News Stew.

This post is going to be a little like Leftovers Soup…bits and pieces of information that will – hopefully – come together to form some sort of collective thesis which will (fingers crossed) make some sort of sense.

Let’s see what’s in the fridge, shall we?

1. I have traveled a lot of miles in the past week or so.  A CLC retreat, a speaking gig at George Fox University and a ladies event in Washington.  I’ve told my kids goodbye…and hello!…and goodbye a lot of times and I’m about ready to settle back in at home.
2. This weekend – September 27 – I will be speaking at the Selah Conference at George Fox.  I’m so excited for this chance to share my heart with women from so many different places.  It’s entirely possible that a few words may be included about the plight of the orphaned child as well so if you wanna come cheer along, it’s not too late to jump in.  If I don’t know you – please come find me and introduce yourself…I’d love to meet you!
3. Speaking of the plight of the orphaned child as it’s related to the Amani Life Project announcement of last week:  WOW.  We’ve been astounded at the response from mom’s and students and just all kinds of women who want to make a difference.  In addition, several businesses called last week and said “count us in!”  They are donating a percentage of their proceeds to Amani because they agree that the statistics for orphaned girls are unacceptable.  In an economic downturn, these people and businesses are willing to look past their own need to the needs of the helpless and I can’t think of a word to use for them other than “heroic”.
4. Many of you have asked for ways to get involved.  We have a lot of ideas and we’re going to be sharing them in upcoming posts and in our Amani newsletter.  We’ve also scheduled about a million coffee dates and are excited about every single one. (If you haven’t signed up to receive the newsletter, you can do that here.)
5. Something fun happened.  Something fun and God.  Last week, Anne B. sent me an email and suggested that I meet a woman who has been involved in serving orphans for over twenty years.  She felt this woman might be able to offer us the most important resource of all: insight from experience.  I was grateful for the suggestion, but my schedule is so crazy that I just said, “God, if I need to meet this woman, You’re going to have to figure out the when and where.”  The next morning, I went to the airport at the ridiculous hour of 5:00 a.m. to catch an early flight out to Seattle.  I got in line to check my bags and the woman in front of me turned around and smiled and then said, “I loved your last message.”  We started to talk and she told me her first name, and this is the moment when I got goosebumps (and I have them again right now!) and stuttered…”Um..what’s your last name?”  And, yep!  The Father of the fatherless had made a meeting happen with the very woman Anne had wanted me to meet.  We had the BEST time EVER talking as fast as we could before getting on our respective flights.  She is doing amazing things for orphans in Africa and India and she offered to help us in any way she could and I can’t wait to talk more.  Isn’t that amazing?  Thanks, Anne, for having such a grand God idea and for sharing it with me! Had I not gotten your email the day before I would have said, “Thank you,” to the nice woman and moved on with my trip.  Truly, friends, God is smarter than we give Him credit for being.

Oh goodness, there’s more to say, but I don’t want to overwhelm you in one post.  I hope you’re finding your Monday delightful and that you have already made some dangerous plans to change the world this week.

143,000,000 Thank-you’s,

Bo