Mission Trips and Safety Pins

Most of you know that Kip is gone for an 11 month/11 country mission trip called The World Race.  She has just today completed her first month in the Phillipines.  To say I'm insanely proud of her is an understatement of vast proportion.   To say my heart races a bit, when I think of her so far away, is total truth.  Though, as we have been able to skype this past month usually once a week,

that has helped this "Mother hen that likes her chicks near" a bunch....I always love seeing this face pop up on my screen.

The beautiful thing is watching her heart being tranformed into an even greater source of love and compassion.  She's always been amazing in giving her time and heart to God's plan for her, but this takes it to a whole new level.   The best way to show you is through some pictures she has posted these past few weeks. 

I've been stalking all the world racers blogs on their pages, and the one thing that stuck out to me was what they refer to as  "The Feedings".  The teams bring food and distribute it to anyone with a cup, a bowl, whatever, until it is gone.  Kip's friend, Kathryn, talked about running out of rice and the line of children still so long. Kathryn also wrote "How can my God of the USA, be the same God of the Phillipines.. there is such a vast difference"...  These world racers hearts will never be the same. 

She has been working at an orphanage with 2 teams, and I believe other than the overnight shifts with cockroaches and poop..  You have to read her blog on this, just the funniest thing ever( http://kipdeaton.theworldrace.org/?filename=cockroaches-poop-babies ), she has had a wonderful time.

On one of their rare days off, they toured the Chiquita plant.

I bet those kids loved "Ate Kip" reading a book to them.  I bet she used different voices.  She's weird that way. 

She ran a 5k for someone while she was there, so she's keeping in shape.  :)

Sampling some pineapple from the Chiquita factory, camera is hand, ready to capture the moment.  Just a shout out to whoever takes pics of KIP and tags her and posts them on her facebook page... THANK YOU!   She's not so great at taking pictures of herself.  and Mom likes to see her!   (Imagine that)

The girl loves her "No bake" cookies and whipped some up for the kids and staff, so they could have a very special treat.  Yum.

The 2 teams in Malaybalay, Bukidnon 

 I won't even tell you what they are doing here.  Just too nasty for me to describe.  Let's just say it's a Filipino delicacy and leave it at that.   Blek. 

She's made some lifelong friends.  Look at those beautiful mountains.  Almost as pretty as the girls in the picture. 

They are going to start a girl rock band when they get back and this will be their album cover.

But mainly, for my girl, it's been all about the kids........

They loved her sunglasses so much, and wore them all the time, finally breaking them, so she

had to buy a new pair.... and see who is wearing them....

I love my Kip.  We are still fundraising for her to stay the entire 11 months.  The whole trip costs almost $15000 for the year.  We have almost $9000 raised.  (That's amazing)   We got the bright idea that consigning children's clothes to the JBF Sale here in Norman would be a great thing to do.  Then we started getting donations of clothes, and my house felt like the Sorceror's apprentice, when the buckets of cherries show up.  I have never sorted through so many clothes and pinned and tagged and sized and sorted, did I mentioned PINNED?  Every thing you consign has to be pinned not only to the hanger, but the tag you place on it has to have 2 pins.  I'm just rubbing my finger tips thinking of the millions of pin pricks I recieved over the last 3 months  (We've been preparing for a long time)  Here was the results of those hours yesterday, when Lacey and I dropped off almost 400 !! items..  Thanks and love to all of you who donated !!  We'll be doing it again in the SPRING (when my fingers completely heal) so start cleaning out your kids closets!

Lacey kept saying all day "Man, we love Kip".  Not only did we drop off and hang and place all the items, we worked a 4 hour volunteer (code: slave labor) shift EACH to help increase the percentage earned.  Lacey was OVER working in the clothes, so my OCD daughter went into the game and puzzle room (which is usually a DISASTER area) and organized (probably alphabetically by company) ALL the puzzles and games.  I rolled on the floor.... only Lacey could handle that job.



It looks like a library.

 I personally touched and looked at all 10,000 pieces of Preemie-6 months clothes.  I'm not exaggerating, I have never seen so many cute tiny clothes.  I was sweating and my arms were twitching from holding them in the air, moving those hangars, but I did it.  And wow, if you have kids newborn to size 16, and you don't go check out the JBF Sale, you are seriously whacked.  That is the best place to outfit your kids EVER.  Even if you aren't on a budget.  Cutest stuff ever... made me almost want to have another baby..... ok, that's pushing it... but I envisioned little Filipino faces in some of those clothes... I really did.  

How can someone look that great in a rice field doing manual labor??  Is that even possible??

This is probably one of my favorite pics so far.  It's so "Kip". 

 She always finds the best pics, the best shots, the best angles, the best use of color in her pics, and this one touched my heart....

Those world racers are leaving footprints...  footprints that will change lives.  One no-bake cookie at a time.

You can support KIP by going to her website at

http://kipdeaton.theworldrace.org/ and getting the address from the SUPPORT ME tab.  It's better to send a check (Totally tax deductible) than to send by credit card, because of the processing fees. Help her leave a footprint.  If you can't support her financially, please support her with prayer as the squad enters into a "Closed Country" this month.  We will have no contact with them this month, as it is too dangerous for their contact in that country, to write about them on the internet.  So pray for the entire squad, that they stay safe and their families don't have weak hearts.  Thanks friends, I can always count on you!