Monthly Update #2 (Oct ’08)

Dear Friends and Supporters of

MISSION CONNECTIONS…
 
Greetings from Boise!  Thank you so much to those who responded to our last update with questions, suggestions, and words of encouragement.

I love hearing from you, and welcome your input as we move forward together in this adventure called Mission Connections.   

            

Let’s begin this Update Letter with a little GAME:

Who can tell me how many times the word “connect” or “connections” (or any form of those words) is used in this entire letter, starting with “Dear Friends” and ending with my signature?  Sometimes the words are highlighted, or bold, or colored, but sometimes not, so you’ll have to be sharp! 

If you reply to me with the correct number (and especially if you also say hi and tell me how you’re doing) you will receive a fantastic prize… or at least recognition in our next Update Letter, and probably extra points in heaven as well   :)   

If you are the 7th person to respond with the correct number, you seriously will receive a prize, not even kidding (I won’t tell you what the prize is, but I will tell you it came from Kenya.)  Good luck, Connection Seekers!

In the last update, I mentioned that God has given me the gift of allowing me to CONNECT with African refugees who are being resettled in Boise, and I promised you a story.  The first African friend I connected with here in Boise is a soft-spoken refugee woman named Chantal.  At the end of this letter, you will find her story.

 

BUT FIRST, SOME SMALL BITS OF CONNECTION NEWS:

     *BIT OF NEWS #1   Our son-in-law, Bryan Rupp, is finishing his final semester at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, as an International Studies major. One of his requirements is to do an internship with an international non-profit organization, and I’m happy to report that he has chosen to do that internship with Mission Connections. This means that he has several hours per week to devote to tasks that I have neither the time nor the expertise to tackle on my own, e.g. starting up the Mission Connections website (which, thanks to Bryan, will be up and running soon!) as well as doing some research for us.  We appreciate his sacrifice in choosing to volunteer with Mission Connections, as he could have chosen an organization that could pay him for his services.  He is delightful to work with, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have his help.  He and Leah are hoping to be with us in Kenya for about a month this summer, listening and learning along with us as we seek to connect with the slum-dwellers and street kids of Kitale. 

(P.S. Can anyone help me think of an alternative to the term “son-in-law”? It’s such an impersonal sounding way to refer to someone who’s such an important part of my life.)

 

   

  *BIT OF NEWS #2   (AKA “Money Schmoney”)  Some of you have asked for a financial update on Mission Connections, i.e. how much of our needed support has come in and how much is still needed.  Thank you so much for being concerned enough to ask.  I’m working on figuring out some percentages, and I’ll be including that in detail in the next update.   Although the figures will show you that we have a long way to go, we’re so excited about the team of supporters that God has already brought to us.  If you’d like to join us in prayer as we trust God to CONNECT us with the resources we need so we can make connections in Kenya this summer, we would love to have your prayer support.

 

    *BIT OF NEWS #3 With the help of our connections in Kenya, we’ve begun looking for housing for us and our small team of helpers for this summer.   It’s a bit tricky because we want to live as humbly as possible and be “among” the people, but we also need to consider safety and security.   

 

 

Okay, now for Chantal’s story:

The first time I met Chantal, she looked so frightened and overwhelmed, my heart went out to her.  When she learned that I speak Swahili, she asked me to come visit her, which turned out to be the first of many visits. Gradually she’s shared with me these chapters in her story… 

 

Chantal was only 5 days old when her family had to flee her native country of Burundi following a campaign of violence by the government against citizens of a rival tribe.  The 1972 violence in Burundi killed some 200,000 and triggered the flight of 150,000 (including Chantal’s family) into neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (then called Zaire). These events are often called the “first genocide” of the Great Lakes Region, and are connected to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which nearly 1 million were killed, and from which the movie “Hotel Rwanda” was made.

 

Chantal’s family resettled into a refugee camp in Congo, where they stayed for several years.  When tribal and political violence broke out in Congo, the family fled once again, this time to Tanzania, where they settled into another refugee camp.  By the time the United States began accepting Burundian refugees for resettlement in 2007, Chantal had lived all of her 35 years in exile, and had by now married and had 3 children.  She and her husband, Jerome, were expecting their 4th child when they were approved to resettle in the United States and began the detailed process of pre-orientation and other preparations. 

 

As they were waiting for the baby’s birth and the finalization of their paperwork, Jerome became very ill with hepatitis and within 3 days was dead.  In spite of her grief, Chantal decided to continue with their plan to emigrate to the U.S.  The new baby boy arrived safely and was 10 months old when Chantal boarded the plane with all 4 children, bound for the U.S.  They were assigned to a city called Boise, Idaho, where they arrived on June 13, 2008, with no money, no english skills, and no experience living outside a refugee camp.

 

 That very same week, the Harrods also moved to Boise, Idaho, and excitedly planned to attend an international church we’d heard about, a church attended by African refugees.  The first time we attended there was also Chantal’s first time to attend.  I spoke with her after church, and made arrangements to visit her at her apartment a few days later. She and I agree that only God could’ve connected us with such perfect timing.  

 

Since that first meeting, I’ve had the privilege of translating for her, helping her fill out forms (hundreds of them), driving her places, enrolling her kids in school, teaching her how to use things like vacuum cleaners and shopping carts, praying with her, and sitting with her quietly when her grief spills out as tears.

 

But what she gives to me is far more valuable… an unearthly view of what really matters.  Because Chantal has no earthly place in which she feels at home, nothing to cling to here for security, she has no attachment to those things.  She knows that her only real home is in heaven, and her only real security is God.

 

She worries sometimes… about her kids growing up in a strange country without a father… about money (how will she pay the rent and support a family of 5 with no english skills and no job experience?)… about never again seeing the friends and relatives she left behind in Africa.  That’s when I remind her that God will not abandon her, that I will not abandon her.  We both know there is no guarantee that things will always go well for her and her children. She has experienced too much pain to believe in a God of platitudes. But she does believe in a God of love and refuge, a God who connects us to eachother so we can carry eachother’s burdens, and even sometimes carry eachother, as we journey to our True Home.

 ~~~~~

 

You will be hearing from me again soon, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact me with comments or questions. Also, if you don’t mind connecting me with any prayer needs that you have, I would love to be carrying you to Jesus in my prayers.

 

 

With love, because the world needs what your heart has to offer,

 

Traci                                                                                                         

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                            

                                                           

Monthly Update #1 (Sept ’08)

Dear Friends and Supporters of Mission Connections:

    Greetings from Boise!  We so appreciate your support of us and your interest in Mission Connections.  As things get rolling with our new work, I’ll be keeping you updated on our news and progress.  

    BOISE NEWS:  We’re getting settled into our new home and having a great time exploring the city and surrounding area. Some of our favorite discoveries so far (most likely not in this order):

            ~Hiking and biking trails in the nearby foothills

            ~Hot sunny weather and incredible sunsets

            ~African refugee population in Boise, many of whom speak Swahili

            ~Strawberry Limeade at Sonic (1/2 price between 2 and 4 p.m!)

    JUSTIN spent the summer with us here in Idaho, working at various odd jobs and getting to know the streets of Boise.  He’s now a student at George Fox University in Newberg, OR, where he’s getting accustomed to the excitement and turbulence of college life!  Since LEAH AND BRYAN also live in Newberg and HANNAH lives in nearby Portland, we’re confident he’ll be well taken care of!

    DANNY is now teaching full-time at Boise Bible College, and really enjoying his interactions with the students as they learn and discover.  He’s also continuing to work on his Master of Arts degree in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary, so as you can imagine, he spends a good deal of time with his face in a book these days!

    I (TRACI) have been thrilled to discover that God is even more creative than I realized!  I had no idea that when we moved to Boise, we would find not only an African church to attend, but a whole community of African refugees in need of friends to help them adjust to life in America.  Many of them have suffered greatly due to war and violence in their home countries, only to be overwhelmed by the language barrier and extreme cultural differences they experience when they move here.  I will be telling you some of their incredible stories in future updates, but for now I wanted to share with you that I’m getting DAILY  Swahili practice and that MISSION CONNECTIONS are happening right here in Boise! 

 Which brings me to…

    MISSION CONNECTIONS NEWS:  Mission Connections is officially under way and I’m now officially employed as the Executive Coordinator.  Danny will be serving with Mission Connections on a volunteer basis as the Logistics Coordinator, helping with travel arrangements, etc.  

I’m finding that there is a lot to learn and a lot to be done in starting a new non-profit organization!   As you know, the purpose of Mission Connections is to connect people who want to serve the needy and hurting of the world, with the places of true need, where their gifts and passions can be of great use in meeting those needs. 

Summer of Listening:  This year I’ll be doing lots of research and prep work to get ready for our first summer in Kenya, June – Aug 2009, which we plan to spend in and around Kitale, the town in which we lived from 1988 – 1994.  The population of slum dwellers and “displaced persons” in the area has grown in recent years, and Kitale has a particularly large population of street kids, some of them as young as 5 or 6 years old.   Due to the difficulties and dangers of living on the streets, including addiction to glue sniffing, the life expectancy of street kids in Kenya is listed at 16 years of age.  There are no easy solutions to this problem, but we know that these precious young ones are dear to God’s heart, and that He wants them to know that they are precious and valuable.

This first year we’ll be taking a small team along to help us assess the needs as we partner with our Kenyan friends to try and come up with some truly helpful ways to minister to the poorest of the poor in the Kitale area.   We’re calling it the “Summer of Listening”, because our primary goal is to truly listen to God, to our Kenyan Christian friends, and to the poor themselves as we seek to CONNECT with them in ways that can make a lasting difference.

Thank you so much for your support and partnership in ministry.   We would love to have you joining us in prayer for Mission Connections.  These days we’re praying for the hurting people whose lives we will come in contact with this summer,  for guidance in the many details of planning for this ministry,  and for the money still needed to accomplish the vision and purpose of Mission Connections.  

You’ll be hearing from me again soon, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact me with comments or questions!  I’d love to hear from you and welcome your input.

With love and prayers,                                                                                                                                                                                                       Because the world needs what your heart has to offer,

Traci