soli deo gloria: dental

Showing posts with label dental. Show all posts

Thursday, October 21, 2010

thank you

I realized that I haven't properly thanked you for praying EthiopiaSmile 2010 there and back! I know that many of you prayed, had others pray and I can promise you those prayers were felt each and every step of the way.

Only God could take a group of 67 people, many meeting for the very first time in country, and knit our hearts as one. Unity was incredible. Transportation was so smooth--- HUGE thank you to Gladney, Genet and the AMAZING drivers that worked so hard that week. Food was fine great, no major illness, dental days were productive, the hotel perfect for our needs..........just can't adequately put into words the countless ways that He went before us and prepared the way!

I do hope to get others from the team to share their experiences with you- some unbelievable moments for sure.........like the dentist that just couldn't see the tooth on a child that needed extracting. She had her headlamp on, but it didn't provide enough light. She said out loud, "Lord, I can't see this tooth" and seriously (several witnessses to confirm) a ray of light came through the crack in the Korah shelter they were treating and shown DIRECTLY on the very tooth that needed to come out!

We had those moments all the time. So full of His Presence.

We would appreciate your continued prayers as our team processes all we saw and experienced. It is hard to know what to do with all of it sometimes. We would also covet your prayers for the new fundraising effort. It simply won't happen on our own and I know that He will lead us all each step of the way. We feel a peace to put one foot in front of the other.........

We can't believe it, but planning for the next trip will begin soon! Think we need to get over the jet lag first, but we are praying for wisdom and clarity. We learned so much on this first one and we look forward to going back. Always ready to go back!! :)

Labels: dental, EthiopiaSmile, unity | 7 comments

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

he is off

That is Moody on our wedding day with one of his best buddies, Brett. Aren't they precious? Moody isn't shooting the person next to him, he is "getting his guns up!" It is a Texas Tech thing.

Brett and Moody were at Tech together and he is one of Moody's very favorite people in the world. He can make Moody laugh like no one else and he has been a faithful friend through many of lifes ups and downs. Brett and his precious family live in Hong Kong where he pastors a church there. We only see them on their trips home and they aren't often enough.

They are passionate about adoption as their four amazing kiddos are adopted, both dometically and internationally. I remember talking to Shannon after they brought Mary Grace home from China and she said, "you guys really need to do this!!" I remember thinking, "ok....whatever...no way...but thank you very much!" I guess she may have planted the very first seed. :)

Brett was asked to speak at a pastors conference in Addis, and he called to see if Moody would consider meeting him there. Immediately the Lord began making it clear that he was suppose to go. For starters, I thought it sounded like a great idea. I thought being left alone for 10 days with 5 kiddos, one that doesn't sleep, sounded like a great idea! Only the Lord could have done that....so nagging, wife pleading for him not to go was out of the way.

He then got a call from an orthodontic supply company with a request from a group of orthodontists in Cairo, Egypt that were looking for someone to lecture for one day on June 12. That just so happened to be one day before he was tentatively scheduled to meet Brett in Addis. They just so happened to pay for him to fly Business Class over there! So now we really should be saving all of our money for this adoption argument was out of the way.

He wasn't sure what he would do with his time while Brett was teaching. He knew he couldn't wait to go back to KVI and spend time there, but figured he should try to utilize some of his skills and talents. He met the head of the dental school while we were in country picking up Abe. He called him to see if he might need anything, and the ball got rolling.

Moody will lecture to the dental students and then do dental work on kids at KVI and Gladney. He is so excited to see how the Lord is allowing this opportunity. So many people came on board and donated dental supplies, etc. He is praying that this is the first of many of these trips. So what to do with my free time was now out of the way!

I have such an incredible peace about him going. We are all so jealous as our hearts simply ache to return, but I know that we will soon enough in His perfect timing.

We are planning many activities while he is away and trust that the Lord will indeed continue to supply for our every need here. We will miss him like crazy-- I have never been away from him for this long, but will love praying for him and seeing how the Lord honors this time.

He is looking forward to meeting several of your kiddos, taking pics and video. He considers it a gift to be able to that as he remembers well the emotional boost these brought us during the wait to travel.

We would all appreciate your prayers for this trip.

Some of the faces that he will get to see......wish I could show you all of them. :)