Sierra Leone Diary 1st installment

Tuesday and Wednesday, September 20th and 21st

Josiah and I arrived at the airport with a mix of emotions. While we were excited to be leaving for Sierra Leone, I wish that it were all of us going and not just Josiah and I.  Josiah was happy that he was able to get a window seat on the plane (it was what he talked about for the two weeks prior to the trip) and we gave lots of hugs and kisses to Jeneson, Lydia, and Sofia before heading toward security.

Let me just say now that travelling with a 5 year old by yourself is a breeze compared to travelling as a family of 5 with 3 small children! We sauntered through security and wandered around our terminal while waiting for boarding. The Virgin Atlantic flight to London was a breeze. Josiah and I watched a movie, ate our dinner then Josiah changed into his pjs so that he could sleep the rest of the flight.

We arrived at Heathrow International Airport in London for our loooong 6 hour layover (about twice as long as I like my layovers to be). Josiah had the most unusual birthday experience of celebrating his 5th birthday in the London airport, flying in airplanes and landing in Freetown. Josiah donned his birthday hat, I pinned his birthday ribbon to his shirt and we stretched our legs walking around terminal one. After a waffle and fruit smoothie breakfast, we colored a bit, played with the toys in one of the stores, played the card game War and went in search for lunch. Josiah chose a birthday lunch of a chocolate chip muffin with milk, topped off by 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream. (I DO let my kids indulge every once in a while!).

I was surprised on the flight down to Freetown how many Caucasian faces I saw on the plane. I suspect that many of them were miners returning to work in one of the numerous mines in Sierra Leone. I was a bit worried toward the end of the flight. Since we were travelling internationally we were required to fill out an immigration card for the government of Sierra Lone, stuff that I have done many times before. However, this time I had an anxiety provoking revelation that I did not have all the information required by the form. I knew that Rev. Joseph would be picking me up at the airport; I knew that I would be staying out in Mokanji with Charles and Petra, but I did not have any way to contact them! There there we stood in the line for the immigration booth, a very pale woman with her 5 year old son. Suddenly a face peaks out from around the other side of the booth asking me if I am Sandra and handing me a cell phone! It was Joseph!! He was calling me from the waiting area to let me know that he was there to pick me up and that the man who handed me the phone was a 'brother' there to help us with our bags.

We collected our baggage with no difficulty and prepared to leave the airport in the middle of our first African thunderstorm. We drove 10 minutes to a small hotel near the airport to spend the night. While it was not a Holiday Inn, it was clean, had electricity, and running water. After a much needed shower Josiah and I went to bed.

More to come in the days to come chronicling our trip to Sierra Leone.

Is God frustrated with me?

I was feeding Sofia the other day and had an epiphany. Sofia is almost 7 months old now and is really not all that interested in starting solid foods. My other kids didn't have this issue. Right now when I try to feed her she blows bubbles and the spoonful of cereal just oozes right back out of her mouth. It really is quite cute to watch her, but as the one feeding her can become frustrating.

Is that how God sometimes feels about me? Is he trying to grow me spiritually and closer to Him by giving me more 'solids'? Am I just blowing bubbles and not accepting what God is giving me? How frustrated He must feel when He is trying to work with me and teach me more about Him and bring me into a closer relationship with Him!

Does God give us more than we can handle?

The simple answer to this is no. No, God does not give us more than we can handle. However, many times through our own free will, we make decisions that impact our lives negatively and we have to take responsibility for our decision. Other times, other people make decisions that impact us and we end up reaping the consequences of those decision. So what happens when our lives are not going as smoothly as we want it to? Simple, look to God.

God doesn't make bad circumstances come into our lives, but He does use them. He allows these things into our lives for one reason - to bring us back to or closer to Him. So what do we do? We pray to God that He reveal Himself to us, lead us and guide us in our decisions and help us to endure...

Fall 2010 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

     Oh, where to start. First, thanks to all who have prayed and helped during our recent transitions. First, in the early hours of August 4th we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Sofia Grace, into the world. Josiah and Lydia love their new little sister and often clamor to hold her. At almost 2 months old she is quite alert and loves to smile at those around her. For a couple of weeks in July and August we were able to have a nice visit from Jeneson’s Dad. It was great to see him again and the kids had a blast playing with their Appachan.

     On August 15th Sandy and the kids said goodbye to Jeneson as he started the New Orleans part of our adventure. Jeneson developed a friendship with one of the members on his Haiti trip who was gracious enough to let Jeneson stay with him for the first couple of weeks of class. While Jeneson was down South starting classes and searching for our family of 5 to live, Sandy was still north taking care of the three kids and packing of the condo for the move. A special thanks to everybody who provided a meal, watched the kids, and helped pack and load the moving truck. Jeneson flew back up to Chicago from New Orleans on September 3rd and we drove down as a family on the 5th.

     What a whirlwind month and a half it has been! We are now settled in our new apartment in Slidell, Louisiana. The kids have been enjoying the apartment complex pool, finding all the local parks, and going to story time at the local library. Josiah was excited to learn that they have Awana down here and started attending during our second week here. Jeneson is studying hard and learning and enormous amount of information about tropical medicine at Tulane. Sandy is getting to know her way around Slidell and finding the local Walmart, Target, grocery stores and other essential places. We have found a nice local church to attend and are starting to get plugged in with men’s and women’s ministries.

     Things are continuing to progress in Sierra Leone. The hospital construction is continuing and there is now a functional well on the hospital grounds. A few other wells have been completed at some local schools along with more anticipated in the future. The Worrell’s are very close to getting the OK to go to Sierra Leone and continue the well drilling, supervise the hospital construction and facilitate some public health initiatives. Our friend, Dan, just returned from digging wells and is praying about going back the beginning of next year. Currently we have about 50-60% of the monthly pledges needed. Our ability to go depends on people prayerfully pledging to support us on a monthly basis.

     Thanks to all who have lifted us up in prayer these last few months, they were certainly needed and definitely felt. We are still in need of prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we get settled in Louisiana and try to make connections. We know that God has brought us down here and are open to how He will use us down here. Pray for Jeneson as he attends classes and studies hard. Pray for our future; we know that we will be down in New Orleans at least until December, but we are open to the idea of being down here for another semester so that Jeneson can complete his Masters in Public Health, but we also want to be in Sierra Leone as soon as possible. Pray that God will raise up more people to pledge to support us. Pray for the people of Sierra Leone and the work already taking place there. As always, we would love to receive calls or e-mails from you about how we can pray for you and how God is working in your lives.


Blessed,

Jeneson, Sandy, Josiah, Lydia, and Sofia Abraham


Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Love

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. 13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 13

     This oft quoted scripture is usually heard in the context of a wedding ceremony or when talking about marital relationships. The sermon from last weekend highlighted the fact that this is about agape love not marital love. This sermon really spoke to me and convicted me on how I sometimes interact with my family.
     First and foremost the love expressed here is NOT love the emotion. Emotions are completely unreliable and many times lead us astray. Just think back to how you felt yesterday or last week or last month. How consistent are your emotions? What influences your emotions? How do your emotions effect how you interact and react to others? Yes, we are emotional beings, but our lives, actions, and decisions should not be controlled by our emotions.
     Love is an action verb. From various sources, this type of love can be described as an unconditional, purposeful and deliberate love that is self-less and involves affection, benevolence and concern for the loved one. OK, so this is certainly something that I cannot do on my own and the need for Jesus is obvious.
     The first part of this passage describes how regardless of your strengths and gifts, if you don’t have love your abilities are useless. You can have infinite faith, boundless knowledge, give away all that you have, and the gifts of tongues and prophesy, yet without love they are useless. That is a pretty powerful statement. These are things we pray for and strive for, yet without one little element, love, they have no use for the user or for others.
     I felt most convicted by the second part of the passage. God spoke to me during the sermon that I need to interact with my children and husband in a more loving way. I need to not only watch the words that I say, but HOW I say them and even the words that I don’t say. Love is patient-it goes without saying that I need all the patience I can get with a strong willed 4 years old, an i-want-to-be-independent potty-training 2 year old and a completely dependent 2 month old. I could continue to go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.
     I think verses 7-8a sum it up nicely: 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. Thanks to a FB friend (thanks Glenda!) I read a quote from D L Moody:
"Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and temperance is love in training."

We should strive for the two greatest commandments:
And he [Jesus] said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets"
                         Matthew 22:37-40

Where to start...

My oh my, where to start? So much has happened in these last two months.

First was the arrival of our beautiful daughter Sofia Grace. She quickly entered the world (after just a bit more than 2 hours of labor) at 1:45am on August 4th. At least she was slow enough that my Mom was able to be with Jeneson and I in the delivery room, she made it there about 5 minutes before Sofia was born. She weighed in at 7# 1oz and things went so well with the delivery and afterward that we were discharged that afternoon. It is always better to sleep in your own bed!

Josiah is a great big brother who is always concerned with Sofia's well being, checking on her, making sure she has her pacifier and loves to hold her (even when Sofia is crying). Lydia loves her little sister and, at times, tries to play with her like a doll not realizing that she should be a little more gentle. She just turned 2 months old and is up to 10# 7oz and is quite the smiler and starting to coo. We will have to see if Josiah and Lydia ever stop talking long enough to let Sofia get in a word or two.

Jeneson's Dad was still visiting in the States when Sofia was born so, much to the envy of my mother in law and sister in law, he was able to meet his newest grandchild. We had a wonderful visit with him and he flew back to India on August 10th.

On August 15th Jeneson left for Louisiana. He stayed at a friends house in New Orleans while starting classes and looking for a place for us to live. Meanwhile, I was still up at our condo taking care of the 3 kiddos and trying to get the condo packed up for the move. My MOPS group, our church family and other friends were lifesavers during that time, they made us dinners, watched the older kids and helped with packing. September 2nd some wonderful friends and family helped to load up the moving truck and away it went down to New Orleans. Jeneson flew home on Friday and after spending a weekend at my parents and a final Sunday at Pathway (our church) we headed down South.

The kids were great during the trip (although I am saying this a month afterward, so some mommy amnesia may have kicked in by now ;)) and we arrived at our new place on Labor Day. Our truck arrived a few days later and within a week everything was unpacked and pretty much in place.

Since then we have been getting acclimated to living in the South. The weather was stifling hot and humid for the first couple of weeks until a 'cold front' moved in. Now we have no humidity and temps in the high 70's/low 80's. Beautiful playin' in the park weather.

I think that is enough of an update. I don't want to give you all information overload so I will try to post again in a couple of days. For the meanwhile, here is a picture of our beautiful kids.

We Plan, God Laughs!!

Lesson for the day, God is in control! It is amazing how much perspective one can obtain after 12 hours of time and a couple of hours of sleep! I was hoping that by this time I would be posting a blog announcing the arrival of Abraham #3. However, God (and the baby) had other plans. I went into the hospital last night to get my labor induced via some more natural methods, knowing that if I got started on Pitocin (IV medication to stimulate contractions) that the baby would have to come out one way or another and I want to avoid a c-section at all costs. Our baby had a different plan. After 12 hours in the hospital my contractions never really progressed and my cervix never really dilated and I came back home this morning exhausted and disappointed. Disappointed in myself, the whole situation, and yes, disappointed in God.

The lesson in this - God is in control!! I think that I have so much going on that is out of my hands right now that I wanted to have a little control over this event - the birth of our third baby. By this evening I had heard God loud and clear - He is the creator and author of life and I must relinquish control of my WHOLE life over to Him. So, now we go on with life and once again wait for God's perfect timing.

Josiah frequently prays/tells Jesus that he doesn't want it to rain or storm when he hears that prediction in the weather forecast. So in that same way, I am praying for a quick and safe delivery and would love for it to be sooner rather than later. Will keep you all updated when the newest member of the Abraham family makes his or her appearance!