do less, but accomplish more

Demonstrate your Trust in Me by sitting quietly in My Presence. Put aside all that is waiting to be done, and refuse to worry about anything. This sacred time together strengthens you and prepares you to face whatever the day will bring. By waiting with Me before you begin the day's activities, you proclaim the reality of My living Presence. This act of faith--waiting before working--is noted in the spirit world, where your demonstration of trust weakens principalities and powers of darkness.

The most effective way to resist evil is to draw near Me. When you need to take action, I will guide you clearly through My Spirit and My Word. The world is so complex and overstimulating that you can easily lose your sense of direction. Doing countless unnecessary activities will dissipate your energy. When you spend time with Me, I restore your sense of direction. As you look to Me for guidance, I enable you to do less but accomplish more.

from Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young

Here I am, where I ought to be

"I had a farm in Africa…the equator runs across these highlands, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.

The geographical position, and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. There was no fat on it and no luxuriance anywhere; it was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent. The colors were dry and burnt, like the colors in pottery….The views were immensely wide. Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility.

The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. Looking back on a sojourn in the African highlands, you are struck by your feeling of having lived for a time up in the air. The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, every-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigor in it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. In the middle of the day the air was alive over the land, like a flame burning…

Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be."

From the opening pages of Karen Blixen's Out of Africa.

Back in action!

Hey everyone! It's been a rush of a 3 weeks since being back on African soil again! I apologize for the lack of blogging...and I promise to pick up very soon! I already have 48+ things to blog about! :) It's been a beautifully busy time back here in Kigali, with moving houses...starting school...teaching lots and lots of adventurous boys...new adoptions and new births!...a funeral and a sad goodbye...a broken toe (fine now, but just a nuisance!)...sunday school trainings...and more! whew! God is good though EVERY DAY! I am so incredibly BLESSED to be here again serving Him and His children! Looking forward to this new school year and all that He has planned! I promise to elaborate more very soon!

Thank you for your prayers! If you would like to receive an email about specific prayers requests we have here in Rwanda, and want to commit to praying for needs here, please either comment to this post or send me a short email. It would be wonderful to have many people interceding for us. I will probably send an email every other week only. Thank you!

And yes! There are still some Rwandan beaded and fabric necklaces and earrings still available for sale! You can email me if you are interested and I'll let you know who to call. I'm also trying to get more items shipped soon. Thank you for your support!

emgriggs@hotmail.com

Philippians 1: 3-4 "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now..."

Talented ladies!

I love these talented ladies! I visit them weekly or sometimes more at the local Kimironko market. They are a bunch of sweet, talented ladies who earn their livelihood for their families by sewing beautiful clothes, (they've made me some GORGEOUS dresses!), and handcrafting jewelry with their own creative touches and an extra dose of love! They make a lot woven earrings and necklaces made from scrap paper and metal and other odds and ends. Many of these ladies are past victims of domestic violence. I think it's just BEAUTIFUL what these ladies can do with so little resources! They inspire me!

At Christmas I was able to bring a lot of their handiwork back to the States and sell it to all of you to make a profit for these hardworking ladies. Now they have new sewing machines and we were able to open bank accounts for many of them so they can start saving their resources and being good stewards of their finances. Thank YOU for helping these sweet ladies! I love coming back home and seeing everyone all decked out in their African jewelry! :) It makes me smile! I brought many more jewelry items (and a few other crafts!) home with me this summer! Please let me know if you'd be interested in seeing some of the lovely merchandise, and I'll be glad to bring them to you! There will be a few more craft parties this summer, and even some this fall too! I'm so thankful and blessed that you all love these items and keep supporting these fabulous ladies!

Evangeline

Beautiful jewelry for sale!

Josephine (my personal tailor) and Evangeline

Stephen makes a lot of the wooden crafts!

Colorful, fabric necklaces for sale!

Mama Polly

my man!

I enjoyed every minute of my weekend at Lake Lanier, Georgia with my main squeeze, Aiden. He's the love of my life! Summertime is good! Hope your weekend was full of love and giggles and sunshine too! :)

"The times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." ~Acts 3:19  KJV

Real

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

~from The Velveteen Rabbit

what I am living for

“If you want to identify me,
ask me not where I live,
or what I like to eat,
or how I comb my hair,
but ask me what I am living for,
in detail,
ask me what I think is keeping me from
living fully for the thing I want to live for.”

-Thomas Merton