You know it's interesting, I posted the email I received from my friend Brenda last week.. Yesterday I got a phone call asking about going on a disaster team to....where else??? SW Uganda. It's interesting how things come together.. I've been following Brenda on her mission via her emails/blogging...

I don't know yet if i'm going to go. The team I would go with isn't scheduled to go til the end of August...But it would be for 4 weeks. The longest I would have been away... So although I haven't agreed to join the team I am considering it with the support of my husband and kids...

Blessings,
Melanie

journal from my friend Brenda who just returned from a mission

I servied with Brenda for 3 weeks in Haiti, a wonderful friend, woman and nurse. She just spent 4 weeks in Africa and has been sending me her journals. I so can relate to the feelings she describes especially in the last paragraph.. Thank you Brenda for your service and dedication.
_________________

Wednesday, May 5, 2009


I have been home now for a couple of days, and I must be honest and say it is good but strange to be home! Only a few days ago I was in a very distant location with completely different realities. Harsh realities that few of us living here in North America can even imagine. Realities of fleeing rebel soldiers coming through your town, shooting and killing people, looting and burning homes. Running with what family you could find with only the clothes on your back, walking for many miles over rough terrain until you reach the border of the neighboring country with thousands of others fleeing. Then being trucked like cattle for more miles to a resettlement village, being given a ration card, a portion of tarp, a jerry can to carry water, a hoe, mosquito net, and maybe a blanket. Finally, you are assigned a small plot of brushy land that you must clear before you can erect a shelter and start to plant a small crop that will not yield anything for 3-4 months.



We met many of these people in our 4 weeks of working in the Medical Teams International Clinic at the Juru-Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Some of these are refugees from Rwanda since 1994. Others are from the Congo arriving last December and January of this year. Ann and Steve heard more of the current stories from their patients, some too graphic and horrifying to share with you. I heard the stories from our interpreters and Ugandan workers. Very few in this part of the world go unscathed from violence. Yet there is little if any complaining heard and great evidence of hard work and endurance seen. The Africans I have encountered are hard working people, they do things in order to survive that I am positive I could not. They are resilient people and lovely people.



There are so many stories I wanted to share with you, and things I wanted to tell you about, but there is never enough time. My purpose in sharing all of these stories and pictures with you is so that you will realize that in this large world that we live in over two-thirds of the population lives in these similar conditions, stark poverty. That we are a blessed people with so much more available to us and so many more opportunities present for us than anywhere else in the world. We are blessed! Be thankful for all that you have and remember those that are less fortunate than you are. In your thankfulness reach out and help someone, become a volunteer!



There are a couple of books I would like to recommend: Me to We (Finding Meaning in a Material World) by Craig and Marc Keilburger, an awesome book for everyone, especially families. A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) by Ishmael Beah, a true and very graphic story of a boy in Sierra Leone, it is the same story for thousands and thousands of children across the world.



Some last pictures to share with you:

1) A group picture of our clinic team, missing only 3 interpreters. It was a wonderful group to work with!

2) Young children having to haul heavy jugs of water from long distances, for drinking, cooking, and washing.

3) A ration card issued by the UNHR and the World Food Program. (by Steve Boyer)

4) A woman and her baby sit inside their shelter with all their worldly possessions. (by Steve)

5) A family portrait. (by Steve)

6) A family in front of their home. (by Steve)



I was thankful for the time spent with Steve and Ann, that is one of the perks of doing these short humanitarian stints that I do, spending time with amazing people that have been to the toughest places of the world. Steve asked me a couple of days before we left, "What do you think that coming on these trips and experiencing what we are, is doing to us?" I told him that I am not sure. It's possible that we suffer a bit of post-traumatic stress from seeing and hearing all that we do, and it certainly does change us, each and every time. But whatever it is doing to us, I don't want to do anything different. I am ever so grateful for the chance to rub shoulders and exchange smiles with these people that I can't even converse with. I am thankful to be able to learn from them how to be gracious and persevering in hellish circumstances. I am thankful for the chance to be reminded of what my priorities are: people not things.



Slowly reintegrating into life here, Brenda

Free to Be Me

I love that song by Francesca Battistelli. It really does express exactly where I am in life right now. I have spent much of my life worrying about what other people thought of me. I have focused on all the craziness and drama around me and let that keep me from being exactly who I was meant to be. I have freed up all those parts of me that desired to please everyone else around me. Now, my focus is on being pleasing to God. And because that is my focus, I am finally free to be me.

I am not perfect by any means and I make mistakes but I am truly focusing on the important things. I am focusing on loving God and loving people. I am actively seeking His will. I am not just going through the motions and pretending on the outside that everything is fine for everyone else. I am living life with all the passion that God intended for us to. I am actively seeking opportunites to serve Him. I am trusting that my Father is always going to provide for me. As long as I am actively and passionately seeking Him, I know that everything is going to turn out well. I know that He will care for me just the same as He does the birds of the air and flowers of the field.

What am I focusing on...well, I want to bring honor and glory to God in all that I do. I am excited about all the many things that are going on in my life. There's lots of stress but there are also tons of opportunities for ministry. There are tons of ways for me to share God's love with others. And even though there is a lot of stress surrounding me, I am finding peace in the middle of it all.

I'm preparing to leave in a week with my family for a vacation to Southern California. They are everything to me and I'm so excited to spend this time with them and create memories and just love one another.

So take a day off as you can and spend it with your family. You don’t have to spend a ton of coin–they just want time with you. It’s one of the best investmentments you can make. Let’s maximize on that investment, because if we succeed in our business or in our church but fail as parents and spouses, then we really aren’t successful. To me, I will have failed as a parent if my children don’t learn to love Jesus. So I’m working hard to model Him for them.

Blessings,
~M

CompassionArt Project

Everyone who faces extreme poverty also lacks the choices that we take for granted, yet not everyone who has limited choices lives in extreme poverty.

The truth is that poverty of choice touches even more than 2 billion of our us. When choice and options are limited, lives are held back and hope is far harder to find.

CompassionArt supports projects restoring choice and hope to people's lives. We provide funding to projects working with children in Uganda – some of whom have already endured the brutality of life as a child soldier – as well as children of sex workers in Indian slums. There are homeless shelters in the middle of wealthy western cities and orphanages in the middle of developing nations that are helped financially - as a result of the sale of CompassionArt albums, songs and books - all of them breathing hope back into lives that have been conditioned to believe that life may never get any better.

WHY FIGHT POVERTY?

One more question; why are we doing this?

Isn't poverty one of those things that will always be around? Or isn't this something that's best left to world leaders and kind-hearted charity workers?

This time the answer's simple; we fight poverty because it is there and because its presence brings shame on us all. Today, poverty should not exist, but it does. Why? Greed. But that's nowhere near being an excuse for doing nothing about it.

WHERE DO THE PROCEEDS GO?
Restoring the Sound
Preventing African schoolgoers from getting caught in a culture of gangs and violence. Restore The Sound uses music as a means to better themselves and their community.
MORE

WHERE DO THE PROCEEDS GO?
Baby Watoto
In Uganda, abandoned children - from newborns to two-year-olds - are given care, medical support and a loving environment and a future in a family as part of the Watoto Community.
MORE

http://www.compassionart.co.uk/

Hilarious!

There is Always, Always, Something to be Thankful for..

the key to my success has always been gratitude. I believe the events of my life have proven to me that if you work hard, always maintain gratitude for everything in your life and always seek to be of service to others, then you will be justly rewarded and can look back content in knowing that you lived the right way. I am thankful. I am happy.

Sensitivity

I have a love/hate relationship with my sensitivity. On one hand, I'm extremely compassionate. I love deeply. I feel things at a deep level. A simple news story will send me to my knees in prayer for days. I feel so badly for people going through pain, hardships, or turmoil. I HATE when people hurt. I want to FIX IT ALL right now. I lose sleep often, pondering how I can fix someones troubles or help them. I try to be intentional with showing my love to people and I try to find tangible ways to make a difference.

On the other hand I am completely sensitive and my feelings can get hurt so quickly.
I struggle with this and it's usually something said in passing and maybe wasn't meant to be malicious, but I take it as such, that I will spend a whole lot of wasted time trying to figure it out. I hate that I'm such a people pleaser sometimes. I hate that I don't have thick skin and can't brush things off so quickly and easily.

Why do I waste my time on this stuff? I'll move on, in time. I try to not hold a grudge. I try to not repay hurtful words with hurtful words. I don't ever bother to tell the people they have hurt me.....I wonder why that is? I hate confrontation and I hate to cause a stir...so I drop it with them, but the wounds stay with me for awhile, actually a long while.

I'm glad Jesus understands that words hurt. I'm glad He knows my heart and can help me move forward and forgive and forget. In my own power I can't....so I rely on His perspective and what He thinks of me more that what others think. I pray that I will think before I speak. I want to speak life and encouraging words. I want to be that kind of a person. Build up rather than tear down!

Encouragement

There are moments in your life that sets the course and makes who you are going to be. Sometimes they're little subtle moments. Sometimes they're big moments you never saw coming. No one asks for their life to change, but it does. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.

Long day!

What I looked like I'm sure when I got home last nite. I worked all day yesterday, went straight from work to a parent teacher meeting, and then to another meeting to scrapbook for our sorority. I finally walked through the front door of my casa at 9:30. It was a good day, just long and I was exhausted at the end!

To Let Go

Someone recently sent me this:

Letting Go

To "let go" does not mean to stop caring
it means, I can't do it for someone else.

To "let go" is not to cut myself off
it's the realization, I can't control another.

To "let go" is not to enable
but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To "let go" is to admit powerlessness
which means means the outcome is not in my hands.

To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another
it's to make the most of myself.

To "let go" is not to "care for"
but to "care about."

To "let go" is not to 'fix'
but to be supportive.

To "let go" is not to judge
but to allow another to be a human being.

To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes
but to allow others to affect their destinies.

To "let go" is not to be protective
it's to permit another to face reality.

To "let go" is not to deny
but to accept.

To "let go" is not to nage, scold or argue
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires
but to take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.

To "let go" is not to criticize and regulate anybody.
but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To "let go" is not to regret the past
but to grow and live for the future.

To "let go" is to fear less
and to love more."


HOPE

January almost gone

Hard to believe we are almost through January already. Wow. Between work and just the busyness of life, time is flying by. We have alot of things coming up for us.. My daughter is having surgery in 2 weeks. We have a 2 week family vacation to Southern California in March we are gearing up for as well.

This last week I spoke to a big group of women (sorority sisters) at a potluck on my disaster response trip. As I prepared for it, and looked through all of my pictures and video clips again, I was flooded by all the emotions. I smiled, laughed, cried, sat in disbelief as I put together my powerpoint slide and figured out which stories to share, which ones not too. At the end of the night I had $200 in checks written out to Haiti Foundation of Hope. It's doesn't get better than that. I didn't ask for anything. I only wanted to share our story. And the fact I got to share it with a great group of women and sisters made it even better.

Kylie-ism.

Mom, you look better than you usually do at this time of the morning." (I suppose I could take this any number of ways... I'm choosing to take it as a compliment. :)

The Middle Place

Ok, so the youtube video I posted below is Kelly Corrigan, who read an excerpt from her book The Middle Place. I just read this book in the last 2 days and I'm getting ready to read it again. I would recommend it to anyone. In fact I've already given a couple friends I know copies of the book as I know they will enjoy it as much as I am.

2010

I've signed on to a medical team to go back to Haiti, back to Terre Blanche June 2010. Until then I have some plans with my family, and will also see what happens with the disaster team... I'm excited to go back, so see Elvire and Delamy, and everyone...my other family...
Next week I am speaking before around 60 women about my disaster trip... I'm putting together pictures, slideshow... not to much to prepare, its all in my heart.

Have a great week.
Love, ~M

Women

I will admit it, I am feeling very sappy these days. May have to do with the new year and all of the impending changes in my life, but I have to tell you, I love my girl friends. I am blessed to have an amazing group of women in my life who:

prop me up, laugh with me, encourage me, listen, cry with me, drink with me, love my kids, remind me of who I am, keep me sane, sit up with me and talk all night, humor me, spoon me during a sleep over when I am so lonely I can taste it, knock sense in me, make me work out when I don't want to, eat sweets with me, laugh at me, cry for me and tell it like it is.

A sorority sister sent this to me. It's an ode to friendship, to the ways in which our friends get us through the difficult periods of life. This is perhaps one of the most beautiful tributes to the quiet strength of women that I have ever heard. Its a true testament to strength of friendship amongst women. It brought tears to my eyes, and made me think of the women in my life, and how much joy and smiles they bring me daily. I love you b's!!!

Let me not forget

Let me not forget....
Remind me of Your promises, Lord.
Seal them in my heart, so that I may not forget.

Spread before me, Your blessings Lord.
Lay them out, so that I may not forget.

Sing over me Your love.
Lavish me, so that I may not forget.

Bathe me with your presence.
Let me be surrounded, so that I may not forget.

You've promised me a future and filled it with blessings, showered me with love and enveloped me in Your presence....yet, somehow I still manage to forget about all You've done for me.

Remind me of Your promises....

Random thoughts

So many days I get caught up in pointless activities.
My mornings pass without one word to my Maker, my afternoons filled with busy work, my evenings are spent recovering from the busy day, my head hits my pillow with stress of the day clouding every thought....my heart neglected, my God put aside.

This evening I found myself listening to a song that a friend sent me and as I did, I felt a sweet, gentle spirit whisper over me - I miss you. The words left my heart a shattered mess.

The sunlight conquers darkness.....gradually.

This morning, the day after Thanksgiving, I woke up, and went for a run. It was about 20 degrees out, I was wearing my sock hat, gloves and had my ipod blaring. The setting was perfect. The sky was clear and I had the BEST view of the sun coming up...I came home and decided to blog on my thoughts and the reflecting I did while i was running. Have you ever watch the sun come up? A sunrise is the most glorious if you are in the country or on the beach away for the light pollution of the city. Either way, it's an amazing thing to watch. It's interesting how the sunlight conquers the darkness little by little. It's doesn't suddenly become daylight like a switch being turned on. It's gradual. And, there is no doubt that the sun will shine. We don't have to stand at the window each morning wondering if the sun will come up; we have faith that it will. We expect it to arrive. You can go about your everyday life while the sun is coming up. You can fix breakfast, make your bed, watch the early news, take a shower - anything you need to do. It never occurs to us to "worry" about whether or not we will see sunlight.

That's the way it is with expecting change in our life. Most of the time, change doesn't happen instantly. You can't lose 20 pounds by snapping your fingers (though I wish I could). You can't improve your relationship with you husband or children in one day. After all, such problems usually don't develop in just one day. Most change takes time but that time is wasted if it is spent worrying about whether or not the change is coming. Also, that time is wasted if you just sit and do nothing while you're waiting for it. Go ahead with your responsibilities, recreation, work, worship, day-to-day life. Change will happen when you seek God and his will for your life. Your relationship with the Creator of the universe becomes deeper gradually. Be patient. God will answer your prayer. Happiness and joy will arrive - in God's time. After all, the sun comes up little by little every morning, doesn't it?

2 Corinthians 3:18
And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Seasons

Just as the seasons change, so do the days of our lives.....ha! Cheesy, but truthful. Right now I feel as though I'm in a season of holding. In a way I feel like I'm on "pause", and there is almost an anticipation and nervousness of what's to come. So, for that to happen, I feel like God has put some things on hold for a time. I'm great with that. So much so, that if I'm not careful I can become complacent and sleepy in my walking with Jesus. "On hold" for me means I am to be in serious continual learning mode and observing. I know what God has gifted me with and I know that in His time he will use it accordingly and in more ways than I can imagine.

This season is one he has been teaching me in for more than a year now. Although I have no idea what will come at the end of this season, it is even more of an opportunity to be obedient in the instructions He has given me.

What season are you in? There are many. For instance: a season of quiet, a season of excitement. Maybe you are in a season of discipline, or habitual sin that God is dealing with. Think about what is going on in your life and how God is working in and out of all you say and do. Are you paying attention to him? Are you seeking Him no matter what season you are in.

This we can know; nothing stays the same with God and our relationship with Him except the fact that He doesn't change. What season are you in? Enjoy it. Learn from it. Experience it and use it for His glory. He wastes no time or season, they each are in His hand for His glory and our good.

Waiting for answers

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 47:10.

Why is so hard to just be quiet and still? There is always something to do, something to finish, somewhere to go, or someone to call. Even when the things that we do are good and important, we still miss the most important thing of all, spending time with God. We pray and wonder why God is not answering or maybe He doesn't even hear us when we are crying out. He probably has been answering, we just don't take the time to listen.

I am currently reading a book that talks about this. What does happen when we slip away to be with God? We exchange weariness for His strength, weakness for His power, darkness for His light, my problems for His solutions, my afflictions for His balm of comfort, my questions for His answers, my confusion for His knowledge, my doubt for His assurance, my nothingness for His awesomeness, the temporal for the eternal, and the impossible for the possible!

What are some other things that happen when we wait and listen and slip away to be with God????