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 'travel'
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
how to enjoy the journey before you arrive
Published March 10, 2012 Uncategorized 2 CommentsTags: destination, grow, journey, saving moses, travel
I recently made a fairly quick trip to Cambodia & had an absolutely wonderful time!! The journey to and from Cambodia was interesting. On the way there, I completely lost Fri, March 2nd because I left on March 1st and landed in Cambodia on March 3rd. On the way home, I got to have a double portion of Wed, March 7th. On this trip, I was traveling by myself and it was an interesting journey. If I’m not careful, I can easily get caught up in the mechanics of travel: where I’m sitting on the planes, what kind of food I’m eating, airline schedules, luggage challenges, etc. But here’s my thought – the journey isn’t as important as Who is traveling with me.
As we walk through life, there will be highs & lows along the journey because that’s the nature of life. What’s important about our journey in life isn’t the highs & lows, but rather that we are walking with Jesus and our communion and fellowship with Jesus. Truly, Jesus in our lives is more important than where we are going or how we get there. Remember that Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” 
are you a picky eater?
Published January 31, 2012 cooking , enemies to intimacy , family , fasting , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual , travel 2 CommentsTags: food, loving people, strange, travel, weird
I know that I’m a bit of a strange bird: I go to weird places and enjoy the experience, I do some crazy things and think about it later, I find it to be alot of fun to try new and unusual sports, etc. Furthermore, I love to explore culinary adventures. There’s this bald guy on TV who goes to some really strange places and eats food that is nothing less than thoroughly bizarre – I like watching him because he challenges me to push the envelope with trying new things to eat. My latest claim to fame is eating a bug off the fender of one of our vehicles in Angola last year (that was on the heels of the bugs I ate with my friends in Cambodia). ANYWAYS, my point is that my parents raised me to eat and “like” all foods. When I was growing up, we weren’t allowed to say that we didn’t like a certain food. We always had to try a teaspoon & omit the subsequent critique ,)
So this got me to thinking about how I perceive people. If I can enjoy such a wide array of food options, why not let God develop a love in me for a wide array of people. Today, I felt that God challenged me to be less picky and finicky about people and to love them with less criticisms and pre-requisites. Perhaps you’re really good at loving a wide variety of people – please pray for me that I would continue to get better at loving people and being less picky. thanks muchos
whooops!
Published November 10, 2011 enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , travel Leave a CommentTags: falling, help!, multi-tasking, travel
I was standing on a very crowded bus recently & trying to do too many things at the same time: holding up my luggage, keeping my purse from whacking the person next to me, trying to write a text message & keep my balance. Silly me, trying to all of these things at the same time is only asking for some kind of faux paux. Yep, the bus lurched & I fell in this lady’s lap, almost spilled out all of my purse & came close to dropping my phone, but I did manage to keep my luggage from tipping over – all in a very crowded bus
Here’s my take away learning curve: stop trying to do so many things at the same time. Multi-tasking could also be multi-wrecking. Stop trying to be so independent & receive help when its offered, or even ask for help from time to time. Sometimes it’s enough to be still & know that God is still God
Some things I like about Jet Lag ,)
Published November 1, 2011 family , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , spiritual , travel 1 CommentTags: benefits, help!, jet lag, time zones, travel, turkey
So presently, I’m in a bit of a time warp because I went to Turkey for the weekend & came back last night. The total trip from start to finish was less than 80 hours. In that amount of time, I was in 3 different countries, visited 4 of the 7 churches John addressed in Revelation 2-3, learned lots of cool historical & biblical stuff, rode on 6 airplanes & spent no less than 10 hours driving to various places. With this in mind, I’m very happy to know my name & present location
Along with the above excitement, here are some things I like about jet lag:
- time feels less definite & concrete but more amorphous
- in my present mindframe, I find myself leaning into God more for moment by moment help
- coffee seems to taste better ,)
- I have a viable excuse for not making sense ,)
- it seems like I feel or sense God better
- my family relationships feel very gentle, tender & rich
Some thoughts from Turkey
Published October 30, 2011 living , spiritual , travel Leave a CommentTags: history, Laodicea, ruins, travel, turkey
This nation has a really rich & deep history. In the 20th century, there was alot of conflict w the Greeks & several other nations who wanted to have significant influence & control over this nation. The British also had a sizable amount a influence as well. Clearly, there has also been a massive muslim influence here for many centuries.
Prior to the 8th & 9th centuries, Turkey had a large amount of Christian presence. Some places from the Bible times that are in modern day Turkey include: Antioch, Paul’s 1st missionary journey & half of his 2nd journey, Colossae (Colossians), Ephesus & other places as well. Our guide was telling us that the modern day Turkish people have their roots from Central Asia & they migrated due to a drought & famine. The word “Turk” means nomad.
Geographically, the western part of Turkey tends to be more wealthy than in the eastern part (where the recent earthquake was last week). In the west, the land is extremely fertile & you can see farms & agricultural efforts year round. The eastern part of Turkey is where many Kurds live, who were also really ostracized by Sadaam Hussein.
Turkey is a fascinating blend of many different influences including Judaism, Christian, Central Asia, Muslim & others.
It s most certainly a tremendous privilege to get to visit this nation & I’m going to try & attach some pix to give some perspective & insights on this cool country
The attached pictures are from Laodicea from: the oldest known cathedral or basilica from 320ad in Laodicea. This city was a center of banking & gov’t for the region, trading soft black wool & a healing eye salve. Laodicea was a wealthy city. With these things in mind, pls consider reading Revelation 3:14ff
Hello from Turkey!
Published October 29, 2011 travel 2 CommentsTags: history, ministry, travel, turkey
I’ve popped over to Turkey for a few days so I thought I’d write a quick hello
Here’s some things that I really love about this country:
*the people are totally cool – theyre friendly, respectful, intelligent & fun!
*the history – on this brief trip I get to visit Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna & Laodicea, some of the churches John addressed in Revelation 2-3; furthermore, Paul’s 1st missionary trip was all over modern Turkey. Suffice it to say that his nation has a rich & magnificent history
*scenery – very beautiful: rolling hills, agrarian, some mountains & some beautiful ancient ruins.
*food – this one isn’t fair because I basically enjoy the food wherever I go, generally ,)
So be prepared for some pix tomorrow from some ofthe cool places we get to visit & please be sure to pray for the Turks on the eastern part of Turkey who are endeavoring to recover from a nasty earthquake earlier this week!
a voice from the past ,)
Published October 5, 2011 Angola , family , Holy Spirit , living , missions , prayer , saving moses , spiritual 1 CommentTags: adjustments, family, jet lag, priorities, sleep, time change, transition, travel, work
Ok, right off the bat, please forgive me for not blogging since I’ve returned from Angola. And here’s the honest truth: when I come back from these trips where I connect with moms, infants, healthcare workers, etc who live on the frontlines of infant mortality everyday, coming home can sometimes be complicated. This return, especially compared to last year, is less difficult emotionally for me, but is more physically difficult. Please don’t interpret my thoughts here to be complaints because I’m deeply thankful to God for this absolutely magnificent honor of getting to love “the least of these”. Nevertheless, my body is pretty worn down so I’ve been endeavoring to maintain my essential priorities that of course include nurturing healthy relationships with my family.
With all of that being said, let me also include that I had one of the richest times of the year with God yesterday morning – waking at 3am due to the time change. We had some delicious fellowship meandering through Acts 3, when the beggar was healed at the temple.
I’ll get back into the blogging routine here & shortly we’ll be putting up some great pix from our Angola @savingmoses trip
Welcome to Angola!
Published September 24, 2011 Angola , living , missions , saving moses Leave a CommentTags: Disco, Dori, infants, malnutrition, swimming, travel
Today we are going back to the malnutrition clinic where we spent alot of time last year. This is the same clinic where we got to know Belito & they told me that we can visit him again this year so I’m looking forward to checking in w him & seeing how’s he’s doing! I’m also a little introspective because I have a little bit of a sense of some of the infants we will get to meet today along w their moms hopefully.
With this trip, I want to be fully present & I want to lavishly love no matter what shape the person is in.
But presently I’m a bit challenged to be loving bc my sleep last night was almost non-existent due to the night long street disco party & our early departure, coupled w the last 3 days of travel. So truthfully, I’m finding myself in the “just keep swimming” mode, as Dori would say in “Finding Nemo”. Just keep swimming, Sarah
Getting to Angola
Published September 23, 2011 Angola , living , missions , saving moses 2 CommentsTags: being flexible, delays, determination, flights, travel
Presently, we are slowly making our way to Angola via Germany & South Africa. On the day we left the US, I received a call that one of our flights had been cancelled & that we were be re-routed. Our new itinerary added an entire extra day of travel along w several long lay-overs & an extra flight. Presently, as I’m writing this, I’m standing in a transfer line w my friends, waiting to get a boarding pass for the flight to Angola.
The problem with getting to Angola is that it isn’t considered a “desirable desolation”. So to get to this country, it takes some focus, determination & persistence.
I think these ideas about persistence & determination are true whenever you decide to help people. If you’re merely interested in helping, then almost any obstacle will suffice as an inconvenience & possible excuse to change your mind. If you’re passionate about helping, then inconveniences are nothing more than hurdles as you make your way to the goal. When we are in a position to help people (at the grocery store, volunteering for a community project, etc), we must decide to not be dissuaded by obstacles, delays or flight changes – I’m writing this mostly to myself, given my current frame of mind
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