A fragrant offering - Nesdoly

Cherril Holcombe listened with horror as Marilyn Skinner, guest speaker at the May 2010 Life Women Conference in Surrey, B.C., described the facial mutilation many north Ugandan girls suffer when they try to escape from sex slavery at the hands of soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Marilyn first became aware of the problem when she saw a photo of Nancy, a woman with no nose, no lips, and no ears. Then Marilyn met Nancy and heard her story.

Nancy was only seven years old when she was abducted by the LRA. She escaped but was abducted a second time. After her recapture, another child soldier was forced to do the facial mutilations with a razor blade.

Marilyn went on to describe how it was virtually impossible for these women to integrate back into normal society. Their repulsive appearance and the way food dripped out of their mouths when they ate meant that nobody wanted to be around them. When they started businesses, no one wanted to do business with them. They were rejected by everyone, even shunned by their own families and left isolated with no hope.

Then Cherril watched Nancy’s Story, a short video that showed how plastic surgery transformed Nancy’s face from grotesque to beautiful. Cherril was moved to tears—and determination. As president of Women by Design (WBD), a women’s ministry of Christian Life Assembly (CLA) in Langley, B.C., she knew that taking an offering was one way to fund surgeries. But she wanted to do more.



Jasmine Wiebe, CLA’s pastor of women’s ministries, was at the same conference. Marilyn’s presentation drove Jasmine to her knees. As Jasmine prayed, Cherril and her husband, Grant, came up with the idea of donating the lavender that grew in thick hedges along the driveway of their Langley acreage as a fundraiser. With volunteer labour, Cherril figured they could make $10,000.



The actual work began on harvest day, mid-August 2010, when more than 30 people joined Cherril in the first step of the WBD “Lavender Project.” She describes that day:



“We worked to cut bunches and tie them with elastics. Then we loaded them onto a truck, drove it to the barn, and lifted the bunches into the hayloft, where wires were strung and waiting. Four people hooked the lavender onto the drying wires. It took us four and a half hours to cut and hang over 1,000 bunches. Then a large fan was left running 24/7 for two weeks to keep the air moving to dry the lavender bunches."



Work in the lavender barn / The women bagged hundreds of sachets.

Come September and the beginning of the WBD fall session, Cherril had lots of womanpower at her disposal. Through September and October, work bees of ladies went to the barn three nights a week to shuck and sift the lavender. When that was done, Rebecca, a local craftswoman, was given enough lavender to make 400 bars of soap. The remainder was packaged in pre-made sachet bags of various sizes.



Selling the soap and sachets got underway at the WBD’s Christmas event. After Cherril explained the project and showed the Nancy’s Story video, interest was high and sales were brisk. In fact, events took a turn Cherril never anticipated. In her own words:



“Not only did we sell lots of product, but the donations started coming in—far more than we ever hoped for. A few Sundays later, the story of the lavender was told again. God moved on the hearts of the congregation, and over $13,000 was donated. We were not asking for any donations; we only asked that people help out by buying our lavender products.”

Sales continued into March 2011, when Marilyn Skinner was a guest at CLA's mission conference. This gave CLA's women a chance to hear directly from her about the needs of African women and catch her passion. Cherril was also able to personally present her with a ceremonial cheque in anticipation of the total monies earned. The actual money sent to Africa that April was $50,584.89—enough to pay for twenty surgeries!



The success of that first fundraiser, combined with the continuing need for reconstructive surgeries, convinced Cherril to launch another lavender project in the fall of 2011. More products were added, including lavender milk bath, foot soak, body scrub, and aromatherapy bags. Lavender sales parties at which Nancy’s Story was shown brought in hundreds of dollars. Along with sales at Christmas events and in CLA’s foyer after Sunday services, a local farmers market displayed and sold the products over the Christmas season. Sales are continuing into 2012.



When asked what impact this project has had on her, Cherril talks of being encouraged in many ways.

"God encourages us to step out in faith when He gives direction. He also tells us that He will be with us each step of the way and will step in when we cannot do any more. He has done that way past our expectation and we are awed. Hopefully, we are all encouraged to keep going and not get tired in doing good. As a leader I want to keep encouraging the women of WBD to step out of their box, be creative, and trust God to try different things.” 

First published in the March 2012 issue of Testimony Magazine.

Additional resources:

• Nancy’s Story, Part 1- http://youtu.be/k4-mpR852ik

• Nancy’s Story, Part 2 - http://youtu.be/_cpQxSRa1zI

• Listen to Marilyn Skinner describe the Living Hope Project in the short video that launches on opening “The Living Hope” page: http://www.watoto.com/projects/living-hope

by Violet Nesdoly: http://violetnesdoly.com

Review of Walk Like You Have Somewhere To Go - Nesdoly

Just in time for Mother's Day comes the story of Lucille O'Neal, mother of basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. If your Mom is into basketball, or mothering, this book might make a nice Mother's Day gift.

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Review of: Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go by Lucille O'Neal


Lucille O’Neal shows us that champions can have the humblest beginnings. In Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go: From Mental Welfare to Mental Health, this mother of NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal tells her inspiring story. (Note: The word "Health" in the title above is not a typo. The actual book cover has "Health" in the subtitle, not "Wealth" as it appears on the cover image)

From her earliest memories of the stern discipline of her grandparents and the confusion caused by the absence of her mother, one is impressed by the hurdles Lucille O’Neal had to overcome. Lack of self-love, low self-esteem and absent confidence were what characterized much of her life – especially her youth. Her unusual height (she was six feet tall by the time she was twelve, though a mere 95 lbs.) only added to her misery. Being called names like “Olive Oyl” and “Jolly Green Giant” soon had her walking with a studied slouch. That’s what stood out about Lucille to her pastor one Sunday morning and provoked her outburst in front of the whole congregation: “Lucille, walk like you have somewhere to go.”

That advice along with the encouragement of her mother (they were ultimately reunited) and O’Neal’s own gumption, determination and faith in God brought about the eventual transformation to the Lucille O’Neal of today: mother of a champion (and three other successful kids), college graduate, public speaker, fundraiser for charities, and motivational coach.

One of the things I loved most about Lucille O’Neal was her mothering. What a natural! Though she was only 18 and unwed at the time Shaquille was born, she was a conscientious and dedicated mother right from the start. Later when her family included a husband and three more children, she made sure school and homework came first and ensured she knew where her kids were and that they were busy and active during after-school hours. No way were her kids going to get in with the wrong crowd. During Shaquille’s first season in the NBA, she traveled on the road with him as often as possible.

O’Neal’s first-person telling of the story is like sitting beside this obviously spunky lady and listening to her talk. Here, for example, is her account of going back to school as an adult:

“Though I was completely scared to death at this new challenge in my life, those first few weeks of school were as amazing and soul satisfying as I knew they would be. That’s not to say I didn’t struggle, because I must certainly did. I hadn’t picked up a book in nearly two decades, and I’d left half of my memory back in a beer bottle somewhere” (p. 175).



The story, told in 33 named and numbered chapters, is interesting, entertaining and easy to follow. The 200 pages of narrative also contain a few photos (black and whites, appearing with the text). In the end-matter O’Neal lists forty of her favorite Bible verses and eighteen favorite songs. “A Note From Lucille” contains a snippet from one of her motivational talks, giving us a taste of this mother’s backbone-building optimism:

“While your peers are sitting you will concentrate on STANDING; while your peers are standing, you will stand tall and STAND OUT; while your peers stand out, you will be the one OUTSTANDING. And as a result of your mental wealth state, you will be the example by which all other standards will be measured!” p. 224.

Whenever Lucille was dragging her feet about getting to this book project Shaquille would remind her how inspiring her story could be for the countless people facing the same obstacles and setbacks that she had faced in her life. There is no doubt this upbeat autobiography will accomplish what the author’s son envisioned.

Read an excerpt.

(I received Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go from Thomas Nelson as a part of their Book Sneeze program. This review was first published on  Blogcritics.org)

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Website: www.violetnesdoly.com

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