He gives. He takes away: Lets Suffer Well!

Suffering is a real thing. We all face it. It is so easy to say, "well, so many people have to worse than me," but that isn't a fair statement. Pain is pain, and we all understand what it feels like. 

Recently I have been made aware of the realness of suffering. Not current suffering, but that fact that I will face suffering - and probably a lot of it, in my life. This realization came from the life of a man name Job.

Job was a amazing man of God. His life was full of blessings and God allowed Satan to take it all away. By all, I mean ALL. Even his children.... all ten of them died. The important thing to understand is that God Himself allowed the suffering. Job understood that, and worshiped God through his pain.  Yes, he did have times of questioning and felt anger toward God... but he continued to worship. 

More than likely, you have heard of Job, but you probably have not heard of Brittany. Brittany is a young mother of two who daily faces intense suffering similar to Job. She writes this: 

"Hudson and Leila have late infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis better known as batten disease. It took 7 years to get a correct diagnosis on Hudson and as soon as was diagnosed, Leila had a grand mal seizure and was immediately tested and shown to also have battens. Some of the symptoms that helped us know that something was wrong with Hudson (now 8 1/2 years old )were the onset of vision problems and seizures. He first showed major personality and behavior changes. His ability to learn completely stopped and his speech faded very quickly. Clumsiness followed and he sustained a terrible injury to his leg that almost took his life. He now has poor circulation in his arms and legs. his stomach is refusing to empty properly which had led to body fat and muscle mass loss.

Over time, Hudson has suffered mental impairment, worsening seizures, and complete blindness. He cannot speak at all and has no motor skills. He is in a wheel chair and he mentally and physically can only do what a 6 month old can do. Leila is currently going blind and she can no longer go down stairs alone. she is mentally under 2 years old, even though she physically is about to turn six years old. They are both beautiful amazing babies! God has truly blessed me with gorgeous amazing kids! I am enjoying each day with them!! This disease will end their lives between 8-12 yrs old. But as for today they are being lent to me to enjoy. -Brittany"

................

I will never forget the day years ago that I went to the hospital with my parents to visit Hudson and Brittany. I remember leaving confused. Confused to how there was a big smile on Brittany's face while her sweet little boy lay in a hospital bed in pain. Confused of how Brittany had a smile on her face knowing she potentially would have to say goodbye to sweet Hudson one day. 

Recently, I have come to understand why. I understand why Brittany continues to smile. Brittany smiles because she loves God. She doesn't love God for His gifts, but she loves Him for who He is. She doesn't love Him because she has healthy children, a bunch of money, a perfect job, or perfect life - she simply loves God for who He is. She doesn't praise God for the good days, she praises Him everyday. 

I feel confident that like Job, Brittany has faced days of anger, doubt and questioning. I know that she probably doesn't feel as strong as I view her. Brittany is no super hero, she is just like you and me, but her strength has encouraged me. Her continual joy has convicted me. If Brittany can have joy during a trial this big, I can find joy through my trials. 

The God of blessings and the God of suffering are the same God. 

Lets prepare our hearts for suffering.  Lets be a Job. Lets be a Brittany. 

Lets love God for God.... not for His gifts! 

Lets suffer well. 

 The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." - Job 

(Job 1:21)

A Colorful Promise

(I wrote this in my journal while I was leaving Kampala last May. I recently re-read it and decided to share.)

Sitting on a plane waiting for the departure from Kampala and African rain begins rolling down the small plane window. With this beautiful rain comes the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. More unique than any one I have ever seen, I could see its beginning and its end. I sat in awe as I stared at it over amazing African landscape with confidence that God must have painted this breathtaking picture in the sky.

The past few weeks of my life my eyes have been opened to much pain, suffering, and injustice and it breaks my heart. Its hard to know that I am leaving this place to go home to a family, shelter, an abundance of food, and clean water when over 10,000 young boys are sleeping on the streets of Kampala. It is even harder to know that even through all my prayers... God is still going to let them sleep there tonight.

I think about this, and then I think about this rainbow... and I remember the promise of my sovereign God. Genesis 10:13 says, "I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth." God makes many covenants to the earth like in psalms 38:28 which says, "For the Lord loves justice, and He will NEVER abandon the godly." or Psalm 9:18 which says, "But the needy will NOT be ignored forever, the hopes of the poor will NOT always be crushed." Or Psalms 9:9 which says, "The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble."

Looking at this beautiful rainbow I know with confidence that God is reminding me of a promise. God promises to be a shelter for these boys, He promises their needs will not always be ignored, and He promises that He loves justice and will NEVER abandon the godly. He doesn't promise any of us comfort. He doesn't promise any of us shelter, food or clean water. He doesn't promise life is always going to be fair. But the promises He does make are much greater than these.

Ironically, one of my new friends name is Musoke. Musoke means rainbow. This young boy lived on the streets for many years and  now is part of the API family were he has a bed, food, and a lot of people who love him. Most importantly, he loves and worships the God who provided it for him. He is an perfect example of exactly what his name means - the promises of God are so evident in his life. 

The same God who provided for Musoke can and will provide for all 10,000 street boys of Kampala... and for you and me.

How amazing that God can remind me of this mind blowing truth through something as big and beautiful as a rainbow?

Adventures of Trent and Jordan: That's a Wrap, Folks!

Today we had a blast at the pool and followed it up with a Sonic Happy-Hour run!

Then off we went for the last day of Super Summer Adventure - Home Edition club which was a huge success! Water games, a cookout and all the works! So incredibly thankful for my awesome church!

To end our week right we had a bonfire with a bunch of my incredibly awesome friends, which was Trent's idea.While we were there, Trent (and everyone else) even got to see a bunch of snakes eat a bunch of mice. Cool, right?!  A couple s'mores and a lot of fun later, we finally headed for home.

Clearly, I let him stay up way to late because we had our first argument of the week. It didn't really matter because he feel asleep before either one of us could even win.

Tomorrow is His Birthday so I just wrapped presents and booby-trapped our house!

(There are balloons behind the plastic. Hoping it works... the balloons should all fall on him when he opens the door.)

In the morning, bright and early, we are heading to meet our parents and family for birthday breakfast at Trent (and mine's) favorite - Cracker Barrel! After a good meal, Trent and I will part ways! Raleigh (and me) will miss him for sure!

Clearly, I am tired. You could probably tell by the brevity of this post.

It has been a great week of adventures! Looking forward to tomorrow morning's grand finally!

Adventures of Trent and Jordan: Day 4

For those of you who have been following the adventures, this post will be a let down. I can't decide if this day seems to be lacking eventfulness because it really is lacking or because I am comparing it to yesterdays adventures. 

I let Trent stay up late last night and sleep in late this morning so that I could get some studying done. I thought it was a good idea until I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get us out of the door on time. As I slopped peanut butter and jelly on bread and left the kitchen a disaster from breakfast thinking it will just have to happen later... I thought, "this must be what being a mom feels like." 

Once again, we went to work. It has been such a blessing that Trent has complied with this so well. He hasn't complained once! Hilarious moment in the workplace: when a co-worker realized Trent's name was Trent...not Trey. Trent had been letting him call him the wrong name the entire week without correction. 

To take a break from work we explored Downtown Raleigh! 


First stop: North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. It is such a awesome and interactive place. In the newly added wing of the museum is a room where you can touch and hold (stuffed) animals. When you place the animal on the really awesome table, the table lights up with tons of information about that animal you placed there. Mind blowing, really. 

Second Stop: The North Carolina  Museum of History. Because we went there last summer we just went right to our favorite places during this trip. Can you guess what that consisted of? NASCAR cars and guns (seeing Earnhardt's car was our favorite!). I don't have much to stay about that. At this point you have already stereotyped us as rednecks. Fair enough. 

Also, while leaving the museum we decided to find our counties tile to learn what year it was founded. Pasquotank county that is. Surprisingly, but not so surprisingly.... someone stole it. Classy ya'll. Real classy. 

Third Stop: Yogurtland. It turned out to be a big hit because they are having a Looney Tunes themed summer. Apparently Carton Network has brought back the classics. Trent has been talking about them all week, so the Daffy Duck bowls and spoons were a great source of entertainment! Strangely, while we sat outside eating froyo, a women walked up and asked me to take care of her dog while she grocery shopped. I agreed.... and was shocked by the great amount of attention it brought me. Is it bad I didn't say it wasn't my dog? 



We then went to Day 2 of the Super Summer Adventure club and learned from the life of Paul we don't have to fear because God is always with us! 






At this point I was beat, and would have loved to go through a drive thru for dinner, but NOOO, "I don't really like restaurants." When asking what Trent wanted for dinner I was responded to with, "whatever good you have at your house to cook!" So late night cooking it was. I do not cook for myself often, so really it has been a treat this week to eat real meals! 




I studied some more while we watched the Elf and then just took a midterm. Taking a midterm at 10pm isn't ideal by any means, but when else was I suppose to do it??

So I sit here pondering: This must be what being a mom feels like!? 

Adventures of Trent and Jordan: Day 3

Well, today's adventure was an adventure FOR SURE! I am still in awe!

The day started with me trying to win some major brownie points by making pancakes for breakfast. I was so excited because I had Cracker Barrel syrup, which I thought was his favorite. The response I got: "actually I don't like that." I was pretty crushed. Maybe it was because I was still bitter over the "I can't eat this broccoli, it just isn't as good as mom's" statement from the night before.

What came next completely overrides the bad syrup. We went to the Murphy center and.....

Posed in front of the Wolf statue! 

Met Mr. Wolf

Saw the retired jersey of Elizabeth City's own, Dennis Byrd! 

Checked out the players training room!

saw the stadium from afar. (this would have been enought... BUT....)

RAN THROUGH THE TUNNEL AND ONTO THE SIDELINES!!! 

Touched the lucky wolf that the players touch on their way out of the tunnel before every game.

AND WENT ON THE FIELD! 

As if that wasn't good enough, we went to Defy Gravity and had the time of our life. If you haven't heard of this place, you MUST try it out. It is basically a huge room full of trampolines.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we went to an awesome Super Summer Adventure - Home Edition club.

After a quick pit-stop home for dinner we headed to Pelican's Snowballs with a lot of awesome friends. Here is when the biggest adventure of our day took place: we ate the dill pickle flavored snowball. GROSS.

(even had a special guest.)

To end the night we made another awesome craft....

and now I am here. Typing this blog post as I attempt to hold my eyes open. Sadly, my night is just beginning.... I have a midterm to study for....

Goodnight. 

Adventures of Trent and Jordan: Day Two

I don't have any crazy exciting or hilarious stories to tell you about day two, but no worries - it was a great day! 

For a year now I have been nannying at 5:30 in the morning every weekday. Though that sounds like a miserable job (and sometimes is) I often find must joy spending my mornings with 4 year old Brooke and 8 year old Brady. Problem is, this job didn't go away while Trent is here. Thankfully, my sweet friend Brittany has been sitting at my house at the crack of dawn while I go to work. Love that girl. 

This day in particular, Trent decided to sleep in so he woke up after I was already home. I am certain all mommy's out there feel this way, but there is just something special about greeting a child when they first awake and are still half asleep. Good morning hugs are the best! This morning was no different, and as it put a big smile on my face I remembered all the mornings many years ago me and Trent would snuggle on the couch when he woke up. He is getting old! 

Once again we went to work (so fun, I know!). 

We then went to the pool. If you didn't know it ... it was REALLY hot yesterday, forcing us to stay in the water the entire time. If you didn't know it.... kids turn in to monsters when entering a pool, forcing me to be continuously shoved under water for hours. Though a tiring trip, it was a lot of fun. My dear friend Ashley joined us and it was so great to catch up with her (during my breaks for air above water). 


For our night time activities we made a really awesome wooden race car. Trent said, "lets paint T and J on it so I can always remember I made it this week with you." So sweet! 

The nightly mail check also brought excitement! Trent got mail! Shout out to Ma and Papa who made a little boys night! I am not sure if it was the card or money in the card that put a smile on his face. Who am I kidding? It was the money. 



We then decided to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Trent had never seen it and I hadn't in years. First of all, the original movie is way better. Secondly, Johnny Deep is the creepiest thing ever. Thirdly, did you know? 

Did you know the seven children represent the seven deadly sins? Mind. Blown. 

1. Augustus Gloop: gluttony
2. Veruca Salt: Greed
3. Violet Beauregarde: Pride
4. Mike Teavee: Sloth
5. Grandpa Joe: envy
6. Charlie: lust (not sexual. He has a intense desire to have something.) 
7. Wonka: Wrath 

Cool, right? It was fun re-watching it while knowing this! 

That's about it. Here we come day three! 

Adventures of Trent and Jordan: Day 1

As you have read before, my best friend is eight. I am very blessed to be part of a not so normal family where I have brothers much younger than me. This is Trent's last week of being eight, so to celebrate he is living it up with me in Raleigh! Trent was only five when I moved to Raleigh and often I feel like I have missed out on his life. The lack of time together makes the time we do have together extra special.

The adventure started Sunday at the lunch table. Carson, the youngest Ellinwood, protest it was his turn to go to Raleigh and that Trent must celebrate his birthday at home with mom and dad. He got really innovative in making sure this would actually happen. "Whoever drinks a sip of their drink first gets to go to Raleigh," he said. My Dad threw up his cup and quickly drank a sip while the entire family burst into laughter. Carsons ideas didn't end there, they went on and on and on.

My Dad being the jokester he is decided to join in the fun saying, "whoever is wearing a gray shirt gets to go to Raleigh! We all laughed and looked around quickly noticing there was no one in a gray shirt. I personally expected Carson to jump from his chair and run upstairs to change. Every head turned towards my dad with blank faces to which he responded, "this is gray right?"

My father is color blind, which we often forget. My dad in fact was wearing a aqua shirt ... not even close. Maybe you don't find this funny, but I sure did! It was a great start to my adventure.

Sometime I forget how kids truly do say the darnedest things. My favorite Trent sayings from our drive to Raleigh were: 

Me: "Trent, do you like watching baseball?"

Trent: "Yea I do. I meannn, if I had the choice between Duck Dynasty and baseball I would definitely pick Duck Dynasty, but yea, I like it!"

"I have a five tattoo trust rule. If you have more than five tattoos I just can't trust you!"

...............

Day one me and Trent had loads of fun! He came to work with me and was a big helper.

We then went fishing on Lake Johnson. I thought it would be a good idea to rent a Jon Boat.... if you didn't know - they move at negative twenty mph.

To cool off from the hottest fishing trip everrr, we dug into the best watermelon everrr!

To end the night I listened to Trent play his guitar and we ate stove-top popcorn while we watched a great movie called Parental Guidance! LOVED IT! (I may or may not have cried). 

I am so blessed by this boy and am looking forward to a week full of adventures!

Fred's Story: A Story of Injustice

" Fred is a small boy. He says his age is ten but he looks to be maybe seven at the most. What he lacks in size he makes up with spiritedness. He seems to hold his own fairly well with the other boys at program although he is definitely smaller then them all. Before he came to the streets Fred reached primary 3 in school. When he grows up he dreams to become a teacher. He explained that teachers teach people new things and help them become what they dream of through education. This is part of his story....

"My mother's name is Coleen. I have never known my father. I came to the streets of Kampala sometime in April and I have been living on them for a month now. I ran away from home because of my mother. She used to beat me and sometimes deny me food. When I left my home in Waskiso and started traveling to Kampala I was helped by a man. He was on a boda boda and he let me ride with him to Kampala. My plan was to visit my uncle. He lives in Kampala. The problem was that when I got to his house it was locked and no one was there. The neighbors told me that my uncle was in prison but they didn't tell me why. I didn't know anyone in Kampala other than my uncle. I came to the streets because I have nowhere else to go. I do not want to go home. Life on the streets is not good. It is hard to get things to eat. I don't have clothes like I did at home. I sleep on the ground with other boys and sometimes we get chased away from where we are sleeping at night.  When this happens we have to walk in the dark to find another place to sleep.

Please pray for me. I want to go back to school. I also want to have a safe place where I can live and be happy.""

.................................

There are over 10,000 children like Fred in Kampala, Uganda. Children without food, education a home or a family. Fred and the thousands of others are such a perfect example of injustice.

If you would like to fight for justice by sponsoring a child, email aperfectinjustice4@gmail.com for more information. 

(This blog is a excerpt from Abby Kaketto's blog. To read the blog in entirety go to http://aperfectinjustice.blogspot.com/ ) 


"Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy." 
- Psalms 82:3