Lifebread.org

September 17 Update

2010-09-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Months have passed since we last blogged, because Lifebread has been so busy!

in the past three months, we have:
• completed a nationwide fundraising tour with over $15,000 raised
• led a team of Pepperdine students to Africa
• established a new bakery at the Ft. Portal church of Christ in western Uganda
• visited our bakery project in Nairobi
• got married!
• Conducted a survery trip to Togo
Our summer was crazy, but full of moments were God showed up. Each day, we have been able to share our love for Jesus through service in Africa and inspiring young people in the states. These are the times when we truly believe that working with Lifebread is the best that has ever happened to us.
Lifebread is currently recruiting for our next internship. In 2011, we will lead a team of five interns to Togo, West Africa, to establish a bakery project with the Lassa Tchou people. Working alongside a team of missionaries who have been serving in Togo for over 10 years, Lifebread will set up a microfinance bakery project with the women of the village.

This will also mark the first time that Lifebread has accepted interns from other universities than Pepperdine. We are advertising our internship at many universities, including Lipscomb, Abiliene Christian, and Harding. For more info or to apply, check out the Internship tab on our website, www.lifebread.org.

Dusty

June 28 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:29:00.003-07:00

Eight hours of driving in 12 hours. Complete. By me. I’m tired.

But now we are done. We spoke to a youth group at the Alta Mesa Church of Christ in what was a perfect end to our summer tour. The kids did not buy much, but instead the event went much more like our first event at Hilltop. The just really liked getting to know us as people. We told them about our mission, but then they told us about their mission trip that they will be taking this summer. Pizza and lots of talking followed. Hopefully, I convinced a couple kids to come to Pepperdine. If not, I hope they at least took away some good things from today’s gathering. Either way, though, we are done with what has been a very successful summer tour. Now we drive back to California, return Marv, and await our flights to Africa..

June 27 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:29:00.001-07:00

Today was one of the best days of the trip. Russellville, Arkansas, welcomed us with open arms and great senses of humor. We spoke to a very receptive youth group at West Side Church of Christ this morning, had breakfast with one of the members of Lifebread’s board and with the brother of the preacher we met in Teague, Texas (it is such a small world). After some afternoon work cleaning Marv, we went back to the church to present our documentary to anyone that would listen. We had a crowd of maybe 60, all of whom were very eager to hear what we had to say. Finally, we got down to the crux of the day though. Dinner with the same crowd as breakfast was followed by the departure of Katie, Jessica, and myself. Dusty and Cecily decided to go their own way and enjoy a family vacation before they run away to Africa to get married. That leaves Jessica, Katie and me to drive Marv to Fort Worth by 11AM tomorrow morning. Eight hours of driving in 12 hours. Fingers crossed.

June 26 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:28:00.002-07:00

Ah, June 26, a day of driving, traffic, a US World Cup loss (watched from the Jackson, TN, YMCA), and a lot of hunger. By a lot of hunger, I do not mean the kind we are trying to fight in Africa – by no means to I mean to complain that much. But a day with only a lunner at KFC leaves much to be desired. At about midnight we stumbled into a very welcoming home and crashed.

It’s amusing how fun the days of travel can be and how difficult that humor is to relay in this blog. Dusty made some inadvertent but very inappropriate comments. Cecily gets hit on in front of her fiancé. Jessica is just misunderstood. Katie still grumpily awaits her chance to drive the Marv. And you’ll have to ask the others about my behavior.

June 25 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:28:00.001-07:00

We did it! We raised $3000 – just enough for one bakery project all thanks to the generous hearts of some southern teens. We’ve made some great friends here at Impact from the huggers, to the staff, to four very interested future missionary hopefuls. Thanks so much Impact. We hope to see you again next summer.

June 24 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:27:00.002-07:00

It’s the second to last day of Impact, and things are going our way. We’ve had college and high school kids alike all come up to us and ask how to get on next year’s trip. Lifebread has really found a great place for support, growth, and encouragement in Impact.

Today, though we had a bit of an “us” day. Two of the great people we met in Florence came up to visit us in Nashville and show us around town. We went shopping for a while to please the girls, and then went and checked out the Parthenon replica downtown. Then, after spending a little more time at Impact we took a night out on the town. After a month of grunging around in three day old clothes, a cooped up living space, and periodic showers, we got our night of glory. The girls got all dolled up, and the Dusty and I tried to clean up just enough to be reasonable looking company. Unfortunately, my youthful glow kept us out of many of the dancing bars, but we did find a place to go get our two step on.

Impact total: $1850

June 23 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:27:00.001-07:00

Today, I need some rest. I think we all need some rest. The road trip has been great, but travelling around non-stop speaking and trying to tell the country about Lifebread. This week at Impact finally staying in the same place for a few days will be a great break, but I think our team could really just use a night to ourselves.

It’s funny how much the dynamic of our group changes when more than just the five of us are there. Of course it is welcomed and even necessary on the trip, but there is a special kind of chemistry when it is just us on the RV (at least on the rare occasion when some of us are awake). Sometime soon we need some us time.

Impact total up to $1100.

June 22 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:25:00.002-07:00

Dusty knows some great people. The couple we have been staying with for the last few days are good friends with Dusty and they will actually be coming to Africa with us for the wedding. I could rave about them for hours, but instead I will say they absolutely rock and move on.

We arrived back at Impact, and the Lord is continuing to bless our time here. They have decided to announce as one of their projects trying to raise enough money to cover an oven project or about $3000. Just one day has gone by and we already have $500. Whether or not we make it to our mark, this place has been an incredible blessing.

Plus the weather is beautiful today. What’s not to like?

June 21 (tom)

2010-07-04T15:25:00.001-07:00

This morning I had breakfast in Florence, Alabama, and found myself sitting at a table surrounded by ten Christian missionaries (I use the word to varying degrees for each of them). This is a place in my life I never could have imagined just three years ago. Somehow, though, I now belong here. I am currently an intern touring around the country trying to raise money for a missions non-profit organization with which I will be travelling to Africa next month to build some ovens for starving people and love them.

WHAT. Sometimes God leads you even when you are determined not to follow.

Tonight though, we hosted our big concert at the Shoals Theatre. “Big” though is a relative term. The theatre was not very full. We ended up doing okay for ourselves. We raised enough money to at least cover our costs, but that is what this tour is about. We are still a sprouting organization and sometimes we have to make some leaps. Our organization isn’t influential enough to pack a theatre with only newspaper and radio advertizing. One day we hope to be, but for now it’s good to see where we are and it’s even better to keep striving to be more.

June 27th - Katie

2010-06-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, things are easier for my to explain in verse. Most of my journal entries look something like this... this is just what I was feeling on the way to Tennessee, and it explains my feelings towards this trip better than a paragraph of facts ever could.

I cracked an azure eye open from sleep,
because my dreams were in the room.
They whispered vitals that I had abandoned
In a rush at railway stations,
In quiet sadness on windowsills,
Or simply in the crazy hurricane that left me

spinning, evaluating
This new reflection that I now bare.

My dreams woke me, and reminded me of what I wanted.

To cry out in towering rooms where
My voice echoes to
Spark the obsidian in people’s hearts and eyes
I wanted to be the one to drudge up
The battle cry that has settled to the
Bottom
Of
The
River
Not a call to blood-let, but a call to let blood
Run within the veins that have been stonewalled
In sleep and complacency,

To wage and win the war within ourselves instead of drowning it out.

I once thought I would tip the lantern
That set the world on fire.

I didn’t realize I was a candle, needing to race to light the others
Before I exhaled out
In darkness.

I clasped hands with she who was like me and swore to
Never never
I’m terrified of tasting that promise in my mouth
As I walk into
Meaningless
…Simply because it was easier.

I heard this call to something greater,
As I sat with
Bleached out eyes
Cracks in my skin
So tired of fighting the wind could have blown me away

And here I am,

Feeling iron in my fingers again and
Every time I inhale, I feel
Life
Like a stream,
Run over deep scars,
Secrets at the bottom of my rapids,
healing as they burn closed.
I don’t know how the world has changed since I left it…

But the air tastes of peaches here,
The nights are warm,
And my sun-kissed skin has forgotten
The cold kiss of metal.

I’m not exhaling light because I’ve
Found Something.
I’m breathing deep
Because He
Gave me the strength
To Look.

June 20 (tom)

2010-06-21T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hello Alabama, the final state of our trip. Both Cross Point COC and Sherod Avenue COC were great. It really has been cool getting to know a lot of Dusty’s friends and see what solid roots he has.

It’s weird that we are already three weeks into the tour, and that we are almost ready to start heading home. Of course we still have lots more to do (come to our concert tomorrow night at the Shoals Community Theatre!), but it’s nearly time to wrap it up. With how skewed time has felt to me over the last few weeks I’d like to close simply by saying I have a song on my mind, and it is one that has always been a very meaningful one to me. “Hanging By A Moment” – Lifehouse.

Also, Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I love you.

June 19 (tom)

2010-06-21T10:06:00.002-07:00

Our last day in Nashville before we move down to Florence, Alabama, for a few days brought some much needed support. Today, we were actually able to show our video to about 2000 screaming 13 year olds and tell them about our mission. It really is amazing how far some youthful passion can go. They raised $4500 for flood relief in Nashville and still found enough generosity in their hearts to donate to our cause as well. The enthusiasm was a joy to see and I can’t wait to get back and see what kind of response we get from the Sr. High kids.

June 18 (tom)

2010-06-21T10:06:00.001-07:00

God is Good. Our arrival at Impact at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee for one of the highlights of our tour was glorious. The program they are running there is incredibly enthusiastic, and I would say we couldn’t be more excited to be there, except we all saw how amped all the middle schoolers were to be there…

Given our age, we could not be more excited to be there.

June 17 (tom)

2010-06-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

As I look back at this I see how disjointed my thoughts are day to day. I was preparing to write about how solid I felt like our performance was last night, and just looking back to yesterday’s entry is almost laughable. This trip is so odd. We go from one day to the next and while there is routine to each day, every minute seems so separate and independent from the last. If I didn’t have such a rigid calendar outlined for our activities and travel plans for every single day of the trip, there is no way I would be able to say how long we had been on the road.

I can tell you though, that we spoke to a small group in Paragould, Arkansas, tonight. The people were fantastic, open minded, and very typically southern. Offering us all the fried food, cheesecake, queso, and hearty Southern cholesterol we could ask for, there is no doubt they kept our stomachs full. It’s funny. I’ve never been to the South before, but everything is just like I thought it would be.

June 16 (tom)

2010-06-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Arkansas, the Natural State, welcomes Lifebread. We spoke to the Central Church of Christ in Little Rock, and we have finally fallen into a rhythm. The driving rotation is smooth. The speaking orders and topics are firm. One of the things I liked best about the idea of living in an RV for the month was being in a different place every day, and somehow I equated that to every day being different – without routine. No matter where you go, though, routine will find you.

I don’t mean to say routine is a bad thing, but it is certainly something I try to avoid as much as I can. Having a routine is just such an easy way to suck the meaning out of anything. I’m not totally sure where I stand on the phrase “good habits.” If you just get in the habit of saying “I love you” to your spouse or going to church every Sunday, either way, you aren’t actively making the choice to do it anymore. Such meaningful things should be done actively and with passion. I want to have passion for the message I bring to these churches. I want to be passionate about this summer. Keep me as free as I can be from living this month by habit.

June 15 (tom)

2010-06-15T10:41:00.001-07:00

This morning, I woke up on the couch of some people that I don’t even know. Oddly enough, that is how the last four nights have been since the Wal Mart parking lot in Amarillo. It’s funny how weird that sounds in the common life of people in the U.S. but how easy it is to share life like that with other people. The life of the hitchhiker is readily scrutinized and seemingly rarely picked up. Really though, we have been spending much of the last month as hitchsleepers, and it is with those people that we have spent the most time with, had the best conversations with, and forged the deepest connections with.

The life of the hitchsleeper: not the kind of book to be judged by the cover.

June 14 (tom)

2010-06-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Houston, you’re hot.

Tonight we finally broke out the entire Lifebread Summer Tour booth. In an event with the Aggies for Christ at a park, we got to break out everything we prepared for the month. Our shirts and necklaces booth, tables, projector, PA system, and even our XXXL screen. The event itself was very low key, as college groups during the summer are bound to be, but seeing everything go up was just a cool picture. Through all the ups and downs of the tour, we’ve really been able to see our work pay off.

June 15th - Katie

2010-06-15T10:13:00.001-07:00

The Lifebread team has reached a conclusion about the Great State of Texas.
The heat is so intense that the only people able to withstand it are, in turn, the nicest people you will ever meet.
Case in point? Katy Keith and the rest of the Aggies for Christ we met last night. We casually mentioned that we needed a Wal Mart Parking lot to sleep in and, within seconds, Katy had offered her place to us for the night.
Which is awesome, because... if you haven’t been in the Texas heat, take my word for it – we’d probably have to sleep sans clothing to avoid heat stroke.
That is something I have noticed about the road thus far… the people are amazing and unique. I thank God for the opportunity to have met them… because each one, linked together, makes a wonderful story… one that has helped restore my faith in people.

June 13th (Katie)

2010-06-13T20:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I heard the words I had been afraid of this entire tour, and they were uttered by Dusty Breeding himself: “Katie, we’re going to have a little meeting to discuss the internship thus far. We’ll start with Tom, and then we’ll call you in afterwards.” The word “meeting” was only made worse by the proceeding “little”, which, I know, was designed to make me feel better about the situation. Nothing bad can happen in a “little” meeting, right?

That sounded like the equivalent of “we need to talk”, which, in my 21 years of life experience, equals something very, very bad.

I sat outside by the pool and dipped my feet in, contemplating what this “meeting” could mean. I was quickly joined by the charming and wonderful Stephens family – Callee, Connor, Cooper, and their beautiful mother, Cassaundra. She is going to Africa with us and her husband, Chad, is on the Lifebread Board of Directors. I was so excited to meet her, and she was everything I expected and more. We talked whilst I awaited my fate.
“Cassaundra, is it silly that I am legitimately nervous about this meeting?”
She stopped cleaning the pool and looked at me.
“Sweetie, you really have nothing to worry about. If my husband is in there, you have no reason to be nervous. It is more than likely just one of those check-up kind of meetings.”
I tried to believe her, but there was still a knot in my stomach.
It is terrible, but I know why I felt that way. I have this constant feeling of inadequacy gnawing at my stomach, and I can’t help but feel like I am always a day late and a dollar short. I know these feelings are not of God, and I don’t want them to be a part of my inner dialogue anymore… but it’s been hard. So when I was sitting in on the meeting, and they asked me how I was feeling – I told them the truth.
“I am… not good at this,” I confessed.
Normally, when I start a project, a map appears in my head. I can see the way things should go, and I am able to get it done. With this internship, I’ve seen nothing of the sort. All I see is a destination and a sea of fog… with no way to get there.
But this internship has been nothing but good for me, because I have been learning to do things I am not comfortable with normally. I have never been good at taking constructive criticism. No matter how nice people have tried to phrase things, I only walk away with the part of the sentence that started with “But…” If I feel like I’ve failed or let someone down, I tend to shut down and shove out. The great thing about this internship is that I can’t. Quite literally… what am I going to do, call a cab from Houston?
However, when Dusty gave me constructive criticism, I listened and realized that everything he was saying was right. I knew that ignoring what he was saying or being offended by it would not help anyone – least of all me. I know that eventually, my destructive tendencies would manifest themselves into things that are impossible to walk away from.
Try as I might to resist, I know that I’m growing. Stretching uncomfortably and pulling back as much as I can…
But I’m growing.

June 13 (tom)

2010-06-13T20:17:00.001-07:00

This morning was a blessed morning. West Houston Church of Christ opened their service up to us this morning, and we had an incredible time getting to know many members of their congregation. Everyone there also seemed genuinely interested in our work and in helping support our cause. It’s interesting to see how accurate some of the regional stereotypes of the U.S. are…
On a more person note, the RV is now my home. It has been my place of residence for a while now, but it has finally become my, our, home. The five of us in the apartment on wheels are something of a family at this point, and I am more than happy to move back into the RV after every event that we have. Home is a very loose term sometimes. It’s difficult to define but easy to know when you’ve found it, and no matter how long it lasts, a home is a great place to have.

June 12 (tom)

2010-06-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

The further I get into Lifebread, the more I love the organization. Our team spent the morning with one of the men on the board for Lifebread and his family. He will be the best man in Dusty’s wedding, and his wife will spend the entire month with us in Africa. To see how who is really involved in this organization and to see their character has given me even more faith that I truly did make the right decision with my summer.
Today will be the last free day we have for a very long time. It should be a great day for the team to have some just us time and really get ready for an exciting next couple of days in south Texas. I say this optimistically as we drive futher into the humidity and make the treacherous drive into the sweatbox that is Houston…

June 10th (Katie)

2010-06-13T19:30:00.002-07:00

Today, I felt small. It was wonderful. We went to the Garden of the gods in Colorado Springs before heading down to Texas, and Cecily showed us some great places to “boulder”, which is a fancy and technical term for “climbing without ropes”. The feel of hot sand stone under my feet was amazing, and I felt strong when I was climbing up some of the bigger rocks. Jessica called me a “Sole Climber”, someone who climbs barefoot. I can see why people do it… its kind of a high. After grabbing some lunch, we made our way down to Texas.
It was still light outside when it was 9:30 outside. Weird.

June 9th (Katie)

2010-06-13T19:30:00.001-07:00

We presented at Littleton Church of Christ today. Colorado is absolutely beautiful, I can’t even believe it. After being in Arizona and New Mexico for so long, (so long being about 2.5 days…) I can’t even describe how amazing it felt to see tall trees again.

June 8th (Katie)

2010-06-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Before I knew it, we were in Arizona. The air grew thick, and we were pulling into an obscure gas station. Desert on either side, I concluded that I didn’t really care for Arizona. We ate at Sonic… and I was still feeling removed from everything, holding onto the thought that I might have cheated them out of a fully functioning team member. As we were climbing into the RV, Cecily pulled up alongside in her 1985 Porche convertible.
“Does anyone want to go with me?” My inferiority complex kicked in with a vengeance, causing me to question: “Do you want someone with you? I mean… you don’t want to be alone?”
“Get in,” she said, motioning to me.
The hot leather seat kissed my bare legs as I sat down. And we were off down the interstate. We talked about everything: relationships, spirituality, our history, family… and somewhere in between stopping for sunscreen and pulling off in Flagstaff to get our coffee fix, I realized that I am right where I need to be. We talked about these blogs, and I inquired as to how honest I should be.
“Totally honest,” she said, the scarf tied around her head dancing in the wind. “Tell us exactly how you are feeling. Overwhelmed, overqualified, angry, excited…if you feel like you’re gifts are not being used… say it. If you’re afraid, tell us.” I looked at her, with her light green sunglasses and nose ring, and then to the painted desert we were ripping through. She told me Africa will be the kind of trip that changed you when your back is turned. I won’t recognize myself when I return. I told her that that was what I was hoping for.
“Don’t you wish you could have seen a glimpse of what you’re seeing now when you were younger?” she asked.
“I wish that all the time,” I replied, sticking my arm out the window and rolling my wrist in the breeze.
In my mind, I was silently opening the door to the bedroom I had when I was seventeen. The room had a blue hue, cast from the dangling fairy-tale lights I put above my bed. My walls were covered in pictures I cut out of National Geographic, images of far-away places I was going to go see when I was finally free enough to do so. Those years were a perfect blend of hopefulness and naïveté, believing everything would open up if I could just be the one that could survive the despair that I saw overcoming people of “maturity”. That despair eventually settled…but in that moment I wished I could give myself at seventeen that feeling to hold on to, like a prayer rock some people keep in their pockets… something solid: the feeling of flying down the road with my hands over my head, head back, talking in the image of oreo-filling clouds over a hot, deep blue sky. Pure, hopeful, seventeen year-old Katie would have loved Cecily’s car.
Last night, we made the push from Arizona to New Mexico. I climbed in the front seat, curling my feet under me as Tom took the wheel. It was quiet at first, as we tried to figure out how to get some music going… but alas, we couldn’t get the speakers working. We let some Lord of the Rings Soundtrack drip from my speakers with a pathetic amount of force before essentially giving up. I don’t know how it came up, but eventually we got to talking about the internship.
It was quiet, but only for a moment.
Then Tom broke the silence.
“When do you feel like you were closest to God?”
I looked at him, startled. He was serious.
I told him about Nicaragua in 2005… the time in my life I felt like I was totally in sync with God. He asked how I knew that I was close to God… what were the signs?

I stopped for a moment. “No fear,” I said.
We talked for another hour or so; enough time to make me realize that Tom is a science minded person, and an amazing one at that… and science helped him come to find God. Science has always tripped me up when it came to my faith. I actually started tearing up a bit as I looked out at the sky and smiled to myself. God put me in an RV with someone who was not afraid of the same things I am, someone who embraces that which confuses me. It’s always a trip, seeing the pieces come together.

Monday, June 7th (Katie)

2010-06-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

Every new place we walk into presents dozens of chances to tell this story, dozens of faces that look to me Dusty introduces me as the intern. As I open my mouth to let it exhale out of me, I choke on it.

Because there is much, much more to the story about that night at the chapel, the night I talked to Dusty and Cecily, the night I felt peace about life. There is much more to that story, but I don’t know if letting it into the air would expose me. A few nights ago, I toyed with the idea.

As Tom walked up to tell the tale of the chemistry fellowship he turned down to build ovens in East Africa, my heart pounded with the thought of telling the whole truth. What would they do if they know their intern unplugged herself from a metaphorical hospital bed and stumbled into their RV? That what I say is a tad veiled, because I can’t show weakness here for fear of them realizing they might have chosen the wrong person?

I know the Lord has His hand in this, but I don’t really want to tell them why I think He picked me. That night in chapel when Ross and I were twenty minutes late was the end of my rope. Darkness had descended on my life – it bleached out the deep colors of my hope and rinsed the fire out of my eyes. All the daydreams I had about forests, candlelight, pirate ships, adventure, vindication… all my blood and thunder dreams shrank away to lick their wounds whilst I scrambled to maintain a pulse of some kind.

I don’t recall what brought it on, but it had settled over my life for months. I was a Junior at Pepperdine, madly in love with the man I am going to marry with the world at my feet. Yet there was a cage around me that I couldn’t even see to fight off. It sounds cliché to say I was dead inside - because I know it sounds like a teenage facebook status, right next to a quote that reads “You don’t know me, I don’t even know myself” or something equally cheesy… but I can’t find any other way to put it. I was dead inside.

The prospect of another summer that consisted of a job, the country club pool, and sleepless nights pacing back and forth while everyone slept, a movie playing soundlessly in the background… was too much to handle.

That night, the night Lifebread came into my life, I waited for Ross in the lobby of my dorm, looking at the clock with tired eyes. We had decided to go to Chapel even though we both didn’t want to. It was 8:20, and Chapel started at 8:00. He came downstairs, and we set off for Stauffer Chapel.

We crept in silently and sat in the back of the auditorium right as Dusty went to the front. He called to us to do something with our lives, and he invited us to apply to go to Africa with Lifebread. I listened to him, and something about the way he spoke intrigued me. Africa was the farthest thing from anything I was and am familiar with at all. I hated the way my life had settled, and I knew I wanted to shake things up.

The ridiculousness of it all overwhelmed me in that moment. I couldn’t go to Africa… I had just signed up for 18 units in summer school, and I really needed a job. The prospect taunted me and climbed into my ribcage, and I resented that. I hated wanting to go to Africa and knowing deep down that it couldn’t happen. I rose from the pew silently and left the building. I knew it was only a matter of time before Ross followed me out, he always looks after me at times like that. I heard his footsteps at the bottom of the stairs of the amphitheater when I was almost at the top. I wearily made my way to the wooden bench and sat down. He sat wordlessly next to me, and I put my head on his shoulder and cried. I could hear the chapel fill with melody… and I told Ross it was time to go, but we wound up staying for a little while longer. People filed past us as chapel let out, and that is where the other story picks up… Ross told me to go talk to them, and I did. I walked away with a stomach full of electricity. I felt my mouth spark with words, and before I knew it, I was telling Ross that he should come, too. Expecting a rational, “I would love to, but I can’t,” I was blown away when he stopped for a second on the ramp up to the fountain and said, “You know what? Maybe I will.”

june 10 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:15:00.003-07:00

Our host family, the Stewart’s, made us a wonderful breakfast burritos to send us on our way. As we drove back to Colorado Springs we stopped for a group picture overlooking Pikes Peak and met an interesting RV couple. I don’t think I could do this as a way of life. We then went to Garden of the Gods and took a walk around the most magnificent rock formations. I forget how beautiful Colorado is from time to time. Thanks for the reminder God, I needed it. After a lunch at the Pita Pit in Colorado Springs we were back on the open road. Our only stops were at the state signs for New Mexico and Texas. Hooray for Marv making it through 3 states in one day. Now Marv rests in a Wal-Mart parking lot until we press on for Dallas in the morning. Here’s to a busy busy day tomorrow…

june 10 (tom)

2010-06-11T23:15:00.001-07:00

The month of June has brought and will undoubtedly continue to bring much self-understanding. Today was a needed and welcome day of introspection for the team (or possibly just for me). As we had nothing to do today but drive, we had the morning to relax. We spent the morning climbing around the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. I know I have already mentioned my adoration for Colorado but today only reaffirmed that opinion. From there, we took the RV down to Amarillo, Texas, and where else would we stay but a Wal Mart?

All this though, allowed for some very good time spent with just our group and with our own thoughts. I have been known to be one who over-thinks things, but today was not one of those days.

This internship has been an interesting one for me. I have had good jobs before, but none that have made me question my life so much. This work has really forced me to better understand my passions. Passion is a tricky word. It can mean a lot of things and true passion is found few and far between. I feel only now am I coming to actually get it.

june 9 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:14:00.003-07:00

I spent the day with my family, since available time spent with family becomes more obscure the older I get. Since I’m a Colorado native it was easy for my family to come visit for the day. In the afternoon, I arrived with the rest of the group to our host house for the night. The family invited their friends over to hear about Lifebread and we gave our presentation. Immediately following, we hurried over to Littleton Church of Christ to do another presentation to their youth group. It was by far our largest group yet, which was particularly special for me having my family there as well. After the event, the group was invited to Chic-fil-A where we all mingled and talked for a while. The interns (Tom and Katie) made such good connections that they even hung out with some of the kids from the group after Chic-fil-A. As for the older crew, we went back to the host house and crashed. In the morning we start our journey to Texas. Here’s to another long drive with a Wal-Mart supercenter at the end of the rainbow…

june 9 (tom)

2010-06-11T23:14:00.001-07:00

First of all, this is absolutely irrelevant to Lifebread, but I simply have to start out by saying how beautiful Colorado is. I have loved both Phoenix and Malibu, but there really is nothing like the Rockies.

While we have been in this lovely state, we have had to spend much more time doing Lifebread business than looking and experiencing the scenery, though. Last night we spoke at the Pepperdine Alumni Chapter in Denver and told them about our plans. The people there were incredibly receptive to our work (as Pepperdine audiences typically are to that kind of thing), and it really is great to see how the drive and motivation of Pepperdine students does not die off when they leave campus.

The alumni meeting was great, but it was not until after the meeting that the night had a truly special impact on me. One of the members of the chapter invited our team into his family’s home, and we just spent the night with him and his family. Not all of the team could make it so he ended up only having to host three of us, but the favor was extremely generous nonetheless. Earlier yesterday, we picked up two hitchhikers near Albuquerque who needed a lift up to Colorado Springs and invited them into our home (on wheels). These two events really made my day. It’s hard to explain how these two events actually affected me, but I know they each warmed my heart. It is sad how much a word as beautiful as “hospitality” is dying in American culture.

june 8 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:13:00.003-07:00

What a day. Dusty started driving the RV around 6am and Katie made us pb &j’s on English muffins for breakfast. I was way too tired to actually wake up and eat it, so it rested in my had as a slept. Over the course of the next two hours I would take a bite before falling back asleep again. Woke up for good to the sound of some traveling hillbillies (not kidding) yelling at us to stop before we hit something. Apparently, we still haven’t gotten the hang of have a 31-foot vehicle that has its own personality apart from where we think it is actually going. Sure enough, we were inches away from hitting a pole guarding a gas station pump. Even another truck driver commented that we almost kissed the pole. Praise God we didn’t.

After maneuvering around the pole we found some hitchhikers on the road that we picked up. They were two young-men just heading to Colorado before finally ending up in California. Fitting the typical protocol of hitchhikers, one had a guitar and played for us as we drove to Colorado Springs. I had one of those moments where you feel a memory become solidified when the hitchhikers played “On the Road Again” and we all sang along. When we arrived in Colorado Springs our agenda was to grab a quick bite to eat, shower at the nearest YMCA, and head to the Pepperdine Alumni event. As usual, we never know what we are in for when we arrive at our next venue. This one was a loud Mexican restaurant where we struggled to maintain the attention of our audience. However, the abundance of friendly and flavorful alumni we interacted with left us all in a cheerful spirits. Here’s to our first night in Colorado…

june 7 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:13:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning in a Wal-Mart parking lot, which means I slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot. This is was a monumental day for me. I am not the biggest fan of Wal-Mart so nestling at its doorstep was a new experience. The day was spent in Marv driving from Victorville, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This drive went from 8 am to 1am with a stop for lunch at Sonic and dinner at a McDonalds parking lot (also a new experience for me). Dinner consisted of canned tuna sandwiches with beans and rice. Since our can opener didn’t work we stabbed the cans with knifes until they released their goodness to us. Once we were fed it was back on the road with another Wal-Mart parking lot waiting on the horizon. Again, I find myself in a similar predicament to last night. Here’s to making hotel Wal-Mart a new routine…

june 8 (tom)

2010-06-11T23:11:00.002-07:00

Life on the road. Today we started in one Walmart parking lot and ended in another about 800 miles away. While so much of the day was dedicated to driving, today was by no means an unproductive day. This team of five is an incredibly well put together team and I know you all (dare I say “few”) are thinking “Oh, just give it a few more weeks on the road.” Truly, though, I have come to truly enjoy the company of each of the other four road-trippers. This month is going to be a special one.

june 6 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:11:00.001-07:00

We seem to be having problems keeping track of our keys. This morning the keys were locked inside the car we took to church. After a few agonizing minutes in the blistering Los Angeles sun, AAA came to our rescue. The day was spent finalizing the touches on our presentation and making sure we were ready to really hit the road after the youth rally. We arrived and set up early at Conejo Valley Church of Christ, and once again I was amazed at how amazing our set-up looks. Cecily is unbelievably talented. The youth rally started off well with a great introduction into the video by Dusty. However, the schedule did not go exactly as we had imagined. Instead of keeping the momentum we had going with Dusty’s carefully planned speech to set the tone, we were interrupted by a game that was supposed to be played before we spoke. It was hysterical how much of a 180-degree turn the game was from the tone we were trying to set. But we all just looked at each other and laughed, there was nothing we could do about it. After the game the video was shown and Tom talked about the Share the Bread Campaign. To our surprise, there was a lot of interest in the campaign. We had no idea what the response was going to be since it truly was our first time really pitching the idea, but from this event we anticipate good things to come. Once the rally was over, Marv (the RV) was packed up and prayed over before we left.

Only a few minutes into our drive to the nearest gas station we smelled an awful burning odor. As we pondered what the problem could be I realized that Tom had forgotten to take off the emergency brake. Luckily, the burning smell subsided as soon as the brake was released. I was afraid Marv was already giving us trouble. Truth is, we are just trying to figure out how to operate a 31-foot vehicle.

june 5 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:08:00.001-07:00

We left Malibu and we were treated to a wonderful dinner with the Jack family. The feast they prepared for us was better than anything we’ve eaten this week and may rival what is to come. Unfortunately, our fridge in the RV has randomly lost power for extended amounts of time, which means our food has gone bad. So that group trip to the super market to pick out our food for the week was a complete failure. Oh well, it was a good idea to stock up our fridge. How were we supposed to know that the RV would quit on us whenever it wanted to?

Another highlight of the day: we accidently locked the keys in the RV and I had to crawl in through the side window to retrieve them. Honestly, we need to make some spares before we are really up a creek. As for events, we went to a play at Conejo Valley Church of Christ to show our support to the youth group which are we speaking to tomorrow evening. The play was Charlie Brown put on my the high schoolers and was a light event to take our minds off of all the work that has been done this week. Afterwards, we went back to the Jacks to celebrate the marriage of Dusty and Cecily and watch the movie “RV.” What a great way to start the road adventure. Here’s to embarking on the open road tomorrow after our first youth rally…

june 4 (jessica)

2010-06-11T23:07:00.001-07:00

Found the keys and made a note to get some spares made before it happens again. Lots of errands ran and goodbyes said. I really don’t like saying goodbyes. I am really bad at saying them, especially when there is no ordained time in the future for being together again. I know life will always be filled with goodbyes as chapters close and new ones begin, but the goodbyes are always the hardest for me. I am definitely ready to get on the road tomorrow, well technically we are just staying through the canyon, but at least I won’t be living in the dresher parking lot anymore. I thought for sure campus public safety would bust us for squatting on campus all week, and using the woods in the parking lot as a restroom, but they never came by. I saw them drive by every hour and for a moment I would hold my breath as I tried to think how I would explain our peculiar situation. Yet every time they would pass us by. I figure they must’ve thought that something so audacious had to have approval from someone---little did they know that we were flying under the radar right in front of them. Here’s to pushing our luck for one more night…

june 3 (jessica)

2010-06-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Big workday, pretty uneventful…except for the losing the RV keys and having the generator and the refrigerator die on us. Brutal. Here’s to another day of work…

June 7 (tom)

2010-06-11T08:53:00.001-07:00

Blog 8

In our last event in California, last night we spent the night with a few churches at a youth rally hosted by Conejo Valley Church of Christ. Here, I got to give my first actual speech. I do enjoy giving speeches (I don’t have stage fright or anything), I just much prefer talking to people on a more personal basis. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, though, I am seeing the value in a lot of things that don’t come natural to me or that I would typically shy away from. I despise paperwork, but this job helps me see its value. I would rather speak to people in a more conversational setting than get up in front of a huge group and give them a speech, but we cannot feasibly share our work with many people that way. I don’t know how comfortable I am with it, but this job is making me all business-ie and stuff…But don’t worry, we are definitely not that huge corporate beast of an organization. We spent last night in a Walmart parking lot. Lifebread, like San Diego – stayin’ classy.

Jessica (06 June 2010)

2010-06-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

Day 1

First day of the Share the Bread tour and my first day riding in the Safari RV. Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually living in an RV. I never thought I would I would take my two bachelor degrees and my new masters and subsequently move into an RV. But I did. God keeps me on my toes by continually putting me outside of my comfort zone where I am better able to grow, learn, and develop (even when I don’t want to be a good sport about it). However, this is definitely a time when I feel my soul anticipating this pending adventure with excitement and joy. I was brought nearly to tears today in fits of laughter on several occasions. One of which was when the first youth minister at Hilltop Church of Christ told us nonchalantly to parallel-park the RV. Maybe this is only funny when you see this beast of a vehicle, but parking a 31-foot vehicle in a normal spot is a feat all on its own.

None of us knew what to expect coming into tonight. This was our first stop and we have no routine solidified, or speech memorized, or any formula to go by--we are simply forging a path as we come to it. As this night comes to an end, I must say that tonight was the best start to the Share the Bread tour. We spoke at a middle school and high school youth group tonight, a small group of about 15-20. We all had a chance to talk, show the video, and have a short discussion session with them before we ate with them and just hung out, taking the time to get to know them. There were snapshot moments from tonight where I was able to pause, sign, and feel the joy and contentment that comes from knowing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now. The brief moments of shared smiles across the room from old friends as well as my fellow Lifebread team were my favorite parts of tonight and also brought this tour to life for me. I’ve been planning this trip for so long that I have only seen it as a list of details, not an actually story to be lived out in community. Tonight changed that for me. These pertinent moments arose after returning to my seat following my brief speaking opportunity, during a game of around the world ping-pong, while playing jenga, and at the commencement beanbag toss. I am looking forward to many more days/nights like this as we chase the ever-changing horizon east in search of another town that wants to spend some time with five young adults eager to meet the needs of those around us. All we are looking for is a few open hearts, a little time, and a mix of different people that we would otherwise never cross paths with. This is going to be a summer for the history books…here’s to day one.

Day 2

Well today was a work day through and through. Woke up from my first slumber in the RV to see the Pacific Ocean out of my window. After a brief realization that, “yes, I am actually living in an RV,” the work-day began. First task was to move myself out of my apartment, then scrounge for food, then complete an endless amount of Lifebread tasks. Part of my day was spent on the phone to Brian and Andy. Brian was the tech support guy located in Mexico who was helping me set up my mobile broadband device. After way too much time on the phone I found out that the device itself was in fact broken. Andy is my 60-day free trial communication consultant for a new contact managing program that I am trying out for the tour. I must say that I was in a much better mood talking to Andy then Brian, but its not Brian’s fault the product sucks so I feel bad having taken out a bit of my frustration on him. Sorry Brian, I do appreciate that you are over-nighting a new device to me.

As for the actual tour, we went to a Bible study in Thousand Oaks, CA at the house of the preacher for Conejo Church of Christ. It was definitely different than last night. There were three people at the Bible study: the preacher, his wife, and one other man. Needless to say, we had to adapt our presentation to fit our audience. However, tonight was a vital connection for the future of Lifebread. Conejo is a wonderful church with endless Pepperdine connections so meeting with the preacher and his wife and telling them about Lifebread was very valuable. Yet, coming from an inspiring evening with the Hilltop group last night, I can see how tonight may have seemed like a failure. I hope our interns did not feel like that because I know that it is not about numbers but about who is there. In the end, it is a blessing that anyone wants to hear our message and what we are doing. Tomorrow will once again be filled with last minute tour details that are yet to be finalized. Here’s to thinking of all the things that need to get done…

tom #7

2010-06-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Blog 7

The RV is off and out of Malibu. Tonight we are parking the RV in front of the house of some very welcoming hosts, the Jack’s. This is something I say with a great amount of pride and thanks because I am the one that drove it there. The 31-foot beast we have called Marv (like “ma RV”) handles like a pro. By “pro” I mean a retired pro. Marv handles probably about as well as Steve Nash will in about 50 years (and not to hate on Steve Nash – he’s the man). God have mercy on our RV. We’ve covered some safely, but we have tons to go.

----- tom (tom@lifebread.org)

tom #6

2010-06-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

Blog 6

Tonight, myself and one other member of our team spent the night with SOS, another food based ministry for the homeless that is centered in Malibu, California. Food is provided to anyone that will come and everyone just eats together. After dinner, someone from the group leads everyone in a few worship songs and a short Bible study follows. I have been attending this ministry consistently over the past year and really love what is going on there. Tonight, though, I think I finally saw how valuable a weekly event like this can be if it is done right.

I have a few people that have become my friends there, but I never really realized what that bond meant. Tonight when I walked in after not being there for a month, I scanned the room for the few people that I typically talk to. I saw only my friend Jon and walked up to him to say hello, but the unusually large smile that greeted me was more than that of a man I had seen maybe once a week for three months. He greeted me like one of his best friends had come back after a year of being out of touch. I saw how much more valuable that friendship was than so many others I have currently. There is something special about sharing meals together. There is something special about praying together. There is something special about openly sharing the successes and struggles of your life openly. In an environment where sharing these essentials of life is common, some incredible friendships can develop.

----- tom (tom@lifebread.org)

tom #5

2010-06-02T11:00:00.001-07:00

Blog 5

Tonight, the Share the Bread Tour became a reality. Our first speaking event was at Hilltop Community Church of Christ in El Segundo, California. We spoke to a small youth group of maybe 25 kids from 6^th to 12^th grade. Coming into tonight, I was expecting giving our presentation, but tonight was totally different. True, we did give our presentation. We told them who we are, what we do, and why we do what we do. Tonight, though, was not about that. Tonight was about community.

After our presentation, I felt a connection with a few of the kids (most of whom were within a year or two of my age). One of the young men there who I spent a good amount of time talking to showed me something great about our organization, at least about how we handled things tonight. He was not only buying into our organization, but he was buying into us. We were able to playing ping-pong and Jenga with them, eat with them, and speak on a deep level with them. While much of what we are trying to do is share our plans, hopes, and dreams with the people at these churches, it is great to remember that we will also be sharing our lives with the people we meet. We are committed to helping to curb physical and spiritual hunger. That cannot simply be in Africa. Where we have the opportunity, we need to share our hearts. Physical hunger is not as prevalent in the States, but the spiritual hunger runs just as deep. As a good friend of mine says, we need to “bloom where we are planted.” Heaven permitting, God will plant us in Africa in a month, but for now, God has planted us at a few select churches around the country. I can only hope to bloom in relationships with people at the other churches in ways as fulfilling as the ways we did tonight.

It has been an honor, Hilltop Community. All of us at Lifebread loved our visit, and we look forward to continuing our connection with you.

tom #4

2010-06-02T10:59:00.001-07:00

Week 4

This morning, I had breakfast with one of my good friends from Pepperdine who just got back from a medical mission to Fiji, and he brought me back a machete. This afternoon I used said machete to cut down a cactus in our front yard that my dad wanted me to use the chainsaw for. Nope. The machete was 10 times more fun and 100 times more satisfying.

While this doesn’t much speak to any kind of universal theme or message, this is one of the things that makes my heart beat. As a Chemistry major and a very science minded person, this may seem a bit paradoxical, but I thoroughly enjoy low tech life. I would rather use the machete than the chain saw (ideally I would use a machete that I had made, but I am still working on that). I know that God has provided me with everything I need. The incredible amount of riches I have compared to some makes it impossible for me to second-guess that fact. He provides for all of His creation though, but he didn’t start doing that just in the 21^st or even 20^th century. It is obvious then that we didn’t need to have cars, planes, televisions, or even chainsaws.

There is incredible beauty in man’s simplicity. God provided a few things for every human generation that has ever walked the earth. Humans have always had food, water, nature, other humans, and the Big Man Himself. These are some of the things that drive me to Africa. Here those things are all put at the bottom of the importance hierarchy.

Food is now fat.

Water is now soda.

Nature is now paved.

Humans are now producers.

And God in the U.S. is out of the picture.

I want to go somewhere that I can give someone food and have it be valuable. I want to go somewhere that I can see the earth as God created it whether that be green and lush, snowy and mountainous, or dry, vast, and open. I want to go somewhere that the conversations I have with others are my entertainment, not the conversations others have with others on a screen. I want to go somewhere and see my sovereign Father at work among people who are focused on those other four things He provided for his people – not the things we make up for ourselves.

week 3: tom

2010-05-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

Week 3

As I continue to tell my friends, family, and people I have just met about my trip to Africa this summer, I get more and more excited for EVERYTHING. The more I tell it, the more I know it is just what I need right now. The more I tell it, though, there is one thing that concerns me more and more. I always find myself saying somewhere in my basic telling of the trip, “We are going to Africa to build ovens for people and help them start up bakeries for themselves.” The word “people” in that sentence really bothers me because right now all those “people” are nothing more than that – people. While I know this is all they could possibly be to me right now, I can’t let it stay that way.

Helping “people” is great. It’s a very noble thing to do, but how does it sound all of the sudden when you look back after? You come back and say, “Yeah, we built some ovens for some people,” or you come back and say, “Yeah, we built some ovens that the Smith (or other African sounding name) family is going to run. Little Johnny Smith (or some other more African sounding name) really likes those simple little roles, but he LOVES the baked beans recipe we gave them. It’s a good thing his sister Jackie (Africanized of course) loves baking them for him.”

I went to Peru a few years ago and I miss Armando. That man taught me what it means to work your community as well as some great carpentry skills even though neither of us spoke more than 10 words of each others language.

When I come back from Kenya and Uganda I don’t expect to be able to name every family of the village, but if I don’t come back actually having built relationships with anyone there, then all I really did was build some ovens for some people.

------ tom (tom@lifebread.org)

katie #3

2010-05-24T11:10:00.001-07:00

So… a week and a half until this whole thing starts, and I am so excited, yet I feel a bit like sand is running through my fingers. I get one thing done at the sacrifice of another… and no one is saying yes! It’s so discouraging!

I have to tip my hat to Dusty and Company for getting Lifebread this far, it could not have been easy. I always like the sound of “saving the world”, but I suppose it gets harder the closer it gets to reality, right?

On Wednesday, I learned about the Rwandan Genocide in my African Politics class. We watched a documentary, and I sat there in the dark, crying. 800,000 people in 100 days. I was wiping my nose on my sleeve and looking around. I was the only one crying. Just me. I was torn between feeling like a baby and feeling like the only grown-up in the room. I couldn’t decide. I knew, sitting there, that I can’t sit around, as cliché as that sounds.

God set me up to go to Africa. I keep repeating that to myself as things get harder. I was not going to go to chapel the night Dusty spoke. My boyfriend Ross and I walked in twenty minutes late, just as Dusty got up to speak. As he mentioned the ten students going to Africa, I got up and left. I gathered my red floor-length summer dress and walked up the amphitheater stairs. I heard Ross’s footsteps behind me, and I cried as I put my head on his shoulder. There I was, at the most beautiful school in the country with the whole world at my feet, and I was miserable. We sat there until chapel let out. There was a warm breeze that night, it seemed to carry an electricity with it as everyone poured out of the double doors. I stood at the top of the steps and watched. Dusty and Cecily were the last ones to leave the building.

“Do you want to go to Africa?” I heard Ross’s voice behind me.

“That’s crazy,” I said, because its what characters say in the movies when they are thinking about it.

He told me to go down and talk to Dusty and Cecily. I resisted, telling him I would email them later… which is code for “uhhh….”.

“Go.”

I ran down the steps, and the wind picked up. After all that pseudo-dialogue, I actually had a movie-worthy moment. Until I got down the steps and didn’t remember their names.

It all worked out though, didn’t it? I’m the intern… right where God wanted me. He provided the desire, the money, and an emergency stash of passion to get me through the rough patches… and it’s a weird feeling, knowing that your life is about to change.

----- katie (katie@lifebread.org)

this is how it starts:

2010-05-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

6:30 am: wretched alarm goes off. I call Jessica to make sure she's in the same boat.

7:23 am: walked into Fireside room at Pepperdine University. This is the clubhouse for Malibu rotary club's weekly meeting. Lifebread is today's speaking program and I'm all jittery. Today marks the first time I've presented Lifebread without Dusty around. I rush to put together a PowerPoint and make sure the dvd will play on the projector. We DO NOT want to wing this. Jessica looks nice.

8:09 am: Meeting is called to order. Only a handful of members this morning. Invocation, flag salute, announcements.

8:15 am: Lifebread is up. We spend the next half hour summarizing the work we do, the work we're going to do (June/July) and showing the documentary. Afterwards, Jessica and I field some pretty detailed questions involving how much an individual oven costs, how much a year's worth of a bakery project costs, and so on and so forth.

9:00 am: Last conversations wrapping up. Rotarians have given us some good pointers and encouragement about where to go from here:

1. put together a cost breakdown

2. maybe begin the practice of putting name plates on each oven/sign/bakery

3. connect with international Rotary Clubs in Uganda and Kenya. If we connect with a local club, it can multiply the amount that the Malibu club can donate toward a bakery project. Lots of work, I'm told, but something this chapter is interested in pursuing.

--- cecily (cecily@lifebread.org)

katie #2

2010-05-17T18:46:00.001-07:00

May 14^th

So… two weeks in, and this is already shaping up to be an interesting summer. I was privileged enough to take part in a time-honored tradition (as far as non-profit management goes) today: making endless amounts of calls. I contacted over twenty churches in an attempt to fill up some more space on the summer tour… we’ll see where that goes. I’m excited. I haven’t experienced the thrill of a successful booking yet, but I imagine it’s exciting. Hopefully I’ll get to partake, huh?

Throughout all the rest of this work, I have the Contemporary African Politics Class running parallel in my mind. I am learning more and more about the complexities of that beautiful continent. At first it just made me more discouraged… how could I possibly believe I could make a difference at all? But now, I am realizing that I am only seeing one side of the story. Dr. Lloyd, my professor, keeps telling me to wait for the other side of Africa, and I imagine that would be the side with the heart, the part that hold the enduring spirit of the place. I suspect that I will find, beneath desert and corruption and novelty – a fire and passion I could never have fully recognized from a hilltop in Malibu.

--katie (katie@lifebread.org)

katie #1

2010-05-17T18:45:00.001-07:00

Let me start off by saying that Pepperdine is a blessing. It is a place of dark, soft soil where I have breathed in deep, damp breaths and dreamed sweet dreams of the surface world. In my daydreams, the world was a beautifully savage place, and I had a place in it. Curled up while waiting to bloom, I fancied myself a swashbuckling heroine that would defend the weak and helpless. It wasn’t going to be easy… but it wasn’t going to be hard, either. Pepperdine has been a blessing.

However, it is also a really, really difficult place to break the surface.

This week, in addition to my Lifebread Internship, I am taking a class entitled: “Contemporary African Politics”, which I had signed up for before I had even heard of Lifebread. (God is funny sometimes, isn’t He?). On the first day, my professor wrote the word AFRICA on the board, and asked us what came to mind. Poverty, War, Genocide, Child Soliders, HIV/AIDS, Jungles, AK-47, Imperialism, and Slavery were just a few words that came up. I added “Beautiful”, but that was only after the first two minutes and no one had said anything positive. After two days in that course, I can see that this is not going to be easy. This morning, after class, I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. “God, I don’t feel brave anymore,” I said aloud.

This is my first entry into this blog, and I can tell you that I feel a bit like my fire has dimmed a bit… but my pilot light isn’t out. This isn’t over, and I am going to put one foot in front of the other no matter what thought pops into my head or what news headline is raging. Yes, Africa is war torn and dangerous. But letting my fear get the best of me is even worse. I can live with the thought of fear as long as it is kept under control, and God has given me that power… but the thought of fear taking away my passion is unbearable.

God set me up for this trip, I have no doubt about that. He will provide, though He never said this would be easy. I am going to continue my work, now. But, really? After raising $3500.00 and dealing with what would normally be a crippling mixture of doubt and “common sense”, finding someone to donate an expensive speaker system should be a piece of cake, right?

-- katie (katie@lifebread.org)

tom #2

2010-05-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

I like being a part of something that doesn’t allow me to simply go through the motions.

I like working on something when I actually care that it gets done. I have worked places where I couldn’t care less when the project got done or if it got done at all. As I’m sure many people have, those days were spent looking only at the clock thinking “Yes! I just made 75 cents since I last looked at the clock!” That’s a joke.

This summer, I am PAYING to do this internship, but I can’t think of another time in my life when I have been this dedicated to a task. It’s funny, really, how money will get me to stay at work longer hours but won’t have any impact on how much I actually work. I told my mom the other day about another job that I found for next summer that I am SUPER excited about. There’s this incredible architectural site that has some of the most innovative designs, but you have to do the manual labor before you can get anywhere in the organization. Again, though, I have to pay to do it (mostly just food and lodging but still). I swear she’s starting to think I don’t understand the concept of money or something.

I want to accomplish something.

I don’t want to look over the countless hours I spent in my life and say, “Wow, I made some good money doing not much of anything.” I know for at least this summer that I will look back on the great amount of hours I spent with Lifebread and say, “Shoot, I wish I did that kind of work for someone who was willing to pay me.”

-- tom (tom@lifebread.org)

tom: post #1

2010-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

My first week as a Lifebread intern has taught me a lot about what it means to not just help people but how to be a part of an organization dedicated to helping people. The phrase “helping people” makes it sound so easy.

You’d think you could just roll out of bed and start doing it....

Open a door for someone, buy the person behind you lunch in the drive through line, or sit and eat with someone eating alone and really see how they are doing. But JJ’s short little documentary has made me question what I should really mean when I say “helping people.” In this documentary, the idea of help only occurring in situations where a need exists is brought up. Yes, opening a door for someone is great (especially for the ladies), but that isn’t truly helping anyone.

Most true needs are far too big to be met by such a simple fix.

While I haven’t been part of it for long, Lifebread is an organization I have a great passion for. From the short time I have been around it, I have seen people seeking to meet real need. Through these people and this organization, I have found what it really looks like to try to meet significant need. I have always wanted to be a “simple” helper. I hate paperwork. I hate bureaucracy. I would much rather just straight up love people. This experience, as brief as it has been up to this point, and while it has not totally changed my mind on those things, it has at least opened me more to the world. Christians so often try to remove themselves from the darkness of the world, but I know if I really want to help the world, I have to be willing to be a part of it.

--Tom (tom@lifebread.org)

brand new blog!

2010-05-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

Just built a blog for Lifebread! Please check back from time to time, especially as we hit the road in June and head for Africa in July... you never know where the Lifebread team may end up. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Also: please comment or email me (cecily@lifebread.org) if you'd like blog update notifications sent to you (ahem hem, bakery project parents?) while we're on the road and especially while we're in East Africa. Just get me your address somehow, I'll do the rest.