Ups and Downs

What a week! We had a few roadblocks thrown at us this week and it definitely seems like the enemy is not happy with our plans to go. 1st we got a notice from the IRS saying we owed $1800 from 2007 taxes. Praise God a relative of ours got that cleared up and we owe only a few hundred (it is hard to file taxes correctly when you are living in suitcases and in the middle of a move:) Then I have been attacked by anxiety lately. I have been praying a ton and learning a lot about spiritual battle. This temporary trial is only making me stronger and more equipped for the amazing journey ahead. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28 We are assured that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose".. Amen!

No turning back!

Today we got our plane tickets.. no turning back now! We also heard more about the playground project. Our team will be turning a 30 x 60 ft dirt lot into something fun and beautiful for the kids (hopefully!) Gordon asked us for ideas... we can't ship equipment over so we'll have to be real creative.

What we will be doing in Rwanda

On June 8th, 2009 John and I will fly to London, meet up with our team, and then head to Gisenyi, Rwanda to work with Simon Pierre and his orphan outreach organization, The Ndengera Foundation. Ndengera currently is caring for 624 orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS as well as 190 street children and orphans whose parents died in genocide-related cases. The main project we will be working on is to build a playground at the orphanage. John is hoping to play sports with the kids and I plan to love and cuddle as many kids as I can. We just want to pour out God's love to these kids in as many ways as we can.

Why we are going

Complicated question.. a lot of reasons. It started when I read the book "It's not Okay with Me" by Jeanine Maxwell about her experiences with AID's victims in South Africa. I wanted to go immediately and almost went to Swaziland in 2007. The timing wasn't right though and so when our church in Hawaii announced last year that they were planning a trip to Rwanda for June 2009, I was immediately on board. John thought he would never be able to get time off of work to go so he put the trip on a back burner in his mind. In the meantime, amazing things started happening. John has been looking for his Nigerian family for over 14 years. In October we found a cousin in Benin City (through Facebook!). She was able to put us in touch with his nephew Shaun and the family keeps growing. What a blessing it has been! As we get to know Shaun over weekly phone conversations, the desire to go to Africa has grown heavy on John's heart. He was granted the time off of work and has now signed on to be part of the team to Rwanda. After working at an orphanage in Rwanda for 10 days we will travel to Nigeria to meet his family members. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of a long journey for us.