A Women-to-Woman Opportunity

When we were in Botswana last year, we met a bunch of great people, including Beth and Kelly Green. I got tickled about his name because it's a color. ;) They are from Florida, but Kelly had been working for a few months as an interim pastor at the satellite church of Open Baptist (the church we were partnered with in this mission trip).  Thanks to the world of facebook, Beth and I have been able to keep in touch, and I'm excited that she and Kelly will be coming to our church next month, along with a few folks from Open Baptist.

Kelly and Beth have partnered with a local pastor's wife in a fabulous ministry in Uganda where women like you and I have the opportunity to sponsor a woman there as she learns skills to start her own business to feed her family, doing things like sewing, making necklaces, farming, or tending animals. The goal is independence, so they are sponsored and trained for one year, and then "graduated" so that a new group of women have the opportunity to be sponsored. In 2009, thirty-one Ugandan women participated in the program. This year, thirty-six women (a whole new group) are sponsored in Uganda, so the ministry is growing already. Check out this video from last July when Beth went hut to hut to check in with the women in the program.

Now they are being led to start a group of women in Zambia. They need at least ten sponsors. The monthly commitment is $40, and of course, it's tax deductible. The sponsorship pays for a woman to learn a trade, to purchase supplies for her trade, and to help feed her family during that year. I still need to talk to Ken about it, but I'd like to be a sponsor myself. And I'd love to have an opportunity to go meet the women in Zambia, too!

You can view a PDF brochure about the program here. A brief exerpt:

"The women of the village... live in mud huts. Each day they must work hard to produce enough food for themselves and their families.  Many of these women are widows or have been deserted by their husbands.  Most of these women support not only themselves and their children but also orphans.  They have to face  devastating disease such as malaria, typhoid and HIV/AIDs.  They have no electricity, no running water and no toilets.  Their meals are prepared outside their huts over an open fire. When they are sick, there are no clinics to help them."

Beth shared a few testimonies from the women who graduated from the program last year. Here's one example (keep in mind this is translated by someone who does not speak English as her first language): 

Angela's Testimony --

Before: Her family was not peaceful and the husband used to beat her, chase her away, and he used not to buy for the children food. She was fed up of the situation and she was going back to her parents.

And now: She is so grateful to sister Beth for getting her the person who has helped her and the situation at home is back to normal and her husband is now saved. The money she gets, has helped her to buy food, pay school fees, buy them clothes, medication for her children. She learnt how to use the tailoring machine. Bought material and now she is sowing people’s clothes for money. She is so happy and thank you so much.

Local friends: Beth would be happy to meet with us while they are in town in February to answer question or explain the program more in-depth, so please let me know if you'd be interested in meeting with her! We could meet right here at my house. Not-so-local friends: email me with any questions, and I will put you in contact with Beth!

Praise from Botswana!

I have had the opportunity to correspond via email with a few of the people we met in Botswana. This is one of the times I love technology (because there are quite a few times I don't love technology!)!

Most of the people at the marriage conference came as couples, but there were a few individuals. who attended. One of those individuals was an Ethiopian gentleman at our table. Though he didn't specifically say that he and his wife were separated, we got that impression, and we knew that she and the children were here in the States for an undetermined amount of time.

A couple of months ago, I sent an email to this gentleman to let him know some specific things I was praying for him, and he responded saying,

"...I knew that GOD is responding fast as you are praying to me and my family. I trust GOD, every thing will be good as it is all His will but on His time and I will not be tired waiting for the time of GOD... AMEN!"

Today I received this email from the same gentlemen (keep in mind that English is not his first language, so forgive him for a little bit of odd wording):

"Praise GOD, our GOD is so close, Our prayer was heared and responce came, My family is all back home with peace and LOVE. The miracle of GOD that splited the meditranean has opened a way to bring my family back together. This is my witness on responce of heared prayer, which you participated in a lot.
Thank you
The friend you prayed for at Gaborone, Botswana
GOD is Great!"

God hears every one of our prayers, no matter where we are. Isn't great to realize that we can have an impact on the lives of people on the other side of the world? I feel rejuvenated about the power of prayer, and wanted to share this with you all! So keep on praying!

On Safari!

I never thought I'd want to go on a mission trip.

But God changed my heart.

I never would have expected to go to Africa.

But God gave me this trip as a gift. The people. The lessons learned. The whole experience.

I never would have expected to go on Safari.
But God is an extravagant giver.

It's a long way to Africa, and I don't take for granted that I may never have another opportunity to be here. So on our last day there, we all went on safari at a game preserve in South Africa.

Driving in, we saw kudu (a type of large deer), impala, zebra, and giraffe! We couldn't believe we saw so many animals before we were even "officially" there!

The lodge was spectacular; wonderful accommodations, delicious food, great personnel. Our surroundings finally looked like Africa! As soon as we arrived, we spotted some kind of monkeys in a nearby tree, but not close enough to identify. We saw birds we hadn't seen while in the city. Trees like you see in movies.

We went to our rooms to get settled. The rooms were really individual cabins, with a true thatched roof, fireplace, and a view out on hills where we watched zebra and wildebeest graze. Walking through our room, I got teary-eyed, thinking about how my God was blessing me. Or why He was blessing me, of all people. I never have trouble accepting God as Creator: huge and powerful and holy. But I often have trouble accepting that He cares about the little things. He does, though, and this is a lesson He's been trying to teach me for some time; I just never expected Him to go to such great lengths to do so.

We headed back to the lodge for lunch. Again, I was just overwhelmed. Then, an elephant walked by. An elephant. Here I was--a girl who grew up watching and absorbing all the PBS nature shows I could, learning about all the great variety of animals in the world but NEVER dreaming I'd see something like an elephant outside of a zoo. But an elephant walked by. And looked at me.I was my typical, excited self, and couldn't believe I was looking at a wild elephant, walking 20 or 30 feet from me. As the realization of this hit me, I started to cry. This was, to me, nothing short of a miracle. A divine gift. If we hadn't seen any other animals the whole time, I would have been completely content. I ran down the boardwalk to an observation area that overlooks a watering hole, and watched the elephant drink, play, and bathe. I'm not one to cry in front of other people, but I couldn't help it; I just kept crying at the wonder of it all. At the wonder of GOD!

I finally composed myself enough to eat, and as we sat outside having lunch, we saw a group of baboons up on the hill. First the big leader, checking things out, then the rest of his group. Our friends from South Africa identified some of the birds we'd been seeing, like an iridescent blue-colored glossy starling. I wish I could've gotten a good photo of all the birds we saw there.

We headed back to our rooms to rest until time to go out on safari at 4PM that evening. Walking back, our friend who was staying the room just past ours said he'd just seen a monkey run off of our porch. We laughed and said, "Good thing we closed all the doors like they told us to!" But when we got in our room, we saw that the monkey had been in there, opened our tea caddy, and stolen (and spilled) packs of sugar! Turns out he'd come in a small window over the toilet, which we hadn't thought to close. How funny! So we cleaned up the spilled sugar, made ourselves some tea, and closed the window over the toilet!

One of our team members, who has been to Africa and on safari many times before, told us that morning that he wanted to be on the vehicle with us to see our reactions. As I said before, I was VERY enthusiastic about everything! I don't think I disappointed him with my excitement level.  As soon as we had set out, and I leaned forward to say,

"Hey Jeff!
(pause for response)
Guess what...
We're in AFRICA!
(another pause)
And guess what else...
We're on SAFARI!!!"
This was our view as we drove around looking for critters.
Soon, our guide found lions! LIONS!!!

Golden light, golden grass, golden lion, and I was taking pictures of two handsome lion brothers who work as a team. Big, powerful, lion brothers. They were lazing about, and almost looked cuddly. Seemed like you could just go scratch that big ol' mane and give 'em a belly rub. Jeff reminded me: that's what we'll be able to do in heaven. Can you imagine?

Eventually we moved on, saw more critters, then stopped for a "sun-downer." How lovely! A little biltong (African beef jerky), crackers, and a sparkly (non-alcoholic) beverage while we watched the sunset over the African plains. The guides even pulled out a table and tablecloth to set up for us. Unbelievable: that was the word I keep saying about everything; I just couldn't grasp that this was all really happening. It felt like a dream!

After the sunset, we loaded back up, found a big herd of buffalo, and I had the first bit of disappointment: these were not water buffalo, but cape buffalo, which meant the Veggie Tales silly song I had planned to sing was not applicable. A few of the giant hairy things stared us down, but I don't think any of them got fully into what our guide called "the death stare." That's a good thing, I'm thinking. {grin}

Just before it was completely dark, a family of elephants crossed nearby. I loved seeing the babies following along, flanked before and behind by moms or aunts or older siblings.

Soon, it was dark. No streetlights, no nearby cities, just the almost full moon. DARK.

Our guide drove the dirt road while sweeping a spotlight all around in search of a leopard (which proved to be elusive because we didn't find one). Then we came upon another set of brother lions lying right in the middle of the road! These guys had been hurt in a territory dispute with the first set of lions we saw, but our guide said they seemed to be doing better. We drove off-road to go around them, and stopped near to see them closer. Then the lion closest to us looked RIGHT at me and Ken, and our guide said (for the first time that day), "No one make any sudden movements."

Not a problem. Gulp.

After a few tense moments, the lion broke eye contact, but he did get up, and walked to the other side (MY side!) of the vehicle. This is not the best shot of the lion but let me just point out that the white part I chose not to crop out of the right side of the photo is my seat. In the very open (see sun-downer photo above!) vehicle, I might add.After that excitement, we continued back towards the lodge. The temperature dropped significantly once night fell, and I was cold, but it felt great. We saw a big eagle owl, a chameleon, and this rather large (four TON) fellow walking down the middle of the road towards us!

Our guide had turned off the vehicle, as they always did when we stopped to see an animal. But the elephant kept coming, so our guide started the vehicle and backed up a bit, to send the elephant a message that we were not going to be a problem for him. But the elephant kept coming. Our guide started the vehicle again--that is, he tried to, but it didn't start. GULP. The elephant was REALLY close at this point. So we all sat very, very still, and very, very quiet -- and did not need our guide to tell us to do so!

It took the elephant a few moments of standing close enough to touch the vehicle before he decided  what he wanted to do.

We could see him thinking, swinging his head a bit.

He opted for munching upon a nearby tree limb. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Then our guide proceeded to tell us that this elephant was in musth, which means he had raging hormones that often result in highly aggressive behavior. We watched him a bit longer before heading on our merry way.

During our lion and elephant encounters, my heart rate was certainly accelerated, but oddly enough, I wasn't afraid. I felt that God was doing all this to give me a gift beyond my wildest imagination, so I really wasn't worried about being eaten by a lion or stomped on by an elephant.

The next morning, we got up at 5AM to head out before all the animals were awake; when we saw this sunrise, we stopped and sang "How Great is Our God." Because He is!

We saw more zebras, a big bull giraffe, and more impala and kudu. Our guides tracked a lioness, but never found her. I was happy just to be driving around in the gorgeous African outdoors with my fuzzy sweatshirt and a big blanket because it was cold!

We stopped for morning tea, and had yummy biscotti and little pastries to accompany it. This next photo is of me, drinking tea on safari in Africa. That is one of the coolest sentences I have ever typed. Oh, extra cool points? The brand of tea we drank the whole time we were there (everywhere we went) was "Five Roses Tea." So I felt like I had a little bit of Rose Cottage right there with me. {grin}

Never underestimate God's power. love. tenderness. extravagance.
He is beyond our comprehension.
 

Psst!
If you'd like to see more of my photos from Africa, click on my Flickr set here.
Or click here to see the photo pool, including photos from Ken and others on our team (if they ever upload them--hint, hint!).

Let's Brighten Things Up!

I love what a little paint can do (like in this post)!

In this case, we used it to brighten up a very bland nursery room at Open Baptist Church! Our team painted Bible-themed murals, and the folks there will finish them up by adding a few verses.
While we were there, a boy named John wandered in and wanted to help. He went around chatting with all of us, and helped paint the boat in one of the murals. When we stopped for lunch he came, too. Any time we took a photo, he wanted to take a photo, too--and we let him, as long as he put the strap around his neck so he didn't drop the camera! I didn't notice the holes in the bottom of his shoes until I looked at the photos later. Here, Ken's putting some finishing touches on the mural of Jesus and the children...
This was so much fun, and the room looks SO much more cheerful now!

The Children of Naledi

During our tour of the city of Gaborone, we drove through a community called Naledi. I live in an insulated world, and though I have head knowledge of the fact that not everyone lives like we do, I've honestly never seen true poverty. Until now.
Our team planned to go to the Naledi feeding station one day while we were in Gaborone. I REALLY wanted to go. But we found out the feeding station was closed that week. The reason: the copper pipes had been stolen out of the kitchen (to sell) and had not yet been replaced.

But on Sunday, we were able to go back for a while, to celebrate the Christening of the new Naledi church. There was music, prayer, a few words from a Botswana Parliament member, and the cutting of the tape. While we were having a service under a big tent (like a good ol' Southern Baptist tent meeting!), many of the kids from Naledi were waiting near the new church building, and dancing when there was music. Ken slipped out and got some really great close-ups of some of the kids. I didn't get to spend as much time with the kids as I wanted, but they touched my heart immediately.

Some are orphans. There are many preteens and teens who serve as the head of their households, since the parents have passed away. Even those who do still have one or both parents are very poor. There is much illness here. No running water, no indoor plumbing. No air conditioning -- and we're told the average summer temperature is about 135 degrees.

The kids love having their picture taken. Even those who speak very little English can say, "Take my picture!" and wait eagerly to view the LCD display on back of the camera. A man called Champ, who works at Naledi, said if we print the photos and send them, he will distribute them to the kids. They treasure photos, because many of them have never owned a photo of themselves.

I took this photo the first day we visited; this is in the yard area of the feeding station. We saw kids playing with tires, but saw no other toys the two days we visited Naledi. Quite a few yards with chickens, but no toys.

The kids loved petting the hair on Ken's arms; I guess most folks there are rather smooth-skinned. Some of the kids were grinning ear to ear every time we looked. Others, like this little gal, never would smile, but she came right to me. It made me sad to leave her.

We are planning to make prints of the photos, and send those to our friends at OBC to take to Champ at Naledi. But we'd like to send more. I'm waiting to hear back on what they really need. I'll post more details as soon as I have them.

The Family-Wise Conference

We didn't plan it this way, but several of us gals ended up wearing plum colored shirts the morning we went to set up for the Family-Wise conference. Since it was a fairly uncommon color, we all thought it was amusing. It was even funnier after we'd seen the decorations for the conference, because we all matched the grapes!
Before we even started decorating, though, we prayed over the place. Odd how oppressive it felt before, and how much lighter it felt after. Once everything was done, we sat at the tables we'd be at that evening (to lead the group), and prayed for the individuals and couples that would be attending.

That evening, and the entire next day was the conference, complete with morning and afternoon tea breaks! Hurray for tea! I throughly enjoyed my time in a country that celebrates tea, but even better than that was the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people! I was completely blown away by the fact that we had SIX nations represented at our table of nine (including us)! One couple was from Tanzania, and they were both lecturers at University; another couple was from Zimbabwe, and they were both nurses at a hospital; another gentleman was from Ethiopia, and he was an anesthesiologist; another fellow was from the UK and worked for Unicef; his wife was from Uganda and "in charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs." (I'm adopting this title for myself!) Everyone there spoke at least two languages fluently, but most spoke three. We felt like we needed to come home and learn another language because we are wasting large portions of brains!
Beyond being well-educated, and in most cases, well-traveled, these folks were kind, polite, and just plain pleasant to talk to. The entire time we were in Africa, I honestly did not meet anyone that was anything less than likeable; I sure hope they thought the same of us!

Denise rallied from her illness, and David's voice held out. They did an excellent job with the teaching, and everyone seemed very receptive. The discussions at our table were wonderful. Again, I was amazed that something planned and organized from three continents went so well! Part of the planning was done by our trip leader here in the states, part of it was done by the OBC folks in Botswana, and part of it done by the Glenns in Australia!

One of the best parts was worship time; the OBC praise team lead us singing songs in English and some in the native language Setswana. The thought that we were praising God with all those different nations was overwhelming. One of my team member/friends was in tears about the awesomeness of it all; as for me, I just couldn't stop grinning. Just think: that's what it'll be like in heaven!

I never could have imagined it. But God did. Doesn't that blow your mind?

Our 1st day in Africa

We received a warm welcome at the Gaborone airport from a couple of folks at Open Baptist Church. Our church has worked with them on many occasions, so although we had never met anyone there, we all felt as if we knew each already. That evening, we checked into a hotel, ate a bit of supper, and hit the sack. Sleeping in a bed feels much better than [trying to sleep] on a plane!

The next day, we got a tour of OBC, which was formerly a golf driving range and bar. Pastor Norman has done all the landscaping, and it's just beautiful! While there, we had a wonderful meeting with the OBC folks about the history of Botswana, and about traditional African religion and culture. I found it all truly fascinating. Hard to condense into a blog post, however. The University of Botswana backs up to the property of OBC, and we are convinced that God is going to do big stuff with the kids on that campus. Remember, the average lifespan in Botswana is about 33 years old, due to the rampant spread of AIDS/HIV, and especially so in the young-adult age range. There are billboards around town reminding you to consider "Who is in your sexual network?" In every hotel room, there are condoms in the bedside drawer, right on top of the Gideon Bible; they were even packaged in hotel packaging, just like lotion & shampoo & such. Up until very recently, the country's strategy for dealing with the AIDS epidemic was the "ABC" campaign, urging people to "Abstain, Be faithful, Condomize." Obviously, that sends a very mixed message. Now, a new program called Face the Nation is making a difference, training Christian college kids who have volunteered to take the message of Christ into secondary schools and convince the kids about the importance of sexual purity. The folks at OBC do the training for this program, and our church helped them get things going.

That afternoon, we had a bit of a tour of the city of Gaborone. Botswana is a young country and the city is even younger. A generation ago, no one lived in the city; mostly they lived in rural communities as part of a tribe. They are still learning how to do life in the city. It's really odd, because when you are in the city, you can forget for a while that you are in Africa. Until you see a herd of goats running across the road.

We had a little time to stop and walk through an open market. I could have spent all day just watching people, and talking to folks like this man who sold me baskets.

I really wanted a basket from Africa, and our tour guide (aka the youth minister at OBC) said Botswana is known for baskets. The dollar goes pretty far there, so I got two lovely baskets for less than $20.

Some things there made me laugh. Like a TupperWare booth right next to a booth selling hand-made baskets. Or this booth advertising cell phone repair...In the evening, we had a meeting to go over all the specifics of the FamilyWise conference. But we had some serious spiritual warfare going on. The BIGGEST challenge to pray about: Denise Glenn, one half of the couple who was to teach the conference, had come down with a sudden & wicked stomach bug. Her husband David, who was the other half, was losing his voice; not good for two upcoming days of speaking. And one of our team, Laurel, had fallen in the hotel bathroom and cut her foot and was badly bruised. We spent a a lot of time that night praying.

(More Botswana blog posts to come!!!)

Getting There...

Hopefully it won't scare you off to say that it's going to take me a long time to get through blogging about all we did & saw in Africa. But it won't be all in one post! In fact, some things still need to sink in and float around in my heart and head before I can really post about them. So for now, let's just talk about getting there!

Ken celebrated his 40th birthday on the plane ride to Africa. Our friends made a sign that they hung over his head while he was sleeping. {grin}

This was my first l-o-n-g plane ride. I hadn't flown at all in at least 12 years, and only two short flights before that. Ever. I had a little talk with God while at the airport, looking out at the enormous 777 plane that would take us across the ocean to another continent -- 9,000 miles from home. But I was very calm about it all, despite months of anxiety any time I thought about it. That can only be explained by lots of prayer, on my own, and especially from all of you dear friends! Here Jenifer is congratulating me because we were almost there!

I was excited about everything. I think everyone on the team was amused by my childlike enthusiasm. Like when we were officially out of the country, flying in international air space. Or when I got brave enough to actually stand up on the plane, and then survived my first trip to the restroom! Or when I ate my first airline food. Or when I saw that our little video screens had a moving map to show where we were.

When we were finally over land again, after many hours of flying over the ocean in the darkness, I said to anyone who would listen:
"Guess what!?! We're in AFRICA!!!!"
And, of course, I took photos out of the airplane window of my first view of Africa.

After we were served our morning meal (of pizza and couscous?), I made tea, of course!

Tea and cookies, over Africa. Never in a million years did I think something like that was even in the realm of reasonable to dream of. God is so much bigger than I can fathom; this is going to be a recurring theme in all my Africa blog posts. I am simply overwhelmed by how much He loves me, and how much He wants to do with me and for me, if I'll just let Him!

We landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, and rushed through the airport to catch the next flight, this time on a little turbo prop plane. I sat by the window again, and looked at city lights as we flew to Gaborone, Botswana. Our 18+ hour journey was done, and we were finally there!

It's good to be HOME!

Bright and early yesterday morning, we arrived home! After being excited, busy, & overwhelmed at all God taught me over the past ten days--while 9,000 miles from home--combined with the nearly 48 hours I was awake (minus some often-interrupted naps on our sixteen-hour flight home), has left me exhausted. Add to that the fact that my body is still on Africa time, so I'm six hours off.

I'm going to rest up today, snuggle with Kathryn while the rest of the family is at work/class, & try to process everything we did & saw & felt.

And then, I'm going to start blogging about it all!

Please leave a message...

I won't be blogging for a week or so because right now...

If I did the math right (in regards to time zones and such), then this should post at the time we're scheduled to arrive in Botswana. My little blog might get lonely while I'm away, so please leave me a comment to keep it company -- and maybe you could let me know if you're praying for us!

This also happens to be Ken's 40th birthday! He'll be spending most of it on an airplane over the ocean! So please stop by his blog and tell him "Masego a letsatsi la matsalo!" (That means "happy birthday" in Setswana, the native language in Botswana, but most folks we'll be talking to DO speak English.)

I'll have much blogging to catch up on when I get back, so come back then to see what we did while we were in AFRICA!!!

1st Week of School

All things considered, our first official week of school went really well. Things like:

1. normal getting-used-to-the-new-routine stuff
2. a brand new teenager in the family who has never been homeschooled
   
3. getting ready to go to Africa next week
4. helping the kids not stress about the time we'll be gone so far away

Really, with all that on our plate, the fact that we made it through this week at all feels fabulous, and is obviously only because of God in it all! Not only we did we make it through, we even had fun! (But I do have a few trip-related prayer requests towards the end of this post, if you don't mind!)

So far, Kathryn and I are having a great time with our Winter Promise "Children Around the World" curriculum. One of the fun things we're doing is making a Travel Journal. The first assignment for that was making a passport for her. Until I got my passport, I don't think I'd ever even seen one in real life! We got out mine, and made the best scrapbook-paper version we could. I think it came out great! We even took a passport photo (like we did for our own photos in our real passports!).

In our first unit of Christian Kids Explore Biology, we talked about creation, and made a paper mache Earth. It's been a l-o-n-g time since I played with paper mache and it was way messier than I remembered. Kathryn was totally grossed out with the first piece, then really got into the fun, and Lindsey wanted to join in, too.


After our Earth was made, the girls got into a paper-mache-goo fight, and had that stuff all over their arms. It was such a silly and sisterly moment. Made me happy. But it sure was hard to get off!

We all got a kick out of the photos of toilets of the world. Learning how much water we, as Americans, use in comparison to many other countries really made us think, though! We take so much for granted! I hope we have a lot of those moments as we go through this curriculum this year. I'm hoping to have most of those conversations when Lindsey is here to participate, as she was this time.

I was afraid Kathryn would be really rusty on math after taking months off, but she's done great, plugging away at a lesson each day (four days each week). So far, Algebra has been a big ol' thorn in Lindsey's side, but Ken has done a great job helping her work through it. She's very concerned about what she'll do without his help when we're gone, but our next door neighbor is a math tutor, and has offered to help if needed. When Brandon isn't working late, he can help, too. So she's in good hands.

Today was Lindsey's first day of classes. Actually, it was more of an orientation/open-house sort of thing, so we all went. The day started with a student-led chapel service, then about twenty minutes in each class to meet the teacher and listen to his/her explanation of the class, and so on. I am SO excited about her classes! I wouldn't have considered something like this for Kathryn, but I've always prayed for God's wisdom in knowing what's best for her schooling, and I know that this is exactly what He wants for Lindsey this year. I feel a great deal of peace about it, although I still have a lot of catching up to do in the Algebra department, and so on!

I'm feeling a bit stressed about leaving the girls, mostly because I know they are feeling a bit stressed. Next week, Lindsey has her first week of assignments from her classes, AND she'll have a cheer-leading clinic and tryout. She's a bit stressed that we'll be gone then, so we'd appreciate prayers to make that week go really well for her.

Kathryn is worried that she won't be able to talk to us when we're in Africa. It will be a challenge: the cell phones probably won't work; there is a six hour time difference; and we'll only be able to call when we are at the hotel, which won't be often. So please also pray for her (and ME!) to have peace about that, and for us to figure out all the details so we can talk at least a few times.

A Small Epiphany

This is one of those being real kind of posts. I try to be real in all my posts, but some are just narratives about events and such, so there's not much "being real" to be done.

For the past three weeks or so, my tummy has been rather persnickety. It always tends to be a little sensitive, so I do have to watch what I eat: how much coffee I drink, how much cheese/milk I have, and greasy foods never like me much. It's been extra-sensitive lately, and I was beginning to get discouraged, thinking I'd have to eliminate the small amount coffee I drink (it's even decaf!), our occasional Moose Tracks ice cream nights, anything cheesy, and so on, just like I did back when I had an ulcer at age seventeen. But on Sunday, when I was having issues with my tummy yet again, I had a small epiphany: it's stress.

It was only about five years ago that I figured out the correlation between my tummy issues and stress. Sometimes it was a big no-brainer because I had some seriously stressful stuff going on, but even little short-term things affect it. As soon as Ken and I would be getting ready to go teach dance lessons, for instance, I'd be needing to run to the bathroom... but as soon as we got there and got started, everything was totally fine. I can name a bunch of different scenarios where this is the case, even if I don't actually "feel" stressed. My tummy lets me know.

So I spent a little time thinking, and praying, to figure out what the issue(s) may be, and came up with a few answers...

One: flying to Botswana.
Over. The. Ocean.
I honestly could just cry thinking about it. My friend Angela said her husband wants them to go on a mission trip to Africa, and she has some fears about it. She asked me how I got over my fears so I could go on this trip. I told her I haven't, but I know God will take me through it, and being afraid just isn't a good enough reason not to go. I know this fear is not from the Lord. But it's still fear; just the recent realization that I'm most likely going to have to get out of my seat and go pee at some point during our really long flight made me want to hyperventilate.

Two: Before we head to Africa (in less than a month!), I have a lot to do, and not much time to do it. Like preparing for the session I'm teaching (then there's the whole standing in front of a bunch of strangers while I'm IN ANOTHER COUNTRY to teach the thing!), and going over the materials for the conference we'll be assisting with. I have to familiarize myself with Lindsey's school books and make sure she gets her summer work done. I have to dive into all Kathryn's curriculum stuff and prepare weekly lesson plans. Oh, and I still have to write up her end-of-year summary to keep on file from our 2nd grade school year. I need to organize our school stuff. And the list goes on...

Three: We're adjusting to life with an instant teenager. There are several aspects to this one.
It really is going much better than I could have imagined, but there are things that stress me, like all the 14+ years of mother-daughter conversations I've missed out on. Kathryn is only eight, but we've already had numerous conversations about big things like purity and modesty and living out an authentic Christian life, and a million conversations about smaller things. So I'll imagine the beginnings of these conversations in my head (I do that about a bunch of things!) but I think if I start, I might not be able to stop the words tumbling out of my mouth like some sort of verbal avalanche; I picture Ken coming home from work one day to find Lindsey huddled in a corner of her room because I babbled five or so years worth of conversations in one afternoon.

Then there's the whole challenge of how to homeschool a child I don't really know well (yet), as far as learning styles and how to help her through frustrations and so on. She seems like she is genuinely doing well with all the changes and stresses in her own life, but I wonder if she'll talk to us about it if she is feeling sad about things.

Kathryn is working through some adjustments as well. She loves Lindsey and is very glad to have her as a sister, but she hasn't learned how to handle little sibling sorts of challenges. For instance, Lindsey used one of Kathryn's ponytail holders, and Kathryn didn't mind but wanted Lindsey to ask first. Kathryn says she feels embarrassed to talk to Lindsey abou things like that, so she wants me to run interference. Kathryn sometimes feels left out of things, too, like when she has to go to bed and Lindsey gets to stay up a little longer. It's just a matter of Kathryn having no experience with a sibling. Brandon is so much older, and a boy, and has never spent long periods of time here, so it's totally different. I'm trying to find a balance of helping Kathryn learn how to be a sister, helping both girls to understand each other better, and trying not to make either of them feel that I'm favoring the other.

After my little epiphany, and my acknowledgement of the stress I've been feeling, I picked up a book I'd been meaning to read: Reaping the Harvest by Diana Waring. It's about homeschooling--and appreciating--teenagers. In the introduction, the author makes life with her homeschooled teens sound wonderful. I almost didn't continue reading because I expected to get discouraged about the things I've missed, and I was feeling a bit alone in this because there just aren't that many folks that adopt and then homeschool a teenager. I did continue reading, though, and God used this book to let me know I'm not alone! You see, the first part of the first chapter is about a family with one homeschooled child who decided to adopt one more child, and ended up adopting that one plus her three teenage siblings! Not only did they have the same challenges we have, but more, since these kids were from Russia and barely spoke any English.

After I read those first few pages, I set that book down with tears in my eyes and prayed a big prayer of thankfulness. I gave all my concerns back to Him, assured that not only can He handle it all, but also that He DOES care about every single thing in our lives and He is indeed in ALL the details.