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| We were very excited when Chad got his job! |
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| Yay Chad!! |
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Created For Care Retreat - Take Two!
This is exciting news! I didn't have the words to explain how awesome this opportunity was, but when I read my friend Joy's words, I knew they were perfect to share with you! So...here's the news...straight from Joy!
"Are you liking these words...
...take a break...
...rest...
...retreat...
...refuel...
We all know that adoption and orphan care is exhausting work -
physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
And, we all know how hard it is for tired mamas to get an opportunity to...
...take a break...
...rest...
...retreat...
...refuel...
As you meditate on those four beautiful words,
let me tell you a story.
It's a story about a mama
who has a gigantic heart for orphans and adoption,
and for mamas that have gigantic hearts for orphans and adoption.
She needed to retreat for a weekend.
To escape reality for a few days and
refuel her Spirit with some time with the Lord.
She, like Jesus in Matthew 14:13,
needed to find a quiet place
to rest and retreat
with just a few of her close friends.
But, just as in this familiar Bible story,
the crowds heard about her little retreat
and followed.
Okay, so there aren't 5,000 that followed her.
At first it was 25.
Then it was 250.
Then it was 450.
Then it was over 600!
How on earth was she going to be able to care for over 600 mommies?!?
But, her heart responded just as Jesus' in verse 16:
"Do not send them away."
She obeyed.
And Created for Care was birthed.
Truly, when she followed the Lord's leading for this retreat,
she had planned for 25 folks.
But then word got out.
And the retreat filled up with 250 women in just one day.
That was last year.
This year, when registration opened up,
400 women signed up in 9 hours!
And 200 went on the wait list.
This mama prayed and prayed....
how could she leave the 200 on the wait list
and not care for them?
But, as in the miracle of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish...
God provided!!!
There is going to be a
SECOND
Created for Care retreat!
March 23-25, 2012.
Registration begins September 28, 2011.
Seriously, if you have adopted,
are in the process of adopting,
desire to adopt,
love and care for mamas who adopt,
this is it!!
The women I met last year have grown to become some of my closest friends!
Like minded mamas,
who love the orphan,
who love Jesus,
who laugh,
who cry,
who hug,
who sing,
who pray...
This is a little glimpse of heaven, I'm sure!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Giveaway for Restoration Hope
You should hop over to Alison's blog Lovin' Much and check out her giveaway. More importantly, check out Restoration Hope, whose mission is to "To honor God and serve the oppressed and fatherless by partnering with established ministries who are demonstrating the unconditional love of Christ and working to restore hope to places being destroyed by poverty and injustice."
Alison is giving away four of their shirts on her blog, but you can purchase your own here.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Big Families...another quote from Good to Be Crazy
Another brilliant quote from Shelly at Good to Be Crazy: I had to laugh sooo hard when I read this because this first paragraph is going to be EXACTLY my family in a few months!!!
"And I often find myself wondering why. I mean, what is the big deal with big families? Who cares if I have four small children and a baby on my hip and two of my children are black and we take up an entire aisle in the grocery store?
Big families are counter-cultural. Having lots of kids and then adopting more is just plain weird. Because it smacks in the face of everything our American culture says we should embrace:
Big families are counter-cultural. Having lots of kids and then adopting more is just plain weird. Because it smacks in the face of everything our American culture says we should embrace:
Leisure time
Wealth
Travel
Privacy
Life
Liberty
And ESPECIALLY the pursuit of happiness, baby.
Dan and I have decided that we’ll live for more than those things. Because those are not God’s values. In fact, His are the opposite.
Love
Service
Humility
Peace
Dying to self"
Let's face it...we are crazy. We do look odd...we do take up the whole aisle at Walmart.
What makes your family crazy?!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Grape and Fall Festival Races
This is the first year that we took the kids to the Grape and Fall Festival Races. We let school out early on the Friday of the GFF, and then they host races for Pre K - 8th Grade at the fairgrounds that afternoon.
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| Graysen getting ready to race! |
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| The boys all lined up to race their first race... |
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| Sack Race |
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| They all got a soda afterwards for participating! |
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
a dancing we will go...
Graysen started back to dance class last week!
It was odd for me to take her to class. It was my first time on the parents side of the counter! I think we'll enjoy it this year though, me taking her and picking her up like a "normal" parent.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Geo Caching Fail
We had a very lucky surprise this past weekend and Lincoln was home almost all weekend! He only had to work until noon on Saturday and then he had Sunday off! It was almost like a "normal" family weekend! We had no plans on Saturday afternoon and it was raining, so we needed to get out of the house. We decided to try out luck at Geo Caching...a great adventure...for a non-rainy day!
We wrote down some coordinates and headed out!
When we arrived at our destination we all piled out of the car in the pouring rain to search for the "treasure"...to no avail. The first problem was that it was raining. The second problem was that we weren't really sure what we were looking for!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Graysen Quotes
I am crazy about my daughter right now. She is at the PERFECT age! She will be 4 in November, so she is starting to grow up, totally has her own personality at this point, but is still a baby in so many ways. Lincoln and I agreed a few nights ago that if we could bottle her up and keep her at this exactly stage forever we would. She's just perfect. She has quite the personality, and has said a few things lately that I just had to write down to remember.
Talking to her Papa Charlie:
"Papa, you're getting a tummy like Santa Claus!!"
Talking to her Aunt Sis while waiting in line to buy her clothes:
"Sissy, my heart is telling me that you are such a good girl for buying me these things!"
Oh, what a doll. She's just so honest.
Monday, September 12, 2011
After the Airport: By Jen Hatmaker
I read the blog "His Hands His Feet". I'm sure I've shared a bit about their story here, but if not, go read about them. I love her writing style. She shared the following story today on her blog and I was blown away on how real it hit me...so I had to share it here as well.
These words are so important. These words are not just about adoption, but about doing life together. About how the Body of Christ needs to be operating. We have been blessed with a family and community who has been, and continues to be fantastic. We are some of the lucky ones.
These words are just Jen Hatmaker's story...but a story that I can relate to on so many levels. A story that I think needs to be told and listened to. A story that I have learned a lot of lessons from.
I'm just going to put excerpts from her post here...the parts that hit home with me, and bolded the parts that really hit home with me...but you can go and read her whole post HERE.
"After an arduous adoption journey, our kids were safe in our arms, tucked into their bunk beds their dad built with his own two hands, surrounded by the dearest, most sincere community we have ever known. God delivered them from poverty and abandonment back into a family, no longer alone in this big world; now wanted and loved and welcomed with great fervor.
The end.
Not.
Remy gave us about 12 hours of honeymooning until her terror burst onto the scene. Sometimes her fear is so palpable, it literally takes my breath away. New places: terror. New faces: total insecurity. Transitions: help us, Jesus. She has asked us every single day since July 22nd if she is going back to Ethiopia. Every. Single. Day.
(our boys have done this, not every single day, but MANY times since they came home in May 2010.)
Her fear comes out as 1.) defiance, 2.) terror, and 3.) catatonic disassociation, in that order. We've been spit on, kicked, disobeyed, refused, clung to, begged for, adored, ignored, and rejected. Triggers are unpredictable. Yesterday, we entered an hour-long Armageddon because she wouldn't put her bike up. This turned into defiance and disrespect, deal breakers as we establish safe boundaries. When at long last her angry, dark face relented, and she finally uttered in the smallest voice: "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry, Daddy," the damn broke and she cried for thirty minutes, telling us over and over that we don't love her and she is going back to Africa.
Meanwhile, Ben sidled up quietly next to me as Brandon held Remy's flailing legs, and asked in a whisper: "Mom? Forever?"
Is this family forever, even with this hysterical girl? Are you forever, even though she is draining the lifeblood out of you and Dad? Am I forever, once my junk starts coming out that I'm holding in? Are you forever for her? For me? Should I be worried that you'll only put up with this level of chaos for so long?
God love them.
We are parenting damaged, traumatized children; don't let the pictures fool you. We're in the weeds. Every minute is on; there is no off. We've arrived late, cancelled altogether, hunkered down in therapy mode, missed appointments, failed to answer hundreds of emails in a timely manner, left voicemails unlistened to, texts unread, we've restructured, regrouped, replanned, reorganized, we've punted and called audibles, we've left the bigs on their own, hoping they are functioning well on auto-pilot after a lifetime of healthy stability, and sometimes, we put "Tangled" on for the eleventh time and cry in the bathroom.
We are exhausted beyond measure.
I know what you're thinking: You asked for this. Yes we did. And we'd ask for it again, with full disclosure and foreknowledge. We would. We would say yes to adoption, to Ben, to Remy. We would do it all over again. We might do it all over again in the future.
That does not mean we are not exhausted.
I know what else you might be thinking: Are you trying to scare people away from adoption? Because this is pretty good propaganda for turning a blind eye to this mess. No I'm not. While adoption is clearly not the answer for the 170 million orphans on earth, it is one answer, and I'll go to the grave begging more people to open their homes and minds and hearts to abandoned children who are praying for a Mom and Dad and a God who might still see them.
But Brandon and I decided some time ago to go at this honestly, with truthful words and actual experiences that might encourage the weary heart or battle some of the fluffy, damaging semi-truths about adopting. Because let me tell you something: If you are intrigued by the idea of adoption, with the crescendoing storyine and happy airport pictures and the sigh-inducing family portrait with the different skin colors and the feely-feel good parts of the narrative, please find another way to see God's kingdom come.
You cannot just be into adoption to adopt; you have to be into parenting.
And it is hard, hard, intentional, laborious work. Children who have been abused, abandoned, neglected, given away, given up, and left alone are shaken so deeply, so intrinsically, they absolutely require parents who are willing to wholly invest in their healing; through the screaming, the fits, the anger, the shame, the entitlement, the bed-wetting, the spitting, the rejection, the bone-chilling fear. Parents who are willing to become the safe place, the Forever these children hope for but are too terrified to believe in just yet.
But "yet" is a powerful word in the context of faith, if we are indeed to believe in the unseen and hope for what has not materialized.
I followed a God into this story who heals and redeems, who restores wasted years and mends broken places. This God specializes in the Destroyed. I've seen it. I've been a part of it. I have His ancient Word that tells of it. I love a Jesus who made reconciliation his whole mission. My children will not remain broken. They are loved by too good a Savior. I will not remain exhausted and spent. I am loved by too merciful a Father.
So today, I'm writing for you who are somewhere "after the airport." The big moment is over and you are living in the aftermath when the collective grief or euphoria has passed. You lost a parent, a sibling, a friend, a child. The experience mobilized every single human being who loves you, and they rallied, gathered, carried you. And now it's three months later on a random Tuesday, and the sting has worn off for everyone else, and you are left in your sorrow.
I'm writing for those of you who had the oh-so-wanted baby after the cheers and showers and Facebook fervor, and now you're struggling with a depression so dark and deep, you are afraid to say it out loud. To you who moved across the country in obedience - you left your family, church, community, your jobs - and now the headline has passed and you are lonely and unanchored. For my friends who've brought their adopted children home and the media frenzy has died down, and you are holding a screaming toddler, a fragile kindergartener, an angry teen, trying to catch your breath and make it through the day without bawling while everyone else has gone back to their regularly scheduled programs...I'm with you today.
More importantly, God is with you today. He remains in the chaos long after it has lost its shine. When the delivered meals have stopped and the attention has waned, Jesus remains. He sticks with us long after it is convenient or interesting. If you feel alone today in your new normal, would you please receive this bit of beauty: this simple Scripture recited billions of times throughout the ages, perhaps without the poetry of David or precision of Paul, but with enough truth to sustain the weariest traveler:
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you" (Deut. 31:6).
He will never leave.
Never forsake.
Never.
For my readers who love someone living "after the airport," the big moment - be it a blessed high or a devastating low - is never the completion. The grief and struggle, the work and effort, the healing and restoring comes later. Will you call your friend who lost her mom to cancer five months ago? Will you check in on your friends who adopted this spring? Email your neighbor who took a big risk and moved or changed jobs or quit to stay home. For the love of Moses, do you have a friend who stepped out and started a church last year? Bring him a lasagna and do not be alarmed if he sobs into his french bread.
...we are still in the thick of hard, exhausting work, so if you ask me if these are the happiest days of my life (which a ton of you have), and my eyes kind of glaze over and I say through a tight-lipped smile like a robot, "Yes. Sure. Of course. This is my dream life"...I am lying. I am lying so you won't feel uncomfortable when I tell you, "Actually, I haven't had a shower in three days, I lost my temper with my uncontrollable daughter this morning and had to walk outside, I'm constantly cleaning up pee because uncircumcised tee-tee goes sideways onto walls, and sometimes when my two littles are asleep and we're downstairs with the original three kids who are so stable and healthy and easy, it creates a nostalgia so intense, I think I might perish. But enough about me. How are you?"
But that would be weird. So I say, "Yes. I am so happy."
If you are living "after the airport," how I wish I could transplant my community into your life; friends who have loved us so completely and exhaustively, I could weep just thinking about it. Maybe one of the most brilliant ways God "never leaves us" and "never forsakes us" is through the love of each other. Maybe He knew that receiving love from people with skin on is the most excellent way, so He gave us an entire set of Scriptures founded upon community and sacrificial love for one another. I guess He realized that if we obeyed, if we became more like His Son, then no one would ever want for mercy when their chips were down. No one. Good plan.
Oh let us be a community who loves each other well. Because someone is always struggling through the "after the airport" phase, when the chords of human kindness become a lifeline of salvation. Let us watch for the struggling members of our tribe, faking it through sarcasm or self-deprecation or a cheerfully false report. May we refuse to let someone get swallowed up in isolation, drowning in grief or difficulties that seem too heavy to let anyone else carry. Let's live this big, beautiful Life together, rescuing each other from the brink and exposing the unending compassion of our Jesus who called us to this high level of community; past the romantic beginnings, through the messy and mundane middles, and all the way to the depths.
These words are so important. These words are not just about adoption, but about doing life together. About how the Body of Christ needs to be operating. We have been blessed with a family and community who has been, and continues to be fantastic. We are some of the lucky ones.
These words are just Jen Hatmaker's story...but a story that I can relate to on so many levels. A story that I think needs to be told and listened to. A story that I have learned a lot of lessons from.
I'm just going to put excerpts from her post here...the parts that hit home with me, and bolded the parts that really hit home with me...but you can go and read her whole post HERE.
"After an arduous adoption journey, our kids were safe in our arms, tucked into their bunk beds their dad built with his own two hands, surrounded by the dearest, most sincere community we have ever known. God delivered them from poverty and abandonment back into a family, no longer alone in this big world; now wanted and loved and welcomed with great fervor.
The end.
Not.
Remy gave us about 12 hours of honeymooning until her terror burst onto the scene. Sometimes her fear is so palpable, it literally takes my breath away. New places: terror. New faces: total insecurity. Transitions: help us, Jesus. She has asked us every single day since July 22nd if she is going back to Ethiopia. Every. Single. Day.
(our boys have done this, not every single day, but MANY times since they came home in May 2010.)
Her fear comes out as 1.) defiance, 2.) terror, and 3.) catatonic disassociation, in that order. We've been spit on, kicked, disobeyed, refused, clung to, begged for, adored, ignored, and rejected. Triggers are unpredictable. Yesterday, we entered an hour-long Armageddon because she wouldn't put her bike up. This turned into defiance and disrespect, deal breakers as we establish safe boundaries. When at long last her angry, dark face relented, and she finally uttered in the smallest voice: "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry, Daddy," the damn broke and she cried for thirty minutes, telling us over and over that we don't love her and she is going back to Africa.
Meanwhile, Ben sidled up quietly next to me as Brandon held Remy's flailing legs, and asked in a whisper: "Mom? Forever?"
Is this family forever, even with this hysterical girl? Are you forever, even though she is draining the lifeblood out of you and Dad? Am I forever, once my junk starts coming out that I'm holding in? Are you forever for her? For me? Should I be worried that you'll only put up with this level of chaos for so long?
God love them.
We are parenting damaged, traumatized children; don't let the pictures fool you. We're in the weeds. Every minute is on; there is no off. We've arrived late, cancelled altogether, hunkered down in therapy mode, missed appointments, failed to answer hundreds of emails in a timely manner, left voicemails unlistened to, texts unread, we've restructured, regrouped, replanned, reorganized, we've punted and called audibles, we've left the bigs on their own, hoping they are functioning well on auto-pilot after a lifetime of healthy stability, and sometimes, we put "Tangled" on for the eleventh time and cry in the bathroom.
We are exhausted beyond measure.
I know what you're thinking: You asked for this. Yes we did. And we'd ask for it again, with full disclosure and foreknowledge. We would. We would say yes to adoption, to Ben, to Remy. We would do it all over again. We might do it all over again in the future.
That does not mean we are not exhausted.
I know what else you might be thinking: Are you trying to scare people away from adoption? Because this is pretty good propaganda for turning a blind eye to this mess. No I'm not. While adoption is clearly not the answer for the 170 million orphans on earth, it is one answer, and I'll go to the grave begging more people to open their homes and minds and hearts to abandoned children who are praying for a Mom and Dad and a God who might still see them.
But Brandon and I decided some time ago to go at this honestly, with truthful words and actual experiences that might encourage the weary heart or battle some of the fluffy, damaging semi-truths about adopting. Because let me tell you something: If you are intrigued by the idea of adoption, with the crescendoing storyine and happy airport pictures and the sigh-inducing family portrait with the different skin colors and the feely-feel good parts of the narrative, please find another way to see God's kingdom come.
You cannot just be into adoption to adopt; you have to be into parenting.
And it is hard, hard, intentional, laborious work. Children who have been abused, abandoned, neglected, given away, given up, and left alone are shaken so deeply, so intrinsically, they absolutely require parents who are willing to wholly invest in their healing; through the screaming, the fits, the anger, the shame, the entitlement, the bed-wetting, the spitting, the rejection, the bone-chilling fear. Parents who are willing to become the safe place, the Forever these children hope for but are too terrified to believe in just yet.
But "yet" is a powerful word in the context of faith, if we are indeed to believe in the unseen and hope for what has not materialized.
I followed a God into this story who heals and redeems, who restores wasted years and mends broken places. This God specializes in the Destroyed. I've seen it. I've been a part of it. I have His ancient Word that tells of it. I love a Jesus who made reconciliation his whole mission. My children will not remain broken. They are loved by too good a Savior. I will not remain exhausted and spent. I am loved by too merciful a Father.
So today, I'm writing for you who are somewhere "after the airport." The big moment is over and you are living in the aftermath when the collective grief or euphoria has passed. You lost a parent, a sibling, a friend, a child. The experience mobilized every single human being who loves you, and they rallied, gathered, carried you. And now it's three months later on a random Tuesday, and the sting has worn off for everyone else, and you are left in your sorrow.
I'm writing for those of you who had the oh-so-wanted baby after the cheers and showers and Facebook fervor, and now you're struggling with a depression so dark and deep, you are afraid to say it out loud. To you who moved across the country in obedience - you left your family, church, community, your jobs - and now the headline has passed and you are lonely and unanchored. For my friends who've brought their adopted children home and the media frenzy has died down, and you are holding a screaming toddler, a fragile kindergartener, an angry teen, trying to catch your breath and make it through the day without bawling while everyone else has gone back to their regularly scheduled programs...I'm with you today.
More importantly, God is with you today. He remains in the chaos long after it has lost its shine. When the delivered meals have stopped and the attention has waned, Jesus remains. He sticks with us long after it is convenient or interesting. If you feel alone today in your new normal, would you please receive this bit of beauty: this simple Scripture recited billions of times throughout the ages, perhaps without the poetry of David or precision of Paul, but with enough truth to sustain the weariest traveler:
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you" (Deut. 31:6).
He will never leave.
Never forsake.
Never.
For my readers who love someone living "after the airport," the big moment - be it a blessed high or a devastating low - is never the completion. The grief and struggle, the work and effort, the healing and restoring comes later. Will you call your friend who lost her mom to cancer five months ago? Will you check in on your friends who adopted this spring? Email your neighbor who took a big risk and moved or changed jobs or quit to stay home. For the love of Moses, do you have a friend who stepped out and started a church last year? Bring him a lasagna and do not be alarmed if he sobs into his french bread.
...we are still in the thick of hard, exhausting work, so if you ask me if these are the happiest days of my life (which a ton of you have), and my eyes kind of glaze over and I say through a tight-lipped smile like a robot, "Yes. Sure. Of course. This is my dream life"...I am lying. I am lying so you won't feel uncomfortable when I tell you, "Actually, I haven't had a shower in three days, I lost my temper with my uncontrollable daughter this morning and had to walk outside, I'm constantly cleaning up pee because uncircumcised tee-tee goes sideways onto walls, and sometimes when my two littles are asleep and we're downstairs with the original three kids who are so stable and healthy and easy, it creates a nostalgia so intense, I think I might perish. But enough about me. How are you?"
But that would be weird. So I say, "Yes. I am so happy."
If you are living "after the airport," how I wish I could transplant my community into your life; friends who have loved us so completely and exhaustively, I could weep just thinking about it. Maybe one of the most brilliant ways God "never leaves us" and "never forsakes us" is through the love of each other. Maybe He knew that receiving love from people with skin on is the most excellent way, so He gave us an entire set of Scriptures founded upon community and sacrificial love for one another. I guess He realized that if we obeyed, if we became more like His Son, then no one would ever want for mercy when their chips were down. No one. Good plan.
Oh let us be a community who loves each other well. Because someone is always struggling through the "after the airport" phase, when the chords of human kindness become a lifeline of salvation. Let us watch for the struggling members of our tribe, faking it through sarcasm or self-deprecation or a cheerfully false report. May we refuse to let someone get swallowed up in isolation, drowning in grief or difficulties that seem too heavy to let anyone else carry. Let's live this big, beautiful Life together, rescuing each other from the brink and exposing the unending compassion of our Jesus who called us to this high level of community; past the romantic beginnings, through the messy and mundane middles, and all the way to the depths.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Melkam Addis Amet!
Melkam Addis Amet!
Happy Ethiopian New Year!
2004 all over again!
May the holiday bring many memories, blessings, love, and hope for the year to come.
Today is also 9-11.
We weep with those who lost loved ones 10 years ago today.
The United States will never be the same...
but we pray in a good way.
Our family prays that a movement was started 10 years ago
that will bring God back to the center of the United States.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Update
I know I've been quiet. There's really nothing new going on! We're falling into a pretty predictable routine with the boys being back in school, Graysen starting school, and me working. I don't know if it's good or bad...
I've started looking at my 29 by 29 list...and know I need to get started. I marked one night a week off on my calendar through the end of December for Family Night...and tonight is our first one! My kids love musicals, so Lincoln rented one they haven't seen yet (I think 7 Brides for 7 Brothers) and we're going to eat roast and watch that together tonight...no plans except being together! I love it!
Does anyone have any fun suggestions for Family Night activities? It doesn't have to be anything big, I just would like to be intentional about our time together and not let the evening slip away from us!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Short Term Mission Trips
I thought this was a fabulous post and wanted to share it here. I've shared lots of other beautiful words from Shelley on this blog, and I'm sure I will continue to for years. I'm so excited to see her again at the Created For Care Retreat coming in January. I met her last year there, and she showed the Sixty Feet video Bereaved. (It had me sobbing in my chair, almost incapable of staying put there...no, seriously.)
One interesting thing about this post is that I told Lincoln right before I sat down to get on the computer "I'm really craving Africa again. I wanted desperately to go back right after we got home, and then the desire subsided for a few months...it's back, in full force. I just feel a part of me there. I just want to get back there." And then I sit down a read this...I think she's right, "My spiritual batteries need some recharging and, personally, I think Africa is the best place to do it."
I know there seems to be a lot of debate between Christians about the purpose of short term mission trips. I must say, I'm not TOTALLY for them always...I think there is a "right" and "wrong" way to go about them. A way that doesn't create dependency, but encourages a love shared between people from across the globe. Regardless of my stance, I really liked her thoughts on this...
Just yesterday, the SixtyFeet mission team departed for Uganda. Included on this trip were several of my girlfriends from Atlanta -- Joy, Cathy and Laura, my pastor, my husband's dear friend, Judd, and a handful of other crazy, amazing folks from all over the country.
I organized this trip myself and I'm so proud of the precious souls traveling this week. The team is made up of everyday, ordinary people with an extraordinary thirst for God. It consists of moms, dads, businessmen, medical professionals, young singles and the like -- who desire not just to hear the gospel but to go forth and live it.
There are people who claim that short-term missions trips are not about rescuing, fixing or saving. These same people will tell you that short term missions are a foolish waste of money -- how could one possibly expect to accomplish anything with real and lasting results by spending a week or two in a foreign country?
And to those people I'd say this: you're dead wrong. Because short term missions do rescue, fix and save. Just not in the way you might think. Short term missions rescue us. Me and You. The people who travel on these trips. The people who raise the money and take the time out of their lives to go and see, firsthand, how the rest of the world lives.
They rescue us because they cause us to see the world in a new and better light. They cause us to recognize the value of overseas ministry and to embrace our responsibility to our Christian brothers and sisters in the third world. They cause us to live more simply and to use our money more wisely. They cause us to make better choices and to live for something bigger than the American dream.
These trips change us forever. They rescue us from ourselves. They keep us from wasting our lives. And that is money and time well spent -- because it's a eternally invested.
I'm headed back over to Uganda myself in one month. It's about time. My spiritual batteries need some recharging and, personally, I think Africa is the best place to do it.
Later this week, one of the trip participants will be blogging live from Uganda, right here on the Crazy Blog. She'll give you a taste of SixtyFeet missions work and share some personal stories about our team on the ground the children we serve.
If you're so brave to consider joining us for such a trip, check out upcoming trip information on our partner site Visiting Orphans. Dan is leading the trip in January 2012 and I'm hoping to lead a mother-daughter trip in the spring of 2013, along with my daughter, Madeline.
Go and visit. See it, smell it, taste it. You'll never be the same.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27, emphasis mine
Have you ever gone a short term mission trip? If you have, what are your take aways from it?
One interesting thing about this post is that I told Lincoln right before I sat down to get on the computer "I'm really craving Africa again. I wanted desperately to go back right after we got home, and then the desire subsided for a few months...it's back, in full force. I just feel a part of me there. I just want to get back there." And then I sit down a read this...I think she's right, "My spiritual batteries need some recharging and, personally, I think Africa is the best place to do it."
I know there seems to be a lot of debate between Christians about the purpose of short term mission trips. I must say, I'm not TOTALLY for them always...I think there is a "right" and "wrong" way to go about them. A way that doesn't create dependency, but encourages a love shared between people from across the globe. Regardless of my stance, I really liked her thoughts on this...
Just yesterday, the SixtyFeet mission team departed for Uganda. Included on this trip were several of my girlfriends from Atlanta -- Joy, Cathy and Laura, my pastor, my husband's dear friend, Judd, and a handful of other crazy, amazing folks from all over the country.
I organized this trip myself and I'm so proud of the precious souls traveling this week. The team is made up of everyday, ordinary people with an extraordinary thirst for God. It consists of moms, dads, businessmen, medical professionals, young singles and the like -- who desire not just to hear the gospel but to go forth and live it.
There are people who claim that short-term missions trips are not about rescuing, fixing or saving. These same people will tell you that short term missions are a foolish waste of money -- how could one possibly expect to accomplish anything with real and lasting results by spending a week or two in a foreign country?
And to those people I'd say this: you're dead wrong. Because short term missions do rescue, fix and save. Just not in the way you might think. Short term missions rescue us. Me and You. The people who travel on these trips. The people who raise the money and take the time out of their lives to go and see, firsthand, how the rest of the world lives.
They rescue us because they cause us to see the world in a new and better light. They cause us to recognize the value of overseas ministry and to embrace our responsibility to our Christian brothers and sisters in the third world. They cause us to live more simply and to use our money more wisely. They cause us to make better choices and to live for something bigger than the American dream.
These trips change us forever. They rescue us from ourselves. They keep us from wasting our lives. And that is money and time well spent -- because it's a eternally invested.
I'm headed back over to Uganda myself in one month. It's about time. My spiritual batteries need some recharging and, personally, I think Africa is the best place to do it.
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| Shelly and Joy with Boaz, Uganda Fall 2010 |
Later this week, one of the trip participants will be blogging live from Uganda, right here on the Crazy Blog. She'll give you a taste of SixtyFeet missions work and share some personal stories about our team on the ground the children we serve.
If you're so brave to consider joining us for such a trip, check out upcoming trip information on our partner site Visiting Orphans. Dan is leading the trip in January 2012 and I'm hoping to lead a mother-daughter trip in the spring of 2013, along with my daughter, Madeline.
Go and visit. See it, smell it, taste it. You'll never be the same.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27, emphasis mine
Have you ever gone a short term mission trip? If you have, what are your take aways from it?
Saturday, September 3, 2011
notes from great people
I do something that's really hard for me every. single. day. I turn 3/4 of my children over to other people. These people are helping to shape them as individuals, as learners, as people. This is a very scary thing. How do I know that I can trust them for that huge job? I don't...but I do spend a lot of time praying for each of these people every day, and I trust that God knows. I'm blessed to get sweet notes about each of my children through the day from their caretakers...
Just today:
"I so enjoyed the twins today when I went into their classrooms for enrichment. So attentive, polite, eager to learn, and bright too! I will look forward to seeing Hunter next Friday...:)"
(From a teacher at the Elementary School)
"Hunter has been chosen for the student of the month ! Please congratulate him. He is a great kid thanks for sharing him with me."
(From Hunter's 1st grade teacher)
"Hi honey, I hope you're having a good day!! It's Friday!! Yea!
From Graysen:
I hope it's gonna be my birthday soon and that I really hope that you have a good day at work and the boys too. I really really really really hope you have a good day. Someday I really want to go to school.
Love you,
Lincoln and Graysen"
From Graysen:
I hope it's gonna be my birthday soon and that I really hope that you have a good day at work and the boys too. I really really really really hope you have a good day. Someday I really want to go to school.
Love you,
Lincoln and Graysen"
My sweet Lord sends me notes through others just when He knows I need the extra encouragement to keep going. Praise Him for even the little things!!
Friday, September 2, 2011
He Makes All Things Beautiful {Created For Care 2011}
Check out this awesome video for the 2011 Created For Care Retreat...get out the tissues...and see if you recognize anyone in there! ;0)
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Sometimes you forget
You know how sometimes you get busy with life and forget some of the things that used to bring you joy? Those little things that help make you, you? I was in choir from 8-12th grades. It was something that I LOVED. I always did District Choir and took Ensembles to District and State Choir (Mixed 8, Girls 6, etc.) And...I married one of my fellow choir members! Lincoln was even All State in High School! Anyway, I heard this today and sat quietly in my chair with my eyes closed and it brought tears to my eyes (yes, I'm pregnant). I will always enjoy good choral music. There's something about the blending of voices, the parts, I don't know. I'm a sucker for sure. Enjoy.
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