busy

I know we all really hate it when people complain they are busy, but last week felt like one of the busiest weeks of my life (though I keep thinking, during transplant, I'm sure I thought that EVERY week, so the cumulative stress is certainly not what it once was). :)

Suffice to say, the school year did finally draw to an end on Friday. I was pleased that during my meeting-crazed week, I did have a few moments to accomplish two "good deeds" before the end of school:
1. I introduced one of my students, an undocument migrant from Guatemala, to the public library. To see him marvel at books--all free!--was a joy. "Estas segura?" he kept asking ("are you sure"). Since this student needs to repay his coyote for his trip to the U.S., and so cannot continue in school despite a shining future in education, I was happy to at least set him on a road to further independent learning.
2. I attended World Refugee Day at the Boston State House on Friday, watching two of my students--a Somali Bantu from my first days of teaching ESL, and a more recent Iraqi refugee--speak. I was so proud. And especially happy that I had managed to get one of these students to the front page of our newspaper that morning...a tribute to him, and to all the refugees celebrating World Refugee Day on Friday.

Also, I finished two GREAT books this past week while waiting for meetings to start and while lying awake too late into the night.
1. Enrique's Journey. The true story of an undocument Central American migrant searching for his mother in the United States. So conflicted, and of particular interest to me as a couple of my own students are undocument and traveled in the same dangerous ways that Enrique did.
2. They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky. The true story of 3 "Lost Boys" from Sudan. Not as compelling as What is the What, but also truer. A painful and hopeful read all at once. Since I have many students from Sudan, I'm always interesting in reading about the refugee experience there.

Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary! We're going away to New Hampshire to celebrate this weekend...we are very excited!

This week holds VBS for the boys, a few curriculum meetings for me, an opportunity to speak at Camp Cherith for a few hours on Thursday night and Friday morning on writing mission statements...and LOTS of time playing with our puppy Kobe, who is pretty much the smartest and cutest dog EVER.

school dayz

This past week brought the end of school for Orilus and Jackson--they had a half day at their Christian school on Wednesday. We went out to Fuddrucker's that night to celebrate, and gave them the traditional "moving up" cards and five dollars each. Thursday and Friday the boys spent at some friend's houses (which they are loving!) while Jason and I worked. J and I are done on June 20th (this coming Friday).

So the end of another school year is wrapping up. There is much, much for which to be thankful. Mostly, I am feeling awed to realize that this is the FIRST school year since the boys arrived nearly four years ago that I have started AND finished. No leave of absence to travel to Haiti. No leave to school my children at home and help them adjust. No medical leaves for things like bone marrow transplants. :) Just a regular, run-of-the-mill year. And given all we've been through in the last four years, regular is a gift, and I am thankful.

The summer will hold some changes for us (we hope). We hope to move sometime (July? We are still waiting to hear on the seller's bank to get back to us about our offer). I start my doctoral program. We hope to re-organize Ripple Effect. But the summer will also hold the usual lazy-quality that I have come to love so much since the boys came home to us--mornings spent doing some schoolwork (to continue to fill in some gaps that remain in their educational backgrounds), afternoons at Lynn beach, some day trips, a family camping weekend in Vermont with my Mom and sisters and some cousins, an anniversary weekend getaway, and time to see family and friends. After last summer's blitz (South Africa, two trips to Kansas, our Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World) I am looking forward to a slower pace as we find ourselves this summer in a season of "wait." Waiting, mostly, to buy a house. Waiting on change.

And, I might add, waiting on the world TO change. It has been a bloody week here again in Lynn; even Governor Patrick is promising more funding to help curb the violence here. Tonight in the car on the way home from a family cookout, our boys heard a song about God's Kingdom coming and we told them that where God's presence comes through people of His love, there is peace. And that peace is not just "calm," but also "healing." How exactly God might have as work for peace is not entirely clear for us, but if there is a war going on in my city (and there seems to be), I want to be on the side for peace, and wholeness. Ironically, as the city erupts in gang fighting and shootings, our city's schools are in a budget crisis. Schools are closing. Many teachers are losing their jobs. In my "Freshmen Academy," 14 of our 24 teachers will not be with us next year (they have been "bumped" into other positions, or their positions were eliminated). This is not the kind of peace and stability Lynn kids need. And so, to be in the midst of a city that is angry, and in the midst of a school system that is hurting, is a very interesting--and purposeful--place to be. We struggle to remember that God, too, is--and can be--present here. Pray for us as we wait and work.

poems by Jackson Winchell

Last month, Jackson took first place in his class' poetry contest. Here are 2 of his submissions (they came home today among the piles of last-day-of-school papers and notebooks). Happy last day of 3rd and 4th grade, boys!

WHAT IF POEM
Last night, while I lay thinking here
some what ifs came inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same what if song.

What if I blow up and you need to let some air out of me?
What if I turn funky funky boom man?
What if I forgot my girlfriend's house?
What if I forget my lunchbox?
What if I eat too much brownies?
What if I have babies?
What if I turn a hundred years old?
What if I suddenly got shorter?
What if I can't find my other shoe?
What if I turn into a monster?
What if I can't stop farting?
What if I turn very blue?

Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime what ifs strike again!


I AM...
I am smart and tall
I wonder how God created the earth
I hear dogs bark when I go to sleep
I see imaginary people when I go to bed
I want to get a motorcycle when I grow up
I am smart and tall
I pretend that I can do an arial
I feel very very itchy from laying on the rocks
I touched my imaginary horse he goes very fast
I worry that nobody is left on the earth
I cry when my brother hits me
I am smart and tall
I understand people don't have power only God
I say angels can dress like real people
I dream that God touched my head
I hope people can change the world
I am smart and tall

ripple effect

Got this really cool email from my friend Chrissy in South Africa last week...an example of how one little thing we do (I sent an earlier email to her that prompted this one) can bring about remarkable change. The stress at hand in this email was that she and her husband are moving out of rural South Africa and into a city, leaving behind an unfinished school development project and a nearby school for which they had already raised funds. It's just so cool the way God is bringing justice in places around the world...and how we can all be a part.

Melissa,

GUESS WHAT!!! So I read your email about a half hour before the meeting. I was actually about as bummed out about it as I've gotten. I actually woke up two nights before the meeting and was wide awake for an hour, feeling like I had to just beg God to help, like old testament people who would put on sack cloth and said stuff like "God, we're so totally miserably helpless in this situation without you." Then the next morning I spoke to the person who had sort of offered to coordinate the project after we left, a Brittish couple who live right down the driveway of the school. I was standing right next to the principal as we talked on the phone, and she went into a long spiel about how she was so busy she just couldn't take on another project, and tell her about it later but she couldn't really help with anything. I was so angry I almost cried when I turned and told the principal that we would have to hold the meeting without her.

SO then I went on feeling helpless and hopeless until 30 minutes before the meeting, when I read your email and once again felt this wave of needing to just pray and ask God for help more and more. So I sat down and closed my eyes. And the first thing that came to my head was I needed to call this guy named Kevin. And the next thought that came in my head was "that's the most ridiculous thought ever. He's so busy, he already knows about what you're doing and if he wanted to he would have volunteered already, and he probably won't answer the phone anyway." But the nagging feeling like I had to call him persisted, so I went and called. No answer. Fine, nevermind, I thought. Kevin, I should explain, is the owner of a huge construction company and gives away thousands of dollars toward a orphanage/development project that his family runs. In the last few months their project, ekuJesu, or "the place of Jesus," opened three new preschools in a nearby town, got training for all eleven staff of the preschools, got funding for daily meals for all the kids at the schools, oversaw the building of a church, as well as its day to day running of a small orphan home and it's own primary school that buses in kids from rural areas. They have their own builders, social workers, pastors, and more. Plus Kevin works full time for a construction company building roads. So anyway, I figured they'd be a little busy.

Twenty minutes before the meeting, Kevin called me back from his car. I explained the situation, not really asking for anything, just saying maybe he had some advice on what to do with the $3000 we had raised. And he said flat out he would be happy to manage it. Then he asked if we needed more teachers (yes, another one left this week), and if the teachers were trained (no, a brand new preschool teacher who used to be a housekeeper just became the fourth grade teacher), and if they needed food (that they actually have) and could he and a social worker come and assess the whole school's needs and put together a plan by the end of this week. YES!!

So then basically I went to the school board meeting, flying way higher than my motorcycle was carrying me, and just gushed out how God had set all this up for us. Then we all just sat around being thankful for half an hour. They thanked me, I told them to thank God (and really meant it from the bottom of my heart!), they thanked God, we told the story again of how I had ended up there and how the money came in and how Kevin showed up, and we all thanked each other some more too. When I piece back together the timing of everything, that I called at just a moment when Kevin was ready to take on a project (I had suggested it months ago and he kind of shrugged off the idea), that my Brittish friend turned down a job she was not meant to do (only just today a friend stopped me on the street and went into a long talk about how he had read a story of Jesus turning down work he wasn't supposed to do!)

So that's the story. WHOOPEE!! It was the biggest burst of God-action I've had in a while, and how fun.

Love you, and THANKS THANKS THANKS for your prayers.

Chrissy

she who laughs

This morning I woke up wide awake at 5:00 am, nearly laughing. And I thought immediately of Sarah, Abraham's wife, who laughed when she was told that God was going to do a miracle. Her laughter--and her husband's--was so prominent that when God gave them the son He had promised, they named him "he who laughs."

I'm laughing this morning because every now and then, God completely surprises. Yesterday afternoon in a flurry of email and phone calls, we received word that the 2-family on Henry Avenue is moving in the right direction! We're going today to sign a Purchase and Sale on our offer. The seller loves our offer, but because it's a short sale, the seller's bank needs to approve it still. But the bank has had another appraisal done, something for which our broker told us many buyers wait months and months in this market to happen. And we waited just one week!

Thanks for your prayers. I love it when God surprises us with a "yes." Mostly, I love praying directly, because then the answer...be it "no," or "maybe," or "wait" is always so clear. Prayer is such a gift to my awareness of God's activity in this life. And yesterday evening after these phone calls and a retirement party at which so many Spirit-moments touched me, it was so evident that He is involved here in our life, and in our city.

And we continue to pray daily for Eddie...

"Is anything too hard for the LORD?"

This morning in our house church we continued our reading of the book of Genesis. Today we read and talked about chapter 18, in which the Lord appears with 2 angels to tell Abraham (and an eavesdropping Sarah) that within the year, they will have a son. Sarah laughs, to herself. And the Lord overhears and asks, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?"

I was inspired by our reading this morning to dedicate this week to faith-prayer, the kind of prayer that trusts that NOTHING is impossible for God. Would you join with me this week in praying for two seemingly-impossible requests?

Nothing-too-hard request one. Pray for our transplant friend, Eddie. He had to go to the hospital unexpectedly on Friday, and continues to suffer from being unable to come off of his immuno-suppressants. When the doctors lower his dose, he gets very sick, and his body flares up with transplant rejection disease. This specifically affects his skin and his ability to eat and gain weight. Would you pray with us for Eddie this week, that his recent days of pain would end, AND for the miracle of healing he so desperately needs?

Nothing-too-hard request two. We made an offer on a house last Monday. Yes, we already have an offer on another house, but I think that this more recent offer is the one we actually are praying will work. The house is closer to the heart of the city of Lynn, at the feet of a difficult neighborhood, which is part of our heart...to live intentionally in such a place as learners and peace-makers. It's a two-family with a ton of potential--both for our family and for our dreams to do community work. Because it's a short sale, it could take MONTHS for the bank to even let us know if our offer is acceptable or not...would you pray with us that we would hear something THIS WEEK on our offer?

Thanks for all your prayers...we are so amazed at all God has done for our family, and there is a growing sense among so many of us here in Lynn that despite a bloody many weeks here in our city, shalom is at work. A subtle, but poweful, force for love and change. We pray for this healing to continue for all who need it.

In family news: tonight we are welcoming a boarder to our home for the summer, a student at UMass Lowell who is interning at GE in Lynn. And this week is the last full week of school for Orilus and Jackson. A week from Wednesday, they will finish 4th and 3rd grade! Jason and I are finished on June 20th (World Refugee Day, as a matter of fact, a day I hope to mark by going into Boston to hear many of my students speak at the State House). Welcome, summer!