Reality is messing with my normal. You know, NORMAL. What is supposed to happen, the way things are supposed to go. What we all agree is customary; the rules we obey so that our environment is comfortable and predictable.
Monday night, three 16 year old boys from Milford were in a horrible car accident and two of them died. The driver is still in critical condition and other details of his condition are private. My daughter knows these boys well. Kids are not supposed to die. Not American kids, not African kids - no kids. I heard someone say they were going too fast - who cares? Does that help the normal to rush back in? If I can somehow make sense of it so I can feel normal sooner? At what expense?
I heard the term "the new normal " rise into ordinary conversation after 9-11-01, and even before that when my Mom died of breast cancer in 2000. It seems to mean that we must accept the unthinkable into the pattern of our lives in order to keep the fabric from unravelling and becoming unusable, unfinished, unacceptable. Knit me together....Sometimes that is the hardest thing to pray.
For today, my normal is still better than the normal around me. Can I be grateful?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Muraho (which means: Hi, I haven't seen you in a while! in the Kinyarwanda language)
Wow, thanks for checking out my blog :) This feels kind of scary, like leaving my journal open on the coffee table...which, by the way, I'd never do... So why blog?
- to make the process of preparing for my trip to Rwanda into something family and friends can check out easily
- to keep it real (today,I'm excited-scared-amazed-and-intruiged. Yesterday I was overwhelmed)
- to talk about the Rwandan history that motivates us to want to assist them now and in the future
- to ask and answer questions
- to tell anyone who is interested how they can help me and my team.
- for the fun of it :)
I'll be posting ways that people can help me fund the trip, and by doing so, partner in the great work of Peace Teams - specifically I'm going to be making some beatiful ART you can USE, for your donations, so stay tuned.
Thanks for visiting :)
oh! That image is one of the photos taken this past Feb. by Leah Reynolds on her trip to Rwanda.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
why rwanda?
I began to be intrigued when a team of totally normal people that I know announced that they'd be going on a discovery trip in the summer of 08 to Rwanda in order to figure out if our church could be involved in assisting the church in Rwanda. To find out more about Rwandans and read amazing stories of survival, check out this link.
I wasn't one of those brave people, but I wanted to pray for them, because prayer is work anyone can do, any time, anywhere, and it is one way God gets things done (according to 11 Corinthians 1:11). One way I have found to keep a specific prayer in the front of my mind is to wear a reminder of it on my wrist. God told His community in the Old Testament to use this trick to keep His law front and center (see it in Deuteronomy 6:8). The bracelet I made to wear while my friends were in Rwanda was very primitive and had their initials. Six people: six letters, separated by purple and silver beads. At different points during the day, if my eyes fell on the bracelet, I'd just pray for who ever's initial was facing up at me. God used these prayers to grab my heart for what he is doing in Rwanda. He is funny like that.
When the second Peace team went this past February, I had been reading about the genocide in 1994, and beginning to understand the history of this amazing country. Where it is, what it's like, and how the ones who survived - did that. Left to Tell, by Immacule Ilibagiza was the first book I read about the actual events of April 1994. What has continually assaulted my mind every time I learn more about the genocide is that it happened during my adult life as I was raising babies and watching the OJ trial on TV - and I never even noticed.
So, why Rwanda? This is a quote from the amazing book I'm reading now, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow You Will Be Killed With Your Families, by Philip Gourevitch. During a conversation this New York Times journalist had with a Rwandan, this is how he described his life: "The Rwandans live in the hills. The people are living separately together. So there is responsibility. I cry, you cry. You cry, I cry. We all come running, and the one that stays quiet, the one that stays home, must explain. Is he in league with the criminals? Is he a coward? And what would he expect when he cries? This is simple. This is normal. This is community."
That, in a nutshell, is why.
I wasn't one of those brave people, but I wanted to pray for them, because prayer is work anyone can do, any time, anywhere, and it is one way God gets things done (according to 11 Corinthians 1:11). One way I have found to keep a specific prayer in the front of my mind is to wear a reminder of it on my wrist. God told His community in the Old Testament to use this trick to keep His law front and center (see it in Deuteronomy 6:8). The bracelet I made to wear while my friends were in Rwanda was very primitive and had their initials. Six people: six letters, separated by purple and silver beads. At different points during the day, if my eyes fell on the bracelet, I'd just pray for who ever's initial was facing up at me. God used these prayers to grab my heart for what he is doing in Rwanda. He is funny like that.
When the second Peace team went this past February, I had been reading about the genocide in 1994, and beginning to understand the history of this amazing country. Where it is, what it's like, and how the ones who survived - did that. Left to Tell, by Immacule Ilibagiza was the first book I read about the actual events of April 1994. What has continually assaulted my mind every time I learn more about the genocide is that it happened during my adult life as I was raising babies and watching the OJ trial on TV - and I never even noticed.
So, why Rwanda? This is a quote from the amazing book I'm reading now, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow You Will Be Killed With Your Families, by Philip Gourevitch. During a conversation this New York Times journalist had with a Rwandan, this is how he described his life: "The Rwandans live in the hills. The people are living separately together. So there is responsibility. I cry, you cry. You cry, I cry. We all come running, and the one that stays quiet, the one that stays home, must explain. Is he in league with the criminals? Is he a coward? And what would he expect when he cries? This is simple. This is normal. This is community."
That, in a nutshell, is why.
Where I stop and you begin
I am just like you. I am nothing like you. These ideas have to be knit together in order for me to be the person God can use, in this skin, with these hands.
I'm a wife, mom, professional, runner, yarn-lover, and God follower. You read this and decide if I am like you or if I am just not. We all do this, and it is our point of reference from which to respond. I've been thinking alot about that because in a few months I'll be traveling with a team of other ordinary folks to Rwanda, to serve the beautiful people who live there - for two weeks. The point of the trip, which is being organized by the amazing folks at Manchester Christian Church (http://www.manchesterchristian.com/home.asp), is to partner with the church in Rwanda for the purpose of strengthening their efforts to promote these five priorities:
p -promote reconciliation in a nation ripped apart 15 years ago by senseless genocide
e -equip servant-leaders
a -assist the poor
c -care for the sick
e -educate the next generation
This acrostic spells P.E.A.C.E., so we are called a Peace Team. This is the third one MCC has put together, and there are about 42 of us going in August. We'll be broken into smaller teams to be more effective! I have never done anything like this - and if you know me at all, you must be totally shocked! Hopefully not so much. I'm trying not to be such a slave of my limitations anymore.
So, as I learn about Rwanda and what I'll get to do there, and hopefully raise support for my travel and my team, I will be sharing it here. I hope you will walk with me, because we're really not that different.
I'm a wife, mom, professional, runner, yarn-lover, and God follower. You read this and decide if I am like you or if I am just not. We all do this, and it is our point of reference from which to respond. I've been thinking alot about that because in a few months I'll be traveling with a team of other ordinary folks to Rwanda, to serve the beautiful people who live there - for two weeks. The point of the trip, which is being organized by the amazing folks at Manchester Christian Church (http://www.manchesterchristian.com/home.asp), is to partner with the church in Rwanda for the purpose of strengthening their efforts to promote these five priorities:
p -promote reconciliation in a nation ripped apart 15 years ago by senseless genocide
e -equip servant-leaders
a -assist the poor
c -care for the sick
e -educate the next generation
This acrostic spells P.E.A.C.E., so we are called a Peace Team. This is the third one MCC has put together, and there are about 42 of us going in August. We'll be broken into smaller teams to be more effective! I have never done anything like this - and if you know me at all, you must be totally shocked! Hopefully not so much. I'm trying not to be such a slave of my limitations anymore.
So, as I learn about Rwanda and what I'll get to do there, and hopefully raise support for my travel and my team, I will be sharing it here. I hope you will walk with me, because we're really not that different.
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