South Asia Flooding ...

And how could I bring up India without mentioning the flooding that is so horribly affecting certain regions of that country?
- 28 million have been affected by 2 weeks of torrential rain in regions of India, Bangladesh and Nepal
- One of the worst hit districts received 18.5 inches of rain in 24 hours. Villages are now lost under 6 feet of water
- Supply food, drinking water and medicines are desperately needed, but relief efforts are slow to respond because of the scope of the disaster
- Water sources in the flooded regions are contaminated, and so a health crisis is quickly developing.
These people need aid, and quickly!

Read more: BBC.co.uk
Donate: Save the Children - Emergency relief

I MUST Share ...

This beautiful, exciting picture with you!! Good friends of mine just returned from southern India, where they spent one month traveling from the rural setting of Little Flock Orphanage (where our team went last summer) to the bustling city of Chennai and beyond. While in Chennai, they were able to reconnect with Andrew, Kennedy, and a handful of the street children we came to know last July. It brought me so much joy to see the kids one year later in this photo, and to see them in a setting other than their filthy sidewalk homes. It must have been a treat for them to spend time at the beach!

So here they are ... aren't they wonderful?? Oh, and the white people are my friends that took the trip, hehe. :)

Micro-lending: "loans that change lives"!

This journal has seemed to me to be so lacking of late, mainly because I haven't been updating it with the flurry of sweet things that God has put in my path of late. So, here is something that I am newly a part of.


A friend and I recently lent money to an Azerbaijani fruit seller who needs to renovate her fruit stand to better her sales. We were able to make this loan through a website called kiva.org which acts as a catalogue of entrepreneurs in developing nations who need some funds to get their businesses going. As they are able, the recipients of the loan repay the lenders. Your money is handled by credible micro-lending organizations that operate in those entrepreneurs' regions, and they have a great record of getting your money back to you. And once you are repaid, you can go head and lend the money to someone else!

Talk about an amazingly easy and cool way to help those that are struggling. I do think that real service requires sacrifice, but here is something that anyone can do, in addition to other giving, that is no real sacrifice at all because your own funds keep coming back to you after your sponsored entrepreneur has accomplished their goal.

So click on the Kiva link and start browsing! Trust me, it's super exciting :)