Rwanda/Ethiopia December 2012

This is a compilation of Sid's daily posts from our December/January trip to Rwanda & Ethiopia. All of them from his heart, all of them filled with hope. I pray that you just for a moment feel even a little of what God has done in our hearts. Enjoy the trip!

As we get ready to take off to Africa my heart is full! Full of joy, love ,peace. I Am overwhelmed by Gods love today and so thankful for the opportunity to co-lead this team. Thankful for 5 of my kiddos to be along with us spreading Gods word. Thank you to everyone who has and continues to support us may God heap bountiful blessings upon you !

Blessings.....The Harper's

Day 1 update:

Today in Kigali, Rwanda we went to the genocide memorial museum. This place is very moving... Horrible atrocities for sure! The people of Rwanda have the most amazing sweet spirit about them.

Went to the Best Family this afternoon and had a dance party and celebrated life with many orphans. A great time was had by all...Jojo and Tate were the first two the kids grabbed as they ran to meet our bus (yes I mean ran) it was a beautiful sight as we pulled though the gates. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day. Tomorrow we worship African style and visit street kids !

Genocide Museum

The Best Family Rwanda

Day 2 in Rwanda:

Wow what a day...we began at our guides Peter and Jane's home church. Let me tell you that worship was amazing!!! We sang and danced and praised God for all he's is doing. Me, Wendy and Jojo had the privilege of leading a worship song...what a thrill it was to stand on a porch in Africa with my son and wife and praise our King. After lunch there we visited a new ministry called Catch-up..a haven for street kids (orphans) that is doing great things with these young souls. We played soccer, painted nails, colored and just got plain silly and laughed a lot. It was truly a blessed time for all. Serving with your kids on the mission field is an experience no one should miss.. Blessings to all!!

Day 3 in Rwanda:

Today we visited a very poor orphanage. These kids do not get a lot of attention..there were a lot that were very reserved and that would not look you in the eye. It was hard not to just cry. We played music and sang many songs..I am so thankful that God gave me the gift of music it is truly a universal language. Two highlights of my day..1)seeing an 5-18 yr old boy with CP light up with a huge smile when he beat the back of my guitar like a drum.
2)hearing all my teammates on the bus ministering to each other. Hardest thing today was not being able to bring a smile to a young ones face. I sat and held this one very tightly for about 20 minutes and said through an interpreter how much he was loved. I saw God today.

Day 4 Rwanda:

Today was a hard day but worth every minute. We visited a huge (500+ kids) orphanage. Having the kids come up and remember your name give you the biggest hug ever was an amazing feeling. I was just about tackled by my friend and had 3-4 of the biggest hugs (by him) EVER!! Cool moment was when I walked into the special needs room and the first thing the teacher told me is that she still has the ball I left for them last year....I figure it would be gone a soon as I left. High point today was making music with my blind friend whose voice is heavenly.This is a special place and always knocks you off of your feet...I was upset we had to leave so soon but thankful for he precious moments that God gave us with our friends today. Treasure each moment friends love BIG!!

Day 5 update:

Today was a travel day. We hit the market for some fun shopping....had lunch and then sadly said goodbye to Rwanda.

I had a very spiritual plane ride...as I listened to the grace chapel worship CD I felt the Holy Spirit wash over me as I prayed for our team and the next few days in Ethiopia. I feel that God is gonna show us great things here! Thank you all for continuing to pray for us. High point of the day was talking to my 2 boys at home Charlie and Levi and singing happy birthday to Levi 6 yrs old ..so proud of him and the progress he has made in two short years as a Harper...thank you Lord for the blessing of kids.

ETHIOPIA HERE WE COME....

Day 6 update:
Bought sheep for kids at a village outside of Addis were outcast lepers live. They get meat 1-2 times a year folks. Project 61 has and is doing great things here with the residents and the kiddos. So much progress since we were here last year. The new clinic is beautiful...the home for the elders is way cool and the new feeding center is off tha hook! Highlights of the day were seeing my kids come alive playing with the locals..they loved and served as Jesus...so proud of them. Also in the elder home there was a leper who could not walk or see laying in his bed and he sang me a praise song and worshiped our God...cool,cool,cool.. Honestly I don't think I could do that in the same conditions...broke. my. heart.
This team continues to blow me away with the compassion for all....there are a lot of young (20-30) folks on our team. It warms my heart to see these folks love and serve with reckless abandon. Thank you Jesus for letting me be on this team. Blessings y'all 

The Goat BEFORE Pic

Day 7 Update:
Today we visited an amazing ministry Embracing Hope...they are a holistic ministry that provides daycare to single moms and widows that are striving to better life for themselves and their kids. It is run by an all Ethiopian staff and board...very organized and well run.....we were very impressed.
We spent time with some of the kiddos during music time singing and dancing..sweet time.
Next we went back to the village of Korah to serve lunch to the school kids in the feeding program...they were grateful for the meat. We had a bit to worship and share a skit with them before they had to go back to school....always fun and energetic. We then heard testimonies from a few ladies that make jewelry for Mission Ethiopia...truly changed lives..blessed us greatly to hear how God has moved in their life. Next we split into 4 groups and went to homes in Korah. This is a moving experience to say the least..a true Ethiopian coffee ceremony. To see happiness and the love of God in someone we consider to have so little really puts life into perspective. High points today:
1) Great spiritual and physical growth in the family we sponsor in Korah. They were full of life and the spirit of God was evident...
2) Being asked if I was a clown back home...made my day!!
Thank you Lord for a great day and for all you are doing in Korah...continue to bless this place.

The Goat AFTER Pic;)

Day 8 Update:
As we traveled 1.5 hrs north of Addis we saw a new side of Ethiopia..it was a beautiful mountain drive..thought I was in Colorado! As we topped the pass at 9288 ft singing "Forever Reign" with my family the chorus "oh I'm running to your arms..the riches of your love will always be enough"
became real and The Holy Spirit filled our bus to overflowing.
My family is way cool!!!
We visited another awesome ministry today "Hope for the Hopeless" in its 20th year of serving orphans and families we aware very impressed with them.The model they use works and glorifies God and is run and largely supported by Ethiopians.
We no more than stepped off the bus when we saw Jojo (10 yr old son) sprinting to the soccer fields with "goals made out of sticks" and organizing teams...this boy has totally come alive. I have seen Gods love pouring out of my kids the last ten days...I feel like I am in Heaven. The kids at H4H were full of love and compassion..we were blessed beyond measure. I believe our team lived out John 13:34-35 today.

Day 9 Update:
Today we did Church baby! Beza Intl. Church here in Addis...what a great worship service with many nationalities...Heaven. 
After lunch we visited the community of Bole. We were blessed to hear a very inspiring message about the ultimate purpose of Christmas (Jan. 7 in Eth.).
He was on FIRE baby. We spent time playing and visiting with the kids ....an EPIC game of Sweet Sally Walker broke out....love the freestyle dancing y'all!
EVERYONE DANCED...PASTORS ,WORSHIP LEADERS AND ALL.
First time to take a team to this community....lots of needs...love and compassion being the biggest.
Highlights for today...leading worship at church with my family..Jojo singing out fron. so cool.
Kids at Bole saying "you big and strong" and kissing my biceps when I showed them. Great and blessed day. Thank you Jesus for giving us your eyes today.

Day 10 update:
Or last Day in Ethiopia we visited Kidane Mehret orphanage. A Catholic orphanage that has been run by the same nun for 35+ years. Sister L. runs a tight ship, clean, organized and respectful kids. This place is truly blessed...I get such a great feeling here. I met 2 angels today (15 & 16 yr. old girls) and they stole my heart. We sat and held hands for over an hour...hardly any words were exchanged but the love was felt by all. We sang a few songs to the special needs kids as they were being fed lunch..smiles all around. Highlights were my 2 angels pointing to their selves and then making a flying away gesture as I sang "Silver Wings" that really got me today. Another was when my daughters Sydnie & Baylie brought out 5 yr. old K ( boy with Down's syndrome)...just about the cutest thing you ever saw... They played with him the whole time we were there and begged us to bring him home. He definitely has the Harper personality..Full of Life!! Thank you Lord for divine appointments today...continue to take us where you want us and guide our every step. 

Lacey

Sydnie

Jonathan

Baylie

Tate

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. ~Isaiah 1:17

Happy 6th Birthday Levi!!!

SIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Levi celebrated his 3rd birthday as part of our family on January 2nd. Crazy to think that the sick little 3 1/2 year old we brought home from Ukraine is now a strong little 6 year old. Words can not express how much joy he brings to this family. His spunky personality, goofiness, and even his mischievous stubborn little side are what makes him who he is; and we are glad that God created him just the way he is! (extra chromosomes and all)

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY LEVI!!!

We Love you!!!!!

Year #5 was FUN!!!

Thank you God for opening our eyes!

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act" ~Proverbs 24:12

The Missing Birthday Post x2, Plus...

20 YEARS OF MARRIAGE!!!!!

We started December off with the celebration of two Birthdays. Sydnie celebrated her 15th Birthday & Tate celebrated his 9th. Another year flew by & now we've moved on to driving permit time. Seems just like yesterday I was doing this with Lacey. Well 2 down, a few more to go. Ha! I'm fully convinced that riding in the passenger seat of a motor vehicle with a child driver ages me more than anything. It is however great comic relief! FIFTEEN is a fun age no matter how you look at it. Right?

We love you Sydnie! We love your crazy ideas, your funny humor, your sarcastic tude, your experimental baking, and most of all your compassion for children. You are part of what helps keep this family in line, your an amazing sister & a loving daughter & we can not wait to see what God continues to do in your life. It's gonna be HUGE no doubt. You have a beautiful heart. Never let anything or anyone change that.

Happy 15th Birthday! Love you all the way to the moon.....

Oh, and Tate the Great!!! Seriously you are growing up to be such an amazing young man. Your heart is huge & your smile is too. I love watching you learn new things, I love listening to you trying to understand something that's beyond your years, and I love how fiercely you love the people around you. When I grow up I wanna be like you! Never, ever stop asking the millions of questions you ask. Because that's what makes you smart & what makes you who you are. Thank you for bringing us all back down to reality & reminding us what's important. We are SO proud of you! Happy 9th Birthday! We Love you buddy!

And... on December 19th

We celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary!!!!

TWENTY...

20...

Spectacular, crazy, adventurous, radical, complicated, messy YEARS!!!

It's been awesome and I can't wait for 20+ more!!!!

...and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ~Mark 10:8

Rewind... Ethiopia October 2012

As I sit here still processing our 2 week trip to Rwanda & Ethiopia I am literally just now realizing that I am still processing from my October Medical team trip to Ethiopia. Ha! Apparently my brain and heart are a little slow at processing and/or I haven't allowed myself time to slow down long enough to REALLY process all that God allowed me to see and experience. Although I've been on several mission trips to several countries, this trip was unique in that it was my first Medical Mission Trip. Ya'll, I am telling you that this was part of why God lead me to be a RN at the age of 35 with 6 children at home. I was finally sitting across the world touching, mending, & kissing physically, mentally & spiritually broken people. My desire had been fulfilled and my heart was overflowing! Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. ~Psalm 37:4

Rather than share what we did each day (which was a lot) I thought I would choose a few amazing and touching stories about people that we saw as we held clinics at orphanges, 2 boarding schools & then 4 days at Korah. My list of stories and faces are forever embedded in my heart so it is hard to choose, but here goes...

The first woman was actually not seen by me, but by my sweet friend Megan who was just a few feet from me. This brought me to tears. She came in requesting medication for a cold and cough that she had been battling for some time. Immediately it was obvious that she had a soiled bandage on her leg, and at this point we had already seen a variety of leprosy wounds. Megan asked her if she would like her dressing changed and the woman insisted that it wasn't necessary and thought that Megan wouldn't want to touch it. Megan slowly unwrapped the dressing and cleaned her wound, and all the while this sweet woman was going on and on and we of course wondered what she was saying. The translator said she is testifying to God and praising him for who he is, and I'm telling you she was PREACHIN' It! As Megan finished she asked if it would be okay if she prayed for her & she said, "No, I will pray for you" And she did...

Next was the sweetest man. He was probably around 60yrs old, but didn't look a day over 90. It was obvious that he had leprosy and had missing fingers to prove it. He promptly sat down and propped his leg up on my table. He had an old soiled bandage on his leg moist with drainage from his wound. I began to unwrap the bandage and he stopped me. He slowly finished unwrapping it and tossed it in the trash. The smell was amazing rough and from a medical stand point his leg would have been amputated long ago. I spoke with him about the importance of going to the hospital and he quickly shared that he had already gone there and that they wanted to amputate. I made sure he understood that he could become septic from infection and die and that amputation was necessary. At that point he raised his other pants leg to reveal a wooden prosthesis, and with sadness on his face he said, "if they take this one I will die anyway." I realized at that moment that he had hope that we (American doctors) could fix him. (not even the best American hospital could have saved this leg) I shared with him that he must place his hope in Christ that only Christ could make him whole again. I prayed with him and then he gave me a slight hug and said thank you. Tough. Stuff. No matter how you look at it.

Our second day in Korah a young mom brought her 2 year old little boy in. He had fallen in to the fire where she was cooking and had a severe burn across his low back and bottom. Precious baby in pain. It took several of us holding him and praying as we cleaned the burn, treated & dressed it. What would this sweet mama have done if we had not been there. So hard knowing that there are thousands of more like him that would not make it because of infection, etc. God's beloved children birth to 90 hurting, aching, yearning for a touch from someone that cares, someone that sees them as worthy, someone that just sees them.

One of the hardest patients we saw in clinic was a 17yr old boy. His father had heard we were there and had come quite a distance to see us. His son was a tall, weak skeleton. He too was coming hoping that we could help his son. He brought x-ray films that showed his sons heart. A heart so enlarged that it filled half his chest cavity. The heaviness was almost unbearable. Our translators spent a long time sharing the gospel with the father & son, both Muslim. They both listened and allowed us to pray over him, and the spirit moved. Soon after we returned to the states we learned that he had passed away. We do not know if he accepted Christ before he died. I continue to pray that his father will, and that he will be able to find hope and comfort in a Heavenly Father that loves him.

Ah!!! And then there is my sweet Abraham. I met Abraham & his wonderful mommy a year ago on our first trip to Ethiopia. It was a divine appointment, and you can read about it HERE. We have done everything in our power to get this little guy healthy so that hopefully he can have a much needed heart surgery. On this medical trip it had been 9 months since I had seen Abraham & I was thrilled to see his smiling face. He was coughing and would tire easy, but he had come a long way from the sad, weak little guy that could barely hold his head up. It did this Mama's heart good to see that what we were doing was making a difference for both baby & Mom.

I mean seriously! Could he get any cuter? What a trooper this little guy is. Please join us in continuing to pray that this little guy can get the surgery he needs to heal his little heart. I'll keep ya updated as soon as we know anything. Storm The Gates People!!!

And I'l leave you with some of my fav's from this trip. Forever etched in my memory...

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless,

 plead the case of the widow. ~Isaiah 1:17

Winter Photo Shoot. Brrr....

Before Christmas we decided we were WAY overdue for a photo shoot. So, off we went on one of the first cold days of December. Ha! Considering how cold the West Texas wind was everyone was surprisingly cooperative for a few minutes. Ha! I love how everyone's personalities can be seen in some of these:)

Here's a Few of my Favorites:)

A HUGE THANK YOU

to my sweet friend for throwing this together & 

for braving a photo shoot with our family of 11. It was cold but FUN!!!

Love You Wynne!

The Neglected Blog

So, since my last post so much has happened here in the Harper house. I recovered from an amazing medical trip to Ethiopia (which I have yet to blog about), celebrated 4 kids birthdays plus my own, celebrated our 20th Anniversary, had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family & friends, celebrated the birth of Jesus and traveled to Rwanda & Ethiopia with 5 of my children plus the hubs. I'll spare you the appt's, therapies, and Christmas festivities that filled the days prior to Christmas & and our 2 week adventure to Africa! Needless to say this poor blog, that I love so much, has been incredibly neglected!!!!

We are now back into the swing of things, pressing into Jesus as we press in to all that God might have for us in 2013. As God continually leads us down paths that require sacrifice, we know ultimately that they will bring great joy...

So far, 2013 is bringing us onto the mission field in several amazing places. Please join us as we begin to pray & plan to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus wherever He may lead us. And if your heart is longing to join us, please check out these trips and message us for details. We would love for you to join us!

Wendy - April 2013 Rwanda Medical Mission Trip
Lacey - Summer 2013 Gisenyi, Rwanda
Sid & Sydnie - June 2013 Haiti Mission Trip (Respire Haiti)
Sid & Wendy - Fall/Winter Family Mission Trip

Rwanda/Ethiopia 2012

“Instead of imagining all the things we can accomplish, we ask God to do what only he can accomplish. Yes, we work, we plan, we organize, and we create, but we do it all while we fast, while we pray, and while we constantly confess our need for the provision of God.” ~David Platt

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ ~ Matt 25:31-40

* Mission Trip Posts COMING SOON!!!!