What really has value?

Plane ticket to Ghana........... $1,400
Cost of a school building...... $30,000
Increase in faith ................... Priceless

When JD first told me she believed we could raise the $30,000 for the school, I was absolutely sure she had lost her mind. I believed God could do it, I just didn't believe he would do it through me. I had a laundry list of reasons why we would come up short.

I don't know enough people.
It's a bad economy.
We have no way to prove that we are legitmate.
I'm not a good sales person.
and on and on...

Then somewhere along the way, I began to see the vision she saw. I was desperate to see God work though the two of us, who soon became three. I prayed earnestly for God to build the school and knew even if we didn't reach our goal before we left, we would continue until it was complete. After breakthrough often comes battle.

As the months went on and the numbers seemed to be at a stand still, I once again began to doubt. "See... I knew we couldn't do it." I felt let down by God. I trusted Him. I believed in His ability and even though we had sucessful raise 12% (still a large amount by any standards) I still saw it as disappointment.

Then He blew my socks right off! In one minute, the school went from 12% to 46%. And with only a couple weeks left, we discovered that if we could simply get to 50% another organization would match our funds and be able to oversee the construction of the school. Voila! The school funds were raised. My doubt once again put to shame.

God could have easily brought people together to raise all that money without me. He could have given us all the money in the first month or two when I was riding the high of trust and big dreams for him. But he didn't. I believe it's because He always focuses on what really has value for his children.

Does he want the children of Lake Volta to have a school? Absolutely. But what is more valuable is not a building that will eventually crumble, but a faith that is stretched and built with incorruptible materials. He wanted to teach me to never see a situation as hopeless, that even when things appear to be failing it can turn around in an instant if I just wait patiently on Him.

God's plan was always about my faith and never about the money or the school. In the end, it's a larger, deeper blessing for me and His African kids.

Withdrawl

In preparation for spending 2 weeks in Africa where a trip to the gas station or vending machine for my daily fix of diet coke isn't very likely, I decided to go ahead and quit now. I have no desire to be struggling through caffeine withdrawl headaches while in Africa. Not only will this help in Ghana, but is just better for me in general to severly cut back on the amount of pop I drink and increase my water intake.

So... started this journey on Tuesday. It went well as did Wednesday. Yes, I had a little headache, but work kept me distracted. Thursday was a little worse. My head hurt, I was tired and the day seemed to drag. But I still didn't drink any.

In addition to this sacrifice, I also gave up any chocolate and changed my schedule to make sure I am healthy and well-rested before traveling. All these changes at the same time are hard to adjust to.

After 4 whole days without a diet coke (it's been a long time since i've gone that long) I caved and bought 1 for today.

No... I don't feel guilty. I am relearning the art of moderation. I'll enjoy it while I'm drinking it as a special treat. Once this bottle is empty, I will try going 5 days.

What is Alaska?

Back in June I visited Alaska for the first time. Upon returning, I shared this news with my sponsor children. Apparently, I did not do a good job of explaining this or something got lost in translation as I recieved a funny letter from Meena in India.

She said:

I would like to know what Alaska is and is it kept at home? Is it dangerous animal?

At least I know what to write about in my next letter!

To Build a School

Today we officially reached 100% of the fund raising for the school in Ghana. JD had the honor of accepting the finish line crossing donation this morning. Here are her words:

I just arrived home from going to the Glen Falls school here in Saint John... one of the poorest schools in our city... where the children, led by their awesome teacher (a woman from my church), pledged to raise 1% of our goal. When someone from the community heard about their initiative, they offered to match whatever they raised up to $300 (also 1%).

As you know, we were currently at 98%...

Were. Past tense.


The Glen Falls school kids were honored and thrilled to help us reach across the finish line this morning... we are now officially at 100%!!!


We still need a few more donations to cover our in-country travel expenses, but are confident that God will continue to provide as He will finish what he has begun.

The great slave master

Thoughout this year, I have been learning about issues of human trafficking and child slavery. An issue that barely registered in my life before. As I share the realities and the hope we are trying to bring with people I come in contact with daily, I find that they too are shocked to know that slavery still exists. Some simply say, "I didn't know about that. I don't think I could do what you are doing." For others the sense of injustice rises. As I was explaining how the children are negotiated for to the nice man who was driving me from the dealership to Enterprise for a rental car, he became quite affected. He said, "I'd do some negotating, all right!!"

Yesterday as I was reading, I saw the bigger picture.

There are millions of children being forced into labor slavery and it breaks my heart.
There are millions of women and children trapped in a sex slavery and it makes me sick.
People are beginning to rise up and fight for these nameless, forgotten and used ones. As we should.

But what about the grandma whose been left with 5 grandchildren and must continue to work long hours each day to get just enough food to keep them all alive another day?

Or the single parent who works 2 jobs to feed and keep the kids in school in hopes of changing their future?

What about the 10 yr old who can't go to school because she must walk miles to fetch water each day and work in the fields with her family?

What about the 12 year old who is now the only caretaker of the younger siblings and now must dig through garbage to eat each day?

Aren't they also slaves? Slaves to poverty.

Poverty is the great global slave master.

It works you to the bone, leaves you with nothing for your efforts, and beats you down continually. Your children are born into the same condition. Escape seems impossible and death often a welcome relief.

While you sit somewhere comfortable, reading this on your computer I am pleading with you to consider that you can make a difference. You might not be able or willing to come face to face with a child trapped on a lake, or a slave master who you know beats that child -but you CAN do SOMETHING somewhere.

Make the choice of sponsoring a child and you might just be preventing another child from being sold as a slave. You never know what that child has the potential to become.

You never know what will change in you.



Thank you to everyone who does their something. Thank you for being a part of this jouney to Ghana with us. As the final weeks wind down, we are a mere $400 away from reaching our goal. This is only the beginning...

Zoo-bilee

On Sunday, I got to go to the Toledo Zoo with 2 of my favorite boys. It was a perfect day with cute animals, lots of laughter, and even ice cream!

This photo was actually taken on an earlier trip, but I liked it so much I wanted to add it.

Someone let the lion out of it's cage

The cutest baaaaaaby elephant - Lucas

Austin & I





Austin & homie tortoise

This one is for you Tiff

It's just a catfish, Kevin not a sea monster

THIS is a sea monster. Beauty sleep much?

Monkey see

African penguins

who doesn't love the penguins?

Every little girl loves her teddy bear

Every bear loves his little girl

Shortly after this photo was taken the bear on the right lunged and the one on the left clearly being submissive took off running. It was pretty spectacular to watch.

Nice Llama...

Don't let the owl bite you, Kev

More cute baaaaaaaby photos

and to top the day off... a baby giraffe too

Paint Tia Pink Wrap-Up

I survived the pink! And was a good sport even for this photo.



The night before the race it rained, but race morning the weather was PERFECT. Only sleeping about 2 hours... not perfect. I did show up with my pink shoes, pink fingernails and pink shirt for the occasion.

Tiff we missed you though....


This was a little past the halfway point of the race. No I don't run with my arms splayed like that. At the turn, they had music blaring "Throw your hands in the air..." My hands were either going up or down after my little dance moment for the camera.

At the finish line... see the tutus I was spared from in the background?

Despite having just run 13.1 miles, we took the train into the city and walked through Central Park searching for my bridge. (which we only found by accident after we gave up looking

It was a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who donated for a total of $1400 raised. Additionally, we have GREAT NEWS!!

Since the chip-in counter on the blog only reflects donations made through paypal we have an additional $10,000 that was donated through the Interlink account.

That puts us at 50% of the school raised with less than a month to go.

With your help we can still get this school completed as we sprint towards this finish line.