around the web

beautiful sunrise at mom and dads

much like Helen Keller, this young girls story about overcoming

my favorite new blog and super cute, stylist

thinking about ordering her book telling her incredible story

great graphics get great rewards, go Buck Commander!

 check out the Best Overall show on Outdoor Channel, go Duck Commander!

currently obsessed with all of the photos on this blog, they are beautiful

praying for this team(i wish i was on it) as they travel and care for the TAL kids

hope you are having a great weekend!

We just returned late last night from Vegas, baby.

i told GT that I might get very angry if he set an alarm this morning(he always wakes up early).

so, he didn't(because my threat was serious, kind of)

we woke up at 1130. 

people!

1130!

who does that? not my husband and not me.

but, hey. you gotta do what ya gotta do.

now, on to studying!

i'll give a good ole run down of our week in Vegas laters gaters

happy to be home,

Kate

Wordless wednesday: National Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Day

We live in an unjust world
While I sit here in a comfy chair, typing on my laptop in a warm house, watching a flat screen TV... there are children without parents, people without homes, families without food and communities without health care.
Despite anyone or any groups effort to change these things, there will be injustice in this world.

Should our futile effort to change the world stop us from caring?
Should the inability to change the world keep us from trying to save one person?
Often, the task of finding a way to help make a change is overwhelmingly daunting.
We find other things to fill our thoughts, errands to fill our day and efforts to fill our caring hearts.
We want to help, but will it matter?
We see a need, but have no idea how to fill it.
Sometimes, when we begin our journey to help others we are discouraged by lack of results and negativity from others.

Let us not be discouraged, but rather act on our desire to make a change in this world full of injustice.
Let us be encouraged in knowing that our God has greater plans for ALL of us.
Those of us that place our hope in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are assured that one day we will live in our eternal home.
This ugly, unjust world is not our home.

There are those that are suffering in this world.
Here is their story



Thankfully, this is not where we belong.
I love the simple message of this Building 429 song.

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." -Revelation 21:4

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Day.

Join me in spreading the word about the sweet children that are lost in this unjust world and the wonderful people who are acting on their desire to put a stop to it!

Kate

Beautiful

Thinking about this sweet girl today!

And thankful for Toucb a Life...giving her a good life!

Jantsen's Gift

If you haven't read this yet, do it.
It is a read-in-one-day kinda book.
Pam Cope's story is quite inspirational and will leave you quite misty eyed.


Her book was just mentioned in Parade Magazine here:

http://www.parade.com/parade-picks/2011/08/14-jantsens-gift.html

JANTSEN'S GIFT

by Pam Cope with Aimee Molloy, nonfiction

After her 15-year-old son, Jantsen, died unexpectedly of a heart ailment in 1999, Pam Cope channeled her grief toward a new purpose: improving the lives of children around the world who suffer from poverty and abuse. This inspiring memoir of loss and healing traces the emotional journey Cope took to rebuild her family and honor her son’s memory by making a difference
(from Parade Magazine online)

 

  She is the founder of Touch a Life.
You should be familiar with this organization, as I have mentioned it on numerous occasions.
I also just returned from my first trip with them to visit the kids in Ghana.

sweet Joel

This is my friend Rachel

I can't say enough about her and her heart. I'm sure that I've blogged about her before.

She works for TAL and organized the entire trip with 55 volunteers and 550+ kids. Crazy, huh?

She's my age. Hello. No excuses here people.

The kids were so excited to see her and her feelings were mutual, obviously.

Rach and I with TAL kids

Here is Pam with Garrett and Kelly Nichols, the in-country directors for TAL and George Achibra, a Ghanaian anti-trafficking crusader(when i saw him, i felt like i was meeting a celebrity with the kindest spirit ever).

Rach, David(my good friend from WM and a brilliant pharmacist) and I with some of the kiddos


our very intellectual medical team

with Brad Gautney(on my right), the founder of Global Health Innovations, that partnered with TAL for the health fair. He is awesome and blogged a little ditty about the trip here:http://globalhealthinnovations.org/update-on-ghana

there are millions more pics taken by myself and many others on the trip.
here are a friends on facebook
an incredible profesh photographer also tagged along. here is a bit on her blog as well: nancy borowick


As you can see, i love this organization, i love these kids and am honored to have been a part of their work.
Thanks to Pam Cope for starting TAL through her heartache.
Because of her passion through tragedy, childrens lives are forever changed. and ok, mine too.

(i think i've posted enough links in this post, ha)


p.s. good to see you again blogger.
i'm back in the game
Kate

Touch a Life kids Wordless Wednesday

I "had a moment" during this song.

These kids have my heart and quite a few of my tears.

Freedom

On a day that we normally celebrate our freedom, July 4th, we toured an old castle used for slave trading.

ironic?

There was much more irony realized once we were there.

The Cape Coast Castle was such a stronge fortress and force in Ghana.

They would hold 500+ slaves at a time for months awaiting the long journey by sea to Europe, North America and many other locations. During those few months, many of them died.

After visiting the dungeons, it is easy to see why.

The smell still lingered after 100s of years.

The light was so dim, there was little ventilation.

The atmosphere felt suffocating with even our small group in the small brick dungeons.

Our tour guide telling us about the male dungeon

The view over the castle wall in to the ocean

This door was titled the "door of no return".

after the slaves passed through this door, they were loaded on the ships to take them to be sold in another country. Most of them died on the journey. They said the conditions were worse on board than at the castle...hard to imagine.

You would think that after the years have passed, you would walk through these doors and feel liberated.

Slavery would be no more.

Instead we saw this.

You could almost hear each of us hold our breath in disbelief.

How can this country claim to be free of slavery?

Those children are the modern day slaves of fisherman.

These are the children that Touch a Life is reaching for.

complete irony.

I felt so small in our world looking at this scene.

But how many things do we turn our attention from in the US that others would see as injust?

On a day that we usually think upon our freedom... i wanted nothing more for these people.

I'm so grateful to live in our country and very humbled.

kate

Boarding...

(this pic belongs to Touch a Life)
We are off to Ghana!
Keep up with us this week by checking out http://touchalife.tumblr.com/.

Pray for our team as we work with these kiddos at the Village of Hope!

Signing off for the week,
Kate