We are Alive and Well...

It has been a long time since my last post. My head has been spinning a bit since we got back from Africa. To say the least, we have a lot of change in the last 5 weeks.

I will need to do some flashbacks during my blog to be able to process all this. I also want to share many of my experiences from leaving seminary and then in Africa, as well as some good stories about moving into a house we hadn't seen in person in Raleigh.....

So stay tuned....I am currently finishing my final exams for one of my classes from Fuller so I'll start the story next week.

But as for now, here are some of the pictures of Africa. Below is Joseph (the founder of this ministry), and Jason (my friend from Raleigh, one of the pastors of our new church Visio Dei), and me (with balloons and kids). It really was a great experience and I look forward to sharing stories with friends and family. I was inspired by the work they are doing, and want to do everything I can to help them care for the kids that have lost their parents to AIDS. A little bit over there goes along way!

Missing you, Daddy!

It dawned on me I could post a blog all by myself while Corey is in Africa ("Af-uhkup" as Hannah says). It wasn't that hard to figure out, now if I can just get this dang "easy share" camera to load the pictures I can show you a little bit of what we've been doing here with Shishaw and Pawpaw! We love you, CoreyDaddy and can't wait to see you again!

Some notable things that are happening:

1. Shiloah is on the verge of cutting her two bottom teeth! I can see them in there and she has been quite miserable. We got her some magic teething tablets that are helping her out a lot.

2. Shiloah is also eating a lot of solid food now -- she doesn't like any of the fruits we have given her but enjoyed her carrots today. She eats her rice cereal like a champ and has adjusted quite nicely to a four hour feeding schedule, thankfully.

3. Hannah can now immitate a froggie, a flamingo, a hippo and a scary tiger. She gets the biggest kick out of scaring people with her tiger immitation. Last night when Pawpaw came home she almost laughed herself drunk because of how funny it was to scare him! It was the hardest I have ever seen her laugh, from deep inside her belly!

4. Shiloah is sitting up almost perfectly now, but topples over ever so often. She's tough, though.

5. Hannah has been a doctor, a princess, a kitty kat, and gotten to do so many fun things around the house with Shishaw. That's the first person she cares about in the morning. All she wants me for now is owies and bedtimes, diaper changes and a few other things. She loves her Shishaw!

I just realized that we have far more pictures of Hannah than Shiloah during our time here. Poor Shaft-shew! Always getting the shaft. Isn't she just the sweetest thing ever?

I love you, Corey, I can't wait for you to come home!

Rough Transition

A brief update on the Paxton family,

I miss my beautiful girls already. I was very sad to leave them today even though I am excited for this trip. I am sure you know that feeling of anticipation mixed with sadness.

We had a difficult time transitioning from LA to Raleigh. Obviously, we have been through a lot of change, and it has absolutley broken our hearts to see Hannah's world and friends upended. Hannah has been very sad, and even got sick because her schedule got so thrown up. She woke up Friday night throwing up, and has been a bit of zombie at times since then. The last two days she has bounced back a bit, but I was even more sad to leave her and create more change.

Also, Raleigh is very humid. Very humid. I sweat a lot. Our AC did not work in our house when we moved in either. This made tired and sweaty people more frustrated. We got pretty settled in, but I felt like we lived at the store for the last five days and didn't get to spend as much time together as I would have liked. However, I am really glad we decided to go down to Raleigh before Africa and began to get settled even though it was hard on the girls.

Transitions are difficult for me in general, and this one has been especially hard--lots of uncertainty, lots of fear, lots of difficulty---Danielle and I remarked that sometimes we want to find our comfort in this world rather than in Christ, and this transition has brought that out in us.

Thursday night, we cried a lot, and really brought our hearts before the Lord. We were reminded of our calling to Him and to Raleigh, and our prayer is to be used to help move people toward participation in God's mission. While it has been a stormy season of life, the Lord is in the boat with us and calming our hearts.

We are so grateful for our community here and family who have helped us along the way. This life God is calling us to could not be possible without the help of others.

Thank you. We are so grateful.

Peace in Him

Corey

A Dangerous Prayer

Hello Friends

I am now sitting at Dulles Airport in DC getting ready to take off for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya to spend time with leaders of an orphan ministry to kids who have lost both their parents to AIDS. This trip is the climax of a long journey for me.

Let me share how I ended up at this point briefly.

Last summer, I became bombarded by the AIDS crisis in Africa, and felt like this is something that the church in the US has to find ways to partner with churches in Africa to do something about it. I also felt like we as individualistic Americans have a lot to learn from the African church as they start from a much more communal perspective on the world. As a leader in seminary, I prayed to God that if he could use me to do anything about the situation, that I needed to find people that I could trust to learn more about the culture and learn how to partner in a way that is healthy. I also know there are a ton of great organizations working to care for orphans in Africa, but my intuition told me that there have to be grassroots church ministries that could be multiplied if only we identify trustworthy leaders to partner with. I prayed for a friend and ministry partner, and God led me to Joseph.

Over the next few weeks, I started talking with my friend Kinoti Meme from our Fuller housing community who worked for World Vision in Kenya for three years before coming to Fuller to get his advice about these ideas. He led me to Joseph, a great friend of his and proven leader, who started taking in orphans who lost both their parents to AIDS a few years ago. Currently, they are caring for just over 90 orphans through their church, and are working to develop a holistic care sanctuary. Over the last year, Joseph and I have built a great friendship and we planned this trip to come to Kenya to see how God would lead us partner together in the future.

I also called my friend Jason, one of the pastors at our new church community, Visio Dei, and invited him to come along. We planned our trip for August 1-14.

Over that time, I felt like I didn't know enough about Kenyan culture so I started studying it with through my degree in Cross-Cultural Studies and learning about various models of orphan ministry.

During one of my classes, I contacted Dough Milham (who founded a non-profit called Discover the World to bridge gaps between resources in the west and the needs of orphans in Kenya), he has about thirty years on me and vast ministry experience including world vision in kenya.

Anyway, great guy, gives good hugs too.

We started meeting so I could learn about what he does and he asked me when I was planning to go to Kenya, and it turns out he had already planned a trip for Nairobi (the same place Joseph works) for the exact same dates we were planning to go. He helped us buy our tickets at a missionary discount and has been very helpful in preparing for the trip.

He is also coming to Joseph's ministry as a potential partnership for the future as well.

It is really crazy sometimes how God works, and I'm excited to be apart of this story and see how He leads us.

My prayer is that our relationship with rooted in Him, overflowing with love and depth of insight, and His passion for God's children that are in need of family and hope.

Please pray for us during our time there. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pictures on the blog and keep you updated.

Much Love

CP