The Young Family Farm

We have a funny little saying “only before Africa” that we like to say…as it seems the craziest things always seem to happen before leaving on a mission trip. For me, today was one of those days indeed! I now know I’m in the small percentage of people who are allergic to the malaria medication I was taking–and honestly I’m just thankful the day turned out like it did!

Richard had one of his biggest meetings of the year today (he was in Houston) and I was in Georgia with the littles. I woke up feeling nauseous and wished I hadn’t taken the malaria medication the night before. Hours passed…the dizziness started–and then I knew because I was here with the children I needed to call for help in case something happened. I was hugging the toilet when everyone got here {so thankful for my sister April, brother-in-law, Christy Elphick and the Jones family!} Kevin and Leasa took me to an urgent care as soon as they got here–but the doctors there sent me right away to the ER. I was completely out of it and was carried in–so I don’t remember so much of that part.

On the way to the ER, I could tell my breathing was slowing down and I was losing consciousness a bit. Then I felt my hands and feet tingling and going numb (now I know it was due to lack of oxygen, hyperventilation and hyptokalemia (a reaction from the medicine causing your heart to be irregular from low potassium). The Jones’s are ALSO going on the trip to Africa–so this was a little pre-trip bonding I guess you could say because they were right by my side the entire time. Next thing I knew the ER was stripping me down and putting heart monitors all over my chest, ivs in and a shot or two in my arm. Then I was wheeled back for xrays and then bloodwork. And in between it all vomiting all over the place. NOT FUN.

At one point I really thought things were not good–so I turned to my friend and told him to please tell Richard I loved him if anything happened. I have never experienced anything like this before–so for me, it was really scarey–and honestly…I’m just so thankful for hospitals and doctors and medicines to reverse an allergic reaction like the one I had today!

That being said also–I’m so tired now, and not quite sure the best anti-malaria route to go–but because malaria is so bad in Zambia this momma has to figure out something:). I’m home now and all is well–and I’ve got anti-nausea medication to help me until the anti-malaria I was taking is completely out of my system. Of course these things happen before mission trips. God has a big plan for us!!! Please keep our entire team in your prayers–that we would be protected from illness, sickness and any harmful thing. Tomorrow is my last full day spending it with my family–and after today’s craziness…I want to just gobble my little ones up!

ON THAT NOTE–I didn’t make it to the post office today…so your t-shirts are delayed by ONE day;). Rico Suave has volunteered to mail them tomorrow for me:) Hope y’all all have a great night…and so thankful today turned out for the better!

XOXO,

andrea

Last night, I got together with Christy Elphick and Debbie Hall {two of the trip members} to plan our retreat for the widows and orphans. For those of you who have been praying for direction for us as we lead a time of teaching, reflection and rest on trusting God in all things…and give the 350 orphans (both girls and boys) attending and 150 widows rings during a ceremony to show their commitment in trusting their Father in Heaven…these rings to serve as reminders…we truly felt your prayers and His guidance. My first thoughts were to find a song that talks about how He cleanses us…makes us whole again when we’ve been hurt or abandoned…but instead–we were led to choose a song that just gives Him glory.

I’ll never forget when I lived in East Asia and one of my friends who had prayed to receive Christ knocked on my door to tell me she was being kicked out of the university and being taken away for her professing her faith in Christ. For the first time–I really struggled with my faith. God where are you??? Didn’t you call me here to lead these people to you??? Why does following you have to be so hard??? Take me back to fairyland Lord–where we can show up on Sunday…and fit in doing the Sunday thing instead of persecuted for faith in You. I was beginning to learn what it REALLY means to live the gospel. And really living the gospel looks RADICALLY different than just showing up on Sunday morning. To really follow Jesus—to really follow Him—there will always be a hefty cost…

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Next week–we will be going to share with these precious ones–what HE says about them. How they are His beloved. How He longs to see them well…He longs to wipe away their tears…He longs to heal their hurts. Many have no earthly parents…but He is their Father in heaven. He will never leave or forsake them…He is always there.

I know He is enough to do all these things. I know I can NEVER understand how to truly minister to these children…but HE DOES. He is great enough to help them, to heal them and I even believe He is big enough to protect them. But oh how they need our prayers!!!

Part of our talk will focus on how these precious ones can go to Him for healing…how they can forgive others…and even where they can go when, God forbid, they are hurt again. We will be meeting with the Zambian staff to come up with a plan-of-action for them to be able to go to. Because–the truth of the matter is most of these will experience things in their life-time that our children will be protected from in our homes and in our care. My heart wants to shout, “COME BACK JESUS!” as I think of the reality of what many of these children will endure in their lifetimes being done against them. My heart hits my knees and I want to say, “LORD, can’t you stop it!!! Can’t you keep evil from happening to them??? Can’t you PROTECT them Lord??? Oh Come back!!!”

BUT He is enough. He is enough. Can I and do I believe…that He is really enough? Enough for them? Enough for me? Enough for my family…as I trust Him to protect them while I go?

They will be fine I am sure…but a momma’s heart–oh a momma’s heart is still what I have and it’s always so hard to leave.

We will teach them the words to How Great is Our God…and while I wish I could tell you all the reasons why we chose that song…I’m afraid the purpose of it is yet to be revealed until we are there. I know He has something to not only teach the orphans and widows–but also us about His greatness.

And honestly–I’m dreading getting on that plane and leaving my babies on Thursday. But to have the opportunity to challenge every male student there to be a light before men…to follow Jesus and His ways…to love one another and to be a godly leader in their village…is something I am honored to be able to do…even if it means leaving my babies and having a pit in my stomach as I go. I can’t forget the reality of their lives there–and how believers…we are called to visit orphans and widows in their distress and not be polluted by the world (James 1:27).

Please pray for us as we go. Pray that God would be all over our time there–and it would not be our thoughts or voices being heard, but that He would speak through us.

I want to thank each of you who have already been a part of this trip by buying a tee. The shirts are in (so if you bought one be on the lookout!); they will be shipped out tomorrow. Here is size medium on me…just if you wanted to see how they fit and what they really look like…

Isn’t it fun with a white skirt;)???

I love that Africa is made out of children’s hands and it says, “He’s got the orphan and the widow in His hands.”

I have to believe that.

I have to believe He is enough for them.

I have to believe He is enough for me.

How I want to LIVE that He is enough for me.

If you would like a t-shirt to go toward our trip–we do have some extras. I’m wearing a medium (see below) and we have these sizes and quantities left: Ladies fit M (12), L (8), XL (5) and Unisex S (11), M (4), XL (7). They are $25 each and that includes shipping. If you buy one–please comment below the SIZE you bought so I can quickly pull it for you. You can go to this link/past post to buy a shirt. If you buy one before Wednesday {Monday or Tuesday} I’ll ship it to you before we leave. We won’t be back until July 25th…so keep our team in your prayers!

Ok…here’s an upclose of the tee–don’t make fun of my mirror picture taking abilities–had to flip this in photoshop so you could read it w/out the mirror view:)…

XOXO,

Andrea

Please pray for our team of 16 and for our safety. Thank you!!! And we could NOT have done this trip without the support and love and prayers of so many of you. What a blessing it is to be on this journey of following Him together. Thank you for in many ways “going with me”. Love y’all to pieces…and can’t wait to share while we are gone!

Love,

Andrea

It was so nice to take a break from the Georgia heat and join Rico Suave last week on a business trip. He had the hotel booked, rental car booked…and with summer here–why not use his SkyMiles to take the whole family on the business trip. Now, it was QUITE the week…it even felt sord of like a vacation {minus having my hubby around during the day while he was in meetings}! I’ll take his help though at night over running it solo any day. One thing I would choose to leave behind though was being stuck in the air with 2 two-year-olds who aren’t great travelers. DISPITE that one litte quirk…thought I’d share our fun pictures from our week!

The weather was AMAZING. Makes me wonder why we don’t all go to the lakes during the summer heat. It was in the 80s all week…just perfect weather that we only get for a week or so here in the South it seems. The kids even thought it was COLD…so there was no convincing them to jump in the water in the morning. The hotel {Grand Traverse Resort} though had a pretty sweet indoor pool. The older two especially loved it!

When Rich was at work–momma wasn’t so brave to let them swim without life jackets (even though they can swim)…made me so much more at ease knowing every one could float! 1 on 4 in a pool isn’t the easiest:) They were sports and went along with my request…

The hotel we stayed at also had beach access to Lake Michigan–so in the afternoons after nap times we would head on over to the lake. The water always seemed warmer in the afternoons. And some times we’d get lucky and Rico Suave would finish up and meeting and join us!

AND THAT my friends–is about as close as ITY gets to an open body of water. Yep. He does NOT like oceans or lakes. He likes pools…particularly baby pools. But this…NO GO. This is more his style…

He convinced me to give him my hat…my glasses…and eventually he even got my drink. He has some tactics I’ll tell ya…

You could seriously walk out FOREVER and the water was just knee deep–PERFECT for the little ones. Frankie baby especially loved it! He was busy throwing balls…practicing his kicks…just chillin’ in the shallow water…

Later in the afternoon–Richard would join us. BUT he’d have to take business calls…which this just melted my heart to see! I love watching how much Parker loves his dad and mimics what he does. When Rich had to take an important call from London, he was concentrating on the business call—and I looked back to see Parker quietly pacing WITH him…like father like son:)

AND THEN…it was time to put on the gear and see guppies and little fish…and rocks and what not:) The older two geared up…

And they took off to snorkle.

Poor Frankie baby felt left out. He had not snorkle set. He had no snorkle set–because he wanted a Lightning McQueen snorkle set–and K-Mart no havey. He INSTEAD chose Lightning McQueen goggles. Let me remind you there is NO reasoning with a 2 year old. He also insisted they be TIGHT. Like really tight. He did NOT want them loose. But no matter what we did…they just didn’t seem to be like he wanted them…

“TIGHTER!!! Tighter Daddy!” he would say…

He looked to daddy for approval…

And I almost spit out my juice when he looked at me…

Those look GREAT Frankie baby! But he knew they needed some adjusting;)

HOW about now mommy???

AWWWW…who are we kidding?! We all know Frankie baby isn’t going to put his face in the water! He gave up laughing at least!

Eventually–he did give it ONE more go (which didn’t work) and Isaac finished off my juice that I couldn’t finish because I was laughing too hard at Frank’s attempts!

His business trip to Traverse City just happened to line up with the Cherry Festival. We didn’t have much time at night because we even went along with Richard to client dinners (at THEIR request for us to join them!) One night before dinner, we decided to take them down and check it out…

I guess it’s better to ride these on empty stomachs right??

And I’m thankful to hold on the the babies while he did a few things like this with the older two (the thought of going on this makes me want to barf)…but they loved it:)

Unfortunately for the babies–they were TOO SHORT to ride anything. Frankie baby did just barely hit the line for the race cars…so he got to go on this one…

Oh if you could hear him squealing!!! It was SO cute!

Isaac didn’t fuss one bit to do anything…he just wanted me to hold him close with all this overstimulating! He was perfectly happy to watch the older ones. Before racing off to meet Rich’s clients–Parker climbed a rock wall…

He had fun repelling off too…

And then to my surprise–I saw these two waiting in line for something I wasn’t so sure about a 2 year old doing…

Crazy baby…

He had big sister in the jumpie beside him to offer moral support:)

Our LAST day in Traverse City–we grabbed pastries at a shop and then took a box to deliver at another client’s office. We thought it was a good idea to sugar them up before letting this group of clients meet the kids. Can you imagine when this crew came running in their office???

THEN we spent the afternoon having a playdate at the pool and then lunch with another AGCI family!!!! The Gothro family came to meet up with us! They live about 5 hours away from Traverse City and they had planned a camping trip just 20 minutes away. Like us–they have 4 kiddos–so the kids had such fun playing together and it was such a fun way to end our business trip!

Crazy daddy even amused the kids acting like he didn’t know the bucket of water was going to fall on him in the sprayground…(how funny are Laney and Frank covering up their mouths in dismay!)

SO…that was our week in Traverse City packed into a post:). I completely understand why so many go North for the summer and camp there too. Michigin folk are SO FRIENDLY and kind! (They might even have something on the South…in face I think they do after our visit!) It’ll be awhile before I can brave another flight with the little ones, but I hope one day we can go back and visit another spot on the lakes!!!

NOW…off to do some laundry! (By the way–when we stepped out of the airport in Georgia…the heat came on and I felt like I was stepping off the plane in the Sudan! Oh my–it is HOT here. BUT the North doesn’t serve sweet tea at every restraurant…so I guess you can’t have it all;). I told Rich though if he ever wants to relocate to be closer to his MI clients…I’m totally cool with that!)

XOXO!

Andrea