Where My Heart Is

Discord drives Somalis to Yemen in record numbers

Story Highlights
Agency attributes surging number of refugees in Yemen to unrest in Somalia
More than 15,000 refugees have come to port city of Aden since January
New routes across the Red Sea to Yemen also contributing to increase

It is sad hard to imagine what a famine really feels like for me, someone who has always had food on the table, and plenty in the pantry to last all month. I don't know what it feels like to go hungry. I don't know what it feels like to look my children in the eye and tell them that there won't be anything for dinner today, because we can't afford anything, or there just isn't anything to be had. I don't know how that feels, and I pray that I never do.

It is devastating to read everyday in the news about how more and more people are going hungry in the world we live in today. In all reality, they live in a different world, they live in a completely different world than mine. Mine has a grocery store, fast food joint and nice restaurant on practically every mile corner; theirs is cold dark and empty. There's no food to put on the table they don't have in the home that leaks and has dirt floors and only one room for everyone to sleep. They work hard simply to stay alive. I go home after sitting in my plush office and sit on the couch as dinner is delivered to my door hot and fresh. I don't know what it feels like to work for a living.

It is raining outside today. They don't get rain, at least not enough to grow the crops they so desperately need simply to stay alive. We can have a garden in our back yard to grow tomatoes and potatoes and corn so that we can just go into our backyards and avoid driving to the store one day. They can't; they simply can't grow anything; seeds and tools and land are very hard to come by, if they are even available at all.

My children will wake up in a warm home with clothes on their back and shoes on their feet and food on the table. They will not ever know what it feels like to beg on the streets for a few coins to buy bread so that they can feed their younger siblings because their parents are no longer able to take care of them because of AIDS. Many children across the world have to do that everyday. They have to do their best to hold their family together, and they are only 12. That is too much for a 12 year old to have to go through. I pray that my kids will only have baseball practice and homework to worry about when they are 12.

I am so beyond blessed to live where I live and to have the things that I have, and don't deserve at all. God is taking care of me; God is taking care of those orphaned children in Africa, only in a different way. And I want to do my part, I want to make a contribution to this rock we call home and leave something good behind after I leave. I want to teach my children how important it is to try to make this big round world a smaller place. To keep those suffering on the other side of this world in our thoughts and prayers and plans. To help them as much as we possibly can and to leave a footprint on their lives.

The only way I know how to do that right now, where I find myself in the story God is writing in me and Dale's lives, is through Compassion International. Compassion is an amazing ministry and a wonderful extension of God's hand here and now. Dale and I have 3 children in Ethiopia whom we have added into our family. I love them as much as I am going to love this little baby Best I will soon bring into this world. These kids are in my heart, even though I have never met them, and may not ever get the opportunity to meet them, I know that they love me and will be forever changed because of the simple 35 dollars a month we send them. They are clothed, fed, educated, cared for and loved through the work of Compassion and they have the chance for a few hours a day to escape, to really be kids, until they have to go back home and help their parent's keep their family together and pay the bills and put food on the table. They get a little glimpse of the Kingdom through Compassion International and I pray that they take that and run with it. That they grow up and change the world they find themselves in; I pray that Bilen, Markos, and Hewan truly love people and remember that they are loved so that they too can go and love others.

Happy Birthday Markos!!!!

Our little boy is 4 today! I pray that he has a wonderful day, and knows that he is loved and that we are thinking about him. I pray that he gets 3 meals today and he has fun and laughs alot. I pray that he gets a giant bear hug, bigger than he has ever recieved and he knows without a doubt that he is loved, unconditionally.

You can sponsor a child too...it will change their lives forever, and yours too.

Click here to begin your journey.
Check out these guy's journey.

Happy Birthday Hewan!!!

Today is our little angel's 9th birthday!

I pray that she is safe, happy, healthy and aware that she is loved today and everyday. She is such a beautiful little thing and I pray that she has oppertunities to learn and to grow and to do with her life what God's will is. I pray that she makes an impact on the Kingdom and that she loves just as much as she is loved. I pray that she has a wonderful day and that it is warm and sunny in Addis Ababa where she is and I pray that there are many people around her who are loving on her today and flood her with the hugs that I so long to give her today and everyday.

a letter from Ethiopia

Our little Ethiopian baby girl wrote us a letter. It was absolutely heart wrentching. Here's what she wrote (and take into consideration that the translation from her language to English is a bit sketchy)...

Dale and Lindsay Best,
How're you? I'm alright. with my family Praise God. We celebrated our millenium warmly last September. I'm work hard at school in this millenium I hope my country will pull through poverty this time too. I like dolls like you do Could you send me one? Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God. Goodbye.

My Dreams.

I want to make a difference.

This is a good place to dream toward.

I can make a difference.

I will make a difference.

...what if it was Jesus?

Dale took me to the TobyMac Concert on Friday night…it was awesome by the way…and I heard the coolest thing…Craig West from KXOJ’s morning show is going to spend 2 days (yesterday and today) as a homeless man in downtown Tulsa. He grew a scruffy beard for a few weeks, didn’t eat or bathe all day Sunday, and Monday morning at 9am, Bob dropped him off in downtown with only the clothes on his back, a blanket, and a cell phone (to call in reports to the station to let the listeners know what he was going through). This morning he was awakened by a security guard who kicked him off of the stoop he took as a bed the night before. He went over to a nearby park bench and sat. A few business people were eating their fast-food brecky on a nearby bench. He looked upon their breakfast burritos like they were steak dinners complete with baked potatoes. They threw half of the thing away, in the trash. And he was hungry, sitting nearby.
Makes ya think.
Just like something similar happening at the church I attend, and have attended since I was about 4 years old. This Sunday, we had our annual Congregational Thanksgiving Dinner; it always kicks-off the Holiday season for me in a way -- the Holiday Season that we all associate with a time to give, as if we shouldn’t give throughout the rest of the year or something. Anyways, after the meal was over, my husband stayed to help the kitchen ladies clean up and get everything back to normal for next Sunday’s services. He came and got me and I followed him as he pushed a rolly-trash bin through the crowd of people, through the kitchen and out the back door. He looked like he was going to be sick to his stomach. He explained to me why he was feeling so terrible; he said that he just watched a woman take tin pan after tin pan, each full, or mostly full of food, and throw it into the trash bin and proceed to ask him to throw it into the dumpster. That makes me sad.
What about all of the mouths that could feed, the stomachs that could fill?
What about the poor, those who are in need?
Jesus told us to give to these people, He told us to look after the poor, the widowed, the orphaned. He wants us to put ourselves second and them to be first on our hearts. We all had full bellies that night, and it was like I could hear the tummies growl of the too many children in Oklahoma, alone, who go to bed with empty tummies every night. The Central Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma reported that one in 5 children in Northeastern Oklahoma lives in poverty. And that is in our own backyard. Sometimes I forget that there is poverty and hunger and hurting all around me.
I love my church, don’t get me wrong, and they are great, good, loving, and giving people, I just think that this in a place where there was an opportunity to give, to help the poor, to take care of our brothers and sisters, and they neglected to think of it. They simply forgot. And I think that is the tragedy. I think that if someone would have thought of it, if they would have brought it up, they would have been more than happy to give what we have remaining, or in that case, to make a little extra to plan to give to others. That’s what I want to be; I want to be that voice that they hear to remind them of the empty bellies that can be fed. I want to open their eyes to the opportunity God has given us to give and to help the ones He loves. I was talking this through with a girl at work this morning, and she brought up a good verse…

…For I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.
I was naked and you gave me clothing.
I was sick and you cared for me.
I was in prison and you visited me...
…I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!...
{see Mathew 25:31-46}

…what if it was Jesus we could have fed?

meet the newwest members of our family

Here is our oldest baby girl...meet, Hewan Gebreselassie. She lives in Ethiopia with

both parents and 2 siblings. She loves to play with dolls and to jump rope. She is a beautiful child of God who loves to go to church and learn about how Jesus loves her. We've written a few letters back and forth, and I just love to hear about all of the things she is learning in school and in Sunday School. It is such a blessing to be able to bless her with the simple necessities that we sometimes take for granted.

And after investing in her life for almost a year, we decided to grow our family by 2 more little Ethiopian babies...

Meet our two newest members of our family...

Eyasu Markos Churko is 3 years old and also lives with both parents; he has 4 siblings to play with at home. He loves to play soccer. I am stoked about getting to watch him grow and develop into a man of God.

Bilen Tewodros is 6 years old, she will begin school soon, now that she has sponsors who love her. She, like so many babies in that part of the world, odes not live with both parents. She stays with her grandmother, also her mother who works when she can find work. Bilen loves to play hide-and-seek. I can just imagine her playing hide-and-seek with her grandmother and the other kids that live near her. I am excited to bring her into our family too.

Our hearts are open to these babies. We are making them a part of our lives, we are praying for them, keeping their pictures in our wallets, on our fridge, so that we can see them everyday to remember them, to pray for them and to continue to be blessed because they are a part of our lives.

Won't you join us?

2 more beautiful babies for our lives

Dale and I are getting 2 more Compassion children to adopt. We reduced a few unnecessarily-high bills and saved over 70 dollars to put toward two more children who need someone to love them, to pray for them, to share the love of Christ with them from across the ocean.

Compassion is a great organization and we are so excited to have the oppertunity to help more children of God.

I pray for these children.

I pray that God will soften your hearts to open your home (to invest in them), your fridgerater door (to see their beautiful faces everyday), your loving arms (to write to them) and your pocketbooks (to support them where they are most in need) for these wonderful. innocent, amazing children of God.

I'll update you with pictures and their stories once we pick them out on Thursday! :)

Thank God that we are so blessed to be able to bless others in such a way that puts a footprint on the Kingdom.