1 week left...

Early mornings, sick babies, 3rd degree burns.. the list could go on.. i don't even know what to say anymore.. thats MIS for you... i don't think I'm ready to leave though, it's heartbreaking thinking about leaving the children.. i love these kids. All I can say is God will give m strength to say my good-byes and who knows where he will have me next!

On a happy note, Its so wonderful having family here and we have been enjoying showing them what we do here. Time is going by way too fast. NEXT WEEK!, thats so crazy...

But gotta cut this one short.
Sending out all my love!
Michelle

The little baby girl I will never forget...

Hello again friends and family. Monday was a very difficult for me and I'm not sure how to express what I've experienced.. Our newest baby girl who arrived about a month ago, has passed away. It's scarey how quickly life can be taken away, especially here in Lesotho. She was only 2.5 months old and the most precious thing in the world. My heart is broken, but God is holding the pieces together reminding me that she is with him - in a much better place. Mavis performed the funeral/burial today, it was only about 30 minutes long because it was an infant and she didn't have any family around. Different than home, thats forsure. I will miss that little baby's smile.. I wanted to express myself to you in a poem, to share my feelings in this experience.

The pink baby is gone now
and I'm at loss for words...
It hurts so much
and yet she wasn't even my own.
She was so special to me,
and just holding her each day was the best thing in the world.
Her beautiful eyes -
so oblivious to the world around her.
The way she grasped my finger,
the way she smiled and coo'd
everytime I looked at her...
Her little heart pumping so fast
She was so strong
...yet not strong enough
A part of me wants to scream
Why God? Why have you taken her?
But at the same time
joy is present...
because I know she is in daddy's arms
And what a better place to be
than in the presence of our God?
Life is different here...
to them it's almost normal,
death is normal.
It's difficult to comprehend
as we've been more than blessed
Thoughts are scattered
throughout my head and my heart
What else can I say,
but rest in peace little baby
You were loved...

Thank-you for all your support, i will see you again soon!

Busy busy busy

Busy busy busy..
Nope, life hasn't slowed down much here. In fact, things at MIS seem to be a lot busier lately. Doing all the doctor/hospital visits, I am often at the center early in the morning (forsure by 6:30am) and gone all day. The days are long and exhausting. And often once I am back at the center by afternoon, I am wanted here or there so I am constantly on the go. We have a new volunteer who started towards the end of last week. She's doing alright. She's young and never done anything with kids or away from home before so it may take a little while, but eventually she'll get the hang of things. We are having more issues with a young mother who is still at the center.. oh its so difficult. Last friday, i was told she was looking for me, and when i found her she was crying so much I hardly knew what to say.. I don't think I've ever seen someone here cry as much as she was. She was hurt and upset and saying many negative things about herself.. it was hard for me to hear. She talked about how she wanted to just kill herself and wishes she was never born. She was super upset.. I was constantly praying for wisdom as I did not expect any of this. Not to mention she's 5 months pregnet so poor girl has got crazy emotions right now as it is. I tried mt best to encourage her and keep her positive. I prayed with her for quite a while and talked about different possible solutions to her problems and I that calmed her down quite a bit. She was still pretty distraught though. She is not necessarily "wanted" at the center, plus she doesnt have immediate family she can go to. She is going through soo much for being a 19 year old girl with a 18 month old, and another one on the way. Anyways we are trying to figure things out with social welfare - please pray that we can find a good place for her where she can be positive and care for her children. It's pretty stressful. On a happy note about this young girl, THIS WEEK I got the opportunity to share Christ with her! Did I expect that to happen? No, not at all. To be honest - I thought being in a country where God seems to be in everything, that she would know everything. How blind was I?! Anyways, we had to walk to social welfare on monday, and for some reason i felt something inside pushing me to talk to her about God. Of course I kept telling myself "no, i dont want to. im scared, i dont know what i would say." But then i was reminded "I'll give you the words to say".. so i listened to this and i now know that it was obviously the holy spirit telling me to do so. I asked her if she knew what it meant to be a christian, she said no. I asked her if she believed in God, she said yes. I asked her if she knew who Jesus was and what he did for her, she said no. Right there, OPPORTUNITY screamed out at me. I knew then that there was no turning back, God has placed me there at this time to share Christ. So I did. I dont even think I can remember everything i said, because I know God was speaking through me. Because I chose to obey him, he used me. I guess sometimes we think its much more difficult than it really is. We are not doing anything on our own, as long as we trust him and allow him to use us, he will. I am confident that God got through to this young womans heart and that I will one day see her again in heaven, which gives me great joy in my heart:) She was very interested and so happy to hear about the story of Christ - I just can't believe she never knew... She told me she wanted to have Jesus in her heart and that she would pray and ask him. Oh what a happiness I felt that day and still feel. To be honest I have never really taken that kind of opportunity to share the gospel with someone besides young children. I will continue to pray for this young woman and hope that she will hold Jesus dear to her heart:) Anyways, there's my highlight for you! This week, I've also done a hospital visit with the new baby - had to get a chest x-ray. Tomorrow I head off to the Baylor Clinic again with her to go over the results. I will also take another toddler (Kabalo) to get tested tomorrow. Busy day again as usual. Only 10 days till I see my mommy, Yaaaaaaaaaa:-) We are really looking forward to their visit, although that means its getting closer to the time that we have to say good-bye... I'm starting to wonder if I'm ready for it. Going to feel empty without all our kids.. But anyways, thats about all I got for an update now! Please keep us in your prayers.
God Bless, *HUGS*
Love Michelle

Only 6 weeks left, isn't thats crazy?!

Well hello again everybody! Its been a while since I've written in my blog. We've definitely had a busy past couple weeks. As I'm sure most of you already know, Wilma, Elizabeth and Sylvia are back at home now for a while. It feels a little empty and lonely here without them. We miss them. Things at the center are going alright. Last week we got 2 new children, sisters. A little baby (Tatwetsi) that is 2 months, and Ntsepiseng who is 7 years old. I'll put pictures up. They are both very beautiful little girls. Pray for the health of the baby. She seems to be doing good and eating well. If she can survive these next couple months of winter, she's a strong baby and will likely make it through life at MIS. School is out now for winter break so it's going to be a little more crazy there these next few weeks! I've done a whole lot in the store room with clothing/shoes sorting, so things are looking much more organized. Sadly we havent been able to make it out to sell the clothes, so hopefully people will come to us or someone will take over when I leave. We've got a volunteer who is working on building tiled showers for the kids. These rooms used to be the old toilets, but they were horrible and the plumbing wasnt right so new outdoor toilets were built last year. It will be very nice once the showers are completed, the kids are very excited. It's not always the funnest thing bathing out of a washing tub - especially when it's cold. We received ore money for the property fence so that will be great once it is finished. No more random people wandering through the yard, including drunks. We finally got a nice floor mat for the baby room, so we can get rid of that digusting old rug which has a little of everything on there from poop to puke to food.. you name it! This new mat is further from the floor for warmth, it's softer to sleep on, plus easier to clean! The room smells much nicer now. We are still lacking in caregivers, so the ones we have are always very tired and over-worked. We do have a young girl coming next week to volunteer for 3 months so that will be nice - although its a shame she cannot stay longer. We will train her in the baby room so that she can help 'Me' MaDanke when we leave. We do have another girl coming in October and another in January. But still, this is not enough volunteers as many of us will be leaving in July. Please continue to pray for these situations (volunteers & caregivers), the children need them. Well, Annie and I have pretty much got 3 of the toddlers potty trained now, and we are working on #4! Fun fun:-) Neo (9 months) has just started crawling - crazy little boy is into EVERYTHING now! haha. It's pretty funny how they 'tell on each other' too when they do things they are not supposed to - like taking things out of the garabage. Oh funny children.. I love these kids. Each one is so precious and unique, with their own sweet little personality.. we will miss them so much!! I'm taking over a couple of the hospital/clinic visits now that Sylvia is gone. Its not bad, but tiring. You want to be there before they open so you can get in line, and even then things take a good 4 hours! We can praise God that we do not have any children who are sick at the moment, besides the common cold. Not bad for about 100 children hey? I can hardly believe how fast our time here has gone.. out of 6 months we only have 6 weeks left! Time sure doesn't slow down. I'm looking forward to coming home, but I am not looking forward to saying good-bye. I know from last time, that we will feel empty for a matter of time.. Pray for our strength when we leave and when we adjust to life back at home again. We are really looking forward to our visitors in July though! My mom, Annie's mom, and Jeanette. I think it will be easier to leave with them as well, and we can start detatching ourselves from MIS slowly until we leave. This experience is unforgetable.. I will always hold these children close to my heart and pray that God will take care of each one of them - I know He will. He doesn't NEED Annie and I, or anyone else to accomplish His will.. He choses to use us if we let Him. So thank-you for your continuous prayers and support. I miss you all, God Bless!

One step forward, two steps back..

Hello everyone. Well I'll start off this note with saying "God is good and he does answer prayer". Even its just in the smallest ways. After our day of fasting/prayer I think many of us felt God working a little extra in our own lives and we did see small improvement in the leadership at the center. I won't go into too much detail, but lets just say communication wihin the leadership moved up a step - and the responses to situations seemed more positive than they have in the past. We were all very encouraged to hear about these positive things taking place. Then, shortly after it seems as though MIS fell right back into that rut - maybe even a little deeper down. There are many problems right now with the teenagers at the center, things going on there that should not be happening, and the board having to work together to figure out the right way to deal with these situations. Do pray for the board, that they can work together and make the right decisions. I can't imagine it being easy to run a center of over 100 children of all ages. I don't really know what else to say about everything that is going on at MIS, but please pray that issues can be resolved and that everyone can work together and not against one another. The young mothers that got kicked out a while back are still staying somewhere temporarily, but do need jobs and a place to stay soon. It's crazy how difficult it is to get a job here. It now makes sense why so many young people are on the streets. Its sad. Hopefully these ladies can find jobs soon, so then can support themselves and their children.

On another note, I can hardly believe I only have less tan 2 months left! Time is going so fast! I just want to take all our babies home. I'm going to miss them soo much.. I feel like such a horrible person leaving them, just like everyone else leaves them. But I do need to remind myself that God put me here and I am doing what I can while I can, and hopefully I have been able to make a difference in being here. HAPPY NEWS - Our moms an my cousin are coming to visit in July!!! How exciting is that?? We cant wait to introduce them to all the kids and show them what we've been doing the past 4 months.

Well I guess I'll cut this one for today, Until next time!

P.S. Just in case you are curious about the one picture, we've had a volunteer come and build the kids a small play area and they love it!

Day of prayer/fasting

Just a quick note this week. For those of you who read this in time, tomorrow (thursday the 22nd) many of us volunteers at the MIS childrens center along with others will be taking the day to fast and pray. There are many issues going on within the center at the moment which are very difficult, and we know that we cannot handle it on our own. We can see that this is much more spiritual than anything else and we NEED God to interfere if we want to see improvement. We must believe that God is in control and remember that He cares about each child here as well as each one of us. We MUST have faith and not doubt that our God can do anything - there is no measure with God. We pray that God will overcome this evil that resides at the center - we know that He is stronger than it and we have no reason to fear. Please pray for us as we go through this day of fasting and prayer. Pray for our stength physically as we will still be working as normal. Energy is very much needed in working with children. Pray for each of us spiritually, that God will work in our hearts and reveal to us what needs to be revealed. Pray for the leadership of the center - things are not being run as they should be. And if you happen to read this blog after thursday, please do continue to pray - we need the big guy helping us out. Also, do feel free to join us in our day of fasting and prayer as well. Thank you for your support and standing behind me and others as we serve here in Lesotho.

Well.. our weekend at Durham Link with the juniors was busy, stressful, tiring, and a little different than planned, but it was still a fun time. We (MIS volunteers) dressed up as pirates, it was pretty funny. The kids also got to make pirate hats and patches and what not, so they had fun with it all too. Our first evening there we did a disco dance with the kids which they really enjoyed, and it definitely drained all their energy so they slept well:-) On saturday we played some games, they got to go canoeing as well as do some archery and parachute games. They had a bible study with Nic in the afternoon which I believe went well. We also had a campfire in the evening, most of them enjoyed that. Sunday morning they had a sunday school service with Erika and afterwards I played a bunch of relay games with them which suprisingly went really well! Anyways, on that note, the weekend was lots of fun. On another note, the two mothers working at the center (each with 2 kids) got kicked out for no reason. There seems to be alot of mis-communication within the center lately. These ladies showed up at Durham Link on saturday morning with no other place to go. Its just a little frustrating because it was done without the board even knowing. For now, we have found the ladies and their children a temporary place to stay while the board helps them find something permanent. I believe the ladies must speak to social welfare today about what happened. I have no idea what the outcome will be, but I pray that it will be good and God will have his hand in their lives. So if you think of us here in Lesotho, please pray for this situation.. pray for children's center, pray for wisdom within the board, pray for the kids, pray for these young mothers, and also for us - that God will continue to give us strength and encouragement in situations like this, as well as other situations/challenges we face here in Lesotho. Even though life doesn't seem to always go as we would like it to, we must remember that God DOES have a plan and he is in control. Thank you for your prayers and support.