One Man's Junk...

Just when I thought it couldn't get any bigger-it EXPLODED! This year's yard sale for Ranch on Jesus is by far the biggest and best we've ever put on. Not only have we had MORE stuff than ever before, but it has also been immaculately organized. The credit is due almost entirely to my little sister and Rhonda Quillian who spent their entire week practically living at the church sorting through boxes and boxes of people's junk.

But as the saying goes "One man's junk is another man's treasure." People may have been willing to unload their unwanted objects, but there were far more folks interested in buying it all. There was a steady stream (and at times a large mob) of yard sale customers moving through the church lobby this morning. We experienced many live lessons in the depravity of man today, but I won't dwell on the negatives at this present time. For now all I will say is that sales are doing well.

Things are winding down for day one, but there is an entire second day of yard sale extravagance tomorrow from 7 to 3. If you haven't checked us out yet, please stop by and buy! You really have to see it to believe it. I actually hope to have some photos posted tonight so that everyone can witness it with their own eyes. Also hope to have today's total!

Jewelry & Crafts: A Preview of Coming Events!

Pearl Ministries is selling a variety of handmade East African crafts and jewelry items. Proceeds from the sale of these goods benefits Ranch on Jesus Orphanage Ministries. Soapstone bowls, carvings, baskets, Christmas nativities, paper bead jewelry, unique earrings and MORE! Find special items while supporting the Kingdom work of caring for orphans in Uganda.

Here's where you can find us this month:

Valleydale Farmers Market

Saturday, July 25

7 am - Noon

Faith Presbyterian Church

4601 Valleydale Road, Birmingham, AL

Mount Laurel Market

Saturday, July 25th

7 am - 11 am

Downtown Mount Laurel, AL

Yard Sale for Ranch on Jesus

Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1

7 am to 3 pm

Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church, Peachtree City, GA

Corner of Hwy 54 and Carriage Lane

Briarwood Flea Market

Friday, July 31 (Noon - 6 pm)

Saturday, August 1 (7 am - 2 pm)

Briarwood Presbyterian Church

Acton Road and I-459, Birmingham, AL

Please pass along this information to your family and friends who might be interested in our items!

Family Ties (Part 1)

Has it been a month? Really!? A whole month since we were in Uganda? When I look at these photos it doesn't seem so long ago. I could just reach in and give the Kamaras a BIG hug. One of the best things about our friendship with Sarah and Theophilus is that because we are so close in spirit, they never feel very far away. Sadly, though, they are. They are over 8,000 miles away and I have many months to go before I can sit beside them like this in person again.

This week I have been thinking often of the Kamaras and the unusually special relationship between our families. Like all relationships where love is present, I don't think there is a logical way to explain why it works so seamlessly for us. I do not mean to imply that our friendship is easy or problem free. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We have been iritated with one another, disagreed on decisions, cried together and even argued. As in any family, it is not the absence of conflict that produces our intimate relationship. It is the ability to love through issues and resolve them in humility that strengthens bonds and in the end, prevents conflict.

I believe the bond we have with the Kamaras is specially designed by God for the sake of serving the little ones in His Kingdom. It is often said that the best gift you can give to your children is a strong, stable and loving marriage. I believe God has married our families so effectively in order that the orphans we serve may be best served and secure.

At the same time, I believe that the nature of our relationship is something that the Lord intended to be common among all His people. After all, Sarah, Scott, Theophilus and I aren't inherently special people by our own right. Each of us was bought at a price and owes our new hearts to Jesus. It is in Him and through Him that our relationships find hope and success.

It is in the Bible that we find all the tools we need for building family ties with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But I believe that some of the best Biblical building blocks for Christian intimacy aren't what we most obviously flip to in our New Testaments. In my experience it is persecution, suffering and intense service side by side that form the family bonds Jesus calls His disciples to exemplify. In my personal attempt to understand and embody these principles more richly I have spent much time searching the Scriptures on these themes. I hope this post will be a first in a short series "Family Ties" reflecting what I have found, learned and pray to apply. Stay tuned.

Baby Steps

My little girl turns 18 months old today. It wasn't until this week that she actually began to truly walk. She was a late bloomer in that regard. The timeline for crawling and walking unfolded painfully slow in the Laslo household. I remember dropping her off in nursery when she was a year old and the workers asking if she was walking yet. "No," I would say sheepishly. "She doesn't even crawl." She would sit happily playing in one spot on the floor while younger children toddled in circles around her.

Vivian was nearly 13 months old when she first decided to start crawling. Now at 18 months she is just beginning to get confident on her feet. As her mother, I knew there was nothing truly wrong with her, but it did become increasingly embarrassing to lug around a 30 lb. non walking toddler.

Thankfully I believe in a God of details. Although I might have preferred to have my child walking at fourteen months, God, who is Lord of all circumstances, knew I needed something quite different.

Since I first turned to follow Christ eight years ago, the Lord has been frequently saddling me with circumstances requiring patience. If I didn't know better, I would say He is trying to teach me something.

I married a man who is extremely thorough and meticulous. He does things at his own pace, which to me often feels exceptionally slow. Our daughter apparently takes after him, showing no immediate interest in doing the things her anxious mother had planned for her.

My internal exhaustion and frustration with Vivian's speed (or lack thereof) in learning to walk greatly parallels what I often feel in doing this ministry.

It has been five years since I first started serving Ranch on Jesus Orphanage Ministries. After many seasons of long hours and diligent labor, we still find ourselves at the beginning of each month wondering if we'll be able to meet every expense. Donations never seem to arrive with the speed or ease we would prefer. Income is slow...painfully slow. Developing a ministry with integrity, it seems, is a grueling and steady process.

Like Vivian learning to walk, progress isn't always easily seen. Muscles are strengthening...coordination improving...until one day you see the first step.

Sometimes the end doesn't mean anything without the means to it. I am sure all parents are excited when their baby begins to walk, but I doubt very few feel it quite as deeply as I have with Vivian. There were days when I felt like she was never going to walk. That I would still be lugging her around through elementary school.

All that longing and anxiety was joyfully relieved on the day she took those first hesitant steps. My mind was blown. It was shocking. I almost couldn't believe it. After months of trying to coach her unsuccessfully, she finally tried. It took her several more weeks to gain the strength and confidence to cross a room on foot. Each step still makes me ecstatic. Progress! I am full of pride and extreme gratitude. I appreciate my child's ability to walk in a powerful way, a way I doubt I ever would have felt had she gotten there via an easier route.

There are days when I feel like this ministry is never going to get off the ground. Sometimes progress feels invisible. But just as Vivian's muscles and confidence were quietly building, I know that even though I cannot always see growth, it is there.

All it takes is a quick look at the numbers to see that with each year we're giving more and more to Ranch. It doesn't feel this way as the needs continue to grow, but it is still true. We're growing in size. We have new and more developed programs. Employees. Church support. And a growing pool of precious individuals who give. Development feels painfully slow and sometimes impossible, but He is mercifully leading us along in His time...not ours.

In the end, I feel almost grateful for the slow progress. Every development is an exciting step along the journey. I appreciate every donation, even if it is only five dollars. I see the impact it has. I get excited with every email expressing interest in Ranch, a new child sponsor, or a monthly pledge. Nothing is meaningless. It is all appreciated. I feel a child like gratitude to God.

One day I know I will watch Vivian run through a sprinkler in the backyard. It will probably be hard to imagine that she was ever immobile at all. But I hope that even years from now I will never take those baby steps for granted. It was a long and special journey.

So it is with Ranch. I do not know to what end God is leading us, but we are growing and moving and giving everything He allows. Maybe one day I'll look back on these precarious days as a shadowy memory. Maybe in a few years a five dollar donation won't be as exciting. But even if it isn't, I hope God lets me hold onto the spirit of appreciation, remembering those initial baby steps and realizing each one of them was taken by His grace.

Simple Pleasures: Joyce's Slinky

Have you ever had that giddy feeling when you find the perfect gift for someone you love? That is exactly how I felt when I saw a rainbow colored slinky at Target this spring. I knew it was the perfect gift for Joyce. Scott was skeptical of my purchase, but I insisted. Thankfully, my Joyce did not let me down! Once she figured out how the slinky worked, she was hooked.

I have always called Joyce my "little monkey." She is an extremely physical child-climbing, running, dancing and jumping rope. In some ways, she reminds me of a slinky.

Yesterday as I scrolled through the thousands of trip photos on my computer I took great delight in the photos of Joyce playing with her slinky. I want to pass some of that simple delight onto you. Enjoy!

Trying to figure out what this thing is supposed to do!

Trial Run

Success!

She is hooked!

Sadly, this story does not have such a happy ending. After two days of play, Joyce's slinky had a tragic...and fatal...accident. She met me at the gates of Ranch one afternoon just as I opened the passenger door to exit the landcruiser. Tears were streaming down her face. Her slinky was in two pieces. Another little girl (who will remain nameless) accidentally broke it while she was playing with Joyce.

Although we tried to repair it, our efforts were in vain. I told Joyce to look on the bright side-now she had TWO slinkies! "I just want one," she pouted. Joyce did her fair share of grieving that afternoon, but thankfully by the time we left she seemed to have gotten over the worst of it. I was sad for her sake. But at least she got so much pleasure out of her gift, even if it was brief!

In the Beginning...

What was I thinking? In June 2004 as I sat on the airplane returning home from my first trip to Uganda, the only thing going through my head was 1 John 3:17 "If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?"

I was a 20 year old American college student from a comfortable middle class suburban community. I certainly had this world's goods. So did everyone else I know. But for the past four weeks I had seen multitudes of brothers in need. Brothers, Sisters. Mothers. Fathers. And children. What, exactly, was I supposed to do now?

I left Uganda with a firm word and a firm conviction to stand beside a young woman named Sarah Kamara as she, in her poverty, cared for the orphans of her community. I made Sarah no promises, but I told her that I would do what I could. Sarah herself expected nothing much, just a friend to encourage her and pray for her as she served. God was about to surprise us both.

How I was going to help Sarah and her small ministry called Ranch on Jesus was a less certain matter. I was timid and afraid. I didn't have any experience fundraising, and I was certainly not confident enough to ask anyone for money. Still, the words of 1 John followed me powerfully. So did Jeremiah:

"Ah, Lord, GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak for I am only a youth." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say 'I am only a youth;' for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you."

Do not be dismayed by them, or I will dismay you before them. Jeremiah 1: 6-8, 17

The NIV says "do not be terrified." Honestly...I was. But as God began to form a small idea in my mind, the fear of HIM, overpowered my fear of man. I lacked confidence in myself, but my confidence that the Lord would not send me on a futile mission was firm. As long as I was for Him, He would act.

That small idea I had was for a yard sale. Weeks after my return, I talked to my pastor about the possibility of hosting a church wide yard sale that summer with all the proceeds to benefit Ranch on Jesus Orphanage Ministries in Uganda. He told me to go for it. I don't think either of us expected the MASSIVE event this would become.

To be quite frank, the yard sale was a bit of a cop out. As I mentioned earlier, I was plain scared to just ask God's people to give toward the need of these children. (To this day I still wrestle with that fear.) But in my defense, I also had a strong desire to work for Sarah and these children. I wanted to do something tangible...to invest my time the way she had so that it became a labor of love.

I got more than I bargained for. Weeks before the sale, people began dropping of stuff...and more stuff...and MORE stuff...until we had a few rooms of the church filled to the brim. In addition to asking people to give funds, I also had fears of asking people to give their time. Therefore, I was grossly unprepared in terms of man power. I don't think anyone in the church anticipated that this sale would grow to such a magnitude.

Thankfully, as more goods were dropped off at the doors, more helping hands came along with them. Miraculously, the loving people of Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church pulled together and hosted a fantastic yard sale. The Lord blessed our labor of love with a grand total of $7000 raised for Ranch on Jesus!

He is faithful, and uses even the frailest of people and most foolish of tasks to build His Kingdom.


Looking back it is incredible to see how the Lord shielded me and carried me along. He gave me an unnatural determination despite my natural fears. He also kept me clueless. In all the activity I never had time to truly pause and think about what I was possibly getting myself into. If I had seen then the magnitude of the journey ahead I probably would have crawled under one of the donated sofas to hide. Thankfully, in His mercy, God unfolds only what pages of the story we need to read at that time. He entrusts to us only what he has equipped us to carry.

As I count the weeks down to this year's upcoming yard sale at Carriage Lane, I marvel at how far He has brought us. We have learned much, struggled, and strengthened by His grace. From a small grassroots fundraiser five years ago we have grown into a full fledged non-profit ministry partnering full time with Ranch on Jesus. The yard sale is still a massive undertaking, but it has now become a sort of tradition. It remains a powerful fundraiser that helps supply Ranch on Jesus with vital funding. I look forward to it. I look forward to watching God's people rally together to impact their neighbors across the globe. By giving up a little bit of stuff and time we've been able to contribute significantly to the well being of little ones in desperate need.

The dates of the 4th Yard Sale for Ranch on Jesus are Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1st 2009 from 7 AM to 3 PM at Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church, Peachtree City, GA. If you would like to participate by giving your stuff or time contact me at pearlministries@gmail.com. Details on donation drop off can be found at http://www.pearlministries.org/.

Calling Child Sponsors

As I do each year, I have returned home from Uganda with some beautiful new children who are in need of sponsors. The Child Sponsorship Program through Ranch on Jesus is $35 per month which goes toward meeting the basic needs of one child. It is a special way to encourage a specific child through writing letters, special gifts and prayer. If you would be interested in sponsoring a child and would like more information please contact me at pearlministries@gmail.com or 770.841.8297.