Trust and service

Never did I imagine, that I would have the opportunity to travel 1/2 way around the world, work with an amazing group of people who selflessly devote their time to save the lives of thousands of orphaned children in a country so affected by HIV/AIDS.  Last June, I spend 2 weeks doing work that would forever change my perspective on humanity and what the world around me is supposed to look like.  

June 2013 will be my 2nd opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe and work with ZOE, Zimbabwean Orphan Empowerment Program, to distribute goats, chickens, rabbits, sheep and now pigs to children who will be able to build micro businesses and also feed themselves and their families.  

Tanya, the director of AFCA, mentioned she was returning to Zim to follow up on the progress of the last year, and immediately my heart was saying "go".  I managed to talk my husband into being OK with it.  As I got more excited about going back, problems arouse with funding my training.  I hesitated to book my trip, disheartened that the money wasn't going to be there for me to go.  Tanya, with her amazing faith, told me to go on faith and book the trip.  So I paid for the ticket and prayed.  I was told that ZOE would need about 1700.00 to fund the trainings that I would be going on, so now I had a goal.  

I started raising small amounts through my photography, believing that God would provide.  Again, how small my faith.  Tanya applied for funding through a program called Spark Change for Youth.  It was a voting contest for your favorite charity, the winners then were able to get a matching donation from Microsoft up to 100,000.  AFCA won enough votes to participating in the matching funds.   Once the donations were able to be accepted, it was just a matter of hours and all 100,000 was matched.  AFCA had raised enough money to fund not only my training, but several other projects.  And to top things off, Microsoft added another 100,000 to be matched .  Tanya posted a plea on Facebook that AFCA needed only 1000.00 to be the top recipient and would receive a bonus for raising the most money. Again, God is faithful and a donor pledged 1000.00.  All in all, AFCA earned 60,000 for the projects they support through Central and Southern Africa.  Thousands of children and families will benefit from the generosity of so many and Microsoft's matching donations.  

So in just a few months, again, I will have the amazing opportunity to see the hand of God at work in Zimbabwe and work to do a small part in being the hands and feet of Jesus.  

TIME....where does it go?

I am pathetic at the blog thing.  What the world?  Time goes by so fast, before you know it, winter is over, spring is on its way.  Weeds are already popping up in the flower beds... Whats up with that?  Seems like we just had Christmas!  And when I look at my blog it was just Christmas!    Time flies, kids grow, wrinkles appear overnight.  Lucky for me my oldest daughter is a hair stylist and keeps me from looking old AND gray.

7 years. 7 years, WOW.  That is how long ago it was that God impressed on my husband's heart that our family wasn't complete.  I, on the other hand, had known that for some time  (lest I say years...)  but he wasn't on board until I released my grip on what I wanted and turned it over to God to show me what He wanted.  And viola... we were on our way to foster care training, CPR training, homestudy, interviews, child proofing our home, etc. We prepared ourselves for a 3-4 yr old little girl, being that we had all girls home at the time and knew we couldn't have older boys for lack of space...Little did we know that God had already chosen our children and had everything under control.  6 months passed until we got our approval letter, stating we were an approved foster care home, noon on a thrusday afternoon.

2pm the phone rang and on the other end our placement coordinator called asking me if we would accept  5 and 1/2 month old twin!  I laugh out loud in disbelief at how small my faith really was.   By 6pm our family had grown from 7 to 9.   Did you catch that?  We began our foster care journey 6 months before we got the call to add the twins to our family, 5 1/2 month old twins.  Timing is everything.  God's timing is EVERYTHING.   He knew the children that would join our family, he was putting in place what needed to be done, at just the right time, for just the right purpose.  9 months later on 7/7/07, our youngest was born, soon to join  her older siblings and too become a part of our forever family.  1 year and 11 months. all 3 were adopted.  We are now a family of 10 plus a son in law and 2 beautiful grandchildren.

Time...goes so quickly.  But if we commit our time to the Lord, trust His will in our life, we hopefully surrender to His timing 

Holidays...I love Christmas, the idea of Christmas, the music, the smells, the baking, the activities, not so much the shopping and I really do despise the wrapping.  With 8 children, son-in-law, 2 grandbabies, husband, extended families, spending gets out of control.  But I do look forward to the anticipation of Christmas.  I am a giver, I like to give to those I love, but it gets expensive.  I spend most of the time thinking I haven't gotten enough and then after all is said and done, realize I once again over did it.  Gifts go un-played with, or not worn.  Things get returned, exchanged and all the decorations go back into the basement. I usually keep the lights and garland up for a few months after Christmas, just because its a pain to take down.  One thing I realize is as I get older and my family gets older, is its not about the giving of gifts but the receiving of the ultimate gift of Christmas... Christ himself.  Christ birth is the reason Christmas exists and as the country and world grow farther and farther from that truth... I realize that I need to grower closer to the reason for the season and not worry about if I have gotten enough gifts, or the right gifts, but that I embrace the real gift, the Birth of a Savior.

Life changing... Changing Lives

Wow, life really gets away from you doesn't it?  Or I should say it got away from me.  Time flies.  Africa was life changing.  I spent 2 weeks working with an organization called ZOE, distributing goats to children who have been orphaned by AIDS.  I conducted several trainings on goat care and  health issues.  Since my return I have had several updates that the goats are doing great, reproducing and providing invaluable nutrition to children who have very little.  Everyone should travel to a 3rd world country once in their life.  I think the world would be a changed place if that were the case.  Once you see how truly blessed we are to live in the wealthiest country in the world, you soon realize how unimportant our "stuff" really is.  The people of Zimbabwe are a spiritual people who trust God for EVERY THING.  Not just in crisis, not when life gets hard..life is always hard but they love their families and they do what they can.  This is their life and they know no other way to live.  I hope to go back in the near future.  We all can make a difference if we give just a little of ourselves.   .Visit www.AFCAids.org to see how you can help.

off to Africa

In less than 3 weeks I will board a plane to Zimbabwe with a mission family working for AFCA.  American Foundation for Children with Aids is a non profit organization that provides life saving medication for kids in Africa with HIV/AIDS.  It's a small, I say very small, group of dedicated, loving people who's hearts goes out to kids with little to no other options.  I am going along to help set up self-sustainability projects for orphaned kids.  We will be giving families goats, chickens and rabbits to raise and ultimately use to self support themselves.  I have no idea what I am getting myself into.  Leaving my own 8 kids and husband to travel almost 10,000 miles to be the hands and feet of Jesus to kids who can't even imagine the world any other way.  I am blessed. Period.   We take so much for granted.  I try to imagine my children suddenly being orphaned and having NO option, NO one to care for them, and having to rely completely on themselves, or the help of others to survive.  Think about it, this is the life for 1.5 millions orphans in Zimbabwe!  Unimaginable.  I read a post on another blog of a mom pointing out that we as a society need to stop bickering about which mommy style is better, who works harder, we need to stop getting sucked in to the media's constant pitting of one mom against another and stand up and help those who wish they had a mom.  What if only 1/2 of us stood up for the least of these, who followed the command of Christ to love and care for the orphans and widows of this world.  Imagine the future we could paint for the next generation.....

20 days and my life will be forever changed....

if you'd like to helps support this mission, go to www.afcaids.org and save a life, literally!

Jodi

Where it all begins...

For me, the joy of life is found in the details.  

I am blessed to have many people in my circle of love and care and if I'm not careful, I become overwhelmed if I don't stop and appreciate the small things that can get lost in the chaos of life. There are many details that need to be figured out on a daily basis, from whats for breakfast to barn chores (which involves a menagerie of critters) to household chores to the everyday needs of those I love.  And at any moment things can get shaken up, shuffled around and re-prioritized depending on where the greatest need is at that moment.  If you are a mom, you know exactly what I am talking about. 

 In addition to having the most important, under appreciated job in the world, I am also a lover of all things beautiful in nature and the world around me.  Most of my life has been spent living in a rural community in Central Pa, and after 25 yrs of marriage, 8 kids and 2 grandbabies, my husband and I took our first trip out of the country to England.   That is where I completely fell in love with the art of photography and simply being able to freeze beauty in a single snapshot.  I would like to think that over the past 2 years, I have be able to improve my knowledge and skill enough to create some pretty good pieces of artwork from my own little world. 

 I also enjoy anything fiber related, I  spin when time is available and I have been creating specialty yarns from different fibers from our own flock of rare sheep and angora goats and rabbits.  I love the artistic side of dyeing the yarn. And have taught myself simple knitting and crocheting skills, enough to clothe my family in plenty of hats and scarfs.  I have also been making my own soap for about 10 years, and although I do no advertising, I have managed to build a nice client base of loyal customers over the years and am able to make enough to support my habit.  

I guess it makes sense that I have always been a visual person, I learn by seeing, my emotions are stirred by my view of life around me. I have taken on the challenges that God has blessed me with by focusing on the small details and leaving the "big" picture up to Him.