Family picture...

Family picture while on a safari.

my first thoughts upon returning (after 12 hours of sleep:))

So here I sit, back in my chair typing on my computer after having been away for two weeks to Zambia.  I do not have any work scheduled today because I expected to need the time to get my "head back on straight."  I'm glad I don't have plans other than that.  Al has to leave in a few minutes for cross-country trials, I hope that goes well for her.  She hasn't been training for the last two weeks.  God, please be gracious to Al and help her to have a good attitude this morning.  Please also help her to do well despite the lack of training while in Zambia.  Ab has football practice this afternoon with his team who's been practicing for two weeks.  God, please be gracious to Ab by helping him to have a good attitude and do well despite his not practicing with his team for two weeks, and please help him to fit into the team well.  Erin seems to be well on her way to being adjusted to home life again.  It will be interesting to participate in conversation with Erin as we let this Zambia experience percolate in our hearts.  The two most prominent questions in my mind and heart as we've come back are these.

1. Who has God designed us to be/become?  
2. What has God designed us for doing?  

These questions come with a strong undercurrent of belief that I (and most here in the) States spend our lives with our eyes firmly fixed on ourselves and our own circumstances.  If we look to others, we often compare ourselves and circumstances to theirs in this fashion:

1. When someone has more than me, I despise God's grace in giving me what I have because I don't have everything I want.
2. When someone has less than me, I puff out my chest for my skillful living and choosing (not God's grace) has secured my life for me.

Proverbs 30:8b-9 rings true:

"give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."
7 


I believe that God has created us with purpose.  I wonder if i've been missing out on being amazed by God because I spend so much time focused on myself.  Again I wonder... Who has God designed us to be/become? What has God designed us to do?

scott

We are home...

We returned home today at 3:30ish pm.  We are so thankful that all of our flights went well and God showed our team much grace as we spent two weeks at the Village of Hope.

I truly do not know what to write tonight, but wanted to let you know that we continue to be so grateful for the opportunity God gave our family.  We are continuing to process (and probably will take a lot of time these next few weeks) to see what God is teaching us through this trip.  I am so tired tonight.  We spent 36 hours traveling and I did not get much sleep.  This is true for most of our team.

I thought I would take a couple of minutes to post a prayer request from this past Thursday.  I thought I might be able to have access to the internet, but it wasn't meant to be.  The post still rings true for me though.  I know that our team left a piece of each of our hearts at the VOH.  I do not know how the kids feel about us leaving, but it was very difficult for us to leave...

Written on 8/22/2013
We have had limited access to the internet.  Right now I am typing a note that I hope to post later today.  Thankfully God is timeless and whenever you see this prayer request God is faithful to answer.  I would like to ask for prayer as our team prepares to say good bye.  We have been asked to not be emotional as we say our good byes.  The kids here have experienced so much pain in their lives they don't need to experience it once again because of us leaving.  So, our goal is to say good bye in a positive fashion, like how we might say good bye to a friend that we plan to see again soon.  This is a difficult idea for me because of course there is no guarantee we will be able to come back soon... maybe not ever.  But we do want to honor the request and I do understand the request.

We have all developed relationships here that have touched our hearts, with the children, Mama's, Aunties and workers.  It is going to be hard to leave, so if you could pray for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and faces so we can smile and love on the children as we say good bye on Friday we would greatly appreciate it.

Today:  Saying good bye was very difficult for me.  I made many connections with the kids, but especially with the children in House 6.  We had the opportunity to visit with the kids each night after dinner in their homes.  We each picked a house and then continued to visit with the same kids the whole 2 weeks.  So when it came time to say "See you later"... I know I had a couple of tears in my eyes.  I hope the kids know that it wasn't necessarily a sadness, but more of a thankfulness that God allowed us to be together...  If you would continue to pray for the children as they adjust to a more structured schedule this week while they finish up their "holiday" from school, I know they would appreciate it.

Blessings ~ Erin

Ready to be amazed.

Today is the day!  I am excited to travel and see what God will do in and through us.  I'm a little nervous too.  We've never travelled internationally with 4 kids in tow.  I think a good picture to capture my feelings is this:  we're sitting in the first car of a roller coaster train, at the top of the first big rise, and we're facing down waiting for the train to get half way over the peak so that our plunge can begin.

The first words out of our little guy's mouth to his sister this morning were, "I'm excited."  The first words out of our oldest son's mouth were, "We're flying half way across the world today!"  I asked him if that was his "wow" moment, and he said with a smile, "I don't know."

Ready to be amazed,
scott

We're off!

Today we depart for Zambia!

Our neighbors stopped by last night so we could go over some things they are going to take care of for us.  We appreciate them so much.  For the first time I started getting teary eyed.  As we were talking about how great God is, that He has provided for us to take this trip, it is so humbling and we are so thankful, I started getting a little bit emotional.

I wish I could say I wasn't nervous.  I know God provided this trip and I don't need to worry, so I am continually putting my worries at Jesus' feet.  I didn't sleep well last night (wondering if I have our house in order, flying over an ocean, taking kids to a different country, losing my passport, etc.).  I couldn't fall asleep so I read my Bible for awhile.  And this morning I woke up early... thinking about Zambia :)  So, I'm glad we don't leave until this afternoon, we are mostly packed and I may even get a nap in.  We'll see.

Emotions are a weird thing.  The other night at supper our oldest son said he hasn't had his "wow" moment yet. :)  We keep waiting for him to have it and when he does he is supposed to write about it in his journal.  He hasn't been so involved in the packing scene because he keeps going out to play with his friends, so we wonder if that could be why he hasn't had his moment yet.

On the other hand, our youngest son will just occasionally come into the room and tell me how many days until we leave.  He will have a smile on his face sometimes and sometimes it's just very matter of fact.  I do wonder how much he is comprehending.  I pray that God will even work in his little heart.  I think it will be incredible to watch him interact with the children at the Village of Hope.

And my girls are different too.  My oldest daughter is so excited!  She has a countdown app on her ipod, and she's been watching it for a couple weeks now at least :)  Pray for her as she loves the people in Zambia.  I don't know what God will teach her while we are away, but she is sensitive to Him right now and I want her to be able to hear Him with all her heart.

And my youngest daughter is nervous.  She said she's excited too, but mostly she'll say she's nervous.  I'm not sure what she is nervous about but I want her to enjoy her time and not be thinking of things that she doesn't have control of (I guess she takes after her mommy).  She's so fun to be with and the kids will just love her and she will love the kids.

And Scott and I, well, we aren't sure what God will teach us either.  We do pray that our hearts will be softened though.  That we will be available to the people in whatever way God asks us to be.  And that this will be an incredible growing experience.

Well, I best get onto my last minute "to-do" list!  Woo-Hoo, we're off!  :)

Build Your Kingdom Here

Perhaps you've heard a new song on the radio the past couple of months?  It's got a catchy tune and a fun music video.  It's a song by a band that I had not heard of before:  Rend Collective Experiment.  The song has become a family favorite and one that we listen to often.  It's also become a prayer of mine and a theme song for me when I think about our trip to Zambia.

It has some good lyrics and I think a mission minded vision.  I have several thoughts while listening to it and I thought I would share just a few.

We are not going to visit the people in Zambia, at the Village of Hope, on our own but we are going with the power of the Holy Spirit!

I do not want to waste my life.  I don't know that I have been, but I have never put myself in a position of experiencing a short-term mission trip, and God has placed a desire in me to hear from Him in this way.  I want to live for Jesus, to love people here in America and around the world.

I have been praying that God will not only continue to build His kingdom in Zambia when we are there - but starting first in our family.  I've been asking God to change our atmosphere daily, and that our home will be a place that anyone can walk into and see we love Jesus.  Then, our family can be a part of Jesus' love spreading to our neighborhood, community, and all the way to Zambia.

We pray.  The song is filled with prayer requests that I believe God loves to hear from us.

Build your kingdom here, in our family, in our team traveling to Zambia, in our family and friends who are supporting us, with those we meet in Zambia.

This past year has been an incredible experience.  God has blessed us through so many people.  He has built a team traveling together who gets along well.  He has encouraged us through so many people.  We have been touched by the financial support people have given, prayers that we have heard and that only God has heard, support and love through notes and words that people have spoken to us.  We are so excited for the next two weeks!  :)

Blessings ~ Erin

I've attached a link to the music video for the song.
Build Your Kingdom Here - Rend Collective Experiment

4 Days!

We are 4 days away from departure and we have a lot to do.  We started packing our personal items today.  Even though our goal is to sleep on the plane I have no idea how difficult it will be for us, so we are bringing cards, music, books and coloring books.  You can pray that our flight goes smoothly and we are able to get enough rest on the plane since we will be flying through the night.  We are shopping today for cosmetic items and we are praying for good deals.  This week is flying by.  Mom just told us that we don't have time to fool around, bummer!

~ Lanz (number 1)

God continues to care for us...

Last night our team held a "packing party".  Our goal is to be able to fit all of our personal belongings in our carry-on luggage.  That will leave our bag that we can check for items we want to take to Zambia to leave there. 

Our church family is amazing.  We have one teen girl who God laid it on her heart to hold a shoe drive for the Village of Hope and people in Zambia.  She asked people to donate shoes that were new or lightly worn.  Wow, did our church deliver! 

When we showed up last night for our packing party it was a little bit overwhelming.  We had 13 suitcases that we could fill and not be charged for.  They have to weigh 50 lbs. or less and be a certain dimention.  We can take extra but we have to pay a significant price for it (we think possibly $150)  As we looked at all of the stuff we were planning on taking I think we all felt overwhelmed.  We had a lot of shoes.  I don't know how many pairs, but probably 100 or so.  The Village of Hope also sent a list of items that they need and is hard to get there or very expensive.  Things like:  kids underwear, ink cartridges, notebooks, folders, deodorant, games, etc.  We have a team member that attends Appleton North High school.  He found out that their soccer team was getting new soccer uniforms and was willing to donate their old ones to us to take to Zambia.  We also got their old soccer balls and it is so cool!  We think the kids will love to be able to dress for a soccer game (blue against white).  Well, once again God cares.  We did fit everything in our suitcases.  We did decide to take 3 extra bags because God provided the stuff to take and it would be expensive to mail it.  So we have 16 bags that God gave to us, most of them just under 50 lbs!

Will you pray with us for our luggage?  We have a few prayer requests.  First, we used a scale we believe to be accurate.  But several of the bags are very close to 50 lbs.  If the airport scale is over, then we may need to move some stuff around or decide to leave something behind (stressful!)  Second, will you please pray that when we check the bags in, the person helping us, may allow us to take the 3 extra bags for a lower cost since it's a donation for the Village of Hope?  I don't actually know if they ever consider this, but nothing is impossible with God. :)  And third, will you please pray that all of our luggage will arrive with us, in the airport, at Lusaka?  Of course traveling such a long distance and getting on three different planes, our luggage is not guaranteed to arrive.

Woo Hoo!!  We are so excited to be able to have this experience.  We are so thankful for everyone's support.  I don't want to waste a minute of the next few weeks and am asking God to cause us to know what His plan is for our family.