I asked Promise to take a picture of Brandon and I last week and this is what came back to me. 😆 I absolutely love it. Today Brandon and I celebrate our 7 year anniversary. I’m so smitten with him you guys. He’s my best friend, the best baby-daddy, and one of the best people I know. So smart, so silly (though only a select few get to see it), and so good at serving our family. He’s finishing up his first term of his Masters incredibly (he’s so committed to doing well), even when it’s a ton of work (he’s currently researching best practice for reintegrating child soldiers back into family/community)(hashtag: pray for him). I truly believe the plans that God has for Brandon’s life are massive and that he is rising as a leader of child’s rights, specifically for the rights of African children. He’s a lover of truth and is always pressing towards excellence of thought and practice. I still find myself dumbfounded that I get to be married to Bran. I totally hit the jackpot with this one. 🎰 Thanks God.
I was so encouraged by how many fellow missionaries and expats messaged me or commented on my recent stories (which is now in my Highlights) about short term missions trips, visiting orphanages, and the FREE resources I shared to help prepare teams for serving overseas. The resounding response I got from so many of you was “Thank you for saying this! People in the West need to know!” Sweet friends who are living in your home country and not in a host country, it is so important to listen—really listen—to the knowledge and wisdom of those who are living overseas; who will most always know better regarding vulnerable children and families that are in the communities in which they have moved their whole lives to serve. I need to also add, we HAVE to listen to the men and women who grew up in orphanages but are now adults living with the realities of what institutionalization has done to them and their development. So often their stories will shock you—we need to listen to them and learn to do better. It’s also SO important to glean from experts: their research, studies, analysis, data and findings. Let’s be believers who embrace WISDOM!! // I’m going to do another stories series on what alternatives short term missions teams can do INSTEAD OF visiting orphanages. There are so many other ethical ways to serve overseas that don’t put vulnerable children at greater risk OR create systems of dependency that disempower locals and encourage family separation. 🕊 Fellow missionaries/expats: I want to hear from you!! What are some of the ways you ethically host short term teams? Is it something you think about when planning their time with you and your ministry? Does your ministry have a child protection policy? What about a child protection media policy? Share some of your thoughts below! 👇🏻 #ethicalorphancare #childreninfamilies #familiesnotorphanages
Happy Wednesday friends! 🐪 There are a number of new faces around here so let me share a little more about us! My husband Brandon and I run a family-based orphan care program here in Tanzania called Kingdom Families. We focus on family preservation, orphan prevention, varying social services, but most of all advocacy and empowerment to local pastors and churches about the importance of children being in families. My husband just wrote a book for East Africans, written within an East African context, and translated into Swahili to educate local believers about the Biblical basis for ethical orphan care and the call for children to be raised in families. I’m pretty stinking proud of him!! 👏🏻 (If you live in a Swahili speaking country, DM me and we will work towards getting you some copies!!) We are also adoptive parents and are a bit of an anomaly in that we adopted an older child, out of birth order. This summer will mark 3 years since we brought our son Moses home (he was 8 then but is now almost 11) (#tweenyears 🤪). It’s been a wild ride, but we are blessed! To watch our adoption story click on the link in my profile. I pray that you are encouraged and see God made evident in our lives. 🕊 #ethicalorphancare #ethicalorphancare #familiesnotorphanages #adoption #adoptionrocks #adoptionjourney #adoptionislove
Passport photos! I can’t believe it is already almost time for our girl Promise to renew her passport. What in the world??? 🤭 // Friends, I had an overwhelming response by so many of you regarding my last post. Thank you sweet @wanderingwithmary for sharing it! I received so many DM’s asking questions about ethical orphan care and ways that people in America can still support orphan care work around the world. The response was so overwhelming positive that I am going to do my first LIVE video on Instagram regarding our work: our experience in orphan care, our beliefs about orphan care, our family based orphan care program (Kingdom Families), and do my best to explain WHAT IS ethical orphan care. I would love to answer your questions and will hopefully be able to create story highlights on my page for each topic (once I figure out how to 😂 #newbie). So friends, what questions do you have? What are ways you want to learn more about best practice care for vulnerable children and families? Comment below or send me a DM and I will keep you all updated about when my Instagram Live will take place. Thanks friends!! #ethicalorphancare #childreninfamilies #familiesnotorphanages
A normal sight in our lives: safari trucks! We are starting to enter into “high season” which means tens of 1,000’s (more likely hundreds of 1,000’s) of tourists will be coming to Tanzania to embark on safaris, cultural tours, hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, and volunteering. Part of high season is gearing up for the mass amounts of short term missions teams who will also come to this nation. Visiting and volunteering at orphanages is one of the ways churches seek to help during these summer months. But may I bring a different perspective? Can I give a simple (big) request? If you or your church is planning on going on a missions trip this summer, please reconsider visiting local orphanages. It’s important to do your research about global orphan care and understand that your “helping orphans in Africa”, undoubtedly comes from a place of wanting to help, but will most likely actually do more harm than good. 😬 Become educated on ethical orphan care and understand what is best practice in working with vulnerable children. Attachment Disorders are REAL and children who have them (most children living in orphanages) need to be protected and not be exposed to the greater damages that visitors (who have good intentions) can exasperate regarding their disorders. (Attach, detach, attach, detach.... All. Summer. Long.) To learn more about what ethical orphan care is or to learn more about the harmful affects orphanage tourism can create for vulnerable children, please DM me! I would love to share our experiences and the ways that God has helped us understand what ethical, Kingdom-based practices look like for the least of these in this world. #childreninfamilies #ethicalorphancare #familiesnotorphanages
