Check out this link. It's the page to the school I taught at in China. If you go to the bottom to the Teachers "Window"... yeah that's me. And next to me is Nigel.
http://www.gdzjez.com/index2.asp
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Movie worthy
I heard the most beautiful story today, and I wanted to record it so it wasn't forgotten.
There's the cutest Vietnamese woman that works at the same agency as I do. She works at a different location, but I see her occasionally when I do business in Minneapolis or if she does business in St. Paul. Her name is Solange. It's French. She told me her mother is half french. Every time I see her she is always so happy to see me, and always tells me how beautiful she thinks I am. She's so cute. Today is the first day that I've actually gotten to have a real conversation with her. We were eating cake at one of the higher-uppers retirement party. She told me the story of how her and her husband met. It goes something like this...
Vietnam was divided between North and South. The North was occupied by the communists and the South was free. We lived in the South. The South then was taken over by the communists, and they put any man who had worked for the US government in prison. Before I knew him, my husband was one of these men. My uncle was also imprisoned. My uncle was in prison for 5 years, my husband for 7. My husband was married to another at that time, but while he was in prison his wife got married to a communist.
All those years in prison could drive a man crazy. My mother suggested that I write my Uncle letters to encourage him while he was in prison. We were only allowed to visit after the first 2 years, and then only twice a year. I wrote letters to my uncle regularly. I did not know that my uncle would share the letters with this other man.
After their release my Uncle introduced me to the man and the man told me that the letters kept him alive. He asked me to marry him, by I told him I could not marry a man I do no know or love. He said that he knows me from the letters and that he loves me. But I still refused. Later I was in the hospital and this man and my mother took care of me. When I became well, I went to coffee with him and got to know him. My uncle spoke very highly of him, telling me that this was a good man and that I should marry him. I fell in love with him and we were married. We've been married for many years now, we have 4 children and 3 grandchildren.
It's not exactly like she told it, but all the information is there. I wish you could hear her tell her story with her cute accent and ways of saying things and see the way she smiles like a shy school girl when she remembers and hear in more detail the aweful conditions of the prisons and how her letters meant so much to the man she did not yet know. She told me that they made a decision before they married to never argue, and IF they argue to never do so in front of children or others. She said they've only argued TWICE. She explained how pointless it is to get worked up and angry, and the key is to listen and talk things through. She said he is very sweet and takes good care of her.
I don't need the movie-worthy story, I only wish that I might find a sweet man who will take good care of me.
There's the cutest Vietnamese woman that works at the same agency as I do. She works at a different location, but I see her occasionally when I do business in Minneapolis or if she does business in St. Paul. Her name is Solange. It's French. She told me her mother is half french. Every time I see her she is always so happy to see me, and always tells me how beautiful she thinks I am. She's so cute. Today is the first day that I've actually gotten to have a real conversation with her. We were eating cake at one of the higher-uppers retirement party. She told me the story of how her and her husband met. It goes something like this...
Vietnam was divided between North and South. The North was occupied by the communists and the South was free. We lived in the South. The South then was taken over by the communists, and they put any man who had worked for the US government in prison. Before I knew him, my husband was one of these men. My uncle was also imprisoned. My uncle was in prison for 5 years, my husband for 7. My husband was married to another at that time, but while he was in prison his wife got married to a communist.
All those years in prison could drive a man crazy. My mother suggested that I write my Uncle letters to encourage him while he was in prison. We were only allowed to visit after the first 2 years, and then only twice a year. I wrote letters to my uncle regularly. I did not know that my uncle would share the letters with this other man.
After their release my Uncle introduced me to the man and the man told me that the letters kept him alive. He asked me to marry him, by I told him I could not marry a man I do no know or love. He said that he knows me from the letters and that he loves me. But I still refused. Later I was in the hospital and this man and my mother took care of me. When I became well, I went to coffee with him and got to know him. My uncle spoke very highly of him, telling me that this was a good man and that I should marry him. I fell in love with him and we were married. We've been married for many years now, we have 4 children and 3 grandchildren.
It's not exactly like she told it, but all the information is there. I wish you could hear her tell her story with her cute accent and ways of saying things and see the way she smiles like a shy school girl when she remembers and hear in more detail the aweful conditions of the prisons and how her letters meant so much to the man she did not yet know. She told me that they made a decision before they married to never argue, and IF they argue to never do so in front of children or others. She said they've only argued TWICE. She explained how pointless it is to get worked up and angry, and the key is to listen and talk things through. She said he is very sweet and takes good care of her.
I don't need the movie-worthy story, I only wish that I might find a sweet man who will take good care of me.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Comfort eh
Update
Hope had a dream. She said that she saw Jesus, and he comforted her. He pointed at me [Leah] and said to her, "you see that girl?"
Then she woke up. She woke up feeling at peace about the situation with her children.
When she told me this dream it was such a confirmation that i am in her life for a reason. Wow! What an amazing dream from the Lord!
I have been checking out how to Sponsor someone from overseas. It's difficult, but God's working.
This Week
Monday I went out with my small group gals and we passed out flyers for a revival meeting in one of the roughest neighborhoods in St. Paul. We got kicked out of Rainbow Foods!! Haha. Yeah, we should've known they wouldn't like people passing out flyers in their store. But it was fun, and I have't been that out of my comfort zone in a long time. What a trip. Oh, and today I gave one of the flyers to one of my Muslim client.
Tuesday ... tonight... speaking of out of my comfort zone, I auditioned for another show. I thought I did ok considering most of the others were highschool and middle school kids who couldn't keep a tune. It was such a different experience than the other audition where I sang to just the director a song that I picked out and practiced for days. Here they ran through 4 different songs with a large group, told us to come on up one at a time in front of everybody and sing one of the songs that they just "taught" us... but really we only got to hear them a couple times... wild! I ended up singing a song called "Shy".. ha ha. Well, I'm just going for a chorus part. Who knows. But Breinn said if I don't make it I can help out with the set for the other play. Kinda wishing I took that plate part now... oh well.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
More Hope
What an interesting last few weeks I've had. I am now part of a really awesome cell group. The other night they shared their vision for this cell group "model." The "Old paradigm" is that cell groups are a program of the church. The "New paradigm" is that cell groups are the church. So far its awesome and Ive been blessed a ton.
The Lord has given me a ton of oportunities to pass the blessings on to others. He's presented me with some intense situations of which He's allowed me to be a part of. The two biggest I will share.
One of my clients from Liberia is facing homelessness, she has a three year old and a disability. I've been working hard to help her. It's not even really my job to do all the things i've helped her with. But no one else is helping her. God given me lots of oportunities to minister to her.
Just today my heart broke at the story my client from Tanzania told me. I've mentioned Hope before. She's a precious lady. What I tell you is real and true. And it's hard to share, cuz who could understand? Never before have I been so close and personal to the hearts and souls of those who truely suffer.
Hope cried as she told me about her niece (13) and nephew (10). Hope's sister and her sister's husband both died of HIV. The kids were living with their grandpa, but grandpa recently died. The kids are not living on their own. They have no one to take care of them, no where to go. The girl said she wanted to take poison to kill herself and give poison to her brother so they can both die. Hope wants so badly to go to Africa to take care of her children. She calls them her own now. Her husband will not permit her to go, so she wants to sponsor them to come to the US, but her husband thinks it's too hard and impossible. I immediately asked Hope if I could pray for her, and we prayed together. I prayed that God would give these kids hope. God, give these kids Hope. It's so prophetic that Hope is named such. I todl her I would do as much as I can to help her in this situation. Please pray for Hope. Please pray for these kids. I'm sure there are millions of kids in a similar situation, but this one is so close to home. I know Hope. I love Hope. I've seen the pain she feels and the desperateness.
I beleive God has put me in these situations to be used by Him. Please pray if nothing else. And if you have any idea how we might be able to unite Hope with her children, please let me know!! Right now I'm just going to look into how sponsorship works and what it might take for the kids to get here. And I'm gonna try to contact the Bakers who have the orphan ministry in Mozambiqe... i know its probably far, but maybe they may know of a way to help.
Thanks for praying.
The Lord has given me a ton of oportunities to pass the blessings on to others. He's presented me with some intense situations of which He's allowed me to be a part of. The two biggest I will share.
One of my clients from Liberia is facing homelessness, she has a three year old and a disability. I've been working hard to help her. It's not even really my job to do all the things i've helped her with. But no one else is helping her. God given me lots of oportunities to minister to her.
Just today my heart broke at the story my client from Tanzania told me. I've mentioned Hope before. She's a precious lady. What I tell you is real and true. And it's hard to share, cuz who could understand? Never before have I been so close and personal to the hearts and souls of those who truely suffer.
Hope cried as she told me about her niece (13) and nephew (10). Hope's sister and her sister's husband both died of HIV. The kids were living with their grandpa, but grandpa recently died. The kids are not living on their own. They have no one to take care of them, no where to go. The girl said she wanted to take poison to kill herself and give poison to her brother so they can both die. Hope wants so badly to go to Africa to take care of her children. She calls them her own now. Her husband will not permit her to go, so she wants to sponsor them to come to the US, but her husband thinks it's too hard and impossible. I immediately asked Hope if I could pray for her, and we prayed together. I prayed that God would give these kids hope. God, give these kids Hope. It's so prophetic that Hope is named such. I todl her I would do as much as I can to help her in this situation. Please pray for Hope. Please pray for these kids. I'm sure there are millions of kids in a similar situation, but this one is so close to home. I know Hope. I love Hope. I've seen the pain she feels and the desperateness.
I beleive God has put me in these situations to be used by Him. Please pray if nothing else. And if you have any idea how we might be able to unite Hope with her children, please let me know!! Right now I'm just going to look into how sponsorship works and what it might take for the kids to get here. And I'm gonna try to contact the Bakers who have the orphan ministry in Mozambiqe... i know its probably far, but maybe they may know of a way to help.
Thanks for praying.
