My dad’s church has had a long term relationship with a mission in Zambia. They take regular trips there, do medical missions, church planting, scholarships for students - they’ve been doing it for years and don’t have an end in sight (in fact, my dad was on one of the trips, and hopes to go back).

To help raise funds for the ongoing work, they brought professional recording equipment with them on their trip a year or two ago. They’ve now produced a CD with music from the churches they work with, and the music is hauntingly beautiful. There are audio clips online, as well as a few pictures. Check it out. It’s great music, supporting an awesome long-term ministry.

A part of the ministry effort is to help them drill for wells to find clean water sources - but it’s more than that. The ministry brought in the drill and taught the locals how to operate it. They’re now supporting micro-enterprise development - training the unemployed in how to use the drills and supporting them in finding water sources to give them a source of employment. It’s cool stuff. They’re really changing lives over there. Even if you don’t plan on buying the CD, at least go listen to a few clips at the link above. It’ll stay with you. And when you listen, think about the fact that these are real people, offering up a sacrifice of praise in the midst of some pretty awful circumstances. Hear the joy in their voices as they worship.

There are some pretty high-profile mommy-bloggers on a missions trip to Uganda right now - like BooMama and Rocks In My Dryer, along with several others in their team. I’ve been reading through their posts about their time on the mission field, and the comments people are leaving on their blogs.

I won’t go into the amazing things God is doing through them - you’ll have to go read about it yourself on their blogs, and I do encourage you to do so.  What struck me though - other than the awesome stories they share - is how many commenters insist on calling these men and women ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’ for what they’re doing (or in other words, for letting God do things through them). You can see Shanon’s take on it here, and then even after she admits that it doesn’t have a lot to do with courage, commenters continue to call her courageous and brave.

So what’s the problem with that? She left everything to go on a brief trip around the world, leave behind everything familiar, and entrust her children to be looked after while she was gone. That sounds courageous, doesn’t it? But let me ask you this. What’s really courageous about it? She’s facing her fears first of all. But that’s about it. And really, that just amounts to choosing to place her faith in Someone she can trust, rather than in worries and changing circumstances.

There’s a misconception that home is synonymous with safe, and Uganda (or Moldova or Bangladesh or anything else foreign) is synonymous with danger. After all, lions and tigers and bears - oh my! We’re afraid of what we don’t know, and that fear translates into an assumption of danger. But the fact is, safety is an illusion. There is nowhere our safety is guaranteed. There is nowhere we can feel sure of our safety. I could just as easily keel over from a brain aneurysm at home in front of my TV or get hit by a drunk driver and never make it home, as anyone else on the mission field could be overtaken by some unexpected tragedy. Safety is actually no more than God giving you one more breath to breathe. One more day to enjoy His creation. And He’s just as likely to provide it at home as He is somewhere else.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is the same in the US, Uruguay, and Uganda.  Safety is an illusion we give ourselves in an effort to feel self-sufficient, independent. There’s less need for faith when we believe in an illusion of safety.

As for this team serving in Uganda, what they really have doesn’t have a lot to do with bravery or courage. It’s faith (or at least it seems that way from what they’ve been writing). They have faith that God will protect their families while they’re away. They have faith that God will keep their puddle-jumping airplanes in the air. They have faith that He will give them safety in the midst of vipers, unclean water supplies, and a host of other concerns. They have that faith because they know Him for who He is - the ultimate provider of their safety. The Creator of the heavens and the earth. The all-powerful, ever loving Healer, Sustainer, and Lord of all creation.

It irks me when people comment about the immense ‘courage’ of missionaries.  It’s not about courage. It’s about a conscious decision to place your faith in the One you know will not disappoint. It’s about choosing to have faith in the most Faithful One. And it’s about knowing that in all reality, He is sovereign, regardless of where you are.  After all, is anything too hard for the Lord?

(No, not together silly!)

This is the Brand Loyal edition of Works for Me Wednesday. So here’s my run-down of brands I have to have.

Salad dressing: Old Cape Cod brand, Toasted Sesame Soy & Ginger. It’s all natural, kosher, fat free, and cholesterol free. And full of flavor.

Brownie Mix: No Pudge. Any. All. All the time. Gotta have it. Did you know you can make single servings? Now those are some smart brownies.

Salt: Salt Sense. Yes, I’m picky about salt. It’s lower in sodium than regular table salts, and I’ve found that when I run out and use regular salt I don’t like the flavor anymore. It seems that Salt Sense has turned my tastes.

Pasta Sauce: Ragu Chunky. Mushroom and Green pepper, but only for lasagna. For everything else I use Classico or Barilla - whichever flavor strikes my fancy. (did I really just say strikes my fancy?) And no, I don’t make spaghetti sauce from scratch. Not since I moved back to the US of A where there are a multitude of companies that do such a wonderful job already.

Jewelry: I try to purchase all my jewelry from NightLight. They have a truly amazing ministry that rescues women from slavery and trains them to do something that is worthy of respect, therapeutic, and creative. It’s high quality and I feel good knowing that my purchase brought light to someone living in darkness. The more they sell the more women they can rescue. Truly amazing.

That’s about it for me. I’m not picky about clothing brands, shoes, or anything like that. Just food. I’m a girl who knows what’s important in life (like brownies and salad dressing). For more tips on great brands to try, head over to Shannon’s place at Rocks in My Dryer.

There have been some thought provoking posts of late about Christian consumerism at Inspired by a True Story, and I highly recommend reading that. The YouTube video below points out what happens on the other side of the world, where the problem is quite the opposite. The video is about a minute and half. It’ll get you thinking.

Trade as One Story (short version)

After you’ve seen it, head over to Trade as One to see what it’s all about. (Yes, this is a shameless plug for a friend’s business. But it’s also something I firmly believe in. Check out the awesome stuff they have there.)

Our friends from Moldova, the R family, moved to our town on Saturday. Mom doesn’t speak English. Dad isn’t here yet. The 4 teens have varying levels of English. We’ve been helping them settle in and as it turns out, there’s a lot more involved in that than I thought.

Saturday: Spent morning helping Mrs. R sign lease and settle bank accounts. Got home in time for my kids’ naps. After naps took R family to buy furniture. Hubby took kids home, fed them, put them to bed.

Sunday: Church, with some of R family.  Naps. Dinner together as a family.

Monday: sick as a dog. Hubby had to stay home because I couldn’t drag myself out of bed. That was after I came home from 3 hours at the doctor’s office.

Tuesday: Took the R family to the school district building for international student registration. For the entire day. Hubby stayed home with our kids.

Wednesday: Took the R family to the health department for school vaccinations and testing. Again - took all day (thanks to the fact that the entire planet was there). Mrs. R stayed with my kids and I pretended to be her kids’ legal guardian for the sake of documentation.

Tomorrow: Take R family’s 3 oldest to high school to register. Take youngest to middle school to register. Expect that to take all day. R kids will take turns watching my kids.

Friday: Hopefully I’ll have some time to spend with my own kids.

I miss my kids. :(  All of this would be a lot easier if we were in Chisinau (except we’d have to pay bribes for it all). But here in the suburbs everything is so spread out I’m using 1/2 a tank of gas a day just shuttling people here and there. And I really miss my kids. It’s nice to help neighbors in need, and I hope my kids are learning that this week as well. It’ll all get easier next week when the R family kids start school.

You may notice some theme-y chaos over here. I’m playing with my theme in an effort to leave less of a carbon footprint. This is after the debut of Blackle - I’m trying out a darker screen too. Is it worth it? I don’t know - there really aren’t enough people spending enough time on my blog to put an end to global warming… But one small step, right?

I’m not settled on it… There may be some more changes a-comin’, but I promise - I will eventually pick one and stick with it. Eventually. If only wordpress had more black themes… (I really liked the chaotic soul theme - but it cut my baby in half in the header. No one gets away with that.)

Rain in a Dry Land trailer

World Relief is a refugee resettlement agency with offices in several major US cities. Here in the Atlanta office, they’ve done a lot of work resettling Somali Bantus, many of whom spent 12 years or so in a refugee camp to get here. Hubby used to be a case worker there, and I was a m0ther-to-mother volunteer, so we have a personal connection there.

PBS is airing a great movie about it called Rain in a Dry Land, and here’s the trailer. Unfortunately PBS is airing it at really odd times (like 1 AM), but I’ll be TIVO-ing it (on my monstrous TV).

It’s an eye-opener. You just might walk away wanting to volunteer your time to help refugees like these. If nothing else, you’ll have a deeper perspective of how blessed you truly are to be where you are in life.

I’m having YouTube issues - part 1 was supposed to publish first, and for some reason it didn’t… But stay tuned.

Rain in a Dry Land Part 2

Here’s one more clip from the movie - just in case the first didn’t get your interest, this one will. It’s a big wide world out there!

Was anyone else shocked by the intense images on American Idol this week? It was really powerful. My hope is that the people who were touched by the show will make some long-term decisions about involvement of some sort, and search for long-term impact.

I have to say I’m impressed with how much time and money Idol put into this effort. It was pretty impressive. I’m so happy to see a major network doing something ambitious to effect change.

Supporting the cause in her own way, fellow blogger Owlhaven is giving away a copy of Bono’s book, On the Move, so head on over and enter yourself. I’d love to read it! I’ll probably pick one up at the library.

Another site is doing a ‘click to give’ offer. You can go to the Breast Cancer Site, click on the button, and they’ll give a free mammogram to a woman in need. While you’re there, you can check out the tabs at the top of the page. They’ll take you to the Hunger Site, the Literacy Site, the child health site, and a few more. Your clicks on those sites also count towards dollars for those causes. It’s all about the advertisers’ underwriting it. 100% of the advertising funds go to those causes, and the more clicks they have daily the more advertising money they get.  Anyhow, it only takes a few seconds for you to help them raise more funds for those causes. Try it out. It can be your good deed for the day.