To my very best friend:
On Saturday we leave for Lebanon.
I don't have words to express how I feel and how excited I am for you
but Dr.Seuss offered some help...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go...

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest...

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV...

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

I love you...and if my love was an ocean I would have to take many MORE than two airplanes to get across. Thank you for letting me a part of this.
onward and upward...
Lebanon here we come!!!
-m

standing in the gap

When Abdallah cut his foot open that night at central market we knew what to do after we heard the older street children tell him that they would kill him if he came back to the streets. We took him home and after a week he went to live with a really beautiful family here in uganda. We stood in the gap for Abdallah it wasn't easy but we knew what we had to do.

When Mama Yusuf was dying of AIDS we knew there was nothing we could do for her but stand in the gap and pray with her during her last few days and bring her beef stew. It was hard to say goodbye when she passed away but we knew it had to happen and we rejoiced at the thought of her not being forgotten anymore.

When we first met Becaham my heart stopped. Those big brown eyes and that smile made me melt. We stood in the gap for him for a small period of time caring for him loving him and then returning him back to his family in the village. It was hard but we had to do it and we were excited when he would visit jinja and we could see he started crawling and was a bit chunkier. I closed that gap and praised God for all he did in Becaham's life.

Until yesterday when that gap was ripped wide open.
We went to visit him in the village where he now lives with two moms (neither of which are his own) and his father. Friends, I wish it were as easy as giving his family a job or food or money - I wish it was only a matter of him just needing to go to the clinic. I wish it wasn't this hard family dynamic and lack of love. Our translator said that "he is good but not so good" and that sums it up completely. I wish there was some sort of closure he was either really bad or he was doing great. This time standing in the gap is hard and confusing and I have no idea what stepping out of this will look like.



Joe kept telling me yesterday that this is what being obedient to God looks like.
So here we are praying and waiting and filled with so much love for this little boy.
Please pray with us for his family we know that only God can place love in hearts and change lives drastically through it.

On earth as it is in heaven...