“Nothing in the world
is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have
never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a
great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” ― Theodore
Roosevelt
In
the past few weeks/months we have seen babies diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and
others die after the disease weakens their immune system beyond repair. We have
seen people diagnosed with Multiple-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and watched people
die from it. We have seen rape
cases, trafficking charges, and young girls having sex for food, just to
survive. We have watched storms destroy
property, waters flood our house and winds blow down large trees.
On
the flip side, we have seen children test NEGATIVE for HIV. We have seen babies
come back from the brink of death to new life at the El Roi Baby home. We
received a newborn abandoned baby girl last week and will receive another one
next week, who was left for dead in a pit latrine. We have seen storms miss buildings while the rain from the
storms water the crops and fill our dams. We have seen people brought to justice, young women
brought to safety and beauty come from ashes at the Sicalo Lesisha Kibbutz.
I
have been in Taiwan for the past two weeks and have loved seeing Chloe in her new
school and home environment. She is thriving. I have loved Skyping Spencer in
Georgia and hearing about his school, his company Cirque Freaks and just be
able to chit-chat about life and cats and stuff. He is thriving.
Despite all of the trials and tribulations that we are going through, I
can see the hand of God in my children’s lives and in our lives and I stand in
awe at all that is happening around the world.
On
Thursday I was watching Chloe rehearse at her school play. Suddenly we experienced an earthquake
and it was jarring to say the least.
At the same time Ian was emailing me photos of our house in Swaziland
that had been flooded by water.
Not too long after, I got a text message from Ian, which read:
“ It was over 100 F degrees today, with the flood there is a very high
humidity in the house, another super storm just went through and took out the
electricity, oh ya, and a bunch of roof tiles. I'll let you know the extent of
the damage in the morning. (Both dogs are in the house). Payroll is tomorrow
and my computer battery is at 40%. Did I mention that I wouldn't trade this for
anything? I love living in Africa.
Missing you." - Ian
That
is from the guy who was NEVER going to Africa. That is from a guy who says there will not be electricity
for another couple of days in the bottom half of the country (!). That from the guy
who had to do payroll for 195 people by hand on Friday including counting bills and coins
then hand writing envelopes and pay slips). When I read his text message I wept, and gave
thanks. Only God can change the
human heart and truly have us give thanks during difficult times, while
protecting us from harm and giving us joy, all at the same time!
“Consider it a
sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You
know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its
true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its
work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4
Live from Taiwan … it’s Saturday afternoon, and I am
thankful.
Janine
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