...we leave indpls. at 6 am monday morning and will arrive in rwanda, on tuesday the 2nd in the afternoon (they are 7 hours ahead of home so it will be early morning here). we hit the ground running and continue until we leave on tuesday, march 9th.
thanks ahead for any prayer you lift up for greg, sam, ben, me, and our work there. and also for thomas, sarah, and phoebe at home :)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
shout out!
thanks to each of you who bought pajamas and a toy for the orphans at C.A.L.M. i am so very excited to give these gifts to the children there! so many of you put your heart into picking out just the right gifts and i can never thank you enough. i told someone this morning in an email that it is like i am now taking a piece of each of you with me. that gives me great comfort to know i am traveling with some of my favorite people :)
and an extra special thanks to two very special friends (you know who you are :) with ginormous hearts who sought out incredible deals and got over 35 pairs of women's sandals and over 40 pairs of the cutest children's pjs you have ever seen.
and thanks sam for agreeing to forego birthday gifts at your party this year for orphanage donations instead. all it took was the snickers bar i was holding for you to agree that this was a great idea. when you hand over that $120, i guarantee it will be a blessing to your heart.
and thanks to 'the chosen 12' men at church who were given jars to save their change all month so we can give it to the orphanage. you indeed will help 'change' lives for these kids.
and an extra special thanks to two very special friends (you know who you are :) with ginormous hearts who sought out incredible deals and got over 35 pairs of women's sandals and over 40 pairs of the cutest children's pjs you have ever seen.
and thanks sam for agreeing to forego birthday gifts at your party this year for orphanage donations instead. all it took was the snickers bar i was holding for you to agree that this was a great idea. when you hand over that $120, i guarantee it will be a blessing to your heart.
and thanks to 'the chosen 12' men at church who were given jars to save their change all month so we can give it to the orphanage. you indeed will help 'change' lives for these kids.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
quick and specific
monday brought many questions as to whether God wanted us to go on this trip. it came down to asking the Lord to confirm it quickly :) airline tickets had been bought, vaccines and medicines scheduled, and plans to work at various orphanages had been made.
when it was decided that the boys and i would go along, i naively thought it would cost primarily the above expenses plus meals. we would just stay in the hotel with greg amd not incur any significant expense there. wrong. in rwanda, there are very few safe hotels and the ones that are there are ultra expensive. and only two can be in a room. a small room at that. no exceptions. no parents with a child. or two. here in the states, we all pile into one crowded, chaotic large room.
greg and i could not get our head and heart to come together and justify spending thousands to stay in a posh hotel while we served those who would never set foot in this type of facility. it felt so wrong. the disparity was beyond ironic. would it be best to give the orphanages what we would have to spend to stay in the hotel? this issue had been going on for days and came to a head monday. reservations had to be confirmed or lost.
my only agenda for going was for us to love on this precious kids and take them gifts that would be a blessing to them and the ones who bought them. we wanted the world to become smaller. our world here could come to see the world there, to some small extent. people would become real. not nameless, faceless statistics. these are little people made in God's image and they need us to use our resources to help their situation and give them hope.
greg and i figured if two of our kids were given an opportunity to see life here, they could not be unchanged. my greatest hope is that God uses this experience to get ben and sam to serve Christ by loving others.
so monday saw much prayer time. Lord, if you want the boys and me to go, you need to work out this hotel problem of needing two rooms. two very expensive rooms. we need a place that is close to where we will work, safe, and cheap :)
the organizer of our trip grieved at the thought of us not going. her heart wants us to love this country that she has come to love. she had made so many things come together so we could experience real rwanda and its orphans.
tuesday morning brings an email titled 'a miracle happened'. the travel agent remembered a little guesthouse apartment that a client had used. her words, it is safe, accessible, and cheap. sound familar? it costs about 1/8 of the hotel.
we took that as our directive that we are to go. i am forever amazed when He answers so quickly and completely (see http://www.mistyming.blogspot.com/ the post titled 'the mist' to fully understand).
p.s. if any of you have not read the book 'the hole in our Gospel' by richard stearns, please go buy it or order it now.
when it was decided that the boys and i would go along, i naively thought it would cost primarily the above expenses plus meals. we would just stay in the hotel with greg amd not incur any significant expense there. wrong. in rwanda, there are very few safe hotels and the ones that are there are ultra expensive. and only two can be in a room. a small room at that. no exceptions. no parents with a child. or two. here in the states, we all pile into one crowded, chaotic large room.
greg and i could not get our head and heart to come together and justify spending thousands to stay in a posh hotel while we served those who would never set foot in this type of facility. it felt so wrong. the disparity was beyond ironic. would it be best to give the orphanages what we would have to spend to stay in the hotel? this issue had been going on for days and came to a head monday. reservations had to be confirmed or lost.
my only agenda for going was for us to love on this precious kids and take them gifts that would be a blessing to them and the ones who bought them. we wanted the world to become smaller. our world here could come to see the world there, to some small extent. people would become real. not nameless, faceless statistics. these are little people made in God's image and they need us to use our resources to help their situation and give them hope.
greg and i figured if two of our kids were given an opportunity to see life here, they could not be unchanged. my greatest hope is that God uses this experience to get ben and sam to serve Christ by loving others.
so monday saw much prayer time. Lord, if you want the boys and me to go, you need to work out this hotel problem of needing two rooms. two very expensive rooms. we need a place that is close to where we will work, safe, and cheap :)
the organizer of our trip grieved at the thought of us not going. her heart wants us to love this country that she has come to love. she had made so many things come together so we could experience real rwanda and its orphans.
tuesday morning brings an email titled 'a miracle happened'. the travel agent remembered a little guesthouse apartment that a client had used. her words, it is safe, accessible, and cheap. sound familar? it costs about 1/8 of the hotel.
we took that as our directive that we are to go. i am forever amazed when He answers so quickly and completely (see http://www.mistyming.blogspot.com/ the post titled 'the mist' to fully understand).
p.s. if any of you have not read the book 'the hole in our Gospel' by richard stearns, please go buy it or order it now.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
the faces behind the trip
go here to see some of the precious faces we are privileged to serve:
http://www.calmministries.org/New_Hope_Homes/Our_Kids.html#grid
http://www.calmministries.org/New_Hope_Homes/Our_Kids.html#grid
why the long blog name?
please listen to the words of the first song that plays. it is the song from hence the blog title came. a friend (thanks ginger :) gave me the lyrics and music to this song 'albertine'. it was written by a young singer from new zealand who went to rwanda on a mission trip and met a girl named, you guessed it, 'albertine'. she promised to never forget her. here are the words to the song (please listen even if it is more contemporary than you are used to....the words are what i pray this trip is about):
I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don't see with my own
Rwanda
[CHORUS]
now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms,
I cannot let go till you are
I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda
[CHORUS]
I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine
[CHORUS]
I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine
and also, please read a book called 'left to tell: discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza. she survived the 1994 genocide by hiding in a pastor's cramped bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. all this was going on while here in America we watched OJ simpson being chased in his white bronco.
I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don't see with my own
Rwanda
[CHORUS]
now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms,
I cannot let go till you are
I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda
[CHORUS]
I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine
[CHORUS]
I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine
and also, please read a book called 'left to tell: discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza. she survived the 1994 genocide by hiding in a pastor's cramped bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. all this was going on while here in America we watched OJ simpson being chased in his white bronco.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
