Posts From Suz in Africa.....

Sent 10:00pm Tuesday 6-25 Portland Time:

We got in at 2 Am and there wasn't any wi-fi so here I am this morning . . . the trip was great. Going to send this right now before I lose it.

OXOXOX

 -Suz

Sent 10:15pm Tuesday 6-25 Portland Time:

Yea!!

I can't believe it . . . I'M IN AFRICA!!!

Highlights:  It was non-stop travel yesterday- we lost our layover in Brussels because we had to sit on the tarmac for 2 hours at O'Hare . . . we made the connection with less than an hour between the two international flights.

Halfway to Uganda my “fulltime” glasses fell apart on the plane and I couldn't find the lens that popped out. It fell on the floor and I couldn't see it. Stephaine who was sitting next to me couldn't find it either. When I got up for the restroom later Catherine searched and found the missing lens. I did have my reading glasses intact for backup- just incase . . . but now everything in Africa will be crystal clear too. She was praying she could find it. Praise God for His grace. Today Bruce will dig out his glasses repair kit and fix them.

We are having a very mellow first day- everyone made it that was flying in this morning- and ALL our bags!!! Adam, Amy, Bruce Debbie, Bre'Anne, Stephaine, Catherine, Jackie and me. Bre' Anne's neck seems to be doing better a little. I’m hoping she slept okay.

I am scared the Internet will go off and I’ll lose this, so I am going to say good bye and hit send now.

-Suz

Sent 11:23pm Tuesday Portland Time:

Please pray that we will be able to get the large boat container to the orphanage soon. It's Wed here and we need it very soon so we can work with the secondary school kids on Sat . . . plus it has all our stuff for Lira!!!

Sending this off right now. Had a bugger of a time getting my yahoo account open  . . .

OXOXO to Everyone!

Suz

 Posted Thursday 6-27 9:27pm Portland time.

The container was delivered last night and it was crazy. Around 5:00 PM Dr. Bruce got word it was coming . . . it arrived around 7:30- the kids went wild- 100's and 100's of kids laughing and running around- dancing- almost getting run over. Drums playing - it was a sight. Mums crying praising God it was like Christmas times 1000. They have so very little- the hope of some new clothes, a bag or a pair of shoes is joyous.

Thank you for praying and for asking others to pray. Now please pray about the water- something is wrong with the pump and it takes forever for them to get their water. Dr. Bruce is very concerned that no one is getting enough water. Some engineer types took the pump to town and are hoping they can get it fixed.  

Meeting with 1/3 of the Mums yesterday- had a time of worship, fun and fellowship- it was so beautiful . . . it's like drinking God's goodness -deep and strong- so powerful.

I am so very blessed to be here.

More details on my Africa trip . . . and what in the heck is a Memory Book?

Before I write about the Memory Book Club I just wanted to let my vast blog readership know that my Africa trip is FULLY funded!! Praise God! I must give a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to those people who have sponsored me financially and the people who have covered me with their prayers. I could not do this without you.

Details:

After 38 hours of travel from Portland Oregon our Uganda team of 12 will be landing in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, around midnight on June 26^th. We continue on by bus to our destination at the Seeta Orphanage about an hour away.  That day we will try to adjust to the inevitable jet lag but by the afternoon we are planning to start unpacking the gargantuanly massive shipping container that sailed from Portland months ago. In it we have stored thousands of pounds of backpacks, school supplies, clothing, shoes, schoolbooks, bibles, toys and Memory Books.

A donated OR Ducks shirt

A helper on a Very Big box of shoes

Jackie sorting and sorting cloths, shoes and so on 

Our seven days in Seeta will be spent loving the children and distributing the items from the Container. Seeta has approximately 1000 orphans and over 60 Mums. The Mums are women from local villages who are hired to live with and care for a small “house” of orphans. These houses make up a community that is the orphanage.

Lira:

On July 2^nd we will be traveling north up to the village of Lira, about 120 miles from South Sudan. We will be staying 12 days at a small hotel across the street from the orphanage. The Lira orphanage has about 65 orphans. During the weekday the children will be attending school and at that time the women on my team will be focused on the needs of the young and single Mums. Our goal is to encourage them to see this time in their life as a special ministry, and to encourage them in their relationship with Jesus.

Most of the Mums take care of 6 to 8 children, 24hrs a day, 6 to 7 days a week. Each Mum and her children live together in a small house. During our daily times of visiting with Mums we will be singing, praying, learning these women’s stories and drinking tea from cups that Catherine, (my new buddy who wears dresses) is bringing over in a suitcase (pray they don’t break). We’ll be doing some kind of project together every day. It might be planting fruit trees, learning how to crochet or even how to clean a wound, or deal with a high fever. You see these Mums are not very old, (the 25-45yr old age population has been severely hit due to AIDS). 

Quite a few of these young ladies of 18 to 22 lost their own parents at a young age and haven’t been exposed to some of the basic principles of childcare and household management.

Memory Books:

Later in the afternoon the children will return from school and we will have the Memory Book Club.  

Here is a photo of the cover of a memory book.

These scrapbooks are large. Inside there are 10 pages preserved in plastic sheet covers, a pencil, extra paper and a white handkerchief.  Each child at the orphanage in Lira will receive one.

“Memory Books for Children strives to support and encourage a child by helping preserve their unique story in the midst of loss. Helping children preserve their memories helps them to grieve and grow.”

– Tamara Faris, RN, MS (Founder of Memory Books for Children International)

We will be sharing a lesson, (a lot like VBS), daily with the children. This is one of the songs we will be singing: “He Knows My Name” (lyrics below)

I have a maker

He formed my heart

Before even time began

My life was in his hands

He knows my name

He knows my every thought

He sees each tear that falls

and He hears me when I call

I have a father

He calls me his own

He never leaves me

No matter where I go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXsiWoyjw60

Then we’ll have a short time of teaching- for example “I Am Somebody” is the first lesson. The children make a crown – coloring it and decorating it with jewels. Catherine and I will be with the younger group and I am so excited to share with them the wonderful news that God is their Father –He has adopted them and they are never alone. After the lesson, there will be lots of time for the children to share their story. A talking stick will be used (only the person with the talking stick can talk). This is the part in the program where the children can share as much or as little as they want. No one interrupts them; we listen, giving them our undivided attention and then we’ll respond using reflective listening. 

So that is the Memory Book Club in a nutshell.

Want to learn more?

Here is their web site:  https://tamara-faris.squarespace.com/whats-new/

 

A Word On Friendships

A Word On Friendships

I love this CS Lewis quote:

"In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, I can truly say to every group of Christian friends, Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another. The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others."

That last part . . . the part about- it’s not my discriminating and good taste, but that God has chosen us for one another- I think that is amazing, (although, no one has ever called my tastes discriminating or good). The point is He cares about us and knows who we need in our lives to help us to develop the characteristics of His Son.

For example, this is Catherine . . . she is a legal secretary and until recently was employed but is taking a break from work now and is on my Uganda Team. She is married to Garth whom I have met at a BBQ, and who isn’t going to Uganda. She is a detail oriented woman -writing copious notes whenever we meet as a team, very professional, smart, thinks and talks fast and dresses up- as in: wears nice dresses.

Me? Well, I couldn’t be farther from Catherine in personality. Quite often I come to our meetings right after work in my laid back Preschool teacher attire (jeans and my red Sellwood Community Center T-shirt), glue in my hair and wearing dirty hiking boots. At our very first Team meeting I forgot to bring a notebook and had to borrow paper from my neighbor. I want you to know that I did have a pen. Oh also, I’m more of a slow thinker and talker . . . and I never wear dresses.

Our second meeting together was for our Memory Book training (more about that later). Catherine, wearing another lovely dress, gracefully slid into the seat next to me and with complete confidence stated: “I have decided you are my new best friend.” I think I was speechless. About a month later I thought I’d better get to know this lady- if we are going to be on the same team and good friends and all, so I called her and within a week or so we met up at Starbucks – she had tea and I had coffee. I think she was wearing a nice dress.

We started off, as most women do, talking about our families and jobs . . . then we started talking about Uganda and our insecurities about the trip. Catherine told me that she worried it would be very hard for her to see people who had been deformed (lips and ears cut off) by the LRA. (The LRA is a terrorist group in Central and West Africa).  But then, remembering with hope, she told me this story:

Once she was at a prayer meeting where the people who wanted to be prayed over sat in a circle facing out and the people praying for them sat on chairs facing in. The outside people moved chair to chair so that each person who needed prayer was prayed for by each person praying . . . kind of a wheel of prayer. Anyway, there was a woman sitting on the inside circle- wanting to be prayed over- and she had some kind of major deformity on her face. Catherine said it was like the elephant-man disease; her face had extra-thick skin hanging down. Well, when it was Catherine’s turn to pray for this lady she strongly felt the Lord telling her to kiss this woman all over her face . . . so she did. The lady started to weep. I wonder if it was that it had been so very long since she had been kissed? Catherine prayed words of love and acceptance . . . and this lady rejoiced.

Needless to say I left Starbucks that afternoon thanking God that He is the One who chooses my sweet, beautiful friends.