Nashville Transit

I love traveling to cities with great public transportation. There is such excitement in riding on a subway with so many other people all going in the same direction but to so many different places. Well, Nashville does not have a great system BUT I am pleased to say that they are making ground. We (the boys and I) along with our neighborhood friends have taken the Nashville City Circuit or the "green city bus" (as Asher likes to call it) on two different occasions. Our first ride we just took the entire loop to see where all of the stops were. The second time we took it was on a day we went to the library for a puppet show. We just walk to the Farmer's Market where we can easily hop on board. The boys love it, but maybe not quite as much as their mama. I have yet to tell you the best part of it....it's FREE! Can you believe that? Our family will be making many more trips downtown. If you would like to join us or want more info, let me know!!

Summer Reading List

I have been spending most of my free time lately reading books...good books, in fact! I am always surprised when once I read one good book how quickly I want to find another and then another. Reading (for pleasure that is) has always been something that I have enjoyed since childhood. I remember looking forward to my summers when I could take out countless books from the library and just read all day long! So, what has been on my nightstand over the past month???
The Help by Katherine Stockett (as pictured above)
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent (a true story)
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers
and currently reading, The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearn

Would love to hear what you are reading, have read recently, or is on your summer list.

Sweet Friends

One of our dearest friends, Jackton, from Kenya was in town this past week for a fundraising dinner along with Irene, another staff member at Made in the Streets. Even though this was our first time to meet Irene (she started working for MITS after we moved back to the States), we fell in love with her immediately. We made an instant connection with her and loved the way she brought joy and light into a room. This was the first time for Asher and Jonas to meet any of our friends from MITS (well Asher had met Mbuvi but I am not sure how well he remembers him). The two boys fell in love with our Kenyan friends. Today was our last day with them and we all dreaded the good-byes. It's always a very sad day for me when we have friends from Kenya visit and we have to see them go. I am so thankful for their time with us and thankful to hear all the amazing things that continue to go on at MITS and how so many boys, girls and even mothers with babies are being drawn into this family and being shown love and gaining hope for their lives. As we drove away from church and left our friends with their last leg of hosts, tears fell from all of our eyes, including the boys. Asher even said, "I don't want to go home, I want to see Jackton." We look longingly into the future when our paths will meet again.

While today was a sad day with our friends leaving, I was filled with even more sadness. Above is a picture of Lucy, who was my student while we lived and worked with MITS. Lucy always struggled with authority and it was very difficult for her to change from her past life on the streets. She began acting out violently against some of the other girls. And after many "second chances," Lucy was eventually returned to the streets. I continued to ask about her from friends in Kenya about her whereabouts. Lucy grew up on the streets with her mom and seemed unable to find a way out of them. She became pregnant, which is almost inevitable when you are a girl on the streets, and had a baby boy. This was the last I had heard about her until today. David was asking Jackton about her and later told me that Lucy had committed suicide. Lucy's mother recently learned she was HIV-positive. I don't know if Lucy was. I don't know what drove Lucy to taking her life but I know that she was living a life so unimaginable to me. I can't imagine having to live on trash with my baby and having to find food for him daily or myself. I don't know what has become of her baby but hope to follow up with some of the staff members who work on the streets. I share this story so that Lucy's life will be remembered and not go unmourned. I loved her dearly and hope that from this tragedy I can find a way to help another girl struggling on the streets, and hopefully, this time she will find a way out...she will find hope...she will find a future.