Burundi -- How YOU Can Help

Photo by Rachelle Schaar

This is the week I buy my ticket for the trip to Africa in July! It's also the week I get my shots and apply for my visa. I am really getting excited about being a part of the team that is going to Burundi to participate in the Sister Connection Widow's Retreat!

One of the concerns for a trip like this is, of course, finances. The Lord is using the kindness of friends and church family to make this trip possible. But that's not all He is using. We've had a few other sources of income, including a $100 cash prize we won by playing Haggen Monopoly! (Remember last year, when my big prize was a can or corn?!) When I told Abby Nelson from Sister Connection about this she said, "God is even sovereign over Haggen Monopoly!" It is wonderful to see the creative ways God is using to make it possible for me to go on this trip.

Now I want to give you an opportunity to make it possible for a widow to attend the retreat, or a child to go to camp. The recent Sister Connection Newsletter talks about the amount needed to make each event a reality. It costs just $30 for one person to attend one of these three-day getaways that are being held in July. Maybe the Lord wants to use you to make it possible for one or more people to attend.

This is not, as we know, just about money. Of course money is necessary for the ministry of Sister Connection to operate. But this is really about God working in the lives of people to bring them healing, dignity and hope. It is about the body of Christ loving and praying for one another. It is about the joy of seeing Him work in people, transforming individuals, families and the nation of Burundi through Sister Connection.

I invite you to bring this wonderful ministry to the Lord in prayer. Ask Him to meet all the needs for the summer -- financial needs, travel safety (people come to these events from all over the country), and spiritual concerns. Pray that the Lord would heal and encourage hearts and would draw people to Himself.

And while you are praying, He just might show you some way that YOU can get involved too!

Taming the Recipe Collection

I have this image in my mind of a beautiful recipe collection, a full-page professional looking illustrated recipe on each page, categorized and neatly filling a three-ring binder. Each of my collected recipes, torn from a magazine, scribbled on a restaurant coaster or printed from the internet, would be perfected to our own liking before it is included in this compelling volume.

What I have in reality is a massive accumulation of recipes in various sizes and styles, jammed into a couple of overflowing file folders, a recipe box, and one fat binder. They are not "arranged" in any order and I end up finding new ones online instead of digging through all my untamed receptacles for that particular recipe I was thinking about.

A portion of my recipe collection

So I am consolidating my recipes.

I've gone through the recipes and taped each of the odd-sized ones onto a piece of printer paper. That way all the pages are the same size, and I can make notes on them as I experiment with them. (When you are a gluten- and dairy-free cook, you do a lot of tweaking.) My goal is to get them all sorted by type and put them into a big fat three-ring binder.

This process has several advantages. For one thing, it helps me cull duplicates. (I had no idea I had a dozen blueberry muffin recipes!) It also makes it much easier to find a specific recipe, but I guess you knew that without my mentioning it. And as I make the notes on the recipes I tweak I can get them just how I like them.

Goal - to get each recipe transformed from one form to the other

This process is also long. My recipes may never make it into that three-ring binder with a photo of each one. But if they do, I'll get to use my all-time favorite office supply: page protectors! I love those things! I'll slip two recipes, back to back, into a page protector and smile at how well the page protectors keep those recipes from getting messy.

What have you done to tame your recipe collection? What tips would you like to share? We'd love to hear them!

Pondering Motherhood

That's what I've been doing the past couple of weeks, pondering motherhood. I was preparing for a panel discussion at MOPS. The mentor moms of our group -- women who have raised our kids and are now walking alongside younger women, to give support and encouragement --  would be sharing our collective wisdom at our MOPS meeting, and I wanted to be ready.

Well, that panel discussion was yesterday. I loved being a part of it. I loved how preparing brought so much to my heart and mind. I loved the things the other women shared. I loved that it spoke to the MOPS moms. I loved the tears and the shrieks of laughter that intermingled, not unlike the daily life of a mom.

I've been thinking about Jesus' mother, Mary. We know the Christmas story, how when Jesus was born the angels and shepherd and wise men and even King Herod were talking about the event. Not Mary, though. Luke tells us that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19).

Years ago Mom bought a large paper heart-shaped box and decorated it for me. I called it my Ponder Box. It was a place for me to treasure up the things that needed pondering. The box, the notebooks and the scribbled slips of paper that are stuffed in drawers and file folders around my house all contain things that I am still pondering.

So, starting today, I will do an occasional post about mothering. From time to time you'll see a post with the title "Pondering Motherhood" and then a topic following. It may be my own thoughts or the thoughts of another mom. But it will be from the heart. You may not learn much about potty training on these posts, or when to start giving an allowance. I never did figure those things out! But you will be drawn to the place where mothering begins and ends, the heart.

I'm looking forward to pondering motherhood with you.

The Dandelions

Upon a showery night and still,

Without a sound of warning,

A trooper band surprised the hill,

And held it in the morning.

We were not waked by bugle-notes,

No cheer our dreams invaded,

And yet, at dawn, their yellow coats

On the green slopes paraded.

We careless folk the deed forgot;

Till one day, idly walking,

We marked upon the self-same spot

A crowd of veterans talking.

They shook their trembling heads and gray

With pride and noiseless laughter;

When, well-a-day! they blew away,

And ne'er were heard of after!

Helen Gray Cone [1859-1934]

Source: "The Home Book of Verse," by Burton Stevenson


Click here to read a delightful article about dandelions

Yes You Can -- Ricky's Building Project

Ricky Johnston is always thinking. While he was a student (he has a masters and a PhD in economics) he made time to read material unrelated to his studies, things like theology, philosophy, sociology, classic literature, and fairy tales.  "Things that make me better understand people, make me question the meaning of life and what I do, and things that make me dream. Training and education go beyond schooling; the real learning occurs when we teach ourselves." Then he adds, "Learn everything you can from everyone you can."

It was great and imaginative writers like C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald who influenced him. It's people he has known, like Earl Palmer (former pastor of Seattle's University Presbyterian Church) and Skip Li, a prominent Seattle attorney, and his wife Cyd, and everyday folks in Ricky's life who have left their mark on him.

That includes his parents, Don and Denise Johnston. They began to pass on stories about Sister Connection that they had heard from Randy and Alice Matthewson, friends from church. As missionaries in Central Africa, they have spent a lot of time in Burundi, and would talk about the widows there whose lives were being blessed by the support of Sister Connection. The opportunity to build a house for a widow really struck a chord with Ricky.

It got him thinking. His employer, Microsoft, matches the charitable donations its employees make to a number of non-profits. He wondered if Sister Connection was on Microsoft's approved list.

Indeed, it was! Any gift he would make to Sister Connection would be matched by Microsoft!

So Ricky started channeling funds through Microsoft for the purchase of homes for widows in Burundi through Sister Connection. And Microsoft has matched each dollar. In the past year-and-a-half, Ricky and Microsoft have provided houses for 28 widows in Burundi!

 Ricky calls it "a buy one, get one free arrangement!"

I asked Ricky if he's always been interested in missions and development work. He told me he used to be interested in money and himself, but now he's primarily interested in helping people live better lives. "Sometimes it's helping people with material needs. Sometimes it's encouraging people to give up the material 'needs' they think they have."

Ricky loves the outdoors, both the mountains and the water. He hikes in the Cascades every other weekend and loves to hang out with his parents when he can, enjoying the natural beauty of the Northwest.

But what he really loves is surfing. Having grown up in southern California, he could hit the waves early in the morning, surf all day, and stay in the water till his parents dragged him home. And he still surfs every chance he gets.

That's not so often now as he works long hours at Microsoft. One of these days, when he has some time, he'd like to go to Burundi to meet some of the widows he's been able to provide a home for.

Actually his long-term interest is to do economic development somewhere in the world, to use his background in economics to make life better for people. He's not sure when or where that might be.

"But I hope the place I end up has waves."

* * * * * * * * 

The widows' homes built by Sister Connection are scattered across the nation of Burundi, where thousands of women were widowed during the ethnic wars that took a million lives. One home costs $600 to build, and SC hires local builders, who use local building materials, providing not only security and status for the widow and her children but stimulus to the local economy as well. Sister Connection provides further support for the women through monthly sponsorship (US $30) to cover basic needs. Job training, an annual retreat for spiritual enrichment and fellowship, and other provisions for these widowed sisters of Burundi are all designed to lead to their self-sufficiency.

You can be a part of this remarkable ministry. Do you work for a company that will match your gifts?Do you want to support a widow? Do you want to build a house for a widow? One more thing -- the Spring 2012 Sister Connection Newsletter just came out, telling how you can help send a widow or a child to camp. Today would be a wonderful day to make an investment in the life of a sister in Burundi.

(Yes You Can is a monthly feature that tells the story of someone who has had a dream, followed their dream, and made a difference in their world because of it.)

Jumping Monkeys

Jumping monkeys. I've known about them all my life but never had a name for them.

They are the distractions that take you off course. The pot that boils dry on the stove because a young man has come to your front door trying to earn money to go to camp. The Sunday paper that you read all the way through when all you intended to do was read the comics. The cobwebs that catch your eye when you are on your way to get something from the garage, and then, when you're hunting for a rag to get the cobwebs you find that someone has left their garden shoes right in your path so you clear out a corner near the back door of the garage to store the shoes and run to your kid's room to find the little shelf to keep the garden shoes on and while you're in the bedroom you see the overdue library book that everyone in the family has been looking for so you take it to the table in the front hall and see that the mail has come and needs to be sorted...

I remember the Family Circus cartoon from many years ago that had Billy taking the absolute most zigzaggy trip to the grocery store to get something for his mom that she needed "right away" so she could finish making dinner. Oh, that's me. I've been bugged by my propensity to distraction for years. Drives me nuts! Is it the curse of the creative mind? Maybe it's just me.

Sunday Pastor Pat introduced the congregation to jumping monkeys. He was talking about prayer, specifically spending time waiting on God. Now if that's not a time for the distractions to invade our minds, I don't know what is. He said Henri Nouwen called those distractions jumping monkeys and he flashed this picture onto the screen:

Photo Credit

They are so cute I couldn't take my eyes off them. Having a good time too, they are! Jumping monkeys giggle and squeal, make faces, and perform silly antics to get your attention. At last I knew what to call those pesky distractions that keep knocking me off course.

So what did he say to do about them? Wave to them (acknowledge their presence) then turn your back and ignore them!

Simple to say; hard to do. But now that I know that the distractions are silly little monkeys putting on a show for me, the wisdom of Pat's advice is plain.

So if you or one of your children or someone else you care about struggles to stay on task, dub those distractions as jumping monkeys and see if that doesn't help!

Hymn of the Month -- Hymnsing

For many of our growing up years we were without television. So the Sunday afternoons that we spent with our grandparents meant not only a chance to see Grandma and Grandad, eat Grandma's date pinwheel cookies and choose a game to play from their special game drawer, it also meant we could watch Bonanza! At 5:30 we kids would be gathered around the tv, in the middle of an adventure-filled episode, when Grandma would come into the room and switch to the Canadian station for their regular Sunday afternoon program, Hymnsing. For the next 30 minutes a group of young adults, dressed in coordinating outfits, would wander through gardens, stand by the shore, or find their places on a sound stage, singing hymns as choral arrangements or smaller groupings. The songs they sang were songs I loved -- except for that 30 minutes when I was wondering what was happening back on Bonanza!

Have you ever been to a hymnsing? It's been a long time since I have, but at the last one they gave us a chance at the beginning to call out the numbers of the hymns we wanted to sing. Those few minutes created the agenda for the next hour. Then, one by one, the congregation would turn to the songs in our hymnals and would belt out some of the most powerful songs ever written. It wasn't necessarily the tunes that made the songs so powerful, nor the musicians at the instruments, and it certainly wasn't because of the singers. But the words of those hymns told the story of God and humanity, of our sin and His mercy, of our brokenness and His healing, of His greatness and our praise.

I usually select one hymn at a time in my Hymn of the Month but I found this video that reminds us why we sing hymns. It features Bob Kauflin, whose videos I've shown here from time to time, explaining why they chose hymns for the style of music at the Together For the Gospel (T4G) conferencse, where thousands of pastors gather to affirm that, whether or not they agreed on every point of theology, they stand together on the main thing: the gospel.

I hope the emphasis that I place each month on hymns strengthens you as you listen to the truth they present; I hope it challenges you to a deeper walk with Christ; I hope it makes you hungry for more of God. If you just see hymns as music for a different time (thus, irrelevant), I encourage you to give yourself permission to rock your world through hymns.



CD available here or here.