Yesterday, Linnea went to her parent’s house, and I stayed home and watched the NFL network, all the sports I could watch, the Military History channel, boxing, Modern Marvels….and I had my laptop out, my parent’s house is wireless, which is one of the coolest things, and I had the country station on. I didn’t have to share the remote or talk, except to let Sequoia know my ideas, and she always seems to agree.
Since I have been home, I have started to realize or remember how much I love sports, strength and conditioning. It is what I have always loved, and this year has been very difficult to be away from that world. I would consider the year on the world race a major time of fasting from many things, stuff that I didn’t realize mattered so much to me. Privacy, being the King of My Little World (very little world inside an oversized skull). Personal Training…. My favorite music, because we didn’t bring an ipod, mostly because I don’t have one, I don’t have a clue how to use one, and carrying along a huge box of tapes and my yellow Sony walkman is just plain unwieldy.
Ok, that was a tangent I will get to more later.
While online, I received an email from our contact in China, and I got a kick in the butt because I have not shared more about China.
I think what I am going to write here is ok, because he has a website that will say more…nope scratch that, if you want the website, email me.
This man had a tangible presence of Father. Joy and peace and love and humility just oozed from him.
The area we were in was really poor, as I have shared, and we were able to bring some money to that area in exchange for a bed to sleep in and food to eat. He is also working on helping to bring safe water to the area from mountain springs.
We also visited some schools and taught (more like butchered) English. Mostly we spoke English, and Linnea and I shared our story of how we met and they loved that story (kind of cool that our love story has been told on 4 continents), everyone there is learning English from books and wanted to hear it spoken, and they like to hear the American English more than the British, at least that is what they tell the Americans.
In the schools we met kids who live these incredibly difficult lives. I can’t imagine how tough their lives are, even after everything we had seen throughout the year, hearing the stories brought tears to my eyes. We sat and listened to stories from these children, stories of fathers dying in accidents and moms marrying another man and running off to another city. Stories of mental disease, physical disease. Children living with grandparents, children living alone. Children who dream of being doctors so they can treat the people in their villages, children with dreams and hopes in spite of everything against them. Children who dream of more, but can’t afford school, and have family that enslave them at home, future doctors who are needed at home for chores, to help the family survive.
On the website you can see how to make a difference in this area. This area of almost 8 million people, an unreached people group. This is the front line, and you can help, Linnea and I are already sponsoring one child (maybe more like we redirected the support given to us) and we will sponsor more to help them achieve their dreams, to extend the kingdom.
Again for more info on how to support this ministry contact me through the contact me thing, I am not sure how to do it, but people do it all the time, so I think it works.
