Kenya created our home for 11 months. Tavin and Taleah attended school, birthday parties, participated in clubs and ran with laughing kids to a barrage of activities. Mark and I formed friendships with Africans that celebrated joy, struggled through trials, and felt comfort with each other's presence. We decorated our white-washed cement house sparsely

but our heart fully.

We traveled from Kenya back to Pagosa 4 weeks ago and found this place holds the same feelings left in Kisumu - relationships that challenge and nurture us,
that connect us, make us vulnerable
but warmly satisfied because we belong.

In moving back and forth between countries, houses and friends, I've come to realize that neither place is my home. It's not about Africa's muddy slums, flowering trees or sweet mangos. It's not about Pagosa's mountain views,

green chili and hummingbirds. It's not about what I can have, what I miss or which place we think suits us best.

It's all about the heart of God.

At the risk of sounding too spiritual,

I see life through a lens shaped by the orphaned child. Regardless of where, the filter is passion

to find family for the forgotten fatherless.

Maybe this focus formed because of my own current
physical limitations. Whether in Kenya or Pagosa, I'm

the penurious person, the one who attracts attention out of my need. My body is weak. Without help, I wouldn't live. If somebody didn't dress me, I would not be clothed. If somebody did not get my food, I would go hungry. If I fell, there I would lie until somebody came to my rescue.

This image reflects a bigger picture.

Globally, there are hundreds of millions of children (today - right now) who will not have clothes because no body dresses them, who will go hungry, maybe starve, because nobody gives them food. Innocent young ones falling into places of horror and needing rescued, but nobody is there.

Imagine a 4 year old on the street, without clothes,
without food, without a safe place with caring family...

Imagine that child was yours...

Imagine if that child was you...

Literally, these children can NOT get what they need to live.

They need somebody.

The difference between them and me

is I have compassionate somebodies -

people that help me to not just live, but to live my destiny.

I want to do the same.

Help the helpless.

Make sure abandoned children, lost, left for death,

move gracefully, become accepted, belong, and fulfill destiny.

I want to find somebodies who know God enough to love Him beyond their comfort zones and risk loving that involves everything.

God's heart for the fatherless is my home. I want to live close to the problem because the Solution lives in me.

God lives in me. He made His home in me. Let my life be making a home for those God wants to father who have

nothing

and will die of nothing is done.

I'm not talented to paint a pretty house.

I'm not designed to gather trinkets that change seasonally.

I can't feed the plentiful or clothe the rich.

My deepest motivation must match the world's deepest need

and there, I will see God smile.

My home?

I don't think it's here. Not Pagosa. Not Kenya.

Not of this world.

I'm looking for a better place;

home where orphans are not orphans anymore.

Please pray as we prepare to return to
Kenya and complete the task the
Lord entrusted to us.

lov,
~lisa
because God loves us.

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