stay upright

Last weekend I got to be on the Route Safety Bike Crew at the Boston Breast Cancer 3 Day. There were about 18 of us on all kinds of bikes who were tasked with patrolling the line of 1600 walkers on their daily journey and keeping them safe. It was the most fun I've ever had on two wheels.


I could not help but flash forward, as I endured cold rain, blazing sunshine, and city streets and tented nights, that I was in training for Rwanda. With some measurable differences: I expect to have my feet on the ground for the most part and I will get a bed! One thing that is surely the same is we will all need each other every day to do the tasks that are planned - thank God that he created us to work as a team! God himself IS, in fact, a team: the three in one, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Even they don't act alone!


I had never done volunteer bike crew at the 3 day before (last year I walked it), and as I looked for specific direction as to how to perform my job, my stoic Captain, Nick, was a man of few words. He looks like a young Peter Lawford, and his side glance is chilling but his heart is pure gold. Nick has a favorite phrase that he signs off with: stay upright.


On a bike, staying upright is quite crucial. I've been cycling for 4 years, and primarily I do it for fun and fitness. Last weekend, I was on my bike for other purposes entirely; to have close physical proximity to the walkers who may experience medical emergencies through out the weekend, both because of their strenuous activities (16-22 miles on foot daily) and because of existing conditions. Many are currently in chemo and fighting breast cancer like little pink pit bulls. In order to be near them, we were frequently riding on the "wrong" side of the road, depending on what sidewalk the walkers were directed to use. As a cyclist, this is particularly hard because we all know we are supposed to ride with traffic and this is the responsible way to ride and what cars expect of us. Considering that they hate us already (yo, today just give a cyclist a little road margin; they will be so grateful), riding on the wrong side/left side also put us at considerable risk.


I went down twice, but neither slip was serious. Each time, I was not paying close attention to my personal fatigue, and I failed to stay upright. And each time, I was embraced, fed electrolyte-laced liquids, and band-aided back to the upright position. It was painfully clear to me ( I needed the big bandaid) at the 3 Day that I was being given a living tool to add to my tool kit as I leave with the Peace Teams in 8 days: to stay upright, we need each other. I needed my team of cyclists to answer my radio call, and I needed walkers to keep me juiced, I needed the med team and the food service crew to take care of me, and they needed me to watch out for them on the roads and cheer them home.


So, true confessions time: it was hard for me to surrender to needing people last weekend. Why is it so hard to need each other, when it feels so good and works so well? I am like a little kid who wants to run away from my Daddy when he's trying to hold my hand and keep me safe. But this thing is also true: I am marvelously spoiled by that Father with the lessons from the 3 day this year, and extravagantly drenched in the faith I have in my team as we go. Needing each other is going to be half the fun!

Details, details:

• Our team as of Sunday will be at our financial goal, thanks to the hail-Mary-style checks that have been lobbed in at the last second, including money from another team that was over-goal! God is good :)


• Watch for your blue envelope, support team! It's coming to you this week. I will post prayer needs here before I leave, as well.


• Dave has a big interview while I'm away, so please pray that this job works out! He'd be great at it. Three cheers for the best husband ever :) Missing him will be one of my significant challenges on this trip, but loving him is one of my greatest joys. xo David

Thank you to every one who is praying - you are my team and I need you and love you.

running with a bucket

Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to You

With my empty cup.

Uncertain, but asking any small drop of refreshment.

If only I had known You better,

I'd have come running with a bucket.

- anonymous

Even now, 3 days after our time with the two pastors from Saddleback Church (7 hours together, 7 pages of notes, and a fist full of handouts), I am still reeling from all I learned. And I use the word "learned" loosely, because the actual learning of the wisdom that was passed on to us about doing development work in Rwanda will probably not take place truly until I get there. In 18 days.

Simply put, and profoundly taught, the difference between development and relief is being fleshed out by the P.E.A.C.E. plan. For years people have been doing much good in relief work: feeding the poor, nurturing those who are sick and dying, and providing economic assistance in many of Africa's nations. But, the work of development can only happen when local people through the many churches there are taught to create health, economic balance, literacy, and spiritual growth that is sustainable. There are 3 hospitals in the western province and 26 clinics, but there are more than 700 churches. The church is the greatest distribution channel in the world.

At our church there is an oft-reitterated catch-phrase: "the church is the hope of the world". I had a limitted understanding of that concept, but the house of knowledge in my head now has a full basement, if you get my drift. Now that people are linking economic, medical, education, and spiritual aid together through the kinds of projects planned for us and 1000's of others like us, it is all making sense. This is why a few weeks in Rwanda will be able to make a difference. It makes so much sense, I am tempted to think (with you) - naturally people have been doing this already right? Classic no-brainer! This is actually a pretty new development for "mission work", which has classically been relief and evangelism based. The revolutionary change is that in this millennium, the church is finally doing the gospel, and not just talking about it. Phew. God must be psyched :)

Are you praying for me? Cuz, I am feeling it.

Personal update:

• Dave is interviewing and things are moving forward with him accessing his vast network professionally.
  
• The kiddos are having a great summer: my brilliant, healthy, strong daughters are continuing to enjoy life, thank God.
  
• My support to fund the trip to Rwanda is almost fully achieved. ALMOST! What did I say at the start of my fundraising? (Besides, really God? Are you kidding me?) I was excited to see how God would do this rabbit-out-of-hat trick. It has been nothing short of miraculous to be sent by you. My support team will be getting something in the mail in a blue envelope soon, so watch for it!

More updates to follow! Thanks for following the blog!

patterns

Wikipedia says: A pattern is a type of theme of recurring events of or objects. These elements repeat in a predictable manner.

I collect patterns because I'm a yarn-freak. A pattern to me is a future opportunity to have the luxurious excuse to make something from nothing, using guidelines which someone has created and found a way to successfully execute. A pattern is proof that the item, or garment, will work out as planned. You can see why I love them.

Lately I'm seeing patterns. I noticed one yesterday as I enjoyed some sweet time with a dear friend. Because of tough circumstances that she faces,it was important to clear my day and lay out a stretch of time with her that we both really needed. My life is so crammed with stuff lately because of work, the trip and the Breast Cancer 3 Day next week, that hanging out on her deck telling stories all afternoon was like a stay-cation. We sipped cold drinks, watched the birds, and topics rambled and rested on some sweet memories of our mothers. I got to watch my friend, who has not felt well in months, re inhabit her body as she told me her stories. She held her hand on her neck while she spoke, circling her necklace around her lovely fingers, and I wondered if she was comforting herself or feeling her life beat subconsciously. And I hoped for both.

So, patterns. :) My friend has a pattern of applying hope to her life. Because she has done if for so long, she is not even aware of it passing into her conversation, but she sure misses it when it's absent. Hope is a force. It breathes like the fresh morning air - reviving sleepy cells and refreshing weary old thought patterns. My patterns dictate what I'll decide to expect from my circumstances. I like my predictable paths and methods, I try not to disturb them until I am knocked off my little balance beam by a thrust of doubt. Do I have a pattern of hope? Dave has a job interview tomorrow. Why this job, why not this job? My friend needs a new treatment plan for her illness. Why this illness, why not this illness? Thought patterns offer answers, and hope offers answers, and sometimes I can't decide which ones to believe.

For me, praying is a great act of hope. It is a response and it has become one of my favorite patterns. In Luke 22, the Bible says that Jesus was facing the day when he'd be publicly tortured to become the mediator and method of reconciliation to God for anyone who believes. So, as was his pattern, he went to this place he loved going to and he spent the night before praying. Some say he was giving us a pattern. I think he was also surviving a hellish night and prayer was the method of his rescue. The power and the pattern of his life.

So I am praying today for my husband and my friend. I choose to apply a pattern of hope to my circumstances which, simultaneously changes the way I look at the world. That is the sneaky little benefit of prayer that God slips in when I'm not looking: I pray to change the world, and God responds. And by my prayer, He changes me to change my world. Huh. I think I see a pattern.

Rwanda itinerary!

With only 5 weeks til the PEACE Teams fly off to Rwanda, I thought you might like to know what the itinerary is looking like. This answers the question, "what the heck are you going to Rwanda for, again?", for all of you loving friends and family and kind co-workers :)

Aug 9, Sun - 2:30am, Catch an MCC shuttle from Manchester to Logan for our first flights

Aug 10, Mon - 11:55am local time, Arrive Kigali, Rwanda and settle into Iris Guest House

Aug 11, Tue - 9-11am, Orientation at PEACE office in Kigali, followed by lunch, and a visit to the Genocide Museum

Aug 12, Wed. - Depart Kigali for Kibuye, ride in a big bumpy van for many hours :), Orientation in Kibuye and dinner.

Aug 13 Thur. - Aug 19, Wed. - Community Development Work (CDW) begins! Lodging at Bethanie Guest House

Aug 19 Wed - Depart Kibuye for Kigali

Aug 20 Thur - at Akagera National Park

Aug 21 Fri - free day in Kigali

Aug 22 Sat - Team Debrief, and afternoon visit with Harvest Church

Aug 23 Sun - Church in Kigali and getting ready to leave, flights depart 4:15pm

Aug 24 Mon - arrive home to Logan airport

Phew! It was really exciting to see some of the blanks filled in last night as we met as an entire team to have a training on the cross-cultural issues we will want to be aware of as we head to Rwanda. The more we learn the more excited we all become just to get there!

I want to thank all of my supporters again for the amazing response you have shown to the idea of Lynne going to Africa, lol. You believe in what we are about concerning the PEACE Plan, and what you don't completely understand, you ask me! Keep asking, by the way! The PEACE Plan is about training trainers; making leaders able within their own towns to do their own community development. We are picking up where some others have left off in a global effort to be reconcilers, educators, care-givers, and loving supporters of a movement in Rwanda that is phenomenally important to the future of this great people. And, right before our eyes, they are becoming a beacon of light to the whole world on the subject of healing and forgiveness, as they become ONE people and erase racial and tribal barriers. My support team members will be receiving a special prayer reminder card in the mail at the end of this month, and details about how to follow the blog we'll be updating from Rwanda! Oxoxoxox to you all.

To those who are watching and have yet to support us, can I ask you a favor? I am nearly at goal now, but still have more support to raise. Some of you have asked if it's too late. NOPE! Please help me and my team fill in the gaps. Even a small donation will make a big difference right now. You can find out how to give by looking at about me (pink, stretching my legs, over in the side column, top left of this page) or by emailing me at lynnelor@yahoo.com . I am forever grateful for your help :)

epic rain

In New Hampshire this morning, we are yet again plodding through puddles and keeping a stiff upper lip (although, it's quivering) as we face another rainsoaked summer day. Its getting downright epic.

Perhaps it's because of the tough economy, another grim reality we all share, that the rain feels like some grand-scale metaphor. We know it will stop, it could stop any time. Just like hope - the prospect of the sun peeking out is still present despite the forecast. Today, in Hillsborough County, we have a flash-flood warning and meteorologists are trotting out verbs like "ponding" to describe how the rain is behaving in our streets. Ponding, pooling, creeping, soaking, and pounding; the language that is being exercised on the news is making vividly real the very serious nature of what is normally just a nuisance. On the last report I heard, the meteorologist wished us a safe morning, which actually made me nervous!

Yet, it is a holiday weekend: July 4th will still mean freedom celebrations, parades, bar-b-ques and fireworks, thankfully. We all need to get some joy - even from under tents and peering out of windows as we try to dry out. And, joy, we will get, because being together is fun, even in the rain.

Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Psalm 116:7

Do you ever talk to yourself? In this verse, David is telling his soul to shake off the blues and get a grip. This is not glib bright-siding. This is truth that is just as true as rain. God is blessing me and I am blessed. Blessing, good fortune, laughter, happiness, (and all the synonyms for it) is still here even in the tough times. I don't think King David, whose life was hanging in the balance because so many people wanted to kill him all the time, was drawing a happy face in the sand when he spoke those words to his own soul, and hoping it would help. Strangely enough, David was also a phenomenal songwriter. It is as if his life made him have to sing. To say this another way, I think King David (who was the great-great-great-great......grandfather of Jesus) made a life practice to stop, look around, and change chairs. I think he was sitting in a new chair and looking at the one where he'd been spending too much time: the one where he was so anguished, he cried all day long.

I want to sit in a new chair too. Sounds like a plan. Maybe I'll sing a little too.