Create Providence

My friend Hilary had this to say in church, recently:

About two months ago I decided I need to go to Nigeria, to found a non-profit and take a group of artists to work with an orphanage and home for battered women called Susana Homes. I’d had this idea for two years, but it was at the Pepperdine Lectures in early May that the vision snapped into focus. In the weeks that followed, as I drove my parent’s car around California and listened to the new worship CDs we’d acquired that week, I found myself questioning the lyrics to the songs I normally would have embraced wholeheartedly. Nnow, with every worship song I sung along to, I pictured standing on the stage we’re going to build, with my friends, leading worship for the people of these villages. And the words only seemed appropriate for us in our 1st world, developed country lives.

Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful
Where your streams of abundance flow
And blessed be your name when I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
On the road marker with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be your name


When I sing about the desert place, the wilderness, my road marked with suffering … I am maybe thinking about a time when I felt lonely, my anxiety about my career or finances, breaking up with a boyfriend, or maybe acknowledging that I haven’t been spending as much time with God as I should. And let’s be honest, it’s not all that hard for me to still trust and praise God for his goodness even when I feel uncertain about, say, my career. I do believe He has a plan for me. But for these villages living in extreme poverty? Children who have been orphaned. Women beaten and abused. People without hope that their lives are going to get better. Without opportunity to get out. Just praying for rain, praying there will be enough food, praying their wife won’t be one of the many who die in child birth, praying that they don’t have AIDS and pass it onto their children, praying that God will send them parents and a family. How do they say “Blessed be your name”? I say it in my “desert place” … curled up on my down comforter in my brand new apartment building with my breathtaking view of Manhattan. I trust that the streams of abundance will flow again because they have, because He has provided and He is good. But have these children ever been in a land that is plentiful? Have they ever been just bowled over by the sheer power of streams of abundance?

Hilary has followed through with her vision and has founded a non-profit organization called Create Providence. In short, they are a group of 12 professional artists from here in NYC who are traveling to Nigeria for awhile, sharing their talent and training with children living in extreme poverty in the hope of bringing them greater beauty, joy, creativity, and empowering them to find their own unique voices and gifts.

Each artist needs to raise $3000 to cover the cost of their trip. They leave in January. There is a link on the Create Providence website where you can find out how you can donate money and/or supplies for this endeavor. I am moved by the passion these artists have for their work and how they are using it to glorify Him. Keep the artists of Create Providence bathed in prayer as they prepare for their trip.