Eternal Gifts

Your gifts helped us bring the good news of Living Water and potable water to a village and widowed mamas.

 

Your gifts helped us teach healthy transition and attachment 

practices and to orphan caregivers, reminding them that 

Heavenly Father adopted them when they were abandoned in sin.

Your gifts helped us minister to single and widowed mamas who are neglected and victimized in this developing society.  These mamas learn who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them. 

Your gifts helped us feed and care for forgotten children, showing them God's love.

Your gifts help us carry the gospel of God's kingdom to the poor in Jesus name.

Remembering each prayer, encouragement and support that's helped us be God's messengers of grace here in Kenya... 

We offer our simple gift of thanks.

May the Lord bless you for your kindness.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

Change

Change.

Everything that grows changes.

As the not-for-profit CARE grows, it experiences changes.

Let me tell you about a BIG change… but first, a little background  -

Mark and I have been a big part of CARE from its inception in 2000 (along with some AWESOME adoptive families). It started as a small adoption support/advocacy group and has grown to a remarkable organization that awards grants to adoptive families, participates in an annual River Run for Orphans, facilitates adoption trainings and acts as a clearinghouse for adoption resources and education.

The work CARE does in Kenya, as CARE4Nations, affects the core of orphan prevention by helping mamas raise their children instead of abandoning them to orphanages. The ministry assists widowed/single mamas with discipleship and biblical business practices - learning to serve Jesus and earn an honest wage. By God's grace we also started a school for neglected children, provide bio-sand filters through evangelistic outreach to places needing potable water, work at an orphanage and a boarding school for physically challenged kids.

You donations labor hard through volunteer efforts 

to bring vulnerable children the support they need to grow in families.

 

There’s that word again - grow. We’re happy to see CARE grow and experience change. Our new board members and their fresh creativity have introduced an innovative change... 

CARE has been re-branded as Among the Least.

This name change more accurately reveals the vision, work and growth of the ministry.  We are now Field Directors of Among the Least.

Finally, you might have noticed on your tax receipt that CARE’s exempt status was  re-evaluated by the IRS. We’re pleased to report (CARE) Among the Least has been reinstated retroactively.

Your donations can be sent to:

 Among the Least

 PO Box 3543, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

or

 thru paypal at amongtheleast.org

or 

Restoration Fellowship

PO Box 2757

Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

A huge "asante sana" to all who partner with us 

through support, prayers and encouragement. 

Your giving make an eternal difference in the lives of widows and orphans.

Feel free to google tiltingbalance.blogspot.com to read amazing stories of God’s grace in Kenya and look for our new blog commonbecomesholy.com coming soon.

Find more information about the organization at amongtheleast.org.
 
Blessed to be a blessing,
mark and ~lisa hauger

Field Directors for Among the Least, Kenya

+254705707339

Strong Courage

As I post this, Taleah has finished school and is practicing the violin.  Mark just got in from taking Henry back to the orphanage and is helping get dinner on the table.  I spent my day with women - praying, planning, organizing the future.  Only a week ago we were laughing with friends in Pagosa... Now's the time we reflect and appreciate everyone who loved on us so well.  Thank you for your help, support, listening ears, wise advice and encouragement.  Below is my first journal entry this time around. God's calling us to be brave.  What about you?  What's God calling you to?

Here we are again, on the other side of the world, trading quiet, crisp Colorado daybreak with humid city sounds. 

Sunrise from Lisa's sister's home in Pagosa Springs, CO

The morning air drips wet and warm and I sip milky Kenyan brew from a tin cup, listening… birds’ song mixes with children’s laughter, traffic jostles with toots and rattles, women outside our bougainvillea fence chatter as they walk along, wood piled high on cloth-wrapped heads. 

  

But I hear more then this African life teaming around me.  I hear God.  He speaks to my heart in a familiar rhythm, with ancient words,  

“Be strong and courageous.” 

You would think by now I’d be used to moving into the unknown…

As a wild teen living on my own, to a wife with little strength, with children adopted from difficult places, to living among the least in a culture far from my own, to adopting another…

“Be strong and courageous.”

I have no grid for the next move… the one where we leave behind a son to gain another.  It’s not like we ignore the tall 16 year old, grown from a forgotten seed into a stout sapling whose roots need water – lots of water to continue flourishing.  Yet, we also can’t overlook the small one waiting for something he needs that he never knew existed – a family.

“Be strong and courageous.”

If that’s not enough… ministry surrounds us on every side. 

• We want to send a shipping container full of useful donated items to empower the local church to minister to the poor.  The container would then serve as a resource building on the church property.
• We desire to help develop a curriculum that trains both orphan caregivers and short-term missions teams to understand healthy attachment practices.
• We need to advance the already existing programs - pure water evangelism and micro-finance discipleship - to become completely sustainable. 
• We long to love the Lord and others and share joy unspeakable and full of His glory.

“Be strong and courageous.”

So amidst the noisy busyness enveloping me, vying for attention, constantly knocking for more, I listen for His voice. I hear His Word guiding us through the unknown, providing wisdom, nurturing encouragement. In the shadow of giants, He teaches us... 

“Be strong and courageous." 

Joshua 1:9

Looming storm in Summitville, CO.

Taleah being brave floating into Niagara Falls (free day ride).

Tavin being strong and courageous in CO (Notice Africa...)

 

Watch for our new blog coming soon... 

 

 

Kumshukuru Mungu kwa ajili yenu!

(Thanking God for you!)

the haugers Ooo0o

Being REAL

   Ever try to take a family photo and it seems like nobody will cooperate?

  And when they FINALLY decide to gather together, silliness happens?

The photo may never be "perfect." but then, 

what is "perfect" but just pretending?

Thanks for letting us be REAL...

for helping us share our hearts, 

caring for our vision and being kind to our dreams.  

We're grateful for your prayers, encouragement and support. 

Our plans to travel back to minister in Kenya - November 13th. 

First, we visit family in Ohio and New York, 

participate in a short term mission conference and 

continue the conversation of serving the fatherless.

Psalm 82:3-4, James 1:27

  

Donations can be made to: Restoration Fellowship 

and attach a sticky note: "for haugers."

Mail to PO Box 3543

Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

 

Beautiful Scratching

We’ve been back in Pagosa for 3 weeks now. The early mornings find me on my sister’s patio watching the sun peak over the San Juan Mountains.

Quiet time.
Seriously quiet compared to noises clamoring for attention outside our compound in Kisumu, Kenya - a city of almost 2 million. “Tuk, tuk, tuk” rattles, beeping horns, buzzing motor bikes, and voices exchanging business in Luo and Swahili while children's sing-song repetition of numbers carries from the small tent school across the road.
Now, enjoying the slightly crisp air of Colorado, I feel more than I hear. A soft breeze stirs. Sun streaks across pages of my bible and hits my face with warmth. Aspens’ slight tinge of fall dance on slender boughs.




 
Yes, it’s quiet. 
I’ve been quiet. Not writing, not “unloading” the thoughts that churn my mind in the slums of Kisumu among the broken. For a few weeks I silently watch graceful trees stretch strong into the end of summer. The mountain peaks, a skyline scratching across enormous blue.

I realize I know that strong stretching, a beautiful scratching.

Weathered-white bark enduring seasons of change. Rocky peaks rising from the ground and scratch their rough edges against the heavenly expanse without leaving scars.

I know that beautiful scratching.

For me, it’s about a love that outlasts pain…



His course little black head sweating against my chest, and I cuddle his small body. Praying. He wiggles down, scraping my arms with rough hair - unkept, unwashed, ringworm patches hidden under moist tight curls. That evening the scratches on my arm’s tender part raise angry red.

Painful.
Loving sometimes does that.



Remembering, experiences flood me and thoughts of charcoal-black mamas embracing hungry babies, wide-eyed and unresponsive with suffering that bites their hearts yet carries hope that keeps looking. Crippled children ignore their oozing sores, crawling along chipped cement because they see us coming and their longing for a touch, a smile will come true that day, even if it’s just for a day.

The lavish cost of loving includes the scratching, the scraping, the grating, the aching wounds.





Why?

Because it’s worth it.

It’s worth taking a risk, to be hurt, to live hard so others might live free. I don’t think people were made to stay comfortable, and I wonder if we resist suffering at the expense of loosing our ability to truly care.

Love in it’s purest form is raw, and real and firm, not wavering because He, LOVE made flesh, might take my hand and move me to search in the ugliness of life to find beauty.

Jesus loved.

Without reserve.

He, who could have walked in the cushioned kingdoms of men, chose to live within empty painful places, filled with lost, lonely people. His love stretched strong across the expanse of humanity. He accepted the sore scratching, knowing in the end His wounds would let us love without enduring eternal scars.

That’s how we share a horrible crisis like death, enter unimaginable struggles with children, travel into darkness to bring light. We do it with grace and pervading peace because it’s not the throbbing sting that lasts, it’s His LOVE.

In my quiet, I’ve see this, in the mountain crests surrounding me, like carving a message in a tree that grows high with boughs that can carry the weight.
A beautiful scratching.

Requesting Prayer

Yes, as a good friend said well - our little guy who's waiting is the "E." 

Lisa? Well, she's the photographer.

Habari ako dear Friends.
 

First, I want to thank the many who responded to my (Lisa) last post with gracious words of encouragement.  The experiences this last year have tried us - from months of political upheaval that sporadically fueled riots, tear gas, automatic weapon fire and death, to consistent relationship challenges among those we serve; gossip, jealousy and greed - reduced communication to unwanted confrontations. But thank GOD, whose love covers us; those with repentant hearts grew stronger. Ministry among the least calls for commitment and integrity. Where the enemy holds tight straps of bondage, our Father’s amazing grace releases freedom. We refuse to give up; we’ve seen those who sit in darkness embrace His redeeming light. Hope matters.

As we prepare to travel stateside, we know prayer will help us stay focused. Below are some requests. We would sooooooo appreciate knowing you are lifting us up before His throne room.

1.  Praise God! We finally had our long awaited home study. After months of praying, waiting and numerous cancellations (actually no-shows) we hosted a children’s department representative for all of 20 minutes. We’re tentatively “approved,” pending some unexplained requirements where she’ll “get back to us.”  The little guy we long to take as our son was abandoned in a tea field.  He manages mild cerebral palsy. I can’t even write how much he’s a part of us, how difficult it is to leave him behind. Please pray for him to know the Father’s comfort while we’re separated. (Immigration requirements forbid him to travel.) 

2.  Please pray for traveling mercies, smooth flights, easy connections and  maybe some unexpected blessing to overtake us. We could use an uncomplicated journey. 

3.  Please pray for those managing the ministry while we’re away – Carolyne, David, George, Mary and Gaudencia. 

4.  Please pray for the widowed mamas and their families. 

5.  Please pray for the children at Joyland School for the Disabled and the orphans at New Life Home (where our little guy lives). 

6.  Please pray for our family to make healthy transitions, knowing that God - the Maker of all destinies - is at work in our lives.

Asante sana for the kindness you’ve shown to us. We want to also pray for you.   Send your requests. We’ve got plenty of “airport time” to intercede!  Feel free to contact us if you would like to catch up. We’re excited to know whatGod is doing in your lives and share more about what God is doing in Kisumu,Kenya. We’ll give contact information when were in Pagosa on August 10th.

 

Mungu akubariki Rafikis.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

My Truth About Tired

Once again, it's been a while since I've posted; I really don't know why... Trying to put my finger on the reason I currently avoid a task I yearned for - writing about all God does in the lives we share in Kenya. Maybe my aversion to posting is due to the fact that we're winding down another year here, and it's time to take Tavin back to Pagoga to enroll him in 10th grade; I'm engaging in an "ignorant-bliss-thought-pattern" concerning the inevitable of leaving my son on the other side of the world.  Maybe I've not written because the constant influx of visitors, whom we LOVE, absorb our attention. Instead of writing posts, we spend our time watching them see God in the faces of the forgotten. Maybe I don't post because I constantly forget I use a wheelchair, that my muscles are tired. I'm tired. The reality is - chosen comforts allude those who cry out for the fatherless.

Yes, I'm tired; but, it's a content tired - the tired that knows I put in a good day. The connecting with widowed mamas and seeing them engage in ministry. The sweet closing of my eyes and seeing interns from stateside colleges and universities embrace the challenge of loving the unlovable. Knowing the peaceful certainty that God is moving in the miracle realm - not the miracles that happen in seconds, but the miracles God preforms over lifetimes - interconnecting passions, destinies with hopes that don't disappoint. Just speaking of these things makes me want to curl up under my mosquito net and slip into gentle thoughts of mercy and graceful justice, remembering daily experiences of wounded ones being restored.

I will never tire of the joys of hugging children rescued from pit latrines and lonely tea fields. Imagine watching the needs of those neglected - silent with crippled limbs and empty days - enjoy books and colors so they can learn about God's great glories of friendship and belonging. Helping widowed mamas know their ability to raise their children. Sharing with Kenyan churches about missions and adoption. These things inspire me to know that even in my weariness, Jesus carries me. All I am, all I do belongs to Him.

I think I haven't written because I've come to a place where words don't work. I can't find the way to bring you here on paper; so, I leave the keyboard quiet and embrace the work God set before me. I'm grateful for that honor, that privilege. Thank you, Dear Ones, for helping us love the least of these.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
Asante sana for your encouragement, support and prayers.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0