One year later

Posted by Lorene on March 10th, 2010

It’s hard to believe, but exactly one year ago today we posted our first blog entry. We were in Terrace, BC on March 10, 2009, at the beginning of our BC / Alberta travel portion of the Pockets of Change project. We began our journey interviewing people who had gone on short term missions trips. We heard how they had an impact on the people they went to serve, how they had been impacted themselves and what they took away from the experience.

I wrote in that first blog entry how I was overwhelmed with God’s provision for us. And a year later, the Lord is still providing for our every need. He truly is a bountiful God, holding us after we jumped off the cliff of financial uncertainty. My last day of paid work was March 4, 2009, more than a year ago now. And yet we still are able to put food on our table and gas in our car. God has been so good, and I praise Him for that. Justin was blessed with some part-time photography work which has helped get us by.

Our work at the Hungry for Life office continues, slowly but surely forward. Days are often frustrating for me as I am seeing little progress over a long time instead of a lot of progress over a little bit of time. But we know it will get done. And we’re so thankful to be a part of the Hungry for Life team and doing this project together.

Anniversaries are always special occasions. So, on this momentous day, we want to extend our thanks to our faithful blog readers. Thanks to all the readers that check back often even when we’ve been inconsistent in posting, and for those that drop by the blog once in awhile and catch up. We really appreciate every person who has taken the effort to post comments on the blog, the feedback has been encouraging to us as we’ve travelled this Pockets of Change journey God has set before us. Read the rest of this entry »

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the slums | photo of the week

Posted by Justin on March 4th, 2010

The view from a 10×10 shack, someone’s home here in the slums of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

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Here’s to the final stop

Posted by Lorene on February 28th, 2010

We found ourselves waiting in a seemingly endless immigration line in Colombo, Sri Lanka, exactly 24 hours after we left our accommodations in Kenya.

An early morning start, long bumpy drive, two planes and a five-hour layover in the middle: we were absolutely exhausted. We finally made it through, found our luggage intact an headed out into the throngs of Sri Lankans to meet with our final field partner, Reverend Ranjan Fernando.

At first glance, many things struck as the same, many different, compared to other countries we’ve been.

Similarities: in the airport a sea of people waiting outside barricades for loved ones to return home, and taxi drivers lobbying for your fare. A joyful similarity to most other airports was the clean ‘regular’ toilets. Other similarities included driving on the left side of the road, tropical trees, little vegetable stands where women sell their meagre offerings for cheap. There were crowds teeming in the streets, and twice as many vehicles, bikes and people on the width of the road than there should have been.

The biggest similarity to other countries we’ve traveled is that the people are just as foreign in their ways and customs to me as everywhere else we have been. It’s a whole new world to explore and experience. As soon as you get off a plane you’re immersed in it and there’s no way to just dip your toes. You’re in the deep end of a new country before you have the chance to rub the grogginess from your flight away.

Differences: Sri Lankan languages have their own alphabets. Signs often had a mix of Sri Lankan and English writing, making for a unique combination unlike in Kenya and Uganda where most writing found was in English. The people are brown instead of black; the accents are very different and I keep thinking I’ll see the Kwik-e-Mart around the next bend. Women are dressed in saris, some men in sarongs. Tuk tuks pass us by on the congested streets, spewing out a haze of black smoke.

Read the rest of this entry »

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My muzungu | photo of the week

Posted by Justin on February 24th, 2010

While staying at Noah’s Ark Children’s Home in Uganda, we had the opportunity to go out in to the village to meet a few families that have been impacted by the primary school. While driving up the dirt path to one of the homes we were quite the sight, leading a parade of children that caught a glimpse of two white people in the car.

Upon arriving at the home, we were now surrounded by close to two dozen children. After learning why we were there, this little girl ran out and started telling all her neighbours that we were her muzungus (white people). It was quite the humbling experience to be greeted with the traditional Ugandan greeting, shaking our hands while they kneel in front of us.

They had so much joy and pride just from our visit. We were fortunate enough to be able to bless them with a small care package. But we received so much more from them, just getting to meet them and seeing how God is working in their lives and knowing we will always be this little girl’s mzungus.

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Numbers

Posted by Justin on February 21st, 2010

Pockets of Change | Numbers from Justin Keitch on Vimeo.

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Contrasts | photo of the week

Posted by Justin on February 15th, 2010

It’s been over a month since the quake but Haiti is still on all of our minds. This photo was taken after exiting the public market in Mirebalais. We  made our way through the crowd, passing by the charcoal vendors . The road suddenly ends and opens up to an expanse of green.

Life here on the river’s edge was so peaceful and simple, a tremendous contrast from the busyness of the market where your senses were assaulted from every direction. Two seemingly different worlds, only meters from each other.

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Healing | photo of the week

Posted by Justin on February 8th, 2010

For every photo I took there is a story and for me there is also a vivid personal memory of a moment in time, a real person, a new friend and real emotions. It saddens me that we will not be able to include all of them in the book, not even close. If I was to include every photo, we’d have something that would rival Encyclopedia Britannica (actually, I’d have a 2,000 photo advantage).

As I sift through the thousands upon thousands of photos, I would like to take the time to share some of them with you. Some may make it in to the book and some may not. Some will stir at my heart some may just catch my attention that particular day. I have no set formula as to how I will select them but I hope in some way that they will speak to you.

Enjoy and as always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

This photo was taken during our time in Waveland, Mississippi, a small town situated on the Gulf of Mexico, which became ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. Five years after the storm hit, they are still rebuilding.

With God’s timing we were there at the same time as a team from New Jersey. A team that felt that the spiritual care for the people was as important as the physical rebuilding that they split up into two teams. The prayer team would go out in to the community to visit, listen, pray and to help this broken town heal.

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Soaring and sinking

Posted by Lorene on February 2nd, 2010

Given that my last post was about rights and luxuries, this probably seems like a complete about-face. It probably seems that way because it is. Today, I’m filled with sadness, longing, desire. Lust.

I lust after the American dream. I want the house. I want the dog and the backyard and the barbecue parties and the hot tub. I want the crafts room and the rec room. I want the kitchen with the double-wide fridge and ice dispenser. I want the toaster on the counter, the nice clothes in the closet and the recreational gear stored neatly in the garage.

We traveled around the world, saw the poverty and the despair, met the people who give up the little they have to serve the Lord. So how is it possible that I come home and I still long for a life the Lord has not blessed me with right now?

I look at house listings online and want to cry. We don’t even know what our future will hold, there is nothing certain about life beyond Pockets of Change. I know this is a period in my life. This is the place, the time, the life God has set before me and most of the time I praise Him for it. But today, I just want to go back to an easy life of earning money and spending as I wish. Today, I feel more human, more fallible, more caught up in the world than in the Spirit.

I guess that’s the reality of being human. Sometimes we soar, sometimes we sink. But through it all, God’s promises are true. God’s love for me is real. And God’s desire for me is to be in relationship with Him, not with the world. So today, I will set aside my own desires and seek His. I will put my requests before Him and leave them there. Because God is God, and I am not. And His will is perfect for me, even on the days I don’t feel it.

I will seek wisdom instead of wealth. I will seek integrity instead of financial interest. I will seek justice instead of jewels.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

- Provers 2:6-8

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Pockets of Change in print

Posted by Justin on January 28th, 2010

We have a feature story on Sri Lanka published in the January 26th edition of the Chilliwack Progress.
Click on the image below to download a pdf of the article (1.7MB).

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Dichotomy

Posted by Lorene on January 26th, 2010

We were driving down the road on the outskirts of Kisumu, Kenya, a modern city in the banks of Lake Victoria, when something caught my eye.

We drove past a woman washing her clothes in the stream, next to a colossal billboard advertising a washer / dryer combo. It read: ‘Who said washing clothes is hard work’?

While the woman and the advertisement were directly next to each other, the two could not have been further apart. It was such a dichotomy to see an ad that would not stand out in North America next to a scene that does not stand out in Africa. But placed together, the two images were worlds apart.

She has no more chance of ever owning a modern-day appliance than I have of winning the Ms. World pageant. Maybe that didn’t bother her. Maybe it bothered me because even after all this travel I still consider things like a washing machine more of a right than a luxury. And that’s after washing a lot of underwear and socks in bathroom sinks. What I consider my rights versus luxuries are so separated from what that woman would consider a right or a luxury.

Now that we’re back and in our normal lives here in Canada, there are things that I used to consider my rights that really stand out to me now as overwhelming luxuries. It’s tough to separate what I experienced in our travels with what I see back in Canada. I feel different: I look at the world differently, I look at my finances differently, I look at my heart differently. Yet I live in the same world I did before. The struggle now is what to do now with the changes that took place in me.

It’s a good reason that everyone should be involved in missions. You change, whether that’s what you’re after or not.

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