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.