A creative idea that is changing the world.........

It has been an interesting few days.  Ken just commented that we have really had an unusual week.  Today I actually got to check something off of my "bucket list" that I have been wanting to do for quite some time.   It may not seem exciting to some people, but today Ken and I got to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.  

I know a lot of people who have volunteered to pack meals, but I have never gotten the chance to actually do it.  So Ken and I went as a part of  the team from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wheaton, thanks to an invite from our friends Bryon and Pat Noeske.  If you are not familiar with this organization, I suggest you click on the link and read about the amazing work that is being done to bring nutrition to starving children around the world.  We packed "Manna Rice" meals today.  It is a world wide meal with vitamins, spices, soy and rice that is acceptable to ALL people - regardless of their religious dietary restrictions.  I learned today that rice is one "grain" that is recognized and used around the world.  

We actually got to sample one of the meals.  It was interesting and actually not unlike a rice dish you might make at home.  I learned that 99.8% of the boxes that are shipped out of the United States actually get to their destinations and feed children.  This is truly a miraculous number when you consider the trip these boxes have to make! Surely God is in this process. All of the 100 or so people that volunteered during the shift we were on, got a chance to pray over the finished boxes.  The workers were very clear that prayer is an important part of their mission.  We were told that 100 is a good number of boxes to be packed in a two hour shift.  Here are the results of our time....

We had the amazing opportunity to help feed 66 children for AN ENTIRE YEAR!  Such an amazing experience.  Feed My Starving Children has shipped over 250 BILLION meals to 99 countries.  Thanks to this organization, we can all be a part of the solution to world hunger instead of just lamenting the state of the world.  I love how God uses people to be His hands and feet with creative ideas that truly change the world.  Just an example of how much power is in your "God Suit"!

We all helped clean up our packing stations at the end of our shift.  They are very careful to keep any products that are "clean" able to be used separate. .  It was interesting to hear that the soy/rice/vitamin mixtures that were spilled on the tables or on the equipment are not just thrown out.  They are actually collected and given to farmers to feed to their sheep and pigs!  

This was very fitting for our unusual week!  On Thursday, Ken and I went to our local County Fair!

We have lived in this county for 41 years and we have never gone.  In total truth telling, we most likely would not have bothered going this year if I had not heard that "seniors" were free if you went before 3:00pm.   So we decided to check it out!  

We saw lots of pigs and sheep!  Also cows, donkeys, goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, ponies, and even a camel!  It was mostly 4H kids who have raised these animals.  Very interesting to watch these young kids "showing" their animals, and to hear how the judges graded each one.  We got to see sheep being sheared and the wool being spun into yarn.  Certainly not a "normal" event for us. 

Sitting in my suburban house, working on a laptop with a smart phone by my side, it can be pretty easy to forget the agricultural life that our country was built on and we all depend on for our food.  I am incredibly thankful that I grew up with close family members farming.   The need for food is universal but the distribution of the worlds food supply is out of whack. One example of Jesus' solution to this problem is found at Feed My Starving Children.  What a blessing it is to know that Feed My Starving Children is also helping feed local farm animals.  

Two very different activities just days apart.  Yet Jesus found a way to show me his hand in directing my life.  It was so much more meaningful for me to consider the gift of animal feed when I had just touched, smelled and heard some of these local animals.  And children have and will always have a big place in my heart.  I am sure that Ken and I will be going back to volunteer many more times in the days ahead.  Standing in front of the big world map showing their distribution sights at Feed My Starving Children it seemed possible to "go into all the world".

Jesus, thank you for loving ALL of the children of the world.  Holy Spirit, it is your gift of creative ideas that helps us reach and touch multitudes of children around the world - even when we don't leave our homes.  Jesus, thank you for your heart of compassion for the hungry.  Give us all ears to hear your gentle whispers to help us fulfill your destiny in our life.  Amen

Inventors, creators, those that imagine.......

It is really good to get away and see new things.  Ken and I were talking about all of the amazing things that we have seen that are just a short car ride away from our home.  It is really to bad that more people don't look for these places!  This trip to Detroit and the Ford Museum was certainly one of those great places to visit.  We got a packaged deal on our first day there that included all of the different attractions.   We had not planned to tour the Ford Rouge Factory, but it was included in our package!  We were both so glad we saw this.  I did not know anything about this place and I was quite surprised!  We actually got to watch the assembly line and saw Ford F150 trucks being put together.  They have made the entire factory complex very eco friendly.  The most amazing thing is that Henry Ford bought that 2,000 acre piece of land for $1,000.  He knew that it had direct deep water access, train access and also plenty of workers nearby.  Really an incredible place to visit.

This is outside of the building since photography was not allowed in most of the building!  It was a morning well spent.  In the afternoon we toured the actual Ford Museum.  There were lots of cars (of course) but there were many other exhibits also.  An entire section was devoted to trains.  There was an entire wing on air travel, including some Wright brothers items.  And there was a large section of American History.  We saw things like the chair from Ford's Theater that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.  We saw the actual bus that Rosa Parks made her famous stand in to not move to the back!  And we spent a lot of time looking at items from each decade from 1900 to now.  There was an entire wall of telephones!  There is a lot of Thomas Edison items, including his actual laboratory and some very early light bulbs.  I loved this quote I saw on the wall....

It is easy to forget how important electricity is to our daily life.  And it is easy to forget how important the love of God in our hearts is!  What a great reminder.

As you most likely can tell, we really enjoyed this trip.  Driving around Detroit was interesting, however.  They have some very odd (at least to us) traffic patterns.  For instance, on most of the main roads you can not make a left hand turn at the corner with the traffic light.  You have to go beyond the intersection and make a U turn and then make a right onto the street you wanted to travel.  Let me tell you it looks and sounds really silly on GPS!  And on those very rare places that you can make a left with a turn arrow, you don't get a green arrow you get a flashing yellow arrow.  You can proceed and make your turn when the traffic allows.  It made me wonder how people from other countries handle all of the crazy traffic things that are different from state to state.  In all fairness however, we live within a mile of the craziest intersection in the entire state of Illinois!  It is something called a "divergent diamond".  It took them over 3 years to build this crazy thing (and it was not very nice during those years trying to drive through the construction).  All I can tell you about this mess of an intersection is that you end up driving on the WRONG SIDE of the road and there are cars coming directly at you when you are stopped at the traffic light!  We are just waiting for some poor out of town person who can't figure out which way to go, causing a major accident.  

Ken and I were talking about the amazing inventors of that early 1900 time frame.  Ford, Edison, Wright Brothers, Bell and many others.  And we were comparing them to the "inventors" of  our times.  People who thought about things like "personal computers" and "cell phones" and the Internet.  What amazing creativity and innovation have blessed our everyday life.  Here I sit, on my comfortable chair, with a very small tablet computer, accessing a WORLD WIDE WEB with my everyday thoughts and musings.  Not connected by any wires at all.  Yes, it is amazing.   It gives me great pause to consider what my grandchildren will see in their life times.  

I am convinced that we humans are able to imagine and invent far more things than we ever see imagined or invented.  We are created in God's image and He was the first "inventor" and "imaginer" so to speak.  Seeing just a small snapshot of how far we have come in just 100 years makes me more sure that the best is yet to be.  I believe that we can encourage our children and grandchildren to think outside of the box.  We have to stop doing long enough to just IMAGINE!  We need to let our kids be kids and play and explore so that they can imagine new things.  I know that there are many inventors and creative thinkers out there among our kids.   Most of all we ourselves need to believe that we can be creative.  

We drove most of the way home today in some pretty strong thunderstorms.  We were thankful for the short distance and the lack of any heavy traffic.  We had planned a couple of other stops along the way, but given the rain, we took a pass on them.  We will leave those places to another weekend away.  And that is not such a bad thing!  Something to look forward to!

So be encouraged tonight.  Close your eyes and imagine.  Let your mind and your thoughts flow.  Encourage each other to create!  Do some crafts.  Color some pictures.  Dig in the dirt and play in the rain.  I just know that there are some terrific new ideas out there just waiting to be "imagined" and "invented".  I think I'll go now, and do just that!   Happy thinking!

Jesus, thank you for the reminder that our creative spirit comes from our Creator Father.  Help us all to believe that we can bring new things to life.  Holy Spirit help us to encourage our children and grandchildren to walk in new ways with your purpose and destiny in their spirits.  Thank you for time away and the joy of coming home.  Amen

Modern miracles....

So after my last post about my maternal grandmother and mom, I have been thinking about my dad.  My dad died in 1985 when I was only 31 years old.  I have missed having him around during most of my adult life.  I can't tell you how often, when I am with Doug or thinking about Doug, I think, "boy my dad would have loved him so much" or "Doug and my dad would have had so much in common". (I think this often about my son-in-law Tim also.  Doug and Tim are a lot alike!).  And, unfortunately, Doug has no memories of my dad.  Dad died when Doug was just 3 years old.  And thinking about my dad has me thinking about his growing up years. 

Here is a picture of my dad's family taken in 1919.  My dad is the little boy standing between his parents.



 

I love looking at the clothes and imagining the lifestyle at that time.  I love the fact that I can look at the older kids, standing in the back, and SEE my aunts and uncles.  I was blessed to actually get to know them.  But what ALWAYS goes through my mind, is my grandmother.  Both my grandmother and grandfather came to America from Sweden as "indentured servants".  They were young teenagers at the time and they left everything and everyone that they knew to come to a strange country.  I just can't imagine that.  And then they worked hard, as servants, for other people - as farm hands and maids, childcare workers and cooks. They met in Minnesota while working on neighboring farms. My grandfather served out the remaining time on my grandmother's indentured contract so that they could get married. Eventually, my grandfather purchased his own farm and they raised their children.   As you can see by the picture, there is a large age spacing between my dad and his oldest brother (standing behind his father).  Actually 20 years.  What tugs at my heart about this picture, is who is MISSING from this picture.  This family includes two more boys.  In the summer of 1913, Algot, who was 18 at the time, fell out of a hay loft onto a pitchfork and died of gangrene infection.  Also, Gustov, who was 6 years old, died of "sugar disease".  And then on August 20, 1913, my dad was born.  Can you imagine that?  Losing two of your children and then having a new baby - all in one summer?  And did I mention that my grandmother was 41 years old? 

 

 It has always been in my heart that neither of these boys -my two uncles - would have died if the same scenario played out in my lifetime.  We take for granted doctors and hospitals and antibiotics as well as other amazing medical advances like insulin.  But it was not that long ago that these "miracles" were not available.  I've been thinking about a video I saw on the internet the other day watch it here. It is a story about a 15 year old boy, Jack Andraka, that invented a way to detect pancreatic cancer for only 3 cents. Amazing. I can't help but think of all the other miraculous things, yet to be discovered, that Yahweh has gifted to people.

 

I am convinced that there are amazing, creative inventions and solutions on the horizon.  Yahweh's kingdom is ever increasing and His glory is being revealed through His people.  I am also convinced that my children and grandchildren will have a part in bringing about these miracles.   It gives me a hope and excitement for what is ahead.  And it gives me great joy.

 

Thank you Yahweh for helping me to see your hand in the many miracles we see today.  Thank you for my family and the way that you have gifted and used all the generations.  Yahweh, I pray special blessing on my entire extended family.  May they draw close to you and hear your voice.  Thank you for your great love and the gift of Jesus.   Amen