Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you from Kigali Rwanda :))
It's Talitha here and I'm just wanting to wish everyone and their Families Season greetings and Happy New Year. I'm looking around here in Kigali and thinking that it sure doesn't feel like it's only 2 days away from Christmas, there are no Christmas lights up, no trees and sigh No snow. I'm actually listening to the Rain right now and it's such a beautiful sound especially when it's bouncing off of a tin roof :)) I won't be spending Christmas with my Family this year which is a sad but also a bit fun.
I am spending this Christmas in Rwanda with my World Race family and enjoying this time with them sharing the Gospel and teaching English as part of an 11 Month 11 Country Missions trip that is taking me from July 2011 in Moldova to June 2012 in the Phillipines.
During this time we have been blessed with the ability to work with some really amazing Pastors, groups and projects. Working with children taken off of the streets, orphans, village ministry, church and home construction, Prison groups, childrens programs, making bricks and so much more.
It has all really been a blessing from God and I can't wait to see what the New Year has to offer if i'm given the chance to stay with my team.
I know everyone is really busy with Holidays, presents, family and good food.
But your help is really NEEDED so that I may stay with my Team and continue the work God has placed before me in this season. I have to raise the final amount of $4560.93 by January 2nd 2012 or I will have to leave the field and this is where I need your help. I have seen Gods hand really move in my life and in relation to my deadlines. I really ask for your help in this deadline, whether it's a small amount, large amount or a monthly donation.
All are important and needed.
Also any donation is given a tax receipt for tax time to help you at tax time.
We celebrated this horrid....ooppps sorry....Wonderful time in Kitale Kenya.
- the card and the hat ACTUALLY don't belong to me...we ran into a couple of our squad mates, when we went out for supper, and they had bought this for one of the contacts they had for the month. But it was a fun picture.
- One of the RARE times that she isn't crying, trying to get away from you or singing (that still sounds like she is upset) and it happens on my birthday...sigh
- My "SURPRISE" Birthday cake...I say surprise because my team meant for it to be a surprise but our ministry contact kind of let the cat out of the bag during the day when he said "while we wait we can go get the cake and go back home to wait" You should have seen their faces Priceless
- My big mouth and yummy Cake
- Some of the family that we have been Blessed to stay with this month
- Movies that My team made for this Day
THANK YOU TEAM DEEP ROOTS GOD BLESS YOU AND I LOVE YOU
Please help me stay with my team for the rest of the Race and to continue the work that God has put in front of us. I have $4560 left to raise before Jan 1st 2012 to be fully funded and I need your help to reach this Goal. Any and all amounts will help towards this goal and you can give monthly donations too. Thank you for helping with this Race for the Kingdom and God Bless.
I bet you're wondering about the title....I know Right!!
What could these three things possible have in common?
It's just a NORMAL week in the life of a World Racer ... Intrigued yet??
Haha I know I am...but then I also know what I'm getting at - Go figure
I have heard from some people that this mission trip is just fluff and a way for young people to go around the world. Also what good are you really doing with short term mission trips.
I'm not trying to justify what we are doing here because I believe with my whole heart that this is where God has called us for this season. But also I want to provide an understanding of what we are doing and what the funds that were raised are helping with.
I pray that you are as blessed by what is shared here as we have been.
All the pictures and the movie that are on this blog are from the Home because the Prison doesn't allow cameras and the Beauty salon...well it's a beauty salon.
Truthfully you could probably get three blogs out of these experiences by themselves but the title sounded really good together :) so here is goes.
Ok so the first part of the week we spent it at a childrens' home called, Hope Center, they have children there that come from poor families, off the street and Orphans that live at this home.
When we got there on Monday we spent a wonderful time sharing our stories, sharing the Gospel and finding out which stories from the Bible were the childrens' favorites. We also had a bit of a music party were we taught them some of the songs we have and in turn the children taught us their songs. It was sooo much fun praising and worshiping with Children that you would think would have less to sing about and more to complain about.
On Tuesday that is when we learned some new skills, Mud brick making. It was a lot of fun in a weird sort of way. We also shocked our contact when we jumped in and started working in the mud with the children. Although they Laughed and showed us up it was an experience that God provided that will last forever. We also learned how to mud walls in their homes, not for the feint of heart. I kind of wanted to make a mud "angel" but didn't have a change of clothes with me so I nixed that idea.
We finished mudding and making bricks for the day and shared a late afternoon lunch with the Kids. Boiled maze and kidney beans.
The kids and I had a lot of fun trying to get each other muddy without getting our clothes dirty, kind of hard but a fun challenge (didn't work)
There is a short movie at the Bottom that my Teammate Hannah made about this fun time.
On Wednesday we were invited to share with a group of women that are incarcerated in the Kitale Women's Prison, minimum security. I have never been in a prison before and I would be lying if I didn't say that I have some preconceived notions about what I would be seeing and experiencing.
Before going I was feeling a little scared and wondering what it was going to be like. It is amazing how you can build up in your mind what you think things are going to be but then they turn into something different. Just like this...
Prisons, to my understanding, even minimum security ones back home have a lot of hoops that you have to go through to get in to speak with the inmates. But our contact Moses has been there on multiple trips and we were able to get in relatively easy even with the "gifts" (soap, toilet paper and vaseline) that we had bought for the Women.
There were about 40 women and some of them have their children in there with them (only the ones under 5yrs, over 5yrs goes home with extended family until their mothers have served their time). We spent a couple hours with them Praising the Lord (so beautiful and I wish I had been able to record it for you) and sharing what God had put on our hearts to share.
Kind of reminds me of Acts 16:25 "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them..."
God Loves praise and worship.
After this we Prayed for the ones who wanted prayer and then handed out what we had brought with us for them. It was great and a little sad to see how eager they were for what we had to give them, to us nothing special but to them it was something that would make their lives a little easier. I thank God that I have had the chance to bring a little ray of sunshine into their lives and have that same returned unto me.
Now your wondering about the beauty salon, hmmm.
I have been wanting to get my hair braided in Africa almost as long as I have been on the Race because it is almost a requirement (go the Africa, get your hair braided)
So on Friday (which was our off day) I was able to get it done.
I did not know it was going to take EIGHT hours to do though.
Eight hours to sit in one place, not move, hand fake hair to the hairdresser (because mine is to slippery) and not talk because well I don't know the language...sigh
It was a good time to reflect, pray and watch.
Watching actually became really interesting as the day went on and I now understand why African women are so touchy about their DO. As the day went on and the torture continued I watched multiple women come in with long hair and leave with short, short and leave with long, no hair and leave with a bob or dreads and leave with short curls that are tinted red.
I will admit that I was more distracted watching then I should have been and the lady doing my hair had to nudge my arm to get my attention for more fake hair but it was worth it...well at the end of eight hours I wasn't being as charitable but can you really blame me??
Have you ever had one of those play dough barber shop sets where you put the play dough in, then squeeze and it comes out looking like you stuck your finger in a light socket. That's what my hair looked like for the first 2 days after getting it done and my scalp was soooo sore that I couldn't touch it without it hurting.
Now though I think it looks great. Sorry no pictures - yeah sooo wasn't letting that happen hehe
And that is as normal a week that a world Racer could have - living, learning and growing in ways that God would have you grow. Never knowing what is around the corner.
Hope you enjoy the pictures and the Movie.
- Preparing the mud to make bricks or to mud a wall
- Start of the mud wall
- An almost complete wall and us mud covered people
- Completed indoor Mud wall
Please help me stay with my team for the rest of the Race and to continue the work that God has put in front of us. I have $4560 left to raise before Jan 1st 2012 to be fully funded and I need your help to reach this Goal.
Remember, ALL donations are tax deductible, and literally every dollar counts.
Any and all amounts will help towards this goal and you can give monthly donations too. Thank you for helping with this Race for the Kingdom and God Bless.
(this is the second time that i'm writing this blog...sigh because I didn't save it the first time and it was really good and as I did go and hit save it said it had an error and couldn't save. So here is my second attement)
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will dance like David danced
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will dance like David danced
I will dance, dance, dance like David danced
I will dance, dance, dance like David danced
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will pray like David prayed
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will pray like David prayed
I will pray, pray, pray like David prayed
I will pray, pray, pray like David prayed
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will sing like David sang
When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart
I will sing like David sang
I will sing, I will sing, sing like David sang
I will sing, I will sing, sing like David sang
I will pray, I will pray, pray like David prayed
I will pray, I will pray, pray like David prayed
I will dance, I will dance, dance like David danced
I will dance, I will dance, dance like David danced
I will dance, I will dance, dance, dance
(Repeat)
This is one of my favorite songs of all time and it seems to have survived the test of time.
I can't really tell you why this song of all songs is one that when I hear it I have to move to it, play it over n' over and just enjoy it.
Because I really don't understand why myself
Maybe this is an area that God is working me in!
I have been so moved and blessed by the Worship that I have had the privelege to enjoy in the short time that I have been in Africa and it is just something that I really wish the Christian body back home could get ahold of.
I believe with my whole heart that it would change hearts, lives and country's.
But we have a tendancy to pull a "Michal" and despise it when we see other people moving in the Holy Spirit
(1Ch 15:28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres.
1Ch 15:29 And as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and rejoicing, and she despised him in her heart.)
I know in myself that this is what God wants for me. To WORSHIP THE LORD
Undignified
Unfettered
Unconstrained
By what the world around me says or does
This is what the Lord wants and yet I still finding myself saying no to God
Not because I don't want this but because I keep saying I can't, i'm not good enough, after I take some lessons then maybe i'll be good enough to do it in front of people.
I want the passion, the drive, the need but i'm also wanting to be as far from it as humanly possible...Weird
I have been a "come and see" person for so long that I don't know if I am able to be a "go and Die" kind of person that God calls all of His children to be.
(I kind of feel like this blog is all over the place...sorry)
Come and see - checking the water out seeing how it feels on your toes
Go and Die - Full on jump into the water with yours clothes on no matter what the temp.
It's seems like my double sided nature is getting in the way of what God has planned.
Please pray for me in this area
There are a couple of movies at the bottom, 2 are African worship and 1 is a kid name Vinny that lives at the home we have been staying at...he is 3 and he has such a swagger and dance moves that I just had to put the video clip up.
Please help me stay with my team for the rest of the Race and to continue the work that God has put in front of us. I have $4560 left to raise before Jan 1st 2012 to be fully funded and I need your help to reach this Goal.
Remember, ALL donations are tax deductible, and literally every dollar counts
Any and all amounts will help towards this goal and you can give monthly donations too. Thank you for helping with this Race for the Kingdom and God Bless.
This update is coming more at the end of the month then at the beginning like it's supposed too but MEH ... it's my blog
We are staying with Bishop Moses and his wife Rosalynn, their 5 children Sarah, Sammie, Stella, Edwin and Oscar. Also this family has 6 other people that live with them or come to stay with them for holidays.
Elizabeth, her 3yr old son Vinny (the only 3yr old that I have seen that struts and has such presence), Anne, her year and half year old daughter Stacy (she cry's at the drop of a hat or if a mzungu gets to close to her), Evaline, Caudencia and Betty.
If you add my team to the mix then it adds up to 20 people living together and get this...sharing ONE bathroom
I made a promise to myself, when my brother and I shared a basement apartment with only one bathroom, that I would never do that again...
Well never say never as the saying goes because here it is 4yrs later that I'm sharing one with A LOT more people...go figure.
People are always coming and going from this home and yet this family opens their arms and welcomes even more people in. They have really shown me and my team what the meaning of hospitality and a servants heart means.
Why does it take going half way around the world to realize what is really missing from the culture back home?
I have been really blessed by God this month because of this Family and also because of the ministy that we have been working on with Bishop Moses.
We have done so many different things this month that it kind of boggles the mind and all through it you're learning new things, new experiences. All the time you're doing this thinking your pouring into the people around you but when you really stop to think about it you find that the people that you have been praying for in hospitals, homes and prisons are really pouring into you.
What we have been doing
- Church Building
- Brick Making
- Evangelism
- Prison Ministry (Men and Women)
- Confrences (Women and Youth)
- Childrens Homes
It's so much more than this but trying to get this whole experience down in a blog just doesn't due it the justice or the honor that it really deserves.
I have been more blessed in being here in Kitale, where is feels like home, then a person should feel when from away from all that you Love.
Please help me stay with my team for the rest of the Race and to continue the work that God has put in front of us. I have $4560 left to raise before Jan 1st 2012 to be fully funded and I need your help to reach this Goal. Any and all amounts will help towards this goal and you can give monthly donations too. Thank you for helping with this Race for the Kingdom and God Bless.
I'm just sitting here in Kenya trying to understand that yes Four months have come and gone.
Where did that time go? What did I do during that time?
Hoed/cleaned up fields, Cleaned an orphan's house, passed out tracks (multiple times) :), made friends, played with children, washed lice out, Shared the Gospel in villages that have never heard about it, helped teach Bible class in a place that is run by people that have other beliefs. Seen people healed (headaches, body pains, a man walking after not being able to for 3 years)
Said goodbye (hard) to people that I most likley won't ever see again in my Life, but that had an important place in my life for that season of time.
I say goodbye to children that have stolen my Heart knowing that it could be the last time I will be able to hold them or see them smile.
To friends that have taught and encouraged me to grow in different aspects for my life.
I just want to say THANK YOU.
To all the people that have been part of the last Four Months, THANK YOU and GOD bless you in many ways.
To the People that have supported me and especially the ones that I have never met THANK YOU.
p.s. I still need to raise a little under $4,300 to be fully funded...please help big or small everything Helps.
Just the sound of the word starts me scratching at my head even with nothing being there, I’m sure the same can be said for you.
There is just something about the little creepy crawler’s living, eating and breeding on your head while you are sleeping(and awake) that just freaks me right out.
Yes I know some of you will say that there are other “THINGS” living out their lives on our bodies. I say ok have at er…Just don’t let me see it.
Now you’re wondering why I have even brought up this subject when it clearly creeps me out…wellll it’s because I believe that God has been using lice to teach me a lesson this month.
WEIRD and GROSS I know.
We have been working with a group called Happy Home Nepal. We have been playing with children that are basically from the streets. Some are from single mother homes and others are taken from the streets.
Their stories are as varied as they are, some of them have brothers and sisters here, some have mothers that they go to when they have holidays, some have been abandoned by a parent when they remarry and some we don’t know their story.
Really, how do you ask a 3-4 year old found on the street what her story is?
Any way back to this blog, Lice and my lesson.
What could I possibly learn from Lice you ask?
Well it’s not really the lice themselves as much as the children with the lice.
They all have lice, in one stage or another.
So how do you love on them if you don’t want to get near the lice…You can’t!
Distance loving just doesn’t work (this is not something that I learned here); kids don’t understand why you really don’t want to get to close to them.
I tried to work on the projects that needed me to work with things and not with people because of it.
But these kids are always coming up to you and wanting hugs or a friendly touch that lets them know, someone cares.
Who can blame them; what with volunteers and people coming in and out of their lives so much.
I still couldn’t get past the lice though.
How bad is that? These kids have nothing and just want to be loved but I, in my failings, can’t get past the lice.
Then one day a girl asked me to braid her hair and without really looking I said yes. I had done a quick glance at her hair and it looked okay and I thought sure why not.
MISTAKE
I started to section out her hair to braid and I found eggs…lots of eggs.
I froze
I turned around and I started trying to think of a way NOT to do her hair. I pulled Stephanie over to ask whether or not this was eggs for lice and the girl turns and casually says “yeah lice” like it was no problem, she lives with it as an everyday thing.
I’m freaking out, but I can’t not do her hair; I promised already that I would.
So I finish braiding her hair and had Steph dump a bunch of sani in my hands to clean them.
But not ten minutes later I see the same girl and she had taken out the braid that I had done and put it in a ponytail (I’m not going to lie, it kind of made me mad)
But what right did I have to be mad? So she changed it, what just because it was hard for me to do doesn’t mean that she should keep it in forever.
It’s amazing what things God will use to change your perspective. Instead of getting hung up on the lice and making it my whole focus, turning around and Thanking God that I have this chance to love on kids that get so little of it (and that I haven’t had lice…yeah)
Do I still freak out when lice is mentioned…yes!
Do I scratch my head still…yes!
Do distance Love any more…No!!!
Here are Pictures of us washing the kid’s hair with lice Soap (YES YES YES)
(I’m putting the soap in their hair. Mentally it helped me Soap=No lice)
p.s. I still need to raise a little under $4,300 to be fully funded...please help big or small everything Helps.
Have you ever tried to right a blog and you’re sitting and sitting and sitting and….nothing?
That’s pretty much what this month has been like for me.
We are in Nepal this month and this is our fourth country and our fourth month. But this month is something new; we are working with a non-Christian group called “Happy Home Nepal”. They are combination of orphanage, boarding school and social support for single mothers in the Kathmandu area.
We have arrived at a time that really has to be one of the busiest but also one of the least productive times possible.
A home change for the orphanage, construction on the new home and HOLIDAYS.
Either one would be tiring and hectic but all three at the same time is a nightmare.
But I have met some of the happiest children here that don’t have much (or really anything) to call their own and if only people back home could get a little taste of what they go through in their lives we would be so happy for the abundance that we have even when we think that life is out to get us.
There is a little girl here that was found on the street by the police, they didn’t know here know her name, her age or where she came from, so they brought her here.
I also found out this month why there are usually more girls that are rescued then boys (you know the answer in the back of your mind but you still ask) and if you take a minute to think about it, it becomes really the most obvious reason.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Because we live in a world that is sick enough that we prey on the ones that are supposed to be able to trust us.
Abhisek is just one of the names of the children that live in Happy Home. He is like the big brother, protector and provider for the children around him. He gets things done (he is actually reading what I’m writing right now) you can mention something to him and you’re really just making an observation but the next time you turn around he either has it done or is working on it. He really is one of those kids that I personally think could take over the world if given the right tools.
There are so many children here that are so precious and Loved by God.
I do believe that you remember that at the beginning of the blog that I mentioned that Happy Home Nepal is a non-Christian organization. Ever since we found out about it we have been praying that God’s will be done here. When we first got here we found out that yes the children pray to God but they also pray to every other god that they have. But were also given an amazing chance to teach an hour long Bible Class.
If that isn’t God answering our Prayers I don’t know what is.
This month we have been Teaching, Bible class, Nursing, Building, Painting, Playing and Loving on a wonderful group of Children that have really Touched my heart and I will miss them a lot.
God THANK YOU for putting your hedge of Protection around Happy Home Nepal.
p.s. I still need to raise a little under $4,300 to be fully funded...please help big or small everything Helps.
We had a squad wide team change at the end of month 3 in India.
My new TEAM MATES are:
Taryn Neurohr
Brandan Forshall
Stephanie Chan
Ben Friedman
Hannah Dagenhart
And Myself (Talitha Rankel)
We decided on the name Deep Roots because we really want to get deeply rooted in God’s word, both in what He says about US but also what He says about the world around us.
This is a Picture that my team mate Stephanie drew (she is sooo talented)
Priceless
