Open House!

Well, thanks again all of you who came to the Extending Hands Open House on Friday!  We sold a lot of jewelry!  It was a very exciting day as we also got our EIN (employee identification number)! We were then able to open a checking account for Extending Hands (it's the little things).  We have a lot of things that we are working on for the new year.  Watch for announcements via your emails, on this blog and fb.
 
I hope and pray that all of you have a meaningful Christmas and can relish in the true peace that only God can give.  Peace not manufactured by politicians or governments, peace not promised by mere humans but real peace that is found in our souls despite the external circumstances that surround us. Let us also remember to pray for those in Zambia.  Those widows and vulnerable women who are struggling to provide for their families and dealing with hurts and pain in their own lives.  That the peace given to us in a virgin birth over 2000 years ago would be experienced by those who need it most. Luke 2:14-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Extending Hands would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Surrender

Advent...this word evokes memories for some of us about candles, Christmas time, church and warm feelings.  This year my church is stirring the pot on all of that.  What if there was an advent conspiracy?  A conspiracy to reconsider how we "do" Christmas; how we spend our time, our resources, our energy; what our focus is? What if we "unplug" from what is not important and "plug into" what truly is.  That is what our series is this  month, "Unplugged, and the Advent Conspiracy".

My husband and I were asked to share this Sunday for Advent on re-surrender.  At first I thought, oh, I have many stories I could share, but God wanted me on my knees before Him in a present, fresh moment of surrender, not sharing an old one. 

Once again (I always seem to need new lessons on this) God had called me to Him and Him alone as I laid down and surrendered my security, my goals, my marriage, Extending Hands and all that goes along with the possibility of an uncertain future.  I had no idea that I would be on my knees AGAIN, in complete helplessness before God going into this season, but that is where I am.  Living a life of uncertainty and having to completely surrender and trust Him regardless of the fact that the circumstances of the future could or could not change.  Then, God reminded me that everyone in the Christmas story lived lives of uncertainty as well.  They all had their lives turned upside down and inside out as their own futures were dangerously shadowed by the "what ifs" they could have asked. My prayer is that of Mary's words in Luke 1:38- "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said."  Then the angel left her. - Mary submitted and surrendered her whole life to God at that moment without knowing if anyone else would stand with her, let alone believe her, including her husband to be.  I want to live like that...to accept whatever has been "said" or ordained for me in heaven.  To answer "come what may", despite the pit in my stomach, the questions I want to ask, the demands I want to lay out (To make sure God understands my limits!), and the fear and doubt that can grip us.  I was given a great quote by my cousin that is worth repeating-Someday I will wrestle with circumstances that are beyond my control; some sort of suffering will pin me to the cold hard ground.  When that happens, help me to realize that the victories of heaven are the defeats of the human soul and that my strength is not found in how courageously I struggle, but in how completely I SURRENDER.

So many of us have things we are uncertain about as we head into the New Year.  I hope we all can walk in the peace that passes all understanding into an unknown future, yet again.  Let us surrender our stuff, our relationships, our jobs, our health, our kids, our marriages, our status and our comfort to the only One who cares. For He and He alone is our resting place. 

Living Life on the Edge

A young male lion at a safari reservation in Lusaka

 

  Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.

By-Mark Batterson

I first heard this from Pastor Len a couple years ago in a sermon at our church.  It so struck me as I was in the midst of total uncertainty in knowing why I was being called to "something bigger" in Zambia.  And being scared to death as to the what, how, who, when and where.  All those questions.  Though one of the biggest issues was NOT questioning who God had called me to be.  Allowing God to use me for who I already was in His eyes.
The Lion Chasers Manifesto is perched on my kitchen window sill to this day, almost 2 1/2 years later.  I read it again this morning as I was doing dishes and was reminded of how crazy, wild and exciting living that way can be.  Though it is by experience now that those words permeate my life and my soul as each phrase quickens my heart as I think about the journey from that Sunday in church till now.  It definitely is quite a ride.

The 31 Party/Extending Hands Fundraiser

My friend Angie, a 31 consultant

What a fun night!  Thank you Angie for offering to give back 20% of the proceeds of the 31 party to Extending Hands!  We had a good time and lots of us bought some fun stuff.  It is exciting to see things coming together for you, Angie and Extending Hands. 

I was able to have some of my new jewelry out on display as well.  It had just arrived via Bob and Mary Sendgikoski straight from Zambia!  I had dinner with them the night before as they were in town briefly.  A huge "Thank you" to Bob and Mary for carrying it over with them!  The jewelry was a hit too and I am very thankful to my girls for helping me get it cataloged, and priced before the show.  Thanks girls! 

So many good things going on right now, we are in the process of filing all our paperwork and will soon be an official 501(c)(3)!  Next on the list is getting back to Zambia in November or so.  I want to spend some quality time with the widows and work on some of the finer details of things. 

Please be in prayer that I am able to go back and I would listen to what God would have me focusing on while over there.  I need a lot of things to fall into place for this to all happen BUT nothing is too difficult for my God. 

You can still be apart of this fundraiser until Wed. Oct. 13th by going to angieolson31@yahoo.com   Thanks all!







some of the fun products 



Just Today

Last night we had our first Extending Hands, Inc. board meeting!  Now, I know this does not seem very exciting to most but it was momentous for me as I have waited a long time for this to actually come together.  I was a little giddy!

We have four people on the board as of right now (we missed you Carrie) and are praying about the fifth person to join us.  Bob Barnett is the pastor of Woodstock Bible Church and a trusted friend and confidant.  He has a passion for Africa and a heart for the broken and hurting not only here but in Zambia.  Sandy Woznicki is a professional counselor and is gifted at what she does.  Her heart for women and her desire for wholeness and healing in women's lives is what brings her "to the table".  My wonderful husband Ben is number three and has been a part of all things Africa since I first went, to backing my vision for Extending Hands, to doing all the boring paperwork and filing of things.  He has put a lot of time and energy into this already and I can't wait for him to go some day and see the people that are affected by him doing all the ho hum necessities of starting a non-profit.  Thank you honey!  Then there is little ole me.  I still don't know why God is using me for His plan but I know that it stirs my soul and is the desire that God has placed in my heart.  It still blows my mind when I think about what has happened and how God has moved in my life throughout the past few years to finally get to this point. 

I was reading through my journal yesterday as I was getting ready for our meeting and I read a page from May 21st of this year.  It was written about 38,000 feet up in the air after leaving Zambia.  I will give you a portion of it-"In between landing in Chicago and just yesterday being in Zambia,  I feel torn between the two.  I am overwhelmed with emotions as I sit here and contemplate getting off this plane. What will it mean when I get off?  I am scared to death at the thought of what I have taken on, the depth of it.  The things that have to happen, have to 'go right'.....I do not know what the future will bring.  Lord, help me follow You just today."- It was the 'just today' part that grabbed me and I thought about how this whole process has been hundreds of 'just today's'.  Just today I will listen to You, Lord.  Just today I will follow You even though I don't know where we are going.  Just today I will do and move on what You ask of me because that is all I have to give.....just today. 

Subsequently, I am reminding myself that the hours of today are not my own, my house is not my own, my strength definitely is not my own and that God has given me today to love others and love Him and glorify Him first and foremost.  The simplicity and complexity of that statement weaves it's self throughout my mind in moments of clarity of spirit and selfishness of heart.  It is simple when I am truly focused on God but it is hard when my own humanness and selfish pride decide to intersect.  How easy it is to go about my day with what I think God wants me to do, as opposed to truly what God would have for me in this 24 hour period.  Last night while sitting around that table, we looked at the needs of the future while looking back at how God has taken all those 'today's' and strung them together to take us to where we are now.  For our God is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Thank you Bob, Sandy and Ben for taking time out to engage in this endeavor of love to the widows and women of Zambia.  I have a feeling it is going to be quite a ride!

Zambia Video 2

This is Zambia video 2.  I am enjoying putting together different videos with different music. When I put all the pictures in and look at the people in those pictures, it reminds me why I am doing this, why I was called to Zambia and how very much all of them need our prayer.  Please be in prayer for the widows and orphans of Zambia and those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS.  Song by Switch Foot, Dare you to move.

Summer is almost over....

I have just returned from summer vacation in Door County, WI.  I have to say it was a much needed retreat for mind, body and soul.  It is nice to get away and not think about emails, returning phone calls and how dirty my house is getting.  My only concerns were the whereabouts of my book and where we were getting ice cream that evening.

In the morning I would run from our cottage down into Fish Creek in the dense humidity that is August in the Mid-West.  It was my time to think and pray about many things including Extending Hands.  I have struggled this summer with feeling a little distant from God.  But I have come to expect this after I come back from Africa, as my dependence and walk with Him there is like nothing I experience anywhere else.  There was a point in my run though, where I felt as if God was giving me a gift, a picture of my walk with him.  At the end of my run when I was almost down into town, the bay would open up to my right through the haze with it's still water cradling the shore. God was reminding me that at the end of the day He is there, through the foggy haze of life when things seem unclear and uncertain.  We need to look beyond our circumstances, or in my case beyond the passing pavement beneath my feet stuck in the heaviness of the air around me. God has given us the knowledge that He is out there in front of us, waiting to show us the view, though sometimes slightly hazy, if we would only look up and out to a future unexplained to us but known by Him.  That is security enough for me.

With fall fast approaching and school starting I ponder this next season.  The next season for my marriage, my family, and Extending Hands.  I am excited to see what God has in store for us and for what He is already doing.  I will remember that He is ahead of me and will clear the way when I might not be so sure what is beyond the curve.

Hebrews 12:1,2-Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Sidewalk Sales!

I was invited to have a table in front of a store on the square for sidewalk sales this past weekend. I had a great day as there were many people who were showing interest in what we are doing in Zambia! I sold a lot of jewelry and shared many stories. I met a wonderful couple who had just returned from Sierra Leon in June. It is great to talk to people who have a passion for Africa!
It was very windy and a couple of times we almost lost everything on the table but were saved, though many others near me had things blowing all over the place. We did lots of chasing and picking things up because of the wind.
My kids were up at different points with me and always prove to add fun to any situation where there are people to talk to. Kate loves to help organize things and put purchases in bags for people. Of course telling anybody who would listen that she wants to go with me next time and she thinks that it should just be so.
This was a good day for exposure as the square was very busy and it was really a beautiful day.
I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of us up there! I am getting better at setting up a table with a banner, fabric from Zambia a basket from Zambia, etc, etc. Always a work in progress.
Please continue to pray for us as we move forward in getting the word out about Extending Hands! It is exciting and a lot of hard work but we love every minute of it.

Pictures and stories

These are just a few of the short stories of some of the wonderful widows and women that I had the privilege of spending time with. They are all beautiful and strong in their own way. Most of us will never live the lives they lead and never know the extent of the poverty they are experiencing. Yet, the joy they have in their smiles and the life that exudes from their singing is beyond anything I have experienced. They are able to pour out love and dance with abandon because their hearts are full even if their hands are empty.

My heart is focused on making this ministry succeed for the sake of the hands that should NOT be empty. Helping these widows not only empowers them with skills and a sense of worth but will also benefit the many orphans that are left in their care. We have to come alongside these widows/vulnerable women who are clinging to the hope that we bring, not in the form of handouts but in opportunity.





Grace is taking care of 6 orphans, some grandchildren and nieces and nephews. She is now trying to do little things to live but does not have enough capital, she shares.

Joyce married in 1969 at 13 1/2 and was with her husband until 1993. She had 16 children, 6 have died. Property grabbers left her with nothing. Reberiah has helped her and educated her. If empowered with capital, she can do something and give it back, this is her desire.



This is Eunice. Her husband died in 2004. She says they are eating but things are not good. She is asking that we can continue this program to assist the family.


This is Royce. Her husband died in 2002 and she now cares for many grandchildren.

Sitting in the silence

God's timing is a funny thing. It would seem that after this past year of preparing me and sending me again to Zambia to be apart of His plan there, I would come back and all things would just fall into place here for Extending Hands. But that has not happened yet and once again I sit and wait on God. I have learned though, that waiting on God in His silence takes far more than patience and the will to "hold out". It is about experiencing what God wants you to know in the seeming absence of answers we so desperately want to hear.

When I came back from Zambia last year I spiraled into a very dark place in my soul. I was frustrated and broken on so many levels. I knew God was putting on the gloves and getting out the scalpel to do surgery in my life. I had to give God permission to search my soul. Psalms 139:23,24-"Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." He brought some pretty sobering things to the surface that needed to be addressed. I didn't know it at the time, but God was beginning to prepare me for what He truly wanted Extending Hands to be. I had assumed that Extending Hands would just be a Fair Trade business that would benefit the widows and women of Zambia and would also bring other assistance to their community. I was wondering though, when we were going to get moving on Extending Hands, as that is why I had went to Zambia to make some good contacts and connections. But God was silent. In no way was I lead to move forward with Extending Hands at that moment. God had other plans for me and the ministry that Extending Hands would become. The cleansing was just the beginning to a long process of allowing me to heal from so many things in my life. It was the beginning of the bigger picture of how God wanted to use me not only here but in Zambia.

That brought me to some counseling that I didn't really think I needed but at my pastors recommendation, I started. Boy, had I known where that was all going to lead...it was like falling into the abyss of lost emotions and tears I had not known were missing. I walked through some hard things form my past. Things I had erased from my memory or chosen to believe was my fault. It also brought my husband to his own journey. After watching me for awhile and seeing the growth I was experiencing, he too decided to start counseling and deal with the past and the secrets of his own life. Once again, had I known....


This put both of us into total arrest on the table of God's surgery. Our life, our marriage, our family, our future was all at stake in those months of not knowing if we were going to make it. It was then and there that I had to decide once and for all, if I trusted the God I had grown up with. I had to choose my own way or God, pure and simple. I had to decide if I was going to make the right choice, the hard choice. You can't get up off the table in the middle of surgery. Well, you can but you will not see the power of how God will work through the circumstances of your life if you trust Him. With the help of solid, godly people in my life, I made it through this "near death" experience and allowed God to finish surgery.

The next step for me included, picking the right "nurses" to assist God in this process. I just got done reading a wonderful book called "The North Face of God", by Ken Gire. In one of the chapters it talks about how choosing the right "team" makes all the difference. The difference of living or dying during a mountain expedition. He talks about how it is the same in life when we have to divulge our hurts, our secrets and our pain to someone. That someone must be willing to save you in the midst of horrible circumstances. They must be willing to put their own lives on the line to pull you out of the frozen cavern you have fallen into. I have had those people in my life. Those who were willing to put aside their own hurts, their own problems, their time, schedules and other priorities to walk along side me and make sure I got to the other side. And not just get there but get there healthy, whole and healed. There is a difference between getting through something in one piece and being better after the experience. That is how I made it back to Zambia, which was the other side for me.

God allowed me the opportunity to go back to Zambia in May to get Extending Hands going. I had paper work to do over there and wonderful days with the widows who are making me jewelry. Miraculously I got my paperwork done while I was there (which I guess was an astonishing feat!) and I had assumed that maybe, just maybe that meant when I returned, all things would fall into place here. This is where I am now, waiting for money to fall out of the sky to get everything that we need to buy, get done, file etc. This is where I say, "I will not just sit in the silence, but I will listen in the silence, and I will not miss what I am handed every day as I talk to God and follow His plan for my life, my marriage and my family, first." And I will remember that His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts, higher than mine. It is easy to say that stuff but do we live it? Are we willing to follow a God that doesn't go by the rules and ways of men? A God that does not measure success in American, get 'r done, terms. I have to ask myself if I want to do this in my own strength, my own pull up your bootstraps strength, or let God show Himself by leading me down a path that won't make sense to most people for His glory and His honor. Is my life a walking memorial to the grace and faith that He has so wonderfully bestowed to me as I seek a God that does not need to show Himself or do miracles to demand the praise He so deserves.

I know God has created Extending Hands and He will bring it all to fruition. I know He is right now preparing the people he wants on the board and the money that will get this all going. I have one job, to continue to praise God for who He is, not what He has done or not done in my life and to live like I believe that He knows better than I. That His silence is not the absence of His power but a chance to show my trust in His power unseen by the human eye.

Oh African Morning

There is something about morning in Africa....

It calls me from the rest I so desired the night before.

It lays bare my soul to the unending possibilities that linger ahead but
like the sun that slowly shows itself, Africa slowly takes back any thoughts of greatness.

It humbles me into a place of dependence on God like no other.

It draws me out of comfort and has me long for the dusty, dirty hand of an orphan or the desperate hug of a widow.

It overwhelms my heart with emotion and hardens it at the same time.

It makes me want to run away and yet draws and envelopes me in a desire to dwell in it's hold on me.

Africa has my heart, my soul. It owns the places that I have walked. The places where I have sat and stared out at the vast expanse that lay before me.

And as I take a deep breath in awe of it's beauty; at the same time, Africa removes life from a soul that has known no other place.

Then at the end of the day I am ready to lay down my mistakes and seeming failures because of the smile and hope in a child's eye.

It then calls my gaze upward to the night sky and the stars that seem brighter and I am reminded that tomorrow will bring more unending possibilities to love, to care, to show compassion in this place called Africa...

By-Kristin Choitz, written in Zambia May, 2010

Zambia Video

This video is a personal walk through some of my more emotional days and times during my trip in May. The first girl is our "ex" sponsored child Agness. She is not in the sponsorship program anymore but we have chosen to keep in contact with her because I will be going back and forth and will be able to see her when I am there. We are very fortunate that we have the option to continue our relationship with her. She is my daughter Brianne's age and it is difficult seeing the difference in the lives that they lead.
Then there is Precious and her children. Sheryl and I went and prayed with her at the end of my 2nd day out with the widows who I am involved with now. We were both tired and hot and I had packed up my camera for the day as I thought we would only be there for a couple of minutes. We were going to go and pray with her as she had just lost her husband a couple months before and has 4 children of her own and was caring for an orphan. As we filed in (all 15-20 of us) to her house and sang songs and met her and her family, something inside me said, "get your camera out." I argued with God(surprise, surprise)and said in my head that it is all packed up and we are leaving soon. I finally stopped arguing and got my camera out just in time to take a picture of Sheryl praying with her. Then, we stepped outside and all her kids happen to be right there and I had Sheryl take a picture of us. At the time, I didn't know why I took that one either. We said goodbye and left. That was Thursday...Saturday night I got a call from Reberiah, my connection with these widows, who told me then that Precious had died on Friday....Had I not taken out my camera these 5, now orphans, would not have a picture of their mother. Nor would her story be able to be told. This was a very sobering night as the reality of why we were there, why we have to get involved, get dirty, be apart of these people's lives, was so very clearly shown. The reality that there are now 5 more orphans in Africa....

 Never let go, by David Crowder Band

Home but still there.....

I have returned from Zambia with my body here and my soul still there. The difficulties every time I come back are always unexpected. I struggle with the longing for the mornings in Africa, the rawness of what Africa lays out in front of you, the unexpectedness of what lies ahead. It is like I have returned from another world, a far away place that holds part of who I am in it's grasp.

It is a place that allows a person to have full access to their soul. To feel, seek, search out their true self, their Africa self. I find out things about myself there. Things like I am stronger than I think I am. I am weaker than I think I am. That I posses a deepness in my soul that I didn't know existed.


But it is back to reality now. I have come back to the task of re-doing and doing paperwork for Extending Hands. I do not find this part fun but know it is necessary. It is a little overwhelming and beyond my comfort zone. Believe it or not, being in Africa is not outside my comfort zone, just paperwork and deadlines and finances. That part is taxing.


I keep telling God He has got the wrong person for this job. That I do not know what I am doing but I continue to hear His voice confirming that He has called me to this and He will equip me for the job. God keeps "showing up" in so many ways and especially in Zambia while I was there. This trip was about me and God. About me trusting and leaning on Him completely and wholly. Understanding His sovereignty in difficult situations. About worshiping Him despite circumstances and feelings.


I now move on to trust Him to provide what we need to get Extending Hands registered as a non-profit, financially and also the time and energy. The widows in George compound who are making me jewelry are in desperate need of the help this could bring them. It could be the beginning of a new day for them. A new day in Africa.