Enter the My Christmas List Contest!

Want to change the world? 

Want to spread the true meaning of Christmas? 

Want to win some great prizes?!

Enter the My Christmas List contest!

Following the theme of My Christmas List, we're inviting you to share your own list by telling how you and your family have helped others in need. 

Details:
1. Submit photos and/or stories of you or your family helping others in your community and around the world.* Volunteering? Sponsoring a child? Donating to a food bank? Sending letters to soldiers? Tell us about it. And don't be shy: you never know how your story will inspire others to do the same!

2. EVERY photo and/or story will be featured right here on my blog. I'm gonna post, tweet, and shout from the mountaintops what YOU'RE doing to change the world. **

3. On December 10, the contest ends, and a panel of judges, including myself, will review all entries.***

4. On December 15, FIVE winners will be notified that they have won autographed copies of My Christmas List. ONE winner will be notified that he or she has won an autographed copy of My Christmas List AND a $200 gift card from LifeWay.

But really, just by participating, you receive the greatest reward: becoming more aware of the needs of others, reaping the benefits of serving, and realizing the great abundance in our own lives. When each of us do our part, we can make a big difference by serving those on our Christmas lists. 

So come on, show us how you're making Christmas--and all year long--a time to give, serve, and love the world. Submit your stories today.



*By submitting stories and/or photos, you give permission for me to use on my blog. 
**Obviously, any photo or story content I deem questionable will not be included. Stories may be edited for length and/or content.
***Winners will be selected by the sole discretion of the judges.

Two Awards!

Young Adult Nonfiction
Courageous Teens
Michael Catt
with Amy Parker

Children's Fiction
Firebird
Brent McCorkle
and Amy Parker

When I got the email, all I could think was, "I'm gonna need a bigger shelf." (Okay, so we watched Jaws this weekend. . . .)

As a follow-up to my previous post, both Firebird and Courageous Teens were announced as recipients of Christian Retailing's Best Awards at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) this week.

Tickled, honored, humbled doesn't even cut it. But that's the closest I can get. 

I'm tickled that these books--the first to launch from the new B&H Kids line--have done so well. (Firebird was also named a finalist for the 2013 Christian Book Award.) I'm completely honored by the opportunity to play a small part in these projects. And still, it's humbling to think that these two little books are just drops in the bucket of all of the heart-and-soul-moving Christian products out there doing their parts to expand the Kingdom. They don't all get awards, but they all should. 

Every Christian product represents an individual (actually, an entire team of individuals) who takes a risk, who forfeits family time, who subjects himself to ridicule and criticism by placing his heart on public display in an attempt to follow God's call and to further God's purposes.

So let's not just celebrate the books with the sparkly statues; let's celebrate this mission that we're on, the part that YOU play, the impact that we're having in an ever-darkening world. 

Let's celebrate the light that still dares to shine.

Thank you and you and you and you and YOU for being part of that light.

Awards for Firebird, Courageous Teens

It's been a great month for two projects that bear my name.

Really, I was just given the privilege of working on them. For Firebird, I adapted the story from the film Unconditional, brilliantly written by Brent McCorkle and based on a real person, Papa Joe,  from right here in Nashville. And on Courageous Teens, I worked with Michael Catt (executive producer of the films Fireproof and Courageous) to adapt his call to courage for a teen audience. His message has already inspired so many adults; if we can instill Christian courage at a teen level, I cannot imagine the impact we would see in our world.

Apparently, the market agrees on both accounts. Firebird was named a finalist for the 2013 Christian Book Award. They're announcing the winners on April 29 (and the ceremony just happens to be at my church :).

Courageous Teens is a finalist in Christian Retailing's Best awards, a list that also names an adorable little oriole as a finalist. The winners will be announced at the International Christian Retail Show in June.

I don't do this job for the awards. (If I did, I would've quit a long time ago. ;) But I do thank God for industry recognition; it's His way of opening a few more doors. And you'd better believe that I'm celebrating right along with the team who made these books happen.

If you have either of these books on your bookshelf or even if you've told a friend about them, you're a part of that team. Thank you.

Let's celebrate!

A Blessing for a Blessing (Part 2)

Remember little Mugisha? From this photo alone, you know he's going far in the world--if only his little feet would cooperate.

So one by one, twenty by twenty, we raised enough to buy a wheelchair for Mugisha.



But that was only half of the battle. I had asked you to pray as well, pray that a child's wheelchair, a rare find in his part of the world, would find its way to Mugisha.

Mugisha in the adult wheelchair

Zachary (from the UCC) said, "We have tried our best to find those local made wheelchair that he can pedal himself, but the one we found was too big for him." 

Still, those guys at the UCC aren't the type to give up easily.

(Who needs a caption?!)

And then the miracle: "Yesterday we have got standard wheelchairs from Handicap International, and we have found one that fit Mugisha."

But you know our God, don't you? He just couldn't stop there.

Ngabo and his new set of wheels

From Zachary, "The local made one was given to another boy called Ngabo who also needed a wheelchair so much." Ngabo was hidden for over ten years in his home (as disabled children often are), until someone found him and brought him to the UCC. He's now been attending the UCC for about a year and "has started to recover and live with others without a problem." 

Thanks to you--and the UCC--Mugisha and Ngabo are gonna go far!

From Zachary, "Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to get this wheelchair."

A Thank-You Note to YOU

Your 20s, changing a life

Back in November, after being completely overwhelmed by the "home visit" report from the Ubumwe Community Center, I asked for a wheelchair for Christmas.  

Among many other profiles, the report included a precious little boy named Mugisha (meaning "blessing") who was reduced to wallowing in the dirt because his legs wouldn't carry him to the opportunities waiting for him. Four hundred dollars would forever change this boy's life.

I had just returned from an unfathomably expensive (and worth every cent) trip to Rwanda. I didn't have four hundred dollars. But I had twenty. And I thought that maybe you did too.

So I did the very least I could do: I asked. And the twenties trickled in. But not enough. Then someone who had pledged to help (with twenty dollars, I assumed) wrote me a check for one hundred. But we still weren't there.

Then, on December 23, I get a Facebook message from Laura, a person I've only met through Facebook, who (unbeknownst to me) had been collecting money from her Sunday school class. A one hundred dollar check was in the mail. And I was getting a wheelchair for Christmas.

More importantly, Mugisha was getting a wheelchair . . . for life.

So thank you, thank you, thank you--for your prayers and your contributions.

But if I may ask, I still need your help. Wheelchairs, especially for children, are hard to find in Gisenyi, Rwanda. And while the financial hurdle is a huge one, it's only one. Would you please pray that a wheelchair finds its way to Mugisha?

And again, thank you. Thank you for proving that doing what you can with what you have still changes lives.

A Blessing for a Blessing (Part 1)

Mugisha: his name means "blessing"

I want a wheelchair for Christmas.

I want Mugisha to have access to an education.

I want Mugisha to look people in the eye.

I don't want Mugisha to spend one more day crawling in the dirt.

Do you?

So what's the cost for changing a life? 

Four hundred bucks.

Twenty dollars from twenty people.

And Mugisha gets a wheelchair for Christmas.

A blessing for a "blessing."

And if you're the generous kind, you already know that by blessing him, twenty dollars is nothing compared to the abundant blessings you'll get in return.

So who are my twenty? Actually, nineteen. I'm already in. 

Are you?


UPDATE: Mugisha--AND Ngabo--have wheelchairs! Read part 2!

Come with Me to the UCC

While visiting the beautiful country of Rwanda, you see people in need and wonder what you can do to make a real difference. The best I could come up with was handing out candy to kids. But Frederick Ndabaramiye and Zachary Dusingizimana, on the other hand, are two native Rwandans moving mountains in the Land of a Thousand Hills.


Although I had heard about the Ubumwe Community Center (UCC) for years, I was still blown away when I visited the center in person. We passed it by the first time, my husband noting, “Wow, that place is nice.” Backing up to enter the gates, we saw manicured landscaping, and more beautiful were the people who greeted us as we stepped out of the vehicle. They were all so eager to welcome the fish-out-of-water Americans to the community that had welcomed them. 

Nshuti, showing us head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth . . .

We met Nshuti who had lost both parents and was now cared for by his elderly grandmother. We were introduced to a five-year-old boy who, every day, crosses the border from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with his seven-year-old “big” sister; she drops him off at the center on her way to school. And we sat in the classroom with brilliant deaf children eager to converse—if only they could teach their inept American students how to speak their complex language.

Sewing class teacher, also "handicapped"

In Rwanda, a person with a physical or mental handicap typically is left to lead the life of a beggar. Fortunately, the UCC's co-founder, Frederick, doesn't believe in “disabilities.” Instead, the UCC embraces those who Frederick calls "people like me" and offers hands-on workshops that teach marketable skills, such as sewing, banana-leaf crafting, and knitting. During the trip, we later visited a small shop started by graduates of the UCC, where we bought an African tunic, dresses, and other souvenirs. Because of the UCC, these once-dismissed members of society are now business owners.



At the community center, deaf children attend class and have a teacher who takes them to “normal” schools in the afternoon. There’s a classroom for mentally challenged children, where a loving instructor guides them to learn vocabulary and math. There are outreach programs that make home visits to those who are homebound and sometimes neglected by family. Zachary explained that many times they just need soap or clothes or someone to talk to. Every member of the community center gets a daily lunch too. 

Most importantly, though, these once social outcasts have found a home at the Ubumwe Community Center, a place where they are surrounded by “people like me.”

Frederick with the new preschool, under construction

The newest project for the UCC is the construction of a preschool, where up to 100 “disabled” children and children of those already a part of UCC will receive free education and be integrated with “normal” children at an earlier age. Zachary feels that this will help both the challenged and mainstream students to accept one another more easily in the long run. 

If you have ever wanted to truly make a difference but didn't know where to start, start here or here.

I've seen it. 

It’s real. 

And you can be a part of it.

I have no doubt that they’ll find a way without our help. But do you really want them to?



Like the Ubumwe Community Center's Facebook page for updates on the center.