zoo visit

Friday at the zoo- we saw the Hudson the polar bear attacking the stream of water from the keeper's hose, a tiger biting a large plastic barrel, a flurry of butterflies, Christy in her new elephant yard, and the super cute new baby gibbon. Then Cathy and I met Susan, Colleen, and baby Kendalyn for lunch! By that time it was super hot (or at least in the suffocating tent where we were waiting waaaaay too long to order food). But it was great to sit and chat and enjoy a nice day with friends and then of course an afternoon nap. : )

Gibbon and baby

when you believe...

Monday night June 29, 78 people from the Edge and Fountain of Life Church spent two hours serving at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora. I had a chance to serve with Willow in April, and was super excited to do it again just two months later. FMSC packs a chicken and vitamin flavoring with dried veggies, soy, and rice, and these meals are sent all over the world to help starving children - giving them one meal a day. One meal a day certainly doesn't seem like much, especially with the excess that we are so accustomed to, but many of these kids get NO meals a day. And to be provided a constant, nutritious meal has made such a difference to the kids that receive it. We worked for about 2 hours, labeling plastic bags, scooping ingredients, weighing and sealing the bags, packing them into boxes, and carrying boxes and ingredients back and forth in the fever pitch of the warehouse. That was the serving. But it's not the part that really gets me...... That's when we sit in a room afterward being told how many kids our two measly hours of work helped - and seeing these pictures and vidoes of the UNBELIEVABLE transformation that these children go through as they are brought back to health. ...these emaciated and worm-infested kids on death's doorstep that now have a chance to grow up.... to make it through one more day.

Sitting there, I just had this feeling that I can't even really explain, like my heart was just going to explode with love for these children, so happy to have made a difference for them. Then in the car a few days later my ipod flipped to a song that just captured it perfectly...

"In this time of fear, when prayers so often proved in vain, hope seemed like a summer bird - too swiftly flown away. Now I'm standing here, with a heart so full, I can't explain.... seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say..."

There can be miracles. In our two hours of work we filled 118 boxes - 25,488 meals - which will feed 70 children one live-saving meal a day for an entire year. I can't wait to go again.