Selections from the book TRUE RELIGION...

I recently finished reading Palmer Chinchen's book where he shared stories about taking pieces of heaven to places of hell on earth...

I loved the read as it was full of stories from places and peoples and moments in Africa...and it reminded me how much my life feels incomplete not having been able to travel there these past 2 summers...

Here's a few thoughts from the book that resonated with me as I read them:

PIECES OF HEAVEN...
*when you enter the grime of a city dump to wash children, you take a piece of heaven with you...
*when you hold a child orphaned by AIDS until she falls asleep in your comforting arms, you take a piece of heaven...
*when you take a mosquito net to the hut of an African family, you take a piece of heaven...
*when you give a barefoot man a pair of shoes, you give a piece of heaven...
*when you buy groceries for a family whose father has lost his job, you give a piece of heaven...
If places of hell exist, then in the name of Jesus, take a piece of heaven there.

SHALOM...
Let me tell what this world would be like if we all lived to share God's shalom and make the world just a little bit more like heaven:
*shalom means men would stop their cars when they see a guy pushing his car uphill...
*shalom means babies in Africa would sleep under mosquito nets...
*shalom means mothers in Haiti would make cookies for their children with flour instead of mud...
*shalom means husbands would never hit their wives...
*shalom means women in Ethiopia would no longer be sold for sex...
*shalom means women and children would never be chained to trees...
*shalom means girls would never be raped...
*and shalom means junior highers would never again sit alone at lunch...