Prayers for Haiti

Today my prayers are with the people of Haiti. With those who are suffering, those who have lost someone they love, and those who are waiting for word of whether their loved ones survived. Today I find my heart heavy with saddness for a country already ravaged by poverty and disease. I will never understand why things like this happen in places plagued with suffering and injustice... and I will most certainly never deem it fair. My heart aches for the children who will now become one of the world's voiceless - one of the nearly 150 million orphans in our world. I pray that the beautiful people of Haiti feel God's grace, love, and mercy today as they seek comfort and understanding... as they search for a renewed faith in our Father. I hope you'll join me in praying for Haiti today, tomorrow, and until a sense of peace and hope has been restored to its people.

The above photograph is from National Geographic online.

Attention All Coffee Lovers!!

I've been a coffee drinker since the day I set foot on Marquette's campus... three cups every morning, a little sugar, and a little milk. Coffee has been my morning routine ever since. I've never had a favorite brand or flavor. If it had caffeine, I drank it! I'm trying to ween myself from coffee and switch to tea for many reasons but I still do love a good cup of coffee once in a while. The best coffee I have ever tasted has come from Africa. Not only does the coffee taste good but when purchased, it DOES good. One organization selling this type of coffee is Just Love Coffee.

Just Love Coffee was founded this year by a man with a love of coffee, a heart for adoption, and an understanding of the workings of Ethiopia's coffee farmers. Rob Webb, founder of Just Love, realized the poor living conditions, working conditions, and minimal wages of the coffee farmers of Ethiopia - the birthplace of the famous cup of java itself! He was inspired to take action, creating Just Love as a a roasting ground for fair trade speciality coffees in which the farmers profit and orphans are helped. Coffee purchased through Just Love also helps families adopting children from Ethiopia and around the world raise funds towards their adoption costs. Plus, the coffee tastes GREAT! Who wouldn't want to wake up every morning to a cup of delicious coffee that not only tastes good, but that is DOING good.

My friend Leigh and her husband are adopting two children from Ethiopia and have recently opened their own Just Love Coffee shop! It would be great if you could purchase a bag or two of coffee to help with their adoption costs and help the farmers of rural Ethiopia continue to brew the one thing so many Americans cannot live without each morning. You can visit Leigh's blog to learn more information about their adoption journey.

Visit Just Love Coffee to order your coffee today!!

And yes, someday when Dave and I begin fundraising for our own adoption, we will likely be asking you to buy coffee again :)

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, a day that I hate to say even exists. I hate that this day exists because it means that a cure has not yet been found...it means that people will continue to become infected and people will continue to die.

My first experience with HIV/AIDS was when I was in Africa in 2006. I spent some time at St. Lucia, an AIDS hospice in Tanzania. I held the hands of children infected with HIV. I loved on the children at the Nkoaranga Orphan Center who were left as orphans because of AIDS. This was my first experience with this deadly disease... and it certainly wasn't my last. This experience sparked a curiosity within me. Was this a disease that affected people in the U.S.? Where I lived? Was there a cure for this horrible disease? Did people even care about all the infected people and orphans here and thousands of miles away?

My curiosity and need for answers led me to choose an undergraduate internship with the Center for AIDS Intervention Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Here, I worked on a specialized HIV/AIDS prevention project that taught me more than I ever could have anticipated. I learned that people in the U.S. are in fact infected with HIV/AIDS and continue to be infected at alarming rates. I learned that while most people in my community have access to prevention programs as well as treatment, including anti-retrovirals, most people in developing parts of the world are not as fortunate. I learned that while there is no cure YET (and I say yet because I believe there will be one day soon) there are people who spend every day trying to find one. Most importantly, I learned that people do care about those infected with HIV/AIDS.... but sometimes they don't know how to show that they care because of the fear and lack of knowledge about the disease.

I could list a bunch of facts about how many people in the world are infected with HIV or the number of orphans due to AIDS. I could tell you the ways you contract HIV (and no, you cannot get it from touching an infected individual) and all about treatment. But I won't. Because today is about raising awareness that this terrible disease exists. It is about finding a cure. It a day dedicated to honoring the lives lost and the children left as orphans because of this disease.

I encourage you to do some research today - to learn the facts. Knowing the facts is what helps protect yourself and others. Knowing the facts is what helps eliminate the prejudice and stereotypes associated with HIV/AIDS. Today I remember all the children who have died from this disease and those left orphaned because of it. Today I remember all the patients I sat with here in Milwaukee as they were told they tested HIV-positive. Today I remember all the conversations I had with young and old people alike about how to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDS.

Today is World AIDS Day and I hate that this day even exists.

Visit www.aids.gov for more information on HIV/AIDS.

Drawn From Water

Today I came across a new organization that I have to share. I realize not too many people even read this blog yet but I am hoping someday, someone will look back on this posting and be just as moved as I am by the work this organization is doing. Since November is adoption awareness month and home to Orphan Sunday, I found this posting fitting.

Drawn From Water is an organization that started earlier this year in rural south-western Ethiopia. The organization runs an orphanage for children of the Karo tribe, a tribe that lives in fear of evil spirits and superstitions. In the Karo tribe, children who are believed to be cursed or otherwise imperfect are deemed "Mingi". The presence of these children on the tribe's land is perceived to be a curse. As a result, the children are drowned in the river. In January, 2009, a group of mission workers rescued five of these Mingi children. An orphanage was formally established and today, there are ten children whose lives have been saved thanks to Drawn From Water. You can read more about the organization and the meaning behind its name on the Drawn From website, www.drawnfromwater.org.

My purpose in posting this is that others will pray for the children of the Karo tribe, support the work being done by Drawn From Water, and share the information with others. The organization has two great videos that are very inspiring... I'm posting them here. The first is the story of how the organization was founded; the second is about the orphans. After watching the videos my heart was heavy but yet I was full of hope because 10 children's lives were saved.

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Drawn From Water, Adopt from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday... a day dedicated to remembering, serving, loving, and praying for the world's orphans. Those who know me would agree that every day is Orphan Sunday for me. Orphan care is an issue that I became passionate about during my mission work abroad in Africa and Central America. But not everybody has had personal experiences with orphans and not everyone will. Irregardless, today is about honoring God's word and command to us as Christians to care for orphans. My favorite bible verse is this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27

There are more than 147 million orphans in the world. 44 million of those orphans live in the sub-saharan Africa region alone, the region that's home to Tanzania. Every 14 seconds another child is orphaned by AIDS. Every two seconds an orphan dies from malnutrition. Today I want you to think about what you'll do to alter these statistics. Will you pray? Will you give financially? Will you serve? Will you adopt? Will you love the world's orphans? How will you fulfill God's call to act?

Today I remember my time with the children at the Nkoaranga Orphan Center in Tanzania. My time spent caring for 30 of the world's orphans changed me. It opened my eyes to the realities of orphan life. It taught me what self-less, unconditional love felt like. It showed me that God really is the Father to all the children of the world. And most importantly, it gave me the chance to open the eyes and hearts of others. Someday I will welcome an orphan into my own family... for now, I will continue to support and love from afar and pray that God opens the hearts and minds of others to do the same.