With Grinding Needs Everywhere... Why China?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
In speaking with different groups of people about a rising China, I noticed a bubbling up of anger and fear in many. These feelings seem to stem from multiple dimensions grounded in economic threat, past political distrust, and ideological oppression. So the question, “Why do you feel the need to go all the way to China to work with orphans when so many need help everywhere?” is a fair one.
This question, like the question of relevance I shared in the last post, had no firm answer. I simply did not know what was leading me to China. But I remember a line in the “Artist Way” that may shed some light, “Anger (and fear) can point the way, not just the finger.” Many times the things that make us feel most uncomfortable and uneasy are just the things we need to do. When we stretch, we grow.
I could never have dreamed how China was going to affect me. I have benefitted from the strength and wisdom of those with physical disabilities, and from the openness and love of those with int
ellectual disabilities my entire career. The individual interactions with the children and young adults at the Hengyang welfare center and orphanage were powerful because of the extent of need. But in working with ALS patients, I am no longer a stranger to this feeling of being a helpless caregiver against overwhelming reality.
What I experienced in China was a deeper understanding of the needs of humanity as a whole, and this was fascinating and humbling.
I now have a broader perspective of the concept of victim. I left China wondering, “Who is it that one prays for?” Is it the abandoned child, or the parent with no way out and no hope? Is it the person in the park with a hard heart who looks in disgust upon a child with disabilities? Is it the corrupt government officials at local levels, or is it the party leaders wrapped in and warped by a godless ideology? If you embrace an eternal perspective, all are victims who are separated from the truth, from the source of creation, from love. So who becomes the greater victim? Who finds themselves separated the most and suffering within the greatest darkness?
Our physical and intellectual capabilities and our illusion of strength and independence separate us from God. This, of course, is our greatest disability. One finds those strange utterances of Jes
us from the Mount long ago confusing and contrary to our earthly experience until one sees their own disability of heart and soul. My answer to the question, “Why go to China?” began to take form. “China is going to be an enormous part of our children’s future, and the state of China’s heart must be our concern.”
In every society the layers of victims are varied and many. Fear is the only constant. In some there is the fear of losing power, position, and control. In others there is the fear of not enough resource, opportunity, and security. In others still there is the fear of complete injustice and oppression. Differences, loss, disability, and death are the ultimate unknown of our human condition. Fear can lead to the exclusion of those facing these realities in any given society. When looked at this way, we realize we all are disabled.
Those with physical and intellectual disabilities continue to be rejected and excluded in many countries today, but we must not forget our own history. It was a short 17 years ago when my good friend, Sharon Gardner, sat at the kitchen table with visionary Justin Dart and from her wheelchair penned the lines that would lay the ground work of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Throughout most of the twentieth century American families also felt few options and resources when faced with the needs of a child with severe physical or intellectual disability. Our history of disability rights is a positive but young one.
We should be cautious not to take a self-righteous posture with nations at a different point on the
path. Our only concern should be a vision of justice, opportunity, and empowerment. This vision must be all that motivates us to move out in love, and not an egotistical control of the steps one should take to arrive there.
The only way out from underneath fear is hope. Hope in something greater.
I see the next generation of young people with me on this trip, and the next generation of Chinese college students visiting the orphanage with this hope. I see the work of ICC and the desire to educate and break down the barriers of superstition and fear in the Chinese community with this hope. All movement forward requires thrusting oneself off balance, extending our reach, and planting our next step some place new.
Wh
y is it imperative we include and empower the physically and intellectually disabled populations within all human societies? We need to because our spiritual evolution depends on it. These individuals we so quickly devalue have abilities we “temporarily” able-bodied and able-minded don’t have. They have the potential for strength and wisdom, a tenderness, openness, and fearless love that we simply do not recognize in our competitive and materialistic world. Those with physical and intellectual challenges may have disabilities we can see, but those with heart and soul challenges have disabilities that will eventually take down a family, a nation, a spiritually conscious species. Not until we become aware of our own brokenness and fear can we embrace the universality of the vulnerable heart. It is from here we will begin to see every human being as a valuable link in the chain of humanity.
When a society only places value on the physical and intellectual capacity of its members to give back to the whole, this society starves its heart and its soul. It remains incomplete.
I am moved by the last lines of the book, Becoming Human, by Jean Vanier.
“We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time.”
Thank you for joining me in my journey to China. I would love your final thoughts.
Michele
This question, like the question of relevance I shared in the last post, had no firm answer. I simply did not know what was leading me to China. But I remember a line in the “Artist Way” that may shed some light, “Anger (and fear) can point the way, not just the finger.” Many times the things that make us feel most uncomfortable and uneasy are just the things we need to do. When we stretch, we grow.
I could never have dreamed how China was going to affect me. I have benefitted from the strength and wisdom of those with physical disabilities, and from the openness and love of those with int
What I experienced in China was a deeper understanding of the needs of humanity as a whole, and this was fascinating and humbling.
I now have a broader perspective of the concept of victim. I left China wondering, “Who is it that one prays for?” Is it the abandoned child, or the parent with no way out and no hope? Is it the person in the park with a hard heart who looks in disgust upon a child with disabilities? Is it the corrupt government officials at local levels, or is it the party leaders wrapped in and warped by a godless ideology? If you embrace an eternal perspective, all are victims who are separated from the truth, from the source of creation, from love. So who becomes the greater victim? Who finds themselves separated the most and suffering within the greatest darkness?
Our physical and intellectual capabilities and our illusion of strength and independence separate us from God. This, of course, is our greatest disability. One finds those strange utterances of Jes
In every society the layers of victims are varied and many. Fear is the only constant. In some there is the fear of losing power, position, and control. In others there is the fear of not enough resource, opportunity, and security. In others still there is the fear of complete injustice and oppression. Differences, loss, disability, and death are the ultimate unknown of our human condition. Fear can lead to the exclusion of those facing these realities in any given society. When looked at this way, we realize we all are disabled.
Those with physical and intellectual disabilities continue to be rejected and excluded in many countries today, but we must not forget our own history. It was a short 17 years ago when my good friend, Sharon Gardner, sat at the kitchen table with visionary Justin Dart and from her wheelchair penned the lines that would lay the ground work of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Throughout most of the twentieth century American families also felt few options and resources when faced with the needs of a child with severe physical or intellectual disability. Our history of disability rights is a positive but young one.
We should be cautious not to take a self-righteous posture with nations at a different point on the
The only way out from underneath fear is hope. Hope in something greater.
I see the next generation of young people with me on this trip, and the next generation of Chinese college students visiting the orphanage with this hope. I see the work of ICC and the desire to educate and break down the barriers of superstition and fear in the Chinese community with this hope. All movement forward requires thrusting oneself off balance, extending our reach, and planting our next step some place new.
Wh
I am moved by the last lines of the book, Becoming Human, by Jean Vanier.
“We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time.”
Thank you for joining me in my journey to China. I would love your final thoughts.
Michele
0 Comments
The Greatest Fear - Our Own Irrelevance
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
In the last two entries I attempted to identify the multiple dimensions and illustrate the gravity of the problem facing the disabled and abandoned children of China. In this blog, I want to address another of those haunting questions which accompanied me on my journey.
During the decision making process, planning, and ultimate departure for a destination orphanage on the other side of the planet, I received this question repeatedly, “What lasting impact, what difference can you possibly make in just two weeks?” This inquiry, which was posed by friends, colleagues, and my family, defined the only true fear I had; my own irrelevance.
Of course I did not want to burden my husband, children, and patients with my absence if the whole trip was pointless. The fact is I had absolutely no answer to this nauseating question. I truly did not know what could be or would be accomplished. I simply felt led.
After spending some time getting to know our young team, I realized I was not the only one wrestling with this fear. Fortunately, the angels at ICC, the children and young adults at the orphanage, and the Chinese nationals gave us the greatest gift we could receive. They readily accepted every gift, expertise, talent, and extension of love we had to offer.
We immediately settled in to different areas of the welfare center and ICC run orphanage. Many, many gifts were given and received and lives changed on both sides.
That is just the beautiful way it works.
Personally, I had the opportunity to work closely with Alison and Galina, the two international ICC therapists, providing seating and positioning input for those with significant neuromuscular impairment. The little girls in the fifth flat had wonderfully stable wooden chairs but benefitted from some additional interventions to provide them more boundaries and support for their extremely low muscle tone.
These two photos of Da Da show a bit of what we were trying to accomplish.
Alison already had phenomenal connections with a Chinese gentleman in Hengyang who quickly created the seating components we requested. He constructed, padded, and covered thigh guides and lateral supports, and he made anti-gravity wooded wedges so the girl’s chairs could be rotated from a functional position upright to a rest position tilted about 40 degrees off gravity.
This photo of Ling Ling with her chair on the wedge shows her seated in a rest position, stable, and aligned. Now all she needs is a set of wheels.
This experience reminds me of a story I heard long ago about a little boy and a starfish. Walking alone one morning a little boy encounters hundreds of starfish washed up along the beach. Seeing each starfish suffering with a grinding need to breathe, the boy reaches down and begins to toss the starfish back into the water one by one.
Just then an older gentleman walks up beside him and asks, “What are you doing? There must be thousands of starfish along this beach. Each time the tide comes back in, hundreds more are deposited. What possible
difference can you make?”
The little boy looks at the old man, thinks for a moment, and reaches down tossing another starfish back into the sea.
“Well,” turning back to face the gentleman, “I made a difference to that one.”
There were a number of young boys in a different area of the orphanage with more positioning needs. We took the opportunity to use these little guys for an instructional session together with the PT students and the Chinese nationals training under ICC to be therapy techs.
We completed mat assessments and went over some ideas for interventions to address the different needs. Similar to the young therapy techs in the welfare center these Chinese nationals were intent and hungry for information, and the interaction with the doctorate level PT students from the U.S. was priceless. The entire experience was a poignant reminder that when we teach we can have exponential reach.
All in all I believe we positively touch lives. Many of which, we will never be aware.
Were we relevant?
Did we impact the problem in all the ways we would hope?
Are these questions ours to ask? Are these answers ours to judge?
The problem of relevance is inherent in the limitations of the term. This concept is static, and life is dynamic. Relevance is something we strive for, want to have, and wish to hold on to. But for us humans, trapped in space and time, the search for relevance is a search in the past. By the time something is judged as relevant it is gone. It is meaningless really. What is important is the reality of the moment. Are we living it, pouring into it, aware of it, being present for it?
My final thoughts are these, “Why didn’t Jesus simply wave his hand and heal the entire village?”
“Why doesn’t God swoop down and obliterate evil, suffering, and oppression with a bolt of lightning?”
I believe the answer is because this would place His relevance in the past.
Our Creator chooses a living relationship. She chooses to dynamically soften and change the hearts of individuals. He chooses one to one interaction, touch, and healing…
Throwing us back into the life giving water, one starfish at a time.
Our greatest fear may be our own irrelevance, but perfect love drives out all fear.
1 John 4:18
If you are interested in the Hand in Hand ICC child sponsorship program visit
www.chinaconcern.org
Thanks for the opportunity to share.
I would love your thoughts. Michele
During the decision making process, planning, and ultimate departure for a destination orphanage on the other side of the planet, I received this question repeatedly, “What lasting impact, what difference can you possibly make in just two weeks?” This inquiry, which was posed by friends, colleagues, and my family, defined the only true fear I had; my own irrelevance.
Of course I did not want to burden my husband, children, and patients with my absence if the whole trip was pointless. The fact is I had absolutely no answer to this nauseating question. I truly did not know what could be or would be accomplished. I simply felt led.
We immediately settled in to different areas of the welfare center and ICC run orphanage. Many, many gifts were given and received and lives changed on both sides.
Personally, I had the opportunity to work closely with Alison and Galina, the two international ICC therapists, providing seating and positioning input for those with significant neuromuscular impairment. The little girls in the fifth flat had wonderfully stable wooden chairs but benefitted from some additional interventions to provide them more boundaries and support for their extremely low muscle tone.
Alison already had phenomenal connections with a Chinese gentleman in Hengyang who quickly created the seating components we requested. He constructed, padded, and covered thigh guides and lateral supports, and he made anti-gravity wooded wedges so the girl’s chairs could be rotated from a functional position upright to a rest position tilted about 40 degrees off gravity.
This experience reminds me of a story I heard long ago about a little boy and a starfish. Walking alone one morning a little boy encounters hundreds of starfish washed up along the beach. Seeing each starfish suffering with a grinding need to breathe, the boy reaches down and begins to toss the starfish back into the water one by one.
Just then an older gentleman walks up beside him and asks, “What are you doing? There must be thousands of starfish along this beach. Each time the tide comes back in, hundreds more are deposited. What possible
“Well,” turning back to face the gentleman, “I made a difference to that one.”
There were a number of young boys in a different area of the orphanage with more positioning needs. We took the opportunity to use these little guys for an instructional session together with the PT students and the Chinese nationals training under ICC to be therapy techs.
All in all I believe we positively touch lives. Many of which, we will never be aware.
Were we relevant?
Did we impact the problem in all the ways we would hope?
Are these questions ours to ask? Are these answers ours to judge?
My final thoughts are these, “Why didn’t Jesus simply wave his hand and heal the entire village?”
“Why doesn’t God swoop down and obliterate evil, suffering, and oppression with a bolt of lightning?”
I believe the answer is because this would place His relevance in the past.
Our Creator chooses a living relationship. She chooses to dynamically soften and change the hearts of individuals. He chooses one to one interaction, touch, and healing…
Throwing us back into the life giving water, one starfish at a time.
Our greatest fear may be our own irrelevance, but perfect love drives out all fear.
1 John 4:18
If you are interested in the Hand in Hand ICC child sponsorship program visit
www.chinaconcern.org
Thanks for the opportunity to share.
I would love your thoughts. Michele
Palpable Stories of China's Disabled Children
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The last blog post gave background to the situation around disabled and abandoned children in China. This one cuts to the heart of the matter by presenting palpable individual stories and a surreal day in the park with the kiddos from the orphanage.
The first “story” is about Bi Bi. I placed the word story in quotations because we know very little solid information regarding the actual situation around most of the children. Bi Bi is one of the bright and happy little girls with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy now under the loving care of ICC. She cannot walk and is cognitively impaired, but she has the love of thousands within her and can give you a “don’t mess with me” scowl as convincing as any five year-old I have ever encountered.
There were stories told that Bi Bi’s courageous father had come to see her. It is believed now that she is a twin. As a parent, I can only conclude that Bi Bi’s father loves her, he thinks of her, and he simply cannot personally care for her within the current system. When I think of the bond between twins, I wonder if Bi Bi's sister or brother can feel her spirit as well.
Next is the tale of Sheng Sheng. This truly is a tale because we have absolutely no information about this little boy except that he was abandoned and brought to the welfare center just a month ago. We can tell by Sheng Sheng’s teeth he must be about six years old. He loves to be outside. If he could speak, Sheng Sheng could tell us his own story. It might go something like this.
I was born into a loving lower class family. I was fine and we all went home together. My mommy and daddy both had to work hard to put rice on the table, but my Granny took very good care of me. She was always there. I did not walk or talk as early as the other kids. We had no money for doctors or therapy, but Granny did the best she could. She loved me. Eventually I started walking and talking a little with Granny’s help, but then one day she was gone. Do you know what happened to my Granny?
Mom and dad tried to put me into school, but the school would not accept me. I did not understand. No one seemed to understand. I sat at home a lot in front of the TV. I cannot walk by myself, and I don’t have anyone to talk to. I was very lonely and now I am here.
Do you know where I am?
I had the opportunity to work with Sheng Sheng quite a bit while in China. He is a profoundly developmentally delayed little boy, but it becomes obvious when you handle and play with him that his physical and cognitive levels were higher in the past. He needs one to one therapy and a lot of love and affection to reach his potential. ICC is now currently at capacity in Hengyang, and they are unable to bring Sheng Sheng under their direct care. Alison, ICC’s one physical therapist from the UK, promises to try and include Sheng Sheng in some group activities with the other ICC boys his age.
A boy like Sheng Sheng would probably not be in line to receive the Chinese tech’s attention within the welfare center because his likelihood of being adopted is so low. Before I left though, Alison and I completed a therapy evaluation with these young, caring, and smart ladies. They were engaged and hungry for knowledge as we went through an assessment, goals, and an appropriate treatment plan for Sheng Sheng. Alison translated what we were seeing and saying as I watched in awe of the artistic beauty of hand written Chinese across a P.T. evaluation. I learned later from Alison what we had done with the therapy techs in the welfare center was a first.
Where there is hope… There is possibility.
We spent every day within the welfare center and ICC facilities during our two weeks in China except one. I never dreamed the depth of the problem would be revealed during a walk in the park. We piled our team, some of the Chinese caregivers, and lots and lots of strollers for the non-ambulatory kiddos into the ICC bus. We arrived and unloaded. By this time our group of tall and lanky Westerners was quite used to being stared at, but today was different.
The looks we received from others in the park were ones of shock, dismay, and disgust. The confusion and discontent of seeing a group of disabled children out at the park was palpable. For the first time, I felt in my gut what was being described to me as the societal stigma and prejudice against the disabled. I thought of how Jesus must have felt when he was asked, “Why do you spend your time with the worthless and unlovable of our society?”
The message of Christ was played out in some small way that day in the park. Captured in the life of Christ was his movement not just his words. He did not just say there is a spiritual law that governs the consciousness of your society by loving the least of these…
...He loved them.
We had the divine opportunity to increase awareness and soften hearts that day in the park. He does show up when we follow him. I have never felt closer to God than on that day, and again I received much more than I had given.
Here is a poem that illustrates a portion of what I have been given.
My soul aches for what you do not have
While your spirit soars free, joyful, and glad.
Are you simply unaware? Not knowing what you lack.
Or is it me, as I play judge of a life that’s intact.
Who is rich here, and who is poor?
My child you have redefined what it is to have more.
You live off a strength I fear never to understand
As you bless me again...
...With the tender touch of your hand.
Michele Zink Harris
Hengyang, China 2010
Your thoughts always keep me going...
There were stories told that Bi Bi’s courageous father had come to see her. It is believed now that she is a twin. As a parent, I can only conclude that Bi Bi’s father loves her, he thinks of her, and he simply cannot personally care for her within the current system. When I think of the bond between twins, I wonder if Bi Bi's sister or brother can feel her spirit as well.
Next is the tale of Sheng Sheng. This truly is a tale because we have absolutely no information about this little boy except that he was abandoned and brought to the welfare center just a month ago. We can tell by Sheng Sheng’s teeth he must be about six years old. He loves to be outside. If he could speak, Sheng Sheng could tell us his own story. It might go something like this.
I was born into a loving lower class family. I was fine and we all went home together. My mommy and daddy both had to work hard to put rice on the table, but my Granny took very good care of me. She was always there. I did not walk or talk as early as the other kids. We had no money for doctors or therapy, but Granny did the best she could. She loved me. Eventually I started walking and talking a little with Granny’s help, but then one day she was gone. Do you know what happened to my Granny?
Mom and dad tried to put me into school, but the school would not accept me. I did not understand. No one seemed to understand. I sat at home a lot in front of the TV. I cannot walk by myself, and I don’t have anyone to talk to. I was very lonely and now I am here.
Do you know where I am?
A boy like Sheng Sheng would probably not be in line to receive the Chinese tech’s attention within the welfare center because his likelihood of being adopted is so low. Before I left though, Alison and I completed a therapy evaluation with these young, caring, and smart ladies. They were engaged and hungry for knowledge as we went through an assessment, goals, and an appropriate treatment plan for Sheng Sheng. Alison translated what we were seeing and saying as I watched in awe of the artistic beauty of hand written Chinese across a P.T. evaluation. I learned later from Alison what we had done with the therapy techs in the welfare center was a first.
Where there is hope… There is possibility.
We spent every day within the welfare center and ICC facilities during our two weeks in China except one. I never dreamed the depth of the problem would be revealed during a walk in the park. We piled our team, some of the Chinese caregivers, and lots and lots of strollers for the non-ambulatory kiddos into the ICC bus. We arrived and unloaded. By this time our group of tall and lanky Westerners was quite used to being stared at, but today was different.
The message of Christ was played out in some small way that day in the park. Captured in the life of Christ was his movement not just his words. He did not just say there is a spiritual law that governs the consciousness of your society by loving the least of these…
...He loved them.
We had the divine opportunity to increase awareness and soften hearts that day in the park. He does show up when we follow him. I have never felt closer to God than on that day, and again I received much more than I had given.
Here is a poem that illustrates a portion of what I have been given.
My heart is swollen tight to the point of breaking
While yours is empty and open, ready for taking.
My eyes fill with confused and stinging tears
While your eyes show no sign of earthly fears.
The enormous lump in my throat makes it hard to speak
While your laughter fills the room with giggles and squeaks.
My mind is overwhelmed with your grinding need
While yours is calm, uncluttered with desires to succeed.
My ears recoil from the chaos and shrill
While yours withdraw to a place of silence and still.
While your spirit soars free, joyful, and glad.
Are you simply unaware? Not knowing what you lack.
Or is it me, as I play judge of a life that’s intact.
Who is rich here, and who is poor?
My child you have redefined what it is to have more.
You live off a strength I fear never to understand
As you bless me again...
...With the tender touch of your hand.
Michele Zink Harris
Hengyang, China 2010
Your thoughts always keep me going...
China's Disabled and Abandoned Children
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Hengyang is a large city in deep mainland China. The people live on very little, but not unlike hundreds of millions throughout rural and urban centers. As you
Further compounding these issues is a deeply ingrained societal stigma around disability in general. The value of an individual is closely tied to the physical and mental capacity to provide for the material needs of the society. A child with a disability is rarely seen as valuable or deserving of care. The one-child policy places crushing pressure on an individual family unit to have a child that will be capable of providing for his or her parents as they age. All this taken together paints the grim picture of up to an 85% mortality rate seen
Let me end this exploration of why decisions seem to be made the way they are with an actual and almost unfathomable situation. While we were on lunch break one afternoon from the orphanage, a premature baby boy was wrapped in a blanket and left in a box outside the gate of the welfare center. He looked about 28 weeks gestation with very weak respirations and a lot of bruising on his skull.
Why not just go in and hand him over to the welfare staff?
Because abandoning your child is actually illegal in China even though there seems to be no way out for these families. So a child must be left for someone else to find them and then taken in by an uninvolved party to the welfare center. The same superstition, bad luck, and bad karma around having a child with a disability seem to exist around death as well. The family is given no hope by the doctors, and they are told to leave the hospital. The thought that fear, superstition, and social stigma keeps a parent from even holding their baby until he dies is difficult to wrap one’s head around. The abandoned premature baby boy with no name had returned home to his creator by the time we returned to the orphanage the next morning.
I believe the answer to this question is that ICC practices the true meaning of evangelism; to gently love and serve without a personal agenda, and when we have the opportunity to declare “why” we do it…
We tell them clearly, “Yahweh.”
I always appreciate your thoughts, and I look forward to sharing more of this amazing journey in future blogs. Michele
For further information on the healthcare system in China.
http://takingnote.tcf.org/2008/04/chinas-health-c.html
Do you see a Rectangle or a Circle?... "Yep."
Thursday, May 06, 2010
In other words, "Everything is Spiritual," is a layman's discussion of general relativity, quantum mechanics, and where the two meet in a spiritual unified theory. Most of these perceived oddities of course are secondary to our painfully limited ability to perceive our universe while trapped in three dimensional space and linear time.
Rob Bell borrows, just as did the creators of "What the Bleep," from the 1884 satirical novella, "Flatland," by Edwin A. Abbott to demonstrate his point of our limited perception. In two dimensional Flatland, something as simple as a marker can look very different. Take a marker and hold it between your fingers (a glue stick works well too) so you are looking at the length straight on. It is a rectangle. If you live in two dimensional Flatland the marker is certainly a rectangle. Unless of course the marker faces you top on in your version of Flatland, rendering the marker an indisputable circle. As humans, living in our "superior" three dimensional world we answer the question of whether the marker is a rectangle or a square with a matter of fact, "Yep."
The marker trick is great for kids when they are struggling to understand the point of view of another.
Being literally half way around the planet, I cannot think of a more important time to keep the "marker trick" firmly in the front of my mind. I will be immersed in ancient cultures, languages, and ideologies much different from my own. In a place so foreign to my comfortable rectangular perception, I pray I can turn my mind inside out, appreciate the full circle of humanity, and answer His call with a simple, "Yep."
As a physical therapist with a specialty in both seating and movement disorder, I hope I can impact the enormous physical need in some small way. As a mother, I hope I can provide a loving touch and a smile that will transcend cultural and language barriers. As a woman, I hope I can empower a young woman to reach for her dreams. As a Christ follower, I hope to be constantly humbled with the knowledge that nothing can be done without aligning with the dreams of God, the love of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
I ask for your prayers as we prepare our hands and minds to be strong while our hearts break for what breaks His.
A special thank you to my husband, Dave, and all the friends who will be helping make the time while I'm gone a little less stressful for the boys.
Gift idea........
Click here to look inside
Order Your Copy
