Laugh, Little Aylan, Laugh

Ann expresses what I am sure is most of our hearts today...
and we  pour out our hearts in prayers and tears!

Dear Aylan,

Ignored in your life,

Immortalized in your death

Laugh little Aylan, Laugh

All down the streets of gold

Laugh at the feet of Jesus

Where you will never grow old

Oh, let your laughter sparkle

Oh, let your brown eyes dance

Oh, let your chin tilt up as God

Wipes your tears with His hands

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh

Let heaven's sheer, pure joy

Heal each sob of horror and hunger

Fear and sorrow, little boy

Sit at the banquet table

Run over celestial hills

Play forever with your brother

Where no teardrop spills

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh

For you will weep no more

Safe in the arms of Jesus 

Far from death's cold, friendless shore

Now you are loved like we should have

...We stare at a photograph

Shouldering sorrow, guilt and shame

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh 

Janet Martin

In memory of every little child who never knew laughter...

How can we look at our children and not want to help the hundreds of thousands of those still among us like Aylan?!

Let's Show We Care

   (all I can see when I look at these pictures are the little guys we babysit and how they are lavished daily with hugs, smiles and kisses...)

image source

Let’s share what we have

And dare to be brave

Let’s care with more than the fruit of our lips

Let’s become wild

With the love for a child

And not stop our hurting for them…

with one click

of the mouse

© Janet Martin

What are we doing to show we care,

 and how accountable will we be held?

...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. 

Luke 12:48

Have You seen This?! Miracle Happening!

(Doesn't that look like a heart in the sky:)

 HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?!

(click link)

When the love the Lord imparts

Moves to hands and feet from hearts

Miracles happen

When the prayers we pray are wept

Poured in humble, pure request

Miracles happen

© Janet Martin

 Caring isn’t a Christian’s sideline hobby. Caring is a Christian’s complete career. Ann V.

Whether you prayed, gave, are praying and giving...thank-you for being part of the miracle!

In as much as you are doing it to the least of these you are doing it to me. Jesus

An Opportunity To Be Part of A Miracle! Love.

If we don't help them, who will?!

If we were given

More than we deserve

Then we were given

To give and serve

If we hold more

Than we can hold

Then we can give

Fold over fold

If we serve want

Instead of need

God bears witness

To our greed

If we preach love

Then turn away

When God asks us ‘why?’

What will we say?

© Janet Martin

If you READ THIS without a 'God-nudge' to give then look at, touch your loved ones and read it again!

If we don't help them, who will?!

  ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  excerpt from Matt. 25:31-46

NOT on Vacation

Tens of thousands of Christians are among the more than 1.2 million people forced to flee for their lives in Iraq by the brutally violent militant group, Islamic State. The UN recently designated the situation a Level Three Emergency—the most severe possible rating for a humanitarian disaster.
We’re reaching out with the love of Christ to those who’ve run from Islamic State’s “convert-to-our-version-of-Islam-or-die” threats, and who desperately need food, shelter, water, and medical care.
Hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region, where we have a field office and where churches in the Kurdish capital of Erbil are partnering with us in welcoming and caring for refugees. We’ve set up hundreds of tents for displaced families and provided over 14,000 people with food. We’ve also distributed mattresses, cribs, baby clothes, shoes, pillows, and Bibles.
Your financial support and prayers are urgently needed for us to continue ministering in Jesus’ Name to Iraq’s suffering families. Please give generously today by phoning 1-800-663-6500 or clicking this button:

They are not taking a break
from full-time jobs,
three square meals a day

This is not
a wilderness' getaway'
or 'roughing it' play

No 'break-from-our-comfort-zone
See-if-we-can-do-it'

This is an 'only-by-the-grace-of God
-and His-people
will we get through it'

This is our call to prayer-and-share
with those greatly hurting
Come, all who care; we are called to bear
one another's burdens

A call to help persecuted Christians in Iraq just landed in my in-box. We have no excuses! by the click of a button we can help and share and bear their burden!

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Gal 6:2

Of Hunger and Hauntings

(I first saw this picture last winter and it has haunted me...)

Lord, give us a heart for the hungry...

A vulture watches a starving child [1993]

“The prize-winning image: A vulture watches a starving child in southern Sudan, March 1, 1993.
Carter’s winning photo shows a heart-breaking scene of a starving child collapsed on the ground, struggling to get to a food center during a famine in the Sudan in 1993. In the background, a vulture stalks the emaciated child.

Carter was part of a group of four fearless photojournalists known as the “Bang Bang Club” who traveled throughout South Africa capturing the atrocities committed during apartheid.
Haunted by the horrific images from Sudan, Carter committed suicide in 1994 soon after receiving the award.”

'Don’t slink away now

With your head slightly bowed

While the taste of my blood

Smears your indulgent lips

Don’t splatter vain words

With your greed-polished swords

And cry ‘Lord, have mercy’

As my suffering drips

To your gaze in red pools

While a circus of fools

Sadly wags their heads

In feigned piety

As hunger and hurt

Lie with me in the dirt

Pitiful comrades

To my misery'

© Janet Martin

Birth of a Day

From vaults of virgin hope You take

Its fair and finest fray

Weaving beneath far-fancied east

A new and glorious day

In gossamer embellishments

Of coral, gold and pink

Mercy imbues with transient hues

Earth’s mute and mystic brink

Without a sound darkness recedes

And from Compassion’s lips

Extended grace brushes the face

Of  life’s stumbles and slips

A miracle of wonderment

Exhales from heaven’s girth

As we of meek astonishment

Witness a new day’s birth

© Janet Martin

This Year It's Up to Us

This year, oh God

Please help us

Help us all to see

Beyond our own desires

To our neighbor’s poverty

And this year God, oh help us

To do more than simply say

‘I should do more’

But let this be

Our prayer in every day

…this year God

Oh, help us

To see far beyond our greed

And give us love, enough to care

About our neighbor’s need

And this year God oh let us

Never dare to be excused

Because of things

We want to buy

While a poor child is refused

Help us to remember

To do good

Lord, in Your name

For when it comes to hunger

Rich or poor, it feels the same

© Janet Martin

 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,"
but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? James 2:16

Father of Compassion

Sometimes we think we cannot bear

The sorrows of this life

But oh my Jesus, You are there

Through all its tears and strife

Since Eden’s grief and Adam’s woe

We bear life’s cursed travail

But oh my Jesus, this we know

Your mercy will not fail

Father of comfort, hear our plea

For we are weak and poor

Though howling fiends of misery

Ravage earth’s stricken shore

You are greater; demons tremble

At the thought of You

And, though we falter, Lord or stumble

You will help us through

We suffer, but with Sympathy

For no grief have we borne

Beyond the groans of Calvary 

Where You endured our scorn

Thus, when life’s sorrow fills our cup

And anguish sears the land

You plead with us to come; look up

And hold Your nail-scarred Hand

© Janet Martin

Authentic Treasure

 

And now we wake

Gladly partake

With no brief hesitation

The good of life

Even its strife

Is not without elation

If we have food enough to eat

And shoes to wear upon our feet

And strength enough with which to meet

Toil’s present expectation

But oh, the bloom

Of grief and gloom

Where laughter turns to crying

Dare we to think

We ought not drink

The gall of anguished sighing

Will we take good but not the rest?

And for ourselves heap up life’s best

While others flounder in its test

Alone, starving and dying?

This is the day

The Lord has made

Not for our passive pleasure

But that we might

His heart delight

By loving without measure

To cast our bread upon the sea

To serve in kind humility

To store in fathomless degree

Love’s everlasting treasure

© Janet Martin

 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:10

On Second Miles

Second miles may cause us to groan

For they tug us from our comfort zone

It is in the second miles we trod

That we touch the hand of God

Second miles are not traveled by obligation, force or fear

But they are the miles that prove

Our testimony, loud and clear

Of love

Love is patient, love is kind

It does not seek its own

And oft its dark and second mile

Is seen by God alone

Second miles in life

Do not further our own causes

But if, in faith we walk them

Their beauty may surprise us

Second miles are not reserved

For either the gifted or the common

But they draw out of mortal crowds

The very best of them

Lift up your chin, take heart and smile

Love begins in the second mile

Walk with the one who needs a hand

Alone we fall, together we stand

Jesus, how thankful I am

You walked that mile for me

And oh, its blood-stains led me to

A place called Calvary

If we would follow Him

In authenticity

Then we will walk those second miles

For His sake, willingly

What blessing we forfeit

What joy we discard

If second miles we forsake

Because they are too hard

Take heart, oh traveler of the second mile

It will all be over in life’s little while

Then oh, how sweet our rest will be

At Jesus feet for eternity

© Janet Martin

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matt. 5:38-42

Flesh and Blood Compassion

When flesh and blood lies bleeding

Farewell thoughts against the sky

Away, away from loved ones

They weep out their last good-bye

When freedom’s price is blood-bought

With a brother, daughter, son

Our grief is universal

And our teardrops flow as one

When freedom’s charge is gathered

Again…again… again

We see, not nation or color

But simply women, men

With flesh and blood compassion

We plead out to God above

To comfort those who sorrow

For the ones they dearly love

When freedom’s price is blood-bought

Charted ramparts disappear

For in death we all are kindred

And our sorrow is a tear

© Janet Martin

Written in memory of four French soldiers killed yesterday in Afghanistan

My tears and prayers are for civilian victims as well.

Hello Megan. First, sorry for my english, I'm French. I often come to your blog because I like so much your tags and stationery (thank you so much for sharing them with us), and tonight I happened to see that post for Memorial Day. Yesterday, 4 french soldiers died in Afghanistan (I hope your poem is also for other countries fighting for freedom and not only the US). My brother, who is in the military, will be there in a few weeks, so thank you for that post. Thank you for sharing this also.
Louise

Thank you for sharing with us all ~ and impacting lives around the world...