By the Way...

Just thought I'd clarify again that this little Kettle blog is my personal blog, which means it's just kind of an on-line journal of what's going on in our house, our hearts, our minds and our lives.

For more defined news about what we're up to with Wild Hope, you can go to our website, which will also take you to our Wild Hope blog. You can access the blog directly, or through the website. The blog attempts to keep a record of the stories we get to be a part of as we follow God together here in Africa.

So that's that!

Boy at Work

It's a nice night after a late dinner on our porch. Warren Zevon is playing on the stereo. The dog is asleep at my feet.

I don't have anything to say except that I thought this photo I just took of Byron turned out cool. He's busy drawing up plans for a double bed for our guest room. I hope it's ready before Bill and Tina get here next week :-)

Matunda (aka "Everybody Mango!")

We had friends round for lunch today and I asked Byron in the morning if he could stop and get me "a little fruit". (I was thinking a couple of mangos.)

I think he got really excited that mangos are back in season :-)

The rest of it we'll chalk up to the fact that when the little grandmas at the fruit stand start pushing fruit into his hands, he can't say no.

We will enjoy it but I wish Byron's Dad could be here to enjoy it with us. I know that's where Byron gets his fruit-love :-)

God Paints

God paints with passion and colors like I can't even dream of.

He paints and paints and paints his heart out. The whole expanse of the sky is filled up with his imaginings.

He swirls the colors and gets them just right as they slide to different shades under his hand.

And then it goes all inky dark.

"That was fun," he must remark.


(Photo taken as we drove home yesterday evening from the Tarangire National Park. We were zooming along at a good clip and I had to roll down the window and get blown wildly as I turned around in my seat, cramped somewhat by my seatbelt, and pointed the lens at the masterpiece behind us.)

Star Trek Days

So here we are, living in our Star Trek reality...

Heather is talking to Jesse and Trevor and Darrelle on the other side of the world, watching them as she does.

So nice, eh?

Makes the distance so much less severe.

Jackson Browne and My Tangled Necklaces

Yesterday I sat on my bed and spent at least an hour struggling to untangle three fine chains that had knotted themselves over and around each other.

(Note to self: don't store necklaces together and then ship them across the world again.)

As I sat there, I thought of Jackson Browne's lyric that says--

"... maybe we've found what we had lost when we've unwound so many crossed and tangled misunderstandings..."

How knotted relationships can become. How much work to untangle the misunderstanding.

A toothpick finally helped me loosen and untie some of the knots in the chains.

I've found that forgiveness does the same for the other knots.

The necklaces hang free now on pretty hooks by my dresser.

Nice. I feel inspired.

Things I Learned in Recent Travels

Here's a wee list of some DOs and DON'Ts I gathered on this last trip...

1. Do not allow yourself just 3.5 hours of sleep on the night before you begin 29 hours in transit, even if you are
having a great time with Barbara and about 200 other people.

2. Do not have strong (and lovely) European coffee and chocolate croissants at every train station or airport along the way
(unless you like the jagged buzz of caffeine and cocoa combined with exhaustion and jet lag.)

3. Do wear your day pack on your front, not your back, while riding the Metro in Madrid (unless, of course, it was your
intention that the innocent looking young girl and her pregnant mother/friend unzip the front pocket. Bonus
Do: be happy you never keep anything important in that pocket.)

4. Do enjoy tapas at every opportunity while in Spain.

5. Do accept the challenge to a flamenco dance-off in order to raise money for 24-7 Prayer.

6. Don't eat salty food right before the longest leg of your journey and then take your shoes off during that flight.

7. Upon discovering at the end of that long flight that your feet are now far too puffy to fit back into your shoes, don't
worry as you limp down the corridor from the plane in your half-on, half-off shoes.

8. Do elevate your feet and drink lots and lots of water during the 4.5 hour wait in Nairobi.

9. Do not be concerned about how dirty the floor at same airport might be. If it looks heavenly because it offers you
a chance to get horizontal, do just lie down.

10. Do celebrate being back with your kids with tea on the porch and syrup waffle cookies from the airport in Holland!

Chocolate Covered Joy

It's 1:20am (Spain time) on Monday the 22nd of October, which means it is now officially my birthday.

Woo hoooo!

I am very happy that we'll be heading home later this day. We have a 9am train to Madrid, a metro ride, a late afternoon flight to Amsterdam, and an overnight flight to Nairobi before our hop to Kilimanjaro. We should be home by noon on Tuesday.

These have been wonderful days with the 24-7 Prayer family. I will have to talk more about that later.

For now I just want to quote Byron who said that finding Barbara at the international food fest on Thursday night was like "chocolate covered joy." Amen to that!

All is well. I need to get some sleep now...

45!

(PS And Happy Birthday dear Nancy!)

So I Have to Reach Real Big to Hug Them

The other day I had this sudden strange realization that (right now) our little family of six is spread out over three continents. Byron and I are here in Spain, Colin and Heather are home in Tanzania (with the outstanding Russell family,) and Jesse and Trevor are in the States. Weird!

I'm missing them all these last couple of days :-( Last night the worship started up and I immediately felt worse! Ha! Doesn't that sound bad? Well, if it's only a guitar that plays then I'm usually pretty fine. When it's guitar and djembe, I have a little melt down. It is part of the soundtrack of our lives to have Jesse, Trevor and Colin playing guitar and djembe together.

I never have the right words for musical things but I can tell you that Trevor's guitar has a rich and sparkly sound under his fingers. Jesse has graceful, strong hands on the djembe. Colin has a quick, firm but light touch on his djembe.

So I have to "get over" a rush of emotion when I hear those sounds together as it just brings up in me a longing to be with the boys. Mixed with that is the memory of many sweet times with our community in Lisbon, the Lisboa Matrix. Sigh.

And then there's Heather. I miss hearing Heather singing all through the house. She fills the airwaves with numbers from Annie and Oklahoma and Walk the Line. Oh yea!

Missing the kids is sad. But there there is ONE family member who has just turned up to fill the weekend with BIG JOY! Barbara is here! Yes, the indescribable, incomparable, excellent, wonderful, shining Baba took bus after bus all day long from Portugal yesterday to get her last night.

Imagine us with big, beaming smiles :-)

Thanks for Prayers

Several of you have asked if there was news of my cousin, Brenda. (See post called "Brenda" two posts down.)

My uncle wrote us all today with the news of her passing. I will copy a portion of that below.

"Early this morning our much loved Brenda went peacefully to be with her Saviour. We are thrilled for her, no more pain, a new body, dancing with the Saints,couldn't be better. The pain for us is severe but it will not last. Please pray for her family today."

Thank you so much for continued prayers for her entire family, especially for her husband and children.

If I could think of something to say in response to the sadness of this loss, I guess I would write it.

Some times silence is best.

Getting Here

Up at 3am on Saturday morning and out we headed to Kilimanjaro International Airport. We had to stand outside with the other passengers from that flight as the airport wasn't open yet :-) That was a first.

Our one hour flight to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi was easy. Above the clouds, we saw beautiful close- ups of Kili. The lady at check-in didn't allow us to take our carry on bags on this first small flight. Byron had to cajole her to book them through only to Nairobi so that we could collect them there. She didn't really like sending one all the way to Madrid and letting us collect our other two little ones, but she did it.

In Nairobi we saw a fearsome sight! As we walked from the plane to the terminal, across the black top, we saw hundreds of bags being sorted by hand and carted off toward the aiport buildings. It didn't look any too organized or promising.

We had to clear immigration and go down to baggage claim to get our bags. Byron's came through fine.... Then finally mine MUCH later. Believe me, I had been praying hard to see that little blue bag appear through the rubber strip curtain!

We checked ourselves back in, stopping to point out to the counter lady that on the next leg we were seated in two middle seats away from each other. She was very kind and scrambled around and got us two together at the bulk head. An aisle, a middle, lots of leg room and togetherness. Much better!

Next stop was Schiphol in Amsterdam. No problems. No hassles. We even had time for a quick dinner.

We landed in Madrid at close to midnight and found that our one checked bag had not made it with us through the 4 airports that day. I was thankful that Byron pressed for us to get our hand luggage in Nairobi as that had almost all my stuff.

Two metro stops later, and we were in the heart of Madrid. It was a warm Saturday night and the narrow little cobbled streets in this old section of the city were filled with groovy young people "going out." It felt so much like an area of Lisbon we used to frequent!

We walked just a few blocks to Kelly and April's, finding Kelly up at 1:30am to welcome us. By the time we climbed into our bed in their very sweet little apartment, we had been up for 24 hours.

So we slept!

We had one quick morning to catch-up with Kelly and April and meet their cute little Alleke. Too short! After our very Madridian breakfast of toasted bread with blended fresh tomato, olive oil and salt on top at a local cafe, we hustled off to catch our speed train to Sevilla.

The train was a very pleasant experience. Jonah met us in Sevilla and we were soon sitting in another very neat little Spanish cafe eating tapas for a late lunch.

All in all, it's been a good time getting here. Our meetings start tomorrow. This is a long post because it was a long trip! We are happy to be here and all is well :-)

Brenda

I sent the following out as a note to some friends today. Then I remembered that I have friends in blogdom who would pray too.

My cousin, Brenda, is younger than me and the mother of four. She has a very strange disease which creates ulcers all over her body, (Pyoderma Gangrinosum.) They treated it with strong chemo that did a terrible amount of damage and she went into a coma. She has now been in a persistent vegetative state for 6 weeks.

Yesterday the tremendously difficult decision was made to stop feeding Brenda. They expect her to pass in the coming days or weeks.

Please, please pray for Brenda and for her family. Obviously her husband and four kids are totally wrecked. Brenda is the oldest of three sisters and her dad is one of my mum’s younger brothers.

We are still asking the Lord to wake her up, but trusting Him in it all. Not that trusting is always that easy.

Countdown to Spain

This Saturday, before dawn, Byron and I will head out to Spain for a week of 24-7Prayer events.

I'm getting excited! I always look forward to seeing the rest of the leadership team and I love what goes on at the Round Table and the annual gathering, the Feast.

We fly from Kilimanjaro International Airport to Schipol in Amsterdam. Then we go Schipol to Madrid, where we will arrive close to midnight and find our way to Kelly and April's for a little sleep :-) (Can't wait to see those guys!) Next day we'll train from Madrid to Seville, where we join the rest of the team.

After the initial days of leadership meetings and Round Table times, the real fun will begin. From around the world, they will come, lovely people who have taken the call to Prayer, Mission and Justice quite literally and who are praying and mission-ing and justice-ing all over the place! It's always a big JOY to be together, hear the stories, celebrate and get filled up.

AND BARBARA IS COMING TO SPAIN TO SEE US!! Woohoooooooooooooo!!

The Russell family have 4 home schooling kids, and 4 puppies that lost their mama and need to be bottle-fed every few hours. We thought it would just add to their happy hub bub to throw Colin and Heather into the mix for the days we are away :-) Ha! We are so thankful for a home that really feels like our second home for our kids to be folded into it.

I'll be leading two seminars at the Feast. Oh!

Sci Fi Life

When I was a little girl, we used to talk about how "some day" you would be able to see each other when you spoke on the phone with people. We used to laugh at how crazy that would be.

In the 90's when we would watch Star Trek (The Next Generation), Captain Picard would sometimes have very important communications with his superiors and they would see each other on their computer screens (woo woo!) as they talked through whatever crisis was at hand.

Maybe we are living out our Sci Fi reality now because just the other night, Jesse joined us for dinner. Of course, Jesse is on the west coast of the United States and we are in eastern Africa.

Our wide band (which we call skinny band here, for obvious reasons) has not been up to the job of carrying an image in both directions when Trevor and I have tried to video skype. But some how, the other night, all the atmospheric conditions were just right. I placed my little white MacBook at the end of our dinner table and there was Jesse (and his friend, Chris Targoni) joining us for our meal!

It was too fun. All the Russell kids were over, with all four of their puppies, so we were a noisy party in all. It was just surreal to be connected that way. It made us all giggly and ridiculous. Jesse said it made him happy for the whole of his day :-)

Beautiful Water

She stood, legs slightly apart to steady herself, and leaned over the plastic bucket. Holding the pail (which was less than a quarter full) with one hand, she cupped water in her free hand and moved it swiftly and smoothly over its inside and outside walls.

There were several more basins and buckets at her feet that also needed to be cleaned. The water was poured to the next container and the careful process was repeated. In the few minutes that I sat waiting for Byron in the car, I watched this Tanzanian woman do her work quickly and thoroughly. What most impressed me was the small volume of water used.

This is a hallmark of how African women work. Neat homes, clean dishes and fresh clothes are all maintained with minimum amounts of water and no waste.

Is this because African women are more concerned about the global crisis of fresh water than I am? Not necessarily. It's often just the plain truth of water supply that makes these women such good stewards of every drop. Many of them carry their water, some for miles. Others share a common faucet in their neighborhood. Still others have, like I do, water piped into their homes. But the number of women who enjoy this luxury is far below the number of those who collect their water in other ways.

The lovely lady washing so carefully caught my eye because she reminded me that I'm trying to use less water as I live. Watching her, I thought about how much more water I would have used to do the same job. I thought about how many liters go down the drain at our house every day.

I'm trying to be a better steward for this precious resource. When I rinse dishes, I fill one of the cooking pots I used and rinse each plate in this little bucket. I throw the water, now full of dinner scraps, on our plants outside. These are small things I'm trying to do. I'm already famous for my quick showers. A few friends have called me "Lisa Lightning Shower." But I just want to be more aware and more responsible.

Water is so beautiful. I love to dive into it and feel the coolness all over me. I hope I'm learning to take better care of it.

over the miles

i heard your voice
your laugh

you said familiar things
(and told me something i didn't know)

we were jovial
you had to rush

but now
pressed into my chair
i can't seem to move

how far is
ten thousand miles?

Chocolate News

Yesterday the BBC news site featured an article on how dark chocolate may be helpful to those who suffer from chronic fatigue. From the article there were links to multiple articles on the benefits of dark chocolate. The other articles spoke of how chocolate is useful for lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk of blood clots, has "health benefits", may reduce heart disease, and how it is probably just good for you in general.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I have to just say that any woman could have told us these simple truths. Even Heather, at the tender age of eight, can explain the benefits of a chunk. No scientist had to tell her this. She knows it instinctively, the way that a baby knows a mother's arms are a good place to be.

So thanks for confirming what we already knew, dear BBC. The women of the world appreciate the vote of confidence in our keen scientific discernment.

Rest and Restlessness

It was such a good weekend on so many levels. We had time as a family, time as just the two of us, time with others, time to give and care for someone who was hurting. We enjoyed simple foods and rich foods. We puttered around the house and got little things done.

But there is a weird lie that seems to always come when we have calm. When the weekend is restful, I begin to self-doubt and worry that we aren't doing enough. When it's peaceful, I find myself freaking out that we have down time. I enjoy it... but I worry about it.

Where does that come from?

I talk about wanting good rhythms of work and play, effort and rest. I know that there should be time of strenuous output and times of happy celebration. But inside, I feel better about myself when it's busy and even stressful.

We are still in the process of adjusting and settling in this new place. We are learning patterns and ways of existing, surviving and thriving. I know that we want thriving to be our normal state of being. In knowing that, I am aware that rest, quiet times to putter and to dream are good, needed and desirable. In fact, I strongly resist hectic ways of living. I am, at the core, one who needs space for God's voice to break in. I don't like being so busy that He has to wait in line, hoping to get a word in edge-wise.

And I'm not just talking about the traditional "Quiet Time" here. I'm talking about just having a rhythm that allows for some slower times in which his dreams can invade my brain. I want us to keep dreaming his dreams for this place. I don't want to lock into my feeble little ideas.

So it's breathing room I long for. It was such a nice breathing room kind of weekend. Yet I find guilt chasing my quiet breaths and telling me we should be running from one thing to the next.

I resist that. I take big breaths of love and grace and friendship with God.

This Monday morning, with a full week ahead, I stretch out my arms and open my lungs. I breathe.