Darfur

For more than five and a half years the people of Darfur have lived under a brutal reign of terror. The government-sponsored genocide has taken hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and driven more than 2.5 million from their homes. In 2008 alone, violence forced more than 230,000 civilians to flee—sometimes as many as 1,000 per day!

Strong action from the next president can bring peace and protection to the people of Darfur. That's why the Save Darfur Coalition is bringing together people from all faiths and political beliefs to raise their voices and call for Darfur to be a Day One priority for the next president.

Be a Voice for Darfur. Go to www.AddYourVoice.org to send your postcard to the new president, demanding that this humanitarian crisis be a Day One priority in the White House. Add your voice today!

Human Pin Cushion

There are some parts of being in other countries -- like actually BEING in other countries -- that are just incredible, and then, there are parts to being in other countries -- like getting shots before you go -- that are...not so fun...

I'm going back to the Travel Nurse today to get my fifth shot this week. Oh joy. *rolls eyes*

Oh well, at least I already got a bunch of shots when I went to Nicaragua and Mexico, so I don't have to worry about getting all of those now too. That would have been mucho fun.

I'm getting my yellow fever shot today, with a bunch of people who are going to Rwanda with The African Children's Choir, so I'm actually kind of excited to get to hear about their trip.

Rwanda is a small country to the west of Kenya, (from right to left it goes Kenya, Tanzania, then Rwanda) so they wont be super far from where I am.

Whatever

So, you could just say that I'm just a bleeding heart who refuses to believe badly about people, but, spend five minutes around me, and you'd find out that I'm sarcastic, and all too willing to glare daggers at you if I think you're a threat -- not that I'm related to my father at all. : P

You could say that I'm bad at following authority, so I automatically like people who challenge the status quo, and you might be closer to correct.

Whatever the reason, the "tough guy" act, especially in elementary and middle schoolers cracks me up. Or, should I say, the fact that adults believe their act cracks me up (and ticks me off, depending on the mood I'm in).

You know, the kids who are little punks and think that, if they just act gangster enough, you will automatically distrust them -- thereby proving their point that authority figures are blind, stupid, and shouldn't be trusted.

They may very well have a close relationship with the Principal's office and the school's demerit system, but, once you get past their facade -- which seems to take approximately one encounter and thirty seconds or less -- they're just little boys who want to belong, to be cared about and to be seen.

It might take longer than that before they really trust you, and they will keep tying to push your buttons in order to prove that you don't really care. But, people know when they are seen, and it doesn't take that much looking to see a glint of gold underneath even the most troublesome little -- or not so little -- punk, prep, emo, or goth.

Maybe I'm a bleeding heart. Maybe I'm anti-authority. Maybe I just like kids.

Rafiki??

"Asante sana, Squash banana, Wewe nugu mimi hapana."
"It means, you are a baboon, and I am not."

No, I'm not crazy -- well, that's debatable, but not the point right now -- that really is Kiswahili, and it's also from "The Lion King."

Rafiki ("friend") is quoting part of an African playground chant. It means, "Thank you very much, Squash Banana. You are a baboon and I am not."

So, asante sana for not calling me a nugu. You now know almost a much Kiswahili as I do.

Time Warp

Do you guys ever feel like time is moving at a different speed than what it normally does? The last five minutes of a class can seem to take forever, but, when your mom tells you you have five more minutes with your friend before you have to leave, it seems to be over before it started.

That's kind of what the last two months -- and the next three months -- feel like to me.

Because I've been doing lots of stuff, it kind of seems like I've been back in the Tri-Cities for a long time, and it seems like I have lots of time left before I go to Kenya. Three months sounds like a long time, right?

But it also seems like I haven't been back hardly at all. I was gone for way longer than I've been back for, and lots of things have happened while I was away.

This Sunday, the fourth and fifth graders are going to be talking about how it's sometimes hard to follow Jesus. Sometimes He asks you to do things that just aren't easy.

Going to Kenya is one of those things for me. I'm really excited to go, and I'm really excited to see what God is going to do. But, leaving all of my friends and my family again -- for sixteen months this time -- is going to be hard at first.

It's a good thing that we can know that, wherever God sends us, that is the very best place that we could possibly be.

It's Fall!

B-day Pics

Apparently the singing really was that bad...

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

So, I'm a few days late, but, my little sister just turned eighteen.

How crazy is that? It kind of makes me feel old, and it means that, by the time I get back from Kenya, she'll be off to college somewhere, learning how to be a movie star. I swear it wasn't that long ago that we were coloring the edging around our entire yard, in an attempt to convince our parents that we really were out of chalk and needed a new bucket of it; or melting chocolate bars with magnifying glasses, so that we could "make" candies to give to our mom. But, apparently, it was.

Now we pay my dad gas money at the beginning of every month; Melissa leads a small group of middle schoolers; and, well, I just watched one of our friends drill a hole through an M&M with his knife, so that he could dip it in the chocolate fountain. ...Maybe things haven't changed so much after all...

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Animal Abuse?

Mom: (after Mariah has been talking non-stop, literally, for the past fifteen minutes) "Mariah, shut up."
Mariah: "Huh?"
Mom: "Nothing, just stop talking."
Mariah: giggles
Jessica: smack on the leg
Mariah: "I'm calling the - the - that's animal abuse! giggles ...wait...I'm not..."
Five minutes of hysterics

Three minutes later, while putting away the laundry.
Mariah: "Do you ever feel like a ninja when you go up the stairs?"
Jessica: "Um..."
Mariah: "'Cause I just did."

Hyper-what?

Q: What consists of four colored "targets," one hand held "plunger," and can keep kids entertained for a good forty-five minutes with minimal teacher instruction

A: Hyper-dash

The "plunger" directs kids from one color target to the next, correcting them when they don't follow the instructions, and keeps track of their time, so that teams can compete against one another. It's really simple, but it's a lot of fun -- as you go up the levels, it adds "trick" instructions that make sure you're paying attention.

And...if you let Katherine and Tyson set up the targets, the kids practically run a marathon to get from one target to the next, so they're amazingly still and quiet during movie time. Lol. (The distance between the nursery counter and the middle of the foyer is quite a sprint when you're only eight years old -- and even longer when the plunger tells you to do it three or four...or six...times.

I'm just glad the teachers didn't have to play...lol.

Worship and Grasshoppers

Ha! I love fourth and fifth graders.

The KidMo (hyperactive video curriculum for 4th and 5th graders) lesson in Sunday School this week was about worship. We talked about how worship is anytime you are awed by God -- anytime you see something that makes you say, "Wow, God!" and how we can have
Awesome
Worship
Every
Day
if we just look for things that wow us.

So... we took our kids outside and told them that we were going to worship by looking for things in creation that made us say "Wow!"

Our biggest "wow" was a grasshopper that traveled around with us for a good ten, fifteen minutes -- without being squashed no less.

One of the girls looked up at me mid-way through and asked, "This isn't really worship. Is it?"
"I don't know. Do you think the grasshopper is cool?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell God that?"
"Yes."
"Then it's worship."