an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie...or a three point sermon? The cookie comes with a listening ear, the sermon is often accompanied by a communication card that allows you to indicate what level of great you are doing (notice how there isn't a box for 'I'm struggling' or 'I just don't know what I believe'?). On this evening the girl I met in the foyer didn't need a three point sermon, she needed to know that someone cared about her and that she was okay.

James 1:27 reads: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." As I've pondered this during the past couple days I'm struck with the question of how organized religion, more specifically the church of America facilitate pure religion. Its a big question for my little mind, food for thought.

As a friend pointed out the other day, sometimes we don't set out to change the world either because we are overwhelmed or say well, I can't do this whole thing, so I don't do any at all. Or, because we are afraid of our potential and of what could really happen if we really surrendered our all to the Lord.

Choices are easy to blog about, but more challenging to live out.

It was a cold Minnesota night, and I was feeling pretty blah. Nothing much to do but fold laundry and talk to my aunt. (That conversation changed my life.) As we talked and I shared what was going on, how life was in a wheelchair was different, and the difficulties that therefore I faced that I had never before even considered; something welled up inside her. Something about her faith in the Lord. She prayed for me and she really believed that the Lord was going to heal me.

She believed...not me. At least that's how it was at first. She prayed and I doubted God. This was yet another prayer that would end in disappointment, so why bother to believe. I'd already tried that. However, something inside of me questioned my doubt. Did I really believe that God was God no matter where I was? Did I believe that the God that was present when I went to church and was surrounded by 300 people praying was the same God that was there when I was folding laundry in my room, physically alone? It was easy to say that I did. But when the rubber met the road, I was off.

So I laid it down. I stopped waiting for my 'one-day' ('one-day' I would be healed and hundreds of people would be around me to witness the goodness of our Lord. 'one-day' I would get up out of the wheelchair and walk in freedom) and believed that day could be the day.

By the end of my aunt's prayer, I had begun to move about my room. I began to jump and dance without fear, without pain and without collapsing! Although I held my doubts at first, they were soon vanished as I realized just how miraculously I had been healed.

Within days I went running for miles upon miles. I was gone for a couple hours and returned feeling great. I ran a 8 minute mile and was still walking to tell about it. Completely and miraculously healed.

The story that sparks this blog began with thirteen college students, a vision and one very long plane ride. We were determined to change the world, or at least be changed in the process. I can't speak for the entire team, but I know that I will never be the same.

The goal was to physically, brick by brick, construct part of an orphanage for children in the African country we visited. While we were there, we also had a chance to spend a couple days traveling around the capital city and sharing the message of the gospel at school assemblies.

When we first arrived we were dubbed the first team to have ever lost all their luggage. We're not talking a bag or two, all we had was what we carried. Although we arrived on Friday or luggage took its time and we weren't reunited unitl Sunday afternoon. Crazy as it was, this was my first glimpse of how incredible the team of people that I was traveling with was. While they had been together for months, preparing both financially and spiritually, gathering supplies for their luggage and for the people they could help along the way, they developed a deeper level of faith that had the chance to shine in the face of their first set-back.

At the orphanage, building went great, we finished the brickwork for 2 apartments that would be used to house educators for. I guess you could say that this wasn't your typical orphanage, instead of simply providing shelter for these orphans, this organization took things to the next level providing them with shelter, nutrition, an education, a community to belong to, spiritual guidance and a family. Children left the orphanage, not as normal orphans do, but as capable and productive citizens with dreams and goals of their own.

While planning our trip, a day was set aside for a white-water-rafting trip up the Nile River. The adrenalin that surged as we flew through some of the most intense rapids was literally breathtaking. The view was astonishing and the history that came alive as we swam the waters that in Bible times had turned to blood was incredible. But the physical adventure that came alive and that has transformed much of who I am wasn't noticed until the end of our rafting extravaganza.

We had the option to not experience the last rapid of the day. It would be the most intense, and we were guaranteed to not remain in the raft through it. It sounded like a great culmination to the day, so before the barbecue awaiting us, some of us were thrown one last time by the mighty waters that surged the Nile. Although I was probably the closest to shore, the safety kiak came to my rescue first. He asked repeatedly if I was okay. I guess I looked sick to him, and in his defense I had started shaking, and had taken on a pale color.

Ashley and I made it to the top of the hill (after much effort) and immediately panicked. We couldn't see anyone or anything we knew. Lost and left alone in the middle of Africa with no way home...yup; we panicked. Of course things worked out, but in the process Ashley went down. As I sat to simply reassure her that I was there, my body did something it had never done before. It slowly but surely began to freeze. It began in my legs, I think, and worked its way out. My hand hit my leg; I could see it but I couldn't feel it. Then I tried to move a bit and landed completely on Nancy, instead of just my hand on her knee. From there things are a bit of a blur. There was a bus ride, loss of consciousness and a lot of bumps...and of course a few great stories, because what doesn't kill you makes for a great story later.

Ashley and I were rushed to a clinic where we were treated for heat stroke, heat exhaustion and dehydration. Within a couple hours we were released and taken back to our temporary home. I was back in the states within days, but still unable to walk more than 3 steps without collapsing. To this day nobody is quite sure why, but my legs just couldn't hold me.

In the year that followed I saw 17 doctors, and I baffled them all. I've been diagnosed with many things, made some fun memories, had some embarassing moments and have lived through it all to tell some pretty funny stories.