How to help right from home!!! Operation Notebook!

We leave for Mexico in just 3 weeks!!!!!
If you are new here you can read about our first adventure at the orphanage here

I couldn't sleep last night (well morning techniaclly)

I was up praying for our time down there and just so struck by this:

It is SUCH an honor to get to go back.

I am in awe of the fact that God would invite little sinful broken me to go and be His hands and feet and voice and arms.

and when you really get down to it, even then it is God who gets us there safely, gives us the strength to do anything, opens hearts of people to welcome us in...

It is all Him.

There is nothing better than stepping out and having to take God's hand,

relying and trusting that He will do what He says He will....

stepping into situations that knowingly will break my heart,

but trusting that God will put it back together again to reflect Him even more.

and...

In so many ways I learn while I am down there about what is true and good and right...

and so much of what our culture tells us is important just really isn't.

And there is something so amazing about stepping out and away from all comfort. I am so convinced that short- term missions are about helping but about something more.

God whispers to us to go away with Him...

because He wants to speak to our hearts.

Yes, we will get to help and that is beyond awesome...

but right now we are prayerfully asking God to prepare our hearts and minds for serving AND for listening.

Because as we step onto this Holy ground,

we don't want to miss even one tiny bit of what God has for us!

So...not sure those ramblings made sense to anyone else but I wanted to write them down :)

Why did I title this, "How to help right from home!!!"?

Because you can.

When we came back from the orphanage in December we felt like we were supposed to pray for two things:

Moving to Hood River (which we just did a few weeks ago!)

and

Going back to the orphanage and inviting others to come.

So when we head out in a few weeks our dear friends and their daughter will be joining us and two amazing college women from Pennsylvania are praying right now about coming too!

But I think that the inviting is supposed to include others, you.

Wanna be apart of this?

Well...here's the deal, this orphanage is a beyond amazing place where God is so very present.

and they have a ton of ways that we can help them.

More than I can list here.

I just prayerfully went through the list of needs that they have and came up with a thought.

If you want to see the whole list Click Here

We should have some room in our minivan...

So....

wanna help stuff if full to the brim to bless these kids????

Here are some things that they need:

* The school for the orphans in run by some amazing folks that make due with very little. They are in urgent needs of spiral notebooks for their students. How cool would it be if we stocked them up for the year?

When we were at one of the Casas (houses where the children live) last time, I will never forget one of the little girls leading me by the hand to take me to see her treasures. The things that she held so very dear? A few pieces of candy, a ragged stuffed animal and a torn letter someone had written her. It was all I could do to not burst into tears right there. Here she was, a beautiful little girl clinging to this worn message that someone out there thought she was special, someone knew about her, someone cared.

It may seems like such a little thing to us who are saturated by so much, so many messages. But what if, everyday, every kid got to open a notebook and glance at a message reminding them that they are prayed for and loved.

Not too long ago we got a letter from the little girl that we sponsor (who I am dying to wrap my arms around soon). You know what she asked at the end of her letter? "Pray for me to keep being strong and brave."

These babies, precious little ones, tender bigger ones have so many reason to have to be strong and brave. Some have come from horrific abuse, some from living on the streets with nothing, many with no family or ties beyond the orphanage staff.

Would you take a little time to help give them the strength to be brave?

How amazing would it be if everybody bought a few notebooks and took a few minutes to write a note on the inside letting the kids know that they are loved and prayed for?

How about making it a summer project for a day or two?

Get some friends involved!

Get the Children's Ministry at your church into it!

So...if you're in, here's the deal:

Go and get some spiral bound notebooks!

Write and note, a prayer, some Scripture, draw a picture whatever you want in it. It would be awesome if you want to put a photo of yourself or your kids in too.

If you want to put your address in you might get a thank you note back and start having a penpal...

Then, get those notebooks in the mail to:

The Miller Family

915 7th St.

Hood River, OR 97031

We'll load'em up and hand them out with tons of hugs!!!!!!!!

We leave July 8th so getting them here before then would be great!

Thanks for blessing these precious kids with us!
**** By the way we are going back again the week before Christmas if you wanna come****