Meet Jordana

This is Jordana, the last but certainly not least of the crew heading to Haiti.  It's also her 30th birthday tomorrow!  It will be so fun celebrating with everyone our last day in town.

I'm Jordana - wife to Matt - founder of SafeWorldNexus, mom to 5 kiddos, daughter, sister and friend!  :)  A few things I love: travel, books, nutrition, my husband and kids!  I became interested in missions when I was around 5 or 6 years old, when during a Wednesday night church class we were taught to sing Jesus Loves Me in Spanish.  Learning that song piqued an interest in other people around the world - especially those that didn't have the basic needs that I have every day.  My heart is still drawn to those who live in poverty and I'm so thankful that in my busy life as a wife and mom, I'm able to take time out to minister to those in need.  I've been involved with SafeWorld since it's inception, in one form or another, but only in the past year have I begun taking trips - due to the fact that I had twins in the middle of SafeWorld's first year.  This will be my 2nd trip to Haiti and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Heartline and learning about a possible new partnership.

Meet Sarah

This is Sarah Herbert.  She is also an intern and roomie!

Hi peoples, I'm Sarah, I'm 23 years old, I graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in photography, and I like being outdoors, artsy stuff, X-men, LOTR and other sci-fi things, singing really loudly to music in the car with the windows rolled down, and general silliness.


I'm from Wake Forest (the town of... not the university which is actually located in Winston Salem), NC and come from a family of 7 where I am the second oldest.  I love my family and miss them a lot.


Over the past 5 years or so my heart and eyes have been opened towards social justice issues and the poor and hurting of the world.  I've been learning about what it means to love others that way Christ did and how that should play out in my life.  In June 2009, I went to Ethiopia and worked with some of the most amazing people and spent time with some of the poorest, most loving children.  This experience helped solidify my desire to be a part of helping others in underdeveloped nations.


I found out about SafeWorldNexus through family friends and remember thinking "Wow, I would love to work for an organization like that.  They sound awesome."  Lo and behold, a year later I am now interning with them!

Meet Rachel

Rachel, Sarah, Jordana, and I leave for Haiti in FIVE days.  I thought it would be good for y'all to get to know each of them leading up to our departure.  Rachel is a fellow intern and roomate.  Here she is:

I'm Rachel Spinks.  Rachel Lane Spinks if you want to stalk me on Facebook.  I'm 21, an Arkansas native, and with a year and a half of college behind me I've decided that was enough for now and am taking a break to intern with SafeWorldNexus.  I like barbecue, am addicted to coffee and chocolate, and think blue jeans were the best invention ever.  Audrey Hepburn is my hero (somewhere down the line after Jesus and my father,) from her style to her heart for people, the lady was incredible.

In 2007 my parents adopted two siblings from Guatemala.  Since then I've spent a lot of time learning about the orphans crisis and about different ways of caring for them.  I've traveled a few weeks out of the summers since then to different orphanages around the globe encountering a lot of needs and realizing a glimpse of the value of each soul I met along the way.  My own siblings and different people's, cultures, and problems I've encountered turned into a desire to help with more than orphan care.  (I still want to see orphans adopted, but the problem of children being orphaned often stems from poverty, injustice, wars and more.)  So in 2010 while in Uganda with SafeWorldNexus, I heard about the intern program they were starting.  I had been impressed all throughout the trip at how well SafeWorld navigated the balance between seeing projects through while always being focused on valuing people first. They are a young organization with fresh, creative ideas and ways of doing things while always making sure that caring for people is the heart of what they do.  I'm very excited and grateful to be part of what they are doing through the internship!

Climbing Mountains

   I created a site to use as a portfolio for my artwork.  If you made it here you shouldn't have too much trouble getting there.  It's katherinehodgesart.blogspot.com.  That's the best I could come up with for now- it's free.  I need to add examples of murals and pottery.  I know there's a ton of pottery I've done out there, so remind me if you have anything.  I don't know why I never took pictures of this stuff.  Probably because I didn't have an eternal perspective, or really, any perspective at all past college.  This kind of goes along the lines of what I want to talk about.
    We leave for Haiti in 17 days.  I've been trying to read up on Haiti and also short term missions.  It's frustrating as all get-out.  Jesus said to treat others as we would like to be treated (Luke 6:31).  If I was a child on the street in Haiti begging for water I would want someone to give me some water!  I'm learning however that if I were to give a child water, two different things could happen.  A: I could be mobbed by others wanting water themselves.  B: When I leave, that child is beaten until it hands over its water to someone bigger who is also thirsty.  The little W.W.J.D. bracelet isn't a comfort to me right now.  What would Jesus do?  He would probably brake the water bottle into 20,000 water bottles.  I used to think those were such lovely stories.  Now I say, "You cheated Jesus!"  Did he ever have to go through that kind of situation?  He experienced the poor.  He experienced mobs.  I wonder if he ever did together.  Should I just have more faith?  I don't doubt one bit that Jesus fed thousands on a couple baskets of food.  I don't doubt he walked on water.  I don't doubt Peter walked on water, so should I doubt I could do the same now?  This is what I'm wrestling with.  I want to do what Jesus would want me to do, but I feel like I have to go to seminary to figure it out.  I'm glad SafeWorldNexus is partnered up with people like the Livesays and Heartline Ministries.  They've been around the block now.  You really need to read the Livesay's post on the trouble they have had with short term mission teams not having the right perspective- CLICK HERE.  All of this is in the book When Helping Hurts by Steve Corett and Brian Fikkert.  If you want to go on a trip with SafeWorldNexus you will be required to read this book.  It's an eye-opener.
   Haiti is an absolute mess.  I'm actually reading the same book I was reading this time, five years ago.  All incoming freshman to USC had to read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.  I think I got a third of the way through and gave up.  I was too excited about Carolina and there were too many words to look up.  Funny what a couple years can do.  It's about Paul Farmer, a Harvard med. doctor who has truly made himself a living sacrifice for Haitians.  He never sees his family.  He sleeps like four hours a night, and from what it sounds like, doesn't eat.  Still, he never can do enough.  There's always crap going on in Haiti.  I'm frustrated and I haven't even gotten there yet!  Farmer said, "After a while I realized I could do just as good a job treating my patients without getting angry."  I don't ever want to get used to seeing the kind of poverty I'm about to see.  I hope it will always shock me, but I don't want to become so consumed with with anger at these injustices, or frustration over what I should do, that I can't stop for a second and get to know a Haitian.  Please pray that I would gain insight through my time reading God's Word and researching.  Then pray that I would love our Haitian neighbors like Jesus.


Beyond mountains, there are more mountains.
-Haitian Proverb

Quitter

   Back from the Quitter Conference!  We got to Nashville Friday afternoon.  We drove through downtown and then walked around the Grand Ol Opry Hotel- very cool.  We got dinner at a restaurant downtown and then went a little south to Franklin.  As Jon Acuff pointed out, the town of Franklin is unaware that we are in a recession right now.  Personally, I think the town is the southern version of Stepford.  It's too adorable!  We were easily able to find free-parking and everything!
   The next morning (if you can call it that) we woke up super early and headed over to LAMPO, Dave Ramsey's building to help welcome/register guests for the conference.  I WAS able to shake Jon Acuff's hand and thank him for inadvertently introducing me to SafeWorldNexus.  We helped with different behind-the-scenes things all day.  The coolest part of the day was our private tour of LAMPO.  I sat at Jon Acuff's desk, I sat at Dave Ramsey's desk... JUST KIDDING.  I did sit at Acuff's desk, but none of us dared to take more than a step into Ramsey's office.  Then we saw a lot of cubicles with the desk's up high because people prefer standing all day.  Who knew that was a thing?  There were also the cubicles with workout balls instead of chairs.  All these things are the least interesting of the company however.  The most interesting is learning how it is run.  Dave Ramsey's new book EntreLeadership talks about this- things like, if you're caught gossiping once, maybe you'll get a warning, but on the second infraction you're fired.  Our "guide" (his actual job was heading live events) had to go through 9 interviews!!!  He had to do different personality tests to see if he would match who he'd be working with; he had to submit a budget (as in, personal budget) to his future "team leader".  It was all very interesting.
   But when we weren't breaking in to millionaire's offices we listened to Jon Acuff speak.  He was very entertaining and informative.  It wasn't a pep talk to give you the courage to follow your dreams.  I mean, it was an ALL DAY event of practical advice.  I am very inspired now to just sell art as my part-time job.  I'm going to go for it.  In a perfect world without poverty and the need for organizations like SafeWorldNexus, I would say my dream job has always been to be an artist.  Another amazing blessing in disguise: I don't get payed at my job.  Because of this I have a boss who understands if I need to take a week off to make some money painting murals or drawing a portrait for someone.  I've been saying I wanted to do this on the side since graduation, but I never had any pressure on me to get it going.  I am just SO thankful to God that I do not make any money right now!  How AWESOME is it that I can even say that?!?!!!!!!!  I have the pressure and HAVE to do it now.  AND I finally have a number of examples from the slate paintings I did to raise support.  So here I go! I am starting a personal portfolio website right after I hit "ENTER". 


Humor is a gift from God and when we refuse to accept it, it makes him want to take it back, like the unicorns.
-Jon Acuff

A Good Place To Live

I love Bristol.  The city is not at all conceited.  It knows it's not the best, but it is good.  Even Brad Pitt thinks so.  First of all, it's the birthplace of country-music.  A lot of up-and-coming musicians come through.  We heard this group called Futurebirds at Border Bash.  The once-a-month festival on State Street gets its name because the middle of the street is the literal border between Tennessee and Virginia.  I'm glad I technically live and work on the Tennessee side so I can add another state to my collection.  Bristol is definitely the smallest city I've lived in, but so far I'm loving it.  It's been three weeks and my car needed gas for the first time yesterday.  (Probably could have gone a couple more days but the Low Fuel dinging was getting annoying.)  Everyone knows everyone.  It's Mayberry.  People have been so welcoming, having us over for dinner, inviting us hiking, etc.  We've already gone hiking a couple times.  There's a beautiful park in our backyard.  If you drive not too far you can find some really fun trails that lead to falls.  We hope to do that one day this week.  We almost went yesterday, but I just felt like bumming out at our pool.  Yes, the house we're staying at has a pool.  This gracious GRACIOUS family is letting us stay in the studio apartment over their garage.  It's been so great.  Once it's cooler we can walk there from work.  
   So "work".  This is what we've been doing with SafeWorld.  I can not even describe how blessed I am to have this job.  This "job" was made for me.  (It's so funny saying "work" and "job" because it doesn't feel like either whatsoever.)  In the morning we read and catch up on the news around the world, sharing articles with each other.  I've been studying up a lot on maternal health around the world.  Out of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, it is the least improved.  Probably because it is so broad and the hardest to raise awareness.  (I'll just have to talk about that more later.)  Then we've been planning for a lot of different events.  Here we go:  
   This weekend we are helping Jon Acuff with his Quitter conference.  Hopefully he'll talk to me this time, unlike the Join A New Story benefit when I was so rudely ignored.  I believe I was ignored because I worked the drinks.  There is no way a SPEAKER of an event didn't need to drink anything in that amount of time.  He was told I was there and wanted to thank him for introducing me to SafeWorld too!     
   At the end of August Jordana is taking Rachel, Sarah, and I to Haiti to meet everyone at Heartline Ministries- this is who the Join A New Story benefit was for.  We are trying to help them raise funds for a new maternity center.  They are in competition right now to receive a $50,000 grant to help with this.  Currently they're in second place.  Go here to vote for them every day!  Takes no time.  Put the link on your favorites.  Troy and Tara Livesay will be familiarizing us with the people and programs of Heartline.  From this, Sarah, Rachel and I will be able to better design trips for groups who want to help.  We'll also now be able to better advocate for Haiti's women.  Another place we'll be visiting is a school in Gressier (Gray-see-Aye), Haiti, to see if there are ways SafeWorld can get involved there.  I know this will be a life-changing trip and can not wait to share it all with you.
   In September we'll be leading a conference on missions for a church in Johnson City.  I am so excited about this church.  They just want to hear our philosophy on missions and see how we can start partnering together.  I have never heard of a church doing this: calling up an organization and saying, "hey, we want to learn from you.  We want to see how our church can love our brothers and sisters around the world."  This is a Wednesday to Sunday conference.  We'll be planning events for the children, youth, and adults on all of these days.  There is so much work to do for this!  
   In October we will be featured at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  If you've ever heard of the Passion conferences, it's like that, but for leaders.  We're expecting 13,000 christian leaders to be in attendance.  This is a great time for SafeWorld to network and advocate for maternal health.  I've been loving the brainstorming and designing we're doing for our display there.  Again, maternal health is such a challenging cause to fight for.  It is not easy, however that's exactly why I'm so glad we're stepping up to advocate for change.  Someone needs to.
   In November we will be going to Uganda for a medical trip.  On this trip we'll be passing out mosquito nets and setting up remote clinics.  We have surgeons, doctors, and nurses coming along.  What's so cool about SafeWorld though is anyone can join us.  If you have a heart, come along.  Please spread the word and get in touch with me if you or a friend are interested.  My work email is Katherine@SafeWorldNexus.org and my work cell is 423-217-3199.  I know this will be another life-changing experience.  I would love for my friends to join me!  We also plan to go in Jan/Feb and June if you don't think you can raise the funds by November.  
   So this is all the stuff I've been working on the last couple weeks.  God also provided a temporary babysitting gig three days after I got here.  So if I'm not in the office that's what I'm doing.  The more I can be in the office the better though.  If you would like to support my work with SafeWorld go here.  In the dropdown menu select "2011 Internship".  Another dropdown will occur.  Select "Katherine Hodges".  Then fill out all your information.  At the bottom under Additional Options you can select a box to "make this a recurring transaction."  Do that if you would like to give monthly.  Every little bit helps and I am soooooo appreciative.  If you have already donated you should have gotten a Thank You card from me or it will be there in the next couple days.  I understand that this is YOUR hard-earned money and I will be a good steward with it.  That's all I have for now.  I will be blogging more about all these goings-on.  SAFEWORLDNEXUS IS THE BEST!


Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

-Henry David Thoreau        

The girls surprised me for my birthday! (And heck yes I made Rachel go over the yellow part of "USC" with black.)

They weren't done with my signs yet when I walked in.

Yay for first birthday in our apartment!

Gillian Welch is coming to The Paramount August 23rd! Someone go with me!
The girls took me out to dinner :)

The lovely Sarah Herbert!

Rachel.

Maybe I can get some jobs painting Nascar murals.

Birthplace of country music baby!

Walking down State Street.

I'm guessing this pretty gem is the train station.

This is at the Chamber of Commerce.  My PaPa told me my Grandma already called them up and asked for Bristol literature.

Adoption

   First let me start with some updates.  Tomorrow I move to Bristol, TN.  Yes, BRISTOL.  Unfortunately the details that need to happen in order to move a whole organization and some families is going to take longer than we had hoped.  SafeWorldNexus will be in Nashville as soon as we can.  I said "unfortunately" but I have a feeling I'm going to love the community in Bristol.  Now I'll get to make friends all over Tennessee.  The family and setup for where Sarah, Rachel, and I will be staying sound really awesome.  That is one sad thing- Ellie will no longer be interning with us and we're really going to miss her!  It sounds like God has a better plan for her though, so I know it's for the best.  

   God's "better" plans are what I want to talk about.  There's so much God has been doing in my life that I would love to share with whoever is reading this, because it really brings Him so much glory, however some things aren't appropriate for a blog.  (But definitely give me a call and I'll talk your ear off!)  Before I got a blog I would have said this post wasn't appropriate, but I have truly been blessed by reading other people's blogs in the past year.  This post would maybe be "too personal" for some people but to quote Kathleen Kelly- what is so wrong with being personal anyway?  As a church we need to be more personal in so many ways.  One way is being real with eachother and sharing what God is doing in our lives- not prayer needs, that's easy- but what God is DOING.  So on my end, I am going to share ways God has been at work in my individual life.  On your end... don't pretend you didn't read this.  Give God some glory.  Send Him a praise on my behalf.  If you're one of the fortunate individuals who gets to be blessed with my physical presence, tell me you read it so we can talk about how awesome Our Father is!  

   So here we go.  Since high school I have prayed that God would open my heart to adoption.  I flat out told Him, "I don't want to do it.  I'm not excited about doing it.  BUT I know there are a ton of orphans in this world and somebody has to take them in. Maybe You should just make it so I can't have kids because I don't know if I can get excited about it."  I was a little upset when I realized God calls us to adopt.  I mean, that was God, always throwing me the guilt card.  It was my prayer for a couple years- make adoption seem like not that much of a life ruiner.  Then came college.  Sophomore year I spent spring break in Miami with Campus Crusade for Christ.  One day we worked in an organization that helped abandoned children.  They would place them in foster care, and sometimes adoption.  Before we started cleaning, organizing their offices, etc., they showed us a video with real children who had gone through their organization.  This organization just worked in the Miami area and they had THOUSANDS of children that needed help.  The stories broke your heart.  It was a real eye-opener for me.  That is when God told me, "THIS is what brakes MY heart."  After that I knew I wanted to adopt, but I was also scared.  How would I CHOOSE a child?  Am I a bad person if I want a baby with no baggage, or disabilities?  It can cost HOW MUCH?!  So I kept praying about it- God please open my heart to adoption.  At least after that trip I know God planted a seed in me to work for a nonprofit.  I remember watching that video thinking how cool it would be to make videos for an organization.

   Now I'm in the real world.  My dream comes true and I get to work for a nonprofit- even make videos for them.  Unfortunately (or so I thought) I would have to wait eight months to start when originally we thought it would be one and a half.  I was so dissapointed.  Just one of those things where you say you can't always get what you want.  So I got a job at a "child development center"- actually there are so many blessings from that but I'm trying to stay on topic.  In the mornings I worked with one and two-year-olds.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I am tearing up now trying to think how I can even explain them.  I am going to miss them so much.  My last month I was with them all day so I got even closer with them and it's going to be really hard not seeing them. :(  After these last eight months I have come to love complete strangers' children.  You don't need to come looking for me if one goes missing, but I could see myself taking a number of those children home with me.  I wish I could!  God totally used this random temporary job to get me CRAZY EXCITED about adoption.  I no longer have any fear that I couldn't love an unbiological child.  My fears of the logistics are gone as well.  I think a big part of that came from reading Mary Beth Chapman's book Choosing to See.  Again, because a fellow believer opened up and shared some extremely personal information, I knew I could trust God in adoption, because someone showed me that He's been there already.  He'll do it again.  Let me tell you, God is at work in the Chapman family.  

   Actually I was just about to say they live in Nashville and I'd love to meet them when I remembered Ellie and Rachel already have!!!  Both of them have adopted siblings and the Chapman's organization ShowHope helped in funding some of the adoptions.  Ellie told me I could share the link to her blog.  Go Here to read about God's work in adopting her twin brothers.  Just looking at those pictures would give anyone a heart for adoption. 

   I know God is at work with SafeWorldNexus too.  What I thought was a random temporary job changing poops all day turned out to be valuable experience.  I now have an idea of what it takes to manage a room filled with sixteen babies.  It's work.  Orphan care's no playground (though those may help).  SafeWorld has plans to open an orphanage in Uganda in 2012 and I feel so blessed now to have this bit of experience- and a revived heart, or maybe a more broken heart, towards orphanages themselves.  At times I felt like our kids were in an orphanage.  Some were easily there 11 hours a day, and they were BABIES.  I wish I could have given them all more individual attention but you just can't if you want to keep 16 butts dry and 16 tummy's fed.  I never would have thought God was going to use those 16 butts to change my life but He did.  Our director Matt Chambers started blogging recently.  In this post he talks about Hebrews 12 where Jesus is called "the author and perfecter" of our faith.  I love when Matt says, "If God is the author, let Him write the story. As He writes, He also perfects. You can trust Him with the script of your life."

   Finally, I could leave this out but I don't think it's a coincidence.  You might think it's more information than you wanted to know about me, but it's part of the story and I'd tell anyone in person anyways.  This fall I found out I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.  (If you see me poppin' pills it's for this.)  This is the leading cause of infertility in women so it was kind of a big deal when I found out.  My doctor doesn't even think I've been ovulating.  So one day I really may not be able to have children.  I also know other women who have it and had zero problems getting pregnant.  Again, God's in control.  Honestly, I kind of think this is all really cool.  (Maybe just because pregnancy is far from my mind.)  It's supposed to be a hereditary thing yet out of all the women in my family, no one else seems to have it.  It's almost like God really wanted to get adoption in my head.  I definitely thought about it so much this past year.  Adoption is such a beautiful example of what God did for us.  Eric Ludy illustrates it beautifully: