in their eyes...

I realized this morning after posting my "finding humor in the week where there is SO much to do" blog, that so many of you may not really know what faithbooking is - one of the blessings that God has planned for us to do during our special time with His children at the Village of Hope.

See, you may read "faithbooking" and not really understand the depth of that term...we throw around the word "faith" all the time and scrapbooking was such a craze for so many years, that you might possibly think this is just some kind of "fun" scrapbooking activity, but if you look into the eyes of Beatrice Adufu...the beautiful little girl above, you will start to get an idea of what we are called to do while having the undeserved blessing and honor of loving on her in 8days and leaving her the gift of faithbooking.

God in his sovereignty planned for 2 of my dear friends to be at the Village of Hope over the past 2 months and they took pictures for us so we could develop and take with us over 300 pictures of the children whose eyes we will look into in person in a few days. Pictures are another thing we as americans take for granted, as they are stuffed in boxes and now hidden in our computer memory, and we, i feel, have missed the miracles and the blessings that our photographs contain.

We will have the honor of helping Beatrice and her friends take their pictures and look at them through the eyes of Jesus. To see what's really there...an amazing child of God - a beautiful creation with no flaws, the beauty in a sunset and in the ocean just yards away from their village, the blessings that surround them in their friends and their house parents who love them unconditionally, the miracles they have seen, the God-worth that they have (because we all know self-worth is just that, "self" worth).

Faithbooking is looking around at everything you see, through God's eyes. It's taking pictures - that specific moment of the creator's artistry that gets forever captured, and writing the powerful truth of what that picture represents, the vision that it captured, the memory that God wants them to have that they will now have documented forever, the photograph or drawing that reminds us all of the beautiful things God has created that our eyes are blessed to gaze upon and finally, the TRUTH of who we are to God, our true identity in Jesus Christ. These are the things our photographs tell us, but until we look at them through the eyes of God, we only see the earthly. We are going to share with these beautiful children, the eternal blessings that their photographs represent and how they can take pictures now through the eyes of God.

We most likely won't finish their faith albums, and truthfully, that is not our prayer. Our prayer is to teach them a holy habit of documenting their blessings and their faith along side their photographs that they have now, and that they will take in the future, so they can have a tangible reminder of the praise worthy deeds of the Lord forever.

When we leave, our hearts will be blessed knowing that these children will have their very own faith album that they will continue working on. They have in their rooms an album that they will be able to turn the pages of and read the words beside their photographs over and over again of the truth of who they are and how big the God is who created them for a very specific purpose and who loves them more than they could ever begin to imagine....

that is faithbooking...and i'm fairly sure, after our time with these precious children in ghana, my eyes will never look at faithbooking the same again...

Leaving in 8 days....

It's hard to believe that we are really leaving in 8 days...and being a very bold and honest person, i know i haven't even really wrapped my brain around it. :) I'm a very fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl for those of you who don't know me. I rarely plan and I never EVER think anything bad will happen...i mean, if a tornado was coming straight for my house, i would be the one standing outside watching it, never doubting for a second, knowing with all my heart it would turn and miss my house at the last minute...i'm not sure if that's my faith in God, or just my stupidity, but I'd like to think with all i have seen God do in my life and in the lift of the people he has blessed me to know on this journey, that it's my faith in God. :)

No matter how much faith I have in my Father, for this trip, I still had to put down my "fly by the seat of my pants" pants and put on my "i have to plan" pants. It was a little painful, and not my favorite thing but because Tracy and I are responsible for 8 young girls there was no option for me - I made to do lists, spreadsheets, updates and team emails and actually created somewhat of a master plan (ok, so as much of a master plan as a fly by the seat of your pants kinda girl can have)- I'll let you know how that worked out when we get home. :)

Passports received, Visa's completed, flights scheduled, (driver's license being renewed tomorrow) 11 Shots administered, malerone prescription filled, off with 35% deet packed, mosquito nets, soccar balls, liability release forms, skirts purchased (i didn't own a single skirt so I had to go to goodwill and target to get skirts to wear when we teach...what can i say, i'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal), peanut butter and a few snacks packed, and last and the most exciting thing...250 7x7 albums, pages, protectors and supplies for the precious children at the Village of Hope Orphanage are in trunks, (1/2 of the supplies went over with my dear friend Jeff in May and we will be taking the rest with us in 7 trunks in 8 days)! Creative Memories consultants all over the united states graciously donated enough supplies for 250 children and the house moms at the orphanage to have their very own faith album!!! God is, again and always....so good...WOW!!

There's so much more to do, and if God didn't create me to have no fear, i'm sure i would be nervous or stressed about all the things that "can" happen in africa, but since i don't really know fear, or really know what fear even looks or feels like, i'll just do the only thing i know to do....pray...have an open heart, and be ready for whatever God has planned and ordained for our time in Ghana! (And lets be honest, if it's our time to go, it's our time to go and there aint nothing we can do to change that by worrying!) :)

We'd be honored for you to join in prayer with us...and we know, no matter what, that God WILL do great things and that we only have to say yes. 8 days and counting....CAN'T WAIT!!!

We're so close!!

Where has the summer gone!! It's approaching so quickly and I can't believe we'll be flying to Ghana in less than 4 weeks!!!

It feels like we still have so much to do, but I guess after my last round of shots (which by the way, after the 11 shots I had to get, i'm good to go anywhere in the world, so let me know if you have somewhere you need me to go)...lol...it's just a matter of throwing some clothes in a bag and our supplies in a trunk and catching our flight to ghana...i mean really, God's had this all planned before we were born anyway, so it all comes down to just saying "yes God"...that's comforting to me... all about Him...so NOT about us!

Please pray for us...for peace and for unity and for just being radically obedient to everything and anything God asks and needs from us in the next 4 weeks and especially when we arrive. I do ask that you pray for GOOD HEALTH for the girls and I, as i know their parents will be so concerned about all the "africa" things that can happen...pray for the team we will meet up with in NYC and that we can be a HUGE light for Jesus and bond with these wonderful people in His Spirit and in His truth.

There's so much going through my mind, but most of all I just want to say THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for all of you who have shared with us through your prayers and your financial support and your encouragment...thank you for sharing in this journey with us and for knowing that God is doing great things...we love you and we'll be excited to share more details with you along the way and on our return!

Be blessed! kimberli

52 days and 22 minutes

I can't believe we are 52 days away!! When we started this journey it seemed like a lifetime away and now it's a month and 1/2 away...it has FLOWN!

God continues, of course, to provide all our needs...He continues to challenge our thinking and yes, even satan has tried to attack us (as we knew he would try!) BUT...satan is a big fat loser, and God is God and so we know that every step of the way will be full of miracles and deliverance and challenges and mercies and ultimately life changing events...

As one of the sponsors, I've realized that my expectations for people are VERY high (sometimes too high i'm afraid)...I think i've possibly expected too much at times, from these sweet high school girls...i forget some of these sweet gals haven't ever traveled, and I forget sometimes, they ARE only in high school. :) I know i've been a little hard on them at times and at the end of the day my heart is that we look at this experience as a TEAM...sadly so much of the time in our lives (especially when you are young and invincible) we seem to look at the world and at every experience through the eyes of "me myself and I" and I so want this experience, even before we are in Africa, to be all about servanthood and work ethic and putting others before ourselves. I'll be honest, it's a lesson even I have trouble with so many times, but I do want these girls to be able to put themselves last or at least not first as we work together as a team to accomplish some goals that God has put before us to equip us for serving the beautiful children at the Village of Hope.

I've been OVERLY blessed by some of my friends who have been to the Village of Hope in the past couple of months. God allowed a dear friend in Dallas, Tara Seidman, to go over a month and 1/2 ago and just recently a friend from college, Jeff McMillon went to Ghana for almost a month with a group of his college kids from Oklahoma Christian. So many blessings came from this, but some of the prayers that God answered was that Jeff and his team took a TON of our albums over for us for the kids to do faith albums when we are there...when I say a TON, I mean hundreds of albums, pages, protectors and supplies. Tara and Jeff took lots of pictures for us of the sweet kids and now we have hundreds of pictures already developed to take over with us so the kiddos will already have pictures for their albums. Don't you just love how God ordained these events even before we are born knowing what our needs will be when we are obedient to His calling in our journey...it's so amazing that it's hard to really wrap your brain around...or at least it is for me. Anyway...I want to thank TARA and JEFF and RACHAEL (a professional photographer from Dallas) who graciously took lots of pictures so we would have them before we even went to Ghana...you all are a blessing and we THANK GOD for you!

Please be in prayer for our team as we work on our faith albums to take with us to share with the kids. We still have about $2000+ dollars to raise as a team to have the finances to finish getting the things we need for our projects we will be doing with the kids and even some of our girls are still trying to raise their money to finish paying for their flights and lodging. We KNOW God will provide, but we would love your prayers on our behalf.

If you have facebook, feel free to go to mine and you can see a ton of our kids that we are going to get to love on at the orphanage. It made it all so real and so much more exciting when I got the pictures and actually saw their faces and their eyes and even their hearts. I know God has AMAZING things planned for our time there and we just pray that we will be his heart and his hands in every way.

That's all for now...I'm going to try and be better about writing...so much on my mind, but my heart is to share as much as our journey with all of you as possible. Thank you for your prayers and for encouraging us however you are called.

Counting down the days ~ kimberli

Because that's just who God is...

Ok, so i have to document all this or there's no way you would believe me. so, i am working until all hours of the night last night putting all the donations we have in faith album supplies in my computer, with all the donors and what they donated...it's OVERWHELMING because literally hundreds of albums and supplies have been donated from all over the U.S. and i get at least 2-3 boxes everyday in the mail and from UPS...i think people in clyde are wondering if i'm doing something illegal..lol

anyway, a friend of mine from college is going to ghana with a group of college kids (GOD MOMENT #1) and I talked to him last week and he said they would be willing to help us get our supplies to ghana so we didn't have to pay for shipping and of course, our little group of 7 from Clyde can't take the HUGE amount of albums suppplies that we have for the 170+ kiddos and house moms that are going to make a faith album...so of course this alone was a HUGE GOD THING! I mean of all the groups going to ghana, it just happens to be a group from Edmond, OK who my friend Jeff McMillon from college is leading and they are going in May (3 months before us)...yeah, I know God is on His throne LOVING that He's being so obvious about his hand in all this!

So anyway...I stayed up till REALLY LATE last night getting it all organized and putting it in packing boxes so my sweet husband doesn't divorce me for having albums and boxes covering our gameroom from floor to ceiling for the next 4 months...(lol)...so I got the albums packed up and most of the pages and protectors and I was hoping to take some of the boxes to Ft. Worth this weekend and have Kelly (a friend coming from Edmond for me to take her pictures) take some of them home with her, even though she has a really little car and most likely wouldn't be able to take very many boxes...at least I could get a couple of them out of our house and to Jeff...

Well...my friend Lindsey who God sent to Clyde as a guardian angel and precious new friend came to my house for lunch today....she'd never been to my house and we'd been trying to do lunch for the past 2 weeks...well it JUST SO HAPPENED (GOD MOMENT #2) that she walks in my door, sees all the albums and boxes stacked to the ceiling and I tell her that I have to get them to Edmond, OK...she looks at me and says, "I'm going to Bartlesville today and I think Edmond is a city I go through on my way when I looked on my map, do you want me to take them to Edmond for you?" NOT KIDDING!!! We pulled it up on MSN and sure enough, she is driving RIGHT through where Jeff lives....so we took the 161 albums that were boxed up ready to go and guess what...they fit PERFECTLY in her trunk...every single box!

So...because God is who He is and His plans are perfect and wonderful, Lindsey is on her way right now to see her boyfriend in Bartlesville with 8 boxes of faith albums in her trunk for Jeff.

I LOVE GOD MOMENTS...and I love my sweet GOD! Everyday He shows me another reason to trust him...and He gives me yet another glimpse of how much He loves us an takes care of us...because that's just who God is...