I just returned from Angola having seen such amazing things happening with Saving Moses! This was my 3rd trip & I am now working through the heart stuff that comes up from my visits to this amazing country. On this trip, I saw beauty in faces, actions, love, compassion, care and touch. The babies that we get to feed with Saving Moses are nothing less than captivating, not only for their eyes, faces and irresistible cuteness, but even moreso for who they are. Jesus said in Matt 25:40, when you are you kind, gracious & generous for the least of these, you do these things as unto Me. If we as humans cannot be generous, gracious & deeply moved by the smallest among us, then we probably need to put ourselves into environments & opportunities to connect with genuine love lest we become heartless, cold and even barbaric. Saving Moses is about genuinely loving the smallest expressions of Jesus, who could possibly die without an ongoing tangible love that we get to express.
Posts Tagged 'Angola'
very, very small but oh so important
Published May 24, 2012 Angola , family , Holy Spirit , living , relationships , saving moses , spiritual , travel Leave a CommentTags: Angola, grow, love, travel
Thoughts while traveling
Published May 14, 2012 Angola , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , saving moses , travel 2 CommentsTags: Angola, saving moses, thoughts
Angola ’12
Well, I’m back on my way to Angola for my 3rd visit with Saving Moses. I have mixed thoughts & feelings about this visit. My first trip to Angola was extremely impacting because I didn’t have any clue what it would be like to look face to face with infant mortality. My 1st trip to Angola gave me this introduction. Last year, our visit to Angola didn’t have the same 2×4 shock of the 1st trip, but it was every bit as impacting. Maybe last year was more powerful than my 1st visit because we were able to make more friendships like Manushe & her daughter Celestina, Angelina with Desorae & a follow up visit to Belito from our 1st trip. It was nothing less than pure delight to get to be with my nun friends as well, so I’m very eager to catch up with them again, hopefully, on this trip.
I never want to get mechanical on these trips, which means that I always want to keep my heart soft, tending & feeling. I can trust that God will guide & direct not only our physical steps, but also the experiences for my heart as well. Be sure that any journey on which your heart travels always keeps God as your closest traveling companion. Stay tuned for more updates 
An Update from Saving Moses in Angola
Published September 29, 2011 Angola , living , missions , prayer , saving moses 1 CommentTags: Angola, growing, infant mortality, questions, saving moses, traveling
Well, we’re concluding our 2nd trip to Angola & I’m quite a mixed bag of feelings & thoughts. In some respects, this trip has been more difficult than our 1st venture & it seems like I’ll have some sorting out to do for a fair amount of time. There are several discussions that I’m having with God, along with many questions. So in some respects, I guess that’s good because these interactions certainly keep our relationship genuine.
Alot of my conversations with God are also filled with gratitude. I’m very thankful for His patience with me as I grow, His wisdom in how He handles me, His grace for my humanity and most of all His love, which I’m unable to describe at this point.
I think I’ll be working through this trip for awhile. But be sure to watch for a video update tomorrow – I worked on one & when I get in a wi fi friendly area, I’ll upload it & it will certainly warm & encourage your heart In the meantime, here’s a cool pic of my friend Jody who has become delightfully attached to Celestina, a beautiful & very healthy 3month old little girl
something great with @savingmoses!!!
Published September 16, 2011 Angola , living , missions , prayer , saving moses Leave a CommentTags: Angola, babies, future, help!, infants, pray, rescue, saving moses, wisdom
Hey! Take a quick minute to watch this really short but insightful video about what our @savingmoses team is doing next week!!
something cool to watch from Angola :)
Published November 5, 2010 Angola , saving moses , Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Angola, saving moses, water
I’ve still been pondering alot about my experiences in Angola & I’m finding that @savingmoses seems to never be far below the surface of whatever activity or conversation in which I’m involved. Some things that I’ve noticed about myself since returning from Angola include:
- I think I’m more compassionate – I find myself extending patience, grace, acceptance & love to people more than I have in the past, even though I’m presently in a fairly stressful season of life
- my dreams seem to be more vivid or I’m remembering them better when I wake up. I’m not dreaming about Angola, but I seem to be having fairly meaningful dreams
- I find myself thinking in increments of $30 because I’ve figured out that I can keep a baby from starving to death for about $30 / month w saving moses.
- When I see babies now, it seems like my immediate subconscious reaction is to ask how much they weigh & I’m asking myself if I’ll ever get back to the “so cute” first reaction.
- I also find myself having REALLY BIG THOUGHTS, maybe even grandiose plans, about how to keep babies from starving to death
This is a really honest window into my thoughts over the last few weeks.
I’m also working to develop some video skills, so if your brave (wink), take a look at this link & let me know if you like it or any suggestions for improvements
What I find myself unable to say about Angola
Published October 26, 2010 Angola , saving moses Leave a CommentTags: angelina, Angola, saving moses
Since I’ve returned from Angola, I’ve been trying to work through this experience & I’m not really sure if I’m making any progress. There were many things that we experienced, but one experience has left me without words & very raw. Truthfully, I think this experience has probably forever changed me – Im presently unable to express myself but I want you to know about Angelina.
Please read the post from our photographer, Steve Stanton
http://stevestantonphotography.com/blog/
He has put into words some of this experience and maybe sometime later, I’ll be able to talk about this, sharing in my own words what I find myself unable to do now
Processing Angola
Published October 22, 2010 Angola , missions , saving moses 1 CommentTags: Angola, babies, malnutrition, saving moses
I’ve been home for about 36 hours & I’m trying to work through some thoughts & feelings, which are rather jumbled around. Its complete bliss to get to be with my family – they are nothing less than spectacular & I’m thoroughly grateful for them!!!! At the same time, I’m also trying to process this last week. When I see a baby now, I have this instinctual reaction to ask how old & how much do they weigh. When the mom tells me the answers, it feels like I shatter into a million little pieces in my heart & thoughts as I think about the babies I’ve just seen, held, touched & am trying to help.
One such family is a single mom with 2 kids – Marcella. Her youngest son, Belito, is about 14months old & struggling with malnutrition. Marcella has had 6 kids & only 2 are surviving today – the 4 who died never made it to 6 months old. I met Belito & Marcella at a malnutrition clinic we visited & I was able to visit her everyday when we were in Angola. We got to visit her home, meet her oldest son who is 8yrs old, meet her mom & exchange greetings with her neighbors. Belito weighs about 13lbs & is 14months old. He is very weak & frail. His mom is trying super hard to help him to get better. As a single mom, she doesn’t really have a job & there’s no gov’t support or subsidies to help her, so her way of getting money to buy food is to slowly sell off whatever she has that’s valuable. She used to have a job selling bananas, but since Belito has been sick, she hasn’t been able to stay with the banana selling. She lives w her mom, who has a job washing clothes and this helps Marcella a little bit. When we asked how we could help her, she said that some rice, beans & oil would be super helpful.
I talked quite extensively with Marcella, seeking to understand how she arrived in the current situation. When I asked about her husband, she explained that he left her because he felt that she couldn’t take care of his kids because they kept dying. He doesn’t give her any support & she’s never learned to read or write. In our conversations, I asked her what would be some things that she’d like to achieve & she said that she would like to get back into the studying she had been doing before Belito got sick, so she could learn to read & write. We talked about various job possibilities & what she’d like to be doing in the future to earn a living. This was all a very powerful conversation for me that occurred over the course of 5 days.
I very much want to help Marcella – she’s a kind and intelligent woman who deeply loves her son. Before we left, we bought her the rice, beans & oil, but we also bought her some formula & porridge for when Belito gets discharged from the malnutrition clinic. I explained how to mix the formula – quantities of water (boiled please) along with scoops of formula & then how to mix these w the porridge. All in all, at this point, I’m not sure who has benefitted more from this friendship – Marcella or me.
Angola, while being being an extremely poor country, is very rich with the quality of her citizens. The picture attached isn’t of Marcella & Belito (they are the picture in my last blog), but is a VERY common scene.
Lets Make a Difference in Angola
Published October 16, 2010 Uncategorized 2 CommentsTags: aenemia, angelina, Angola, malnutrition
Today was pretty hard core. It’s after 9p & I’m struggling to process this day & it’s events. We drive to a more remote city / town & visited a medical clinic w some volunteer Portugese medical students & doctors who were doing everything possible to preserve life under unbelievable conditions.
I’m not sure how much I can share at this point because of how this is affecting me. How could we consider a day to be successful when possibly only 1 infant died of anemia & malnutrition instead of 4? What about the family that has contracted tuberculosis that is a strain resistant to the 1st line of drugs? Is the 2nd line of drugs for tb available?
How about the 6yr old sister charged to watch her 4 wk old brother? Or the single mom who needs a job & whose 14month old son needs food?
And yet the good news of today is that one of the severely malnutritioned babies we visited yesterday we were able to look in on & it looks like she’s going to make it!
When you do something to “the least of these”, you’ve done it to Me – Matt 25
Angola – lets help!
Published October 15, 2010 Angola , saving moses 1 CommentTags: Angola, malnutrition, saving moses
Angola 2
Well, today was unreal. We were able to visit a malnutrition clinic for babies & I’m finding it extremely difficult to find words to communicate how this is affecting me. We got to meet the moms of these babies & it was really incredible to meet these women. I met a mom who had traveled approx 400 miles to bring her daughter who was born with a clef pallet & having difficulty feeding her baby.
Please check out my facebook page to see a brief glimpse of some dear people I met today.
Savingmoses in Angola
Published October 14, 2010 Angola , saving moses Leave a CommentTags: Angola, saving moses
Well, it’s been an interesting day!
I landed in Angola – my 1st time to come to this country & it’s quite amazing. Angola has recently come out of more than 25 yrs of civil war & there are still approximately 12 million landmines scattered around the countryside. Angola has about 13 million citizens to give you some perspective. So part of my intro to Angola, a crash course, was the quickie landmine schooling: red is bad & blue is safe. So my friend, whenever you’re down this way, watch out for any fields with red on the trees – avoid these fields.
We were able to visit a school & feeding program associated with the school. I’m attaching some pictures of a normal classroom & the teacher for this class. We met some very great kids & tomorrow we’ll be visiting some very small people with some very severe needs. So come back tomorrow & you can also keep up to speed w me real time on twitter & facebook if those float your fancy.
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