liberathe

hooray! the day has finally come!

last year i made a small business loan through Kiva to a woman in senegal who wanted to purchase pigs to expand her small business that supporter her family of 8 children. i just received notice this morning that the loan has been repaid, and my money was available for me to withdraw, or loan again... obviously i went with loan again!

kiva connects people through lending to alleviate poverty. lending partners - just people like me - each lend a small amount to an entrepreneur who is building a way out of poverty for them & their families. once the business is thriving and making a profit, the entrepreneur repays the loan, and you can loan again. one small loan can help dozens (or more!) small business owners create a new life... not of handouts, but of self-sufficiency, dignity, and success.

meg helped me choose a new business woman to support... liberathe - a woman who sells local food & drink to tourists in northern rwanda. she is raising 8 children, and wants to expand her business to help pay their school fees.

if you have a minute, go check out kiva. your $25 could change a life... and then another... and then another...

when i am so hurt & so furious...

Be Still, My Soul"
by Catharina von Schlegel, 1697-?
Translated by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

i hope kyra gets rich.... REALLY rich....

my daughter is rolling in expendable income these days. between christmas money, birthday money and babysitting, she's got maybe $75 burning a hole in her pocket! :)

yesterday i received in the mail the most recent initiative from world vision: medicines and micronutrients for refugee/war ravaged children. with corporate sponsorship, any donation multiplies 15x... so a gift of $1 multiplies to $15, etc. i told kyra that i was going to give something to world vision, and that she could too, if she wanted... her heart is always directed toward those in need. she eagerly skipped upstairs to find her wallet, and came down with a couple of folded bills... which i unfolded to reveal $25. a third of her money.

i was reminded that the year the tsunami hit in sri lanka, she had just gotten $40 for her birthday, and asked if it would be ok if she gave the whole amount to the tsunami relief effort. which she did. without anyone asking her to. and with so much joy.

so i hope kyra gets rich. really, really rich. the world will be made more beautiful by her regardless...but if there were more kyra's in the world, imagine the relief of poverty & pain there could be.

maybe Jesus was on to something when he said we must become like little children...

out of body experiences

i realized last night that i don't know what i look like anymore.

i was looking through pictures from thanksgiving, and there i was... smiling, holding babies, making faces, caught unawares... and none of them looked like me. at least not the me i think i see when i look in the mirror. how can that be?

how can that girl be me? i barely recognized her...though i couldn't put my finger on the reasons why.

it was very disconcerting.

too good to be true?

wow - a whole new decade. maybe i am getting old, because this decade passed in a blink. someone on facebook yesterday wished to me that my new decade would be a better one, and my immediate thought was that i didn't think it could be... for all it's ups & downs, the first decade of the millennium was pretty darn good for me... thank you, God!

• i had my beautiful, if mercurial, meg... the best thing to happen, and kicking the decade off with a bang! :)
• we bought our first home
• we were able to live in alberta close to curtis' wonderful family for 4 years
• we were called to NC - warm here i come! :)
• we have met some of the best people and made some of the most enduring friendships of our adult lives
• i found the brother i never knew i had, and he made my life infinitely fuller... literally & figuratively! :)
• we have seen God provide & care for us in the most remarkable, miraculous ways. if i wrote them all down here, i would be embarrassed at the grace we have been drenched in.

so i choose to face this new decade without fear - if God is for us, who can be against us? no matter what lies ahead, the years behind me (if i remember to pay attention to them!) will be signposts of the faithfulness of God, and the good paths in which he leads us, even when i'm not so sure of my footing.

so, happy new year to you all! i hope that the extravagant love & care of God fall on all of us this year... and that it would cause us to live with extravagant love & care for everyone we come into contact with. what a beautiful year it could be...