom, and dare I say luxury, to dream and plan and hope when you are fearing for your life.  When you've never known or seen anything different than what you know, you can't really dream about life being any different.  And THIS is exactly where Jalia was three years ago.  A state of despair.  Living in despondency. 

 

Jalia and I in Texas on her first trip to the US.  We are both wearing the Jalia Ombre necklace, which is made by her artisan group and named for her.

 

 

That was then and this is now!  My how her life has changed!  We asked her how her dreams are different now.  She kind of laughed quietly to herself and smiled as she simply said, "My dreams are MUCH BIGGER now."  Yes, they are!  That is an understatement.  First of all, she has the ability to dream now, and not just for herself, but for her whole community.  She has been freed from the weight of poverty.  God heard her cries and rescued her.  But not just her.  She's bringing so many with her as she rushes out from underneath the crushing power of poverty.  As a result of her and her husband's partnership with Noonday Collection, they went from homeless three years ago to starting a jewelry making company that is now able to employ 300 people in their community because of the large demand for orders.  They have been able to build a house and send their two children to school.  They now have enough money to save and even give.  They are in invested deeply in the lives of their employees and even lead daily devotions and Bible studies with their workers.  They are truly seen as leaders and influential people in their community.  One thing about Jalia is the same, though.  As she speaks to you with eyes that are full of hope now, she is just as humble and just as thankful and grateful to God, giving Him all the glory and desiring to be used by Him in whatever way He sees fit!

 

 

Let us be ones who dare to dream big and who help others to dream when they can't dream for themselves!