More Ripples...

"The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt." (Buechner)

Wow. It's already spreading like wildfire.
Jody just posted and update on the pajamas and bags project.
Go read it. It will give you goosebumps.
And the stories just keep coming.
If we all band together, lives are changed. Hearts are changed.
Ripples, I tell ya. Ripples.

Eyes

"Eyes that look are common; eyes that see are rare." (J. Oswald Sanders)

stolen-love it...

"When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion–that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet–therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code."–Stephen Covey

Phoebe

There is a little girl named Phoebe who lives on the other side of the world, but has somehow worked her way into the hearts of a family in Iowa and made us think. Last summer Jody's sister and brother-in-law, Joanna and Taylor, spent 3 weeks in Sierre Leone, Africa, visiting a friend and working with Children of the Nations. Upon their return, they had hundreds of amazing photos to share. One photo/story stuck out to me and I couldn't stop thinking about a 5 year-old little girl named Phoebe. Phoebe has cerebal palsy. She lives in a home that Joanna's friend, Sarah, worked at for a year through Children of the Nations. Phoebe does not talk and rarely interacts with the other children in this school. When I saw a photo taken of her my heart broke. And now, I cannot erase this little girl from my mind. A couple months after Joanna and Taylor's return, they informed Jody that Phoebe was available to be sponsored. That night I got online and signed up! We were sent a packet in the mail and we introduced Brigg and Nalani to Phoebe through her photo and a short introduction that told us about her. Over time she captured their hearts as well. Not a day goes by that we don't pray for Phoebe. I find myself thinking about her and praying that she feels an overwhelming sense of love blanketing her in her small room in Sierre Leone. We send letters monthly and they get read to Phoebe. We tell her she is loved. Funny how we thought we would do a good deed by sponsoring this child and in all reality, she has changed our hearts forever. Everytime we walk by her photo, we send up a prayer for her. Tonight I am thanking our Father for allowing this 5 year-old little girl on the other side of the world to break our hearts...
"Throughout history, an authentic faith has been marked by a compassionate reponse toward those the world tends to forget." (Gary Thomas)

Experiencing his presence

My prayer for the day is to experience his presence and not get preoccupied with me...

"Our world is saturated with grace, and the lurking presence of God is revealed not only in spirit but in matter-in a deer leaping across a meadow, in the flight of an eagle, in fire and water, in a rainbow after a summer storm, in a gentle doe streaking through a forest, in Beethoven's Ninith Symphony, in a child licking a chocolate ice cream cone, in a woman with windblown hair. God intended for us to discover His loving presence in the world around us....We get so preoccupied with ourselves, the words we speak, the plans and projects we conceive, that we become immune to the glory of creation." (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel)

Reading this afternoon

Got this quote from Blessed Unrest, one of my current reads (All the books I'm currently sifting through are along my sidebar). My mind is spinning today with all the info I'm getting from these books.

"No Sierra landscape that I have seen holds anything truly dead or dull, or any trace of what in manufactories is called rubbish or waste; everything is perfectly clean and pure and full of divine lessons. This quick, inevitable interest attaching to everything seems marvelous until the hand of God becomes visible; then it seems reasonable that what interests Him may well interest us. When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." (John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra)