Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Honneeyyyy, I'm....

...sitting on the floor in the Joburg airport. 

I'm READY!



We won't talk about saying goodbye to Lifa, my Mbonisweni family or my Ten Thousand Homes family on base right now.

Let's talk about Ricky Ricardo... k?

He's famous for it....
"Honeeyyyy, I'm hoooomme....."

It wasn't the comfy couch, the kitchen table or that twin bed next to Lucy's he was so happy to come home to at the end of the day. It was Lucy. His person. His family.

I'm feeling a thousand different emotions in the comings, goings, reflections, celebrations, and hugs.

I'm remembering a prayer I prayed desperately 6 months ago when I decided to join staff at Ten Thousand Homes: "Lord, please give me something to miss when I go visit the States for Christmas. Please make me feel home in South Africa, at least a little. I don't know if I can do this."

How faithful my God is! 

I had a perfect week of thankfulness, family and goodbyes. The Thanksgiving Splits from my last post... still going strong. Maybe even stronger.

I feel like I have Lucy's all over the world.

My definition of home has nothing to do with an address. It has everything to do with family, being known and being loved so well by you.

I'm thrilled to come home to you! Only 36 hours away from hugging my mom for the first time in a year!

I will be with my mom in California December 1st - 9th.
Then I'm flying to Texas for the rest of the holidays! I will be there December 9th - February 7th.
Please pray for me as I do the splits on another hemisphere, adjust back to American culture, miss my Lifa terribly and share stories I believe I was created to share to extend the Family of God.
I would also like your prayers as I build a support team to join me prayerfully and financially with my work with families and orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa. If you are interested in learning more, please contact me at kacychaffin@gmail.com. I'd love to share what's on my heart!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for always praying with me and for loving me so well. I can't wait to see you!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Thanksgiving Splits

We’ve all done some house hopping on holidays.

Turkey with one side of the family. Pie with the other. It’s about connecting to and celebrating with people we love, even if it means more than one stop.

I felt like I did the splits this year, the ultimate Thanksgiving – stretched to feel home and thankfulness across the world.

I woke up homesick for my family, making No Bake Cookies with Carli, laughing about the same stuff we always laugh about, diving through the Black Friday ads to make a game plan just for the sake of tradition and being with the people I’ve spent every Thanksgiving with – and that I haven’t seen in almost a year.

And the kitchen here on base smelled like…. Well, I’m pretty sure it smelled like what heaven smells like. It smelled like Thanksgiving.

The same smells. A new place. A new family.

Between mashing potatoes and packing my suitcase, I went to my last feeding in Dwaleni for over two months.

I arrived to a carthweeling party! I love cartwheels!


Then my girls and I snuck away into the house we host the feeding out of. They wanted to show me the dramas they’d been practicing.

They performed. We hugged. We exchanged handfuls of letters. We talked Jesus. I was amazed.

Their passion to share Jesus – and to share their message well - astounded me. The personal letters they had poured tons of time and creativity into floored me. The hugs finished me off. I could feel thankfulness pulsing all the way through me. It really was Thanksgiving, even if Busi, Nolwazi, Florence and Noxolo had never heard of the holiday. They were part of it in me.

With the same potency I felt the thankful part, I felt how much I was going to miss them welling up like suppressed sobs in me.

Am I really leaving?
How do I hold all of these feelings at once?




Then… of course, we had to stop in Mbonisweni to pick up Lifa. It’s a family holiday!

One of the 13 year-old twins, Samkelo, proposed to me with a fabulous adjustable ring upon arrival. Lifa and GoGo’s eyes lit up. The love and the thankfulness began flowing through me again, like a tidal wave. And washing up a few whimpers of, “I’m gonna miss this…”

A new kind of Thanksgiving. A summertime Thanksgiving with red dirt, roasted chicken, tiny black hands and a shiny new ring.


Is this really my all-the-time life?
Are those little hands my all-the-time?
Is this my Thanksgiving?

Back at base, the traditional Thanksgiving celebration was perfect. Candlelit dinner. (Who really needs electricity on holidays?) Cartwheels after dinner. (I love cartwheels!) And don’t forget the dancing to whip the cream. And Lifa.



I sat at the table with the people who’ve become my everyday family. I stole glances at the kid table to make eyes at the little boy who’s absolutely won my heart.


Can I really fit all of this family and love and thankfulness in? I couldn’t tell if it was Carla’s cornbread dressing or overwhelming thankfulness making me feel so full. (Let’s be real… that dressing was AMAZING… it was all of the above.)

After dinner, Mom called and talked to Lifa for the first time. He said, “I love you GoGo Rosa.”

And then my whole Texas family called. I talked to everyone, heard them pray and 2 year-old Ella said, “I love you. How’s Lifa?”

It’s been almost a year. I think I might explode in anticipation over the next two weeks.

How can I want to be with my family so badly and feel like they are home to me, AND feel like this is home… the same amount at the same time?

Two nights later, Lifa is still here with me, playing with blocks and bobbing his head to Shawn McDonald right now. He’s family. He’s home. Um, and I think I’m getting him addicted to chap stick.



Two months apart…

Can I be at home and homesick at the same time?

Absolutely.

That’s the design. The right kind of Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving Splits.

Paul got it. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil 1:21)

We were made for the very best Home – where it’s Thanksgiving everyday. And where the whole family is together and everyone is getting along. Every tribe and every tongue – celebrating, dancing, cartwheeling, feasting and delighting in perfect communion.

And, until then, we’re supposed to be Homesick.

And, until then, we’re supposed to make those people, places and moments that are home to us look a little more like Home… the Kingdom of God.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10)

“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” (2 Cor 5:6-9)

Let’s get cliché. And mean it.
I truly experienced a cornucopia of thanksgiving, homesickness, love and so many things in between this Thanksgiving. Geography was just one of the details. A deep-down prayer for Home, continuously being responded to was the core. And that dressing… that had something to do with it too!

I have no idea how I’m going to handle myself for the upcoming 2 months I’ll be in the States. I can’t wait to see and hug everyone I’ve missed for a year and to share stories and experiences. I can’t wait to spread God’s heart for His Kingdom and for Africa to everyone I can get to listen.

Meanwhile, Lifa’s singing in SiSwati with his blocks on the floor of my cottage right now. And it’s perfect.

Bear with me people, I might be a mess. But for all the right reasons. So much love. So much hope. So much longing. And so much home. I truly don’t deserve it. But I want us all to have it. More and more.

Thank you for joining me on the incredible adventure this year has been. Thank you for loving me so well and being home to me.  

Monday, November 22, 2010

well, well, well....

Soundtrack: New Kids on the Block Christmas album (Don't judge... just try to have a Funky, Funky Christmas.)

Disclaimer: There's no Thanksgiving in S Africa and our ministry goes on break for December, so we're going into Christmas mode now!

I know what you're thinking: Don't worry, we are having a Thanksgiving feast on base! Roasted chicken... with all the traditional American Thanksgiving fixin's!

And we're back...
Saturday we are inviting the local volunteers that give hours of their time every week to prepare meals and pour into the children at the 5 weekly feeding programs we participate with. We're inviting volunteers from all three communities to come to be honored with a special meal and first-class treatment.


I've been really feeling God pushing me to do things well for His glory lately. I want to love well and serve well. I want to be intentional about what I'm doing.



Jesus was intentional about everything He did - to the point of dying on a cross for the most redeemingly painful display of loving and serving well. 

So I am praying that we can serve and love the volunteers well. And that I can learn from them - who already love and serve well - how to be more like Jesus. Pray with us that they will feel honored, loved, known and delighted in. Pray that they'll feel recognized for their selflessness and abounding love.

We took some extra steps today in our staff meeting to be creative and to get into the mindset of loving and serving well.

Made from scratch! I'm not gonna lie... I'm thrilled with myself.



Raising money for the Volunteer Christmas Celebration. Using ornaments to make pledges.



Putting the extra time in to set our focus, hearts and tones on living by His standards was so worth it this morning. As the holiday season gets going and our heads are being turned in a bajillion different directions, let's take a moment to refocus ourselves on what the hubbub is all about. A little baby boy who came and did a lot more than google gingerbread recipes and break out the glitter and glue sticks to love well and serve well. It's worth it.

Friday, November 12, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, sort of.

As we welcome summertime in South Africa, there aren't exactly "candy canes and silver lanes a'glow". No snow-flocked trees in sight either. 'Tis the season to enjoy fresh avos, oranges and watch flowers bloom!

Hot or cold, Christmas is coming and we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ. He came as the least of these - a baby born in a manger to unwed parents from the wrong side of the tracks.

Today, the staff at Ten Thousand Homes got together to prepare to celebrate Christmas with the "least of these" - the orphaned and vulnerable children of Kabokweni, Mbonisweni and Dwaleni - that we have the privilege of knowing, loving and serving every week.

We've been collecting donations from visiting teams throughout the year and spent the morning preparing gifts for the 31 volunteers and 400 children we serve at weekly feeding schemes. We cranked up the Christmas carols and dove in to the first big project of the Christmas season!

Painted Gift Bags- handprints courtesy of Zoe
Carla organizing gift bags

Making goodie bags!

It was a surprise jolt into the holiday spirit for me today. There was no Halloween candy, fall leaves or football season to warm me up for the holly jolly right after the pumpkin pie. But what a way to get into the spirit - painting gift bags to light up the most beautiful faces I've ever encountered and packing up baby dolls for little girls who've never held one before.


I thought of you today - those of you that I'm not with for the exciting November build-up of the holiday season. I'm sure there are red cups at Starbucks, gingerbread- and pumpkin-flavored everything (I'm drooling), Christmas displays in every window and scarves in every shade of fall.

I would like to invite you to start the holiday season with us here at Ten Thousand Homes. This Christmas season, as you have guests over, family gatherings, classroom parties, Sunday School hoorah's, potlucks, business meetings, family dinners, or any other excuse you can think of to get together, get into the reason for the season! This is the perfect time for us to plan for next year's Christmas season so that you can be a part of it.

Ask your local grocery story to donate paper grocery bags and invite everyone to paint gift bags and Christmas cards.




Take up a collection of lightweight (easy to mail) toys, books or dolls. Stock up on beads and have a party to make jewelry. Go shopping for Christmas goodies on clearance the day after Christmas.

True Christmas cheer doesn't come from the shiny bows or the full stockings, but from the way God will shine through your servant-hands and fill your heart as you invite the least of these into your biggest and best holiday parties of the year. Use your creativity, your gifts, your people and your passions to rock out manger style this year... yes, I just said that. Possibilities are endless and everyone can participate!


If you would like more details, feel free to email me at kacychaffin@gmail.com.

You can mail gift bags or collected items to:

Ten Thousand Homes
PO Box 4450
White River, Mpumalanga
South Africa 1240
**Please write "GIFT" on the outside of all packages sent.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.   40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
(From Matthew 25)
 Thank you! I can't wait to hear your stories about celebrating with us!


Monday, November 8, 2010

Dreaming of Dwaleni

Dwaleni is known as a "tough neighborhood". It's Ten Thousand Homes' youngest and largest feeding scheme. I have no statistics and know few stories, but in this community furthest off the tar road, the kids seem to be more hungry and more vulnerable. They long for touch, but sometimes pull away in fear when you reach out. You can see broken stories in their eyes, in the holes in their uniforms and school shoes, and in the need you feel radiating off of their bodies as they cling to you wherever you are going.

In the midst of poverty are some of the most loving and creative minds I've encountered. They are brilliant, beautiful, and I believe doors are opening for relationships, discipleship and Home. This Thursday after the feeding, the children didn't want to go and the volunteers lingered longer than ever. When we finally had to pull away, the children ran after the bakkie waving, shouting and wanting just one more glance from us. I haven't been able to get these faces and this community off my mind since then.

Please pray with us for Hope and Home to manifest and spread to each of these little lives and their big stories.

And just look at how perfect they are...

Friday, November 5, 2010

MmmmmmWUAH!

I LOVE these kids.

I love them so much. I love their faces. Their eyes. Their sweet hearts. The way God loves them intensely through their vulnerability.

And I really really really love their hugs and kisses.

Last Wednesday in Mbonisweni, I realized that I was officially that girl... All I have to do is making the kissy noise... "MmmmmmmWUAH" and I'm surrounded by puckered lips. 

We were made to be loved. To be known. To be the object of His affection and to know that through His people.
I spent the afternoon, with a sleeping Lifa on my shoulder, walking around kissing with my camera. You HAVE to see this.

I can't get enough. Really. I can't.

With lips like these...

Or THESE!?!

At this point their puckered lips were running up to the camera. Of course it was gonna cost them a kiss....

Absolutely gorgeous.

Teensy sweet little lips.

How can you not want THAT?

Lifa was too sleepy to participate. But he didn't really have a choice.

I got him!

Even sassy pants loves the kisses.

Even the big boys! Oh man. Look at them.

My Perfect Twins.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Sweet girl blowing you a kiss goodbye.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Families responding to family. Part VI

One time I prayed about beds.
During our DTS, we were praying for outreach – the mission field ahead of us. So we took some time to listen to the Holy Spirit and pray the words He put on our hearts. I prayed for beds. I didn’t know why. And never really figured it out during DTS. But I couldn’t help but remember that when this happened…
  
Twenty-one year old Colani has been to the feeding programs at the Mbonisweni Evangelical Reform Church that Ten Thousand Homes works closely with once or twice, but attends the Alliance Church down the road most of the time. On a walk to the clinic one Friday, he saw flames engulfing a nearby shack. A family’s home, disappearing into vapors and ashes in moments.

My family.

Colani’s community knows pain. Mbonisweni has seen devastation and disaster time and time again. Beyond sickness, poverty and an orphan crisis, the culture has been intoxicated by deeply rooted and dangerous belief systems. Witchcraft. Ancestral worship. And the fruit of these systems -a host of broken ways of thinking and living.

But God still speaks and moves powerfully in Mbonisweni. And when God speaks and moves in a place like Mbonisweni, you can’t help but notice – and be amazed. You can’t help but believe we’re living for something bigger than ourselves.

On that Friday, God spoke to Colani. And Colani listened.

Colani’s family had just saved up and bought him his own bed. Having a bed is a big deal. Families often pile into one bed or sleep on the floor. And Colani had his own new bed.

As he breathed in the fumes of a family’s dreams disintegrating, Colani heard God’s voice telling him to give his bed to this family.

He went home and talked his parents, expressing an overflow of gratitude for giving him such an incredible treasure- his own bed. And wanting them to understand how much he appreciated it… and how compelled he was to give the gift he’d been given. Immediately, he cleared everything off and moved into his brother’s bed with him.

It wasn’t until two weeks later that we could come pick up the bed, but Colani had not spent one more night on it. It wasn’t his anymore. He knew he had heard God and chose to obey.



 

The family whose home burnt lost everything tangible. They had no assurance that things would be alright. But, in the middle of what looks like a disaster, God is moving. He’s moving in the hearts of the meek and mild. He’s creating Home in community. He’s meeting the needs of His children through children in need.

Colani gets it. And gives it.

It’s not about finding spare change to drop in an offering plate or finding a worthy place for whatever you decided you can do without.


It’s about living for your Home in the Kingdom of God rather than for the comforts of the things you have acquired in your house. It’s about seeing every face and every family as belonging in the Kingdom of God. It’s about hearing God and responding. It’s about moving out of your bed that day because it’s not yours anymore. It’s about believers rallying up together to love others right now with what they have. That’s what family does. That’s what Home is.


“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” –John 15:12