celebrating richness

Invited three good friends over for dinner last night, to introduce them to the Johnsons. Two have kids in the age-range of Lilly, Patton, and Aidan. And as much as a bunch of little ones can connect in spite of a spread of age and language and experience, they did, rolling balls to each other across the floor and stacking blocks, giggling and chasing with Jack and Julia in the middle of it all. It was an evening of richness. We are rich to have three women of strength and beauty and character as our friends here, Melen, Olupa, and Assusi, all people who work very hard to serve others in spite of difficult circumstances in their lives. And rich to have new friends courageously coming into this place with an intention to stay, to love, to live.

It wasn't until they walked in that I realized it must be near Jonah's Birthday. His mom had to think about it a minute, and then we confirmed he had turned 2 on the 8th. Only two days late . . and thankfully Amy had baked a cake (!). Jonah was delighted by the attention, amused by the candles, and mostly interested only in the soccer balls. So another richness, the survival of this smiling child, with his father's name and face.

And a last amazing surprise gift of the day yesterday: A NEW TEAM MATE. Yes, a young woman who is a senior in college and had applied with WHM to work in Africa . . . at the last moment, as plans fell in place, the Sending Center people in charge realized her overlap with her potential team potentially left her alone much of the year, which did not seem wise. So over the weekend we got the message that she might be a possibility for Bundi, she came to interview in Philly on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday we heard she's officially our newest team member: Chrissy Chipriano. We are praying that the richness she brings to us will be matched by the rich blessing of fast fund-raising which allows her to graduate in May and arrive in September. Welcome Chrissy.