Moms Change the World: Friendships With the Vulnerable

By Elisabeth Jordan, member of All Saints Dallas

We long to be used by God. We want our kids to see our faith in action, to experience how important Jesus is to us. We invest in their spiritual development through church, youth group, prayer and Scripture reading, but we struggle to know how to live out our faith beyond our churches and neighborhoods.

We know that we’re missing something about how Jesus lived because when we read the Gospels, he’s always reaching out to those on the margins—the diseased, crippled, morally corrupt and outcast. We’re afraid to step out of our comfort zones to encounter people like this; or we want to, but don’t know how.

In Moms Change the World (MCTW), moms are invited to lead their families in developing one real friendship with one vulnerable person. Friendship because relationships transform us: As good as service projects are, things like serving behind a food line or building someone else a house, they don’t change us. They don’t change us because they can’t; for God designed relationships—with him and each other—to be the primary means through which we are transformed.

The invitation to friendship with the vulnerable is because we’re called to be like God, who continually uses his resources and power on behalf of the vulnerable, who are repeatedly shown in Scripture to be the poor, orphans, widows and immigrants. In Tim Keller’s book Generous Justice, he expands this definition to include the homeless, refugees, migrant workers and many single parents and elderly people. These groups are vulnerable because they are often without the financial and relational resources to overcome their poverty or the injustice that can be inherent in their lives.

Over the course of the curriculum, MCTW invites moms to choose a vulnerable group and make a commitment to spend time with them, to bring their families along in the journey. For some, it’s going twice a month to the retirement community in their neighborhood, befriending an aging person and having them for dinner. For some, it’s developing a friendship with the homeless person they pass every day on their way to school; it’s learning their name, their birthday and sharing meals with them. For some, it’s involvement in a refugee ministry that allows for face-to-face relationships, where your family and their family begin to spend time together and eat together.

One mom from All Saints Dallas did just that; her family became close to a refugee family such that they shared frequent meals and helped care for the refugee family’s children while the mother worked multiple jobs. Click here to watch her share this story.

The irony in the name “Moms Change the World” is that we all know only Christ can change the world, but we also know that he chooses to use us for his work. He is calling and inviting each of us to live out our faith the way he did on earth—to step out of our comfort zones to love and befriend people who are pushed aside, stereotyped, feared and cast off. As Mother Teresa taught, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love,” — his love. And when our family lives start to look like Jesus’, we all witness the reality that HE IS ALIVE, and other people become curious about who he is and how to follow him.

To learn more about Moms Change the World, go to www.elisabethhilljordan.com or email Elisabeth Jordan at hello@elisabethhilljordan.com.

Resources:

Making an Impact Among the Homeless

Elisabeth Jordan is the Founder & CEO of The Human Impact (THI), a support system in Dallas, TX for people who are chronically, or long-term, homeless. THI operates under the understanding that, while there are many programs, services, and shelters to help the homeless, often a deeper need goes unaddressed: a need for relationship and community. Outside of her work on the streets, Elisabeth finds her greatest joy in her children—John, Sara, and Caroline—her husband Austin, and her family and friends. They are members of All Saints Dallas.