Many of you have asked for an update on Lillian (click here to read Lillian’s full story, “Healing in the Story”), the child with the spinal cord injury that has left her crippled and incontinent. We actually visited her in Uganda just prior to the Gala on November 19th and learned that a widow has taken Lillian into her home …
Distant Stare
It’s been two months but it’s felt like 25 years as my mind has loosened it’s grip on my memories. Moments have been relived in motion pictures of times with Dad back before such an insidious disease as alzheimer’s took him from me. Last summer, God intersected my personal loss with the mission field when I met a man whose …
Wendafresht
Driving through yet another community of dilapidated mud homes in Ethiopia, I saw a child across the street with her back to me. I recognized her immediately as Wendafresht, a precious girl I had met last November, and unbelievably, I picked her out from the many thousands of children. I shouted her name and jumped from the van, and she …
25 Days
Buckled in, once again, this time to Ethiopia. I just enjoyed the longest stretch of time that I’ve been the USA in several months — an incredible 25 days. In those 25 days, my children went back to school, we said goodbye to one family member and welcomed the newest family member to the world. It’s been a very full …
Spotlight On: Savannah Koehn
Spotlight on …. Suhvaaaanuh! The sweet southern name takes on a whole new feel when you hear it excitedly shouted through thick Ugandan and Moldovan accents by children who have been delighted and cherished by a young girl, not much older than they are. For Savannah, it all started with an answer to a call. It was a rare morning …
Close to Home
Working in a ministry means the line between work and personal life is often blurred. You’re responding to a calling that happens to have turned into a job, and you’re working with close friends whose hearts and imaginations have been captured by glorious things God is doing. It’s almost impossible to draw the line in the sand that separates the …
Looking for Monsters
Just two months ago I told a friend this summer was either going to give the ministry new life, or it was going to kill it off for good. And the same thing could be said for me. It was time to take a risk. The big kind of risk, where you’re not sure you’re going to make it to …
Let Them Love You
Today is my anniversary. Yesterday my father died. Next week, a total of five of us will gather to celebrate the life of the most important man I’ve ever known. And any day now, my sister will bring her first child into the world; eclipsed by piercing family loss. Yesterday was my sister’s birthday, a few days before was my …
Apathy
Poverty looks different here. When I think of poverty — the extreme poverty that eats away at a human’s existence — I think of bellies distended by malnutrition, calloused feet hardened from miles of barefoot walking to fetch contaminated water, and children rummaging for scraps of food. There’s civil unrest and brutal massacres that have left communities traumatized and shattered. I …
Farewell Gulu
I want to be honest with you. For the first time in my life, I did not want to go to Uganda. I didn’t think it was necessary, and I had become hardened to the work God had called me to. I had convinced myself that by going to the office every day and by advocating for the least and …