To Say Good-bye

It was a year ago yesterday that I saw my sister-in-law for the last time. I mean, it was supposed to be a while until I saw her again, but we said good-bye under much different circumstances than our family is under right now. And it wasn't a last good-bye, like one of us was dying, but that's basically what it has turned out to be. So I wonder, maybe I could have said something different, something lasting, something that would have stayed with her to have changed the course of this last year. But instead, it was just a regular good-bye - drive safe, see you when I see you.

Good-bye to a relationship I was so hoping would deepen over the years, especially growing up with brothers. Good-bye to nieces and nephews that might have been. Good-bye to laughter and tears shared as the years flew by. Good-bye.

Time for a Few Changes

Surprise! Yes, you are at the right blog! As you can see, I've been making some changes on my blog. I figured that it was time - it's been almost a year (April 2) since I left home and headed out into the great unknown. What a year it's been! It feels like yesterday and years ago all at the same time. Thanks goes out to you who have been following throughout the year and to those of you who just started - I really do appreciate it! Looking back in time always makes me look forward. . .I can't even begin to imagine what this next year has in store for me!

EU - Human Trafficking & Child Pornography

Check out the following article regarding the European Union's stance on human trafficking and child pornography: www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/eu-wants-tougher-sexual-exploitation-penalties-for-human-trafficking-and-child-pornography-89387602.html

Joy Smith

Did you know that Joy Smith, a Member of Parliament from Manitoba, is leading the fight to set a minimum sentence in courts so that judges have a proper reference to set a punishment for those who engage in trafficking within Canada? Currently, the minimum sentence for trafficking a minor (www.joysmith.ca/index.asp?ID=76&cat_ID=1):

USA - 10 years
India - 7 years
Thailand - 5 years
Canada - 0 years

If this outrages you, then it's time to act. Listen Up TV has a form letter you can use to contact your government officials (www.listenuptv.com/listenup/Humantrafficking). I have sent out many letters and have been pleasantly surprised to receive many responses back. We need our governments, both federally and provincially, to understand what kind of Canada we want for ourselves and our children. Please take a few minutes, because that's really all it takes, to voice your opposition to human trafficking for the victims who are unable to do it for themselves.

Scrapbooking

So if it's not been made known yet, I do have a little crazy in me! I have spent the week going through all my millions of pictures from last year (electronically) to decide which ones I want to use to scrapbook (physically). It's been quite the task and I think I narrowed it down to about 600 pictures (seriously, that's being selective!). But, as in the past, for those who have seen my previous trips, it will be well worth it - once it's done, anyway!

A Sure Cure for Complaining

From my devotional, Our Journey:

True story: A church group from New Bern, North Carolina, had traveled to the Caribbean on a mission trip. During this particular ministry trip, their host took them to visit a leper colony on the island of Tobago. And while there, they held a worship service in the campus chapel. As you can imagine, the sight of emaciated lepers filing into their seats on the bare pews bore deeply into the minds and memories of each visitor to this unaccustomed scene.

But no memory left its mark like this one: When the pastor announced, "We have time for one more hymn. Does anyone have a favorite?" he noticed a lone patient seated awkwardly on the back row, facing away from the front. At this final call for hymn requests, with great effort, the woman slowly turned her body in the pastor's direction.

"Body" would perhaps be a generous description of what remained of hers. No nose. No lips. Just bare teeth, askew within a chalky skull. She raised her bony nub of an arm (no hand) to see if she might be called on to appeal for her favorite song to be sung. Her teeth moved to the croaky rhythm of her voice as she said, "Could we sing 'Count Your Many Blessing'?"

The pastor stumbled out of the pulpit, out of the door, and into the adjoining yard, tears of holy conviction raining down his face. One of the traveling party rushed to fill his place, beginning to sing the familiar song in this unfamiliar place, arguably the most "unblessed" of any spot in the universe.

A friend hustled outside, put his arm around the sobbing pastor, and consolingly said, "I'll bet you'll never be able to sing that song again, will you?"

"Yeah, I'll sing it," the pastor answered, "but never the same way, ever again."

Leave it to a grotesquely deformed leper to remind us that grateful people are characterized by grateful words, while ungrateful people are given to griping, complaining, murmuring, whining.

Some grumble at why God put thorns on roses, while others wisely notice - with awe and gratitude - that God has put roses among thorns. Hear what people are saying when they talk about the everyday events of their lives, and you'll see in an instant the difference between gratitude and ingratitude. -Nancy Leigh Demoss

Your Prayers

I ask for your continue prayers for my uncle Levi. There was thought that he may go in for surgery again, which did not happen. The doctors finally discovered that he has pneumonia in his lungs and though that's not great, it is good to finally have an answer. He is pretty restless and would like to get the tube out of mouth, but that will still be a few days. The prognosis sounds positive, though it will be slow going.

The Blind Side

I didn't see it in theaters and I ignored the Oscar buzz, but "The Blind Side" is definitely a great rental - especially if you need a feel-good movie. Looking beyond appearances, loving beyond blood, learning beyond the classroom. Two thumbs up and five stars from me!

Love & Hope

Tonight marks the 1/2 way point of the evening photography/injustice class that I'm teaching and I'm really enjoying it (I hope the students would agree with that). We went through their pictures on friendship and did the photography lesson. This week's topic is Love & Hope, which tied in well with tonight's documentary "War Dance". Next week is Spring Break, so we're technically not meeting for class, but we will be meeting to work on our class project - putting together an information brochure for our local food bank.

Uncle Levi

It's been a busy week or so for my Mom's family. A number of weeks ago, her brother Levi was in the hospital with an infection on his elbow (he's a quadriplegic). Then her brother Tim had a heart attack, which I blogged about. Well, Levi was readmitted to the hospital because the infection was still causing him problems. After further tests, it was found to have spread into his bone. Last Tuesday he was moved to the ICU and our family has been keeping vigil as he was having problems breathing and has been put on a respirator and feeding tube. On Saturday he also had emergency surgery, so it really has been quite the week.

I've only ever known uncle Levi as being in a wheelchair - he was in a semi-truck accident and became paralyzed when I was 7 months old. It's so interesting though, that what is normal and regular for a child may not be society's 'normal and regular'. In university, I was taking a professional development course about disabilities and we were asked to write down all the people in our life with various disabilities. So I marked down some down syndrome kids that went to school with me, but that was about it. When people in wheelchairs were being discussed, I thought to myself "I have never considered Levi disabled because he's in a wheelchair. (Trust me, he expresses his opinions quite well!)" Uncle Levi would not be uncle Levi if he was not in a wheelchair, causing trouble where ever he goes, cussing and getting more tattoos, and letting us all know his thoughts on every subject - that's just who he is and why I love him. Don't all families have a crazy tattooed uncle who rides around in a wheelchair?!?

Stories of Hope

Continuing on in the same vein as yesterday. . .I've been given so many great opportunities to share over the last few months, with more in the months to come. Every session is a little different, but I usually come back to 2 of my favorite stories, which involve 2 of my favorite people.

The first is my friend Bleu, down in Costa Rica (search "Bleu" on my blog to find out more about her) and her story continues to inspire me to keep going because she is proof that ONE person can truly make a difference in this world. The second is my friend Ngoie from South Africa (you can again search "Ngoie" to find out more). I have the quote from Bono on the side of my blog: "where you live should no longer determine whether you live". When I think about Ngoie and the fact that her mom died of breast cancer because of where they were living at the time, my heart breaks over and over again. IF that had been the only tragedy in Ngoie's life, ok maybe. But she had experienced so much hardship as a refugee and to lose her mom when she was only 11, well, it's simply unfair. And yet she continues on - she tries to make her life and the life of her community better every day.

So I continue to share these stories of my friends because they are stories of hope. I stumbled upon a definition of hope the other day: a confident expectation of something better. I share their stories because I believe that we can be agents of change, confidently expecting something better in our world and of our world.

Stories of Humanity

I am not a history person, but I fully believe that if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. I know of historical events such as the Holocaust and South Africa's apartheid and am trying my best to learn more about them, but I don't pretend to begin to understand their complexities.

I see similarities as I've watched "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (based on the Holocaust) and "Colour of Freedom" (based on memoirs of Nelson Mandela's prison guard) this week - I see stories of humanity. How easy it is to convince ourselves how different we are: black & white, men & women, Jew & non-Jew. To draw dividing lines and talk about 'us' versus 'them'. And for many historical events, we've even said that this separation is "of God", which couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus came to tear down the fences, to teach us how to love friend & enemy alike, and to show us just how similar we all are - people so in need of a Savior.

House of Hesed

While I was driving around doing errands yesterday, I caught the announcer on the radio saying something about a HIV/AIDS home in Winnipeg and so I went online to check it out. Please check out www.houseofhesed.ca to see how you can get involved (you can even join their $5 a month club). We are commanded to take care of the least of these, and I know that the type of ministry being offered at the House of Hesed would be a top priority in Jesus' books, especially if these are people who society shuns and refuses to comfort in their time of need.

Skype

Can I just say, let's hear it for Skype!!!! I have no idea how people survived, living long distances apart and trying to maintain contact without email and now Skype. Had a quick chat tonight with one of my South African friends and you can't really complain about audio and/or video cutting in and out because, seriously, you're able to see and hear one another 1/2 way around the globe! Thank you Skype!

Women Of Worth - Part 2

I was able to share again with the Women Of Worth group (1/2 of them stayed for my session last week, while 1/2 were in another group and today we reversed it). After I finished, we had a time of prayer at our tables, and it was again confirmed and affirmed that speaking is what I should be doing, at least for the time being. These women so encouraged me. . .strange, I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing for them.

And We Have a Boy!

Not only did my photography/injustice class grow by 1 tonight, but our added member is a boy (to keep all of us girls in check!). Last week's photography topic was "My Life" and these students brought in some of the most amazing pictures I've ever seen! Too bad that I can't take credit! I can't wait to see the pictures next week, based on the topic of "Friendship",which tied in really well with tonight's movie - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Silberfeld

Despite moving over to daylight savings time (now I'm only 7 hours off from South Africa, not 8!), Silberfeld church was full as I was given time to speak yesterday. In my life, this church was always known as 'Grandma's church' and I felt privileged to be able to share with them (yep, my uncle is one of the pastors!). I knew it would be hard, and there were tears, but I wanted to publicly thank this church for being the tangible hands and feet of Christ, serving the many widows in the church, which includes my Grandma. They almost bought me out of Threads of Hope, buying almost 300 of the 400 I had with me.

Happy Pi Day!

My favorite holiday of the year. . .pi day! Where all of us who are mathematically inclined can raise a glass to one of our favorite mathematicians, Albert Einstein, who was born on this day. March 14 - the 3rd month and 14th day - 3.14 - pi (for those of you who are still not sure of what's going on). Einstein's most prized possession travelled worldwide (at one point in Tupperware), even after his death in 1955 - any guess to what this was? Why it was his brain, of course!

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our CIRCLE of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." ~Albert Einstein

Beat That!

I may be hard pressed to convince people to come to Manitoba (mosquitoes and snow storms anyone?), but there is one thing that we have on the prairies that I have not found anywhere else on my travels. Some may tease us about just how flat the land is, but no matter how hard you try, no one can badmouth our sunsets and sunrises. And since we are flat, we enjoy every last speck of light. . .right down to the horizon. Beat that!

Paralympic Games

I can honestly say that I've never followed the Paralympic Games before. The Olympic Games stirred something within Canadians, being on home soil, and so I'm guessing that the Paralympic Games will give us reason to continue the celebration as a country. If I thought trying to explain curling to my South African friends was hard, where do I start with a sport called sledge hockey?!?

You Choose

No matter the group of people that I speak to, the amount of time I'm given, or the topic that I focus on, I usually talk about what people can and should do. It's easy to be overwhelmed by injustice and its staggering numbers - each with a face and a name.

#1 - Educate yourself - whatever you are passionate about, study and research it so you have the facts.

#2 - Educate others - armed with credible information, start talking and spreading the word.

#3 - Do something - you can't just sit on the information, rather it's time to take action and be an agent of change.

"Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way. . .

. . .but you can never say again that you did not know."

William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833)

Women Of Worth

A friend of mine made arrangements for me to speak at her women's group in Winnipeg today and again next week Wednesday. January and February were on the slow side for opportunities, but I've made a number of contacts in the last week specifically - it seems like when it rains, it pours. I've got churches, a seniors' supper and a pastoral meeting all marked onto my calendar for the next 2 months, plus my evening photography/injustice class!

Photography: Focusing on Injustice

At 6 p.m. this evening, I was starting to get nervous - really nervous. By 6:10, things were much, much better! I organized a photography/injustice class to start tonight for local high school students. It started at 6 and I was thinking that it was just not going to happen for me, when all of a sudden 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 5 students appeared! It's a group of girls and I'm so excited about it - I already learned so much from them (hopefully they also learned a little something from me!). The first half of our classes is going to focus on injustice (we watched "Born into Brothels" tonight) and then the second half will focus on photography.

International Women's Day

Today marks the 99th anniversary of International Women's Day. Be sure to celebrate the great women in your life and think about how your life would be different without your mother, your daughter, your sister, or your friend in it. How our world would lack female characteristics such as compassion and community without this half of the population. Think about the many accomplishments women have made to make our world a better place and the many accomplishments that are yet to come when all women are seen as equal within every country and across all cultures.

Less Than 100 Days

This past week marked 100 days until the 2010 FIFA World Cup starts in South Africa. There are questions as to whether everything will be ready, but ready or not, the matches start on June 11. Here's hoping that the unity that swept across Canada during the Olympics will also sweep across South Africa with the World Cup. Normally, the World Cup would not even cross my radar, but after traveling there a special part of my heart is dedicated to South Africa (I also have a part for Austria, Turkey, Panama and Costa Rica!).

Gender-cide

Please check out the "Gender-cide" article from today's Winnipeg Free Press. You can find it online at http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/gender-cide-86706177.html

Above Zero

The best part about today was the fact that the temperature rose above zero (it's been a while since that has happened, for all of you suffering through +40 degree temperatures). Though we want to enjoy it, it's hard because we know that winter is not done yet - it's too early to be done, compared to normal. A slow melt would be the best option, given the fact that we live on a flood plain, which is the reason we have such great agricultural soil, but it also gives us cause for concern should the Red River overflow its banks and flood our area. Years of major flooding involve the movement of some people to higher ground and the shutting down of a major highway that leads into the city - a month or so of holding our breath, hoping that the damage to homes and roads is not too great.

Change of Address

I went into get my driver's license renewed (NOTHING like the wait in South Africa to get our visas extended, aka "the DMV from hell with the devil running it") and I was asked whether I had to change my address. That may be a normal, regular question for most people, but over the last few years, I was a regular customer at Prairie Insurance, CONSTANTLY changing my address. Jeff (the one who has regularly changed my address on my license, car insurance, storage insurance, etc) commented that they even had a pool going! Let's see how long it will be until I have my next change of address!

Never Stop

What a great day! I was given the opportunity to share about my photography, travels and injustice back at my old high school. I talked to 3 art classes and the Amnesty group. The students were all really attentive and jumped at the chance to start making a difference right away by buying Threads of Hope bracelets - about 70 of them. A grade 10 student came up to me at the end and told me that she really appreciated my talk and that I should not ever stop doing what I'm doing. Well, if I didn't have reason enough to continue before, that certainly seals the deal!

The End of the World

"What the caterpillar thinks is the end of the world. . .

. . .the butterfly knows is only the beginning." ~Anonymous

Withdrawal

It's too quiet. . .the constant hum of the TV has ceased with the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games last night. Back to the real world where we don't sit on the edge of our seats anymore (at least not until the summer Olympics take place in 2 years in London!). No more playing of "O Canada" (the 14 gold medal versions or the spontaneous ones from the streets of Vancouver). If we want to hear "I Believe" sung, it will have to be from our iPods. Back to the way it was just over 2 weeks ago, but with a little more Canadian pride in our hearts ("but not too much, after all, we are Canadian" - that was by FAR my favorite TV commercial - thanks Superstore!). I wonder how long we'll experience this withdrawal - days, weeks, months??? It's just too quiet around here. . .