Beautiful feet

I love that verse in Romans.  "How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good tidings!"  When I die (a long time from now, I hope!), I want it to be said of me that I had beautiful feet.  I want to be an announcer of good tidings, a giver of hope and encouragement, a teller of good news.  I pray that Dave and the kids and I will do exactly that in January when we travel to Ethiopia with Hope for His Children on a mission trip.

We will be going with about 20 others, and we will be staying primarily in the capital city, Addis Ababa.  We will be working with some amazing organizations:  Compassion Family International, a drop-in center for impoverished children; Ethiopia Youth Soccer Ministry, a sports program for street kids in Addis; Onesimus Children Development Association, a drop-in center for homeless street children in Addis.  The amazing thing about these organizations is that they have been started and are run by Ethiopians who have sacrificed everything to serve the suffering children of Ethiopia.  There will be other organizations as well, but these are ones we worked with on Hope for His Children's 2011 trip, which I went on with my mom, who is with me in the picture on the right waiting for her turn to be braided!  I sure look forward to going back and supporting these new friends.  We will take loads of donations, words of encouragement, and hearts full of love for the kids and the adults who faithfully serve them.

However, we have much to do before then!  First, there is a large amount of money to raise.  It costs alot to go on mission to Addis Ababa, and there are 4 of us going!  We have started our fundraising.  In fact, dear friends from our church will be hosting a fundraising dinner for us tomorrow night.  They have also asked all 4 of us to speak.  When we mentioned it to our kids (who are only 8 and 6), I expected a quick "I don't want to!"  But neither of them responded that way.  They were quiet and thoughtful, and Kiki, my wild one, responded with a short and sweet statement about why she wanted to go.  How humbling it is to see God working in my children as we prepare. 

I was also humbled when we went back home to Illinois to visit my parents this past weekend.  I attended the same church my whole life until I moved away to college and then married.  The church is a small, white country church, just like in the pictures you see in calendars and magazines.  The people in that church are family to me, many of them actual blood relatives, but the remainder every bit as much family even though our blood lines don't cross.  As we joined hands to close out the service on Sunday morning in prayer, the pastor stepped toward me and handed me a check - an offering of support and love from my home church.  I was moved to tears as I accepted that check and they prayed over our family and our upcoming trip.  I was absolutely blown away later that day when I opened that folded check and saw the amount.  That tiny little country church has already funded 10% of our whole trip with just one check.  I was drawn to my knees.

God is amazing, and I love seeing the wonder of Him in His precious children - living, breathing images of Him on this earth.  How much they mean to me.  What a beautiful representation of what it really means to be the body of Christ.

There is also the matter of immunizations.  I go tomorrow to get mine.  That visit should be easy, as I went before my trip last year and got everything updated from our trip 4 years ago.  I will need one or two at most, I suspect.  Dave will need a few more, but more than anything the kids are TERRIFIED about this part.  They heard all the stories about how Dave and I had to get 8 (all at one time - 4 in each arm) the first time we went.  Carlos has never handled shots very well, and when Kiki first heard that she had to get shots to go, she flatly said she wasn't going!  (This is the child that has talked non-stop about going since I went last year.)  Pray for us.  I pray for the wisdom to know what they really should have and what they can be spared.  I pray for no side effects or long-term consequences.  I pray they will be courageous and handle it with grace.  (Carlos actually kicked a nurse once in panic mode over an immunization!)

The list goes on, but for now that is enough.  Pray for us, please!  Pray that the funds will come and that God will cover us with His grace and mercy as we face the dreaded injections!  Pray that he prepares our hearts for the work He has laid out for all of us to do there.