'Tis the Season...Part One

How in the world is it December 20th?!

I guess it's time to blog a little Christmas, huh?

I really love the idea of a whole "season" of celebrating Christmas. Which means we do this holiday fun all month long. Some days are the smallest of things...anything from working a Christmas puzzle together to writing our Compassion kids a Christmas letter. And, other days are bigger events. In the past, I have had a hard time finding the balance in this season, between celebrating and overextending. This year I have really tried to keep perspective on it all. We've done alot, still. And, actually, I've noticed a "home school advantage" to this season.

I've thought on more than one occasion how much busier we would be if we still had multiple Christmas parties, school projects, teacher gifts, Christmas programs, etc. etc. etc. Not that I don't love all of those things. Because I do! And, not that I'm not busy even without them. Because somehow I still fill my time. But, with some of that load lightened, we have had more time to fill the way we want. I have really loved being able to have slow mornings with my girls, taking this month a little lighter in academics, to spend more time celebrating Jesus, reading Christmas books, making crafts for family gifts {can't show those yet!}...and then stopping early if we feel like it, just because we want Starbucks in the middle of the afternoon.

We've also had other special treats in the middle of the day, like this:

Kendyll was asked to be the "secret reader" at Sophie's preschool, and it was so cute. Kendyll took this role very seriously. She read through all of our Christmas books and chose three she wanted to take. She made little manipulatives that went with the books, and wanted to plan an activity for each book too, until I broke the news to her that she was NOT the teacher for the whole day...just a 10 minute reading session to the class!

When she got there, the children all hid their eyes while she sat down in the reading chair. Sophie was SO surprised and so excited to see that it was Kendyll!

I really love listening to Kendyll read to younger children. She is so animated and always involves them in the story she is reading. She is a natural teacher, and she loves getting to be in that role, just like most oldest children do, I guess. :)

Kendyll also got to be our special guest at the inaugural Touch a Life Art Auction earlier this month! It was a great night, featuring artwork made by the sweet kids in Ghana, and an auction of all kinds of amazing work...photography, beaded jewelry, and art pieces. It all benefitted the work Touch a Life is doing, and it celebrated the year we have all had together. It was fun to be there with {most} all the people we have traveled with over this last year, including Ma Beth from Chicago, Nancy from New York, and the Tidmores from Abilene! This was our team from last summer, posing "Rachel style". We love you, Rach.

Mark also got the opportunity to honor our friend, Charlie, at the auction, for the funds he has raised and the way he has spread the word about child slavery in Ghana! Charlie announced at the auction that he has now raised almost $9,000!!!

And, apparently, the number still continues to grow! WOW!! Isn't it amazing what a nine year old can do?! Thank you Griege Family for your amazing support!

So, since Charlie was going to be honored and attend the auction, Kendyll got to get dressed up and go with us. It was a fun night with our big girl. And, she told me later, that she wants to go to art auctions all the time now. :) Funny girl.

Okay, now for Christmas itself! We began our December with our countdown to Christmas, through our advent activities. Last year, I did a couple of different things, but this year I really wanted to start our Jesse Tree, which counts down to Christmas by tracing the plan that God had for Jesus since the beginning of creation. I love it. I have wanted a Jesse Tree for three years, but never felt up to sewing my own ornaments. And, I never thought ahead enough to order them or make them in advance. This year, I just didn't try to make it fancy or finished with handsewn stitches. And, it has been a great experience for all of us.

The girls made their trees themselves from green paper and manila folders. Every morning, we read the Bible passage, read a devotional from our Advent book, and the girls decide what they feel like represents the story of the day, and then illustrate it on their paper ornament. It has been neat to see what they draw, and because they are the ones actually creating the ornaments, they have remembered details they may not have otherwise. I was planning to make a permanent version for next year, but this method has worked better than I first thought!

We have done the ornaments daily, and have a full advent tree now! We're hoping all 25 ornaments will fit!

It has been a great reminder for me to trace the hand of God through the Bible. Everything He has ever done pointed His people to Jesus. And, nothing He ever allowed or planned was a mistake. That has included some tough things. But, they were all for His ultimate glory. What an amazing gift we have to be able to see His hand through history like that. To see the redemption that came to those who waited. We've talked alot about the faith of these people in the Bible, like Moses and Abraham, and Jacob and Joseph and Isaiah...they were so faithful to believe the promise they were given, although they never got to see the fulfillment of Jesus in their life on earth. What a blessing that we DO get to see Jesus. We DO know the end result firsthand. It's been great to talk more about that in this season.

We have also done many of our usual Christmas activities, like:

Decorating the house and trees (of course!) I love this picture of all the girls working on the tree together. I am just so blessed by these three missy moos.

Everyone was so excited when the Christmas boxes began stacking up in the living room. And, Carlie was especially into the decorating this year. She was so sentimental about everything that we pulled out, and could hardly wait to begin decorating her little room tree. Look at that precious smile when it was finally time. :)

And, can someone please tell this girl to stop growing up so fast? Pictures like this one freak me out. She looks way too old. :)

Abby Kate loved seeing her ornaments from the last couple of years and attached herself to the funniest ones. Recognize this gingerbread, Mrs. Amy?

Chase's ornaments were also a special part of our night once again, and the girls even dedicated our playroom tree as "Chase's Tree" this year. :) As usual, he is a normal part of our family celebrations and the girls got so excited about adding his picture to the tree. It is so sweet to see them love him like that.

Bubbas & Christmas Lights...I don't even know how this tradition started, but we always have our annual stop for chicken, mashed potatoes, and the best biscuits and honey, followed by a quick change to pj's and a covering of fluffy blankets. Then we overstuff ourselves with hot chocolate and Starbucks treats, while driving around the neighborhoods with the windows down, picking our favorite lights. And, it's always a total surprise to the girls which night it will be. :) It's a hit every year.

This year, Abby Kate was loving the "rainbow lights" most of all, Carlie is still a sucker for any kind of nativity scene, and Kendyll...hmmm. She was pretty into the Nutcrackers. :)

Christmas with the California/Colorado family:

This has become a mid-December tradition, and it is always a great weekend. LOTS of eating and talking and catching up. We missed some of the family this year, and hope to have the whole gang back next year! :)

This year was another great gift exchange game. Here is Uncle Joe modeling his first pick: a tote bag from Ghana. Guess who brought that?! Needless to say, he didn't end up with the bag! And, I'm sure he was happy.

The girls have also had some really good Uncle Chris time. They have already gone on a date with him this week for Japanese food, and he has accompanied us to the symphony too (next post!). They always have great entertainment when he's around. Here they are gathered around Uncle C. See the laughs?

I wish I could tell you he was reading some great story to them. No, he's showing them some iphone app where you make yourself look fat. I mean. This CRACKED them up. :) We love some good Uncle Chris humor.

Our Christmas Countdown Box....

This is the most loved Christmas item in our house, I do believe. Mommy has been a countdown slacker and I have not written out every days' activities in the countdown doors. I've been busted many times for this. But, we still did our daily activity (even though it was announced orally, and oftentimes made up on the spot :). The girls hung their daily ornament, and ate the daily Hershey's. The chocolate part of the countdown is the most popular part, and happens before breakfast many days. :)

Baking for neighbors...

We are not the greatest neighbors, I'll admit. We don't see each other that often, and we certainly don't take the time we should to go and visit them all. So, this time of year is always our time to "make the rounds" and share some goodies with those who live closest to us. The girls had SO much fun baking a couple of different cookies, and a snack mix treat...and then Grandma saved us on the rest. We threw in her amazing chocolate candies for the rest of the neighbors' treats. :)

(Oh, and delivering these treats on roller skates was a new part of this tradition...I think it will not be continued next year, however. :)

The homeschool church Christmas party...

This was such a sweet get-together and all three of my girls had so much fun. The older kids had a scavenger hunt, looking for boxes of treasure...they all took it very seriously. :)

Look at this concentration!

The little ones had a sweet story time, and they all learned about "What God wants for Christmas".

We made Christmas cards for the nursing home, decorated Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes, and ate lunch together.

It is such a sweet group of moms and kids, and I'm SO thankful that this group is right there at church! What a blessing I never expected!

A Live Nativity. I have wanted to do this every year, and it has never worked out. We literally did it on the spur of the moment, late at night, and I am SO glad we did! The girls got to pet Bible-time animals like camels and donkeys and sheep,

and then followed a guide through Bible times to see Jesus being born in Bethlehem. They stopped at the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth,

visited the fields of the shepherds,

Heard from the angel of the Lord (on top of the church's roof!)

saw Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus,

and listened to the wise men share their stories and their gifts.

And...you guessed it....I cried. It was really good. Especially the end about what sweet gifts the Lord offers us, and what we can give in return. As I said last year, the story of Jesus coming as a baby and offering hope for our world is more and more emotional for me as the years pass.

After the nativity story, there were cookies to decorate and face painting! Hello? Everything a girl wants in one place!!

And, the best "bonus" of that night? Running into friends who had big news for us! Their daughter, Riley, had raised money for His Chase by twisting balloons at a craft fair! We were so excited to see her and tell her how thankful we were for this sweet donation! Riley attended VBS this summer and has been thinking of ways to help the kids in Ghana ever since. I love it!! Thank you, Riley for using your gifts to bless these children!

And, on that note of generosity, I want to close "part one" with a BIG thank you. This Christmas, we decided not to send Christmas cards. And, as we sat and printed tax donation receipts and wrote thank you's for new donations we have received, we realized that the Christmas greetings that we usually send, have been beautifully replaced this year by tax benefit letters.

How great it is to see what this year has brought to our family. You are all blessings to us, and to the children we are now called to serve. So many of you have faithfully given to His Chase. Some of you even gave His Chase donations as Christmas gifts to friends and family! And, others have shared BIG amazing ideas for next year with us! And, we are so very thankful for you. You are making our Christmas have a whole new focus that we ever dreamed possible last year. And, we look forward to 2011 with even greater anticipation!

Visiting Lake Volta

Since I'm now only 15 days away from leaving for Rwanda, I figure I better do my last post about Ghana. :)

As I referred to in past posts, one of the main goals for this trip was to complete the surgeries for the children who needed them. The surgery team ended up being able to complete 11 of the most necessary surgeries in two days, and we were all able to watch as God brought the most amazing team together for this to happen. As I already mentioned, Mark and I, being non-medical members, got the privilege of playing, cuddling, painting, and loving on the kids for these few days. It was a wonderful time with them, and we were so proud of how each of them handled their surgery. Here they are showing their bandages with their awesome team of doctors and nurses!

After the surgeries were complete, we began the other part of this trip: visiting Lake Volta, where thousands of children are still in slavery.

I knew it would be hard to see. I expected it to feel really dark and I had been told many times that you can almost sense the "evil" when you're there.

We did have a really hard time seeing what these children were going through.

And, it was truly surreal to be experiencing firsthand what I had only seen in pictures.

We literally floated up next to canoes of children who were working as slave fisherman.

We held their hands, gave them candy, learned their names and ages, and saw them smile.

We listened as George, Jr. spoke to the masters in their own tribal language, telling them that these children deserve to have a childhood, to have an education, to be free. I marveled as he would tell us details about these children. He knows them so well. He knows how long they have been slaves. They know who lives on which island, and with which master's family. And, they spend hours and hours tracking the kids and looking for opportunities to free them.

Many of you have asked when and how a child becomes free. And, it is a complicated process to explain. Because it isn't "American" in any way. But, George Achibra and his family does an amazing job at talking with these masters, educating them on what they are doing that is wrong (since many have done this for generations), and then spend time earning their trust and developing a relationship with them. Many masters are still unapproachable, and some are unwilling to cooperate. But, many are eventually willing to release children from time to time.

We are praying for open hearts for these masters. We are also praying that there will be a way to help them too. I loved that we got an opportunity to do exactly this while we were there.

We landed on the first island, where the masters reside, and therefore, so do hundreds of children. Some of the very children we are praying to be released, were the ones who rowed us in close to the shore of their island. I was in a boat with a child in slavery. It is still so hard for me to take that in. These are the sweet boys who gave me a ride to the shore. :)

We were greeted so warmly, and were given places to sit under the shade of the huge mango tree in the center of the village.

And, on the second island we went to, they greeted us and gathered under the big central hut...both times, we were honored and welcomed to their homes.

The medical team asked them questions about what diseases they experience on their island, what water they drink (lake water!), and in what ways we could most help them. I loved watching as gratitude just flowed from them all, as we offered hundreds of mosquito nets for their families and for the children.

They were SO excited to be receiving this gift of life, and it was amazing to listen to them chant "NO MORE MALARIA, NO MORE MALARIA" with us, and then giggle and laugh as we fit as many people under a mosquito net as we could.

For all of you who donated to the mosquito net drive, I can't begin to tell you how significant your gift was. We got to watch as these were distributed to families, and as nets were hung in homes as an example. We got to see as the chief shook our hands and said "Thank you for helping our village" with the biggest grin I've ever seen.

YOU made this difference, and it was one of the most emotional moments I had on the trip.

In fact, in the middle of all of this activity, Brad Gautney, who organized the mosquito net drive, hugged Mark and said "I can't help but think about your son right now."

Mark and I both had tears streaming down our faces. And, once again, I asked God "What if I had missed this, Lord?" Chase was a part of all of this, and I felt it really strongly this day. A few minutes after this moment, as I was walking with Brad, he asked if I was okay. All I could get out was "It's just overwhelming." And, I didn't mean the surroundings. I meant that I was here, doing this, experiencing this, after all that has happened. And, it just felt so right. And, like such a blessing I didn't deserve.

As we walked around the islands, this is what we saw.

We saw primitive mud huts where the families live, we met children who were malnourished, with hollow eyes and desperate for our touch. We saw a school building shell that was not being used, with the desks pushed against the wall and the chalkboard in the floor, with goat droppings on top.

We saw groups of children cleaning fish, mending nets, rowing boats...working as slaves ALL AROUND US!

It was shocking that I was watching it happen right in front of my eyes! I still remember faces and names, and I pray I never forget them, because I pray for them by name every day. I want them to be free. I want them to be able to be children. I want them to know how much they are treasured.

But, something weird was happening while I was there on the first island. At the same time as I was feeling this sadness and shock--for some strange reason--I was full of hope too. I don't know WHY this was. There were so many reasons NOT to have hope. Everywhere I looked was a reason to be sad. But, as I watched our team interact with these beautiful people and sweet children, I just kept sensing that something BIG was beginning here.

And I loved meeting these families! (And especially the babies and kids!) And, I could easily see how relationships could be formed here and changes could be made over time.

As I listened to the Vanderpools already making a plan for a water filtration system, and medical clinic in this area, and as I watched them set up a mobile clinic right there in the middle of the village, treating everything from wounds to worms...I was giddy with the thought of what could still be done here!

I still don't know exactly what it will look like, but I know for sure we're not done visiting the lake, or ministering to the people on the islands there.

There is so much to be done. And, sure, that can be overwhelming. But, so much of it is really "do-able". These people need hope. They need clean water. They need education. They need other ways to support their families besides fishing. Or, they need a better way to fish. They need vaccines and medication and doctors and nurses who will visit them.

And, ALL of that is totally do-able! I felt so encouraged by what I experienced, and that took me completely by surprise.

Sure, I had tears. There were moments when I had to catch my breath, and realize that I was in the middle of nowhere, in Africa, with people who were living in very primitive conditions.

But, even with the sadness, and the sickness, and the slavery, I believe the Lord allowed me to peek in on what He sees. I believe He is MOVING boldly on behalf of these children, and even on behalf of these masters....to offer them HOPE and NEW LIFE. When He looks at them, He sees beauty. And, how could you not? Look at these faces!!

I believe He sees a BEAUTIFUL group of people who are lost, and just need direction. They have been overlooked, and He's not letting us do that anymore. They need to know a different way of doing things. And, sure, it could take a long time to get there. But, why shouldn't we try all that we can, especially considering all that we've been given?

They need water. We can give them water.

They need vaccines. We can give them vaccines.

They need education. We can arrange for them to have teachers.

They need new sources of business and income. We can train them to do so many other things.

I left the lake with images of children branded in my mind. I also left the lake with an intense desire to come back again. (I honestly wasn't sure if that feeling would be there!) And, I left the lake with a hope I didn't expect.

I pray that the Lord will allow me to return to see Hagar. And, Ebenezer.

And, Eche.

And, Forever. And, Echoo and Achoo. (twins that are named like sneezes. :)

And, I pray that I see the day when they are free and running around, healthy and strong.

I pray that I can return to visit these beautiful girls and teach them more songs.

They learned "God is so Good", and it was the most beautiful experience. Me, a lone white woman, surrounded by beautiful teenage girls, who were so timid to sing out loud. (By the way, I found that I was very drawn to the teenage girls all week. It just seemed as if God drew me to them...they just seemed to be the most lost of all.) There was noise everywhere from the medical clinic and the children running around us. But slowly, as I sang a line, and they repeated it, our voices became louder, as they became more confident of the words and the new song. Even after I had finished singing and had begun talking to one or another of them, many of them continued to sing "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me." I hope I never forget that moment in my whole life.

And, I pray that I see the day when they are free and singing at the top of their lungs.

May we all see the day when they each sing a New Hallelujah..."breaking out from the children of freedom"!!