PRAYER LETTER for UPCOMING TRIP

At the Betty Jonah Orphanage in Yekepa, Liberia

Dear Praying Friends,,

Thank you for your interest and your willingness to pray for my second trip to Africa this year.   October 18-Nov 6 Sarah Sullivan (EAFC's new Executive Director)  and I will embark on a 3 week visit to see friends in KENYA, UGANDA, and RWANDA.

We will visit current students, explore with church leaders who desire to enter into partnership with EAFC, consider with alumni and friends ways that we can build a stronger ministry, and we will attempt to find ways that we can link women in these three countries with Women of Purpose in America who we hope will pray for and help women regain the dignity with which they were created.

If you would like, email me, add comment on this blog or facebook me and I will attach an itinerary so you can follow our activities from day to day.

When my father and brother have returned in past years from a mission trip to Belarus, I asked a few questions and was genuinely thankful that it had been a successful venture.  When my friend goes to India in November, I’ll pray for her and will spend a little time when she returns catching up.. . So I ask myself what would make me expect any different reaction from my friends when I return from my trips to Africa?  What would make me drawn to this continent and expect others to care like I do? What am I hoping will be the fruit from this trip? 

Listed in bullet form are a few of those goals that I would appreciate your praying for:

• that the work God has given EAFC to do become clear to Sarah and that she develop ways of implementing her vision of carrying out these tasks when we return
• that we listen and learn from all those we meet, discovering ways that we can better work with the church in Africa
• that our visit be anointed by the Holy Spirit, and He allow us to be a blessing to others.

With Gratitude for your prayers,

Val

Getting Into Your World

Today I was reading a book ordered by a missionary that was delivered to me. I'll take it to him in Uganda next month. He doesn't know it yet, but it'll be a used book when he gets it. Ha! I am loving it; biographies grab me. In this book the man has been changed through trips to Belarus,, USSR, Italy, South Africa, Australia, and India. Does it take personal trips for us to be changed by a people? Is it possible for me to go back to Africa next month and report back in such a way that others are touched, even though they don't actually walk the paths I do? Today I wrote a "prayer letter" asking friends to pray for Sarah and me while we are gone, all three weeks. Those of you who have followed my blogs for a while know that I get brutally honest when I write. So here I go again, admitting that the quality of my prayers when "you" ask me to pray for your mission trips has often been lacking. Should I expect anything different from you, my friends? Are these "prayer letters" important? What is it I want? What is IT that I want? Do I expect others to care more than I do when you go to parts of the world unfamiliar to me? So, before I leave on October 18 will some of you pray for my heart? I have shared a part of it that I am not particularly pleased with. I want to enter into your worlds as much as I want you in mine. Will you help me?

Six times the size of U.S, a metaphor of sorts

October Sarah, my friend and new executive director and I will spend three weeks in Africa. We will fly to Kenya ( on the Indian Ocean) then on to Entebbe on Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake at the bottom of the Rift Valley that begins in Israel. "the Land of a Thousand Hills" ( and a million smiles) lures us next. That means we fly from Uganda to Rwanda. All thes flights between the East African countries are about an hour each in length. THREE weeks and still I don't get to show Sarah my beloved Malawi, special friends in South Africa, or the budding relationships in Zambia. And it would take us about as much time as flying from Jackson to England for us to fly from Kenya to Libetia, my latest favorite country. Why do I love Africa? In 1996 I thought Malawi was an island, part of Hawaii. My knowledge of the continent was "typical" of many Americans I know. I knew the Sahara Desert, monkeys, gorilla, lions, the savannah, the Massai Mara, and even Cape Town. Add to that knowledge the perceptions of AIDS, starving children and wars. Though much of my "knowledge" was based on many hard realities, it in no way pictured the continent. Now, recently friends have been sending me a series of pictures of "the other Africa" gorgeous scenes of placed peppering that vast continent. None of all this captures the TRUTH of Africa. And yet how presumptuous of me if I were to suggest that I can define truth about Africa. In these 15 years, I have gained impressions, have had numerous experiences that give me a small glimpse of insight, AND YET not even Africans themselves can grasp the enormity of their continent. Want to focus on lushious landscapes? Exotic animals? Varying cultures and languages? History? Economic matters? Health issues? Six times the size of America could serve as a metaphor for describing the complexity of problems to solve. No matter where on this tiny little planet we go, we all really find the same reasons for loving the places that capture us, the people! I wish I could explain what it is about my friends in Africa that make me want to write about them in blogs. In my head I know that all human beings have the same longings. I love my own family, my nation, my friends. I can't explain why Africa has so griped me that I am willing over and over to make this arduous journey. But not knowing the answers won't keep me home! I will keep going and keep using these posts to verbalize what is going on in me during the process of "figuring it out". Last week I met a young man from Rwanda studying here in Jackson. When he saw my Rwandan dress, his eyes lit up. We connected. When I get home from this trip, Joyce from Malawi will visit. Oh how I hope many of you my friends will want to connect with her. Will you contact me if you would like for us to consider that possibility?

Feeling their pain

We are all pilgrims and strangers on earth.  We know that, don't we?  Sometimes I think though I forget that when I am among "my own"those who are so familiar.
 But take one who has left his home few times and doesn't know all the manmade rules for entering into another's country. That has been Albert and his wife Priscilla's experience. They left Monrovia, Liberia to embark on a journey of study across their continent in Kenya. Priscilla, with a Nigerian passport got into the country. Albert didn't have his documents in correct order. He was first detained at the airport for a day or two, and now they have returned him to his home country. He will miss the first few days of class.
I am thankful for Joseph.  Joseph is a Kenyan EAFC alumnus.  He is MUCH more than that to me.  He's the trip planner for my upcoming trip in October.  He's my friend, and now he has been reaching out to Albert.  It was Joseph a complete stranger that Albert called in his hour of need.  This is a good example of how the EAFC family is supposed to work and how I pray it continue to develop with many, many from every tribe and tongue loving on those IN THE FAMILY of THE KING.
Join me, please, in praying for a quick solution to Albert's problem and for the unexpected funds to handle this wrinkle in their plans.  Pray, too, for Priscilla, in a strange land without even her husband.

I

Eaves dropping on important conversation

Sorry someone came to see me.


(Chat continues)
WOP means Women Od Purpose, a movement that we believe is going to catch fire emphasizing the return to dignity for women throughout the world that they were crested to have-----you will read about that below


The person just left, sorry Prof.

I want you to send me the form, the registration for and the reporting form
Prof. V, you will return to Liberia. I will be praying for that to happen and I'm available if you need any help to arrange your visit.


(Ruth Paye started the first WOP chapter in Liberia

Ruth Paye and the women that God is using you to minister to through WOP will host you
Are you there? ( I wasn't on Facebook at that point in the dialogue)

( read the rest of his comments. He is praying; Let us join him)

You know what, people here don't understand what life is in Africa Prof. And I don't think it is because you are an American that they don't want to listen. We need to continue to pray that God will move hearts here to be willing to make a difference in people's lives.
You are doing so well and EAFC is on my prayer list.

Facing Cultural Blindspots

All is not well here, but even poor people here live better one thousand times than people in Liberia
The preceding comment was copied from a "chat" I had with a dear friend visiting our country for the first time. He's been here over a month now, long enough to GET HOMESICK for his wife and daughter.
It's hard for us Americans to visualize homesickness for a world reported to have so many needs. And having lived there for two months, I attest to the fact that the perception of NEED is very accurate.
My friend visited a dentist today for the FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE. Now, there's a real example of need, isn't it?
He told me about all the PLENTY he's seen, every kind of food one could want and yet people aren't thankful I asked him if "those people" were Christians or just "people in general". Thankfully, he told me it was "people in general."
And YET, I wonder if we Christians are blinded too having had SOOOO much our entire lives that we just take it all for granted.
I know I DID before my two months in Liberia and I have lived in another country in Africa and have made many, many trips to the continent. Before Liberia, however, I'd never faced inability to get basic vegetables that were a part of my staple diet.
Will my gratitude continue? I HOPE SO! I want to be profoundly changed by interaction with my friends who share their hearts with me.
It is SO important that we value one another, realizing that we really do have cultural blindspots that God wants to uncover.

Livingasawomen.wordpress.com

When I taught in Liberia, Vicki was my first housemate.  She's an exceptional woman, therefore I share with you the blog that she has begun.  I think it is timely and well done.  It will be added to bi-monthly so no one will be overloaded with updates.

I believe that what she is doing ties in nicely with what EAFC is trying to do as we establish Women of Purpose chapters (WOP)  In October we'll be talking with women in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and see if there is interest among those we visit.  Already we have a registered chapter in Liberia with talk of several more.  U.S. sister chapters are really wanted.

WOP desires to be FOCUSED and yet FLEXIBLE.  No two chapters will look a like.  They make "their own rules."  Centering life around God and His will for our lives will be the FOCUS.

Will you pray and contribute to our efforts?  Hope Vicki can teach me how to make commenting on this site as easy as it was for me to comment at hers.  Anyone else got any ideas how to help me?