One of the benefits of sitting in a baby house and feeding my special little friend, is getting the chance to talk with some of our staff. The other day, I got to talk to one of our relief workers whom I have never had a long conversation with before. She was telling me about her family. She is married with 2 kids and her husband is working at a factory and he does not make much money. She said that it is hard to have enough each month because her income in unpredictable (relief workers do not have set hours and only fill in when we need them). Then her next sentence was," But we do not have to worry because we serve a mighty God who provides for us." Life can be so hard but her faith in God is so strong.
She shared that her mother used to be a baker and now is suffering with diabetes and needs insulin shots each day. She has 6 siblings and they have all agreed to give their mother M100 a month to help her get medication and food each month. What a beautiful picture of families taking care of each other. What a way to honor your mother in her old age. I was so blessed by this conversation and I am thankful that we have women with such giving and loving and trusting hearts working alongside us here at Beautiful Gate. Not to mention her wonderful smile which makes everyone feel welcome.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Friday, January 9, 2015
Frustrations turned into hope
Last week was one of the most frustrating weeks I have had in a long time. I took over the nursing duties of BG for a few weeks while our nurse was on vacation and then last week one of our volunteers went away and I was put in charge of feeding one of our kids with special needs. This child has been on a feeding tube and we are trying to get her to swallow food again in hopes of getting her off the feeding tube. I have helped a few times in the past and she has done ok, but last week she was apparently on an eating strike. For 6 days, I would go to feed her at 10,12, 2, and 4 and she would refuse to swallow and would spit most of the food out or hold it in her mouth for 7 minutes before spitting it out all over me.
I wasn't frustrated about getting spit on, but I was so frustrated because I really want that tube out so she can live a "normal" life. I want her to be able to enjoy food and be able to have a normal schedule because there will not be much in her life that will ever be "normal." I love this little girl so much and I have been praying for her for a long time and it just made me sad to see her struggling and being defiant about one of the most basic things I could do for her.
It turns out that she was getting a whole bunch of molars and was teething last week. I never thought of that possibility when I was feeding her because she does not open her mouth a whole lot and when it was open, I took my chance and shoveled some food or milk in. Yesterday, I was able to feed her again because her helper was out of town and she ate very well. We decided to try buying baby food instead of mashing things up for her because she has a huge gag reflex and the baby food is perfect. I may have to buy a special blended to get that same consistency but we will have to go week by week with this little girl. I at least have hope again that we will be able to keep her eating.
Even if last week felt like a waste of time with the eating part, at least I was able to hold her and love on her a little while she was teething (even though I was oblivious to her pain). Please join me in praying that she will continue eating well and that we will not have too many set backs. Please pray that she will increase her desire to eat so we can give her enough food to make her grow and be healthy without her feeding tube. We have hope that God will bring healing to her and that He has a very good plan for her life even if we cannot see what His plan could be.
I wasn't frustrated about getting spit on, but I was so frustrated because I really want that tube out so she can live a "normal" life. I want her to be able to enjoy food and be able to have a normal schedule because there will not be much in her life that will ever be "normal." I love this little girl so much and I have been praying for her for a long time and it just made me sad to see her struggling and being defiant about one of the most basic things I could do for her.
It turns out that she was getting a whole bunch of molars and was teething last week. I never thought of that possibility when I was feeding her because she does not open her mouth a whole lot and when it was open, I took my chance and shoveled some food or milk in. Yesterday, I was able to feed her again because her helper was out of town and she ate very well. We decided to try buying baby food instead of mashing things up for her because she has a huge gag reflex and the baby food is perfect. I may have to buy a special blended to get that same consistency but we will have to go week by week with this little girl. I at least have hope again that we will be able to keep her eating.
Even if last week felt like a waste of time with the eating part, at least I was able to hold her and love on her a little while she was teething (even though I was oblivious to her pain). Please join me in praying that she will continue eating well and that we will not have too many set backs. Please pray that she will increase her desire to eat so we can give her enough food to make her grow and be healthy without her feeding tube. We have hope that God will bring healing to her and that He has a very good plan for her life even if we cannot see what His plan could be.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Christmas Joy
This Christmas season was one filled with a lot of joy. This year was very low in donations of toys and clothes, but God provided a few families at the end of the year who were able to donate toys and money for Christmas outfits for all of the BG kids. One of our volunteers, Brittany, and I went shopping for 61 outfits! It did not seem like a big task when we started, but picking the right size and style for each kid was a pretty big task. We really enjoyed ourselves and seeing the kids showing off their outfits to one another on Christmas day was pretty special.
Christmas Eve was the day we celebrated Christmas with our staff. My mother-in-law, Mary, sent us a new devotional for December and so Bryan shared the devotions for the 24th of December. It was a very good message to help us begin our celebration. We gave each staff member a mug from Holland Christian's last team and a Jesus Calling devotional from the Corley family. They were very thankful and were also thankful because we had many donors come alongside BG in 2014 and we were able to give each staff member a little Christmas bonus in their pay check. They work so hard being the hands and feet of Jesus to the kids here and I thank God for providing the funds we needed to give them a little extra appreciation.
Christmas day was a very hot day and we had a neighbor donate 2 bouncy houses for our kids to jump in for the day. It was chaos and fun to watch the kids and the staff jumping in the houses. I have never heard so much laughter at BG. When it got too hot, the staff added water in the bottom of one of the slides and then all the kids got naked and climbed into the water. For the first time in 4 years, our staff did not even make the kids go inside for a nap, they all stayed outside for the whole afternoon jumping, laughing, eating watermelon, getting doused with the hose and throwing each other in the water (that was staff on staff as the kids were already in the water). I spent an hour supervising the kids in the water and got a nice sunburn which is so opposite of the Christmas weather we used to have in Michigan!
Then our final moment of joy came in an unexpected visitor. We were just finishing a scavenger hunt for Elijah's present when we were told that Lucky was on campus to visit us. It has been over a year and a half since we have seen him. He is 17 years old and tall now - crazy!!! We had a nice visit and it was such a fun surprise to see that he is ok and looking pretty healthy. I am thankful that God has been taking care of him and that He brought him back to BG so we could visit with him again. It took me a long time to give him his soccer ball, but Aaron Wildschut, I finally gave him the ball you sent back to Lesotho. It has been a great week, full of joy and I am thankful the Jesus came so our joy could be complete.
Happy New Year everyone!
Christmas Eve was the day we celebrated Christmas with our staff. My mother-in-law, Mary, sent us a new devotional for December and so Bryan shared the devotions for the 24th of December. It was a very good message to help us begin our celebration. We gave each staff member a mug from Holland Christian's last team and a Jesus Calling devotional from the Corley family. They were very thankful and were also thankful because we had many donors come alongside BG in 2014 and we were able to give each staff member a little Christmas bonus in their pay check. They work so hard being the hands and feet of Jesus to the kids here and I thank God for providing the funds we needed to give them a little extra appreciation.
Christmas day was a very hot day and we had a neighbor donate 2 bouncy houses for our kids to jump in for the day. It was chaos and fun to watch the kids and the staff jumping in the houses. I have never heard so much laughter at BG. When it got too hot, the staff added water in the bottom of one of the slides and then all the kids got naked and climbed into the water. For the first time in 4 years, our staff did not even make the kids go inside for a nap, they all stayed outside for the whole afternoon jumping, laughing, eating watermelon, getting doused with the hose and throwing each other in the water (that was staff on staff as the kids were already in the water). I spent an hour supervising the kids in the water and got a nice sunburn which is so opposite of the Christmas weather we used to have in Michigan!
Then our final moment of joy came in an unexpected visitor. We were just finishing a scavenger hunt for Elijah's present when we were told that Lucky was on campus to visit us. It has been over a year and a half since we have seen him. He is 17 years old and tall now - crazy!!! We had a nice visit and it was such a fun surprise to see that he is ok and looking pretty healthy. I am thankful that God has been taking care of him and that He brought him back to BG so we could visit with him again. It took me a long time to give him his soccer ball, but Aaron Wildschut, I finally gave him the ball you sent back to Lesotho. It has been a great week, full of joy and I am thankful the Jesus came so our joy could be complete.
Happy New Year everyone!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Faith and Mercy's Random blogpost :)
"Africa is a pretty nice place to live. The amazing sunsets and beautiful views, I am pretty sure everyone would want to live here if they could live the life I have. I have found that it is very nice to see how the volunteers act when they reach BG. The churches and very wonderful and the Basotho love the little that they have. I just like that because they love what they have, but some people just want more and more and more. I am looking forward to Christmas but it is hard to get in the Christmas spirit because it is so HOT! Love to the whole world, Faith"
"Africans really celebrate for what little they have. Even though they are poor they celebrate. They are really creative too. They find food somehow and sometimes some and the kids come to the fence and ask for papers so they can color. I do like to play with the BG kids because they are a lot of fun to play with. We have a new school and it's really fun. We have some friends with us in our school. I like to play at school a lot because we play tag and all those fun games. It is nice to know that people love each other. It has been really fun playing outside. I got to hold some snails today and they were really slimy. Faith and I had the snails race and it was funny because the same two kept winning (they had 10 snails in the race). Today I have been having so much fun and I love it here in Beautiful Gate. Love, Mercy"
"Africans really celebrate for what little they have. Even though they are poor they celebrate. They are really creative too. They find food somehow and sometimes some and the kids come to the fence and ask for papers so they can color. I do like to play with the BG kids because they are a lot of fun to play with. We have a new school and it's really fun. We have some friends with us in our school. I like to play at school a lot because we play tag and all those fun games. It is nice to know that people love each other. It has been really fun playing outside. I got to hold some snails today and they were really slimy. Faith and I had the snails race and it was funny because the same two kept winning (they had 10 snails in the race). Today I have been having so much fun and I love it here in Beautiful Gate. Love, Mercy"
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
4 Year Anniversary
I am sitting in my office and looking out of my window and what I see is so precious. Little children playing, laughing, singing and a few who are crying because let’s face it, when 35 kids are together crying will happen! One of the older boys was lifting up one of his little “brothers’ and helping him into a swing and then began to push him. This view never gets old. This life never gets old, frustrating at times, but never old.
December 6th marked our family’s 4th anniversary here at Beautiful Gate. It is so hard to believe that it was 4 years ago that we stepped off an airplane and were welcomed to our new home. We were so anxious. We followed God’s leading to come and now He would have to help us and lead us into our new life. We kept hearing people saying names that were too hard to remember and greeting us in a language that sounded nothing like we had ever heard before. Would we ever figure out their names?? 4 years later we know all 45 staff by name and probably 59 out of 61 kids by name. There are always one or two babies that I forget the names of.
It was never in our plans to become the directors, but God had a bigger and better plan than we could have imagined. He would raise up supports for us around the world not only to support Beautiful Gate financially, but also with an endless supply of volunteers and teams. We could not have done it for the last 3 years without that constant support and with God’s faithfulness.
We have seen children come in to BG extremely malnourished and then thriving and hitting milestones. We have seen children come in who were too sick to recover and then they were loved and cared for until they were embraced into the arms of Jesus. We have seen mothers, whose children were lost, come to Beautiful Gate and find their children and rejoice with tears of joy. We have seen so many families come to us childless and leave with a beloved child that is a perfect fit into their family. We have also seen people from all over the world come here and experience a peace that is indescribable and leave forever changed. Best of all, I have witnessed my own children learning the true meaning of love and compassion.
We have been adopted into the Beautiful Gate family and it is a beautiful family to be a part of. Our children have aunts and uncles and big brothers and sisters all over campus. They also have lots of little brothers and sisters on campus that they can play with. My only regret it that we have been too busy to really learn enough of the language so that we’d better be able to communicate with our African Family.
It is so hard to believe that we are over half way through our commitment now, with only 3 years remaining. It is hard to think about a day when we have to leave so we will not reflect on that. Many of our staff say the same thing, that they do not want to think about us leaving them so they refuse to talk about that too. God is so good and I know that He will guide us and give us His wisdom for our future. I am thankful for the last 4 years and look forward to the next 3 years. No day is ever the same and it will be an adventure for our family and for Beautiful Gate!
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| My kids and I during one of our first hikes in December 2010. |
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| Bryan and our kids looking over a cliff in December 2010. |
December 6th marked our family’s 4th anniversary here at Beautiful Gate. It is so hard to believe that it was 4 years ago that we stepped off an airplane and were welcomed to our new home. We were so anxious. We followed God’s leading to come and now He would have to help us and lead us into our new life. We kept hearing people saying names that were too hard to remember and greeting us in a language that sounded nothing like we had ever heard before. Would we ever figure out their names?? 4 years later we know all 45 staff by name and probably 59 out of 61 kids by name. There are always one or two babies that I forget the names of.
It was never in our plans to become the directors, but God had a bigger and better plan than we could have imagined. He would raise up supports for us around the world not only to support Beautiful Gate financially, but also with an endless supply of volunteers and teams. We could not have done it for the last 3 years without that constant support and with God’s faithfulness.
We have seen children come in to BG extremely malnourished and then thriving and hitting milestones. We have seen children come in who were too sick to recover and then they were loved and cared for until they were embraced into the arms of Jesus. We have seen mothers, whose children were lost, come to Beautiful Gate and find their children and rejoice with tears of joy. We have seen so many families come to us childless and leave with a beloved child that is a perfect fit into their family. We have also seen people from all over the world come here and experience a peace that is indescribable and leave forever changed. Best of all, I have witnessed my own children learning the true meaning of love and compassion.
We have been adopted into the Beautiful Gate family and it is a beautiful family to be a part of. Our children have aunts and uncles and big brothers and sisters all over campus. They also have lots of little brothers and sisters on campus that they can play with. My only regret it that we have been too busy to really learn enough of the language so that we’d better be able to communicate with our African Family.
It is so hard to believe that we are over half way through our commitment now, with only 3 years remaining. It is hard to think about a day when we have to leave so we will not reflect on that. Many of our staff say the same thing, that they do not want to think about us leaving them so they refuse to talk about that too. God is so good and I know that He will guide us and give us His wisdom for our future. I am thankful for the last 4 years and look forward to the next 3 years. No day is ever the same and it will be an adventure for our family and for Beautiful Gate!
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Last team of 2014
We have a team here from Holland Christian High School (and also a small family from Colorado who are with them) and tonight we sat down and took some time to share about our day. It is always interesting to see what things strike people and make an impression on them. It could be about the looks of Beautiful Gate, the fact that the kids are so happy that you forget they are orphans, the happiness and friendly attitude of our staff, the funny thing a kid said or did and so many other options. It helps me to think about my life and my attitude. Have I become so accustomed to our lives here that I forget to be in awe of those things that I used to notice?
I had the opportunity to share with them at the end of our devotional time and I read a blog post by Katie Davis (Kisses from Katie). It was a thought about how working in a third world country is like trying to empty the ocean with an eye dropper and when your glass is half full, it rains. The first time I read that post, I was so relieved that there was someone else out there who felt the way I felt, but who was able to explain it way more eloquently. There will always be poverty, abandonment, death, HIV, and many other problems in Lesotho, but it is not our job here at Beautiful Gate to fix all that (thankfully cause we would not be able to keep up). It is our job to give each kid hope for their future, to try by all means to find them a family, and to love them unconditionally the way God loves us.
I love when we get to share our passion with a new team. They can share their stories and love for BG and we can do the same. Our love for the kids and staff gives us a common bond of friendship and it is a real blessing. Even my kids were telling me that they enjoy having this team here because some of the members were very complimentary and made them feel very good about themselves. It has been a busy year, full of teams and volunteers and this is our final team for 2014. We have been blessed and we are so thankful.
I had the opportunity to share with them at the end of our devotional time and I read a blog post by Katie Davis (Kisses from Katie). It was a thought about how working in a third world country is like trying to empty the ocean with an eye dropper and when your glass is half full, it rains. The first time I read that post, I was so relieved that there was someone else out there who felt the way I felt, but who was able to explain it way more eloquently. There will always be poverty, abandonment, death, HIV, and many other problems in Lesotho, but it is not our job here at Beautiful Gate to fix all that (thankfully cause we would not be able to keep up). It is our job to give each kid hope for their future, to try by all means to find them a family, and to love them unconditionally the way God loves us.
I love when we get to share our passion with a new team. They can share their stories and love for BG and we can do the same. Our love for the kids and staff gives us a common bond of friendship and it is a real blessing. Even my kids were telling me that they enjoy having this team here because some of the members were very complimentary and made them feel very good about themselves. It has been a busy year, full of teams and volunteers and this is our final team for 2014. We have been blessed and we are so thankful.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Graduation Day
Today was the preschool graduation for the school where several of our BG children attend school. We have 2 boys who graduated this year and we took 8 of the preschoolers along with us to their graduation. There was much celebration in the little building we were all sitting in as the kids sang, acted out a play, danced and recited poems. One of the perks is that it is an English medium school so much was done in English.
One of my favorite parts is when each graduate does a little speech called "myself, myself." The child says their name, age, parents' name, teachers' names, school name and what they want to be when they grow up. They practice a lot during the year and for the BG kids, they say the names of all 4 of their house mothers, along with volunteers in their house and sometimes even Bryan or I. They often include the maintenance men as their fathers which is sweet, but it is also sad. They have so many people who love them and who care for them each day, but moments like today are a harsh reality that our kids do not really have a "normal" living situation.
The celebration took 4 hours (once again they really know how to celebrate in Africa and this was only preschool!!!) and then the kids came home and had a big celebration with their peers and house mothers. They ate cake, cookies, marshmallows, and chips and were super happy. Then there was dancing and balloon fun to end the celebration. I am so proud of these boys and really hope that one day they will get to celebrate their high school graduation with a family of their own. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy of our awesome day.
One of my favorite parts is when each graduate does a little speech called "myself, myself." The child says their name, age, parents' name, teachers' names, school name and what they want to be when they grow up. They practice a lot during the year and for the BG kids, they say the names of all 4 of their house mothers, along with volunteers in their house and sometimes even Bryan or I. They often include the maintenance men as their fathers which is sweet, but it is also sad. They have so many people who love them and who care for them each day, but moments like today are a harsh reality that our kids do not really have a "normal" living situation.
The celebration took 4 hours (once again they really know how to celebrate in Africa and this was only preschool!!!) and then the kids came home and had a big celebration with their peers and house mothers. They ate cake, cookies, marshmallows, and chips and were super happy. Then there was dancing and balloon fun to end the celebration. I am so proud of these boys and really hope that one day they will get to celebrate their high school graduation with a family of their own. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy of our awesome day.
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