Holiday Shop

Last Saturday, we held the first annual Holiday Shop at Brad's inner city clinic! A friend of ours, Matt, worked with Brad and I to develop an idea that Matt participated in when he lived in Detroit. We got our church involved and collected new toys and clothing for children 10 and under. These donations were used to set up a Christmas shop at the clinic where we majorly discounted the items to make them super affordable to these low to no income families. All the procedes from the shop are then used to start an emergency fund for patients of the clinic. We also gave out packets to everyone who came with a couple of our pastor's parenting sermons from a recent sermon series called TransParent, an Andy Stanley book, and information about our church and some of our programs like Celebrate Recovery which were very well received! We had 20-25 families come and raised $430! We have a lot of ideas now for how to make it even better for next year. Here are a few photos:

Two Tunics Project - Part 2

Well, it took me a lot longer than I expected, but here is the slideshow of the projects we did in Jamaica last month (If the music skips in the middle and then ends before the photos, I apologize. It was giving me trouble and I am too tired of working on it now to fix it if it isn't corrected by now!). It's hard to put into words a trip like that, and maybe that's why it is so hard for me to sit down and write about it since I wrote part 1 (besides just not having a whole lot of time since getting back). So, I will share here part of what I shared on the private blog we have for the girls in my small group and then let the pictures speak for themselves.

"Time is very different there. You don't have all of the responsibilities and tight schedules like we do here. Days were long but very full, which seems to make the days much shorter here. It was a fruitful change of pace. Our team read a great book called The Great Omission, which I had read several months before and was able to review. It will likely be a required read for anyone who goes on future trips, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in any kind of missions It is an amazing book and it has many underlying principles that we want to apply for these trips, but can be applied on some level to our daily interactions as well I think.

There is really too much to share in one post, so I'll just introduce you briefly to two Jamaicans at Darliston Baptist Church who touched my heart and who I will be praying for in the years to come. This is Camise. She is in 10th grade and comes from a very poor family of 15 children, of which she is the youngest. Her parents are too old to work, and she lives with them and an older sister who I think supports them. Her sister has 4 children who are divided amongst other family members, which is very common there. (We met more children living with grandmas and aunts than with their mothers I think.) Camise is going to join the army when she finishes high school. She is a hard worker and has a kind heart. She wants to be the first one in her family to be able to help her parents. She continually told us how she is struggling and hungry and needs help. I wanted to give her more, but I offered her my prayers and support, and promised to write her to encourage and pray. I know she is hurting, but God has brought her this far and He can carry her the rest of the way. I know I can remind her of that at least.

This is Kymani. He is 10 years old and was such a joy to all of us. He instantly fell in love with the babies and was so gentle and caring to them. We joked that he was our personal babysitter while we were there because he was so attentive to Elijah, who he called "Bubbie" and also his little prophet friend :). Pastor Leroy told me that Kymani is going to be a pastor someday. I truly hope that God leads him on that path because his loving, gentleheart is exactly what a pastor needs and I can see how he has potential to have a huge impact one day in the future. But I know that there are a lot of distractions that the world has to offer and so I will be praying that God protects his young heart and preserves it so that He can grow into a man who emulates Christ to his people.


Those are just two small pieces of what I took away from there. As a whole, the trip gave me a reminder of having a global perspective - that God's church is bigger than our church, bigger than our city, bigger than our state, bigger than our country. We have brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world who are working, praying, struggling, fighting the same battle. That we, in the USA, are extremely fortunate. Poverty is a word I don't think we even understand here in many ways. And that serving God is always a sacrifice in some way, but He will pour blessings over us abundantly more than we can ever expect or know when we choose give it all to Him. "

In the slideshow you will see photos from our time spent in Darliston at the church -- doing construction, meeting with the people and getting ideas from the community of the needs they have, attending services, and also in the community -- visiting 3 primary schools, setting up 8 large suitcases worth of donated computers, touring a local farm, making connections with people and places, etc. The final day we spent in Montego Bay, enjoying the beach and the beauty of the island before heading home, so I threw a few of those photos in at the end too. Enjoy!

Refreshing Teacher Gift Idea

It's hard to believe it, but Riley's last day of preschool is tomorrow! He's all registered to start kindergarten in the fall, and (the part that makes me a little nervous) he'll be riding the bus home from school everyday. I am really excited for him and I think he is really going to be challenged academically -- it's a fantastic program!

I put together a little gift for each of his preschool teachers to thank them for investing their lives in him this year. As a former teacher myself, I know how much work they put into their job and how much they care about my child. I want to give them something simple, but meaningful, to show our appreciation. Those were always the best gifts -- I did love all the candles and Bath and Body gifts too, but was stocked up on those for years after I finished teaching :). Plus, I did the candle and B & B soap thing for them already at Christmas!

I found this great idea on another blog I follow here and this is what I came up with:

I got them each a Sun Tea jar ($5 each) and filled them up with all kinds of "mint" items - peppermint and spearmint candies, chocolate mint candies, doublemint gum, peppermint patties, freshmint tic tacs, mint three musketeer bars, peppermint tea, etc.

I attached the following note:

Thanks for your commit-"mint" to help me learn.
Thanks for your encourage-"mint" to always do my best.
Thanks for your involve-"mint" in my life.
Thanks for your invest-"mint" of time and energy

to make school such a great place to be.
Thanks for making each day an enjoy-“mint."
Thanks for helping to create a nice environ-"mint"

for me to learn and grow.

Everything you have done this year
has really “mint” a lot to me!!!

Praying you have a refreshing summer!

And since I'm on the topic of preschool, here is the picture Riley made me for Mother's Day...sooo sweet! (That's his little school photo on the butterfly!)

I can honestly tell you that even the most simple recognition made all the difference as a teacher, so be sure to let your child's teacher(s) know how thankful you are for them!

FoodLink

Last night, some of our small group went over to FoodLink to volunteer for an hour. We inspected packaging for food safety, sorted items, weighed and labeled boxes to be distributed. It was something simple, but a fun way to serve and make a small difference together. I'm looking forward to going back and doing it again! I love living side by side with these friends :).

Two Tunics Project - Part 1

It's hard to know where to begin. I've been asked so many times since returning, "How was Jamaica?" and I can definitely answer that it was great! But, there is so much more to it than that. It was beautiful. It was hard. It was humid. It was productive. It was a change of pace. It was poverty. It was Jamaican pride. It was need. It was joy. It was enlightening.

I guess the place to start is why we went in the first place and why it is called The Two Tunics Project. In Luke, chapter 3, John the Baptist was speaking to the crowds of people coming to him to be baptized and warns them that those who are not producing good fruit will be cut down and they ask him what they should do. John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." The Bible tells us that Christ's death and resurrection took care of our debt and gives us freedom - it's not anything that we can do, but what He has already done. But, after we've recognized that, we should be growing, serving, and producing fruit within our church as well as out in the community and the world. We recognize that we are very fortunate from a global perspective and we feel a responsibility to help people, both locally and globally, who are in need. We also recognize that we need them just as much, if not more than they need us.


Pictured above is our team -- Brad, Elijah, and me, Joel and Carina, Matt, Zack, Maryellen and Matthew, and Scott. This trip was a visionary/assessment oriented trip, with a couple specific projects to start us out, to bring a group of leaders to decide if we should continue pursing this partnership and also identify areas of need and potential projects for the future to assist the church and help them reach their community. We do not want to create dependency, but rather give them skills, tools, resources, and ideas to help them build up their presence in the community and reach people more effectively. The idea is for us to send two teams a year for a set amount of time (we're starting with the idea of about 3-5 years). During this time, we would progressively work together with the church people down there to accomplish set goals in several different areas.

As of this trip, we are in agreement that this project should move forward in Darliston, Jamaica. Darliston is a small town about 1 1/2 hrs south of Montego Bay. It is in the Westmoreland parish region of the island with a population of just under 1600. It is mainly a farming community in the mountains and facing a huge problem of unemployment.


Here is Darliston Baptist Church. It was one of the few church buildings in the region that is completed (it's common there for building projects to just stop when money runs out for both churches and homes especially). It was set up several decades ago by an organization that left and hasn't had any follow up as far as I'm aware, so they are a very traditional Baptist church somewhat caught in a past era. We were able to attend services on Sunday where our Outreach Pastor, Scott, spoke to the church about being culturally relevant -- an issue that our church has addressed in the last couple years especially. One way we are already helping them in this area is providing New Kings James version Bibles for them which has already been positively received by the younger and newer Christians there who were having a hard time understanding the KJV. It seems like such a small change, but it is making a huge difference.

Pastor Leroy and his family were such a joy to meet. He has an amazing reputation in the community. Everywhere he goes, people know him and love him regardless of the fact that most of them don't attend church. He is highly respected among his people and we saw that manifested in many different ways during the trip. He has a huge heart for God and for training leaders and the next generation. He seems thrilled to have us interested in investing in his ministry and we are looking forward to seeing how he will continue to be used by God in that region of Jamaica.

The best part for me was getting to know the people. It surprised me how in such a short amount of time how attached we got to the people we met. Having the babies there with us was a huge ice breaker and automatically gave myself and Maryellen a common bond with many people there, as well as a draw for the children (they looooved the babies!).

Let me introduce you to one of my new friends. This is Camise. She is in 10th grade and comes from a very poor family of 15 children, of which she is the youngest. Her parents are too old to work, and she lives with them and an older sister who I think supports them. Her sister has 4 children who are divided amongst other family members, which is very common there. (We met more children living with grandmas and aunts than with their mothers I think.) Camise is going to join the army when she finishes high school. She is a hard worker and has a kind heart. She wants to be the first one in her family to be able to help her parents. They started building a better house, but had to stop when they ran out of money. She continually told us how she is struggling and hungry and needs help. I wanted to give her more, but I offered her my prayers and support, and promised to write her to encourage and pray. I know she is hurting, but God has brought her this far and He can carry her the rest of the way. I know I can remind her of that at least. I've thought of Camise often since returning and she will be someone I will look forward to catching up with if I do have the opportunity to return someday.

Well, that's a start! I have a lot more to share, and will give more details about the projects we did while we were there next. It was so cool for Brad and I to go together and to have some special time with Elijah as well. It has helped us be a team and share in this rather than for me to be an "outsider" to what Brad has experienced. The slideshow I am working on is almost finished - we have a team meeting tonight where I hope to get the last of the group's photos to include, so stay tuned!

No Worries, Mon!

Something is different about this little guy...
...He's about to become a world traveler!!! :)

Remember that teaser about an upcoming trip? I was waiting for that one last crucial piece before I shared this on here, but it arrived in the mail today (I was getting a little nervous we wouldn't get it in time!) so now we have (almost) no worries, mon! :)

You may or may not remember a little trip Brad took back in the fall. Well, we are headed with a team of 7 other people from our church back down to Darliston, Jamaica and Elijah and I get to join him this time! We leave a week from tomorrow!

This trip is a follow-up to the last one with a slightly larger group. Some people have pretty specific tasks -- we have a carpenter going who is going to work on fixing some bathrooms, and a tech guy going to repair some computers in the schools -- but the rest of us are going as visionaries for how our church can provide aid down there in the future. We are developing a partnership with a church down there that is modeled after Brad's global health trips to Honduras during residency, but with an additional spiritual element. My focus is going to be on checking out the schools and identifying needs with the women and children. We are in the very early stages of setting things up down there, so our leadership team is going to meet the people, see the facilities, and pinpoint ways we can help them. Then we will report back to the church and plan projects for the subsequent teams based on our findings.

I am excited, but a little nervous about the logistics of traveling with a 4 month old to a tropical location. Riley and Naomi are already looking forward to a week of sleep-overs at Grammy's so I know they will be well taken care of, but I am definitely going to miss them. It will be so good though for Brad and I to experience this together. He has a great passion for short term missions and helping people overseas, so it is good for me to have a part in that as well. I haven't been on a trip like this with him since we went to The Gambia, W. Africa back in 2002. I am excited to meet the people down there and bring them encouragement and aid and share with them the love of Jesus! :) Be sure there will be lots of photos and an update when we return! Thanks in advance for praying for this opportunity -- that we will be used greatly and changed profoundly. And for traveling mercies with Elijah :).

Jamaica, here we come!

Light of MY Life!

I love that Riley is enjoying preschool so much! Everything from the art projects to the play time to the sign language and books, to the singing! I'm actually surprised at how much he comes home singing songs - ones that I remember from my childhood that our church doesn't really teach anymore since we use a lot of the newer kids worship songs.

The other day in the car, he wanted me to put him on the camera singing this precious song (if you are reading via email, you may need to click over to the blog to view the video).

I love how appropriate this song is for our weekend of giving that I shared in the last post. He got to shine his little light by bringing food to the hungry and I hope that his light continues to grow and shine!

On a side note, here's an update on what Brad is up to. He left yesterday morning with two other guys from our church for Jamaica for the week. No, it's not a vacation, although I'm sure they are soaking up the sun down there (and enjoying some yummy food from this photo I received)! They are there as scouts for the missions committee to check out a place where our church can build a relationship and provide a wide range of support and aid on a recurring basis (similar to his Honduras trips during residency). Their team has spent the last year researching places and contacting pastors and administrators, and this seems to be a place that our church will be able to help, so be praying that they have clear direction as to whether or not to pursue this opportunity!

Delivering a Blessing

One of our favorite things we are involved in right now is our children's ministry program at our church, called High Point, which is for kids 4 years through 6th grade. I am a co-coordinator for the program with my dear friend, Liz. She takes care of putting together all the production pieces of the program and I deal with the logistical end of things. We really make a great team! Brad also came on board this year to plan and promote service projects for the kids to get involved in and excited about. He is so gifted at sharing his passion for helping those in need, and it is amazing to watch him pass on his excitement to the kids and families at our church. Since September we have completed 2 projects and are getting ready to present a third one for the holidays.


Today, we finished a six week food drive for a brand new halfway house in the inner city that caters to men who became Christians while in prision and are getting acclimated to society as they begin their new life. The children brought in non-perishables over the last 6 weeks which ended up totaling over 430 LBS of food! Isn't that amazing?!

Our family got to do the best part of the project and deliver the food to them today. I wish everyone could experience firsthand how blessed and thankful they were and how much of a difference that amount of food is going to make for them. It was awesome to see, and it was so great for our kids to be involved in that way and be a part of it. There was a sad sight across the street from where we took the food. A large Hindu family was bagging rubble from their home that had just burnt down. They looked like they were left with absolutely nothing. Riley noticed and was asking a lot of questions, and said he wanted to take food over to help them too. When we got in the car to go, Riley said, "Let's go find some more hungry people who we can give food to!" Wow, what an impact it has on him and on Naomi to be involved firsthand in this way and to think about how we can help others who have less than we do and honor God in doing so.

It was a memorable experience to be able to deliver the results. We are thankful for the generous giving from the children and parents at church and hope that the spirit of giving will continue to grow and flourish in our church and in our family.

Backpacks, Loan Collection, and Flexing

This post is brought to you by Brad, aka Dr. Dad, as he gives a brief summary and update from his latest medical trip to Honduras.

This past May, I took my third and final medical trip to Honduras. Over the past three years, I have seen a remarkable change in community in San Jose When I first started, there was no electricity, no piped, clean water, and no year-round clinic. The progress that has been made in only three years amazes me.

The major projects I worked on during this trip were raising money for backpacks and collecting school supplies to donate to the schools. We raised almost $1000, and were able to buy 80 backpacks filled with supplies that we distributed to children at five different schools.

I also continued the micro-finance loan project, which gives small loans to help people in the community start businesses without the ridiculous interest rate only offered by the local loan shark. We also helped continue to foster the connection between a local women's artisan co-op for women making embroidery.

Our parent organization, Shoulder to Shoulder, is pushing the child health initiative which provides screening for height, weight, eye sight, anemia, and a physical exam as well as distributes worm medicine, vitamins, and iron supplements. We were able to screen over 250 kids - we saw 130 of those kids in 3 hours one day!
I guess I should explain "flexing." We had a 19 year old engineering student travel with us who believed that flexing would help prevent him from getting sick. Unfortunately, we ended up having contaminated water and everyone (except me!) got sick. Guess the flexing didn't work, but that doesn't mean we didn't take precautions. :)

If you'd like to see more photos of my trip, including some really happy kids, here is a 3 1/2 minute slideshow about our school supply project.

Just a reminder that you can support this project at no cost to you whenever you shop online! By going to http://www.sanjosepartners.org/whatyoucando/shoppinglinks (or by clicking the link on the side of this blog) before you shop at many major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, etc., 3-4% of your purchase will automatically be donated to the general fund for the ongoing San Jose Project.

Although this was my final trip to San Jose, global health is still one of my passions, so stay tuned for future adventures!

Brad

Wordless Wordful Wednesday Thursday

Yeah. That's kinda how I feel today.

A brief update on Brad - He arrived safely in Honduras on Sunday and they spent the first two rainy days setting up their clinic. He is able to call from a satellite phone every other day or so, which is a huge improvement from three years ago when he had to hike 40 miles to get to the nearest phone. Yesterday, they were going to hike out to where their water project is set up and work on that, and today he was going to be at the schools. Did I mention he was able to purchase almost $1000 worth of school supplies with the money he and another lady raised (in addition to all the supplies they brought with them?!) Wow.

The kids and I have been keeping busy - almost too busy, but it's been fun. My friend, Jayne, and I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. It was an absolutely perfect day weather-wise. I'll post a few photos from our excursion soon. Today we are going to brunch, and then working on the dining room this afternoon/evening. Tomorrow is girls' night out (woo!) and Saturday is a wedding, and a surprise outing for Riley...more on that later! :) I'll try to get some new photos up soon, and a Try This At Home post on my mod-podge mirror.

Random Things

Here's a little update on some random things we're up to.

Brad finished up his last shift this morning before he heads off to Honduras for two weeks on Sunday. This will be his 3rd medical trip there, and he is really looking forward to it. With the help of our church/school and friends, he was able to raise over $400 to take with him to purchase school supplies for the children there! We have a few fun things planned while he is gone to pass the time, and Brad's mom will be coming to help out the second week which will be a big help.

He's been trying to spend as much time with the kids as he can before he leaves. Here they are blowing bubbles in the yard - we are loving this warmer weather!

We have also been having tons of fun playing with friends lately. Yesterday, Kathryn and her kids came over. Riley and Mia had us in stitches as they played Peter Pan and Wendy fighting the pirates. It was adorable!

And Naomi and Emma also enjoyed each others company. They are so sweet :).
Why are dandelions so fascinating to kids? Maybe because it's the only "flower" we encourage them to pick. The kids all spent the morning picking dandelions out in the yard. It's in desperate need of a mowing, but we'll see if we can squeeze in a quick mow before Brad leaves so I don't have to do it twice :). Riley went out again this morning, and wanted to hold his bouquet until we finally put it in a vase.

Riley continues to soak in everything he can learn about dinosaurs. When the kids were playing in the sandbox yesterday he said, "Mommy, we are paleontologists and we are digging for dinosaur worms." Yes, he said paleontologists. He also told me today that someday he would be the daddy and get to be the boss. LOL He's smart as a whip, that kid. I told him this week that he was my little man, and he responded, "Yes, and you are my big momma." Hmm LOL.

I recently picked up these sewing cards for the kids. They each have a bear and then three outfits they can "sew" on their bear. Riley has been crazy about this and is very proud of being able to do these.
Little Miss Naomi is growing up so fast. She is constantly asserting her independence and is quite often reading or singing in her sweet little chipmunk voice. Hehe.

The dining room is about half finished! The top half of the walls are texturized and painted. I have new curtain rods and drapes, and the new table is on the way. I finally decided to buy one - we had been using a table my dad had built years ago that was in their basement, and it was really too big for that room and all the traffic flow in there. So I found one with a leaf, so we can keep it smaller unless we are using it. I'd been eyeing one for awhile and it finally went on sale and had free shipping! Yeah! All that is left is to build the paneling (hopefully this weekend) and some trim, and paint the wainscot, molding, and closet doors. I also would like to get a small buffet, but I haven't decided if I'm going to order the one I like from Target, or browse the antique stores. We shall see! Here's a sneak peek...
I warned you this post was random. :)

I'll try to post updates over the next two weeks as I hear from Brad! TTFN- Ta ta for now!