Friday, June 26, 2009

The best part of being here…

We love feeling like we are here for a reason.  That is what keeps us going.  Lately I have been just spending time with kids that don’t have much in the way of money or life.  I find it really fulfilling to see hurting kids just being fed and loved.  Here are a few photos.

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Pierce Dahlia and Angelina enjoying some popcorn at night before we walked her home.  She even stayed for bedtime stories.

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My kiddos and with the other kids at preschool while we had a New Zealand team in to volunteer that day with puppets etc..

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The three musketeers at the park in Port Vila.  We took Angelina and it was one of the first times in a REALLY long time she had ever gotten to go to town. 

IMG_1701  Angelina on the slide.

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One of Rachael the teachers daughters up our coconut tree getting us coconuts to eat with the kids we had over that day.  Yes she climbed that tree and it is VERY TALL!

IMG_1745 The preschool watching the volunteers use puppets to tell stories. IMG_1762_edited-1

Dahlia, Nicole, and Jimmy at our house playing in the back yard one day after preschool.

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Rachel the teacher holding Dahlia in preschool.  We recently found out Rachel often does not have enough food to feed her family so we along with my parents try to help out whenever we can with food.  Please be praying for her and her 6 kids.  She is due with the 7th in July.

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Jimmy is a sweet boy who is not getting the love and attention he needs at home and still needs help with daily necessities.  We are finding that to be very common in our preschool. 

We are working on creating a sponsorship program to figure out the amount needed monthly to cover school fees, uniforms, food and help with their  families rent.  Please be thinking about this as we work out how much it will be.  We will taken NONE of it for overhead and ALL will go dirrectly to the kids families.  We will also be working out a way to check in to see if it is being properly spent on the children.

“Confessions of a Christian hedonist”

That is the title of a book by John Piper that has this as its theme…and yes hedonist does mean pleasure seeker…

“God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in him.”

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l have been thinking about what God is wanting to teach us in our time right now, and also reading a book called “Marketplace Christianity” that my dad recommended (by Robert Fraser).  (A MUST READ FOR ANYONE!!!!)

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In this book one of the things they talk about is the realm of spiritual giftings in the marketplace or business world.  So like the church sphere has apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists the business world has areas of spiritual giftings as well.  God is using the other millions of christians (97%) that are not in the church sphere to serve God and influence people for the kingdom of heaven

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One of these giftings that stuck out to me was the one about treasure bringers.  It is a funny thing to say while we sit here with less than $30 cash to our name, but I really believe through a series of events that God has spoken to us that he will use us in this way. 

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As Robert Fraser puts it “treasure bringers are anointed by God to make money and to do great deeds of compassion and mercy for the nations.”  They are totally motivated by seeing God as a benevolent father and they are free from greed and selfish ambition.  They want to make money to use it to bless others.  One guy like this was about to become a missionary but felt God lead him to start a business.  The business makes multi millions but they choose to  live in a modest 3 bedroom home and drive used cars.  He says “God has called me to make all the money I can and live on as little as possible”. 

Dad & Sam bunk beds

(These are the local wood bunk beds my dad,Sam from the base and Josh have been busy building)

WOW!! I was totally humbled and realized that God needs to refine us if we are to be truly useful to God in that way.  I realized that living here with no money and very few things and surrounded by need is exactly the place to learn

TO BE COMPLETELY CONTENT WITH LITTLE, AND TO FIND GREATER JOY IN GIVING THAN KEEPING.

I realized now is the time to ENJOY GOD regardless of personal wealth.  To live here with JOY, Hope and Peace right now, not when we get a job. 

My AHHA moment came today when I saw that IMG_1762_edited-1 breakthrough is not when we can suffer through with little but when we can TRULY BE CONTENT because life really is not about things.  The great joy comes not just by being content but also by having the opportunity to GIVE. To see a need and meet it or help in some way. 

God doesn’t ask us to be completely satisfied with little and it stop there.  He lets us participate in BEING A BLESSING.  what an opportunity to experience real joy.

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And so it is very true that “GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED WHEN i AM MOST SATISFIED IN HIM”

We are not meant to suffer through, but to ENJOY!!

So I am off to enjoy the rest of my day and I hope you will too.

(the photos are with some of the kids I bring home from preschool to play and have a meal…Angelina is the oldest, then there is Nicole her cousin and Jimmy.)  It really is a joy serving those guys.  I pray God will continue to use us to bring Joy and love to their lives.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

New photos of my kids..too cute not to share!

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I told Dahlia I wanted to take a picture and she immediately got down and posed with no direction from me!  Funny girl!

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Bella taking a bath in a bowl!  We don’t have a bath tub.

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She is pointing out her owie,  How do you spell that anyway?

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Pierce couldn’t be bothered to stay for more photos!  He wanted to get back to climbing on his bunk beds which he thinks are monkey bars.  Ok, at least he is enjoying them!

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As soon as Dahlia was done with the photos she said “I want to see Dahlia” pointing to the camera!  She loves to look at photos!Bella

Bella living up to her name.  What a gorgeous girl!  Lately it is hard to find a peaceful happy moment to take her photo.  She is lactose intolerant and we still have to supplement with formula and we are having real trouble finding a lactose free formula here that isn’t made of mostly corn syrup!! So I am sending out SOS messages to anyone in our church going back and forth between Australia and New Zealand.

Thank you all of you who have contributed to her beautiful wardrobe!  We really appreciate it!

WRITE US WE MISS YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

New family photo

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Our new family photo!

What is going on at Preschool

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A photo of us at preschool (notice even Bella is with me in the sling!)

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Betina and Dahlia playing a game.

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We had a Discipleship training school here from New Zealand that volunteered at our preschool recently.

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Jimmy needs alot of prayer right now as his dad has lost his job and the land owner where his family has built a small shack has threatened to burn it down and cut all the trees down if His family doesn’t catch up on the rent!  Please pray because the same land owner did just burn down his cousins house right next door a few weeks ago for the same reason.

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Well Pierce is singing his heart out but I think Dahlia is looking a bit tired.

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Jimmy singing motions and all!  Please pray for his situation.  He will have to leave our preschool if all continues on the same track with them getting kicked out of their home for back rent.

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Puppets with the New Zealand team.  The kids LOVED it!

Rachel the teacher is about to have a baby (her 6th!) In July.  She needs a better living situation so we are really praying for answers.  She currently lives in a 2 !/2 meter by 21/2 meter square room with only two small mats for everyone to sleep on.  Which just means most of the family sleeps on the hard ground.  They are behind in their rent, and I just found out have often been going hungry when their food runs out.  Of course now that I know that we are sharing whatever groceries we have and will make sure her family always has food, but it is still a hard situation for them.  Her husband works 6 days a week at a resort near us doing manual labor and only makes the going rate of the US equivalent of $10 a day.  With the cost of food here that is simply not enough.  Their room costs $50 a month and that does not come with a toilet a yard or anything!

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We are trying to come up with some creative solutions for them, like helping her get supplies to make necklaces she can sell at the YWAM base to traveling teams and we are talking at YWAM about organizing and setting up a breakfast club in the village so that no one goes with out breakfast.  In the meantime we bring peanut butter and bread to the preschool  and let the kids know that if they have no breakfast (which is very common) they can come early to eat breakfast. 

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We will keep you posted as we progress.  Right now we are overwhelmed with need and opportunities, but God is great so we know we can come up with some solutions.  blessings! Kristy

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Moving, kids, and health…

We moved into a different place and we are enjoying the hot water and the oven!  As well as the much appreciated insulated roof that affords a much cooler (temperature wise) house.  It was unfurnished but God has just blessed us so much through people in our church.  Our good friends Julie and Shannon mentioned it at church (their the pastors) that we needed furniture as we moved here pretty empty handed and the new house was unfurnished and several people have really helped us out!  We now have a matching set of a love seat with 2 chairs, a storage chest (like a coffee table), a bed and mattress and a new set of metal bunk beds with mattress, and a kitchen full of dishes, a few pots, utensils and even mixing bowls, glasses and serving platters!  We were blown away by the generosity of our church! 

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Our church is very small and only has less than 50  people so it was amazing! What an amazing God we serve!  So here I sit on my love seat in the coolness of the shade of our house looking at a kitchen full of dishes and kitchenware that needs to be put away since we just got it today.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!  Shannon even delivered the furniture for us, oh and we had a truck to run errands this weekend that someone lent us !  Did I fail to mention my sister & her husband sent us a hard drive for our computer that after a little borrowing here and there is full of season of our favorite tv shows and TONS of movies. It is awesome!  We have no tv or tv service so this acts as our entertainment center and the best part is we can watch what we want when we want without commercials!! Thank you Janel and Kevin!!

Sickness wise we are mostly good!  But Bella has a serious diaper rash that is an allergic reaction to the formula we use as it is not lactose free.  I am still nursing most of the time but still have to supplement with about 3 bottles a day of formula.  Please pray we can get some lactose free formula.  I am trying to get some teams coming from New Zealand to our base to bring some when they come and I can pay them when it arrives.

Bella mom and I

We have 2 teams of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals at the base at the moment here on outreach.  Ywam hosts a lot of outreach teams every year and does a great job setting up outreaches for them.  They have been doing local clinics in the poorest villages, they visited our preschool and did a clinic there as well as a very basic teaching on health, they also teach at the local nursing schools and volunteer at the hospital.  It has been great to hear what God is doing through them,  Lots of full healing miracles, and seeing where Gods heart is.

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Through this team and other events we are seeing a DESPERATE need for a type of a safe house / foster care home and feeding projects for the unwanted kids all over this island in the poorest villages.   We just found out how bad Angelina's (one of Pierces good 7 yr old friends from the village) situation really is.  Rachel the teacher told me she has seen her selling still green papayas at the little kava bars for 20 vt (like .20 us) just to try to scrape some money together for food.

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  Her grandparents  who she lives with have some meals but she usually goes without breakfast for lack of funds.  We also just found out how badly abused she really is.  Once I told her (she knows me from teaching the preschool with Rachel and playing at my house a lot ) that we want to know if someone is hurting her so we can help her situation she opened up.  She showed me a scar on her head where her uncle had beat her with a stick (read big stick) till he left a bloody gash.  I asked if she was happy with life and she said no.  I asked about her family if she felt wanted and loved and she said no.

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She lives with her grandparents as her mother abandoned her with them when she was a baby.  Her Uncles and aunties live with them as well.  When I found out the scope of these problems we started praying and praying asking God for a solution and we are still waiting on the full answer but we doing a few things.  First of all she now knows she can come any day for breakfast or a meal if she has no food.

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We are trying to raise a little support to help provide the preschool with food for a healthy breakfast for the students, as we found out quite a few are having to go with out breakfast for lack of it.  (let us know if you want to give toward that).  We are also trying to help them raise funds (the teacher who lives in a tiny room in a shack and Angelina who is 7 or 8) by helping them make something like necklaces or paintings or sarongs that we would then sell them for them at the YWAM base to all the visiting outreach teams (we have a lot) with the proceeds going directly to them. 

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We cannot also help but see the immediate need for some kind of safe house or foster home for some of these seriously neglected kids.  We don't currently have the funds or the space to do it, but we are waiting on God to see what we could do to make it happen at some time.  Ywam is currently already looking at several pieces of property for a relocation of the base as we are growing and need a larger facility, so we are keeping this need in our mind as we do that.  Please be praying.  We would need more staff, a larger facility, and more resources.  But we believe God is the ALMIGHTY not just another religion so we shall see what He does.  I know it breaks his heart and we want to be part of the solution.  There are so many stories like Angelinas.  Too many.  I am trying to get little stories like this of the kids that need your prayers the most so that I can post them on the blog with a photo and you all can commit to praying for them at least weekly.  THEY NEED IT!! 

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I will blog soon with a story of one of our little preschoolers who's home was burnt down and all food plants chopped down because they got behind on their rent.... Horrible story and the same land owner is threatening her cousin Jimmy's (from preschool that I have mentioned before) family since they are getting behind as well.  I plan to go take photos and post them for prayer.  It is Babette's family who was literally burnt out of their home.  They have moved and we don't know where.  Please be praying for them.  Babette was one of our little students.  HAVE mercy Lord.  Help us to help these people!

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Josh is waiting to hear on that job that they were bidding on months ago and it is now down to two companys.  Please pray for that.  He also has an in with a friend from church for a job interview as an oncall telecomunications field guy.  don't know much about that but please be praying for that as well.  We need a financial break through.   Thank you all for your friendship.  We feel so blessed to have you all as a great home network of friends that we know are there for us!

Miss you all dearly and thank you all so much for all your prayers!  I will try to make sure I start blogging once a week.  Blessings Kristy, Josh, Pierce, Dahlia and Bella!

Quote of the week…Pierce

When walking through the jungle trail we always walk on to the base

“Mom, let me go in front cause i know fu kung!!

Uh.. I think he meant Kung Fu!  He now calls himself the fu kung master… He is in karate but seeing as he has had all of 2 lessons I think that is a bit of a stretch.  He he Boys will be boys. 

Josh is actually doing karate with him as well.  The class is so cheap!  It is $15 a month for 2 times a week. Pierce loves it and we love all the energy he expends!IMG_1699

Him at the park going down the slide…