By Cristie Gardner
A few years ago, my husband and I went down to Guatemala to visit my sister and her husband. They gave me a gift that I treasure: a lovely necklace and matching earrings. Then they told me the story of Creamos. The story made my gift even more precious.
For generations, hundreds of families, usually led by single moms, lived in the dumps in Guatemala They foraged for scraps of food, had no access to clean water or clothing, and had no chance for furthering their opportunities through education.
One day, a volunteer in the country thought of an idea to help them, and to empower them to be able to provide for themselves and literally earn their way out of the dumps. The volunteer, Anna Hadingham, had some experience with creating jewelry out of recyclables. She showed the ladies how to cut thin, long, triangular strips from the glossy pages of discarded magazines, glue and roll them, and create amazingly beautiful beads. The beads were then strung together into lovely earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.
The ladies were exhilarated and motivated with this training! For the first time in many years, they could see hope and a pathway to achieving their dreams of going to school, being healthy, keeping their children safe, and moving on to a better way of life. Thus Creamos was formed.
Creamos offered safe and dignified income-generating opportunities for the mothers of the children, helping children break the cycle of poverty through education, life skills and perseverance in the community surrounding the Guatemala City garbage dump. This amazing and amazingly successful program has now been in existence for 20 years, disrupting the cycle of poverty within the community.
Sometimes we can become paralyzed with fear when we are faced with challenges that perplex us. We don’t have experience with how to solve the challenge, and we feel stuck. As in the case with the Guatemalan families, that “stuck” can continue for generations. But–and here’s the point of this message–you can find the solution. And the solution is somewhere in the vast accumulation of resources that surround you. So what’s stopping you?
In the case of the Guatemalan ladies, the solution is in the thousands, even millions, of magazines that fill the dump. Their resources are unlimited and free! And they come from the very place that had caused them to be “stuck” for generations. All they needed was someone with an idea to solve the problem and teach them, and now their families benefit from her service.
If you are, or you have been, in a place where you didn’t know the next step…if you feel stuck…if you are fearful…if you feel down, literally, in the dumps…I hope this message has given you the fuel you need to use your brain and your inspiration to come up with the idea and action that will move you into hope, achievement, persistence, and prosperity. Remember, the Law of Polarity says that the low tides are followed by the high tides. The oceans ebb and flow. The sun rises and sets. Darkness is followed by light; winter is followed by spring. Remember, every effort you give makes a difference.
What’s stopping you? Give yourself permission to think, to pray, to come up with ideas and inspiration. Give yourself the chance to fail and fall and try again! Give yourself the grace to know that you can create exactly the results you want by following the laws of success and the ideas that come to you. Never give up. Stay the course and keep at it, and in the end, you will be unstoppable!
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For more about the seven laws that govern prosperity, click here to read Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters FREE.
Together, Cristie and her husband have raised their eight fantastic children and they combine their talents to help the world get healthier from the inside.
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