Two Weeks 'Til Departure

Two weeks and counting until the departure of our second team going to Burundi (the first team leaves on the 11th).

It's Independence Day, and I'm grateful for the many freedoms God has given me. And I'm considering just the concept of these words...independence...freedom...and what a dear friend asked of me yesterday: What do you want independence from?

And for those in Burundi...I'm thinking about how they probably know a different kind of independence than I do. They have independence from living in a culture that is drowning in materialism. They have independence from a desire to fit in (both are things I continue to confess and pray that God will help me let go of). They even have independence from busy-ness...or at least in the way I know it.

In Burundi, it's about daily survival. For them their quest for independence/freedom is probably more about freedom from fear, coming to terms with the devastation that happened in their country, during their life time. And it's about a hope that it will never happen again.

The Africans I met in September 2007, were an amazing people. We encountered men and women who, given the opportunity to receive a micro-loan, were praising God and investing that money to start businesses that would provide for their needs. I remember a man talking about how he started out with only a few chickens and now he has hundreds of chickens. And he was so grateful. It's amazing what a few hundred dollars can do. And it's amazing to me that the widows we met in the IDP camps in Northern Uganda sat us down, fed us, danced for us, and brought us their financial books to show how they've spent and begun to pay back the funds provided to them through micro-loans by ALARM. Wow! They bought an ox and are growing their own food. What a completely different world than the one I live in.

With two weeks to go, there's much to pray for. Click here for a prayer calender with requests of what you can pray each day during the month of July.

Other things you can pray for specifically for me would be about my work. Being self-employed it's tough to take 8 days off without pay. You can pray that I'd be diligent to get projects done before I go and diligent to assign projects to my assistant and my other writers this month so that what needs to be done in my absence doesn't just sit at a stand still until August. Along those lines, you can also pray for my heart upon "re-entry" to the States. After the last trip it was very difficult to come home, re-adjust to my life here and find the energy and will to sit down at a desk again 8 hours a day.

I am grateful for your prayers. Thank you!

These next few weeks I will pack, prepare, ponder what's to come and anxiously await the day I get on a plane to Africa. I'm grateful that you and many others have helped send me. I could never have done this on my own. Your generous gifts and prayers have truly blessed me.