Learning Not to Be Selfish

Meet the Rudy's. These are some good friends of ours that we had to selflessly allowed to leave us less than 24 hours ago. While we hold on to hope that we will get to visit with them again soon, it is not the same as knowing they are down the street and we will see them at least weekly for great fellowship. They have the cutest kids and are always willing to lend a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on. 

Do the Rudy's sound to good to be true? Well what if I add the fact that while we selfishly want to keep them to ourselves, they are unselfishly moving to Uganda to help others? I know! Here I am struggling daily with how I can help my self, make my world more comfortable and they are giving up everything and everyone they know to go across the world to help people they have never met! We send our prayers and wish them a smooth transition to their new life and that God will watch over them and provide them with everything they need; in particular some decent friends (we need them to want to come back) that will help them from getting to homesick.

The Rudy's are moving to Uganda because of an amazing organization called International Justice Mission, IJM. 

 

This video pretty much sums up how awesome IJM is. Located throughout the world they deal in the areas of sexual violence, slavery, illegal detention, police brutality, illegal property seizure and sex trafficking. You can get all sorts of information at ijm.org.

 It is only after we realize what amazing thing it is that Jesse will be doing that we can get past our sadness at losing them and look forward to seeing how God is going to use him to work in the lives of others.  

Have Some Compassion

I am a bleeding heart. There is nothing around it. I cry during sad movies, when other people are crying, during Extreme Home Makeover and most of all during Compassion Sunday. Even though I may cry at the drop of a hat Charles has never cried. Ever. (I may have seen a single tear drop once, but if I wrote that he would deny it until his ending days, saying he had something in his eye) So when Charles and I turned to each other after the request for help and said so how many? Not do you want to think about maybe, one day, in the future sponsoring a child. We wanted to know how much of our own comfort did we want to give up in order to sponsor as many children as possible. Now I will be honest we only are sponsoring one child, but we want to be able to continue our tithe to our own church, feed our own kids (I don't think Compassion has a local Virginia chapter) and we wanted the opportunity to help in other areas.  

If you want to learn more about Compassion International and how you can help visit www.compassion.com You can view images of the children who are waiting to be sponsored. While not as moving as Compassion Sunday, the faces of these children reach out and tug on your heart. 

A New Look

So, again a lot has happened since I last posted. Mainly we did welcome Margaret to the world in December. She is now almost four months old and greatly loved by her big brother.

While I would like to use this blog to keep people updated with current photos and information about what is going on in our lives I also would like to use it for another purpose. Hopefully, either way I will actually get around to keeping it updated.

Lately I have been wrestling with how I can reach others outside of my little world. I spend my days either alone with the kids or at my parents house. I do not really come into contact with anyone else outside the house. This makes it hard to really make an impact on anyone else's lives. Last night I finally made the decision to use my endless unproductive hours spent on the internet as a way to reach out to others. By way of this blog, email, and perhaps even my Facebook account I would like to touch others lives with information that has touched mine. 

In the past couple of months I have grown a heart for the children of Africa, namely those in Ethiopia. It probably greatly has to do with the fact that two families from our home-fellowship have either adopted from there or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Without knowing these friends my heart would not bleed for these children who faces have become  ingrained in my mind. I want to help these beautiful children, but I also realize that I cannot do much by myself. This is where my lovely friends come into help. 

Whether we talk daily or you are just reading this because you are curious about what I was writing, you can help. Get involved or  follow along with what I hope will be a journey in helping others. You can even pass along information or connect to my blog so that we can make a spider web of connections.

We must start somewhere and what better place then with Bale.

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

This beautiful child was going to be thrown into the Omo River to die because her top teeth grew in before her bottom teeth. Bale is the first child they have been able to save from superstition that runs deep in rural Ethiopia. This child was just saved within the past few months and has spurred the creation of the Drawn From Water orphanage. To hear more of the story and how you can help visit www.drawnfromwater.com

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress

James 1:27