a dream

I woke up this morning feeling frustrated. Mad really. I was laying in bed thinking I want to be there. I want to be in Rwanda. It took me a while to figure out why. It was because I had a dream last night that I was in Rwanda. The thing is I was there by myself (kinda my Rwanda best friend was with me) at my old house packing up some things we left behind. So weird. It was so good to hug our old guard and his family. It was also good to hug our DS from Burundi. Such a strange dream.
Then I open up my FB a read a note from someone who's daughter feels called to missions. Praise God.
So how does this all work now for me. For someone called into missions but not exactly serving? I wait I guess. Enjoy the memories and know the Lord will use me here.

Love ya and always remember….. too many bananas in banana bread will just make it soggy.

sounds

I woke up this morning and walked outside to toss spencer the phone charger as he was leaving to take the kids to soccer camp and then head to church. after coming back in and sitting at my table in the kitchen i began to think about the sounds that was missing. i miss the sounds of motorcycles on my dirt road. the cars and moto's (including ours) often sounded like in the next hole they would fall apart. when i step out onto my deck here there are no sounds. no people chatting as they see a friend on the corner, no moto's, no dump trucks, nothing. that's okay I guess. today I am trying to hear the Lord speak. adjusting is still not easy but i an thankful for my friends here and there who continue to encourage me and lift me in prayer. God is good and I am thankful.

april

are we weird?

Last year today we were in Oman. I was trying to soak in all that I saw the couple nights before as we traveled through Ethiopia. All that my children were seeing. There was slave trading going on right before our eyes. I am remembering my children helping these ladies with their seat belts on the plane and for helping to open their silverware before they ate. and for them showing them how to get comfortable by laying their heads on the tray that pulls down for your meal. I think if i began to write all of the feelings i was feeling at the time this would be a really long post. This is not about that now. It's about the life we now have in the US.

Life has been on a fast track since we left. Boy that was a huge move. Lots of transition and lots of good and bad days. I miss my life terribly as a missionary. However I am thankful we had the 6 years that we did. Our lives will forever be changed. For the good. For the best.

There will always be a part of me that will miss living outside of the US. I think it would probably be strange if I didn't think about it often. I do, I think about it probably 5 out of 7 days a week. I am sure one day it will become less and less but its always on my mind.

our house is filled with memories of Africa, Oman, Hong Kong and other countries that we were able to live in and visit. I think around 20+ countries. yes we are different. yes we are weird sometimes but it's who we are. it's who my kids are. I know that my kids are different. life was different for them the majority of their childhood. most say they are mature because of the experiences and life they had but there are those others who don't understand and probably won't ever. they treat my kids different and that's okay they just don't understand. some give grace and others don't. that's okay! we used to talk about how we would come home (to the states) before we got too weird. ha. not sure if that happened.

God has been good to us over the last year but we could always use your prayers. pray that we continue to give grace to others as grace has been given to us.

remember I love all y'all and don't forget…. everyone is different..

a heavy heart

my heart is heavy this morning. i woke up to read about a family that lives in Uganda (the Country north of Rwanda) and how they lost their 1 month old baby. this tragic accident happened when they were involved in a car accident.
so many thoughts are going through my brain and so my heart is heavy.
i feel like crying out to God for this family. such a hard thing to process.

i have said so many times about how the lord has protected us throughout the 5 1/2 years living in africa. there were so many times where i know i have put my kids in a situation where it probably wasn't the best thing. times when i find abby jumping off of our water tower onto an small exercise trampoline. the times where our whole family is riding through a safari on top of a truck looking for animals. or times when i took the kids to school on our moto (through crazy traffic). living down the road where grenades are being set off. these are just naming a few.

thank you lord god for protecting us. for protecting my kids…. our kids.

april

a short post but a big week

Okay so I'm not technically a missionary anymore but I needed to post about being a missionary! (although I am still on Cobra insurance :)) lol

This past week has been a hard week for me. I have been missing my friends, my (old) home, the slow pace life, my life as a missionary. Don't get me wrong I do like it here but some days it's just hard adjusting.

Everyone says that its harder to adjust going back to your "home" than it is going "there". I absolutely agree. I don't ever remember life being emotionally hard when we first arrived in Senegal. I guess we were just too amazed and crazy comfortable about the way of life there. anyways...... so I'm coming off of a week thats been emotionally difficult.

So...... I continue to make my pancakes homemade, make my banana bread from scratch and I still try to find ways to reuse some of those ziplock bags.

Praying to be content. 

I love all ya'll and remember.... slow down, love people and give grace! 

April

momma i'm comin home!

Hello followers of my blog. Or maybe you were just curious of my recent post to Facebook. Anyways thanks for your interest in my life.... and my family's!

So...... here it is!

After 5 1/2 years in Africa we are headed home.

As Abby would say, "We are just going to that place we call home, but I'm not sure why because home is here in Africa." We have been very blessed to have served in Africa over the past few years. I really count it a huge gift that the Church of the Nazarene has given to our family. We have seen, heard and been a part of some really great things God is doing. We know He will continue to do great things here and we also know He is preparing a new path for us where He will also do great things.

As our time here come to a close, we have mixed feelings. We are excited about returning to our home country (in May) but sad to leave a place where we have called home for most of our children's lives (all of Silas' life!). Abby turns 9 this weekend and when we left for Senegal she was 3!  Time does fly!

As we enter another big transition time we appreciate your prayers for us! Here are a few things just off the top of my head ;)

selling our car and belongings here in Rwanda
transition for the kids... and of course me and Spencer
finding a place in ministry back in the States

For all of you who always said you were gonna come to Africa to visit.... you snooze you lose! Ha!
For those of you who have prayed for us, came to see us, sent us care packages, emailed us encouraging words, gave us financial support we thank you from the bottom of the salsa bowl! We love you as much as the chips and salsa from a real mexican restaurant. We appreciate you! We can't wait to see you.


Love all y'all and remember.... momma I'm coming home! (does anyone remember that 80's rock song?)

April

Grace

One day I went on bike ride. As I was getting on my bike I noticed that my phone was hanging out of my pocket so I reached over and tucked it back in. After I reached my destination I soon realized that my phone, my IPHONE, had fallen out! Frantically I rode back home and searched for it along the way. When I reached home I asked our worker to help me in searching for it. By this time, I was pretty upset and was riding my bike up and down the road looking for it.

A few hours later our worker came back with some neighborhood street kids. Since we don’t speak much Kinyarwanda, communication was very limited. Here were several kids sitting outside our gate with a growing group of bystanders trying to help get the phone back. It was apparent that these street kids had the phone, or at least at one point they had it.

These kids were young. They appeared to be around 4-7 years of age. There were 6 of them. Everyone was saying that they were thieves and that we needed to take them to the police. I kept thinking…how could such young children be thieves? How can these young children walk around all day without adult supervision?

As I was sitting at our gate looking at these children and watching them lie about the phone, my heart broke for them. The whole situation made me very sad. I was saddened because they seemed to be getting in trouble with all of the bystanders who had gathered. I’m thinking the whole time, “They didn’t steal the phone!” They were walking on our road and found it in the sand. It wasn’t their fault that they found it. Now, at this point, they knew to whom the phone belonged and they still weren’t willing to give it up, but they didn’t steal it. Even after talking with them for hours and taking them to the police they still were not budging.

The question that kept coming to my mind was, “How could I love on these children that are called thieves?”

A few weeks after the phone incident, these kids were still on my heart. I felt convinced that God wanted me to help these boys. God has called us to feed the hungry and love the unlovable, right? So… I sent our worker looking for the boys.  

It took him days of searching to find them and all the while communication was still difficult. At first the boys refused to come. I am guessing they were too afraid we were going to take them to jail.

Finally the day came and 6 of the boys came to eat lunch – 3 ½ hours late. We made them rice, maize, carrots and green beans and meat. They all ate until they were full. It was such a great sight for me. I had been praying all day they would come, and finally they had come. I am hopeful they will come back next Friday and then the next and then the next.

Matthew 25:37-40

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’