Winter at Bryan House

The kids at Bryan House have found ways to enjoy their very first winter in America. This is a picture of Rick throwing snowballs at eleven year old Nahom. They also built a snowman for the first time, but they gave-up quickly on shoveling the sidewalk, ramp, and driveway to earn a little extra money. Too cold : ) They sometimes wear their coats and hats inside. But it's still hard to get them to wear socks and real shoes instead of sandals.

Now that it's February, I am getting winter weary. I'm ready for the sunshine to melt the snow. Except that there's a little problem with the roof at Bryan House in some places and melting snow means leaking water. Unfortunately you can't fix the roof while the snow is still there, so some leaking this spring is probably unavoidable. Ah the joys of owning a one hundred year old building! I don't know whether to hope for early spring for the sake of my state of mind or to hope for a long freeze for the sake of not dealing with any extra weeks of drippy ceilings and filling buckets. We did have someone shovel part of the roof. But it is probably not done snowing yet.

OBAMA!

Celebrating the New Year

Here's a picture from the New Years Celebration at our house. We had guests from Congo, Togo, and Rwanda. It was a fun night (even though we did the early New York countdown.) Everyone likes to get their picture taken with Obama. : )

Happy New Year!

Peace Not War

Check out this beautiful peace anthem by my friend Kevin Prchal. The picture in the background was taken at a school we visited on our trip to Uganda this summer.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=162653497

Today

It's quiet in the office today. I'm thankful for a handful of quiet days in December to collect my thoughts. To slow down. To breathe in Advent. It's been a long, full year. I'm grateful to all the people who have helped us get through it. Who have helped us fill it with promise. I have a lot on my mind, but today feels calm and peaceful. Today I will try to hang on to peace.

Rough Times for Refugees & Immigrants

Last month four refugee families applied to our foundation for help paying their rent so they wouldn't get evicted. Another refugee man we know lost his job and thus lost health care for his family, inlcuding his seven year old daughter and his wife who is 8 months pregnant. We used our assistance fund to make a Cobra payment of $964 which bought them another month of coverage. That extra month has now run out. A family living at Bryan House came to us asking for extra help because their kids were growing out of their clothes and had nothing warm for winter and they didn't have the money to buy them anything. Tonight I will take them shopping. Last night I got word from a friend that a little girl we met through Community 4:12 is moving to Mexico this weekend because her father got deported. The little girl was born in the US and has never lived in Mexico before. I don't know what we could do to help her. And today I received an email from a refugee friend in Kampala, Uganda asking us for help for his family as they cannot find work and they have been waiting for several years to be reunited with their family here in the US. Sometimes when you make friends with refugees and immigrants, sharing the burden of their problems can be overwhelming. But even as we wrestle with feelings of helplessness and frustration, I wouldn't trade my friendships with these families for anything. They teach me about perserverance and faith and joy beyond circumstances. I need them as much as they need me.