this weekend

The past few years, when we've been able to visit the states, I've coordinated portrait weekends as fundraisers to cover expenses while we are home or to help toward the cost of plane tickets. It's always been a sweet time to connect. But this year, since my focus is helping to settle the kids into a place where I can feel comfortable leaving them here while I join Billy in Burundi - my weekends look a lot different. Madyline, Harrison and Avery are all in school during the day, so weekends are our time together and even though the weather is lovely and the leaves are perfect for a Saturday of photo shoots, I am just not in a space to be the one to take them.

In steps Lynell from Lizzie Photo. Lynell is a professional photographer here in Grand Rapids, Michigan who's signature style sparkles in her weddings and family portraits. Her photos are playful and full of life - capturing nuances of personality and whimsy. I love her work. I love seeing the joy and beauty and real life in people through her images. In fact, when my nephew, Pierce, was born in January this year and I couldn't come home from Africa to shoot new family portraits for my sister, it was Lynell that I called. (the picture in the postcard above is from that session).

Lizzie Photo has offered her giftings to us. She is willing to book out sessions this entire coming weekend on our behalf. Each 30 minute session will include either an 8x10 or three 4x6 prints of your choice and an online gallery of images you can order (at really great a-la-carte rates).

And all the session fees will come directly back into our fund to help purchase a plane ticket for me to return to Africa at the end of the month. And seriously guys, I miss Billy.

So let's join together and make a beautiful gift out of this lovely offer

- book a session
for your family
for your christmas cards
for your best friend that just got engaged
for your neighbor that had a baby last month
for your high schooler that is always covering facebook with pictures of her and her friends
for your parents who still have that portrait of themselves from 1984 hanging on their wall
for that person that has just been on your mind lately
for yourself, because you are the one always behind the camera and never in the photos


lshooks@gmail.com or 616.241.2795

who knew helping a missions family get to Africa could be so much fun?

my love and I - back to school

A photo taken from the Kingsway Gala's sweet little photo booth last week.

Class pictures. Love it.

What you can't see is my beautiful, silky, African dress - or my toe, which, at this moment i did not yet realize was bleeding all over the floor as I sat and smiled so sweetly for our portrait. We figured that out a few moments after the shutter clicked and spent the rest of the night trying to doctor it with bandaids found in the bottom corners of ladies' party purses.

A dear friend of ours is visiting this week and next, putting together a video about our family and the life we have chosen to live - and giving his gift of photography to a couple of organizations. Yesterday we spent time at a Grannies and Grandpa's club inside Zanspruit and he took some stunning portraits of everyone.

photo by Joshua Tyron

(Here's a link to his page - you need to go see these for yourself!)

We are so chuffed that he's sharing his best with us. I can't wait to deliver these images to the grannies and grandpas next week. They are going to be blown away. They are BEAUTIFUL.

I only wish we could get some frames sponsored. Wouldn't that be special?

I'll see you on Monday - with a pocket full of pictures from a talent show in Deipsloot, an afternoon with my sweet friend, Dikeledi, and a jaunt to the rooftop crafters market.

Right now I find myself with an uncommonly quiet morning - with Josh still sleeping and Billy at a breakfast meeting that seems to be lasting through lunch. I'm off to drink a warm up of chai (a gift from our Michigan home) and thaw my fingers so I can play a little on the piano before the kids come back from their school day.

What would you do with an unexpected quiet winter morning?

the community speaks - part two

-painting Masekane school

-Zandspruit 23 July 2011

together we make big things happen

I am Samkelo and I can read!

Yes - it's time to celebrate!!!
What a great day!!

We talked a few weeks ago about my friend, Samkelo.
He's just about the bestest kid ever - 12 years old and new to Kingsway school, Samkelo and I get to hang out two times every week to play around with letters and words and sounds. He's a lot like me and always wants to pick a spot in the sunshine - even though it's winter here and around 40 degrees in the mornings. I usually bring hot tea for us to share - but Samkelo only likes it when I make tea sweet with sugar.

While Billy is in the states, he is collecting early reading books from a few of our dear friends, and another has provided us with some JumpStart computer games to work from, and another gave us a huge Amazon gift card that I bought a lot of teacher resources with - and a few reading books as well. It's just amazing when you think about it, that Samkelo's journey into being a reader - a journey that will absolutely shape his life - is being joined by us all. It's just like the best things in life - different ones of us sharing what we have to make the world a better place. All the little bits add up to a GREAT BIG WONDERFUL world.

It's true. And thank you.

One more thing I'd LOVE to have for Samkelo is the PBS series, Between the Lions.
If you have some old copies you can share - or even wanted to set your DVR to record and then send us burned DVDs every few weeks, it would be a treat! I've been scouring the internet and a full season is hard to come by.

Our last story letter was about the value of reading-

*(if you don't get our monthy-ish story letters in your email box, we'd love to include you, just let us know!)

one of the things I that struck me in the book "Shaped by the Story" was a unique validation of raising a generation of readers - especially readers that come out of violent, impoverished backgrounds -

"the process of developing internal images and meaning in response to words in the basis of imagination... The capacity for imagination ha profound implications, not just for academic learning, but for behavior as well. Several recent studies have shown that children who lack imagination are far more prone to violence. Such children can not imagine alternatives to their immediate perceptions of anger or hostility; they're able to react only to what they believe is the situation in front of them. On the other hand, children who posses imagination have a very different experience. they can be exposed to the same hostile situation as an aggressive child, but with their ability to imagine, different solutions can be reached."

I think of the recent strikes (rioting and violence) that have plagued our community. I think of the abuse and neglect. I think of the lack of forward vision or cause-and-effect understanding. I think of the lack of trust toward outsiders and insiders alike. I think of the vast number of uninformed people, both inside and outside of our community, and all around the world. Not uninformed because of a lack of media information, but uninformed because a bigger world view hasn't had the opportunity to influence their experiences and offer alternatives. We live this life all the time when we believe in stereotypes, when we fail to see the individual humanity that weaves through other cultures, when we simply fail to look outside our own worlds into the big one God created.

Eugene Peterson in "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" says

"Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participant in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life that we didn't know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or supposed were out of bounds to us. They then welcome us in. Stories are verbal acts of hospitality."

Our ministry here is relational. It's journey-ing life together. It's storytelling and story-living and pouring ourselves out over and over again in an invitation for the people around us to participate in a deepening sense of reality. We pray to live our lives as God's acts of hospitality.

Matthew 5

"You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. ........

—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. "

Sharing a birthday

Today we get to celebrate Billy. And Phidile. And yesterday was Orapeleng's special day.
A spontaneous gang gathered at Motswako Pot to enjoy pap & chakalaka & meat. To enjoy time together.

We are Thankful for community. For friends. For Billy.

Tomorrow Billy gets on a plane to fly to the US for a few weeks leaving the kids and I here in South Africa. Don't worry about us. We've got lots to do and lots of people who love us. Pray for Billy's time in the states with us though. In addition to visiting family and eating as much Mexican food as one person can hold, we need to raise some substantial new sponsorships to keep alive our living and ministry here in Johannesburg. If i sit and stare at the number we are praying for, it seems like a crazy number, a number bigger than God will ever raise up. But it's one we've come up with through a lot of prayer, seeking advice from mentors and friends, and looking through our budget. One that will both keep us here, and allow us to live generously.

Next week we are going to offer a couple of ways you can get involved if you have found yourself falling deeply in love with this place and the relational journeying we do here - like we have.

Or if you'd like to jump into the pond and become one of those monthly sponsors we've been praying will raise their hands during the month of June- all you have to do is click on the picture to the right that says "you're a part of this story too" and it will zip you over to our page at CTEN - our mission organization - with easy ways to contribute through credit card or they'll even set up a monthly with drawl.

It's so humbling, and also so exciting to be completely funded by the generosity of our friends and community. People knowing the value of our lives here. People wanting to be a part of something so big and so delightful and so messy. It costs all of us something, and that's actually the beautiful part of it. Because it matters. Not everything we do in our lives can hold to that claim. We (not just DiCoccos - but all of us, all of you, engaged in this space through our hands and feet) are doing something that matters. Something much bigger than any one of us - that can only work with all of us together.

Thank you.

boys

So, I was in Zandspruit a few weeks ago, and I glance across the street to see this little cluster of seventh grade boys just hanging out waiting to catch my eye. You know the way 7th grade boys hang back even though they really want to be a part of what is going on. Too cute, but I'd never tell them they are still too cute. They want to be "sick" - which is apparently something good. Sometimes I think "sick" is good too, because it means I get to stay in bed all day and nap and drink hot tea. But I don't' think that's what they mean.

Anyway, I walk over to say hello and after all the greetings,

they say "We want to come to your house"

Now, what in the world would they want to come over for? There's a pool in the house we are staying in now, and I've had them over for swim classes before. I know they loved that, but it's winter here and much too cold to swim. "We just want to visit" says one and another chimes in with "And while we are visiting, we want to sleep over." HA!! I could just die with how fabulously adorable that is.

I'm looking at these photos now and remembering I need to plan that night with their families because really, how many more years, or even months until these 7th grade boys are too "sick" to have relationship with an American missionary - (or adults even).

One of the many moments like this that I'm glad for the relationships we've spent ourselves on here.

Buyela and GoLang

Celebrating redemption

This weekend, we not only celebrated the most fiercely beautiful event in history - our Jesus's death and resurrection - but also celebrated the most fiercely beautiful event in our own personal journey.

18 years of marriage.

To know our story means you know the truth about our brokenness even in the middle of a "good life". To know our story means you know the truth about redemption and growth and "all things new". We celebrate our love every day. Celebrate the truth - that it's only from God's big hands that we find our security, our purpose, and even the deep love we swim in for each other.

Redeemed Love

Today we went on a hike that turned out to be shorter than we had planned - after hearing what seemed to be the fevered chant of a sangoma swelling closer and closer to where we sat, sunning ourselves on a stone by the water. Billy says I panicked and ran, and he laughs.... I say I saved his life as we were alone in an isolated canyon with no one to hear our screams if the meeting proved unfriendly. You have to know, I'm laughing here too - but only because I know we are safe. I'd run again. Just saying.

ANYWAY- we hiked. We often enjoy the easiness and steady space that hiking affords us. To let conversation amble along following the journey as our feet step together through bush and stones and across water. To let silence be our friend. To wonder at the stunning landscapes or tender flower along side the path - equally worth our attention. To reflect, to glance forward, to hold hands and be thankful for the *now* .

To recognize who we are.

1 Peter 4:7

Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

-the message translation

celebrating with Everest

celebrating with Everest - his first term at bible school complete. Everest has been part of our family now for a long time - almost as long as we've lived in South Africa. He's had dreams of working with youth - especially in sports ministry but had to figure out his journey to get to that space. He's been employed at GoLang- the afterschool program for kids in Zandspruit that we also love to hang out with - but I believe God has more for him. And this year, he's had the opportunity to grow further into his dreams. He's been given opportunities to attend bible classes in the mornings and a high-school completion program in the evenings. And yesterday... yesterday he received word that his visa to live and work in South Africa has been approved. A year long process come to a happy completion. We continue to pray for Everest and his journey. Pray for finances and opportunities and support and brain power to complete his classes and spaces for him to be able to live out his dream of running a sports ministry.

20 boys

I'm awake at 3:00 this morning. I thought it was because of a pesky mosquito, but perhaps the mosquito woke me up so I could read this sms and share it with you before the world in the US goes to sleep & we here in South Africa wake up.

Last night (or this afternoon, depending on where you live) 20 little boys, about ages 4-9 were dropped off by the police at our friend's street shelter.

Twenty little boys

I don't know the story yet of how the police found them, or where and how they have been living. And we don't know how long These 20 little boys will be in the care of the guys at the shelter... We are told we can expect at least through Monday.

You already know of ikusasa shelter a bit. Remember my story in January about my sweet friend, Pule, going to join Anthony in running the shelter? This is where these boys will be. Living with Pule & Anthony & the guys there.

Ikusasa shelter is in emergency need of clothes, towels, toothbrushes, toys to keep them occupied all day - puzzles, coloring books and crayons - and food (like cereal, milk, fruit).

If you have a few dollars you can share- please click on the paypal button on the right sidebar - or in our "to join us" page above.

Any money you share in the next few hours and days will get used to shop directly for these boys' immediate needs.

Thanks for being a community that cares. In the face of so much shocking need (& recent tragedy throughout northern Africa & now Japan) it's easy to feel overwhelmed & insignificant. Here's an opportunity to live into that deep desire we have to be a force of hope & change.

20 real children. Right here, tonight, that i can touch with my own hands on your behalf, will wake up in a few hours with a new chance to live. I'm excited to be a small part of the redemption of their lives. Pray with me for their days ahead.

20 little boys.

movie time: Tswana 101 with Trace

Today you get to share some couch time with me... I'm actually kind of excited about this since many of you that I love dearly, haven't seen my face in over a year (or even more). These videos are a fun way to feel closer. Now if we could only make that video interactive and I could see you too. Oh, wait! webcam - skype - hey, we should make a date! I'd love it!!

SO - Billy and I and a couple of friends have just started a class to learn to speak Tswana. Out of the 11 national languages of South Africa, Tswana is the home language of many of our friends. I think it's been hard to learn a language, because there isn't the same sense of language immersion here as in other countries with so many different words being spoken. It's especially difficult for those of us who's brains aren't already wired to be bilingual. But we have taken deep breaths and put our minds to it. I can now truly identify with my friends back home who are going back to university after a few years of parenting... or even with my Avery & Harrison who are figuring out this whole new way of learning curve.

Here's my little attempt to share the Tswana love with you. Maybe now when you visit, you'll know as much Tswana as I do.

xxx
trace

So, Madi didn't go to school today

in fact, pretty much any kid in a government school throughout all of South Africa didn't go to school today.

The union is striking. Teachers are striking. Health care workers are striking.

I read in the paper that our local government hospital - the one many of my friends have been treated at - is a mess. It's not the best of places to begin with. I can't imagine. It's selfish, I know, but I'm glad I don't know anyone in the hospital right now.

We got a text message from the principal at Madi's school yesterday - no school for the next few days. Not because the teachers at her school aren't there, but because there are teachers all around town who are not being so nice to schools that haven't shut down... not being so nice to kids traveling to school in the mornings. Even when our high school opens back up, in the name of safety, kids are encouraged to wear their "civvies" to not draw attention to the fact they are going to school.

Strange world.

Here, high school runs a little differently. There are these national tests everyone must take at the end of the year. In grade 8 & 9, those tests count for 25% of your over-all grade for the year. In grade 10 - 50%. Grade 11 - 75% of your years' scores. By the time you are a senior (matric) those standardized national tests are worth 100% of your grades. pass or fail. the end.

These tests are the same no matter the school you go to. A private school with all the amenities and frills - a settlement school with 60 kids in a single class. Whether the teachers teach the material or not. Even if the entire country is on strike and the schools close down. These kids are responsible to pass this test in order to graduate.

At our church in Muldersdrift, we've put together an alternative education opportunity during the days. DVDs , guest lecturers, former matric students tutoring the ones studying for their upcoming exams. Billy was there this morning, Amos said that at the end of the day, a lot of the students didn't want to leave, saying they were learning so much. I'm proud of my church - stepping in without hesitation. Community. Leadership. Hand in hand. Not giving in. Looking out for each other. That is what will make this country stand tall on it's own feet again.