A Giveaway! "Preemptive Love" by Jeremy Courtney

Get your copy of Abraham's Advent: A Stranger's Journey to Bethlehem and Beyond

A fundraiser for Preemptive Love Coalition!
Find out more about this project here. 

So I've been following Preemptive Love for a little while now. (In case you haven't heard, proceeds from my new ebook are going to this awesome bunch of people.) I've familiarized myself with much of what they do through their website and blog. But the founder, Jeremy Courtney, has also written a bestselling book of how the organization came to be.

Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time

By Jeremy Courtney

From the back cover:

"From the front line of the struggle for peace, Jeremy writes a firsthand account of lifesaving and peacemaking in the world's most notorious war-torn country. In the heart of conflict, there is only one kind of love big enough to change a nation: a love that strikes first."

I must confess, I haven't finished it yet, but I'm totally engrossed. Drama, terror, hope and love, it's all there. It's a story worth reading, and a book worth sharing. 

That's why I'm going to give away one copy of Preemptive Love to one of the blog readers! 

If you win, I will ship the book to you, anywhere in Canada or the US. There are 3 ways to enter. Choose one, or choose them all to up your chances. :) You can enter by: 

1. Heading over to The Red Letters Blog on Facebook! While you're there, why not give us a "Like" or spread the word about the Abraham's Advent ebook?

2. Tweeting about the giveaway!

3. Leaving a comment on the blog!

The giveaway is NOW CLOSED.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~lg

Abraham's Advent: How It All Began

In case you're wondering what this Abraham's Advent ebook and fundraiser is all about. . . 

I remember when the ISIS crisis came to the forefront of media attention last August with the situation on Mount Sinjar. I felt crushed, helpless, and yet somehow responsible.  I wrote about this feeling on my blog, and it seemed to resonate with many. The question remained - what could we do?

I cried, and prayed, and gave a few dollars, all we could manage at the time, to reputable charities helping out with emergency aid. And then in April, I cried again while reading Ann Voskamp’s blog. I clicked through the links at the end of her post, “Love in the Time of ISIS,” and that’s when I found Preemptive Love. The heart of Iraq called my name, and I knew, here was something. 

My husband and I made a donation. I asked for a Preemptive Love t-shirt for my birthday. And since then I’ve been following what they’ve been up to, loving and sharing the difference they’ve been making in the Middle East.

Preemptive Love provides heart surgery for hundreds of desperate Iraqi children. They provide emergency aid to those fleeing violence. They also help ISIS survivors return to their homes and rebuild their lives. They are love's "boots on the ground" in some of the darkest and most dangerous places in the Middle East. 

I’ve wanted to do more. I saw people fundraising on their own, many selling their own crafts and artwork. Well, I am not a crafty person, but I do love to craft words. And then an idea began to form for my own fundraiser. That's where Abrahams' Advent comes in. 

Abraham's Advent is a devotional that was birthed several years ago. It came out of a time when I was a new wife in a new town, studying the life of Abraham. There was something about the narrative that sucked me in. I felt like I was following in his footsteps, and as I walked with him through the pages of Scripture, the story came alive. I could smell the dust. I could feel the heat. My heart beat right along with his in moments of both elation and fear. I lived the promises with him. Christmas was coming, my first Christmas away from family. I was fairly new to the whole concept of Advent. Somehow, in a way I can't even remember now, I lived through that Advent with Abraham. I hoped along with him, each day jotting down thoughts and questions. And then I imagined what it would be like if past, present and future converged in Bethlehem on that oh so holy night. Somehow it all came together and formed itself. 

Over the years I shared it with friends and family and a few in our church. I wrote it for me, but Abraham seemed to resonate with some of them too. And then at the end of this summer, as my sister-in-law Megan and I were talking during one of her visits, the idea hit. Why not turn Abraham's Advent into an ebook, and use it as as a fundraiser for Preemptive Love? Yes! Here was a small something I could do.

I got in touch with a graphic designer friend of mine, Kathy Jimenez, and she generously donated some of her skills to the project. With her help (and my husband's!) it is now a beautiful ebook, with proceeds going toward Preemptive Love. This is my offering.

I still cry sometimes. When I think about Iraq, about where Syrian children sleep, about Paris, about this whole hurting world. But there is hope, thanks in large part to the work organizations like Preemptive Love is doing. I believe there is always hope in Jesus, and through the people who dare to be His hands and feet in some of the riskiest places. 

So this Advent, consider spreading some "preemptive love."Consider sharing in this peacemaking movement. Consider taking a walk with Abraham, himself a stranger in a foreign land, and learn what it means to live within the hope and promise of God. Prepare your heart to welcome Jesus.

Abrahams' Advent: A Stranger's Journey to Bethlehem and Beyond is available now for $3.99 (CDN). Click here to purchase and download in either EPUB or PDF format. 

Living in hope,

~ Lindsey

Midnight prayer: Where do Syrian children sleep?

Oh God,

Where do Syrian children sleep? Only you know each troubled bed. Mine are safe under quilts and treasured blankies, wrapped in the security of home. Mine are sleeping deeply, even as I wrestle with the midnight thoughts and images I can't escape.

Don't let me escape them.
Don't let me forget them.

The world is a broken puzzle, with too many pieces missing. Blown to bits.

What do I do? What do we do?

I don't know the answers to the questions in their eyes, the cries in their sleep, the fear in their forms.

But I do know this...

Jesus, you were a child refugee, fleeing the evil of hell's forces loosed. Where did you sleep, on the run to Egypt? Did you know the terror that sped your parents' steps day after night after day? Would I have recognized you if you slept on my doorstep?

Jesus, you spoke of loving our enemies, and if ever we really needed to figure out what on this blasted earth you meant, now is the time. I do know love means risk. Love means the almost sure possibility of having to utter those heavy words, "Father, forgive them."

Jesus, you knew the bloodiest torture of your time. You know the nightmares they relive. You weep over their crumbled cities. You weep over those who reject your way, and send these children into the cold night. You weep over hearts harder than the trampled ground. You weep for each child who has lost a home, each home that has lost a child.

Jesus, you pronounced blessing on the peacemakers. How can anyone make peace with trembling hands, and when the recipe seems forgotten? Yet you spit into the dust and made a balm for healing. You give eyes to see. You took a severed ear and restored it to your enemy. You give ears to hear. You took everything hell had to throw at you, and you made salvation.

I am no miracle worker.

But I know the only way to take any step, to make any peace, to break any curse, is to stay close to you. To embrace you as the child, alone and frightened. To look into their eyes and pray, and really mean it - give me eyes to see. Give me ears to hear. Don't let me escape them. 

My children stir. They murmur and roll over. I will tiptoe close and tuck the covers around them, murmuring my own prayers of gratitude and blessing. And as I place my hands on them, I will pray for the others.

Yes, prayer may only be a beginning. But as we go forward, we can never leave it behind. For it is in prayer that we step close to Jesus and let him cross our borders.

Come, Lord Jesus.





{One small step I am taking - Please consider purchasing a copy of my Advent devotional, Abraham's Advent. Proceeds from the ebook will go to Preemptive Love Coalition, an organization that is making peace and healing hearts in Iraq and the Middle East.}


~lg

It's here!!

Abraham's Advent: A Stranger's Journey to Bethlehem and Beyond is now available as an ebook!

CLICK HERE to read more about this project and get your copy!

What We Did.

I wrote about how I felt about Iraq on Friday. Responsible. Today I’d like to do something unusual for me and share what we did. Not because I think we are so great, but because I want to show that we can all do something, be it ever so small. We can help. Iraq is not the only tragedy in the world. I think I really would feel paralyzed if I had to act on every nightly news clip. But we can all leave our hearts open to love, and when love speaks, whispers, shouts, bangs on our doors breaking us bit by bit, it is our responsibility to act.

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:16-17)

We prayed. I prayed for the protection of the innocent as I watched mine running and playing in the yard. There were times I wanted to shut down, to ignore the little duties and delights of the day. I sat in our house and felt guilty, not for all our meaningless stuff, but for the peace and joy we experience within these walls. This is the prize, not the American Dream, this is the gift for which we give thanks. This carefree summer day is what every child needs, and God does not begrudge us this. I sat on the green, green grass and prayed that one day those suffering would find joy. I prayed that evil would be halted in its tracks. I prayed that love would prove victorious. We keep praying that our hearts would remain open, that our hands will find fitting expressions of help.

We gave. After looking at a few different options, we gave a one time gift to an organization on the ground in Iraq providing relief to those persecuted and fleeing, no matter their religion. Was it thousands of dollars? No, not even close. But it was what we had this month. And then, we committed to monthly support for a local family we know who work in Lebanon, providing services to refugees from the Middle Eastern conflicts. Again, it is not a large amount. I wish it could be more. Maybe one day it will be. But it is our commitment not to forget after the fuss dies down.

We ate beans and bread. Pizza Friday is a bit of a tradition in our house. We make pizza and celebrate the onset of the weekend. But this Friday I couldn't. Couldn't celebrate, couldn't pile on the extra cheese. So in our own way, we fasted. I set the table, lit a candle, put a picture of the family we wanted to support next to it. Then I opened a tin of beans. Cut a few slices of bread. Sat down and explained to the kids why we weren’t having pizza tonight. We talked, on a four year old level, about people who were sad and needed to be safe, and that we were going to try and help. “Maybe those people could come to our island and live in safe houses here,” my daughter suggested. Oh, the simplicity of childlike faith.

On Sunday in our church one of these children of faith showed a picture he had painted. Two people walking toward a big red sunset. He is painting pictures to raise money for his grandmother in Kenya, who feeds dozens of hungry children in her own home, daily. He sells the paintings here in the community and sends the money to her. His idea. He’s just a kid.

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:18)

Perilous times call for particular acts of love. Change happens hand to hand, bean by bean. We can choose to love. We can choose to walk away from darkness, toward the sun.

~lg