Fostering a new perspective

Ever thought of all the children in your community that need foster families? In our neck of the woods we have no available foster homes for children in need. This means a child in our community may have to travel several hours north, west, or where ever there is a county in Missouri that does have an opening. Can you imagine being that child. Not only are they abruptly pulled from their house but then you are moved away from your friends, school, family, and everything you know and are placed into a completely foreign place.

Foster children really have a bad wrap. They're the one's who suffer most from the poor decisions and lack of responsibility of their parents. Let's face it, there is not a huge back log of paperwork at the children's division because they have an abundance of families applying to be foster parents. I know this is something that most of us feel is way out of our comfort zone. We are struggling just to keep our own families on track. There are MANY reasons or excuses we can come up with to not even entertain the idea of what it must be like for these children and for sure we don't even want to consider putting our selves/our family out there to provide a home for these kids. It's scary, way scary right? Guess what? Fear is not from God. There is one good reason to open ourselves and our families to helping others in need, God commands us to. And when we serve Him in this way, we meet HIM. He is right by our side and the Holy Spirit fills us up. We become more like Him when we serve the least of these. Read this first hand account from a mom/family who meets with Jesus daily through providing their home, their family to other children without.

What do you think?

nourishment for my soul

KATIE speaks with His heart. A must read for His followers. Jesus, praying for you to have Your way in our hearts and lives. More of You Jesus, less of me. "I want to see Jesus!" I want my family to see Jesus! click on KATIE to read her words

Home, with His vision

I share these photos of my recent trip to Ethiopia with hesitation. I do not wish to exploit these children or their poverty. I am choosing to share photographs of the faces and lives here to bring about His glory. I have looked into their eyes and have seen the very heartbeat of Jesus. If you choose to view these photos I have below I ask that you do so with eyes from the Lord. May He clearly reveal His vision to us all. . . .

This is a typical house for the people in this village. 8-12 family members may call this home. It also serves as a barn for a cow or donkey if you are so blessed. Yes, all together under the same roof.
Another beautiful family member whom lives in the above home. The ball he is holding has a map of the world on it. I used these to teach the older children continents and it gave a visual picture of where I was from in relation to where they live.
For some reason this photo made it here again, guess this little guy has a story to tell.
The three yr old I am holding was just precious. When I would put her down she would stick like glue to me holding on to my pants following me where ever I went. So I picked her up and we were attached this day. She imprinted on my heart like so many other sweet people I met on this journey. When I left this place to see where the other distribution points would be her mom told me she cried because she did not want to me go. She found me at the church and I gave her a photograph of me and my family so she could "keep" me and wouldn't be sad when I had to leave. If only it was that easy. . . but He did not call us to easy.
More friends with the joy of the Lord. Yes, it still amazes me to see true joy among such great need.
These children were getting water from this shallow hand dug well. It sometimes has clean water and sometimes not.
A round kindred spirit the difference between our roundness is mine is caused from excess and hers from malnutrition. I wish I had a picture of her smile and excitement when I showed her her photo on my digital camera. I guess that blessing was for me alone. Thank you Jesus.
This is another photo of my 3 yr old BFF and her BFF. Simply Beautiful!
Saw so very many scene just like the one above. Most were 3 or 4 times larger. Hundreds of plastic jugs waiting to be filled with clean water. Hundreds of children and women waiting to fill them and then make the walk, the journey back home with the heavy load.
This is our rig, at our deep bore hole. The people of this village gather here to watch the progress on this project. So much excitement! So many thankful, truly thankful hearts for the gift of clean water.

I promise to share more about this journey but for now I must close.

Cannot decide what to get your VALENTINE this year?? I have the perfect gift solution, why not donate to our Dig Deep project and give my friends the gift of clean water. We have only raised 25% of funds needed to complete phase 1 of our project. Yes, He has placed a second phase of this project in our hearts, but the most critical need is for clean water, phase 1. We can't do it without you. . . the true gift of LOVE. . . clean water. . . LIVING WATER!

Hi friends and family, I am back, safe and have so much to report. Trip was nothing short of amazing with His fingerprints all over it. The deep bore hole is dug and is providing more than 2xs the amount of water we needed per our population study. Miracle! A later phase of this project will allow for more people to be blessed with clean water. Still processing it all will post this weekend and share all He revealed. Saw need like never before so humbled to be part of His plan to meet these needs. Thank you so very much for your prayers for myself, my family and for this journey. I truly felt covered in praayer and backed in the strength of the Lord. So thankful.

We hit water.. I received these pictures from Michelle. I am sure she will have a huge post with all the details when she returns. Thanks to all that helped, this is just the start.

Jamie