Around the World with CFCA

Relationships are essential for a full life

March 25, 2009 at 9:03 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment

Lenten reflection: Week 5
By Rev. Kelly Demo, CFCA preacher

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” –John 12:32

Our God, who is relational by nature, chose to become a member of the human family as an expression of intimate love. We, God’s children, are also relational and the yearning of our hearts for closeness to God and to one another is a reflection of our nature and God’s deepest desire.

Because of this, relationships are the very essence of life. God’s two greatest commandments are not about what work we do, or what we eat, or even how we are to worship God. Our two greatest commandments are to love God and each other.

We believe this is the greatest gift that CFCA has to offer to the world. The reason the founders chose the sponsorship model was because it is relational. One does not simply write a check and forget about it. Sponsors are called into personal relationships with someone they didn’t even know existed before sponsorship. They are given the opportunity to love God by loving another of God’s children. Sponsor and sponsored friend carry one another in their hearts and allow the other to change them for the better.

CFCA’s structure in our projects follows this model as well and feeds the need for relationships among those we serve. For example, mothers in Merida, Mexico, tell us that the CFCA mothers groups are the most important part of the program to them. Most of their families moved from villages to the city, and that move isolated them from the social fabric that had sustained their ancestors for generations. The mothers groups are recreating that sense of community that is so essential to a full life.

Lent gives us a chance to stop and examine our relationships. It is often easier to give up chocolate for Lent than to rebuild and heal relationships.

Author Stephen Levine writes, “If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?”

Reflection questions:
1. How would you define your relationship with God? Is God your teacher? Friend? Distant relative you only see on holidays? Guide? Do you like that relationship or do you want it to change? What needs to happen to bring about that change?
2. Is there a friendship that you have lost and mourn that loss? What might God be calling you to do about that?

Entry filed under: Around the World with CFCA, Mexico. Tags: aging, cfca, charity, children, christian, commandments, God, Lent, life, love, Merida, Mexico, mothers, mothers groups, poverty, relationships, sponsor, sponsorship.