5:00 a.m. wake up call (Madisen in Haiti)

So the batteries stop working around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. and of course that is a total Haiti thing so I'm fine with it even though I'm sweating up a storm. 

Eventually I fall back to sleep. 

Then maybe, not even 30 minutes later, this guy is shouting at the top of his lungs into a giant sound system. 

I am guessing he is praying and singing to God and everyone, but honestly, I have no clue what he is saying. 

But 30 minutes after five this starts to get quiet annoying because I can start to smell the sweat coming off of my body in my tiny, hot, one window bedroom. 

Now, if you haven't ever had this, it is hard to explain, so just go and turn your ac off, lay on your bed with no fans or breeze inside the oven. 

You will start to get it. 

Maybe run outside a little bit as well.

And the other total Haiti thing is for the rooster to crow at all hours of the day (and night) which will sometimes get the dogs barking. 

And so, at 5:46 there are roosters crowing, rat dogs barking and a man who is probably trying spread the gospel to all mankind all going on at once. 

I have to give this guy some great credit if he is trying to spread the gospel, but OMG if I find out that he was trying to promote a political person, I am going to be one wicked annoyed lady! 

In all honestly his singing sounded more like a Mecca call. 

You know how they scream at the top of their lungs to sound like Tarzan. 

With the sun rising and me getting more antsy because of no power, 

I have to give thanks for the day because today the women are going to come in and learn something. 

If it's an old subject, then I pray it will be a refresher and help remind them. 

If it's a new subject then I pray it will save the life of a baby. 

Who knows? 

Esther 4:14 comes to mind when I type about learning something new or having a refresher. 

"If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. 

Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?" 

Queen Esther had to lead a people and learn from that. 

She also had to take a refresher course on faith in God. 

Maybe we also need to take that refresher course in faith too.

Even The Sparrow...

Even the sparrow has found a home, a place near your altar. 

Psalm 84:3

I have stood in this place before, this place of deep injustice.

Children and injustice.

It looked different, yet it felt exactly the same.
Like the leftover spin from the merry-go-round, leaving you off kilter.

We sat in the meeting called on our behalf.
The words coming from the man who sat behind the desk had been chosen to smooth and justify.

Justify why this place was here, why one hundred and eighty-two children lived in this place.
I knew the argument brewing in my head well.

"These children had been charged as criminals."

I had just watched four year old "criminals" who knew lessons taught with fists clenched, swinging with great aim and drawing blood.
There isn't a space for this in my head.
Was there a need for conflict resolution for three year olds?

criminal |ˈkrɪmɪn(ə)l|

His empty, hollow words with no weight floated, hung in the air.
I doubted he believed them. 
I thought he must have carried small lined note cards around in his pocket to memorize the words that floated out the windows with bars and no screens. 
Cards to remind him in case he forgot what to say when the things he must see every day jar the truth. 
The truth seemed to be tipping on it's axis so that it wobbled out of control like a top spinning, tipping from side to side or plates falling to the ground off their axis.
He had learned to walk the tight rope well.

He said things like, we don't want farming to be a punishment and we pride ourselves on hygiene.

Had he not just walked into this place?
I wondered if he was talking about here and now.

When he finished and had tucked away the imaginary note cards, he dared to ask if there were any questions, fool. 

fool 1 |fuːl|

 I raised my hand.
Just as I thought, he was at a loss for words. 
No cards. 
No answers.
Was he a fool, a puppet or just a man doing a job with his hands tied. 
Maybe he felt the spinning, the wobble and heard the crashing plates. 

Maybe.

No matter, the truth was speaking very loudly, yelling actually.
We had been dismissed and given permission to walk the property.

A tour.

I have done the "Long Walk to Freedom" on Robben Island, this left the same car sick, head pounding, need for fresh air feeling in my stomach.

However, this was about children and injustice not grown-ups.

It would soon be lunch time, a massive bell would ring as the children gathered in the court yard.
A foaming white watery mess of flour and water was served from a huge pot into colourful plastic bowls.  
I watched as one of the few older girls flip her bowl on the ground in disgust and walk away.

Good thing farming wasn't a punishment(or a privilege)flour and water seemed to me to be punishment enough.

I needed to stop.
Stop throwing spears and daggers.
That is what my heart does when it is broken, hurls words at people.
Words that become weapons.
I would sit in silence, watch the children and collect myself.
As I sat, I was thinking about anything and everything all at the same time. There was no more room in my head for this place or the places I have been in other parts of the earth.
Haiti, Cambodia, India and Thailand.

Children and injustice.

As I looked out the window with bars and no screen a tiny bird sat alone. Honestly, it felt like the bird had the better deal and I wished I could join him. I had seen enough on my tour.

As my mind wandered aimlessly looking for the map out of this place I could hear the Lord say, 

"They are worth more than many sparrows. I know them by name and I have numbered the hairs on their head."

hope |həʊp|

I don't have any answers.
Just a warehouse full of unanswered questions in my head that I carry with me waiting for the day I will have an answer.
Understanding this may take a life time.

Here is what I do know. 
The earth is full of people looking, with me, to bring hope to these children. 
We don't have note cards with answers or quick fixes.
We are not willing to do these things the old way, we are looking for new wine skins and new wine, convinced that the old ways aren't working any longer.
They too, are willing to spend their lives believing and hoping.

Won't you join us.

Perhaps...

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

- Maya Angelou

Midwife In Training (Haiti)

I’m back! Yes, you are all thinking correctly, it’s the crazy blonde woman’s child, Madisen. Now, you might be thinking that I need support for Costa Rica, but this isn’t the case 

(caught you off guard there, didn’t I).  

But I do need support this summer because I’m going to Haiti in July for my SENIOR summer! I am going to be there July 20^th - 30^th.  I’m going to work with Beth McHoul and the Heartline Ministry women’s program. Beth runs the program and helps the women down in Haiti with giving birth in a safe, clean and loving environment and teaches them to make healthy choices with their children until they are six months old. I will be shadowing this program because I want to be a midwife after graduation from high school and I am considering attending a midwifery school in the Philippines next year. I have known Beth for a long time and I feel very comfortable with her and her teaching me about a women’s body and process of childbirth.  Because this isn’t a “traditional” path to education I am looking for as much hands on experience as I can get while I pray about my choices for education abroad and the future. I feel very blessed to have this door open for me and am looking forward to learning a ton this summer. I have booked my ticket and am ready to see what God has for me on this trip.

The total cost of this trip is expected to be about $1500. This includes airfare, room and board at the guesthouse and transportation while in Haiti.  This is the part where you my audience come in. I really need y’alls help with me going Haiti.  I feel like this is what God is calling me to this summer.  Now, if you cannot give money I completely understand.  All I ask is that you pray for me and with me that the money will come in for me and for my safety and protection on my trip.  If you can send money, I ask that you send it to God’s Plumbline Ministries so we can track your tax-deductible donations. I have enclosed an envelope for you to make it easy for you.  

I want to “thank-you” so much in advance for all of your support and prayers for my trip and for me while I move into my Senior year of high school and plan for my future.

Sincerely,

Madisen Grace

I Dare You - Invest With Me

I dare you to invest in humanity with me.

To close your eyes and see... 

See with me a place where others have the resources to provide for their children.

Where fathers have ways to express talent.

See a place where idle hands find fulfilment.

Help create a place to extravagantly dare to invent in humanity without a threat of the bottom-line.

Those crushing numbers squeezing out hope. 
The lives of people getting lost in the margin.

The hope to believe that the investment in humanity can be a beautiful thing.

Something worth giving your life for...

Hoping..

Believing..

 Let's hope and believe together in something greater than ourselves. 

Finding the desire to create communities with hope.

Empower people with skills and resources to birth a generation that is not looking at poverty, orphans, malnutrition and AIDS as "normal" or just a way of life.

Usher in a new generation... 

A generation with hope for a future.

I dare you to extravagantly invest in humanity.

Dare with me to believe in something more.

This is "Commonality".

Finding what we have in common, but never being common.

You Aren't Just Buying A Thing

Levon

Levon wears his war wound like a crown

He calls his child Jesus

'Cause he likes the name

And he sends him to the finest school in town

Levon, Levon likes his money

He makes a lot they say

Spend his days counting

In a garage by the motorway

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day

When the New York Times said God is dead 

And the war's begun

Alvin Tostig has a son today

And he shall be Levon

And he shall be a good man

And he shall be Levon

In tradition with the family plan

And he shall be Levon

And he shall be a good man

He shall be Levon

Levon sells cartoon balloons in town

His family business thrives

Jesus blows up balloons all day

Sits on the porch swing watching them fly

And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus

Leaving Levon far behind

Take a balloon and go sailing

While Levon, Levon slowly dies
- Elton John

Uganda - What is the LRA?

Uganda

Nearly two million people in Northern Uganda have been displaced from their homes and villages as a result of the ongoing, catastrophic war traveling throughout East Africa. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, began its malicious movement in 1986 with a horrific agenda of torturing individuals, setting villages on fire, and abducting thousands of children. Within two decades, the LRA had recruited nearly 66,000 youth to their army, forcing children to be soldiers, “wives”, and slaves.

In 1996, the Government of Uganda forced approximately 1.8 million people to relocate to Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps in an effort to provide refuge and protection, however, a decade later the situation in IDP camps worsened as they became filled with disease, poverty, malnourishment, and few opportunities to leave.

Throughout the last few years, many people have been permitted to leave IDP camps and return to their villages, however, individuals and communities at large have been left with little hope of returning to their normal way of life or attaining social equity. The limited access to education, employment, and sustainability has forced many people to relocate to the District of Gulu, where they are seeking aid and opportunity.

As you can imagine, children are at risk because of these issues in Uganda. In May we will be headed to Uganda to help bring sustainability to women and children in transition. 

Please stay tuned for more information about the work that we will be doing and for more details about our schedule and how you can help.

Imagine...

Ephesians 3:20...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.

Great Adventure Ahead

We can't say what is happening just yet.

The month of March has been a busy one, full of meetings and some divine appointments with folks who share our same heart.

Folks who are willing to dream with us about the things God has put in our heart to do in other nations.

It has been awesome to watch and see things fall into place.

Not knowing all the details has been an adventure, an adventure in a new kind of faith, believing God when He says, 

I make all things new! 

This adventure feels like we are getting to know God in a whole new way, and He trusting us to be a part of more things in His heart.

We have been thinking of the words David said to Saul and his brothers when he fought Goliath.

"The God who...and He will do it again"

We are thankful to be in this new place.

The place of finding the dreams in God's heart. 

Knowing and finding the plans He has had for our lives since the beginning of time.

We are dreaming big with the God who will do it again.

Join us.

  

International Women's Day #IWD2014

This woman, this day, this statement...

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the Hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  - Peter

 The Haiti Earthquake

This woman... 

This day...

This statement by Peter...

All would call me to a new place in my walk of faith. 
Peter, a disciple of Jesus had penned these words so many years ago and I couldn't get him, her or this day out of my head for weeks that turned into months, years. 

This woman walked up to me and handed me her baby. 

Hope.

Give a reason. 

Wait, what hope did I have.

Did I have Hope?

This. 

This image, my camera captured, was her life after the earth shook for all those seconds.

And so, as Haiti worked to heal, I too, was left in a crisis of faith of my own. 

Hope.

Give a reason.

I felt like I had no answer.

Jesus.

Let us start there.

A (Strong) Woman, Her Voice

Photo Credit: Sheila Lynch

A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. 

But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult. 

– Melinda Gates

-------------------------------

She sews a purse, he paints on canvas, they thread beads.
By hand the clay is formed, leather tanned, metal hammered.
Their hands are no longer idle.

One by one.

That still small voice inside believes again, things can change.

One by one.

Hope and courage bloom in a dry place.
The air is busy once more.
The weight that takes the breath from your lungs and makes it hard for your heart to beat doesn't seem to come to rest as often.  

One by one.

The market seemed fuller today, maybe because you had more choices. The water you carry seemed a tad lighter and the song you knew as a child seemed to return. 
Today your child went to school.

One by one.

You did have something to say after all.

One by one.

Gratefully

 If you must look back, do so forgivingly. 

If you must look forward, do so prayerfully. 

However, the wisest thing you can do is be present in the present….gratefully.

- Maya Angelou

                                   

Before You Give Up...New Year - New Change

2013 was a year of transition and change. Period.

I thought of Jacob often...

Genesis 32

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.  After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 

I don’t know what 2013 was like for you, for us it was a year of big changes, one after another. It was almost hard to catch our breath. Over and over I thought about Jacob, his life, his fight and his famous limp. 

I kept thinking I know I am limping.

I don’t think God "needed" to engage in the fight, it was Jacob who needed it. 
Boy was he ready too. All night he went at it with God.  

What I find most interesting was the questions they had for each other. 
Jacob said, I need to know who you are and I need you to bless me. 
God said, what is your name.  

When all was said and done, questions answered, Jacob was changed. 
Not only would he and his whole family enter a new land for a new season, he had settled matters in his heart with both man and God.

For a season, we know Jacob considered giving up because life wasn’t always kind.  But this time, he said, I won’t give up until you bless me.  

So, before we consider giving up... 

May this be a season when we settle matters with man and God, entering into our promised land with our family, embracing a new name and new season.

Here is to a new chance and a clean slate.