Thanksgiving 2015: Thoughts While Waiting

(From Lisa's journal while we wait in Nairobi for adoption paperwork to be completed.)

It’s almost Thanksgiving Day in USA. Mark and I sit in Nairobi Art Café. Conversations in many different languages waft around us. It’s late. Christmas lights blur through the heavy rain, and we want to be home. We long to share this holiday with family and friends, but no. We won’t even be with our kids when Thanksgiving blooms. We’ll be driving across the country toward them to share whatever is available at the market to cook. 

In this, we give thanks.

Tonight, the congested traffic keeps us stalled because the Pope visits this international city. 
Tonight, we sit among Chinese, Arabs, Somalians, so many rural Kenyan dialects we can’t discern. 
We wait. We pray. 
We share with the young woman who sit by herself busy being alone on her phone. 
We watch the burka-covered girl leave with a group of men. 
We read the newspaper - Turkey shoots down a Russian Jet. Tunisia suicide bomb kills 12. 
Our hearts ache.  
But tonight we are thankful to share His truth with those searching.

Thanksgiving. 
What are we thankful for as the rains pour down on a country that currently forbids families to adopt orphans, that welcomes a religious dignitary while hiding corruption behind well manicured receptions, that ignores a call to take up their cross and follow Him…? 
The rain continues falling.  
 But we are thankful, 
as God will not let the pounding rain drown out the cry for justice, for mercy, for grace.

A song reverberates over the sound system…”Oh Africa…Africa… Africa… where are you?”… 

We wonder.  
 An old man sweet-talks a teenage girl over pink ice cream. 
A young wazunju guy plays games on his laptop ignorant to the sadness around him.
Hard rains do not relent; colors look hazy, images distort.  
Yet… God. He is not foggy or far. 
We sense His presence near. 
Ready to save. 
Ready to bring freedom to a place that knows only expensive loss for fake liberty. 
They cannot pay for the real. 
Only Jesus - He sacrificed for us all. 
We are thankful.

Blessed Thanksgiving friends and family.
Asante sana for your prayers, support and encouragement.
hugs from the haugers Ooo0o

Melodrama to Miracles

Yikes! This week the adversary of all that’s good played melodrama to an extreme, heaping relentless crisis to a fever pitch of tragic haplessness, trying to leave us emotional barren…  Melodrama worms it’s way in, tempting us to latch onto its nail-biting, anxiety-driven, whirlpool of sensationalism…

Melodrama 1: 

Henry’s adoption… unstable rules, months of delays, 15 times in court, lost files, absent judges, missing lawyers, neglected reports…

Packed court left us standing in the hall listening for our case to be called.

Melodrama 2: 

Unexplained sicknesses… 

reoccurring fevers, body aches, unreliable lab results, 

too much vomit…

Melodrama 3:

  Violent thugs… 

vandalize the church, welded shut the entrances, threatened those 

going for prayer, graffiti warning people to stay away...

  

Our Creator never intended us to be overcome by all the exaggerated predicaments 

authored by the enemy of our souls. No, God wants us to ignore the commotion, 

enjoy the story and trust Him to write the final scene.   

He changes melodrama to miracles.

Miracle 1:   

The judge declared we are FINALLY, LEGALLY, OFFICIALLY Henry family forever! 

Yippee Jesus! Psalm 68:6 - God sets the lonely in families. We are grateful to be 

Henry's family. God rescued an abandoned baby boy, placed him in a good orphanage till 

He joined us together. Such beautiful justice from His amazing grace - a son!

Henry sharing sweets at the orphanage where he lived for almost 4 years.

Rocking the family bliss, although Baba looks a bit confused.

Miracle 2:   

 The undiagnosed sickness is leaving just as abruptly as it came.The boys

consistently tested negative for typhoid and malaria. Thank God!

(Imagine smiling children and empty vomit buckets.)

  

Miracle 3:   

The authorities dealt with the thugs and the corrupt man who seeks evil. No one 

was hurt, and more people came to church to see what all the fuss was about. 

The leadership team worked well supporting one another and the church.

WE ARE THE CHURCH!  Beautiful, brave sisters proving the enemy wrong!

      Gates of the church open wide for all to enter and pray.

God provided security.

Freedom to worship without fear!

 Please keep praying with us as the Lord takes what the adversary means for 

bad and turns it around for good.

• Continued successful training as we move programs and projects to the church Resource Center (which was not vandalized at all!).  May the leadership team and staff keep communicating the vision to biblically help the poor by using viable, sustainable ministry tools.

• The mamas of the two accountability support groups remain faithful, to grow spiritually, and build wholesome relationships in serving others.  May they prosper to pay school fees. May their children develop well and seek the Lord.

• As we work on exiting this compound and make plans to travel stateside, we need paperwork completed – adoption order, certificate, passport, visa and plane tickets. We have to make a few trips to Nairobi offices to secure these documents. We also maintain a full schedule of ministry responsibilities. May our kids thrive and process their experiences well. May the Lord provide and protect us.

We are sincerely blessed by your kindness to remember us and those we love in Kenya.
Asante sana for your prayers, support and encouragement.

hugs from the haugers Ooo0o