Wonderings and Wanderings

It has been awhile since I’ve posted.  Many have been coming to my site through searches for Margaret Romph.  For up-to-date information on Margaret’s progress, please go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/margaretromph.  Her family greatly appreciates all prayers and words of encouragement.

The first month of 2009 is wrapping up this weekend. It has been a good month with lots of progress and much to do.  Most of my time is work/ministry related. We are gearing up for three international mission trips this summer and this month has been informational meetings and nailing down as many details as possible.  Trips to Kenya, Lithuania and Dominican Republic will all be in June and I’ll be hitting two of three – Kenya and Lithuania.  I cannot wait to return and introduce new people to these incredible places and people. We have some great partnerships in these places and we are blessed from them.

I also preached this past Sunday – something I always enjoy. I preached on I Kings 3:16-28 – the story of King Solomon and the two mothers.  I wanted to pay particular attention to the grieving mom whose son died.  There are important lessons to learn from her about the effect of pain in our lives and how we react as a result of that pain.  It was a long desire of mine to give voice to her pain which is largely ignored as the focus goes to the account of Solomon’s wisdom.  You can listen to the sermon here.

In other news – I have a new work laptop which I LOVE!! So fast. So clean.

On Friday evening, one of my youth girls, Erin, was involved in a car accident – along with her grandma and her little sister, Margaret.  Erin broke her hand in the wreck and her grandma has some bruising from the seatbelt and I’m sure both are quite sore today from the impact.  Along with these physical injuries, they are hurting emotionally.  Margaret, who is just 5 years old, is in very critical condition.

She was life-flighted from the wreck  and suffered brain trauma, a broken neck, two broken femurs, and serious lung issues.  Friday night and today have been very long days and they did not give the family much hope. But we have seen small but miraculous progress today.  Margaret is still in critical condition and there are many things unknown.  But she is still with us and she is a fighter and has ten-times more spunk than most of us.  She is the little angel with the tilted halo, the pink cowboy boots, and the mischievious grin that you live to see.

You can read updates about her progress here.

Please pray:

• For little Margaret and her healing.
• For Erin as she deals with the accident.
• For the Romph family for strength, peace, and wisdom hour by hour.
• For the staff at University Hospital as they care for Margaret.

May God be glorified in and through all things.

1.  Letter from my sponsored child in Kenya.

2.  Letter from my sponsored child in Rwanda.

3.  Packet from the America World Adoption organization.

4.  The water bill.  (not so exciting but small so that is good.)

Just interesting to have such diversity in my mailbox related to children around the world.  A great way to start off 2009!  I’ve sponsored a boy in Rwanda for a few years now.  His name is Sylvain and he is a handsome young man.  I haven’t had a lot of personal communication with him but as he gets older and he is able to better communicate, I am sure that will change.  In the meantime, I send cards and special mailings that World Vision sends to me to personalize and send to Sylvain.  I wish there was a way to help more children that are suffering in Rwanda but at least I’m making a difference to Sylvain.  The community that Sylvain is in has suffered food shortages due to the financial crisis.  You can make a difference as well by checking out World Vision.

The other boy I sponsor is Kelvin from Kenya.  I’ve just been his sponsor for a few months.  I had the opportunity to visit Kenya in October and will be returning a few times in the next few years.  I thought it would be meaningful to sponsor a child in that region since I would have the opportunity to visit him in the future. Plus, I met such wonderful children and people while I was there it is meaningful to know that I’m helping another child and his family.  I received my very first letter from Kelvin today.  He is very young and so he drew some great pictures at the top while the World Vision project leader wrote the letter for him.  I look forward to getting to know Kelvin over the next several years.

I’ve had some friends who have recently adopted children from around the world.  I’ve been praying about whether this will be something I do in the future.  I’m not married and don’t know that I will be.  I’ve never been certain about whether I want to be a mom or not.  But as I get older, I need to spend some time praying and thinking about this.  I’m not planning anything right away but I need to be investigating, saving, and praying if I decide to in the future.  So, I have a thick packet of information to read and look through.

And the water bill…well nothing exciting there other than you know that at least I bathe.