July 14, 2015 By 4 Comments

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Our Swaziland team arrived home early this morning.  It’s been a long day.  Coming home is always interesting to me…figuring out if I’m going to fall victim to jet lag, getting re-acclimated, taking a good long hot shower, assuming my role as mom again…all of it can be a bit overwhelming.

I’ve thought about sitting down to type out some thoughts all day long, but the time never came.  My heart and mind have been overwhelmed and there have been games of Sorry and Mancala which needed to be played, movies to watch, photos to share, popcorn to snack on and lots of souvenirs to pass around and taste test with these wild 5 kiddos.

We did not have internet or phone access while we were away.  I’ve missed you guys.  I missed Josh Kelley and our little tribe madly, but boy, what a trip.  What a team God allowed me to be on.  What incredible people we were with all week.  What crazy amazing kiddos we had the privilege to love on and be loved by.  What strong and courageous ladies we got to know who lead Ngungwane, these kiddos and their community.  Every last bit of this trip was just an honor…I can barely get past this fact.

There are new dreams.  There are seeds God has planted.  There is work to be done.  Starting with these sweet kiddos and getting every last precious one of them sponsored.  You can CLICK HERE and choose “unsponsored” in the status bar.  $38 a month does the trick.  There are more trips to be taken.  Consider joining us.  God is truly building something…He’s taking something which is already beautiful and making it crazy beautiful.

So I’ll be working on all my thoughts this week.  Josh Kelley has been a sounding board already.  I like him.  Hopefully there will be some sleep gotten and thoughts will work their way out.  It was a grand trip and it’s good to be home.

Happy Tuesday.

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June 29, 2015 By 3 Comments

78 Kiddos, Trips & A Playground

We leave for Swaziland, Africa in just a few days.  At this point I’m just excited.  Packing all 14 bags with almost 700lbs of supplies was pretty much taking over my mind and pushing my stress limit, but bags have been weighed and packed so excitement is really setting in now.

It’s been a year and half since I’ve been to the Ngungwane carepoint and that’s far too long in my books.  My goal is to go every year.  From here on out I would love to lead a team every single year…maybe even more if we could swing it.  I love the community to community connection Children’s HopeChest aims to accomplish.  I love that these people we get the honor of being with and spending time with are not our charity, but simply our brothers and sisters in Christ.  They are amazing and beautiful and a gift.

Currently there are 53 kiddos who are sponsored…who have special friends as we like to call ourselves…and 78 kids who are unsponsored.  Sponsorship is $38 a month for food, water, basic medical care, educational support and discipleship.  I’ve been praying God would do what only He can do and stir hearts to sponsor the remaining 78 children who need sponsorship.  I keep thinking about how truly He never ceases to amaze me.

Sometimes I get caught up in the current and every now and then think about the future.  What I would love to see is all 78 of these kids sponsored and then trips formed each year of sponsors and non sponsors.  Another goal would be to raise the funds to have a nice playground put in at Ngungwane for the kids to enjoy every day.  This is a $16,250 goal which can feel a tad daunting, but God is really good at what feels daunting to us.  I like how He can orchestrate and bring people together…I like how He pushes our hearts towards love…and I like how He gives us one another as gifts even across oceans.

You can see all the kiddos who still need sponsorship at the Ngungwane carepoint by CLICKING HERE and then choosing “unsponsored” in the Status bar at the top.  Each child is so incredibly precious and created in the image of God.  And then consider joining us on another trip.  Likely in 2016, but if the opportunity and the group came together I’d go back in a heartbeat this year as well.

Please feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone…the more the merrier.  You can check out Children’s HopeChest for all the details.  And this isn’t the last you’ll be hearing of this 🙂  Just 5 short days and Swaziland here we come.

Happy Monday!

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February 11, 2015 By Leave a Comment

I Just Can’t Stop…Join Me

You’re probably tired of hearing about Swaziland, but that just can’t be.  No way.  I just can’t stop my mind from going there.  I found this video on Children’s HopeChest website this morning and it’s so well done and explains so much.  Swaziland is on my mind every single day.  I must get back to see these crazy amazing kids and people and staff…I just must!  If you’re interested in going on the July trip shoot me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com and I will pass along more information.  It’s going to be simply incredible.  These people and this country will steal your heart away and love you like mad.

Happy Wednesday.

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January 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment

The Sweetest Feet

I can’t even tell you how excited I get each time I open up another email inquiry or response about this Swaziland trip.  Even if it’s someone responding with an “it’s not going to work out this time” I still get all excited that people are even interested.  With every email I send out there’s another possibility and all we need is a team of 8, but I’ll take 1000 of you if you want to go 🙂

So another re-post for today.  I want to give you a perspective on this trip.  It won’t be the exact same, but I want to try and let you feel what I felt.  See what I saw.  Experience what I experienced.  Feel the immense love I felt…and still do feel.  We always go on these trips thinking we’re going to do good…we’re going to bless people and tell them about Jesus, but I always come back feeling humbled and crazy blessed myself…like the good has been done to me…like they taught me about Jesus because they did.  God teaches me every time it’s not about what I’m going to do.  Instead it’s about Him.  It’s about Him inviting me to be apart of His word and love…loving my neighbor…my brothers and sisters in Christ…big and crazy and wild and fierce and letting them love on me in return and dang it all, it just blesses my socks right off.

RE-POST

The Sweetest Feet

Today will be one for my life book.  One of those moments where Jesus came right down and sat beside me and said, “Listen up Laura.  Soak up every moment because this day is for your heart.  These moments are to remind you of Me…Me and the deep love I have for you and all My children.”

The kids here amaze me.  Just absolutely floor me.  They are gorgeous, smart children with infectious loud laughs and eyes that are ocean deep.

We spent the first part of the day just hanging with the kids…just playing and sitting and smiling and laughing. Then we filled bags with things like peanut butter and crackers, beef jerky, trail mix, Skittles, dum dum suckers, matchbox cars, bubbles wands, pencils and plastic gold medal necklaces.  I felt giddy and wild with excitement as I sat on the concrete floor apart of this assembly line of people who were filling these bags.  I was in charge of the gold medals and the matchbox cars.  I so wanted pictures, but there I sat filling bag after bag after bag.

We also colored wooden Christmas ornaments.  When planning for a trip like this you think you have all these “good” ideas, but then when you’re here…you’re actually with the kids…you realize your good ideas weren’t that grand after all.  The plan was for the kids to color these wooden Christmas ornaments and then return them to their sponsor church back in Tennessee, well that just wasn’t happening after we watched them pour into these ornaments.  Most of them were extremely precise with their coloring and after watching them, well, we just couldn’t take them away.  They were theirs.

We were able to do another home visit with one of the grandmothers, or go-gos, who cooks at the care point each day for the kids.  Her homestead was beautiful.  It was meticulous and she took great pride in it…as she absolutely should.  Gathered around her were all her grandchildren.  All I could think as I watched her engage with them and listened to part of her story was, “Her children arise and call her blessed.”  It was an honor to be able to visit with her at her home.  An honor.

And for the majority of the day we fitted and sized and gave away around 150 pairs of new shoes.  I wanted to cry and sob.  I wanted to wash every foot I held in my hands today.  I found myself thinking so hard about where all these feet had been…the miles they had traveled…the wear they had endured…the lives they’ve lived thus far.  How far beyond their years they should really be.  God sat there reminding me of how precious and amazing and special and uniquely designed and created each one of these children are.  How blessed and honored I was to be holding their feet in my hands.  How humbled I should be to even remotely be apart of giving them a new pair of shoes.  It was a moment I will never forget.  Engraved deep in my heart are these children’s feet.

An overwhelming day and my heart might explode.  Feeling just so crazy blessed to be here…to meet these children and people…the spend time with them…and begin the anticipation for what all God has in store.  It’s sure to be grand and I cannot wait…absolutely cannot wait to see what He’s going to do.

Happy Tuesday!

END RE-POST

If you’re interested in more information on this possible July trip to Swaziland, Africa feel free to send me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com and I’ll get you some more information.

Have an awesome Wednesday.

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January 26, 2015 By 1 Comment

Swaziland Trip

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We spent major time at home in the sweetest craziness and preparing for the week.  I’ve already been praying over this week and gosh, I just hope it’s a good and encouraging one for you all.

Thank you so much for all the interest emails I’ve received about the Swaziland, Africa trip this July.  The world is so special.  The people God has placed all over are incredibly special.  And to go into different places and meet different people and see their homes and a glimpse into their lives is a gift…an honor and privilege.  Every time I get a chance to travel like this it’s just humbling and the gratefulness overwhelms me.

I thought it would be fun to do some re-posts this week and give you a little look into my last trip to Swaziland.  We will be going with the same group and hanging with the majority of the same amazing people and kids.  I cannot say how excited I am.  One of my goals for this trip is to not only just love on these amazing brothers and sisters in Christ, but to also be able to come home and find sponsors for all the kiddos who are unsponsored at the Ngugnwane Carepoint…to help push and ignite a further flame.  I think God can totally do this.

If you are interested in going on this trip please email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com for more information.

RE-POST

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Ngungwane {Swaziland, Africa}

I’m laying in bed in Swaziland, Africa.  It was a wonderfully long day and it’s pitch black outside now…closing in on midnight.  The sun rises at like 4:30am here…It wakes me up, I take a look, sit in wonder of Jesus and then go back to sleep for a few more hours.  To say that South Africa and Swaziland are beautiful would be a complete understatement.  Maybe the most beautiful place I’ve been and the people are crazy amazing.

I lost two bags.  I kind of thought I would because when I arrived at the Nashville airport on Friday they rerouted me, so I kind of expected some lost baggage.  Two bags full to the brim of supplies, but today they showed up.  Just in time for tomorrow.

People have asked me about this trip…what’s it for?  Who are you with?  What are you doing?  So here’s the quick down low.  Jesus put a passion for Swaziland in Josh Kelley’s heart in 2009.  It was quite wonderous to see because I had never even heard of Swaziland at that point.  Josh headed off to Swaziland with Children’s HopeChest and AIM in 2009 not knowing a soul, but he knew God wanted him on that trip.  A bit of time passed and we introduced our then church we were attending to Children’s HopeChest and the “community to community” partnership they help facilitate.  A care point is essentially a plot of land where local kids meet everyday to receive food, discipleship, love, and medical care.  You can read all about the details HERE.

We launched the carepoint Ngungwane in 2011 and began trying to get sponsorship for each of the profiled kiddos at the carepoint. Since then we’ve funded the fencing of the carepoint’s land, a bathroom, provided school shoes and built a solar powered well.  The one thing we could never get off the ground was a trip.  I’ve been trying to make my way to Swaziland to visit all the kids and the care point for over two years and every time I thought it might happen God shut a door, but not this year.  And I’m so very thankful.

So what am I doing?  It’s kind of crazy in the most best way ever.  I’m hanging out with kids all day.  I’m meeting families and the ladies in their community.  I’m getting to know them and I have the honor and sheer pleasure to love on them and let them love on me back.  I’m learning ways I can help come along side them.

Today I met a sweet go-go who is making her own necklaces to sell.  They are gorgeous.  I bought a ton and all my lady friends will be receiving one.  I might even be mailing one on over to Jessica, Noonday‘s founder, as well.  (insert a wink and a nod)

Today we did a cabbage distribution.  They have gardens they work and maintain and these gardens produce some serious crops…like the biggest cabbages I’ve ever seen.  Today each of the kids at Ngungwane received two cabbages to take home. It was incredible.

We blew lots of bubbles and painted fingernails…boys too if they wanted :)  I got my serious fingernail painting skillz on.

We took polaroid pictures of every child at the carepoint for them to keep…plus all the go-go’s pictures too.  Everyone loved them.  It was hilarious to look around and see a 100+ Swazis…men, woman and children…shaking their polaroid pictures while they developed.  It was definitely a highlight from the day.

We got to see first hand how the care point runs.  It was nice to finally be here…to see in person all the hard work which goes into this “community to community” partnership.  And to meet all the people who work so hard to make sure all these incredible kids have some of their needs met daily.

And we also did a home visit today.  AIM & CHC let their swazi staff decide whose homes we will be visiting based on need.  With each home visit we take a gift to thank the family for allowing us to come to their home…a huge bag of beans, a huge bag of corn and several other food and necessity items.  Today as we visited with the family I thought the oldest granddaughter looked a tad familiar, but thought there was no way out of all the kids that we would be visiting our 3 sponsor kids who are siblings and our pictures of them at home are almost 3 years old so I couldn’t be sure.  We met with the kids and their grandmother and prayed over them.  As we loaded into the van, I asked one of the Swazi staff about the children’s names and sure enough, it was indeed our sibling set of 3.  We were able to meet one of their cousins as well.  I felt like it was one of those moments ordained by God.

I’m learning more and more everyday I’m here.  What He has planned I do not know, but I know He’s moving.  Jesus is teaching me new things.  These children and people are to be revered.  They are absolutely fierce and beautiful and hard working and joyful and yet, I have so many questions for Jesus.  So many.

I will never understand child headed households and children with no parents and diseases, but what I do understand is one day heaven will be on Earth and God will make all things new and He will set things right.  Until then, He has commanded us to love.  He has commanded us to love Him and to love others.  So I’m going to do my best and let God guide my heart in the direction He’s leading.

Happy Monday from Swaziland.

END RE-POST

Man oh man do I ever hope this trip happens.  I need to get back to see these sweet faces and families again.  Makes my heart race just thinking about it.

Happy Monday…from Tennessee 🙂

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January 22, 2015 By 6 Comments

8 Things {AKA Randomness}

I really like these number posts because it makes me feel like I’m writing a little something different than yesterday when we all really know I’m rambling total randomness yet again.  Sigh.

1.  So a few weeks ago I started a full on man hunt to put together a team of at least 8 to go to Swaziland this July.  Now I’m taking to the inter webs for any of you locals who would like to join me.  We will be working with Children’s HopeChest and AIM and will be visiting kiddos at the Ngungwane carepoint and pretty much having a grand time with these crazy sweet kids.  If you would like more information shoot me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com.  Come on…you know you want to go!!!

2.  What the what?  I finished another order.  Shocker I know.  Sweet little primary love name pillow.  I’m still taking orders and working as quickly as possible so use the “Contact Laura” button at the top or shoot me an email if you would like to place an order.

3.  The other day I found this hole in my running shoes, so now I’m on the lookout for some new ones.  I’m really sad about Brooks discontinuing the original Pure Flows…like the original originals…numero unos.  They have been my favorite favorites.  Like I even bought multiple pairs and tucked them away and I ran the tread off each pair.  These are my last ones.  Oh the despair.  Anyone have any good recommendations?

Sidenote:  Yes those are in fact two Strawberry Shortcake bandaged fingers.  I cut both tips this morning while slicing an apple.  I feel like I handle pain pretty well…minus dental pain because, well, I just flat out hate the dentist now, but when I slice a finger with a knife or on a can I almost hyperventilate.  It’s just something about the slicingnessness. <— real word.  Josh Kelley always comes to the rescue and saves my life.

4.  Does anyone else want to loom while their kids are at school???  Asking for a friend.

5.  I’m in the middle of John right now, but this week I keep coming back to here.

The beginning of the parable of the persistent widow in Luke begins with one amazing sentence: “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”  Crazy good stuff.

6.  Find these on sale and buy 1000 of them.  Just do it.

7.  Sometimes when we pull in the driveway I just sit in the car a little longer.  I give one of the big kids the keys, everyone piles out and I just remain until someone comes tapping on my window asking for a snack or when Harper comes out and says, “Mom, are you okay?”

8.  And I’m working on saying “yes” more to our kids in our current chaos.  So many parts of me want to say “no” to added things in which will make me put a little more effort into life when I’m already tired.  Harper has asked all week to go by the library on the way home and honestly, I just didn’t want to do it, but I knew she needed a “yes”.  I sat with the littlest in my arms and just watched.  It was quiet and Amon wasn’t even bullying any kids into giving him a turn on the computer…it was all his.  The big kids read and all found books they were excited about.  It was just what we all needed.

Happy Thursday!

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September 12, 2014 By 2 Comments

Tables & Small Bright Red Chairs

In March of this year I asked you guys to help me raise $610 so we could help purchase some tables and chairs for the sweet kiddos at the Ngungwane carepoint in Swaziland, Africa.  What we did together was purchase a crap ton of awesome Noonday Collection and then we hosted the biggest “thank you” giveaway and you guys made donation after donation after donation.  You can read about it HERE and HERE.

You guys went crazy and ended up donating almost $2900.  I can’t tell you how much this still thrills my heart.  The world is full of kind and generous people.  Again thank you!

This week I received an update on the Ngungwane carepoint and wanted to share some of the pictures Children’s HopeChest passed along to me.  Not only did they get to purchase the tables and chairs, but with your kind donations, we also paid for an entire years worth of school fees for the kids, some learning supplies and they added a big painted chalkboard.

 I wanted you to see we can change the world.  We can make a difference.  We can come along side our brothers and sisters in Christ and help stand in the gap.  We can come together and impact lives even with the purchase of something simple like tables and small bright red chairs.

Thank you again.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Thank you for joining us and giving and being generous and kind!  Opening up that large envelope this week and reading the words and seeing these pictures was easily one of the highlights of my week.

Here’s a great weekend.

Happy Friday friends!

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May 9, 2014 By 2 Comments

WINNER, WINNER!

Happiest of Fridays everyone!

Last night our big Noonday Collection giveaway fundraiser to raise money for the kiddos at the Ngungwane carepoint in Swaziland ended.  And I just want to hug each and every one of you.  Shake you hand.  High-5 you. Fist bumps all around.  Express words of gratitude to each of you.  Another tight bear hug.

Our goal was $610.  This would purchase 5 tables and 30 chairs for the kids.  We held a Noonday party and friends and family and you guys bought lots of stuff…lots and lots of stuff and in turn, we were able to pick out free goodies to give away.  And then you donated.  You donated and donated and donated.  And I was floored.  Amazed at God’s goodness and His love and the way He alone can move and nudge people’s hearts.

We ended up raising a grand total of $2,890.

Thank you.  I really just don’t know what else to say, but Thank you!  Big giant thank yous.  Ginormously huge thank yous!!!

Josh Kelley and I wrote down all the names, cut them up, folded and put them in a big bowl.

And this morning I drew the winner.  Super congrats to Sherry Semlow of Illinois.  You should have an email waiting in your inbox!

God has been showing me more and more how He can facilitate and move and how we can be a small part of His works…how He can use us in small ways to do big things.  I hope we listen carefully for His pushes and nudges…I hope we are obedient…I hope we look for those opportunities for kindness and generosity and big love.  I want to be apart of whatever He is doing and I want to say yes!

Thank you for saying yes!

Happy Friday.

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