Christmas 2010

A few wonderful Christmas moments to share:

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Walked Mountains, Crossed Bridges....part two: Derartu - our gift to Jesus PLUS: a Christmas of Goat Giving!

Derartu

This Christmas there were so many hilights that it's hard to know where to start, but one thing that surfaced the day after boxing day as I reflected over the holiday festivities while sipping my morning coffee was memory of the way we introduced Derartu to our family.

It was part of my hope that this Christmas we could begin a new family tradition to help keep us focused on the real reason for the season. I was delighted that everyone went along with it! At my request, the formal tree in the living room did not have any gifts underneath it. It had only a wooden cradle and to be placed inside it, I invited the family to write out their gift for Jesus. Then we gathered around and shared from our hearts, what we gave and why. Not all the family was present, and for some, this will be their glimpse at how my Christmas wish turned out. Even my sister Lark, who came with her son Ryan to join us for Christmas dinner, submitted her gift which was a written pledge of service that she intends to do this year. Thanks, Lark - it was a blessing to read what you want to do to help others!                                                                                          The family had decided to scrap the 'Gift Exchange Game' this year that we traditionally have done for the past 10 years or so. Instead, they each contributed the $10 gift amount towards purchasing a goat for a needy family in Burundi. The goat project is one of the 2010 Rice Raiser Campaign projects through FH Canada partners. It has a $3 - $1 CIDA matching grant. So, that goat gift will multiply to become 4 goats for four families. This is truely a gift that will provide a step up out of the severest poverty level for families and it is a pepetuating gift because when the goat has kids (usually they have two sets a year) one of the babies from the first set goes to another family.

I was thrilled! Papa Mike had also purchased a goat for each of his 10 children/stepchildren so that means that all together, our family have purchased 12 + goats which multiplied by the CIDA grant will equal 49 goats! Forty nine families will now recieve this wonderful gift of a goat which will include vet care, training in goat care, composting, gardening, nutrition and so much more! Thank you family!! This remote area in Burundi will be impacted tremendously through these animals!

So, I invited the kids to share about their gifts to Jesus.

April shared that her gift began at her Dec. 9th birthday. When she was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought, considering all the blessings that she has, she really doesn't NEED anything. She expressed that instead of 'things' April would like to know that children are being fed and mothers who presently struggled to provide for them are able to care for their children. So she took her birthday money and gave it to purchase a goat for a family in Burundie. "I've always wanted to buy a goat!" April said. That is what spurred the rest of the kids to donate their $10 towards purchasing another goat. Then Grandma said she wanted to match that goat with yet another!!

Pam shared that she felt so blessed that God had given her and Sean baby Jack that her gift to Jesus would be to be the very best mother she could be to Jack because she realized that Jack was entrusted to her care, but he belongs to God first.

Randy and I then shared about our gift to Jesus. We are sponsoring an 11 yr. old Ethiopian girl named Derartu. We had the privelege of meeting her when we were there in November.

I had asked the FH Ethiopia staff if they could help me write a children's story about the life of a typical little village girl. The next morning at 7:00 am they took us to Derartu's home. We watched as Derartu made their morning coffee. Since her mother works long hours all day, Derartu is responsible to help cook the meals and clean the house. She is very adept with lighting the fire and cooking!  Her mother goes to farmers, purchases vegetables from them and then sells them in the market place twice a week. Other than that, she helps in the fields or wherever she can find work.

We arrived at their place just after the sun rose. Derartu's brother had already gone to the village well to fetch water in their 5 gallon yellow plastic container that was a commonly seen throughout the whole region.  Derartu's father was killed two years around in an uprising. I can't imagine what this young girl witnessed, but whatever it was, the desire to become a doctor was seeded in her. I was astounded to hear that, because there isn't even a high school in their village. Her older brother is 14 years old and since the family can't afford to buy the books and send him away to live in a village where there is a high school, he stays at home and repeats the grade he just passed.

Derartu has watched her brother's frustration and to ensure that the same fate doesn't happen to her, she has looked for ways to earn money for herself. While helping her mother glean in other farmer's fields, she gathered some barely and ground it. Then, as she accompanied her mom to Saturday market, she sold the ground barley and purchased a chicken with the money.  She intends to repeat this and purchase more chickens. Eventually she'll purchase goats and so on until she has the money to go to high school and somehow even university so that she can become a doctor.  What an amazing young gal! The FH Ethiopia staff told Randy and I that this family has just been registered with their child sponsorship program. Well you know that we could not resist the wonderful opportunity to enter her life and sponsor her. What a great privelege to know that as a result of our sponsorship, she will be able to go to highschool. Not only that, but she'll be able to recieve medical care if ever needed as a result of the sponsorship and she and her family will not go hungry!!

At the end of the same day that we visited Darartu and her family, we were traveling back to the FH Ethiopia compound and who should we meet along the road, but Derartu and her mother loaded down with wood on their backs. Fuel for their cooking fire. What a hard life they lead!

 As I sipped my morning coffee and thought more about Derartu, it dawned upon me that perhaps Derartu is alread being a doctor though she doesn't even realize it.  She is doctoring me and my confused perspective of 'needs' vs 'wants', through her life. Her 'needs' - just for daily survival, diminish my 'needs' and most certainly, when I stop to put thins into this perspective, disinigrate my 'wants'. I hope that through our relationship that will develop through letter writing, my greed will be medicated and that I will be able to care more about giving to others than wanting for myself. And, when you come to think about it...there is no doctor in our family yet...Derartu, I hope and pray that we can somehow help you attain your most excellent life goal of becoming a doctor...and along the way, you'll be adminstering healthy doses of selfishness prevention to us.

Goodbye To My Dog

Friday, December 17, we came home from a Michale W. Smith concert and found Kassie, our dog curled up on her bed by the dryer looking at us, but she didn't come to us as ususal.

Now we realized that she was certainly slowing down over the past year and more notably since we moved to our new home. But just a few days before, she was running up our driveway and that morning, when we let her outside, other than a little typical morning stiffness, she seemed okay. However, when Randy came home, she was walking very slow and lopsided as she headed to her bed.

So when we came home from the concert, we noticed Kassie had vomited. We tried to get her to move off of her bed so we could clean it and she wouldn't move. So I went and got the leash and asked her if she wanted to go for a walk....she slowly rose up off the bed and immediately fell - spread eagle on the floor.

We knew something drastic was wrong with her so we rushed her to the clinic. She had no feeling, no motor control over most of her body, but she was very much alert and responded to touch as we patted and rubbed her head. The doctor examined her and checked her gums inside her mouth...it was very grave news. He said he could try to stablize her over the night and then do blood work and other tests to try to determine what was happening, but given her age and the severity of her condition, she would most likely not recover. He suggested that perhaps she had a tumor that had errupted. He gently, but strongly suggested we let her go.

Frankie came home and saw that Kassie was gone and we weren't home so he called. He came and we all said our goodbyes. The suddeness of it was a shock and we were so saddened. She was such a good dog. I miss her so much already.

What a reminder...that really, death walks among us. We never knew Kassie had a tumor growing inside her.
I could go on and on about how wonderful a friend she was...a very significant part of the family. I just can't right now because it's hard to type with blurry eyes. My dear sweet doggy will be so terribly missed.

Walked Mountains, Crossed Bridges

Part one – the Runner

It’s something else to walk on soil as ancient a civilization and as full of history as Ethiopia; the millions of people who have lived out their lives – their joys, their struggles, the conflicts, their new starts. Yet so few westerners’ shoes have ever touched the sod…especially in the remote western area of Sasiga District where we went. The people there have been transplanted from the drought prone north to this south western portion of Ethiopia. It lacks infastructure, fresh water, well, just about everything we take for granted. So, there they are as they begin to make their lives out of nearly nothing. So hard to comprehend what such poverty must be like to live with. The people here have suffered chronic hunger for many years.

There are hills and valleys and pasture lands and gardens watered by God himself. The incredible beauty in these forsaken lands  goes mostly unseen by the majority of the world, yet along with that fact are the ever  enduring hardships of the unpredictable, yet so anticipated weather.

In times of peace and when there is enough food to fill the belly, children’s spirits thrive! There is laughter and joy in abundance that pours out of them even as they toil to carry burdens of water, wood or their younger sibling. Loads most of us would consider much too heavy for such small frames. Yet their smiles are so full, an outpouring of warmth and joy given as gifts to us strangers! They wonder why we have come…they carefully watch us.

The Runner. She first spied me through the barbed wire fence of the compound and then she followed me from village to village on foot, running barefoot along the dirt road after our jeep.

Sorrowfully, I did not embrace her affection awaiting my attention and now, when it’s too late I see her in so many of my pictures, always wedging her way close to me through the groupies of excited children cloistered around us western visitors. Who are you precious daughter? If I could but go back and speak with you, hug you, tell you how wonderfully special you are to God and now to me. And I thought my eyes were open and that I was paying attention to all I was seeing. How could I not have noticed you more?

We moved from one village to the next in Jeeps vehicles on red dirt roads that very rarely saw automobiles.  People saw us coming and ran to wave, often with two arms at us. We were learning about the excellent work that was being done by Food for the Hungry.

Across the uneven logs that formed a bridge over a wide stream where women fetch water and wash clothes alongside the cattle and donkeys drinking and doing other things, we precariously set one foot in front of the other waving our arms to give balance to cross over.

No, of course there were no hand rails and yes, I do have a picture of a boy running and bounding over that same bridge like a gazelle! On the other side, we were greeted by the Muslim village families who were at first suspicious of us and then warm and friendly.

Soon, the women began showing off their babies and children budged in front of one another to station themselves in front of the camera’s lens. The men eventually joined in the fun, too.

And I found myself close enough to see the way they live out each day in their homes; their kitchens, their fire pits, even the gleam in their curious eyes. We shared momentary smiles, the kind that break down all barriers, race, religion, fear, suspicion, and social status.

My comprehension of God’s love for human kind enveloped me and I believe that God was showing me John 3:16 and his love for mankind in the purest form. For it was to this level…the poverty, the earthy, stable-like environment that he entered our world as a baby and nothing has ever been the same since. In fact, I think I saw a replica of that very stable as Joseph and Mary may have encountered it.

We visited the Model Farmer and she showed off her growing achievements that she’d learned from our partners (Food for the Hungry). She followed their instructions of developing the plot of garden, learning how to compost and enrich the soil and then applied the same principals in on other pieces of land further down the river.
Her hard work was being rewarded and others were now imitating her. She has become a leader in her community and has gained much respect. Other families are learning from her. It's really transforming a whole village!

Under the careful instruction and funding assistance of our partners, Food for the Hungry and the FH Ethiopia staff, the community has just built a new well by hand!

 It was very labour intense but so important and so greatly needed!! Prior to this, there was no clean water source, and all water came from the polluted stream we’d just crossed. In fact, only ten percent of the people in this area have access to fresh clean water and since using this well, the families expressed a noticeable difference in the health of everyone, particularly the children. When walking to the site of the well that had just been dug, we looked to our left in the field and saw faithful Muslim men praying. No women, just six or seven men.  

The well had just recently been constructed there was tremendous pride and excitement.. A fence had been placed around the well to protect it and there were a couple of women inside doing the pumping as women and children waited their turns with their yellow five gallon plastic jugs. I realized we had just witness a dramatic change in this community and by all indications, there would be better health with the clean water and greater nutrition from the healthy gardens being planted.

Walking back to our vehicles, the children swarmed me and to my joy and delight as I reached down to take the hands of a couple of small children they were eager to do so.

There were so many children that at the time, I didn’t notice that the hand of one of the children was her…the runner! I was holding her hand!! There she was…the same girl who’d spied on me through the fence, who had run following our jeep from one village to another and now here she was again!  Oh, I have such love for that little girl! Who is she? What are her family and her home like? Is she in need of sponsorship?

We saw so much, it's interesting that out of all of it, this little girl is what work me up a week after we got home and had me searching through my pictures to find out if indeed she was the same girl.

Here I am saying goodbye to all the chidren....but she tells me that she came from the other village where we had been before this...miles away...she'd run all the way. But alas, we were not going back, but onward to another village. Someone told her to go home.

With such determination, I pray that she finds a way to be all that she desires to be in her life.

Ethiopia

In a very beautiful part of the country, community transformation is taking place through training as Food for the Hungry, Ethiopia staff build relationships and work with the people teaching them how to grow trees for reforestaion, grow coffee, compost to regenerate the soil, personal hygene and much more.
It is a land of hard work, but hope abounds.
Recently Muslims have been relocated to this part of the country and they live side by side to Christian farmers. There is a great opportunity to develop relationships through child sponsorship programs. I hope to share more about that later.

The community selects individuals who most need the help and these people become 'model farmers' as they put into practice the things that FH Ethiopia staff shows them. It is interesting to observe neighbours copying the things the model farmers are doing and it is encouraging to see the pride that each person has in their accompishments. We have a 2011 Rice Raiser Campaign project in this area to help families become more food secure through growing coffee. From a seedling to a 3 yrs. old plant it can begin to bear coffee beans!

We tasted the BEST coffee ever as it was roasted right in front of us! Everyone drinks coffee there, from the small children to adults and a plant can mature from a seedling to bearing fruit in three to four years.

mmmmm....it was so good! Did you know that it is believed that coffee originated in Ethiopia?

I have a lot of pictures and lots of stories that I hope to share on this blog or on our website a bit at a time.

Ethiopia was beautiful now, but we're told that within 2 - 3 months the whole area will be brown and dried up as the rainy season ends. Stay tuned for more info about this country and stories from our visit to Burundi.

Its a Good Day When...

Having arrived home from Africa to a winter's blast, I called Papa Mike who lives in Boston Bar to check in and see how he was doing. Thankfully, he is doing well and he's keeping warm, he says.

We chatted and I shared a few highlights from our trip. He told me that he had a good day that day and the day before had been good too. I asked him what qualified as a 'good day' and his reply is something that I think can speak to all of us... He said that he had the opportunity to give a ride to someone living there in Boston Bar to the hospital in Hope. This person had trouble breathing...turns out that she has phenomenia. So he stuck around the entire day and he made sure she got her medication and gave her a ride back home.

"So" I said, "Doing something for someone else makes it a good day?"

"Yes." was his simple reply.

I thought, wow...if this was our attitude all the time, if we would but seek opportunities how we can help others and have that our measuring stick for a 'good day', how much better we and the rest of the world would be.

Thanks, Papa, for a life lesson worth sharing. My new challenge is to be more intentional in seeking opportunities to do some good deed for someone else each day. I don't expect to succeed all the time, but every time I remember this and do it, I know I can look forward to having a really good day.

Something else that happened when we came home that made me say WoW! was our home. Not only was it freezing, blowing, cold as the dickens, but we came into Christmas the moment we stepped through the door. Frankie has gone all out and has decorated the house so beautifully! I can't wait till you all see it. I had trouble going to sleep that night in spite of the fact that I'd only had 4 or 5 hours of broken sleep over the past two - three days from all the travel. I just sat there and soaked in the beauty and an idea came to me...
As I gazed on the Christmas tree I thougth that I would like to start a new family tradition for anyone who cares to participate. Under that tree, I would like to have a rustic small cradle built (Randy and/or Frankie, I hope you're reading this and will build it) and I would like to invite all who wish to do so, to place inside the cradle their 'gift' for Jesus. You know, we're always giving gifts to one another, but this one would be for Jesus. It is by giving and doing for others that we gift Jesus because he said that whenever we do something for someone else, we're doing it for him. After all, Jesus is what Christmas is all about. Jesus is God's gift to humankind.

So, this would be something you would like to do for someone else, some loving act of service you intend to do. Write it out on a piece of paper. Then we can share with one another what our gifts are. It doesn't have to be anything extravagent or large or costly. It just has to be a loving act of service.

How about it? Would you like to take part? If so, please write out something that you intend to do and get ready to share it. For myself, I look forward to sharing about a little girl we met in Ethiopia. I'm going to even include a picture.

I am really looking forward to this time and I hope you are too. Maybe some of you aren't there...no worries...this isn't to put pressure on anyone. It's just something I feel would encourage us all to look for opportunities to care for others and in turn, experience what Papa Mike calls 'a good day'!

October 31 - Family Fun

Halloween - I really don't like this celebration. I haven't for years...because of the dark side. Plus, I always am fearful about the stories that follow this day of children who burnt or injured themselves on fireworks. But I do appreciate that many people love it and I do admit it does promote some great fun family times.
Dressing up is always fun and to see the excitment in young and old alike as they plan for and prepare their costumes.And of course the children get so excited over the candy and I enjoy doling it out to them and being rewarded with smiles!

But what I came to realize ever more this year is the opportunity to be creative that this occasion brings out of us.
In the past, I have always enjoyed carving pumpkins and makeing the friendliest, most cheerful big smiled face that I could on a pumpkin. Each year, it would look slightly different depending on the shape and size of the pumpkin and the thickness of the shell compared to the sharpness of my knife. But now a days....wow, the carvings are incredible and much more complex and the pumpkins are so diverse. My family LOVES pumpkins and not only because they make the most wonderful pies!!
I saw Sean strain himself over the BIGGEST pumpkin that he just had to have!


And Frank, (and yes, Randy too), spend their hard earned money to buy pumpkins to carve...and just when I thought they had way too many pumpkins and couldn't possibly use all of them, Frank goes out and buys more enlisting the help of Angela and Christine to spend their entire Saturday afternoon carving!! 23 pumpkins in all!!! What a parade! Our hillside driveway was a beacon to trick-or-treaters in our neighbourhood!
Hope you enjoy the smile boxes below. It was a fun time!!

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Milestones

Remember 1995?

What a year! Let's see, the movie Toy Story was released and Forest Gump won Best Picture at the 67th Academy Awards...what else...oh of course...the obvious...Microsoft Window's 95 is released and a brand new format for storing files is announced called - a DVD!! Plus, saddly for some members of our family, the final original comic strip of Calvin and Hobbs is published. At this point in history there are an estimated 5,674,380,000 people living on planet earth!!

But, most importantly, I became a grandmother for the first time at the ripe ole age of 39 when Brendan Michael Breslin was born....

HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY, to a really neat, handsome and all round great guy!!

I love you Brendan!

The Timbit Run

A promise is a promise and when sweet little Oliver dropped by the Hunger Response International office the other day with his beautiful mommy and darling sister, Charley Beth, I was delighted to see them, but didn't have much in the way of treats. And after all, how much fun can an office be to a 4 yr. old!

Now they had to pass by a Tim Horton Restaurant to get to the office and the thought of timbits wouldn't leave Oliver's mind. He shared his plan for a timbit stop with his mommy and me...knowing it was getting close to dinner time, I made Ollie a deal that if he ate his dinner when he got home, I'd bring him some Timbits. He made sure I knew that they were to come in the little box with the donuts pictured on the outside of it.

Sure enough, on  my way home I stopped and picked up the box of treasured treats. I called ahead to make sure that dinner was being consumed before I brought dessert. Ollie answered the phone and our typical conversation began... I asked him how he was doing and if he knew who was calling...(he always knows it's me) and he says, "Yes, it's Grandma Up-the-hill" and I usually say, "Yes!! it's Grandma Lorri!"

You see, I've never really liked Grandma-up-the hill for a name. I much perfer just good ole Grandma or Grammie...but Grandma-up-the hill??? really....Davie, this is all your fault! Now I have to retrain the little darling before he spreads that name to Charley Beth...then Jack and Liam and who knows where it'll end!!

Anyway, Oliver answered my question, 'Do you know who this is', with "Yes, it's Grandma U ..up.....I mean Grandma Lorri!" 

I must admit, I was at once overjoyed that he called me Grandma Lorri and at the same time surprised by the saddness that came with the realization that Grandma-up-the-hill was departing from his vocabulary. I am still not sure how I feel about it, but 'saddened' is certainly part of it. Our little boy is growing up.

He was delighted to enjoy the timbits and yes, he shared them with mommy and offered some to me, but he told me in a very grown up way that Charley Beth was still just a little baby and so she couldn't have any yet.

It never ceases to amaze me how a 15 minute visit can calm a week's worth of hecticness and exchange it with a feeling that yes, all is right with the world...after all, Ollie was enjoying the momentary sweet side of life and in his own way, sharing some sugar filled love. Thanks Ollie...you made my day!

Its still there - my place of serenity

We went to winterize Loranda Cottage and the weather was incredibley beautiful.

I was out on my kayak, soaking in the beauty and the warm sunshine...I was the only one on the entire lake and it was soooooo still and the reflections were stunning!

 And yes, I felt at such perfect peace...I thought, God, you put this incredibly beautiful lake here and I thought about all the thousands of lakes all over that no one sees or visits....God did that for himself...and I got to enjoy it! I fell asleep sitting in my Kayak! It was awesome!

Bears

I saw the biggest bear ever as we passed through Manning Park mid Oct. on our way to the winterize the cabin. Yes, I took the pictures out of the window of the jeep! He/She was so close to the road that I was afraid for it's safety.

And then, when I got home...I saw another bear...a little pink bear cub!

Now she's a very dangerous one...she'll capture your heart and won't let it go!! Love you Charley Beth!

Grand Kids!! Pure Joy!!

A few snaps of the little gaffers! Just looking at their beautiful faces makes me smile!

Charley Beth...you're always full of smiles!

Ever wonder what goes through a baby's thougths when we gaga and googoo over them! Hee, hee!

Grandpa introduces Jack to Kassie

A beautiful good moring picture.

Thankfulness

October...its the time of changing seasons, business, and reflection on all the good things God has blessed us with - Thanks Giving. This year, in my life, with all the hecticness of seasonal startups, schedules, fundraising banquets and pre Christmas planning (oh and this year you can add in planning a trip to Africa, building a new website and still settleing in to a new home and new office) I find very precious few quiet moments to reflect and ponder. But as I do, I can't help but be amazed at the wonder of it all! Of course, my biggest blessing is my family. I have such a WONDERFUL family filled with the most amazing people.

A few pics of Thanks Giving Dinner. My biggest regret is that some very important family members were not present - you know who you are and be assured, you were very much missed and you are very much present in my heart anyways!

And the food!! Always in abundance - thank you Lord for your provision! As one who works to aliviate hunger, I can't impress upon my family enough how blessed we are.

Its the fun times and laughter, the sharing and just remembering and being thankful that makes this such a wonderful time. Thank you to each of you for your love to me, to one another and to God who gave us one another.

 Happy Thanksgiving!