A walk into reality and questions

Today is Friday, May 23, 2008. David is gone for a trip the entire day. I wanted to stay home to catch up on a number of writing tasks and to spend time reflecting on the experiences of this past week and the impact upon us.

I think what we have seen and participated in has had an emotional accumulative effect. We have seen so very much in terms of incredible poverty and desperate circumstances –all which seems so utterly hopeless. The best way to describe my feelings (I will let David speak for himself) is utter sadness. David asked me earlier this week if I was depressed. I told him it wasn’t depression, but an overwhelming sense of incredible sadness. Thinking again, maybe in one way, it was depression, but not one to draw me into myself, but one that led me to the next question-“Where, Lord, where can we best step into Your Work here for us?”

David also asked me if my feelings had anything to do with wanting to go home. Being so far away from home – yes, that was an appropriate question, but the answer to his question was no. I thought about it and my answer to him was “home to what?” – grandkids, great friends, a beautiful home, a great job –all wonderful, marvelous things. No, not yet. Stay here with electricity that goes off and on all day, water we have to boil to use, no clothes dryer, amidst all of what we see...Yes, I want to stay. We are just getting grounded. I can sense and see what God has yet for us here. Home will be later.

What We Saw this Week

On Monday we went to Red River orphanage – home to well over 200 children of all ages. The people who run the orphanage are doing their very best in very difficult circumstances. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

John Wright and his family minister in three or four different orphanages every week.

These little guys are probably around six or seven. They followed us everywhere. The far on on the left is available for adoption we understand. He will need alot of recontructive surgery and speech therapy.
This is Amare....his best friend was adopted by an American family and is now in America. We understand that a family is considering him and live close to his best friend. They had been together since toddler days.

Christiana works as a translator and goes everywhere the Wright family goes.

Never a missed opportunity for a hug.

Bekah and lots of her friends. I have never been as impressed as I have been with Bekah and her older sister, Emma. They took six months off school to spend the time in Krygyzstan. They will go home changed forever. Emma is 17, Bekah is 14.

Boys are the same everywhere!

Natalia, our translator and new friends.

The urte- a historic nomadic home

Meeting a Young Mom and Her Children
After leaving Red River orphanage, we stopped with the Wrights to drop off food to a single mom, her husband, like many, many fathers is absent from the family. She leaves in a remodeled barn and will be evicted this fall because the owner wants it now. When we arrived she wasn’t home, but her three young children were. The oldest, probably nine, ran down the street quite a distance to get her mom from work. She was planting tomatoes to make an income for her family – maybe a $1.00 a day. We were told the story that when her youngest started to crawl, she would tie him to a tree before she went to work so he would be safe. Our mind would say how could you? But I have never had to make the choice – to stay home with my children and care for them or to go to work to feed them.

When we left this beautiful young mom and her three children, I turned to John Wright in the van and told him “thank-you” for seriously disturbing me. The eyes of the children I saw today are locked in my heart and memory.

David is praying with this family.

I think it is time for me to reread that chapter on being seriously disturbed in Kay Warren’s book – Dangerous Surrender.

The journey continues…

On a totally frivalous sidenote:These pictures look like we both have gained a whole lot of weight! Actually, we haven't, we've lost weight. Cameras don't always tell the truth!