Petit and Belva

If you are not up to anything today or tomorrow...check out the Experience:AIDS at Crossroads Church in Loveland...

Yesterday I went to church to volunteer for this AIDS thing we were doing along with World Vision. I completely expected to walk in and immediately start helping people find where they are going, brew some coffee, put on a name tag and do the typical even volunteer thing...I was so wrong. As I walk in the doors I see that there is an area set up for volunteers. I enter there and sit with about 10 other people that I don't recognize. We go through about a 45 minute training on what we are about to experience and why World Vision is so important. We then make these bracelets to remind us of all of the different things it takes to make a difference in the area of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

After this introduction, we are taken to the sanctuary where we each go through the exhibit. Life changing, heart warming, heart wrenching, sad, happy...I ran the gamut on this one. Brian and I have had Africa and mainly the AIDS crisis on our hearts for a few years now. Its been one of those areas that God prompts you to do something, but you don't know where to even start because the problem seems so big. Anyway, I will spear you all of the details...but yesterday, it hit me all over again. 26,000 children under the age of 5 (that's 5!!!! only two years older than my son) will die by the end of today from hunger and other PREVENTABLE causes. That is astonishing to me. Just take a minute and try to wrap that number around your head....

The problem is big, it is sickening and we have got to do something. We took a very simple first step and decided to sponsor two children from the Congo. The first one is a little girl that Brian grabbed from the prayer wall, her name is Belva. Belva is seven years old and lives with her mother, father, three brothers and two sisters. When Brian went back into the prayer room to grab another child we were shocked at what his name was...Petit! Petit is a little boy, eight years old and he is taken care of by his aunt and lives with his one brother and one sister. Kellan and Ella have been introduced to their new little friends and we have committed to not only sponsor them, but to pray for them daily.

This is such a small step and we hope to someday do more. There are many things on the horizon for our family and right now we are just praying that we would walk in the way God would have us go and wait on his perfect timing for everything. My heart is being tugged in so many directions each day. I hope to never loose the passion and love I have for this crisis and I pray God will use his people to touch the lives of those that have next to nothing....PS a few days ago I was complaining about not having clean carpet! Perspective is everything

This was quite the rambling blog...had to lay it out there.