Kylie's blog

Kylie, with Leilani's help, is writing a blog during our USA trip. Here's the link.

We've been very busy - since arriving almost 3 weeks ago, we've only had 2 evenings that we've not been with people. It's full-on, intense, but we feel blessed by so many wonderful friends!

God is good!

We were in Redding yesterday, are in Eugene, Oregon, today and off to Portland tomorrow until Monday, when we continue on to Washington.

What a special treat today to drive through beautiful scenery!

What would YOU do???

IF

• You were the 7th child to your 22-year-old mother

• Your father was killed when you were in your mother's womb

• You had to be taken to be raised by your grandmother, because your mother just couldn't take care of you/feed you

• You were raised in the slums by your grandmother, along with about 24 siblings/cousins most of whom had lost their parents to HIV/AIDS - in a tiny "house"

• You spent most of your childhood fending for yourselves, trying to find food at the garbage dump where the "rich people" dump their trash.

• You came to know JESUS at the age of 13 and became part of a good church.

• Your grandmother died when you were 14

• You were 16 and started seeing little children all around you that had NOBODY to care for them, feed them, love them???

What would YOU do???

Praise did what she felt Jesus would do:

Take them and love them and trust God to provide for all of them.

Needless to say, 10 needy children later,

left on the streets and struggling to survive,

she PRAYED - PRAYED HARD!

After a long time of prayer, these words came to her mind:

youth having mission

Going to an internet cafe, she typed in the words "youth mission" and guess who she ended up finding???

The Youth With A Mission leader for Uganda,

Who is the man who started

Orphans kNOw More

Need I say more???

This precious 24-year-old single girl with her 10 children have been living with his family (with already 21 children - 16 adopted) since January of this year.

This is what she says:

"At the moment, I am praying for my own land so that we may build a home there and have sufficient space to grow food to feed all the children, and even help more children. I have a vision of building a school for abandoned, orphaned and disadvantaged children and spreading the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We may not be able to do what Praise is doing.

But we can do something

That's why we're doing what we're doing at the moment.

Fundraising is neither fun nor easy,
but we will continue to travel and share

and PRAY

for GOD to open hearts

so that Praise can continue loving and caring for her children

and many more people like her, too!

They do what they can do,

let US do what WE can do!!!

Every dollar given (go to the website above, marked "Praise") goes straight to Uganda to help this beautiful ministry.

Sorry, got no photo of her family at the moment.

Volcanic ash - just for us??!

What a MIGHTY GOD we love and serve!

On the 2 1/2 hour drive to Auckland airport, both Rich and I felt shattered. Besides both being exhausted from a very intense 2 months without hardly a day off, and a huge push to get out of the house, I was feeling sick and the thought of flying for 13 hours made me feel even weaker.

We both honestly didn't know how we were going to make it ~ ~ ~

I told Rich that all I was longing for was lying in my bed (with fresh sheets) in my clean home.

On arrival at the airport, when I saw the sign on the departure display that our Qantas flight was cancelled ~ due to volcanic ash coming over from Chile ~ I felt relieved ~ probably the only one at the airport ~ hehe!

It was early Monday morning and as we were amongst the first travelers with cancelled flights, we were able to re-book a flight that same night with Air New Zealand. The VERY friendly staff also immediately booked us into one of the finest hotels in Auckland, paid our taxi there and back and 2 meals - or better: FEASTS!

Just those extra few hours of rest - in a nice, clean, luxurious bed - were gonna make all the difference, I knew - to both Kylie's ears and mine, as well as to Rich!

By the way, when Kylie woke up that morning, the first thing she said, very excitedly was: "I know my ears are gonna be ok".

The buffet at the hotel made our family almost think we'd made it to heaven for the wedding-feast! AMAZING!!!!! Never seen/tasted anything like it!!!

While lying on the bed, we watched the news and heard about the earthquakes in Christchurch. It was surreal. Here we were in complete luxury (for a few hours), and there were the traumatized people of Christchurch - once again - including our son Jeremie with his DTS-team. We were able to call him within minutes of the big 6.0 shake - and they all seemed quite shaken - not just literally - but safe (they left Christchurch, as planned, on Tuesday).

We also watched the news about thousands of travelers stranded at airports in Aussie and NZ, and here we were - SO SPOILED by our FATHER!!!!

The plane trip was very easy, as the kids got to have their own entertainment - oh, what a difference to days go past, when we would travel with little ones and had to entertain them ourselves...! SPOILED again!!

Kylie's ears had absolutely NO problems!!!

I had quite strong pain on our way down, in spite of medicine, but as I was engrossed in a most encouraging talk with the lady next to me about Uganda, I was distracted enough to handle it... ;)

There's so much more to say, but just wanted to GIVE GLORY TO GOD for HIS KINDNESS, GOODNESS and MERCY on me and us, for miraculously healing Kylie's ears and giving our family an unexpected blessing when we most needed it.

We KNOW that this was also the result of YOUR PRAYERS!

So - THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We would appreciate your ongoing prayers, as I'm still not 100% and there have been a few unexpected "hick-ups" with our fundraising materials. Never a dull moment!

Please pray for us

Took Kylie to the doctor this morning as she's had a bad night - with an earache.

We are flying out in less than 2 days.

Doctor said she's "unfit to travel", but he will allow her to travel - "at our risk".
She's on antibiotics but that's no guarantee that it'll get better.

Hmmm, I think we need some prayers here for quick healing in Kylie's ears.

I have also have blocked ears for over a week now (no pain, though).
According to doctor, there's a secondary infection...

Our mighty, mountain-moving, awe-inspiring God is ABLE to bring HEALING to both of us!

Thanks for praying! Appreciate it!!

I like it!

"Many small people

who in small places

do many small things

can alter the face of the world."

Inscription on the last remaining section of the Berlin Wall

What an encouragement

and how TRUE!!!

None of the small things we do every day gets wasted!


5 more days until our trip...

RescueNet training finished!!!

Rich is on the way to Auckland to take a van-load of people to the airport.

The ResuceNet training - first ever in New Zealand - is FINISHED!!!

YEEEHAAAA!!!

It went REALLY well - and I am so proud of Rich and the high caliber staff who pulled it off!

The staff came all the way from South Africa, China, Australia and the UK!

From what I heard it was VERY WELL DONE - professionally - and hopefully the 8 first level students and 3 2nd level students were well equipped for bringing God's love in practical ways to people hurting as a result of tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes and the like...

Here are some photos:



Since they needed a whole bunch of 'actors' for the different scenarios,

Leilani volunteered - amazing drama-queen that she is!

She apparently did incredibly well ~ and enjoyed it lots!


Here she was pulled from the rubble of a pretend earthquake during the final scenario which lastet 3+ hours.

GOD LOVES ME!

I've had "one of those" mornings ~ ~ ~

waking up completely overwhelmed by the myriad of things that still have to get done before we start our big 3-month-trip -

exactly 2 weeks from today!

And when one of my sweet kiddos starting acting up about not having the right clothes to wear and having yet another "morning scene" ...

(I have ZERO tolerance for fussing about clothes ~ or food ~ since coming back from Africa!!!)

I lost my temper with her - ouch!

- and on the way to school had to apologize -

(just like she did, too)

I was feeling really crappy as I drove on to take Shayden to preschool

and I could hardly believe it, when out of the blue, I hear his sweet voice from the backseat:

"God loves you, Mummy!"

This truth spoken by our little boy who is just barely starting to speak in whole sentences ~

~ it moved me DEEPLY! ~





Just before driving off to school with the kids I had checked the emails

and what did I see???

An email from our beloved son Richard in Uganda!!!

We hadn't heard from him for over a month

Hadn't been able to get a hold of him

Were concerned for him, as there've been violent riots in Kampala where he lives

And still last night when we tried calling, we couldn't get through.

So it was extremely special to receive an email from him!!

He'd been in hospital - again (this is the second time since we saw him in December!)

but is fine now.

What touched me so much about his email was when he wrote:

"... I love you every single day of my life...

God loves you but I love you more"

Definitely brought a chuckle to my stressed state-of-being

So when I realized - in the car - on the way to preschool -

that God had used my 2 adopted boys to reassure me of HIS LOVE today,

It took all the self-control I could muster to hold it together until I had dropped Shayden off and was on my way back home...

THANK YOU LORD FOR LOVING ME!!!

THANK YOU for each one of my children -

Thank you for Shayden and Richard who YOU have placed in our hearts and family



and who you used today to remind me of what I needed to hear most:

That YOU LOVE ME!!!

Longing for HIM

My heart YEARNS for HIM - the lover of my soul

the reason I LIVE

and LOVE!

HE has captured my heart

and I am addicted to HIM!

When I don't get to spend much time with him

I miss him so much!!!

This song just brought me to tears

I'm soooooooooo hungry and thirsty for HIM!

SO LONGING for FAMILY!!!

Over and over, my heart is broken for the orphans - those SO longing to BELONG to a FAMILY!!!

And I'm stirred up when I read this or this blog-post about children in Uganda!

EVERY CHILD needs to be in a FAMILY!!!

Our family is getting ready to go to the USA/Canada - from June 13th to the middle of August -

from West to East

{and back again - at least Rich, Kylie and Shayden -
Leilani and I are hoping to be able to fly on to Uganda from the East Coast}


to share with whoever would want to hear and see -

about the Orphans Know More ministry in Uganda.
The one I've shared about before... several times :) (and you won't be able to shut me up, either)

... hoping and praying to raise awareness

prayer and

support

for this wonderful ministry that wants to multiply all over Uganda and Africa!


This is a huge undertaking for us - organizationally and financially -

and we have quite a few mountains that still need to be moved.

But in times of weakness, like today, where I haven't slept much, am not feeling great and will need to lean on God for strength to make it through this day (what in the world am I doing blogging?!!)

I get energized by watching this video - and off I go -

Kylie's day

I'm not feeling very well tonight (battling a cold that's going 'round), so I thought you'd enjoy Kylie blogging for ya - hehe.

Here is what she wrote up about her day:

My little brather is seck he has A tarbl cof . I stad howm because

I dednt feel varee wall I plaed with my brither I had a

BORING day after dinr I rot thes story.