address

Many of you have asked if you can send care packages. Yes, you can. The best way to send them is in a bubble envelope. They can be as big as you want but that way they don't have to go through customs. Boxes have to be checked and often you have to pay a bribe to get it from them. So, bubble envelopes would be best. :)

The address is:

PO Box 545
Freetown, Sierra Leone
West Africa

beauty amidst the ashes

So, I have realized that posts have been a lot about me...how I am doing, how I am feeling, how I am processing. I know that it is okay, but I feel like I will grow more during my time if I stop focusing so much on me and start focusing more on why I came. I came because I love this country and have for a long time. I came to serve. So, let me tell you a little about the people I have met so far. Sierra Leonean people are exquisite. I am sitting right now at the internet cafe overlooking a market type area with a lot of foot traffic and it just makes me smile to see the beauty all around me. There is an older man in a blue shirt standing down in the street across from me with a missing arm and I am also reminded about all that these wonderful people have had to live through. I think one thing that touches me deeply in almost every conversation I have with a local is the love and hope that they have for their country. This is truly a land that was ripped apart and toppled by the war. I believe that they want to work hard and see Sierra Leone prosper. My deepest prayer is that the Lord would put a man in office this January that would be God fearing and will help to start passing laws that will encourage trade with other countries and will benefit the people of Sierra Leone. It is a critical election and I also ask that you would be praying with me to see corruption come to an end within the government!! The potential in this nation is staggering. I am growing to love it more and more with each passing day. One thing that I hate seeing is the American influence easing it's way in....via music and movies. I hope they are spared from falling into the same pits we have. I hope that they see how fake it all really is. It is a travesty that we are tainting the open hearts of the people here. Anyway, sorry for that little tangent! :) I wish that you could be here and see what I have seen in the two weeks that I have been here. The warm and welcome greetings everywhere you go. It is with such affection that they holler at you and welcome you to their country. The majority of places you go, you are welcomed with open arms and hearts. I wish that we had half of the tenderness toward our neighbors as they do.

my tour

This has been my first chance to post since my tour on Saturday. It was BY FAR the most overwhelming day that I have had so far. I was so emotionally and somewhat physically exhausted by the end of it that I have needed a couple of days to recoup. My favorite part of the tour (we will start with that) was just being with David. I love being with him and seeing what a testimony he is to the Lord's grace and what some love, grace and opportunity can do in someones life. I was able to hear more of his story on the walk and that I loved! I also like how protective he was of Haley and I when cars seemed to be aiming for us (they really weren't aiming, however there was a Coca-Cola truck that I thought had my # but thankfully I am still here) or when people came up wanting money or whatever. He was a great tour guide. We walked from Aberdeen (which is where our servant team leader lives) into Freetown and around to all the markets and through various parts of town. The walk into Freetown really wasn't bad and so I can foresee doing that on a regular basis. Back to the tour, the sights all around at this point are the same as everywhere we have been walking so far. Small "buildings" made of wood, some concrete and metal are everywhere. They line the road and are full in the front of things to sell....food, underwear, electronics, some are beauty salons, whatever you could think of they will have some version of it. The dogs are everywhere, often sick and hungry looking. Anyone who has traveled to any third world country knows exactly what I am talking about...it really doesn't look much different than other places I have been...just a lot more of it. I know that most of the families live in these same little shops. They are usually just sitting out front watching you as you walk by. We get the "white girl, white girl" shouted us and something in krio that means the same thing, on just about every street. People are friendly and you know me, I love saying hi to everyone but by the end of the day I just wanted to blend in. I had nothing in me but survival at that point. We first walked through the Kroo Bay slum. When it rains (which it was pouring for most of our walk), Kroo Bay floods. It was basically just red (that is the color of the dirt here) goo everywhere. You never really knew if you were stepping in mud or sewage. After Kroo Bay, we went to King Jimmy market. It is right by the Bay's edge. The sights, sounds, smells and tastes at these markets are beyond anything that I could describe. We went to so many markets that I lost count. Some were on winding paths, filled with chickens, rice, fish in every form, pigs feet in buckets, meat just sitting out or hanging, fruits, vegetables, timber, etc and kids running around without shoes in the dirt and stench. One little boy without pants on was playing with a rusty coat hanger and was as content as could be. You rarely saw the kids anywhere close to their parents. The roads we walked on were in front of people's homes. The homes were right on top of one another and they were all trying to sell you something from it or they wanted you to stop and talk. All I really remember is watching my feet, trying not to slip and step in something questionable. What I was seeing all around was just too much to absorb. Maybe one market at a time from here on out will be more manageable. I will also go alone when I don't have to hurry. We then went to Dove Court (the largest market in Sierra Leone, according to David). It was big but seemed just like all the previous small ones we had been to. I don't know how the vendors survive. Everyone seems to be selling the same thing as the previous 20. You want to help them all by buying but then again you don't want what they are selling. We stopped at Victoria Park and sat for a while in front of a cookery shop that one of the Lighthouse guys mom runs. The tour was over and we headed to Kroo Bay.

We had over 320 kids at the good news club and had to turn many away because there was no physical room. That was the closest that I came to crying. Noah runs the good news club and is a man who I have a great amount of respect for. He had to remove kids that were talking because to maintain order with 300+ kids you have to be firm. They would cry when he took them out. I almost lost it at one point. Kroo Bay really is amazing though. We do some medical care after wards and a lot of times it is the only care most of these kids will ever receive. They hear about Jesus and are entertained for an hour or so. They are fed an egg and basically loved on for a few minutes. It doesn't seem like a lot in the grand scheme, but it is definitely better than nothing. The Lord, I believe has a lot to teach me about obedience and what that can do. Noah and the WMF staff are obedient to the Lord and have answered a call to meet the needs of these kids. It is vain to think that anything I do will matter...the Lord doesn't ask me to matter, He has just asked for my obedience. I just need to tune my ear to hear what it is that He wants me to do with my time here.

Well, that is all for now. I know these thoughts are random and probably don't paint the picture to a tenth of what I really wanted to communicate. Right now my surroundings are new and overwhelming. I am looking forward to the day (hopefully sooner rather than later) when each story and face starts standing out and I get past my own discomfort (of body and of heart).

I love you all!

Saturday morning

It is Saturday morning and I sit in the internet cafe alone...well, not alone but at least the only one from my team here right now. Today we will go to Faye's house (she is our servant team leader).On Saturdays, the Lighthouse kids come and play basketball at her place and then everyone heads to Kroo Bay in the afternoon. Today instead of basketball, David (who I think is probably the Lighthouse guy that I have connected most with and am the most endeared too) is going to walk us into town and give Haley and I a mini-tour of Freetown before Kroo Bay. I am looking forward to today, as long as my body doesn't give out on me!!:P

Some highlights of the trip so far have been:

Our stimulating visit to the Sierra Leone museum. The kid giving the tour should be a historian...Faye asked him a question about one of the founders and he said he didn't really know what happened because he wasn't around then. Hmmmmm...really, no kidding?! It was hilarious. You know me...couldn't stop laughing! Another highlight has been playing Draft (it's a game similar to checkers but much more difficult) with the Lighthouse guys. I have actually beat a couple of them...well, one of them gave me the game. Hopefully soon I will beat him for real!

So far, the most frustrating thing is not being able to communicate. You can speak a little, because Krio is a similar to English, but it is different enough to prevent a deep conversation from really happening. We are just starting week 2, so I know there is time but I don't want to waste any of it. I want to be able to actually talk to the homeless on the street, instead of saying no or just giving them food. I want to be able to engage.

Well, I think this is all I have for now. I wish it was more telling of how I am really doing and feeling but I don't even know those things yet, so communicating them is next to impossible. Maybe when I have more time....

First week in Sierra Leone

I was not planning on blogging but I have too many people on my mass e-mail list for yahoo! to keep up with...so blogging it is. I think blogging is rather odd or at least this specific experience. You are supposed to sit down in a large steryle feeling room and instantaneously dive into your thoughts and emotions about all that is going on around you and that you are experiencing. Don't know that I can do that just yet...so my blog will probably be more informational. Maybe once I know better what I am feeling, I will be able to articulate it more clearly. It is Thursday afternoon right now. We have been here since Friday night,so almost a week. It is really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it has only been 6 days that we have been here! I will be happy once we are in our own rhythm of a schedule. The Lighthouse kids (I feel odd calling them kids because I think a lot of them are in their early 20s, but I will call them kids for consistencies sake) are probably going to be the highlight of this trip. I feel bad though because servant teams come and settle for 4 months, build relationship and then up and leave them. Yes, pictures and cards get sent but I just can't help feeling like they have a protective wall up... and justifiably so. I am sure that it will slowly come down...just in time for us to leave. We went to Kroo Bay our first day in town and it was not what I expected. I am not sure what I was expecting but that was not it. This is SOOOO American of me to say but it was much dirtier than I had anticipated. You might be rolling our eyes at that, but until I can unpack more depth from my time there...that is what you get. One little boy was so sick, he couldn't even scoot down on the bench...he was burning up. No docs or clean bed for him to sleep in..I just can't unpack that right now...So, dirty is the best I can do. Well, I will write more in a few days. Love and miss you all!!