A Powerful Touch

I want to share a very unique and meaningful experience I had a couple days ago.  This past Friday, I was able to go on what Peace House calls a verification trip.  The point of verification trips is to make surprise visits to the kids who have applied to be students at the school next year, and decide whether or not they should be accepted. This involves talking to family members, teachers, neighbors, and the kids themselves, and also trying to detect for any lies about their circumstances.  It is fairly common for families to be deceitful to help increase the chances of the kid's acceptance.  A kid last year even went as far as moving to a poorer home for a couple of weeks during the time they expected one of the school's visits.  On Friday, there were three teachers, the boys patron, and myself, and our goal was to locate and make decisions on three of the kids.  None of the kids really had addresses, and so it was an adventure just trying to find them.  For two of the kids, we first found the location of their siblings, and then picked the siblings up from their school so they could show us the way.  I knew these kids would all be very poor, but it truly was eye opening to actually visit their villages and homes.  One of the home visits really had an impact on me.  The home, if you can call it one, consisted of two very small rooms with mud floors and no furniture except for a few wooden stools and a tiny talbe.  We sat in there in the dark (no electricity), covered in buzzing flies.  There was a slight smell of cow dung, for many walls in Africa are covered in old, dry cow dung to hold the house together, and this house was no exception to that wonderful technique.  While we were talking to a neighboring mom inside, there was a very small girl standing shyly in the corner.  After a couple of minutes, she gained some confidence and made her way closer to us visitors.  When she got close, I stuck my hand out to her.  Slowly, she put her tiny hand out and gently set it on my hand.  In another minute, she had both her hands on my palm, with all her weight leaning completely on me.  That image of her tiny black hands lying on my big white palm has been very ingrained in my mind since Friday.  I have been thinking, if only hands had minds of their own and could tell their stories, how incredibly different the stories would be of my hands and the girls hands.  Why was she born there in a home where hope seems so dim and I was born in a home and into a family overflowing with hope.  Why does she lie on a mud floor in tattered clothes and most likely hungry, and I generally lie on a comfortable bed in nice clothes and on an overly full stomach? My answer: God's wisdom and understanding is way beyond my own and I have no clue why. But, after a couple of days of mulling over my experience in my head, a verse put a new light on the picture of the hands.  The verse is Psalm 73:23, and it says "Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand." Often times, especially when I feel kind of spiritually dry, I will read Scripture or pray with one hand out imagining it being held by the Lord.  In those moments, I feel loved, I feel warmth, and I feel hope.  Although my situation is a hundred times better in worldly standards than that little girl, our hands have the same possibility of the incredible joy and hope - to be held by their loving and caring Creator and Savior.  God is always with me as he is in that dark, mud and cow dung covered room.  I do pray that her worldly situation improves, that her brother, whom we accepted later that day, is able to bring much needed support to his family through his education at Peace House.  But much more so, I pray she feels the warmth of her sweet, tiny hands being held by her true Father, especially as she has no earthly father.  If you read this, give thanks for God's many material blessings to you, but above all else, give thanks for His saving grace and I encourage you to put out your hand for Him to hold and guide you with. 

One more important thing:

1) Zach and I have just decided that we will be heading to Zambia in a couple of weeks, where we will spend about a month and a half working as volunteers at a missionary training center there.  The opportunity just opened up for us, and after praying and thinking about it for a couple of days, we think we feel led there.  We are very excited about it! I will give more details about it later.

Love you all very much,

Andrew

P.S. Zach loves you all very much as well.  He has been emailing more of his thoughts instead of blogging.  Please email either of us whenever you want.  We'd love to hear personally from anybody and everybody!

Campout Pictures

Hey, here are some pictures from our hike up the river, and also some of our friends at the school. They are on shutterfly again, and the link is:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BaN2bRq0ZOSg

The contrasting pictures

Hey friends and family,
It has been another week here, and we have really done a lot in that time, and have had a lot on our minds. We were at Peace House all last week, and this weekend we got to go on an incredible campout that included the most exciting and beautiful hike of my life. Life at Peace House has really been fun lately because of our growing relationships with the kids. It is so great having a few of them becoming comfortable enough to come and chill in our room with us. Here are some names of the kids we are getting to know the best: Good Hope, Fred, Alex, Andrew, Johnson 1, Johnson 2, Cosmas, and Selamani. I’d love it if you would say a prayer for them. I played some soccer today for the first time, and got absolutely owned. I had the ball go through my legs and popped over my head multiple times. I already knew I was slow, and playing today gave me a new reassurance of that. But now we also have a volleyball court set up, so that has been fun. We continue to do outside work during the day. Lately, we have mostly been digging holes to plant trees in.

This weekend, Zach, Max, Gina, and I drove about 5 hours away to a really neat campout spot. We spent about 3 hours on a dirt road that felt more like a rollercoaster or horse ride. The road took us through the bush, and probably some of the world’s prettiest scenery. We passed Maasai villages, naked kids in muddy puddles, thousands of cows and donkeys, and some amazing animals, like zebra, ostrich, wildebeest, grant and thompson gazelle. We ate a picnic style lunch on the way that I definitely will never forget. We were surrounded by animals and mountains, a smoking volcano, and absolutely no one in sight for miles and miles. We spent two days camping in tents, which is always fun, whether you are in your backyard or in the African bush! On Saturday, we went hiking, and it was so amazing. I wish you could have seen it, because every moment of it was almost breathtaking. We hiked up a river, surrounded by tall cliffs and mountains and palm trees. Some of the way, we were actually walking in the water, and other times we had to do some pretty serious climbing. In the four hours it took for us to get to the source of the river, we saw close to 50 waterfalls both in the river and pouring from the cliff on the side. We finally got to the source, and it was the most beautiful place I have ever stood. On three sides stood a 500 foot cliff wall pouring out crystal clear water from what seemed like a hundred spots. It was like we were the only people on Earth living in the most glorious and peaceful place created. I stood on the face of the cliff for 20 minutes in awe at its beauty and the glory of its Creator. I felt in that time God was strengthening my hope of our future glory in Him and our eternal home.

God let me see one more thing this weekend I’d like to share with you, but it is a grotesque picture, in sharp contrast to the picture of the river source. On our drive back, when we were only about an hour from home, I saw what looked like a dead animal on the road ahead. But as we came closer, the dead animal became a very young dead boy lying dead. He must have just been hit by a car, who we were told most likely just drove off. His mother was wailing on the other side of the road. I was really shaken up after seeing that, especially because I had just seen something so beautiful and full of life. In those next couple of hours, I thought about the sharp contrast between life full of God and life absent of His grace and love. It was so sad, but at the same time I was so thankful to know we worship a God who has prepared for us a glorious home, a “kingdom which cannot be shaken.” He is our only hope in a pretty dark world. I pray that you would thank God at this moment for His wonderful gift, and also pray for those who do not know Him as Savior. Thanks so much for reading about our lives here. You all mean so much to us.
Much love,
andrew and zach

First Pictures!!

Hey,
We uploaded some pictures to shutterfly. I hope you enjoy them. Here is the link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BaN2bRq0ZOLA

First Week-by Andrew

Hey! So I am attempting to write my first real blog about this adventure I am on. I want to write first about we have been doing, and then after, I will write more about what has been going on in my mind and my heart, for those of you that really want to know that stuff.

I can’t believe I have only been here 5 days, because I feel like I could write so much. The best way I can describe my time so far is very random and very good! We have spent a couple nights at my cousins and a couple nights at Peace House. I have slept in a very nice bed, and also in a very rickety bunk bed that Zach and I put together. I have gone to the bathroom in a toilet, on the grass, and in a very stinky hole in an outhouse. I have eaten a really good bacon hamburger and I have eaten a couple things I can’t pronounce the name of and really don’t enjoy putting in my mouth. I have taken bucket showers with a headlamp outside, in a house with no electricity, and outside in a special shower hut with a stone floor with a beautiful view of a 15,000 foot mountain. The shower outside facing the mountain is probably the best shower I’ve taken in my life, but I won’t go into that, because that is pretty weird to talk about. We have been going to bed very early, before 10 every night cause we are so tired, and getting up early. Most of the day, Zach and I have spent walking around the school property doing random little projects, like hanging up whiteboards in classrooms, planting grass, building our own toilet for our outhouse, and spray painting trees that we will have to start moving tomorrow. We get an awesome tea break around 10:45, which I really wish I could have everyday of my life! My favorite part of our days so far though has been trying to get to know all the kids. They are so great and so nice, which makes it hard because I want to get to know them so bad but they do not know much English, so it is pretty difficult. But smiles and the thumbs up have gone a pretty long way. We are learning a lot of their names, and we are getting more comfortable with each other already. They love soccer and we are trying to introduce the Frisbee, which has been real funny! I am so excited but the rest of the time we have here to hang out with them. And I am confident that the Lord is able to spread His love through us even if we can share very few words. They all come from either families that no longer are there or very hard homes, so there is a lot of pain in each one of them. But it has been such a joy to listen to them sing, and laugh, and hear them say how thankful they are to be in school. Wow! If only I could say that honestly. All in all, we have had a lot of fun and are so excited to be here.

As for what’s going on in my mind and in my heart, I will try to write a little, even though I’m not sure of it all. Honestly, things feel pretty ordinary right now. Yes, I am in a part of the world so much different that what I am used to, but my days still involve trying to pursue the Lord, often failing, but remaining in His glorious grace. I have had no times of intense emotion or even a time when I felt extremely close to the Lord. I tried to come here not expecting much, but at the same time I am confident that the Lord has so much to teach me about Himself and myself, and I long for Him to use this time to draw me much closer to Him. I am so excited about the amount of time in my day that is free, and that I will have to spend directly with Him. Please pray that my desire for that intimate time with Him would really grow. I read the first couple chapters of the book, Celebrating Disciplines by Richard Foster, and it really encouraged me to “increase the weight” in my spiritual walk with Christ, meaning pursue Him at a higher level, and incorporate more ways in which He can work in me and through me. Please pray with me that God’s love will be revealed to each and every kid at Peace House. Also, please pray with me for the other two volunteers here right now who are not believers. I love each of you so much. Thanks to everyone who wrote me letters of encouragement and Scripture. What a joy and blessing! May God’s will be done in each of our lives, and let us remind ourselves daily that He is deserving of all praise and glory! Miss and love you,
Andrew

We are here!

Hey!
We made it to Africa! We are at Peace House now, and have moved in to our dorm. It is really cool here, and we have had a lot of fun meeting kids and doing a couple of work projects. We will write more this weekend and post some pictures, but for now, we just wanted to let you know we made it and are really happy to be here. Thanks for your prayers, and sorry this is so short, but we do not have much time now.
With much love,
Andrew and Zach