Wanna Help?

The For Sale sign is in the yard. We had our first showing today. It is very weird to leave your house, and know that someone else is going to be walking through it and judging your furniture and paint colors. I do love my clean house, but keeping it clean just might push me over the edge. And is it sad that Caleb told his brother that he could not play with a certain toy because "the house is on the market?"



I filled out an application for Caleb to go to a two-day a week school that supplements a home school education. He would be there with his best friend. Filling out his application and thinking about all the fun new transitions that come along with kindergarten gets me excited. If you ask me what I want to do, I would tell you that I want to stay home with my boys and read them books and make silly crafts. I want to just be a mommy to three fun boys, a wife to one great man, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, and a friend. All while living my comfortable suburban life. That is all I want, but that is not all that God has called me to be.



While living in Virginia before Corey and I had kids, God asked me to give Him my dreams. I made a list and earnestly albeit reluctantly gave them over. I cried, because I knew in my heart that I really was letting them go. I still have the list in my old journal: that we would have kids, own a house, Corey would teach and coach baseball, and I would teach at a community college.



The amazing thing is that within three years I had all of those things, and so much more. I was living the American dream. Lucky me! I told that story one day in our Sunday School class, as a testimony to God's faithfulness in giving me my heart's desires.



But now, four years later, God has asked for my dreams again. And as my pastor's wife put it, this time they have names. And the house is full of memories, and the school where Corey teaches is right down the road and he has tenure. Am I still willing to lay it all down?



I have had moments where I thought He was asking too much of me. Too much of my husband who has still not heard a distinct call. Too much of my children who have no choice.



But I am reminded of all that He gave for me. Of pits He has pulled me from. That I was bought with a price, and His grace is sufficient for me. And that He is worthy of all that I have.



One day Jesus presented His followers with difficult words, and many of them turned back. In a sweet moment that exemplifies His humanity, He asked the 12 if they too wanted to leave. In the Message it says that one of the disciples replied "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We have already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God."



This is one of those - where the rubber meets the road - kind of times in my life. Because I also know the names of children other than my own. Children such as Yedenekachew, Imuta, Fruit, Mesret, Hannah, Yasen, and Blessing. Children who live and eat in the most horrendous place I have ever been. And I know that God has called me to serve them. He has called my family (and in an amazing and unexpected gift, lots of my church family) to reach out to them and make an invisible God visible.



I leaving for Ethiopia in less than two weeks. While I am there we will visit the boarding school where we are hoping to send the orphan children from the dump. This school provides room and board (meaning a bed, a roof over their heads, and three meals a day) as well as education for $650 per year. Wanna completely change a child's life? This will do it!



Can't give all $650 yourself? Partner up with other family members, friends, coworkers. We will be a liaison between you and your sponsored child! They cannot start school until September but even the hope of such a thing is more than these children have ever known.



Corey and I (and the three little yahoos) will leave for Ethiopia at the first of June. We will spend the summer getting the sponsored children ready for school by teaching them English and other basic school skills such as holding a pencil. We have a team from church coming at the first of June as well (they require a whole separate post), and then we would love to have more teams partner with us throughout June and July. Wanna be the hands and feet of Jesus? Spend a few days with us in Ethiopia!



We have other big plans like dorms that need to be built to house the kids next summer, and chicken coops and gardens for the kids who are too old to go to school. But we are taking it all one step at a time and seeing how God leads.



Wanna help? Send me an email or leave me a comment with your email address!