Day 6 - Photos

Day 6 - If you were going to watch a movie...

Let's just say you had a free evening after a long day. Let's just suppose.
Let's just say you promised to watch a movie with one 'said' orphan who you were in the process of trying to adopt.
Are you still with me? Just nod if you want to hear where this is going. Okay. Thanks.
So, let's just continue to say that I was going to be a good dad and sit down after a long african hot day and watch any movie that this child wanted to watch. What movie do you think she would choose? Lion King? Brought it, but, "Nope." Madagascar? Negative. Beauty and the Beast? It would have been a fitting title for the two of us, but she didn't pick it. What did she pick, you may ask...

Stuart Little.

Have you seen that movie? She said it was her favorite. I thought I had seen it until we're sitting there with her head on a pillow on my lap and I see the premise of the movie! I'll admit, raising three girls that there are a lot of movies that I have 'kinda' seen. This was obviously one of them! For some reason at the last minute I threw it in and sure enough she loves it. "What is it about?" you may ask. It's about a mom and dad that go to an orphanage looking for a child to adopt and pick a mouse, named "Stuart Little." Then the rest of the movie is about this little adopted orphan mouse trying to figure out how to fit into his new 'family'.

I couldn't believe it. I just had to laugh and watch the movie with her. She especially enjoyed the scene of the adopted orphan mouse trapped in the 'spin cycle'. I couldn't tell exactly why she loved the movie so much, but much of the movie Stuart muses that he is living a 'fairy tale' and can't believe it. I think she shares those sentiments...almost as much as we do.

Day 5 - Every man deserves his day in court.

Day 5 – Every man deserves his day in court.
I’m going to cut right to the chase. If you want a definitive explanation of our day you must read my wife’s blog. She killed it. I will not attempt to recreate the wheel that she already got rolling.
All I would like to do for a moment is paint a picture of where I now sit. If you know me well, this may make you smile.
First off, I’m in Africa.
Secondly, I stole a cold Pepsi from the fridge downstairs. (Lord, tomorrow I will find out whose it is and pay them back…I promise.) I am enjoying that beverage, after a very long hot day, immensely. I will say though that Pepsi in Africa is a bit sketchy.
Third, I’m sitting a top the guest house veranda on a wicker couch with a cat that decided to become my very close friend. The sound of crickets and sirens exchanging songs like that of peace time and tribal war that this country knows all too well. I sit half way between Lake Victoria and Kampala. The birth place of the Nile River that God plagued for His people’s freedom and a city ravaged by HIV and an even more prevalent killer that comes on the wings of a mosquito.
Are these epidemics Modern plagues of judgment or God’s megaphone for mercy? You tell me. This land has had more evil dictators than Egypt. (I saw Idi Amin’s house today.) Yet, I don’t sense God’s judgment here. I see opportunities for mercy. (Okay, I’m back I had to kill a mosquito on my arm. Don’t want to take any chances. Where was I?) Oh yeah, 20,000 people for every doctor. Half the population has access to clean drinking water. Justice for the rich, malaria for the poor. Yet the fingerprints of God are all over this land.
I had an illuminating moment talking to my friend Henry today. I mentioned to him that I saw his King’s house today. (there is a “king” of Uganda) He looked startled and said, “He’s not my King!” As if to say that role of “King” was already taken by the Messiah. I laughed it off and then thought how much happier many ‘post election’ Christians would be if they thought the same way.
I’ll wrap this up before I get myself in trouble.
Every man deserves his day in court, so the saying goes. I had mine today with Tracy sitting on my left and one of my heroes Juliet Hatanga sitting on my right. I could watch the lips of Tracy’s grandmother praying during the entire proceeding. Our attorney presented our case and the judge scribbled out her ruling as fast as she could write. We will hear her ruling on December 4th, which is Wednesday. We’ll come back to the courthouse and listen to the ruling be read out loud. Some of you may know that December 4th is my birthday. How crazy is that? This whole journey is beyond me in so many ways.
The lights of Uganda flicker beneath me from Lake Victoria to the capital. The cat woke up to chase a gecko. My Pepsi is almost gone. I’ve read my fill of N.T. Wright for the evening and I’m listening to some Bruce (not Springstein or Willis).
The cat is back and I’m needing to sleep. This has been a perfect day. Not without suffering. Not from getting my own way. Perfect from realizing what’s truly valuable. It was a masterpiece of finding the Kingdom alive in unsuspecting places. It’s everywhere. As we rise to the dawn chorus of Jesus let us practice resurrection in the way we love and live.
He is risen when the orphan is loved, when friendship is shared, when we quench the thirst of another in service, when the elderly heard, when His song is sung in you. He is risen.
Thanks for being my friend.

The internet is very slow, so I'll just post one small photo.

A couple of pictures for the end of our special day.

Day 4 - A Thanksgiving to Remember

Our ride should be here any minute, but I wanted to give a quick update that we received a wonderful invitation today.  We knew that we would be briefing for our court appearance tomorrow, but we just found out that Tracy would be there and gets to spend the night with us tonight!  You should have seen the look on Tanya's face.  Priceless.  

We're off to the Courthouse to meet with our attorney and Juliet.   Truly a day to be thankful.  

One quick prayer request.  I think my sinuses got really dried out on the airplane trips.  I'm not sure, but my head brain and sinuses feel like they want to be on the outside of my skull.  

Its not going to hold me down, but I'd rather not be affected by it.  Thankful to you and thankful for you today.  Check back for some pictures...

Happy Thanksgiving.  

Day Three - Hope

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Day Three – What happened to Tuesday?
I open my eyes to a new day. The sun is about to rise on the continent of our hope. 

Hope, it’s a wonderful thing isn’t it? You don’t realize it’s value until you’ve lost it.
I’ve been challenged with a thought this past year. Here it is. Your faith can only be as big as your hope. For faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen, the writer of the book of, “Hebrews” tells us.
"Hope" has also bounced around a family conversation as the girls have bantered back and forth. Tessa, Alacia, and Emmy all have significant ‘nouns’ as middle names. I have heard them throwing around the idea of making sure their new sister receives a similar name. Tessa’s middle name is Joy, Lacey’s is Grace, and Emmy’s is Faith. It moved me when I heard them discussing the idea of wanting Tracy to carry a ‘sister’ middle name of, “Hope”. As far as I’m concerned Dad is still making the change from “Esther” so I’m not in a big hurry to complicate things any further! But, I’m willing to entertain the idea…
It’s 7:30am and we’re somewhere over Ethiopia. The African nation that first captured my attention and conscience in the mid-eighties. It was a nation and a season in which so many simply had to ask is there not something that we can do? I can remember speaking of the famine, that was ravaging much of that beautiful country, as my Senior project in speech class in high school. I can still hear my stereo playing, “We are the We World.” Somebody tell me you remember that! We all believed we could do something and should do something.
It’s time to land. I always love the feeling that I have right before I land in a new country. It's the feeling of uncharted water and a road less travelled. I want you to share that feeling with me this morning. How big is your hope? I pray that in the midst of the land of our suffering that our hope will spring eternal. I pray hope becomes our middle name as we walk these dusty roads together.
I’ve been informed that it’s time to “properly stow my carry on items and return my seat to the upright position”. So, I’ll leave you with the lyric that plays in my ears from the U2 song coincidentally titled, “Window in the Skies”.
The shackles are undone
The bullets quit the gun
The heat that’s in the sun
Will keep us when there’s none
The rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grave has become a groove
All debts have been removed
Oh can’t you see what Love has done and what it’s doing to me?
Love left a window in the skies...and to love I’ll rhapsodize.

To hope,

Jim