Liqaa Needs a Valentine!
09 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
This is the month of LOVE and we are sharing it in Najaf at Remedy Mission IX.
Matt is down with the doctors this time, so I am all alone… but I have been putting my time to good use, raising money for one little girl getting surgery on Valentines Day.
Check out my cooking blog and see the party we created for her.
Or, visit my fundraising page to give to her surgery. You could create your own page for her too!
Happy Valentines Day!
Mother’s Day
02 May 2011 1 Comment
in Kurdistan, PLC Tags: Iraq, Kurdistan, PLC, prosperity candle
We have partnered up with Iraqi moms who are changing their own lives by making these candles. By sharing a candle with your own mom, you are supporting hardworking moms and at the same time helping children receive life-saving heart surgery. Read more about it here. But order soon! Mother’s Day is just around the corner!
We’re almost there!
26 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
After the longest transition of my life, the end is in sight. Our time in the states has been filled with friends and family and overwhelming love and support. We are so thankful for all of you.
But I will say that I am excited to finally get where we are going.
After much deliberation and a bit of frustration we bought the tickets. On February 28 we will leave San Diego for Iraq. Then a whole new adventure begins =)
Pray for us as we get ready to go. All the packing, all the paperwork, all the good-byes. While we are away our main form of keeping in touch will be by email. If you don’t already receive our updates and want to, please let us know and we will put you on the list!
Remedy Mission
20 May 2010 Leave a Comment
As most of you probably know, Matt and I have taken jobs with the Preemptive Love Coalition in Northern Iraq. For the rest of this year and a little into next we will be in America (mostly California and Texas) raising support before we able to actually join the team in Iraq.
It is hard for us sometimes to be here when we want so badly to be in Iraq with the team, but right now we have an opportunity to do something even from so far away.
PLC is bringing in an international team of doctors right to Northern Iraq to save the lives of 30 Iraqi kids and provide Iraqi doctors with valuable hands-on training opportunities.
That is more kids than they were able to help in all of 2009! In one week!
But this is where they need your help too, the total mission cost is $60,000 – sounds daunting, but the outcome will be well worth it. 30 lives saved and valuable training for local Iraqui doctors.
Can YOU help? Even $20 is one step closer. Or spread the word, via your facebook, blog or twitter.
www.preemptivelove.org/remedy
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We have been enjoying our time in California – making the rounds and spending time with family. More updates to come =)
The Next Step
24 Oct 2009 Leave a Comment
in PLC, Thailand, Travel Tags: Iraq, PLC, Thailand
Only one more day in Iraq and it is time to head back to Thailand. Mixed feelings. We have had such a good time here – with the team, with the Kurds, working for PLC. It has been quite a visit.
A few days ago we had lunch with the team leaders here and talked about what it would look like if we decided to come join the team. They answered a lot of our questions and filled us in on things we hadn’t even thought about. We wouldn’t be able to get here until the end of 2010 or early 2011, but there would be lots to do before then.
We are excited because this would be our chance to do something on purpose; to go somewhere with a clear idea why, with goals and something to work. Not only would we be helping children receive life saving heart surgeries, we would be investing in the lives of families by spending time with them and loving them with Jesus’ love, a love most of them have never known.
Our specific roles here would be working on public relations for PLC and caring for families of the children. It has been fun to see that there are very tangible and specific ways for us to serve here.
I was also excited to find out that in order to learn the language we would live for a few months with a Kurdish family, hopefully out in one of the villages. This is actually on my top 100 list of things to do before I die (as is kill and pluck a chicken with my hands, there may be opportunity for this too =) Living the way they live would be so far out of our comfort zone, it would pull and stretch us so much, but I think it will be so beneficial to us too, not only to learn Kurdish.
So we have a lot to think about when we get back to Bangkok. We are leaving for Turkey tonight and will be in Bangkok Wednesday afternoon. Please keep us in your prayers as we are traveling and as we make this huge decision.
More to come – picture too =)
So much hurt
20 Oct 2009 2 Comments
in Kurdistan, PLC Tags: Iraq, PLC, Thailand
There are over 3,000 Kurdish children with congenital heart problems and tens of thousands of others with a range of other health problems. Last week we went out to a village to visit a boy who had surgery in February, he is doing great, but afterward we visited his cousin whose muscles didn’t develop correctly so he cannot stretch his legs out or control his limbs at all. Then we went to see a little boy with spina bifida and his sister who also had a problem with her spine. It has just been amazing to me how much these children have been effected by what their parents were exposed to. On top of poverty and malnutrition, these people were effected by Saddam’s chemical attacks in the 80′s. It just makes you realize how blessed we are to have legs that walk and hands that can move. It has been amazing to watch the PLC team care not only for the families who have received heart surgeries, but also for their relatives and neighbors, anywhere there is a need and a hand can be lent. One of the girls on the team has a background in physical therapy, which is amazingly useful here. Just yesterday she taught one of the mothers of a heart surgery girl some exercises to help her aching back. It makes me wonder why I chose such a vague field of study. But even with that, I have been able to lend some help, so I’ll learn and keep doing what I can =)
Home Visits
08 Oct 2009 1 Comment
in Kurdistan, PLC Tags: Iraq, PLC, Thailand
When a family comes to PLC for help with their child, it is not just the child who will get attention. Each family is assigned an advocate from the PLC team to make sure they along the child are being cared for throughout the entire process.
This week I have had the opportunity to accompany these advocates on home visits around the city and out in the villages. We visited little Heran to make sure she was gaining weight so she can get a needed follow-up surgery. We visited Honya who will be getting surgery in November to ready her family for the trip to Istanbul. We went out into the villages to visit Teban to plead with the school board to let her back in school now that she has recovered from her surgery. Every family has needs and PLC wants to do all they can to meet those needs and ease the pain.
It is also a time to build relationships with the families, friendships that can go beyond their child’s health. The Kurdish people have been through a lot and though there are many institutions offering aid and handouts, there aren’t many offering Truth and love.
It has been a really neat experience spending time with Kurds in their homes, though most of the time I have no idea what is being said. From the outside the houses look like cement bunkers, but inside they are quite inviting. Most families have a sitting room where they take us, usually two long rugs on either side, maybe couches to sit on. They are very hospitable people and will always offer whatever they have, though I am learning that you should not always take them up on their offer because it might really be all they have. The woman will bring out a tray first of water, maybe cookies or nuts, then tea and the last thing to come out is the fruit. The tea comes out in little shot glasses with a spoonful of sugar at the bottom. Just yesterday, throughout my various visits, I drank 6 cups! That’s a record so far =)
Why Iraq?
07 Oct 2009 1 Comment
in Kurdistan, PLC, Travel Tags: Iraq, PLC, Thailand
So lots of you are probably wondering why we are up here in Iraq. Well, this post is dedicated to telling you more about where we are and whom we are with.
PLC – The Preemptive Love Coalition
This is a team of both foreigners and Kurds who have dedicated their lives to helping Kuridish children attain much needed heart surgeries. They have partnered with many other organizations and doctors as well as raised money through donations and the selling of local Kurdish shoes so that they can offer families expensive surgeries at a much more affordable cost. Once a child is chosen for surgery, the team members offer support and love to the family during the entire process and long into their recovery.
The Team
So we are staying in the home of the founders of PLC along with their two young children. They are Americans who we met for the first time in Waco two years ago. Right now there are three short-term team members, all about our age, who have been here since June. Also on the team are a few Kurds who help with translation and understanding Kurdish culture as well as a young Irish woman who has been here since the beginning and speaks excellent Kurdish. The rest of the team is currently away working from America.
The city we are in now is nestled among rolling sand hills in Northern Iraq. As can be expected, it is a very warm and dry climate (I have been drinking a gallon of water a day just to stay hydrated!) The city has many foreigners living here for various reasons; our host’s daughter even goes to an international school. Most women cover their heads and the men wear Aladdin pants. They are very hospitable and generally friendly. I would also like to add, knowing many of your ideas about Iraqi people, that they think all Texans ride around on horses and shoot people for fun. We all know that is not true, and I have found an Iraq that is peaceful and in need of Truth and love.
So that is a bit of what is here… but why are we here? Well, we met these people our last year in college and were inspired by their passion and their mission. They have been on our minds ever since and we always wondered if joining them could be a possibility for us, but all we had were vague ideas about what really goes on here. So here we are trying to get an idea of what life is like working for PLC and living in Sulimanye, Iraq, as well as if there is a place for us to fit in and really contribute to the team. It would be a big life change and a huge step of faith, but we are willing to take that risk if God shows us that this is a place we can glorify him. It hasn’t been long, but we are still open to the idea… so we’ll see how we feel after our three weeks are up and it is time to go back to Bangkok.
We made it!
05 Oct 2009 3 Comments
in PLC, Travel Tags: Iraq visit
Hello from Iraq! We made it =)
It was a loooong trip. We left home at about 9:30 on Friday night, caught a few winks on the red-eye to Cairo… landed, got visas, changed some money and dashed out to make the most of our 10-hour layover. We took a bus to see the pyramids… which were awesome. We even got to ride a camel! We started talking to one of the guys and he threw us up there, stole my camera and led us around posing us for various pictures. Of course he asked for an obscene amount of money at the end, we gave him a bit, but it was totally worth it. We took a cab back to the airport, had an interesting ride when a rock shattered the front windshield… he kept driving for a while and finally stopped to break out the glass completely, totally calm the whole time and he still got us there with two hours to kill before we boarded a plane to Istanbul. We had plenty of time to get our stuff and get checked back in for a short flight up to Sulimanye where our friends were waiting to take us home for some much needed sleep.
I slept in practically until lunch. Which was delicious. They said you get tired of just rice and beans… I don’t know, these are pretty good beans =)
We went to the office afterwards and talked about business. I understand quite a bit more about what they do here. Tomorrow we will make some house visits. I’m excited about that too
After dinner was house church and some great conversation. It was a good first day! and I am tired… so you will have to wait for more details about where we are and how I am feeling and the people here and all of that… I promise, more to come!
