Africa on the brain

I will be traveling in early 2008 to a few countries in Africa for missions work. There will be doctors traveling with us who will be providing free medical treatment at the clinics. I was shocked to hear of the general lack of hospitals and real clinics, when we pout over the amount of coverage we have. My mom lacks adequate health insurance to cover her medical costs (rx, checkups, etc)--where we're going, not only is there a lack of insurance. . .there are no providers--period.

I'm not sure what I thought about this trip. The impact it would have on me, and more importantly, on the people we plan to serve while there. As I get more involved, I think back to my childhood when Sally Struthers would come on late night asking for money to assist starving children in countries I'd either not heard of or could be less concerned about. Here it is 20-30 years later, and I finally get it. While I complain about not getting that hank or ball of yarn, or not making it to a sale for the pair of shoes and such, someone is going without food and some child doesn't have any shoes . . . it's something to ponder once you really put it into perspective.

We are truly blessed whether we see it that way or not. I look forward to living on less so that someone who does not have can live and live more abundantly.

A stitch in time

Maybe shooting this picture on a couch that matches the current color that I'm working with, but here it is anyway. I used to have time to knit, but time just seems to be at a premium. Though, I'm hoping that by mid-november it will be less hectic. Back to the daily grind.

Brick by brick

. . . or maybe block by block. I have finally picked up the blanket again and so here is the last color to the "cabin." From now on, it will be a matter of building on this foundation. Whew! It felt like I would never make it this far. I still think I can complete by December 22. Really! I only have I think 6 more panels to go, and they just keep getting longer and wider and . . . okay, okay deep breaths. . .(yowza)~