Sisters On A Mission

I felt a wave of self-consciousness when I realized my brother wanted me to attend his staff work party. His manager was being transferred and it was her good-bye party. He looked across the car at me with those big brown eyes and said, "Family is invited too." I hadn't done much with my hair, which was frizzed out because of the rain and my eyes looked tired.  But Jeremy asking me to go with him was rare.   So with a quick once over with the lipstick, while Jeremy stated he could wait, I found myself following him into his party. Thinking about it now, I'm really glad Jeremy sat us across from a group of younger women who wouldn't even look at me, let alone talk to me.  It gave me the chance to do something this sanguine socialite usually doesn't get to do, be quiet and observe my brother. Among all the babies and food and chatter and balloons and an endless stream of employees, Jeremy just sat there silently watching everyth...

For those of you who travel, you know all about that sinking feeling you get when you arrive at the airport gate, only to find the words “DELAYED”.  You rarely are told how long the wait will be and sometimes after hours of delay, the flight is cancelled. Several weeks ago, I had a plane ticket in hand and was anticipating a return to Kenya.   Five days before I was to get on the plane I received word that the room I had been renting was no longer available.  I prayed about it and did not have God’s peace.  The lack of funding needed for a new apartment lease was further confirmation that it was not yet God's timing. The Sunday after my originally scheduled flight, I listened to one of my favorite preachers online.  The sermon was on Nehemiah receiving word that the wall around Jerusalem laid in ruins. Nehemiah wept, prayed and fasted for three months, and waited on God’s timing.  It wasn’t until the local king brought up the topic of Nehemiah’...

When you work together on a non-profit while living on two different continents, you cover a lot of ground during the times you are in the same place. So far Jody and I have spent Christmas with family in Montana, connected with Silas and Rahab of Kenya in Indianapolis, and are on our way to Springfield, Illinois this week end! Montana was a real treat for us!  You should have seen these two sisters as aunties, visiting the new member of the family, Lilly Joy.  At four months, she squeals with delight when you sing God's praises to her.   Other than baby-sitting, skiing and snow-shoeing, Jody and I enjoyed our time with Lilly's parents, Tim and Andrea.  We bonded as a family, painting the basement, watching movies in the home theater, and playing board games.  We never tired of each other and were grateful the few precious moments spent together.  God indeed loves families! After Montana, we headed back to Ohio where mom, dad, Jody, and J...

Missionary friends, Monica,Walter and Caleb invited me to journey with them to visit the Samburu Tribe.  They are a pastoral community struggling to find new sources of income. I went because I was interested in meeting the women to see if their bead work could be used for a shoe business idea I had. Entrepreneurs, Isaac and Daniel also came on the trip to work on their community pepper farm.  We all were beginning to wonder if it was a sign from God to turn back after two hours into the trip, the trailer lost a tire. An hour and half later, we were back on the muddy roads.  It is amazing what you can get through from sheer determination! Walter managed to meuver their four wheel drive through this flooded, dirt road.  It was quite an adrenaline rush as the passing truck produced a wake that flooded the hood!  Fortunately, and I think more by God's grace, we got through the river and the deep mud without stalling or getting stuck!  Traveling ...

Yesterday, Connie, my house mate, and Eva, a neighbor, and I ventured through Kibera's Toy Market in search of cement.  (The slums are great places to find great deals!) You might ask why three women were looking for such an item.  Well, Connie was busy working on a crafting project for Christmas decorating.  (Our place looks amazing, BTW!)  Anyways, we got hungry along the way so Connie treated us to chips (fries). Connie secured us seats on sacks of potatoes, our couch, as she called it.  And as we were eating we noticed a churning noise in the potato stand behind us.  Our curiosity led us inside the stand where we discovered a funny contraption that was spinning the raw potatoes in water.  The dirty water then running out of a spout into a bucket.  It was a potato cleaning machine!   A Rasta man was pouring water into the top of it, and the potatoes were cleaned as they were turned round and round in the water. A second man then took the c...

Have you ever noticed how the negative things of our past can so easily determine our happiness instead of the good things? I passed a drunk man on my way to the bus stop this morning.  It really disturbed me, because I knew him.  He is a wonderful father, an amazing son, and a hard-working husband.  But he does not believe that of himself. As I approached him, he looked up at me and his eyes rolled back into his head.  He didn't faint, but managed to keep himself upright and stumbled on passed me without uttering a word. I wondered what kind of pain drove him to poison himself, for that's what he had done drinking the local brew.  It was probably the same brew that had claimed too many lives already.  I thought about him all day and wondered if he was ok, how his family responded to him, and if he had recognized me in his intoxicated state.  I knew if he had, he would have felt deep shame. Why do we let the bad things determine our worth when God...

I had no fear when I first attempted to climb this difficult precipice.   I had sheer, crazy determination and a refusal to give up.   Although my mind had already reached the summit, my body was unable to go any further having reached a full state of fatigue and muscle spasms. Today, back to work, after a week end of play, I failed miserably at my first attempt to give a company demonstration to a virtual team.   I gave the wrong answers to the groups’ questions, was disconnected twice after both phone cards ran out of credit, and then SKYPE couldn’t recognize the conference code.   I was never able to finish the training with the group and ended up feeling like an idiot and a complete failure. Later tonight, I found myself studying my technique in this picture.   It wasn’t until I stepped back and saw myself objectively from outside the photo that I realized my technique was off. The position I was in wasn’t utilizing my strongest area, the legs, but overtaxin...