You should peek into the blogs of my fellow travelers on this amazing journey. It refreshes my faith, my love of this place, and my gratefulness for being here to read a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes in their minds as they get to experience my life here through new perspectives. I feel as if God could not have called together a better group of people to live life together here, and each day I find myself saying a prayer of thanks for their great attitudes, their love of the children who are so dear to me, and their work ethic in helping accomplish the work of raising them.
Nicole: www.ordinaryradicalinafrica.blogspot.com
Chelsey: www.chelseyisinafricaagain.blogspot.com
Kylie: www.kyliestone.blogspot.com
Jordan: www.jordansmcfall.blogspot.com
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Wisdom of the Soul
Chance comes to those who know what they want
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers
The best remedy for dispute is to discuss it
Speak silver, reply gold
Water is never tired of flowing
The little stars always shine while the great sun is often eclipsed
A small house will hold a hundred friends
Cross the river before you insult the crocodile
Give to the earth and the earth will give to you
He who has not carried your burden does not know what it weighs
Do good; you will find good
Forgiveness from the heart is better than a box of gold
Leave a good name behind in case you return
To rest on the road does not end the journey
Doing one’s best drives away regret
Silence is also speech
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket
Foolishness often proceeds wisdom
The house of the heart is never full
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers
The best remedy for dispute is to discuss it
Speak silver, reply gold
Water is never tired of flowing
The little stars always shine while the great sun is often eclipsed
A small house will hold a hundred friends
Cross the river before you insult the crocodile
Give to the earth and the earth will give to you
He who has not carried your burden does not know what it weighs
Do good; you will find good
Forgiveness from the heart is better than a box of gold
Leave a good name behind in case you return
To rest on the road does not end the journey
Doing one’s best drives away regret
Silence is also speech
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket
Foolishness often proceeds wisdom
The house of the heart is never full
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Teachable moments
Today we have travelled to Mwanza, which is about three hours south of Tarime. We will be meeting my friends Sonny and Lynette (from Eastleigh Fellowship Centre in Nairobi) tomorrow morning to catch a bus to Bukoba, the village where he was born, so that the summer team can meet the mom and siblings of our African spiritual father.
Now, as it it’s not already well-known, I need to impart here that living and travelling in Africa is not for type-A personalities. You have to go with the flow and make a quick plan-B pretty often. Nothing reminds me more of this fact than our current and last trip to Bukoba. We arrived today in an effort to make SURE that we would catch the boat that travels across Lake Victoria (which Mwanza sits on the base of). This is because a few months ago we visited, intending to take the boat, and found out we were on the exact opposite schedule…it travels every other day from one side to the other.
At any rate, we called in advance this time, and they told us that it’d be leaving on Monday morning. So we came Sunday afternoon, and went to book our tickets directly after checking into our hotel. Well…the funny thing is that it leaves tonight…so we could either cancel our reservation at our hotel and pay a half day rate anyway, and take the boat, without waiting for Sonny and Lynette. Or we can do what we did a few months ago - instead of cutting across the lake, we take the boat AROUND (read excruciatingly long and bumpy).
The girls have been real troopers about it all, and decided to just have fun today and take the long ride tomorrow, but it does make me miss a few amenities about home, including being able to google a schedule and fee structure of sorts, being able to make online reservations, being able to call an office number, etc. Things like these are nice, but I wouldn’t trade the wisdom of slowing down, that Africa teaches so well, for anything. What’s another couple hours when you’ve travelled so far anyway? More time to sit and enjoy the company you’re with. More time to admire the beautiful scenery. More time to just be…to be thankful for what I’ve been given…to be grateful to have a few extra hours to be able to be flexible with…to have joy, come what may.
Everything’s a teachable moment.
Now, as it it’s not already well-known, I need to impart here that living and travelling in Africa is not for type-A personalities. You have to go with the flow and make a quick plan-B pretty often. Nothing reminds me more of this fact than our current and last trip to Bukoba. We arrived today in an effort to make SURE that we would catch the boat that travels across Lake Victoria (which Mwanza sits on the base of). This is because a few months ago we visited, intending to take the boat, and found out we were on the exact opposite schedule…it travels every other day from one side to the other.
At any rate, we called in advance this time, and they told us that it’d be leaving on Monday morning. So we came Sunday afternoon, and went to book our tickets directly after checking into our hotel. Well…the funny thing is that it leaves tonight…so we could either cancel our reservation at our hotel and pay a half day rate anyway, and take the boat, without waiting for Sonny and Lynette. Or we can do what we did a few months ago - instead of cutting across the lake, we take the boat AROUND (read excruciatingly long and bumpy).
The girls have been real troopers about it all, and decided to just have fun today and take the long ride tomorrow, but it does make me miss a few amenities about home, including being able to google a schedule and fee structure of sorts, being able to make online reservations, being able to call an office number, etc. Things like these are nice, but I wouldn’t trade the wisdom of slowing down, that Africa teaches so well, for anything. What’s another couple hours when you’ve travelled so far anyway? More time to sit and enjoy the company you’re with. More time to admire the beautiful scenery. More time to just be…to be thankful for what I’ve been given…to be grateful to have a few extra hours to be able to be flexible with…to have joy, come what may.
Everything’s a teachable moment.
Monday, June 29, 2009
A glimpse of the good that is God
Saturday was one of the best days. We have spent the past several months developing expectations and a discipline system in addition to loving, teaching, and working on building at the new site. During our team management meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the possibility of having the guardians of the children come join us at Gamasara one Saturday, so that we could meet them and outline the expectations we have at the house for the children, and also just so that their guardians (some whom it has been years since dropping the kids off) could see them and how well each of them are doing. The family members mainly consisted of grandmothers, but included a few grandfathers or uncles; basically the nearest living relative to the children. We had guardians for over 25 of our 40 children come to participate, and it was simply wonderful to meet them and begin a relationship with them.
We began with a meeting. And Africans can really talk…a lot. And there was so much discussion that the meeting ended up lasting most of the day. The guardians were very grateful for what the Angel House has done for the children thus far, and quite supportive of the discipline system that we presented. For us as a team who started in January when the staff wasn’t getting along very well, it was a huge day. Our coordinator Abuid and our supervisor Anna worked together to come up with the program, which included singing, introductions of the family members, a brief history of the orphanage, and an outlining of our expectations of the students. Abuid would speak in Swahili, our staff teacher Michael would translate into English, and then Anna would translate into Kuria (the native language of the tribe that lives in our area) for the grandmothers.
My favorite part of the day was when William (who I wrote about one day a few months ago, asking if he could be my firstborn son) introduced me to his grandfather as his mom. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it…the meaning behind it…the relationship that God has brought about between me and this young man who, after taking care of his siblings for several years and foregoing school for himself, deserves way more childhood than he’ll probably ever receive.
But it was a beautiful thing to be a part of. An uncle standing up and praising God for the way that he could visibly see that the two young girls of his brother that he had dropped off many years back were growing into beautiful young women who were healthy and happy; seeing the age and/or poverty stricken-ness of many of the guardians…it reaffirmed our collective calling to be doing life together with these children. It gave me an idea of where they had come from, and made the opportunities that will await them seem magnificent compared to what might have been.
And yet it took such immense pain to get them to this land of opportunity…isn’t that something? I don’t think that any of them would have chosen to have their parents die or leave them behind, and I think they might even have chosen a life of poverty, with a mom and a dad, over life without. But at the same time, without the loss and hardship that they encountered, they would not be who they’ve become as young people or where they are now.
All of that to say that it was a good day. And as many life experiences as I observe each day through each of the kids, I learn that much more about myself and the way that God is moving among and through his people. And I just want to offer even more praise to the amazing Divine being, who loves and loves and loves some more, even when the going is difficult and His people are difficult to love or hurting or afraid to love Him back enough to give up some of the control that they feel is so necessary to govern their own lives instead of letting Him lead. We serve a good God. And Saturday was just one little glimpse.
We began with a meeting. And Africans can really talk…a lot. And there was so much discussion that the meeting ended up lasting most of the day. The guardians were very grateful for what the Angel House has done for the children thus far, and quite supportive of the discipline system that we presented. For us as a team who started in January when the staff wasn’t getting along very well, it was a huge day. Our coordinator Abuid and our supervisor Anna worked together to come up with the program, which included singing, introductions of the family members, a brief history of the orphanage, and an outlining of our expectations of the students. Abuid would speak in Swahili, our staff teacher Michael would translate into English, and then Anna would translate into Kuria (the native language of the tribe that lives in our area) for the grandmothers.
My favorite part of the day was when William (who I wrote about one day a few months ago, asking if he could be my firstborn son) introduced me to his grandfather as his mom. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it…the meaning behind it…the relationship that God has brought about between me and this young man who, after taking care of his siblings for several years and foregoing school for himself, deserves way more childhood than he’ll probably ever receive.
But it was a beautiful thing to be a part of. An uncle standing up and praising God for the way that he could visibly see that the two young girls of his brother that he had dropped off many years back were growing into beautiful young women who were healthy and happy; seeing the age and/or poverty stricken-ness of many of the guardians…it reaffirmed our collective calling to be doing life together with these children. It gave me an idea of where they had come from, and made the opportunities that will await them seem magnificent compared to what might have been.
And yet it took such immense pain to get them to this land of opportunity…isn’t that something? I don’t think that any of them would have chosen to have their parents die or leave them behind, and I think they might even have chosen a life of poverty, with a mom and a dad, over life without. But at the same time, without the loss and hardship that they encountered, they would not be who they’ve become as young people or where they are now.
All of that to say that it was a good day. And as many life experiences as I observe each day through each of the kids, I learn that much more about myself and the way that God is moving among and through his people. And I just want to offer even more praise to the amazing Divine being, who loves and loves and loves some more, even when the going is difficult and His people are difficult to love or hurting or afraid to love Him back enough to give up some of the control that they feel is so necessary to govern their own lives instead of letting Him lead. We serve a good God. And Saturday was just one little glimpse.
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