Can we allow God to break our hearts...

... with what breaks his?

An estimated 150 million children live on the streets of the world today.
Taking each other by the hand, the chain they would build could wrap around the equator three times.
If I was to speak their names one every second, it would take me three and a half years.

Children who have not had a chance!

Children who have been robbed of their childhood.

Children sold by their parents.

Children who have no choice but to work, beg or steal in order to survive.

Children who have never known a loving, caring and protected environment.

Each one of these 150 million kid’s was someones child, with their own name and a story.

Each one of these DEEPLY and PASSIONATELY LOVED by the Father!!!

Incredible!

A little while ago, I felt I should read the book "Visions Beyond The Veil" by H.A. Baker (Heidi Baker's father-in-law).

I ordered it and when it arrived, I read it within one day - - - not because I've got so much time to read - but because it was absolutely AMAZING (somehow you find the time to do the things you really want to do, right?!)!!!!

It describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on an orphanage in China in the 1930s or so.
The orphans that just before had been beggars, outcasts and homeless, were caught up into the invisible (yet VERY real) world and experienced exactly all the things the Bible talks about as REALITIES - visions of heaven, angels, satan, hell and the end of the age.

It is DEEPLY compelling - I can only HIGHLY recommend it!!! If nothing else, it will boost your love for God and passion to see people that don't know God come to know him!!!!

A short message from Kylie

I've got the chicken-pops - - - and it itches - - - and I get to stay at home for a few days.
Mom says that Shayden will most likely get it too...
We had a HUGE thunderstorm last night in the middle of the night - I thought it was pretty awesome.
Bye for now and good night!

New Zealand pure!

Guess what we get to enjoy these days ???

Right behind our backyard, our neighbours have some sheep. NICE!!!

And here is a little greeting from Shayden - love to all of you lovely readers out there!

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What's on my heart...

Guess what?

When I first thought about taking a trip to Africa, I always thought that I would go with some other ladies but without Rich, since I figured that he needed to stay back with the kids.

After I felt the Lord indicate to me that I would be taking a first trip next year, I also felt - surprisingly - that Rich and I were to go together. I was SOOOOOO excited!!!

But I didn't want to just tell Rich, I wanted him to hear it for himself. So I waited - and waited - until he told me last night that he felt he should go with me. Youppieeeee!!! This will be so much fun! It's been a looooong time since we were doing ministry together...

In the meantime, Kylie woke up one day last week and did a drawing.

She told me it was her "diary".

She had divided the page into different segments, and this is what she had put on one of them:

While she was doing her picture, she had asked me how to spell Auckland. I didn't think anything of it - and - no - this is not what I told her to spell - LOL.

When she showed me the finished page, I asked her what everything meant.

When we came to the part you can see above, she said, "This means that Dad and you are going from Auckland to Africa."

To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement!

WOW!!! Talk about a confirmation!!!

Africa has not exactly been a common word in our household (not until now at least), and I can't remember the last time I even mentioned it to Kylie except for wayyyyy back last year...

I am so amazed at how God is orchestrating this venture - - - and how he spoke to/through Kylie - without her knowing - to confirm what he had put in my heart already, that Rich and I would go TOGETHER - - YAY!!!

Even though the trip will be everything BUT a vacation, I am looking forward to it MORE than I would for a vacation - - -

The beginnings of what's been in my and our hearts for sooooooooooooooooooooooo long...

And no, we have no idea yet WHO is going to look after our children for the 2-3 weeks, especially Kylie and Shayden, but I'm sure HE's already got a plan... :)

AMAZIMA - Rita's story

Now that it's official - that I am taking a trip to Africa next year - let me tell ya, if you're a regular reader of my blog you will get to "hear" a lot about the plight of the orphan in the next little while - besides of course, our own continuing family saga.

Since I'm not sure if most people actually read the stories in the links, I thought of posting one here. Remember, this was written by a (then) 19-year-old American girl (without medical training) living in Uganda.
She now has 13 girls living in her little house and caring/feeding another 400 orphans through a sponsorship program.

Have a look at the sidebar website AMAZIMA!

Yesterday a sweet little girl named Rita came to my house with two teeth that had been completely eaten through by a cavity and were almost completely rotted away. The holes looked like they were starting to get infected and the nerve was exposed; I cant imagine how much pain she was in.

I took her to the dentist, and they said they were closed. The dentist was in a hurry to leave and wouldn't help me, but he said I could use his things and do it myself.

Of course I was terrified, but I was more scared to think about the teeth not being removed immediately; they looked so painful.

I gave her a shot to numb her mouth, waited about ten minutes, tried to sterilize these tweezer things with a match and dug out what was remaining of her poor little teeth. I don't think she could feel it, but my heart hurt for her.

I took her back home, made her a hot bath and some soup. Then she had ice cream and slept in my bed under a big blanket. As i tucked the covers in around her and kissed her head she looked up at me with these big, wondering eyes.
Unbelievable as it is, she was SOOO happy. She told me that this was the best day of her life, even though her mouth hurt. She said that she would get her teeth pulled every day if she could stay with someone like me. And that made my heart hurt even more.

There are so many children out there that don't feel loved on a daily basis. So many children that don't have a person to hold their hand or rub their back when they are scared and in pain. So many children who don't have the simple pleasures of taking a warm bath or sleeping under a blanket. I would move all of them, ALL of them into my house if I could.

I wish I could love them all. I wish more people cared enough that they also wanted to love them all.

Sometimes I just can't even believe how blessed I am. I have always been loved, always been cared for, always been warm and well-fed. Its frustrating sometimes, but mostly its just motivating. Sometimes I feel so tired, and then something like this happens and I am reminded that I can give a child the best night of her life simply by naking her soup and kissing her forehead. Simply by love her.

Sometimes I feel so tired that I think if I give away any more of myself I may actually be empty. And then I remember, It is only in giving away the love given to me by the Father that I am ever actually full. And so I keep going because of Rita. Because kissing her forehead and saying 'I love you" actually did change the world for that little girl. Because maybe through my hands she can get just a glimpse of a fraction of the love her Maker has for her. There is nothing better.

C-O-M-P-E-L-L-I-N-G !!!!!!!!

After pouring out the lovin' on Kylie these last few days, I came across this post in my FAVOURITE blog last night.

What a contrast - the life of our Kylie (and other children) and the children you will be reading about.

I BEG you to take 10-15 minutes to read not only this post, but also Grace's story, or Rita's story, or the Scabies Family, part 1, the Scabies Family, part 2, or Sarah's story, or Sumini's story and Amazima, the Truth.

These are written by a now 20-year-old American girl. POWERFUL!!!

To say that I have been deeply compelled is an understatement.

I have been balling my eyes out over the misery of these children.

And I will do something about it.

I have been begging God for years now to allow me to do SOMETHING for the orphans.
Besides taking Shayden into our family, I have been feeling quite strongly from God that NOW is the time to pursue my life-long dream of ministering to the orphans - in Africa, to begin with.

I am still in prayer about the details, but I know that I will be taking a trip to Africa next year. YAY!!!!

Today

Unbelievable as it sounds, I've come down with yet another bad cold that has had me miserable now for 2 days (today was the worst).

AND - we had Kylie's birthday party today!

It went absolutely superbly well and the girls had a lot of fun! I AM SOOOOO GRATEFUL!!!

And thanks to an amazing husband and older children, we were able to pull it off. THANKS GUYS - YOU're the BEST!!!

Leilani made a Barbie-cake for Kylie.

Since we couldn't put candles on that one, I prepared a half an orange with 6 candles in it so that we could sing the HAPPY BIRTHDAY song and she could blow out her candles.

I had everybody close their eyes while we sang the song and brought "the cake" right in front of Kylie. When the song was finished, everybody could open their eyes - and what did they see???

The expression on their faces was priceless - - - an orange??? No cake???!!!

And then, Leilani came down the stairs with the "real deal" - the day was saved - hihi!

A little princess turned 6 today!

Kylie had a fabulous day and LOVED her gifts! Her party with 4 little friends will be on Saturday.

For the sake of family overseas, from whom most of her gifts came from, here are some photos for you to have a little glimpse. THANk YOU SO MUCH for all your love!!!

Miss you and wish we could celebrate WITH you!!!

WOW WOW WOW!!! Amazing doll house!!! THank YOU SOOO much!!!

And in the background you can see a part of a slide that Shayden has recently received from an overseas family member - THANk YOU!!!

Das ist die Puppenfamilie, Mutter - nur ein Teil deines Geschenks

And here she's talking on the phone with her Grandma from Germany

She's wanted one of those for so long - THAnk YOU!!!

more gifts from Germany - what a spoiled little girl!

...and Shayden LOVED the special card Kylie received from an aunt in Germany - it went down the slide more than once :)

After dinner, we went around the table with each family member affirming Kylie, telling her what we like about her, what qualities they see in her etc. You should have seen the expressions on her face - from growing about 2 inches with pride to tears running down her cheeks cuz she was so touched - - - she sure was devouring all the love poured out on her - oh, the power of words!

We love you sooooooooooo much, Kylie!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun with messy play

Here's a great recipe for "puff paint" that I picked up at playgroup this week:

Mix equal parts of self-raising flour and salt
Add water until you have a pasty, not too thick consistency
Divide into different small containers and add food colouring.

The kids - or you - can (finger-) paint onto cardboard - and then pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds or more, depending on thickness of "puff paint" = GREAT FUN!

Jeremie's slideshow

Here's the promised slide-show that Jeremie put together of the Fiji trip - quite a few more/new photos, music and HIS perspective:) - ENJOY (gotta turn off the music on the bottom of my blog first)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Marine Reach Fiji Photos

Here they are - finally some photos of Rich's and Jeremie's outreach to Fiji - too many to put on the blog, so I put them on facebook and you can look at them (about 30 I think) by clicking on the link.

Jeremie made a slideshow with mostly different photos - and music - I'll post that, too, when I get to it.

Spring, glorious spring!

Oh - I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo thrilled that winter seems to be on the way out and spring on the way in!

When I discovered the first cherry blossoms while out-and-about yesterday, I got all emotional- I was overjoyed at that amazing sight!

I LOVE spring - and I LOVE cherry trees in blossom - it's just starting, too, so I'll be able to savour it for a bit - AND - summer won't be too long either!

Spring is my FAVOURITE season - the first signs of life after "seeming" death...

It is starting to be a bit lighter at 7 in the morning, trees and flowers blossoming here and there, warmer, sunnier days.

I can hardly contain my excitement!

I accompanied Kylie's class today on an outing to a local park.

It was SUCH a gorgeous day - just makes me love THE CREATOR more and more and more!

This blessed Momma...

... gets to help one daughter plan her 6th birthday party (next week!) and another daughter her wedding (exactly 4 months from today!) - - - (and sandwiched in-between is the 18th birthday of a son, but he doesn't want any planning for now)

Funny thing is that I can just imagine the almost 6-year-old plan her wedding - she sure knows what she wants, just give her a few years - - - her whole party has actually already been planned out for weeks now, games, guests and food.

FUN!

Catching up...

While I am super-excited at the very first, hesitant signs of spring (like the first blossoms on our apricot-tree) - YAY!!! - I'm still typing this with my winter-coat (and freezing hands!)...

After catching up with Rich and Jeremie, celebrating Rich's birthday, going to a training for foster parents last week-end and another bout of croup for Shayden, we had some co-workers over yesterday afternoon for a time of fellowship and catching up with each other. How fun!

We feel very privileged to work with amazing people who have all given up everything to follow God's call on their lives to reach the lost and minister to the needy - wherever he would call.

Among the 6 couples/families (3 older, 3 younger), all except for me have traveled overseas in the last couple of months - 3 are gone at the moment.

The nations that were/are ministered in were the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji, USA, France, Australia and Myanmar.

I can't resist posting this photo - I took it last night while our (little) kiddos watched "Winnie the Poo" on DVD after a full-on afternoon of lots of playing.

In keeping with true YWAM-international-culture - these are the nationalities of these kids, all of them a mix :)

New Zealand (white),

Maori,

American,

Swiss,

French

German

Amazing, huh?! The new generation of emerging leaders - right in our living-room - love it!